Alan Wake 2

Diabolical · Oct 27, 2023

It released today.
PS5, XBox, and Epic exclusive on PC.

I’ll be waiting for the first patch… mostly because I’m in the middle of something else.

The game is reviewing very well, but requires some beastly machinery to really push it. It’s Remedy, and this has been typical for them since Control and Quantum Break - they push the performance boundaries.

I am really, REALLY looking forward to playing this, but realistically it’ll be about a week before I can at the earliest.
BUT! We need a thread. Because this thing is going to go deep.
Because it’s not a lake, it‘s an ocean.

Edit:
Please note the following regarding PC availability.

Epic is the publisher and provided funding for development, so that ‘exclusivity’ may be for a helluva lot longer than a year. This isn’t a timed deal. Epic also funded the Remaster, which is why that is only on the EGS on PC for now until (presumably) forever.

If you want to play it, but don’t want to deal with the EGS? Console is your only other option.

timezon3 · Oct 27, 2023

I'm towards the end of the remaster of the first one and enjoying the heck out of it. After finishing it, I'll go back to finish the Control DLC (which ties in to AW). I'm sure I'll play AW2, it's reviewing very strongly, but I probably won't get to it for a while. I'll try to avoid spoilers, though, so have a fun thread!

rcduke · Oct 27, 2023

Diabolical said:
Epic exclusive on PC.

Barf... I wish Remedy would stop doing that garbage. That's why I didn't play Control for over a year after its release, and I missed a lot of the hype at the time.

But knowing that Control is in the same universe as Alan Wake piques my interest. I may just throw money at it on PS5 so I'm not spoiled on story.

Louis XVI · Oct 27, 2023

Very excited to play this, as I really enjoyed the first one. But first I've got to finish Assassin's Creed, and then I've got Spider-Man 2 lined up...at this rate I'll get to play Alan Wake in...February or so?

I really wish they hadn't chosen one three-week window to release all of the games I've been looking forward to this year .

Diabolical · Oct 27, 2023

rcduke said:
Barf... I wish Remedy would stop doing that garbage. That's why I didn't play Control for over a year after its release, and I missed a lot of the hype at the time.

But knowing that Control is in the same universe as Alan Wake piques my interest. I may just throw money at it on PS5 so I'm not spoiled on story.

Epic is the publisher and provided funding for development, so that ‘exclusivity’ may be for a helluva lot longer than a year. This isn’t a timed deal. Epic also funded the Remaster, which is why that is only on the EGS on PC for now until forever.

If you want to play it, but don’t want to deal withe the EGS? Console is your only other option.

And I’m putting this in the first post, because this is going to irritate a lot of people.

Ed209 · Oct 27, 2023

Pretty big Sam Lake/Remedy fan, loved the first Alan Wake and had given up hope of there ever being a sequel, so looking forward to Alan Wake 2. In the same situation where I'm in the middle of some other stuff I want to finish first, but AW2 is on deck for next up.

Stray Toaster · Oct 27, 2023

I picked this up today for PC. I am not very far into it, but so far, so good. And the environmental graphics, in particular the forest stuff, looks amazing.

I am not a fan of horror games generally speaking, but I have enjoyed every other remedy game I've played, their mix of atmosphere, weird and humor clicks for me. I am quite excited to play this one through.

GloatingSwine · Oct 27, 2023

rcduke said:
Barf... I wish Remedy would stop doing that garbage. That's why I didn't play Control for over a year after its release, and I missed a lot of the hype at the time. But knowing that Control is in the same universe as Alan Wake piques my interest. I may just throw money at it on PS5 so I'm not spoiled on story.

Epic are the publisher and funded the game. Without them there wouldn’t have been an Alan Wake 2.

Gub · Oct 27, 2023

I started this last night. Interesting so far.

I did not expect to start off as a naked overweight man stumbling through the woods around Cauldron Lake.

Diabolical · Oct 28, 2023

For those curious, Digital Foundry has put up their analysis of PC performance. The verdict? I‘m feeling much better about diving in after finishing The Talos Principle. My 5800 X3D / 3070 TI should do just fine.

Link:

Alan Wake 2 PC: how demanding is it - and what hardware do you need?

