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Alan Wake's American Nightmare |OT| Not a lake, a primordial ocean.

Didn't like the original AW enough to beat it but I'm enjoying this much more. Really digging the western setting and Alan's sweet flannel shirt and nail-gun.

You seem to match my feelings the closest for the original. What did you not like about the first one? The Giant Bomb Quick Look made this one actually look a lot quicker and more enjoyable but I'm not sure if it's enough that I'd really enjoy it. If what you disliked is similar to my thoughts and this game is good enough to overlook them then perhaps I should just suck it up and buy it.

Honestly I disliked just about everything from the first game and it's one of my go-to answers when someone asks if I've ever forced myself through a game I didn't like. I beat it but I absolutely HATED the story by the end and also really didn't enjoy combat that much and learned to have "fun" by challenging myself to run as often as possible and ignore as many enemies as possible. The atmosphere, graphics, and sound were the best part of the first game but for me it wasn't fun to actually play and the story only made me angrier.
 

op_ivy

Fallen Xbot (cannot continue gaining levels in this class)
played for several hours last night so i thought i'd share some of my own thoughts...

+ graphics are top notch and even slightly better then the already stunning AW. its a touch sharper, the lighting on wake himself looks much improved, and the environment lighting has far less artifacts that were present in AW.
+ story is pretty awesome, with lots of depth added to the AW and DLC story. also, clues of things to come for the series with Mr. Scratch's, Barry's, and Alice's doings while Wake is away.
+ combat is more varied and fun. love what the splitters and grenadiers bring to battles. the new weapons are super awesome to use and feel great - i love the smg, nail gun, and assault rifle! hope Alan is able to write them into existence in AW3 :)
+ the setting is really well done. i wasnt sure the arizona desert would be that nice to explore, but its both varied and lovely. the hub style structure is much better for exploration and immersion. Hope AW3 takes it even further in this route as its a nice bridge between the gap of truly open world and keeping the player immersed with the pacing of the story.
+ big HELL YEAH to the option to remove the HUD. the game is sooo much better when you dont have a mini map to walk you through the game. i cant imagine the people that have 100% the game and finished in 4-6 hours are playing with this off.

- (dont read if you havent gotten past the drive in section)
not a fan of the time loop dealio. the story aspect of it is fine, but i hate the recycled environments and even recycled fetch quests.
- difficulty, or lack there of. ammo is soooo plentiful that you never have to use it cautiously. its everywhere, and respawns too. i cant for the life of me figure out why there is no selectable difficulty.

... aaand thats it for complaints. seriously, awesome f-ing game, cant believe this is an arcade title for $15. super excited to see how it will wrap up and what it will mean for AW3. also, havent even checked out the arcade mode, but that should be quite fun too :)
 

jtrov

Member
I love how they put the licensed music into the game! Liking that Kasabian song:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lk5iMgG-WJI&ob=av2e

Totally agree with this! I was grinning the whole time during the parts where this played. So well done, just loved it.

I'm hoping they use the music in the Arcade mode, but after playing the first stage, I get the sense they didn't.

Man, am I loving this game though. It's just such a great setting and the presentation just adds so much to the overall experience. I just can't get enough.

Can't wait to get home, grab my nail-gun, and continue Alan's quest. Need to find me some more manuscripts though. I've only been able to open one weapon-case so far.
 

Feindflug

Member
not sure about that. i saw loads of tearing early on. i turned on Always which is preferable to me (thanks for the option Remedy!), but framedrops are common. go to the motel garage with whats her face and turn around, you'll see tearing.

Did anyone tried to play in 720p to see if the frame-rate is better? I'll try it later to see of there's any difference, I have only played on 1080p thus far and while there is tearing it's definitely not worse than the first game.
 
