General Gaming Alan Wake II (PS5/Xbox Series/EGS) - update: upcoming patch (03/06) drastically improves GTX 10-series performance

[Keyser_Soze]

1 minute ago, crispy4000 said:

Or how about the bomba sales boost.  It's $26.79 on their site with their coupon, with Alan Wake Remastered included.

 

That is the Fortnite boost.

[AbsolutSurgen]

47 minutes ago, crispy4000 said:

Or how about the bomba sales boost.  It's $26.79 on their site with their coupon, with Alan Wake Remastered included.

It took me a minute to realize that AW Remastered comes as a code via Email.  Why they couldn't just add it to my library is bizarre.

[Moa]

Just picked this up and started playing on my new PC. It looks incredible and about an hour and a half of the way into it I'm loving it. I still haven't reached any combat, which I've always felt to be Remedy's weakness, but I'm impressed that they seem to finally make a game centered more around the strength of their world building.

[AbsolutSurgen]

So just finished Episode 3 of the first Alan Wake.  I have been enjoying the creepy atmosphere/story -- the combat is, just not very good.  It is incredibly repetitive, and so far (at the midpoint), there is a distinct lack of variety in the enemies.  The same guys OVER AND OVER -- and the weapon selection -- having relatively weak weapons (handgun, shotgun and flare) combined with two nukes (flashbang and flare gun) is not the kind of balance I enjoy.  The third episode dragged forever (with very little story) so finishing it felt a little bit like a chore.   Hoping the second half picks up steam.  (I'm really playing this because I've heard how good the story is in AW2).

[best3444]

29 minutes ago, AbsolutSurgen said:

So just finished Episode 3 of the first Alan Wake.  I have been enjoying the creepy atmosphere/story -- the combat is, just not very good.  It is incredibly repetitive, and so far (at the midpoint), there is a distinct lack of variety in the enemies.  The same guys OVER AND OVER -- and the weapon selection -- having relatively weak weapons (handgun, shotgun and flare) combined with two nukes (flashbang and flare gun) is not the kind of balance I enjoy.  The third episode dragged forever (with very little story) so finishing it felt a little bit like a chore.   Hoping the second half picks up steam.  (I'm really playing this because I've heard how good the story is in AW2).

 

Be prepared to be disappointed even more. The game is not that good at all so I'd love to be on the drugs these reviewers were on when playing this. 

 

Your description is exactly how I felt at that point and it doesn't get any better. I played 14 hours and that was enough for me. 

 

It's extremely shallow with no gameplay. 

[AbsolutSurgen]

34 minutes ago, best3444 said:

 

Be prepared to be disappointed even more. The game is not that good at all so I'd love to be on the drugs these reviewers were on when playing this. 

 

Your description is exactly how I felt at that point and it doesn't get any better. I played 14 hours and that was enough for me. 

 

It's extremely shallow with no gameplay. 

I was actually fine with the first 2 episodes -- because they kept the story moving.  The third had a long stretch of arena combat, followed by mild traversal, followed by arena combat -- neither of witch AW does particularly well.

[best3444]

17 minutes ago, AbsolutSurgen said:

I was actually fine with the first 2 episodes -- because they kept the story moving.  The third had a long stretch of arena combat, followed by mild traversal, followed by arena combat -- neither of witch AW does particularly well.

 

Yes. I enjoyed the first episode with Saga and I thought, ok, this isn't too bad. Then act 2 starts out interesting with Wake but slowly gets tiresome. I forget what act I got on before pulling the plug. It's just a mind fuck of a game that isn't fun at all.

 

I'm being serious in that if I were tripping on shrooms or something it would be a better experience. 

[Keyser_Soze]

34 minutes ago, best3444 said:

 

Yes. I enjoyed the first episode with Saga and I thought, ok, this isn't too bad. Then act 2 starts out interesting with Wake but slowly gets tiresome. I forget what act I got on before pulling the plug. It's just a mind fuck of a game that isn't fun at all.

 

I'm being serious in that if I were tripping on shrooms or something it would be a better experience. 

 

He's talking about the FIRST Alan Wake not Alan Wake 2.

[Greatoneshere]

1 hour ago, best3444 said:

Be prepared to be disappointed even more. The game is not that good at all so I'd love to be on the drugs these reviewers were on when playing this. 

 

Your description is exactly how I felt at that point and it doesn't get any better. I played 14 hours and that was enough for me. 

 

It's extremely shallow with no gameplay. 

