What are you currently playing? 4.0

[gunswordfist]

I think 1 and X are on the VC, and 3 is coming sooner or later. The VC are arcade perfect ports, so that's probably the best place to get them.

Also, I disagree with Foggle. 3 is the best because every time I play I can go a completely different route, all of which are totally different and very creative. Basically I'd go:

3 > X > 1 >>> the rest (that I've played)

I haven't played X yet and I'm actually tolerate of 2 so replace X with 2 and that's my list.

My favorite missions are the monster lab or whatever (it's after  the train tracks level) from 2. That was always the highlight when I played on Gametap. I'm also in love with the zombie stage from Metal Slug 3. Love the atmosphere. Played that level with my brother and old friend.

[Foggle]

Finally started playing through Alan Wake. Great game, awesome story/atmosphere, and those loud popup scares have actually been making me jump. I had some issues with the shooting on the Xbox version, but the combat is pretty easy for me with a mouse.

Unfortunately, there are some problems. My GPU gets really hot during this game (hotter than Witcher 2, Crysis, and GTA 4!), meaning I can't play it for extended periods... which sucks because it's really immersive. Also, Steam isn't registering most of my achievements, but I don't care much about that.

[Foggle]

Okay, so I underclocked my GPU to 822 MHz (down from 900)... Alan Wake still gets things pretty hot, but it (just barely) remains firmly in my card's safe zone now (<95C). That's not really a good temperature, either, but at least I know my shit won't get fried. Underclocking also improved my temps for other games and normal computer usage (reduced by a whole 10 degrees across the board), so this was a smart move regardless. Seriously crazy that Alan Wake is more taxing on my graphics card than The Witcher 2, though...

Anyway, I just beat Episode 2. This game is so awesome; really loving it so far. I especially enjoyed all the Max Payne references in the short New York segment.

[Daxdiv]

I've been playing Super Monday Night Combat to get hats in TF2 and you know what, I might visit this game more often. It's just as fun as the original MNC and the MOBA aspect of it is handled pretty well. My only complaint about this games is it's League of Legends style Free-To-Play system where they rotate Pros/Heroes/Champions/Classes out every week or so and if you want a certain hero, you have to pay for them with either real money or some battle coins you get for playing games.

[Foggle]

Finished Episode 3 of Alan Wake. That one was really long! This game is a lot meatier than I expected. I have to say that I'm loving it so far, but the combat is occasionally very frustrating. Like that part at the end of Episode 3 where you get surrounded by Taken in the house... not fun.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

I think Episode 4 was my favorite part of the whole game. I won't spoil it for you, but it has the most epic "monster closet" moment that I've played in any game, ever. Its even better than the one in RE4 where Leon and Louis hold up in a small cabin and fend off hordes of Los Gonados, and that itself was pretty epic.

I can't exactly remember what happened in Episode 3, but out of the original 6 episodes there wasn't a single one that I disliked. Episode 1 was probably my least favorite, though, if only because it was more for tutorial and story exposition than actual gameplay. It was still good stuff, though. Episode 2 and on is when the game got great for me, though. Episode 5 is also really good and has a good chase-like set-piece. As for Episode 6, its good, but it also gets a bit more story-heavy toward the end rather than focusing on the gameplay, but I'm OK with that.

I have to admit, though, I didn't enjoy the first DLC episode, The Signal. It was very story focused but really took the story nowhere, and it mostly just recycled gameplay moments from the original 6 episodes, but only somehow did most of them worse. It introduced a couple of new elements to the gameplay, but for the most part it just felt like an inferior retread of ground already covered in the main game.

Anyways, Alan Wake is definitely my favorite TPS of the generation. I have yet to play Max Payne 3 (which ironically wasn't made by Remedy), but what I can say for sure is leave it to Remedy to make the best damn TPS-action game around. They did it last gen with Max Payne, and as far as I'm concerned they did it again in this gen with Alan Wake.

[Foggle]

What about The Writer, did you play that one? The verdict on the Steam forum appears to be that The Signal is the worst episode and The Writer is in the top 3.

Episode 3 is the one where you get chased by the cops at the beginning. I'm sure it's completely scripted, but I still loved that moment. As a whole, this was a pretty great level for the most part, even if a couple of enemy encounters were fairly annoying. The writing so far is truly brilliant; Sam Lake is a genius.

I already have over 5 hours clocked and I'm not even halfway through (if you count the DLC episodes). It's a lot longer than I thought it would be!

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

What about The Writer, did you play that one? The verdict on the Steam forum appears to be that The Signal is the worst episode and The Writer is in the top 3.

I actually haven't played The Writer, but I would agree with the Steam users from the episodes that I have played (which is everything except for The Writer and the spin-off, American Nightmare) about The Signal being the worst episode. I had a blast replaying Episodes 1-6, whereas I have no motivation or desire to replay The Signal. Its not necessarily bad, but it just feels really weak and uninspired compared to the main game. That's probably why I never bothered moving onto The Writer, but I think I'll change that at some point in time.

I already have over 5 hours clocked and I'm not even halfway through (if you count the DLC episodes). It's a lot longer than I thought it would be!

Yeah, that sounds about right. You're half-way through the main game and the main game itself took me about 10 hours to complete on my first run through. The Signal took me around 2 hours to complete (it was definitely the longest episode I played, since it was released as a stand-alone), so overall I spent 12 hours on the game counting only my first run through it. I still need to get around to The Writer (which I hear also lasts around 2 hours), and I need to get around to American Nightmare as well, one of these days (which is supposedly about 5 hours long).

[Foggle]

Just beat Episode 4. Wow! That was amazing. Easily the best part of the game so far. Absolutely loved the "Children of the Elder God" moment and this episode's awesome story developments/plot twists. Especially brilliant was that bit at the end; very creative. And Barry is probably the best friend character in any video game.

Also, I just noticed that Tom Zane is voiced by James McCaffrey AKA Max Payne and Barry is voiced by Fred Berman AKA Vinnie Gognitti.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Yeah, the Rock Concert stage was the monster closet moment that I was referring to. That was probably my personal favorite part of the entire game.

[Spark Of Spirit]

Is that the "cavern" level? Or is that the one before it? That level was crazy.

[Foggle]

The caverns are in Episode 3, 4 has the farm and the psychiatrist's mansion.

I'm nearing the end of Episode 6 now. 5 was really good, but not nearly as awesome as 4 was IMO. I like 6 so far, but it's going pretty overboard with the enemy encounters... keep getting killed by axes/wrenches thrown from off-screen. Those super speed guys are also kind of annoying. Glad I never had to fight them in the Xbox version; probably would have thrown my controller at the screen.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

You can actually just skip the super speed guys. That's what I did, since they aren't much fun to fight.

[Foggle]

You can actually just skip the super speed guys. That's what I did, since they aren't much fun to fight.

Yeah, that's what I did in earlier chapters, but Episode 6 is forcing me to play very carefully due to its checkpoint placement and enemies spawning in behind me.

[Spark Of Spirit]

6 was my least favorite episode, actually. It was decent enough, but not nearly as interesting as the other ones.