Felt so sad about Mr McCaffrey passing, but there is maybe the perfect send off line for him by him in AW2, (Slight spoiler): "... There would always be another case for Casey. A million stories in this dark city. The night opened up to welcome me. I walked into her arms. Roll credits." Absolutely my favorite game of 2023 and one of all time.

Even after all the other big games to come out in the last year not a single one has stuck with me like AW2 has, definitely in the running for favorite game.

"You know what happens to cops who say this is their last case." "Real Funny, Anderson."

I'm currently on a binge of remedy games. Starting with the first Alan Wake, then I played the Max Payne trilogy, then quantum break, now control, and saving Alan Wake 2 for last. The only game I played prior to this binge was Max Payne and fuck had I been missing out! I heard you talkin bout remedy so much thruout the years Jake I had to give them a chance, and yup! This studio is great!

R.I.P. James McCaffrey. There are a couple of lines of his in Alan Wake 2 that really stuck out to me while I was playing The Final Draft, and it makes me wonder if he'd worked with Sam Lake and the writers on some of it (as he died of multiple myeloma, and my guess is that he'd been battling that for a long while). You can hear a lot of regret and pain in his delivery of this line in particular: "I was dead tired. I just wanted it to be over. It was all my fault. I'd had this dark place in my head for so long. Sometimes I'd forget the pain was there. Like it was the way you were supposed to feel. I was not in a dark place. I was the dark place, the source of it all, the vessel." And with this one later in the story, there's a very real sadness behind it, and even a hint of defeat or acceptance: "I'm a goner. Swell! A shadow crawling under my skin. In my head. Call my ex, tell her I'm sorry. Terminal Case Casey." I know it could have truly been a coincidence, but something about the way he played these lines just felt very real and personal. I can't help but wonder if James had already known for a while that he didn't have long, and had decided to bring some more of himself into his final role. Whatever the case, I'm glad he's at peace now.

I was amazed to go back to Alan Wake 1 and find that the town was fundamentally the same in both games. It has a tremendous sense of place.

The musical Scene with all the stage lights and shootouts is probably my favorite scene out of any video game ever. That part was so well done.

One thing the game deserves more praise for is the increadible way the forest comes alive when the wind starts blowing. The way trees, branches and undergrowth move is way more realistic than I have seen in any game before.

I will always remember McCaffrey's line during the ending of the theatre level. In retrospect, it's now a perfect sendoff for such a legend

I didn’t play the 1st Alan Wake until the end of 23. After I was done I immediately played Control and loved it. Remedy is now one of my favorite studios and I can’t wait to see what they do next

YES!!!! I've been waiting for your take on Alan wake 2 I loved it how they took some of the wacky Elements in Control and built on top of it making it confusing but interesting at the same time I can't wait to jump back in for the DLC

Absolutely my game of the year for 2023. A true work of art.

My eyes were that red when I did my playthroughs of the game. AW2 is amazing to experience high as hell. It just hits COMPLETELY different.

Jake Looking PROPER TOKED UP today boys.

Remedy have high production value, everything is there for a cinematic experience which persinally I love in a game. The score, the story, atmosphere, backstories etc. The G.O.A shooting section the main highlight. Man I replayed that section for the solos and bodycount ❤ Show me the champion of light! ⚡️ Granblue relink is my next game to play. ❤

Definitely my 2023 GOTY. Loved the whole thing.

AW2 was a fantastic game. "We Sing" blew me away. I will definitely buy a physical copy if they ever release one coz I really want to display it on my shelf too.

Also, if you liked the music from Old Gods of Asgard pleeeeaaaaaaseeeee do yourself a favor and check Poets of the Fall music, they are the IRL band that plays OGOA and their music is sooooo goood I'm a metal head but Poets is one of my favorite bands and they are Pop lol (although I think they are more alternative) it is a very underrated band that deserves a lot of love If you have played other Remedy games you will probably recognize some of their songs

Love this game, looking forward to the DLC and what it adds to the story. Heavy Control cross over I'm expecting. I actually found the difficulty a bit off, even at higher difficulties my inventory was bursting, thats one of my only gripes with the game. James Mccaffrey's voice will stick with me forever, from the first time playing max payne on my mates PS2 when I was 12! What a voice and I cant wait for the max payne re-makes, as long as the keep the original voice over of course. RIP x

Wasn’t going to bother with this one but I got it cheap and it gave me a reason to actually play Control too. Really enjoyed both, was great for something to play over Christmas

6 months?!