I noticed a tad bit of tearing yesterday with smart on, but I could really care less as I don't really notice it when playing, it was only when I tried to notice to see if it had it and I was like, oh. Doesn't effect the game at all for me.
 

op_ivy

Fallen Xbot (cannot continue gaining levels in this class)
I noticed a tad bit of tearing yesterday with smart on, but I could really care less as I don't really notice it when playing, it was only when I tried to notice to see if it had it and I was like, oh. Doesn't effect the game at all for me.

oddly, most of the tearing i've seen is in parts of the game interacting with NPCs, and not in big fire fights - though, to be truthful, i'm not super sensitive to tearing and it may be that i just am not as likely to notice then as i'm frantically fighting for my life!
 

PetriRMD

Neo Member
Hey all,

Glad to hear you guys like the game. A lot of effort went into it :)

I'm digging the game but Xbox Live wont let me buy it, anyone else having that problem? Trying to unlock it in game and it takes a while and then errors out on me. I don't want to lose all my progress if I finish the demo.

Can you elaborate on this? We've seen a few similar reports and are trying to figure out what the problem is. It could be just a temporary LIVE issue, where retrying a few minutes later should work again, but if the problem persists we'd obv want to get it fixed asap.

Also, it would be great to hear from anyone having issues whether which region they're from (you can PM me and I'll pass the info forward).
 

SteeloDMZ

Banned
The auto cinema in particular is a really excellent looking level. It looks very different to AW 1, yet at the same time it gives me the exact vibe that game gave me. Love the skybox, and the blue-ish fog. The screen playing the Mr. Scratch shorts was cool as hell.
 
Rushing through my replay of the original still - such a great game, and cannot wait for this.

How many people are listed on the leaderboards at present?
 
Hey all,

Glad to hear you guys like the game. A lot of effort went into it :)

Can really tell, the game looks great, much more polished in the graphics (well since you had time to fix them since the first game) looking forward to AW2. ;)

Also, don't know if you can answer this as this is more of a fan question per say, but did you guys think about doing co-op for arcade mode or are you aware that it is something that if you were to do this mode again, that it might be something you would look toward?
 
D

Deleted member 13876

Unconfirmed Member
Rushing through my replay of the original still - such a great game, and cannot wait for this.

How many people are listed on the leaderboards at present?

About 10k. I think a lot of people are still doing the single player still so I'm not sure how indicative it is of initial sales, but I really hope it does well.

A co-op arcade mode could work. Maybe have Barry and Alan be able to set up light traps to help each other and do combo attacks by crossing the streams and such. I can imagine it would be hard to balance though as the combat is very timing sensitive. Most of the tension comes from being out of battery, not being able to dodge when surrounded and having to reload at crucial moments so having someone there to cover those timing gaps would mitigate those factors a bit too much with the way things are balanced now.

It's so confusing to see Alan Wake in ads like this here in Finland:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rqiE0WiinyE&feature=related

That ad is canon as far as I'm concerned.
 
D

Deleted member 13876

Unconfirmed Member
The way dialogue scenes are shot/composed is strangely terrible. Bad to the point of wondering if there is some actual reason for it.

Probably just budget shortcuts. That was probably my biggest issue with the game too. Everything felt very polished except for that detail. Pressing B to hear the next lines of dialog while standing at an awkward angle from the character felt sloppy in contrast with everything else.

As for the music, I really loved that Happy Song from Poets of the Fall, but felt it was a bit wasted maybe. It sets a great mood but the encounter it's used in can be completed in 10-30 seconds upon which the music abruptly ends. The song feels like a theme song for Mr Scratch and I think it could have been used to a much better extent by like having it be played during a moment where Mr Scratch appears really powerful and Alan has to rush to stop him from doing something like making another victim. It really has that frantic, demented feel and tying gameplay urgency to it like a timed event would have made it much more powerful.
 

desertdroog

Member
Since this takes place in Arizona, if Remedy does any more with the Southwest desert, may I recommend sourcing the band Calexico for a song, if contracts allow for it.
 

derFeef

Member
DF just tweeted. So it really is FXAA what makes this look much better.
Update on Wake 360 (thanks Remedy!): 1120x576, 4xMSAA + FXAA. Difficult one to nail down as MSAA seems less consistent than in last game.

