I'm looking to try out alan wake but am pretty confused with all the retail/arcade editions. I tried googling it but can't seem to find proper keywords. :(

Start from the original and work though the DLC.

Just buy the original Alan Wake game. "The Signal" and "The Writer" are both DLC packs for that game. American Nightmare is an XBLA game.

Alan Wake then The Signal and The Writer. The two DLCs are basically chapter 7 and 8 of the main game. American Nightmare is stand alone and more of a spin-off.

Alright, thanks all. I was really confused and thought that the two DLCs were the main game split into two episodes. Glad you guys cleared that up, thanks a bunch!

I really enjoyed Alan Wake. One of my absolute favorites of this generation. Hope you're enjoying your first playthrough!

Alan Wake is one of the best games this gen, but American Nightmare is a complete write off and can be skipped. Way too much backtracking, it's a really lazy game.

If you have a good PC that version of the game is actually really good and looks fantastic. I recently replayed it and it's actually one of my favorites ever. Hope you enjoy it.

@ogred: Not sure if you ever bought it but you can get the download code for it on Ebay for pretty cheap. I enjoyed it but I don't know if the story will ever get completed.

I don't want to attempt to play moderator here but you probably should have posted this on the Alan Wake or the American Nightmare forum.

I own both the games on steam but have not got around to playing them yet but it seems to best way to go is just to play them in the order they were released.

EDIT: oops did not see this thread was 2 months old.

Start at the very beggining. A very good place to start.

In the chronological order from both release and plot development:

1. Alan Wake
2. Alan Wake: The Signal (DLC for Alan Wake)
3. Alan Wake: The Writer (DLC for Alan Wake)
4. Alan Wake: American Nightmare

Although if you don't want to spend money in DLC, you can just skip the two DLCs as there isn't any significant plot development there, mostly background stuff, and they are mostly about gameplay.