Kane and Lynch 2 Dog Days Notes

I choose hard mode because i'm a masochist.

We see Kane and Lynch naked and bloody being tortured on video by a man wielding a stanley knife.
As the game loads we hear Lynch talk to someone on the phone, presumably his girlfriend.
Kane is coming to see Lynch in Shanghai, we watch as they meet after being apart for some time.
They are on a job, it seems that Lynch is out of the loop but Kane is still embroiled in deep trouble.
Lynch needs to talk to someone who has loose lips.
I get control

Normal left and right Analogue sticks for movement and camera.
Right on the dpad shows a point of interest, or basically where to go next.
Right trigger fires.
Left trigger zooms in
Right bumper reloads
Y switches between the two weapons you can carry at a time.
Clicking left stick crouches
Clicking rightt stick changes which shoulder you view things over.

Mission 1
The visit instantly goes wrong and we are straight into a gunfight with the target. He runs for it and we have to give chase, he is dragging a naked girl with him.
We have to chase him through some buildings and out onto the rooftops, some people start shooting back. This is gang territory and it seems this man has friends.
We chase him through a market and encounter heavy resistance.
We eventually catch him and he starts shooting, the girl he is with is shot and he then slits his throat.

Mission 2
We are in a car with a british man  called Glaiser who seems to be the fixer for the job that Kane has came to do.
The car is attacked and we have to make our way along the streets under heavy fire.
Then the police turn up and make it very hard.
We escape to an underground parking garage.
Where we fight some cops.
Then through some derelict ruins to a getaway van that Glaiser has called.
Glaiser tells us to lie low and find out what happened if we can.

Mission 3
We go with a man called Tommy to a sweat shop looking for answers.
Basically just a run from room to room shooting bad guys.
We meet up with some more of Glaiser's men.
Eventually we come to a man called Sing in the centre of the sweat shop.
It turns out that the girl who was with the man we chased down in the first mission and shot was the daughter of one of the biggest crime lords in Shanghai.
Glaisers men freak out and turn on Kane and Lynch.
we have to escape.
shang Sing is a crime lord and has the police in his pocket.
We are now being sought by evvery gang and policeman in shanghai.
Lynch tries to contact his girlfriend and tells her to meet them in a restaurant.

Mission 4
At the restaurant we wait for the girl. the swat team show up instead.
We fight our way out of the restaurant and then decide to go to Lynch's apartment to look for the girl.
A large set piece fight on a crowded street impresses.
Propane tanks blow half the street away.
Then into some ruined buildings again for a fight with the swat team again.

Mission 5
We arrive at Xiu's apartment building.
glaiser calls and tells Kane and Lynch to meet him tomorrow for the deal to take place.
We fight our way up through the lobbies and flights of stairs in her building then into her apartment. White suited swat team enemies arrive and it's clear that Xiu isn't in the apartment.
We fight of the white guys then out onto the balcony again. We see Xiu on the other side and we have to save her from attack by the white guys.
We then try and get to her through heavy oppostiion.
After taking out a lot of white guys and mixed enemies we get a cut scene.
Sing appears with Xiu and threatens to shoot her.
Lynch hits Kane who isn't going to give up and is trying to shoot Sing.

Mission 6
We see the aftermath of the torture scene we saw at the start.
Xiu is dead and Lynch left for dead. He survives and comes back in all cut up and naked looking for Kane. We have to save him and kill Sing in the process.
We are now naked and unarmed and have to escape.
We leave the building and are in a bus station.
We then progress to streets and a shopping mall
Fighting all the way.
Lynch has a breakdown in a tv shop and Kane has what is supposed to be a touching moment
We then meet a lot of swat team guys in a cafe and the mission ends.

Mission 7
Kane and Lynch meet Glaiser and it seems he had sold them out to Shang Sing.
We have a huge ambush in a large fight box which is good fun.
Then through a shipyard fighting.
We meet Glaiser and he begs for his life and promises to get Kane and Lynch out of Shanghai.
He is shot by a sniper and we start to fight army types.
We have a long fight through the shipyard to the docks

Mission 8
The docks are full of soldiers.
Heavy machine gunners are introduced.
We then get to a trainyard.
It's a long fight through the trainyard
A sniper is the only new thing introduced here.

Mission 9
Kane and Lynch get on a train and it stops seconds later.
Soldiers appear and for some strange reason these ones aren't shot like the thousand others we have met so far, they are special, they are plot point soldiers.
We are taken by helicopter, presumably to meet the big bad boss man.
Kane and Lynch take over the helicopter and it's on rails shooter section.
We have to shoot soldiers inside the building and some have rocket launchers.
We also have two helicopters to fight.

Mission 10
We crash land on the roof and have to make our way inside.
A portion on the roof where you have to sneak up on a sniper and then kill loads of enemies was getting me down. I tried to sneak past as it seemed that there was a pattern to the patrol. I managed it, what do you know it's a stealth game too.
Inside we fight lots of men inside machinery filled rooms.
Then down in a lift to more office like areas.
We have some big rooms with a helicopter shooting in from outside.
Then some fights with soldiers in the office areas.
After heavy resistance we get to the office and Lynch simply shoots the baddie in cut scene.

Mission 11
At the airport we basically have to run riot through the baggage area looking for Glaiser's plane.
when we find it it is in no condition to fly.
We then have to run through the baggage areas and finally out onto a runway where we storm onto a passenger jumbo jet and take off. The credits roll.

380 achievement points
Didn't keep a good count here but felt like 10 hours.

Red Dead Redemption Notes

A cut scene shows people getting off a paddle steamer. Our charact is one off them.
He walks with two other men into town as the credits roll.
It looks like he is being escorted out of town.
Our character gets on a train.
We sit and listen to the chit chat on the train which is mostly about savages and civilisation.
The train arrives at Armadillo station, our character gets off.

We get control
Left and right sticks are the usual movement and camera controls.
A is run.
There is a radar on the hud which shows a yellow dot, this is our objective.
The objective is the bar. Where a cut scene starts.
Our character is called John Marston.
Jake meets him and asks him to come with him on a horse.
I go outside and Jakes gets on his horse, walking up to a horse we can mount it by pressing Y.
Pressing X jumps or vaults over things.
A spurs the horse on.
Pressing X when near a hitching post on a horse ties it to the hitching post.
Right bumper slows it down.
Holding A when near Jake matches speed with his horse.

As I follow Jake he tries to draw John into conversation. We are heading to Fort Mercer, John won't tell Jake why.
John seems to be looking for someone called Bill Williamson.
Bill is involved with a gang. Who are there backing him up.
Bill speaks to John from the top of the forts walls.
Bill tells John that he isn't coming with him and tells him to go. John stupidly pulls his gun and is shot in the gut.
Two people arrive and take him away on their wagon.

Days later John wakes up, healed by the Doctor, he owes Bonnie the woman who saved him 15 dollars for the doctor.
We have to go for a ride around the ranch with Bonnie. She shows us all the sights like the store.
Back at the house John rests.
He is woken later by Bonnie who asks him to accompany her on a tour of the ranch perimeter, it seems there are some problems with animals.
We have to shoot some rabbits. Left trigger pulls the gun and aims.
Right trigger fires.
If you aim and something is vaugely near the centre on the screen then the aim snaps to it.
We shoot the rabbits then on to shoot some coytes.
Bonnie then takes us back to what will become our house.
Here we can save the game and refill on ammo.
I see a B on the radar which shows that there is a Bonnie mission nearby.

Mission 1
I go to Bonnie and she asks about his past. John tells her nothing.
She challenges him to a horse race and we have to do a point to point race around the surrounding area.
Bonnie tells John to go see the Marshall in Armadillo about his problem with Bill.

Mission 2
Bonnie wants John to go into Armadillo with her to collect supplies. We are going on a carriage.
We have to follow a trail to Armadillo. Bonnie tells us to buy some medicine.
I go to the doctors and buy the medicine.
I have a satchel in which to store things pressing Back opens it.
We then have to go back to Bonnie who tells us to stay in Armadillo and have a look around.
We can get the stagecoach back to Bonnie's ranch later.

Mission 3
I go to the Marshalls office. There is a deputy who John intimidates. Then the real Marshall shows up. John tells him that he is here to capture or kill Bill Williamson.
The Marshall tells John that Bill isn't his problem as he leaves Armadillo alone.
John tries to make him feel guilty, the Marshall tells him that the town has enough problems.
John tells him that he will help with the Marshalls problems if he helps with Bill.
The Marshall agrees. We are to go to the saloon and deal with some trouble makers there.
One of them leaves the Saloon and the Marshall decides that we should follow them to their hideout.
We have to cal our horses by pressing up on the Dpad.
I follow the Marshall and the bandit out to a small farm.
The bandits see us and a firefight begins.
The auto aim feature makes it hard to miss.
I kill the bandits.
Right bumper moves in and out of cover.
The last bandit must be shot in the leg to take him alive. This brings better rewards.
The Marshall leaves with the bandit and tells us that he will have more work for us.
I start picking up little items, bodies can be looted.
I see some rattlesnakes that bite you. Shooting and skinning them gets you items.

I go back to Bonnie's ranch and save, I have to wait until morning to get the next Bonnie mission.
I do a side mission at the ranch where you patrol with a dog and shoot a horse thief.

Mission 4
Bonnie again tries to get some info. John tells her that he is married with a son.
He tells her that he was a part of a gang. He  must capture Bill Williamson so that harm does not befall his family.
Bonnie asks him to help put the herd out to pasture.
We have to herd the cows by staying behind them all the way out to the pasture.

Mission 5
Bonnie introduces us to her father.
Bonnie has told him that John is on a secret mission from the government to kill Bill. It seems that her father does not like that, i suppose he would have liked the truth less.
Bonnie wants us to go and help her break in wild horses.
We go out into the wilds with Bonnie and her dad. We find a bunch of wild horses and have to lasso them.
Targeting with left trigger and roping them with right trigger.
We then have to get on them and do a little left to right balance mini game to tame them.
We have to do this twice then back to the ranch.
Word is that there are a whole herd of wild horses nearby. The ranch gang go out in force and we have to drive the herd into a canyon. A stallion gets away and we have to chase it and tame it.
Bonnie gives it to John as a thank you.

Mission 6
A storm is coming and the herd are out on the plains. They will scatter in the storm.
We have to go out and herd them all back in.
This is done by riding behind the herd. If some become stagglers they must be brought back to the main group.
There are two herds which must be joined.
When they join lightining strikes a tree and there is a stampede.
We have to get in front of the herd before it stampedes off a cliff.
Once done the herd must be regrouped and brought back to the ranch.

Mission 7
We join the Marshall in a hunt for a gang of cattle rustlers.
We go out to a canyon and get off our horses.
We go into the canyon and have to work through it fighting all the way. We have the Marshall and two other deputies to aid us.
We come to a full blown camp and clear it of the rustlers.

Mission 8
We are told of a snake oil salesman who has not been heard of for a while and are asked to find out about his fate.
I ride out to his location and find him collapsed by his wagon.
West is lying out by his wagon for no apparent reason.
Seems he has been attacked by bandits.
We have to drive his wagon back to town before he expires. We are attacked as we do and have to fend off around five mounted attackers.

Mission 9
I go to the marshall and find him tooling up for a problem with bandits.
Seems some bandits are getting outrageous, killing whole families.
We ride out after them. On the way we find two camps filled with dead bodies.
Before getting to a farm.
At the farm we check the outbuildings first, the shed and toilet are empty. The barn is a scene from an abbatoir. A woman is alive and she tells us that the house is filled with bandits. We go in firing and clear them room to room. Two have female hostages and the mission is ended if the women die.
Once the bandits are cleared from the house we have to go back outside and are told by a woman that the leader escaped. We set out to chase him.
We find our friend Bill with his gang. We take his gang on and win. No sign of Bill though.
We do capture one of his henchmen though, named Deke.

