WARNING: This review contains spoilers.

Alan Wake ended with our hero freeing his wife from the dark place but only in exchange for himself.  “The Signal” picks up right where the main game left off.  Wake is again fighting through Bright Falls, but not quite as you remember it from before.  Just when you think you might have a grip on things, the environment changes.  You’ll go from the diner straight into the darkness of the woods.  The Taken are still there, but now you must fight them alone in this dark place (well… almost alone).

The gameplay is basically identical to the main game.  Use your light and weapons to defeat the taken.  However, in the dark place, Wake’s perception of reality is skewed.  Hence, he acquires ammo and tools by dispelling the darkness from the words he sees (much like in the last part of the main game).  It’s very straightforward.  Shine your light on the word “flare”, and you get a flare.  Some words actually have physical effects, such as “boom”, which add a whole new way to combat the Taken.

The visuals are basically identical to the main game.  Thankfully, there are no cutscenes featuring the horrendous facial animation.  The televisions all project images of you talking to yourself (it’s a key theme in this expansion), and the animations for those are handled quite well.

“The Signal” is short.  It runs about as long as any episode from the main game.  I took my time with the first go-round.  That took just over two hours.  It is possible to speed through it in less than an hour.  The final fight is arguably more difficult than the end of the main game (unless you conserve ammo for a certain weapon).  Like the main game there are collectibles and achievements that give the content some added replayability.  Also, just like the main game, it left me eager to see what Remedy has in store for the next episode: “The Writer”.  Having nabbed “The Signal” for free, I am not about to complain about value.  I would even say it is worth the 560 Microsoft points it would cost to get it.  Basically, if you like Alan Wake, you will love “The Signal”.  So dive in.  It’s not a lake.  It’s an ocean.

Given its occurrence on such a pivotal weekend, Labor Day, last year was the first time I was able to attend PAX. I had an absolute blast, but I still felt like I missed quite a bit of what the convention had to ffer.  For one, I spent most of my time on the exhibition show floor. When I was younger, I used to dream of going to E3 (back when it was closed to the public), so the exhibit hall of PAX was my small way of making up for all those times I missed E3. While I got to play plenty of great upcoming games, I regret not branching out more – the panels, meetups, etc.

This year, I hope to fully make up for last year’s shortcomings . PAX isn’t just about exhibiting the latest and greatest games, its about gathering with 60,000 other gamers, playing a game or two, and making a few friends along the way.

I remember my first look at Splinter Cell: Conviction came in an issue of EGM, full of concept art of a Sam Fisher given a “rugged”, some might say “homeless” new look. The game featured gameplay elements to allow the player to hide in plain sight, using crowds and the environment to slow and escape from enemies. It was a radical change from the past five games, all of which focused on stealth gameplay and an arsenal of gadgets. While these changes might’ve upset some, Splinter Cell Conviction, unlike its precessors, was shaping up to be a game I was legitimately psyched about.

Homeless Sam, meet Rogaine Sam.

The new direction apparently wasn’t a hit with everyone else, because the game was put on hold, and eventually sent back to the drawing board. The eventual end product turned into something much more familiar to SC fans, ditching almost every new feature that got me excited about the title in the first place. I like stealth games, and I generally enjoy the majority of the games that Ubisoft Montreal puts out, but for whatever reason, the SC franchise has never grabbed me. Playing through the game has revealed that Conviction, even departing from its original concept, was a refreshing surprise.

The game’s sense of urgency is what maked it stand out to me so dramatically from its predecessors. Gone is the obtuse control scheme, extensive arsenal of gadgets, and slow, methodical gameplay. The shell of a game that remains plays beautifully, and you feel like a badass every second of the way. Some of the new features – namely Last Known Position, work so perfectly that its a wonder they weren’t thought of before. The cover system is simple, and allows the player to flow between shadows and dispatch large groups of tangos, even in confined areas.

While some elements perform brilliantly, others fall flat. Features I remember being heavily touted at the PAX Prime last year were the contextual cues and plot moments projected onto the environment. While these felt unique at the beginning, they quickly grew old, and at times jarred me out of the experience completely. The plot, as well, is nothing to write home about, though I was probably missing some context having skipped or only partially played most of the previous games.

These aside, the game is quite proficient. In terms of replay value, I haven’t yet had a chance to try out the co-op, but I’ve always been a Rainbow-Six-terrorist-hunt-kind-of-guy, so the Deniable Ops mode sucked me right in.

