Alan Wake on PC I can't believe Remedy spent a decade on this. I'm running it maxed and there's nothing impressive about the graphics other than some of the lighting effects. Overall, it pretty much looks like they took Max Payne 2 and gave it a better lighting engine. Pretty pathetic for a console game released in 2010, and even worse for a PC game coming out in 2012. I'm not overly thrilled with the game itself. It's like they threw as many horror movie cliches against the wall as they could think of to see if something would stick, but none of it does. The game just isn't scary. I don't like the combat at all. It's pretty much just shine the light on something and then shoot it a couple of times, and repeat this over and over. There's no challenge and it's quite repetitive. I guess I'll keep playing and see if it gets better, but I can understand why this got such mixed reviews. What I've played has been quite mediocre other than the lighting effects and spooky atmosphere. They should have just spent the time getting Max Payne 3 out sooner to be honest.
Alan Wake came out on the 360 around the time Heavy Rain was released. I remember being somewhat irritated that Alan Wake reminded me very much of a Resident Evil-style game with fancy lighting, whereas Heavy Rain actually was unique and innovative. I did like some of the Twin Peaks references in Alan Wake, but most wouldn't get those, and the game was primarily a RE-style game with shadow "shields" you break with the light. I thought it was quite decent but not as good as it could have been. Also, although Remedy appears to be home of many David Lynch fans, their writing was much closer to Stephen King TV movie than David Lynch.
I loved Heavy Rain. It was a great piece of interactive storytelling that transcended what people generally think a video game should be. Alan Wake seems like it's partially an inept knockoff of Heavy Rain crossed with a Resident Evil clone. From what I've played it's good at creating spooky or weird atmosphere, and it has nice lighting, but pretty much everything else about it is mediocre and forgettable.
Rockstar/Take Two had the rights to Max Payne so Remedy basically lost that IP. Remedy had nothing to do with Max Payne 3, unfortunately. It was developed all in-house by Rockstar.
That would explain why the previews for Max Payne 3 have been underwhelming. It's not even being made by the same people as the other two.
It turns out that the co-op/horde mode of Mass Effect 3 is quite good. I've been having quite a good time with it, especially when I'm able to get a decent team together. I've actually been more impressed with the co-op mode than the single player demo, although that's not saying much considering the SP mode was buggy, crashed a few times, and looked a bit rough around the edges. The co-op mode looked like it was quite a bit closer to completion than the SP mode.
My impression of Alan Wake is improving a bit as I play it. It actually does remind me of Max Payne in a lot of ways. A lot of the humor and storytelling is very similar, and the original Max Payne did have some creepy atmosphere and horror elements (like the nightmare with the candles and screaming baby) that felt pretty similar to the stuff in Alan Wake. Just like in Max Payne you find TVs and radios with cool and funny stuff, and it has cheesy, over the top narration. I just wish the combat in Alan Wake were better. Max Payne had great weapons and awesome shootouts and there's nothing like that in Alan Wake. The combat is repetitive and the weapons feel clunky and annoying to use. The bullet time in Max Payne may have been a bit of a gimmick, but I never found it tiresome. I'm already over the light/dark thing in Alan Wake. This is seeming like a game I'm pretty much just going to enjoy for the story and Max Payne nostalgia, where the combat is more of annoyance than anything. This game is really making me want to go back and reinstall the Max Payne games though.
I gave up on Alan Wake. It's too shitty as a game to be tolerable. I'm going back and playing through Deus Ex Human Revolution a second time. There were some augments I never got to try and I wanted to play some of the missions a bit differently. I also missed a few of the side missions. It holds up well on replay. I still think this is one of the better games I've played in the last couple of years. My only big complaint with Human Revolution is that in a game that otherwise gives you so much choice, the boss fights seem really forced and out of place.
I put Skyrim away for a moment because Uncharted 3 has finally been discounted. Played for maybe 4 hours and got to Yemen. The game totally fulfills my expectations. It's intense, fine looking and not too involving. I don't think it's better than Uncharted 2, it's more like Uncharted 2.1 but still, one of the best games of this generation. Can't wait for Journey, it should hit PSN in two weeks if I am not mistaken.
Journey is easily one of my most eagerly anticipated titles of 2012. Also, although I'm not necessarily the most keen on video game reviews, the scores of the reviews I've glanced through have been very favorable. Like 9 and above most of the time.
Hacked my new PSP so I am playing Monster Hunter Unite. Crisis core and football manager came with it as UMD games so will be playing those too.
Playing War Hammer 40,000: Dawn of War. It's good. Not great though. The story is really close to Starcraft's story and some of the cut scenes look like they came off of a Super NES. No resources is both good and bad. There is more action but less strategy. I'm not sure if I'll finish it or not.
LA Noire It's a brilliant piece of interactive storytelling, but it barely registers as a game. Also, I think I've come to the conclusion that Cole Phelps is a socially retarded douchebag.
True. And you can totally fuck up the interviews and the game will still find ways to keep the trail from going cold. Sometimes I fuck them up intentionally just because it's funny. The result is something that you watch more than you play. It reminds me a lot of those adventure games and FMV games on PC from the early 90s.