WorstUsernameEver

I like the answers, especially when Parker explains that, yes, Alpha Protocol isn't as hardcore as some old rpgs, but it's the right amount for what they wanted to accomplish. Of course some HARDCORE rpg-ers will take this statement the wrong way, but who cares.

You know but others don't, and it's easier to clear that mess before someone jumps on and says 'Obsidian is made of ex-Troika devs? AWESOME' imho.

Very strange that they skipped Fable II though... maybe we'll see a rushed port to put it into a 'trilogy' very expensive pack?

Uhm.. I'd say probably no for now, for various reasons. First of all, let's clear a common misconception: Obsidian being the devs behind Bloodlines. No, they're not. That was Troika. I think a couple of Troika's devs went to Obsidian after Troika disbanded, including Brian Mitsoda, I think he was the lead writer behind Bloodlines (lead or not, he worked on a lot of the dialogue of the game anyway). Mitsoda worked on Alpha Protocol for a time, making a lot of the characters with Annie Carlson (which has worked on.. Storm of Zehir I think) and working on one of the first drafts of the story, later scrapped in favor of the version that's being published. He left Obsidian to found his personal indie dev team which is.. Doublebear or what the hell it's called, and he's now working on the awesome concept known as ZRPG, an isometric, turn-based, survival role playing game set during a zombie apocalypse. Second, Obsidian now has its hands full.I mean, we don't know for sure what the 'unannounced project' is, so there is still a spot open, but for now there's really nothing that suggests that it's a Vampire rpg, if anything, some little tidbits would suggest that it's a fantasy class-based rpg (mind you, that's extreme speculation on my part and will probably turn out wrong when they announce what it really is), they're also working on Fallout : New Vegas and the Wheel of Time game(s?) with Red Eagle Games at the lead. Third, I believe that for now White Wolf isn't interested in single-player CRPG. Could be because the games published until now have been either canceled or have utterly failed (Vampire : Bloodlines is awesome, but it sold very poorly at the beginning.. I believe it's only selling decently now that Wesp has patched it), or because there's a World of Darkness MMORPG they've been working on (well, technically it's the developer they contracted that's working on it with them supervising). So... yeah, I think we'll have to wait before we see another Vampire game, especially one as awesome as Bloodlines... let's hope not too long.

Only part of this screens are from the Strip, the rest either from Primm or some faction's camp (very probably only the New California's one). Anyway, I like A LOT the look of the Strip. It's like so kind of El Dorado, with the people of the Mojave wasteland living their ****ty life and the walled and protected New Vegas citizen living a luxurious, pre-war style life. There's definitely a nice contrast and while some people will complain that it's not enough post-apocalyptic, I think it's good that they play a bit with the concept, otherwise we'd end up getting very similar, stale and boring stories.

Sounds pretty much like what I expected and I must say.. that's awesome. Good to see that 'til now I haven't heard anyone complaining about technical issues... does this mean that Alpha Protocol is the first... polished... Obsidian game? I certainly hope so.

I agree with all Gromnir's considerations. They could at list go for a mixed approach between accuracy and damage so even if you're dead-on accurate you can still put points raising your weapon damage (and with the damage threshold return, this could indeed be important) or... most probably the designers could come up with something better and more balanced than some rambling on a forum. Or at least they should.

Yup, as funcroc already clarified. To be honest, I've been mislead by someone posting the Sonia IM (or whatever her name is) in a thread about the surprising and shocking/revolutionary announcement of Square Enix Japan that no-one would believe.

This time I'll anticipate our dear funcroc: new milestone just rolled in on project X! Can't wait to reveal the latest and greatest RPG to come outta Square Enix. From David Hoffman's twitter.

I'm actually wondering if Beth will keep some of these changes in Fallout 4 or if they will overhaul the skill system once again. Too soon to think about that probably, but whatever.

Strength requirements for big guns, perception for small guns, perhaps intelligence for energy? I'd go for something like that. The merge wouldn't even bother me if something like that occured. So long as overall we don't winde up with an even less balanced skill system and level cap. I know they've said the game will go up to thirty, but that won't really be a problem if we get fewer points and more skills to dump them into. Strength for all weapons would suffice with heavy weapons being wielded by only particularly strong characters you'd eliminate the problem of sneak characters the occasionally pull out a mingun and clear off a room full of heavily armed Nightkin. Energy weapons is still separated from Firearms, and I personally don't think that small arms need a requirement at all. I really doubt that the Obsidian team can pull off a system even less balanced than Fallout 3 anyway.

I hope they reintroduced strength requirements for weapons too, I think it would complement the system rather well.