 

He's talking about the first Alan Wake, and it's crazy to me that people are criticizing Alan Wake for what it is isn't rather than what it is. The combat is supposed to be somewhat limited and janky - just like Silent Hill or any number of other survival horror action games, you are meant to feel weak and limited like a horror character, not be Leon S. Kennedy in RE4, it's not that type of game. The combat feels as heavy and punchy as any good game in this genre, so not sure what the problem is. 

 

People's issues with Alan Wake II in 2023 are the same issues people had with Alan Wake in 2010. AWII is far less repetitive, with a lot more going on, and with incredible graphics, music, characters and story and all anyone can focus on is the gameplay making you feel like the dude in Silent Hill 2 carrying a stick to hit enemies. Not sure what people expected but that's why it's taking home a lot of awards.

 

And anyone who says Remedy can't do combat haven't played Control. This combat is intentional for Alan Wake. 

[Greatoneshere]

2 hours ago, AbsolutSurgen said:

So just finished Episode 3 of the first Alan Wake.  I have been enjoying the creepy atmosphere/story -- the combat is, just not very good.  It is incredibly repetitive, and so far (at the midpoint), there is a distinct lack of variety in the enemies.  The same guys OVER AND OVER -- and the weapon selection -- having relatively weak weapons (handgun, shotgun and flare) combined with two nukes (flashbang and flare gun) is not the kind of balance I enjoy.  The third episode dragged forever (with very little story) so finishing it felt a little bit like a chore.   Hoping the second half picks up steam.  (I'm really playing this because I've heard how good the story is in AW2).

 

Keep going! AW is old now, and was a bit of an experimental game. Control is just a damn fine and fun game to play, so you'll enjoy that, and AWII improves considerably on AW's formula, so it's definitely a big step up from the first, and much more modern of course.

[AbsolutSurgen]

17 minutes ago, Greatoneshere said:

 

Keep going! AW is old now, and was a bit of an experimental game. Control is just a damn fine and fun game to play, so you'll enjoy that, and AWII improves considerably on AW's formula, so it's definitely a big step up from the first, and much more modern of course.

 

I'm planning on it -- it hasn't yet hit the point where I want to walk away from it for good.

I played through Control earlier this year, and while I wouldn't call the combat "top tier", it certainly was above average.  And the story telling was interesting enough to keep me going.  Certainly a much better game than the original Alan Wake.

22 minutes ago, Greatoneshere said:

 

He's talking about the first Alan Wake, and it's crazy to me that people are criticizing Alan Wake for what it is isn't rather than what it is. The combat is supposed to be somewhat limited and janky - just like Silent Hill or any number of other survival horror action games, you are meant to feel weak and limited like a horror character, not be Leon S. Kennedy in RE4, it's not that type of game. The combat feels as heavy and punchy as any good game in this genre, so not sure what the problem is. 

I don't feel that way in Alan Wake, because I have my nukes -- i.e. the Flash Bang and Flare Gun.  As long as I have a couple, I can always easily clear 3-4 enemies in one shot.  So far, this isn't a survival horror game where you are meant to run away (because they are just as fast as you, and won't stop chasing), I think you are meant to defeat everyone.

That said, if the second half of the game spends more time on what it does well (creepy story telling and atmosphere) and less on what it doesn't (combat and traversal), I won't be too upset.  My end game is playing AW2 anyways.

[best3444]

Oh, I thought he was on Alan Wake 2 by now. I played and beat part one at its release and it wasn't too bad. If I recall it had more action involved. 

 

I still stand by what I said about part 2. 

[Greatoneshere]

11 minutes ago, AbsolutSurgen said:

I'm planning on it -- it hasn't yet hit the point where I want to walk away from it for good. I played through Control earlier this year, and while I wouldn't call the combat "top tier", it certainly was above average.  And the story telling was interesting enough to keep me going.  Certainly a much better game than the original Alan Wake.

 

You've already played Control, nice. The Alan Wake references there probably make a lot more sense now. 

 

11 minutes ago, AbsolutSurgen said:

I don't feel that way in Alan Wake, because I have my nukes -- i.e. the Flash Bang and Flare Gun.  As long as I have a couple, I can always easily clear 3-4 enemies in one shot.  So far, this isn't a survival horror game where you are meant to run away (because they are just as fast as you, and won't stop chasing), I think you are meant to defeat everyone.

 

That said, if the second half of the game spends more time on what it does well (creepy story telling and atmosphere) and less on what it doesn't (combat and traversal), I won't be too upset.  My end game is playing AW2 anyways.

