I feel so so very sorry for anyone who couldn't have seen this one coming lol...

The game is not for everyone, that was just all too obvious from pretty much all the media and all we've learned about this game over the years. However, people attempting to, with their ever so subtle attempts, to make this game out to seem like some potentially horrible game that only the absolute most hyped individuals should even consider purchasing, or that only the most hyped will find to be any good at all, I don't know about that one.

As excited as I am here now, this game is

I mean, the fact that with so many incredible reviews out there, some are trying to ignore all of that and focus on just the negative ones, as if they're the only ones that can be trusted, is really telling. On the flip side, though, am I necessarily saying that only the good reviews are truthworthy? No way. I would never think of suggesting such a thing.

I would never say, and I have never said, because it's not true, negative Alan Wake Reviews, all negative Alan Wake Reviews, are dishonest. That would be silly and wrong. But, nowadays, if your review is dishonest, your review is probably a negative Alan Wake review. :P

On a more serious note, however, if I would ever consider myself as having an agenda, the closest thing to one I can find is that I really want this game to not only be an awesome game, but I also want it to end up being very successful for Remedy's sake. Now whatever one may think of that, I imagine there's still no possible way it could ever be viewed as more pitiful or shameful than any who has an agenda to see the game fail solely based on the platform it's on, and we certainly have people like that.

Alan Wake mediocre? Greatly doubt that. Not a single gameplay video out there even comes remotely close to supporting that, not a one. The game screams quality.

An Alan Wake comparison to Perfect Dark Zero? Excuse me while I go throw up :D

The day Korn buys Alan Wake, is the day I sleep with Jessica Alba, Jessica Beil, Halle Barry and Alicia Keyes all on the same day.

It's gonna be one heck of a Christmas this year.

I think Korn will buy Alan Wake, I just thought it was funny how easy it was for him to "doubt" his purchase of this game while so many other games on a different platform he hypes just as much as Optimus, well close to as much at least lol, and goes on and on and on about how wonderful they are.

It just doesn't take much attention at all to notice such glaringly obvious patterns. But I'm pretty sure almost everyone has caught on to him by now so I feel kind of bad for kicking a dead horse here.

I'll rent Alan Wake as it seems really interesting, but I can't see it having much replay value for what I like out of games.

I resent having my actions compared to Korn's. :P

I get excited about games, surely, but I'd have to go quite a ways before I'm at the level of doing what Korn does.

Korn does what he does seemingly not out of just pure excitement about a game, but in many cases has come off as manufactured excitement or artificial interest with an undertone to it that seems there is a specific end goal in mind, and that's to dimiish another competing console platform, or claim some kind of superiority for his favorite. I get excited about games, but I don't think I cross that line :P

Trust me when I say that Perfect Dark Zero reference was no coincidence :P The "I'm still buying it" stuff is an attempt to disuade people from thinking the obvious about the true intent behind the words. But, of course, that's just my opinion on the matter. I could be way off base.

Maybe KORNdog's an evil gremlin, sent by the almighty witch Sonyelda to reign terror upon the land of Xboxodia and disrupt its innocent citizens. Or maybe he's...

Well I just find it stupid that people actually make decisions based on reviews, and more specifically scores. I would have missed Splinter Cell Conviction if I had that mentality, and there's tons of really bad comments and reviews for it. It really comes down to what you think, and anyone doing otherwise is only doing a disservice for themselves.

This game is in the mid 80s in metacritic too, it's not like we are talking about a game in the 50's or 60's. But to each his own I guess.

I also find it a bit pathetic to buy a game with the mentality that you are going to regret it.

No, his "stealth trolling" as many have called it, is more than obvious to all but the most blind posters.

And I wasn't saying you do what he does, or comparing you two, as I've never seen you visiting Sony exclusive threads simply to undermine the game w/ a lame gripe about an otherwise great looking game, I just used your name due to how you both are well known for going crazy with the hype o' meter.

