Back when I played through Alan Wake I heaped on the accolades. It redefined interactive storytelling, I wrote. I said it likely won't be topped in 2010.

Enter now the final chapter in this brave experiment of blending the interactive nature of video games with the compelling hooks of episodic must-see-TV. The Writer is the second episode for the game, a sort of season finale, and like television it faces high expectations. There are unanswered plot points to deal with, character back stories to plumb, and the need to deliver final proof that gamers should plunk down full fare for the next full game expected from the series.

Ideal Player

This is pretty straight forward: The writer is meant to be the last episode of narrative-driven thriller Alan Wake for the Xbox 360. You can't play this download add-on without Alan Wake and you wouldn't want to. It would be like reading the last chapter of a confusing book.

Why You Should Care

Alan Wake was a video game driven by a compelling story, interesting light and dark mechanics and the promise of television-like episodic content. The Writer essentially wraps up this game's first season. Any desire to buy into the second season will be driven by this finale.

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How did The Writer compare to The Signal and the main game's story? While there's a bit more plot to be found in The Writer than there was in The Signal, it's still disappointing compared to the character development and strong narrative of the original game. The Writer drifts over old ground and delivers neither a meaningful conclusion to the solid story found in the original game nor the sort of nail-bitter that leaves you hungry for the inevitable boxed sequel.

Is there anything new in The Writer? Not really. The game has some interesting settings, some neat fun-house level design, but no new mechanics, no new characters and not much in the way of satisfying plot.

What if I don't own Alan Wake, is it worth picking up the game to play it and both extra episodes? When I finished playing through Alan Wake I wrote that it was a strong game of the year contender. I would still feel that way if it wasn't so inexorably anchored to such mediocre addenda. The problem is that you'll feel committed to getting those add-ons once you finish the game because, as weak as they are, they still inch the plot forward. That added commitment to lackluster content makes it a bad deal.

Now that the "season" is over, what do you think of the concept of episodic gaming as seen in Alan Wake? I love the notion of playing a game the same way you view television, one sensible hour at a time delivered over the course of weeks. Had developer Remedy delivered extra episodes as powerful as the original content it could have proven the power of that method. Sadly they did not. If this were a TV show I suspect it would face cancellation.

Alan Wake: The Writer In Action

This video contains story spoilers from the original game and a glimpse at a lot of settings and gameplay elements for The Writer.

The Bottom Line

The Writer is a disappointing, anti-climactic end to a full-budget game experiment that had high potential. The first downloadable episode, The Signal, was disappointing, but I assured myself it was mostly-free filler meant to tide us over until this final episode hit. I was wrong. Looking back at the narrative structure of Alan Wake and its paid-content offspring, it looks like what Remedy has been selling us is a particularly flat and vapid deneouement as they prepare to launch a boxed, and much pricier season two.

The Writer episode of Alan Wake was developed by Remedy Entertainment and published by Microsoft Game Studios on Oct. 12 in North America. Retails for 560 Microsoft Points, or about $7. A code for the DLC was given to us by the publisher for review purposes. Played through the entire episode.

We bring you news of new games. Flickr user liftarn brings you this nice gallery of old video game machines, photographed this month at Retrogathering 2010 in Sweden. Have a look. I can't name all these wonderful fossils. Can you?

Looks like you don't have to purchase the Borderlands Game of the Year Edition to join the Duke Nukem Forever First Access Club if you've already purchased the original Borderlands on Steam.

Readers Jon and Steve sent in images showing off the Duke Nukem Forever First Access Club codes that have shown up in their Borderlands CD keys on Steam, so I wandered into my account and took a snap of my own, showing off the amazing seven minutes I played Borderlands on PC.

Earlier this month new Duke Nukem Forever publisher 2K Games revealed that purchasers of the Borderlands Game of the Year Edition re-release would score access to the club, which will provide players with exclusive access to the Duke Nukem Forever demo before it's released to the public.

It's worth noting that while my CD keys include the additional DLC released for Borderlands, reader Jon did not purchase the DLC and still had the Duke Nukem Forever code in his account.

So check your accounts, Borderlands players! There could be a Duke Nukem-flavored surprise hiding inside.

The revival of Dreamcast favorite Crazy Taxi on Xbox Live Arcade and PlayStation Network won't transform the game significantly.

I recently got the quickest of looks at a build of Crazy Taxi (Dreamcast Returns) at a Sega showcase event in Manhattan for upcoming games. It is a port of both the original 1999 arcade game and its 2000 Dreamcast successor. Both games had the player driving a taxi as fast as they could from one part of a city to another, trying to haul passengers swiftly and skillfully for maximum fares.

The old versions of the games will be released as a single downloadable game for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 this fall. They run in 720p now and, unlike the recent downloadable release of Sonic Adventure, the ported Crazy Taxi will run in widescreen. A spokesperson for the game said this is true widescreen, with a wider viewing area, not chopped graphics.

The arcade version of the game will be presented as its own map to supplement the Dreamcast content. The new release will also include Crazy Box, a series of challenges that were part of the home game.

The game sure looked like Crazy Taxi while I watched it being played, but I was short on time and could not test whether it in my own hands. Look for it later this fall.

