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Part action game, part psychological thriller, Alan Wake® is a pulse-pounding thrill ride. When the wife of the best-selling writer Alan Wake disappears on their vacation, his search turns up pages from a thriller he doesn’t even remember writing. A dark presence stalks the small town of Bright Falls, pushing Wake to the brink of sanity in his fight to unravel the mystery and save his love.

Platforms
XBox 360
PC

Checkpoints
Week 1 - Complete Episodes 1 & 2
Week 2 - Complete Episodes 3 & 4
Week 3 - Complete Episodes 5 & 6
Week 4 - Complete DLC Special Episodes 1 & 2 *Optional*

Participants
Bombatomba
Disposed Hero
Fleach

Cool Stuff
This House of Dreams (http://thishouseofdreams.blogspot.ca/) Blog entries about a sequel we never got.
Sam Lake teases the heck out of us (https://twitter.com/SamLakeRMD/status/209048041888559105)

I was planning on playing this soon anyway, so go ahead and sign me up.

It's a busy month but I'm gonna try my best to join in

this game is great on so many levels, unless SotN goes really fast i don't expect to join in as i've beaten it before but i highly recommend it to anyone who hasn't played before.

The game's very good and fairly short. You can beat it in a week or less. There are six chapters in the game which take 1-3 hours each to complete.

I'm in.  This month was kind of a toss-up as to which game, but in the end I really want to play something a bit more horror-themed.  I will definitely be rocking this one on PC, as I've never played it all the way through on that platform. 

It's October 1st! Head on down to Bright Falls and enjoy your stay.

Excellent!  What is the checkpoint for the week?

I got started on this last night and played through Episode 1.  It's been years since I've played this game.  I remember practically nothing from my previous playthrough, so this feels like a fresh experience for me.

Finished Episode 2 yesterday.  I felt like the combat in Episode 1 was way too easy, so I was pleasantly surprised that the difficulty ramps up a bit in Episode 2.

The story is very interesting.  I've played this game before, but I don't remember how the story ends or the explanation for what's going on, so I'm looking forward to unraveling this mystery again.

The difficulty steady ramps up as the game progresses. There's a section of the game towards the end that can be quite frustrating but I won't spoil anything for those who are playing.

I finally had a chance to play the game today and I managed to get through the first two episodes in about an hour and a half. This time around I picked up a lot of things I never noticed during my initial runs with the game. I love the dark atmosphere in this game and the day time scenes have this juxtaposition of peaceful settings with ominous things happening in the background.

I've updating the main post with new checkpoints. I hope everyone is having fun with the game.

I just finished Episode 3, and I can definitely feel the difficulty ramping up.  I hit a couple of frustrating points in the episode, but nothing too bad.  I thought the

Spoiler (hover to show)

bulldozer

fight was going to be impossible after my first few attempts, but I eventually figured out an effective strategy for taking it out.

I really dislike that boss fight. I'll fight any of those fast Takens but the poltergeists are so annoying.

Regarding the boss fight, I found that if you

Spoiler (hover to show)

hide in a corner, the width of the blade at the front of the bulldozer will cause it to hit a wall before it hits you, so most of the time you won't take any damage.  Just shine your flashlight and/or drop a flare when it gets close.

The poltergeists are kinda funny.  The physics in the game often cause them to flip around all over place.  I'm sure you know this, but hiding behind objects and shining the light on them after they land is usually the best way to take them out (short of wasting flashbangs on them).

I finished episodes 4 & 5 over the weekend.  In my opinion, this game really picks up in the second half.  I had a hard time putting it down. 

Spoiler (hover to show)

I thought it was really cool to have a 'crew' with you at a couple of points in the game (Barry and Sarah), and they weren't completely worthless.  They were actually taking some enemies out on their own.  It also made me laugh seeing Barry wearing a headlamp and draped in Christmas lights. 

barry is the best thing about that game imo, i love good comic relief characters.

Yeah, I found Barry to be very obnoxious and annoying at first, but he grew on me after a while.  The scene with Alan and Barry drunk was hilarious.

Agreed.  Barry rules.  Sometimes I like to think about how much better Resident Evil would have been better with this Barry.

Finally caught up with the playthrough (finally).  I totally dig the concert scene.  It was a welcome relief after escaping from the Lodge, where I (still) find it to be annoying.

That concert scene is great. Very memorable. You actually feel like you're in a heavy metal music video.

i love the concert scene, it's really one of the highlights of the game for me

The final checkpoints are up. Week 4's checkpoint is optional as it involves the two DLC episodes are not required playing for the main story.

I've also excluded Alan Wake's American Nightmare because it's dumb. You're welcome to play it if you like, but you're not missing much if you don't.

