Alan Wake begins with a quote by Stephen King: "Nightmares exist outside of logic, and there’s little fun to be had in explanations; they’re antithetical to the poetry of fear." The line is spoken by the protagonist, novelist Alan Wake, and it’s hard to imagine a more appropriate opening. It’s a game spent in search of explanations, answers to the puzzling questions put forth by its narrative. It’s a very simple, effective hook — an author’s horror thriller is coming to life. The twist? He doesn’t remember writing it.

It’s a great setup, but, as any writer well knows, it’s the follow-through that’s important. Without something to keep the reader engaged (or player, in this case), a story is doomed. As someone who has eagerly anticipated Alan Wake since its announcement nearly five years ago, I can say — with some relief, if I’m being honest — that Alan Wake will hook you to the end.

It begins simply enough. Alan and his wife Alice are on a much-needed vacation. Bestselling author Wake has contracted a severe case of writer’s block, thus inspiring the vacation away from the hustle and bustle of New York with his wife. What better place, then, than Bright Falls, Washington, an idyllic little town on the northern Pacific coast? Of course, things aren’t quite what they seem and, before long, Alice goes missing and Alan blacks out, subsequently waking up in a wrecked car and missing an entire week of memories. What’s more, Alan discovers pages from a new manuscript, one he doesn’t recall writing. Even stranger, the words on the pages are coming true, effectively making Alan a character in his own story, a story of the emerging darkness in Bright Falls.

I don’t dare reveal any more here, but suffice it to say that the story — which would be strong enough to easily carry a movie or television series — is the strongest feature of Alan Wake. The developers at Remedy obviously knew this, as the game is structured into six self-contained episodes, complete with a quick "Previously on Alan Wake" montage at the beginning of each one. The episodic structure is integral to the experience, ending every episode (sometimes literally) with a bang and effectively punctuating each arc of the story. Thankfully, you don’t have to wait a week to see the next episode, you just have to hit the B button.

The characters — even the minor ones — are well-written, memorable and, most importantly, backed by excellent voice actors. My favorite character is probably Alan’s agent, Barry, a New Yorker who shows up in Bright Falls wearing hiking boots, a Hawaiian shirt and a ridiculous, puffy orange jacket — an outfit I assume he deems appropriate for the Northwestern US. Each character feels very real, so it’s unfortunate that the models themselves look dated. They also suffer from occasionally horrendous lip syncing, at times making them look more like marionettes than people.

Barry Wheeler, a lovable oaf if ever there was one

Sticking with the writing motif, Alan actually narrates the game as it’s happening, offering insights to the story and clues as to what the player should do next. You’ll also collect manuscript pages scattered throughout each episode, each of which can be read on the spot. The page collecting mechanic is particularly addictive, as each page provides information on what the other characters are up to. They also subtly foreshadow events to come, providing even more reason to push forward. When, for example, a page described another character being attacked, I know I was always motivated to get a move on.

Of course, no story is complete without some obstacles, and Alan encounters plenty. First and foremost are the Taken, townspeople who have been possessed by the darkness pervading Bright Falls. In order to take them down, Alan must first bathe them in light, usually from a flashlight (though occasionally from other sources). Once the darkness is burned away, most of the Taken can be downed by a few bullets. It’s a tense, well-constructed system that has you focusing the flashlight with the left trigger and firing with the right, occasionally cramming batteries into the flashlight when it runs out of juice.

Batteries are as important as ammunition in Alan Wake

The light mechanic also has the added benefit of turning fairly harmless implements like a flare gun or flashbang into weapons of mass destruction. The game relishes it, slipping into slow motion as a flare streams toward a horde of Taken, promising imminent and illuminating doom. Meanwhile, cars and trucks become light-powered battering rams.

Apart from the Taken, Bright Falls is also littered with several less deadly distractions. Exploration is almost always rewarded with manuscript pages, a television or a radio. The radio programs offer extra background on the story, while the televisions sport episodes of a fictional, live-action TV show. It’s called Night Springs, an Outer Limits / Twilight Zone amalgam about — if you can believe it — a creepy town packed with paranormal activity. Even with the world falling down around Alan’s ears, I couldn’t help but stop to watch every episode I encountered.

Ultimately, Alan Wake is driven — as is any good story — by the impulse to see what happens next. It offers up a believable world, characters worth caring about, enjoyable combat and a narrative I wanted to follow. Just remember what Stephen King said about explanations, because you won’t see all of your questions answered by the time Alan Wake comes to a close. That said, know you will be left wanting more.