Meh. I'd prefer stat increases through dialog/quests instead, like in FO1&2. Hopefully they are at least more like memory chips than bobbleheads. you mean like the books and memory modules? Oh, wait... You read the book and learn. You use the memory module to get a brain surgery and "learn". You find a small toy and put in in your pocket and.. eh.. learn? I see a difference. Gameplay-wise it's the same thing though. To me that means the player could then just as well be able to fly magically through the air instead of walking, since it's gameplay-wise the same thing, both ways get you from point A to B But that's just me, always demanding at least some sense in games. Let's review what happened: - a preview mentioned the presence of item that raise special stats, like bobbleheads; - you critiqued this aspect of the game; - someone made you notice there were similar items in the previous Fallouts; - you replied that at least they made sense in-setting; .... notice something here? Yeah, that's right, you don't know what they'll be in Vegas. Could very well be something different for every stat.

Meh. I'd prefer stat increases through dialog/quests instead, like in FO1&2. Hopefully they are at least more like memory chips than bobbleheads. you mean like the books and memory modules? Oh, wait... You read the book and learn. You use the memory module to get a brain surgery and "learn". You find a small toy and put in in your pocket and.. eh.. learn? I see a difference. Gameplay-wise it's the same thing though.

Meh. I'd prefer stat increases through dialog/quests instead, like in FO1&2. Hopefully they are at least more like memory chips than bobbleheads. Personally I'll wait until I see what it is exactly. Considering it's a translation of a bullet point summary of a german preview, and that the sentence is incredibly vague, I'm not even sure if it means there will be other 'collectable items' for raising SPECIAL or if you'll do it through specific situations/quests (e.g. the zeta scan in Fallout 2). I personally am much more interested in the Firearms/Explosive dichotomy. Sounds like this time explosive may be a worthy skill, and I can see myself doing a melee/explosives/survival though I doubt I'll try a similar build in my first playthrough.

New info courtesy of our No Mutants Allowed friends (taken from the GameStar german preview). Be warned of some spoilers: - Vault 21 is an underground vault and lies under New Vegas. - The NCR has lost contact to the west and is underserved due to the fights with Caesar's Legion. - Caesar's Legion dominates New Vegas. - The NCR was fighting hard against the Brotherhood of Steel for Hoover Dam. The NCR has won this battle, barely. - The NCR troops at McCarren Airport lost the contact to Hoover Dam as well. - The main task of the courier has been to deliver a package to Primm. Then he got ambushed... - The small and big weapons skills are merged into one weapon skill. - Every weapon that made some asplozions before (like the rocket launcher or FatMan), are now in the skill category Explosives. - Repcon, a former rocket factory, is supposedly inhabited by ghouls. As of late, explosions can be heard from there all the time. - Craig Boon, one of the possible companions, will attack the player, if he sides with the Caesar's Legion. - The orbital laser Archimedes 2 can only be used once a day. - New monster: Cacadores, they look like bloatflies with shiny / colourful wings. - Something like Bobbleheads will be in New Vegas as well and it will boost players stats. What it will be exactly isn't known yet.

Since factions are very important in this game, type of weapons could be distributed differently for different factions. Like : normal raiders use melee weapons and small makeshift guns, NCR uses small guns and laser guns manufactured by them, the brotherhood and gun runners would be very well equipped, etc... Now, IIRC Energy Weapons was merged in Firearms in the original Van Buren design.. so when you used your energy weapons it depended solely on Firearms or there were other factors like your science skill?

It's actually rather fun to look at the inspiration for the Brayko's concept.

Well, even if it is true, AP should be better than a two year old game not have its faults comparable to it. I'd stack it up against ME2, a 2010 rpg, but I guess will have enough of those comparsions soon. Meh, the only thing in which Alpha Protocol should be superior to a 2008 game are technical aspects. I mean, most of RPG, especially hybrids, are still inferior to games like Arcanum, Fallout and Deus Ex, by your reasoning, they don't deserve so much praise...

I wouldn't whine so much about them if I didn't lose a good chunk of time in them simply because of invisible walls placed in strategic points in DC. At least if you have to block my path do it convincingly dammit!

Given that merging Small Guns and Big Guns was one of the big changes Josh wanted to bring in Van Buren, and that he has made clear his beliefs about "convoluted skill trees", this doesn't seem surprising at all The only thing that's surprising is that this hasn't been mentioned until now. I doubt it's a recent change (things like that are planned very soon in the development process, it was probably in the design from the beginning), so basically what this tells me is that journalist overlooked the skill list. Meh.

I've noticed just now that I wrote shocking announced game instead of unannounced.. serves me right for not checking before posting.

According to the news on The Vault the same russian preview mentions Small Guns being merged with Big Guns (Energy Weapons are still separated)... mmmh. Don't know what to think of it, on one part, big guns were incredibly rare and ultimately less useful than Small Guns in Fallout 3, on the other hand, there's the risk that a particular build will have access to the majority of the weapons in the game (though it seems that Josh & Co. are trying to take care of the Energy and melee crowd).

IMHO, it's not.

Because SE's unannounced project is shocking and looking kick-ass and sweet. It cannot be Obsidian's. The shocking announced game... ANNOUNCED.