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White Coke posted:I wonder how much effect Alan had in defining the Dark Presence in addition to empowering it. It needs to work through people, whether it's by possessing people or more abstractly by making Alan's story come true, so maybe Alan or someone else could be beat it by recreating that episode of Futurama where Fry beat the Brainspawn by trapping them in a prison of "plot holes and spelling errors". I was thinking about who gave it what powers. I think Zane is responsible for the Taken and for the Dark Presence in general. This shadowy existence that lurks inside of people, puppeting them in this twisted pantomime of their former life seems like something a poet would create. Alan is definitely responsible for the poltergeists. He says as much when he talks about the objects coming to life as being like right out of a Steven King novel. The crows were probably from the Old Gods. There are some lines in Children of the Elder Gods that mention them, I think. EDIT: Also, I really want a prequel to this game where you play as the Old Gods during their fight with the dark presence. Playing at Tor fighting off waves of Taken with an electrified hammer while Odin shreds on an electric guitar behind you. Gothsheep fucked around with this message at 04:43 on Apr 8, 2017 |
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Apr 8, 2017 04:14
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Gothsheep posted:So everybody loves this part of the game for the stage fight, which is awesome. However, I also think this is the best written part of the game from the meta-narrative standpoint. Now, that's a really wanky term, but it's an important one in Alan Wake. Haha, this is pretty good! I like it! And you're right, too- starting with probably the sentient bulldozer, the game very gradually begins to shift from horror to action.
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Apr 8, 2017 04:43
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a lot of games like alan wake tend to have the point where the player shifts into a position of being able to reliably fight back against whatever they're against, but, very few of them have such a focus on the literal 'story' bit of it all so it really sticks out in this game. especially if you're reading all the pages that you find. also barry is really good and the stage fight is a great place for that to show. he also keeps being great all through the dlcs for various reasons.
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Apr 8, 2017 07:00
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Gothsheep posted:Basically the game starts off straight horror. You're powerless, hunted by shadowy figures you don't understand, with no idea what's going on or why. Even if it made sense in the plot, something like that fight on the stage wouldn't have fit in the earlier parts of the game just because it would have been such a shift in tone. I like your interpretation. A few good moments in the early game break up the "creepier" bits, but toward the end, Alan Wake adopts the confident mindset of any FPS protagonist. Overall, I think the game paces the slower and faster gameplay sections well. To add more to what you said, I think the shift from horror to action is summed up by the description provided on the front of the box: psychological action thriller. The game is never really a horror game. The horror elements come from an almost academic appreciation of horror. Alan Wake's internal monologue is well aware of the horror stereotypes and tells the player not to be clever but to separate itself from being labeled as a horror game. It is an action game based on a psychological question. However, games like Silent Hill 2 have married "psychological" to "horror", establishing a preconceived standard in the player. Early reviews pointed out the lack of scares in the game, which, I felt, only pointed out how generic we expect a scary game to be. The reviews showed a lack of imagination on the reviewer's part. Alan Wake's real horror comes from a more confusing, convoluted place that most people won't care to venture to. As such, I can ask the question "when does the events of the game (by which I mean the parts controlled by the player) take place?" Alan-TV talks about moving the book from horror, because Alice will have to die in a horror story. Alan-Game hears this revelation from Alan-TV. This means Alan-TV either wrote his appearance into the manuscript that controls Alan-Game's action, or possibly that Alan-Game's events happen while Alan-TV writes. If the latter is true, the brief flashes from the TV show concurrent brief moments when Alan-TV breaks the spell and sees his work as a living creature. The real Alan still sits in the sunken cabin typing away. Alan-Game doesn't discover manuscript pages because they were blown away by supernatural winds, he discovers them because the real Alan wants him to find them, possibly to make the story more interesting.
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Apr 9, 2017 01:27
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These readings are great and make sense. But what about the coffee thermoses?
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Apr 9, 2017 04:32
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Tasteful Dickpic posted:These readings are great and make sense. Both an element to show homage to Twin Peaks, and something to collect for collection's sake.
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Apr 9, 2017 04:49
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they represent the many shattered pieces of alan wake's self worth, causing him to lash out at those around him
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Apr 9, 2017 06:15
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Tasteful Dickpic posted:But what about the coffee thermoses? I've already talked about how you can interpret Alan as an alcoholic. The many thermoses are his vain attempt to treat his addiction with another addiction.
