WorstUsernameEver

One thing I always found interesting about this is that the original lead left for Bioware and his project.. came out pretty buggy and almost unfinished (in that the ending was anticlimatic for a lot of people) even at Bioware. I don't want to blame Ferret Badouin, but from my point of view, it's looking more and more like who's the lead and directs the project influences a LOT the games being made. By the way, I liked Neverwinter Nights 2, but I don't think that was the point.

Sounds plausible because he knows more about a production cycle of a game and the team habits than most of your trolls. Doesn't really mean it's true, and that's obvious for anyone who has a brain. Now that you make me think about it, most of the people who comment on the type of sites that posted the news, don't have a brain , but I don't think that's the article writers' fault.

You're awfully defensive, here, so let's to reply in a calmer tone. Yeah, there's a lot of maybe and a lot of speculations. But you are the first to complain that the guy didn't post the same about KOTORII without even knowing the circumstances. The image that comes into people's mind of Obsidian? Yeah, it's that of a buggy games developer. Not a totally undeserved one, but also one that doesn't take into account the general bugginess of other AAA RPG developers like Bethesda (Fallout 3 was a nightmare made of stuttering and crashes on PC, and as far as I've heard, Oblivion shared the same problems). The world isn't america? Oh my, never knew about that! Guess I never noticed I live outside of the USA, . And yeah, I know reviews on european mags were generally above average. I have to wonder, though, if Alpha Protocol's target market was the niche/RPG enthusiast kind of market that praised the game. And note, again, that I mentioned 'major gaming sites', those like IGN and Gamespot. And yeah, my feeling is that, like it or not, they do have a large base and their reviews are quite influent. How much? That I don't know. I'm simply going by facts, I haven't played the game, I can't say if those reviews are undeserved or not, I can't say how much I like the writing, I can't say if the action mechanics grab me. I also have personally enjoyed action RPG with terrible combat before (Vampire : Bloodlines spring to mind) so it's actually probable that I will enjoy the game.

Actually New Vegas production cycle is closer to 18 months, and Knights of the Old Republic II came unfinished so.. it's not exactly a good example. Granted, if it was a bigger and more technically competent (let's be honest) team than Obsidian it would have probably came out completed, but still.. To answering his question, I guess it varies wildly depending on the size of the team, how much the publisher is willing to let the team work on it, the scope of the game and also the talent of the dev team working on it, though that's difficult to measure.

Maybe he wasn't on the team during the KOTOR2 days. Maybe he thought that the game turned out well in spite of the limited timeframe, so he didn't feel like he had to defend the team. Maybe he's still bitter at Chris Parker for scrapping his many suggestions to fix the gameplay. Who knows? I'm not arguing that what the guy did was professional or even just intelligent.. I'm just arguing that it could be true, and given the possibility, I, as a journalist, would publish it in a news. As simple as that. As for 'hurting sales', let's be honest, I doubt that this comment will hurt sales, if anything, it will be the major gaming sites review that are lukewarm at best that will hurt the game sales.

I don't think anyone argued that what that dev did was professional, but it seems that, since some of you like the game a lot, you're totally discarding the possibility of it being true. I think I've seen a lot of other anonymous comments and similar posted on video games sites and blogs, so it was pretty obvious that this would end up in a couple of news post pretty quickly. Is it ethical? Actually, if I were a journalist, I'd have posted exactly as they did : explaining that it comes from an anonymous source, that it's not necessarily true, but that it also has a bit more substance than your usual troll post (otherwise, why would I be posting it?). Then, obviously, Jim 'toughguy' Sterling goes with 'itsucksitsucksitsucks' but then, again, that was to be expected to. Is there a damage campaign against the game? Honestly, I doubt it. Maybe Alpha Protocol is a more acceptable target to bash than some other games, that's true, but I doubt that reviewers want to damage the game to pursue some hidden agenda.

The 2 comes from Jim Sterling though. It's mr.'I gave 10 to Deadly Premonition', not exactly someone I would take seriously.. unfortunately Metacritic does take him seriously.

Guess it'll be a Chris Taylor's project or something. Hope it can be interesting.

Screenshot from a magazine. Interesting.

True, though it is to expect that some sort of drama always happens. Its just a normal workplace like any other. It's still not nice to attack them, though. Keep in mind that we're always reading this dev 'response' but who has read all the comments? I have the feeling that he was angered because the comments called the programmers behind the game lazy, hacks, or similar, come on, he even commented about how they almost never eat outside of the studio! Of course, that doesn't prove that the comment really comes to a dev, but, let's just say that it at least proves that this was a very elaborate troll.

