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Scrawlfx : Alan Wake Review

Alan Wake, first announced back in 2005 and now in my reviewing hands, is the tale of a writer searching for the wife that the darkness of Bright Falls has taken from him. Already, you can see that Alan Wake has great focus on the powers of darkness, as well as the opposing power that is light. As Alan, players control the power of light in their hands in the form of a simple flashlight which, alongside a gun, may be all he needs to save his beloved wife, Alice.

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scrawlfx.com
alphakennybody5131d ago (Edited 5131d ago )

lmao! this person better fix this score typo asap.

Ghoul5131d ago (Edited 5131d ago )

I have bought the game yesterday, and anyone with at least a bit of taste, or anyone that calls himself a gamer will enjoy this game.

Anyone incapable of enjoying a game whatever plattform it runs on should stop gaming all together.

I love it, its awesome tbh.
and anyone claiming it wouldn`t look gorgeous is a troll. It looks stunning.
Play it you wont regret it. (and please font tell me anything about taht subhd or lowres crap, it looks very very good, even better in motion)

The lights are one of its own, awesome style and look

The story is incredible and i never played a game with such a unique form of storytelling.

jakethemuss5131d ago

You should take a leaf from your own book and STFU.

Ghoul5131d ago

god i miss the open zone

gaffyh5131d ago

Yeah, it's good, but I don't see the Halo/Gears crowd liking it (i.e. only those that like shooters). It's getting kinda repetitive for me already, and I'm only at the end of episode 2.

Graphics - Environments look great, character models are good but a little iffy. Love motion blur on camera movement. Noticeable frameskipping on vehicle movement in cutscenes (I've installed to HDD).

Story - As I said, only at the end of episode 2 so far, and the story is a little too simple imo (or slightly childish). I actually cringed at the bit at Cauldron lake lodge, also memory loss is too convenient for what should be a more complicated story.

Gameplay - Kinda repetitive right now, don't like how you start from nothing every 10 mins it seems. Like you have full bullets and 3 guns one second, cutscene, nothing in your inventory. That happened at least 3 times from the start of the game. I wish it was more like silent hill and had an actual city to walk around in, so far it's been like this: Run through forest, kill guys, get to a building, cutscene. And then it repeats (obviously mixed up a little, but that's the jist of it.

7/10 from me so far, still haven't played even half of the game so it could get a lot better.

kaveti66165131d ago

Shooting games are repetitive, too. So that's not an issue. I love Gears and Halo and I think I will love Alan Wake. Well-rounded gamers don't stick to any genre or gameplay style for too long.

poopface15131d ago

People like quality games and those are all quality.

Saying it wont appeal to as many people is tru, but I like all of those games and will play AW.

As a matter of fact, I bet that MOST of the people who play AW have played halo or gears.

The only kind of games I wont play are bad ones.

gaffyh5130d ago

Well Halo and Gears crowd are 10 million+ and 5 million+ respectively. I don't see all of those 5-10 million gamers liking Alan Wake. I can see ~2 million of them liking it, but that still leaves about 80% that probably wouldn't like it.

It's an opinion, I wrote "I don't see it appealing..." not "It won't appeal." Obviously I love Gears and I still like AW, so there will be people like this.

tiamat55131d ago

Why do people say that nonsense whenever they have an argument about a game."Anyone who doesn't like this gane isn't a real gamer". That is one of the most childish things I have heard this generation. Alan Wake is a good game with the same flaws that a game that has been in production for a long time. Other games surpass it and do what it was supposed to do better, so by the time it comes out it usually looks dated or not as impressive as it did before. Just because i own a PS3 and don't jump to praise it to high heaven and notice it's flaws unlike a fanboy who tries to pretend that they aren't there don't make me any less of a gamer.

yakuzakazuya5131d ago

AW would've been amazing if it came out in 2007. Three years later the industry's standards have risen considerably especially in production value and level of polish in games like ME2, U2, GOW3, etc.

