Cl_Flushentityhero

I know there were some people excited about this game on the forums, myself among them. Turns out that Gamestop has slipped the release date in the US, and most of their locations have it now (about a week early). So far I'm just revisiting Butcher Bay, which is still one kick-ass game. They made some minor tweaks with the melee counters and the lean function that seem superficial, yet I feel add a lot to the gameplay itself. I can't say I noticed a huge graphical difference, but the original game looked pretty good on PC to begin with. Rumor is that the new content is not quite at the same level of Butcher Bay, but I know from the 360 demo that you at least get to play with the Ulaks, which are some pretty cool melee weapons. My initial impression from the demo was that the setting and story won't be as compelling, but the gameplay should remain pretty much intact for the add-on.

Yes:

Are you sure he is the arms merchant? He wears a uniform, which is not something I have come to associate to arms dealer. I think the man we saw being thrown off a cliff in the GTTV coverage is more likely to be the merchant : he is dressed as a civilian and his clothes looked like the clothes that are often wore by rich/important people in Saudi Arabia... Of course he's military, how do you think he gets his guns? Just kidding, you could be completely right, I'm just going on word of mouth.

I haven't posted on CQC in at least a few days, so here goes. That's a lofty claim. I'm a pretty big DMC fan, but I wouldn't consider any of the individual mechanics very deep. The shooting is pretty simple, and the melee is just a few combos. It works out because it's well-balanced and it makes the most of a fairly crude interface, but I wouldn't call it a triumph of engrossing shooting mechanics + engrossing melee mechanics. If anything, the guns have always been a little tacked-on (of course, I use them way more than I should). I dunno, Jason Bourne takes down groups of armed enemies all the time. Also, it's a skill in the game, so the assumption is that it's roughly balanced with any of the other weapon skills. You can drop 3 enemies (in theory) with the pistol chain shot or the SMG bullet storm, why not have multi-takedowns? Isn't it a bit early to say that? I don't think they've really shown much of the CQC gameplay yet aside from split-second clips.

Browsing the comments on GT and this one takes the cake: "to me a third person shooter with crappy reload animations is istant fail to me i just cant stand it i mean isnt this gaming generation supose to improve evrithing?"

Hm, while I don't think better AI is a bad thing, I think it does help to put it in perspective: 1) I've never been impressed by the combat AI in a shooter, much less a hybrid shooter. At best they hide behind cover, shoot accurately, and avoid getting naded or flanked while nading and flanking. 2) If the AI was on par with real soldiers, they'd demolish all but the most determined player pretty much every time. 3) Hordes of disposable bad guys are a staple of video games in general and the spy genre in particular. I think in order to have truly "good" AI the pillars of the action game genre would have to be reconsidered. I.e. a project for Infinity Ward or somebody like that, not Obs.

Oh, no worries, just stating it for the people who missed the youtube version. The overall reaction seems fairly positive, though complaints about the visuals are also common. That poor arms merchant has been held at gunpoint in almost every AP trailer thus far

This is the same as the mysterious "Dev diary 2" video that was on youtube yesterday before disappearing.

I can't imagine they included an 80s boss for any reason other than to be obvious and excessively in-jokey.

Never Gonna Give You Up? In general, I'd think that something reasonably popular would be ideal so that the 80ness strikes most players immediately. In fact, within the gaming subculture, I'd use the tracks in Rock Band/Guitar Hero (either at release or DLC packs) as a pretty good barometer of awareness.

Not to split hairs, but that looks more like a trim beard than true stubble.

I'm currently reading Barry Eisler's "Fault Line," and so far it's pretty interesting. One of the protagonists is a complete badass, and the "action" sequence I'm currently reading reminds me of the multiple approaches AP promises to have to each situation.

I think he's supposed to start out his career as a naive pretty boy, but you do have a point. Is there a stubble option? Because that would go a long way towards weatherizing Thornton.

Crowded, but pretty clean.