Hehe, fair enough :)

I also completely agree with Lebato with regards to reviews. There is nothing wrong with looking at a review in hopes of perhaps looking to reaffirm an expectation or, at the very least, receive more insight into a worry you had about the game, to see if that concern was much ado about nothing, or a very big problem. But then there's still a point at which you can't allow a review, or just reviews in general, to too strongly help make up your mind for you. I always ultimately end up going off of whether or not I like what I see, and not necessarily what someone else says. If I like enough of what I see myself personally, I'll usually go ahead and then find out for myself how good or bad a decision I ended up making. Because ultimately which reviewer out there is a better judge of the games you like than yourself? There's no single reviewer or publication out there that perfectly aligns with all of my opinions or all my specific tastes in games. I imagine that's true for everyone else on this site as well. It just can't be possible. If you're lucky, all you'll ever find is one that appears to share a similar taste in games as you do, no more, no less, but they'll always have those moments where they appear to deviate.

A reviewer can say just about anything, but if I'm watching a game in action and find myself liking more of what I'm seeing than I'm disliking it, there's basically nothing that will stop me from getting that game. Reviews are nothing more than just a collection of opinions from a variety of people who share different opinions on what is considered good or bad.

The fact that you'll have some who love it, some who think it's alright, and some who believe it isn't very good at all, is just common sense. It comes with the territory. That should be all the more reason for a person to realize that they could just as easily fall into any single one of those categories. How exactly do you know which category you'll fall into amongst all those reviews? I mean, it's one thing entirely if there's an undisputed majority of reviews telling you this game is not very good and should be avoided as a result. However, when there is a very clear majority of reviews praising the high quality of the game and a much lesser number of reviews going in the other direction, how exactly does a person who has been, apparently, genuinely excited for a particular game prior to the wave of score related opinions, just automatically give the benefit of the doubt to the worst amongst the reviews as the "one that got it right?", and on the other end seemingly completely disregard the many more plentiful reviews that are saying very positive things about the game? Does that ever puzzle anyone else, or is it just me? It's like a person wants to be disappointed, or is searching for a reason or excuse to not be interested in the game and to suggest it must not be a good game.

Now, for the gamer that is operating on a tighter budget and, as such, can't afford to be disappointed with a purchase, I suppose I can understand such a gamer possibly being faced with a decision where he might be forced to take a look at two titles, one with a metacritic of 86, and one with a metacritic of 93, and perhaps being compelled to go with the game that has the higher metacritic simply because they feel it will be the better purchase. However, too many times that isn't what's happening at all. You have people, based on a few not so hot reviews, using that to suggest that the game is somehow a disappointment or isn't as deserving of a buy as some other game simply because that other game scored higher. It just makes no sense.

But then I guess I can say that, even with all I've said, I'm also guilty of some review hypocrisy. Take Blue Dragon, for example. I saw reviews saying things about it that I didn't agree with and clung instead to the reviews that I felt were reviewing the game the way i thought it deserved to be reviewed. But then I felt I had a justification for that, obviously not one that everybody would or could likely agree with, but it was a justification I believed in nonetheless.

I had already played the japanese version and felt it was pretty damn great, and then there was the part of me that felt the game was being treated unfairly because it didn't cater to a lot of the more mainstream and generally popular game related subject matter that often seems to receive such immense praise from a lot of reviewers these days. I felt Blue Dragon wasn't even being given a chance and certain reviews, to me, were certainly written as if that were truly the case. But more than anything, it brings me right back to what I said before: No matter what any review could have told me about Blue Dragon, from every single piece of media I saw for that game, especially the first major gameplay footage at TGS, I was loving what I saw. I couldn't see the bad in any of it. I kept finding myself more interested than not. And just as I did then for Blue Dragon, and quite a few games afterwards, I allowed my opinion of what I saw and played, and whether or not I liked any of it, to supercede the opinions of others.

So, in short, if based on what you've seen of Alan Wake from a story, character, art, presentation, or gameplay standpoint, you don't like what you see, then, by all means, give the game a pass. If you were genuinely interested, however, all the way up till now, and are now faced with a solid majority of very positive reviews, and allow a few negative ones to sway or make you second guess yourself, then you really would be doing yourself a great disservice. I was a person that was very hard on the lacking quality of what I thought would become Splinter Cell Conviction, until I actually got an opportunity to try the demo, that is, and then I actually became excited and hopeful for what would be awaiting me in a final product. I use to give the game some serious hell about how I thought it started to look after the initial promising E3 showing. I was even shocked at one point when Lebato suggested that it looked as if it could end up being the best Splinter Cell yet. I was thinking to myself, "what in the hell is he seeing that I'm not?"

