Zero Punctuation: Alan Wake

[Phlopsy]

So many of you aren't going to get this game just because Yahtzee gave it a shitty review? Isn't that kind of what he gets paid to do?

It was a funny review and I enjoyed it, but I thought Alan Wake was one of the best written games I've ever played. It might be second only to Call of Cthulhu.

 

[Swifteye]

Hah, Yahtzee just described Pie in the Sky, a British crime drama in which the detective can only think when he's around pastry, so each week the crime has to conveniently take place in a bakery or within walking distance of a pie shop. Yes.

Seriously? I thought he was making a satrical pun on how crime dramas make shitty gimmicks to set themselves apaprt from other crime dramas.

 

[MrDead]

If you have any interest in story driven gaming then you'd be doing yourself a massive favour to ignore this 'review' and give it a shot. If MS had bothered to advertise Alan Wake properly, we should have been looking at a contender for Game of the Year. That's how good this game is.

But... the stories a typical Lovecraftian plot. If you're any kind of horror/horror game fan this game hasn't really got much going on you haven't seen/read a hundred times before. I'm frankly flabbergasted this thing's 'story' is getting such rave reviews. I didn't think it was very good and it's far from original.

 

[Tyrant T100]

Funniest Review I've seen from you in a while. I actually laughed out loud which is rare for myself. Good work sir.

 

[MeatSpace]

But... the stories a typical Lovecraftian plot. If you're any kind of horror/horror game fan this game hasn't really got much going on you haven't seen/read a hundred times before. I'm frankly flabbergasted this thing's 'story' is getting such rave reviews. I didn't think it was very good and it's far from original.

You clearly don't understand how story telling works. There's nothing wrong with drawing from other sources. There are no original stories my friend.

 

[Mako SOLDIER]

Bad combat, bad voice acting and good atmosphere?

Funny that you can describe Alan wake and Silent Hill the exact same way.

Except Yahtzee liked Silent Hill. I call bullshit.

Seriously, you could replace "Alan Wake" with "Silent Hill 2" and this review would still work. Don't forget characters constantly making awful decisions!

lol, totally. "Hey look, a big weird looking hole in the floor, I think I'll jump down it" is considerably more retarded than "Hey, this person's acting a bit weird, but since I'm not sure what's going on generally and they've seemed trustworthy and harmless up until now, not to mention that I'm pretty stressed and distracted, I'll think nothing of it".

Not to mention, the combat is excellent if you play on anything other than the easiest difficulty level, and the voice acting is only occasionally ropey and excellent the whole rest of the time. Better than SH2 by a country mile, and that's one of my favourite games. I still love SH2 to bits, but there's something in this world called objectivity that prevents me from shitting all over any game that dares to not contain Pyramid Head. Agree on atmosphere though, that's excellent the whole way through

 

[Tipsy Giant]

With those recaps and the narration, and the fact that the plot sounds incredibly bad, I'd have probably avoided it, even if it came out for the PS3 or Wii (don't have a 360, I just like watching the reviews).

I'm the same, but I don't even have 1 of the three current gen consoles I just love watching games being told off for being shit

 

[Mako SOLDIER]

Quote without html follows:

MrDead:
But... the stories a typical Lovecraftian plot. If you're any kind of horror/horror game fan this game hasn't really got much going on you haven't seen/read a hundred times before. I'm frankly flabbergasted this thing's 'story' is getting such rave reviews. I didn't think it was very good and it's far from original.

You clearly don't understand how story telling works. There's nothing wrong with drawing from other sources. There are no original stories my friend.

This.

The themes have been done before, but the nuances of the story are original.

 

[MrDead]

But... the stories a typical Lovecraftian plot. If you're any kind of horror/horror game fan this game hasn't really got much going on you haven't seen/read a hundred times before. I'm frankly flabbergasted this thing's 'story' is getting such rave reviews. I didn't think it was very good and it's far from original.

You clearly don't understand how story telling works. There's nothing wrong with drawing from other sources. There are no original stories my friend.

Oh I concur.. however, again.. it wasn't a very good story.

