Waldorf and Statler Posted January 23, 2012 Report Share Posted January 23, 2012 It definitely is a psychological thriller. Just like every fucking Stephen King that isn't about the supernatural. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Saturnine Tenshi Posted January 24, 2012 Report Share Posted January 24, 2012 I don't know how to be intimate with this game. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DocSeuss Posted January 27, 2012 Report Share Posted January 27, 2012 Obviously, I haven't played it yet. Nor have I played Silent Hill 2 (looking forward to that HD collection!). But I can sort of see where this is coming from. The one reason that keeps coming back as to why Silent Hill 2 is so great is that it's heavily rooted in the psychology of its main character, with enemies representing elements of his psyche and whatnot. So when Alan Wake bills itself as a "Psychological Action Thriller", it's not that much of a stretch for people to draw a comparison between the two. Now whether or not the comparison is fair is arguable, but the label is right there on the box. :/ This is not what "psychological" means. This is a bit like saying "oh, it says action, so why isn't it like Devil May Cry?" Psychological Thriller is actually a genre. Silent Hill is Psychological Horror. The thriller has more action. The horror is slower and more mental. The part about the Steam sale is, well, true. If a game was on sale for a ridiculously low price, and I missed it, then yeah I'll be hesitant to pay full price for it now. Why should I when it's very likely to get another sale sooner or later? While I understand this, I'd just say that if you're willing to buy a game new... then you should probably buy Alan Wake new. We could apply that mentality to absolutely anything. "Oh, well, it'll get cheaper, so I won't buy this game." Yeah, I can say that of absolutely any game on the market out there. Alan Wake is one of the few games that I'd say shouldn't be waited for. Oh and I believe the thread has already been moved to multiplat. It was not until after I made my post. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheMightyEthan Posted January 27, 2012 Report Share Posted January 27, 2012 Yes it was, I moved it after FLD suggested someone do so on the previous page. There's still a link in the Xbox forum, but it points here. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
toxicitizen Posted January 27, 2012 Report Share Posted January 27, 2012 Obviously, I haven't played it yet. Nor have I played Silent Hill 2 (looking forward to that HD collection!). But I can sort of see where this is coming from. The one reason that keeps coming back as to why Silent Hill 2 is so great is that it's heavily rooted in the psychology of its main character, with enemies representing elements of his psyche and whatnot. So when Alan Wake bills itself as a "Psychological Action Thriller", it's not that much of a stretch for people to draw a comparison between the two. Now whether or not the comparison is fair is arguable, but the label is right there on the box. :/ This is not what "psychological" means. This is a bit like saying "oh, it says action, so why isn't it like Devil May Cry?" Psychological Thriller is actually a genre. Silent Hill is Psychological Horror. The thriller has more action. The horror is slower and more mental. The term "action" is way too broad and encompassing to be used as a genre. Could be anything from a fighting game to a brawler or a shooter. Hell, even some racing games could be classified as action games. So that comparison really doesn't work. The distinction between horror and thriller is valid, though. But to say that anything has a psychological element to it means the same thing regardless of genre. I wouldn't expect Alan Wake to play or feel anything like Silent Hill 2 based on what I know of both games, but if the psychological element is done better in one game than in the other, then there is grounds to draw a parallel and critically compare the two. The part about the Steam sale is, well, true. If a game was on sale for a ridiculously low price, and I missed it, then yeah I'll be hesitant to pay full price for it now. Why should I when it's very likely to get another sale sooner or later? While I understand this, I'd just say that if you're willing to buy a game new... then you should probably buy Alan Wake new. We could apply that mentality to absolutely anything. "Oh, well, it'll get cheaper, so I won't buy this game." Yeah, I can say that of absolutely any game on the market out there. Alan Wake is one of the few games that I'd say shouldn't be waited for. Of course you can say that of any game. I don't mind buying games new or even at launch if I feel like it's worth it. But Alan Wake is almost two years old at this point, so yeah, I feel like a full price wouldn't be justified. Any premium associated with paying more to play a game early is long irrelevant here. Of course, I say that now and in my last post I used StarCraft 2 as an example. And literally the same day I wrote that last post I broke down and ordered SC2 for 50$. So, eh, we'll see. