Summary
October was an absolutely huge month for the gaming industry. While it was unfortunately marred by seeminglycountless developer layoffsthat have negatively impacted so many of the people who have helped to make 2023 such an incredible year for gaming, October was still a massive month when it came to video game releases, and some of those titles ended up being some of the best games of the whole year. WhileMarvel’s Spider-Man 2led the charge,Alan Wake 2closed out the month with a bang.
On the surface, there really isn’t all that much that tiesMarvel’s Spider-Man 2andAlan Wake 2together. Both games are higher-budget titles, both are highly-anticipated sequels, and both released within just a week of one another, and that’s about it. But digging a little deeper, bothAlan Wake 2andSpider-Man 2actually highlight the same recent trend in gaming, and hopefully, fans are still only seeing the beginnings of it.
Alan Wake 2 and Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 Are True Next-Gen Games
Alan Wake 2 and Spider-Man 2 Have Great Visuals
BothAlan Wake 2andMarvel’s Spider-Man 2are the most recent examples of true next-gen gameplay experiences, and that can be seen throughout both titles. One of the biggest examples of both games' next-gen qualities are their impressive visuals and other technical features. Games have only continued to grow more graphically impressive over time, and games likeAlan Wake 2andSpider-Man 2show just how much the industry has evolved since its debut all those decades ago.
When it comes toMarvel’s Spider-Man 2, its graphics may not be the most technically impressive in all of gaming, but for an open-world action-adventure game of its scale, it’s incredibly impressive, with superb realistic lighting, highly-detailed textures, architecture, and character models, and an open-world that’s densely packed with NPCs.Alan Wake 2, on the other hand, is actually one of the most technically impressive games around at the minute, usingRemedy’s Northlight engineto great effect to create some incredibly realistic environments and deliver some of the most naturalistic lighting effects in gaming. It also helps thatSpider-Man 2andAlan Wake 2do all of this while also running at a fairly consistent 60 FPS on consoles.
Alan Wake 2 and Spider-Man 2 Have Almost No Loading Screens
Another big element ofAlan Wake 2andSpider-Man 2that makes both games feel as though they’re truly next-gen is their lack of loading screens. Every inch ofNew York City inSpider-Man 2is freely explorable, with no loading screens breaking the flow of web-swinging. The transition from gameplay to cutscene and vice versa is also seamless in most instances, leading to a game that feels smooth and polished.Alan Wake 2follows suit, with very few loading screens taking players out of the experience, with the only ones occurring when players die and swap characters.
This lack of loading screens is especially impressive inAlan Wake 2andSpider-Man 2when the environment changes seamlessly around the player. For instance, inSpider-Man 2, during the Black Cat chase sequence, players are zipping through portals that teleport them across New York City and beyond, with no loading screen or frame-drop interrupting any part of the chase. InAlan Wake 2, this occurs when playersswap out a Plot Idea in the Dark Place, causing the environment around them to change almost instantly, often changing the map’s layout and enemy placement.
