Alan Wake confirmed for PC! Finally.

[LifeOnMars]

I honestly believe that if developers upped their game and released proper PC optimised games that push/utilize the hardware and innovate on all fronts that alot of PC gamers would not hesitate to purchase full price games.

We have been shafted with so many dodgy console ports that for whatever reason don't use a PC's capabilities, it's no surprise that alot of people have resorted to piracy just to see if the damn game will even run correctly.

Release fully working games (without any of this day 1 patch bullshit)
Use a PC's capabilities (including scaling of hardware)
Provide a demo that runs as the finall product will (so we can try before we buy)
Innovate

[AphexDreamer]

I agree quality of the game does matter, I think the issue isn't just the quality but the price. I personally only got the game once I found out I could get it for $20 and given it was $30 on release. They did up the quality but it still didn't make full use of top PC hardware once maxed out.

I think its like this, you can have a million people buy the game for $60 each or 2 million+ people buying the game for $30 each.

I believe it turns out you are more likely to earn profits with the latter than the former. I'm not an economist or anything but this is what I see. Most games heavily pirated are Single Player games especially on PC. They have no online check and they are usually just a play once or twice game. To think they sold well, means they did something right. I believe what they did right was A. Not release an entirely crappy console port and B. Priced it right and included the DLC.

[newconroer]

Crossfire 18-28fps
Single card 30-40fps

Big raves about the new crossfire profiles, didn't help me one bit it seems.

Alternate frame rendering shoots me to 55-60fps but incurs the flashing screen often synonymous with alternate frame method.

[ViperXTR]

So it does make use of 4 threads of the CPU and Hyper Threading/SMT helps to speed up the game, but interestingly, it starts to drop down in performance when more than 4 threads are used (regardless of simultaneous multi-threading or real cores)

[DannibusX]

I agree with nearly all of your post except the following:

Originally Posted by LifeOnMars

Release fully working games (without any of this day 1 patch bullshit)

This is impossible simply for the fact that no 2 gaming PC's are the same. Besides, they can barely release a game without a day 1 patch for the consoles and they're identical (within brands).

[Cheeseball]

Runs like butter on my setup. If running on Crossfire'd HD 5770s, I get around 60 FPS with the latest Catalyst. If on the GTX 560, same. Both run this game smooth.

[Mindweaver]

I can't wait to get this game.. but sadly i'll have to wait till it's on a steam sale.

[AsRock]

WARNING- Mainly to left handed people who cannot bind there keys with there keyboard.. The arrow keys are the are the numpad so if you plan to use the arrow keys yyou will not be able to use the numpad for other things this includes the DEL \ END keys as well...

[newconroer]

Most recent Crossfire profiles(which mention nothing on Alan Wake) have made a large difference. I'm 50-60 now which will be sufficient in most placed.
Oddly, if I reboot the computer after playing, the performance is back to being awful. If I do a quick reinstall>repair of the Crossfire profile, and then go straight into the game, the fps is back to where it should be.

I had a similar situation with Crysis 2 except it wasn't performance, it was flickering lights. A quick repair installation of the application profiles and it was fixed.


As for the gameplay itself, he never seems to run in a straight line when I use a controller.

[Drone]

Finally I bought this game (PC version) the day they released 1.06 update, *smirks* good timing.

Very interesting game. Atm I'm at episode 3. This game has a very good atmosphere, awesome plot, fine soundtrack and cool graphics. I haven't finished it yet and I also plan to play American Nightmare later but here's my short review:

Gameplay pros:

Interesting story
Hard and tough gameplay even on normal difficulty
Creepy kickass atmosphere
Nice level design
Good voice acting
Intuitive and interactive gameplay
Innovative ideas
Nice menu/hud and so on
Simple controls
Decent ai

tech. pros:

Very well optimized for pc: never lags, always fluid and steady gameplay, no bugs, no glitches, no errors, no fps drop, and this game never crashes. Graphics + sound + effects are all awesome and run well on max settings even on not so cool systems. Works perfectly fine under Windows 8 x64 with beta nvidia drivers. Never had a single issue with this game.


Yes I know I said before that plot, design, ai and controls are great but I also would like to talk about their "dark" side lol.

Gameplay cons:

Story can be sometimes way too predictable.

Level design sometimes seems linear even though this game reveals amazing and vast areas for exploration.

Gameplay time after time can seem quite repetitive and de javu'esque. You feel like you're doing the same thing over and over again.

Camera can go nuts without a reason. It's also a little bit frustrating that strafe/dodge system works whenever it wants, lol it lives its own life I guess. It's also sad that sprint and jump are actually totally useless, they won't ever save you from hordes of enemies. The main character is way too vulnerable and the fact that enemies always flank you plus they throw stuff at you and appear out of nowhere makes it even worse. It may seem annoying but I guess it's to make game harder and scary, so it's ok.

tech. cons:

Nothing serious here. Just once or max twice I've noticed that in very rare cases enemies can run into trees/walls, lol hello ai from 90s! Also lightning/shadow system may look a wee bit not realistic. But like I said above it's not a big deal.

Anyway this game definitely deserves 10/10 and I put it in my favourite games list. I'm very glad that today when there are tons of crappy and mediocre games there's a video game called Alan Wake. This is brilliant. Whenever they release a continuation I'll buy it. I'm also interested in Tomb Raider and Beyond: Two Souls but I'll have to wait and see.

Originally Posted by newconroer

As for the gameplay itself, he never seems to run in a straight line when I use a controller.

Yes, same here.

[Black Panther]

Originally Posted by Drone

Level design sometimes seems linear even though this game reveals amazing and vast areas for exploration.

The game is linear. Awesome game, but you have to do what the game says.
For non-linear games try Skyrim..

[douglatins]

Holy thread revival batman

[Frag Maniac]

It accomplishes it's goal of giving a survival horror feel, and is very challenging, it just doesn't do either in a spectacular way.

On a side note, for those on a Remedy vs Rockstar campaign, I think Rockstar accomplished way more with Max Payne 3 than Remedy did with this game. Even Remedy said MP3 is brilliant. I wonder what Rockstar honestly feels about Alan Wake.