Mission 10
We meet up with West, the conman again.
He wants us to go with him to a nearby town and pose as one of the crowd and hype his product to the locals.
At the farm we have to drink a little then shoot a skull and a hat as it is thrown. The hatman now wants a fight. When we beat him he tries to shoot us and we use a bullet time sequence named dead eye to disarm him.

Mission 11
We are to meet with a man named Seth at a church. We find him digging up a grave, which it appears he is digging up with romance in mind.
Seth seems a little crazy. It seems he had a partner who stole half of his map.
We tell him that we will go and help him get his map back from Moses.
Moses has been arrested by deputies.
We have to distract them so that Seth can talk to Moses. We have to steal one of their horses. This makes us wanted with a $20 price on our head.
We have to escape the typical line of site and radius of the map from any lawmen for a period of about thirty seconds.
Once done we go back to Seth.
Seth is attacked by Moses who runs for it.
We have to lasso him and hogtie him.
We can truss him to our horse.
I take him back to Seth who tortures out the location of the map from him.
Seth gives us a pardon letter which we can take to the nearby telegraph office. This clears our bounty.

I take a coach to Bonnie's farm for her mission just to try it out.
We can fast travel or watch as the coach actually drives to the location you choose.

Mission 12
Bonnie wants us to go help look for her father who has gone missing.
We ride out and find him with a few dead men and their equally dead horses. He asks us to go get the wagon to bring the bodies back to the ranch.
When we get back to the ranch the barn is on fire.
We have to climb in the side of the barn and open the door from the inside. Three horses then need to be coaxed out of the barn. Once done we ride one of the horses to the coral and the mission is done.

Mission 13
We get to the Marshall's office to find Bonnie's father giving him grief. Seems that Bonnie has went missing.
A bandit turns up outside and tells them that he will trade Bonnie for Deke.
We take Deke and ride to the town. The exchange is nothing of the kind and we are faced with a gang of Baandits.
Bonnie is being hung as we enter and we have to save her as she swings by the neck.
Once all the bandits are downed and Bonnie freed the mission ends.

Mission 14
We meet West at a farm. He is slippery as usual and John ends up giving out some veiled threats. West become more responsive, but I get the idea we are going to do more work for him before he helps us in any way.
We get into his wagon and ride with him to gaptoth ridge.
Where he wants us to take part in a chariot race. The winner gets a cash prize.
The race is fun and surprisingly easy.
West tells us to speak to a man called Irish who can help us.

Mission 15
We come across Irish as he is being drowned by two men who, it seems are his business partners, well ex business partners anyway.
We kill the two when they refuse to back off.
Irish will help us get a machine gun.
We go to a remote shack and Irish tells us to go down and kill the guards and take the gun.
I do so and there is no gun, Irish is also long gone.

Mission 16
We catch up with a drunken Irish and threaten him for a gun.
He tells us that a bunch of miners have the gun.
We have to take it from them though.
We have to fight our way into the mine, then through thee tunnels.
We then have to push the mine cart with the gun through the mine and load it onto a lift up out of the mine.
We then have to push the mine cart down the hill.
Where we are attacked by a few miners.
Then we get the gun loaded on a wagon and Irish drives off to give the gun to West.

Mission 17
I find West, he again wants our help selling his tonics.
We join the crowd. A bunch of men ride up from the last place that west conned and out him as a charlatan. We are attacked and must ride shotgun as West makes his escape on his wagon.
Quite a fun mission.

Mission 18
West wants us to raise more cash for his plan to get us into Williamsons fort.
We have to do another race.
This is a damn hard race which I only won by looking up how to do it. A horse pill which is given to you silently at the start of the race if taken makes the horses stamina last for a while, if taken near the end of the race you can win. Otherwise you just don't have the stamina in your horse.

Mission 19
Seth is filling a wagon with bodies.
Which we wants us to drive for him.
This is a simple drive the wagon and shoot the baddies until we get to our destination in Tumbleweed.

Mission 20
We meet Seth and he wants us to accompany him to a mansion in Tummbleweed which is supposed to contain his treasure.
I fight my way into the mansion through heavy defenders.
Then find that the treasure is a glass eye.
A dejected Seth tells us that he will help us.

Mission 21
We find Irish robbing some nuns. We stop him and set him to finding us some parts for the broken gattling gun.
His friend Shaky can help us, a stuttering clone of Irish.
We find Shaky getting beaten up by people he has double crossed.
We have to save him then fight our way to the gattling ammo.
We then have to take it away on a wagon, avoiding bandits on the way.

Mission 22
The assault on Fort Mercer
We join the Marshall, West and Irish.
Seth is inside.
West's wagon has the gattling gun on the back.
West drives us inside, using the wagon like a trojan horse.
We then pop out and shoot the majority of the gang as they stand.
We then have to mop up the rest with the marshall and his gang.
Reinforcements arrive and we then have to use the gattling gun on them as they arrive.
That's it mission done, only there is no sign of Bill.
Seems he has gone to ground in Mexico.

Mission 23
We get on a raft with Irish which will take us across to Mexico.
This turns into an on rails fight with lots of bandits on the banks as we drift downstream out of control.
Irish leaves us to go on into Mexico.

There is a camp belonging to Irish we can use to save.

Mission 24
I arrive at fort and meet De Santo. He is of course in need of help in keeping law in Mexico.
De Santos thinks a rebel leader names Reyes may be harbouring Bill.
We ride shotgun on De Santos' wagon.
We are to ride escort on a train that is posing as a supply train, the rebels are primed to rob it and we  will be waiting to kill them all.
We have to ride out in front of the train and keep the rebels from destroying the engine.
Once at the station the soldiers party and the rebels sneak in and steal the train. We then have to go after the train, kill the rebels on board and stop the train from falling over a blown bridge.

Mission 25
We go to a town and some peasants pick a fight, John kills them and then Landon Rickets appears to chastise him.
John and Landon shoot the breeze and John asks him to help with his quest to kill Bill.
We have to learn how to use dead eye with Rickets.
First shooting  three bottles, then three moving birds.
Then we ride out to save a wagon driver in trouble and have three bandits to kill.
Then another three as we ride back to town.
Mission over.

Dead eye works by holding the right trigger to zoom and then clicking in the right stick. This slows time and allows you to mark targets which when pressing the right stick automatically you hit.

Mission 26
Landon wants us to help some mexicans who are asking for help for their kidnapped sister.
We accompany him to a town where a man in a slaughterhouse meets us. He will dstract the bandits and we will sneak into the cave.
we come to the cave entrance and are told to wait in cover for the distraction.
We storm the cave then have to blow the cell door.
Then defend Landon as he carries the girl out of the cave.
We then have to escort Landon and the girl on horseback to a meeting point with the slaughterhouse guy who is named carlos.
The mission is done when he meets you.

Mission 27
I meet Langdon at the pub and he is playing poker, I have to join his game.
This sees us play two rounds of poker before one of the other players calls us a cheat.
We then have a gunfight against him and then his men. One of which takes a hostage we have to shoot him out from behind without killing the hostage.
A short gunfight with the rest of the men and the mission is done.

Mission 28
Langdon and Marston shoot the breeze in the bar then a girl come and tells them that some good guys are being persecuted.
The policitical prisoners are being taken in prison wagons to be executed. We have to take out the wagon train guards, then the drivers. We then have to drive the wagons across the border to America. Guards on the bridge must be dealt with.

Mission 29
I go to De Santo, who is being bollocked by his superior.
Who it seems is the ruler of Mexico, he rants about the rebels.
The ruler will help us, again if we help him.
John reluctantly agrees.
We have to race De Santos to a small village, which we enter and kill all the rebels. Then De Santa and his men take away all the women to be sex slaves for the army.
We then are tasked with burning down the village. We are given petrol bombs to do this with.
Holding left trigger brings up a throwing arc and we have to shoot the bottles into three houses.
The mission ends.

Mission 30
We go to the fort and meet De Santa leaving with his men in a hurry, he tells us to come along.
We have to get onto a wagon and ride shotgun with him.
The wagon train is ambushed.
We come to an army camp that is under fire and have to get a sniper rifle to help out.
We then join the army as they take out a huge rebel base.
de santa is obviously stringing Marston along as a hired gun and knows nothing about the whereabouts of his targets. John is  getting annoyed at this, as the missions are killing the villagers, who are only rebelling against the injustice of the ruler.

Misson 31
Again we see De Danta bringing women to be raped by the ruler.
De santa seems to be more interested in the boy that accompanies him.
We are to help the army deliver weapons in return for information.
The soldiers that comes with us tells that De Santa is only really the maid to the ruler.
On the way we are ambushed.
We get to the train station and the supplies are loaded.
We have to take guard duty on the train with a gattling gun.
The train is ambushed by loads of riders, some of which try and get on the train with you.
We then arrive at the destination and the mission is done.

Time dependent missions are a pain in the ass, as you need to go and find a save point to advance the clock. Just not needed really.

I do a gang hideout mission, which basically means going to the location and clearing it of enemies.

Mission 32
Lusia, who we saved earlier wants us to take her sister to a boat which is fleeing Mexico. Seems the revolution is at hand.
We have to take the sister to the boat, lots of army people get in the way of our stagecoach.

Mission 33
I go to luisa's house and find it burned to the ground. She is nearby and tells us that her boyfriend has been captured. John volunteers to go and rescue him when she vows to do it herself.
I get to the prison with Lusia and am told to go in over the back wall.
There is a mission marker to help.
Then I have to go to a sniping point.
At this point we have to stop Reyes from being executed.
Once I kill the leader of the firing squad all I have to do is take out all the soldiers in the fort.
Once done I have to untie Reyes. The we have to get a horse and take him to Luisa.
He is not her boyfriend and Marston has been duped into helping free the resistance leader.
he promises to help us.

Mission 34
Back at the palace the ruler has news of our prey. They have been captured and we have to go with De santa to take custody of them.
It's a trick and De Santa has one of his men knock John out.
Reyes saves him from execution and we have to run to him to be released from our bonds.
Then we have to go to a chest and get our guns back.
Then take out all the soldiers.

Mission 35
We have to help Luisa ambush some reinforcements.
We have to place dynamite on the road so as to get both wagons.
We can place five sticks of dynamite, limited by wire length. Then up onto a hill to wait for the wagons. They come well spaced and it's a trial and error learning curve so that you can place the dynamite to blow both wagons at the same time.
Once done mop up the soldiers on escort duty and the mission is done.

Mission 36
We are told of the location of De santa and ride with a posse of rebels to capture him.
At a cemetry we find him making rebel prisoners dig their own graves before shooting them and tipping them in.
We then have to take out his guards and he runs for it.
Chasing down De santa we have to lasso him and hogtie him, then take him back to the cemetry.
Where we see John punch him in the face until he tells us where the bad guys are.
We get to kill him ourself or let the rebels have him. I let the rebels have him and they all shoot him at once.
We are now to ride after our prey.
At the destination soldiers are waiting and we have a fight. Then a woman tells us that de santa lied. seems she is telling the truth.

Mission 37
Reyes wants us to rob a train.
We ride to the train station at chuperosa.
Reyes makes a distraaction and we have to sneak onto the train using throwing knifes to take out the guards. The penalty for failing the stealth is lot more soldiers to fight.
Once the soldiers are dealth with we uncouple the train. we then have to shoot the soldiers and take the engine.
Once away we blow the armoured car and enter it to crack the safe. We get a minigame and some rewards inside the safe.

