Raithe

The news report that started this thread was the monster distance.. which while it was probably helped by a dose of luck, the sniper made a point of saying that it was one of those perfect days condition wise with non-existant wind and such... What impressed me on it , was that with consecutive shots he hit #1 taliban, #2 taliban, and then hit the machine gun they were trying to use... A single shot can get put down to pure fluke. But a second follow-up shot to a guy stood next to the first target.. and then a third to the weapon.. That has to be much more of a combination of skill and luck.

Yes , but it's more James Bond style romances.. so you get to woo a few femme fatales, possibly an innocent caught up in it, and then have the careful fade out before anything serious happens. So there shouldn't be the "oh my god, that's a hint of alien boob!!" type of action that caused a storm with Mass Effect...

Appreciation for the skills of a craftsman (or woman) under dangerous circumstances... People quote baseball stats, soccer scores, all sorts of sports related trivia... and there's that old saying about sport being practice for war... What's interesting is that a lot of those "high score snipers" when asked years later how they felt about the number of people they killed in their military careers.. they all tend to have some variation of "it was a job they told me to do, so I did it to the best of my ability."

I haven't time to read the piece right now, but the preferred density of troops in WW2 was something like a division to a few miles of front. That's what? 20,000 men to choose from? Well, the Soviets invaded Finland with around 450,000 men in 21 divisions... So yes, roughly around 21,000 men a division. Soviet military commander Kirill Meretskov reported at the start of the hostilities: "The terrain of coming operations is split by lakes, rivers, swamps, and is almost entirely covered by forests... The proper use of our forces will be difficult." Throw in the fact that they invaded just after Stalin had done one of his "officer purges", and the Soviet forces weren't exactly hopping with experienced officers.. Weather conditions hit record lows of around -43 C... and the Soviets tried using blitzkrieg tactics on countryside where there were few to no roads, and an abundance of bad terrain... and troops outfitted with regular khaki uniforms, so I'm guessing they kind of stood out... Now the White Death served at the Battle of Kollaa which lasted from around December '39 to March '40 , and Kollaa is a stream surrounded by lots of ridges, and the Soviets had no skis and had trouble going cross-country so were stuck to using the limited number of actual roads in the area.... So I'm guessing a good sniper working in those conditions....

I quite liked the

A British Army sniper has earned a place in military history by killing two taliban machine gunners from more then a mile and a half away. The record breaking shots felled the insurgents with consecutive bullets - even though they were 3,200 feet beyond the official range of the rifle.... Each bullet took approximately 3 seconds to reach their target. Super Sniper

There was something along the lines of about 12 hours of cinematic type footage in the game, and in any single playthrough, you'll see about 3 or 4 hours of it.. So it would take about 3 fairly different playthrough attempts to see all of that..

That's just sad. You don't get to carry one around or stock one in your safe house armory.. Just have to make do with an assault rifle with scope and such for any long distance potting.... But wasn't there some mention that you might have some specialized missions where you get access to a sniper rifle for specific point/s in those missions?

I did like Brown's first speech after his visit to the queen.. in which he made a point of saying why should people risk a change of government now... Risk? Where's the risk? The economy is in the crapper, trust in the government is fairly non-existant, and they've parcelled a lot of power out to un-elected qwongocrats and consultants.... Maybe I'm a bit cynical after 13 years of "New Labour" but I really can't see how anyone else could make it worse.

To me, that's just the set-up to the story... the hook that starts you off, not the plot and twisty routes you might go through.. But then, maybe I'm just warped. Or read waay too many spy stories...

Hm, you mean the whole ? I kind of thought that was something mentioned as the whole start off for the plot back when they started talking about AP... It is kind of the central spy trope that's been around for James Bond, Jason Bourne, and Jack Bauer. It was up there in the first trailer over a year ago. And why there were a fair few jokes about similarities with the tv series Burn Notice The whole.. "burned spy called Michael..."

Kicked back for a lazy sunday afternoon.. and went nostalgic since the dvd set of Parker Lewis Can't Lose turned up.. It's just so.. 90's influenced by the 80's. And beyond the whole humourous look back at the styles... it's still actually quite funny.

Ah hah! Buried in the depths I hadn't found yet..

One thought that struck me (as I can't actually remember hearing about it one way or the other in any of the interviews) but does anyone know how saved games are handled in AP? Is it just a checkpoint system that's not going to give you much control of reloading previous saves if you want to see what key changes happen some hours later if you handle things differently? Is it the "standard" rpg save anywhere and many, many times approach? Or is it some combination of both? Checkpoints within missions, but "proper" saves when you're in a Safehouse? I could see why limited save options might work to add a level of intensity and push you to replay from the start to see how things turn out.. (after all, it did add to the challenge in Hitman games to see if you could finish missions without making any saves) Which made me wonder if they've done this, or are letting you save whenever.. So how do people hope / prefer their saves to be handled for what they expect from AP?