I’m sure Splinter Cell fans may a lot more issues with the drastic changes made with Conviction, but I’ve never been a fan, so playing this title without a lot to expect beforehand left me, dare I say it–impressed.

I’m probably the biggest LittleBigPlanet fan as you are likely to meet. While never willing to devote the time into level creation myself, I simply cannot get enough of the content-creation community that is LittleBigPlanet. The sequel appears to be providing full backwards compatibility, which is really the only way for the developer to avoid fragmenting the community between the two titles. There was plenty to complain about with the platforming aspects of LittleBigPlanet, but as the trailer above suggests, many of those problems are being addressed in the sequel. Direct control, a much needed grappling hook, and several others should help the game become a more proficient platformer, while helping it evolve into other genres as well. For me anyway, LittleBigPlanet 2 is shaping up to be one of the strongest-looking releases this fall.

Today on the Engadget show, Peter Molyneux himself broke the news that Fable 3 will not include Kinect support on its October 26th launch date, but patched in later instead. It seems rather silly for such a major title in Microsoft’s fall lineup, from one of the most passionate supporters of Kinect, to lack out of the box support.  Microsoft certainly isn’t alone in disappointments though.  A few months back, Media Molecule confirmed what sounds like half baked Playstation Move support with LittleBigPlanet 2. Being a bit skeptical over the long term success of motion control in the first place, I can’t say I am all that upset by this news.  Yet when the success of a new hardware launch in the market is so heavily dependent on the software available for it, I wonder how Microsoft or Sony expect consumers to justify the steep entry fee with the current launch titles announced.

I’d love to get a perspective from someone who is excited about Kinect/Move and their respective launch titles. Leave a comment!

Alan Wake is a title that for many years served only to occupy the tail end of release lists and always with an indeterminate date.  For all that time I thought little of the title.  Surely it would end up in development limbo and probably never see the light of day.  Suddenly, it resurfaced at E3 2009, and my interest in Remedy’s mysterious title continued to grow  until it was finally released on May 18, 2010.  Was the long development cycle worth the wait?

Absolutely.  Alan Wake is one of the most addictive solo games I have experienced in a long time.  The game’s driving strength is its narrative, which drew me in from the get-go.  Wake, a best-selling author, and his wife Alice are vacationing in the fictional Washington village of Bright Falls.  When Alice disappears, Wake’s search for her uncovers pages from a manuscript he does not remember writing.  A dark presence breathes life to these pages, and Alan must solve the mystery of Bright Falls and the manuscript in order to save Alice.

Wake narrates as you play the game, which drives the story forward without being overdependent on cut scenes.  Wake himself is a well developed protagonist, and the characters surrounding him are more than mere cardboard-cut-outs.  Manuscript pages, which you collect as you play, serve to expand on the narrative.  These pages delve into past events and serve as a gateway into the interior monologues of just about all of the key characters.

Of course, there is more than just a story to Alan Wake.  There is enough action and to keep both trigger fingers working.  In the darkness you fight “the Taken”, creatures that can only be defeated by light.  The left trigger controls a flashlight and the right your gun.  Other weapons include flares and flashbangs.  The flashlight actually serves as the aiming reticule and does the job well.   Combat takes some getting used to, especially dodging, but is pretty straightforward.  The camera borrows from the more recent Resident Evil games in its over-the shoulder placement.  The difference is in this game you can sidestep and shoot while moving.  What I did miss from Resident Evil is the ability to do a quick 180 degree turn.

The daylight hours are spent exploring the community of Bright Falls and the beautiful landscape surrounding the seemingly peaceful city.  These sections mostly include interactions with other characters, simple puzzle solving and driving.  The driving sections feel very grounded and more realistic than Halo or Grand Theft Auto.  Just like real life it doesn’t take much to total your car.  Also, the car’s high beams are a perfect weapon when driving at night!

Structurally, the game plays like a science fiction serial TV show.  It borrows and even parodies shows such as The Twilight Zone and The X Files while building itself up more like a season of Lost.

Visually, this game is a gem.  Fully detailed environments feel alive and the use of light ranks among the best of any game this generation.  Character models are a tad dated but passable.  Their animations are also good with the glaring exception of the facial animations whenever they speak.  The dialogue is good but sometimes it’s like watching a dubbed Godzilla movie.

Item hoarders will have a field day with all the collectible goodies, but you may want to bring a checklist with you for those coffee thermoses.  All the hidden items make for some decent re-playability, especially the manuscript pages that are only available on Nightmare mode.

