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Watched an LP of this over on the archive a while back, and I do not recall Alan sounding quite so pretentious in his narration. Seriously, dude, get over yourself. Also, I really want to see some of those extracts or whatever of his writing.
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# ? Dec 4, 2016 20:54 |
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# ? May 15, 2024 04:37 |
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CJacobs posted:Thanks. It's all in the name of quality. Technowolf posted:Is Bright Peaksmouth supposed to be in the northeast U.S. or the northwest U.S.? 'Cause I don't think there are many caldera in loving Maine.
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# ? Dec 4, 2016 21:00 |
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Apep727 posted:Also, I really want to see some of those extracts or whatever of his writing. As I mentioned in the video, The Alan Wake Files contains some of Alan Wake's actual in-universe writing. There's a full short story, and an excerpt from one of his novels. You can look it up to read it all right now if you want, but I'll be drip-feeding it as we go on. To start us off, here is the beginning of Alan's career as a published author! Clay Steward's Description posted:Alan Wake’s first published story, “Errand Boy,” a long out-of-print horror tale, was written when Wake was only eighteen, and previously available only in dog-eared copies of Dark Visions magazine. Clearly, Wake was concerned with the same battle between good and evil that he would explore in his more popular crime fiction. Errand Boy, Excerpt One posted:Rereading this one, Alan's overuse of commas is fuckin killing me here holy crap. There are seven commas in the fourth sentence of the drat thing. I'll post the rest in a couple episodes' time. I also plan on transcribing these to text at some point for people browsing on mobile. CJacobs fucked around with this message at 21:53 on Dec 4, 2016 |
# ? Dec 4, 2016 21:39 |
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Scalding Coffee posted:Like further cooling of the Earth or NOOOOO! on the Earth? Like "ejecting enough ash and debris into the atmosphere to severely limit the sun's rays while the explosion and its fallout devastates large swathes of North America, including the Midwest where all our farms are." From what I've read, a Yellowstone eruption wouldn't cause an extinction-level event (just severely changed climate and geography) but it would certainly devastate North America (which would cause other sorts of chaos).
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# ? Dec 4, 2016 22:12 |
Scalding Coffee posted:A large number of islands have been created by volcanoes. If the cabin from built on anything but an extinct volcano, I would be very worried. Widespread climate change that fucks up worldwide crop growing is the biggest threat. It's unlikely to actually depopulate the Earth. Though again, it's not gonna happen in our lifetimes. Even minor eruptions happen with tens of thousands of years apart.
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# ? Dec 4, 2016 22:14 |
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CJacobs posted:Quoting this again to say that I have recut and re-uploaded the cut commentary version of the first episode. It now has much less talking over the characters. In later episodes of the LP (and episodes of Alan Wake) this will not be as much of a problem because it's mostly Alan by himself, but the game's introduction and other parts where you're just walkin' around Bright Falls are pretty full of dialogue for us to jabber over. So I have rectified the issue by cutting/changing some of the commentary to not be in the way of the game anymore. It is a versatile letter.
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# ? Dec 4, 2016 22:38 |
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CJacobs posted:As I mentioned in the video, The Alan Wake Files contains some of Alan Wake's actual in-universe writing. There's a full short story, and an excerpt from one of his novels. You can look it up to read it all right now if you want, but I'll be drip-feeding it as we go on. To start us off, here is the beginning of Alan's career as a published author! I always love when games do stuff like this- doing writings or just the character's journal (Like, say, Halsey's journal in Halo Reach). Heck, the limited edition of Alan Wake was actually styled to look like a book!
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# ? Dec 4, 2016 23:47 |
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this is the first Alan wake let's play that hasn't bored me to death within the first 20 minutes. looking forward to this.
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# ? Dec 5, 2016 00:24 |
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Aishlinn posted:this is the first Alan wake let's play that hasn't bored me to death within the first 20 minutes. looking forward to this. With CJakes and Skippy at the helm, you would have to hate fun in order to be bored watching this LP.
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# ? Dec 5, 2016 00:58 |
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I love when video game characters are hilariously indestructible. Like Walker(?) from spec ops couldn't be killed by a car door, and Alan here has immunity to all barrels and barrel flavored objects. Literally what the gently caress were the game devs thinking about collectibles though? Coffee thermoses? Really? And why one hundred of them? It just seems like such a forced achievement grabbing optional side quest thing. I suppose spread out, one hundred thermoses aren't that bad. I think something else might've been more appropriate, though I can't recall the entire game. Maybe crow feathers as a collectible and once you collect enough you can make your own crow shaped friend you stick over that gigantic rear end writing desk instead of the freaky owl thing. Also I don't think they could ever bone. Alan is wearing like seventeen layers of clothing based birth control. You need a loving pick axe to uncover his beefy man bod.
