Tigranes

I think he's just saying you're using Steam anyway, which is a valid point. And 5 separate activations would be a problem if you couldn't deactivate properly.. but in this case, you can!

Wrong, did you read up on the DRM before making your decision? If your computer explodes with an activated install of AP you can still deactivate it. I didn't. This has nothing to do with my own dislike of Steam. This has nothing to do with your preference for Steam. I am not stepping on this to say "LOOK STEAM SUCKS". Seriously, just look at the facts. What does the double-DRM do to your experience? (a) it adds an extra 3-minute activation step, an inconvenience. (b) if you ever use all 5, you have to take a 3-minute deactivation step. That's it. Now, if that is enough for you to not buy AP, or, if you just won't buy anything with any form of online activation on it, fair enough, your call. But right now it just sounds like you're making a big deal and a reactionary decision without bothering to learn what exactly the DRM does... then call other people morons when they weren't even accusing you of piracy. Come on man, you're not that unreasonable.

That's a good point, the followers weren't 'balanced' so everyone pulls their weight, Myron is an annoying bastard to keep alive like he's meant to be. I think not having talky-talky companions should remain the case in all Fallouts. Considering the kind of world Fallout is, it's really fitting that nobody's going to talk to you all night about their psychological problems, they're going to just keep chugging along... until they snap.

Well Krezack, Steam is a DRM. I mean, I won't bring my own dislike of Steam into here, it's not relevant, my point is, if you're buying through Steam, you're already logging into it every time you want to play the game, and you have to be online when you first get it. In other words, if there is a double-whammy of Steam and Uniloc, you're already inconvenienced by Steam, not Uniloc. If anything's gonna bother you it'll be Steam rather than Uniloc, until such time as when you have used all 5 activations and need to go to the website to get them back. Again, my point is - yeah, it's stupid, why have both? But it's really a small thing. I really don't see why it's a buy-or-don't-buy deal, unless you think online activation DRMs specifically are super bad and will boycott it whenever possible (but uh, logging into Steam is okay.)

Krezack has a point, Steam is already a form of DRM. In fact, Steam is more invasive and foolproof than Uniloc. Why bother? Of course, I'd say if you were happy to login to Steam every time you wanted to play, then it's not like it will really matter whether there is Uniloc or not, is there? I mean, it doesn't really change anything.

It's been 6 months or so since F:NV deal, he needs to keep those slam dunks coming to justify his salary and in-office hot tub.

You mean, apart from all the faults found just above your post? On characters, though, yeah - Dogmeat didn't become a cult hit because of any good design or writing, there was none. Designers spent 10 minutes putting him in. Being fond of dogmeat is, pretty much, having fond memories of the frustrating and horrible pathfinding / joinable NPC AI issues. I just find it funny how we're seeing dogs in every bloody RPG now. Otherwise, I mean, compare First Citizen in Vault City or NCR President in FO2 with any FO3 character, or even the FO2 president with the FO3 machine, and it's not really a question of red-tinted glasses, is it? It's a question of obvious difference in quality. Just like how FO1/2 had an obviously crap interface in so many ways.

I majored in Classics and the ignorance persists to tertiary students/teachers in some cases, I'm not surprised a high school teacher doesn't know the difference. After all, at that level, they don't actually teach history, they teach a story. They teach a story that the dirty unwashed backward Macedonian Alexander came to the cultured self-important Greeks and showed 'em who's boss, aye he did. I think you do simplify it a bit too much though - a sense of 'Hellas' was absolutely present by the time of Alexander and for most in the Peloponnese, Attica and even Thessalonica, the Macedonians were 'half-outsiders'. Anyway, I think you've really divined FYROM's intentions itself. They'd much rather claim the name Macedonia completely and its symbols and so forth that they can confidently construct a historical heritage for themselves, and let's be honest, the only international claim to fame (i.e. the only thing to bring in tourists) that region ever had was Alexander the Great. Are these 'anarchists' an actually organised group with their own demands, or what? Sounds like it's not just a spontaneous gathering of anarchist believers...

Yeah, they really need an option to 'skip' enemy turns that don't affect you directly, like some later turn-based combat games. Not sure what they were thinking with the grid, but one look at how it all works in the editor shows you that the game engine was pretty much rubbish (maybe not at the time?). "Exit zones", walls that are laid down iindividually, a script system from hell, ridiculous inventory... Of course, now we are all over that, VATS is probably the only really problematic thing in FO3 engine, if that game had problems it wasn't the engine IMO.

Fallout 2 DID have morale checks. Drugged skinheads would usually start flailing adn running after a shot or two. Now that was "fun", mainly because they still had to take their turns and then they'd usually run out of the camera range and you couldn't target them or quit battle.

