Tigranes

Let's contain all release date speculation to one thread. Also, it's been entirely too long since I got to close a thread. Weeeeee...

I was going to say lof wasn't at his best, but then awsomeness done and got owned.

I always found the discourse of 'player freedom' and 'immersion / role playing' surrounding nude patches hilariously moronic. Anyway, it's a very good idea and I'll be one of the first downloading it, very nice from Bioware. (Actually, the game best suited for this kind of pre-release thing would be AoD... hmm...)

Okay, so generally sounds like Gothic but with better combat, a bit more accessible, surprisingly bug-free and generally, cool beans. Now I'm wondering whether to pick it up... are there any significant differences in terms of story, characters, world, general gameplay, or is it your typical Gothic (not that its bad)? That is, if the local shops are even going to pay attention. They're toob usy stocking up the COMING SOON shelves with blood-splattered copies of Dragon Age (where's AP? ).

Finished the Witcher with the neutrality ending. I already knew about the silly 'plot twist', perhaps with the Enhanced Edition's proper dialogue Jacques de Aldesberg would have been a little more compelling. I think the general idea had good potential, there was just too much unanswered (or not properly thought out). In any case, the game remained fun until the end, and the story was nevertheless more enjoyable or as enjoyable as most other RPGs in the last 5 years, with the notable exceptions of K2 and MOTB. And it beats K2 in terms of gameplay. Waiting on Football Manager 2010 at the end of the month, might try the Risen demo if I have time.

I doubt the twitter messages are as revealing as you guys are making it out; maybe the original SCEA reference, but that's about it. In other news, since the twitter deal was obviously part of the pre-release hype machine, I wonder what will happen now. It would kill MCA to do it for 8 more months.

What an amazing review, all the Cons are good stuff.

Actually, everything Killian said appears to make sense to me. In any case, if everyone could refrain from slapping each other in the face, it would be nice. That would be another indication, actually. Although we are seeing the normal set of 'previews' that build up to pre-release reviews...

Already in Chapter 4 of the Witcher, taking the Order's side on most things this time. Maybe I'm getting older, but the carefree revolutionaries of the Scoi'tael seem even more pointless in this playthrough. I'm hooked and playing quite a lot each day (to get it out of my system), but the game's also goign a lot smoother now I know what I'm doing and the frame rate is good. Might try Risen after this, but like the Gothics it'll probably end up being a bit too punishing and caught between the frustration and the guilt (shoudl really be working on the thesis), I doubt I'll get far. I might actually pick up Bully, half price at the local ebgames. Anyone tried it? I'm really fond of the concept, but I'm not a big fan of Rockstar.

I would agree, though I am not quite as certain. A second 8-month delay indeed points to major troubles in the production process and/or in the developer-publisher relationship, although this diagnosis may be mitigated by the possibility that the original February date was never very set in stone and was a rough estimate, and delay from it did not really represent a 'real' delay. Of course, but surely nobody is stupid enough to actually believe this. Everyone I've seen here mentioning this has done so in jest. A troubled production process is of course worrying, but does that necessarily mean the game will be pants when it does come out? If AP turns out to be great and fun in June 2010, it may not be so good for Obsidian or Sega, but hell, it'll be perfectly fine for us. Nobody's complaining that Starcraft II's been delayed to 2010, for instance, and that game has surely had numerous internal delays that we have not known about. I mean, it is Blizzard, but still...

Let me just say one thing: How likely is it that you have a game 80-90% finished, that its devs are able to give you extremely detailed information, they're able to show 2 hour playable demos, it has a fairly substantial marketing campaign, and then it gets cancelled by the publisher under the guise of a 8-month delay? It's not inconceivable, but this is absolutely nothign like cancelling a project that nobody's ever seen and has never been officially announced (Aliens: Crucible). If AP is cancelled (or, in fact, is delayed again) then it would be a massive surprise (and a veritable catastrophe). If, in fact, June 2010 is true. I would bet on it being true, yes, but we'll see... it'll also be interesting to see when and how Sega chooses to actually announce the delay.

I owned all TWs except for Shogun. I've since given away MTW2 to a ten-year-old, since he can enjoy the battles on easy mode without having to notice how broken that game is on so many levels. Rome was great, but suffered from horrible diplomacy, battle AI and growing pains of using the new 3D map / engine for the first time. Empire I still feel could become the best in the series if they really got down to task and fixed the key issues (naval invasions, diplomacy, battle AI) in a focused and effective way, but that hardly looks like happening with Napoleon in the works. Sigh.

