When it comes to a bright, shiny, new game, I try to read the least amount of info about it as I can. I prefer to immerse myself and either bask in the glory of its awesomeness or grab my hammer and hammer the disk to pieces if the game turns out to be bad. So when I put my [I]Alan Wake[/I] disk into my 360 this morning, I didn't know what to expect - which as it turns out, was a good thing. [I]Alan Wake[/I] is creepy cool.

For those of you who choose to do the same and avoid game spoilers, it's probably best to stop reading right about now. While I will do my utmost not to spoil your experience, there may be times when my fingers take on a life of their own and who knows what we'll end up with.

So [I]Alan Wake [/I]is a game about a writer (which I really digged, btw) and you play as Alan. The cool thing about the world of [I]Alan Wake[/I] is that the game is played out in sequences (called 'Chapters', just like in one of his books). You find yourself (as Alan) caught up in some strangely weird alternate reality inside one of Alan's dreams. He calls it a 'dream' but the creepy characters and supernatural occurances that feature throughout the dream make it more like a nightmare really, which is when things start to get very intense.

You'll see what I mean after playing the first sequence right at the very beginning. You know something bad is about to happen but you've really got no way of avoiding it, other than running. You start off without a weapon which creates a very vulnerable feeling. [I]Alan Wake [/I]is big on atmosphere and it's alot like [I]'Heavy Rain' [/I]in that sense. The environment plays a very big part and because you're caught in Alan's nightmare, just about anything can happen (and does).
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