Nepenthe

I think the article just displays a different attitude towards previewing games, one that leaves judging until the actual review. They're obviously pointing out what they see as the good/interesting/different from norm bits as well as those that might be negatives. If I hadn't heard of alpha protocol before, this would have piqued my interest for sure.

Oh yeah! While I've watched them religiously, that had indeed slipped my mind. Thanks for the reminder!

I'm not too sure on the dialogue stance method, I think it takes what ME did and further takes away knowledge of what you are going to say. At least with ME you partially knew what was going to come out of Shepards mouth, even if what happened after surprised you.(Asari consort conversation) With AP we know when we select intimidate stance, he's going to do something not so nice, but have no idea what he's going to say. I'm not particularly found of either method really, but I prefer having some knowledge however small, then remain ignorant when selecting a stance. But having said that, AP dialogue stance might surprise me. I'll have to see AP in action to make the final call, but frankly, this is probably an improvement over Mass Effect in the "I don't know what my character is going to say" department. I'd rather select a tone over a vague sentence, that can be interpreted in several ways (of course, the placement of the sentences on the wheels was generally a tip-off, but...). Not sure I prefer either approach over the more traditional RPG one, but neither do I have any negative feelings towards it...

I wanted to say this earlier, but since the thread was on the second page I decided against necro-posting. While some stuff does indeed look similar to mass effect (the skill point assignation screen looks almost hauntingly familiar, some similarity in the dialogue system), there are obvious refinements over ME as well, with better interaction with the environment coming to mind for sure. Hand-to-hand combat etc. add more to the combat (which everybody seems obsessed on calling 'generic' - most shooter I've played have nothing like that mechanic), and I do think that the dialogue stance system combined with the timer improves on the cinematic nature of the conversations... Some of the stuff I've mentioned above is being implemented for ME2 (or at least they have similar aims, the methods might differ), so I'm fairly certain we're going to get a superior gaming experience. And it's going to release on the three main platforms, simultaneously (/me has an Xbox360 Mass Effect skinned, so I can refer to it as the 'Mass Effect Machine' and use the PS3 for everything else).

Having dealt with more than a few MBAs before returning to academia, I am fairly sure that a surgical removal of common sense is part of most curricula.

Yeah, well, thankfully we're not seeing that total enslavement to PR departments some (hmm, especially in-house) studios are subject to. Announcements about future announcements about not having SecuROM, having Q&A sessions where 90 % of the questions are answered with a 'we haven't discussed that yet', repeating that same mantra on different editions of your game, when Gamespot has had them preorderable for weeks etc. It's... disturbing.

Don't feed the troll, or support lack of punctuation

IGN AU's top25 for the rest of the year - which I won't link, since I refuse to ever go to the site again - didn't have either AP or DAO on it. I guess said games are too complicated for 'journalists'.

If the PC version has intrusive DRM of any kind I will not buy it. That is why I am pleading to the devs that they please, please don't gimp the PS3 version. I very much want to be able to play this game and enjoy it. Otherwise I'm going to be very, very annoyed. Unfortunately the PS3 does seem to require quite an effort from the developers. As far as I know, games that look good on the PS3 generally use some techniques that are especially well suited for it (deferred shading). Apparently some fairly serious code-branching from the X360 version is required to fully get the most out of the PS3 - as was seen with the PS3 version of Red Alert 3, to my knowledge the multiplatform game that is supposed to look better on the PS3 than on the X360 (and the PS3 version came out ~4 months later). I seriously doubt anybody is intentionally 'gimping' the PS3 versions; I guess those versions just need that extra work that is often unavailable, come crunch time. The fact that the PS3 versions often get farmed to external studios (apparently due to the fact that special skills are required) probably contributes to the situation.

I don't think we've had a single hint about the release date not holding. And I'd say that beating Dragon Age to the market by two weeks is definitely something to aim for.

Not crazy, jaded, perhaps. As for the second paragraph, I'd say you are spot on.

From what I've seen, it looks better than Mass Effect. Having combat that is better than subpar is IMHO already an improvement in the action RPG genre. Come to think of it, the combat wasn't really that inspired in Deus Ex either. Apart from shocking everybody with the aiming and all.

Link I don't feel anxiety, so no. They're just...cute. Not cute cute, but cute cute, know what I'm saying? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denial

WANT! Nice preview, hopefully the repeated comments about generic shooter gameplay don't turn people off. :/

Generally there's a few alternative routes - and you tend to get a few more if you don't mind getting worse ratings than silent assassin. Especially in the second installment an all-out assault was often a rather viable choice, something I haven't managed to really get to work in the later installments; it's still my favourite, mostly because it allows the most customisable loadouts so far (as in what you take; no real weapon modding as in Blood Money).

Isn't that what the last hitman game was pretty much about? I think Blood Money was almost as much fun as the second one, but YMMV. I heard/read somewhere that stealthy characters were rewarded for unlethal takedowns... or it could be perk that comes under some conditions? I'm pretty sure mr. Rorie mentioned in one of the trainyard demo walktrhoughs that they would at least play a story element role - as in not necessarily wanting to take out cops and CIA operatives to not get yourself further into it...

It's funny, I got very little questions at the dev team, to be honest. The amount and level of information has been prettty much just right for the moment, so barring seeing some PS3 (unlikely) or getting some info on EU bonus content (The Publisher's purview, anyway), I'm concentrating on anticipation. p.s. IGN AU is posting the 25 most anticipated games of the year. Alpha Protocol was not at 25-11, so it BETTER be in the top 10 or I will migrate elsewhere

... To get back on track, there's actually a "hd" version, too http://g4tv.com/videos/38670/Alpha-Protoco...009/?quality=hd Not downloadable (without too much shenanigans, at least). A pity, I've been enjoying the safehouse demoing on the big screen. Ok, better look at it, seems like it's just scaled. Dang.

My favourite one is: "Half monk, half hitman". Edit: (That's a Casino Royale reference)

Keep your tangential socialist rants to Way Way Off Topic, please. At least then then the rest of us can ignore you easily. But we have to remember that socialist regimes have never killed anybody.

i'd like tap one shot hold full auto alot better but i guess we will have to wait and see As the Wolfenstein 3D guide already said, "holding the button down is fun".

Tap = 3 round burst, hold = full auto?

While I'm glad I spotted the typo, I wish I'd brought it up in a different way. And thanks for the clarifications on the Jerry, I'm not a gun bunny, I've just had to become professionally familiar with them to a degree (military service & ex-prosecutor).

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