Orchomene

I can't say the game is perfect, but perfection doesn't exist so that's not news. But say that it has many flaws is going very far. There are very minor issues and things I'd rather have seen be developed differently, but those are not "flaws". 1. Lack of polish : If you compare it to Bioware games, it's more or less the same or better. I mean, have you see all the inconsistencies and plot holes in ME2 ? How many times in a playthrough are you wondering "WTF is saying my character ?" 2. Lack of originality : Come on. All the games from Bioware are the same since NWN OC. You have a mission to save the world by defeating the greatest threat ever. For that, you gather allies/objects in 3 or 4 different places, then final confrontation. Sure, it's epic. But epic becomes quite boring at some moment. That's why ME2 story feels so flat, you can't save the galaxy in every game of the trilogy and thus Bioware semt to not know what to do. It's for a good reason that Bioware has developped so few sequels. They are just bad at refreshing their scenarii. 3. Broken combat gameplay : Ok, if you use time after time chain shot, it becomes boring. But at least, the places where you fight often allow you to have some tactic that may differ. I feel the combat less broken than ME1/2 ones but less tactic than some of DAO. 4. Bugs/glitch : well, sure you can find some, even several. But it's one of the most stable game I've bought recently. Fallout 3, I had the Jefferson memorial bug, i.e. crash everytime I approached the monument. To the point I had to use the console to teleport into it to allow me to play the game. Issue has been corrected, but it was a beta game in the beginning. Yet, it's been game of the year. ME1 was a pain on my preceeding computer, the mini game was freezing, always. Yet, I was above the min spec (but inferior to the recommended). That was to the point I had to stop playing until I change my computer (I had to do it for my job and take a laptop, anyway). ME2 has more or less the same issues as AP linked to UE engine, so it's good for this point. DAO has a lot of bugs, some repaired and some not. All I can say is that there is a very high bias in the reviews concerning this aspect. 5. Dialogues. Well, what can be said ? You can't compare dialogues of Bioware of the level of a movie like Independence Day with dialogues of Obsidian games. The emotion overused in Bioware games is here to hide the flatness of what is said. On the contrary, even with characters hiding well their emotions (which is assumed as a normal attitude in a spy game after all), dialogues in AP are interesting. If you then look at NPC having a well visible attitude (Steven- don't-call-me-Steve), it's really good. 6. Replayability : After my first play of ME1/2, I can't see why I would reply the game since I don't like the shooter gameplay (but I can understand that some may like it). DAO, I've replayed it three times, but more to see the origins and to test some new specializations. Now, in almost every game developed, designers tend to avoid content that is not seen in every playthrough. You play ME1/2, DAO (there is even a bonus accomplishment for visiting every place in the game that can easily be obtained in the first playthrough) and have seen almost all the game. At least in DAO, there are some modifications when you chose your side in the allies missions. Now, have a look at AP. I let you conclude. All in all, I don't like action heavy games, I'm not found of spy games. I don't like mini games. But nonetheless I like AP and will replay the game several times. May be not yet, but I will be back. On the contrary, as soon as I finished ME1/2, I delete all from my computer to gain some memory that would have been a waste otherwise. So no, there is no conspiracy. But there is a heavy bias toward the establishment in the video game business. There is also an evolution toward some flat and acultured attitude with the attention given to voice acting, graphics, standardisation of gameplay, quick pacing. It's often what happens in art. Be it cinematography, literature, music : what sells and is appreciated by the acultured base of our societies (whatever the country, of course) is the normalised and eye-candy product. But in the end, the humanity memory generally only keeps the real artistic products and the normalised and eye-candy product is forgotten and viewed as ridiculous.

Depends what you want to do. Some modifications are proposed in the modding thread. Others are proposed in the technical forum.

For precision, you may try to change this setting in APGame.ini and test a bit : [Engine.PlayerController] bAimingHelp=false => true For the issues of frames at rotation of the camera, one may try to lower the value of this (same file APGame.ini) PlayerRotationSpeed=270000.0f

Well, you said ME2 was a great game. Well, that's not my point of view was the only thing I said. The answer I made was for all the stack, not specifically you.