For me, the biggest problem with the game was that it felt anticlimactic from a game-play standpoint.  Story-wise, it wrapped up well and hopefully will segue way into the new content smoothly.  The first downloadable episode, “The Signal” will be released by the time you’re reading this.

Overall, Alan Wake is a solid package.  Fans of survival horror and strong narrative in games will enjoy it.  It’s short, but I can see myself replaying it every so often just for the story.  For the average gamer it’s at least worth a rental.

Finally, my apologies for the lateness of this review.  Between work and acting in two stage productions I find I have little time to do much else, and I’d rather be spending that little time gaming than writing

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Limbo is a game that a lot of people have been talking about for a long time. About a year ago, I saw the above screenshot, and was instantly intrigued. And let me tell you, the full game is one of the most beautiful games I have played in years. Limbo is also a great many other things which I will get into further detail about momentarily. But I know the real question that’s burning in your minds…..Is this game worth 15 of your hard-earned dollars?

Well, that’s a question that is very difficult to answer. I have to be honest and say that I loved every minute of Limbo. But the thing that might keep you from picking it up is the fact that there are probably only 120 minutes in this game. That’s about how long it took me to beat it. It may take some of you more time, if you go about searching for all the hidden achievements on your first go-round. But on the subject of game length and how it corresponds to game price, consider this: how much money did you spend on God of War III? Or Heavy Rain? Or Alan Wake? 40, 50, maybe a full 60 dollars? And how many hours did you invest into those games? Maybe 6 or 8 hours, right? If you actually think about it, Limbo is about the price equivalent of huge titles like those. So quit sassing about the price, alright?

Limbo is one of the finest downloadable titles I have ever played. It has incredible visuals, eerily perfect sound design, and beautifully simple gameplay. Some of the puzzles in this game are mind-bendingly difficult, but none of them were frustrating. The game does a great job of easing the player into harder puzzles with visual and audial clues. And if you do die in a trap or get stabbed by a spider, have no fear. The game always saves right before any of its hundreds of chance encounters. The somewhat-gruesome deaths of the main character were almost always shocking, and for that reason I would say that this game is not necessarily for the young ones. Seeing a young child get impaled on a giant spider’s leg would’ve traumatized me for sure. And that will happen a lot. You will die at least 250 times while playing this game. Unless you’re some gaming prodigy. Which you’re not I just know it. So seriously, 250 deaths. I’d even go so far as to say 300. But these deaths are so silly and quick-to-be-over, I never found myself getting angry or wanting to stop playing. I truly could not put the controller down once I started Limbo.

The only thing that Limbo could be considered to be lacking in is a story. This game has no dialogue to speak of (haha, get it?) and no character explanations whatsoever. I didn’t even know what my character was supposed to be doing (looking for his lost sister) until I read the game’s description on XBLA. This can be both a pro and a con for Limbo. At points, the lack of traditional narrative is a blessing, leaving interpretations of character interactions and certain horrific experiences up to the player. But, on the other hand, I found myself struggling to find any cohesion in the game. Without a narrative thread to tie the whole game together, I kept finding myself yearning for any explanation that the game could give me. And therein lies my only major complaint with the game: the ending.

(Note: this next paragraph will continue to be SPOILER FREE, so read on, you purists, you!) The ending of Limbo felt extremely anticlimactic and muddled to me. Because I really had no background with these characters and knew nothing of the story, the “mindblowing” ending that I’ve heard some people call it was utterly baffling to me. I didn’t even know that the game was over until the credits started to roll. I felt no real sense of completion or relief. Sometimes, ambiguous endings can be a good thing, wherein the player can insert their own interpretations and their own experiences into the resolution. But I had no stake in this story. I didn’t even know the character’s names. I didn’t even know if the boy liked his sister. I was lost.

And a day later, I still am. I really don’t know what happened in Limbo. But that’s not gonna stop me from playing it again and again. Being so short, it’s a great game to just pick up and play every once in a while. Limbo is a great mix of many different games and genres. The two games that I can most compare it to are also XBLA titles: N+ and Braid. It has the gruesome deaths and creative platforming of N+, and the beautiful style and out of this world puzzles of Braid. If you are considering not downloading this game because of the “steep” price point, please reconsider. Limbo is one of the most unique titles you will play all year.

