Deadly_Nightshade

Magic: The Gathering - Duels of the Planeswalkers

I enjoy a game of Sins from time to time -and the game it great for LANs. Meh, there's worse RTS games out there and Sins itself really isn't that bad. Although I do have all the expantions and they do change gameplay quite a bit.

I've talked to Assassin and he's gotten his account back (and thus the phishing has stopped from the account). Still, thanks for posting this.

Wow... the forum will be different without one or more of Michael's alts running around... RIP and condolences to the friends and family.

Would this "stutter" occur after loading a new area and consist of lower resolution textures being uses for a few moments? Because, if that is the case, that's a feature of Unreal 3 to get faster load times and not a bug.

Just use the KotOR Savegame Editor (KSE) instead, it's much easier.

Here's an edited, censored version of it - if you mind me uploading this pic just tell me and I'll delete the attachment.

Fine then, you want my opinion? Here's a summery of my opinion: While Mass Effect 2 might have been a good, fun game, I am not disputing that as that would make me a hypocrite -seeing as I have stated that it was a fun game in the fairly recent past-, but it was not a great CRPG nor would I say that it raised expectations of what a CRPG should be (at least for those who have been playing them for awhile). Sure, it was polished and everything, for the most part "fit" - but the fact is that the base game, especially if you didn't import a save from the original or edit one using a hex-editing tool, fell short when it came to story. And that was alright because, as many people have said, the game was more of an interactive sci-fi, action film than a deep, story-driven CRPG. Compared to Planescape Torment, Mask of the Betrayer, or even KotOR II, the game seemed shallower and, frankly, not as epic as some would have you believe (although I will admit that I enjoyed the final cinematics when you're ). On the other hand, Alpha Protocol, while also not possessed of the best story in the universe - -, it managed to make almost every action, even some very small ones that might be overlooked unless you know what to do beforehand, have a meaningful impacts on the rest of the game. Side with or kill one person and an entire arch is, unlike most of Mass Effect 2, closed to you. Make the "wrong" choice and it will come back to haunt you later. BioWare tried to implement this and, in general, failed (with a few exceptions such as , although even then it was far from perfect as you had to have an extreme level of either Paragon or Renegade to do something that should, in my mind, have been doable without any prerequisite). Just as KotOR II, even in its half finished state -I know there is the restoration mods but I am talking about the base game here-, was better than the finished, polished KotOR, Obsidian has again shown that a well designed CRPG can be better than a weaker, refined one. While BioWare might have made a more polished game with Mass Effect 2, I would have to say that Obsidian made a better CRPG - and, frankly, a better overall game that, while not perfect, manages to make your choices actually count for something. But then you are talking to someone who was, quote, "cherry picking my post for a single statement just to make a dumbass remark" - although I would argue that that was not the case since I was arguing with the first point and without that the rest of your post did not follow. As for the game "not meeting everybody's expectations", I can assure you that it more than met mine and I was pleasantly surprised at how good the game is. I'd also disagree that the stealth parts were bad -I used a stealth character for my first build and I know someone who did a total stealth run and managed to complete the game with no unnecessary -id est not plot required- kills-, nor would I say that the shooting, aside from the sniper rifle, was that bad. It was at least on par with Mass Effect 2 in my mind and was certainly better than Mass Effect's combat.

What? You're joking, right?

The story isn't the best -although it's far from the worst one to grace a game- but the scope of the game, as in how you can effect the story through your actions, is amazing. Alpha Protocol is not for everyone but if you like it you'll likely enjoy it immensely. P.S. Welcome back! Are you going to be on more regularly now?

I might be interested but I doubt I'll have the time to play before I go out of town for a week. Still, if there's a good connection there I'd be happy to run for a bit provided my laptop can still handle the game (it could earlier, and in fact did for awhile at LANs, but recently it's been acting up and I think that it's about time to retire it and get a replacement).

That's a feature of how the Unreal 3 Engine is designed, it requests the lowest-resolution textures first for fast loading and then "upgrades" them after the area is up, and not a Alpha Protocol issue. Look at any game that uses U3 and you'll see it.

The PC is as good, if not better, than the consoles - and you'll be able to get fan-made fixes as well.

I guess you skipped the part where the actual quality was lesser as well; the "foggy" effect. Still, this is really Valve's fault, they had the exact same issues in the Portal release yet didn't bother to fix it for the Half Life 2 series.

Macs are still having issues with Source games.

That's strange, are you sure that Steam isn't changing any of the files or otherwise interfering with the activation?

Well, seeing as it's still on the top sellers list and was leading it awhile back, they couldn't have been too bad.

I'd disagree - I think that the reviewers are more to blame than Obsidian or SEGA. As many people have pointed out, most, if not all, of the "flaws" in Alpha Protocol have been found in other, similar games - games that received much higher scores overall despite these issues. While it might be that some people just didn't care for the game, it seems like a few places rated it artificially low. But maybe that's just me being jaded about the modern game "journalists".

All of them (Madison, Mina, Scarlet, and SIE), although I ended up on the boat with Mina. Evidently you can get Scarlet if you don't save Mina but I didn't feel like letting her die this play-through (for that matter, I didn't let Madison die either).

I just got back from wine tasting.

I just got back from a CD Release party for the band Spider Lilies - won some stuff, including a thong that I gave to a friend since it was her size, and had a good time. I also grabbed my pre-order copy, it was finally available, of Alpha Protocol - so I'll finally give that a go later tonight. Life is good.

I picked up Alpha Protocol today so I'll give that a go later tonight when it finishes installing.

In that vein, I just got back from a bar/nightclub where I had some libations with friends - it was fun although I had to drive one home afterwards, her apartment is nearby so it was easier for us to take the same car rather than two, so my intake of drinks was limited.

What are your specs?