 

Oh, ignore everything I said, that was entirely about Alan Wake II's combat. Alan Wake's is old and janky, I just watched my younger brother play through the remaster since he never had played the game before. You're right about the nukes and same enemy types, etc. It's Alan Wake II which is much more impressive and fits its tone a lot more in terms of combat (they basically just took the RE4 gameplay model but made you weaker and less acrobatic). For Alan Wake, it's mostly an on rails game that you play for the story, fun/hokey dialogue, music, etc. The gameplay, such as it is, does the job but it's nothing good. It also doesn't help that the game locks you out of nightmare difficulty, aka hard, until you beat the game through once which does at least provide some additional challenge. Alan Wake II doesn't have these problems, though the gameplay isn't the focus there either.

[best3444]

@Greatoneshere I appreciate your insight for sure. I also played and loved Control so I did notice things throughout my play time that was related. 

 

I guess I have nostalgic memories of the first Alan Wake lol. Part 2 just isn't for me so I won't comment on it anymore. 

[Moa]

The combat in Alan Wake I is incredibly tedious with few enemy types and repetitive arenas. Even for its time, the combat was bad and detracted from the experience. I also hated the combat in Control for basically the same reason, dull bullet sponge enemies in empty repetitive arenas.

 

So far, the combat in Alan Wake II feels more interesting than both, and more impressively, I manage to stay completely engaged with the game for about two hours before even firing my gun.

 

I've always felt like Remedy is a studio with very defined strengths and weaknesses, and so far, AW2 feels like the game where they finally managed to play to their strengths.

[Greatoneshere]

19 minutes ago, Moa said:

The combat in Alan Wake I is incredibly tedious with few enemy types and repetitive arenas. Even for its time, the combat was bad and detracted from the experience. I also hated the combat in Control for basically the same reason, dull bullet sponge enemies in empty repetitive arenas.

 

So far, the combat in Alan Wake II feels more interesting than both, and more impressively, I manage to stay completely engaged with the game for about two hours before even firing my gun.

 

I've always felt like Remedy is a studio with very defined strengths and weaknesses, and so far, AW2 feels like the game where they finally managed to play to their strengths.

 

I agree with your Alan Wake I and II combat takes but Control, while it did have sponge-y enemies, was a lot of fun because of all various powers at your disposal with very manipulable, destructible environments. It was a lot of fun I thought. And obviously very different from Alan Wake.

[AbsolutSurgen]

I finished Alan Wake (plus the DLC) tonight.

Hoping to play through American Nightmare, and begin AW2 on Boxing Day.

@stepee I picked up Quantum Break on the Steam Sale -- how important is it to play it before AW2?

[stepee]

32 minutes ago, AbsolutSurgen said:

I finished Alan Wake (plus the DLC) tonight.

Hoping to play through American Nightmare, and begin AW2 on Boxing Day.

@stepee I picked up Quantum Break on the Steam Sale -- how important is it to play it before AW2?

 

It’s a lot less important than Control and not really needed to understand anything. I didn’t really realize the connection until near the end. They don’t own the QB license so while there are certain characters that are obviously certain characters, they also aren’t literally them. 

 

It’s more of a “oh that’s cool, wonder where they go with that” which could be just as interesting by playing QB (which I highly recommend as I think it’s very underrated in their catalog) after AW2.

[Greatoneshere]

19 hours ago, AbsolutSurgen said:

I finished Alan Wake (plus the DLC) tonight.

Hoping to play through American Nightmare, and begin AW2 on Boxing Day.

@stepee I picked up Quantum Break on the Steam Sale -- how important is it to play it before AW2?

 

19 hours ago, stepee said:

 

It’s a lot less important than Control and not really needed to understand anything. I didn’t really realize the connection until near the end. They don’t own the QB license so while there are certain characters that are obviously certain characters, they also aren’t literally them. 

 

It’s more of a “oh that’s cool, wonder where they go with that” which could be just as interesting by playing QB (which I highly recommend as I think it’s very underrated in their catalog) after AW2.

 

Like stepee said, it's not essential. I think you're good to go from American Nightmare to Alan Wake II (so long as you already did the two DLC's for Control already as well, I know you said you beat the base game). QB is tied to AWII but in very vague ways (whereas Control is super connected) - you can skip it and look up the connections after Alan Wake II since you can fill in the blanks while you're playing AWII anyway.

[stepee]

Well, he should play QB and then look it up or he will spoil QB :P

[AbsolutSurgen]

I started American Nightmare after AW Remastered - and it’s rough. Not just graphically— the stick feel is much worse. 

[Greatoneshere]

5 hours ago, stepee said:

Well, he should play QB and then look it up or he will spoil QB :P

 

Yeah but it's really not worth all the effort to get through both game and show QB to understand what is pretty self-explanatory within AWII but if he's got time then I'm all for playing it.  

