Twin Peaks and Alan Wake

I haven't really talked much about the show Twin Peaks but I think that's gonna change right now. I was introduced to the show through my soon to be ex-wife. I fell in love with the show instantly. The show is full of so much good stuff, excellent characters and a great story. It kinda falls apart half way through the second season but it picks it's shit up and regains momentum near the end of the second season. It's a shame that it didn't get going past that but that's the way the world works sometimes. The show stars Kyle MacLachlan who plays Special Agent Dale Cooper a FBI agent assigned to investigate a murder in the small Washington town of Twin Peaks. Turns out that the murder was that of Laura Palmer who was a popular prom queen type girl. She kinda turns out to be the town bicycle but that is besides the point.

The show has some crazy paranormal stuff that goes on too which is kinda cool (I kinda dig paranormal stuff). Also there is a part in the show that has David Duchovny as a DEA agent in drag and this was before the X-Files. What is interesting is that the show explores that almost everyone in the town has this really weird dark side to their lives. All the characters have a decent amount of depth to them which is always a good thing. There is also the dream sequence with the dancing backwards talking midget which is pretty famous. If you haven't seen the show I would definitely recommend it. I'm gonna have to re-watch it again soon. Thinking about Twin Peaks makes me want to talk about Alan Wake so more about that after the break.

So Alan Wake was definitely inspired partly by Twin Peaks (Steven King is another big inspiration for that game). You are a writer that goes to a small town in Washington that looks very much like the town in Twin Peaks. You also collect coffee thermoses and coffee is a huge theme in Twin Peaks (Dale Cooper loves his coffee). There is also a lamp lady (Twin Peaks had a log lady). But getting back to the game, Alan Wake is kinda a survival horrorish game which is a genre of game that I like for some reason. I dig games like Silent Hill and Resident Evil so this was very much down my alley. Add Twin Peaks to that formula and I'm sold! In the game you fight these shadow people that you defeat by shining your flashlight on them and shooting them with your gun. The 3rd person shooting game play is solid enough but the thing I really love about the game is the atmosphere. They did a great job with the mood of the game and the surrounding areas (even if most of them are just forest).

The game actually tells its story in kinda a unique way. Since he is a writer a lot of the game is narrated by Alan Wake. You also find pieces of his new novel (which he can't remember writing) on the ground all throughout the game which usually describe things that haven't happened yet but are about to. It kinda is neat because you expect the things to happen but you just don't really know when they are going to. A complaint I have about the game is that it likes to point out when enemies appear which kinda makes it hard for them to startle you. This is very minor for me though, didn't ruin the experience for me by any means. There is a metal point in the game where you are fighting enemies off on a stage on a farm while metal music is playing. That part of the game is really awesome and makes for a really cool experience. Speaking of metal games I should really play Brutal Legend more since I like Tim Schafer games so much. I really dug Psychonauts. If you haven't played that you should go and play it!

I think I really need to watch some more Robotech. I have 7 boxes sets (which is the whole series) on DVD that I haven't really watched ever. I remember watching some of them and enjoying it but I stopped for some reason. So much entertainment to be had but so little time to do it in. I guess there are worse things to have happen than to have too much entertainment to partake in. Short post again today but I'm scatterbrained right now so this is all I got at the moment.