Cloaker

I disagree. You see, we're also fans of games like System Shock 2, Deus Ex, and Vampire: Bloodlines. Which are games that Alpha Protocol mimic'd in terms of gameplay style. While I think some of the reviews may be harsh, and I have had some people even around work say that they feel the game is "abysmal," I don't deny that the game has faults. The biggest bone of contention with reviewers looking at faults is that they seem to focus and concentrate on the faults so much, while not doing so with other games like Mass Effect (which I feel plays very similar to AP). Maybe there's some bias because ME came first. But I am skeptical. I think if this game had BioWare on the box and not Obsidian Entertainment, I think the review scores will be higher. ANd this is WITHOUT any implied "buying" of higher review scores. The reviews are as they are because the game is very flawed, it has nothing to do with who the developer is. AP has very serious issues with the gameplay and presentation. Mass Effect was flawed, and almost all reviews mentioned those flaws, but that was 3 years ago, standards were different and there was nothing like ME. AP has a good story and good C&C, but that means **** all in today's market if the game is janky, unattractive, etc. The fact that some people are actually blaming BioWare and Mass Effect on AP's low metacritic score is just sad. There's a lot of bitterness on these forums, I've noticed. SEGA marketed the game as Mass Effect with Spies, and that's what the people and reviewers expected, that level of polish. They told the press to call this game Mass Effect + Splinter Cell, literally. They tried to compete and came up way short...

That's good I guess, but, there's another unnanounced project, right? One where George Ziets is working on as creative director? Or is this it?

To make a sequel with a working import feature (think about all the variables in this game, all the endings...), a total revamp of the combat system, graphics upgrade, core gameplay redesign.... that would be a massive undertaking, one i doubt SEGA would be willing to back, considering the game's reception. Unless it's selling very well, in which case a sequel is inevitable, but I don't think it is right now. We'll see.

Added one

IGN - 6.3 http://pc.ign.com/articles/109/1093931p1.html Gamespot - 6.0 http://www.gamespot.com/xbox360/rpg/alphap...col/review.html Gametrailers 6.4 http://www.gametrailers.com/video/review-a...protocol/100742 Kotaku - They compare it rather unfavorably to Mass Effect 1 ...

This is nonsense. They're reviewing it as a GAME, and as a game, it is fairly janky and frustrating a lot of the time because of bad AI, camera, weak gunplay, etc, regardless of how many points you have in a weapon skill or stealth. If they were reviewing just the RPG elements or the story, well no **** it would be getting more praise. Thankfully these reviewers don't believe that story>gameplay.

I had DA:O on the PC, and it, too, was buggy as hell. There you go, the Joystiq guy didn't say the same of DA:O on PC... just shows how good the PR ($) is working... Yes.... when all else fails, blame BioWare and accuse them of bribery. DA:O was buggy (and boring) but by western RPG standards it was fairly well polished. The console versions were hammered fairly. AP is unpolished and buggy and I can see why it's getting a bad reception. The combat and AI is last gen, the visuals are bland and outdated, the story and writing and branching paths is as good as I expected but Thorton is a lame protagonist with some really poorly delivered lines, the plot twists are kinda predictable, hacking minigames every 3 minutes, the "stealth" in this Espionage RPG is a joke, the boss battles are absurd, very limited enemy variety, the game is short.. at first I thought this would be a disappointing mess, then when they started releasing more trailers and videos it looked like it might actually be great, and now I can say I agree with the scathing reviews.... this is easily Obsidian/BlackIsle's worst game. It just isn't very fun in the end and I feel so let down for actually changing my mind and preordering awhile ago. What I can say is I really liked the timed dialogue. I watched the PAX panel and heard Chris Avellone say he wasnt sure how it would be received, and I just want to say I really loved how it works and hope more RPGs use it. It makes dialogue flow naturally and really makes certain situations very tense. This game doesn't change my mind about New Vegas though, I'm sure that will be great. But yeah....AP is very, VERY disappointing. Just an opinion.

New trailer was good. Characters and graphics look a little bland though. New boxart is fantastic. I hope we get some gameplay trailers soon to see if the combat has improved.

hm.. Gamespot: Q3 2010 Amazon.ca: Q2 2010 Amazon: October 27th Gamestop: Q2 2010 Sega: October 6th Place your bets.

