Subrosian told a large number of lies about me in his posts about me and in case anyone here is convinced that what he is saying is true, Allow me to say that it isn’t. And unlike him, I don’t make unsubstantiated claims. He alleged that the argument did not arise over Halo 3. That was a lie. Was it entirely focused on Halo 3? No, of course not. But that’s the reason why it began. Plain and simple. Here are a few excerpts from the argument he and I had. Out of respect to third parties, I’ve changed their names.

<subrosian> y’know what

<subrosian> I’ve had it

<subrosian> with the current administration of this union

As you can see, he basically voluntarily decided to leave. He was not asked to leave or forcibly removed.

<The_Game21x> let it go Sub

<sonicmj1> you should not be at each other’s throats over this

<The_Game21x> it’s over

<The_Game21x> Jecht, you too

I try to quell the conflict.

<sonicmj1> people should not be leaving the union over this

<subrosian> no it’s not game

And he starts it back up again.

<subrosian> if you don’t apologize

<subrosian> and admit your [sic] were wrong

<subrosian> i’m done with this shit

He expects, no, demands an apology from us, even after all of the negative things he’s said to us.

<subrosian> y’know what?

<subrosian> that’s not what I joined GUFU for

<subrosian> and you cannot deny

<subrosian> how much help I’ve been for GUFU

<subrosian> so – you want my continued help

<subrosian> or you want to be fanboys?

<subrosian> your choice

Again, he demands an apology or he’ll walk away.

<The_Game21x> I don’t give a fuck what you think any more

And I tell him how I’m feeling without mincing words.

<subrosian> again

<subrosian> you want my help

<subrosian> or not?

Once again with the ultimatum. But it doesn’t matter. By this point, I’m fed up with his shit.

<The_Game21x> Do what you feel you need to

<The_Game21x> that’s all I’m saying

<The_Game21x> I’m not arguing any more

Could this be seen as a dismissal? Perhaps. But I leave the statement open. The choice to leave or stay is his. At no point do I ever say “Get the fuck out” or anything of the sort. I’m tired of dealing with him and decide not to make any decisions regarding Subrosian leaving or staying given my frustrated state as I know that I will be inherently biased.

<subrosian> cake if they don’t want t oadmit [sic] my contributions to GUFU

What contributions?

<subrosian> the union was on the rocks

No it wasn’t.

<subrosian> and almost termintated [sic] by the admins

<subrosian> before me

Another lie.

<subrosian> you guys are clueless

<subrosian> about some shit

<subrosian> ak got banned

<The_Game21x> So GUFU was almost terminated eh

<The_Game21x> how?

<subrosian> and he’s ban dodging

<subrosian> and I know who he is

Oh boy, is that a threat?

<subrosian> Bill asked me to leave GUFU

He sure did. Thankfully, the decision to remove a user from the union is not up to him.

<The_Game21x> I’ve already calmed down

<The_Game21x> Sub is just insulting my integrity here

I speak out against him continuously insulting me with lies and other unsubstantiated accusations…

<subrosian> your integrity is in shambles buddy

<subrosian> you can have my help when you grow up

And again with the insults.

<Will> let it go

<Will> all of you

<subrosian> i’m not letting it go

He refuses to drop this.

<subrosian> look

<subrosian> I’ve had it with your drama

<subrosian> keep it here

<Bill> You brought the drama here.

<subrosian> or i’ll delete it and let the mods sort it out in the morning

<subrosian> we clear?

<The_Game21> so you’re telling me who’s in charge here?

<subrosian> because if anyone wants to call shit out

<The_Game21> Excuse me?

<subrosian> I will call this whole fucking union out

Subrosian makes demands and threats.

<The_Game21> Do it then

I call his bluff.

<subrosian> and you will show me some god damn respect Bill

<subrosian> I’m the same rank as you

More demands.

<Bill> Nah, I choose who I respect and who I don’t

<The_Game21> Respect is earned

And he’s shut down again.