I enjoyed the original Lost Planet, but I wouldn’t call myself a fan. The third-person shooting was vanilla at best and frustrating at worst. The story and characters were forgettable — really, do you remember any of it? But man, those bugs.

The giant bugs and beasties, known as Akrid, were the reason to play Lost Planet. I’m no scientist, so I can only postulate that somewhere, deep within the gamer’s brain, there’s a pleasure center dedicated solely to the destruction of glowing, orange weak points.

After playing through the first three “episodes” of Lost Planet 2 — each split into several chapters — the game seems to strike most of the same chords as the original. The formula hasn’t changed much; the combat is exactly the same; and there’s no real story to speak of — the characters don’t even have names!

The only notable changes in the sequel are the additions of four-player co-op and a few, much larger Akrid. Unfortunately, I can’t say whether co-op makes for an engaging gameplay experience or not, as I was unable to test it out. What I can tell you is that co-op is bound to be better than playing alone, because that isn’t very fun at all. As for the bigger baddies? I’m not sure bigger is necessarily better.
Gallery: Lost Planet 2

As Lost Planet 2 is so similar to the original, it comes with all the ups and downs of the first game. The negatives include some of the more annoying aspects of the combat, especially what I call “the death loop.” Basically, there are quite a few enemy weapons and attacks that can knock down your character. Typically, these knock-down attacks require a few seconds of “recharge” time before they can be used again by your enemies, which is about how long it takes you to get back up. You do the math.

The frustrations aren’t just limited to combat. The grappling hook is back, and again there’s often no way to predict if it will safely carry you over a chasm or simply drop you to your death.

The most obvious addition to the game is the co-op option. My recommendation: Play Lost Planet 2 with friends. When playing alone, your AI teammates are about as useful as a sackful of wet bread. They occasionally take down an enemy soldier or activate a checkpoint — which still requires you to mash the B-button like an idiot — but usually they just roam around aimlessly. Once, an enemy soldier dropped down right in front of my entire squad, which proceeded to do nothing but stare at him.

“But what about the giant monsters,” you ask? I’ll admit that the Akrid are much more interesting to fight than the human enemies. Rather than simply absorbing a few bullets and keeling over, the Akrid have specific patterns and weaknesses that must be exploited, making them more enjoyable to take down. The only issue I have with the Akrid so far is the boss battles. Specifically, the bosses take a long time to defeat, leading to bouts of boredom (though I suppose more human players might speed things up).

In particular, the boss of the third episode — a humongous sand worm — was a nightmare. The battle is fought on a train with a big cannon mounted on top. In order to defeat the sand worm, you have to pick up gigantic shells, load them into the cannon, and then shoot one of several weak points on the monster. It might sound like a great idea for a boss fight, but it’s just poorly designed for one player.

Frustration, thy name is sand worm!

First of all, the cannon itself rotates about as fast as a northbound snail on a southbound turtles back, and both the snail and turtle are covered in molasses. Complicating matters, there are various tasks to keep up with, from dumping coolant into the cannon to charging the bullet-shells — most accomplished by, uh-huh, mashing the B-button. I can imagine the process is easier with co-op players, and maybe even fun, but it was nothing but an exercise in frustration in single-player mode.

Oh, and when you do kill the worm, it primes itself for one last attack that will destroy the train and instantly fail the mission, forcing you to restart the entire chapter. If you don’t already know that attack is coming, it will kill you. In other words, actually killing the thing is guaranteed to take one more try than it should.

Beyond the frustration, the most conspicuous aspect of playing Lost Planet 2 thus far is my pervasive sense of boredom. Like the first Lost Planet, this is not a bad game, but it’s not great either. I can only hope co-op will make the experience more palatable. The Akrid are still the selling point, and hopefully they feature more prominently in the rest of the campaign than they do in the first three episodes. With so many AAA games already available this year — and more on the horizon — Lost Planet 2 needs all the glowing, orange weak points it can get. Decent multiplayer couldn’t hurt either.

The first thing you should know about Bayonetta is that the story is entirely unimportant. It makes no sense. At all. Period. There’s something about two warring clans, one of witches and one of sages (Light vs. Dark — yada yada yada). There’s a “journalist” who inexplicably carries a grappling hook; an ancient god that’s being resurrected; and, at one point, there’s even a dance-off.

Now, forget about all of that. You’ll be skipping through it on your second playthrough anyway. And that’s really the point. If you like action games in the vein of Devil May Cry or Ninja Gaiden, you’ll probably start your second playthrough of Bayonetta exactly when I did: immediately after the first.