All in all, I am very pleased that I didn't go with a lot of what was being said about Conviction, most specifically around the time of the demo's release. I tried it myself and made up my own mind, and I honestly do believe I ended up having the pleasure of playing one of the most enjoyable games I've played this gen, and I don't need a metacritic score to tell me that is the case. Alan Wake is as niche looking as many titles come these days, so I already knew well before hand that it would be a love/hate deal, but many more signs point to Remedy having done a great job than not.

Thats the thing though, people don't seem to process good and bad the same way, especially people like Korn :P

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=2119537...Pretty well said on the reviews, and I certainly do hope they get the opportunity to make a sequel :D

http://www.vg247.com/2010/05/10/remedy-alan-wake-2...Latest reviews taken from the thread on the remedy forums.


Another 9. This time from Yahoo in spanish. I looked for the english review but it is not up yet.

Graphics: 9.1
Sound: 9.5
Gameplay: 8.5
Fun: 8.5
Overrall: 9
http://es.videogames.games.yahoo.com...ke-a33219.h...

V2.fi:

http://www.v2.fi/arvostelut/pelit/481/Alan-Wake/

88/100

ResumePlay: 4.5/5

MondoXbox: 9.2/10

*MondoXbox goes to Metacritic

Spain Alan Wake Review

Meristation: http://www.meristation.com/v3/des_an...6581b2&pic=... 9/10
HardGame2: http://www.hardgame2.com/x360/articu...on-remedy.h... 10/10Insidegamer.nl: 8.5/10

*metacritic

Got mine today, awesome game so far, the enemy AI is pretty good kind of annoyingly so, I broke my controller lets just put it that way. :P

Graphics are very nice but so they should be for a SD game :P

Story telling is good, but the manuscript pages tend to tell you whats going to happen before it does which is a bit crap to be honest.

Awesome, I can't wait to get mine!

Also, from all I've heard, manuscript pages don't just foreshadow events that are close to happening, or events that are much further away from happening, but they also apparently give you details regarding things that may have already taken place, or allows you to find out what's going on with other characters in the story, besides just Alan himself. I guess it depends on just how much you go off the beaten path whether or not you'll find those other kinds of manuscript pages.

Or, perhaps, early on they only allow you to find one specific type of manuscript page. Anyway, great that you're enjoying it. And I was worried about the AI being too competent for their own good :P It was already a given that I may end up getting spooked by the various things that take place, but then for the enemy AI to also seem pretty solid, well that just makes things tougher :)

What really jumped out at me in some videos was just how aggressive the AI could be with regards to concealing their location, tossing an axe of some kind at ya, but also taking multiple really fast swings at ya close range.

http://forum.alanwake.com/showpost.php?p=80166&pos...

What!! How the Hell did you get it so early?????

Jolli knows some people, who knows some people, who robbed some people, haha :P (Credit goes to snoop)

Come on Joli cant you help some fellow forum members out?

I probably could have had the game last week. It's nothing special, street days get broken all the time for games as insignificant (in terms of brand recognition) as AW.

Jolli and his spies! ;) He knows people at GAME I think so he always gets his games early! The lucky Bastard! ;)

Damn it, going to have to try to find my own spy! :)

You could probably go in to Game and ask if they will sell you a copy before the release date.

Sometimes they will, FWIW places like Play.com normally send their games out a couple days before street date.

Been playing it nonstop and I kind of wish I started on easy now, haha, the way enemies sneak up behind you is fucking irratating, you only need 3-4 to surround you and your pretty much dead as they hack the shit out of you.

Some of them move crazy fast.

My biggest complaint is that every episode (the levels are basically like TV episodes) you lose all your ammo, flashlight, guns and batteries and have to start from scratch, it can make some situations really hard becayse you just don't have enough ammo to fight everything off, running is normally not an option either.

That aside the game is very good, besides the few fits of rage I'm loving it.

Edit:- You will probably want to play through twice anyway to get all the manuscript pages.

Looks like I'll start it on easy as well, thanks for the hint.

Oh yea, what are the flasks of coffee for lol ?

Seems they are just trophies ? :S, too bad they could have made them into health packs.

So joli how are the in-game tv episodes?

You mean the epsodes of Night Springs ? not really watched them to be honest.

Yeah thats it,on the podcast that ops linked too, they mentioned that they were good?