WorstUsernameEver

Price: 160 BioWare Points. Jack: Can't see ****, Commander! Jack's glasses look like a placeholder...

Wow, he's basically saying 'The story doesn't seem to make any sense, so I'll overanalyze and come up with something 10 times better than Squaresoft's plot'. And dammit, he delivers.

: It's also flexible, too. A lot of the features in Mass Effect 2 came directly from player feedback, and we totally changed what we were planning to build because of that feedback. I think this sums up Bioware's philosophy.

Where you put your stat points, then, really does determine how you can play the game. Sadly it also means that players will necessarily pigeonhole themselves into a particular approach. It's literally impossible to change tactics for later missions, because your stats won't allow it - you can't suddenly roll out with a shotgun for a level that's giving you trouble if you've been pouring all your points into stealth abilities and pistols. Apparently that's a 'problem' in an RPG. Wow. Bad preview is bad.

So why do you even bother replying? I have not played Drakensang, but both Risen and Two Worlds are great games. Risen is a much more difficult game than Two Worlds and both are kind of.. quirky, so they demand quite a bit from the player. You will never be handheld in these games. You will get lost, you will get killed and you will fail quests. If you can live with that (and a rather low level of game polish), I'd recommend them both. Especially since they ought to be cheap now. I haven't played Two Worlds (just seen it played by a friend of mine for.. like.. uhm.. I guess 2 minutes) but Risen seemed pretty polished to me. Not Bioware's level but except for a couple of dialogues with wrong names and a collision problem in a dungeon it ran almost flawlessly. It also seems that they fixed these issues with the new patch. Going back to the Drakensan/Risen/Two Worlds dilemma, I guess it depends on what kind of game you want to play. Two Worlds seems more Oblivion-y with a much bigger world than Risen, lots and lots of objects (armor sets, swords) and things like that, don't quite know about the gameplay. Risen is basically Gothic 2.5, its gameplay is a bit refined but otherwise almos identical to Gothic 1/2, the level of graphic detail is comparable to Gothic 3 which means a VERY nice world visually but... uhm.. 'wonky' characters.

I'm pretty sure he's saying that the stealth aspects of Alpha Protocol have no threat from Splinter Cell. It still seems like a competitor to me, ESPECIALLY because it's been 'dumbed down', at least from the stealth angle. I'm not sure if delaying Alpha Protocol has placed it in a better position...

At last, Thorton pulls Al-Shaheed from the burning armored vehicle and interrogates him. Suddenly, the game flashes forward. Thorton is being interrogated by what looks like a higher-up. They ask him what he did with Al-Shaheed, and that answer will determine what he did in the past. This makes more sense than what the other preview said.

I'm not sure what this has to do with Alpha Protocol.

Here. Apparently confirms that Obsidian has 120 employees.

I would agree with you but I'll give them the benefit of doubt.. at least for now they're hyping the game in the right way.

Deus Ex 3 DA:A AP New Vegas The Witcher 2 (even if the news about CD Projekt Red aren't particularly reassuring...) And that's it I guess.

I find strange the fact that AP has so many preorder and yet the reception both on RPG sites (just look at the RPGWatch comments on the GDC Walkthrough, I'm not talking about RPGCodex..) and big/casual ones like Destructoid/Gametrailers has been.. well lukewarm at best. I also share their fears about the AI and linearity in level design to be honest, but I'll probably get the game anyway.

Woah, wait, you're debating over a MOTB reference? Anyway, the preview on IGN peaked my interest so I will probably get it.. still unsure WHEN since I don't have much free time on my hands...

So what Brian Fargo said about a project for Bethesda wasn't a joke... Unfortunately it sounds as generic as possible.

I was looking for news about New Vegas on Duck & Cover and saw this chart. Apparently Alpha Protocol (Xbox360 version) is 11th with 41,480 copies, not sure if this is good or bad for Obsidian.

Let me get this straight.. you're saying that because it's a videogame cringeworthy dialogue shold be forgiven?

Apparently Berlusconi's been investigated AGAIN because he's tried to pressured the AGCOM (basically the authority that controls communications) into censoring a political talk-show. Rai's CEO Mauro Masi commented (in private, of course) with an eloquent "Things like this wouldn't happen even in Zimbabwe". Can't find an english link for the news though..

I could go on for hours on why Berlusconi is unfit to even tie someone's shoes let alone govern a country, but really, I don't want to write a post which is 50% swearing and 25% links, so yeah.

I'm not sure how they could make the interface work on the consoles though.

The level design looks a bit too linear to be honest and the combat a tad too easy... While I can play a cinematic game once or twice I hope this isn't a direction that Obsidian will follow for all their projects. As for the stealth part in the video I got the impression that it was basically the Sega PR that screwed up the stealthy approach and not the fact that it was impossible to stealth in that mission.

Read it just now on GameBanshee.. not sure exactly why they've not used that time to ALSO work on the graphics, guess there were budget problems, not that I personally care much, but subpar graphics MAY hurt the game's sales. Can't wait to try hands-on how the "polished and tweaked" gameplay feels anyway!

Going back to DA anyway.. from what I've seeing untill now Awakening is looking very good but also not what exactly I'd expect by an expansion. Some decisions, like not letting you use new talents in the OC just sound so.. so strange. Is there any word on how the decisions you made in Origins will have an impact in Awakening?

Having played Dragon Age I'm not sure I can agree on this one. Loghain's action had no logic whatsoever and even after reading the wiki, spoiler myself about the new DLC and the books I can't really understand exactly why he did what he did and, most of all, WHY BIOWARE THOUGHT HE WAS A GOOD ANTAGONIST? Fortunately the game was good enough to make me forget about this.

No new information I can see to be honest, but it was still interesting to read his thoughts about morality in games.

Sounds awesome. The story structure sounds really interesting, I'm not really sure what's the reason for not mentioning it 'till now.