Mission 38
We find Reyes shagging a peasant girl, John asks about Luisa and Reyes brags about bedding her. It seems that one leader is as bad as the other.
We drive up to the fort and drive a wagon full of dynamite into the gates.
We then have to fight our way to find Esquaela.
We find him and John lets him monologue until he makes a break for it.
We have to chase him down and kill or capture him.
I capture him
I have to take him back to the fort.
Then defend the fort from an army counter attack.
I win this and then in cut scene we see John take Esquela and hand him over to the marshalls.

Mission 39
I go to the Presidents palace and find Reys captured and being beaten, the soldiers are killing indiscriminantly and the town is about to errupt.
Lusia is shot trying to save Reyes and John kills his captors.
We have a duel with their leader.
Next we have to free prisoners who will help in the fight.
Into the jail and shoot the locks.
Then back out to storm the palace.
I get to the gates and have to shoot out a gunpowder keg that Reyes plants at the gate to blow them open. Soldiers pour out and we get to gattling gun them down.
Then inside the villa to the doors of the palace.
I then have to go back out and defend against reinforcements using the gattling gun as the rebels break the doors down with an axe.
Inside the president and Williamson make a run for it.
They have an armoured wagon and a gattling gun on the back of it.
we have to chase them down, shoot all the guards and then a cut scene.
The president gets out and throws Williamson to us.
I shoot him in the head and Reyes shoots the President.
We then go back to the villa and have some wise and stupid words with Reyes.

Mission 40
I ride to Blackwater which is a large suburban area compared to the rest of the map.
Agent Ross and Fordham won't tell John where his wife and son are, and wants him to kill the last remaining gang member Dutch.
We go to his last known location in a car.
The locations the wreck of the Serendipity.
The wreck is deserted but a man is sitting on a chair tied to it. It is Ross's informant and this is a trap. The boat suddenly fills with enemies.
we have to escape and take the informant with us, he needs to be carried.
Back through the boat with loads of enemies.
We then go back to the car and it breaks down on the way.
We are ambushed by Dutch's men and have to fight them off.
We then go back to Blackwater.

Mission 41
I go to the map marker and it's the doctor who is into studying the natives.
He seems to be a bit of a cokehead.
The native we saved at the boat appears and tells John that he knows where Dutch is.
He takes us on a long ride and then we have some climbing to do.
The doctor bows out.
We have some climbing to do before exploring a mine.
The mine is empty but when we come back out some miners ambush us.
We then have to go on alone as Nastas is hurt.
Climbing up the cliffs we come to a scout who we have to take out stealthily.
We then pick up his binoculars, and scout a camp down below.
Dutch van be seen shooting a soldier. Now we at least know where he is.
To save us coming back down the mountain, Dutch shoots the binoculars and knocks John out. He comes to in the doctors office having been saved by Nastas.

Mission 42
John goes to Professor MacDougall who is ranting about the continuum between man and beast.
John goes with him even though he's nuts.
We go to a meeting with some of the native Americans who are joining Dutch. They start a fight and Nastas is killed.
We have to fight our way back out and then return to Blackwater with McDougall.
We are ambushed by two groups of indians on the way.

Mission 43
We go with Ross and fordham to watch Dutch come to meet his bank manager.
We are going to try shooting him from the rooftops.
I go to the roof along with more agents and get a sniper rifle.
We shoot dutch's gang as they leave the bank and murder most of them.
The we go inside to get Dutch.
Inside the bank we shoot a few gang members downstairs and have a hostage situation.
Then upstairs.
In cut scene we meet Dutch and he blows out a hostages brains and gets away.
We chase him to the same area of the last mission and fight a large group of indians.
After the fight Dutch is nowhere to be seen.

Mission 44
Back to Professor McDougall
John finds him packing to leave.
Dutch turns up to kill them both.
We go out onto the roof and fight Dutch's men.
Then down onto our horses and ride to the train station protecting the Prof all the way.

Mission 45
Back to Ross and Fordham.
We go affter Dutch.
We have an armoured car with a gattling gun on top.
We have to shoot some attackers from a static position.
Then we chase Dutch's men across the fields and the car is bombed and knocked over.
We then attack on foot.
We have a long ride up to the fort in the mountains.
We then blow the gates and have heavy fighting through the fort. Another gate needs to be blown and we have to protect the men laying the charges, giving covering fire.
Now we face Dutch, he is on a gattling gun.
We have to shoot out a lamp beside him which sets fire to his gun emplacement. This forces him to retreat and we give chase.
In the end there is no showdown, Dutch simply falls backwards off the cliff and commits sucide.
Ross and Fordham appear and after much chat tell John to go home to his family and they will be there.

Mission 46
Abigal Marston is at their farm, she meets John and starts hitting him saying that she thought he was dead.
Jack Marston and an old man who has been taking care of them appear and there is a reunion.
The farm is in a bad way. John wants to ask Bonnie McFarlane a favour.
The next day We have to ride with Jack to the McFarlane ranch.
She sells us some cattle and we have to ride with them back to the farm.
On the way rustlers attack and must be defeated.
We then herd the cattle back to John's farm and into the cattle pen.
The mission ends.

Mission 47
We ride out with Jack to take  him hunting. We have to shoot a few elk then show Jack how to cut them up.
Now we have to take the meat to sell.
Then back to the farm.

Mission 48
We have to go and shoot loads of crows eating our grain.

Mission 49
We need to take corn sacks to Bonnie.
Abigail is jealous of Bonnie and comes with him.
The meeting goes well, though Bonnie looks like she's lost something when they leave.
We drive Abigial back to the farm.

Mission 50
I find uncle and prod him to work.
We have to herd the herd out to pasture.
On the way we encounter a gang robbing a train and have to save the train from them.

Mission 51
We go out with Uncle and capture three wild horses.

Mission 52
jack has abandonment issues.
We have to go out and scare away some wolves that are coming after the herd.
By scare i mean kill two groups of them, we follow the dog to their location.

Mission 53
Jack goes off hunting a bear to try and prove something to John. We have to go and save him from the grizzly.
Then ride back home.

Mission 54
Jack and John talk in the barn, things are looking settled and everything is rosy.
Spoke too soon. Sooldiers appear at the farm en masse and start to attack.
Uncle and John go out to meet them and John tasks Jack with keeping his mother in the house and the doors and windows locked.
We fight a wave of soldiers and then are told to go to the house.
Jack comes out and joins the fight on the porch as lots of soldiers attack.
Uncle is shot and dies after we defeat them.
John tells Abigail and Jack that they need to escape as the army just keep on coming.
We lead them to the barn under heavy attack.
Inside John tells them to ride off and not look back.
John then goes out to face about fifteen men, he draws and we get to dead eye as many as possible before being gunned down.
John dies.
The agents walk away.
We now control Jack and Abigail and they have to ride back to see what happened.
They arive and find John dead.
The scene changes to a grave and then flips forward in time again.
We see an older Jack and we get control of him. Abigail is dead and buried beside John.

That is all the main story done, took 16:30 hours and i got 330 achievement points.

Stranger mission 1
I speak to a man at the bandstand, he works for a senator, he has blackmail pictures of a rival and John is to be the one to show him them.
I take the pictures to the man and show him them, he changes his tune.
I go back to the man and get my reward.

stranger mission 2
I meet an agent who we trick into telling us Ross's location.
I go and find his wife, who tells us that he is out hunting.
Then we find his brother and finally Ross who challenges us to a duel.
After killing him the credits to the game roll.

Crackdown 2 Notes

You get to choose difficulty and select agent appearance from a choice of four faces and a few colour schemes for armour.
A cut scene quickly tells you in montage about what has happened since the last game. The freaks created by one of the gangs have escaped into the wild and have bred and mutated. The agency have been accused of corruption and are under attack from a terrorist group called the Cell. The cell destroy the agent lab at the agency tower and without agents on the streets the city devolves into chaos. The freaks rule at night and the cell play freely by day.
The agency has managed to get the agent programme back online and you are the first agent.

We get control in a room in the agency tower. The agency boss talks to you and tells you to look at four lights to calibrate your camera controls.
Next he asks you to jump off a ledge.
Then to climb up some blocks to get an agility orb.
The orbs boost your jumping abilty.
The player controls with the normal analogue sticks for movement and camera.
A is jump.
B does a melee attack.
Y enters and exits from vehicles.
Right trigger shoots the gun.
Left bumper reloads
Left trigger locks on.
Left bumper throws grenades.

We are then told to walk along following a glowing marker to get to a gun.
We then have to shoot the freak using free aim.
When locked on moving the right stick targets different body parts.
we are asked to pick up a shotgun and use it on a gang of freaks.
In the next training area we are told about melee combat. Basically pressing B a lot.
Now we are told to get into a vehicle.

A helicopter comes and lifts you in the car taking you through the city. As you go the narrator tells you of the sunburst project and how much of a mess it's in. The cell have basically thwarted it at every turn and control all the collectors and generators that have been made so far. Our first mission is to take back a prototype generator from a cell base at the docks.

We come to a cell held area and there is a red symbol on the ground. Standing in it initiate a takeover mission.
We call for air support and loads of enemies spawn. Once they are downed we get peacekeepers drafted into the area to keep the cell away.

The next area is a stronghold formed out of containers. I go in and clear the area of the default cell enemies, it seems that they don't come back again. I find another symbol near the generator and pressing back starts the mission as before. More cell spawn and once they are downed the chopper comes in and drops off peacekeepers to hold the area and take away the generator.

Our next given mission is to reactivate sunburst collector absorbtion units.
Three waypoints appear on the map and we have to go to each one in turn and stand on the absorption unit for a set time period to activate it, around thirty seconds.

Once all three are done you can now drop the sunburst generator into the freak lair.

This mission sees you enter the lair and trigger off the drop of the generator. The generator then has to charge and unleash a blast of solar energy that kills the light sensitive freaks.

The freaks come out at night and the cell come out by day.
Attacking a cell base is harder at night as they all come home and hide from the freaks.

I take over a few more tactical locations, clear the cell guards, call in the mission, clear the spawned enemies and the area is yours.
Only now areas are linked in groups and if you don't get all the linked areas then some can be taken back by the cell.

I activate a collector unit at the top of the oil rig.
I activate a collector unit on top of a bridge.

Now a beacon activation, only difference is some freaks attack from a balcony shooting something at the beacon.

I activate a collector unit on top of the old observatory. A barricade errected by cell must be destroyed to let the beam pass.
I activate a collector beacon at the top of the quarry.
I activate a collector beacon on top of a random building.

Now a beacon activation in the old quarry. This one introduces larger freaks which stand on towers of rock and shoot the beacon with acid.

I activate a collector at the old gym.

I activate a collector at the pier
I activate a collector at a building.
I activate a beacon under the gym.
I capture a tactical location at funland.

And another four tactical locations.
Two more tactical locations and a collector.

Yada yada, repetitive.

Eventually there are 27 generators to activate, some have walls to remove.
There are 27 cell strongholds to clear out.
There are 9 beacons

When you finish all the beacons the agency tower is the final huge beacon that will clear the freaks from the city.
The cell have taken the power plant and valves valves need to be turned

You then go to the tower. The previous agents it turns out aren't dead and are released by cell to prevent the beacon firing. You have to defend three locations as waves of giant agent freaks attack.

The final cut scene shows Catalina Thorne attack the tower with a helicopter. The agent stops her but his hand is severed by his rotor blades.
Thorne keeps the hand and can be seen working on it in her lab after the credits.

At each level of driving new vehicles are unlocked.
When you get to level five agility you get the wingsuit.
Level five strength means you get a running speed boost by pressing B.

Freak breeaches spawn loads of freaks which you must kill then a chopper comes and seals the breach. Only possible at night.

17:15 to complete the main storyline.
390 achievement points.

