WorstUsernameEver

He also has green hair.

Yup, but love it or hate it should NEVER be based on how much patience has a gamer to endure all the technical glitches the game has fun throwing to them. Now, I don't want to sound like I think the programmers put bugs in the game to have fun, but Obsidian, as a company, should really think hard about how they're managing this stuff.

True, but it's also supposed to be for Xbox360.. not to mention that this kind of pre-order packs are hastily done, so with the time that Obsidian seems to have for the game, I don't think they really did want to devote their artists attention to a pre-order item.

The sense of intrigue is so empowering it

Melissan.. another villain that deserved a better build-up and a less obvious revelation.

Assuming that's true, I may have to think very carefully about giving my money to Obsidian again. This time they had 4 years, there are simply no excuses.

An 'unfinished' game? That's pretty hard.

It would feel a bit strange to have completely different models of vault suits though, especially since apparently Nevada's suits are the same as the east coast's one.

=/ We had the specs for a long time though, have you never noticed before Oner? Still, mid-tier video cards that are much better than yours are much cheaper now.

Sorry, I didn't explain myself clearly at all. Polish is basically a multi-faceted word and tackles almost every component of the game. Granted, glitches are always present in a game, other area in which Alpha Protocol apparently feels unpolished are graphics, gameplay (wonky balance, bad AI and bad minigames design), camera controls, and apparently, if the Bit-tech review is to be believed, area design/layout. Also, Obsidian has a reputation of buggy games (the unfinished KOTOR2, Neverwinter Nights 2 which was far too ambitious for Obsidian's possibilities and came out full of bugs with a couple of nasty gamebreaking bugs too) which colors the perception of the game. Many people will probably be unconsciously be looking for bugs when they play and trust me, they will remember them. There's also the matter that some feel the game 'trick them' and don't like the stat-driven shooting mechanics because they stretch too much their suspension of disbelief and the fact that the writing and choices & consequences has been almost ignored by the reviews (with a couple of exceptions) so far. I also want to add that I'm actually looking forward to my Alpha Protocol's playthrough. It's not about the game itself that I'm worried (though I hope I don't encounter issues eheh) but rather about its reception and what influence this will have on the future of Obsidian and western rpgs.

True, but it's a good marketing ploy. I remember people complaining about the absence of collector's edition bonus items on Bethesda's blog and forums, and even on The Vault. Yeah, but mostly console players. On a PC, with mods, they're pretty pointless. They're pointless, but then again, not everyone mods the game even in the PC crowd. Actually I'd argue that a fair portion of the PC crowd doesn't even know how to mod the game.

Looking at the comments of some sites (I'm talking about sites like RPGWatch, not casual sites), some comments about the technical polish and bugs here, plus some fairly major gaming sites and mags slamming the game could hurt the game. Also, to be pretty honest, three unpolished games in a row (at least they finished this though, but it took 4 years) it's not a good track record and reduces a lot my expectations for new Obsidian projects. Sad but true.

Looks like my negativity was pretty well-justified.

Let's start from the beginning, shall we? Last year (it was september IIRC) I began a GURPS campaign with some of my friends, set in an urban fantasy incredibly stereotype version of Los Angeles, when pretty much every walking NPC except the plot-important ones are either hobos, incredibly racist gun nuts, gangsters and morbidly obese police officers. Now why, I'm sure you're asking me, the hell have you opened this topic? Well, various reasons, but mainly for feedback, detailing what happens in the campaign, suggestion to make the campaign and my DMing skills better and insults to the italian government. So now I'm going to detail the basic ideas behind the setting, what has happened until now and what could possibly happen in the future assuming I don't change my plan and that the players don't completely change the outcome of the story (it already happened once). I'll post about the setting soon, for now feel free to suggest me bits of USA pop-culture to enhance the setting and make it feel less cookie-cutter.

Completely off-topic but has your nickname anything to do with Savatage?

Big reviews will probably be lukewarm or outright negative though, not to mention that for some people a score under 85% is already a negative itself. Also, negative comments are surfacing pretty much everywhere, so I'm wondering how polished is the game exactly.. hope it's better than Bloodlines from that point of view.

Now that I think about it, Sarevok had a pretty similar motivation (becoming a god), but felt much more threatening and well-motivated to me, not to mention the great build-up we had straight from the cinematic that opens the game.

To be honest, I don't think the devs went that far with making Kreia a liar.. there are some bits (like when she's training you) where is pretty clear that she's being honest with you and I think what made her interesting as a character was that she was a teacher to your character not the 'LULZ SITH LORD!' bits in the end. Granted, the restoration pack makes the ending better, but I still think the execution could have used some work (feels strange to see the so manipulative Kreia simply beat you and go to Malachor V instead of tricking you into going there or something).

Meh, I don't think Irenicus is THAT good as a villain. To be honest I've quite a lot of difficulties in finding a credible WRPG villain.. Kreia was a good character, but she fell flat as a villain in the end, Irenicus has a great build-up but I never felt he was interesting enough as a villain , The Master, considering the structure of Fallout, feels a bit tacked-on at the end, and while the Enclave has a better build-up they feel a bit flat and uninteresting as villains (they fit nicely in the setting though) and I could go on...

I'm already imagining all the fun we'll get when inevitably this project turns out to NOT be Obsidian's unannounced project.

Wow, that's an high score indeed, something to compare it to (from Canard PC reviews obviously) ?

I don't think it'll mean the death for OEI (though it will hurt their reputation as you say). But mark my words, 5 years from now we'll start seeing the occasional retrospective articles on Alpha Protocol as with Bloodlines. Let's hope they're still alive 5 years from now, then.

True, but it's a good marketing ploy. I remember people complaining about the absence of collector's edition bonus items on Bethesda's blog and forums, and even on The Vault.

I have the feeling that this could be the Vampire : Bloodlines of Obsidian and I'd be quite happy if it wasn't for the fact that.. well.. Bloodlines meant death for Troika. Well, I doubt Obsidian will die for Alpha Protocol, considering first sales seems to be decent and they have Fallout : New Vegas in the work, but it could seriously cripple Obsidian, and destroy their possibilities for working on new IPs for a long time if it was really that flawed and unsuccessful.

His feelings about the game are fine, it's not like a reviewer can't dislike a game, especially if he explains why, but going by the comments on this forum, it simply sounds like he's bad at it. Also, doing two reviews for two different sites sounds indeed strange, though I'm not an expert on this kind of things.