I absolutely adored AW2! It was everything I wanted the first game to be

This was a better true detective than the new season of true detective.

Can we appreciate the blue and white thermos in the background cabinet!!

Great video Jake! Love Alan Wake 2-can’t wait to see where they take the story next! Can you drop a link for the FPS podcast where you chat to the directors? Cheers!

I didn't think you were actually going to get back to this one. Nice!

Love this game so much! Remedy has become my favorite dev in a short amount of time. RIP James. He was the standout performance in Control and Alan Wake 2 so I plan to play the max paynes for the first time. Control was my introduction into this universe and everyone involved is knocking it out of the park.

Excellent! (Bill and Ted Theme). Appreciate you looping back on this one. I'm on deaths door to finishing it after about 25hrs of gametime. Keep up the good work. Hoping for great things from Judas. Would love to See a strong movement against games (poor/good/great) that include MTX. We all know the best Single Player games are making choices to not include MTX.

Well put Jake. Things for sharing. As a huge Remedy fan, I share a lot of the same opinions. The only additional thing I loved that you didn't really mention, I loved how much AW2 connects with Control and even a possible Quantum Break connection in the future. I had replayed AW and Control before AW2 and so many weird or maybe original thoughts of a meaningless line in AW and Control make sense and connect so well now because of AW2.

That’s my dream monitor… oled hands down one of best upgrades you can do

I am so with you with the love for this game. It really is up there. I must say that I personally got hit more by Saga than you seemed to. I for one just loved the setpieces of the woods so much, but also the way they unraveled her worked for me. A key moment being the initial interaction with Rose. The way she is animated is so eerie in the best way. The acting and MoCap...it plants the seed of something being not right that grows beyond knowing that "the story is just playing a trick on her". Perfectly culminated in the "The Mindplace" scene. Beautiful and powerful. Also the elements that Alice brings are not talked about enough. In a game with a lot of goofy stuff her part of delivering that real, creeping darkness... In the end the balance between those wtf moments, the goofyness, jumpscares, atmosphere, and human darkness.....man.

I love this game. As someone who doesn’t play horror games (only others was tlou 1&2) i loved this one. Was hard to get through since i get scared fast, but damn was it worth it. Amazing game. My favorite of last year.

Let’s also not forget how they made us do MATH IN A VIDEO GAME lol

Alan Wake 2 was fire

hasn't even been five months, jake. don't do that to me lol

Finally finished this today so I could watch this video! 😊

Yo!!!! I just finished it finally. Perfect timing ❤❤❤❤

Honestly playing Alan wake 2 it reminded me of going up to my late aunt in weaverville ca the lighting and everything felt like a reminder of Happier times

Thank you for highlighting the lack of a physical copy. It really bums me out as someone who wants to proudly display the game in my living room

Cannot wait to play this. I played Alan Wake and American Nightmare both in release week when I was younger before they got fame. Really thought that I had found a gem. They were so different. Loved them.

I'm obsessed with this game. There were a couple places where it was tedious, but overall it's as close to perfect (for me) as it can get. Sam Lake and Remedy man, it's like they caught lighting in a bottle but never let it go. I rarely replay games and never do things like buying merch or soundtracks, but this one did it for me.

This, FF16, Lies Of P and Robocop were my favs for 2023. Haven't gotten to playing BG3 that's universally acclaimed due to being in the last semester and i have my focus on finishing uni

I see a “Jake” video. I watch, always good for a watch mate! Keep up the content!

Crazy how 6 months just flew by

Despite it flaws, AW1 was my favourite also due to the story and AW2 more than made up for the 13 year wait. It's not an ocean, it's a Lake. Sam Lake.

It's been a few months since I completed AW2 and I still have Herald of Darkness stuck in my head

I'm still forcing myself to push through Control but I am so excited to finally give this a go whenever that time might come

Such a fantastic experience. Allan Wake 2 was so refreshing because of all the wild game design they through in the game. One of the craziest things was the crazy Dance number the game launches into a third of the way through!

