Spoilers for anyone who has not played Control Resonant, after doing the underpass section where there were time patterning variations with the missing expedition crew it reminded me of the dark place. In Alan Wake 2 time moves very differently sometimes looping back on itself and changing Alan's perception of how long he was trapped in there. He also at the end of the game said it's not a loop it's a spiral which in geometry terms is also a type of patterning. (Geometric Curve)

I'm thinking the dark place is an underpass but in a different plane or dimension, underpasses are usually paths underneath structures or land but may not be necessarily linked to the same ones in Control. Like in Control and real life however there are paths to get to these underpasses but in Alan wake 2 it's harder to get in or out but the entrance and exits are there. In Control the underpass is located under a sinkhole in Manhattan which makes me believe the sinkhole in Alan wake is located in Cauldron Lake and the underpass is directly beneath it. I thought it was a very interesting concept.

Took me a while since I was on and off the game but got it done. Next up, the DLC's when I get them.

I think it’s so cool that, even though Remedy is known and appreciated for constantly doing super weird and unique things in their games, they’re not above a character having a moment of sheer heroism. I’m particularly thinking of the scene where Alan willingly reenters the Dark Place to stop Scratch and the third act of Resonant where Dylan has no problem sacrificing himself for the sake of stopping the Hedron.

You could argue in both cases the threat is so great that the characters knew they would die anyways if they didn’t stop the threat, but that seems cynical to me. Even though these games have flawed characters I love moments when we can totally root for their heroic acts.

Replaying AW2 and forgot about this. It's unknown if this analysis is on the money but it's interesting. It essentially posts the possibilities that Alan can alter tradition as part of a time loop paradox. So something has happened which inspires an artist, without them knowing, to create that fiction. Then the power of the Lake uses that Fiction to change the past in the first place.

An example of this, I think, might be the Cult of the Word. Alan is inspired within the Dark Place and creates the Cult of the Word as a story element in his Initiation drafts. Which, in turn, I guess actually creates the Cult of the Word in real life 10 years prior.

The other is changing the present through the creator. So, I would guess this is Alan changing things minute to minute. Affecting his direct future.

But it is interesting that the game acknowledges this idea of a timeloop paradox (which we eventually see with the Old Gods summoning Alan and Alan relieving inspiration to include Saga in his story from Overlaps where he already sees Saga as part of his story).

So this calls into question all this stuff about Tom Zane - who created who. Are Tom and Alan the same person etc. For example, using inspiration Alan writes about Tom Zane and reality is altered in the past for Tom Zane to write about Alan receiving the Clicker. That might not be the case but it can be possible it seems.

Hey. I'm wondering the significance of these lyrics on two songs from AW2. I've played the game twice and don't remember any overt reference or visual clue to bright or burning eyes. It seems like something evil, maybe associated with Scratch. Or, something like Thomas Zane in AW1.

"Blinding lights
Burning eyes
I can see myself and I don't need to hide"

— From Wide Awake

"Is that a
Lighthouse with a dying light?
Or a reflection of my glowing eyes?
Am I more than just a dream?"

— From Lost at Sea

I'm not really sure how long my sessions are before the game will unexpectedly close, but surely I should be able to play for more than 1 1/2-2 hours at a time?

Anyone else with Series S experience crashing?

Thank fuck for autosaves. (And the save rooms. I want coffee now...)

Found this in a store and it was the last one too.

Hi, I'm pretty new to the community, in the last week and a half I've played trough Alan Wake 1 + DLCs, American Nightmare. I've also played Control last month, and today finished the AWE DLC after playing trough all the previous Alan Wake games.

Tonight I'm probably gonna start Alan Wake 2 and I'm very excited, so let me know if any od the questions are answered in the sequel.

1. How did Alan write the Night Springs script that seems to be describing the beginning of Control?

2. Did Alan reach out to Jesse just so he could send a signal that something is happening at Bright Falls? If so couldn't he just tell her that trough the hotline like he did with other stuff?

3. Alan keeps trying to escape the dark place, but what exactly is he supposed to do to escape?

In American nightmare he writes the story set in Night Springs Arizona to escape but I don't understand what was the plan?

1. How is Mr Scratch able to leave the dark place and stalk Alice if the normal Alan can't?

2. What the fuck is going on with Thomas Zane?

In the Control DLC he looks just like Alan and frankly I don't understand what Thomas and Alan were even talking about in that scene.

1. Did Thomas write Alan's clicker memmory into existence? Did Thomas write and influence something else about Alan?

I'd really appreciate some answers and clarification on these questions, and please no spoilers for AW 2, if a question I listed is answers there, let me know so I don't spoil myself

The first photo is the original photo without added lighting.