The best settings for Alan Wake 2 on PC, focusing on rasterisation performance.

www.eurogamer.net

ShePearl · Oct 28, 2023

Shadow details are amazing in this game. Lighting, dynamic range are superb. Visual fidelity is ridiculously good.

Ed209 · Oct 28, 2023

Good to know AW2 looks good... I bit on the AW1 remaster and, at least the PC version, isn't great. It has all the new bells and whistles with things like 4k support and DLSS, but it comes across as super rushed and unfinished, mainly with the character models -- faces are lacking definition and are mostly expressionless, and they also get the occasional twitchy crazy-eyes. Also get weird jaggies and artifacts cutting into the scene when rotating the camera sometimes.

Of course I can't speak to the console versions, saw the remaster version got pretty good reviews across the board, so this just may be something with the PC version or... (gasp!) just my PC?

That said, the original AW1 runs great on the Steam Deck.

Diabolical · Oct 30, 2023

Installing.

Oh boy oh boy oh boy oh boy oh boy oh boy oh boy!

rcduke · Oct 30, 2023

My curiosity to find out if there is a lot of relation to Control won out over my dislike of Epic. But my computer isn't strong enough to really run AW2 so I bought it on PS5. Gonna start it probably tomorrow night.

Diabolical · Oct 30, 2023

Okay, AW2 tech details.

I've played the "tutorial" and about five seconds of the first level.

Hardware:
5800 X3D // 3070 TI // 32gb of RAM

Display: 3440x1440

Medium preset
-> Post Processing to Low - I couldn't really see a difference.
-> Most of the ray tracing is off.
-> Balanced resolution scaling
-> DLSS
I tweaked some setting from medium up to high. I like reflections.
Seems to be running fantastic. Looks gorgeous.

Diabolical · Oct 30, 2023

rcduke said:
My curiosity to find out if there is a lot of relation to Control won out over my dislike of Epic. But my computer isn't strong enough to really run AW2 so I bought it on PS5. Gonna start it probably tomorrow night.

You played the Alan Wake DLC in Control, right? And from what I've seen in a stray preview here and there when I was trying to avoid them but ended up seeing it anyway, there are some extremely obvious references to Control in this game.

rcduke · Oct 30, 2023

Diabolical said:
You played the Alan Wake DLC in Control, right? And from what I've seen in a stray preview here and there when I was trying to avoid them but ended up seeing it anyway, there are some extremely obvious references to Control in this game.

Yeah I've played the AWE DLC. Might deserve a quick replay before AW2 though to refresh myself.

NervousEnergy · Oct 30, 2023

How important is the AWE DLC to the story? I played AW at release back in the day and loved it, and it made enough of an impression on me that I actually remember most of the game, including the head-scratching ending. The creep factor was excellent, and some of the humor landed perfectly ("I'm the flaming Eye of Mordor!") Played Control at release and loved that too, and caught a few references to AW as easter eggs but finished the game well before the DLC came out.

Is it worth it polish my couch-throwing skills back up in Control and play that DLC before AW2, or it just more minor easter eggs?

Stray Toaster · Oct 30, 2023

NervousEnergy said:
How important is the AWE DLC to the story?

I did not play the DLC, but I did read a synopsis of the story from the DLC, that seemed sufficient for my taste. ymmv.

Aside from that, I am enjoying AW2, but I am not well attuned or skilled at survival horror. I already had to turn the difficulty down to story because I ended up facing a fight with no batteries and only a few bullets, ha.

Diabolical · Oct 30, 2023

I’d say watch a ‘lets play’ of the Alan Wake DLC, one of those ones that’s sans commentary. It wasn’t particularly long, and I have NO idea how much it’s going to feed into AW2.

However, saying that? The way they integrated Alan Wake into/as an AWE in Control? Was one of my favorite moments in that game.

Gub · Oct 30, 2023

There's all sorts of Control references and crossovers, but I haven't come across any explicit Quantum Break references I've recognized. At one point, the character played by actor Shawn Ashmore (played the lead in Quantum Break) refers to dreams he'd had of living different lives with different names. Amusingly, there's a book you can come across early on with Alan written by Dr. Casper Darling about alternate realities. From my understanding, Microsoft owns many of the rights with Quantum Break, so any references to it in Alan Wake 2 may only be allusions and knowing winks.

