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Alan Wake's American Nightmare |OT| Not a lake, a primordial ocean.

Badgerst3

Member
About an hour in. It's awesome in a twin peaks sorta way.

Never played the original Alan wake. Is it worth getting?

I have such a backlog, but would hate to miss a well done game.

Same thing happened with batman. Got it about a year later and was glad I did.
 

jvalioli

Member
About an hour in. It's awesome in a twin peaks sorta way.

Never played the original Alan wake. Is it worth getting?

I have such a backlog, but would hate to miss a well done game.

Same thing happened with batman. Got it about a year later and was glad I did.

Stop playing. Go buy Alan Wake and then come back. (Its awesome)
 
About an hour in. It's awesome in a twin peaks sorta way.

Never played the original Alan wake. Is it worth getting?

I have such a backlog, but would hate to miss a well done game.

Same thing happened with batman. Got it about a year later and was glad I did.

Alan Wake first. Then American Nightmare.

Play Alan Wake, then The Signal, The Writer, and finally American Nightmare. Story progresses in that way, and it's a narrative-heavy series.
 

Kevin

Member
Loved the new Poets of the Fall song
The Happy Song
. Just purchased it off of iTunes because it's up there earlier and I wanted a copy. :)
 

Badgerst3

Member
You havent played AWake but you bought this? :confused:

Um... yes buy Alan Wake.

Thought getting a smaller feel for the vibe and gameplay would help me decide. Mostly for the time investment factor.

Will now be buying the original.

Wonder if others are going the same reverse way with this arcade release. Well played remedy.

Is there a sequel in the works?
 

JaseC

gave away the keys to the kingdom.
Thought getting a smaller feel for the vibe and gameplay would help me decide. Mostly for the time investment factor.

Will now be buying the original.

Wonder if others are going the same reverse way with this arcade release. Well played remedy.

Is there a sequel in the works?

Alan Wake 2 is rumoured to be a launch/near-launch title for the Nextbox. Grain of salt and all that.
 

derFeef

Member
Voice acting is pretty awful aside from Wake.
Especially Dr. Matthews. Yikes.
My only complaint. Also the difficulty isn't very hard, but it's only my first playthrough, hopefully there is a nightmare difficulty.
Still rather have had Remedy skip this and just make AW2.

I would guess that not all of them worked on this, plus it's part of new protoyping and internal tool development. I better have more Alan Wake than not.... so I am fine with it.
And yeah, the Dr. is giving me the creeps ;)
 
Downloaded this today, got to play a little bit of it and I'm loving it so far. Love the feel and variety of the new weapons, and while I haven't gotten very far, the first new enemy variation (
the splitter
) really made me go "yes! new enemies!" and also "oh god oh god oh god!" at the same time.

I will take all the Alan Wake I can get. Thank you Remedy. :)
 

Adam J.

Member
Didn't like the original AW enough to beat it but I'm enjoying this much more. Really digging the western setting and Alan's sweet flannel shirt and nail-gun.
 
My impressions so far after having played this game last night from 06pm-11-ish pm.

I'm amazed. Simple as that. It's everything that I expected (and saw in trailers/gameplay vids).
Great, interesting story (I especially like how manuscript pages expand on the story of the first game), great pacing and an awesome
structure of time repeats
.

Actual combat/exploration mechanics haven't changed but they introduces some cool new weapons.

The biggest improvement that I've seen is in the tech itself. The game looks GORGEOUS and far superior to AW. Of course, they had ~2 years to develop it. The vsync option is interesting as well. I haven't seen that in any other console game so far. I'm playing on "Smart". No probs.

I haven't even touched Arcade mode. I'll finish the story first.

tl;dr: AMAZING game. Great story. Excellent tech improvements. Worth those 1200msp.

Kudos Remedy.
 

SteeloDMZ

Banned
Just finished the 3 chapter/episode/part.