<subrosian> no you have to have some goddamn integrity

<The_Game21> Oh my god

<subrosian> and admit when you’re wrong

<The_Game21> for the last time

<Bill> Oh bullshit dude, I didn’t start you hating on Halo 3 man.

<subrosian> that wasn’t hating

<subrosian> it’s my damn opinion

<The_Game21> I DO NOT support everything Bill does

<Bill> No, he doesn’t

<subrosian> it’s a good old boy network game

<subrosian> and i’m sick of it

<subrosian> I’m done

<subrosian> with both of you

<subrosian> good night

At this point, Subrosian leaves. The next day, he sends out a mass PM to all union members and resigns on his own accord.

Now, I’ll give you the entirety of Subrosian’s allegations against me. Four years ago, Subrosian was allegedly working on a project that would catapult the union into the stratosphere, so to speak.

Four years ago I put several hundred hours of my time and effort into making it so GS was going to feature a gaming union on the front page of their site, stop modding our members every five minutes, and have more of their staff and mods post on our forums. It was something that would have had a large, positive influence on GameSpot.

In a separate post, he had this to say about his efforts.

Yeah, e-drama, but not over some stupid game, it was over a union that I was putting my ass on the line for, writing letters to GameSpot for, making phone calls to editors in Cali for, trying to get the “little internet union” to actually be able to have fun posting on System Wars without getting modded all the time (and oh god, we were getting modded CONSTANTLY back then, if Blackbond was still around he could show you his mod history, hell, I’ll post mine at some point, we were getting modded for calling fanboys out on being fanboys, it was bad).

Sound ambitious? Maybe a bit too ambitious? That’s irrelevant. Now, consider this with me. If you had spent several hundred hours working on a project of this magnitude, calling GameSpot editors and whatnot (by the way, none of this was mentioned to me, at any point), would you throw all of that away and resign from the union you’ve supposedly been “putting your ass on the line for”? Over an argument that resulted because of dissenting opinions on Halo 3 and a little bit of name calling? Does that even sound remotely rational?

I didn’t kick him out of the union, thereby throwing all of his alleged “hard work” in the garbage. He left on his own, but not after telling me to go fuck myself and calling me a “talentless hack”.

So who’s the bad guy here? Subrosian is accusing me of a lack of professionalism in this matter but he left the union on his own accord over a heated exchange. He threw his own work in the garbage by leaving (if he even did any of the things he’s claiming in the first place) and now holds me responsible for it going to waste?

Am I the only one seeing something seriously wrong here?

After leaving GUFU, he soon started his own union by the name of Avant-Game, which is all but dead (which is thoroughly pleasing to me) and the thought strikes me. If he had done all of this work, why is it that he couldn’t execute his plans with his own union? Did the plans require GUFU to be the featured union? Was he simply too incompetent to make his plan work? Or does he just need a scapegoat to blame his personal problems on now that all of his dreams and ambitions for making GameSpot a better place have failed?

I’m thinking the latter. Or maybe a combination of the three.

He needs someone to blame because he can’t accept the fact that his plans fell through due to his own stupidity and lack of professionalism. A professional doesn’t call their boss (figuratively speaking, of course) a talentless hack, tell him to go fuck himself and immediately quit over an argument. A professional goes home, takes some time to cool off and reexamines the situation at a later time.

And he claims I’m the one who threw a tantrum. Right.

The fact is, Subrosian’s ego won’t allow him to accept failure. That tends to be common among people whose egos are so massive you can see them from space…and from another galaxy…millions of light years away. His ego won’t allow him to accept that, maybe, just maybe, his ambitions falling apart are the result of his own doing. So, what does his ego do? It forces him to find a scapegoat. It also forces him to become a pathological liar.

The little lying **** spent 6 months posting lies about me on every forum he could find because GUFU was still bleeding members, and several of its members were banned over the incident, including his friend who’d came back to the site. Game has spent more time suspended for the lies he posted about me than anything else in his history on the site. So when someone runs a project you spent a bunch of time on into the ground, then spend several months actively pissing on the wound, do you think you’re going to feel amicable towards them a few years down the road?