So nice interacting with Ahti again.

Diabolical · Oct 30, 2023

From what Sam Lake has said, Quantum Break is sort of... adjacent... to the rest of the Remedyverse. Like an alternate path of stories.

Also, this is REALLY early on. But you want to know how tightly intertwined Control and Alan Wake are?

I found this on a gate in the first area. No idea how to get past it.

Yeah.
That's got me going

pretty hard right there! Oh, and a lot of this:

Diabolical · Oct 30, 2023

OH!
Big thing for PC!
Want to stop the Epic Games achievements from showing up and ruining the vibe? Do this to stop them from showing up, but still be tracked by the launcher.
Pretty sure this works for all EGS games.

Once the game is started:
Task Manager -> Performance -> Resource Monitor
--> Sort By 'Image'
-->Find the EOSOverlayRenderer(s) and Suspend Process. I got three of the buggers.
Suspend those? No achievement notifications in game. They are tracked in the launcher, but not while you play.

Gub · Oct 30, 2023

Diabolical said:
I found this on a gate in the first area. No idea how to get past it.

View attachment 66422

That area, I believe, will be addressed/explored/featured in the second DLC, as it's location shares the name of the DLC.

wireframed · Oct 31, 2023

So decided to check this out because I'm stuck in BG3 on a fight.

I didn't play the first game, and played Control, but not the DLC(s). So far it's a bit mysterious, but they seem to make it reasonably clear what is going on, without requiring a lot of background knowledge going in.

First off, I'm playing on story difficulty, because this is a game I'm streaming from my PC to the TV, and I'm crap with a controller. So it hopefully won't be terribly challenging.

The game is crazy cinematic - it's somewhat on rails, at least initially, with little chance of deviation. Exploration is mostly localized to trawling over small areas to look for clues and hidden stuff.

But it is REALLY well done. The atmosphere and detail, makes it very satisfying and interesting to explore the set pieces, and the story so far is pretty intrigueing.

I also usually read, then skip through a lot of dialogue in games (even in BG3), and it's often decidedly painful to sit through (Starfield...), but in this game, it seems natural to just roll with it, because it uses camera angles well to break up the flow, and has characters DO things instead of just standing and speaking to you. (Like, a coroner will be pulling out journals and rifling through them instead of just standing like a post).

The gameplay so far is pretty good, I expect it opens up a bit after the first chapter. It also has some tense moments. It's a lot like Resident Evil and Alone in the Dark, which is probably no surprise to those who played the first game.

Oh, and I really like how they break up the game into chapters, with a credits song and everything, which makes it feel a lot like you're playing a show like True Detective. In fact, the atmosphere (outside the more supernatural stuff) feels a LOT like the first season of TD, which is definitely a good thing.

I'm going to give it a few hours more and see if it continues to pull me in, but it's a great ride so far.

Oh, one thing though, it appears to be fairly demanding. It's the first game I had to set to medium detail to get reasonably performance, and it's still only around 30-40 FPS. This is with a 5800x3D, 32GB RAM and a 3070. I played at 3440x1440 with performance DLSS on the PC, but when I streamed, I set it to 1080P/DLSS quality, so it definitely requires some grunt.
It's a good looking game, but honestly not THAT good looking, so perhaps it will be optimized down the road.

krimhorn · Oct 31, 2023

One question: Poets of the Fall?

Or Old Gods of Asgard? I guess.

Stray Toaster · Oct 31, 2023

Diabolical said:
OH!
Big thing for PC!
Want to stop the Epic Games achievements from showing up and ruining the vibe? Do this to stop them from showing up, but still be tracked by the launcher.
Pretty sure this works for all EGS games.

Once the game is started:
Task Manager -> Performance -> Resource Monitor
--> Sort By 'Image'
-->Find the EOSOverlayRenderer(s) and Suspend Process. I got three of the buggers.
Suspend those? No achievement notifications in game. They are tracked in the launcher, but not while you play.

