Alan Wake and why I think regenerating health is a bad thing....

Hey.... whoever decided to read my blog.
 
Well just finished Alan Wake and will review it soon after I've squeezed a little more play time out of it. Short and sweet of it is I enjoyed it, solid atmosphere, fun shooting and somewhat decent pacing made for an OK way to spend 7 - 8 hours.
 
 Now, while playing Alan Wake I finally thought how I can explain why regenerating health systems are bad.... Not all together, just for the most part.
 
Due to the push towards casual gaming in recent years these have popped up everywhere, granted in Halo or Gears they work just fine. However in a game like this they just serve as (more often than not) an excuse for lazy design. The only thing you can do to avoid damage in Alan Wake is a dodge move, which works every single time apart from the ones where you actually need to avoid the chainsaw that big dude is swinging at you.
 
Regenerating health masks certain games bad design choices, like not including any kind of health pick up into the game. I mean come on, how hard is it? In Resident Evil you find herbs, grind them up onto paper then eat them.... or grind them up and place them in oversized test-tube-aerosol tipped tube and spray yourself better.... yeah, come on.
 
Again, I'm not saying they're a bad thing across the board and they certainly lend themselves to how certain games have evolved and believe me when I say I could list more examples of how they just cover up shitty game design. But I wanted to explain it concisely, maybe I did that.
 
Peace...
 
Also watch this space for my website link, will be launching soon!!!