Nothing said in the entire paragraph above is true. When Subrosian left, I moved on. I didn’t care about what he was doing. He had left a bad taste in my mouth and I wanted to distance myself from him in every way. The only time I so much as mentioned him was when he made some outlandish claims about me to his Avant-Game members and they came after me. When that happened, I was forced to set the record straight regarding the completely unsubstantiated claims he had been making about me. The type of claims I see he’s still making, four years later.

I was never suspended for anything I said regarding him. As I said, I avoided talking about him almost entirely and the one or two times I did mention his names over the six months following the incident, I was never suspended for or moderated at all. Once again, he’s making completely unsubstantiated claims.

Long story short, Game threw a tantrum. I had grown GUFU by several hundred members, and his little virgin ego got in a twist over it. So I left the union, along with 100+ other members, and that was that. Since then he has been absolutely convinced that he’s going to prove me wrong.

More lies. If anyone threw a tantrum, it was him, as I’ve already shown. Period. Also, GUFU has never, at any point, had more than 200 – 250 members or so, therefore, his ridiculous claim of having grown GUFU by “several hundred members” is completely false. His claim that 100+ members following him when he left is also a lie. Very few, if any, people left the union in the fallout of his argument with me.

As for his claims of me trying to prove him wrong, he gives himself far too much credit. I’ve barely even thought about Subrosian for the past few years since this happened (funny thing, I did this wonderful thing called “get over it”) and seeing as I don’t have an unjustifiably massive ego to defend, I don’t feel the need to justify myself to him or anyone else.

So there you have it folks. The truth of the matter. Subrosian is an egomaniac and a pathological liar who is embroiled with hatred for me over some plans (which, again, I’ve never seen and only heard mentioned off hand and in passing) that he threw away by leaving GUFU or never had in the first place. And given his history of being a pathological liar, I’m just as inclined to believe the latter as the former.

I just thought I’d clear my name and tell everyone the real story. My ego may not be large but if there’s one thing I can’t stand, it’s people spreading lies about me, so any I hear about will be shot down in any way I can. Whether or not you believe me is up to you, but now you have the whole story. Do what you will with it.

The Winchesters were back for another season after an impressive five year run with Eric Kripke at the helm. With Kripke stepping down from his day to day duties Sera Gamble was given the difficult task of having to appease a diehard fanbase with a follow up season that involved a battle with The Devil himself. It was expected season six would be a drop off from the previous season, but it wasn’t expected to have such a sloppy outing. As stated in my previous article on the show I wasn’t too particularly fond of how they were handling all the different plot lines. With Crowley, a search for Purgatory, Sam’s soulless return, the war in heaven, and Eve all being done in one season it made the season feel like it lacked focus.

Season six started off with Dean living his normal life with Ben and Lisa. Until of course his old life comes right back to put him and his new family in danger. With that we also got to see that Sam was in fact okay and not in hell(though that wasn’t really news). This sets off an early stretch where Dean is now back on the road with his brother, but also gave us a glimpse that something was wrong with Sam. While I applaud the writers for taking such a gamble I don’t necessarily think it worked very well. For one thing the soulless Sam sort of lacked the chemistry we are so used to between the Winchester brothers. It also didn’t help that the new Campbell family that was brought in(along with the return of their Granddad Samuel) was incredibly distasteful. The writers made it extremely difficult to really care for even understand their motives. Where as characters such as Lucifer or Azazel were written in a way that made them interesting or even worth understanding(especially Lucifer’s version of his story) the campbells came off as a bunch of glorified scumbags.

Early on we were also given how Crowely is the new King of Hell, and Castiel is fighting a civil war in heaven against the arch angel Rapheal. These two plots actually end up being the thing that connects the entire season together, but the early portion of the season rarely even acknowledged these parts of the storyline. That said when they finally are center stage the season felt like it came together. The five episode stretch before the finale felt like a nice turn around for the season. It really made it feel like all the time the audience gave to the show for the first half was finally being rewarded. Castiel’s pride being his descent to the dark side was expertly handled. You were actually given a reason to understand Castiel’s motives for why he did what he did. You also get some noteworthy scenes between Dean and Castiel about their reactions to what Castiel has done. If the season was paced a little big better this revelation late into the season could have easily become one of the more memorable archs in the entire series. Unfortunately the odd pacing, the soulless first half(pun intended), and a rush job stops this season from being up to the Supernatural standard of the past 2 years.