Transformers War for Cybertron Notes

An intro movie plays, showing that while Cybertron was once peaceful, pride and lust for power divided the two sides, into Autobots and decepticons, lead by Optimus Prime and Megatron respectively. Megatron fights to be the dictator of all Cybertron while Optimus Prime opposes him in the name of freedom. We see a cut scene of the two sides fighting it out. fast paced, transforming from car and flying machine to robot and hacking each other to pieces with fist, blade and projectile and beam weapons. Two huge robots face off against each other with an army of smaller ones beneath them.

There seems to be a bewildering array of options
Easy medium hard
Soldier scout leader.
Autobot or Decepticon

We are with Optimus prime as he is assaulting a space station, the station is guarded by Starscream. The station is rumoured to contain dark energon and Megatron will do anything to obtain it.
The ship they are approaching in is pounded and the only option is a suicide ramming run which Megatron of course being edgy does. We land in the ship and climb out of the wreck of our own ship.

Usual anlogue sticks for movement and camera.
Third person view.
A is jump
Right Trigger fires an orb of energy.
Clicking in the right stick does a melee attack.
X is used to interact with objects, like opening doors.
Left bumper makes Megatron hover.
Right bumper uses a shield ability.
Y cycles through available weapons.
Clicking left stick transfroms into a tank.
B fires a grenade when you get them.

Chapter 1 Dark Energon
Starscream appears and tells us that we should leave or die. Megatron is an asshole.
Ammo and health can be picked up from crates.
We have to use a robot arm crane type thing to stack a box to get to a higher area.
I find a new weapon a grenade launcher.
You fire grenades with right trigger and detonate them with left trigger.
We progress through the station fighting bots all the way.
I come to a area with emplaced guns and we have a fight with them, they can be detached and used as heavy guns.
We come to a control room and meet soundwave.
He wants us to get the station schematics so the dark energon can be located.
I get an emp shotgun which is fun.
There is a fight in an arena like room lots of enemies pour in.
Then a boss type appears, named a brute it carries a shield, it must be shot in a pack on it's back to finish it off.
We then come to a dead end and are directed through a vent into the guts of the station. Here we must blow up fans and avoid vents of fire.
I find a sniper rifle, zoom in with left trigger and fire with right.
We are accompanied at all times by barricade and Brawl.
Sniper enemies and flying enemies are encountered.
We come to an area of the station that was blown up by a dark energon explosion.
Megatron is sure he can control the energon, i  doubt he will be able to.
We cross the blown up area which is open to space, it's like a platform game.
I come to the energon chamber and we have a hard fight to get inside.
In cut scene Megatron goes in and absorbs the dark energon. He weilds it and survives. Giving  some to Barricade and Brawl. We then come out and shoot up a few fleeing autobots with waves of dark energon blasts.
Starscream decides to join the decepticons after seeing Megatron's power.
Starscream tells them that a energon  bridge can be reconnected to the station to provide even more power to Megatron.
Jetpack flees to warn the autobots.

Chapter 2 Fuel of War
I choose Starscream, soldier class.
We are going to Cybertron to reconnect the energon bridge.
We have thundercracker and Skywarp with us.
They are flying transformers and we start the mission flying in through large tunnels.
We meet resistance and we can either stay in the air or do it on foot. it's up to you and that is nice.
We come to a large ship which is projecting a force field where we want to go. We have to knock out around 8 mortar launchers from the top of it, which fire all the time. We also have interference from flying enemies.
Once the mortars are down we have to mop up the fighters.
Then a bay open on the side and ground enemies attack from the bay. We go inside and have to blow up the power core. Once done we have too escape the disintegrating ship.
Now we come to some cloaking autobots.
Then a large open area where we have a lot of flying and ground based enemies. Two switches need to be pulled then four machines need destroyed before blowing open a door to progress.
We fly inside a machine and find a control to activate power to the energon bridge.
Autobots ambush us and more cloakers appear.
The power is only at 50%, there must be another power  switch to find.
We progress through some more tunnels to a room where we have to get some power cells into place.
We have to shoot three power conduits and press some switches.
Then we go into a boss battle.
There is a large reactor and we corrupt it with dark energon. The reactor fights back and it is a huge spinning machine with two attacks. It shoots lots of energy bolts and puts out huge beams and spins around.
The boss does varieties on these themes and we get to shoot it's core in between each set of attacks.
Once down we have to flee through the tunnels to the surface avoiding the corruption of the dark energon.
We watch in cut scene as the energon bridge powers up and provides the station with enormous power.
Megatron now wants to corrupt the core of Cybertron with the dark energon.
To do this he must obtain the Omega key, which is in Iacon the city of the Autobots.

Chapter 3 Iacon Destroyed
I choose Megatron.
Zeta Prime is the leader of the Autobots.
We start fighting our way through the streets of cybertron. Starscream is leading the main forces on an all out assault. While Megatron is taking Soundwave and Breakdown on a sneak mission to find the omega key.
We fight soldiers and then snipers
We come to a security pillar. This is a pillar that fills the room with laser fire and then rotates.
We have to infuse the controls with dark energon.
Then we come to an large scultpture of Cybertron in a room. Megtron accesses the controls. Zeta Prime appears and warns Megatron of his folly.
Megatron learns that Zeta Prime has the key for safe keeping.
We are ambushed and have to fight off the attack.
Then we drop down through a large tube and then race down through some subway tunnels avoiding the trains and large rolling balls.
Your other teams members can heal you.
I progress through the city fighting all the way, waves of cloakers.
Then we come to an area where bombers are dropping dark energy bombs, these are from our own side.
We come to a square and meet up with Brawl who is under heavy attack. We support him and meet up with him.
Zeta Prime is behind a doorway here.
Megatron is unable to blow it open using dark energon.
He orders bombers in to blow it, however they are shot down by anti aircraft guns.
we have to take out the anti aircraft guns.
This is done by fighting your way up and wrecking their controls.
You then have to defend the area until the bombers can come back for another run.
This means waves and waves of all types of autobots.
Then we encounter a boss autobot, a huge robot that can turn into a tank.
Shooting things in the bottom seems to be an unhealthy preoccupation of this game.
Once you shoot it in the ass a few times it transforms back into a robot and you have to  hammer away at this robot form.
Now we get inside the vault and have to knock down a bit of girder to blow a hole in the floor.
Then into a new area where we are shown that glowing symbols on the floor mean you are about to be crushed by a hammer from above.
We enter a room and find the key, only to have it taken from us by Zeta Prime.
This is a boss battle. Zeta prime is inside a shield bubble and uses energon ghost clones of himself to attack. He also uses the hammers to try and squash us flat.
In between attacks he recharges his machine and we can damage it's core when it is recharging.
After wearing down the cores health a cut scene shows Zeta Prime being hit by falling debris from the machine. Megatron approaches him and take the Omega key. Zeta Prime smugly tells him that the Omega key is not the actual key to the innards of Cybertron only the on switch for the real key.
The real key is a huge autobot called Omega Supreme who is now coming to kill Megatron.

Chapter 4 The death of hope.
Omega Prime can be tracked with the Omega key.
A cut scene shows Megatron and his gang in a flying ship, they are attacked by Omega Prime and crash.
We have to rendevouz with a decepticon drop ship.
As we do Omega Prime smashes it. We are then attacked by it. It's like a huge King Kong smashing around the city. Our fire has no effect, it hoovers up soldiers with a field and hurls them for miles. Megatron tells the gang to shoot out the bridge supports.
Two targets appear and you have to shoot them. Omega Prime falls with the bridge. It comes back quickly transformed into a flying ship. It uses a huge cannon blast to sweep the bridge. Megatron tells the gang to retreat and we have to go back to a door and use dark energon to open it and get inside. There are autobot big guns nearby and we are going to use them against Omega Prime.
Inside the room we are attacked by some autobots.
Starscream thinks that megatron is dead and makes his inevitable play for power.
We then use an elevator to go back up to the surface. However Omega Prime is waiting and shoots the elevator, we have to shoot out emergency brakes to make it drop down to the bottom again.
We then take an alternate route and pile through the city with Omega Prime shooting at us the whole way. This is a fun platfroming section.
Inside a tube Omega Prime tries to grab us and we have to shoot his hand.
Then we fight some more autobots.
And then a driving sequence where you have to avoid mines that Omega Prime drops.
More fighting with a large autobot and lots of smaller ones.
Now we have to make it through power conduits with power that turns on and off at intervals.
More fighting and more driving, we have to make a bridge extend to get to the guns we hope to use against Omega Prime.
I find my way up to the gun platform and there about eight emplaced guns of varying types.
We have to clear out the autobots then Omega Prime shows up for the boss battle.
We are on a horseshoe type area with two levels. Omega Prime attacks with his power beam and releases fighter autobots. He also shields himself and uses large missiles.
It's a long fight, maybe I was doing it wrong. I did it first time and by staying along the back wall never seemed to be in any real danger.
Omega Prime falls to the ground in cut scene and Megatron presses after him.

Chapter 5 The final guardian.
Here we face the Omega Prime in it's humanoid shape in a rectangular arena with balconies along the sides.
We have to shoot off four turrets to make it conjour up and energon battery with which to recharge. We can quickly run to the battery as  it arrives and corrupt it with dark energon. When this is done we have a short window of opportunity to shoot Omega Prime in the face.
Once this section is complete we have to shoot at his chestplate until his second health bar is down. He uses an array of missiles and beam weapons as well as his tractor beam.

A cut scene shows Megatron entering the core and infusing it with dark energon which spreads over the planet itself.

This is the end of the decepticon campaign A new character is unlocked for multiplayer.

Autobot campaign.
I choose to play Optimus Prime.

Chapter 6
We start at the end of the decepticon campaign.
Zeta Prime is dead and Omega Prime defeated.
We watch Optimus Ratchet and Bumblebee fighting. Bumblebee tells Optimus of the defeats and he takes over the mantle of leader and vows to rally the autobots.
we go down in a lift and Jetfire asks for the planetary guns to be put online to aid his fight.
We travel along a little while shooting up decepticons and then come to the gun controls.
Turning them on starts them shooting up flying decepticon warships.
We then have to turn on a communication grid.
I progress until we come to some defence turrets and we have some waves of fighters then a dropship.
We then have a long driving sequence along a highway.
We then come to a boss after more fighting.
This is a three legged drill which is injecting dark energon into the city. we have to shoot out it's legs then it's chest. It has missiles and a very effective one hit kill beam weapon which is a real cheap death pain in the ass.
We then have a lot more road to cover and decepticons to fight on the way.
Then another of the drill machine bosses. I was about to turn of when I found that this one was much easier. No insta death beam, just pound it from a distance.
More road and more soldiers before we get to the decagon, it is a huge antenna like structure.
We have to fight along the road to the decagon which is filled with lots of decepticons.
Inside we fight some more then come to a puzzle of sorts. A prong must be aligned with the floor by shooting either side of it which moves it. Once aligned the prong is brought down into the socket by pressing a switch.
We then have to climb up the tower using parts of it's mechanism as a lift.
We then get to the top and have a boss battle against Starscream.
He attacks as a plane for a bit then comes down to fight. He uses missiles and beam weapons as well as emp grenades, he moves very fast.
Though this is nowhere near as annoying a boss fight as the earlier one on this chapter with the drill.
A message from Zeta Prime in Kaon prison tells the autobots that he is alive and has information that can help them. There is some doubt as to the authenticity of the broadcast as some of the autobots think he didn't survive the decepticoon attack. Optimus believes that they have to try and rescue him.

chapter 7 Kaon prison break
Optimus allows himself and a few other to be captured with a plan to infitrate the prison and free zeta Prime.
We watch as Optimus, Ratchet and Bumblebee are led into the prison in force field chains.
A tour of the prison shows lots of prisoners being murdered. Optimus and the gang are lined up against the wall to be shot and Jetfire comes in and saves them.
He lets them into ducts and is captured himself.
We are now loose in the duct without guns.
We progress until we find some guns and get to fight our way through the prison.
We meet up with a giant statue of Megatron which speaks to us. We are in an arena of sorts and get lots of waves of decepticons before megatron gets bored and just teleports us into a cell.
Optimus reveals that he can use his axe to cut through walls, however only when it has fully charged which takes a long time.
We then get out into the cell blocks and have to survive waves upon waves of decepticons, brutes and heavy gunners.
We come to air raid, but he is trapped in a force field cell.
Cloaked enemies attack.
We have  to go down two long winding corridors and hit switches at each end to free Airraid.
Cloakers make it hard along with spiders.
Airraid takes us to a control which opens the autobot's cells all around the prison.
however Zeta prime is still held captive.
We help the autobots get out giving covering fire and massacaring loads of decepticons.
Then we go down in a wall crawler to the bottom of the prison and have some emplaced gun fun on the way.
Then a long driving sequence where huge swathes of floor are blown out. It reminded me of the end of Halo 3.
Then a boss battle against Soundwave. Soundwave hides inside a force field. He uses remote turrets to attack. When we defeat these he has his little sidekick which ejects from him to attack. When we wear it's health down Soundwave comes out and repeairs it. When Soundwave is out doing repairs he is vulernable. We have to do this three times and each time the little robot has different attacks. The last being a bird like flyer.
When we have worn soundwave down enough he flees the battle.
We find Zeta prime only long enough for him to inexplicably die.
Optimus takes his body to the autobot ruling council who name him Prime then tell him to go uncorrupt the core of Cybertron.