What evidence are you talking about besides a few recent "it's ME meets splinter cell!" previews and some screenshots? Have you seen any gameplay videos that weren't filled with bugs and bad AI like the E3 build? Any new trailers or anything, now only one month away from scheduled launch? After E3, they suddenly throw up an NDA for PAX, and this coupled with the "barely feels like an RPG" and now calling it a "top priority" suggest that they've lost confidence and are not at all satisfied for a launch and will probably demand Obsidian make some fundamental changes to the game, or at the very least add some heavy polish. It might not be as long as 8 months, but I think it's pretty clear that the game is delayed now. Unless this is some ****ed up way to create a buzz before launch and they'll soon reassure us everything's ok. Like "haha, rejoice people! Alpha Protocol *really* is coming out in October!!" But I don't think so.

Sega says October 6th, Amazon says October 27th, Amazon.ca and Gamestop say 2010. Looks like this is a belated (and awful) preview article.

Say what? Since you skipped everything else, he said massive amounts of people enjoy the stories from those studios, even if you don't.

Pretty strong sentiments... but can't say I disagree with any of that.

They can't say anything without sega's approval. I can think of like five other companies that would have at the very least dropped a "we'll have something soon guys, hold tight" comment to their communities after an 11 page thread titled "Is this game delayed or not?"

They had PAX attendees under a frickin' NDA. The E3 Build was slammed for bugs and blandness by IGN and a few others, just a few months from release. It also had Dragon Age and Borderlands as heavy competition, and those are currently way more popular. Not even a fair fight, considering the very low hype for this game. Hopefully Sega will also sink money into a marketing campaign. This is good news and I hope it's true.

If he did only play through the first level, then that's sad. I think his other gripe could only be about the lack of exploration or party members, since everything else we've seen indicate that AP has significantly more depth to it than ME. Either way, he sounds like a douchebag.

I really hope you're joking or on crack or something. Anyway this is not good news.

I've just read a bunch of recent previews. I don't know, maybe I'm in a minority here, but I find these kinds of previews to be pathetic and I wish they'd stop. I really enjoyed the old developer walkthrough videos, now all I see is "Mass Effect had one sex scene, we have FOUR. AND an achievement. We also have an interactive sex scene." I couldn't beleive the kotaku article I read. Is this really the only way to keep the game on people's radars? To me it's starting to come off as borderline desperate.

That's some very tough competition indeed, and then there's DA:O which has already sold out alot of Xbox and PC CE editions. The main reason why AP won't sell as mush as these other titles is because of the graphics and gameplay. However, I think it'll get some glowing reviews due to the writing, characters, etc. It might even pull in a few "RPG of the year" awards, depending. I don't think there's too much to worry about though, even if it sells the least out of all these titles, I think it'll still do well enough. But top 3 or 4 and people drooling over it? Not likely.

This paired with the IGN preview... not looking too good right now.

And almost everyone on there discusses and defends the sex scenes in ME. It's like early 08 all over again. But seriously, this is getting pathetic. I really hope I don't see any more articles like this about AP.

So this is pretty much official now with gamestop/amazon. It'd be nice if we could get an official announcement here. Or did I miss something? Tons of delays, but at least the other devs confirm it pretty quickly. Or at the very least say something about it.

Agreed, I guess they really needed to drive that association across to help market it. Well that and I guess they felt the need to stir up some controversy too with sex in games, since AP is still flying way under the radar. The only problem is AP looks no where near as good as ME.. almost every preview I've read has said the game looks rather dull. Which is really a shame, because I'm sure a lot more people would be excited about it and it wouldn't continue to be buried.

Well, this is what I feared. Hopefully they use the delay to amp up the gameplay and crush the bugs... I cancelled my pre-order but I will definetly be renting this in the future if the reviews are better.

BioWare I've enjoyed all of their games, even Jade Empire. For mainstream WRPGs, for me, they're at the top. I also like how much they interact with their community. We'll see how things go with their next 3 titles. Bethesda I like their use of Jeremy Soule, and Morrowind was ok