Are they as bad as those in Brothers in Arms?

We have some very religious people on this website, as I've learned over the weeks, months and years, so I try to basically tone it down for their sakes every now and then, even though I slip sometimes :)

I never played that game but I saw a couple of videos of Brothers in Arms now... It's not as bad as that but still pretty bad IMO ... it doesnt matter that much, at least so far but clearly the game is showing its age there.

scratch that, actually it's just as bad as brothers in Arms (just watched more video of BiA)

Alrighty then, that's more like it Alan Wake. just finishe Episode 2 and it was one hell of a ride! It picked up real nicely towards the end :) Just brilliant so far... there are some flaws mind you but this has been very special so far!

Oh and the sountrack TOP NOTCH! excellent choice of songs!

This game can be really damn hard. I think Jolli was talking about this earlier but Im playing on normal and if there are 3 or more enemies I find it extremely difficult.

I am playing on Hard and it's alright. It's not about shooting your way through, dodge, run and go to the light!

I'm not guna spoil it, but wait til later on Alimo it get seriously hard, you will regret starting on hard.

now, i think i'm just over half way through, and so far i'm really enjoying it. the problems i've commented on in the past are very much there, but i'm still loving the game despite that. it's very moody and the envionments looks amazing when the sun is shining. the lighting as well is very well done although can go a little fizzly every once in a while.

my main issue with the game isnt the facial animations, or the repetative enemy encounters (common complaints in reviews)

it's the fact alan wake is a complete and utter twat of a character. there isnt anything i like about him. he disrespects his fans, the people that gave him his success, he talks down to people like hes the king of the fucking world. and generally i just hate him. i'm guessing there will be an event later that makes him likeable. but so far the alan wake character has failed where the nathan drake character succeeds, they're both slightly arogant, both cocky and sarcastic, but alan wake is done in such a way where i just dont like him. and becasue of that i have little to no sympathy for him or his goal to find his wife.

The story is kind of odd like that, I have to admit that along the way I started to forget that he was trying to save his wife.

I can't say I found him to be the egotistical prick you mention though, the story is a bit disjointed at times and the narrative aspect of the game can feel a bit forced.

dont get me wrong, i love what alan wake says most of the time and i love the way the lines are delivered. such as the manuscript pages and the way he reads them back ina very film noir manner. they remind me a lot of max payne and i love it for that. but the way he interacts with NPC's just makes him seem like a complete bastard. he's the sort of person you wouldnt want to be associated with if he was real.

now, some games and films do have these sorts of characters but they usually have something happen to them before the midway point that makes them change their ways or something happens to show you they do have redeming qualities. so maybe that will happen with wake (although i'm well past the halfway point now), but so far he is one of the most unlikable characters i've had the displeasure of controlling.

people dont like characers like kane and lynch, but i see them as having such exagerated "hollywood movie" personalities, that i dont mind them, hell, i even like them in some ways. but alan wake, in all his grounded, believable glory just comes across as even more of a jerk. right from the offset when he complains about the fangirl rose, or the way he snapped at his wife just made me hate him. and he hasnt done a single admirable thing to make me thing otherwise so far. it's very odd for a game to go out of it's way to make the player disslike him. but maybe that's the point. seeing as i havnt completed it, who knows.

I totally got that vibe about Alan Wake as a person from the reviews I read, from videos I've watched, and from the podcasts I've listened to. The guy is definitely a terrible person.

i never watched much prior to the release of the game. the odd trailer, the odd walthrough, not enough to really get an understanding of the alan wake character. i was half expecting someone who was quite charismatic like nathan drake, but at the same time i kinda expected a character like james sunderland from silent hill 2. alan wake is neither, he's just not very likeable.

oh, and i didnt mention it before, but i love the way this game controls. in terms of these fixed over the shoulder shooters go, it's probably one of my faves. its precise, yet twitchy enough to do full 180's in an instant. the way the flashlight is the game reticle make it feels a lot different to most other games that have flashlights. it may look a little weird but combat wise it's great.

