That would be an interesting thing to add. Right now I've been wanting to play Mass Effect for a while, but I'm a bit wary of playing it because when I actually have time and want to play it could vary so wildly that it seems (right now) to be difficult to fully absorb the story and appreciate the game fully. If there were such a feature, I'd certainly be less hesitant to dive in.

you know, some games implement something similar (though not for that reason) as a reward. Some game, like later final fantasies implement a reward whereby you can just select and view past cut scenes. While not always feasible, it would be cool to set up a simple in game rig that lets you view them.

Because Alan Wake takes the structure of a TV series, Remedy seem to be quite literally doing a 'previously on Alan Wake' sequence between game 'episodes'. It could just be a stylistic touch, but I can see the advantages (having dropped a few games for over a year or more, myself).

For example, I tried to get my Dad into the Phoenix Wright - Ace Attorney games, and he was starting to enjoy them, except that he was playing sporadically (30 mins, maybe 1-2 days a week) and quickly lost track of all the important plot points revealed in the testimonies. Unfortunately, the game hinges on knowing what witnesses and suspects are saying and then comparing that to the available evidence, so this was quite a big problem. The game does have a court record system to track important clues and evidence (everything you need to solve a case), but often it's not enough to remind you of what's happened before.

Morrowind on the other hand has quite a nice journal system that records every major event and every important comment made by an NPC. So you can easily drop the game and return 6 months later (which is exactly what I did, because I got hooked on Oblivion in the interim). All you have to do is check the last 3-6 journal entries to be brought right back up to speed on what you were doing, and what your next objective is.