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# ? Dec 5, 2016 01:20 |
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I love Alan Wake in a weird way. My favorite part of this game is probably accidental in the production of it. I'll concede that some of the gameplay gets samey (like CJacobs said, Nightmare difficulty is a slog), though that never really bothered me. I enjoyed the story, setting, and the writing (as part of the atmosphere). However, this game has an interesting subtext that people tend to overlook either because of it being called a horror game but not being all that scary, or being a third person shooter. Also, I enjoy the subject of Alan Wake being a good or bad writer. This game's story presents him as both with the player, who will be probably biased based on personal preference, as a final judge. On one hand, I believe the game attempts to portray Alan as a good writer, although not great, but then suffers from a number of genre limitations. One of these, and most ready for discussion after one episode, is that the game writer's are not good writers. (Even though Sam Lake is the easiest name to name, I think the creation of a video game by a full team will have a lot of editing voices). Although the game has a good story overall, as did Max Payne 1 and 2, this does not transfer to the game writers being good writers. Their construction of prose lacks polish. His internal dialog, the most writey part so far, isn't exactly bad, just not good. It mirrors what a lay person would think of good writing, such as girth=quality or complexity=seriousness. These writers rely mostly on stereotypes of good writing, which are formed off a misunderstanding. Essentially, Alan Wake isn't writing as much as he is emulating. He doesn't just emulate Stephen King. He emulates what someone thinks Stephen King must sound like. When Alan must show his chops, the "good" writing is filtered through a bad or an average writer. These writers rely mostly on stereotypes of good writing, which are formed off a misunderstanding. Essentially, Alan Wake isn't writing as much as he is emulating. I could really go on and on about this subject, but might wind up in spoiler territory.
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# ? Dec 5, 2016 01:38 |
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Well, under those 20 layers of clothing and his seemingly-human skin, Alan is actually a manifestation of coffee that has forgotten itself. At the end of the last LP Convergence, he was sundered and isolated in thermoses and this Alan shell, and the darkness in his nightmares is his true black coffee self seeking to destroy his human identity and reassert itself. The Alan persona fights back with creamer in the form of shining light into the darkness but he is also unknowingly restoring the coffee with his thermos collecting.
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# ? Dec 5, 2016 01:44 |
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Fish Noise posted:Well, under those 20 layers of clothing and his seemingly-human skin, Alan is actually a manifestation of coffee that has forgotten itself. At the end of the last LP Convergence, he was sundered and isolated in thermoses and this Alan shell, and the darkness in his nightmares is his true black coffee self seeking to destroy his human identity and reassert itself. The Alan persona fights back with creamer in the form of shining light into the darkness but he is also unknowingly restoring the coffee with his thermos collecting. I've run the numbers and it checks out.
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# ? Dec 5, 2016 03:29 |
I was curious about where Alan got his sweet tweed jacket, and someone on a forum said they thought they remembered hearing that the jacket for the model was bought at H&M. H&M did at one point offer this extremely similar tweed blazer, so I imagine at some point that jacket did get sold to quite a few people who are inadvertently wearing a video game character's costume. They did some neat live action stuff with Ilkka that I don't want to post yet for risk of spoiling the game.
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# ? Dec 5, 2016 04:02 |
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Alan's costume design is real bad imo
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# ? Dec 5, 2016 04:16 |
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Alan's character design is just weird. The game doesn't make any real mentions of how it's cold, or anything like that. It does take place in September I believe, but that's not 2-jackets-and-3-t-shirts levels of cold. It's not even that cold yet right now where I live! It actually used to be even worse. In the beta, Alan was wearing 2 jackets, a sweater, and a scarf! Mr. Highway posted:I love Alan Wake in a weird way. My favorite part of this game is probably accidental in the production of it. I'll concede that some of the gameplay gets samey (like CJacobs said, Nightmare difficulty is a slog), though that never really bothered me. I enjoyed the story, setting, and the writing (as part of the atmosphere). However, this game has an interesting subtext that people tend to overlook either because of it being called a horror game but not being all that scary, or being a third person shooter. I get what you mean, yeah. I think this game's plot is awesome, but their attempts to make Alan sound like an artsy poseur kinda just come across as the game's writers writing like artsy poseurs. Skippy and I have a chat about what "bad writing emulating good writing" sounds like in a future episode. CJacobs fucked around with this message at 04:30 on Dec 5, 2016 |
# ? Dec 5, 2016 04:28 |
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chitoryu12 posted:They did some neat live action stuff with Ilkka that I don't want to post yet for risk of spoiling the game. Also god he's SO HANDSOME. How can someone be this handsome???