What? You're joking, right? Yes thats right, I'm joking. Certainly games of ME2's polish, quality and production values don't do anything to raise expectations of other games. Just like how the original Half-Life didn't raise expectations for future FPS games to become more cinematic, nor how MGS for the playstation didn't raise expectations for games everywhere to have high quality voice acting and cinematic cutscenes. Instead of cherry picking my post for a single statement just to make a dumbass remark, why not put some effort into it and actually tell me your opinion. The thing is that though ME2 was a great game -- and certainly one that does have better production values and polish than AP -- it was extraordinarily limited as a CRPG. You can't raise the bar on what a genre should be by divorcing yourself from the genre as much as you possibly can. Half-Life wouldn't have raised expectations on future FPS games if it had been a third person game, after all. Hum... Each one his/her opiinion, but I almost forced myself to go to the end of ME2. Why ? Very awful story, bad story telling, flat dialogues, railroading all the way, boring combat, boring runing in corridors, ridiculous bosses. I don't play shooters, so I can't compare. But ME2 is probably the worst game I've bought the last two years. Also, after having seen what has been said of some FPS (MW2) and seen someone playing it, I can understand that ME2 may seem to "raise standard" for some people. Yet, I like many of the Bioware games. The stories are far from original, but I can enjoy playing their games. But Me2, raising RPG standard ? It's ridiculous. It's like saying that Independance Day has raised cinematographic standard like it is a masterpiece movie. With ME2, you get flashing and pretty images, but nothing else.

Well, with lockpick, I can manage almost half the time, which is quite challenging at a reasonnable level (I'm fully equiped with the armor mod and have 2 in Sabotage). On the other hand, the hacking is just too difficult with less than 5 seconds of refresh. Without a lot of luck (having the keyboard control part not too far), it's impossible to solve it because of the time it takes to move this part. Then, the electronic devices are somewhat impossible near the end if you have less than 20 seconds and 12 "labyrinth path" to select. But at least there are technical ways to bypass it and it sufficient. I would have hate to be blocked in the game because I can't solve a mini game. Now, to the concept of mini game, I don't specifically like it. I buy a RPG, I don't buy Tetris or any casual game. If I want to play mini games, I can find tons of flash games. There is just no real interest for me.

Hello, I thought there was already a topic for this, but I can't find it. Sometimes some of the special displacement options can't be activated and no menu appears. I know that reloading may solve the issue. But coupled with the checkpoints saves, it's really tedious. Ex : Omen Deng fight inside the memorial. There are around three waves of ennemies as you climb on the structures. Well, I had some difficulties in the fight at the beginning, a bit surprised by enemies coming from different directions, but that's fair. But then, at least successfully arrived at the top of the structure, I just have no option to activate the zipline. I will need to reload and do all the fight again. Can't we just have a debug mode that would allow free save ? Or direct activation of ziplines/jumps/ladders through a console command ? That would help circumvent those annoying small bugs. At least on PC.

I mostly only use EMP, now. At the end of the game, I find that all the mini games become tough if you didn't specialize in sabotage. This is more costly (1000 $) but it avoids the trigger of an alarm which is a pain when going stealthy.

In APGame.ini, it's pretty clear the following section can be modded to change the threshold for perk reception : Of course, there are some spoilers. [APGame.APRPG_AbilityManager] Same file, what follows [APGame.APCharacterCreationManager] may be changed for customization of the facial modifications.

I've modified my APEngine following your guidelines and it most of the stuttering issues. I've almost not touched the shadows part, yet. I'll have a look at the other settings and see what I can understand, then test.

I'm not sure that those weapons change a lot of things compared to the skill levels. Of course, a bonus is welcommed but hardly necessary. There are good weapons in the game already.

I remember that several years ago, being bad at the beginning of a game wouldn't have tagged the game as a bad game.

A 9/10 review : http://www.softpedia.com/reviews/games/pla...ew-143833.shtml

If that helps, I do also have a profond hate for the check point system. But I managed to get around the issue by simply ignoring it. With this, going the stealth way is a bit tedious and I'm now more and more using EMP grenades to avoid an alarm trigger because I'm facing a too difficult hack/lock/electronic bypass. With a good gear allowing lots of gadget and the perk that allow you to carry one more EMP grenades per slot, you can easily have 12 EMP on you per mission.