MidwestGamer, aka AbsentAmpersand

P.S. Here’s a lil present just for you guys and gals:

The Good

The missions themselves are varied, and in most cases, pretty fun. Early gameplay has you shooting coyotes and wrangling cattle, but in no time you will be storming forts, stealing mine carts, and generally just laying down the law. One amazing improvement is the addition of a mission checkpoint system. Remember the frustration of dying in an especially tough mission in GTA: San Andreas, and having to drive across 3 STATES to get back to the mission start area? All that rigmarole is gone in Red Dead Redemption, although its a little strange that it took Rockstar so long to implement such a no-brainer feature. Yes, many of the missions are of the fetch-and-return persuasion, but they are varied enough that I wasn’t too bothered by them.

Another huge win for the game is the structure, variety, and sheer quantity of side missions and challenges. I am a big sandbox game fan, most recently with titles like Oblivion and Fallout 3. Probably 70-80% of the time I spend playing these involves wandering and collecting, and there is certainly no shortage of this in RDR. While the gambling minigames leave something to be desired, all of the hunting, sharpshooting, etc challenges are a blast.

The world of Red Dead Redemption is vast–easily as big in terms of mileage as Liberty City, yet it somehow manages to feel just as “alive” as its more-urban cousin. With so much open territory to cover, the game does a surprisingly good job keeping the world interesting. You will constantly be distracted from the main story missions, whether it is a stagecoach robbery to thwart, a gang hideout to clear, or a grizzly bear to hunt and skin. Journeying from one end of the world to the other can take quite a long time, and even though fast travel options are available, I found I hardly ever used them. For me anyway, the open environment, rather than the story or individual missions, is what I loved most about RDR.

The Bad

One of the most frequently mentioned issues I’ve seen is how terrible of a job the game does in explaining key gameplay elements. For example, to avert honor penalties, the player can purchase a bandana to hide their identity. But unless you are using a game guide, learning this type of information is achieved through pure chance.

Improvement is least apparent is in the game’s morality system. John Marston, like almost every Rockstar protagonist, is pretty hollow.  The player can choose to be an evil villian or a selfless hero, but it has no bearing on how John acts during the main story, nor does it change the outcome of the main story. It’s a shame Rockstar didn’t attempt to imitate the successful morality systems in games like Fallout 3, Mass Effect, and others. Even the extremely black-and-white system in InFAMOUS would have served to make Red Dead feel less “Grand Theft Auto-y’” (Yeah I am making up words here).

While most of my time with the game was spent with the single player content, I did posse up with a few buddies to do a little rustlin’ in multiplayer. RDR wasn’t even on my radar until I saw this video, and anyone whose played with me online knows that I am a big co-op fan. So the free roam mode was certainly enticing to me. Riding around with a few buddies hunting grizzlies and outlaws is definitely a blast, but the novelty wears off pretty fast. That, plus the generic individual game matches that typically end with half the players leaving the session early make the multiplayer of Red Dead one of its weakest link. This is a shame, because nowadays multiplayer modes occupy the majority of replay value in games.

The Ugly

A lot of early discussions of RDR on the various podcasts praised the strong characters and script—two areas which I personally found highly inconsistent. The main characters are likeable, but I wouldn’t call them memorable. The game also seems to churn through the various side-characters pretty quickly.  Irish and Ricketts, for example, play such small roles that they are quickly forgotten.

Just about every sandbox game out there is full of graphical glitches, and RDR is no exception. Characters will vanish during cut scenes, textures will literally explode, and depending on the platform you are on (I was on PS3) you will want to save often- the game will freeze.

Finally-no you can’t swim. Really Rockstar, really? You give us this feature in some games, then take it away in others? It shouldn’t bother me so much, but in a game designed for me to go anywhere and do anything, turning any body of water into hot lava gets a little aggravating.

So there it is. I spent close to 40 hours in a game that I neither loved, nor hated. The game makes some interesting strides, and shows that the developer has started to realize their formula for sandbox titles is looking a little dated, but Red Dead Redemption isn’t much of a step in the right direction.

My day job may be in social media, but I skipped the MySpace boat entirely.  I also tend to avoid social network games like the plague. Perhaps I am just compelled more by an engaging gaming experience, one that is typically not had with the trivialities that games on social networks typically entail. Despite my personal preferences, its obvious that casual games on social networks is a huge business….someone must be playing all that FarmVille and Mafia Wars. But whatever your position is towards these social games, Its hard to believe that Facebook, with such an enormous userbase and established application platform, is likely to lose much momentum simply because MySpace made a few partnerships. Do you think MySpace has a chance to redeem itself with its gaming platform? Or will it fall flat like most of its recent initiatives?