Bayonetta is as meaty as third-person action games get. Again, it’s a lot like Devil May Cry, which makes sense given both games were created by Hideki Kamiya. You control Bayonetta, an impossibly tall witch with guns in her high heels and a bodysuit made of her own hair (more on that later). Apart from her somewhat bizarre appearance, she has plenty in common with DMC’s Dante. Actions are fairly straightforward — jump, punch, kick and shoot — and within minutes of familiarizing yourself with the various combos, you’ll be stylishly slaughtering angels (Bayonetta is a witch, remember).

While the core combat is familiar, there are enough extensions that it never gets dry. For one, the finishing moves, which summon giant fists or high-heeled boots, add an especially enjoyable aspect to the ass-kicking. More important than the finishers, however, is “Witch Time.” You may have guessed that this is merely bullet time in disguise, and you’re right, but the way it’s used is what matters. Dodging an attack the instant before it lands activates Witch Time, which gives Bayonetta the breathing room needed to pull off some of her more devastating moves. It’s this mechanic that really kept me engaged in the combat, doing my darnedest to dodge enemy attacks.

There are also plenty of advanced techniques. Dodge Offset, for example, lets Bayonetta interrupt a combo, dodge, and then take up the same combo where she left off. It takes nimble fingers and perfect timing, but it’s definitely satisfying to begin a combo, dodge, initiate Witch Time, and then finish an enemy off with a giant boot to the head — a sequence that will net you an Achievement if you can pull it off.

Of course, there are myriad weapons to try out. Each combination of weapons — you can equip two at a time — yields unique moves, too, so mixing and matching is encouraged. As if all that weren’t enough, you can also purchase new techniques from the in-game store, as well as accessories that enable more techniques. The fact that Bayonetta does all this and manages to feel less complex than Devil May Cry 4 is just icing.

Graphically, Bayonetta fluctuates between show-stopping and surprisingly dated. The character models share the same plastic look that’s so common in Japanese game design (think Ninja Gaiden or Dead or Alive), and there are many static environments and last-gen environmental effects. That said, the action set pieces — including an absolutely inspired tribute to Space Harrier — are incredibly well orchestrated and stunningly gorgeous, as are the bizarre, screen-filling bosses.

Finally — and I’m just not sure how to smoothly transition into this — there are the creepy sexual undertones that pervade the entire game. Bayonetta’s suit is made entirely of her own hair, and she uses her hair to summon demons. Consequently, her suit is almost entirely stripped off in order to create said demons. Considering you’ll be summoning a giant fist or boot every ten seconds or so, Bayonetta is nearly naked just as often. And that’s before you factor in cinematics and the numerous times the camera crash zooms on Bayonetta’s lady parts. One of the game’s monsters, an angel with a womanly form, is introduced by essentially masturbating directly in front of the camera, during which — and I’m not kidding — her crotch glows with an angelic light.

The character design and cutscene direction (and the story, to some extent) feel like something designed by horny, twelve-year-old boys. If the actual combat wasn’t so refined, it might be hard to get past that. Fortunately, the combat is refined and easily outweighs the awkward kinky stuff. With lots of weapons, brilliant combat, multiple difficulties, and loads of unlockables, there are plenty of reasons to keep coming back to Bayonetta after the first playthrough. Just skip the cinematics.

I’m only familiar with the original anime film and haven’t seen the TV series at all, but the live-action version was very, very competent. The actors were skilled, the action was excellently choreographed and the special effects were … passable. The movie overuses computer generated effects, specifically a lot of blood spatter. I’m not really sure why the filmmakers chose to use CG blood when practical effects would have done just as well, but it’s a small gripe. In fact, the computer effects overall were just okay. Plenty of scenes definitely looked fake, but the staging and execution pretty much makes up for it.

Suffice it to say, if you like sword fights, martial arts and wire work, definitely check out Blood: The Last Vampire. If you haven’t seen the anime on which its based, I’d say pick that up too.

I’ve played every game in the series and a few years ago you might even have caught me defending the Silent Hill movie. When I first heard that Climax was re-imagining the first game in the Silent Hill series, and putting it on the Wii, I was a bit nervous. When the company revealed the logo and announced that the rust laden, nightmarish Otherworld was being brushed aside for an ice world, I was downright scared. After gathering some more info and trying the game at E3, all fears were assuaged. This was to be the great white (black?) hope of the Silent Hill series.

Having spent two evenings with the game and completing the story for the first time, I’m conflicted. Was it good? Yes. I’m just not sure it’s Silent Hill.