AW was 960x540
 

Surface of Me

I'm not an NPC. And neither are we.
Really love the game so far, just wish it didn't repeat the environments so much. I guess it was a budget or size thing.
 

daevv

Member
I have 3 stars in all the regular Arcade levels but the Nightmare ones kick my ass! Haven't survived one yet and only managed to score 20k once. Wonder what the guys getting 100k on those levels are doing...?
 
Is the Arcade thing anything like Mercenaries? I looove Mercs, and score attack games in general. Alan Wake has always seemed pretty interesting to me, and $15 for a taste of the game along with an arcadey score attack mode is really appealing to me. Is the arcade kind of a throwaway bonus or are the controls and feel good enough that you'll play it competitively?

How standalone is the campaign part? Will I be totally lost without having played the first game? I'm already playing a few other games at the moment, so I'm not going to get the first and plow through it just to get ready for a 4-hour XBLA game. If the arcade mode is fun that'll probably be enough to justify the price for me anyway, but is AM a whole new story or a continuation/ epilogue kind of thing?
 

Grisby

Member
Neither of these two bug me at all really. It's really the first XBLA game I've ever played, and it's impressing the hell out of me.
Eh, the tearing was in the original too. Game still looks damn impressive. First XBLA game? Man, theres a lot you've missed unless you played the best (Bastion, etc) on PC.
 
Eh, the tearing was in the original too. Game still looks damn impressive. First XBLA game? Man, theres a lot you've missed unless you played the best (Bastion, etc) on PC.

Haven't touched XBLA other than to download some DLC for a couple SP titles I have. My Xbox mostly goes untouched.
 

Papercuts

fired zero bullets in the orphanage.
Remedy are gods of atmosphere. It was my favorite thing in the first game to run through the woods, especially since I live in a very similar locale in Pennsylvania. They still haven't lost their touch here, even on the arcade maps.
 

DarkChild

Banned
4xMSAA and post process AA...Seems like guys at RMD really hate aliasing. I wonder, why not drop it to 2xMSAA and get to 720p. 2xMSAA and FXAA is still better than anything out there...
 

Satchel

Banned
Beat it last night. Loved it. But I adore the series. I liked the first game a bit more, but this is a steal at $15. Amazing.

Graphically, the game has a higher resolution, but I actually like how the first game looks more. I like a bit of blur in my games.

I was slightly annoyed by the
recycling of the same 3 levels.

Couldn't they have had the 3 levels, but each loop unlocks a certain section?

Also, the crossbow/ sawed off is easily the best weapon combo.

Need to get stuck into arcade mode now.
 
Just completed if after a marathon-session.

I don't really know what to think. It's a bit "out there" and bit too outlandish for me who loved Alan Wake.

Gonna have to chew on this experience for weeks before I formulate an opinion.
 

Sojgat

Member
Played this last night. Pretty great game, loved the twilight zone tone and the wider variety of weapons. Very cool way to release it too. I hope it does well, more stuff like this on xbla would be great.
 

RiccochetJ

Gold Member
This game is fucking awesome.

Just finished the observatory for the second time and now I'm at the Drive-In... Again

edit:
Holy shit! I just listened to the radio in the office again! That was awesome! Love how they change every experience up even though you're playing through the same map again!
 
I love this game. I made a little too much progress for comfort today; I like to pace myself to prolong the experience. Ever play so much of a game where you kind of space out? I refuse to let this happen to me anymore.

So far I've been primarily a 1 weapon guy. I've played with everything I came across but it always goes straight back to SMG. I've got enough manuscript pages for some of the bigger weapons now, just need to stumble across those chests again.

Music, atmosphere, everything about this game is great! No one on my friends list is playing, though. :(

Put about 1.5 hours into it, love it.

Dat lighting.

I'm really impressed by the shadows the flashlight casts. if you shine the light through a car, you actually get like an outline of the car where the light travels through the windows but not through the solid parts. I'm worried that this is going unnoticed, because it's awesome and should be pointed out.
 
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