kreese12

Well it has that whole tentative 'Coming in the Spring' thing. Release window, I'll hence to refer to as.

That's good news for Ob and A.P : Splinter Cell Conviction has been pushed back until April. Talk about delays. I think it was supposed to come out in 2007 (lol!) , wasn't it? Hopefully AP will be able to come out before Conviction. That would just be such a better chance for the game to do well sales-wise I think. I know the gameplay is pretty different, but just the spy-thriller type theme probably appeals to the same crowds. Side-note: how many games are NOT delayed, I wonder. It seems like only like 1/5 games actually make their intended release date. I imagine it all has to do with keeping investors happy with BS, fairy-tale world release dates, when the dev's know that there'll be no chance of making the date. I hope AP won't be delayed again. I don't think it will though; seeing as how the press demos went out before, when the last launch date was still on track. I'm happy that they delayed the game and are squashing those bugs...it be a heart breaker to have another Bloodlines on our hands.

Regarding the retailer dates, don't put much stock in those at all. They are generally just made up. I doubt even Obsidian has pinned down an exact release date internally yet. Regarding the screenies: dang I sure want AP.

Ya I wondered what was up as well. My personal guess -- and it's only a guess, I haven't really read too much on it -- was that it was an amiable parting of ways, and Brian just wanted to work on other stuff and most of the writing and his work on the game was done when he left. Edit: Oh ya: great blog post. Thanks for writing that Chris. It's great to see an insider's report on something, especially on narrative design, which is a fascinating subject.

Cool Matthew sounds good... a new trailer would be great.

Hah nice avatar Oner. Who is that? Captain Baghead, King of the Hobo's ? Is he a secret source for info on the underground going-on's in AP ?

Of course I was a bit saddened to hear the game received its last delay. But ya, in sober second hindsight thought-mode , I'm happy to hear the game was delayed. The extra time might be responsible for making this game sort of good, to something really above average. I do feel a bit bad for Obs though, as competition wise it would have been much better if they came out when they planned to, before Borderlands and Dragon Age and then the mass of new 2010 RPGS coming out.

My 2 cents: Fallout was sweet how it had two difficulty sliders: one for the combat, and one for the non-combat stuff (I forget what they called it , but the second difficulty slider affected all the skill checks).

Seriously though. This game was all sweet-sweet-awesome-nice-great-sweet-sweet with all the new features, then I heard that somehow, those complete idiots didn't put zombies in the game! I'm starting a boycott! How can there not be zombies ! It is an outrage ! I'm never buying any Sega products until 2020! They mean nothing to me now! Nothing!!!! There are no zombies arghghgh !

Great ! I like I like.

Haha yes I did mean descendants, thank you.

Err Sony? What does -- hang on a second...I have to do some googling...

[in a self-righteous voice] : No zombies! I demand my money back ! How dare there not be zombies! I'm never buying any Obsidian products and I'll forbid any of my ancestors of doing the same ! Every game has zombies ! How can there not be any zombies. This is an outrage ! An outrageous , outrageous outrage! ARghhh!

Ya OP that has been one of my concerns too. I worry that some non-gamer game trier guy at SEGA might've seen AP in action and thought it was too difficult when it fact it was more that he just wasn't playing it right. I hope that the team is going to be changing the difficulty balance much that they include a 'realistic' mode with the difficulty set as they originally though best. Most games I find far too easy and nothing makes me lose interest faster. I hope AP has the option of being as hard as heck. I'm playing Dragon Age right now and I'm just loving the battles on 'hard' mode. It's not the most original game but it is a fantastic title. Great modern implementation of a more 'classic' old-school PC RPG...

Whattya think about zombie apes? Damn that would be scary. Maybe as a final boss. A whole zoo filled with'em. OR you're in the Amazon basin or something.

I thought zombies were confirmed back in September..? This is old news.

Deus Ex's soundtrack was quite good. Like the rest of that amazing game.

Hmm I put the odds of the game getting delayed again at about 1 in 100 though. I really don't think that'll happen.