 :o

Not to be controversial, but I actually quite enjoyed American Nightmare, though I find it poorly named.  When I played it I really didn't think I'd get off it very much due to the...  repetitive nature.  In the end I really fell for it.  While it didn't have the same impact on me that the first game did, I really enjoyed the way the devs managed to sandwich a cohesive story into such a claustrophobic world.  Plus, it is a continuation of the main story.

As for the original game, I can still say that the ending felt good, despite seeing it before on the Xbox.  I played through the The Writer previously (when I first bought into the Alan Wake Humble Bundle) so I shan't play it again.  I have started up the The Signal, though.  You get a short (and indirect) reference to the concert scene.

i haven't tried American Nightmare, but The Writer DLC was really good

I quite enjoyed The Writer and The Signal. They were great additions to the main story. I also really liked Thomas Zane so it was nice to do more with him.

The repetitive nature of American Nightmare was a deal breaker though.

I have to start off by saying that I didn't play the game, but I did watch a complete playthrough of it (with only some deaths edited out, if deaths in an area got excessive). I also found Barry to be a great character. Yeah, a little annoying at first, but he really grows on you. Kind of a George Costanza type. Anyway, just curious, but did anyone think that Barry might be in on some sort of subplot against you during the game? I couldn't help but have those feelings, since your reality is completely distorted.

Excited talking about this game here. As I mentioned above, I did watch a playthrough by NukemDukem on YouTube. I don't always do this, but because the subject matter seemed so fascinating, and I don't own a 360, I couldn't resist. The cool thing about the playthrough I watched, which contained commentary, was that the player was not a big fan of survival horror titles and was always frightened and jumpy (really funny, yet a very realistic experience). However, despite his fear, he continually kept saying, "I just can't put this game down. I have to know what happens." The playthrough included some deaths, but when there were over 3 in one spot, he edited the rest of them out, but often said in the commentary how many tries it took him. I thought this made the playthrough more realistic and also more enjoyable for me.

I started The Signal yesterday but don't know if I'm going to play through it.  While I am interested to see the extra content, I'm finding the constant barrage of enemies to be pretty tedious and annoying to deal with.  I had the same frustrations with Episode 6 of the main game.  Maybe I'll just watch a playthrough on Youtube.


While I never suspected Barry to be involved in any sort of malicious intent toward Alan, he definitely reminded me of George.  I think that big jacket he always wore had something to do with it.  "It's gore tex!"  :P

definitely costanza-like

I bet Barry invented the Bro.

This was my initial problem with The Writer.  I think I had maybe thought my mad console skilz would translate better to the PC, then I got my butt handed to me with a side order of fries.  The Signal seems in contrast (so far) more relaxed, though harder than the main game.  Actually a few scenes remind me of the arcade missions in American Nightmare.


Yes.  If it wasn't for the obvious deus ex machina in the game I would say that Barry comes about as close as you could get without having the guy float down from the rafters in a chariot.  I certainly thought he was a bit creepy in the beginning of the game, but that may have been more of a Pavlov's Dogs-like response to hearing the work "agent" in the game.

So I'm at the last boss in The Writer.  I'll be wrapping this up by tonight, I think.  All you other Barry fans should either play The Writer or watch a playthough of it.  It's a nice cap to the game.  A few thoughts on the main game in general:

- PC-wise, it does look better than the console version (particularly the lighting and particle effects), but not overly so.  True 1080p versus upscaled-to-1080p (on the consoles) doesn't look that different, in my opinion.

- I forced myself to play the entire game with mouse and keyboard.  Now I have trouble playing the game with a controller.

- I bought the game on a whim after hearing the people talking about it on podcasts. I was completely wowed the first time I played this game and talked it up to my friends.  I was a bit disappointed to see just how few of them played it.

- I was a bit bummed to hear that a true sequel was not to be (at least not anytime soon).  Even if there had been, I think it is unlikely that the game would have been so focused on running as the original game was.  You can see the progression to combat-focused in both the expansions and American Nightmare (save the path leading to the boss in The Writer), so the game likely would have been a disappointment to those looking for more of the "flee to the next light source" mechanic featured in the main game.

- Platforming in games like this should be outlawed.  Seriously.

- Despite what others have said, fans of the story should really check out American Nightmare.  While it is more combat focused, it at least does it better than the two DLC episodes (where the levels aren't necessarily geared to be combat-focused).


NOTE:  Just realized that I've mixed up The Signal and The Writer.  I'm actually playing The Writer (the last of the DLC).  I've corrected this is this post only.

I watched a PC playthrough. Can you give me more insight to The Signal (not sure I can recall exactly what this was)? You can send me a PM to avoid spoilers if that works better.

PM sent.