Nalabox Dislikes: Alan Wake

But I enjoyed his nightmares.  

There are already a few reviews of this game on the internet so I won’t really be adding any new sauce to this well grilled game. Excellent story largely let down by gameplay.

Want to know what I shouted the most while playing this game?

“Alan man just fucking *…*”
*shoot
*dodge
*run
*JUMP
*ANYTHING!!!!
*HURNGHH!

Created by Me with imgflip.com

I felt compelled to compare Alan with my interpretation of the Lara-split syndrome (totally a thing I just made up) apart from where as wor lovely Gameplay Lara is the bidness it seems Alan Wake suffers from the reverse…. Cutscene Alan is at least slightly clued up about his situation but Gameplay Alan is just… lifeless. He’s a monotonous drone that compelled me to think he deserved his fate to be honest. Also there was no mention in the games features that Gameplay Alan would be vulnerable to the Daniel-from Amnesia-style freaking out and dodging TOWARDS the thing that scared him. GAME. UGH.  Alas, Cutscene Alan, I wanted him to reach the end, find his love and escape the evil that consumed him. 

A True Bro.
Pic Cred: Alan Wake Faceybook Page

Barry.


Barry was mint. I felt there wasn’t enough about him in the first game and I’m glad you got a chance for some closure in American Nightmare, for him and some of the other characters. In fact, the only character I wasn’t very interested in was Alan himself. He was a bit of a dick to everyone around him, even more so in American Nightmare: making all those choices to affect the lives of those people and not really giving it a second thought whether they would continue to exist or not. Emma Sloan for example. He fails to save her more than once and she’s forced to remember a horrific tragedy over and over again. We only come into that reality after he’s already faced Mr Scratch so how many times has it really been? Mr Scratch has already caused trouble for some period of time to have affected reality to the point it made it possible for Alan to break through in the first place.

Emma Sloan. This is how I felt when seeing Alan too hun
Pic Cred

I get these games were meant to make you feel his desperation, the loneliness, being self-alienated and possibly what it’s like to know the truth of something but no one believes you. They think you’re crazy.  It attempted that anyway. I’d played “The Cat Lady” shortly before the Alan Wake games and I think that raised the bar for me in regards to the emotional depth of a character and feeling what they feel. Damn that was a good game. You know I didn’t realise how much it had disturbed me until a few weeks ago when I was telling a friend to play it. *Shivers* [I will replay it and share what I mean with you in the near future]

I tell ye what though, Gameplay Alan and Cutscene Lara deserve each other. Stick ‘em in a boat and ship them off to Diver’s Isle and fecking leave them there to jump over the logs that are capable of inflicting mysterious psychological damage and they can sit there and cry about it.   

Stage 5 Complete!

I've listened to all of the suggestions of the Best Musical Score in a Game Evah like hew!

Number 5:

Megaman X (Youtube playlist)

I have to admit this is the only one I didn't listen to all the way through having listened to Megaman 2 about 1 hour beforehand. I felt like I'd heard it before and I have no idea which game came first. It's placing 5 out of the 13 Soundtracks I was given by fellow Gamers because it's too damn busy! Seems like Megaman never gets a rest in this game judging from the music he's gotta be on the go all the damn time, totally heart pumping action GO GO GO! No time for reflection and whether he's doing the right thing. I never had a Nintendo growing up, so when I listen to this I think Sonic... Which blue speed freak guy came first?

Numba 4: 

Quake (That NiN sound man) 

Being a fan of that guy and never played the game I enjoyed this as purely an extension of his discography. I have no idea about the impact the music itself has on the game play (comparing everything to Mass Effect 3 here by the way). If it's to tell me that Quake is a very futuristic, gritty and despairing world. OMG how much despair and misery must be in this game? Then it does its job perfectly well. I know there is no hope in saving the princess in this game. It feels like she's been flayed for several days before I got it in my head to go to the dark palace and rescue her, only to find my own death waiting for me in the form of the physical manifestation of her last thoughts on whichever planet she came from. *shivers* 

Number Three:

Populous: The Beginning (Just a few tracks)

This was a much needed relief after listening to most of the Halo soundtrack someone suggested, which was weirdly techno and chipper considering the premise of the game. Anyway, Populous pipe music was relaxing with a sense of foreboding but a not-too-serious vibe of: is there going to be a natural disaster or just a wet fart? I'll go to the toilet just in case sense of foreboding.

