Chloe

Ah, well. Up until about mid 2008, I had been waiting patiently for them to release their restoration project. After that, it became pretty clear that they'd either been... too optimistic, let's say or they didn't want to release. By that time, it had been a WIP for something like four years, and all they ever showed for it were some videos, so I really wasn't holding my breath.

Well, I didn't think it was that obscure, this being an Obsidian board and KotOR 2 being an Obsidian game and all. Also, if I'm not totally mistaken (which is a possibility. Started early today...) it was the time frame given by either Obsidian or Bioware for a patch that would then take another three months to show up. I'll be damned if I recall which game that patch was for, thogh. I do recall that I was part of the howling pack.

Two weeks. ? Maybe a reference to the last days of Team Gizka. Indeed, sir. Well played.

Heya, thanks for the link. I'll go check it out tomorrow, as I won't have to teach students and I might miss the pain...

Two weeks.

Because it stubbornly refuses to run on some peoples's rigs. I'd love to be able to praise/complain about actual gameplay. Trouble is, the game doesn't let me play it. SEGA and Obsidian don't do anything about that problem and as far as I know haven't even acknowledged that there is a problem. Ergo, I don't even have a way of knowing if I like the game. Judging from the one time I was actually able to start the game, though, I was underwhelmed.

How so?

No, it doesn't change anything. I don't lay the blame squarely at Obsidians feet either. It's not only programmers, it is also publishers that are basically ruining the industry by short-term profit thinking. It's not only SEGA, it's also UBI and their disastrous DRM policy, it's EA with their non-existing customer service. It is everywhere, and they are the ones paying developer studios too little money to work on games long enough to iron out the major kinks or to make patches. I'd love to climb on my soap box and sermonize about customers who want everything as cheap as possible, but at least in this case that wouldn't be applicable. Computer games are between 45 and 64 Euros around here, and there's no option of getting them much more or much less cheap. Actually, I'd even pay more. All I'd ask in return is clear communication by the companies to their customers, high-quality games that show the love and dedication that developers invested in their games (cf Mass Effect series, Dragon Age, Baldur's Gate, GTA IV et al). Also, I realize that debugging software can closely resemble a trip through hell. When it was clear that our business would go belly up mid-term, the GF went back to university for a PhD in Computer Science. I've done some programming and administration as well, and I have a vague idea of how hellish it must be to debug a whole frackin' computer game on several standard configurations, not to mention the millions of possible hardware and software combinations out there in the real world. All that doesn't change that customers demand software that runs on their systems. All that doesn't change that a couple of games with severe problems like, oh, say... Alpha Protocol will suffice to ruin the goodwill of the public. All that doesn't change that said public will at some point start ignoring products by a company that is known for buggy games. And no, I'm for once not looking at you exclusively, Obsidian. All that doesn't change that a company whose reputation is ruined in this fashion won't get many contracts from publishers anymore, even if they are the same publishers who share the responsibility for the buggy games that ruined the developer's reputation in the first place. Peace C C

I don't hate Obsidian. I just think if they keep working like this, they'll go out of business.

My pets destroy computers. They don't own them. My computer owning relatives live like 1200km to the south of me, and I wouldn't inflict the irritation of trying to run this... this *thing* on my friends.

Well, why don't we? Because in my case there are several obstacles to be overcome for the game burning: I'm in Europe. Obsidian HQ is somewhere in the US (Orange County, CA?). I'm not paying the air fare. No way. This incarnation of the game was a present by my girlfriend. Doing anything to GF presents that involve returning, burning, stomping, fileting or target practice will result in most... interesting and unpleasant repercussions unless said gift was specifically given for any of the purposes mentioned above. I'm still not paying the ticket. My work schedule is a little too tight for trips to the US. So, as interesting as your idea might be, I can't. Also, I don't think Obsidian would care. They have our money. The series won't be continued. The bugs may or may not be fixed. They don't need our goodwill. By the time they release the next game, it will have blown over and all this will start anew. At some point, if they keep this kind of work up, they will go out of business. I won't care. C Edited to clean up the formatting

