Bright Falls? More like DARK Falls!

There are some dumb people out there. I know, Bright Falls is ironic. Just covering my tracks.

So Alan Wake came out this year and although it wasn't a massive hit on the charts, it still was critically acclaimed and received plenty of praise from the press. A couple of weeks ago now, just before my birthday in fact, I picked up the Limited Edition copy off GAME for 20 quid (the same price as the regular edition, for some reason) and started playing some of it. Before I go into that, I really liked the Limited Edition. The book that accompanies it, The Alan Wake Files, is great at filling in the backgrounds of some the characters, and also expanding the story. It's actually written by Clay Steward, the guy that gets killed in the tutorial (spoilers, I guess). It also has a great packaging designed to look like a novel, that the game, book and extras pack all fit into. It's pretty neat.

So to the game. Alan Wake dubs itself as a psychological thriller, but it's basically a survival horror action adventure game. The game mechanic of burning away the darkness is a clever one, and the use of flares, flash bangs and the environment shows that the developers clearly looked at the best way to make the most of the mechanic. The lighting engine in the game works beautifully, as you expect it would, and really highlights some of the great character models on show. At the time of release a lot of people said Alan Wake was to the Xbox what Heavy Rain was to the PS3, and I agree, the narrative, character driven structure of both games is fantastic.

There's a lot in Alan Wake I didn't really get. Half the time, I didn't get what was happening, I just knew that I had to GET AWAY FROM THE SCARY MEN TRYING THE AXE MY FACE IN. The end of the game is a bit of a let down. I know they've released the DLC, which adds on to the end, but I'm still a bit whisky-tango-foxtrot about the whole thing. I'm sure it will be cleared up in the next episode. That's another part about the game that really worked well for me; the TV show structure was a great touch.

In terms of playing the game, I've beaten the game once, and on Hard mode for some reason. I think I'd set it that way for the Achievement at the start, and entirely forgotten about it, which explained why I died so many times throughout. What's even stranger, is that I'm now playing through in Nightmare mode, which is aptly named. The bigger enemies are almost impossible to burn down, and I haven't even got to the ones with chainsaws yet. But this shows that I'm willing to take on bigger gaming challenges. I'm already planning to play New Vegas in Hardcore mode, which is why I intend on having a high Strength stat and a knife at all times.

Wow, semi-regular posting. This probably means I'll disappear in a few days. Or perhaps not. Maybe I'll be back on Friday to talk about XBLA or something...

Hint; I probably will.

See y'all when the darkness is vanquished!

Needs More Shotgun

Still working on posting more regularly. It's getting there. Maybe I'll post twice this month. Who knows?

Bioshock 2 was released, what, in March, possibly? I actually got it on release day for 35 quid, and it's now 7.99 on Amazon. Ah well time makes fools of us all.

Anyway, after playing it for a bit the day after release I remember thinking that it was vastly similar to Bioshock, which at the time, I had just finished playing. It wasn't bad but it seemed kinda samey which, when considering Bioshock, isn't all that bad. I got up to the second Little Sister Gather, and died quite efficiently, which led me to get stuck in a rut of not having enough money to buy ammo, and not enough ammo to kill Splicers. After a couple of attempts I quit out, and wandered off to go to a job interview.

About four months later (having passed the interview and training for the aforementioned job) I decided to pop back into Rapture, to see if anyone had fixed that leak (Spoiler: No)

It's more of the same. The plot might be a bit more convoluted, and some of the characters might be stereotyped, but under the skin, Bioshock 2 is almost a mod of the original. That's not to say that I didn't like it. The weapons started off disappointing, but once I got hold of the double barrelled shotgun, I was kicking ass all over again. The final upgrade to it left me somewhat disappointed. Random electro shocks? If I wanted to electrocute people I'd use Electro Bolt. Although I don't see why I would. Incinerate! is clearly the way forward.

Aside from the weapons and the plasmids, there's something a bit off about Bioshock 2. Nothing ever really felt as scary as it did before. There was a moment when I walked into a toilet and saw an EVE hypo on the floor I picked it up. When I turned around, a Spider Splicer dropped from the ceiling. Normally this would scare the crap out of me, but instead I went "Oh", hit him in the face with my shotgun, and blasted him across the room. It was then I realised I wasn't worried anymore. This was towards the end of the game and I was fairly tough, but still, I felt some of the magic had gone.

Speaking of the end of the game, the final area is a real plateau. The game builds up to a big crescendo and then just flat lines after a cool fight in the dark with a couple of Big Sisters. There's a interesting bit where you play as a Little Sister (Spoilers, I guess), but apart from that the end drags on for way too long.

Overall; I liked Bioshock 2, but I can see why it didn't go down too well. It didn't really try anything new.

Gasp, a new Bioshock Game! What a strange coincidence! Almost like I planned this post!

Immediate impressions; Apart from a dumb name, looks really REALLY promising. Can't wait to see where Irrational Games go with this.

Next time, shootings things in dark forests and being arty, it's Alan Wake, y'all!