![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
pretentious videya games
Jul. 23rd, 2010 01:11 pmthe past few days i have been playing all the ~*~artistic~*~ single-player games on Xbox Live (okay, not all: i still haven't tried Braid, for starts, and I've yet to play a Bioware game since Knights of the Old Republic, BUT that is not important). Kmart was selling Alan Wake for $35 new; my brother, the inimitable h00ray4dolphins, and i, had wanted to play it since release, but were a little wary of dropping $60 on it.
You see, Alan Wake is one of those games that went through production hell: it was first announced 5 years ago, the developers tossed out half-finished games and restarted from the ground-up twice, and as its release date approached there was a flurry of advertising and 'gaming spotlight' type articles in a desperate-feeling attempt to drum up enthusiasm for a linear, story-driven game heavily influenced by the TV show Twin Peaks.
Anyway, there was no way Alan Wake could live up to it's hype, and it didn't, but still - it's a Twin Peaks video game! It couldn't be all that bad, could it?
And, once divorced from the ridiculous standards the development team had somewhat invited - it's a decent game. Flawed, i feel - it was at one point being touted as a 'revolutionary' game insofar as story/gameplay fusion and presentation were concerned, and the end product has nothing that hasn't already been done in, say, the Silent Hill series - but it's a decently entertaining story, and the gameplay is fun enough, though it's not varied enough to support more than two or three playthroughs.
( vague spoilers for AW and uh, Twin Peaks i guess )
the other game i have been playing at h00ray4dolphins' suggestion is Limbo.
u guise.
this game.
is MOTHERFUCKING TERRIFYING
rather than try to explain it here are some trailers:
the things this game does using only black, white and shades of grey is astounding.
another trailer showing how macabre the game can be:
i swear, when i got to the section shown at 0:40 I DIED INSIDE. I could not believe the game was making me do this. It is easily the most horrifying thing I have ever done to solve a puzzle.
if you have XBL i would at least check the demo out. The full game is $15 in Microsoft Ripoff Funmonies which is a little steep considering that after an hour and a half of playing i am 50% finished. :(
You see, Alan Wake is one of those games that went through production hell: it was first announced 5 years ago, the developers tossed out half-finished games and restarted from the ground-up twice, and as its release date approached there was a flurry of advertising and 'gaming spotlight' type articles in a desperate-feeling attempt to drum up enthusiasm for a linear, story-driven game heavily influenced by the TV show Twin Peaks.
Anyway, there was no way Alan Wake could live up to it's hype, and it didn't, but still - it's a Twin Peaks video game! It couldn't be all that bad, could it?
And, once divorced from the ridiculous standards the development team had somewhat invited - it's a decent game. Flawed, i feel - it was at one point being touted as a 'revolutionary' game insofar as story/gameplay fusion and presentation were concerned, and the end product has nothing that hasn't already been done in, say, the Silent Hill series - but it's a decently entertaining story, and the gameplay is fun enough, though it's not varied enough to support more than two or three playthroughs.
( vague spoilers for AW and uh, Twin Peaks i guess )
the other game i have been playing at h00ray4dolphins' suggestion is Limbo.
u guise.
this game.
is MOTHERFUCKING TERRIFYING
rather than try to explain it here are some trailers:
the things this game does using only black, white and shades of grey is astounding.
another trailer showing how macabre the game can be:
i swear, when i got to the section shown at 0:40 I DIED INSIDE. I could not believe the game was making me do this. It is easily the most horrifying thing I have ever done to solve a puzzle.
if you have XBL i would at least check the demo out. The full game is $15 in Microsoft Ripoff Funmonies which is a little steep considering that after an hour and a half of playing i am 50% finished. :(
