Alan Wake is a game that I had long dismissed as complete and utter vaporware.  Given that fact, even when they started a full-court media press about it after last year’s E3, a small part of me still believed that it was never coming out, and so I paid it no mind.  This willful ignorance actually had a positive effect on my overall experience with the game, as I went in knowing absolutely nothing about what this game was about, save for the fact that it came to me billed as a game filled with “Stephen King style horror.”  Being a complete horror apologist and fan, that was all it took to sell me on the game, and so with a steeled heart, a darkened room, and headphones cranked to 11, I ventured into the world of Alan Wake.

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If someday I am standing at the Pearly Gates and St. Peter looks down at the sum total of my life and asks, “You played Civilization 2 once for an entire weekend? Like, 32 out of 48 hours? Seriously?” I will answer him, head held high, “Yes, yes I did.  And it was totally awesome.”

It is true that in my younger days, I put in many a marathon session of gaming.  Entire nights or weekends could blow by as I sat immersed in whatever game was occupying my attention at the time.  An entire Christmas vacation could be lost to Final Fantasy VI, or nights that should have been spent writing history papers were spent tracking down Sectoids in X-Com. Even up to my years in college, I still might put off more pressing concerns to stay up until the wee hours of the morning waiting to see what was coming next in Silent Hill or the like.

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