Cl_Flushentityhero

There's also a high-level "oh ****" ability where MT goes invisible for a few seconds when he normally would've been spotted. I think non-lethally taken-down enemies are out of commission for the duration of the level, though I could be mistaken.

Then one of MT's love interests yells "HE GOT WEED! HE GOT WEED!" when the police show up.

Good grief, that man is about to be consumed by his own facial hair. Alright Obsidz, get on it.

Heh, yeah, I just booted up Bloodlines for the first time in years.

That's because it has that awesome music cue.

I don't consider the combat in Bloodlines particularly strong overall. Fun game though.

Was, as in past tense. It got delayed "unofficially."

It was.

This is, IMO, about as official as it gets for US release. http://www.ebgames.com/Catalog/ProductDeta...roduct_id=70856

Personally, my characters tend to vary in the level of similarity to myself. Some are vaguely autobiographical, whereas others are as far my own personality as I can manage. Whichever one players want to do, having meaningful choices in CC (of which I would consider gender one) helps.

To be fair, I haven't played through DX2 since shortly after its release; so I'm simply going on my experience of not being particularly impressed during my first and only playthrough. I don't remember the specifics of any of those aspects, which I assume means that I didn't find them particularly compelling. My guess is that I didn't consider them bad, just purely functional.

Well, personally, I find retailer-mitigated second-hand sales appalling, since you can usually expect them to take most of the money in the process. That's more of a person-level issue though. If the customers involved were a bit more discerning in their arrangements, retailers couldn't take advantage of the used market thus. As far as publishers losing money . . . yeah, I'm not sure I actually care. The simple act of paying for a legitimate copy of a game is enough to placate my conscience.

As in you could make decisions that altered the story.

Except...you're not a CIA agent. Alpha Protocol is actually a shadowy flight into the dangerous world of a man who does not exist.

I thought the core mechanic of making decisions was intact in DX2; but the gameplay, story, and characters were all less interesting.

So, Alanschu, the keystone of your argument is that you haven't personally had problems with DRM, ergo everybody else is making **** up?

Could you say that louder, this time into my coat pocket? Sorry, couldn't resist.

You're right, it would've been more persuasive if I lied and said it was me. Has it occurred to you that when "everyone" knows somebody who's had a problem, it might be a legitimate problem?

I've always been baffled that people actually do used games at outlets when it's pretty obvious how badly both buyer and seller are being ripped off vs. using a service like Half.com or amazon marketplace.

I think it has to do with cultural norms on what is acceptable to show publicly vs. in your private life. Video games are considered "public" by many due to the wide audience, despite the inherently non-social nature of singleplayer. This often combines with a weak understanding of gameplay mechanics and strong opinions about what should be accessible to certain audiences; producing purists on the issue. There's also a pretty widespread opinion, even among gamers, that games trivialize any subject they include. Violence in video games is almost as old as video games themselves and was already 'there' when they started becoming mainstream entertainment. Sex, with some exceptions, is reasonably new as a "feature" among games that are not designed with it as the primary goal or reward (*shudder*). Ergo, the few mainstream games (and yes, I use the term loosely in AP's case) that allude to such things are easy targets for crusaders.

Really... I have a friend who lost 3-4 mid-quality optical drives in 5-6 years and he used them almost entirely for gaming, so really.

Judging by your name I assume they have a similar policy on alcohol consumption?

Only because we bitched about it and started buying digital copies instead

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