Alan Wake

There was quite a bit of hype to Alan Wake in the months before release; it was the type of hype that I was barely paying attention to but yet, was the forefront of my gaming conscience. It would be like trying to watch a movie with a giant pillar of glowing blue light coming from your closet: you want to ignore it, and you can ignore it, but curiosity catches up quickly and you have no choice but to throw open the doors. In this case I only opened the doors a crack, and understood at once that I was staring at a different kind of gaming beast. This beast, I knew at that time, would be mine in due time - not upon release, of course - and I would eventually be playing it. Weird how that works, as I barely knew what the game was, how it played or why anyone cared. But they did care, and I picked up on the aura: when the game hit $20 before it should have, I snatched it up, put it in it's place in the collection (its place being the first slot, thanks to alphabetization) and there it sat, for many months.

It sat, calling, for quite some time. It's impossible to determine how much exactly or even approximately. We could be talking a year or more; we could be talking a few months. It's like the title has been there forever yet just arrived - a warning I should have realized regarding how creepy the game is to play. Sure, I was told; my friend had been playing it, and knowing me more than I now myself, informed me that I would be too scared to play it (alone, at least). He would be right, of course: I had a hard time playing Doom 3 back in the day, and I couldn't even make it through the demo of Condemned 2. Alan Wake would be different though. Since I have a bit of extra time during the day, I decided to go for it. I needed a different title to play than Fable III, and this would be just the ticket. 

The weather outside was warm, and more importantly, sunny. This should help with my fears, right? I put the game disc in and let the 360 drive absorb it. Then it happens: the un-Godly whirring noise of a disc being spun to velocity that is trademarked by the Microsoft system. The last time I heard a system make this sort of noise I was playing Project Gotham Racing 3, over five years ago. This problem was supposed to be fixed, right? Apparently my new-ish box is not immune. Quickly exiting the title screen, I was back upon the dashboard and chose the option to install the game, a function typically reserved for reducing load times but in this instance, would also be used to deafen the turbine that was going off in my living room. Unfortunately it takes about a half hour to install a game, and during that process the drive is going at full tilt. I left the room, and upon coming back and seeing the mission accomplished, I turned everything off and occupied my mind with something else. The spark had faded, and I found myself loading up a television show and my laptop: the show as background noise and Reddit as the source of concentration for the next hour.

A week later and I'm able to start playing the game again. This is record time; see, the last time I turned a game off like that was Halo 3, and it took me two whole years to return to it. It happened with Ocarina of Time more than a decade ago, which resulted in a year long hiatus and me restarting from the beginning. Alan Wake would not defeat me like that. It seemed like the gauntlet was thrown down - I'm not sure who did the throwing, but it was there - and I was ready to take up the challenge. The only rule, so far, is that I play while the sun is out. And how fitting it turns out the light is to me, as it is important to the title character himself. As he wields his flashlight, narrowing its beam to weaken enemies, then quickly running to a bright spot where he can recoup his sanity - or at least, my own. After completing the first episode, I fear something else though. I really enjoy the title, and I'm not sure I can not play at night, during prime gaming hours With the sun setting so early it would be unfair to myself - and to Alan - if I were to not piece together more of the mystery.

Wish me luck.