Xbox Live Arcade Game

Alan Wake’s American Nightmare – Review

Published By: Microsoft Game Studios, Developed By: Remedy Entertainment, Genre: Action, Release Date: Feb 22, 2012, Systems: Xbox 360 (Xbox Live Arcade), Price: 1200 msp.

Presentation: The Champion of Light returns to take on his evil doppelganger Mr.Scratch in Alan Wake’s American Nightmare. I am a fan Alan Wake. They are quality games. I beaten the main game as you would expect. I also completed Alan Wake: The Signal and The Writer DLCs. So rest assured your review is in good hands since i fully understand every aspect of Alan Wake. As far as presentation goes Alan Wake’s American Nightmare is pretty good. Alan wears a new outfit and is in a completely new setting (Arizona). New enemies, new guns and a really impressive new arcade gamemode called Fight Till Dawn rounds out the immediate positives.

All of the psychological Steven Kingesque weirdness is in Alan Wake’s American Nightmare’s story The visual presentation isn’t quite up to snuff but the sound design delivered. The weird animations are back. The content is deep with important collectibles to collect. As far as game glitches goes I did catch some strong frame-rate dips on occasion. I also died due to the camera locking too close to Alan when dodging enemies close to you. All in all nothing serious but noticable. The title screen showed a bevy of menus including: Story Mode, Arcade Action, Leaderboards, Achievements, Collectibles, Download Content, Help & Options and Exit Game. The menus interface is streamlined and was very easy to navigate.

The button layout via the Xbox 360 Gamepad: LS-move, D-pad-select weapon, LB-dodge, LT-boost flashlight, RS-rotate camera, A-jump, B-use, X-reload weapons, RB-throw and RT-shoot weapon. Alan Wake’s American Nightmare for the most part controls and feels quite similar to its past games. Dodging seemed to be tweaked just a little and felt more visceral. Jumping still looks and feels wonky. As far as aiming using your flashlight and guns auto-aim seems stronger. For the record i played the game on normal difficulty. So to conclude the controls are tweaked some. They are a little better overall but just barely.

Story: Alan Wake’s American Nightmare involves a bunch of cliche Steven King style story elements like time-loops, suspense, bending of reality from fiction etc. In some ways the story was pretty good. The game starts off with Alan Wake reliving a time-loop in the game’s Rest Stop section  which has your typical desolate motel, diner and gas station setting. Here Alan meets Emma Sloan who manages to get killed a few times in a Groundhog Day like sequence. Alan blows up a oil drill with a satellite by collecting bits of information,  Alan’s trail for “The Signal” eventually leads him to the Mount Redtooth National Observatory where he utilizes the help of Dr. Rachel Meadows for another lead on The Signal.

Lastly Alan ventures to the old Drive-In where he meets Veronica (i think that was her name). Here Alan finds the last piece of info to turn The Signal on at the Drive-In projector. The story from here starts to loop (your first time but ends here also) two more times. You end up playing through different and consecutively shorter versions of the Rest Stop, Observatory and Drive-In chapters of the game. Each time you revisit each NPC remembers the last meeting they had with Wake. And as a bonus each visit they end up doing more of the heavy lifting and you spend less time as a reward. But most importantly each time you revisit Alan Wake gets a bit more info for The Signal. Alan Wake ends up rewriting reality with The Signal and ends up destroying Mr.Scratch as so it seems. The ending cut-scene which is real shows Alan and Alice (his wife) in an embrace.

The voiced narrator throws a comment at the very end to imply Alan Wake’s American Nightmare might not have ever happened. Some other tidbits regarding the story. Alan throughout is presumed dead or missing. If you played Alan Wake you would know why. Barry Wheeler now manages those two old rock & roll Asgard guys. You can get plenty of info regarding the story from the Radio, TV and Manuscript collectibles. Manuscript collecting also rewards you with more powerful weapons, i’ll explain later. The story is good. At first i thought the loophole story would ruin the gameplay but it wasn’t the case.

Visuals: The Arizona setting was a very nice change of pace from the previous games. I loved the colors of the red canyon rocks against the nighttime sky. Some action set-pieces such as the oil drill explosion showed some nice fire and particle effects. Alan Wake adorns a plaid shirt and jeans this time around. Alan Wake’s American Nightmare’s strength is in its lighting and its ability to create atmosphere. Its weakness was clearly the textures. Practically every texture in this game had a washed out look. Alan Wake just hasn’t aged well in the texture department.