Due to the choice of character type in the campaign you sometimes find yourself telling yourself what to do. It's strange but the only way the dialogue could have been delivered unless they recorded it in three or four different ways for each character.

Chapter 8 To the core.
we are now going to the core to purge it of dark energon. we are accompanied by Warpath and Ironhide.
We find Omega supreme being tortured by the Decepticons. we are talking on the radio and ask if we can use hacking to free Omega supreme. We can but we have to do some tasks.
We have to destroy some power nodes. Then we have to get to a console that is shutting our friends out.
Once we fight our way to the console we are told to free Omega Supremes Restraints.
There are two nearby switches to pull, both guarded by Decepticons.
Once free we have to go into Omega's chamber and kill the Decepticons inside. He needs time to repair before he can open the Omega gate for us. Ratchet is asked to come and help, but it will take him time. We have to defend against Decepticon attack until he gets there.
This is a long hard fight in the large rectangular room. we have lots of health and ammo. There is also some help in the form of turrets and health recharging station.
We get all enemy types except cloakers then a large tank to deal with.
Once done we get to enter the core after Omega opens the door.
We drive down a long corridor then drop down a huge shaft further into the core. I see Space slugs which are part of the Cybertron repair system.
We fight some waves of soldiers in a large room with no exit due to corruption.
A space slug comes through the wall and it seems to want us to ride on it and has a turret on it's back.
This is an on rails section. It's quite fun though as we get to deal with a corrupted space slug which attacks like a giant robotic scorpion.
We eventually get ambushed from behind by the slug which knocks the floor out from under our slugs. We crash down a shaft and find the gang separated. We have to progress until we can reunite. with the others and press forward to the core.
At the core we have a platforming section to get in then a boss battle with the slug.
The slug slashes with claws and fires a beam weapon at you. you basically have to avoid it's attacks and wait for a chance to shoot it in the mouth until it's dead.
It's actually a fun boss battle though and not that hard.
In cut scene Megatron enters and speaks to the core. The core can remove the dark energon but will need to shut down all life support for the inhabitants of Cybertron. The repair will also take millions of years. This basically means that the autobots will have to go out and find a new home until Cybertron can become habitable again.
The Core gives Optimus part of it's spark.

Chapter 9 Aerial Assault
Megatrons Orbital station stands in the way of the evacuating ships. It's main gun is blowing ships up as they try and leave the surface.
I choose Jetfire.
We fly up along the beam from the ground to the station then encounter a boss on the outer skin of the station. we have to shoot two arms from it then hit it's laser emitter.
Now we go inside the station and get to the coolant area. Here we shoot some the the highlighted machines up to destroy the station's gun. We then descend through the coolant and try and find a way to eject the coolant from the station.
We fight in a defend situation in a room until a control becomes available.
Then move through more corridors fighting as we go.
In a room two switches must be thrown to sabotage the station a little more.
We then shoot a plasma gizmo and have to defend it until it overloads.
We are then put outside after a cut scene and find ourselves flying through a minefield.
Then we land on a heavily guarded platform and have to take out all the enemies on it.
The next room is huge and filled with two heavy gunners, two tanks, and loads of snipers and flyers.
We then have to fly along a narrow corridor filled with obstacles and shoot out the defenses on the core of the stations transformer. This forces it to change into it's robot form. A form of a large humanoid with a snake like head.
I thought this was going to be a huge hard boss battle, however this guy has a glass jaw.
You basically have to shoot his jetpack off. Looks like the final battle with him will be on the surface as he crashes to it.

Chapter 10 One shall stand
I choose Optimus Prime
We have to drive through the city to get to the crash site of Trypticon, when we get there he attacks.
This boss battle takes place in a square Arena. Trypticon attacks from one side where he is hemmed in.
He uses missiles, orbs of energy and fast showers of plasma.
We have to hit a switch that makes nearby battery machinery work. When the batteries move close to his shoulders we shoot them and they explode damaging him. This is done on both sides. He then starts a new attack pattern and we have to hit him on either side of his ribs.
Then we plunge down through the floor to a new area for yet another round of shooting red targets from his back.
Shoot all three on his back and he goes down.
In the final cut scene Optimus Prime slaps Trypticon in the chops with his axe and down he goes for good.
We watch as Autobot ships leave Cybertron. Optimus tells of the ark that will take the Autobots to the stars.
The credits roll
Another character is unlocked for Escalation.

14 hrs
310 stingy achievement points.

Alan Wake Notes

I choose hard mode, I may regret this.

Episode 1 Nightmare
A monologue over a view of rolling countryside.
A lighthouse. Alan is talking about a dream. He is driving down a road at night, too fast, on his way to find his wife. He hits a hitchhiker and gets out to investigate. The lights of the car go out and the body vanishes.
We get control. Alan stand in front of the car, we are told to look at a lampost light high up to get our control preference.
Left stick moves Alan, Right is camera.
B is examine. The car is broken.
LB is sprint.
X is jump.
A brick wall has appeared behind us in the tunnel we drove through. Alan comments that it wasn't there a second ago.
Our objective is to go to the lighthouse, the light from it can be seen in the distance.
There seems to be two routes to go here, however the illusion is shattered quickly as the bridge we can see in the distance is out. We have to go back and go down to a jetty we can see.
I find a thermos, which seems to be a collectible.
I try out the game by walking off the edge of the bridge, no invisible walls here as Alan plunges to his death.
I go back and head along the wooden structure leading to the jetty. As I do the camera pans backwards to the car and we see the hitchhiker has returned, only this time he is darkened and flickery at the edges. He is seen in the distance then suddenly right in front of Alan. We have to avoid his axe swings as he comes at Alan. He is taunting Alan as he attacks. Suggesting that Alan is a poor writer. It appears reading between the line that this is a creature of Alan's own creation and it is sick of being manipulated by Alan.
The wooden structure collapses and Alan is left standing below the figure. We are prompted to press the left stick down to focus which pans the camera on the monster as it talks.
We are left alone again and our objective is still to get to the lighthouse.
A sign has a missing persons poster with Alan's face on it.
We come face to face with the hitchhiker again. Alan tells us that he is a character from a story he was working on.
We have to learn how to dodge here, which is done by Pressing LB and moving the left stick in the desired direction. We have to dodge the hitchhiker twice to move on. He vanishes again.
Further down the path the hitchhiker appears again. He asks us how it feels to die at the hands of ones own creation. The hitchhiker then turns into a swirling vortex of dark energy and comes for Alan. We are told to sprint. I follow the path across a bridge. where a man is waiting. The man is named but I didn't catch it. He tells us to get into the house. The man is trapped outside by the hitchhiker and axed to death. We are now inside the house trapped.
I flail around the house looking for what to do next. There seems to be little to do. Only one door. There are tv's showing an eye which follows Alan around the room.
There are rumblings and shudders. Alan is hurt by the shaking and buffeting. A light suddenly appears through a new hole in the wall of the cabin. A voice tells us to go towards the light. Which given the previous history of going towards the light seems like a bad idea. Of course this is a linear game and we have no choice but to follow the set path. Outside the voice tells us to go into a pool of light where we will be safe. In the light our health rises back to the top as shown by a circular bar around the hud.
The light starts babbling about lakes and waves, obviously foreshadowing stuff that might get explained later. It asks Alan if he understands, and he says no. It then tells him to follow it's light and mends a broken down set of stairs. It looks like we are a pawn in the struggle between light and dark, good  and evil.
I move forward and reach another tutorial, this one on combat.
The light tells us to pick up the flashlight. We are told that the darkness protects the monster. The hitchhiker must have the darkness burned away before we can hurt him. This is done by training the light on him. We have to press Left trigger to boost the light. Whilst Right trigger is pressed the light burns bright. The left stick controls the beam and the camera. Aiming at the monster and pressing Left Trigger makes the darkness dissolve. We are told we can now shoot him with a gun by pressing the right trigger. The light handily provides a revolver. We shoot the hitchhiker about four times and he dies.
The light tells us that we can have our dream back.
Alan tells us that the lighthouse is the only safe place left in the world.
X is reload. Tapping X while reloading makes it happen quicker.
We get a few enemies to practice on and it is hard when there are more than one.
I get to a light post and my health goes back up. I find a flare gun which is like a shotgun blast, I take out three enemies at once with it.
I noticed here that there is a building with a thermos in it. I went down a step and could not get back up. This means that it's possible to go to far and miss collectibles that you will never be able to get back to unless you do another playthrough.
We now have to run from the dark hurricaine again and it throws cars and other items of scenery at Alan as he runs to the lighthouse. Inside the lighthouse Alan is safe until the light goes out. Then it seems as if something descends from above to get him. He hears a voice and then wakes from the dream. He is on a ferry arriving at Bright  falls with his wife.
It's daytime and the camera pans over the town before we get control back on the ferry.
On the ferry the wife asks you to pose near an old man on the front of the ferry. He is called Pat and runs a local radio show. He asks Alan for an interview, Alan declines, saying that he is in Bright falls to get away from it all. Alan's agent Barry calls and nags.
The ferry arrives at the jetty and we disembark in Cut scene. Alice who is Alan's wife tells us to go to a diner and speak to Carl who has the keys for their cabin.
In the diner we meet Rose who is a superfan of Alan, she keeps a life size cardboard cut out in the diner. The police chief drinks too mucch coffee and there are aged hells angels who seem to be resident in the diner. An old woman is afraid of the dark and won't go down a corridor. Seems we have to go down the dark corridor.
At the end of the dark corridor we knock on the gents toilet door. An elederly woman dressed in black wearing a hat with a dark veil appears out of nowhere. She gives Alan the key to the cabin and tells him that she will check in on him later. And ominously says she will meet his wife.
She tells us that cauldron lake is a very inspiring place.
Back in the diner we find that the old men are waiting to be picked up by their doctor. The woman with the fear of the dark tells us we were lucky this time.
Alice appears outside the diner in the car and we can go out to her triggering a cut scene.
This shows Alice and Alan driving to the cabin. As they leave the diner street Carl appears running out of the diner to give them the keys and directions to the cabin. Looks like they have been sent somewhere other than they intended.
Alan talks about his writers block which has seen him unable to write a word for two years.
The arrive at their rather spectacular cabin which is in the middle of a lake on a little Island of it's own.
The little island is called Divers isle. There have already been pictures of a man in an old style diving suit, old tom might be his name. Foreshadowing?
There are always ravens fluttering away from most places in the game.
Alice is afraid of the dark.
I explore the cabin area and find a generator in a shack. I turn it on and realise that I have probably done something in the wrong order.
I come to a point where I am meant to focus and see Cauldron lake Lodge in the distance. Apparently it was a hotel once but is now closed to the public. Looks like we will be going there soon then.
Alice goes into the house and tells us to look around.
A cut scene shows her smiling at us from inside the house and Alan talks about how he hopes he can sleep here and get over his work problems.
I find a radio outside on the porch which plays a little clip of the radio show, seems that the Pat and Rose are determined that everyone in Bright Falls knows Alan is there.
Inside Alice says to come upstairs that she has a surprise for Alan.
Upstairs we find a typewriter. Alan goes off the deep end and is angry with Alice. She tells him that there is doctor in Bright falls who specialises in helping artists. As they argue the lights flicker and a figure can be seen for an instant between them. Alan goes outside in the dark to calm down and be alone knowing that Alice won't follow him out into the dark.
Alan hears Alice screaming inside the cabin and the lights go out inside. We get control back.
I run back to the cabin and am attacked by the ravens. The flashlight kills them.
Inside the door of a cabin a cut scene starts. There is a hole in the wall of the cabin and Alan looks out and sees that Alice is under the water. Alan dives in to save Alice.
He blacks out and wakes on the ground. a voice says "keep going Alan, wake up".
Alan is beside the wreck of his crashed car and his phone is dead.
A gas station can be seen in the distance.
I progress through the forest, I can see the light that spoke to us appear in the distance.
As I approach the light a cut scene starts. Alan finds some pages and picks them up. It seems they are from a book called Departure written by Alan himself. He has no memory of ever writing them. The page tells of someone being attacked in the woods by a shadowy axeman.
I come to a logging yard.
Here we find carl Stucky, but he is posessed by the darkness. He has an axe and someone lies dead.
We are attacked by Stucky and have to flee into the building. Here we get our flashlight and batteries, also a gun.
A phone can be used, however as we call the police the telegraph pole we can see in the distance out of the window is cut down and the phone goes dead.
A large digger type vehicle starts up and moves towards the cabin.
We get out of the cabin and watch as the bulldozer takes the whole cabin over the edge of the cliff.
I am attacked by two enemies here. There is a portable light that can be switched on.
There is a generator type object I am prompted to kick, but I can't see what that did.
There are yellow markings that are only revealed by the torch light. I follow a trail which leads me to a flare gun.
Ah the kicking was to turn off the power so I could get past an electrified area cause by the bringing down of the power lines.
I find a manuscript page of the beaten path. Pays to explore it seems.
A flash comes to Alan, of his wife in the water and the face of the dark woman from the diner.
Another page hidden on a dead end on a set of logs tells of Alan's agent Barry worrying about him.
I come to another logging camp and face more enemies.
I find a set of yellow directions and more batteries and supplies. A message tells us that the taken are filled with darkness. It is graffiti on the wall, shown only by the flashlight.
Who wrote it?
I find that there is an item limit.
A staircase is blocked and we need to find another way.
I see a generator in the distance, A few monsters get in the way and we have to start it using a mini-game where you have to time button presses with a revolving marker.
I then go to a button that is now powered up. This allows us to move a log lift. The log lift is to be moved so that it forms a bridge between two log piles. There is a ladder we can climb to get up on top of the logs. You have to press B to get onto the ladder when near it.
Jumping across the makeshift bridge gets us up on top of the area we wanted to get to.
I come to the first large scale fight. The game is asking me to get better at it here. Lots of enemies attacking in groups of three. There is a generator which when started acts as a health point.
I come to another cabin, inside is a tv and there is an episode of a tv series called night Springs playing.
A man explains quantum immortality theory. He shoots himself and explains that in one reality he was shot and in another reality he didn't die. The trick is to always be in the correct reality. This is a short story by Alastair Reynolds, I can't remember the name of.
A switch opens a gate here.
I find the shotgun in the cabin.
In this next area we have a boss battle of sorts. Around five normal enemies and stucky attack. The shotgun is really helpful here.
Stucky moves faster than the rest of the enemies and takes more light shining to wear down his shield. Once done he take an awful lot of bullets as well.
We reach the gas station and Alan draws our attention to a pardae float for deer fest which is parked outside.
Alan notices a sign which says Deer fest is only 7 days away. It had been two weeks away when he first got the Bright Falls, which means he has lost a week.
Inside the garage Alan sees himself on the tv. He is in the room at the cabin writing at the typewriter. He says the only way to save Alice is to keep on writing.
Inside the garage we have to find a phone. The phone on the counter can be used.
This starts a cut scene where Alan calls the police. A female sherrif comes out to meet him. He asks her to help him, tells her he has been in a car crash and has lost his wife. Alan tells her he is staying in the cabin on Cauldron lake. She tells him that there is no cabin on Cauldron lake, it was destroyed in an erruption in the seventies. She tells Alan she will take him to the lake to show him and then to the station. At the lake we see that there is no Island. Credits roll and we are told that it's the end of episode 1.

