Alan Wake - A Game that Might Happen?

To start, I'd like to say that all signs indicate that I will be purchasing the game Alan Wake, which is slated to come out on May 18 of this year.

Mike and I have been talking about this game since it's initial announcement in 2005. Michael had been a proponent from the get go, to me it looked all right, but I wasn't quite as enthused.

From an email I sent to him in 2006 regarding the first footage they released for the game: "alan wake... are you serious with that... i mean, hey, it looks very pretty, but it doesn't appear that the engine is working right from those videos, because nothing moves quite right... and, he's scurred of it getting dark when a bunch of aliens wearing ponchos attack? it looks like some sort of alien version of alone in the dark... but... i mean, wow, it looks gorgeous... so it will be good... like gears of war, arguably the best game ever... because it's pretty."

Now, I understand what I wrote makes very little sense to anyone. I was sending the email to Mike who has learned to parse most of my retardedness into semi-coherent conversation. The gist there was that I was not impressed by what I saw. There seem to be creatures, aliens or otherworldly residents that all wear ponchos and are scaring Alan.

In the many, many, many years since, the Finnish company behind Alan Wake's development, Remedy, has done everything in their power to delay the release while simultaneously promising better and greater features and nearer and further launch dates.

Over the past five years, Alan Wake has entered the topic of our discussions many times, though it has quickly become a running joke. The unattainable perfect that will forever be just out of reach, dangled like a carrot before us.

In that time I've also had cause to change my mind about the game. While they've been changing exactly how the game will play here and there over the years, it seems that the core story has remained, and it looks to be interesting. A story about a writer who moves, at his wife's urging, to a new town, but her disappearance thrusts him into an adventure we get to play. Add to that the fact that they intend to make it more of an interactive story that will play like the first season of a television show, and that it's been in development for so very long and therefore has to be nearly flawless and you have a delicious recipe for a tasty dessert. Or video game. I forget, really.

At some point I recall stating emphatically that if Alan Wake was to be released, I would buy it simply because it had come out. Thus, I am bound to make the purchase, but had I not made that agreement with myself, I'd still be purchasing it. It simply looks like there's a chance it will be good. They seem to have focused on the storytelling, and while it doesn't look like it will quite as strong a departure from classic gaming as, say, Heavy Rain, it certainly looks promising.

Here it is, 2010, and it's been five years since they first announced this title, and it finally seems it will actually come out. I can't say I'm not excited, because I am, but something doesn't feel right. You know? I figured that this would be my white whale, I would be Ahab to this Moby Dick. Now that I might actually attain it, what more will I have to live for after this?

Of course, there's another option. As Mike put it the other day: "I hope each box is empty with a note that says the equivalent of "Psych!" in Finnish."

The Great Garage Debacle

"Débâcle" is great word, but wholly inappropriate in this case. I use it now simply because I think it's a fun word to say, but the events surrounding my garage are not, at least as of yet, disastrous, though you might disagree.

The question you might want to ask is: what are you talking about and why? You'd be right to ask these things and as such I think it only fair that I answer them.

You might not be aware that we bought a house last September, just before the original expiration of the homebuyer's tax credit, and moved in at the end of October. You might not be aware of this because I've not really bothered updating this blog at all that much over the last year and you likely don't care much about me and the events of my life.

We bought a house large enough to accommodate all us in an area we're both happier living. Our mortgage with escrow is lower than what we were paying for only one of our apartments. It was a foreclosure, however, and therefore needs some work. We've been plugging away on issues here and there, and don't get me wrong it's not a sinkhole of money sucking doom, but there are definitely enough things to work on to keep us busy.

One of the most noticeable issues with the house would be the garage door. Simply put, there wasn't one. In its place the previous owner tacked up four plywood boards and a single 1" x 4" column in the center.

Shortly after we moved in, one of our wonderful neighbors came over to welcome us to the neighborhood. Viktor and Tatiana, a lovely couple who emigrated from Belarus, brought delicious Russian Tea Cakes and an offer of assistance. Tatiana's brother-in-law works for a garage door company and could get a hold of salvaged panels for free and with a little elbow grease we could get the door up ourselves. Now, I imagine that for them, besides the good feeling of helping a neighbor, they were likely tired of looking at the eye-sore for the last couple years and were ready for a cul-de-sac where all of garages had doors of their own.

If you were to keep score, and know anything about anything, you'll know that on this circle, we have been blessed with two incredible and helpful neighbors, one neighbor that isn't terrible, an empty house, and neighbors we've never really met but are far enough away as to not likely effect us anyway.

The goal, when we spoke in November, was to get it done before the snow started coming down. Unfortunately, we missed the goal and spent the entire winter with an ugly garage.

Why didn't we just pay to have a garage door installed, then? While we had the money to do so, it just didn't make sense to spend money on something that we could get done for free. So, we chose to wait instead.

Fast forward to yesterday. Viktor and I began work on the project. Since neither of us are professional garage door installers, it took us a few hours longer than it probably should have, but we're more than willing to point out some of the adversity that has plagued us. Part of the problem, is the fact that the foundation on the garage is cracked and so the garage itself is somewhat lopsided. The left side is almost exactly two inches lower than the right.

It's obvious, after doing the work, that the reason there was no door on the garage when we bought it was because the the tracks had become warped because the foundation of the garage had shifted so far. Without realizing how lopsided the opening was when we started, we were forced to re-hang the new tracks after realizing the situation.

The good news is that the doors are on, the bad news is that it doesn't quite work yet. Because we had to adjust the left side tracks up to keep the door level, the left side of the door doesn't quite clear the rafters at the top. So, we decided to break there and we'll come back with a sawzall and a little bit of lumber later in the week. We're going to cut enough out of two of the rafters to clear the top of the door and reinforce the weakened rafters with some timber.

I have to admit, though, it's really nice to have something that at least looks like a garage now.



The lopsidedness of the garage isn't that big of a deal because we plan to tear it down and build a new one as an extension to the house in a few years, so this thing just needs to get us through a few seasons.

Now, you might wonder why I've told you all of this, and for that I award your house five points. Clearly it doesn't matter in the slightest to most people. I simply like to keep the few people who actually care about me and mine aware of the things that are happening.

Also, I've decided that I'd like to start working on my blog again, and this seemed a worthy topic to write about. The next topic, I think, will be the impending release (finally) of Alan Wake.

Until then, adieu.