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Alan Wake

Old 07-20-10, 10:07 AM
  #351  
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Re: Alan Wake

Originally Posted by pinata242
You can't start on Nightmare, can you?
For some reason, I thought I saw it as a valid option when I first played the game. Could be wrong. I do know that it was open for me after I completed the game on Normal.
Old 07-20-10, 10:09 AM
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Re: Alan Wake

Originally Posted by Groucho
Don't shoot the birds. Your flashlight is sufficient.

I'm playing through on Nightmare now, and it's a completely different game (for the better). Much like Resident Evil, ammo suddenly becomes a rare commodity, so in each encounter you need to make a "fight or flee" decision. Dodge, which really wasn't needed in Normal, is now a vital skill.
Agreed. Just wait until you get to the poltergeist parts...

Also, regarding can pyramids and thermoses, the ones you found on your first playthrough won't be there on subsequent playthroughs. I found that very helpful, as I didn't have to wonder if I had already picked up the ones that I ran across. I did a third playthrough with a guide to pick up the last few that I didn't find on my own.
Old 07-20-10, 10:10 AM
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Re: Alan Wake

Originally Posted by pinata242
You can't start on Nightmare, can you?
You cannot. Nightmare becomes an option after you've completed the game once on any other difficulty.
Old 07-20-10, 11:29 AM
  #354  
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Re: Alan Wake

Originally Posted by Michael Corvin
I jumped back into this the other night and finished Chapter 2. I didn't see anyone through a window.
You can't see it when you're looking for it.
Old 07-21-10, 07:05 PM
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Re: Alan Wake

Code Redeemed
You have successfully redeemed a code for: Alan Wake: The Signal. It has been added to your download queue.


Please note: this is a PROMO CODE, the ones in the game will not be active until the 27th...at least that's what the PR gal told me.
Old 07-21-10, 07:28 PM
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Re: Alan Wake

Originally Posted by Liver&Onions
Fixed.
Old 07-21-10, 07:36 PM
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Re: Alan Wake

Srsly.
Old 07-21-10, 10:23 PM
  #358  
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Re: Alan Wake

Originally Posted by pinata242
Fixed.
dick, you told me to.
Old 07-22-10, 09:11 AM
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Re: Alan Wake

I'd like to see a transcript of that conversation.
Old 07-22-10, 09:58 AM
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Re: Alan Wake

Get a room!
Old 07-26-10, 12:14 AM
  #361  
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Re: Alan Wake

IGN gives "The Signal" a 9.0
Old 07-26-10, 08:55 AM
  #362  
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Re: Alan Wake

Originally Posted by MrX
Very cool. And you can't complain about the price!
Old 07-26-10, 03:19 PM
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Re: Alan Wake

http://www.gaminglives.com/2010/07/2...ing-alan-wake/

That's quite a read...

And also - The Signal is pretty much awesome, worth the download and play...and even worth 560 points if you have a 2nd hand game (and loved it). Haters will still hate.
Old 07-27-10, 08:39 AM
  #364  
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Re: Alan Wake

I am supposed to get an email, according to a post I read yesterday, with a new code for The Signal DLC. They stated that if you entered in the code that came with the game already, you won't get the DLC and the code is no longer valid.

Which pretty much sucks as the little card, I'm pretty sure, stated to enter the code to be ready to get the DLC when it was released. Now, they are saying "oops, no.. you weren't supposed to enter the code yet." I better get my DLC is all I know. I bought the game new and had the code for the free DLC episode that came with it.
Old 07-27-10, 10:04 AM
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Re: Alan Wake

Looking forward to playing this tonight.
Old 07-27-10, 10:35 AM
  #366  
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Re: Alan Wake

Originally Posted by Vryce
I am supposed to get an email, according to a post I read yesterday, with a new code for The Signal DLC. They stated that if you entered in the code that came with the game already, you won't get the DLC and the code is no longer valid.

Which pretty much sucks as the little card, I'm pretty sure, stated to enter the code to be ready to get the DLC when it was released. Now, they are saying "oops, no.. you weren't supposed to enter the code yet." I better get my DLC is all I know. I bought the game new and had the code for the free DLC episode that came with it.
Really?

'Cause I entered the code back when I first got the game too, thinking I'd be able to download the DLC when it was released - that's what I was led to believe anyways. If that's not the case, I'll be fucking pissed.
Old 07-27-10, 11:37 AM
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Re: Alan Wake

This is from the Alan Wake facebook page:
"The Alan Wake DLC, The Signal, has started to appear in the Xbox Live Marketplace! Double check the marketplace to make sure it's out for your country before redeeming your codes. If you have redeemed your code prior to release Microsoft will be sending out new codes to you via email, just make sure your contact information is up to date at http://live.xbox.com/."
Old 07-27-10, 12:46 PM
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Re: Alan Wake

How many achievement points does this add?
Old 07-27-10, 12:49 PM
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Re: Alan Wake

250
Old 07-27-10, 02:21 PM
  #370  
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Re: Alan Wake

Ok. If you redeemed the code that came with the game earlier, start watching your email address tied to your Gamertag. I just got an email from xbox with a code for the DLC.
Old 07-27-10, 03:12 PM
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Re: Alan Wake

Just got the email with my code, so I'm good - no heads will roll... yet.
Old 07-27-10, 10:44 PM
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Re: Alan Wake

Just finished the DLC. Highly recommended!