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SomTervo Posted February 1, 2012 Report Share Posted February 1, 2012 (edited) I hope you guys love it as much as Doc and I do. Hey, I adore it, too! 2. Same basic way to beat enemies. This is a big complaint of people, but I don't see it. In regular shooters you kill people by shooting at them, every single one. What's different in this case? I'm with you on this. I think people found it repetitive because they were paying attention to a NEW action. They did the same thing in Max Payne, but Max never stopped you from killing enemies if you didn't use bullet time. This is the only real problem with the game for me. Alan Wake's game mechanics are weak. Incredibly weak. The story, atmosphere, framing, and engine are incredible, but what you can do is actually thin as diarrhoea. The game introduces the idea of using a light source to damage enemies (the only variation within this is area-effect or aimed light), and shooting enemies to subsequently kill them, and doesn't innovate on this at all. Driving feels pretty redundant a lot of the time, but it's really nice. And those are the only three gameplay mechanics. NPC's fighting along side you barely makes a difference to the gameplay at all. There is no emergence, which is the key to great gameplay. If they had added fire, which would hurt you as well as the enemies, and spread unpredictably like in FarCry 2. or random killable groups of townfolk who fought with the Taken as well; ANYTHING that would have added more to the mix, it really would have brought so much more to the table and made the experience more emergent, pleasing and surprising. That's why I think the DLC episodes are so strong; the word-spawning stuff is the biggest gameplay change the game makes from start to finish, and it's really pretty thrilling (i.e. when a spawned barrel explodes and sets of another word which spawns another barrel and spawns another item, etc. etc.). Like Half-Life 2: at the gameplay mechanic level there's not much; shoot guns, drive vehicles. But on top of this are three different enemy factions that are mixed up, and more and more enemy types added throughout (Alan Wake has two, three enemy types at most. Half-Life 2 has tens), and types of weapons that interact in very different ways, where Alan Wake literally only has the light/guns mechanic. Still, I love the gameplay from an adventure/ story standpoint. Which is incredible. Edited February 1, 2012 by kenshi_ryden Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Waldorf and Statler Posted February 1, 2012 Report Share Posted February 1, 2012 It's a good thing American Nightmare is adding a BUNCH of different enemy types, different guns and melee weapons. They've pretty much redone the actual gameplay. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
toxicitizen Posted February 2, 2012 Report Share Posted February 2, 2012 Steam release date confirmed to be february 16th! Price: 29,99$ for regular version including DLC, 34,99$ for LCE, which I assume is Limited Collector's Edition. No idea what's in it, only skimmed the post as I must leave for class in like 5 mins. But yeah, pretty happy about this. Definitely pre-ordering or buying day 1, whichever is the first available option. http://www.alanwake.com/alan-wake-is-coming-home/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheMightyEthan Posted February 2, 2012 Report Share Posted February 2, 2012 Additional features our fans have sought after, such as field of view adjustment as well as “hide HUD”. YES! The release may be a bit late, but at least it looks like they're actually putting some effort into the port instead of leaving this kind of stuff out like lots of console ports do. Also glad to see they're not asking for a full $50-60. I'll probably still wait for it to hit at least $15 though, due to the mixed reactions I've heard. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
toxicitizen Posted February 2, 2012 Report Share Posted February 2, 2012 Yeah, they're definitely doing right by the PC platform. It's good to see that some devs still know how to properly port to PC. This is also really reinforcing the idea that the initial "cancellation" of the PC version was out of their hands. Considering how long the game's development cycle was and that they're actually a rather small studio, they probably really needed the financial support Microsoft was offering to finish, market and release the game. And it's no secret that Microsoft can be a bunch of dicks about stuff like that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SomTervo Posted February 4, 2012 Report Share Posted February 4, 2012 (edited) It's a good thing American Nightmare is adding a BUNCH of different enemy types, different guns and melee weapons. They've pretty much redone the actual gameplay. Totally. I meant to mention this in my semi-rant up there. As you said, American Nightmare looks like it's adding a bunch of enemy types, and a bunch of weapons, and adding a combo/ time limit system. So it'll be actually fun to just PLAY, instead of adventure through. It's gonna be fun. I'm just hoping this is a side-project while they work on actual Alan Wake 2. Which really, honestly better be open-world. Alan Wake and Mirror's Edge are the only two games I've ever played that wouldn't just have benefited from being open world, but would have been fixed. Edited February 4, 2012 by kenshi_ryden Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
toxicitizen Posted February 4, 2012 Report Share Posted February 4, 2012 (edited) I'm just hoping this is a side-project while they work on actual Alan Wake 2. Which really, honestly better be open-world. Alan Wake and Mirror's Edge are the only two games I've ever played that wouldn't just have benefited from being open world, but would have been fixed. Normally, I'm not a fan of shoehorning open-worlds into games just for the sake of it. I'm especially not a fan of first-person open-world games because I feel like the travelling always gets tedious. This is one of the main reason why to this day I still haven't managed to get more than 5 or 6 hours into the first S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Of course, it can easily be fixed by adding fast travel like in Bethesda games, but that would kill the atmosphere of a game like S.T.A.L.K.E.R. So yeah, when I first