Only the most die-hard AW supporter will not be bothered by its low-res, blurry textures. Some of those textures (especially in interior in-door areas) belong to PS2/Wii graphics. It is painfully noticeable.

clarkjudo5131d ago

Remedy has stated that they will have a DLC update for the cinematic/graphics of the game.

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150°

10 Biggest Xbox Mistakes of All Time (So Far)

The Xbox brand has done a lot of good over the years, but their various blunders are pretty wild to look back on in their magnitude.

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culturedvultures.com
piroh5d ago (Edited 5d ago )

Ironically number 9 can save them at this point (releasing games on multiple platforms)

ChasterMies4d ago

By “save them” you mean make more profit for Microsoft. Xbox will still be a dying hardware platform.

OtterX5d ago

You could add the naming scheme for the consoles, it just confuses customers. I know they wanted to avoid traditional numbering bc it would always be lower than their competitor, but this whole 360 then One then Series thing is confusing af. Imagine a Soccer Mom trying to figure this stuff out. I still mistakenly call the Series X the One from time to time on accident.

RNTody5d ago

Don't forget about the Xbox One, Xbox One X and Xbox Series X! Good luck to Soccer moms around the world.

S2Killinit4d ago (Edited 4d ago )

They did that on purpose to confuse and direct attention away from the generational numbering.

MS doesn’t like reminding people that they joined the industry after others had already been involved in gaming.

For instance, they called the xbox “360” to combat PlayStation “3” because they wanted to seem like “more” than “3”, so instead of xbox 2, they opted for xbox 360. Also this had the additional benefit of selling consoles to uninformed parents who might purchase a “360” instead of a “3” by mistake, or because they thought 360 was more than 3. Kind of a disingenuous move.

They have been continuing with their confusing naming patterns for pretty much the same reasons. Frankly, it fits with who and what they are as a brand.

FinalFantasyFanatic4d ago

I can understand their reasoning, but whoever came up with that naming scheme should be fired, bad naming schemes have killed consoles (I'm pretty sure it was the major reason for the downfall of the WiiU). They should have had unqiue names like Nintendo and Sega have had for their consoles, far less confusing for the consumer.

rob-GP19h ago

@FinalFantasyFanatic "They should have had unqiue names like Nintendo..."

lol, you mean:

NES, SNES
GameBoy, GameBoy Advanced, GameBoy Colour, GameBoy SP
DS, DSi, DSXL
3DS, 3DS XL, New 3DS, New 3DS XL
Wii, Wii U
Switch, Switch OLED

+ Show (1) more replyLast reply 19h ago
Cacabunga5d ago (Edited 5d ago )

Phil Spencer is the worst that has happened to Xbox.
They built a respectable brand up to Xbox one. Then this guy took over and things became a joke

Reaper22_4d ago

He still has his job. Something you can't say about Jim Ryan.

Cacabunga4d ago

Both bad execs. One is on job and one thankfully retired.

FinalFantasyFanatic4d ago (Edited 4d ago )

I didn't like either person, both people damaged their respective brands and produced worse outcomes, but Phil did save the Xbox brand from being retired by Microsoft. Although in hindsight, he should have just let it die, rather than languish in limbo like it is now.

Rainbowcookie3d ago

Yeah but the one that was "bad" didn't even affect sales.

bunt-custardly4d ago

Phil Spencer was also on the team back when 360 was around, alongside Shane Kim, Peter Moore etc. I think the damage that did the most harm was the Don Mattrick "Always Online" console (ahead of its time basically). They handed Sony and Nintendo a free-pass when that was revealed. It went downhill from there. Then the corporate machine went into full swing to try and recover. They have to a degree as a games company for the masses, and less so for the core gamer. Outside USA, the Xbox brand does not sell as well as Japanese based consoles (citation needed).

Cacabunga4d ago

Want a decision maker. The always online and TV plans was a disaster yes, but they caught up by announcing 1st party games that gamers actually kept the hype going.. until this moron took over and introduced the PC day one release.. e all know where that ended..

S2Killinit4d ago

I dont think they were ever a respectable brand, not since the beginning, when their goal was never to be involved and share in the gaming space. I think the OG xbox was an exception because MS as a brand was still getting its foot in and so the people behind that were people of the gaming industry.