I dunno about that. I could see where you are coming from, but I don't think it is an emergent law of nature. It just seems like that because capitalism dominates instead of other forms of economic exchange. It's possible to have social systems that doesn't involve money. For example , in some First Nations tribes, your social status wasn't based on how much money you had. In fact they didn't have money. Instead they used bartering, and the person who could throw the best party (i.e the biggest potlach dinner for the tribe) was seen as the tribal leader. Instead of the selfish (people who often enrich themselves at the expense of underpaid substance wages) becoming the 'upper class' of society, it was the most generous people that were appreciated in this form of society. I'm not saying capitalism is wrong. It does have some good points to it, and it works a lot better than other systems. But it isn't the only system. And the nature of capitalism is to punish the majority with lower standards of live to provide wealth for the small minority on top (I don't think anyone would argue this?) We are getting to the point technologically where it is scientific plausible and conceivable that we could all work far less and still have an abundance of resources and food for everyone. But 95% of the world's wealth is held by 1% of the people.* Modern democracy doesn't really help matters either. The people that make successful politicians in our current system are actually just about some of the worst people that you want in charge of your government. As capital moves further from a national level to a transnational level, it seems all but certain that corporations will become more powerful entities, and when that happens, with a profit margin ahead of societal well-being on the agenda, living conditions for most people are going to plummet much further. *making that number up, but it's something like that

Having studied political theory a bit in university, personally I feel an anarcho-syndicalist state would be the best way to develop a new society. I'm all for personal freedom and I sincerely believe that any government will be destined to be used against the people of the state over time. However I'm also a realist and think that the battle for forms of government has already been lost. Maybe if the anarchists won the Spanish Civil War a different situation would have developed. But as it is now, capitalism and the power structures are far too entrenched to be removed. Even China has been overcome by the Western capitalist system. We live in a homogeneous world now. Our technology and financial international inter-dependency is also too far advanced for their to be any sort of successful revolution to massively change things. Revolutions are still possible but I think think they'd be able to change anything away from the standard capitalist situation in the 1st world unless their are some global catastrophes such as flooding, water crises, and we run out of oil (which isn't going to happen because of Alberta Canada) .

I'm optimistic that the delay will bring some well-needed to polish and refinement to the game. I'm little tiny bit worried though that Sega was unhappy with the play-tests, and are demanding the cooler design aspects of the game get converted into something more palatable for casual players. Hopefully if Obsidian is forced to change gameplay design choices (like having your target reticule sharpen according to weapon's skill) they'll leave the old design of the game still playable through an in-game option. Like a 'realistic' mode or something.

Ok, someone needs to explain this to me. I can understand why a pirate like Purkake would think it's a nuisance (since it also functions as some sort of DRM), but for a normal user? I've only played a few games using Windows For Games Live and the last two worked like this: I started up the game, a small box exclaimed that I was online and then I didn't notice it. Except for perhaps once every second hour when I achieved something. How is that terrible? I find it very slick and unobtrusive. I mean, compare it to Rockstar's Social Club and it's an absolute dream! Sorry didn't see this before. Like some other people have said, I just find Games for Windows annoying and unnecessary. Call me old-school, but I prefer just loading up a game on my PC and playing it . I don't like being forced to use some dumb sign in procedure to play my game that I bought. Why the heck should I have to make a profile with my name and date of birth to play a game on my computer? Also, G4W doesn't let you play unless it is the newest version of the software. The other day I installed Batman and had to wait 10 mins in order for the dumb thing to update itself . Say for example the next update introduces a bunch of ads to the game -- which is entirely believable. Then I have no choice to stomach all the new dumb crap it adds to the game I bought unless I switch over to a pirated or hacked version for the game I spent good money on . I don't give a damn about my achievements or profile or any other dumb stuff G4W offers. I see it as an annoying hassle. I also think it gives an unfair amount of control of gaming to Microsoft. They already dominate Xbox gaming, so they would ideally like to complete dominate PC gaming as well. That is why Microsoft works against any PC exclusives that do not incorporate G4W. Using it should be optional. Why is it that I can't play a game unless I have profile? Have you wondered the reasoning behind this? It isn't because MS is trying to be nice or to promote PC gaming. It is all about money and shifting control of the product from the old idea of 'buying and owning a game ' to the new idea MS and much of the game industry is promoting which is 'paying for a license to play our game temporarily'.

Well actually ya, it is hard to believe BTW though there hasn't been NO marketing. There was a whole whack of previews, and then their were ads in magazines and stuff.

Poster's alignment has shifted 5 points to economic left (38), and five points to liberal (38). Poster's alignment has shifted from Social Democrat to Anarchist That actually is a rather nice concept, though likely to be too controversial to be actually used any time soon, I fear. Perhaps that's why anarchism and communism never caught on more than they have: Because there isn't much money to be made in promoting them

I'm still having a hard time believing that SEGA didn't release a press release yet. Does not compute.