read your comment about Mirror's Edge in an open-world, my initial reaction was something along the lines of "What the hell is he talking about?". But then I thought about it for a second and realized that.. shit, for Mirror's Edge it would actually make sense. It would significantly increase the amount of work required to make the game, though, since you would have to design the entire map/city around the idea of having good parkour routes. But running around an open-world as a parkour courier sounds like a pretty cool idea. The only problem I still have is that true open-world design sometimes require sacrifices to storytelling. And while Mirror's Edge didn't have an amazing story, I still felt like the mystery of it was essential to the game's momentum. You need to give the character a reason to run other than just "go to point A, grab package, run to point B, drop package", and the plot of the first game did that just fine. That being said, I'll take a sequel in any way, shape or form DICE will give it to me. At this point I just want to play another one. Actually, I've been thinking of replaying the original lately. Think I'll do that soon-ish. Edited February 4, 2012 by FLD 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SomTervo Posted February 4, 2012 Report Share Posted February 4, 2012 (edited) Initially Alan Wake was going to be open-world, so it wouldn't have been shoehorned at all. If you find the map of the area in the game, it looks like it'd be goddamn playable as an open-world level! If they stuck with the idea, sure it might have meant sacrifices in the storytelling, but I think that'd be worth it for the unique experience the game would have provided itself. The gameplay would have been improved a lot, and would be scarier, if open world. Much more tense and survival horrorey. Plus they had all sorts of cool shit, like with the amazing lighting system, the day/ night cycle would mean that enemies would appear in shadows as the shadows would appear. And getting the power back on in certain areas would be actually practical. And all the traversal options would make sense... The whole thing just sounded great. It's still a great game, but I always feel it's missing that something. Re: Mirror's Edge for the same thing, Mirror's Edge didn't even do storytelling well, it should definitely have been open world. Though yeah, it would have been an unprecedented amount of work to get the traversal good enough and detailed enough to work all over the area of a city or something. In games where traversal is emphasised, there's no better situation/ medium for traversal game mechanics than running away. In Mirror's Edge, whenever you get to the end of the level, it just peters out. The momentum goes. If it had been open world, like at the end of a GTA mission, you'd still have to improvise a route to escape from the cops, which would have been so thrilling. Anyway. The best we might have will be Prey 2, which looks like it will cater to this fantasy a bit. Prey 2 looks so goddamn good. Edited February 4, 2012 by kenshi_ryden Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
toxicitizen Posted February 4, 2012 Report Share Posted February 4, 2012 (edited) Oh, I wasn't commenting on Alan Wake when I said that. I meant in general. I know Alan Wake was originally open-world. I've been following the game for a LONG time so I was actually quite pissed when the PC version first got canned. Besides, I haven't played it yet so I'm in no position to judge. But yeah, we could debate regular levels vs open-world all damn day. Some of the things that made Mirror's Edge what it was would've been counter-productive if it had been open-world. Not so much scripted events, but rather cinematic moments. More often than not, an open-world comes at the cost of making individual missions much less unique. You have to make their level design fit into the bigger world and so devs tend to put much more effort into designing the world itself rather than the individual missions/levels. I loved the hell out of GTA4, and the missions were definitely some of the best I've seen in an open-world game but they were still pretty ordinary as far as level design goes. None of them were particularly memorable. Another good example is Burnout Paradise. Great game, but man, making it open-world was such an insanely misguided design decision it's not even funny. It was kind of a chore driving around the city to get to the next event. And the events themselves felt really repetitive rather quickly because you were racing down the same damn streets all the time. Obviously, it's a more extreme example but it can at least show where I'm coming from. I have nothing against open-world games, but I don't subscribe to the notion that all (or even most) games would benefit from having one. Like I said, an open-world version of Mirror's Edge could be really cool. But it would ultimately be a very different game, and I'm not convinced it would necessarily be a better one. Wow, we're really derailing this thread, aren't we And yeah, I'm also really looking forward to Prey 2. Edited February 4, 2012 by FLD Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Waldorf and Statler Posted February 5, 2012 Report Share Posted February 5, 2012 Yeah I remember the first few videos of Alan Wake, they really kept mentioning how there would be day time/night time sequences where in the night you'd pretty much have to pray you found a spot with light. But then the whole story would've changed as they would have to take into account that people could just wait until it is daytime so they can go do a mission. I dunno. While I would like Alan Wake to have a big open map to explore secrets throughout the buildings and shit like that... I think it would have to be a sort of hybrid. Kind of like what LA Noire did. Have cutscenes to establish the current mission/setting, then let you loose in this open world. The night/day time won't change until you reach another cutscene or a specific event that warrants changing the weather/time Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SomTervo Posted February 8, 2012 Report Share Posted February 8, 2012 That's a good point, L.A. Noire would be a really good structural comparison for Alan Wake. And Alan Wake would be a lot more fun with the day/night cycle and Taken attacking you in dark areas/ darkness. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post deanb Posted February 17, 2012 Popular Post Report Share Posted February 17, 2012 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