It ain't a big surprise what with the strange quiet that had descended in September regarding AP - and equally, I think that does mean that the game is seeing quite a bit of trouble in development. That may or may not be 'dumbing down' or other changes to meet Sega's demands; to say it is probable is putting too much significance into the leaked SCEA info. It might simply be that the game is, when it's all done and looked at, just not good enough and needs major reworking or re-addition of a major feature or area; i.e. what was a bug/polish job from Feb '09 to Oct '09 has evolved into some major surgeries into key gameplay features or missions. Similar to what happened after Ferret left for NWN2, you'd imagine that the initial shakeups with the story left ripple effects of instability down the line. All speculation, of course. But it's very unlikely that this new delay (if true) is an indicator of good progress. That said, I personally don't understand people who say "Oh this game is delayed I won't buy it anymore, I'll get this". I mean, I can't criticise them because it's their call, but from my personal pov, is my own personal preferences (the desire to play the game i want to play) so low on the priority list? If I want to play Alpha Protocol I'll play Alpha Protocol. Games aren't that expensive, if I end up using the $ on Dragon Age or Conviction now I'll end up buying AP sometime when it comes out. I won't have time to play it in June 2010? Are you kidding me, who plans that far ahead to say with certainty you won't have some spare time to play games? On a related note, the wagging of paper notes about cancelling preorders and picking the game out of bargain bins are all fine, too, since it's a legitimate decision we can all make and a legitimate show of displeasure about the state of affairs, but you have to wonder when it gets rather carnivalesque. Anyway, if the delay is true, I expect official confirmation would come sometime in early-mid October, very quietly, and it'll do Obsidian all the more harm for coming so sneakily close to the release date. If they want to fan the flames of hype again later on they'll need to show that there's a lot more to the game - peopl ehave already seen Moscow, people have already heard of 'extensive C&C' and 'play a modern spy' (which are, in fact, the only two major soundbites that AP can provide games press right now).

Chapter 2 in the Witcher and making pretty good progress. The investigation regarding the Salamander and the quest to open the Mage's Tower are both coming to their conclusion. I'm pretty much ignoring the ladies altogether this time - not even talking to Carmen and only going to Shani for the questing. The first time I didn't want to miss any content, but knowing how it's more juvenile than anything, now, I don't see the point. I also remembered how damn annoying those upgraded echinopsae in the swamps can be - Cocchadil or something - massive damage, fast attacks, ranged, and the collision thing for those roots mean sometimes you can get a little stuck without attacking. After a couple of reloads I've learnt to listen for their 'sprout' sound and run like hell.

In this case, I think it's much better to have a snowy Moscow than a realistic climate Moscow.

Done quite a bit of Chapter 1 in the Witcher, second playthrough, still 1.1 since I gave up on downloading 2gb of EE/patches. Game actually feels a lot less fedex / run-around even in Ch1 when you actually have 20+ fps, loading times are alright even on 1.1 as well. I'm playing on Normal and it feels a lot easier than last time where I would occasionally die, which is a little disappointing. Non-EE english dialogue is again clipped, but the game still remains very very fun. Kind of forgot what decisions I made the first time, but maybe I'll choose to be a lot less sympathetic with the nonhumans this time.

Trying to get someone with internet worth a dime to download the EE for me, or I might just persevere with 1.1. Uh, the Witcher.

I mean that that itself is a big pain for me with my bandwidth cap and horrible d/l speed, or I wouldn't even consider buying it again. You're right, yes.

After a Dutch colonial empire and a resurrected Byzantine empire I'm done for now, thinking of going back to the Witcher, but I never did get the Enhanced Edition (or those massive patches) and I wonder whether my bandwidth can handle it. It's still much too expensive to just buy a copy of here (80NZD = something like 40-50USD). I was just going to wait for Alpha Protocol, but who knows what's happening with the release date there.

I enjoyed vanilla Witcher until I got to the final chapter, when the city was on fire and my computer simply crapped out (I had endured 5-10fps and +3min loading times until then). The story might well not have existed, since it hardly did much to the gameplay and wasn't that interesting anyway, but the gameworld and the themes of racial tension were delivered quite well within the game and the general fight-and-loot-and-quest play was very tight and enjoyable. Graphics look excellent, with pretty good art design (if nothing mindblowing). I like the voice acting of the guards, but the princess and especially Geralt was horrible. The Gothic-style dialogue where you don't see the full response isn't great, but Geralt being Geralt, it wont' change too much to the game. The force push (complete with Diablo 3 style FX) will be fun stuff, hopefully there's more magic / abilities this time round. Quick time events and slow motion hollywood cinematics are retarded, but since TW1 story was forgettable as well, I'm not expecting much from this front. As long as it doesn't gag. One to watch.

People are perfectly entitled to discuss what they like, as long as they don't get overly excited about a false sense of self-entitlement. So let's move on...

ironcreed is right - I very much doubt the Oct.6 date would hold now. To me, even late October would be a surprise, but we will have to see.

Let's not go too far off the realm of conversations that make sense...

It reads almost exactly like a fan fiction story on Final Fantasy I used to read when I was ten, actually. Perhaps warrants a place on the Disney channel.

Combat was not the main part, and it was pretty tolerable, doing its best not to annoy you while you get on with the meat of the game. Nevertheless, the point that combat was subpar and could have been much more enjoyable with a bit more challenge, bit more variety and a lot better balancing is a valid one. I'd say it was quite similar to KOTOR1/2's combat in the end, actually. It's easy, it doesn't stick out and you forget about it in the end.