...Would Alan wake have been more satisfying as episodic, downloadable content?

[Danny]

so i've just had a long conversation with some friends about alan wake and its left me thinking, its set as a season of a supernatural tv show. with episode sections and "previously on alan wake" portions.
Given how long we had to wait for a game thats biggest crime was being able to breeze through in a sitting or two would it have been one of the few games that might have been better as episodic downloadable content?

Imagine Downloading Episode 1, Alan's introduction to Bright Falls, the Carl Stucky ordeal and the gas station and then- TO BE CONTINUED IN EPISODE 2 which would come out say... 3 weeks later.
Would'nt the experience have been much more satisfying then? everyone beats it at the same pace and goes "holy shit, you see the end to episode 4?!? holy fuck i cannot wait for episode 5". its reminiscent of watching lost or twin peaks and just being so excited for the next episode. Which makes it all the more satisfying over a incremental period than burning through it in a sitting.

What do you guys think? i know most of us were burnt on episodic content by half life but honestly i think i would have rather played Alan Wake this way and might have actually enjoyed it more than i did.

[MinionZombie]

In short - NO.

[Danny]

In short - NO.

now a response from the non ludittian xbox live members of the community:rolleyes:

[MinionZombie]

"Ludittian"? :rockbrow: Is that a word? Luddite is, but Ludittian? Google says no ... nor am I a fearful textile artisan living at the dawn of the industrial revolution.

Would I want to play a scrap of a game every four weeks? No I wouldn't. Would I be satisfied by seeing a new episode of 24 or Lost or whatever once every four weeks? No I wouldn't. As the makers said, the game is "season one" - one of the inspirations being DVD boxsets - so you can play/watch as much or as little as you want, and you still get that cool "previously on" vibe.

Plus it would limit sales to only those with XBL - and not everyone has (or wants, or is capable of receiving) XBL - it's a fact. Deal with it. Their sales were limited enough as it was - being 360 exclusive and launched on the same day as Red Dead Redemption.

[LouCipherr]

*points upward toward MZ*

What he said. :D

[CooperWasRight]

Once a week would have been cool.... Like an actual tv show. But honestly im gonna say it even though I will be crucified.. Alan Wake wasn't that good.

It suffered from feeling dated and out of touch with this gen of gaming. It was repetitive in a way that would have flown in the last gen of consoles.

The story was ok... The graphics aside from the laughable fugly facial animations were good. but there just wasn't much variance or ingenuity in the actual gameplay... And and the end of the day it is gameplay that comes in as most important in the... you know...Game.

Remedy themselves stated they don't take inspiration from games... They take inspiration from film and tv... (When they started beating this drum I got scarred) This might have been justified if one of two things happened..


1. The game didnt take so long to develop thus staying lockstep with current gameplay standards.

2. The story is mind blowing and written so well that it makes up for gameplay. It wasn't... If Alan Wake was a film it would have made Lynch scratch his head... And not because it was "Lynchian".

In the end the game was good... It just wasn't that good... Is it worth renting...Hell yes..I think sales are a little below what they should be and review scores are about right were they should be.

All this may sound harsh but this is Remedy... Not some first time dev team that came out of nowhere... This game has been drummed up for so long..
Sorry Remedy... To bad you didn't take a few cues from other games for actual gameplay and over all design. If you did we the fans might have actually received a season 2.

[CoinReturn]

Just thought I'd pop in and let all of you in the UK that Deadly Premonition is heading your way on September 17th.

http://www.play.com/Games/Xbox360/4-/15825376/Deadly-Premonition/Product.html

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Rising-Star-Games-Deadly-Premonition/dp/B003VM9DEI/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&s=videogames&qid=1279235806&sr=8-4

For the low price of £17.99, too. It's one of my favorite games released this year, and would make a great companion piece to Alan Wake. As much as everyone says it's "so bad it's good", I actually thing it's genuinely good.

4B1Hxr6eySY

Really bizarre, engaging characters make the admittedly clunky gameplay more than tolerable. So yeah, check it out when it hits, highly recommended.

[MikePizzoff]

Holy crud, that cutscene looks like it was ported off PSX or the DS.