The Mother of all Eve was handled poorly, and taken out far too quickly. The younger actress(Julia Maxwell) turned in a solid performance, but she lacked the gravitas to really pull off Eve character. Her later form as Mary Winchester(Samantha Smith) suited the character far more. It provided another incentive for the Winchesters to ice her, as well as giving the character the instant draw that she needed. Sadly all the character was given was one memorable scene against the Winchesters in a dinner.

The Sam’s soul storyline also was rushed, and really felt like it contradicted a lot of the things they were saying. The entire second half made it seem like Sam would crumble and die if he found out what happened to his soul in Hell, but it ends up being nothing more than a throwdown between three different Sam’s in his head? Just felt like an odd way to end it, and even more so just a boring and lazy way of saving Sam(because you can’t kill Sam again with the 7th season already being set).

Now the most controversial part of this season also happens to be the most shocking event this season. Castiel takes in all the souls of Purgatory, and is basically the new God in the supernatural universe. The ending was a bit cheesy with the multiple close ups on the shocked faces of the Winchesters and Bobby, but as usual Supernatural leaves us hanging with another cliff hanger ready for the next season. Personally I have a lot of doubts if Supernatural can handle this type of cosmic battle with the grace and tight writing needed. If done poorly it’s going to come off entirely cringe worthy. Either way cheers to another season of Supernatural.

On the more positive note we had plenty of strong stand alone episodes. As the meta episode “The French Mistake” was hands down one of the funniest episodes in the entire series. With the scene of Dean and Sam playing their real life selves trying to play Dean and Sam was nothing short of hilarious. As well as “My Heart Will Go On” and “Clap Your Hands if You Believe” being memorable for giving us an X-File spoof, the introduction of fairies, Fate herself, and my personal favorite an Angel that really hated The Titanic and Celine Dion. Season six had no chance in hell of living up to the grand arch of the previous two seasons, and it didn’t help itself with such shoddy pacing. It was still mostly an enjoyable season thanks to some good performances by the main characters, and another solid season of good ol monsters hunting. Here’s hoping season 7 brings the show back up to standard.

Sloppy Pacing out of 10

SPOILER WARNING: I’ll most likely be spoiling some things about the Supernatural storyline. If you have any intent on showing you have good taste, and thus watching the greatness that is Supernatural. Do not read the rest of it. For those that don’t give a shit: carry on.

So Game has been badgering me for months to actually do one of my blogs on the GUFU blog (I wouldn’t call it badgering, exactly… Ed.). Now that I’m banned from gamespot I figured what the hell. I need a place to vent some thoughts, and Game stops bitching at me about not doing anything for the GUFU blog.  So my first addition to the site will be  my thoughts on Season 6 of Supernatural. Cheers.

On a network filled with mediocrity Supernatural has been the gem in the weekly CW lineup. It’s been an excellent marriage of horror, comedy, action, and just the right amount of heart when needed. From the initial pilot with the “Woman in White” to the Apocalypse ending Swan Song the show gave us a hell of a road for five seasons. The sixth season however has shown that the road is going on too long now.

There are a bunch of reasons why the current season isn’t holding up to the previous seasons. There is the lack of focus of the central plot this season, the fact that it follows up the most powerful story arch the show has done, but maybe above all else it’s because the swagger is gone.

THE WINCHESTERS

The show’s success has been based entirely on the relationship between Sam (Jared Padalecki) and Dean Winchester (Jensen Ackles) as brothers. Over the course of five seasons Padalecki and Ackles have defined the characters nicely, and really come into their roles. They’ve given emotion to some of the strongest scenes in the series, and consistently delivered on their comedic timing when needed.