Episode 2 : Taken
We see a previously on Alan Wake resume of what happened.
Alan comes into a house carrying shopping. Alice is inside, this seems to be a flashback.
We are in Alan's house. Alice asks him to put coffee on. She is working in a room which appears to be her darkroom, is she a photoprapher?
We have to go and switch on the coffee machine. Then we have to go back to Alice. She asks us to look at cover designs she has left for us in our office. We go to Alan's writing room and find the covers. Then we have to go back to Alice. The lights go out when we do. It is a power cut. Alan check the fuse boxes and gets a flashlight out of it. We have to go back to Alice which starts a cut scene. Alan comforts Alice over her fear of the dark. He tells her that his mother gave him a light switch when he was young, which would turn on a magic light and scare away the monsters. Alan gives the switch to Alice.
We are back to the present and Alan is being looked over by a doctor, he continues to pretend everything is all right so that he doesn't get locked up as a loony. It may be possible that Alan is nuts and hallucinating all of the darkness and just murdering poor unfortunates like Stucky.
We are told by the doctor that we should go back and see Sarah the sherrif.
First sessions play 3 hours.
I leave the room where the doctor tended me and find myself in the police station.
The old woman who is paranoid about the lights is there.
The policewoman at the desk talks about her. Says she was the editor of the local newspaper, then she went a bit nuts and worried about the lights and never stepped on shadows.
We have to go and speak to Sarah in her office.
There is a radio, a thermos and a manuscript page in the room in the other direction.
I go down the corridor and speak to Sarah. She has charged out phone for us.
She asks what happened. Alan tells her about arguing with Alice and leaving the cottage, then going back in to find her gone. He then tells her he woke up and can't remember anything for the last seven days.
He does not tell her about the shadows and Stucky.
Sarahs asks if he means the non-existant cabin on Cauldron lake. Alan's phone rings and he answers it. Alice speaks to him and then someone comes on the phone. He tells Alan to lose the law and meet him in Elderwood national park. He tells him to go to the back lot and look at something first.
I go down the cell corridor after being told by the policewoman at the desk where to go. There is a drunk in the cells ranting about the lights.
I go out the back and find a hole in the fence. We have to use B to kick some boards away. Alice's driving license is on the seat of a wrecked old car.
Barry, Alan's agent calls and telss Alan he is in Bright Falls. Alan asks him to pick him up. I go through the cell area again and the tv there shows Alan in his writer room agonising about continuing to write the story.
In the police station reception Dr Hartman has arrived to pick up the two men we met in the diner. Wasn't that a week ago?
Dr Hartman tells Alan that he can come and stay at his clinic at Cauldron lodge. Alan gets angry and asks if this is a set up between him and Alice?
Alan punches Hartman. Barry arrives and threatens lawyers. Hartman does not want to press charges. Barry and Alan leave. Sarah tells him not to leave town.
Barry and Alan drive to a lodge at Elderwood. Rose meets them in the car park. Barry is sweet on her. Alan wants to wait until the arranged meeting time with the  kidnapper.
There is a statue of a mammoth in the lodge reception.
We have to speak to Rusty to book a room.
He is tending to a dog that was caught in a trap. He asks us to go and get a form from the reception desk and bring it back to him.
He gives us keys and tells us how to get to lovers peaks, which is where we have to meet the kidnapper. Barry thinks Alan has gone insane, but comes with him anyway.
The scene shifts to the cabin and Barry is to stay there and wait While Alan goes to lovers peak and meets the kidnapper.
We start of out in the cabins area heading for the peak.
Inside the cabins are supplies and an episode of Night Springs. This is about mirror images of people. The story show a man being interrogated by a cops. It appears that this is the mirror clone of a man that climbed out of the mirror and killed his real self. Again possibly a quantum link.
We come to the visitor centre and the dark cloud can be seen above it. Shots are heard and Rusty's voice screaming in terror.
We are back at the lodge reception now and it has been wrecked by a massive force. The front door caved in.
Inside we find rusty badly injured by the dark force. He tells us that it happened just like the page of a book he found. He tells Alan that the page is in his office and gives him the key.
I enter the office and find some supplies. The circuit box has an axe buried in it.
All hell lets loose a tree falls in the yard and patches of oily darkness appear on the ground. Two enemies emerge when I get back outside.
The pools of oil can be blown up by using the basic flashlight on them, no need to make it supercharged for them.
Where Rusty was lying it seems that something has torn a mammoth sized hole in the wall. Mammoth sized? a Clue? the mammoth seems a little too much work to go to for aesthetic value alone.
I head out through the hole and find Rusty posessed. He attacks us. He is one of the fast moving boss types. He doesn't attack much and is harder to catch than avoid and danger from.
Are you only allowed to carry 42 revolver bullets because that is the meaning of life?
I find moonshine cave and a hidden crate of supplies. We have to follow the nature trail to get to lovers peak.
We move along the trail and regularly are attacked by enemies, there are larger enemies that need more shots and light to wear down.
There is an ambush here that is quite hard to survive.
I find a page which describes an Agent Nightingale who is out to catch Alan Wake?
We come to a cable car across a chasm. As we use it the shaking starts and the car starts to run too fast towards the other side. Alan is knocked down and when he comes round the enemies are approaching and his flashlight is too far away. Suddenly a flare goes off and someone helps him up. The man it seems is the kidnapper. He takes us up the hill. We have to shine the light on the enemies and he will shoot them for us. Alan has lost his guns in the cable car crash. We now have flares though, These can be used to make the enemies retreat. We hold RB to hold a flare up in the air it lasts for about ten seconds.
We reach lovers peak and have to defend it against waves of enemies. Shining the light for the kidnapper to shoot at the enemies and using the flares to keep them at bay at others.
The kidnapper congratulates Alan wake on creating something wonderful and terrible. Then asks for the manuscript. Alan just wants Alice back and attacks the kidnapper, they end up falling over the edge. The kidnapper runs when Alan gets his gun.
I get stuck in a bear trap here. Looks like we will have to watch where we are walking from now on.
End of second play session now totalling 5 hours.
Back in the woods and I have a hard fight getting to some old run down shacks with a generator. I find that letting a flare light then letting go of the button drops it. This allows you time to start the generator and keeps the enemies at bay.
I find a hunting rifle here.
I find the wreck of an old plane here. Alan mumbles something about it being very old but looking like the crash only happened yesterday.
I move through more woods fighting until I come to a mill.
Inside the mill we have some platforming to do, which is newish. The plane body tipped when we walked through it and some dodgy old boards here do the same, showing off the physics engine.
The black oil is back.
A graffiti tells us that the darkness wears her face.
I am now heading back to the cabins by another route and am attacked by a chainsaw weilding bigger enemy.
We get a call from Barry telling us that birds are attacking the cabin. Alan tells him that he is coming and to stay inside with the lights on.
We get to a caravan park. We can investigate a locked door behind which we can see a jeep. Alan tells us that we shuld get the keys and use the vehicle to get back to Barry fast.
In the toilets we find the key. A television also shows us Wake talking in his writing room. He is telling us that a story is created by the author but as it grows it takes on it's own identity and demands. Characters have to remain true and one change has repercussions throughout the entire thing.
We get attacked by a monster coming from the toilet stall, which was predicatble really as it was the only door that wouldn't open. I was waiting for it and blew it away quickly.
The car is reached without problem.
Right trigger is accelerate, left trigger is break and left stick to steer.
I drive along roads littered with obstacles and enemies, which are fun to run over.
Eventually I come to a road block I can't pass.
The vehicle handles poorly, though this isn't really the game for advanced driving simulation.
There is a large attack of enemies here. The kidnapper calls and asks for the manuscript again. Alan tells him that it isn't finished and asks for a week. The kidnapper gives him two days and tells him to meet him at a coal mine in two days time. The manuscript to be swapped for his wife.
We progress up the hill to the cabin and Barry. A huge swarm of birds circle high above the rooftops. We have to defend against the birds in the garden of the cabin, they circle and swarm down to attack. The flare gun can be used to take out whole groups with well placed shots.
Barry removes the barricades from the door and lets Alan in. Barry apologises for thinking that Alan is nuts.
The next day Alan sends Barry down to the town to look for the identity of the kidnapper. Alan tries to finish the manuscript, but can't write a word.
Rose phones barry and tells Barry she has the rest of the manuscript. She sounds robotic though. The camera switches from Barry to Rose and we see that she has been taken by the dark and the funeral woman is standing beside her. With a nice flourish the camera pans out of her window and high above Bright Falls. The credits roll.