Well may be He was meant to be a terrible person. The main character doesnt have to be all sugar and rainbows. In fact, that's what I like a lot about the character. He's more your real average man.

i'd like a character that walks a line between realistic or "average" as you put it, and "complete asshole"

you're investing 12 hours of your time into this character. you should enjoy being him imo. not be repulsed by him.

Every part of his behaviour is self-explanatory. He's famous, he's frustrated, and the things he goes through in the game would make you doubt your sanity. If he was a charismatic twat instead of an angry twat everything of that would be lost.

I'm always playing one episode at a time and every time I play the game sucks me in right from the start and spits me out at the end of each episode. I think part of that is that the writing and acting is really well done. Also Alan may not be likeable but he's believable.

I have to agree.

Maybe i'm a bit of a wuss, but am i the only one getting freaked out by little things that happen in this game?, in one instance i had gone of the beaten path an found a cabin with some suppiles and a tv, so i settle in to watch Nightfalls and about 1min into the episode i saw out of the corner of my eye a taken run past the window next to me, so i ran outside to go investigate and nothing?, this freaked me out so much that i could not go back into the cabin and finish the nightfalls episode :(

I know the cabin you are talking about dc and yes, it freaked me the fuck out too. I didn't want to go outside haha.

Thank god its not just me then :)

I don't get really scared while playing, but I'm feeling a lot of suspense when I wander the forests. The effect when the darkness is blowing through the trees and bushes is haunting me every time though, it looks gorgeous and creepy at the same time.

After being able to finish all the God of War games with Kratos, the most annoying sack of shit character I've ever seen besides Dante, I think I'll be able to make it through any game while playing an imperfect person. Alan is an ass, but he's also written w/ realistically flawed human emotions, which, IMO, is a far more refreshing character than the lame testosterone filled anit-hero bullshit a lot of games are pushing these days.

It's all just a matter of taste though, there is no objectively "correct" way to write a protagonist, no matter what they do some segment is going to be annoyed or offended. That's what is so funny about characters like master cheif or gordan freeman, they say so little it doesn't get in the way. Unfortunately Alan Wake's style of game doesn't has such a luxury.

the game is indeed quite scary and that par delgado freaked me out too!

I didn't find the game all tha scary, RE1 is more scary than this lol

I'm sure Korn will have something to say about the Kratos comment :P /waits

kratos is a comic book character, he's like the holywoodised kane and lynch, exagerated. alan wake is so unlikable becasue he is so grounded. i hate him for the reasons i hate people in real life, which is great writing and great characterisation on the games part but it's not an enjoyable protagonist to be playing as. only other character i hate as much is probably rico from killzone. but again. rico is ripped straight from a B-grade action movie that would have stared stalone or arnie back in the day, hardly something you take seriously, plus he isnt the main character. so i end up feeling pretty indiferent towards him in the end.

alan wake however is just a dick. human, believable, realistic? whatever you want to call it doesnt change the fact he's a dick of a character. but as i said, aside from that i love the game. it's just a shame the main character is preventing me from having any feeling of sympathy for his cause. games like silent hill manage to take the "average man" with all his character flaws, and make a likeable character from it. you want to find out about mary in SH2, you want him to have a happy ending, and you care about his cause. alan wake has been so far off that mark tho it's kinda funny. he is such a jerk i'm HOPING for that turn around in the story, but i have a nagging feeling he will be a jerk from now to the end of the series, if there is more alan wake coming, which i assume there is.

i'm obviously not the only one to feel this way so it isnt like i'm completely off with my comments. as i said. if i'm investing 12 hours into a game, i want to enjoy being that character. as it stands with this game, alan wake could sooner nose dive off a cliff then save his wife for all i care.

can't wait to get back home and keep playing tho. hopefully it changes the way its set up design wise. i dont think i can jump down anymore ledges only to be ambushed by enemies. i've done it about 50 times already...lol. not so much "bad" design, but kinda predictable. "oh, a ledge/broken staircase/cliff that drops down to an open area, wonder what's going to happen now....ambush perhaps...lol"

i'm interested to see how it ends tho, even if i dont care about alan himslef. i'm hoping for a silent hill style twist....maybe his wife has been dead for years....dum dum dummmmmm...lol. that's be pretty shit tbh.

There is a twist, of course there is a twist :)