[chubigans]

The Gametrailers review was great but MAN do I hate product placement in games. Energizer batteries for the flashlights...ok, I can roll alright with that. Having a screen in the car that says SYNC by Microsoft displayed on it...well, it's the same feeling I got in seeing all those Sony products in Casino Royale. It's just tacky and takes you out of the story a bit.

[Dabanton]

That Kotaku review was pretty good silly headline aside.

[TheOddOne]

The Gametrailers review was great but MAN do I hate product placement in games. Energizer batteries for the flashlights...ok, I can roll alright with that. Having a screen in the car that says SYNC by Microsoft displayed on it...well, it's the same feeling I got in seeing all those Sony products in Casino Royale. It's just tacky and takes you out of the story a bit.

Sad to tell you this, but its gonna be coming more and more games :(

[Kingpen]

So this game has 6 episodes in it that make up a playlength of 10-14 hours.

Did I hear correct that if you buy the game new, you get a 7th episode dlc token included?

[derFeef]

So this game has 6 episodes in it that make up a playlength of 10-14 hours. Did I hear correct that if you buy the game new, you get a 7th episode dlc token included?

Correct.

[Stumpokapow]

Sad to tell you this, but its gonna be coming more and more games :(

and unfortunately since there are no pc versions, fans can't mod out the retarded product placement

[REMEMBER CITADEL]

Silent Hill 2 was the bomb by the way. I wish they would re-make it, I would love to experience that again in HD updated glory. It's easily the creepiest game ever made.

You can already do that, on the PC.

*shrugs* You're probably right in the end, the review does come across as quite extreme.

It does, just as Euroganer's review does, only on the opposite end of the spectrum.

[chubigans]

and unfortunately since there are no pc versions, fans can't mod out the retarded product placement

I don't understand the point in video games. At least with movies, I can kinda understand the mentality of, "Oh hey, Will Smith likes Converse shoes! I should check those out." But not, "Wait a sec, Alan WAKE uses SYNC by Microsoft? I should look into that!"

And it doesn't say much for Energizer when you're having to constantly replace the flashlight batteries throughout the game (I know that's part of the story in the bad guys "sucking" out the light, but still). Or maybe it's a special flashlight you get later in the game that doesn't run out of batteries as much. Which would be a little worse now that I think about it. :lol

Anyways, note to all devs everywhere: stop product placement. Seriously.

[Esteban]

Nowgamer : 6.8 / 10

http://xbox-360.nowgamer.com/reviews...9171/alan-wake

The hype killed it for that guy, his expectations looked too high...

[aristotle]

The Gametrailers review was great but MAN do I hate product placement in games. Energizer batteries for the flashlights...ok, I can roll alright with that. Having a screen in the car that says SYNC by Microsoft displayed on it...well, it's the same feeling I got in seeing all those Sony products in Casino Royale. It's just tacky and takes you out of the story a bit.

This product placement is fast making me apprehensive. I hope this isn't the way things are going or I would have to only play from my backlog. Now if they did something smart I would be all for it. Product placement in futuristic games (Wipeout for instance). Have actual products and corporations. Just advertise them like you think they would in the future. "Drink Coke 9! Now in Boisenberry flavor!" or "Volvo 2312 Model : MAG-Lev, Because who likes wheels these days?" That's the kind of product placement I can get behind. The energizer batteries fit fine to me. The SYNC is near to crossing the line. Getting an achievement by watching a commercial on an in-game TV is deplorable in my opinion.

[BruceLeeRoy]

The whole premise of Alan Wake reminds me of Dean Koontz Phantoms. After I finish the game I am going to want to prolong the creepiness. What are some good books along the same lines

[Hammer24]

The whole premise of Alan Wake reminds me of Dean Koontz Phantoms. After I finish the game I am going to want to prolong the creepiness. What are some good books along the same lines

Koontz is a safe bet, maybe the older books of Preston/Child may be up your alley.
Oh, and King, of course.

[BruceLeeRoy]

Any specific ones?

[Dyno]

Does downloading the entire game help smooth out the tearing? Just wondering if that's worth it. ME2 and ODST seemed to play just fine from the disc but people weren't complaining about graphical hitches in those titles.