Episode 3: Ransom.
Barry and Alan arrive at the trailer park where Rose lives. Sarah calls to tell Alan that an FBI agent has arrived at the station and is anxious to speak with Alan.
We have to talk to the trailer park manager.
We do and he will take us to Rose's trailer. As we walk Barry tells us what he found out about things in the town. He tells us that there is a lot of strange goings on in Bright Falls. Most of it centred on Cauldron Lake. Seems there was a writer who lived there many years ago called Thomas Zane, who was heavily into diving. Seems that the volcano errupted in 1970 and Zane was killed in the erruption which made Divers Isle disappear.
There is a yacht in the middle of the trailer park on it's side. Randolph the manager tells us that it fell there one day as if picked up by a hurricaine. Only there was no storm.
Barry continues to tell us that Zane was involved with a woman called Jagger who drowned in the lake a week before the erruption.
Seems that Weaver, the old light obsessive in the town wrote about and knew both of these people.
We get to the trailer and knock. Rose opens the door and it's obvious there is something wrong with her yet Alan and Barry go inside.
The duo drink her coffee and Rose suggests that Alan needs a muse to inspire him.
Alan thinks she is just being a groupie and gets angry. That is when Barry collapses and Alan realises the coffee was drugged. He too collapses and has a vision.
He is in the dark and the light is speaking again. The light wants to help but it needs Allan to turn on the light it says. The funeral woman appears and tells Alan that he must finish what he started. Alan wakes on Rose's bed. He watches a tv clip of himself talking in the writing room. He tells us that he has an editor now, a woman named Jagger. It seems that this is funeral girl.
Alan tells us that his words are being aggressively edited and that Jagger has worked with another writer called Zane on a similar story.
In the living room we find Rose catatonic and Barry sleeping.
It is night now and Alan has no gun or flashlight. We are told to go to the car.
I make it through the trailer park without incident to find that Randolph has called the police after seeing what has happened to Rose. Agent Nightingale is at their head. Alan can't afford to miss his meeting with the kidnapper. He runs for it. Nightingale shoots to kill but misses.
We are now running for it through the forest.
We have to avoid torch beams and flare as we are chased and shot at by police. A police car is picked up by the dark and thrown, looks like it wants us to avoid the police as well.
A helicopter comes at us and the birds take it down.
The police seem to have been lost and we are now heading for the radio station to get help from Pat. I don't quite know how that one was figured out?
I come to a new puzzle. There is a gate which is taken by the darkness. Looks like it wants us to turn back. Up on the hill above the gate is a searchlight which is powered by a duff generator. We have to turn on the generator, then get to the light and use it quickly. Time left is shown by a line of flashes on the cable from generator to light going out. Running for it and training the light quickly on the gate opens it.
I come to another gate, but handily a flashlight can be picked up from nearby.
At a wrecked police car we find some flashbangs. Which sound like they will be useful.
They are, they act like grenades and take out whole groups of taken.
I progress and find another store of good. Who has left this stuff for us? Zane? Did he fight the darkness and stop it the first time at cauldron lake in the seventies. It took his wife's form though and still keeps it. Will it do that to Alan?
I reach the radio station with only one flashbang to spare.
Inside Pat wants to interview us. The police arrive and Nightingale is totally over the top in he aggression against Alan. He shoots at him narrowly missing Pat. Sarah knocks the gun from Nightingales hand and reprimands him. Alan takes the opportunity to jump out of the window and make another run for it.
I see, alan hoped that Pat would lend him his car to get to the coal mine.
Now Alan has to make it on his own steam.
We are heading for a rail depot now.
There is a set piece ambush where we go inside a shack and suddenly taken appear all around. Why does the darkness not want the police to get Alan, yet it wants him dead at it's own hands?
Alan gets a call from Alice, though she sounds wierd. Talking about being in the dark and looking out from behind Alan's eyes. The call keeps breaking up as well.
We come to a railway bridge and inanimate objects start to move and shake, parts of the bridge collapse. The darkness is growing stronger Alan observes.
We are attacked by floating objects that rise up shake then hurl themselves at Alan, they can be destroyed with the flashlight and flares.
I find a heavy duty flashlight here.
I am ambushed in the train yard.
I find a tv which shows a Night Springs episode. A journalist is looking into paranormal stories and two people approach him with a story. They take him to a house and the woman kisses him letting something enter his body which moves around under his skin.
We come out into the railyard proper for a boss fight of sorts. A bulldozer comes to life and attacks, it's fairly deadly as it just tries to ram you. Taken attack as well and it seems the only objective is to get a door open at the other end of the yard. The taken are eager to stop you and you must take a lot of them out before you can get time to hit the switch in peace. Once done the gate opens slowly and you have to keep alive. Through the gate you come  to a car and a cut scene. Sunrise arrives and unmolested by the darkness Alan has an easy drive to the coal mine.
I stop of a a few buildings I can see and find radio snippets and thermoses.
At the mine which is now a museum when we enter the main building a cut scene starts.
It shows Alan wait all day for the kidnapper to show. He does not and now it is night again. Alan is very angry. The kidnapper phones and tells Alan there has been a change of plan and he want to meet him at mirror peak.
We have to jump over a chain and slide down a slide. Then flick a switch to open a trap door.
There are exploding barrels which if shot a few times explode and take out a few taken at once.
We progress through the railyard and into the mine buildings again.
More possessed objects like small railcarts and large metal cogs.
Inside the building we quickly go back into the outside yard again and see a large darkness hurricaine in the distance.
In the area we have to get back into another building, however there is an electric line down on the fence which is making it impassable. We need to cut  the power to progress.
At the other end of this section of railyard is a generator to cut the power to. There are lots of taken in the yard and a handy jeep makes for some fun running them over.
We are then attacked by taken and flying bits of train. This is also fun and fairly easy to survive. Maybe I am getting the hang of the game by now.
Inside the building we fight through ambushes of taken.
Up some ladders to a higher level.
We come out of the mining area and int the woods again. More open wooded areas with lots of what seem to be respawning enemies.
We are heading up the the Peak and Alan observes that the darkness seems to be moving ahead of him to the peak.
We come to what  seems to be a makeshift graveyard and the keeper attacks us as one of the more boss like taken.
We come to an abandoned town. More flying objects to contend with.
A train flies at you here in a kind of boss battle.
There is a message in grafitti about a safe haven. The door is locked but the key is in the shack next door.
A television in the shack shows Alan in his room, talking about Thomas Zane and his poetry. He tells us that Zane thought there was something in the lake and writing about it summoned it into the world. He thought Jagger had been posessed by the lake demon.
We have a little bit of platforming here on collapsing rickety bridges on the side of the cliffs.
Then birds attack.
We enter mining tunnels, here Alice can be heard shouting for Alan and we get headaches and visions of Alice drowning.
I am ambushed by taken and their entry to the room I was stuck in makes a door for exit.
Now we come to a puzzle with a moving mine platform we can raise up and down. We have to work our way to the top using the platfrom which we can move around. A bit of jumping and working out the correct route here isn't that hard.
We then come out onto the mountainside again and have an accident in a cable car which is brought down by the darkness as we ride it.
More fights in the forest then a rope beidge where we are ambushed by taken.
We come to a large ruined building, the entrance available to us is the basement. Inside there are lots of the yellow Grafitti. are we about to find out who has been helping us out with all the supplies?
There are references to Thomas Zane, some saying that the person loves him some cursing him.
There are references to Tom talking to the person on TV and initials CN or CW.
We have to make our way up the three stories of the building. At the top we fiind ourself crashing down through the ceiling of one storey into an ambush of many taken. We then climb back out and progress along the mountain path.
Alan tells us that he can see Cauldron lake and a light out on a boat on the lake.
We come closer to the lookout point. The kidnapper is screaming at something. He is kneeling slumped. As we  get closer a flash of Jagger appears in between Alan and the kidnapper. The darkness arrives and in a hurricaine blows the kidnapper over the edge of the lookout point. Alan is next and he sets off a flare in vain to protect himself. This only serves  to illuminate his fall into Cauldron lake. He slips into unconsciousness under the water to see visions. Jagger grabbing Alice and dragging her away. Tom Zane in his diving suit and as an arm reaches into the water from a boat to grab Alan the credits roll for this episode.