AW2 is my fav game from last year, I can't wait for the DLCs

I don’t know about Alan Wake 2 but Herald of Darkness has 100% been stuck in my brain for the past 6 months lmao. SHOW ME THE CHAMPION OF LIIIIIGHT

Loved the game and thank you for bringing up Saga's stiff voice acting! I thought Mathew had more freedom to shine in 2 than 1. He seemed like he was bored out of his mind in the first game, but it was the point and found it funny and laughed with the game. But here in 2, even though having a lot of funny moments, never forget Mocha, I felt it was more serious than the first yet now the actor for Saga felt like a remnance of that old "It's bad on propose" vibe I got from Mathew in the first. I don't know if that was the angle but I found it jaring between everyone else giving banger preformances.

Jake, you're playing on my heartstrings here. I want to play this game even more after hearing you gush about it but I'm one of those die hard physical media nuts and can't bring myself to grab it digitally.

Alan Wake 2 is the first game I finished on my LG OLED. Stunning looking game, stunning game all around.

I loved the game. My main complaint about it is that it feels like it ended super abruptly. I even went back and reloaded my save to check if I had missed anything. It would have been nice if the last section with Saga in the dark place had been fleshed out a little more. Other than that, had a really great time with it.

Only Alan Wake 2 and Baulders Gate 3 stuck with me. Such amazing games

Its been a few months since finishing NG+ and I think its time for a 4th playthrough! I grew up falling love with the first 2 Max Payne games and loved how James brought Noir into the game. Gone too soon and will be missed tremendously.

I hope one day they release a physical edition so I can add it to my collection!

I loved coffee world! As kid in the 80’s we had a small theme park in crownsville MD called Enchanted Forest.

Excellent, under appreciated game! Thanks for making this video.

All the Ahti parts with control and everything else is really pretty mind blowing once you dig deep into the lore. The fact that Ahti is the janitor of the cosmos that helps keep everything in order. And how he is the caretaker and the person that keeps all the universes from spiraling into chaos. when I first saw him in Alan Wake 2 he was like a warm blanket and then I started watching videos about him and it kind of blew my mind. I didn’t know video games could get so damn deep. From the laws of thermodynamics and chaos theory. It’s just nuts. Check out gaming university on the break down. The rabbit hole goes deep.

i loved Alan wake 2 me and my gf had so much fun with that game, i would play and she would brainstorm theories what we thought was going on we’d be texting at work about it lol such a great game, made me play control after too which i had skipped originally but i just put my friend onto it and she’s been playing it nonstop

@JakeBaldino Huge Remedy fan here. Love to hear you praise and rave about this game. I still find myself thinking about it one way or another every day! Cannot wait for the DLC. Thanks for making the video. My question for you is where did you find that beautiful work desk you have? I must find one like it!

I’m going to try the game now based off of your great review. I’ll let you know what I think but it sounds like an awesome game!

THANK YOU JAKE!

I still play that music video; soooo goooood

Jake you are the absolute best video game content creator ! Never change brother.

Imo, this is the best game I've played in this gen so far. One of the only games that look next gen and did a lot of unique stuff.

AW2 is an amazing must play game. Loved it. Weird but super cool

Has it really been 6 months?! Wow time flies!

I just went through again on the final draft like lastnight it was still dope lol i cant wait for the DLC

One of my favorite games of last year.

Alan Wake 2 was the first game where it came into perspective how much goes into video game character design. I found out recently that the face model is not the voice, and I’ve been thinking about it for weeks! Same with Ashley in RE4 Remake, three different people brought that character to life from the face model, body model and the voice

I LOVED this game. I was so excited when it got announced because I loved Alan Wake so much. The series just has such a great story concept to it. I would've totally approved this game winning Game of the Year, even though I would have loved Tears of the Kingdom of Spider-Man 2 to win, but I knew that Baldurs Gate 3 was gonna get it. I finally got to playing AW2 in January after playing Control, the original AW (Remastered because I got out free with AW2 on the Epic store) and American Nightmare. If it hadn't been for Persona 3 Reload, I would've jumped right into the new game+ in this game.

Alan wake 2 and TLOU2 are the most recent games that have me thinking about it daily even weeks after beating it. So so so good

I really want to play this game but damn, my back catalogue is just building and building. I don't know if it's because as I get older I get slower and games take longer to finish, or if I was just never that good at video games and it's now just becoming more obvious. I'll get round to it eventually but right now, gonna try and finish this backlog. Seriously can't wait to get to this though because it looks freaking awesome.