toxicitizen Posted February 17, 2012 Report Share Posted February 17, 2012 Ha, nice. At least they're being good sports about their stupid PR. Just finished Episode One, and holy shit I'm loving the hell out of this game! I want to keep playing but I really don't want to rush through it, so I kinda want to wait until tomorrow to play Episode Two Also, I'm really getting a kick out of all the Max Payne references Counted at least 4 so far, some less subtle than others. Also, the heavy emphasis on storytelling makes the game feel very reminiscent of Max Payne. That's probably in part due to Sam Lake's writing style and it made me realize that if that element is missing from Max Payne 3, I'm inevitably going to be a bit disappointed Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Luftwaffles Posted February 18, 2012 Report Share Posted February 18, 2012 So I started playing this. I like it a lot, and the storytelling is great so far, but it has a lot of mouse acceleration right now and I can't quite get used to the controls. Tempted to bust out the 360 controller for it because the aiming doesn't seem to require a lot of precision. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thorgi Duke of Frisbee Posted February 18, 2012 Report Share Posted February 18, 2012 (edited) Since I've already played it in the past, I'll probably wait for a price drop before diving in again. But I am glad to see you guys are enjoying it; it's one of my favorites. What I'm more interested in at the moment is an eventual PC release of Alan Wake's American Nightmare. Make it happen, Remedy! EDIT: Oh, also, don't listen to the soundtrack until you complete the game. There are some spoilers in the music. Edited February 18, 2012 by DukeOfPwn 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
toxicitizen Posted February 18, 2012 Report Share Posted February 18, 2012 (edited) As in bits of dialogue? Thanks for the heads-up. It's the same reason I'd been hesitant to listen to the Bastion soundtrack when I realized the narrator was talking in some of the tracks. Tried to play last night, but I was getting frustratingly low fps (average of 20 :/ ), so I gave up in frustration and ended up playing WoW for 4 hours instead The game really doesn't play well with SLI. Kinda wish nVidia would do something about this quickly. There's already an official fix out for Crossfire and I don't really want to delay playing the game. I managed to get 30-40 fps by lowering the resolution (to 1600x900) but man that sucks. I think it's the first time I've ever been forced to play a game at less than 1920x1080 since I built this rig It was bound to happen sooner or later, though, and I'm actually amazed that it's lasted me as long as it has (3 years old this month!). I should probably look into upgrading my graphics card this year. My GTX 295 can still max out almost anything I throw at it (except for DirectX 11 stuff, which it doesn't support, but that's mostly unnecessary bells and whistles, imo). But I fear this is not going to be the case for much longer with the impending arrival of the next gen of consoles. Thankfully, the graphics card is pretty much the only thing I feel I need to upgrade. I think my CPU is more than good enough to last me another gen and the only time I've had RAM issues is that one time I was troubleshooting something and took out 6 of my 8GBs and forgot to put them back in before going to bed. I freaked the hell out the next day when I booted into windows and everything was taking forever to load Edited February 18, 2012 by FLD Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Little Pirate Posted February 18, 2012 Report Share Posted February 18, 2012 Got to chapter 3, myself. While I don't find it scary, the story has me reeled in so far. Wish my exploraholic-ness would stop, though, I keep veering away to find manuscripts and coffee and end up wasting so much time darting around in the dark. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Waldorf and Statler Posted February 18, 2012 Report Share Posted February 18, 2012 Yeah the game is not scary as much as it is a thriller. And a good thriller at that, the atmosphere is Stephen King mixed with that 80's by Lynch [whats its face] The soundtrack, like Duke said, is superb. And gives spoilers. Especially the Old Gods of Asgard tracks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
toxicitizen Posted February 18, 2012 Report Share Posted February 18, 2012 (edited) Well the title of the track itself seems kinda spoilerish... Edited February 18, 2012 by FLD Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Waldorf and Statler Posted February 18, 2012 Report Share Posted February 18, 2012 exactly. Once you play the section the characters understand what the song is saying, then you can listen to it as much as the rest of the Alan Wake fans. Which is a lot. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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