Alan Wake 2
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Vorph
Silver Baronet of the Realm
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What's extra frustrating for me is that my 5700XT supports primitive shaders but not mesh shaders, just like the PS5. But since it's not 100% the same implementation Remedy didn't bother coding for my GPU when they did the workarounds to get it running on PS5.
Based on the first round of DF testing (Utnayan posted the video above) I would avoid the PS5 version. Quality mode is 1270p upscaled to 4K and performance mode is only 847p upscaled to 1440p. Neither hits their target framerate all the time, so you're looking at drops into the 20's on quality mode and 40's and 50's on performance. This is the main reason I'd avoid the PS5, since even drops to 40's are playable with VRR but PS5 support for VRR is much shittier than on Series X. The number of displays it works with is much smaller, and also the PS5's VRR range is capped at 48 Hz/fps on the low end. Series X will go all the way down to 30 Hz, though realistically it will always be constrained by the TV/monitor specs and I've never seen those go below 40 Hz.
At any rate, I would expect a PC with a 3080 to be a far better experience than either console even though you won't be able to see it in full path traced glory.
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Utnayan
F16 patrolling Rajaah until he plays DS3
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Yep same here. Played 3-4 hours last night. Even playing 30 FPS with Fidelty graphics on Series X and looks great. Watching Sam Lake trying to act is still hilarious.
It's a little weird at first getting used to the investigation boards to trigger the next step in some quests but I think I have the hang of it now. Really forces you into the story more so I like that I am not confused as fuck (Yet).
Vorph
Silver Baronet of the Realm
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To hopefully no one's surprise (other than DF for some bizarre reason) the Series X version beats PS5 handily, though unfortunately it's still at the same 847p/1270p internal resolutions for performance and quality modes respectively. I don't even think they mentioned the fact that Series X actually has mesh shaders while PS5 has to settle for some kind of glommed together support for primitive shaders. It's also more than a little bit infuriating to see it running on the Series POS when it's just about unplayable on my PC that stomps the shit out of it.
Utnayan
F16 patrolling Rajaah until he plays DS3
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Just wrapped this up.
Dragged on a bit. Overall was a decent game but some of the puzzles and maps were confusing. Had to Google a few things. Story was 8/10. Music was fucking epic. Ending was
also one part at the end when saga was noting about being fucked over by whitey. Shut the fuck up.
Dragged on a bit. Overall was a decent game but some of the puzzles and maps were confusing. Had to Google a few things. Story was 8/10. Music was fucking epic. Ending was
a cliff hanger…. Wrap it up already.
also one part at the end when saga was noting about being fucked over by whitey. Shut the fuck up.
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TBT-TheBigToe
<Rickshaw Potatoes>
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Alan wake: remastered;
7/10. Great atmosphere, okay combat mechanics ruined by dog shit combat situations. Story is, all over the place both in terms of how it tells its narrative and the narrative it is telling. I like Twin Peaks and David Lynch’s work so I enjoyed it for what it was.
Just started Alan Wale 2, glad to see they made the combat even worse. Awesome.
7/10. Great atmosphere, okay combat mechanics ruined by dog shit combat situations. Story is, all over the place both in terms of how it tells its narrative and the narrative it is telling. I like Twin Peaks and David Lynch’s work so I enjoyed it for what it was.
Just started Alan Wale 2, glad to see they made the combat even worse. Awesome.
spronk
FPS noob
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this game crawled up its own ass a little too much, i generally liked it but it swerved hard into "BEING CREATIVE IS THE MOST IMPORTANT THING IN THE WORLD" way too often. we get it, you think writing is important
the combat in both game generally sucks too, in the first one you pretty much could avoid it all, in fact i think the trophy for finishing the game fast more or less requires skipping most combat, whereas you really can't avoid the combat in AW2 although i don't really remember having many issues. 100%'ing AW2 was a lot easier too.