FinalFantasyFanatic4d ago

The 360 was the brand in its prime though, everything went downhill towards the end of that generation. Its staple games like Halo, Forza and Gears are what kept the console relevant and afloat for so long.

MaximusPrime_5d ago

Really good video.

I remember the days with RRoD was big news on here, N4G.

Microsoft had it turbulence number of years.

Looking at the success of Sea of Thieves despite being 6 years old, time to release Halo, Forza horizon 4 & 5 on PS5. It'll help their revenue

shinoff21834d ago (Edited 4d ago )

2 of the 4 games they did already sold really well. So it's definitely going down. Idk about halo or forza but I feel those studios they've bought in the last 5 years, their coming

ChasterMies4d ago

I found this video painful to watch. Can someone list them out?

Top 10 for me from are:
1. 2013 reveal presentation
2. Bundling Kinect 2 with Xbox One
3. RRoD or why rushing to market with hardware is always a bad idea.
4. Buying studios only to close them.
5. Ads on the Home Screen
6. Letting Halo die.
7. Letting Geard of War die.
8. Every console name
9. Charging for Xbox Live on Xbox 360 when Sony let PS3 players play online for free.
10. Cancelling release of OG Xbox games after the Xbox 360 launched.

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150°

Microsoft to Add Copilot AI to Video Games

Microsoft recently revealed its plans to incorporate Copilot directly into video games, with Minecraft being the first showcased example.

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xpgained.co.uk
Fishy Fingers9d ago (Edited 9d ago )

F*** AI

"Hey Copilot, what's a good meme to prove I dislike AI".... https://giphy.com/clips/sou...

Einhander19729d ago

Two trillion dollar company that just can't wait to put as many people possible out of work as fast as possible.

It feels like every single thing they do is making gaming worse and destroying the industry.

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darthv728d ago

....you know it takes people to program the AI.... right? It isnt like it is sentient. We haven't reach skynet level of situation or anywhere close to the matrix just yet.

That's next Thursday.

Einhander19728d ago (Edited 8d ago )

It takes a people to program the AI then that AI is used for who knows how many games eliminating countless jobs which only grows as AI is used for more and more game creation functions.

What you're saying is so ridiculously short sighted and truly larking any kind of understanding and foresight.

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CaptainFaisal9d ago

Why all the hate? Im actually excited about this! Always wanted this kind of immersion, and an AI companion with me all the time helping me out knowing the status of my skills/inventory/progress and giving me tips on the best approach or how to craft something specific is game changing for the industry.

Hate all you want about AI, but this is just the start and I can see the potential already. You wont be complaining in the next 5-10 years about this, but rather complain if a game hasn’t implemented it.

MrDead9d ago

Yes we can't wait for the work of others to be used without the need to pay them so that MS can profit even more from the people they fire.

I_am_Batman9d ago (Edited 9d ago )

There is no chance I'd ever use something like this, especially if it's not part of the core game design, but a layer on top of it. It's way too much handholding. Many games already feel like busy work, because they don't let the player figure things out on their own. Having a real-time interactive guide defeats the purpose of playing the game in the first place in my opinion.

If this were to become the standard like you predict, we'll see more and more video games get away with bad design, because people will just be used to ask for help from the AI companion anyway.

Number1TailzFan9d ago

Well Nintendo don't need this with some of their games these days, with invincible characters, items, easy bosses etc.. they do the hand holding built in

helicoptergirl9d ago

Takes "hand holding" in games to a whole new level.

BlackDoomAx7d ago

Because human nature xD Almost every new technology had these kind of comments.

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70°

Activision team is opening a new game studio in Poland 'Elsewhere Entertainment' to build new AAA IP

Microsoft's Activision subsidiary announced today that it is opening a new game development studio to take advantage of the huge talent pool growing in Poland. It'll be the second Activision studio based in the region, joining Infinity Ward Krakow, although this studio is, in fact, not working on Call of Duty.

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windowscentral.com
Psychonaut8512d ago

They’re not working on Call of Duty? Give it time.