yeah I mean control had one of the better ray-tracing implementations but I still think we’re a long way off before we see people using ray tracing to consistently look better than baked lighting and screen space reflections.
in this case like the reflections are more accurate with ray-tracing off but the way screen space reflections occlude things is actually kind of a better fit for the dulled glossy surface of a diner table. they never fully reflect that much stuff unless the material is brand new, which they never are.
but also, the limitations of screen space reflections are much more noticeable in motion so I do feel like still image comparisons don’t always tell the full story. but even so in a case like this I think there’s a clear tradeoff, and ray traced image just doesn’t look as realistic.
It feels like the materials on the seats and table need another pass because, like toups said, they are too shiny and spotless. All they would really need is to mix in some grungy textures on a roughness map so the reflections are more diffuse, and that would fix up what looks so weird about the ray traced scene
I’m playng the remaster right now and the darkplace parallels are uncanny but like, not in a good way.
is the game supposed to be self-aware? it opens with alan wake quoting stephen king about how it ruins horror if your overexplain things, and then proceeds to have non-stop needlessly expository voice-over narration for every stupid thing that happens in the game. it’s really feels like the exact same excruciating “bad writer who thinks he knows what good writing is and you’re stuck along for the ride” schtick as darkplace except it’s not being played for laughs. I understand there’s a meta-narrative but so far it’s just as badly written, overwrought, predictable and contrived as the surface-level plot.
also the game is miserable to play! at least they added an option to remove the flashlight/camera disjoint which kept me from playing the original release but holy shit I’m already tired of the mechanical gimmicks. I guess it’s cool that they give me flare guns so I can just opt out of the more annoying set pieces. also it’s hilarious how many ill-fitting half life 2-style physics puzzles I’ve encountered so far.
alan wake himself is profoundly unlikeable and it’s not even in a funny way. nearly everything that sucks about this game sucks in a boring way. I’m finding it impossible to even find anything redeemable in a “so-bad-it’s-good” kind of way.
and then I found a QR code which links to this video which like plainly references darkplace in what feels like a sheepish attempt to retcon the original game as camp. but alan wake is far from say, the room, which like alan wake has this maudlin desire to be taken seriously as the work of a very serious auteur, but unlike alan wake still exudes enormous amounts of charm and humor despite itself as a result of the genuinely bizarre personality behind it. you can’t lampshade this! though I guess I appreciate that they’re trying?
the sequel look cool and that’s why I’m playing this rn but like… does anyone actually like this game?? and why?
I think people like it cause of the somewhat campy Twin Peaksy meets Stephen King vibes. I remember liking all the bits in Alan Wake except the gameplay, which sucked. Even in 2010 it felt like a chore, just really repetitive and uninteresting.
Anyway I’m playing Alan Wake 2 now, and the gameplay… is good!! It’s just a REmake, Remedy style. There’s actually a part of this game that takes place in nightmare NYC which honestly feels like what the Resident Evil 3 remake should have been. Also this game has some graphics! Maybe I wasn’t paying attention but I feel like facial animation has gotten to the point where it’s just as good as LA Noire’s but without any cheating. Definitely an improvement over Control. So maybe it’s worth suffering through the first one, to play this.
ok I beat it and the ending location is literally called “the dark place” and it’s fucking me up. I still don’t believe this game is that self-aware. is this a coincidence? I can’t find anyone writing about this connection. even if it is that self-aware I’m not impressed… this game sucks! this revelation cannot save it!
I cannot view this game as camp. I can imagine enjoying it as camp in the same way someone might enjoy the room as camp. but even then it’s lacking the personality and bizarre charisma of the room. it trades in the most worn out cliches, including the meta-narrative and ensuing obvious, overly broadcasted and foreshadowed twists and contrivances along the way. there’s no amount of theoretical self-awareness that can redeem how monumentally stupid every moment of the game is.
the only time the game actually made me laugh was the recurring bit where the FBI agent keeps sarcastically calling alan wake shit like “bret easton ellis” and “hp lovecraft.” which is an intentional joke and it actually lands. this alone disqualifies it as camp – it’s rarely unintentionally funny. it’s just bad.
I don’t resent anyone for enjoying it! sometimes trash is fun! maybe it’s just not for me. it just blows my mind how many people elsewhere I see describing the game as a masterpiece. like it’s more insane to me than calling ocarina of time or oblivion a masterpiece. I feel like you might consider it a masterpiece if you’ve never read a book, seen a movie or TV show, or played a videogame before. I cannot fathom it otherwise.
i mean he wrote max payne it’s not like “self aware pastiche” is that hard to believe right? im pretty sure Sam lake knows what darkplace is. It’s not exactly obscure especially in 2008…?
Development for Alan Wake was kind of troubled. It took a long time for them to figure out what the game actually was. Originally it was an open world game. Even though it isn’t open world now the game world still exists as a single place in-game, parts of it are just locked off from each other to make linear levels. I can imagine the story going through a similar process of starting out as one thing then turning into something else by the end but the original thing still existing in some form.
yeah, and honestly that was one of the more interesting parts of the experience for me. you can see remnants of the open world blueprint in the game. all the vehicle stuff, some of the locations you run through in the late game, etc. it makes me sad because I think I would have enjoyed the game a lot more if it was closer to the original vision (though I understand it wasn’t really there fault for having to pivot, bc it was originally targeting high-end pcs until microsoft told them it had to support the 360).
I did enjoy the late game more. the level design and environments had more personality and some of the combat setpieces were genuinely well-made and fun! the game has a lot of very interesting ideas, and it even executes a few of them pretty well. I can respect that given its development history it’s commendable that game is as coherent as it is.
if the game is self-aware I feel like it’s in a way where the writing knows it’s a hack job but doesn’t want to (or wasn’t able to) fully own it. if the darkplace reference isn’t a coincidence then I could see it being a quiet signaling of frustration at those circumstances. it maybe also explains why alan wake himself is such an unlikable jerk. as an abstraction of the narrative he has been through a lot of hell.
also: this game really, really loves half life 2 in a way that this is charming, especially because all the stuff is cribs from half life 2 barely makes sense for a game like this. but it’s also responsible for some of my favorite moments in the game, where they give you a vehicle and you’re driving around and stopping to check out abandoned homes and explore bits of the wilderness and there isn’t much combat. these are always too short but it feels so deliberately similar to the middle of the lost coast in hl2. there’s even a sequence where you cross the underside of the suspension bridge and all the metal is shaking (of course it’s due to poltergeist instead of high-altitude winds but it’s the exact same effect).
Alan Wake 2 sounds so much better conceived and better received than the original that I’m a little surprised they even tried to rerelease it to cash in
Quantum Break → Control → Alan Wake 2 is a much clearer progression
I’m a few hours into part 2 now and uhhh. the writing is bad in exactly the same way as the original lol. everything else is much better done though so I mean I’m still having a great time. I wonder if they’re gonna do something with it this time around at least.
