They say timing’s everything, so we’re a little puzzled to see Alan Wake, the novelisation written by Rick Burroughs reaching Aussie shores over a year after the video game of the same name launched.   We can’t help feel that Alan has missed the last ferry to Brightfalls.  Perhaps the books appearance this late in the game is all part of the time-bending, fog enveloping mystery of the Alan Wake narrative, or perhaps someone at the publishing company simply messed up.

It’s easy to mock poor publishing release schedules but if we are honest we’d say that it’s actually heartening to see anything that keeps a video game front and center long after it was released, especially in an age where even triple A titles have the shelf life of custard during a black out.  Lets be honest; it’s not hard to be excited about an Alan Wake book – a game about a writer, touted for its strong narrative.  The novel will either satiate readers desperate for answers and hungry for more Alan Wake goodness or; like to far too many video game novelizations, prove to be a redundant  disappointment.

According to Borders, the book will be available to buy on the 4th of October 2011.   Look out for our review coming up on the Incomplete Gamer.  The book’s US and European release was a little more timely – and has been available for some time.  Check the usual suspects, Amazon (US & UK), or the Book Depository.  If you want to shop closer to home, Borders have the US veresion in stock  is available now online n

Alan Wake by Rick Burroughs

ISBN: 9780765366474

Is all well in Aussie TiVoland?  Not according to an online  report on UK site The Register. Natalie Apostolou, reports that the Australian  TiVo licensee has dramatically cut its staff in recent weeks.  Tech blog, Gizmodo asks the question, is TiVo dying in Australia?  TiVo Australia say it’s business as usual on their official Facebook page, which might be a reassuring message if it wasn’t surrounded by  a sea of negative postings from an unhappy customer base.  The Incomplete Gamer is an unashamed fan of all things TiVo, as you’ll know if you’ve spent any time here.  Stick around  however, and we’ll take off our rose-colored glasses just long enough to examine what went wrong with TiVo down under.

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Here at the Incomplete Gamer, we love our basketball as much as our video gaming.  If we’re not actually hitting the hardwood for real, we’re either watching a game or playing a virtual one.  With Game One of the NBA finals just hours away, you would be right to imagine that we’re actually counting down the minutes.  Following today’s official announcement, that Basketball legend, Michael Jordan will grace the cover of Take Two’s Basketball game NBA2K11, and play a role in developing the title, we’re now also counting the days until the game’s release in the Us on October 5.   Jason Argent, vice president of marketing for 2K Sports, confirmed the news to CNBC.com.

The Incomplete Gamer has a brand new home, and it’s all your fault.  Too much traffic is never a bad thing, except when you’re on a capped bandwidth hosting plan.  You may have noticed the site was missing in action during the last two days of May as a result of exceeding our bandwidth limits.

With our traffic continuing to build, and not wanting to risk another disappearing act, we went looking for a company offering both unlimited GB’s of space and unlimited GB’s of transfer.  We also wanted great service at the best price in town.  JustHost.com ticked all the right boxes and while it is still early days, we would like to thank the Just Host support team for their assistance in making the move painless and swift.

While we’re tipping our hats, a quick shout out to WordPress Hacks.  Their advice on how to move a WordPress site to a new host or new domain proved invaluable.  You might notice some slight tweaking over the next few days as we restore the site to its former glory.  Thanks for your patience and, as always, a big thank you for stopping by.

There’s more shape-shifting going on in the fourth and mercifully the last series of ‘til Death than your typical episode of Fringe.

But rather than different characters inhabiting the same character’s body, over on the set of ‘til Death, four different actresses have played the role of Ally Stark,  daughter of Eddie and Joy Stark.  Just in case that wasn’t confusing enough, the shows producers have elected to play episodes out of order so that one Ally actress appears, is replaced, and returns throughout the final series.  One of the actresses playing Ally, even played a different character on the show – a waitress – one episode before joining the cast as Doug’s wife Ally.  Read on to make sense of the nonsensical and why we think ‘til Death didn’t merely jump the shark, but jumped in the pool and bludgeoned it to death.

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UPDATE: Stop the clock, or more accurately the Day Calendar.  Halo 3: ODST is in the building.  Ordered on the 1st, dispatched on the 4th and in the Incomplete Gamer Mail box today – Friday the 21st of May.  We won’t tell you that our purchase was in part motivated by a desire to play the Halo Reach multiplayer beta, if you promise not to highlight the fact that the beta just ended.  Fact is, we’re excited about playing the single player campaign and at a smidge over $28 we still feel like a winner!  Read on to find out why we’re rating the online retailers.

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Can’t get enough of The Incomplete Gamer?  I’m spreading the love and my writing to GameFlavor, a network of four sites, PS3 Informer, PSP World, Xboxist and The Red Shell.

You can find my first rant online and awaiting your reading pleasure right now!  Read on to discover why Alan Wake fans are reacting in horror. Game Reviews: Your Number’s Up.

I’ll still be dishing up regular servings of Incomplete Gamer.  Think of it as a bonus extra course!

Fire up your Xbox360 and head straight to the marketplace.  Episodes 3 and 4 of the Alan  Wake live action prequel have finally landed and are waiting for you in all their High Definition glory.

Episode 3 has been available over at www.brightfalls.com for almost a week now, but why watch it on your pc in a teeny tiny window when you can be scared witless in the comfort of your lounge on the big screen.

The appearance of the videos on the marketplace doesn’t explain why Episode 3 was missing in action for so long.  Perhaps the Microsoft code monkeys lost the video file down the back of the couch.  Perhaps it was there all along and we just didn’t  see it or perhaps it wasn’t even a week late.  The mind plays strange tricks especially in Brightfalls.  Why are you still here reading  How long have you been standing in front of your computer?  Who wrote all those words on the notepad?

Just last year came exciting news from Nottingham in the UK. Keep in mind there’s been nothing of note come out of Nottingham since the tales of Robin Hood emerged, and that was 800 years ago. This exciting news even has something in common with the fictional world of Robin Hood, in as much as  it concerns videogames and the tales they have to tell.

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While my preordered, Collector’s Edition of the game, Alan Wake, languishes somewhere in a Channel Islands warehouse and volcanic ash clouds gather on the horizon, a chap in Spain,  HeikkiX360, was lucky enough to receive his game 8 days early – courtesy of the good folk at GAME Spain, who it would appear, have diligently shipped off their pre-orders, a week and a bit early.  If it’s not cruel enough that HeikkiX360 has taunted us with an ‘un-boxing’ video, he’s also had the gall to put up a video walkthrough of  the first three episodes, lest there be any doubt that he did in fact have the game.  If you love a good unboxing (it just tends to make me jealous and annoyed), then make the jump and press play to see Alan Wake stripped of his shrink wrap.  Lastly, a community service message for any budding Spielberg planning on shooting an unboxing video of their own.  Don’t film the unboxing on your bed.  It tends to just come off as creepy.

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