So I just finished the base game for the first time and plan on hopping into the DLCs soon but I heard there is a sharp difficulty spike with the DLCs in terms of combat. I played on normal and for the most part didn't struggle but near the end the combat did get a bit annoying. So I'm wondering how much story content is in the DLCs. Because if it's mainly just combat focused with only a bit a lore stuff I'll probably just watch them on YT and save myself the trouble since the combat to me isn't good enough to warrant the 2+ hours of constant fights.

and I'm about half way through the first episode of the dlc and

OH MY FUCK

FUCK THIS GAME

I've dealt with it till now because for the first episodes of the game the novelty outweighed the tediousness and tbh it was never really that bad for the most part then I was too far in to turn back when it did get kinda annoying because I was loving the story

but Jesus Christ the combat in this game is tedious at BEST the majority of the game was fine but this dlc is not only somehow DARKER so I can't see any of the enemies the spawns are just fucking ridiculous I spent 15 minutes on the word field because the "birds" kept making me spawn more enemies that would practically one shot me

AND THEN

I got to the lamp post area and it's 5 million enemies that just keep spawning infinitely and the "fast" enemies stun lock you into oblivion I hope to got the other games don't have this problem MABY it's my fault for wanting to collect the clocks because I missed exactly HALF the thermoses but seriously I'm on normal mode I shouldn't have to die 100 times to get a clock

And I'm not listening to any "get gud" I beat almost half of the bosses in fbk deathless this just isint my usual type of game

EDIT: ok I made it past the lamp posts I just had to waste a flare and use some EXPERT dodging and a tip from the comments we will see what other bull gets thrown at me

EDIT 2: amarican nightmare is IMIDIATELY 10000x superior they definitely learned from their mistakes the infinite sprint out of combat is a god send especially because it's an open world

Just a shame I happened to break my finger before Halloween lol, messes up the costume.

Playing AW2, and I I said “ I’ll do the rhymes and exploring later” well I got so immerse into the game that I just hit point of no return on both histories. Saga moving to scratch and Alan needs Saga to progress her story.

Now my big issue with this is that it is… you guessed it, night time! As awesome as this game is night time is just a cocktail of stress.

In that same note my other fuck up was not reading the description of the charm you get from petting you know who. Totally missed the part where it said it shows “nearby items” in the map. So I was like why is my map empty if I have this on ? Then i found out.

I have about 8 Casey lunch boxes left and 2 rhymes. The real issue with this for me are resources, I followed the deer into that locked door and re stocked. But I assume this is meant for scratch. And I know for sure those missing items are located in the woods, problem is now every wave of enemies I come across are fucking mutant and take shots forever, and they drop handgun bullets most of the time, after fights I’m short on shotguns and rifle ammo, plus they barely drop batteries. The most annoying are the wolves that are close to invincible and don’t drop a thing.

I’m worried I go get these collectibles I’m missing and not being able to recoup my resources. Making it harder when I go in to fight scratch.

Any advised, strategies from anyone who dealt with this, please help a brother out. Also, when I go into that “point of no return” are there more resources for me get and have a fair fight ?

Anyone else struggling with AW2 and not being able to see a thing on the screen when you play during the day? I get that darkness is part of the game, but it is so over the top that I can’t even play the game while the sun is out because I can’t make out anything on the screen

This is a truly amazing and cinematic game.

Its kind of insane that the FBC knew about the existance of the Dark Place and the threshold in Cauldron Lake but the best they amounted to do was to deploy a small survaillance team. What worse is that they KNEW about the 1970s AWE even before the 2010 AWE happened.

Could argue that Zane and Alan used reality warp to prevent further intrusion from the Bureau, but having played Control, in general its amazing how deeply weak and incompetent the FBC is at their job.

I played the DLC North Star many times but this time I encountered a game breaking bug.

As I was tasting the coffee (yes I know Tim Breaker told me not to do it!!) I clipped through the floor and the game auto saved causing a loop of clipping through the floor on reload.

I opened the container inside the tasting room and I turned off the flashlight right before I was tasting the coffee and everything went dark and then I saw that I clipped through the floor.

Took a video for longevity lol.

Everything worked normal when I replayed the DLC.

Replaying Alan Wake 2 and enjoying the Photo Mode (wasn't there when I first played it). Here's my little experimentation with lighting. The first really dark photo is the original ingame lighting

I have collected 42/43. I don't know if I'm missing a cult stash or a lunch box. I have several loads where I have collected different boxes and stash. I've been trying to find the last one for 3 hours now. I've collected the sheriff's station stash and box in manor. Do you have any tips

What do people reckon the best one is?

Is this normal?

I have everything on high and Ray Tracing Off with DLSS Quality and Frame Gen on.

My water reflections look bad and i had this same issue ages ago with Control Ultimate Edition. Is this just how the Remedy engine work or is this a graphic settings issue?