zkylon

I spotted two references to David Bowie so far Heck talking about TVC-15 as some sort of M12 organization and Byarko doing the "put your red shoes and dance!".

I liked some of Taipei's tunes.

Wether it's announced or not, i'm hyped for another AP. I don't see what's so weird about that. I think all criticism is remediable. I think that Bioware did that right too but Obsidian doesn't seem to have the resources for it. I'd like them to avoid further developement hell as much as possible...

I'm with you on everything but changing the sex/body/face thing. While some changing is fine, AP relies heavily on how strong the characters are. If you turned them into generic Shepards or something like that, Mike/Female Mike would lose a lot of personality and Obsidian would have to work twice as much into making romancing options, etc. I think that making Mike a he was a smart move by Obsidian and they should stick to that. Make the game A LOT more nonlinear and just enhance every aspect of it and the masterpiece starts to shape. With reviews as mixed as these, Obs should really restrategize and try to just perfect instead of enlarge. I'm hugely hyped for AP2, but i don't want it to go the way of Deus Ex. And finally, i agree, well done Obsidian, Alpha Protocol's a fantastic game This.

I've found grenades to be a good way of circunventing my lack of pistol skill and still get ranged non-lethal take downs. They're also a great way to get enemies that are above you and that would be hard to headshot. I always pack as many non-lethal nades as i can and end up using 3 or 4.

I don't have one and even if i had i'd rather use mouse & keyboard. It's not particularily bothersome to me but i'd appreciate being able to walk by holding alt or something.

Check the ini files (forgot where they were, i think x:/documents and settings/application data/alpha protocol/). There's a load of stuff there ranging from keyboard mappings and graphical settings to experience needed to level up and AI behaviours. Do a search for "dialogue" or something and might find it. I'd do it myself but i'm not at home atm...

The flashbang's cool if you have a room with 2+ enemies in it. You just pop a flashbang and do silent takedowns on everyone. It's not 100% effective but i've found it useful. The non-lethal grenade is kinda sucky though. It'd be a lot better if it were a silent mine or something like that but instead it's noisy, inaccurate and has low effect radius.

Maybe it's on input.ini or something? Haven't checked yet. I love having all those editable .ini files at my disposal :D

Yeah, no walking, unfortunately.

I think it's not just a big deal of how much harsh treatement AP got, but how brand name games get away with murder.

I get what you mean but a game can't be turn based unless you literally take turns to act.

I'm at the last mission in Saudi Arabia and i'm loving it. I've had some frustration, since my Tech Specialist character seems not to have been the best of choices, specially since most gadgets reveal my position away. I hope that in my next hub i find some more useful gadgets. Can't wait for the sound generator... Though it's a good thing i can bypass the hacking...

It is an active skill. I used it during the Tutorial but then it worked no more. I poured some points on stealth to get it to master level and it's working again.

I think i can say now that the negativity is real. I get the feeling it's got the unnecessary harshness for not being a big brand. Like Kane & Lynch. My problem with it is that big brand games are far from perfect (MW2's SP was absurde, if ME2's "streamlining" isn't dumbing down i don't know what that is, Fallout 3 was a mess all around). But yeah, the negativity unfortunately is real. I sure hope it doesn't go down like Troika.

Well, in Deus Ex, a silenced sniper rifle was way overpowered too. No game is perfectly balanced.

I just beat the first mission of Saudi Arabia and i haven't found any gamebreaking bugs. I do think the game's too linear for my taste so far, though some open areas are very cool. And i like my safehouse and all, but i miss towns The most annoying thing so far is how long does it take to buy equipement. You buy grenades one at a time and it hangs about 5 seconds every time i buy something or just want to look at the next item. It's just the shop menu that feels unoptimized, because the other menus run beautifully. It's a pity because i'm considering ditching Tech Specialist for something that involves less menu browsing (and because i pretty much just love to sneak in the game anyways). About the Bit-Tech guy, maybe he has a grudge against someone at Obsidian or something. Stiff characters? Overlong dialogue? Has this guy ever played an RPG before? So far i'm surprised by how likeable i found Mina and Darcy.

I find that the AI is not the brightest it's more of moments where the AI just goes crazy and does weird thing while for the most part it manages to whoop your ass. At least they sure bring down hell when they spot my stealthy pacifist Mike...

I've been playing the game for a short while now and so far, i love it. It's a little not-so-comfortable and i've ran across some stupid AI and more than a few bugs (though none gamebreaking) but so far it's pretty awesome. Only thing i mind is that even if the game runs at 60fps it stutters a little bit everytime i enter a room or move the camera fast. It led to me getting seen once so it's kind of annoying and it's my biggest grievance so far. Other than that, i still think the game looks great (even if the motion blur is off the charts and i had to turn it off), being stealthy is really fun and i'm surprised by how much more tense the dialogue is when you don't have all the time in the world to answer. Haven't ran across a chance to use my tech expertise but so far it's one of the greatest tutorials ever lol (yeah, i know, i'm totally biased )

I mean that they were looking for the wrong thing in Alpha Protocol. Maybe it's the over the shoulder camera or the modern setting, but with so many people playing it like a shooter, i can see how people can find it dissapointing. But people that knows what Obsidian's all about want something entirely different, which isn't mentioned in a lot of reviews. I mean, i don't think anyone here expects Uncharted-like action in AP. We want the great writing and characters and so far the reviews have concentrated their criticism in aspects that are somewhat minor to AP. The 1.0 user review doesn't even mention dialogue. The 5.0 user review is barely readeable and the 7.0 is just a few hours in. Those aren't either conclusive nor trustworthy reviews. And Gamestop is a number and a debatable quote. At the same time, there's about 5 foreign professional (though arguably ) reviews giving it mid-high 80s. I don't see that much negativity. Kotaku, IGN, the real Gamespot review, 1Up, etc. don't have their reviews up yet and 3 user reviews is hardly quorum. By the way, Gametrailers contest:

But that was expected. Unfortunately, not everyone 'gets' Alpha Protocol. Just like not everybody gets Deus Ex or Half Life. There's just been a lot of people not getting it. So far, everyone that was expecting an Obsidian RPG outta AP has expressed being pleased.

I don't think there's that much negativity. I mean, we all knew it'd come to wether the reviewer sees past the bugs (which is something longtime fans of the genre have always somewhat overlooked). Bethesda or Bioware are just more influencial. I don't know if they payed off reviewers, but i can't believe for the life of me the same reviewers couldn't find as many bugs in Fallout 3 or Mass Effect 2.

Well, they gave Bloodlines a 7.7 (http://www.gamespot.com/pc/rpg/vtmb/index....ult%3Btitle%3B0) so it's pretty clear they don't know what makes RPG gamers tick.

Felt the same way with the PS2 comparison. Even just the normal maps set this generation's graphics miles apart from last generation's, not to mention shaders and higher poly models. Agh, i hate those uneducated disses. The other day, actually, i showed one of those videos of Mike talking to deep throat Balaklava to a friend and his only comment was about how great the game looked, specially the facial animations. And i agree.

PC all the way! Console game prices are a little err...impossible in Argentina.