Alan Wake

If Stephen King made a video game, it would probably be Remedy Entertainment's Alan Wake. Produced by Microsoft Game Studios, this third-person survival horror game is about the title character's desperate search for his wife after she is kidnapped by mysterious forces in the small mountain town of Bright Falls. The story is divided into six episodes, like a miniseries. Along the way, Wake realizes that he has subconsciously written a manuscript, which he finds pages of during his search for his wife. While there's plenty of terror brought forth by the plot, there isn't a lack of comic relief from the NPCs.

The main villain is the bizarre force known simply as the Darkness, which turns the entire world against Wake. You'll be attacked by deranged locals, flying objects, and flocks of angry blackbirds. To defeat your enemies, you first need to bathe them in light to destroy the darkness that protects them. While your flashlight is your primary weapon, there's also flairs, flashbang grenades, and environmental objects to use. After you've destroyed the darkness, your enemies won't be immune to bullets. However, like all survival horrors, ammunition is limited, especially in the harder difficulties. So there will be times that you might panic and worry that you won't be able to escape into the light in time. Don't worry, that's supposed to happen.

There's also plenty of little radio broadcasts and Twilight Zone spin-offs to find, making the eerie story and environments even eerier.

One frustrating drawback of the gameplay is the ability to dodge attacks. While you can do this, it requires perfect timing and doesn't always seem to work. It also doesn't help when you've been backed into a corner. Enemies will also attack you from off screen with projectiles and can randomly kill you before you know what's going on.

There's also nothing to do beyond the story mode. There probably isn't even a reason to call it "story mode." It would be more appropriate to call it "the game," because there's no multiplayer or challenge modes to be found.

One last issue is the story's ending. It feels incomplete and leaves you wondering if there's meant to be a sequel (and yes, Remedy has already confirmed it). This could be argued as an ironic ending for a game about a successful writer who has lost his ability to write.

While the overall game is pretty good, the lack of things to do beyond the story makes it not worth $60. Survival horror fans should grab a used copy, and other curious gamers should rent it. Alan Wake is currently available for the Xbox 360 and is due for the PC later this year. It's rated T for Teen.

Image provided courtesy of Wikipedia.

Iron Man 2

A major issue with popcorn movies right now is the industry's addiction to sequels. As long as the first movie does well both at the box office and with the critics, producers will pump out half-hearted sequels, prequels and spin-offs to make more money. However, some companies actually care about their work, and make excellent sequels like The Dark Knight, Spider-man 2 and Hellboy 2.

While the first Iron Man movie was a surprising hit, Iron Man 2 would best be described as a respectable, yet failed attempt to match its predecessor. While Iron Man was great, Iron Man 2 was only good.

The film takes place six months after the first movie, when Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) is caught between the U.S. government trying to take his Iron Man suit, and his artificial heart poisoning his body and mind. Meanwhile, Ivan Vanko (Mickey Rourke), son of Stark's father's business partner, joins forces with Stark's rival, Justin Hammer (Sam Rockwell), after a failed assassination attempt as Whiplash. Hammer promises to financially back Whiplash if he builds him an army of Iron Man suits.

Unfortunately, like Jeff Bridges as Obadiah Stane in the first film, the villains feel a bit underused in this movie. In fact, there was one scene when Hammer and Whiplash begin feuding with each other that seems to overshadow anything else they do on screen. Even the final showdown with Whiplash was incredibly short and disappointing.

The movie also felt a bit longer than it actually was. It's a little over two hours long, but a few scenes feel dragged out and boring after a while.

Having said that, this movie was still wasn't bad. Director Jon Favreau did a descent job of balancing action with comedy and character development. I especially liked what happened with Lt. Colonel James "Rhodey" Rhodes (Don Cheadle) first puts on the War Machine suit. (You'll get what I mean when you see it.)

The cast, overall, gives a great performance as well. In fact, there's tons of celebrity cameos to keep an eye out for, from TV journalists, to musicians, to Favreau and Stan Lee (who constantly appear in their movies).

Overall, I think this movie was just OK at best. See a matinee showing or wait for the DVD. If you only want to see the secret ending after the credits, just look for it on YouTube.