Now the boys are still the best part about the current season. It’s just the material they have been given this season just lacks the same moxie. In the past few seasons we’ve seen the characters become more layered. We saw how Sam went from wanting to just be an average college student to full on downing some demon blood. We saw Dean Winchester who’s been the poster child for the term bravado completely breakdown from the weight on his shoulders.

This season however what they’ve been given has just lacked a much needed punch. It was a gutsy call to bring Sam back this season without a soul. Jared Padalecki presented us a Sam with no feeling. A hollow shell of the Sam we’ve grown accustomed to. In some cases it provided some great contrast to the usual Sam. From the ruthlessness he’s shown to some of the comedic opportunities presented.

Unfortunately(and I apologize for the terrible pun in advance) it left the early half of the show lifeless. The show works best on the interaction between the Winchesters, and having only half the duo there just didn’t flow as well. It also didn’t help that it was treading old ground. The writers used the hollow Sam as a way to cause a slight rift in the usual relationship. The problem is we got a better version of that in season 4, and the early parts of season 5. Partially because there was more of a build up to the rift, and more importantly because it was jarring compared to the seasons before. This was been there done that. Only with none of the grand execution.

TOUGH ACT TO FOLLOW

It also didn’t help that treading new ground was going to be a drop off no matter the execution. Let us all be honest here the show was going to have a significant drop off this season. The previous seasons paced the show beautifully. Building up from the weekly monster of the week routine to bringing in the concept of heaven vs hell, and finally culminating in the apocalypse storyline of the fourth and fifth seasons.

So here we are this season and we’re back to the monster of the week routine. We’re back to Shape Shifters, Vampires, Ghosts, etc. Following up Lucifer with a bunch of low tier obstacles just wasn’t going to cut the mustard.

UH…WHERE ARE WE GOING?

Two of the big reasons Supernatural has had a good five year run is based on build up and focus. The previous five seasons had a central plot that was shaping up nicely. It was paced nicely with just enough information given over time. With future seasons making smaller events in the past seem a lot stronger than they initially were. So what’s wrong in season 6? Well frankly there is just too much going on with little pay off.

In 16 episodes we’ve had a bunch of storylines that just haven’t come together at all. We’ve had soulless Sam which for 11 episodes was as detrimental to the show as it was interesting. We’ve had the return of Samuel Campbell the grandfather of the Winchesters, and the other Campbell cousins. Who have more or less come off as glorified douchebags. With Samuel being a character with no redeeming quality after we see him basically sell out his grand kids to Crowley.

Oh than there is Crowley and his search for purgatory. The alpha monsters which were suppose to provide an origin story for the many monsters in the Supernatural mythology. With it all coming to what we have now which is The Mother of All Monsters in Eve. While the Eve storyline still has a chance to save the season with the final stretch of the season dedicated to that storyline(the final six episodes of the season);the road that got us here was just far too bumpy.

The Campbells didn’t open up any new ground for the Winchester background. If anything it gave us one of the rare misses the show has had in terms of characters. The soulless Sam Routine gave us a stretch where the Winchester boys weren’t on the same page. Robbing the show of its strongest asset: The chemistry between the brothers. The whole arch with Crowley looking for purgatory was dealt with far too quickly with no real victory for the Winchesters. Oh and there is a giant civil war going on between the Angels in Heaven, and that’s been treated as a side story?

Everything about the first 16 episodes of this season has just been sloppy. We’ve been given a bunch of small story lines that really needed to marinate more than they actually did. There was almost no real build up to some of the conclusions we got. None of these multiple story archs are coming together cohesively at this point.

On the flip side look at the older seasons. The first season maybe a lot of monster of the week stuff, but a good chunk of it was dedicated towards not only establishing the Winchesters/Supernatural Mythology but also searching for John Winchester. With it all culminating in a standoff with Azazel. The second season dealt with Dean having to protect Sam from whatever Azazel had planned. Season 3 was of course about “The Deal”. Season 4 was about the seals, and the introduction of Angels to the mythology. With Season 5 wrapping all of the seasons up with the Apocalypse storyline with Lucifer himself.

