Raithe

St. Trinians 2 - The Legend of Fritton's Gold... Call me old school for enjoying the Ealing comedy stuff, but I still have a warm spot for the new St Trinians.. Although I think overall the first one was better , this sequel has some very amusing moments. But then part of the fun is the amount of in-jokes they have between Colin Firth and Rupert Everett. David Tenant's supremely over the top woman-hating psychotic evil mastermind is fairly entertaining as well. Then throw in Gemma Arteton's return with a nod to her Bond-Girl escapade - "So what do you do now Kelly?" "You know MI5? MI6? That was MI7..." Not to mention such as Talulah Riley and Tamsin Egerton in the standard St Trinian's uniforms for the slight perv factor

My take on it (from what I've seen and read) is that you can travel back and forth between the hubs as you will.. but the missions / side-missions are more one off events. As in, you pick up a mission (via email, from handlers, or contacts etc) and then go off to that mission map. You get to perform the mission in the style and manner of your choosing, with various routes (stealth, combat, different approaches to the map so it's not all the same "proceed down corridor x then take corner y") but once that mission is done, you probably won't get to go back to that specific map. Which makes sense to a certain degree, why go back to the "scene of the crime" so to speak. You've raided an embassy (whether with big noise or like a ghost) , but there'll still be some repurcussion from that.. why would you go back to said embassy at a later point... Unless some other follow-on side mission that opens up only because you did that first mission that requires you to go back... This isn't strictly speaking, an open sandbox, free-roaming game. The hubs, yes, you can go back and forth. You can choose to do them in a specific order, or go to one and do a couple of missions then go to another hub, do a mission, move back to the previous hub or move on to another..... But the hubs are basically your safehouse in each city.. And not all those "missions" will be maps that you casually wander around.. there was some mention as I recall that certain "missions" will be dialogue moments purely.... as in go to a bar to find a contact and the whole mission will be your conversation with the contact and how you try getting the info out of him. Charming them, being purely professional, a touch threatening.. or headslamming them against the bar top.. There will be missions that you choose to do purely to gain extra info on other missions, or npc's that will then provide other missions.. Throw in the whole aspect of "choice & consequences" that Obsidian have been touting, that missions will actually change depending on which order you do them in, what relationships you've formed, even relationships you happen to be unaware of.. (as in npc's will react to you on what they've heard about you - whether its true or not, but it will be based on how you've reacted in missions or to other npc's that they know...) So I'm fairly sure we'll all be happy with the variety and number of potentials there..

It could actually be an awesome game, but it doesn't look like Obsidian is trying to strike that tone. Maybe that could be the dlc component.

Can you just imagine if it comes out with the dialogue like NOLF's?

Because damn it all, there are times I do want to play as a Magnificent Bastard in certain games, and frankly, AP looks like a game where it would be a perfect role...

Iron Man 2 - Entertaining, a fair bit rides on Downy, Jr doing the fun "antics", and Sam Rockwell gets a few of his own in... The whole romance side seemed a touch forced through... and Nick Fury having scene time rather then just the 30 second cameo at the end of a Marvel movie... (but then of course, they've already started things going with both Thor and Captain America movies.... so that Avengers one won't be too long in coming)

Well the

So with a wonderfully hung government, the next year is likely to be full of all sorts of fun and games... hell, the Welsh are offering to side with the Tories for large cash infusions in Wales.. (don't you just love the concept of out n out bribery at government levels..) The LibDems were having the whole "we'll side with labour if labour will take our semi-leadership on certain positions"... Ah joy. Why do I foresee that the Tories will probably want to return to the public and have another election in just a year or so?