Episode 4
Alan wakes to find Alice tending him, she melts into Hartman who tells Alan that he is a patient in his clinc and has been for some time, after the death of his wife unhinged him.
Hartman asks him to take a walk with him and he will explain.
Hartman takes us wandering through the lodge and out into the grounds. There is a huge sundial and it bears an inscription "in tenebras cadere" Also a dedication to Tom Zane.
We then go inside and meet some inmates.
The two old men from the diner are there and they call Alan Tom. They give him a manuscript page.
We have to go back to our room and again see Alan on TV in the room, he is angry now about being used by Jagger.
I go back to the room and there is a noise in the corridor. The guard goes to investigate and tells Alan to get on with his writing. We are given the objective to go and see what is going on. The two old men have hit a nurse over the head with a hammer. We can get her keys. Alan wants to go to Hartman's office and get his manuscript pages.
A picture in this new corridor shows Hartman and the kidnapper.
A tape in Hartmans office has Alice talking about Alan. The next take is Hartman talking about his other patients and Agent Nightingale being blocked from getting into the clinic.
In the next room we find Barry locked in a room.
Hartman office is next door and Alan gets his pages back.
Hartman comes in and tries to continue to suggest Alan is sick. Then when Alan continues to disbelieve him he seems to come clean and urges Alan to help him in what is happening, either to free the darkness or stop it, it isn't clear which. At that point the darkness arrives and goes for Hartman. We have to run for it as tendrils of darkness start advancing through the lodge like smokey oil slicks. The furniture comes to life and flies around attacking.
We have to turn on a generator to make the way clear using light, and also have to use a flare to destroy darkness objects. Out in the grounds Barry has a car but the gate is locked and we need to find another way out. Barry tells us that we can get out through the hedge maze.
He gives us a flashlight.
We use it to break down some gates to open the way.
Then we are into the maze and gardens which are in a state of decay. Much fighting in the maze and then a boss type taken at a bandstand type thing. Then some trellises where we fight lots of taken. At the end of the section we come to Barry and gate. He has lost the key and we have to survive against waves of taken until he gets it open.
Barry and Alan drive away from the lodge. Alan tells Barry that something special about the lake makes works of art come to life here. The dark presence perverts them to it's own ends however. Alan believes that Alice is alive at the bottom of the lake and he wants to set her free. The Andersons, who are the crazy old men, apparently knew something and Alan wants to go to their farm. The darkness causes a rockslide to stop them and the car is run off the road. Barry and Alan are separated and Alan has lost his guns and flashlight.
We have to run through an area of flying debris then turn a light on and move it so that it shines on a dark gate.
We get the flashlight back. Then have to avoid some taken as we can't shoot them.
I get a heavy duty flashlight, a car can be seen leaving the farm.
The light appears again and talks to Alan, it talks about trying to leave the pages in Alan's path in the right order. Alan tells us that it appears to him like a diver, is it Thomas Zane.
It seems from the manuscript page left at this point that the darkness is chained somehow to the dark place, probably the lake bed. It is also bound by the story and will be freed at the end of the story, presumably from both bindings.
Some more woods to fight through.
I get to a farm where a car is parked, there is no sign of the driver.
Inside is a man who babbles nonsense and looks hurt.
Then we get attacked and can now leave the farm by the way the taken get in.
A car can now be used to drive to the Anderson farm.
In large field we get to fight taken, then a digger comes to life. thankfully it is a fixed one.
We come to a large field with a festival stage and some seating. It is old and derelict.
Barry is on the stage being attacked by taken, he stumbles and switches on the lights and manages to save his own ass. We find ourself on the stage with Barry behind a bar using the lights to help us. We have to survive the biggest mass attack yet as waves and waves of enemies attack. Eventually Barry sets of a huge firework spectacular and kills all the taken.
We go to the Anderson farm, we have to climb up to a switch to get inside. Inside is a large longboat suspended from the ceiling.
A manuscript pages tells of Tor and Odin, the two old men who used to be in a heavy metal band  making moonshine from the lake water.
An episode of Bright falls shows people standing in line watching a man, they all but one believe that they are part of the dream that the man they are watching is having. They want him to keep dreaming so that they can continue to exist.
We have to make the longboat swing and smash open a door to progress. A boss taken here and some more to fight.
We enter the actual farmhouse now.
The still interest Barry, which really means his a.i. can't follow us up stairs.
We move up through the building then down in a lift into a barn. Here the combine harvester tries to harvest us along with a group of taken.
We then have some climbing to do to get a key and open the silo door to let Barry out.
Now have to push gates together to get them open.
Inside the actual house at last we have to fix the fusebox, then get a record player to play. The message the Andersons have for us is in their song lyrics and concerns the Lady of the Light.
Seems this lady of the light might be cynthia Weaver, the light obesssed woman from the town, who it seems tangled with the darkness in the Tom Zane days.
They decide to wait until daybreak and go into town. Barry brings out the moonshine and they get drunk, which seems an absurdly bad idea. They both pass out drunk and Alan begins to dream. he is back on divers Isle.
We watch as a first person disembodied spirit as a ghostly Alan acts out the events of that night. Alice screams, the lights go out and Alan runs back to the cabin. Inside he finds the wall broken and ripple in the water far below. He jumps in and we watch as he climbs back out a few minutes later unable to find Alice. Jagger appears and tells him to look up at the window. Alan goes back inside the house, Jagger suggests that Alice might still be inside.
Upstairs Jagger tells Alan the Alice did drown, however, Cauldron lake is special. If Alan writes a story with Jaggers guidance he can bring her back to life. Alan realises that he is being used. He writes his escape into the story and with the help of Tom Zane he escapes the cabin, only after the manuscript is finished.
He is weak and groggy and crashes the car. This explains the missing 7 days.
Alan wakes to find Nightingale pointing his gun at him.

Episode 5 The clicker
Alan wakes in jail with a hangover, Barry is with him. A vision shows Weaver, she talks of something Zane wrote that was his insurance.
Nightingale and Sarah Arrive. Nightingale is boasting and happy about catching Alan. Sarah thinks he is as much of  a nutjob as Alan. The darkness arrives and Alan has visions and falls clutching his head. Nightingale is grabbed and pulled out of the station by the  darkness. Sarah is convinced enough to let Alan out and follow his lead.
We go to the fuses and fix the lights. Then to Sarah's office where we get our equipment back.
Sarah will take us in a helicopter to Weaver's place, she lives in a power station apparently.
Barry is told to wait in the police station and to call a list of names and tell them what is happening.
We go out the back door of the police station.
We have to climb over the rooftops avoiding oil and birds to get a gate open.
Then we are out onto the streets.
Sarah actually helps us  fight. The a.i. isn't as dumb as I thought.
Oh yes it is actually. Sarah gets stuck behind a gate and won't follow Alan through and you can now not open the gate when you get back.
This pauses whatever set pieces are meant to happen next and you can't do anything to get back to Sarah.
Even restarting the checkpoint is useless as the checkpoint is after going through the gate.
I have to restart the entire chapter to get past this glitch.
It takes about fifteen minutes to get back to where I was and now we can progress.
Sarah goes to a fence and we have to defend against an ambush.
We get to the helicopter building and have to find some keys and get the fusebox fixed.
A short trip through some rooms and we get ambushed and find the key.
We come out onto the street and see Barry running down the street in cut scene. He is being chased by the darkness and fying debris including a school bus.
He dives into a house as the bus clatters into the doorframe.
We are now going to find Barry, the way is blocked so Sarah leads us through an ambush and into a bookstore. Then back out onto the street.
We are ambushed again at the church doors.
Inside the church we go down into the basement, or crypt.
We get to the door and are ambushed, Barry Saves us, he appartently found a load of flare guns in the store he got stuck in and is now Rambo, with a set of xmas lights around his chest to ward off the taken.
We come to a fairly fun set piece where Sarah and Barry get the chopper flying Alan takes on the taken and a storm hurling girders at the area.
There is plenty of ammo and this is more fun than hard.
In cut scene the helicopter flies to the dam and is attacked by birds. Alan is sent flying out of the chopper, luckily they were low enough for him to not be hurt by the fall.
Alan lands in a transformer yard and we have to fight our way through. A chain must be shot off a door to progress. The amount of enemies attacking at once is getting higher.
We cross the transformer yard which is filled with sparking electrical conduits. Shooting the taken when they are still dark makes them recoil, and this can be used to knock them into the electricity for easy kills.
We use a lift to escape the transformer yard and then come to a roating road bridge.
The bridge is taken and continues to whirl around. We have to survive bird attack and get across.
An episode  of Night Springs in the cabin on the other side of the  bridge shows a woman urging her neighbour to come and look at something in the basement. There is a swirling black hole down there. God appears and tells them its a bit of the universe he forgot to make and apologises. An absence of creativity. He tells them to go have coffee and he will sort it out.

The chopper is back and is now hovering over us as we go to the power plant.
We can use it's light to aid us and remove the taken's shield. Lots of attacks here and then the birds go for the chopper It leaves. We progress to the power plant.
The symbol for the power plant is the same as the one on the hidden caches. Seems that Cynthia Weaver is the one who has been filling Bright Falls with ammo, guns, flares and batteries. She has been waiting for Alan to come and fight the darkness.
She wants us to go to a specific room she has prepared. She has a path which is lit. She wants us to turn off power in the transformer yard first though.
We have to go out to the yard and flick the switch, this will make the pipe that Weaver's safe route is through passable. There are taken in the way and a little floodgate makes a puzzle then a platforming menace once the power is cut. Lots of enemies ambush on the way back to Weaver.
Weaver takes us into the pipe which leads to her well lit room. She talks about Tom and how she was jealous of Jagger. She implies that she and Alan are creations of Tom, written into the story which he started in the seventies.
Alan calls Barry and tells him to meet him at the dam. The chopper Crashes and Alan goes to help, against Weavers wishes.
We go out of the pipe and into the woods. The helicopter can be seen in the distance. Birds attack but that is all until I reach the copter and find no sign of Barry or Sarah.
We see flares going off all over the place up and ahead and find Barry and Sarah under heavy attack. They both follow once you take out the taken.
Two boss taken attack. Then we reach an elevator that will take us to the dam.
Again defend until the elevator reaches you.
At the top a door button must be held open, Barry and Sarah go inside. An object drops down from above and Alan is trapped outside.
We are attacked by debris and a new path is opened.
A page tells us that Zane had to write himself out of existence to stop the dark presence. Seems he left insurance should the darkness ever get free again. He left a shoebox with something inside, the only thing of his not to be written out.
There is a huge spotlight here which acts as an emplaced gun against a horde of taken.
As we reach the top of the dam we have a chase sequence where the dark hurricaine attacks and we have to run and jump to avoid being killed.
We reach a lift and all the gang including Cynthia are there. She takes us down into the well lit room and we get the shoebox of Zane's it has a page and the clicker. The manuscript is a page from Zane's story and talks about Alan aged 7 being given the  clicker by his mother in an echo of Alan giving the Clicker to Alice.
Seems Zane wrote Alan into existence at Cauldron lake all those years ago.

Episode 6 departure
Alan wakes in his New York apartment. He has a hangover and we have to get him some painkillers from the bathroom and his sunglasses to shield his eyes from the light.
A message in the hall on the answering machine is from Barry. Seems Alan has been on a chat show and at the after party with Barry.
We get to see the tv show which shows Alan on a chat show trying to be funny. He tells us about killing off his long time hero in this last book.
There is a cameo from the writer of the game here, Sam Lake, also the model for Max Payne.
Alice comes in and berate Alan about his wild partying on his book tour with Barry. He apologises and suggests they go away together for a holiday, somewhere quiet.
We are back in the present and Alan tells the gang he must go to the lake Alone. The rest of the gang are told to stay in the well lit room until he returns. Alan must finish the story which is still in his typewriter at the cabin on the lake.
A manuscript page tells us that the darkness now only wants to stop Alan since he has Zane's weapon.
We have to drive to the lake, stopped by roadblocks at time we have to fight taken.
We come to a junkyard and have to enter a building to open it's gate. Then inside there is a two switch gate to open. A bulldozer and taken run interference.
We can go no further in our vehicle and have to go through an old farm building. We have to push machinery aside here for the first time.
We now get all sorts of fun as we make our way through farms, spotlights, hurricaines, lots of taken.
Then we come through a tunnel and are at the hurricaine.
WE have to get close by jumping cliffs and shoot flares into it's heart.
Alan then jumps into the lake.
He wakes with Alice in New York in his bed.
It is a vison, and Alan knows it. Alice is the dark presence. We are told to find the clicker. It is in the living room.
Tom Zane appears floating and the room vanishes, we are underwater. He tells us we must get to the cabin. We see a person that looks almost identical to Alan.
We appear in a void, with ground. There are glowing words. For example barrel, if we shine the light on it we hear clicking of a typewriter and the barrel is brought into existence.
I shine the torch on bridge and path and cabin and get into the cabin.
A cut scene shows alan walking into the cabin.
He meets Jagger and hugs her, she vanishes.
Alan goes to the writing room upstairs and writes the ending, he knows what to do.
We seen a new cut scene. He tells us that Zane never realised that there must be balance and he would need to sacrifice. Alan arrives at the cabin and sees Alice in the water.
Then we see her swimming to the surface.
The camera pans out over Bright falls and zooms in on the town.
We see the people watching Deerfest parade. Rose still looks posessed and so does Nightingale.

Around 18 hours at a guess, my timing might have been off a bit.
640 achievement points