Baeus

Mocking Marburg at the cafe in Rome with the suave/smartass responses was awesome, childish, but awesome Albatross and Sis were really cool if you get on their good side, as was Scarlet in the end if you find out everything about her

Maybe I've just gotten lucky so far. Or rather... perhaps them surrounding, grenadeing (it's a word now!) and killing me should be called unlucky

I bought the 360 version.

This AI thing is weird. People are calling out horrible AI, and I've even seen it myself on the preview vids. But then when I play it myself, it's not that bad, and there are other people that are fine with it... Leads me to wonder if there are distance issues involved? If you're playing a shootery type character and fight from a distance, are there more AI issues then if you're getting up close with a stealthy character like mine? Dunno, this is strange. Or maybe it depends what platform you're playing it on? Although that shouldn't happen? As for the hacking, I think it works out ok... if you put points in sabotage anyway

In Australia, the PC version wasn't in stock at the same time as the console versions either (at least in the stores I went to). Maybe there's some sort of supply issue this side of the world. 9 hours in, did a tiny bit of Taipei and a lot of Rome (although haven't finished Rome). All I can say is wheeeee! Although I had to branch out a bit from my stealth build, was getting completely shredded whenever I got caught out. Yay for points in toughness.

Had a bit of side mission stuff, usually as a result of buying extra intel before a mission starts, which gives you bonus objectives during a mission. Although (spoilers for the tutorial mission/zone) . It also seemed like I didn't need to do all the missions leading up to the final Saudi Arabian mission (though I didn't check that, did them all anyway). Conversations, there were a few extra ones I didn't have to listen to (but did anyway). There are also news reports you can watch that reference you actions and other things, extra emails you can hack into to read for fun. There aren't a bunch of flavour npcs standing around in mission zones to chat to though (which sorta makes sense, since thus far everyone there is a knife-fodder terrorist ). Conversations with the main npcs can be cut short, or dragged out for more info.

LOL if you let reviewers decide for you what game buy/avoid i feel pity for you. I don't necessarily let them decide but i find as many reviews as possible and make my own educated decision taking into account all of the bugs glitches and gameplay values. So you do what most normal people do? Don't sweat it, people here are overly sensitive about this game. Well, this is the developer's forums. Bound to be a few squealing Obsidian fans around. Not that I'd know anything about that

Wait! Don't go yet! We haven't had a chance to spoil that the evil plot is all about controling the world's cupcake supply!

Already played about 4.5 hours, that's half of his time to completion apparently, and personally I'm not yet out of Saudi Arabia. So I dare playtime varies. And yeah, when my stealthy Mike has to fight in the open, he gets his ass handed to him. Not to sound like a squealing fan, but love the game guys

I can only love that which I am good at Most of my alarms are coming from messed up lockpicking attempts right now

Yeah I only just got evasion. Really should have gone for that one earlier but I needed something to help with my hacking. I've been having a little more luck with hacking now but there will still be times where I will blankly stare at the screen with no idea where the codes are. The cruelest part is the reset. If it didn't have the reset I'd have a lot less difficulty. I have to start using my special abilities more. I use awareness a hell of a lot but that is about all. With the hacking, I just try to look for a lack of movement on the screen. Although doing that hurts my eyes. Wish there's something I could do about lockpicking, that's the one that screws me over. Just wait until you get passive awareness, it's awesome

How much does an unsilenced pistol ruin your chance of stealthing at all? Will you have to gun your way through the rest of the mission? Reason I'm asking is I don't particularly like silencers and would rather play without one. Guards nearby will hear the shots, come looking for you. But if you can shift your position and stay out of sight, they'll eventually stop hunting (although their guard will be up). If they do spot you, they'll eventually hit an alarm that will alert everyone in the level. But if you manage to kill them before they hit the alarm, or find a way to shut off the alarm such as finding the computers and hack the alarm system or use a radio mimic gadget (they have a cooldown), then things go back to normal. So you can play without a silencer, it just makes things tricky. Or you can just rely on steath takedown, sneak up behind someone, shove a knife through their spine

Haven't tried hitting chain shot while in cover yet, I've kept it as an emergency measure for when I'm caught so far, it has a cooldown on it. I'll try it when I get home, see what happens. Although, one you get your pistol skill up a bit, you can line up crits while in cover, so maybe. The silencer that's available to me at the moment gives you a -2 to damage (from 20 to 18 on my pistol). So yeah, guns are a bit more effective without them if you don't mind getting into shootouts.

