macrocarl

Yep. It's amazing. Super fun and super thought out. Who cares if the gun shooting aspect is stat based? Aparently not me. I've never ever re-played a game so much.

Cathartic isn't it? Bear in mind Fallout: New Vegas is just around the corner which promises all the super mutants, gambling, showgirls and ,err, cybernetic dogs (poor Dogmeat) you ever wanted in any game. I think Alpha Protocol was amazing. Everyone is so caught up with guns! I hope when FNV comes out people will check this title out too. I seriously don't get why people don't like AP.

I've played it several times on Xbox360 and love it. I don't know why people are crying over the graphics. XBox360's tech performance has been pretty spotless. I've encountered very few bugs where I needed to reload a save. I can't speak towards the PC version of the game though............. Honeslty, I think people are most frusterated that it's not a shooter in the strict sense. Story-wise, with all the actual choices that are made in the game, AP is the most advanced and wonderful choice driven game to date. So if you can get past slightly out dated graphics and the fact you can't do head shots at the begining as easily as you can later in teh game you should pretty much expect to like/ love it!

I heard shotgun is kind of redundant since you have MA for tight quarters situations. Maybe a lil' pistol instead? that's what I did and loved it. Although I've heard people using SMG for when things got loud while trying to be stealthy. Dunno.

Oner to the rescue! hahah

Yeah it's apparently not a game for everyone (peeps who love shooters) but I agree. It's a great game! I hope that it catches more attention once Fall Out 3 comes out........ Obsidian deserves props! Oh almost forgot: Sneak builds for a run through are TOTALLY FUN. I'm just starting a 2nd play through as a commando guy. Was it fun? I can forsee some parts of the game being easier (in terms of murdering) and some parts harder (where with the spy build you could sneak around folks) but might have to confront them despite wanting to not kill any one. Just curious!

It was the other way around, I beat the crap out of them, without much or any trouble. Epinephrine Spike + Iron Will + Fury, lets call this combo 'Steven special' for future references. For Marburg, I just incinerated his henchmen with grenades, and then gave him one Steven special and that was that. For Brayko, I gave him Steven special, then after he gets high I hide with shadow operative(so that he doesn't call his mobsters on me), while I'm hiding I use brilliance and then give him another Steven special after the effects of the coke wore off. Deng was the easies one, I just gave him one Steven special and that was that, he didn't even have time to react, he didn't even touch me. It was my 9th playthrough, and at that point I was really good at mini games so I didn't need any help, but I did have extra 10 points at the end that I didn't use for anything, so you could buy two ranks in sabotage if you want. Here is how my build looked in the end: Technical aptitude is really important because of the better healing, more endurance and brilliance. On hard, you really have to rely on fury and iron will or your dead, so being able to reset their timers is important. I guess its possible, but I didn't try it. That's totally awesome. Thanks for the screen shot too........ I like 'The Steven Special'! hahah

@ Prestidigitator Thanks for the heads up on shotgun...... With your Chuck Norris build, you could hand to hand all the bosses and not get the #%^! beat out of you? The 1st lvl of brilliance is at 8th lvl, no? Did you have points in other places as well? I thought at least 2 in sabotage was really helpful against bombs and crazy locks. Also quick Q on tech and then I promise to stop hijacking this thread Has anyone placed landmines right in front of Mike during any of the boss fights and light them off as a boss comes at them with a high enough tech score to not get blasted as well?

I finsished up my 1st playthrough as a Spy with 13 in Martial Arts, 13 in Pistols, 13 in Sealth, 2 in Sabotage (for the EMP pick locks ability which saved my ass a couple of times) and 3 in AR as my secondary weapon (mostly used AR for long rang attacks vs. helicopter and sniping from afar at low levels). I had to run around a lot vs. bosses but towards the end I could take out a room stealthy like with Shadow Operative....... Totally fun, never threw a grenade the whole game! Also totally dug knee to the face + pistol to the face (MA 13) For my 2nd playthrough I was thinking more of an aggro free lance kill 'em real bad type wih these stats: Martial Arts lvl 13 = 52 points Pistols lvl 10 = 15 points Sabotage lvl 6 = 24 points Toughness lvl 5 = 20 points Stealth lvl 3 = 18 points Shot Gun lvl 7 = 35 points Tech lvl 10 = 30 points +3 points left over I know the build is spread all over the place but I can't get rid of pistol and martial arts. They are too cool. Does anyone think I need to tweak the build? Am I over doing it in toughness? OR is shotgun or pistol too high? Thoughts?

My impressions of the game is that it's awesome. I've read about bugs for PC'ers and being a PC guy I feel your frustration. But for XBox360 it's been relatively bug-free. I've absolutely loved the story, dig all the choices and think the sneaking around, firing guns, knee to the face then a bullet in the head combos are super fun. For me the 'easy' setting is kind of hard hahaha Admittedly I only play a few games a year and so have had no problems with difficulty. Yeah the AI can be a little weird at times but all you yammering about the AI being totally broken need to chill out. ME2's AI was at least as wonky. AT LEAST! GAHHHHHH (Sorry too much coffee) Anyway, big thumbs up to Obsid. You guys have done wonderfully. I am not a fan boy but I am a fan. This is the 1st game where I'll play it more than once!

