Zoraptor

There is no chance whatsoever- it's a fiction entirely within the realms of neo-con fantasy and ignorance stoking. Radical Shia and radical Sunni hate each other. Hate. Each. Other. Iran is radical Shia, Hamas and AQ radical Sunni. 90% of the support for both AQ and Hamas still comes from the Sunni Arab gulf states such as Saudi Arabia, and pretty much 100% of Hamas' arms comes through Sunni Egypt, and 100% of Palestinian arms through Sunni Egypt or Sunni Jordan. The reason for not wanting Iran to have nukes is purely because it will cripple Israel's strategic position and possibly lead to them having to *gasp* make some real concessions over issues like the Golan Heights, and because Iran's arab neighbours would pack a gigantic sad and probably feel the need to get nukes too. And that, given Saudi Arabia's links to Sunni terrorist groups, might lead to them getting nukes. No, he was exactly unfriendly to them. AQ's an equal opportunity sort of group, they hate infidels, Shia and the wrong sort of Sunnis, including Saddam's brand of secular Sunnism light- you wouldn't find Christians in AQ's cabinet. There has never been any credible evidence of significant links between AQ and Saddam for the simple reason that Saddam knew that AQ was as dangerous to him as the US, Iran or anyone else. He was, however, pretty friendly with Hamas as they have no real pretensions towards pan-arab worldwide caliphatism and no ability to put that into action even if they did. Rumsfeld meeting Saddam.jpg In an additional note my spell checker considers Shia misspelled but not Sunni. :conspiracy:

Where did you end up getting it from, if you don't mind me asking? Cheaper than the 90NZD MightApe is asking?

I refuse to ask questions of those who use blatantly religionist terms like 'thrice-damned' when claiming to be good communists.

Not necessarily, a description like "this 9mm pistol manufactured by Zoraptorean Arms can perforate even the toughest paper bag, but not much else. Its poor construction means it also tends to jam frequently, and at the worst moment possible. In fact, you'd be a fool to bring this gun to a knife fight" might not be seen as good publicity. Due to the way non-realism oreintated games are constructed you're likely to end up with situations where guns that fire identical ammo do differing damage for simple gameplay reasons, implying one is inherently better than the others even when that is not necessarily so. If I make an Steyr AUG an entry level assault rifle whose effectiveness is equivalent to paintballing your enemy, and an m-16 an advanced model for gameplay reasons then that implies a quality difference which Steyr may not be happy with as, technically, they ought to do pretty much exactly the same damage as they fire the same ammo.

The only possibility along those lines is that Sega might sell their loss making North American business, but on the face of it even that isn't at all likely.

While in an alleged Sega document, it bears repeating that neither of those comments were made by someone in Sega, but by a guy from SCEA- Sony's US entertainment arm.

Sega holds the trademark registration, which is usually (but not always) a good indicator of ownership.

Auckland downtown EB definitely had preorder Alpha Protocol boxes a couple of weeks ago, but not the Queen St one. Risen will not turn up retail, most likely, due to Australia's fascist rating scheme- lol, band- so buy online (Gamersgate/ Steam etc) or from MightyApe or equivalent direct importer.

Something like: "The value of our goods does not match" "That's OK, I'll take the difference in gold" [dialogue box] Yes? Second line is said by you, not the merchant, so reverse your answer? Note: I don't have Risen (yet) but that was the problem someone else was having.

Also Arcanum and Wizardry 8, albeit for a different reasons, and off the top of my head. More soberingly, Aliens: Colonial Marines might fit too, it was supposedly near finished a year ago and has disappeared into some 'will eventually be released' ether.

"Uncultured?" I would remind you, comrade, that "culture" is a concept foisted on the proleteriat in an attempt to control our minds and to provide distraction from global revolution- in fact, much as religion is the opiate of the people, culture can be said to be its methamphetamine. Indeed, I have for a long time found cRPGs to be my favourite gaming genre as well.

All is not lost, I have heard rumours that the game may have been delayed to fix this very issue. Apparently they are swapping the capitalist running dog 'Bauer, Bourne, Bond' archetypes for 'Stalin, Trotsky, Marx'. It may not be perfect but I think it deserves a hearty 'congratulations comrades' and a spontaneous rendition (not in the fascio-bourgouis extrajudicial kidnap meaning) of the 'Internationale'.