 

[Prophetic Heresy]

Very funny review, I didn't break out laughing like I have with some of the others but it's probably because I disagree with most of the things he said. I'm glad I skipped normal mode and went straight for hard, it kept the combat tense even with all the slow-motion being shot around.

Also, I didn't pay attention to Alan's monologues as I did the manuscript pages which were much more interesting. To me, at least. Alan seems to be pretty unflappable in the "I'm reading a story I wrote about events that are currently happening to me" department. Though I would hate to be playing as myself in this situation in which case I would read a few of the manuscript pages, panic for a while and shoot myself. The lip synching didn't bother me too much as I was too busy listening to what was being said instead being distracted by almost insignificant detals.

Finally, don't look at Alan Wake like a horror game. Just because scary stuff is going on doesn't mean that the developers are trying to scare you. The box said "psychological action thriller" not "survival horror".

 

[Mako SOLDIER]

So many of you aren't going to get this game just because Yahtzee gave it a shitty review? Isn't that kind of what he gets paid to do?

It was a funny review and I enjoyed it, but I thought Alan Wake was one of the best written games I've ever played. It might be second only to Call of Cthulhu.

Too many people who don't understand that Yahtzee's reviews, while entertaining, are essentially professional trolling. Alan Wake is easily one of the best story-driven games of the last 10 years. Anyone who thinks the story was bad probably just got pissed because they had to actually think about the ending rather than having it explained to them slowly.

 

[Marmal4de]

I was hoping Yahtzee would cover this one, Great review.
I personaly liked the game judging from what I have played so far but it's starting to get repetitive and seems like it will stay that way.

 

[oktalist]

Hah, Yahtzee just described Pie in the Sky, a British crime drama in which the detective can only think when he's around pastry, so each week the crime has to conveniently take place in a bakery or within walking distance of a pie shop. Yes.

Seriously? I thought he was making a satrical pun on how crime dramas make shitty gimmicks to set themselves apaprt from other crime dramas.

He was. I don't think the reference to PITS was intentional.

And it's not quite as bad as I made it sound. It's just that the detective is also a part-time chef and owns a resaurant, so the action alternates between crime-solving and pie-making.

 

[mexicola]

It was not as fun as I hoped it was. He spent most of his time talking about how he gets stuck in the forest all the time.

How does it come Yahtzee never reviews grand strategy games like Hearts of Iron 3? That would be pretty awesome.

Or not. He would just say something along the line of "I would have had as much fun fucking around in Windows Excel". He already mentioned his dislike for Total War series and they have some graphics, while Harts of Iron is all about strategy so it doesn't seem he would be too thrilled. (I like it btw)

Anyway good enough episode, standard Yahtzee.

 

[Mako SOLDIER]

Nevermind, only pressed the 'quote' button once. Crazy of me to think that would result in a poste actually being quoted

 

[mchoueiri]

Personally I think Alan Wake is a great game so there. I bought it played it and loved it.

 

[Lemon Of Life]

I played a demo of the game, and from that I didn't want to buy it. Good to see that I didn't waste my money

There's a demo? Cool, I'll check it out.

Funny review there, Yahtzee, now go and do Red Dead Redemption.

 

[saiyanwarrior]

I enjoyed that a review a lot been waiting for yahtzee to review it for a while, sounds like the game is similar to alone in the dark, potential to be good but sadly misses the mark, rather like finaly fatasy 13, although I'm suprised it took nine bloody years to make it, took that long for the world to beat germany twice.

 

[MrDead]

Too many people who don't understand that Yahtzee's reviews, while entertaining, are essentially professional trolling. Alan Wake is easily one of the best story-driven games of the last 10 years. Anyone who thinks the story was bad probably just got pissed because they had to actually think about the ending rather than having it explained to them slowly.

Or because it was fairly standard with a couple gimmicks. Though the actual last 2 minutes of the game was pretty good.

 

[Shadow-Fox]

And just for the sake of correcting people about minor, basicaly unimportant mistakes (because i just love to do that):
It's "Episode Eins" not "Episode Ein"
although i can forgive your for not wasting time by finding out how you to correctly put the "ü" in "Fünf"