Oh the best bit was when he was in an interview just shortly afterwards.. He was trying to play it down, and they did a "and we have the clip here to play" ... Brown's body language and expression just.. schlumped. It was quite amusing in that manner.

As was mentioned elsewhere... if Brown loses, just how much power will Mandelson end up with?

I have a hard time playing evil as well i couldnt do it in kotor ill try and play evil in alpha protocol in my third or fourth playthrough. It's probably because you think "yeah, I'll try evil this time" and then as you play most games, the "evil" choices are usually really psychotic stupid choices rather then evil so you end up not using them.......

Ah but did you catch the news on Mandelson trying to put the spin on Brown's latest gaffe? Some reporter made a semi-snarky comment, so Mandelson turned round and did the whole high and mighty "Some people have the stress and worry of running for office at the moment." A reporter promptly replied "Unlike you." That man is like a vampire.. someone seriously needs to stake him out. How many times can he come back from total disgrace and resume a position of power in the government....

A fair few games that solidly fit into a specific genre do get reviews that match with how they actually play... and can be competently judged against other games in the genre... Crysis can be compared/contrasted with most other fps... Neverwinter could be compared/contrasted against most other fantasy rpgs...

Hm, I get the feeling that this is going to be one of those games where it'll be best to ignore the reviews and actually play the game yourself to get a feel for it. Gameplay, story, and the whole deal with the dialogue system and potential for consequences all seem to be geared towards being something thats really going to shift on your own point of view...

Offhand, I think my first play through will probably be a mish-mash of choices... I'll play the dialogue system a bit like a a covert operative figuring the best way to "connect" with the people I judge important.... as in research them, read their dossiers and figure out how best to manipulate them to the benefit of the mission... Skillwise, I won't really know until I actually get hold of the game and play the start up and see how it handles and what really appeals to me.. but from what I've seen in the assorted trailers and intervies, I can be fairly definite in putting a lot of points in Stealth.. as for the rest.. I'm inclined to try a bit of martial arts, pistols, assault rifles, and maybe a bit of tech aptitude.. but I can't judge to what extent until I have it installed in front of me

Anderson and the Alliance just knew that human colonies out in the Terminus were going missing.. (there's a whole bunch of politics there as well, the human colonies that established themselves out in the Terminus were the people who wanted to get away from the Alliance and not be interfered with..). For various reasons, they suspected Cerberus as the force behind it.... Then tIM gave a few rumours about Shep and Horizon to manipulate Anderson into sending Ashley/Kaiden to look into it... Yeah, once Horizon is done, and you've encountered Ashley/Kaiden you do get a few different dialogue lines when talking to Anderson at the Citadel.. but I can't remember off-hand if you have to check with the Citadel for possible Alliance backing before Horizon is doable or not... You might have to talk with Anderson and the Council first, then go to Horizon, then go back to anderson.. hm, its been a few months and my memory is going spotty on that...

Heh, I've had mine on pre-order from Amazon.co.uk for over a year now... and they don't seem to have any of the bonus packs.. tsk.. and it would feel wrong to cancel it after this long and so close to the release date.. Ah well.. c'est la vie.

From what I saw in it, I kind of gathered that to the galaxy at large, the Collectors are half mythical, kind of the Kaiser Sozhe of the Terminus Systems... Even Cerberus wasn't sure it was the Collector's behind it until Shep did his discovery run.. (okay, tIM seemed to know/guess, but he didn't have proof so wasn't saying anything until firm evidence was uncovered). There was a brief bit where the Human Alliance actually thought Cerberus was behind the disapearancs... so, Anderson is being very careful around resurrected Shep.

The timer aspect of the dialogue stances is meant to be a big part of the immersion in the game.... It's the whole "you're a spy involved and you have to make snap decisions based on what you know". The gameplay is styled on making you feel that sort of tension and involvement... which might not happen if with every conversation you can spend 10 minutes considering it, walking off to make a cup of tea and various other activities.... Also note, while the stances will let you choose the style in which Mike talks, you have no clue as to what he's actually going to be saying. Several of the interviews have mentioned they did some testing with it (the whole eleoctode sensor doohickies on people and such) and were getting similar adrenaline / brain rush activity from the conversations as most twitch based shooters get from running & gunning...