Oblarg

"I'M SORRY ASH. I HAD TO MAKE A CHOICE." Brilliant dialogue. Just pure genius. Moved me to tears. In case you can't tell, I'm being sarcastic. The exception dont prove the rule. There's a ton of cringeworthy dialogue in every single BioWare game, ever.

Chris Avellone, a cyborg? Suddenly, it all makes sense... Great interview.

This isn't that surprising - the game has failed to gather hype thus far, why should it suddenly become popular overnight? I think there is something about this game that clearly puts off the "hardcore" gamer. It's possible that because it looks so much like an action game, people are judging its graphics against other action games rather than RPGs. (Although personally, I think it looks pretty good. Certainly better than I expected.) It's also possible that the "spy movie" setting isn't as immediately grabbing as a fantasy or sci-fi setting would be. (Watching videos of Mass Effect are immediately distinctive because of the ways certain aliens, ships, etc., look. Similarly, Final Fantasy has a very specific J-Pop-ish look. Alpha Protocol, being set on present-day Earth, looks...like present day Earth.) Whatever the reason, it's probably too late to fix at this point. Oh well! I'm still just as excited to play this game. It seems destined to become something that is loved a lot by a very specific niche. I just want to play it already! The graphics are not cutting-edge, thus the game will not be popular among all the kiddies. It's not a particularly flashy game. I do love all the people complaining about how the gameplay "sucks," even though it's more or less impossible to judge gameplay quality through a video.

Keeps looking better and better. Can't wait!

"I'M SORRY ASH. I HAD TO MAKE A CHOICE." Brilliant dialogue. Just pure genius. Moved me to tears. In case you can't tell, I'm being sarcastic.

That is the most idiotic thing I have read in ages. How, exactly, do business help you by making money? If you owned stock in that company, if their stock is in your retirement fund, if you are a customer, if you are an employee, if you are on welfare (succesfull businesses pay more taxes, and their employees get paid more and pay more taxes), etc. Any questions? Ever heard the expression "A rising tide lifts all boats?" Profit comes from somewhere. Your benefit is almost always at the expense of someone else. A blanket statement such as "I make money when business make money, therefore I'd rather trust business" is pure idiocy - I'm very sure there are businesses that make money at your expense, as well, even if you don't realize it. That is called Zero Sum Economics. It does not exist in open free market economies. So you are either uninformed or from Cuba. You missed my point. Yes, economies grow, that's a given (at least, until you run out of resources and people start dying). No, that does not mean businesses protect your interests better than government. Take, for example, a car company. Say this car company realizes there's something wrong with one of their lines of cars (in before Toyota reference). The company will only recall the car if they judge that it is profitable to do so ("profitable" being they lose less money). That is not in the best interest of the customer - there's a direct conflict of interest. Government doesn't exist to make money, it exists (ideally) for the sole purpose of protecting the interests of the people it governs. I really can't see any logical reason to trust the former with your interests over the latter. I'm tired of people spewing crap about how the free market supposedly is the absolute best way to distribute wealth based on merit. It's not. It's also not the best way to ensure the highest quality of life for the collective. Unregulated free market economies result in wealth concentrated among a few lucky (not necessarily skilled) individuals.

That is the most idiotic thing I have read in ages. How, exactly, do business help you by making money? If you owned stock in that company, if their stock is in your retirement fund, if you are a customer, if you are an employee, if you are on welfare (succesfull businesses pay more taxes, and their employees get paid more and pay more taxes), etc. Any questions? Ever heard the expression "A rising tide lifts all boats?" Profit comes from somewhere. Your benefit is almost always at the expense of someone else. A blanket statement such as "I make money when business make money, therefore I'd rather trust business" is pure idiocy - I'm very sure there are businesses that make money at your expense, as well, even if you don't realize it.

That is the most idiotic thing I have read in ages. How, exactly, do business help you by making money?

Well, Chain Shot is really intended to be your way out of a dicey situation, not something you use on everything you see. Making the cooldown too low would probably trivialize a lot of the content you come across, because you'd be able to headshot everyone you came across without them ever being able to fire back. So it needs to have some kind of cooldown to encourage players to use it when needed, but not on every single enemy. Actually, I thought 30 seconds sounded too short.

Oh my God that is so wrong wrong wrong wrong wrong wrong! This. In theory, government exists because a society with a government is more stable than a society with out one, thus it serves the people. The purpose of government is to increase quality of life for the collective. Of course, it is rarely done correctly, but usually horrid dictatorships lead to revolutions because the government is not doing its job. On the other hand, business has no purpose other than to serve itself.

