Alan Wake 2's latest patch adds a kind of jump scare intensity option

There's life in the ol' Alan Wake 2 yet. Last year's multimedia horror extravaganza game has a new patch, and of note is that it includes chapter select but, interestingly, also the "much-requested option to tune down the horror flashes", according to the notes here. What is a horror flash, you ask? It's that thing where a horror game or film or TV show suddenly flashes up a semi-transparent image of like, a monster, or a screaming woman, or a big weird eye. A jump scare meets the Kuleshov effect.

Conventional news reporters may tell you that this is an update for loser babies who have no horror chops. I myself do not conform to this view. Different horror is horrifying in different ways for different people. In my opinion horror flashes are some of the more annoying and, dare I say it, cheaper tools in the horror maestro's kit, like bad comedians saying "fuck" a lot to disguise that they don't have actual jokes. Oh you want me to associate this forest with death and worms, do you? Why not just write it on a big road sign and save us all time? Actually, I would like an experimental horror game that just did that, someone get on it. I'm not against horror flashes entirely though, and in any case, the Alan Wake 2 option is a toggle for normal or low horror flashes, so you can't totally get rid of them.

I'm a fan of horror games adding, in a sense, horror difficulty options, because yeah, enjoyment of horror is a learned thing. I'm still working on figuring out what I can tolerate (body horror: yes, unless it's eyes; creepy close whispering in the diegetic soundtrack: no). One of my favourite games full stop, Soma, is a great experience and a meditation on the nature of the self and so on, as well as having monsters. The option to remove the monsters chases doesn't make it not a horror game, but it does make it a different kind of horror game. I think that's cool. Need I point out that the Alan Wake 2 patch notes refer to the horror flash option as "much requested"!

The chapter select option is also a cool one to add. You can select any previous chapter of Alan Wake 2 you've already played, but the patch notes do caution you to always have at least one manual save of your current progress, or you'll be autosaved into the past. I don't know why more games don't chapter select as a default thing. Not to get too inside baseball, but not only is it great for just doing bits you like again, but also indescribably useful for a hack games journo who needs some screenshots of a specific bit.

The rest of the options are pretty standard patch notey stuff and bug fixes - you can check them all out here. Next add a toggle for Sam Lake (low Sam Lake toggle would maintain the normal amount of Sam Lake, while the high option makes everyone Sam Lake).