Alan Wake: There may be something at Gamescom, there may not.. (see p.47)

Local H Jay

having a lot of fun with this so far! the guns feel really nice, especially the uzi. i really enjoy the tone of this one, even with the

Spoiler:

time loop crap.

it's nice change of pace, since mr.scratch definitely is a better bad guy than 'ambiguous dark forces'. the live action scenes are also really well done and has convinced me that an alan wake movie should be a thing that happens.

Big Classy

For those on Steam, the new update fixes the tree flickering issue for Nvidia users. God bless Remedy!

Igpx407

I don't understand the complaints against the combat. I mean the first game got repetitive, but American Nightmare does a great job of bringing in new enemies and new weapons to take them out. I had fun with he combat the entire length of the game.

Also the three settings in American Nightmare are all perfect for the tone they're going with.

Lewisham

mnihil wrote: »

Finished American Nightmare, at least in Story Mode, and don't quite know what to think.
Mr Scratch is an amazing villain.

Spoiler:

Kind of disappointed to see him go...

Spoiler:

I liked him well enough, but he was a little monotone. The first videos were creepy as shit, but they tailed off as it was like "Yeah yeah, you like to kill people, I get it." There wasn't any real menace. Why not try driving Alice properly insane, first?

I much preferred the original's "Oh God, why is Alan doing this shit?" videos.

That said, I thought the acting on those videos was great. Loved those dances.

The writing, I felt, was kind of all over the place. There were some very interesting revelations, though, so if you want the whole story, pick it up.

Spoiler:

I was conflicted about the decision of the two year time jump, but considering Alan's journey from Everyman to Fighter in the main game, and then his decision to pick up arms against the Darkness in the DLC, him kind of evolving into the Champion of Light in American Nightmare actually makes narrative sense. Pretty interesting, I think.

Spoiler:

Given what is hinted at in the manuscripts, it sounds like he is aware that he has spent two years fighting in the Dark Place, and yet he's decently calm when he pops out. This leaves gaping functional questions: how does he sleep? Does he not need to? Even if he doesn't, if he got no respite from fighting for two years, he would be properly mental whatever he says about holding onto Alice and good memories, or at least, incredibly grateful that he is no longer there. He doesn't bother trying to eat anything, for example. He doesn't show any interest in Selena when she's being slutty. He's not conflicted at all about how he's returning to the Dark Place after his job is done... the time loop might have actually been a nicer place for him to be.

His character converts from someone who is discovering things alongside the player (which is one of the things I loved about the original, Alan's narration stops the player feeling lonely, acting as a "Did you see that shit?! That was fucked up!" friend in the darkness) to someone who has outpaced the player in both knowledge and comfort. I don't like this shift from being with the player to being ahead. As the player, you're actually drawing the information out of him piece by piece, and it distances him from you.

I wasn't entirely convinced by the gameplay, though. I mean, they pretty much flunked Game Design 101:

Spoiler:

Repeating levels? Repeating repeated levels? Honestly? That is Remedy's answer to the complains of repetitive gameplay in the first title?

Spoiler:

I liked it well enough, I thought it was interesting, whether it was or was not driven by budgetary constraints, I think they mixed it up and tried something new. XBLA is a good place to take a shot like that, and if it didn't pan out, then that's OK. I liked it.

mnihil

@Lewisham:
About Mr Scratch:

Spoiler:

I agree with everything you've said - the first videos were much better, the dances were great. There was some monotony to the latter videos, and I imagined a menace along the lines of driving Alan's friends insane as well. There was a lot of potential to the idea of him doing everything Alan was inhibited from doing that was kind of wasted, so that we got a serial killer, instead of a personification of Alan's true deep, dark desires. But I loved the performance and much of the content that was there. Plus, I have a vivid imagination, so I imagined a thousand potential intriguing possibilites for the character. And as far as video game villains go, its refreshing to see one who is not a moustache-twirling bad guy.