As far as the timer, I'm not sure what you're referring to - you only have a few seconds to line up the shots in Chain Shot, certainly not 30. I can't speak as to the inspiration behind Chain Shot, I just know it was one of the skills that was implemented the earliest in development. I think it was more inspired by a Bourne-like mastery of situational awareness. From what I've seen, it's pretty awesome, but I think it would be even better if you could hear each individual shot (in rapid succession) instead of a single bang.

Not villainizing anyone. But corporations are capable of more harm on their own than greedy individuals simply because they are well organized groups of people working in concert towards their goals. L'union fait la force and all... and often that union is used to shift responsibility from the individual. It goes without saying that they are also capable of more good, too. By your logic, then, governments can do far more harm than can corporations, and it just boils down to whose interests you prefer: those of business or those of government. I, for one, prefer business. Why would you rather trust a business, whose main interest is to make money, than a government, whose main interest is to serve the people it governs?

Because usually CEOs go about making money by exploiting people less fortunate (not necessarily less talented or able) than they.

Why does everyone assume I'm talking about anarchy? Why is there an assumption in a society where the govenrment does the minimum there is no law or criminal prosecution? I did not feel the need to qualify that because I thought it went withourt saying there is law enforcement under ANY government. True I'd pefer the limits to be light and restrained, a silken rope rather than iron chains. I guess the heart of the matter is you guys are cynical in the extreme about human behaviour, and think it needs to be controlled even at the expense of your own freedom. It makes no sense to me. Now to address what Wals said. There is the absurd notion on this board that coporations are terrible evil things that want to enslave people and destroy the world. Further, most of you seem to think govenrment is this great altruistic champion of the down trodden and only wants whats best for everyone. That makes no sense to me at all. Microsoft cannot take a thing away from you. They cannot take you money, your home, your freedom or your life. They can only take what you freely give them by buying their products. And if you wish you can not but their products and give them nothing at all. Your government can take everything from you. Your home, your money, your freedom and your very life. In the US you do have due process protections on the last two (if you can afford it) but on the first two, the odds are very much against you. If you don't believe me, just ask the citizens of New London CT, Klamath Falls OR, Rivera Beach FL, Covington TN, (I could go on all day) what the government can take away from you and give you nothing in return. Who should you really be afraid of here? This whole notion of giving governments more and more power over individuals is self destructive to the point of insanity to me. I will NEVER understand it. "Money" is not an inherent right. It is a social construction that evolved so human societies would be more stable. I see absolutely no evidence to suggest that society would be more successful if the collective did not have the right to demand money from the individual.

So either we can have an anarchy in which everyone is completely "free" but lacks any social infrastructure to increase quality of life, or the strongest possible social infrastructure at the cost of "freedom?" Well, other than the fact that you haven't defined "freedom," this is a completely obvious choice. Society exists for a reason, bud - populations with social standards and governments are more stable than those without them.

Maybe in the sequel, then?

I agree it's pretty good, although not something I'd normally listen to. But what do you mean dying? You don't often find decent prog/power metal anymore, especially 80s style, which is more raw and guitar-driven. The genre is becoming more and more driven by synths, and you rarely ever hear 80's style operatic vocals anymore. Compare: Redemption - Leviathan Rising (2009) Both are considered progressive power metal, but the trends are obvious. You just don't here music in the old style anymore, which is a pity, because it's better (at least in my opinion). Newer stuff just has too many sounds and too often substitutes superfluous time signature shifts for decent songwriting. Crescent Shield is one of the few recent bands that still plays traditional power metal.

A pity this style of music is dying.

Some of those screens are rather old. Obsidian (supposedly) fixed the no magazine in gun bug ages ago. Box art is awesome.

Yahtzee *must* review this one.

Oh wow. That was one of the best video game trailers I have ever seen, no joke. Top-notch voice acting, great cinematic flow. Looks as good as most movie trailers, if not better. Edit: Didn't mean to quote.

Toxik - Think This Technical thrash is awesome.

Destiny's End - Storm Clouds Gotta love well-done power ballads.

"Early summer." Good news. The gameplay footage in the video is reused though. On an unrelated note, anyone find it ironic that directly after we find out that they added an inventory comparison Yahtzee complains about the lack of one in his Borderlands review? There's not really any causality there - it was an issue that we realized needed to be addressed quite a while ago. Before Borderlands even came out, as I recall. I wasn't implying your game design choices were influenced by a Zero Punctuation review, that would be ridiculous. It's just a rather humorous coincidence.