I still don't know what the fuck is going on in this game though.
Old 07-28-10, 12:37 AM
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Re: Alan Wake

Still waiting for my code. I was hyped up to play this tonight too.
Old 07-29-10, 12:42 PM
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Re: Alan Wake

For those acheivement ho's, the one which requires you to
Spoiler:
beat the boss in under 1minute 30 seconds

is easier than you might imagine.
Spoiler:
Make sure to have at least two of your flashbangs (I only found two the whole episode), use them on the TV monster as soon as it materializes after you drop off the balcony. Once the 2nd one materializes use your 2nd flashbang, this will kill it and all the other possessed items/bad guys around. Then you only have the boat, so toss a flare or two at it while flashlighting it. Took me well under a minute.
Old 07-30-10, 11:39 AM
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Re: Alan Wake

What Alan Wake Gets Wrong, and Right, About Being a Writer

Tom “actual writer” Bissell was in Seattle recently to read from his book about video games, Extra Lives. While he was here, we got into a discussion about Alan Wake, a recent game that casts a writer as a hero. I was curious to know if the game successfully evoked anything about actually being writer– or if his occupation is about as relevant to the game as Gordon Freeman being a physicist in Half-Life. What follows is our discussion.

A lot of non-adolescent video game heroes tend towards military men or criminals. Were you heartened at all to see a writer as a major video game protagonist? Do you think that makes sense?

I can’t tell you how excited I was to hear about a video game whose protagonist was a fiction writer. Then I read that this fiction writer protagonist could sprint for only about ten feet or so, and I thought, “Yes! They’ve done their research!” For a horror game– sorry, a “psychological thriller,” or whatever the hell Remedy wound up calling it– to have as its hero a horror writer sounded really, really intriguing to me. And it is a great idea. Then I learned that the game was about light and darkness, and that the hero’s name was Alan Wake. That sounded kind of hokey, a little too on-the-nose. It’d be like having a game set in a prison, with a warden as its hero, and naming him Steele Bars. Or a renegade cop game in which the hero goes around renegading while rifling through medicine cabinets for health items, and naming that hero Max Payne. Oh, wait. Remedy already did that.

So you start up the game, and there’s Alan Wake, an author so famous and successful that he apparently has cardboard standees made of him that get distributed nationwide and gets recognized instantly wherever he goes. Of course, when I think of “famous writers who write horror stories about writers,” I think of Stephen King– and it seems Remedy did too, quoting him first thing in the game.

This is my first complaint about Alan Wake’s take on the writer’s life. There is no writer in America so famous that he would be instantly recognized in every public place he turns up in. Not even Stephen King, I don’t think. His son Owen, also a fiction writer, is one of my dearest pals, so I could probably ask him. In fact, I believe I will, for the purposes of our little inquiry here. (Also, true story: A couple of years ago, I was walking in Brooklyn one morning, and a young guy and his girlfriend walked past me. “Excuse me,” the guy said, double-taking. “Are you Tom Bissell?” Delighted, I said that I was. He said to his girlfriend, “This is the guy who wrote that book I was telling you about!” She nodded, completely not caring about that or me. The guy said he was a fan. Rather than graciously accept this and continue on about my day, I proceeded to creep both of them out by trying to extend the conversation and even intimating that I was available to have breakfast. “We just ate,” the guy said, backing away. It was as mortifying as anything that ever happened to me and marks the only time I’ve ever been recognized in public.) As for all the overt King references, the folks at Remedy obviously read the hell out of him. The flying machinery comes right out of The Tommyknockers, for instance, and the whole idea of rural, small-town, supernatural horror King pretty much invented. I should say that I’m a big Stephen King fan. He was one of the first writers I ever really loved, and who made me want to be a writer. I think he’s hugely underrated and a national storytelling treasure, so I adore the fact that Remedy’s paying homage to him. And yet... Alan Wake is a terrible, terrible writer. You read those manuscript pages and you want to pluck out your eyes they’re so bad. My buddy Rob had the single best zinger I’ve heard about Alan Wake’s debt to the Bard of Bangor: “I think the only Stephen King book they didn’t read was On Writing.”

That’s hilarious. Well, not possessing any real ability to write doesn’t seem to have stopped certain authors from tearing up the charts in the real world, has it? I mean, maybe Alan Wake is a bad writer on purpose, in a brilliant commentary on the hit-driven media industrial complex. And maybe he’s famous everywhere he goes because that’s just the kind of story a middling writer would write himself into.

Your points are valid ones. We live in a world, after all, in which Dan Brown is read by millions. But I really don’t think the intention was to make Alan Wake a cruddy writer. Do you? Let’s talk about the other stuff Alan Wake gets wrong, writer-wise. The first is Barry, his agent. New York literary agents do not talk and act and dress like Joe Peschi. New York literary agents are smoothies, fashion conscious, and extremely cunning. Would you let Barry negotiate your contract? I wouldn’t let him negotiate a candy-bar purchase. Also wrong: Barry is Alan Wake’s childhood best friend, apparently. Your agent should NEVER be your friend, much less your best friend, much less a person you grew up with. Also wrong: Alan Wake’s wife designs his covers. No publisher on this planet would let an author’s spouse design his or her book jacket. I can’t even begin to explain why that is just stupendously wrong.

Here’s a hypothetical situation. You’re been writing a lot, doing good, and suddenly it feels like you lost your inspiration - your writerly mojo. For two years you don’t put down a word. What would you do? Does a tiny Alaskan fishing town next to an Oregon-style forest sound like just what the doctor ordered?

Funnily enough, that’s the one detail I thought was actually pretty good. I went to the Canadian Arctic once to write. I was hardly attacked at all by night monsters, though.

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