[plagiarize]

That review screams in each paragraph "This game is worse than Uncharted 2". Even if it didn't mention Uncharted (except in one or two places), the biggest complains of the game (character too serious, animations, not able to climb, lack of variety in the scenarios, etc) seems to be comparing AW with U2. For example, Dead Space has also a too serious character, not able to climb, and with lack of variety in the scenarios. And most of the horror games. Maybe U2 raised too much the bar for the third-person shooters and some people expect a U2-killer even if it's a action-horror game.

to be fair, there wasn't really anything in Dead Space you'd want to climb. it is a problem, but it's usually not a problem of lack of a climbing feature and more a problem of the developer fencing in the player with walls that a human could easly climb than higher walls and fences.

if those low walls aren't there, the player won't be nearly as annoyed. either way i think it's a fair complaint given my experiences getting similarly annoyed at other games fencing me in with similar laughable obstacles.

[plagiarize]

The whole premise of Alan Wake reminds me of Dean Koontz Phantoms. After I finish the game I am going to want to prolong the creepiness. What are some good books along the same lines

books... not sure. films?

In the Mouth of Madness should be top of your watch list.

[slasher_thrasher21]

books... not sure. films? In the Mouth of Madness should be top of your watch list.

Yes and yes! I have seen this so many times over the years simple because other people haven't seen it and I always recommend it to people! :D

[Technosteve]

If the game is as corny and short as Max Payne i'll be a happy camper.

[Stumpokapow]

Anyways, note to all devs everywhere: stop product placement. Seriously.

it's not even the fact that they're using products, it's the obnoxious way the camera views are cut. it'd be one thing if alan wake puts energizer batteries in the flashlight, but it's another thing when the camera is focusing more on the batteries than the flashlight.

likewise, it's no problem if he's driving a focus or a fit or whatever, but when they do those scenes where the car pulls up and the damn camera is focused on the front bumper brand ornament, lingering for a few seconds before a cut to the character exiting... jesus.

it makes stuff feel super dated too. maybe microsoft sync will succeed. maybe it won't. maybe, like 99.99999999% of their other products, they'll end up renaming it every few years. either way, come 2012-2013, it's going to be ridiculous looking in the car.

recently i played through the telltale csi games which have obnoxious product placement for visa. the visa stuff is bad enough; you visit a wounded woman in the hospital and her room window looks out over a scenic visa billboard. but there's also product placement for hp. your character's central way of navigating is to use an hp ipaq cell phone / pda / whatever. it just seems so stupid. ipaq is just not a factor anymore. and it's not like it's evocative the way seeing a model t in a period drama would be, it's just busted.

bionic commando 2009 is also abhorrent for this. so nuclear fucking bombs destroyed this metropolitan city, and yet gigantic billboards are perfectly intact and unscratched? and there are billboards at every single turn, but only three companies actually advertise? err, what?

even ghostbusters, an otherwise great game, has inexplicable doritos vending machines stuffed everywhere. why on earth would there be 2 doritos vending machines within 20 feet of each other and no coke or pepsi machines? oh, because coke and pepsi didn't pay to put them in the game? yeah, that's an excellent depiction of reality.

in tv shows the worst I find is website product placement a year or two after the fact. like, it's pretty safe to do a show that references facebook or google or ebay or amazon or craiglist, but if you had myspace or orkut or friendster or altavista or yahoo product placement, it ages so terribly. those products aren't around anymore (or are around but are so passé), and so they look even more hamfisted than they do at release.

[Peff]

Looks like the euro launch will get pushed forward even more (tomorrow) :lol

[Prine]

IF Microsoft are product placing their own stuff i don't mind, they paid to make the game, just like i didn't have a problem with Sega throwing a saturn in Shenmue, or Mario dolls in Twin Snakes. Even ipods in MGS4 i dont mind as these do have a purpose in real life. And is part of my reality (no Mario dolls though NERDS!). OTT placement is a genuine concern though, but a few unobtrusive placement goes unnoticed, could even heighten atmosphere.

[skyfinch]

Too late but here's a thread name I made up. "Can't sleep in Bright Falls, because I'm A.Wake."