So far, it seems to me that the the mini games are harder for non essential elements in the mission, like obtaining dossiers or cash. I do also abuse of EMP grenades more and more, up to the point to now carry 12 grenades per mission. What is also difficult is that there is nothing very helpful between level 2 and level 14 in sabotage. Equipment wise, there is also the possibility to use integrated circuitry with your armor. Nice to have a perk to allow you to carry more EMP, because if you want to be stealthy, triggering an alarm doesn't help.

Well, I understand better this review business. About modding, I do know already the generalities and think I know pretty well the limits of my system (I had worked in computer sciences for 3 years). It's just that as you pointed out, some variables are linked one to another and it's easy to break the settings. Ok, see you in another topic.

Hi MarteenDee, thanks for sharing info about game review and its difficulties. About modding, could you also post, with the delivery of your modifications, where the changes have been done (file name) and what are the variable that you changed ? I would appreciate a lot to avoid having to do some more reverse engineering.

http://www.ps3attitude.com/new/2010/06/alp...rotocol-review/ "You shouldn

I tend to agree that CRPG sell less than FPS. In France, very few RPGs have been done, I know only Arx Fatalis which represents well the french games tendency on adventure. Adventure games are the main game produced in France. Alone in the dark is the one that has had the most success outside of France, I think.

Some indie devs sell games with Windows/MacOS/Linux all three in the box. I think Basilisk does that.

Larger subtitles, I mean, having from one to three words at the same time on the screen is too few to read correctly : this would solve the issue of having subtitles going too fast. I use a wide screen and on it, subtitles take less than a quarter of the width of the screen.

Neither do I, on PC too. Texture is just a bit visible to load when customizing the face.

Since I think this game diserves more than what some reviwers stated, I've made a small intervention in a game forum to explain this : "About reviews, I've bought Alpha Protocol yesterday and played about a quarter of the game. Honestly, I've not seen a single bug or glitch (on PC). It runs pretty smoothly and its only "disadvantage" is to be a action ROG instead of being just a shooter. That is, skills of the PC matters. Interactions during discussions are very original and the story seems interesting. I think the game is very close to ME1 with less issues with mods/equipments (you are not submerged by the number) and there are a lot of strategic ways to do missions since the places are not only corridors. I find the game a bit speed to my taste (I'm an old scholl rpg gamer, sorry). The mini games, not being that original are more difficult than the ME2 one but you can bypass most of it with EMP grenades (at some cost, yet). Difficulty seems to be balanced but it's difficult to judge this aspect. The AI is not that great but not worse than in ME2, issue being that with stealth usage, the issues of AIs are more visible. By well chosing your path and developing the stealth skill, you can do many missions stealthy without killing anybody. Choices you do in the game do matter a lot since you can spare even spare your ennemies and keep contact with them to gain information and change your goals (I won't go into details). During missions you are alone but keep radio contact with your "team" and can thus discuss, gain reputation (that gives you some small bonuses) depending on your actions and strategies (like bluffing a guard to enter a place can be appreciated, sparing someone or not and so on). All in all, I"m enjoying a lot playing the game and its story and I can say that it doesn't deserve having a so low rating by us reviews (around 60%) since I find this game largely better than ME2 and close to ME1. So, reviews, even in number, don't mean anything. More than that, reviwers are blatant lyers of accusing a game to have many flaws when you don't see most of the flaws announced. Of course, people expecting a shooter won't find this game is a good shooter, people expecting a stealth game won't find it's a good one. But people expecting a good action RPG with choices that are not railroaded and some moral ambiguities should find a very promising and interesting game."

For me, she is plain neutral. It's even an evidence that she doesn't have any positive point of view toward both light side and dark side. Of course, she is not kind, but nor is she evil. So, she doesn't care about people ? it's not dark side. She only cares about stoping all this mess between lightsiders and darksiders and would use any opportunity to weaken both sides. I think she is more neutral than Jolee Bindoe in K1, Jolee was a good guy but without the jedi code. Kreya after all cares for all the people that suffer from the endless war between the light and dark side.

I think you can buy thorium in dantooine... also, don't focus on good loots, the game is sufficiently easy so you can only focus on the story.