 

5 hours ago, AbsolutSurgen said:

I started American Nightmare after AW Remastered - and it’s rough. Not just graphically— the stick feel is much worse. 

 

It's a fun time but American Nightmare was made when Remedy was at their lowest  - they couldn't get money for AWII, they "lose" Max Payne, and QB hasn't happened yet (and fails for them). It's a quick expansion made for fans, but yeah it expands combat and tries to be a lot of things at once to its detriment. But it is important story wise.

[stepee]

5 minutes ago, Greatoneshere said:

 

Yeah but it's really not worth all the effort to get through both game and show QB to understand what is pretty self-explanatory within AWII but if he's got time then I'm all for playing it.  

 

 

It's a fun time but American Nightmare was made when Remedy was at their lowest  - they couldn't get money for AWII, they "lose" Max Payne, and QB hasn't happened yet (and fails for them). It's a quick expansion made for fans, but yeah it expands combat and tries to be a lot of things at once to its detriment. But it is important story wise.

 

Oh yeah I just mean he can ignore it while playing AW2 but to just wait until he plays QB since he already bought it to find out the connection, since he will likely spoil QB trying to find it out.

[Greatoneshere]

17 minutes ago, stepee said:

 

Oh yeah I just mean he can ignore it while playing AW2 but to just wait until he plays QB since he already bought it to find out the connection, since he will likely spoil QB trying to find it out.

 

Yeah but saves him a lot of time since QB is just alright.   But if he bought it then yeah definitely play it after AWII.

[AbsolutSurgen]

OK.  Played through Quantum Break -- very interesting experiment, and well worth playing.  I think they made the right call in not incorporating the TV episodes in future games.

 

So far this year, I have played AW Remastered (and all DLC), AW: American Nightmare, Quantum Break, and Control (except the DLC -- when I tried to play the DLC yesterday, I started to have the crashing that people are complaining about on the Steam forums.  It really was cool to experience the Remedy evolution in gameplay and storytelling.

 

Just started AW2 (finished first chapter) -- it is certainly a complete evolution from anything they have done before.  So far, it feels much more like an adventure game than anything else, a lot less action and almost completely focused on story telling.  In Chapter 1, everything feels completely linear with no agency -- the case board looks like it could be an interesting mechanic, but not if it stays as linear as it feels now.  

[Greatoneshere]

On 12/30/2023 at 12:35 PM, AbsolutSurgen said:

So far this year, I have played AW Remastered (and all DLC), AW: American Nightmare, Quantum Break, and Control (except the DLC -- when I tried to play the DLC yesterday, I started to have the crashing that people are complaining about on the Steam forums.  It really was cool to experience the Remedy evolution in gameplay and storytelling.

 

Just started AW2 (finished first chapter) -- it is certainly a complete evolution from anything they have done before.  So far, it feels much more like an adventure game than anything else, a lot less action and almost completely focused on story telling.  In Chapter 1, everything feels completely linear with no agency -- the case board looks like it could be an interesting mechanic, but not if it stays as linear as it feels now.  

 

The Control DLC crashes are an easy fix - just quit out of the entire game and go back in - I never experienced any but my brother experienced it 3-4 times in the second DLC. It's definitely doable. Nice on playing QB! Even though Remedy doesn't have the licenses to Max Payne or Quantum Break, you can see the analogues Sam Lake created.

[AbsolutSurgen]

11 minutes ago, Greatoneshere said:

 

The Control DLC crashes are an easy fix - just quit out of the entire game and go back in - I never experienced any but my brother experienced it 3-4 times in the second DLC. It's definitely doable. Nice on playing QB! Even though Remedy doesn't have the licenses to Max Payne or Quantum Break, you can see the analogues Sam Lake created.

The discussions on the Steam Forums seem to suggest that it's a relatively common problem (potentially caused by recent Nvidia driver updates).  I decided not to try and troubleshoot it after my third crash to desktop in under 20 minutes.

[Greatoneshere]

1 hour ago, AbsolutSurgen said:

The discussions on the Steam Forums seem to suggest that it's a relatively common problem (potentially caused by recent Nvidia driver updates).  I decided not to try and troubleshoot it after my third crash to desktop in under 20 minutes.

Yikes, that's pretty bad, that's understandable. Hopefully they fix it.

[AbsolutSurgen]

I played through this section last night:

Spoiler

 

I've heard people call this GOTY, while others say it is not a very good game.  So far, I think they're both right!

 

The story telling in this game is awesome, with interesting writing, new vignettes, and new experiences hitting you all the time.  It really is an engaging experience.