Remedy, they are the kings of atmosphere. I'm loving this new setting, and the story so far is very intriguing.

I also love how this game explains a little bit what happened to Alice and Barry after AW1.

Oh, and the shooting mechanics are excellent.
 
i put in about an hour when we got back last night. not enough to really form an opinion yet. i'm playing without HUD which has made finding items a bit tricky, but i'm going to keep at it. it reminds me of old school environment exploration from survival horror titles.
 

TheOddOne

Member
Alan Wake 2 is rumoured to be a launch/near-launch title for the Nextbox. Grain of salt and all that.
Well Microsoft putting their streight behind American Nightmare and the PR saying this is a "stopgap" means that rumor is pretty much true.
 
Z

ZombieFred

Unconfirmed Member
Well Microsoft putting their streight behind American Nightmare and the PR saying this is a "stopgap" means that rumor is pretty much true.

I could see AW2 becoming a huge hit for the next xbox and a strong ip for the console, given how the IP has been out there for a while. I'm glad Microsoft has put some effort into making it succeed and have faith in Remedy. American Nightmare is glorious.
 

Dusk Golem

A 21st Century Rockefeller
It took me about 3 or 4 hours, and I like to explore every nook and cranny in games. Short and sweet.

...I have no idea how you could beat it in 3 to 4 hours exploring every nook and cranny, honestly. The game can be beaten in that amount of time, yes, but not if you're going into exploration mode really. Especially since all the story content alone take up about an hour and a half (with the cutscenes, manuscript pages, radios, televisions, and extra dialogue options) and that's not assuming you even find it all blindly which can take some time and exploration.
 

JaseC

gave away the keys to the kingdom.
Well Microsoft putting their streight behind American Nightmare and the PR saying this is a "stopgap" means that rumor is pretty much true.

We'll see. I don't think it'll be available at launch, but the game showing up later is a certainty.
 
Enjoying the game so far, hope the quality keeps up.
Alan Wake first. Then American Nightmare.

Play Alan Wake, then The Signal, The Writer, and finally American Nightmare. Story progresses in that way, and it's a narrative-heavy series.
I would be careful/wary of getting burned out.

Finishing the first game and going straight into the Signal.. could damage your enjoyment of the franchise, all that combat gets a little old/frustrating.
 

daevv

Member
It took me between 5-6 hours to finish the story mode 100%. The manuscripts in this version are easier to find then the collectibles in the original Alan Wake.
 

Majora

Member
Only played about an hour so far, up until you get to the second area. Like the more hub style levels and location but I'm baffled by the set-up. This is meant to be a Night Springs episode, right? Because I'm really none the wider as to why Alan and Me Scratch are in it and, if it's an episode, why there are all these real life elements in it like radio interviews with some of the characters from the first game.

Does the premise get clarified a bit later? The Signal and The Writer were obviously Wake battling with his inner demons but I don't really get what this is meant to be.
 

Lima

Member
So the combat shotgun... was it in AW? I can't really remember, but that thing packs a punch. Love it.

Well I just finished it. Took me around 7 hours and I did everything. Sorry but 3-4 hours and exploring everything? Just doesn't work. Watching the TV stuff of Mr.Scratch (which was fucking awesome btw, so well acted), finding and listening to all the manuscript pages and also listening to the radio shows and the phone calls, well that alone almost takes 1-2 hours.

Really liked the song that played during the credits. It is called "Watching the sun come up" by Ed Harcourt in case anyone wants to know.
 

Feindflug

Member
Just finished the 3 chapter/episode/part.

Remedy, they are the kings of atmosphere. I'm loving this new setting, and the story so far is very intriguing.

I also love how this game explains a little bit what happened to Alice and Barry after AW1.

Oh, and the shooting mechanics are excellent.

I'm at the exact same spot and I love the game thus far - I really like the hubs and the more open approach of the level design plus the Arizona setting is excellent and the combat feels so much more polished and it's way more fun than the first game with the addition of the new enemies and weapons.

