kreese12

Personally I think the hardcore RPG market is under-served. Publishers too afraid to alienate folks have been bending over to accommodate more casual gamers at the expense of the larger, more hardcore minded RPG audience. For proof, I'm currently pointing over there, to 'Demon's Souls.' It might be too early to speak for the sales, but critics are loving the game, there is a big buzz about it, and the game is --refreshingly-- hard as hell.

Hrmm well I sort of see K-K's point. It's not as much fun for myself to say, play Mass Effect without using and skills/abilites/biotics, just to make the game harder. Ideally their should be a challenge even if you play the game as it intended to be played (with using biotics) . But I see the other point of view as well I guess. Like many games it would be easier to save every 10 seconds , but instead , I 'll choose to save a little as possible to make it more challenging... hmmm different folks, different strokes I guess.

I agree with you 100%. I'd be ecstatic if Alpha Protocol was too challenging for me. Mass Effect was a satisfying enough challenge on Insanity, but it was lame because this difficulty level was locked until you finished the game on the far easier levels of difficulty. And I've never been one to enjoy playing a game more than once. Too many games out there for that Fallout 3 was waaaaaaaaaaayyyyyyyyyyyy too easy. To the point that it pretty much killed the game for me. I mean, you could defeat the entire starting Vault's security team with your bare hands. You could run up to any guy in the game, hit the magic pause/vats key, and blow off there head, even if you had no weapon skills. You also found heavy weapons like rocket launchers far too early in the game. The combat in Fallout 1 / 2 (and almost everything else in those games) were far better done than in Fallout 3. NWN2: never played Oblivion: Level scaling. Has to be about the dumbest design choice imaginable for that sort of game. What's the point of even leveling up if every rat / robber / skeleton is going to be at your skill level, no matter what you do? Completely nullifies the whole play-reward system of leveling up in a RPG, which is like a pillar of the whole genre. It's just stupid reasoning. You could finish Oblivion on the first experience level (I've read) . Oblivion with Obscuros Oblivion Overhaul mod is one of the best PC RPGs ever made, but with out the mods, the game is sort of meh. As for that 'not RPG enough' supposedly leaked comment, I'm thinking that will be the case with Alpha Protocol. I'm still really looking forward to the game and think it'll be a lot of fun, but when I first heard about it, I was hoping it was going to be more RPG and less third-person shooter. My definition of 'more RPG' in this case being that there is less combat focus, more open maps, more multiple paths to victory, and generally more to do besides stuff that directly involves killing people. I think the game will be delayed...but that's alright; I'm keeping busy with a replay of the amazing Vampire Masquerade Bloodlines with last weeks new fan patch, and I'm probably going to be big into Borderlands when it comes out next month...

Was that in there before? Whew, ya, sounds like a good idea to axe that.

Ya I have no problem with the game be delayed. But if they are delaying it, I don't see why they are holding off so much. Maybe there's a big behind-the-scene thing going on. [Puts on Conspiracy-Sensitive-Goggles]. Maybe one side is saying 'release the game now' and the other side is saying 'let's delay' . Or conversely, maybe it's a mad rush to finish the final touches on the game and no one can come up for a breath to say whether it'll make it, right down to the wire. My bet is on 'delay'. There is an incredibly small chance it is coming out in early October. It'll either be late October or a few months I reckon' . I do think though it is somewhat lame that the game is tentatively suppose to arrive within 30 days yet no release date has been officially set. This is highly unusual and ya, doesn't bode well (for the game coming out in Oct.)

Ya maybe I was to quick to judge -- big achievements like finishing the game without wasting someone is cool. I guess I just feel more annoyance with the huge mass of easy (shoot 2 people in a row) , or dumb (break 1000 boxes) achievements found in many games these days.

I never understood what the deal is with achievements. Why do people like collecting them? It's not much different from getting a little star sticker on your homework when you are 8. Personally I prefer no content locked (I don't want to have to spend a lot of spare 'working' to get stuff..I prefer to have fun in a game I paid for) and Windows Live is usually terrible but have to say it wasn't badly implemented recently in Street Fighter IV.

Ya I'd say it wasn't bad. It was however incredibly unoriginal.

Hmm you don't think ? (I honestly don't know) . I'd imagine if all the game journo's, or most of the people at the hands-on events, all had the same criticism (i.e 'the game is wrecked because of the AI is weak-sauce!') , that maybe they'd think it would be a good idea to hold back on release to fix whatever the common complaint was . If that isn't the case, then whats the point of having hands-on events with NDA's preventing people from talking about the game? Surely it isn't just to advertise the game for the few hundreds of ppl lucky enough to play it at the event. I imagine they would use the events as a method of generating feedback on what needs work -- and if ppl were particularly upset about one thing they could fix, maybe they'd hold off the game to fix it. I could be wrong , but that's the way I see it anyways.

Thx Warren My guess is it's down to the wire for them -- they are tentatively still planning for the 27th, but are going on last-minute demo feedback, and day-to-day progress, before making the final decision to launch or not. I'm not sure about this, but I think the final-final-final deadline to decide for them would be about 3 weeks before launch date -- they need at least that time to get the gold master to the production facilities with time to ship. If it is coming out the 27th, a zero-day patch wouldn't surprise me. I'm really eager to play the game, but ya , if they delay it that's totally understandable .