I just moved EOSOverlayRenderer files out of the folder where they were stored and I no longer get any achievement notifications, and I can confirm achievements are still being tracked (though if they weren't, I couldn't care less)

The files I moved were in this folder:
...\Epic Games\Launcher\Portal\Extras\Overlay

Diabolical · Oct 31, 2023

Stray Toaster said:
I just moved EOSOverlayRenderer files out of the folder where they were stored and I no longer get any achievement notifications, and I can confirm achievements are still being tracked (though if they weren't, I couldn't care less)

The files I moved were in this folder:
...\Epic Games\Launcher\Portal\Extras\Overlay

Does that carry forward when the launcher updates?

Stray Toaster · Oct 31, 2023

Diabolical said:
Does that carry forward when the launcher updates?

That, I do not know. I'm not sure how often the launcher updates, but I will report back if it un-does itself

Diabolical · Nov 1, 2023

I’m bummed. I may not be able to play much until this weekend.

Gub · Nov 2, 2023

Got a few more hours in last night. I kind of wish the game forced you to switch at certain times, because I get into a groove with one story and don't want to change, but then I keep wondering that if I was constantly switching, I would get more out of the overall narrative.

Stray Toaster · Nov 3, 2023

Gub said:
Got a few more hours in last night. I kind of wish the game forced you to switch at certain times, because I get into a groove with one story and don't want to change, but then I keep wondering that if I was constantly switching, I would get more out of the overall narrative.

I just go to the point where you can switch, and decided to check if there is a 'preferred' way to run the content, it really sounds like any option works. People said they liked switching frequently, others played one half then the other... I will just go with my gut.

I gotta say, the atmosphere in this game is amazing. Remedy knocked it out of the park with Control already, but this is on another level. I'm really enjoying the game so far.

Gub · Nov 3, 2023

"We Sing" was amazing. I don't say that often when it comes to video games, but for me, it truly was.

SuinusLatinus · Nov 3, 2023

Stray Toaster said:
I gotta say, the atmosphere in this game is amazing. Remedy knocked it out of the park with Control already, but this is on another level. I'm really enjoying the game so far.

IMO, Remedy is, by far, the best developer there is in terms of story, atmosphere, characters, narrative and graphics! (there are others that also excel in one or more areas but none that are so consistently good on all of them like Remedy)

I never played a game of theirs that didn't left me awed.

krimhorn · Nov 3, 2023

SuinusLatinus said:
I never played a game of theirs that didn't left me awed.

They always take their time. They've released 6 games* in the last 20 years and they're all 5-7 hour single-player experiences. Most developers would have rushed that many out in half the time.

*Technically there are two mobile games and American Nightmare in there but I consider the latter more of an expansion pack and the former I don't know enough about to know how much they worked on them. Alan Wake Remastered is in there too but there's a world of difference rebuilding a game in new tech than there is designing it from scratch. Especially given how fraught that game's original dev cycle was.

ferzerp · Nov 3, 2023

Stray Toaster said:
That, I do not know. I'm not sure how often the launcher updates, but I will report back if it un-does itself

You can always deny all read access to that folder if need be. It might break the upgrader, but potentially not.

Diabolical · Nov 6, 2023

So.
Many.
References.

I've taken so many screenshots that reference Alan Wake 1. The goofy expansion. Control. I'd say the vast majority of it is environmental, too. A note on a white board. A pack of cigarettes. A poster.

Yeah. First time I've been able to play since Monday. And yeah, I got sucked back in. Cutting myself off now so I'll be able to get to sleep tonight at a decent time.

Stray Toaster · Nov 6, 2023

I got to the we sing part

What a fun section, and a nice catchy tune. The whole things felt like it could have come from a Psychonauts game, a weird, trippy experience to be sure.

GloatingSwine · Nov 6, 2023

Diabolical said:
I've taken so many screenshots that reference Alan Wake 1. The goofy expansion. Control. I'd say the vast majority of it is environmental, too. A note on a white board. A pack of cigarettes. A poster.

I'm not saying Mr. Door would definitely have been played by Lance Reddick had he not sadly passed, but I'm also not saying that wouldn't have happened.

Talandar11 · Nov 6, 2023

GloatingSwine said:
I'm not saying Mr. Door would definitely have been played by Lance Reddick had he not sadly passed, but I'm also not saying that wouldn't have happened.

In the credits there's an "In memory of..." or something of that nature for Lance Reddick. I don't remember the exact phrasing, but it seems he was in their minds while working on the game. It seems like you're very likely correct.

Alan Wake 2

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