Tsk, that's an awkward place to be... Hm, I'd say if you want your rp urges satisfied.. try AP more.. (sure I can't say for definite, but it looks/sounds more likely to satisfy those urges) , ME2 is a lot of fun in it's ways but its much more a shooter with some slight rp aspects. If it's gone this long without you getting ME2, but you've been anticipating AP since October.. that seems to suggest ME2 can wait a touch longer

Actually, *chuckles* the more expensive a hooker is, the less likely her clientele is interested in having sex with her. So, for a high-class hooker, if they want less work, jack up the price! :lol:lol I didn't believe this was true until I read about it. Apparently, it's the whole Hetaera / Geisha / Firefly Companion style of thing at that level... It's about the whole soothing, relaxing, stress free companionship and conversation.... Not so much the sex.. Which is why so many of those "high class escort" types are usually incredibly smart, learned, and empathic. But that's sufficient derailement I guess.

o O (Just to derail before things devolve into a "drm firestorm") Fie! Fie! Or otherwise... Blasphemer!! Send for the Obsidian Inquisition!! Now it has me curious what has Purkake non-excited by the incoming AP. A new rpg by a group of people who've made some entertaining rpg's before... in a non-fantasy setting, in a modern day setting, and with the possibilities of a really good choice & consequence set-up to explore... Thats got to be a leeeel bit exciting for you...

The other question is.. Just how much skill does it take to get the "random luck" features to the point where you can get three "holes-in-one" in a row? Tango 1. Tango 2. Weapon. I'm not discounting the amount of fluke and luck in that sort of extreme range shooting. But three consecutive shots. That has to be a touch more then just "fluke".

"For you are the LoveMaestro... Teach me the Way of Woo!"

And it's not a double DRM. If you read through the sega thread faq on Alpha Protocol's drm... they only use Steam to download it.. they don't use Steam's drm .. They only use the Uniloc drm... Or am I just totally crazily reading "we do not use Steamworks" as not using Steam drm? Beyond that, how many people will really install it on 5 seperate computers concurrently? And Uniloc has a major ease of deactivating when you uninstall, or by a simple log in on the web and deactive remotely...

Well, female version of Rambo.. from the other side of the cold war... But Sie does seem to be the only one of the ladies who doesn't have some mysterious "secret" aspect...

Hey, who could forget Gun? and the voice cast they had for it was amazingly western... Kriss Kristofferson, Lance Henriksen, Ron Perlman, Tom Skerrit, Brad Dourif....

That's nails. What sort of stud thinks scoped rifles are for girls? Using a scope meant raising his head up... putting a more visible outline on view of the soviets.. by using the iron sights he got to keep his head down and stay more concealed... Plus the possibility of sunlight reflecting on the lens and such like.. That's the reason he gave.. We are talking 1939 - 1940 for that old White Death...

Hm, for some reason I thought they made mention of not using Steams drm in the FAQ about AP's drm.. So even if you buy it from Steam, it only uses the Uniloc drm.. not a double-whammy. Now I'll have to chase the linky down... Not that I'm getting the digital version, but now I'm curious as to how faulty my memory is.. Edit: Here we are : http://forums.sega.com/showthread.php?p=5788545#post5788545

Certain types of stories require there to be some method of shooting in them.. What's a sci-fi / space opera without some action sequences with laser / energy weapons blasting away down some narrow corridor and someone in dark armor striding menacingly about? And again, with spy genres, after all the James Bond, Jason Bourne, and even Jack Bauer elements... you had a fair few moments of fire-fights, ducking behind cover and having to deal with enemy goons... The care has to be taken in structuring those action-oriented elements in a way that works with the rpg side.... and in computer games, pushing the engine in more of a first person shooter way does seem to be a sensible way to handle it. (as long as the rp elements fit in appropriately.) Deus Ex showed how it could blend together so well. So now we just wait a month and then we'll actually be able to see how AP handles it. The key trouble of trailer shots and such, is that they're normally chosen to show off the action elements in a game..... The wow-pizzazz factor of attracting attention.

On the surface, any rpg with a shooter style, over-the-shoulder, watch-the-butt perspective is going to be classed as "Mass Effect Like" these days... It's when you look under the surface at the rest of the game that you see what it's really about...

Just close your eyes and think of Chuck. Wait.. that didn't come out right...

Cyborgs don't have blood. He didn't say it was his blood he sacrificed...

The heavens were praised....

Hm.. interesting on the First Aid.. use too much, too quickly, and it can induce fatal blood clots.. That's definitely going to be a twist on the usual healing techniques..