Starwars

He's done a lot of voicework it seems, probably just heard him in a game somewhere and it stuck. But yeah, his voice (for Leland) just rings a bell somehow... Definitely wouldn't have guessed him doing Shaheed also, though we haven't heard too much from him. As far as the voiceacting goes, I think AP will really deliver here. I believe it's the same company that handled games like Bloodlines and Mask of the Betrayer that's handled AP, should mean quality. I'll say that Mike is great in these videos, and I think SIE is extremely well done also. Leland seems like he will be awesome as well. EDIT: Haha, sweet. James Hong is in the game.

Yeah, Mike was great in that clip. Leland seems like he will have a big role in the game as well, especially given the stuff in the Man Alone trailer as well as the flash forward stuff. Also, I recognize that voice actor... Has he done anything else recently?

I think 40 looks pretty much right regarding SIE. They did pretty well in delivering an attractive, slightly older (but obviously well-trained) woman. As much as I love the slightly off, sado-masochistic manners that we've seen, I hope there's a lot more going on with her as well. Sexual innuendo is all fine and well but I hope that not every conversation with her will be about that. The "debrief you" line was a bit of a groaner I think, haha. She looks like a real fun character at any rate. Loved the final line though, "I've taken down plenty of men like you. Some even enjoyed it." Great delivery. Grigori seems like a pretty minor character by comparison, wonder if we'll even encounter him outside that bar.

We demand that you take pictures of you shaving your beard off (rest of the body isn't necessary) when Alpha Protocol gets released and then post them here damnit!

I'm not sure whether that was the most awesome thing ever or the worst trainwreck ever. Probably somewhere in between, haha. Fun stuff! No wonder that the game took so long to be released if you guys act like this at work, I mean geez....

In general, I would also prefer a more "realistic" portrayal so to speak. But like others have said, the game seems to be done in an over-the-top spy flick manner (while still keeping a story that can be taken seriously). I seem to recall another post a while back that had similar fears for the Taipei area, though I don't recall the details. But yeah, I guess we haven't seen too much of the Saudi Arabia areas to really know one way or the other. Only 1 month and about 2 weeks left until we find out.

I loved the melee combat in the beginning of the game, feels real tough and the learning curve is there. I think the problem is later in the game when you learn the system, and the game becomes drastically easier. I think the combat system was a really awesome start (way better than most action-RPGs) but I think it could've benefitted from a bit more depth, especially as you get farther into the game. Possibly more enemy types with more differences in attack pattern would've helped a lot as well. But yep, I found combat to be a *lot* better than most action-RPGs generally speaking.

Have a good one Matthew, thanks for keeping us updated on the forums!

I was re-watching that cam vid just now, and the handler (Yance I guess) mentions that if Mike can sneak his way past, then the convoy obviously won't be alerted to his presence. So it appears there is some choice there.

Not a fan of the limited activations at all, blergh. Really wish they had gone the route of DA or F3 in this regard. As annoying as it can be to have to have the disc in the drive I think it beats this feeling of having to activate a game that you freakin' buy. Not a deal-breaker for me, but kinda meh.

Especially since the gameplay looks to be a lot more diverse than Mass Effect as well. Still, I like the video. We can apparently see that Mike had taken another direction with the miniboss in the Saudi Arabia area here. It looks like Mike had snuck up upon him here, catching him unawares. I wonder if there are more ways to "solve it" so to speak.

I do hope that there is some bonus associated with headshots. It does seem that way since many of the preview videos have the player aiming at the head, like that fairly recent Saudi Arabia mission vid with Matthew Hickman playing. But yeah, bad preview. See, I don't really mind bringing up Mass Effect as a comparison per say but really, the previewers have to look a bit deeper. Saying that everything is a nod to Mass Effect is pretty stupid. From what we've seen in videos, I also don't think ME2 compares that favorably in terms of facial animation. I hardly feel ME2 was a groundbreaker in that area and it had its share of freakish facial impressions at times. I still laugh whenever I think of Jacob doing his stoneface, salute and exit routine. But yeah, I might have a hard time spotting these things in general.

Totally agree here. I would say that the first two chapters (if we include the town in those because it's most likely you'll be doing the quests sooner than later) is some of the best RPG design I've seen. The world feels dangerous, the quests are interesting and the split between the factions is very well done and influences your gameplay depending on who you support. I frickin' loved becoming a mage in the game, it felt like a real ordeal.

Well, it'll probably be quite hard to see what characters are truly his (was he even on board from the beginning on AP?) in AP as well. While they did throw out the earlier draft, I think most of the characters were originally thought up by Brian Mitsoda and Annie Carlson (and maybe a few others).

For anyone not bothering to listen to it, Matt Hickman says in the podcast that most first-time players average about 30 hours to complete the game. I think that's a good length for a RPG generally, at least if we're getting the replayability that we seem to get here.

Found these today. Not much new, if anything, but still pretty good stuff. Video interview: http://www.gamereactor.se/nyheter/21900/GR...fd78b2355a94b67 And a podcast: http://www.talkxbox.com/news/5990/alpha-protocol-interview/ EDIT: And a new preview. http://www.sidequesting.com/2010/04/pax-im...alpha-protocol/ Very intent on comparing it to Mass Effect, but favorably so.

Ah, I get your point. I think they were conceived by Ziets originally and Avellone wrote them. Interesting tidbit is that Kaelyn would've been cut if Chris hadn't offered to write her.

Kaelyn and Gann were Chris' characters in MotB.

Yeah, all the the interviews were probably recorded waaaaay back when the first dev diary came out. Then they probably splice that footage together with gameplay footage from the latest build. For example, didn't Fryda Wolff move on from Obsidian quite a while back?

Killspace entertainment is the studio Monty Markland (who started the Purgatorio mod and then got hired by OEI and worked on Aliens) went to after he left OEI. Hope they make something interesting.

Ah, the French... Still, pretty cool. Wish there was more of the interview though.

My interest has gone from semi-warm to dead and now it's up to oh hell yeah. There are still a bunch of things I don't particularly care for but I must say that I'm really looking forward to trying the game out now.

Speaking of which, do we know anything about the Toughness skill and/or any of its abilities? I've never been a fan of the "put points in this skill to raise your health" type of feats or mechanics in most games and I never liked its inclusion in AP. But I wonder about the abilities it grants.

That bit stood out to me as well. I'd prefer it if you couldn't kill everyone if you have zero skills in the particular weapon. But judging from that earlier preview, I guess it's gonna be really hard and/or frustrating.

http://www.irontowerstudio.com/forum/index...pic,1473.0.html Goes a bit more in-depth than other interviews, talking a bit more about the reason for including certain mechanics. Really interesting that they actually tested the results of the dialogue stance systems in a scientific manner.