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Meet Grigori and Sie.

The people I knew who went into Fallout cold all report not knowing at the outset how absolutely crucial Small Guns is. Most actually figured that rifles and shotguns would fall under "Big Guns". I, on the other hand, got the Fallout demo when I was 9 and I played the **** out of it. I may have also sneaked a peek at a walkthrough in a gaming mag (remember those?) and gotten the ending spoilt :[

Hoorayyy

Starting on April 25th, Best Buy will be getting the stealth pre-order bonus. Which is good as there aren't any Game Crazies around here but there are plenty of Best Buys.

Looks like the clips are from the private demo I participated in.

There are certainly critical hits. They may have removed area-based damage to improve balance in the combat system they have, though it'll be pretty weird not to have headshots.

Speaking of Killspace, evidence suggests they're making an Apocalypse Now game. Weird!

Figured it was just a matter of time, honestly, but it was really great having you around. Thanks for getting me into the PAX demo, and everything else you've done. Who's going to do PR stuff now?

Some more photos from PAX East from the SEGA blog. I also forgot to mention - at some point SEGA will release video footage of the PAX East panel. Can't wait for it.

Man what happened to Matt MacLean.

New stuff maybe! Some are suggesting that this site might be a viral marketing ploy for New Vegas. Sure is spooky. This site is tallying the evidence. Looks like it's either from Bethsoft or Activision. I'm leaning towards Activision.

What is there to talk about, exactly?

Yeah, Josh said that he tested Aliens builds on HD and SD TVs.

Do we have a link for this?

I have a sneaking suspicion that this is the jackoff who referred to AP as "Mass Effect".

I feel like the "generic" accusation can't go all that far with a setting that aspires to resemble the real world as much as possible.

Another (less informed) preview from the private demo.

Sweet deal. Thanks!

Yeah, it means nothing.

I scoff at the idea that these things "break immersion", given that elsewhere in the game, you can press a button and see the sum total of your character's skillset represented by a bar graph. It's a dumb argument. The advantages of this system are apparent - they make the complex relationship metrics accessible to a wider audience. Without prompts you run into the likely possibility that the average gamer will invariably experience a consequence that he couldn't anticipate and does not welcome, because the designers assumed an obviousness that really wasn't there. That would be a failure of game design, even if it would delight us fickle old-timers. If relationships in a game are based on a numbers game, I couldn't really care less if that game is made visible to the player. It's all the same. Flying blind isn't really what you're supposed to be doing anyway - you're supposed to be able to know how acting in a certain way affects how people perceive you, and if you didn't do missions to compile a dossier, a mechanism should be in place to allow players to intuit that hidden information. Anything less would be punishing the player for not metagaming in another sense. Hence the counter. The counter could also be used to document dynamics and elements of conversation, since dialogue is not repeated.

Gamedaily was also at the demo.

On the contrary, pre-production on sequels usually takes place shortly before the release of a game, so it can go into full production should the preceding game do well.

Oh! Couple of other things from the demo thing. MCA said that Obsidz is working on "two and a half" projects currently, and AP is not one of them. With Wheel of Time and New Vegas, that leaves an empty spot. AP2? Also there was a journalist at our iteration of the demo and at one point he referred to AP as "Mass Effect". Everybody in the room groaned and MCA mockingly ran towards the door with his head in his hands. Fun times.

Also I should say that the SEGA guys were great people and very accommodating, and thanks to Matt Rorie for making it happen and letting the guys know I'd be there, it was really fulfilling to meet these artists and engineers I have had such great respect for, and seeing some things no other fan has seen! Everybody was great, the devs were really down to earth and obviously really passionate about what they were making. I kind of had to apologize on the behalf of the forums for some of our antics, but God bless them, they do pay attention, and they don't take it personally. I was really just in Boston to see some friends but the Obsidz stuff really made the trip, and I'll remember it.

Who the what now? MCA, Matt and Joseph were at the panel, as well as the Cinematics Lead, whose name escapes me presently. At the private demo, Joseph Bulock was not in attendance but Matt and MCA were, along with... Dan? Still can't remember his name (is he Framerate? I am mystified). I generally suck at names, but I know MCA (obvs) and Matt's the guy with the beard. Joseph's the one with the hat.