the studios next game is coming out next month and its a bizarre swerve into a coop extraction game? Its gonna be on both gamepass and PS+ too on release. honestly zero interest, i might try it once on ps+ but i'm expecting to delete it within an hour
the combat in both game generally sucks too, in the first one you pretty much could avoid it all, in fact i think the trophy for finishing the game fast more or less requires skipping most combat, whereas you really can't avoid the combat in AW2 although i don't really remember having many issues. 100%'ing AW2 was a lot easier too.
the studios next game is coming out next month and its a bizarre swerve into a coop extraction game? Its gonna be on both gamepass and PS+ too on release. honestly zero interest, i might try it once on ps+ but i'm expecting to delete it within an hour
Runnen
Vyemm Raider
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I've just finished playing Control on PS5 (amazing game) and found out it's linked to Alan Wake universe (not really spoilers for Control, but they share a universe and there's basically a whole Control DLC linked to that). I never played the Alan Wake games, would you recommend them? I'm not huge on survival horror where you have to mostly run away from shit a la Silent Hill, I prefer stuff where you can actually fight back and shoot/smash things dead. I see in some comments the combat system is apparently quite bad, can you develop on that a bit please? Just wondering if playing those games would add to my incredible experience playing Control (and Control 2 is coming this year apparently).
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As someone who also thought Control was amazing, don't waste your time with Alan Wake 1. Imagine if one OoP had its own spin-off game, but the object was a book and your character is the author--that's about as much relevant cross-over as you get/need to appreciate. Some people thought the story was good, I found it a bit grating. Some okay set pieces that other games had already done better at the time it came out like 15 years ago. Looks like 'okay-ish' reviews higher up in the thread for the remaster, so maybe it aged alright.
Combat: You're slow and clunky. You have to shine a flashlight on each enemy before you can shoot them. Flashlight batteries last... not long. You also have a dodge button. So you dodge the enemy attack, shine the flashlight on them until their 'shield' burns out, aim gun, shoot, reload gun, put new battery in flashlight. And that's basically it. No changes to your skillset, no appreciable change to enemies, so the combat loop is pretty much the same the entire game, and it gets stale fast. You do generally kill all the enemies you see, but guns don't feel great to shoot, enemies aren't satisfying to kill, and the encounter designs are just bland/unfun (you start at one end, enemies start at the other, they run at you, you flashlight them, rinse/repeat). Think polar opposite in terms of how awesome and powerful you feel tearing around the environment in Control.
My biggest peeve: there are other limited types of weapons/ammo like flare guns, flash bangs, etc. It's ostensibly a survival horror game, so you're trying to save all these incredibly useful and scarce tools for when shit gets really desperate... and then the game makes you lose all your items at the end of each chapter. In a survival horror game.
So you're trucking along, you hit a cutscene where you fall down a hill or something, and all those flare guns shots you scavenged and carefully conserved? Just gone. Fucking infuriating design decision that completely ripped me out of the game.
Can't speak to AW2, but hard to imagine they could make the combat worse.
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Utnayan
F16 patrolling Rajaah until he plays DS3
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Sweet baby Inc got involved with Alan Wake 2. Fuck that game.
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Runnen
Vyemm Raider
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Okaaay so I'mma skip those Alan Wake games then, thanks for your input! Just need to wait for Control 2 now. Anyone who's yet to play Control, I highly recommend it, and it's super cheap too, got the game new with both DLCs included for like 20 bucks on PS5. And they're big chunky DLCs too.
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nu_11
Avatar of War Slayer
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Yep. Control was fun and interesting. Alan Wake 2 is kind of lame (gameplay and story).
Vorph
Silver Baronet of the Realm
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If you want something else in the same universe, Quantum Break has held up much better than Alan Wake imo. Only downside is that weird thing Remedy talked MS into doing so that it was like part game and part TV show kind of bites you in the ass if you want to play it now. It's like a 200GB download now since the streaming version of the end of chapter live action "cutscenes" no longer exist. I guess you can not download them and find the correct ones for the choices you make on YouTube, but that sounded like too much of a pain in the ass when I played it.
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