Setting aside the trappings of the Silent Hill series for the moment, Shattered Memories is mechanically very impressive. Moving Harry Mason, the main character, with the Nunchuk and pointing his flashlight with the remote feels great. Sure, it could be accomplished with an analog stick (and likely will be in the PS2 version), but it’s really a perfect fit for the Wii. Manipulating objects to solve puzzles is also very pleasing. It’s hard not to smile the first time you pop the pin out of a door lock and then slide the bolt back. The puzzles are simple for the most part, but very satisfying. One puzzle in particular made a rather brilliant use of object manipulation combined with light and shadow. I won’t spoil it, but it was one of the real "aha" moments in the game.

Another well implemented mechanic is Harry’s mobile phone. It’s a multifunctional device, used for navigation, occasional spirit photography, solving puzzles and, appropriately enough, making calls. Phone numbers are littered throughout the town, written on signs or scrawled on walls, and almost all of them can be dialed (I encountered three that didn’t work). Most numbers result in useless answering machine messages, while others provide necessary assistance. All of them, however, add to the reality of the situation.

You’ll notice I haven’t really mentioned how Shattered Memories stacks up against the rest of the series yet. Honestly, I’m conflicted. The icy nightmare world actually doesn’t bother me the way I thought it might. It trades the psychologically oppressive, oxidized hell of the previous games for icy, claustrophobic isolation (an effect that became much more potent when I first saw another character freeze solid in the middle of a conversation). It’s pretty damned lonely … until you get tackled by a horde of monsters.

Shattered Memories eschews combat entirely, opting instead to have Harry run from monsters. It works well most of the time and makes for a few tense moments. My only gripe is that the motion control doesn’t always work, causing Harry to die as I desperately flail both arms in the direction of an attacking monster.

What really bothers me, though, is the Silent Hill name attached to the project. Climax has said from the beginning that Shattered Memories isn’t a remake of the original Silent Hill, but a "re-imagining." I think a more accurate description might be "almost entirely different." Apart from characters with the same names, the game has next to nothing to do with the first Silent Hill.

Some of the settings and plot points are shared, but the relationships, characters and story are as different as can be. In fact, the characters are so different that I’m actually a bit baffled that Climax chose to give them the same names. I kept expecting certain characters to somehow tie into their original counterparts, but it never happened. Beyond that, the town of Silent Hill doesn’t seem to have anything to do with the story. Sure, lots of creepy things occur, but I was never given the impression that the town itself was responsible for any of it. There are no hints of Silent Hill’s dark history (at least none that I found). It’s just a dude with some weird stuff happening to him.

Don’t mistake that for a condemnation. Shattered Memories simply has its own story to tell, many elements of which will change depending on the choices you make. As a psychological horror game, it really shines. One moment in particular absolutely chilled me to the bone (you’ll know it when you get there). It’s just different, and maybe that’s the point. Climax set out to re-imagine Silent Hill and it succeeded, though it may not be what fans were expecting.

In a world where even the bizarre, psycho-sexual traditions of Silent Hill could (and arguably have) become stale, change is welcome. Personally, I hope Climax is given the chance to iterate its new formula again.

Look at my fancy new theme!

• Batman: Arkham Asylum
• Shadow Complex
• Halo Wars
• Street Fighter IV
• Halo 3: ODST (For Firefight, if nothing else)
• ‘Splosion Man

It’s worth noting that I haven’t played a fair amount of the games I need to play. Assassin’s Creed 2, Left 4 Dead 2 and Uncharted 2 spring immediately to mind. It’s also possible that Torchlight just might make it on there once I sink more hours into it.

Anyhway, the point I really want to get to is this: I think ‘Splosion Man has to be my pick for overall game of the year. I don’t know if that’s radical/crazy/pretentious, but it’s my choice. The reason I say it has to be my pick is simple: I had more fun playing that game than any other this year. Throw out production values. Throw out the “games as art” debate. Throw out writing. It’s not that ‘Splosion Man didn’t excel in any of those areas — it did — but the simple fact is I enjoyed it more than anything else this year.

I’ll save more commentary for later, when I get my thoughts in order, but I had to share. Please, give me your thoughts on the best games this year. I could use the help.

Tomorrow: Time to buckle down.

Oh, on a side note, the Halo Wars review should go up tomorrow. Hint: I like it.

And yet, I can tell you one thing: Not once has George W. Bush inspired me with his words. As a politician, Bush was made, manufactured. Obama wanted to be president, probably more than anyone in recent history, and probably because he had to in order to make it so far. Now it’s time for us to see if he can deliver.

I opened the door and looked into my backyard this morning. It was raining but the sun was still shining. Seems appropriate for the day after an election.