About the writing:

Spoiler:

I think this discussion might come too early, because I believe there is potential for flashback narrative in Alan Wake 2. Maybe it starts out earlier than American Nightmare and jumps forward. However, when life gives you lemons...
The argument that we shared Alan's journey of discovery was the same I had when I first realized American Nightmare jumped two years ahead. But, honestly, does Alan know so much more now? He has a rough idea of the machinations of the darkness, and that comes through spending some quality time in it. The rest, how his personality has become so much stronger, we have actually witnessed by the end of the DLC. He is determined to fight. Everything that comes after that is mainly polish. I also don't think that American Nightmare is really Alan's story like Alan Wake (1, the game) was. It's more of a war story. It's a battle in the war against the Dark Presence. It purposely doesn't advance too much, because it's not supposed to be a vital piece of the puzzle.
I also am not entirely convinced Alan has yet left the Dark Place. In an interview Sam Lake, I think, said something about how Alan is able to fight the darkness through storytelling, and American Nightmare does take place in Night Springs - fiction. Therefore, Alan, not tied to reality yet, but caught int he dimension of the Dark Place, does not need sleep. Or food. Maybe two years in reality do not feel like two years in the Dark Place. How he maintains his sanity remains a valid question.

About the gameplay:

Spoiler:

I'm almost sure it was budget - look at how few people were actually involved in making the game (credits). I also agree that it works as an XBLA experience, as I said. But I didn't have that much fun with the loop. Probably because revisiting the characters wasn't particularly interesting, given how they didn't have anything interesting to say. The radio shows would have been worth catching, but I missed them at the end, because I didn't realize they provided new content each time. Also, I did not search the environment thrice for manuscripts (and am thus missing about a handful). That's not fun. I don't condemn Remedy for it, but I'm also not a fan of the choice. Had they filled each Act/Chapter with new interesting information, maybe.

Ultimately, I'll decide what to think of American Nightmare once I've played Alan Wake 2, I guess, because I value the narrative highly. It's got its hick-ups, but considering that it's an XBLA game, you get good content for your money. Possibly very good content.

Local H Jay

i liked it a whole lot but the

Spoiler:

time loop

basically killed all re-playability for me

Guitar Hero Of Time

Re: Mr Scratch (American Nightmare spoilers)

Spoiler:

I'm not sure we have seen the end of him. Balance slays the demon, not light. I think before the story is over, Alan will have to embrace his inner Scratch.

Lewisham

mnihil wrote: »

About the writing:

Spoiler:

I also am not entirely convinced Alan has yet left the Dark Place. In an interview Sam Lake, I think, said something about how Alan is able to fight the darkness through storytelling, and American Nightmare does take place in Night Springs - fiction. Therefore, Alan, not tied to reality yet, but caught int he dimension of the Dark Place, does not need sleep. Or food. Maybe two years in reality do not feel like two years in the Dark Place. How he maintains his sanity remains a valid question.

Spoiler:

There is a manuscript page where Alan talks about how he is in the real world, and that he's made the Dark Place seep into the real world for just one night. The town of Night Springs is him taking over a town that was actually there before. Alan could, of course, be wrong, but he believes he's escaped back into the real world, so he doesn't do things that make sense.

He also let the discussion of Alice with Selena go very quickly. I kept expecting him to ask more about Alice each time I went back to Selena, but they just had inane conversations about what being touched by the Darkness feels like.

But all this being said, I'd be a liar if I said I didn't eat it up and wish Alan Wake 2 was out tomorrow. It delivered more story stuff than I expected they would, for which I am very pleased.

Skull2185

Mr. Scratch is an awesome awesome villian.

In the live action bits I've seen so far (Hotel room stuff), there really isn't too much going in in them, but I find them to be disturbing. Deeply so. Like, I want to look away because he's so insane and its creeping me out.

Professor Snugglesworth

Got the PC version last night. Mucked around with the settings a little and so far I'm getting a smooth performance.

But I wanted to inquire here to see if I could do better, perhaps 60 fps. Which settings take up the most resources and/or are the most inconsequential?

Two Headed Boy

Professor Snugglesworth wrote: »

Got the PC version last night. Mucked around with the settings a little and so far I'm getting a smooth performance.

