Raithe

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...

To jump back to the original story a moment.. Part of the issue is not that the "jokes" were there, but that the memo also contained serious aspects. So it couldn't be dismissed just as a "joke memo" going around, it was a working memo that had a bunch of serious stuff, and then had the "jokey" stuff mixed in.... which blurs the edges of how it would have been taken. Plus a lot of people are tending to get the perception that Catholics (and other forms of Christianity) are getting very short shrift on political correctness matters these days.. Such as the amount of jobs where people are not allowed to wear crosses or such as visible symbols of faith for the potential "offense" it might cause non-christians. Whereas plenty of non-christian religions have some very visible symbols that have staff are allowed to wear because it might offend their religion... So there's a certain level of "if it was x religion rather then the Catholic Church there would have been a bigger fuss and someone would have lost their job already...". Personally I'm standing on the sidelines and playing devil's advocate from both sides. I'm cheerfully agnostic, and tend to feel that any organised religion has a tendency to shift personal faith into peer-pressure symbols where the belief is in the rote activities rather then in the faith.

Now it might also be my paranoia running rampant But also half the cabinet the past decade were also scottish marxists... Makes one wonder... Scotland gets its own parliment, can make its own laws, and now gets a say in how the UK government (which is all the government England has..) is run.. and gets access to the whole tax base.. The same gets said for the Welsh parliment that's up and running.... It just seems to me that makes a rather confusing mess... "we want our independance. we want our own government. oh, and while we're at it, we want to be able to interfere in your government, and have your taxes." The other funny thing over the 13 years of Labour running things.. Have you noticed how many census forms, or general official forms these days where you have to note your background offer up choices of "Scottish, Welsh, Irish, or British" , apparently according to most official forms you just can't be English these days....

Ah, the question of how much are spoilers, and how much is just pure tease... At least tis but one more month before I can sink my teeth into this..

It's actually true. Although I can't quite define the term "rabid", but yes, during their college/university days they were all seriously socialist marxist followers... Then it became the general political joke a decade ago that the UK no longer had a leftist government party and a rightist government party.. we just had three confused parties that met somewhere in the middle..

The silly was restrained for the early fallouts? The game box came with a "this game is rated mature due to violence, drug use, and extreme use of monty python references" sticker on it...

Because democracy in action is about a popularity contest for the mob? And long term issues rarely appeal to the masses. Short term, shiny things work better during election times. Or is that just me being a touch cynical?

Activation limits are annoying.. but I don't know.. when you get the activation back when you uninstall a game, I don't really see that much of a major problem with it.. (although it's pain if your machine crashes out big style and you need to reinstall everything without being able to uninstall it first..). But with 5 or so activations that isn't a huuuge problem. It's when you have activation limits that you can only use once that are the serious issue.

"If there was a way to get magic for free, do you really think I'd have spent so much time sacrificing children to my dark gods? For spells, I mean. Obviously there'd still be sacrifices. A hobby's a hobby." - But threadwise, hm, just think what Deus Ex would be like...

I keep feeling like I know Mike's voice from somewhere... but tsk.. nothing springs out from his imdb listing.. It's starting to annoy me now...

Wait, is that subsonic ammo only being available if you have the stealth pack pre-order bonus, or that the ammo type is in the game regardless of your copy but you get to start of with some as the bonus rather then having to wait and buy it via your safe houses later in the game? Subsonic ammo would seem a very important aspect of playing a stealth route in the game, and would kind of suck if you could only get access through a specific pre-order that's only available in the states..

Shame on you. Kate Beckinsale in that outfit... and you ahven't watched it?? To visit the topic, have they actually shown much of the Saudi Arabia hub apart from the weapons dealers depot out in the back of beyond? I kind of get the idea that a good weaponsdealer / terrorist isn't going to stash an arms depot in the middle of the city.. I mean, it might not be the most realistic for aesthetics in some areas.... but that's one devil's advocate thought.

There's also Biowares new concept of making "free" DLC as part of the whole "buy a legit copy and you get access to this on day one". It's a semi-effective way of approaching piracy and the second-hand game market. Develop one sort of extensive DLC (ala Zaeed and Shale) specifically to coax people into buying the game first.. Then some months down the line release other similar versions for the cost of a couple of drinks from a cafe.. I think Kasumi's mission made a more interesting setup then Zaeed's. The whole "run around a factory on some jungle planet" was very similar to other areas within the game. While Kasumi's "mansion party break in" was something a bit more shiny and different from the rest of the game.