After five years in development, it was hardly a surprise that every brow associated with Alan Wake was furrowed into an irretrievable state of seriousface. And when it did at last arrive, that was the game's problem: it looked great, had a nicely creepy atmosphere, the action mechanics were solid; but, goodness, it didn't half take itself seriously.

This was most potently symbolised by Wake himself, a dreary, po-faced bore (yes, it takes a writer to know one), forever framing the world around him in self-absorbed cliché. For a game with blockbuster literary aspirations, it's a bit of a problem when it delivers a straight-to-DVD script.

The character now returns, not in another fussily self-conscious epic, but as an Xbox Live Arcade title knocked out for fun on the side - and what a difference that has made.

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