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Itkovian

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About Itkovian

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  1. Agreed, it's a great action RPG that was mostly lambasted due to people expecting it to play like a TPS. That is to say, they didn't expect or like the idee of character skill being the primary factor on how effective you are with weapons. Can't get those nice headshots without some skills in pistol, for example. Mind you, it's true that even Mass Effect got negatives because of its own reliance on character skill for the shooting aspect, and so it was removed in ME2 with clear results. But to me, AP was much more RPG than action, and I rather like that a lot. Reminds me much more of Deus Ex, for example... and the plot and dialogue is just plain brilliant. To me the only problem I see with the game is the boss battles. Unless you thoroughly invested in combat skills, they can be very difficult, and they seem too "action" for me. And good luck if you haven't made a good build. But as an RPG, AP is excellent. Good, appropriately convoluted story, excellent dialogue, and good gameplay. I never regretted the purchase (though I admit doing a recruit play through from the start was a bit masochistic). Thank you, Obsidian. Itkovian
  2. That's good news. Wish I could have now. But I've got a retail preordered. I like having hard copies, they can be sharpened and thrown as lethal objects. *nod* Itkovian
  3. A question: are those games you tested specifically games that don't use Steamworks (or whatever their DRM scheme is), or just random games you have? Itkovian
  4. He definitely was playing faster than he probably normally would have. Rushing in at things wihtout really understanding them, taking little time to read emails (and it looks llike tehre's a lot of those), and generlaly not trying the different approaches. That adds up to a lot, and considering the huge replay value (since there is clearly a "multiple approaches" feel to the gameplay), it should take longer than that. That said, this is a beautiful example of how things get exagerated. When the guy finished the game, the moderator said many times it took him 11 hours, not 9. Itkovian
  5. I intend to start as a field agent, perhaps freelancer. If I enjoy myself I'd then make a rookie then a veteran. Itkovian
  6. Thank you, without such astute detective work we would have foolishly rushed in and purchased this clearly flawed and terrible game. Thanks to such work, I also avoided Mass Effect 2, which also has the same glitch, and surely was and is a terrible game only Bioware lackeys claim is any good. Once more, you have my thanks. Itkovian
  7. I lived through Deus Ex. I can handle this. At least they throw grenades. Itkovian
  8. Looks very good, in fact. But the player goofing around is, well, not amusing at all. Is it so hard to actually have a serious preview these days? Same deal with the beard and the comments on the side. How depressing. Itkovian
  9. Ouch, hitting real spoiler territory now. Danger! Itkovian
  10. Well, my point is this: the game looks good, and there's a lot of cool features we kinda got a look at, but these guys went out of their way to make it look bad. Probably not intentionally, but certainly through a general "let's goof off" attitude to it. It's as if they think what they're doing has no real marketing impact. I certainly hope someone with actual authority saw that and is displeased. Itkovian
  11. Er, what? The developer already made their money on the first sale. What in the world makes you think they should get paid for every resale of the same product from now till the end of time? I never said they should get paid for resales. Of course not, but I'm saying that if we want to support the industry whose fruits we so enjoy, and which is in fact not doing at all well (at least development houses don't), we should do so by purchasing new copies, and not buying used. They make no money when you buy a used game. The only one making money (and at a huge profit in fact) is the used game retailer (gamestop being the primary culprit these days). I'd rather ensure the developer makes some money off of my purchase than the retailer, who by focusing so much of its business model on used sales has now become a parasite on the industry and is actively harming it (which is why most developers now resort to various schemes to reward new game purchases). It is a riduculous situation, yes, but now the gaming industry is locked in a sort of struggle with its own retailers, working to deny its retailers used sales while the retailer tries to maximize them through its own schemes. But to me, the developers are the ones doing the hard work, and they're the ones who should be rewarded (assuming they do good work, of course). Gone are the days (if they ever existed) when the industry could simply absorb such losses. Barring ludicrously huge successes, most houses tend to be on the edge and need as much help as they can get. Too many good studios have come and gone to suggest otherwise (and even the big publishers tend to be in the red these days). Thus, let's not feed the parasites. Itkovian
