That's fine for Max Payne, but for a popular, Stephen King-like horror novelist?

That's the point. It's part satire.

It isn't that great of a satire if only the author/creator is in on the joke while others are going "...This is dumb. I don't get it".

Basically we ended up in a situation where it is bad writing because the premise and details are bad or it is bad writing because they failed to convey their theme.

I don't think either of those are true, though. I understood the whole thing.

I loved this game. It's a whole lot better than a "gem" like Bioshock Infinite.

In my opinion, the best 360 game.

You know, I say a lot of snarky things about games that I only half-mean because that's just sort of my nature, but I am being completely honest when I say that I can't believe that anyone who has ever played or enjoyed a video game before would like Alan Wake.

Fuck y'all.

If this has the second worst ending of 2010, what's the first? Also, I loved Alan Wake, despite it not really having an ending. Hopefully someday we'll get a proper sequel.

That's quite the hyperbolic statement.

@themanwithnoplan: Naughty bear was a bad game.

2013's 2010 Thread of the Year Nominee

(this is making me want to play Alan Wake again)

It damn sure was.

True. They even acknowledge Alan's excessive use of metaphors in the game. I believe that Sheriff Breaker's critique of his writing was sort of a tongue-in-cheek reference to Sam Lake's "bad" habits. Another possible explanation for the mediocre writing (for those who agree it's mediocre, anyway) is that they wanted the player to relate to Wake on some level. Too much genius can work against that.

It could also be argued that Wake's writing of the manuscripts suffered from the fact that he was distraught, afraid, possibly possessed at the time of their writing. And at least one of the videos featuring Wake in the cabin gives mention of "Barbara Jagger" constantly demanding changes are made to whatever he writes. So who's to say Alan did anything more than transcribe these pages?

Also, about their foretelling future events, I think this was intended to cause the player to dread (in some cases look forward to) what's ahead of them.

Nope.

• The combat is excellently paced and a lot of fun.
• The characters and story are entertaining.
• The world the characters inhabit is an interesting place.
• The music is superb.
• And so on.

But that is my opinion, as it is yours that you clumsily describe it as a "disaster." Yet, even in a few terse bullet points, I've put more effort into expressing my opinion on the game than you have yours.

That's mostly because it's irrelevant to this thread, and partly because I was simply agreeing with someone else. I wasn't aware there would be a debate. But I'll give you one reply on the subject and then you can start a new thread about it if you wish (Let me know if you do this, though).

1. I didn't think the combat was fun, I thought it was a massive step backward from FF12's gambit system. Less control in an RPG? Always a bad thing.

2. I found most of the characters either bland or annoying, never entertaining. Fang was the closest to being likeable, but even she didn't really stand out to me.

3. Sure, the world was "interesting" to me, but only in the sense that it looked absolutely gorgeous, which is what I said was the game's only plus.

4. The music was good, I'll give you that. Allow me to retract my statement and now say FF13 has two things going for it, one of which is rather easy to overlook.

5. It takes forever to get the massive amounts of GP you need to get decent equipment.

6. You're severely limited on how and when you can develop each character, and most of the good spells/abilities are exclusive to a fraction of them. You're practically forced to use certain characters only in certain roles.

7. The linearity. They need to ditch this idea in FF games completely.

8. Vanille. Need I say more? Really?

I won't be talking about FF13 on this thread anymore, just so you know.

I've debated enough on this game in the past that I don't really need to do this at length again. If you don't wish to respond either here or in a PM, then feel free to ignore. Otherwise:

1. The combat isn't trying to be Final Fantasy XII. It's an evolution of the Active Time Battle system seen in most entries in the Final Fantasy series. The combat system provides plenty of control, though it may not be the sort of control that you desire.
2. I can't say I agree. The core cast is pretty well defined and show definite growth and maturation as the story progresses.
3. To me, it's not just gorgeous, but an interesting societal design. Particularly in its contrast between the thriving Cocoon being torn apart by war and the deserted, but naturally thriving Pulse.
4. I wouldn't say that the quality of the music is easy to overlook. I don't necessarily like the soundtrack as much as other entries in the series, but it's right up there in terms of quality.
5. Not really. I don't recall having to grind that much to buy equipment. I upgraded weapons and gear I found along the way, but I didn't do much actual shopping for new gear, as I recall.
6. It's true, the game isn't really geared to making a party of jacks-of-all-trades. The Crystarium isn't as robust a leveling mechanic as previous entries offered. But each character does have roles that they excel at, and I found a party line-up that worked well for me for the majority of the game (Lightning/Fang/Hope).
7. There is nothing wrong with linear game design. Though it can be argued that XIII was too linear, the notion that a non-linear or open world is inherently a better option ignores the flaws that those options come bundled with.
8. Yeah, you need say more. I didn't have any problem with Vanille. Is she a peppy girl? Yeah, but I found her an entertaining fit.

If you don't wish to discuss this further, that's fine.

If it hadn't been for Remedy telling us they would make a sequel, we'd have to worry that the ending of the original game was in fact the ending :(

Of course, I'm sure the critics would love to believe there's no sequel coming at all *growl@critics*

Yeah, that's fine. It's a great game in my opinion, and it deserves to be talked about. I'm not against threads being 'necroed'.