Thorton_AP

The grievances in that one forum post make me laugh my ass off. Especially the "ZOMG this was in KOTOR." The funny thing is that both KOTOR and NWN actually use the same engine.

I just started my 4th playthrough.

If you miss at point blank range when shooting in AP, then you didn't do everything right.

Every game has at least little bugs. Also, it's always a question of what people assume to be a bug. Though, Deus Ex had tons of glitches, actually. It's the only way to skip some bosses. And I'm not joking not to mention Deus Ex Ki was considerd mediocre to weak for that time in contrast to for example Half Life. I actively followed the game during development and immediately after release. Deus Ex was one of the more anticipated games of its time, especially with games like System Shock 2 in the not too distant past. It wasn't Half-Life 2, but upon release it did very well, complete with general critical success and several Game of the Year awards. They even released a Game of the Year edition shortly after. At the time it quickly replaced Half-Life as my favourite game. It pretty much kept Ion Storm afloat until Daikatana (finally) killed it once and for all. As for "needing" glitches to skip some bosses, those are bugs and glitches for people actively circumventing parts of the game the way that there were intended to be played. Deus Ex's combat was not it's strong point for sure (nor was it's AI), but it's typically considered one of the best games for the PC, and by more than a small number of gamers, always has been. Deus Ex today probably wouldn't be as successful, but at the time, there's no denying it was a success. Critically and commercially. Alpha Protocol, I'm not so convinced. And I love both games.

I love games from both companies. I just feel that they have different strengths as studios.

The game is flawed, but I think people will overlook flaws based upon WHO makes the game, not just the game contents itself. Games like Oblivion and Fallout 3 were very flawed games IMO, but they have achieved some of the highest scores in history from reviewers.

The tranquilizer does do a lot of immediate damage. Most enemies I shoot with it do drop immediately (assuming a headshot/critical)

If you KO the guards instead of kill them, you should be okay. I have over 250 KOs in my game, but have gotten the perk for 5 missions with no alarms and fewer than 5 kills.

For the most part, you can still do non-lethal takedowns and get the stealth achievements.

Are you sure you don't have the perk that gives you a free failure? It's one of the sabotage skills.

This is me lockpicking (and some extra fluff at the start of Brayko's mission)

I think there might be an issue with CPU performance. I FRAPSed myself lockpicking, and while I still didn't have to pick up my mouse, I did however have to move it farther than I normally had to when not using FRAPS. I'll post the link once it is done verifying.

I guess that depends on what you value in an RPG. Planescape: Torment has a pregenerated character, and is probably the best CRPG I have ever played.

I disagree. You see, we're also fans of games like System Shock 2, Deus Ex, and Vampire: Bloodlines. Which are games that Alpha Protocol mimic'd in terms of gameplay style. While I think some of the reviews may be harsh, and I have had some people even around work say that they feel the game is "abysmal," I don't deny that the game has faults. The biggest bone of contention with reviewers looking at faults is that they seem to focus and concentrate on the faults so much, while not doing so with other games like Mass Effect (which I feel plays very similar to AP). Maybe there's some bias because ME came first. But I am skeptical. I think if this game had BioWare on the box and not Obsidian Entertainment, I think the review scores will be higher. ANd this is WITHOUT any implied "buying" of higher review scores.

If you were to force me to choose, I'd pick OE. I really enjoy what comes out of both companies though.

For a while I have been of the mind that I find Obsidian (and Black Isle) games to be superior in their narrative and story telling. But BioWare's games have typically been technically better, from a gameplay side or what have you. There are some exceptions (Icewind Dale, which was explicit in its attempts to be a hack 'n' slash), but that's the way I see it.

So all you're saying is that textures change over the course of development? I suspect it wasn't missing it's texture data when it was created.

I am surprised by this. You shouldn't have to pick up your mouse at all! I'm not sure what you mean, unless its some joke I don't understand. My mouse it tuned to make turning, moving and shooting fairly enjoyable and perfect in Alpha Protocol. When it come to lock picking that is an entirely different story. The first tumbler of a lockpick is normally but not always a long slow moving tumbler. Everyone I know experiences this on the pc version. You have to move the mouse far as you can, your computer desk surface willing, then pick the mouse up, move it again, and again just to move that first tumbler, usually wasting almost all the lockpick time on the first tumbler. The only way you wouldn't have to pick your mouse up is if you had a 3 meter computer desk and stood up and ran your mouse across the huge desk surface. Considering the rest of the entire game works just fine with the mouse, it is bad implementation. It isn't hard to figure out that the game was tuned for a toggle stick that just keeps going and going. They never thought a mouse doesn't keep going, you have to actually move it, in this case, you have to move it 5 times the average desk space, over and over for those typical first tumblers. If I could take a video of me doing it I would. Maybe I'll load up fraps, but you won't see me moving my mouse, just the cursor. I don't find it an issue at all :\

I'd rather people take the picture and draw a friggin' circle around it. I don't know what I'm looking for.

Then that mean you are playing in hard setting , i always killed the enemies that are in close range with the critical hit while in cover playing normal; in hard is obvious that not. Nope. I have only ever played through the game on Normal difficulty. You obviously have more pistol damage than I did at the end of the game. I have also had people not be immediately taken out by a tranquilizer dart, which sucks because in that instant they don't collapse, they alert all the guards. Headshots with pistols just do a lot of damage. They are not guaranteed kills.

I am surprised by this. You shouldn't have to pick up your mouse at all!

KOTOR 2 was better up until the end. That kind of made them equal IMO. I enjoy both.

Weren't you just doing the same?

Sigh. The way the Hawks have improved over the last few seasons, it was only a matter of time. Hopefully I'll be saying that about the Leafs soon. Congrats to the Hawks, they deserve it. Well you'll get some good draft picks... oh wait...