Were there side stories during those seasons as well? Sure there were. However, none of it came at the expense of the central plot of those respective seasons. It all flowed nicely with the right amount of build up for the strong moments of those seasons. With season six we got a jumbled mess.

TL;DR SUMMARY

Basically it all comes down to this. The reason why the first five seasons have a spark, and the sixth season doesn’t is all about planning. The show was always intended to be a five year program by the creator Eric Kripke. It’s why the show progressively got bigger and bigger. It’s why they were able to take small aspects of the previous season and work them into the later seasons with great results. There was actual character development, and planned development through out the series.

With season six we clearly have something that was brought up well after the ideas of the first five seasons were brought up. Season six still has a some great standalone episodes such as “Clap Your Hands If You Believe, Caged Heat, and The French Mistake”, but the general flow of the season has been far too sloppy.

I still believe the show has good television left in it. While it’s never going to be as sharp as it was during the first five seasons it still has the pieces to be good TV. That said maybe CW shouldn’t have extended it for another season, and let it go out on the note Kripke initially was going for with his five year plan. Here’s hoping the final stretch of this season can make up for a lot of the mistakes done for the first 2/3rds of the season.

Welcome Back to the GUFU Late Night Show. Your host Lafigueroa is joined once again by The_Game21x, Skittles_Mcgee, Sonicmj1, and jg4xchamp.  On this month’s podcast we talk about the high speed action of Vanquish, the orgasmic controls of Super Meat Boy, how much of a devil Skittles can be in Fallout New Vegas, and how DLC should stop being so lame. Enjoy the show, and remember, Hall Monitors are lame.

And we’re back! September has been a busy month, so we’ve rounded up a five-man crew. Skittles_McGee, Lafigueroa, Jg4xchamp, The_Game21x, and yours truly, sonicmj1 come together to discuss ripping off customers in indie JRPG Recettear, slaughtering the zombie hordes in Dead Rising 2, cursing your way through Mafia 2 (spoilers within), fighting the greatest boss ever in Metroid: Other M, and remembering good times in Pokemon. Grab some Doritos and dig in to the GUFU Late Nite Show!

We also have a special, Halo: Reach Edition of the podcast available as well so check it out!

Never fear, the GUFU Late Nite Show is here! Listen in as Lafigueroa, Skittles McGee, LegendofNerd, and TheGame21x talk about Starcraft 2, Starcraft 2, the news from Gamescom, Castlevania Harmony of Despair and Starcraft 2. A spoiler-free version is available for those who haven’t finished the campaign.

The title says it all folks. Check out the latest official trailer for the single player campaign of Halo: Reach, courtesy of Bungie.

The GUFU Podcast Crew is back with the July Edition of the GUFU Late Nite Show. Join Lafigueroa, Skittles McGee, LegendofNerd, TheGame21x and a newcomer, FireEmblemMan as we discuss the release of Starcraft II, the recent Steam Sale, more Starcraft II, Comic-Con, A little more Starcraft II, the Batman villains no one talks about, Alien Swarm and (you guessed it) more Starcraft II.

Bright Falls is a north pacific town that provides beautiful scenery and a nice small town mystique. One would assume it would provide the best option for a little R & R for best selling horror author Alan Wake. That is until you begin to understand just how dangerous the night life around Bright Falls is. The town has an overbearing darkness that is taking control of some of the towns folk, and turning them into ghoulish creatures of the night who are determined to cause trouble for Alan Wake. More importantly the ominous presence surrounding the town has Alan Wake’s wife.

The player will take control of the titular character Alan Wake as he not only searches for his wife, but as well as surviving the horrors of a manuscript that seems to be becoming real right in front of eyes. What is more troublesome is that he himself has written it, but doesn’t seem to remember exactly when nor how he wrote it. Alan Wake’s storyline evokes some classic Stephen King horror with the mystique of Twin Peaks. The narrative structure is expertly woven through a TV show like episodic structure. Each episodes tends to end on shocking revelations and cliffhangers that may inspire you to instantly continue to the next episode. Each episode also begins with a “previously on” to give the player a recap of new found information, and a grasp of what is going on. This method allows the writers to really control the ebb and flow of the experience, and build up to a strong finish.