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# ? Dec 5, 2016 04:32 |
CJacobs posted:Alan's character design is just weird. The game doesn't make any real mentions of how it's cold, or anything like that. It does take place in September I believe, but that's not 2-jackets-and-3-t-shirts levels of cold. It's not even that cold yet right now where I live! I just got home from New York City yesterday (with a stop in Philadelphia on Friday), and it's plenty cold but all you need is like, a single good jacket over a t-shirt and you'll be fine. Add a scarf and gloves some days. I would make a joke about Alan being an inexperienced city slicker who's overpreparing for the Pacific Northwest, but he's from New York! He sees colder weather than Bright Falls probably ever gets! One last clothing note: I found a great article detailing how the developers created Alan's jacket and the cloth physics behind it. They even correctly modeled the stiffer shoulder pads and how the other parts of the jacket move when Alan moves his shoulders. chitoryu12 fucked around with this message at 04:47 on Dec 5, 2016 |
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# ? Dec 5, 2016 04:44 |
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CJacobs posted:Also god he's SO HANDSOME. How can someone be this handsome??? Ah put it away his handsomeness is taking the focus from this excellent LP
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# ? Dec 5, 2016 04:47 |
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Skippy Granola posted:Ah put it away his handsomeness is taking the focus from this excellent LP I think it's the eyes. He's got these pretty blue eyes that really just draw your attention. Demand it, even! Uh I mean, boy that Alan Wake! His face sure is doughy and his lip-sync sure is crappy. Actually the terrible lip-sync was something this game caught a loooot of flak over when it came out, and I don't blame the criticizers for it because boy does it really screw up the mood! edit: By the way, I added a link in the table of contents to the in-universe writing and stuff, and also fixed having the same banner in there twice (whoops).
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# ? Dec 5, 2016 05:05 |
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chitoryu12 posted:I was curious about where Alan got his sweet tweed jacket, and someone on a forum said they thought they remembered hearing that the jacket for the model was bought at H&M. H&M did at one point offer this extremely similar tweed blazer, so I imagine at some point that jacket did get sold to quite a few people who are inadvertently wearing a video game character's costume. I think you meant to say his iconic costume
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# ? Dec 5, 2016 08:02 |
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Pre-order now to get ALAN WAKE'S ICONIC TWEED™
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# ? Dec 5, 2016 08:07 |
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Fish Noise posted:The C stands for What A Cool Guy Who Is Also Not An Overly Loquacious Jerk Like Alan. WACGWIANAOLJLAJacobs. It all makes sense now.
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# ? Dec 5, 2016 08:59 |
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White Coke posted:WACGWIANAOLJLAJacobs. It all makes sense now.
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# ? Dec 5, 2016 09:10 |
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Man I was just thinking I should replay this game. And now I don't have to!
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# ? Dec 5, 2016 11:18 |
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I'll try to keep up with the LP. I want to see what I've missed in my recent playthrough, and how others interpret the story. I did have some fun with the game, and I appreciate much of the effort the developers put into it (and even the parts that they worked on but apparently never fully made it into the game), but ultimately I had more frustrating times overall while playing it. I also wish they had released and SDK for mods like they had done with the Max Payne games, because clearly their engine has improved a lot and it would be interesting to see what projects the modding community would come up with.
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# ? Dec 5, 2016 12:57 |
I had some thoughts about cosplaying Alan Wake before, but looking at his costume in detail now I've realized that I'd probably overheat and die.
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# ? Dec 5, 2016 15:29 |
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Then go for his American nightmare look instead.
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# ? Dec 5, 2016 16:07 |
Kopijeger posted:Then go for his American nightmare look instead. I'll admit that the original tweed jacket and 5 extra layers is the most iconic costume for a cosplay.