Sound: Good music and good voice acting. The sound design surrounds you with atmosphere in this arcade game. The in-game music when The Taken are about to attack gets your blood pumping. I enjoyed some of the old rock and as well the new tunes that Mr. Scratch danced to on the TV.

Gameplay: The core of Alan Wake’s American Nightmare rests with Alan using his flashlight and shooting The Taken. There are a great assortment of guns and weapons that you can unlock special crates with using specific numbers Manuscript pages. The weapon list includes: 9 MM Pistol, Revolver, Nailgun, Flare-gun, Pump-Action Shotgun, Carbine Rifle, Crossbow. Special powerful weapons are found in weapon crates and you need a set number of Manuscripts to unlock them in-game. They include: SMG, Magnum, Hunting Rifle, Assault Rifle, Sawed-Off Shotgun and Combat Shotgun. Very useful combat items include flares, flash bangs and grenades.

My favorite weapons were the Crossbow (you don’t need a flashlight), Sawed-Off Shotgun and Assault Rifle. So why do you need all of that heavy firepower for? The enemies in Alan Wake’s American Nightmare were really imaginative to say the least. I enjoyed the enemies more in this DLC than i did in the full game. New enemies include spiders that gang up on you. You also have a enemy who can separate himself when you shine the flashlight on him making himself weaker but increases his numbers. You have a huge tyrant sized Taken who carries a huge motorized saw. There is also a grenade throwing Taken. And lastly a Taken who can swarm down in human form and then turn back into a flock of darkness like a vampire.

The mini-map located in the top left on the screen did a good job of keeping gameplay flowing. You can see where secret Manuscript pages are hidden and where your next goal is located. For the most part missions were centered around snatch and grab type, locate this or that and kill Taken who gets in your way. Is the gameplay different than past Alan Wake games? In some ways it is. The change comes in the form of new enemies and how you defeat them. In my opinion the gameplay in Alan Wake’s American Nightmare is solid. The only complaint i have is the camera sometimes got stuck while dodging in a corner and trapping you in (camera angle). Oh, you do not drive any vehicles in this game like in Alan Wake.

Replayabilty: I wasn’t keeping track of the Story Mode length, my guess it lasted around four hours tops. There are many collectibles that have importance for the story and arcade mode (Manuscripts). There are 53 manuscripts to collect. You can unlock avatar items and achievements (of course). The best addition that adds legitamate replay value is the Arcade Action mode called Fight Till Dawn. This wave style game puts the action and focus on survival. Your goal/objective is to survive the night (there is a timer). You gain multiplier points from killing The Taken and dodging attacks perfectly.

The maps are pretty big and designed nicely. Maps include: Cemetery, Ghost Town, Oil Filed, Caves and Trailer Park. Depending on how many manuscript pages you collected you can unlock those special weapon crates in Fight Till Dawn.  You fight alone as Alan Wake. Let me just say its really fun and highly addicting. Its also challenging near the end as time winds down throwing many of the most powerful Taken at you. There are lights that come on that can heal you. There are plenty of ammo/item re-spawns as well. The atmosphere is just like the regular game which i liked. Your scored on: Overall Score, High Score, Undamage, Streak, Highest Multiplier.

Final Verdict: Alan Wake’s American Nightmare gives you just enough new gameplay action to make it feel like it’s its own game. The setting of Arizona along with the story was good. The Fight Till Dawn gamemode is fun and addicting. Alan Wake’s Amercan Nightmare isn’t perfect but it is a great Xbox Live Arcade game and if you’re a fan of the Alan Wake gaming franchise do not hesitate, buy it!! Thanks for reading.

8/10

Trials HD – Demo Impressions

One of Xbox Live Arcade’s most iconic exclusives comes in the form of Trials HD. Trials HD is a physics based motorcycle racing game that has many layers of quality content attached to it. Trials HD has been around since 2009 so why am i now just now playing the demo? Just never gotten around to it till now. After playing through the demo two things jump out at me, quality and content. This game has both and its fun and addicting to boot. Trials HD was developed by Redlynx and published by Microsoft Game Studios for XBLA. It released August 12, 2009 on the Xbox 360.