The home of starcraft, now the home of hobbits.

There are basic similarities between Mass Effect and Alpha Protocol, those similarities you can also find in just about every Bioware RPG ever released, and most Obsidian & Black Isle RPGs as well. It's not just the two games, it's basically a particular 'style' of RPGs that Bioware and Black Isle developed in the last, what, twelve years. Major differences between two games would be (a) AP has much greater amount of replayability, in ME it comes down to a few choices; (b) ME is guns-blazing squad combat, AP is solo with guns/stealth/tech/hand-to-hand options;

So half-orc cleric, tiefling rogue, dwarf rogue, gnome illusionist and another mage? All it takes is one iron golem...

That's pretty cool, actually. I already have World of Goo but maybe the others are worth looking into for the purpose.

Nope, I actually forgot about this part while I was reading your original post. So if I give a more fully fledged answer: I think you're blowing this way out of proportion, a press release where Obsidian just comes out to say "some people think Mike has bad VA, we assure you we like the VA"? Or, alternatively, "the VA is much better and different in the full game, we promise"? O_o I think the situation is, simply, Obsidian wanted a particular style of VA for Thorton. They got it, maybe not 100% but enough for them to be happy. They feel it makes for a good CRPG experience. Armed with a reasonable level of information, you clearly disagree, and in essence you've already made your mind up. In that context, I don't think a 'private conversation' with Avellone where he, in full faith of your integrity, reveals to you intimate details about how that VA came about and how happy he is, would really do much, and you know, that has about 0.2% chance of happening. It just sounds a bit like "I think VA I've seen is poor" is conflated with "VA is poor" and then "surely Obsidian hasn't made the VA so poor??". Not saying you're just bashing, if you think the VA is poor that's your, and valid, opinion. Just think you're swimming in it a bit deep right now. If we're just talking about the simple question of "will full game Mike VA be just like preview Mike VA or is there more", yeah, I guess it'd be interesting to know. (With Matthew having just left the company, chances of getting a quick straight answer? Not that high.) My guess is that preview VA is a pretty good representation of the full thing, it's not like choices & consequences that is harder to preview.

Personally, I actually think it's fine. I can easily see ways in which how that voice acting could be very good for the lines he delivers. It could end up being mediocre, too, but I don't really get all this hate-in. Anyway, Azrael, I would think that the kind of questions you are asking are probably best suited to come after you've played the full game? You know, with the correct context to place his comments, and with the experience of the full range of his delivery. Unlike an academic work where an abstract or preview can be considered a reasonable representation of the full work in terms of writing quality/style, Mike VA is meant to be praised by the devs because how flexible it was and how it could handle the huge variety required.

Coolies, sounds great!

Elemental resistance is the key. Dragon Age is all about thresholds: you can have an impossible fight at level 15 that suddenly turns easy in level 17 because the equipment / skills / points you get push you over the threshold, and the damage dealt / received balance & damage received / healed balance snaps in your favour. If you can boost the fire (i think?) resistance enough, then you should be able to have a positive HP-flow that lets you survive. If you still can't, a couple more levels should do it, or better optimised equipment.

Well, I don't know how many missions the game has, but in terms of the plot structure, it still seems like the first 'act', the prologue act - it's basically Lord of the Rings before Rivendell, the Matrix before the red/blue pill.

pfft. it's up to blank to account for our incompetence, not us.

It should be an ending where al the characters come out and have a dance-off, and Brayko steals the show.

Really? We have that detailed info about the first few missions? Where? I must have missed that. :/

It's different for everyone: you rate Dragon Age at 60-100, on my playthroughs it took me 30-40. I guess you should consider Alpha Protocol one tier below DA - it won't take as long as that, but it won't be super-short. I imagine 25-40 depending on the player, really. And then, if you count replayability, in Dragon Age and most other RPGs, you see 70-80% of content in the first playthrough; in Alpha Protocol you see somewhere between 30-60%.

Having previously had zero knowledge about the Greek economy, I am hesitant to be drawn into passing judgement on them as if I had always despised their practices. It seems undeniable that there are huge problems that need to be tackled here, but in at least the articles I've read I've been impressed by the current Greek government's honesty about this and their willingness to tackle issues in a practical manner. Korea was one of the countries who pretty much had an economic implosion in '98 with the IMF crisis, and they've made a good recovery - although, that crisis came to a country that was in very rapid growth beforehand. I think it will take on a major significane in EU politics, though, I can easily imagine UK or Spain going through a dire economic situation in the next decade or so and this will be a precedent.

Dragonball was legendary. In one episode they will stare at each other and warm up for their pre-battle derisory comments at their opponent. In the next episode, they might get to finish delivering those comments, so they can move on to warming up for their post-comments pre-battle posturing.