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Alan Wake

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Not that I wish to sound overly negative, but I have two concerns:

  1. The name. :deranged: Granted, 'Max Payne' was pretty cheesy also, but the game looks to take itself pretty seriously, so why are they going for the whole "A. Wake, awake, LOLz" joke? I can only guess that this is a 'lost in translation' thing for Remedy.
  2. The premise of the game seems to share a strong similarity with the Al Pacino/Robin Williams film 'Insomnia'. I presume I'm not the first to notice this, but have the devs made any mention of this?

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It's not a "lost in translation" thing.

While the premise is reminiscent of several books and films, it doesn't seem to share anything at all with Imsomnia. How did you come to that conclusion?

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It's not a "lost in translation" thing.

While the premise is reminiscent of several books and films, it doesn't seem to share anything at all with Imsomnia. How did you come to that conclusion?

I must admit I'm solely basing that comment on what Markus says in the video from around the 1:10 mark, which immediately made me think of the film. The main similarity is clearly that both Alan Wake and Al Pacino's character suffer from insomnia, but the small town in a remote location also stood out as something the game and film have in common. I suppose 'premise' was a poor choice of word.

In my mind I also linked the "nightmares coming to life" with the 'nightmares' that Pacino's character suffers during his guilt-ridden insomnia, but that's a bit of a stretch to link the two. :yep:

I hadn't heard much about the game before this video so it's entirely possible I've misunderstood something.

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Not that I wish to sound overly negative, but I have two concerns:

  1. The name. :deranged: Granted, 'Max Payne' was pretty cheesy also, but the game looks to take itself pretty seriously, so why are they going for the whole "A. Wake, awake, LOLz" joke? I can only guess that this is a 'lost in translation' thing for Remedy.

I guess you don't have a particular sense of humour to get it.

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I guess you don't have a particular sense of humour to get it.

Perhaps. My problem is that it seems like such an obvious pun. There's nothing wrong with that, it's just that it doesn't seem a suitable match for a game which, as far as I can tell, is not intended to be humorous.

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It's like that. Either you get it or you don't.

I get it. Where's my prize!?

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I guess you don't have a particular sense of humour to get it.

Is this the same kind of humour that is needed to appreciate the name of Prey's protagonist, Tommy Hawk? Or is it just a weak character name?

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Character names can suck and still make for a good game. Look at the names in Pheonix Wright, for god's sake. With a few exceptions, they're all horribly contrived or parodies of some other pop culture name. Game still rocks though. I have no problem with Alan Wake's name as long as the game lives up to it's potential. Honestly, in most cases I'll forget the main character's name by the time I've played through the game anyway.

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As long as Alan Wake doesn't have a grimace indicative of a life-threatening bowel obstruction, he is superior to Max Payne.

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Here you go:

Chocolate-Chip-Cookie-on-White-Background-Photographic-Print-C12005484.jpeg

It looks like someone shat on a piece of stale bread. Fantastic.

I prefer a cheesy and at least memorable name - since I don't forget those, like miffy - rather than having to play as John Q. Spacemarine with a name like Quake 4's Matthew Kane (had to look it up). Those are cheesy in ways I can't really tolerate having to hear repeatedly. I'd much rather be a space marine if my name was Shooty von Grunt or preferably something clever along that line.

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I prefer a cheesy and at least memorable name - since I don't forget those, like miffy - rather than having to play as John Q. Spacemarine with a name like Quake 4's Matthew Kane (had to look it up). Those are cheesy in ways I can't really tolerate having to hear repeatedly. I'd much rather be a space marine if my name was Shooty von Grunt or preferably something clever along that line.

It's not just the name. "Gordon Freeman" is not a particularly distinctive name, but it's probably saying a lot about the development of and attachment to your character in Half Life versus Quake 4 that it sticks in everybody's memory.

If Gordon had instead been called Frederick P. Scientist it would have been even more memorable, but for the wrong reasons.

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Perfect Dark Zero and StarFox Adventures also fall into the "after they were great" category from what I understand, although I'm told the latter is quite a decent game; it's just not normal StarFox. I also wasn't personally that keen on Donkey Kong 64 or Banjo-Tooie, and felt they were both a very defined notch below their predecessors.

