I still fail to see where this hype for Alan Wakes graphics are coming from, it looks great yeah, but not groundbreaking or even raising any bars! The character models are stiff and don't interact much with the environment, the physics and particle effects are average at best especially in scenes like when the bridge is ripping up. The day scenes look like most games already out there and theres tons of flat textures and boxy looking objects about.
For example in the video:
2:50 Alan stares into space a LOT, doesn't turn properly to look at the guy chasing him just looks like he's got a stiff neck. Many games have much more realism than this. Objects breaking are very rigid and very little reaction from the rest of the scene especially since the thing he breaks are meant to be screwed on to other objects (same as at 6:50).
3:40 Alan doesn't even seem to notice the gate as he opens it, no interaction with the environment, similar things repeat throughout in the daylight video too.
5.40+ in the cabin, most objects are squares, though they look nice the low res is just cleverly hidden.
6.50 the rebuilding steps is just boxes fitting together looks fake and no all the pieces remain static as they move. This happens a number of times, like when the shadow first chases Alan hitting things on the bridge.
7:14 An example of how blocky the rocks are and covered in flat textures the same as the floor.
10:00 running accross the bridge things fall down and holes appear, but not much else, just smoke. Wheres the splintering wood, bits flying about, in fact ANY interaction from the rest of the bridge at all?
Video 1
http://www.gamepro.de/index.cfm?pid=386&pk=2300 (can't get it linked)
Theres no denying the game does look good, but not THAT good, any games designer knows darkness hides a lot of things, and what cost has the lighting system and rendering extra foliage come at? The animation and interaction is a step back compared to a few games, even old titles such as gears of war! Alan walks into gates and doors and opens them but he doesn't react, not much interaction with the environment. His animations are clearly severely limited, his hands hardly move, he can't bend round to look at things, stiff interactions with other objects and he barely notices when a shadow cyclone is breaking a bridge in front of him.
Whether this is all due to hardware limitations or just on the part of the developer I don't know, but theres plenty of other games out there that look better than Alan Wake so I just don't get where all this hype is from, even MW2 is better in my book. Are people being paid by Microsoft or are expectations so high for this game people are forgetting what's already on the market?
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