Starwars

Yeah, I got that as well Swede (webhallen). Though the release date for this store says March 31 2010.

You know Wrath of Dagon, much as I like you and all, I can't help but wonder how you're so speculative about whether Alpha Protocol is finished or not, when at the same time you follow a game like Age of Decadence which has been in development forever and with a very small team to boot. I think it's fair to say that Alpha Protocol and Aliens were at pretty different stages in their development no?

Wow, really? That is pretty damn amazing.

From a personal standpoint, I guess it doesn't bother me that much *if* they spend that time on improving the game. Not like Mysteries of Westgate where the team couldn't do anything during the large delay. And it would be a real shame if OEI has to redo stuff in order to make it fit better with the suits view on how games should be. I really hope that's not the case.

Yeah, I have. But it's very, very minor stuff. Nothing major yet.

I've not gotten to most of the cut content yet, just left Atris' academy. But it's been smooth sailing for me so far. Only thing I didn't like is that the music for the academy was changed. I'm not sure if this is intentional or if I've run into a bug, but the music that plays now appears to be the evil sounding Darth Traya theme. Which takes away the really nice feeling of mystery in the academy. Again, not sure if it's intentional or a bug. Other than that, nothing to complain about so far.

Since it has gotten the PR it has, and the previews shown off so recently and whatnot, it would suggest that the game is at least close to being finished. It'd be a really strange move if Sega just threw that away. Aliens wasn't close to being finished, it hadn't even been shown off at all.

Yeah I know, but an *additional* 8 months? What on earth could bring that on? I mean, the game has been previewed and shown off quite a lot. And I think like one or two previews mentioned fear of bugs. But I mean, there have been a whole bunch of positive previews, and some *very* positive ones. The game have been mentioned as most anticipated game in a few places.

If it turns out to be true, I'd be worried about how the actual state of the game will be when it finally does come out. Even though OEI does have a track record with buggy games now, I have a really hard time believing that such a long delay would be only due to bug fixing and polishing. I hope it won't be a case of them having to redo certain parts of the game to match what the publisher wants from them, thus "censoring" the devs. That'd be the most horrible thing to see. Still... Hope we can get some official info on this.

If it is delayed that much then I think the game will be in even worse shape (speaking from a financial point of view). The game is already getting ragged on a bit by the mainstream because of the graphics, and it'd be even worse 8 months from now (unless they decide to revamp the graphics entirerely of course). I also have a hard time seeing SEGA somehow putting a ton of cash into an ad campaign that much later. Because while Alpha Protocol is still very much under the radar, like others have mentioned there have been ads in magazines, there have been fairly extensive coverage of the gameplay in previews etc. A month or two wouldn't phase me that much, but if it's truly delayed until well into next year then it'll be a real disappointment.

Come on Nathaniel, you don't remember the strip quazar game you could have with Wrex? Tsk tsk.

The Tropico 1 music, here's the main theme: So goddamn awesome, definetely one of the best soundtracks I know of. Tropico 3 is gonna be great just for the fact that it will include music in the same style. It'd be awesome if someone figures out how to put the Tropico 1 music (including the expansion music) into Tropico 3. Then we'd have like 45 tracks of pure awesome.

Yes, you are all brave people who dare to discuss stuff on forums. There is always the chance of Matthew Rorie showing up at our home in the middle of the night and murdering us in our sleep.

I'm happy to see yet another "what is a RPG and what is not" discussion on the Internet. They're always very informative, and I always learn much from them. Thank you Internet.

I much prefer SoZ to IWD (haven't played the second one though). I don't really think the Infinity engine was all that when it came to combat. Though I'll grant it that the BGs and IWD *generally* had a tighter encounter design than any NWN2 game. However, there's just plenty of stuff in SoZ that I prefer. I think the Overland Map was great (opinions obviously differ on that), I prefer the ruleset as well. And while both IWD and SoZ has a system where you can use anyone as the "talker", one of SoZ's true innovations was how well it streamlined that into the party conversation system. If we ever see any party oriented games where you create a party again, I would be very disappointed if this feature didn't make it in in some form. I already find it quite annoying to go through older games like that, ToEE for example (which I replayed not long ago). Though SoZ went under the radar so I'm guessing we won't really see that again. I also think it's the one game in NWN series that really benefits from the large character creation options provided. I think it's a hell of a lot of fun to create a party, either well-balanced ones or totally "gimmicky". There's plenty of stuff I'd complain about in SoZ though, many design decisions that I'd like to change. But, it has turned out to be one of those games that I just keep returning because I find it a lot of fun to play.

And I suppose what you're doing now is an exquisite way of using your energy? Maybe getting some attention? Maybe some weird need to complain about peoples preferences? Weeee. It's been discussed a few million times already, but I think the main problem people have with that is the scale of the game and the area it covers. Where the old Fallouts had the hubs and the world map to abstract travel between them, and Fallout 3 has the Capital Wasteland as a single area with no world map or abstracted travel. I think both ways can be done well in games but I don't think Fallout 3s "freeroaming world" particularly enforces the fact that the nuclear wasteland is a very empty and desolate place. And I would've rather had the "old style" travelling for Fallout games. But, it is what it is, and there wouldn't be a whole lot to do in the game if the Fallout 3 wasteland was really empty.

Don't worry, you'll be able to max out most of them anyways. I liked Fallout 3 for as long as I was interested in the exploration aspect. Aside from that, I did not find the game particularly good.

Well, those sure weren't particularly exciting examples for choices & consequences. And having them be the highlight for a C&C feature/article? I really hope they're hiding the juicier ones because those were certainly not very interesting.

I think the Witchers greatest strength was definetely how the setting came across in-game. While there is some silly stuff, I think they really managed to convey a very... I don't know, realistic world in many ways. It's too bad it was so rough around the edges though, especially writing wise. There are so much potential in the characters and stories, but it sort of falls flat on its face due to the clunky writing. And as far as cities go, I was very fond of Vizima. There's been very few cities in 3d RPGs that I've found convincing, but Vizima was really awesome. I think the devs did a great job in bringing the world to life, visually and the fact that most characters really had their own agendas. Ultimately, I think it was a pretty flawed game though. It was far too drawn out for its own good and as I mentioned above, stuff like writing just felt way too rough around the edges. Since it's an action-RPG, I think it's a good idea that they really try to increase the interactivity in the combat, but... Quicktime events is not the best way to go about it. Too bad. Nevertheless, I'm glad to see that they are indeed working on this game. Hope they can find a publisher.

I think the individual animations of Alpha Protocol are great actually, it's just that the "connection" between 2 seperate animations can feel a bit disjointed. It's been discussed a million times already though. It's definetely not very off-putting to me at least.

This topic was started in April: http://forums.obsidian.net/index.php?showtopic=52101 So I guess that means no BG3 for example since Atari would've been attached from the start in that case if I understand how these things work. Hopefully an original setting.

I think the project using Onyx has been in development longer than that, but I may be wrong.

If it was an established franchise, then wouldn't that mean that they would've had a publisher signed on since the very beginning of the project? If they signed on with a publisher only 10 weeks ago, wouldn't it be more likely that it's an original project or am I understanding this wrong?

I love PS:T, but there's one thing I hate about it. It's that every topic about the game has to be about whether it's art or not.

Thanks, pretty good read. Wish it had been a bit lengthier though.