IMO, Donkey Kong 64 and Star Fox Adventures, graphics aside, were both absolutely awful games. And I loved Banjo Kazooie and the N64 Zeldas (of which SFA borrows heavily from).

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I think Gordon Freeman's a brilliant character name -- definitely one of the best I've heard at any rate. It's a subtle juxtaposition which, even when you're just remotely familiar with the Half-Life narrative, describes the character very well.

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I'll give you Gordon. But FREEMAN?

The name Freeman itself is not a distinctive one (no more than Kane for example), but I get your point: his name does carry significance, and I suppose it is one of many good reasons why the name is memorable. But that significance is somewhat subtle, unlike Max Payne. :grin:

(And I'd like to point out, before I'm accused of being some kind of heretical Remedy-hater, I loved Max Payne:clap:)

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But that significance is somewhat subtle, unlike Max Payne. :grin:

I think the word you're looking for is "nuance", a concept utterly absent from the Texan action-shooter genre (of which Max Payne is a member, by honour of its 3DR pedigree).

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I'll give you Gordon. But FREEMAN?

Martin Freeman. Morgan Freeman.

Also, Finland is quite far from Texas, 3DR pedigree or not.

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Alan Wake review is up on Gametrailers. Although I'm still a little pissed that they initially announced it for both Xbox and PC (and even made a tech demonstration to show performance on Intel multi-core processors) only to scrap it eventually (but Microsoft may change their mind half a year from now - just look at the GTA IV Episodes), it seems as the game turns out be much less impressive than imagined.

Pro:

  • The visual design is excellent. The rich environments are excellently lit (as you may expect from a game which deals with light). The attention to detail reminds of Max Payne (2) (just like all the recycled elements like the hud font and icon design by the way).
  • The action set-pieces seem well arranged and presented...

Contra:

  • , but seem to be generic as well. The element of light is a good idea, but it doesn't seem to alter gameplay much from that of many other games.
  • The episodic tv-serial-like narrative style: I'm not a fan of tv mystery series and I presume that Alan Wake won't change this. The voice acting sounds bad (just like in a cheap serial with b-actors) and the script has plenty of goofy characters and awkward lines on hand. I'm not convinced that this may be Remedy's intention, despite Max Payne beeing a persiflage on film-noir revenge flicks. It doesn't work for me here anyways, as the opportunity for suspenseful story-telling seems wasted.

I may consider a pc version for a reasonable price. And if there will never be one, I'll be still fine with it.

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Giant Bomb has a review and quick look out too. The light seems to be really integral to the gameplay.

Also, the hammy writing is definitely intentional. Sami Järvi ("Sam Lake") studied English literature and you can see his love for genre writing in the games. Max Payne took on film noir in the same way Alan Wake mimics Stephen King-like horror.

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Giant Bomb has a review and quick look out too. The light seems to be really integral to the gameplay.

Also, the hammy writing is definitely intentional. Sami Järvi ("Sam Lake") studied English literature and you can see his love for genre writing in the games. Max Payne took on film noir in the same way Alan Wake mimics Stephen King-like horror.

Is it just me or is it weird reviews are coming out 2-3 weeks before the game does?

Also I am ok with whatever cheesy reference Lake took inspiration from because at the end of the day its not modern army dude spitting out James Cameron gibberish and its really well executed(opposed to poor examples such as deadly premonitions)

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It makes me unashamedly happy that the thread was being dicsussed actively in 2006, and now in 2010, it's back in flow. I love that.

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Also, the hammy writing is definitely intentional. Sami Järvi ("Sam Lake") studied English literature and you can see his love for genre writing in the games. Max Payne took on film noir in the same way Alan Wake mimics Stephen King-like horror.

Okay, I'm convinced now (I'm not being sarcastic here) that the silliness is there on purpose, just like it was with Max Payne. I think it's just not what I wanted it to be. But I'm in love with Max Payne 2, so if AW is of comparable quality my complains may be without any reason.

It makes me unashamedly happy that the thread was being dicsussed actively in 2006, and now in 2010, it's back in flow. I love that.

I know what you mean. And it's interesting that it took over four years to give anybody enough reason to write something again.

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