Took a pic. Sorry about the fuzziness and black and white, we workers don't need colour or multi megapixel camera phones though really. That certainly implies a communist option, doesn't it?

Are you sure you cannot play a communist? I checked my copy of Socialist Worker and its preview shows a screenshot with the dialogue stances suave, professional, extreeeeme and Marxist available.

The plethora of release dates amuses- Gamersgate currently has a pre-order Alpha Protocol releasing October 15, and a second, identical except for not being marked pre-order, version releasing March 10.

I am very disappointed. Too much debate about noise arrow equivalents, itt. I want to know about the possibilities for global revolution, bringing down the system of global slavery laughably known as capitalism and establishment of utopian universal collectivism inherent in the game. I hope it's present, else I may have to reconsider my purchase.

Would have been an... interesting guess, a year ago.

Dead Space is good, assuming a 3rd person System Shock/ Doom3 hybrid appeals and a relatively unresponsive (for PC, it's much like playing on a console, really) control scheme isn't a drawback. It's a game people tend to either love or hate- don't get if you hate advanced monster closets/ FEAR style railroading, though.

Actually it can be interpreted in a number of ways, the most likely of which is that Obsidz cannot comment because the release date is Sega's purview and, at this time, Sega does not not have a concrete release date and does not want to make any comment until it does have one. A release towards the end of October still seems most likely, in my most humble opinion, as the game must be very close to complete- it has after all been rated/classified for some time in a number of countries (late July in the UK and Aus, for example and IIRC; and if you want some :tinfoil: the latest twitters could refer to submitting a gold master/ release candidate, which would gel with a late October release). Online retailers make release estimates all the time- at one stage, and not that long ago, a local online retailer had DAO, AP, Ego Draconis, Bioshock2, MW2, Risen and about a dozen other games all coming out on September 30th.

Shouldn't be. Its rating are generally 16+ (MA15 in Australia, perhaps the most retentive rating system in the world at present) so nobody seems to have much trouble with it.

I'm now vaguely embarrassed, as it seems likely potere came from me. It's modern Italian, and is only occasionally used in dog Latin. Possum/ posse is correct. I suspect something like "qua nemo insisto posse" is what is being looked for. I haven't done latin for ten years and it's near 1 am, so take with salt.

The SCEA comments as listed in the leaked alleged minutes (ie too hard, not enough RPG for an RPG) would not usually be cause for lack of certification, so far as I am aware- bugs, poor performance, poor performance relative to 360 or perhaps even OMG teh sex!!! might potentially be. Having said that, certification issues would explain an eight month delay and lack of any comment rather well, as they'd no doubt be trying to sort things out quietly behinds the scenes.

Don't hold out any hopes for Oct 6th, the game would have to have been gold for a week to make that date. Sega US is in very poor shape, though the Japanese parent is still ok.

IIRC that was the SCEA person (ie Sony, not Sega). Sega should have a producer on AP, so ought to have a very good idea of what's in there.

MS' figure was 1.6m copies shipped, in the first six weeks. They don't make anything like $60 revenue a copy- basic, and approximate breakdown $60 - retailer cut ->~$30 - licensor (console manufacturer) cut ->~$20 revenue shared in some manner between publisher and developer. There's also publisher cuts if you're working for a third party publisher (MS in this case) which depends on the contract- as I understand it, the publisher may take a near 100% cut until it has recovered its costs/ minimal sales target has been met, though this is less likely in this case as Bioware had a fair bit of clout itself and MS really wanted ME for the 360. Typical costs for a genuinely AAA title start at around $20 million, plus more if it's marketed extensively, generally borne primarily by the publisher. Something like GTA4 supposedly cost more than $100 million, though ME would not have been near that league, cost wise. Basic estimate is that for a AAA game which sells 2 million copies there's roughly $20 million in profit to distribute. OTOH Bioware would likely have been paid up front by MS during development and for platform exclusivity, so would not have been that dependent on sales numbers, though this does not particularly help EA's value as it would have (presumably) been received prior to its bioware purchase. NB. I'd stress again, the figures used are ballpark and approximate and will vary with title/ developer/ publisher and contract; don't take them as having any absolute truth or accuracy.