I'm starting to get a bit worried as well. As far as I read , the October 27th date has never been officially set-upon*; the game was always just supposed to come in 'October'. But no date has been pegged, a possible month from release? I wouldn't mind if they postponed to improve the game, but I do think it'll hurt there sales chances because of the competition coming up (Mass Effect 2 , Splinter Cell Conviction, etc.) But hey better a delayed game than game that is really good for 99%, but has a couple of fun-killing problems that could have been fixed. The idea of stealth gameplay is cool -- but a stealth game launch ? Not so much hehe. *= feel free to correct me if I'm wrong

Come on. Weed smoking terrorists ! That is just way too unthreatening guys. But a speed snorting terrorist! Now that could have potential. Let's try to stay reasonable here.

Sing it terribly and put it up as a YouTube AP montage

It's pretty close to release. My guess is there will not be any new videos besides a launch trailer (which is fairly standard marketing as games go.) Personally I'm not a fan of the Arkham Asylum-type idea of releasing a new video every 3 days. I think over saturation is a bad thing. But ya, I'm not saying that that is a bad way to advertise though I suppose...

I'd like a coffee table that transforms into a giant ion cannon.

Hey dude instead of replaying Deus Ex again you might want to check out 'The Nameless Mod'. It is one of the best mods ever. I totally recommend you give it a whirl...

I can understand not wanting to play Deus Ex, as it is a bit old now... but ya it is one of the best PC games of all time. As for thinking Fallout 3 is better than Fallout 1/2 ? I'm just not going to go there. Everyone is entitled to their opinions I guess.

I'm surprised this bothers you that much. From what I understand, you can engage anyone in hand-to-hand mode, and they can't shoot you in this mode. So that's sort of the same deal as disarming them, isn't it? I'm also assuming that with the right skills you can stealth up to someone and silently kill them. Between these two features, it sort of fulfills the needs of a disarm feature. As for me, Splinter Cell Conviction looks pretty cool, but I'm not into stealth gameplay at all. So AP is tops for me.

Yeah that's what I've also thought -- you've never really unduly played up the romance/sex aspect very much, from what I've seen. It's more a matter of a few game journalists trying to make some of their A.P reports a bit more, uh.....titillating.

I'm always shocked at what a big deal sex is made out of in games. First off, it strikes me as really juvenile and 13-year-old-male for so many game previews of the game making such a big deal about the sex elements about the game. I think it comes from the mistaken believe that most gamers are young teens --when in fact, the average age of a gamer is more around 30. The whole Hot Coffee thing is the epitome of how unhealthy of a relationship many in the U.S (primarily) have with sex. Here we have a game, GTA III, where you run over people, light people on fire, kill prostitutes, steal cars, beat grannies, slaughter cops, break into army bases, and do drugs, yet the thing that causes the company to get sued and half the games media to freak out is a hidden mini-game that shows un-detailed 3d models having sex. It's really mind boggling. So many of us gamers are far, far far more likely to have seen breasts and have sex than we are to have had murdered people indiscriminately (which you do in most games), so I'm still trying to wrap my head around why a pair of mammaries are a huge deal but mass murder doesn't even warrant a moment's consideration. I think the gaming media playing up the sex-aspect of AP doesn't do the game any favors. IMHO it makes the game appear that is trying to appeal to people with a cheap gimmick, and not with more substantive reasons, like good gameplay. I don't blame the folks at Obsidian -- they don't seem to be unnecessarily hyping the sex aspects; its the more the gaming journalists who are playing it up. I just don't get the big deal...

If the AI needs work, delay the game. If not, let it fly.

I think the think is, with comedy , it is much easier to be funny by tearing something apart and pointing out its flaws, than it is to be funny describing how good something it is. So naturally ZP's are mostly going to be negative. That being said, I personally find myself agreeing with many of Croshaws / Yahtzee's points. I think AP looks great and I'm looking forward to the game more than anything coming up -- but even still, I think Ben Croshaw would have a field day with AP. Just due to the fact of the cliche-ridden spy-theme going on (which I also like, but ya, the spy thriller genre is built on cliches that are easy to spoof; Austin Powers anyone?)

I love the spy theme of AP. It is an under-used genre IMHO. Actually, in annoys me how many fantasy RPGs there are. The same ole tired fantasy cliche of dragons and mages endlessly recycled. I could think of a more exciting premise for a game in 20 seconds . Like with Dragon Age. I'm sure that game is going to be incredibly well-crafted, and the game's engine looks excellent, and I love Bioware -- but I just can not getting even the slightest bit interested in playing yet another fantasy RPG with elves and clerics etc etc etc I'm really glad Obsidian chose to go spy thriller for this game, and there will be no dwarves, chicks in metal bikinis, or evil old mages in the game. SUCH a relief.

Haha that was pretty funny: out of fleeting curiosity I googled "scarlet lake" and a LinkedIn profile came up. Figuring it was her I clicked on it, and it turned out to be LinkedIn profile for a madame (i.e someone who runs a brothel.) Geez everybody is really using LinkedIn these days huh? http://www.linkedin.com/pub/scarlett-lake/3/a93/972 For whatever reason I thought Scarlet Lake was a game journalist at IGN or something, and not -- as she actually is -- that photojournalist from the game .

Ya I couldn't find her either.