But I wanted to inquire here to see if I could do better, perhaps 60 fps. Which settings take up the most resources and/or are the most inconsequential?

Godrays reduce the framerate by 10+ fps. Turn 'em off, you'll never notice the difference anyway.

After that, I turned down SSAO to low, since it gave me a few more frames and the visual difference was insignificant.

Professor Snugglesworth

What about AA and FXAA? What's the difference between the two, and which one should I have enabled/disabled?

Also curious if the AF affects performance at all.

Two Headed Boy

I keep my AA at the lower setting, and I think same with FXAA. FXAA just supplements the AA, and I didn't find the very slight improvement between low and high worth the 2-5 fps cost.

Hard to test all the settings, though, since they affect the framerate differently depending on whether it's day or night. The big factor is turning Godrays off, other than that it depends on how your system is handling everything else. If I had to prioritize the order in which I would turn things off, it would be like this:

Godrays, SSAO, FXAA, AA, draw distances (only matters during the day), Shadow effects, etc.

Magus`

It's a nice looking game, but Alan Wake is not very well optimized for the PC.

Stormwatcher

So, I'm playing the base game on my xbox, and I have to say that the part in the rocknroll stage was awesome.

I'm a huge PC evangelist, but I'm not really excited about getting this game with more graphic options and resolution. I found it looks pretty great in motion on the xbox and a full hd 42", and that higher detail wouldn't make it that much prettier. I mean, the biggest thing is the whole lighting and shadows schtick... This is not a game about sharp detailing.

Skull2185

Is it possible to collect all manuscript pages on one stage? If you know what i mean. Like if im missing two from the rest stop

Spoiler:

how do i know which act they're in?

Big Classy

Who is Laura palmer?

Igpx407

Skull2185 wrote: »

Is it possible to collect all manuscript pages on one stage? If you know what i mean. Like if im missing two from the rest stop

Spoiler:

how do i know which act they're in?

Spoiler:

From what I can tell if you say miss a manuscript page in act one, it'll still be there along with new manuscripts in subsequent acts.

Professor Snugglesworth

Big Isy wrote: »

Who is Laura palmer?

One of the biggest television tragedies.

By which I mean they never made a Season 3.

You'd think they would have at least made a novel or comic or something to wrap up the story. Instead it looks like Lynch is just going to take the resolution to his grave.

(or he had no fucking idea what was going to happen next)

Krathoon

-

Zoel

I felt like twin peaks had an acceptable resolution, at least as much as the sopranos

Turkey

I should really finish Twin Peaks. I left it halfway through Season 2 and just haven't gotten back to it.

Zoel

Turkey wrote:

I should really finish Twin Peaks. I left it halfway through Season 2 and just haven't gotten back to it.

in fairness that's kind of where lynch quit too

Igpx407

Zoel wrote: »

Turkey wrote:

I should really finish Twin Peaks. I left it halfway through Season 2 and just haven't gotten back to it.

in fairness that's kind of where lynch quit too

Ba-zing! But it's not really his fault. The murder was just a macguffin to explore the town and then the studio made him solve it.

Heisenberg

Hope it doesn't take forever for American Nightmare to hit PC.

Krathoon

Even though it was an unhappy one, I liked the ending to Twin Peaks.

Nocren

So since I haven't played this since November I got back into it (was at chapter 3) and finished chapter 4 earlier tonight with an audience.
It was fun watching him jump and get all creeped out during the gameplay.

And he loved the stage defense.

Is the base game only 5 or 6 chapters? I asked because I played through a lot of this before on someone else's profile and got to the town part with the sheriff escorting you around.

pablo_price

I got american nightmare earlier, and holy shit
(midgame spoiler)

Spoiler:

the mr scratch videos in the 2nd iteration of the levels D:

Professor Snugglesworth

Igpx407 wrote: »

Zoel wrote: »

Turkey wrote:

I should really finish Twin Peaks. I left it halfway through Season 2 and just haven't gotten back to it.

in fairness that's kind of where lynch quit too

Ba-zing! But it's not really his fault. The murder was just a macguffin to explore the town and then the studio made him solve it.