Presentation is what surprised me the most...the live action videos are great and look really clean & the music/sound in general is great and adds a lot to the atmosphere.

Also the game looks absolutely crazy...and not only for a downloadable game, I can't believe that we came to a point where an arcade game can look this good - the tremendous improvement in IQ, the better texturing/texture filtering, the even better lighting and the crazy looking particles are some of the things that made me drop my jaw last night a lot.

It's pretty amazing that a XBLA title is among the best looking games on the system...and all that at 1.3gb, I still can't understand how Remedy did that.

American Nightmare just raised the bar for presentation on XBLA and on top of that it's also a great game, congrats to Remedy. :)
 
D

Deleted member 13876

Unconfirmed Member
Only played about an hour so far, up until you get to the second area. Like the more hub style levels and location but I'm baffled by the set-up. This is meant to be a Night Springs episode, right? Because I'm really none the wider as to why Alan and Me Scratch are in it and, if it's an episode, why there are all these real life elements in it like radio interviews with some of the characters from the first game.

Does the premise get clarified a bit later? The Signal and The Writer were obviously Wake battling with his inner demons but I don't really get what this is meant to be.

The manuscripts state that Alan has been trying to pierce the veil between the Dark Place and reality these past years and what we see here represents the closest he's gotten. The game takes place in the fictional Night Springs, which he managed to impose on Arizona for one day only because like Bright Falls the barrier between Dark and real is naturally thin there.

It's pretty amazing that a XBLA title is among the best looking games on the system...and all that at 1.3gb, I still can't understand how Remedy did that.

American Nightmare just raised the bar for presentation on XBLA and on top of that it's also a great game, congrats to Remedy. :)

The original game was just over 2 gb if I recall correctly.
 

Robot Pants

Member
I think arcade mode is better than the story mode. Way better. Harder than I thought it would be, especially those Nightmare maps.
It's a shame there isn't a Nightmare difficulty for the Story though.
 
About an hour in. It's awesome in a twin peaks sorta way.

Never played the original Alan wake. Is it worth getting?

I have such a backlog, but would hate to miss a well done game.

Gameplay is different plus there seems to be more tearing/frame drops in AW or something. This one looks just as good but is more smoother.

The gameplay is streamlined too. He can run for longer without tiring, the controls seem tighter and more responsive. Aiming and so forth seem easier, it's a very arcadey feel compared to AW. New more powerful weapons. It's more fun to combat in this one I think.
 

Dabanton

Member
Had about 20 min on this before i had to get some sleep this morning. Looks 'cleaner' maybe it's because we are in a desert location rather than forest but yeah, got to the motel and can't wait to put some time into the game this weekend.

Heard Kasabian on the radio as well :D
 
Gameplay is different plus there seems to be more tearing/frame drops in AW or something. This one looks just as good but is more smoother.

not sure about that. i saw loads of tearing early on. i turned on Always which is preferable to me (thanks for the option Remedy!), but framedrops are common. go to the motel garage with whats her face and turn around, you'll see tearing.
 

mujun

Member
This is just as awesome as I expected. Love the setting so far. Great story and story presentation. Combat feels nice, love dodging and nailing guys with the rifle. The weapon unlocking element is also surprisingly effective as a carrot on a stick.
 
Game data was only 2.5GB

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/di...ata-blog-entry

I assume that's what nils meant.

DNhA8.jpg


:D
 

Robot Pants

Member
not sure about that. i saw loads of tearing early on. i turned on Always which is preferable to me (thanks for the option Remedy!), but framedrops are common. go to the motel garage with whats her face and turn around, you'll see tearing.

My game slowed down to about 6-7fps when
you turn on the central coolant towers near the observatory
. After the explosion and the taken start pouring out, the game just went haywire and started crawling. It stopped after I turned alan around in the opposite direction and ran for a minute, but still not good.