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Apr 9, 2017 21:19
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Apr 10, 2017 06:12
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Mr. Highway posted:As such, I can ask the question "when does the events of the game (by which I mean the parts controlled by the player) take place?" Alan-TV talks about moving the book from horror, because Alice will have to die in a horror story. Alan-Game hears this revelation from Alan-TV. This means Alan-TV either wrote his appearance into the manuscript that controls Alan-Game's action, or possibly that Alan-Game's events happen while Alan-TV writes. If the latter is true, the brief flashes from the TV show concurrent brief moments when Alan-TV breaks the spell and sees his work as a living creature. The real Alan still sits in the sunken cabin typing away. Alan-Game doesn't discover manuscript pages because they were blown away by supernatural winds, he discovers them because the real Alan wants him to find them, possibly to make the story more interesting. The game's never entirely clear on that point, as far as I remember. All it ever says outright is that in-game events (starting from Alan waking up after his first dunk in the lake) take place a week after Alan and Alice arrive in Bright Falls.
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Apr 10, 2017 14:21
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Dark-Place-Alan presumably is writing the game as we are playing it, with occasional breaks to do his third-wall-breaking monologues to ingame-Alan to clue him in on what's going on, point him in the right direction outside of the narrative as Thomas Zane does. Or, alternatively, Dark-Place-Alan wrote his communications with ingame-Alan into the story and they're not ad libbed at all. Who knows!
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Apr 10, 2017 14:24
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Talking about being tall on your latest DS3 stream; I feel you on the height bullshit, I'm 6'5", and it sucks. Gotta order tall shirts online, and I wear size 15 shoes, so those are a pain in the rear end to find too.
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Apr 17, 2017 06:02
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CJacobs is the tallest LP boy.
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Apr 17, 2017 12:36
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Haerc posted:Talking about being tall on your latest DS3 stream; Same. I'm pretty sure my boss hired me partly because I can reach heavy stuff on higher shelves than everyone else at the store I work at.
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Apr 17, 2017 15:28
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Consider this...... Cjacobs is a tall fellow. All the dark souls bosses are taller than the playable character. Therefore cjacobs is secretly a Lord.
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Apr 17, 2017 17:03
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   All those safety videos about the dangers of farm equipment are starting to make more sense now. CJacobs fucked around with this message at 20:11 on Aug 7, 2017 |
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Apr 17, 2017 18:13
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Alan Wake is like LA Beast drinking that old-rear end moonshine.
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Apr 17, 2017 18:16
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CJacobs posted:Bad news about the Twin Peaks watchalong. I've decided that I don't really wanna bother with it, sorry. It was fun, but I'd have to really squeeze to fit the whole show in before the Alan Wake LPs are over. I also am just not really in a good creative spot at the moment. On the bright side, you can watch the rest of the series now without having to wait patiently for me to get off my clinically depressed rear end and do another writeup! I hope I helped get some people into the show and hopefully get hyped for its return in May. Thanks for participating, everyone! Sad to see it go, I really enjoyed the writeups but I suppose there's only so much you can write for every episode, and it is probably a big drain on you to think so critically about it. I appreciate the writeups thus far and I'm now watching through it with my girlfriend for the May return.
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Apr 17, 2017 19:00
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I wouldn't mind living in Skippy Granola's Canadian Nightmare. I also love the cheapo TV drama effect Remedy went with when Alan drove off a cliff. Combat Lobster fucked around with this message at 19:26 on Apr 17, 2017 |
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Apr 17, 2017 19:21
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I missed the stream, how tall is CJacobs?value-brand cereal posted:Consider this...... Cjacobs is a tall fellow. All the dark souls bosses are taller than the playable character. CJacobs is Gwyn's firstborn!
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Apr 17, 2017 19:44
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IBlameRoadSuess posted:Sad to see it go, I really enjoyed the writeups but I suppose there's only so much you can write for every episode, and it is probably a big drain on you to think so critically about it. I appreciate the writeups thus far and I'm now watching through it with my girlfriend for the May return. Yeah I also was concerned about running out of things to say about it. I didn't want it to end up being all like "well this episode was good, show is still genius! See ya next week!" And plus, the blog/news site Nerdist has their own Twin Peaks watchalong that I encourage you to check out if you still want one to, uh, watch along with! White Coke posted:I missed the stream, how tall is CJacobs? 6 foot 2. I am a tall skinny weirdly proportioned freak of nature. CJacobs fucked around with this message at 20:43 on Apr 17, 2017 |
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Apr 17, 2017 20:35
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I blame you both for now mentally calling things "a spicy <noun>" these days. Also I really enjoyed the music here. I would totally attend a Valhalla concert!