Thank you for that. Me too. I have no idea how games are marketed or how you get your game 'talked about'. It would be interesting to find out - does anyone know of any articles on the interweb about such things? Gaming websites and forums such as gamefaqs, gametrailers, and IGN are pretty major, though obviously not the entire gaming demographic. I'd say the primary thing that gets people on these forums talking about a new franchise or standalone title is the release of trailers and gameplay footage. Whether they're saying bad things or good things, it's PR. If you ask me, most people on those sites simply aren't impressed by some wacko Obsidian fan raving about how great it's going to be unsolicited. If there's a video of some sort it's an actual product of sorts that people can comment on that provides a starting point, from which things inevitably devolve into a general discussion of the game. As far as gamers who do no research on the interwebs and read no gaming magazines . . . well, I can't really imagine what would guide their buying decisions. Word of mouth from people who do? TV commercials and public ads (I once saw a bus with a Left 4 Dead ad on it) also help, but few games have that kind of marketing budget.

Weapon mods do show up on the weapons themselves while you play. Can we plate our weapons in gold and platinum like in a certain franchise that will go unnamed?

That assumes tons of players (or at least one fanatic)

They're uh, tactical brass knuckles, yeah . . .

Oh yeah, and thanks for the freeze frames crakkie. The weapon customization system looks pretty robust.

Awesome. "The combat mechanics are solid" *cut to flying knee* I did notice a dive maneuver in the footage . . . which I guess is rapidly becoming standard in TPSes anyway, but still cool. I was disappointed that the skills only had placeholder text rather than full descriptions. I did a lot of freeze framing on the GTTV footage I like the comment about how terrorists later in the game will be better-armed if you let the arms supplier go early-on. Even if we can count those types of decisions on one hand, it'd still be more realized C&C than most games. I will say that the gunplay looks pretty stylish, though I feel a lot will hinge upon how effective firearms actually are at putting people down (which wasn't easily-discerned from the footage, and obviously depends on your weapon skill). Maybe it's just my imagination and the low resolution, but the visual looked pretty sharp, if not RE5/Uncharted-esque. I don't think it'll be winning any awards or even high marks here, but hopefully they're good enough that critics won't offhandedly dismiss the game for "poor production values" (which IMO is a much larger factor in popularity and critical reception than any pro reviewer would care to admit). Settings looked good. It seemed like there were a variety of situations including urban fighting alongside police and a chemical/biological weapons facility(?). So, basically, everything you'd expect from a spy story in that regard. As usual, I'm stoked. The more I see of AP the more confident I am that it will accomplish what it set out to do (which, in my book, means it will be awesome regardless of what the critics say).

I think a more important marketing issue needs to be addressed. All the other major upcoming releases have already posted April Fools trailers for their games. Falling down on the April first rush would without doubt result in AP being a commercial disaster.

Hey, Bond had a chase through the aqueduct! One thing a lot of developers seem to forget is that sewers are by nature connected to things. Obsidian tends to be pretty smart about their design, so my suspicion is that, if they do include a sewer, it would probably be an entry point to another location (possibly one of several routes).

Which reasons are these? Well, the moves are all mocapped, so with the amount of time spent in the studio it seems unlikely that they would have a plethora of different strikes and only one takedown for each situation (armed/unarmed front/back). Martial Artists also tend to know a variety of takedowns, and many like to show them off. Add to that that the CQC is it's own skill and level progression is supposed to grant new combos etc., and it seems like too significant a portion of the game to skimp on visually. Ao2 and K&L didn't even have much in the way of mechanics governing CQC, it was just something you used when you ended up too close. In the case of AP it's a "weapon" skill with its own progression like pistols and assault rifles. That's just my edumacated guesswork though, Sawyer might step in at any moment to tell us (hint hint). The game currently features multiple takedowns. I even did the mocap for one of them. Nice. Do we win anything if we can figure out which one when the game releases?

I think without addressing Bulock's very specific points about challenges unique to this particular activity ('real' CQC), you are jumping to much more generalised statements - in which case, the vectors of thought simply aren't meeting. For me his descriptions about those specific challenges are pretty convincing, unless you were simply expressing your wish for some new game that really tackles that issue in the face with a crowbar - in which case, fair enough. I think it's all mocap. Actually, a new game that tackles the issue in the face with a crowbar is what Bullock expressed, and I responded to.

Not sure if it's been mentioned yet, but "The Shooter" with Max Payne- err Mark Wahlberg is probably as close to an Alpha Protocol movie as is likely to happen. All said and done, I'd probably go so far as to say I liked TS more than any of the Bourne films individually. Your mileage may vary, of course, but if nothing else it's worth seeing to form your own opinion on. I'm still a bit dumbstruck that so many people hate Antoine Fuqua's films, but if nothing else you should be able to get a popcorn flick out of this one.