The only bugs I've encountered on the 360 are: Rome ruin missions, had to reload because once the information started downloading and I killed off all the agents storming in it never ended. I reloaded and it worked fine. The other one was some textures taking their time loading in Moscow. But only a couple. Other than that the game has been running great! Am I the only one or are other Xbox players getting little to no bugs?

I'm about half through AP (I think) and I just wanted to say thank you to Obsidian for making such an awesome game. I have to admit I was a little miffed at low levels and being sneaky. I couldn't get it under control, kept feeling like I failed. The mini-games were tough at first too, but after getting used to everything I have to say this is one of my favorite RPG's ever! I truly feel it smokes Mass Effect 2 and ties with Dragon Age, KOTOR 2, Jade Empire, & the original Mass Effect. That's a huge deal for me and a huge compliment for you! And like I said, I'm only half through and it is totally engrossing. So hats off, thumbs up, bottoms up, rock & roll forever!

Oh man, come on June 1st! Thanks for the link!

I think the graphics look pretty awesome & I'm primed to love this game. Do they judge it on whether your romance option has weird banana fingers? Or slow blinking? Or you can see in their mouths and see Tron looking back at you (ie. low res texture stuff)? Or like 'It was windy and his hair didn't blow in his face, -10 to immersion'.

Yeah he said he had a stealthy build and didn't do much sneaking around, including booting a couple doors open instead of lock picking. I've seen a couple short clips of jumping, climbing ladders etc. but it was nice to see it in a more extended play. It looks pretty smoov. Freelancer sounds lind of interesting from what they were saying. Although the special op build or whatever it's called with kung-fu, stealth & pistol is probably what I'll start with. Sneaking in with Kung-Fu looks totally fun :D Whatever build I end up with for my 1st play though, I'm totally rocking the lumberjack beard, especially for the romance sequences!

Thanks Starwars! I can't get to the AP thing though. The link goes to a race car game....... Am I totally missing what to click on?

I hope they set up a bunch of tropes that are fun and then smash them to pieces and supass my expectations!

I hope the overall genuine funny/ dark/ sad tones they seem to be able to pull off in their games will come through. There's a gravity in the writing that Obsidian's writers hit that endlessly draws me to their titles. Some of my favorite writing in general is using seemingly mundane tropes and genres, feeding you more of the same, and then cork screwing it on it's head. Of course I don't know any more about AP than any one else waiting to play (probably I know less actually) but seeing how Obsidian's done things in the past I'd put my $$$ on there's going to be some big Oh **it! cards being played through the game.

I think this looks totally sweet! And it's just a trailer on my crappy computer! Personally, if these graphics are considered crappy, then I guess I got to just admit that I have some low standards (edit for spelling flubz)

I played DA:O on XBox 360 and I thought it looked pretty damn good. I think AP looks slick too. I don't get what people are measuring 'better' graphics off of. Seriously, what's considered the most awesome graphics going these days? I'd like to see a pic so I can understand what all the knee jerking is about. Also, I played ME2 which had slicker looking graphics I guess but story-wise it's pretty light in the heels. So maybe we just need to wait & play the game since story is 90% of the immersion IMHO.

I have a hard time playing evil as well i couldnt do it in kotor ill try and play evil in alpha protocol in my third or fourth playthrough. It's probably because you think "yeah, I'll try evil this time" and then as you play most games, the "evil" choices are usually really psychotic stupid choices rather then evil so you end up not using them....... Exactly! If they go as 'gray' as they can with choices then I'd rather a mix of 'evil' & 'good' and make my own bad ass. Old games like KOTOR 2 for example had some crazy bad guy choices that were somewhere around 'Kick the women with no legs' and then all of a sudden you're more dark side. Hopefully the fine line between good and evil will make it more emersive. I thought DA:O did a good job of that actually. (crosses fingers for AP)

The stealth article is good news to me. I wanted all the kung-fu animation and a$$ kicking but be stealthy too. I don't care if I get fury or not, but using a rifle, disarming cameras, having a sweet pistol, chain shot and some karate action is totally solid. Hurry up June 1!!!!111

Man o man, some of the higher perks look so sweet. Do you think we'll be able to get chain shot and fury in the same play? I was thinking of a ninja stealth suavey mcsuave guy with a touch of tech abilities. Decisions decisions.

Suave ninja! I probably won't kill everyone. But we'll see......... I always plan on playing a murderous type but end up pure sugar. Oh and romance every chick I can get my suave ninja hands on.

Congrats Monty! You all are doing a great job and it's a pleasure being a part of the community! Can't wait to see what's in store! It's such a dynamic game, and with all the great people involved, it can only get better! Here's to an awesome 2008! Happy holidays! -MC