  12. And that's a good point. Why not just buy the retail version for PC, which will only have 1 DRM? I've got mine pre-ordered from amazon, and will get it on day 1 (at least in theory, natural disasters willing *grin*). Itkovian
  13. Because the effect of me purchasing a new copy of the PS3 version will only say that I prefered the PS3 version over the PC version, nothing else. I have my money ready as a Steam customer, but I will not be a part of the circus that is caused by every single developer and publisher choosing their own DRM scheme that only confuses customers. I don
  14. I watched this preview yesterday, and I just had to finally register to post. I really disliked this preview. Not because AP looks bad, quite the contrary, but rather because the "dudes" went out of their way to make the game look actually bad. Of course, I'm sure its unintentional. Probably more a matter of "dudes" being "dudes", but really there was a total lack of professionalism in this, and no real attempt to actually expose the features and flaws of the game. It was more one guy flailing around a level like he'd never played it (and yet he had), while a bunch of people made terrible jokes and snarky comments about what they're saying. I mean, this isn't Zero Punctuation here: the goal probably wasn't to make the game look silly, but rather give us a preview of the game. But nevertheless, they probably would be hard pressed to paint AP in a worse light. Sure, as followers of the game we could look past their inanity and appreciate the features we could gleam, but I don't know how someone new to AP would get a good impression from this silly "playthrough" Where to start? - First of all, why make the main character look silly like that? Is that meant to be funny? All it ends up achieving is make the game look stupid. Of course the feature it exposes is that you can choose your appearance, but still. Imagine if a Mass Effect 2 preview had decided to showcase its cinematics while using an Ugly Shepard. What kind of impression of the game would that have created? And of course they spent the entire session laughing at the appearance, literally making inane comments about it while actually interesting things happening on the screen were being ignored. There's a reason designers chose to make protagonists look good (or badass, or whatever). It directly affects people's impressions of the product. Choosing a silly looking PC in a previous deliberately biases the viewers against the product. - The player was simply goofing around most of the time, not paying attention to what he's doing. That is somewhat more understandable, because he's got 5 other people around him distracting him. But still, he clearly had played the level before, and yet just flailed about the whole time. Its as if he deliberately played like a fool to get a few laughs. Great way to create a good first impression of the game. Another example is him using the shotgun. Someone suggests picking it up, which he does. However, he knows he has no skills with it, and doesn't train in it at all either. So he spends the playthrough flailing about with a shotgun he's not trained in using, missing most of the time and making the gameplay look bad. Sure, the guy kept saying he wasn't trained and that's why it didn't play so well, but why keep at it? This is an RPG! Picking up a weapon you're not trained in is asking to look stupid. Again, all it achieves is make the game look bad. How many people might have seen that and scoffed at how useless a shotgun was? - The "Dudes". I'm sure what I mean is clear enough already, but let's pick an example: At one point they're going through a corridor they already went down, and the corpses disappeared. One of them makes a joke "where did the corpses go? Did they eat them?" (referring to the other guards left). Again, this is a preview. The impression this creates is that disappearing bodies is stupid and a flaw. Except, of course, that 90% of games out there do that. It's an accepted convention in gaming to save system resources by making bodies decay. Why even comment about it? Sure, the guy was probably just trying to be funny and make his voice heard, but it was quite inappropriate. - The "questions". Again, this was probably a case of filling air and showing you are doing your job, but most of the questions were just plain ridiculous (and too many just comments on the character's silly look). Why not pick some serious questions for once? And if there's not any, then why not remain silent and let the viewers see and hear the game audio. Anyway, that's all I remember. I'm sure there's more. Point is, if I were in any way related to this game's marketing, I would be quite pissed off. Unless you subscribe to the "any exposure is good exposure" school of thought, it probably turned away quite a few new prospects who might otherwise have purchased the game had the preview been more professional. Thank you. Itkovian
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