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# ? Dec 5, 2016 16:27 |
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Mr. Highway posted:Also, I enjoy the subject of Alan Wake being a good or bad writer. This game's story presents him as both with the player, who will be probably biased based on personal preference, as a final judge. On one hand, I believe the game attempts to portray Alan as a good writer, although not great, but then suffers from a number of genre limitations. One of these, and most ready for discussion after one episode, is that the game writer's are not good writers. (Even though Sam Lake is the easiest name to name, I think the creation of a video game by a full team will have a lot of editing voices). Although the game has a good story overall, as did Max Payne 1 and 2, this does not transfer to the game writers being good writers. Their construction of prose lacks polish. His internal dialog, the most writey part so far, isn't exactly bad, just not good. It mirrors what a lay person would think of good writing, such as girth=quality or complexity=seriousness. These writers rely mostly on stereotypes of good writing, which are formed off a misunderstanding. Essentially, Alan Wake isn't writing as much as he is emulating. He doesn't just emulate Stephen King. He emulates what someone thinks Stephen King must sound like. When Alan must show his chops, the "good" writing is filtered through a bad or an average writer. These writers rely mostly on stereotypes of good writing, which are formed off a misunderstanding. Essentially, Alan Wake isn't writing as much as he is emulating. Well, without spoiling anything, I think this question is really answered in this next episode: Cut Version Uncut Version
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# ? Dec 5, 2016 16:55 |
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Nice piece of fish posted:Well, without spoiling anything, I think this question is really answered in this next episode:
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# ? Dec 5, 2016 17:05 |
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CJacobs posted:Also god he's SO HANDSOME. How can someone be this handsome???
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# ? Dec 5, 2016 17:14 |
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Your own fault for bringing up a very apt comparison. It took me to a... dark place.
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# ? Dec 5, 2016 17:19 |
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Damnit Cjacobs we should have called the thread "Blood, blood and bits of sick"
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# ? Dec 5, 2016 17:22 |
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Nice piece of fish posted:Well, without spoiling anything, I think this question is really answered in this next episode: Just wait until I finalize my thesis working under the assumption that Alan Wake is meant to be a bad writer. The real psychological action thriller is how I won't stop talking.
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# ? Dec 5, 2016 18:04 |
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Mr. Highway posted:I love Alan Wake in a weird way. My favorite part of this game is probably accidental in the production of it. I'll concede that some of the gameplay gets samey (like CJacobs said, Nightmare difficulty is a slog), though that never really bothered me. I enjoyed the story, setting, and the writing (as part of the atmosphere). However, this game has an interesting subtext that people tend to overlook either because of it being called a horror game but not being all that scary, or being a third person shooter. Accordion Man fucked around with this message at 20:47 on Dec 5, 2016 |
# ? Dec 5, 2016 20:44 |
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CJacobs posted:I get what you mean, yeah. I think this game's plot is awesome, but their attempts to make Alan sound like an artsy poseur kinda just come across as the game's writers writing like artsy poseurs. Skippy and I have a chat about what "bad writing emulating good writing" sounds like in a future episode. Part of me wants to give Remedy way too much credit and say that Alan Wake being a bad imitation of a bad Stephen King novel is totally on purpose, even the actual bad parts. Alan Wake the character being not only a bad imitation author but a bad imitation of a Stephen King character. But that's mostly just because Max Payne 2 is basically the perfect video game and with that game they did intentionally make everything completely over the top and overwrought and I think they realized early on that if they were going to make a campy, pulpy, self-aware noir shooter they might as well make it the worst/best campy, pulpy, self-aware noir shooter they could. Also so much of Stephen King is bad already it's hard to tell. Kibayasu fucked around with this message at 21:20 on Dec 5, 2016 |
# ? Dec 5, 2016 21:16 |
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stephen king isn't very good at character writing sure but i've seen nothing that really seems to be aping his vast world-building he likes to do like seriously read Salem's Lot there's like 15 chapters describing what people are doing in the town, or describing the town (i like those parts of Salem's Lot and most of his books tbh, i'd read a Stephen king atlas)
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# ? Dec 5, 2016 21:27 |
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mandatory lesbian posted:like seriously read Salem's Lot there's like 15 chapters describing what people are doing in the town, or describing the town (i like those parts of Salem's Lot and most of his books tbh, i'd read a Stephen king atlas) There's also a chapter or so in The Stand consisting of little vignettes of people who managed to survive the super-flu only to die because they have an accident or something. It's depressing as hell, but totally fitting, given the premise.
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# ? Dec 5, 2016 23:47 |
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# ? May 15, 2024 04:37 |
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This Alan Awake character seems like a bit of a prat.
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# ? Dec 6, 2016 02:09 |