Every piece of new technology is "landscape-changing".
Every slight tweak to a familiar genre is "seismic".
And every new release is "the next big thing".
In some respects, the gaming industry has been guilty of being so predictable - witness the dozens of sequels and blatant rip-offs that flood the market each year - that it can easily crow when something different comes along.
And games like Alan Wake, the Xbox 360 exclusive and Microsoft's big hope for the year, and the PS3's Heavy Rain certainly are different.
But does different, or even innovative, necessarily mean "landscape-changing"? Er, no.
Alan Wake is simply an episodic, interactive game with a horror-thriller-survival theme.
Think Stephen King meets Lost, and you get the idea.
Your title character is a writer struggling for inspiration who heads to a holiday cabin in the back end of beyond (hmmm, not sounding so original), otherwise known as Bright Falls.
The game unfolds like a well-paced television series with establishing shots, character introductions and neat clues to an overall plot that goes something along the lines of (a) writer's wife disappears and (b) writer tries to find out what happened.
Oh, and (c) loads of twists and horror stuff.
Long cinematics push the story along and there is no doubt a lot of creative juices have gone into Alan Wake.
It's confusing much of the time but the writers have also done a superb job creating tension.
In terms of gameplay, there's nothing hugely new here.
Your foes are called The Taken, sort of possessed, shadowy blokes with the darkest of intentions.
Combating them requires light, usually in the form of a torch, and assorted weapons.
All the early talk was that Alan Wake was going to be completely open-world, in the sandbox style of a Grand Theft Auto.
It's turned out to be much more linear, though there is still a heap of room to move.
Alan moves and dodges and jumps and sprints.
The combat mechanics are strong with a nice mix of tactical awareness and sheer adrenaline.
Those obsessed with graphics will think Alan Wake (the game, not the man) is a dream come true.
The lakes and mountains and forests and cabins and cafes are superbly rendered, and the use of lighting throughout the game is genuinely inspired.
Interesting, thrilling, technically impressive and highly enjoyable.
Those are certainly words I'd use for Alan Wake.
Just don't expect it to be the single greatest game in the history of, you know, everything.