To: Ash
From: Crecente
Re: When You're 7 And Have Pocket Change...

I was up until 3 a.m. or so this morning working through the copious amounts of video I had captured for use in my Medal of Honor review. But you know that, we were chatting! Sometime early in the morning Tristan stumbled out of his room to use the bathroom, stopping a second bleary-eyed to stare at me before returning to his bed.

This morning I was back at my desk looking over reaction to the review about 7:30 a.m. when Tristan came out of his room, the sleep still in his eyes. He stopped in his tracks to stare at me.

"Still!"

And then he came over and gave me a big hug.

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Review: Medal of Honor

A trio of Rocky Horror Picture Show tracks are coming to Guitar Hero later this month, giving us an excellent opportunity to post a picture of Tim Curry in lingerie.

Not that we need an excuse to post a picture of Tim Curry.

Three songs from the cult-classic film will be making their Guitar Hero debut on October 26, just in time for Halloween. Fans will enjoy doing the "Time Warp" for the 100,000th time; might actually launder their sweaty costumes for "Sweet Transvestite;" and "Hot Patootie" will have them shouting "Sex, drugs, and rock n' roll!" all night long.

I've seen this movie far too many times. Just writing about it makes me queasy.

But hey, Tim Curry in lingerie!

They can swap out Bonds and update the plot as much as they want, as long as Jaws, Oddjob, and Dr. No are available in GoldenEye: 007's multiplayer I'm a happy camper.

Daniel Craig is my favorite James Bond, but GoldenEye was always about Pierce Brosnan, so I'm a little uneasy about the swap. The movies didn't just feature different actors in the same role; they were different Bonds appearing in movies tailored to their particular talents.

Only the inclusion of classic Bond villains assuages my unease. Especially Jaws. Back when I was a teenager, people used to tell me I looked like Jaws from Moonraker. That probably wasn't a compliment, but I took it as one anyway.

A mere two weeks before the release of its second game, Tony Hawk: Shred developer Robomodo is hit by layoffs, with sources reporting 30 to 60 jobs being cut due to the loss of the Tony Hawk franchise.

Formed in 2008, Robomodo is the Chicago-based development studio that Activision put in charge of the Tony Hawk franchise, starting with last year's ill-received Tony Hawk: Ride, which introduced a plastic skateboard peripheral to the series. The second Robomodo-developer Tony Hawk game, Shred, is due out at the end of this month.

It might also be the developer's last.

Kotaku has received multiple tips today regarding layoffs at Robomodo. Two separate sources have told us that 30 employees have lost their jobs as of this morning, and another suggested the number would grow to 60 by the end of the day.

Sources tell Kotaku that the layoffs were affected in some way by news that Tony Hawk publisher Activision had taken the franchise away from the developer. One source told us that a wrap party planned for Tony Hawk: Shred with the star attending was pushed back to November without notice prior to today's layoffs.

The Robomodo website is currently down, and no one is answering phones at the developer's office.

We've reached out to both Activision and Robomodo's public relations teams for comment, and will update this post once we hear back.

Does this mean that Tony Hawk will be losing the silly plastic board?

Update: Activision is not commenting on the situation at this time.

Update 2: Robomodo has delivered the following statement from president Josh Tsui:

"It is always difficult to let hard-working and valued employees go. Robomodo has retained all of the company's directors and leads, along with other staff members. All are busy working on future projects and ideas, which will become the innovative games of tomorrow. We hope to bring back some of our team as we ramp up on our next projects."

Marvel's Super Hero Squad Online is an upcoming MMO for kids, featuring cutesy versions of Marvel characters. At New York Comic-Con, the people behind the game wanted to surprise us, but showing us some of Marvel's nastiest.

Any and every Marvel character can be in this game, one of the game's developers told an audience attending a panel about games based on the comic company's icons. Bullseye, Deadpool, Blade.... those guys in the slide above will be in there. So will the guys and gals in the slides below.

Super Hero Squad Online is one of multiple MMOs being prepared for Marvel characters. This one uses a card-based battling mechanic that a developer behind the game told Comic-Con attendees has had design input from people associated with Magic the Gathering. (Correction: The card battle system is only "one quarter of the total game," according to Stephen Reid, community director for Gazillion. I apologize for the misunderstanding.)

We haven't seen much of the game in action yet, but the character designs here are neat. You can see the official roster for the game at the game's site (you can also sign up for the beta there), but expect an expanding line-up. Even Squirrel Girl might make it in, one of the developers said at Comic-Con, addressing shouted requests from a panel audience. Looks like they'll put anyone in this game!

Capcom has completed testing its Fight Club events in the western and northern U.S. and is ready to bring Marvel Vs. Capcom 3 to where the real fighters live - Atlanta, Georgia.

After getting a taste of what Chicago had to offer last month, Capcom takes the Fight Club show down south to my own stomping grounds of Atlanta. The location is still a secret, but we've got a date and time: Thursday, October 28 from 8 to 11PM.

According to Capcom's post about the event, there will be more security, organization, and ventilation than the Chicago event.

And 100% more Michael Fahey.