The thing is to make it to that finish there are a whole lot of “Taken” standing in your way. Alan Wake is primarily a third person shooter with a focus on using light to slay your enemies. You use a flash light to eliminate the darkness that surrounds a member of the Taken. The flash light won’t be your only option as road side flares will provide a way to shield yourself from your foes as well as get rid of the darkness. You can also use other objects found in the environment you can use to illuminate the area such as nearby stationary lights. With the darkness out of the way you’ll be able to finish off the Taken with any of the game’s selection of weapons such as a revolver, shotgun, or a hunting rifle. For tighter situations you’ll have flash grenades and flare guns to provide instant kills to get you out of more daunting situations.

The overall combat in Alan Wake is precise and, more importantly, fluid. The light mechanic works very well and can be a proper stun mechanic. That said, it isn’t broken and there are enemy types that may pause for a second or two but continue getting closer and closer. The feedback to each gun is very good, and provides a visceral feeling to the action. There is also a nifty dodge mechanic to bail you out when being attacked from multiple angles to avoid getting hit. The only thing that really holds the combat from really flexing it’s muscles though is a lack of enemy variety.

Your standard Taken ranges from a general Bright Falls citizen, to a larger individual, and an enemy that is just quicker than the rest. Boss-like characters tend to play out just like any other member of the Taken and the game just doesn’t throw enough new obstacles in your way in terms of enemies. You’ll deal with possessed objects such as floating tires and demonic ravens but they aren’t enough to really mix it up for the duration of the experience. Especially because of how easy it is to eliminate them. A simple burst from the flash light will finish off the ravens or a possessed object for you. While these scenarios are paced nicely throughout the experience; they lack any real tension.

That’s where the spooky and eerie atmosphere comes in. You’ll spend a good portion of your time in dense forests, abandoned lumber yards, cliff sides, and other areas of Bright Falls that are just dark. The forests provide some of the best examples of Alan Wake’s fantastic atmosphere as they are filled with stifling foliage, and a thick fog clouding your vision to what is up ahead. Swirling winds, ominous shadows, and ambient sounds to get the hearts racing and also convey that trouble is right around the corner. The environments are expertly crafted from a presentation standpoint. They can go from dark but calm-to absolutely disturbing and unsettling.

Some of the unsettling and atmosphere is offset at times though with how much the game ends up showing its own hand. There are moments where the camera pans out and slows down to show you that your enemies are around you. It avoids providing cheap scenarios where you are hit by objects you can’t see, but it also takes away any potential scares that could have been presented in that situation. There is also the swirling wind effect that pretty much tells the players that you’ll be attacked by enemies soon. It adds to the ambiance, but too many times it feels like a dead giveaway. It would have been an improvement had the game provided you more situations where the action would pick up during the calmer moments. Keeping the player guessing instead of eventually becoming predictable and repetitive.

What ends up being a adequate compliment to the atmosphere however is the audio work in the game. On multiple occasions Alan Wake will tend to descriptively narrate exactly what he is seeing, feeling, or doing on screen. Most of the time it’s well written enough to really give you a sense of where Alan Wake is at mentally, but there are some moments where it can come of as needless. The voice actors in the game all do a great job with their roles. Though the lip-syncing isn’t all that good. The soundtrack on the other hand is excellent and adds to the moody feel the game aims for.

The presentation also stands tall because of how the story is also told through other devices. The day time segments of the game will have you explore areas of Bright Falls or travel from one destination to another. Along the way the game might use devices such as a TV or a radio to point out interesting information. Some of them can be more of a pop culture reference such as the obviously twilight zone influenced TV show that reappears on multiple occasions.

Alan Wake’s lack of major gameplay scenarios and repetition hold the game back from being truly excellent. Its unsettling atmosphere, exciting action, and tight pacing do however make it a thrilling and tense experience. The presentation work is solid, and the plot woven through this presentation is good enough to keep the player engaged from beginning to end.