The main title had the following menus: Play Game, Skill Games, User Content, Leaderboards, Garage, Achievements, Help & Options, Unlock Full Game and Return to Game Library. The key word here is content. In Skill Games you can play Inside of a Ball and Ski Jump. Two completely different wacky takes on Trials HD’s gameplay. User Content section lets you play, share, manage and create your own custom Trials HD tracks and games. Some of the modes were locked out for demo purposes. I spent most of my play time in the Play Games and Skill Games sections.

The controls via Xbox 360 gamepad:  LS & D-pad-lean forward or look back, X-brake, A-gas, B-return to last checkpoint, Y-bailout, LT-brake, Start-pause, Back-restart. Trials HD takes place on a 2d track similar to old school Excitebike but at an angle. The camera can also zoom in and out accordingly. Each track has in-game checkpoints. As far as the controls go for this physics based racing game they are really solid. Some tracks in the demo really test your skills when landing and not trying to crash.

You as a player have two main goals when playing Trials HD. You must finish the track and try to have as little Faults as possible. The demo’s tracks in Play Game section ranged from a simple tutorial level to a big level with checkpoints and explosions all over the place. Big jumps doing flips while sticking your landing just makes up some of the fun in Trials HD. Before you play any track you have to pick and choose which bike you want to race with (for instance Turtle 80 cc).  As you earn medals you can unlock more bikes more tracks and more modes to play. The tracks are creative and will have you performing wild stunts which never got old.

The presentation of Trials HD is about as good as arcade games get on Xbox Live. The game looks great visually for a game that released in 2009. The texture work, color palette and art design all were impressive. The sound design was also nice featuring great sound design for the bike’s motor. The music was good as well. You can just tell this game has it. Even if you don’t like physics based mortorcycle games you would still call Trials HD a good game. And when you throw in all of the level editing and sharing tools the tracks become practically limitless. There are so many different tracks and gamemodes to unlock for Trials HD its worth its 1200 msp tag even today.

I know i just played the demo of this game. But Trials HD does have that “it” factor that Excitebike had when i was a kid. The game is just plain fun and addicting. It also has loads of quality content. There is a sequel releasing this year however i might have to buy Trials HD before then. Thanks for reading.

Trials Evolution – Gameplay Trailer

One misconception about owning an xbox 360 is that people think there are no true exclusives being developed regularly. Take a look at Trials Evolution below. To me games like these (Xbox Live Arcade and Xbox Live Indie Games) are what owning and Xbox 360 is all about. Trials Evolution is the sequal to the ultra popular XBLAG Trials HD which is a motorcross driving game. After watching the trailer of Trials Evolution it not only looks to one up its predecessor but blow its doors off. How about doing stunts with a skier? Or maybe control a giant ball via Super Monkey Ball style? Try your hand at multiplayer over XBL or locally at home.

The biggest and possibly best edition is the level editor. Just take a look at some of the level designs made possible in the trailer below. You can change enviroments and place buildings anywhere. You can share your newly created tracks or just play other people’s work. Its limitless as far as replay value is concerned. Near the end of the trailer you can see a top down racing game. Many games are possible as the trailer shows a physics based game, fuzzball type game, old school shooter type game and last but not least a first person shooter. I’m impressed i admit it. Glad to own an Xbox 360 and have XBL. Trials Evolution is a driving game developed by Red Lynx and published by Microsoft Game Studios. Trials Evolution releases sometime this spring. Thanks ign.

Deadlight – Teaser Trailer

Deadlight is a post-apocalyptic videogame centered around Randall Wayne during the 1980′s. From what i understand a disease wiped out most of humanity and turned the others into zombies. If your lucky like Randall Wayne you can pretty much just run for your life and stay a human. I was thinking this game could be a 2D platformer from the trailer but you never know.

The CGI trailer shows Randall near Vancouver which means Deadlight could take place in northwest USA and Canada. Most XBLA games published by Microsoft Game Studios usually turns out good so i’ll be definitively keeping an eye on this one. This arcade game is being developed by Tequila Games and published by Microsoft Game Studios exclusively as an XBLA game. It releases TBA which can pretty much mean anything. Thanks ign.