[tzare]

Are you european guys able to read IGN's US review? , IGN redirects me to uk.ign.com (8/10)

[KaYotiX]

sometimes I hate this fucking hobby :lol

I agree....83/100 is not average. Gamers can be such idiots

[Yoboman]

Are you european guys able to read IGN's US review? , IGN redirects me to uk.ign.com (8/10)

That means it's only an 8 out of 10 for you

If you lived in America you would have a AAA game. Sorry, bro

[Macarello]

I'm not worried about he review scores being a little lower than the hype made them out to be, it still sounds like a fantastic game. And if I remember correctly, the Max Payne games scored roughly around the same area too, and I still find those fantastically replayable even after all these years. Remedy ain't let me down yet!

[REMEMBER CITADEL]

books... not sure. films? In the Mouth of Madness should be top of your watch list.

Speaking of Lovecraftian films, i thought Dagon was a lot of fun, in a somewhat cheesy way.

Are you european guys able to read IGN's US review? , IGN redirects me to uk.ign.com (8/10)

No problems here.

[chubigans]

it's not even the fact that they're using products, it's the obnoxious way the camera views are cut. it'd be one thing if alan wake puts energizer batteries in the flashlight, but it's another thing when the camera is focusing more on the batteries than the flashlight. likewise, it's no problem if he's driving a focus or a fit or whatever, but when they do those scenes where the car pulls up and the damn camera is focused on the front bumper brand ornament, lingering for a few seconds before a cut to the character exiting... jesus. it makes stuff feel super dated too. maybe microsoft sync will succeed. maybe it won't. maybe, like 99.99999999% of their other products, they'll end up renaming it every few years. either way, come 2012-2013, it's going to be ridiculous looking in the car. recently i played through the telltale csi games which have obnoxious product placement for visa. the visa stuff is bad enough; you visit a wounded woman in the hospital and her room window looks out over a scenic visa billboard. but there's also product placement for hp. your character's central way of navigating is to use an hp ipaq cell phone / pda / whatever. it just seems so stupid. ipaq is just not a factor anymore. and it's not like it's evocative the way seeing a model t in a period drama would be, it's just busted. bionic commando 2009 is also abhorrent for this. so nuclear fucking bombs destroyed this metropolitan city, and yet gigantic billboards are perfectly intact and unscratched? and there are billboards at every single turn, but only three companies actually advertise? err, what? even ghostbusters, an otherwise great game, has inexplicable doritos vending machines stuffed everywhere. why on earth would there be 2 doritos vending machines within 20 feet of each other and no coke or pepsi machines? oh, because coke and pepsi didn't pay to put them in the game? yeah, that's an excellent depiction of reality. in tv shows the worst I find is website product placement a year or two after the fact. like, it's pretty safe to do a show that references facebook or google or ebay or amazon or craiglist, but if you had myspace or orkut or friendster or altavista or yahoo product placement, it ages so terribly. those products aren't around anymore (or are around but are so passé), and so they look even more hamfisted than they do at release.

I definitely agree. I mean, there are some games where product placement does make sense (arcady games like Skate 3 or Crazy Taxi, which even enhance the style a bit). But sheesh, how much could they be possibly making off these product placements?

That CSI game sounds hilariously bad though as far as ads go. :lol

[bj00rn_]

The Gametrailers review was great but MAN do I hate product placement in games. Energizer batteries for the flashlights...ok, I can roll alright with that. Having a screen in the car that says SYNC by Microsoft displayed on it...well, it's the same feeling I got in seeing all those Sony products in Casino Royale. It's just tacky and takes you out of the story a bit.

I promised myself a few years ago that I will not buy any game with obviously in-your-face forced product placement. So the news about the product placement in Alan Wake makes me relatively frustrated.. Remedy, what the f..

[NG28]

Remedy has been making this game for what, 5 or 6 years? The money needs to come from somewhere, and if they didn't get money from product placement Microsoft would have probably canned this years ago.

[gcubed]

screw the reviews, i want a good creepy 3rd person Action Adventure game. I'll play it and most likely enjoy it.

[subversus]

I saw comments calling very bad names to the reviewer and the worst of all making arguments about not trusting any review made by a female because of their intelligence... It made me ashamed of having this hobby.

Haha, when I saw that Ellie Gibson wrote it, I didn't bother to read further. She's a fantastic writer/interviewer/journalist, but as she stated herself she reviews casual games and hate shooters. What else would you expect from her review?

Also she liked Wet. Sometimes women are strange. If you don't like shooters how the hell you'd like Wet???