Numberererer 2:

Quake 2 ( my bad?)   

I know a bunch of you will be all like "But Trent waah wahh herpa derpa!" hear me out. As drenched in the 'popular music sound' as this was it wasn't as depressing. I'm going purely off what the music tells me about the game, I have no idea what the Quake series is about, I'm most likely going to Google them after this here little experiment. This soundtrack told me that even in spite of the shit hitting the fan, that shit is being taken care of! We have a good chance of saving that princess, we are in control! Hope in Humanity will win over all! Yay!

However, there is a high chance we still didn't save the princess because we were too busy pretending we were 15 again and dying our hair black and only playing at the "big boy trousers" coz man when we get to her she's badly mutilated, alive, but we just couldn't quite get all our shit together and that manifestation follows us back to the King as we hand over the husk that is his daughter. We walk away with heavy pockets and even heavier hearts as we hear two shots out of that old man's revolver and we daren't look back coz that sum bitch manifestation looks an awful lot like Mr Reznor and that Number 4 scenario looks at lot nicer from here, but it's not number two coz we're still alive right? Right?!  

Honourable mention before Number 1:

The Bioshock series soundtracks, very enjoyable and not as repetitive as Fallout 3

Stage 1:

You should already know if you read my previous blog post....

Streets of Rage 2 

As soon as Mr KB suggested this my heart was like "Holy shit YES" 

Everything you need to know about a game is in it's music I'm sure of it. This game is serious and witty, and fast paced with a little romance. It has Heart! Reflection and Action! Each track as listed when you hear it you know exactly where you are in the city and what's about to go down. You feel like you've been kicked in the teeth along with Adam, Axel and Blaze but you stand right back up again so sure you're gonna beat every 80's Villain ever with your amazing hair!

Game music:

Can be incredibly misleading. Same with everything else used in advertising in every product ever. But imagine if we bought games just from listening or viewing one particular aspect of it? I say this because I think recently we as consumers are expected to fork out a lot of money on something that publishers think looks good but is just that: an aesthetically pleasing but pay-full-price-for-an-unfinished-product! What I'm saying is most of my assumptions based on just listening to the music of the game may be completely wrong and that's how I feel what is expected of me by the industry. WE need all of those other aspects in order for it to be a worthwhile product to want to Consume!

P.S If you don't agree with my selection well that's tough titty and you should have messaged me to make more suggestions!

Dem chunes!

Heyo!

Been a long ass time so let's get our jig on!

I really enjoy the Mass Effect 3 soundtrack probably more than I should. So much emotional investment in that game and they upset a lot of people but the music from that game is AMAZING! I can't listen to End Once and For All without bubbling up and urging the imaginary Normandy SR-2 to make it past that shock wave! I personally think it's the Best Music Score for a Game (so far) ever! 

Despite my bias I asked some fellow Gamers what they thought was the Best Musical Score for a Game and they gave me a list:

Quake 2
Streets of Rage 2
Kingdom Hearts
Halo
Quake
All Final Fantasy Final Boss Themes (not really a soundtrack but included all the same)
Megaman X

*So Far Streets of Rage 2 is Winning!*** 

It's got Heart and Soul and some Serious Jams man! 
I'm going to listen to them all and compile a top 5. If you have any suggestions please feel free to comment or send me a message!

Check oot the Faceybook

Nalabox Loathes?: Haunted Memories

It's a horror game. I have high expectations when it comes to horror movies and games.

I want to be given an experience. A thrilling psychological, rock me to my core, re-evaluate my soul, experience. A little over the top perhaps, but I've watched so many movies long and short that have held no joy in finding that experience. Jump scares are okay but used too much and in obvious places gets a thumbs down from me. It just becomes almost comical. 