I find Smart v-sync does help overall with the FPS though. ON makes it dip too much.
 

Lima

Member
The gameplay is streamlined too. He can run for longer without tiring, the controls seem tighter and more responsive. Aiming and so forth seem easier, it's a very arcadey feel compared to AW. New more powerful weapons. It's more fun to combat in this one I think.

That is part of the reason why the arcade mode works very well in this game. I mean put the same mode in AW and it would be garbage.

My game slowed down to about 6-7fps when
you turn on the central coolant towers near the observatory
. After the explosion and the taken start pouring out, the game just went haywire and started crawling. It stopped after I turned alan around in the opposite direction and ran for a minute, but still not good.

Yeah same. I think that exact spot is hard to handle for the game.
 
D

Deleted member 13876

Unconfirmed Member

bubnbob

Banned
I did enjoy the usage of real actors for the cutscenes instead of the zombie-like models used before. Must have been a kick for the actor to play two different parts.
 
My impressions so far after having played this game last night from 06pm-11-ish pm.

I'm amazed. Simple as that. It's everything that I expected (and saw in trailers/gameplay vids).
Great, interesting story (I especially like how manuscript pages expand on the story of the first game), great pacing and an awesome
structure of time repeats
.

Actual combat/exploration mechanics haven't changed but they introduces some cool new weapons.

The biggest improvement that I've seen is in the tech itself. The game looks GORGEOUS and far superior to AW. Of course, they had ~2 years to develop it. The vsync option is interesting as well. I haven't seen that in any other console game so far. I'm playing on "Smart". No probs.

I haven't even touched Arcade mode. I'll finish the story first.

tl;dr: AMAZING game. Great story. Excellent tech improvements. Worth those 1200msp.

Kudos Remedy.
Basically, this. Also, Balance Slays the Demon is an amazing song. Love Old Gods of Asgard :D
 

SparkTR

Member
I would be careful/wary of getting burned out.

Finishing the first game and going straight into the Signal.. could damage your enjoyment of the franchise, all that combat gets a little old/frustrating.

Definitely this. It's funny how AN convinced me to play the original, but the original caused me not to play AN. Eh, it'll still be there when I get in the Alan Wake mood again.
 
Don't really have the time to buy this right now (gotta get a paper done first and still have a small backlog), but I really hope this ends up being a commercial success. I would hate to see this franchise end prematurely.
Despite its flaws, I loved the original game enormously and will get all the Alan Wake I can get (in due time, that is...).

But so far it seems as if it's totally worth the money.
 
Don't really have the time to buy this right now (gotta get a paper done first and still have a small backlog), but I really hope this ends up being a commercial success. I would hate to see this franchise end prematurely.
Despite its flaws, I loved the original game enormously and will get all the Alan Wake I can get (in due time, that is...).

But so far it seems as if it's totally worth the money.

Wouldn't worry about the franchise ending, the credits confirm they'll be doing more Alan Wake
 

Lima

Member
So arcade mode is a little broken I think. You can just use the the first two enemies to build up your multiplier to max by just repeatedly dodging them. And then begin to rack up the big points. Kinda stupid that they didn't set a time limit for each wave.
 
So arcade mode is a little broken I think. You can just use the the first two enemies to build up your multiplier to max by just repeatedly dodging them. And then begin to rack up the big points. Kinda stupid that they didn't set a time limit for each wave.
But that's not a fun way to play! Scorewhore
 

daevv

Member
I'm getting better at Arcade mode. Kinda wish there was a 2-4 player co-op in Arcade (local co-op if they didn't want to shag around with servers in such) and the leader-boards kept tracks of kills.
 

bubnbob

Banned
Wouldn't worry about the franchise ending, the credits confirm they'll be doing more Alan Wake

Eh... Prey did the same thing and they only announced a sequel like 4 years later. I do believe there will be a sequel after this, though, considering the PC success and the hopefully XBLA success.
 
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