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Apr 17, 2017 21:31
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Speaking of the Dark Souls 3 streams, right at this very moment I am starting my stream of the final DLC, totally blind! Come watch me have fun and possibly also suffer!
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Apr 18, 2017 01:24
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now i wish i wasn't at work right now
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Apr 18, 2017 01:33
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Sorry to hear about the Twin Peaks cancellation. My coffee warned me about it, but I didn't think much of it at the time. On the other hand, hearing Skippy say "Bloobie" is probably the cutest thing.
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Apr 18, 2017 14:52
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I really wished the game had you fight the harvester in the middle of a grown corn/wheat field that it gradually cleared out. Oh wait, no, marijuana field, this is the Anderson farm after all.
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Apr 18, 2017 23:03
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Kibayasu posted:I really wished the game had you fight the harvester in the middle of a grown corn/wheat field that it gradually cleared out. Alan Wake's Reefer Madness. It ends up playing out like that mission in Far Cry 3. The Unlife Aquatic fucked around with this message at 23:20 on Apr 18, 2017 |
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Apr 18, 2017 23:11
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It's a real pity they cut the fight with the mammoth skeleton.
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Apr 19, 2017 05:14
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The Unlife Aquatic posted:Alan Wake's Reefer Madness. Footage from the latest Alan Wake DLC: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L2J7SKcsWnw
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Apr 19, 2017 12:28
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lotta griping from 6'5 manlets itt get on my level of 6'8 cjacobs I witnessed your glorious victory against the final DS3 ringed city dlc boss and want to thank you for streaming both since they were highly entertaining. I bought the season pass when I purchased the game, but found their level of BS too great for me to want to play through them. Your chill streams were a good compromise to catching the content "blind." re: Alan Wake - I liked the twilight zone rip-off's line about "the guy in the diving suit" being a dream. neat blurring of multiple fictions.
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Apr 20, 2017 08:04
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one of the things i liked about alan wake is that you can tell the devs definitely had fun with the game when they made stuff like the night springs episodes. not everyone would go through the effort of making goofy little live-action fake tv shows in their game
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Apr 20, 2017 08:11
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Johnny Joestar posted:one of the things i liked about alan wake is that you can tell the devs definitely had fun with the game when they made stuff like the night springs episodes. not everyone would go through the effort of making goofy little live-action fake tv shows in their game Yeah, Alan Wake is a real labor of love. It shows in a million little ways, and they all come together to make a narrative that feels really comfortable with itself. I think my favorite little moment so far was Barry unloading on Alan. In general Barry is a character who could have really been awful, there's a real balance in his execution you don't often see in video games.
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Apr 20, 2017 08:15
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the writing stays pretty good even throughout the dlc chapters as well, which is nice. i'm looking forward to those for varying reasons.
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Apr 20, 2017 08:22
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The Unlife Aquatic posted:Yeah, Alan Wake is a real labor of love. It shows in a million little ways, and they all come together to make a narrative that feels really comfortable with itself. I think my favorite little moment so far was Barry unloading on Alan. In general Barry is a character who could have really been awful, there's a real balance in his execution you don't often see in video games.
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Apr 20, 2017 18:26
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By the way, for those that didn't watch the DS3 streams, I'm doing a tiny little something alongside Bloodborne once American Nightmare finishes... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c1Kl4H2x1d8
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Apr 20, 2017 21:43
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I think that test was the equivalent of the professor realizing they left all the tests in their office across campus and doesn't feel like a fifteen minute jog to go g wait what were the last few moments of that clip CJACOBS YOU BUSY BEE YOU HOLY poo poo
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Apr 20, 2017 22:10
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Nice. Hopefully I've actually played DS3 myself by the time you get to it. (I've got a bit of a games backlog going.)
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Apr 20, 2017 22:46
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Hi, sorry this LP kinda went kaput. After Kidney Stones: The Revenge, I fell behind on my school stuff, way behind on some of them. It made me a little bit depressed, and I hate feeling that way, so I stepped back to focus on myself and fixing my problems for a while. It's now finals week and I'm pretty much all caught up, and I don't have any classes this summer, which means I'm gonna be a speedy speed boy wrt finishing this let's play! So look forward to that. It's just been a stressful time for me, and it's almost over!
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May 11, 2017 21:09
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Obv. real life takes all precedence over any L.P. Just glad to her from you, and that you are doing better.
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May 11, 2017 21:10
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This reminds me of the time I took summer classes during Uni. I will never take summer classes again.
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May 11, 2017 22:20
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