[Jtyettis]

Looks like the euro launch will get pushed forward even more (tomorrow) :lol

wha

[tzare]

That means it's only an 8 out of 10 for you If you lived in America you would have a AAA game. Sorry, bro

:D And we usually pay more. Unfair :D

No problems here.

i found the link to US review just below the scores of UK review. But if i try to go to IGN USA i still can't.

[Hammer24]

Any specific ones?

Thats highly subjective, but IMO:
- for Preston/Child, avoid the Pendergast novels. You might like something like Riptide.
- with Koontz I really like the Odd Thomas books
- and for King, I prefer the ones written under "Richard Bachmann", like Thinner or the very well done Different Seasons

[rhino4evr]

the product placement thing isn't that big a deal to me, but in one review they mention that the game actually has a in-game TV commercial..which in my opinion is pushing the limits a bit.

If you are going to do product placement, do it in a comical way, or do it where it makes sense. Energizer batteries for the flashlight? This doesn't bother me. Microsoft SYNC in the car? Who even has that? Very, very few people...it make it even worse that this is a MS game too.

[Hammer24]

Looks like the euro launch will get pushed forward even more (tomorrow) :lol

Wait WHAT?! My preorder still reads as shipping May 12th... :(

[watership]

sometimes I hate this fucking hobby :lol

I just sat through a rant at work about how Bill Gates screwed this game, and Microsoft is the worst thing to ever happen to gaming. What a petty, childish mess the game community can be. Sigh, and I know it's going to happen because it's an exclusive game. I can see it coming..and i sit here and participate in this madness. :)

[derFeef]

Awesome Peff, looking forward to some impressions.

My shop has still 14th :(

[tomedo]

Looks like the euro launch will get pushed forward even more (tomorrow) :lol

Are you serious?

[D4Danger]

Looks like the euro launch will get pushed forward even more (tomorrow) :lol

they've gotta sell as many copies as possible before the masses hear about that 7 from Eurogamer.

[BruceLeeRoy]

Thats highly subjective, but IMO: - for Preston/Child, avoid the Pendergast novels. You might like something like Riptide. - with Koontz I really like the Odd Thomas books - and for King, I prefer the ones written under "Richard Bachmann", like Thinner or the very well done Different Seasons

Those sound awesome. I'll pick those up. How is odd Thomas? I used to be a huge fan of Dk but he couldn't seem to write a decent ending to save his life. Seems like every book ultimately comes down to aliens, the devil or government experiments

[BenjaminBirdie]

The whole premise of Alan Wake reminds me of Dean Koontz Phantoms. After I finish the game I am going to want to prolong the creepiness. What are some good books along the same lines

Gerald's Game is pretty fucking unsettling and more on the real side than the supernatural. Not so much with the crazy demon clowns and what-not.

[Peff]

Are you serious?

Yes. I know for sure it's going to happen in Spain because most shops already have the game (and people are buying as you can see, but sadly that's not mine... yet) and online stores are already shipping orders. I'm assuming MS will do something similar with the rest of Europe.

[Hammer24]

Seems like every book ultimately comes down to aliens, the devil or government experiments

Thats why I really liked at least the first three in the series - he really got it done to craft a character.

[hamchan]

Looks like the euro launch will get pushed forward even more (tomorrow) :lol

Whoa! I hope this includes Australia.

[tzare]

Yes. I know for sure it's going to happen in Spain because most shops already have the game (and people are buying as you can see, but sadly that's not mine... yet) and online stores are already shipping orders. I'm assuming MS will do something similar with the rest of Europe.

i hope zavvi starts shipping, i hate seeing the game already selling in stores and having mine 'processing' forever :D

[fbgamer]

This game is really fun so far... and I'm not a fan or survival horror.

The narrative is its strong suit by far. The combat -- while simple-- never feels repetitive, and the setting is beautiful.

but, god damn the character models are antiquated....

Stay tuned to resumeplay.net for my review soon...

[sflufan]

It appears that the score was docked in the Game Trailers review for a lack of multiplayer.

Regardless of the actual score, this is a review trend in recent years that irritates me to no end and pretty much justifies my position that the single-player and multiplayer portions of a game should have completely separate reviews.

Any reviewer who detracts from the score of a single-player only game due to a lack of multiplayer (and vice-versa) should be fired or have his/her opinion considered to be invalid from that point on.

[Hawkie]

Stream is up on Justin.tv