Jimbo_N (Level 15)

So somehow my Pre-order was shipped ONE WEEK early. The SE release date is 14/5 but somehow they messed up by a whole WEEK. I am extremely hyped to finally see a copy of this game in reality and I will update this post with impressions later today. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
[[Gameplay Update]] 
Episode 1 done. Initial impressions.
Alan Wake is a masterpiece in storytelling, writing and building atmosphere. Sound design, music choice and events are triggered and chosen with such perfection that they instantly sets the mood just the right way. The small but important details in sound design are extra appearant to me here.  
On top of this (or part of this) is the fantastic things that you see on televisions scattered around in cabins in the dark forest that you are traversing. I won't spoil it for you but these are a big part of the wierd lynchian atmosphere that the game have started to build up and already.  
After 1 single episode, I already don't really know where I am and what is really going on. Am I awake? am I asleep, am I insane? These are the twists and turns I absolutely love about a good single player game and Alan Wake does it better than any other game (or movie!) in recent memory.  
The similarities between a work of David Lynch and the game are already washing over me and let me tell you right now that if love a good Lynch movie (or TV series *cough* Twin Peaks *cough*) you'll be pleasantly suprised at how well Remedy handles is rather than just ripping it off.  
They have set out to get into your head and mess with it and its already working since I'm already actually starting to "suspect" a person of really being someone else and building up my own explanations for things in my head. 
The scattered manuscript pages that you find are so well written even Stephen King would be envious and they give a wierd sense of forseeing the future by your own written words that adds even further to the mystic and twisted tone of the game (you also see yourself on a television being all crazy, Lost Highway anyone?). 
The game sports an unrivaled lighting engine. If there was 1 thing Remedy worked hard on all these years its the environment lighting. Its simply out of this world. It work nice in cooperation with the very lightbased gameplay. You depend heavily on lightsources and its a fresh gameplay element that works very well. It's also closely tied to the mystery and its revealed right off the bat that your wife has an insane fear of darkness. 
The plot and atmopshere thickens for every step you take in Alan Wake and I am truly blown away right now.

Alright finally got around to preordering StarCraft 2 - Wings of Liberty and Alan Wake.  
GAME.se has a sweet preorder deal that lets you into the beta when you preorder from them. I don't know how much good a betacode will do me at this point but I should hopefully at least get a gew games in.  
For some reason I've been holding back on Preordering Alan Wake. I realized after watching the quick look of it what a fool I've been and instantly put up an order for it. I'm trying to decide if I'm going to get anything else in may. Red Dead Redemption looks kinda interesting and very beautiful and I should probably get 3D Dot game heroes but I suspect its release date will collide with Alan Wake's so it will have to wait.  
Besides I am all into Street Fighter again after the release of SSFIV. After spending hundreds of hours with the original game I slowly drifted away from it. But now I'm back in it for real. Wiped the dust off my SFIV TE stick and started to play online.  
Trying to train my Juri at the moment and still getting a few Cammy games in there when I want to feel at home for a few games. Anyone in EU that want to play a few games? Hit me up at "Jimbo N" on XBL. 
 
I guess none of this is really vital info for anyone but myself but as usual I tend to ignore my blog for way too long and have to get it going again somehow.

Alright "new" might be overstationg it since they've been out for a while but I didn't get around to proper co-op sessions of them until a few nights ago. 
Looking back at how many times we played through the main game it's kinda wierd it took us so long to get to these but hey, now it's done.   
First off its the "Lost in Nightmares" DLC wich takes Jill and Chris back to Weskers mansion and the notalgia trip that his mansion induces. Its heavy on building atmosphere and solving puzzles and then it finishes with some frantic Co-oping to kill some new big baddies and a very dissappointing fight against Wesker that only served as a reminder to why I really hated Wesker in the full game. 
It was over after an hour and change and we were taking it really really slow and got stuck a few times. All in all it was a nice addition to RE5 and it served as a great reminder as to what I want to see in RE6. Give me a whole game in old mansions, spooky forests and Silent Hill-like dungeons but with graphics worthy of the PS3. But in that game I want to see some spooky drapes in the classic mansion hallways and some really heavy rain to go with the thunder outside.  
I guess they could have gone even more over the top with the nostalgia factor while they were at it tho. Give me a puzzle related to paintings in the mansion and throw some dogs through the windows as I walk by them. 
On a sidenote I feel like something went very wrong with the compression of the cutscenes. The last few cutscenes looked really wierd. Also, playing the piano as Jill with a wierd mash up of a rythm game and a QTE. what?!
 
Then we have the 2nd episode called "Desperate Escape" and man does it make good on it's name. This is a constant desperate escape for 1 hour playing as Jill and Josh.  
What feels like endless enemies will come at you and force you to keep moving or run out of ammo really fast. Then they throw turrets and fat enemies at you and when you think it cannot get any more hectic it seals you an an "arena" and let you defend yourselves for 6 or 7 minutes waiting for a helicopter to arrive. Its a contant battle versus enemies from all angles. Covering each others backs and staying on the move is key and its much harder than one might think when you've been away from the game for so long. 
This one is pretty much everything I liked least with RE5. An generic industrial enviroment, endless enemies that eventually harms the co-op experience, ridiculous turret emplacements that blow you the eff up if you stand still and a timed "survival until the evac arrives" thing to go with it.  
The first episode felt like a good addition and a good break from the RE5 formula while the 2nd one just felt like something they threw together to "challenge" experienced players but in the wrong way. 
 
Jumping back into RE5 after so long was easier than I thought tho and the co-op experience is still an awesome one.

Found think thanks to Kevin Van Ord's twitter. I´ll retweet his tweet here on this blog and post the video. 
"Agreed! RT @fiddlecub: Best. Cutscene. Evar. http://bit.ly/aGzuQg    " 
Completely amazing cutscene. Makes me wanna go out and buy this one tomorrow. There's nothing quite like Japanese cheesyness. 
And I mean that. No western developer can combine sexy with perverted. Cool with crazy and mad with sane like the guys in land of the rising sun. 
Not only is this cuscene impressive in its over the top, self distanced cheesyness but it also sports some amazing characters designs behind all that unseriousness. 
I just recently bought a box of raisins since I haven't eaten them in a while  ..in case anyone wanted to know...   
But enjoy this bonanza in wine, good meat, raisins, "revolvers" and boobs. 
  

Only a few...more...games to level 30 on my EU Leauge of Legends account ! 
Will I make it today? maybe so! 
Will I level up my US acc to 30 after that? perhaps.