At the moment, I only have the 1st level of chainshot, which lets me line up two shots. But it's got me out of some tight spots. Coming around a corner, didn't notice a guard. He spotted me, but I had evasion off cooldown (a stealth ability on a very long cooldown that automatically fires when you're in stealth and a guard spots you, making them 'un-spot you' for a second or two to let you get in cover or take a shot.) Evasion goes off, I hit chain shot and take out the guard and his buddy a little way off before they can react, and come out with my hide intact

On the last mission in Saudi Arabia (or at least, what the previews implied was the last mission). About 4.5 hours in for me. Finding the hacking easy, but the lockpicking tricky (which seems to be the opposite to most people). Also need to remember to stop shooting people through windows, guards hear breaking glass and shove a shotgun through my skull Apart from that though, my stealthy Mike is starting to feel like a real badass... Sitting at work now and can't wait to get back to AP. This game is getting better the more I play it No idea about the PC vs 360 differences. I'd assume better graphics for the PC if you have a high end one. Maybe more hotkeys and such. Takes a while to get used to switching between abilities and gadgets on the 360 if you have a few.

What platform? Comments about control/IA/graphics? (the three things people don't like about the game apparently) Wrote all that in another post, buuuuut. 360 version, and the graphics are for my standards. Controls are responsive, although they take some time to get used to. Camera is a little tight in on you, especially in confined spaces, can be hard to catch things to your sides. AI isn't great, but as yet, I've yet to see it do anything as buggy as the preview versions on 1up and such like shoot in the sky. Mind you, I'm usually rather close in to the enemies by the time a fight starts, don't know if that affects it. But as a complete package, I really like it. Early in the story for me, haven't managed to meet many people, but it's got a spiffy atmosphere to it Always some fun perk or little side thing coming up. Some fun conversations, especially if you try to be a smartass

Been playing for about 3 hours, loving it so far Got myself the stereotypical steathly dude. Stealth, pistols, bit of sabotage and a shotgun for when things go wrong. Takes patience and planning to play this way, and can be frustrating in the beginning, but as you level up it gets better and better. The graphics don't seem that bad on the 360 version. Repeated models and such, meh. Killed plenty of collectors in ME2 that looked exactly the same. The AI, while not awesome, is reasonabe. Haven't seen it do anything really retarded yet. Although they probably should have paid more attention to me and less time shooting at a helicopter at one point Main complaint that the markers which show you where you can climb and jump and such are a pale yellow, which makes them hard to notice sometimes in the very yellow Saudi Arabia levels Story wise, haven't got far, 2nd mission after the tutorial. But I got myself a rather sweet bonus mission by being really sneaky in the beginning, that was cool to get Darcy likes me, Mina is rather annoyed with me and I'm having a grand time knifing people in the spine. Back to AP for now!

With about 3 hours of playtime, I've managed to do the tutorial and am half way through my 2nd mission. Maybe I suck, and maybe it's cause I'm playing as a steathly character, which requires you be rather patient and deliberate, but I don't see this game being finished anytime soon.

Well hey, in one run through I managed to beat Fallout 2 in under an hour. Doesn't mean it wasn't a huge game with plenty to do though. Most western RPGs can be powered through rather quickly if you don't stop to smell the roses. Especially if you're doing a live feed and you don't want your eyeballs to melt from playing for 20 hours straight. 3 hours till I'm out of here and can play AP. Huzzah!

No harm done

Well... the manual looks nice. I picked it up on the way into work, and I'm still stuck here for 7 more hours before I can get home and load it up. Gah! Maybe I can pretend I'm sick...

EB has broken the street date on the 360 and PS3 versions in Australia, is selling them now. Don't have the PC version in stock yet. Got my copy sitting beside me at work. 5pm can't roll around fast enough

New weapons vid http://www.computerandvideogames.com/article.php?id=247954 The voiceover though... *shudder*

Thanks!

I suppose having to read the text while people babble in an unfamiliar language and have to respond quickly wouldn't work too well for some :/