I heard about this Slender guy....

I watched vids of people of this now infamous figure blackening our screens and scaring the bejeebus out of them. I even saw those "notes" around my home town on Halloween. I gotta get in on this. 

Years later, Haunted Memories comes out. I get it. I pragmatically decide not to try it on Paranormal mode for my first funthrough. Need to look awesome when I record this/

First impressions: Looks pretty. More annoying than scary.

On account of after the intro played it was obvious I was going to encounter our anti-hero but not soon as I take two steps. My character froze and died. Reload. Managed to get past the gate this time He freaked out at a breeze and "died" from the game spinning him around straight into the slender figure. Hmm.

After a few more tries we progressed in the "story" without major incident. Then it updated.

Couldn't load me previous game. No biggie.

Wouldn't even load up the intro. Audio was there though.

Re-Verify? Nope. Reinstall? Nope.

NEXT!

Daily Snippet: Abbrev.

I give in and up!

I'm playing PN2 for the BL2 UL but only the TF2 UL works so now I'm having to DL TF2. Only to get volunteered for some MVM...what have I gotten myself in to?

Meanwhile check out the latest Funthrough episodes:

Clicky Nalabox Youtube Channel Clicky

Borked!

Such a good word!

I'm not sure where it comes from or what it's supposed to mean 'really' but I'm using it to described what I done to my wrists. BOTH of them. I borked them right up. One was Minecraft induced RSI (Repetitive strain injury) and the other I fell over my dog and in trying to protect my beautiful fa- my mouse hand I borked the other wrist- the WASD hand :( So I've been out of action for about 10 days! TEN WHOLE DAYS WITH NO GAMING! Fuck. My lovely hands are my paycheck too so I was a bit useless there too but fuck 10 days?

Luckily I've had a few funthrough episodes already recorded so it didn't take much to sling them all together and make a few YouTube posts so clicky clicky to see what I've been up to. Watching stuff is much more entertaining than reading online right?

Tomb Raider Playlist

Amnesia Playlist

Cheesy Shenanigans 

Take care chappydoodles!

Spooky Sunday!

Hey guys, sorry for the long absence. Life Happened.

I'm trying out a new game today called Amnesia: The Dark Descent. It's a survival puzzle horror game which I don't know much about besides watching videos of other poor souls trying to play it. My favourite rather entertaining video is of this guy:

even finding this again and watching it makes me laugh sooo HARD!

I watched this and thought "Hey I could totally play that game and not freak out, jeebus that guy is a pansy" so many years later I have a fully working pc and bam! Amnesia was purchased. Let's see how well I do huh?

Today I dub thee Spooky Sunday!

Clicky Amnesia Part One: Meet Daniel Clicky. 

Funthrough! Tomb Raider Part 3

Short post in comparison to the last one....

Today's Camping Adventures with Lara... Lots of panicking and a change of underwear! WARNING: I do skreech a lot in this episode! 

Clicky Tomb Raider Part 3 Clicky

I snorted a few times watching the footage back in a few places. My reactions to stuff for the first time are hilarious. I'm picking up a few of Lara's bad habits too.

I also feel like there's a bit too many cut scenes, am I watching a movie or playing a game?

Funthrough! Tomb Raider 2013

A Funthrough?

Yes! It's not as comprehensive as a walkthrough but not quite a runthrough as I'd rather have fun with a game I'm playing than take it dreadfully seriously so it's a FUNTHROUGH!

I finally managed to get my video capture and editing stuff working and with some gusto and many coffees later I have the first video up on YouTube:

clicky Nalabox Channel: Tomb Raider part 1  clicky

I had to play the intro over and over again just to get stuff to work and stupid ass me forgetting to record sound and somehow ended up making a 25GB file! Jeebus!

Please feel free to comment and let me know how I'm doing. I know I suck cake arse but I can only get better with practice :)

I do have other projects in the pipeline too.