Yeah, and I agree. To an extent I actually like cartoonish villains, as long as the story doesn't pretend to be deep or should be taken seriously. But I really really doubt that was the intent with Irenicus (that could have been the intent with Melissan however, but the execution was poor). Darth Malak? A good cartoonish villain. Fits the setting to a T, does menacing things and is even connected to the protagonist directly.

No, you're not the only one who noticed.

There's a rather big difference between various types of villains, and the 'pathetic' villain who's basically a cry-baby that wants a revenge against the world it's not my favorite. Considering, you know, I had that phase too during my adolescence, it strikes me as 'over 9000 immaturity'. And that's the vibe I honestly got from Irenicus.

Yup, it's far from confirmed that the 'a tired dev' comment comes from a true developer, but to be perfectly honest, EVERY article mentions this point, and if it's a troll, I must admit is one of the best trolls I've ever seen, since he got Chris Parker's name right, defends the team, etc. I'm inclined to believe that it really comes from someone who worked on the game, though, that doesn't really mean much. Thinking about it, the way he talks about the game, it's almost like he was one of the 'real designer' he mentions, bitter about the fact that his suggestion for the game got (probably) rejected. The point I'm trying to make is that we'll never know the truth about this game's development cycle for at least some years, so it's pointless to jump to conclusions. Also, note that some other people, like Alvin, seem very positive and proud about the game they've worked on. Granted, he could be lying, but I don't see why he should.

I was just judging what the interviews + shots of the trailer showed me, nothing more. Is that a screenshot of the game or pre-rendered?

keep in mind that iwd is extremely "linear." there is a world map in iwd, but you have a very limited number o' available locations you may travel to, and no random encounter possibility. the critical path gots a simple a-b-c-d kinda progression, so if the illusion o' freedom is important to you, then iwd will have limited appeal. also, unlike bg1, am not certain that a mod were ever created to enhance the interface, screen resolution and character development choice availability... am unaware of an iwd tutu as it were. no kensai/mages in iwd. compared to bg1, iwd benefited from better writing, more varied combat... and more tunnels. HA! Good Fun! I'm pretty sure I saw an high-resolution mod for IWD, but whatever, as long as there's a way to play it windowed I'm ok. And personally, I've never been a fan of Baldur's Gate style exploration (there was very little to explore IMHO, most was just filler to increase the time you spent between plot important locations), so it all sounds very good in my book. It should also be relatively cheap these days, so I'll see if I can grab a copy after my exams, during summer.. you know, for the time I spend in my home and not on the beach, or with my friends, or.. studying.

^ SEGA Japan =/= SEGA USA. Not that I know much of Sega at all, except that AvP and AP (both with A and P as their initials in the title, yeah! ) turned out to be mediocre games (according to the reviewers.. me? didn't play them, except a quick try of the AvP mp demo).

By the way Gromnir, now you've made me interested in grabbing Icewind Dale and giving it a try.

Then you can join the Dragon Age... Storm of Zehir discussion!

Problems with Storm of Zehir imho were two : - lack of an engine that supported that style of gameplay well (if you don't have a fast enough computer say goodbye to the gameplay and hello to loading screens!); - lackluster main quest path, with encounters and dialogue not strong enough to make anyone who isn't a fan of the combat still play the game; I don't think it's as bad as Volourn is making it to be, I had fun with it, and honestly, part of the fun also came from seeing how some modders implemented SoZ features in their mod (see the splendid, Ravenloft-based, Misery Stone), but it's no masterpiece at all. I'd give it a 6/6,5 on 10.

The Seven Dwarves resurrected? For a moment I though that 'Resurrected' was part of the title. Imagine it for a moment, it would be fun : you're the decaying corpse of a dwarf, member of a band of seven, bandits that roamed through the kingdom and wreaked havoc. Then one day.. you were killed. And now, resurrected thanks to a clueless necromancer that just wanted a skeleton but picked up the wrong scroll, you're back... for your vengeance!! ... No, it sounds sucky. Really though, I'd be interested in knowing what Seven Dwarves was, and, for the matter, what Project New Jersey or whatever was the name of the project that Annie Carlson whines so much about the fact that it was canceled. I have the feeling that if it really was that good as a project, I'd end up whining too though, so maybe it's for the best.

Matt 'beardless' McLean is reading. Will he announce that the new project will be 'The Beard RPG' ?

I have to share your criticism. They think Deus Ex didn't have a distinctive art style? Ok, that's fine, tweak the art style. But the cities in Deus Ex looked NOTHING like this. ...meh. Still cautiously optimistic, but I don't understand moves like this. Not at all.

Nope. The boxed PC version uses Uniloc DRM, which means you'll need to be online to activate the game the first time you run it, but after that it should be ok as far as I know.