Weekend Note: Not Alan Wake Edition

So, I traded in my copy of Alan Wake to a locally owned video game store. Using the credits in-store plus some money out of pocket, I bought Resonance of Fate, Indigo Prophecy and Lunar Silver Star Story Complete ( PS1). I was unsure as to whether or not I should keep Alan Wake until after I played my free copy of the DLC, but I decided, naw: I’ve already had enough of the light-your-enemies-shoot-them gameplay. People who play the DLC are playing because they’re desperate to see if Remedy answers any questions, but I’m not sure what anyone is expecting after they straight up told us that explanations are antithetical to the poetry of fear. It’ll probably just be more questions and mysteries, to keep people coming back for the already announced second piece of DLC. So, fuck that. I’ll Youtube it and probably be disappoint with whatever it is.

I started a new “movie” on Indigo Prophecy, and while I’m only an hour or so into the game, I gotta give props to Quantic Dream. Indigo Prophecy has one of the best opening ‘levels’ I’ve ever played. Now this is how you build tension. Without spoiling anything, the intro sees you, a normal guy, killing a random person in a restroom. Then you snap out of your hysteria and you realize the huge mistake that you just made. The game gives you control of the character after it pans outside of the bathroom, letting you know that just a few metres away from you there’s a cop sitting at the Diner’s counter. So what do you do?

Aside from that I’ve started playing Battlefield religiously again, and I just got reaquainted with the sheer wonder and joy of C4. Nothing like being able to throw a stick at just the right angle to kill someone in a window, or an unsuspecting defender who is attempting to disarm my charge. Want to know how much of a bastard I am? I love being a passenger in a chopper and just…dropping sticks of C4 randomly onto the general enemy location. One or two is bound to kill someone, and once it does, you know you’re being a bitchy player but its okay because there is lolz involved.

I’ve also rediscovered how incredibly addicting Borderlands is–especially when you’re playing with someone else and the game starts throwing crazy-ass enemies at you. Why did I ever stop playing this game? In a single sitting me and Graham burned from level 5 to level 17 out of 50, and we had to…make ourselves stop playing this game at 4am in the morning. Hopefully E3 sees an announcement of Borderlands 2 or something.

Anyway, this week began ambitiously: there were a ton of things that I wanted to write, but then the week happened and the writing…didn’t. So for that I apologize, hopefully the next week isn’t a repeat of my usual “I want to write this and this and this” and then I only write one of those things. So this weekend I’ll just say I’m going to write something about Battlefield and probably something about Borderlands, and aside from that, no promises. Though I’m seeing Prince of Persia later today so perhaps I’ll have something to say about that.

Onwards, to next week!