I thought the story was that he wanted to solve it by Season 1, but he was forced to extend the mystery until Season 2.

When he finally got a chance to continue TP's storyline, he had to go and get all ambitious by setting up Fire Walk With Me to have like four different plot points (including David Bowie from the future...yeah) spread across four different movies. Brilliant.

Captain Tragedy

Professor Snugglesworth wrote:

Igpx407 wrote: »

Zoel wrote: »

Turkey wrote:

I should really finish Twin Peaks. I left it halfway through Season 2 and just haven't gotten back to it.

in fairness that's kind of where lynch quit too

Ba-zing! But it's not really his fault. The murder was just a macguffin to explore the town and then the studio made him solve it.

I thought the story was that he wanted to solve it by Season 1, but he was forced to extend the mystery until Season 2.

When he finally got a chance to continue TP's storyline, he had to go and get all ambitious by setting up Fire Walk With Me to have like four different plot points (including David Bowie from the future...yeah) spread across four different movies. Brilliant.

Nah. It's like lgpx407 said - the murder was supposed to go unsolved for the entire run and lead further into the darkness of the town, but he was forced to solve it. Then he left to go do Wild at Heart and the show went to shit for most of the middle of S2. He came back near the end to try to get it back on course, but it was too late by then.

And then he got a chance to do a movie, and his dumb ass decided to do a prequel that flopped and killed TP's future, instead of a continuation.

Panda4You

Zoel wrote: »

Turkey wrote:

I should really finish Twin Peaks. I left it halfway through Season 2 and just haven't gotten back to it.

in fairness that's kind of where lynch quit too

Oh hell naww u di'nt? First half of S2, plus a couple of episodes give or take, is pretty much the suck-period (french gangsters, James' storyline LOL); after that, the last 6 or so episodes, it picks up the motherfucking steam and brings it back up to beginning of the series-level.

Oh, and where are people getting hold of this DLC thing for PC? Not seeing anything on Steam?

Big Classy

Its not out for PC sadly. No news on whether it'll be out too.

Heisenberg

Does American Nightmare continue the story at all from The Writer?

Lewisham

Heisenberg wrote: »

Does American Nightmare continue the story at all from The Writer?

Yes. I've heard some people theorize that the story is written in such a way that they can just backtrack and say it was just a Night Springs episode and not canon, but the manuscript pages make it quite clear that the story follows on in a significant way from The Writer and that what is happening is real (to Alan, at least).

Local H Jay

anyone having trouble with manuscript pages, check this guide. i had found all but one and the last one had me running around for a good hour before i just looked it up.

Nocren

So I finished the main game and now starting The Signal. Aside from the initial blantent product placement, I like how it carries right into stuff at the end of the game (the Words stuff mostly).

Can't wait to see how it goes.

mxmarks

This game is amazing. I just got to (American Nightmare spoilers)

Spoiler:

Time has looped back

and holy shit that caught me off guard.

Also, 'the Happy Song' and 'Balance Slays the Demon' are both on Spotify.

And Balance Slays the Demon is actually listed as The Old Gods of Asgard.

And Ive listened to each a billion times.

And that Kasabian song.

what Im trying to say here is this franchise has the best use of licensed music ever.

Skull2185

Hey, so.. Pro Tip:

I was reading the weapon descriptions earlier, and apparently the crossbow pierces right through the darkness on The Taken. That woulda been good to know on a few occasions...

mxmarks

Just beat it.

Loved every goddamn second.

Like, loved.

Like, I can not even really objectively be swayed right now. I know it has flaws but I refuse to acknowledge them right now.

Love this, so happy it exists.

Guitar Hero Of Time

Skull2185 wrote: »

Hey, so.. Pro Tip:

I was reading the weapon descriptions earlier, and apparently the crossbow pierces right through the darkness on The Taken. That woulda been good to know on a few occasions...

I assume the nailgun is a pistol version of the same - but I never tried it.