Alan Wake

3/5 at EG with particular criticism aimed at the writing.

I'm really loving this, my main complaint so far is that some parts are going a bit OTT on the screamer jump scares. Saga's chapter 5 specifically.

Edit - in relation to the Eurogamer review.

Reads like the reviewer disliked it more than the three stars they ultimately gave it as well. They really took against the meta-narrative.

I do think context of it being a big AAA game needs to be taken into the perspective though. I've not played it yet, so maybe I will come away agreeing with her remarks, but I think saying that the commentary is only going to be profound if you haven't thought about it before is forgetting that likely the vast majority of people who are going to play this haven't thought about it.

To my mind, much like Nolan with the ideas he presents to mainstream cinema goers, we should be applauding those that trust their audiences to go with big ideas. It might be that the examination of those ideas are ultimately fairly simplistic when compared to someone who is only playing to those of us who already have degrees in English Lit or Media Studies, but those games/films/productions aren't going to have the same impact on their industry.

I just forced myself through the EG review, and it really is a head scratcher. Paragraph after paragraph of what turns effectively into a dissertation on the topic. Like Vandelay says: most people coming to this aren't going to have read half a dozen books on Meta Narratives before sitting down to play.

But it's a review, that's their opinion.

eg has been random/shit in their reviews for years now. So many random reviews that pick on some point that pretty much every other review praised. Pretending some games don't exist because of someone who worked on the game etc.

Of course that's the whole point of a review. But it didn't really come across as a review of sorts, it felt more like a feature article than anything.

That's fair. A review is a review but it needs a good editor to tighten things up. This did not happen here.

I am a bit wary about Remedy's writing. I remember the bit after the (pretty disappointing imo) Ashtray Maze in Control, where you've gone through the whole sequence with the Remedy house band playing a shit Nu Rock thing in the background. And after it's all done the main character goes "That. Was. Awesome!"

And it's like, no! No it wasn't! It was a bit shit really! And I wouldn't have necessarily minded that if you had not drawn attention to it and tried to gaslight me into thinking it wasn't shit!

You thought the Ashtray Maze was shit?

I mean.... maybe the review is just playing 4D chess with everyone and that it evinces all of the flaws it points out in AW2 is THE WHOLE POINT*!






* it's not

I agree.

As others have said, Skill Up is someone who gets the balance right. 

EG is pure fluff at this point and I just don't like their reviews any more, which is sad. 

I just go with Digital Foundry. John Lineman said it was gorgeous, and a good game.

For anything with a narrative, I don't mind abstract reviews because I like a review to tell me why something's good, but not specifically what is good, in order to avoid spoilers

A lot of game and film reviews are blow-by-blow accounts of the plot, which simply isn't a review.

I agree that a lot of recent EGs reviews don't even cover the basics though, such as gameplay.