I loved it!

I bet you loved the Ashtray maze from Control...

We love ya Max

just ordered the hard copy👍👍

Just checked its still incredible

I still wanna get this. I loved the first one.

Jake! I know you said you aren't a big fan of musicals, but I also know you love hip hop and are from NYC. Have you seen Hamilton!? Last time I was in NYC I saw it, and it was incredible!

I cannot wait to play new DLC content hopefully soon!

For Saga I think it's understandable, If I had to guess I'd say it's the actresses first time doing a video game. Alan's actor has experience with the material and the world. Also, because their role is split, one actor focusing on the physical acting and the other on VA, they can zone in on that one thing whereas she has to do both. For me her inexperience didn't take away from it because the character is supposed to feel out of place, being thrown into this nightmare. I liked the detective angle and the mystery of Mr Door so looking forward to more of that story.

this was such an incredible game, the silent hill/max payne inspiration is perfect to me, i just WISH there was a physical version, im still hoping.

Absolutely loved the game, just finished it finally about a week ago and can't wait to dive in again when the DLC comes out. The atmosphere is unlike any other game, just brilliant art direction.

It really freaks me out how quick time seems to pass. Literally felt like the game released a couple months ago and I binged it for a couple days.

Alan wake 1 is a top 10-15 games for me but the audio sync issue at launch (still present as well) made me stop playing until it’s fixed. Happened after the beginning of the game when the cutscene started. On series x as well. Hoping it gets fixed since I’ve heard great things about aw2.

Oh my God this gave me chillls. I've never watched a video from you before but your review on this is legitimately my same review verbatim. I've been alone in my passion for this game since I first played it in 2011. I feel like my life is pre and post this game 😅. I have recently been streaming this for my Sister and BIL and it was so good to see them so totally sucked into the story with me. I always say it's a gamers game. It literally has everything gamers crave. 13 years was a very long time to wait so I was a bit worried about the build up. This game absolutely surpassed all expectations. Obsessed.

Bro what time flies, I didn’t realize it’s been that long since it released 😵‍💫

Great video Jake! 100% agree with just about everything you said here! Alan Wake 2 has really stuck in my mind far more than any other recent game release because there really is nothing else like it. Every aspect of the game is of the highest quality: story, gameplay, presentation, music, etc. Definitely my GOTY 2023 and one of my all time favorites for sure. Trying to make my own video on the game has been difficult because I want my script to do justice to this incredible game, the amazing developers at Remedy who created it, and the infamous writer himself. Keep doing what you’re doing Jake! Much love! 😇🙌🏻

Why can they not release this physically...would of been day one purchase if it had been now i just have to wait

I had a lot of issues with it but still great. Just need Remedy to combine the best qualities of Alan Wake 2 and Control into one game

I absolutely loved the detective aspects and gameplay when playing as Saga. However, playing as Alan Wake was kinda hard, in terms of the 'rewriting the story' aspects in the game, and to work out which story to use when rewriting.

Even on the stream I thought the song and dance at the Game Awards was the best moment in Game Awards history.

I just finished it last night. What a weird coincidence. And the game itself is a true piece of art, I think i will install Control since i never played that game, because what Remedy made here is truly unique and in a sea of games that are basicaly a copy of each other a game like this just is a breath of fresh air !

Maan I loved it. I own all systems and this was still the best experience I’ve had in a video game in double digit years

Criminally underrated game AW2 is. Should have sold bazillions

For all of Alan Wake 1 i never realized Ilkka was doing mocap and Matthew was his voice..so dumb into AW 2 i finally got it. But Ilkka performance is great, from a physical side and acting. Get to see Ilkka real voice and performance as Thomas Zane..when he shaves the ol beard off and its also great. %Spoliers if you didn't play% And Ilkka dances and performs the whole musical part. I burst out laughing multiple times, going through that whole sound stage..i spent like over 30mins walking around. Ilkka had parts where he.. looks super Mad and Mean mugs you, threatening you with his fists...i fuckin lost it so funny😂

God I love this game, this is the only game where I have read and explored everything I found. I put 100hrs into bg3 but I still like aw2 way more