 

Remedy has shown they know how to do combat -- Control was very strong, Quantum Break was good too.  Alan Wake 2 really is a departure from Remedy's earlier games -- and I find it mostly "meh" so far.  Mostly slow enemies that are bullet sponges, lack of variety in weapons.  Constantly spawning enemies just behind you (to be fair, their previous games did this a lot too).  But where Alan Wake had too much combat, the sequel has far too little for my tastes.

 

Really positive experience so far, but I completely understand why some publications had it as GOTY, while it wasn't in the top 10 at others.

[Keyser_Soze]

34 minutes ago, AbsolutSurgen said:

Remedy has shown they know how to do combat -- Control was very strong, Quantum Break was good too. 

 

 

Max Payne

[ShreddieMercury]

1 hour ago, AbsolutSurgen said:

I played through this section last night:

  Hide contents

 

I've heard people call this GOTY, while others say it is not a very good game.  So far, I think they're both right!

 

The story telling in this game is awesome, with interesting writing, new vignettes, and new experiences hitting you all the time.  It really is an engaging experience.

 

Remedy has shown they know how to do combat -- Control was very strong, Quantum Break was good too.  Alan Wake 2 really is a departure from Remedy's earlier games -- and I find it mostly "meh" so far.  Mostly slow enemies that are bullet sponges, lack of variety in weapons.  Constantly spawning enemies just behind you (to be fair, their previous games did this a lot too).  But where Alan Wake had too much combat, the sequel has far too little for my tastes.

 

Really positive experience so far, but I completely understand why some publications had it as GOTY, while it wasn't in the top 10 at others.

 

I agree with this.  AW2 is a weird case of being my favorite experience this year, but I would barely call it a game, and I doubt I'll ever replay it like I do older Remedy titles.  I also don't know that I would say that the story or dialogue is particularly strong.  It's mostly just the context of the gap between the first game and the sequel, and what an interesting and bold choice it was to take the series in this direction that I find so compelling.

[Greatoneshere]

1 hour ago, AbsolutSurgen said:

Remedy has shown they know how to do combat -- Control was very strong, Quantum Break was good too.  Alan Wake 2 really is a departure from Remedy's earlier games -- and I find it mostly "meh" so far.  Mostly slow enemies that are bullet sponges, lack of variety in weapons.  Constantly spawning enemies just behind you (to be fair, their previous games did this a lot too).  But where Alan Wake had too much combat, the sequel has far too little for my tastes.

 

Out of curiosity what difficulty level are you playing on for Alan Wake II?

[AbsolutSurgen]

7 minutes ago, Greatoneshere said:

 

Out of curiosity what difficulty level are you playing on for Alan Wake II?

Normal.

 

8 minutes ago, ShreddieMercury said:

 

I agree with this.  AW2 is a weird case of being my favorite experience this year, but I would barely call it a game, and I doubt I'll ever replay it like I do older Remedy titles.  I also don't know that I would say that the story or dialogue is particularly strong.  It's mostly just the context of the gap between the first game and the sequel, and what an interesting and bold choice it was to take the series in this direction that I find so compelling.

I wouldn't say the "story" is strong -- didn't mean to suggest it was.  IMHO, the "story-telling" is good -- in the variety of ways they tell their story.  I know I'm probably not expressing the distinction particularly well.

 

Given the horrid state of writing in most video games, I think the dialogue is perfectly fine.

[ShreddieMercury]

3 minutes ago, AbsolutSurgen said:

Normal.

 

I wouldn't say the "story" is strong -- didn't mean to suggest it was.  IMHO, the "story-telling" is good -- in the variety of ways they tell their story.  I know I'm probably not expressing the distinction particularly well.

 

Given the horrid state of writing in most video games, I think the dialogue is perfectly fine.

 

Oh I wasn't even commenting on what you said, that was just my general thought about the writing.  I agree that the story itself is compelling and really interesting.  But it does exhibit some of the typical shared universe/superhero issues of constantly evolving rules and a lack of stakes because nothing is real.  Or it becomes real sometimes but just kidding it's not anymore.

[Greatoneshere]

9 minutes ago, AbsolutSurgen said:

Normal.

 

Probably too easy for my tastes, I played on hard and found I had to be more selective with my inventory and the enemies were definitely more numerous and harder to kill, making the gameplay more enjoyable. I found the gameplay to feel punchy and heavy and have weight to it, which was refreshing at least. To some degree it's meant to be a little jank since it's a survival horror game so it's not going to feel particularly slick since you're supposed to feel somewhat helpless. Maybe increasing the difficulty would allay some of your gameplay concerns.