Yeah, thought about that. Trouble is, my other computers are: a laptop that's been specced for work (and only work) and hence sucks. a seven year old machine that was decent when I bought it, halfway decent when I last upgraded it but is hopelessly obsolete in this fine August of 2010. a Linux server that I've started to set up but pretty much abandoned later on. None of these have even the minimum specs for the game. My gaming machine won't run it (*sniffle*). Ah, well. I've replayed Mass Effect 1 and am currently running through Mass Effect 2. I like 'em, so let Obsidian go the way of Troika. I'm pretty much beyond caring at this point. As for the universe, let it. It's ultimately against all of us. None of us will make it out alive, after all. C

If you were talking to me: Yes, I returned it. Only to get it as a present from my girlfriend two weeks or so after. I will not risk returning a gift from her. It would be... most unpleasant. C

Yes, I purchased it through a private vendor on Amazon.com , as Amazon was out of stock. He responded to my initial inquiry and then disappeared. For the last two weeks, I've been trying to reach him by email, but he has disappeared into the mist. There seems to be a lot of that going on when it comes to this game. Or you could inflict it on some unsuspecting friend. You know, as a birthday gift or something, so someone else has all the delight of a non-running game. Who knows, maybe it'll even run for them. Bonus! C

Drat! Now you tell me. After I've wasted countless hours of sleep, not to mention huge quantities of hard liquor trying to get it to run - without any success, I might add... I keep asking myself why the fracking frack I'm bothering with this game anyway. Gah! Back to lurking...

You know, you might be on to something there...

Heh. You know the best part in all of this? Yesterday evening, I got a gift from my girlfriend who had just returned from holiday. It looked promising, so I was like, "Cool! Free game!!" Then I opened the gift wrap... ... which revealed... ... a copy of Alpha Protocol. So, I'm like, "Oh... Thanks." With all the enthusiasm the sentence implies in written form. So, my girlfriend says, "But... (expletive) you *like* role playing games!" So, I tell her the amazing adventures I had trying to get the game to run, since she's been away some time and didn't know or didn't remember that I had bought it a couple of weeks ago. Fortunately, she had also brought some bottles for me to cling to in my desperation. So, to keep on topic: Ummmm.... any news on the runtime error or the patch? C

Returning the game for a refund or the Connemara?

Heya Tigranes, Thanks, but I've solved the problem already. I've returned Alpha Protocol to the vendor, got 44 shiny Euros in return and proceeded to spend them on a bottle of Connemara and a couple of rental DVDs. I might try again once the patch materializes, but AP was the point where I felt I had to draw the line. Returning it felt good, too. Also, Connemara tends to take the edge off my day pretty well, so I'm all sweetness and light today. Have a nice day. C

Ah, well. Didn't work, exactly. So, bcigor, your method works for me on a fresh install. Once I quit the game, it stops working. Even though I've deleted the SEGA Corp folders in All Users and My username, running APGame.exe doesn't bring up the keycode validation dialogue. It just crashes with the runtime library error that I've come to detest so much. It's been almost two weeks, and I'm tired of wasting my time trying to get this game to run. Lessons learned: Never again I'll buy a game that's just come out without reading reviews and tech support forums first. Never again I'll trust a software company just because I've kinda enjoyed games they made in the past. (Yes, I'm looking at you, Obsidian.) Never again will I put up with buggy software. Next time, it's straight back to the vendor for a refund. I know programming is hard, I know debugging is hell, I know there are too many configurations to really make everything run on every rig, but frankly, none of that is my responsibility. It's the publisher's, so they'd better get their collective act together. Most likely, I'm done buying anything Obsidian puts out on faith. Next time, prove to me that it works before you grab my cash. Rant over.

Thank you. I'll give it a try. I would never have thought of trying an invalid key first.

The ability to run the game would be nice, thank you.

Great. Managed to get the game to run once yesterday evening by uninstalling, then reinstalling, then activating via the webpage, not the activator. Unfortunately, this worked only once. Now, when I try to run the game, I'm back to the runtime error on trying to start the game. I think I'm going to wait until the 21st, at which point this thing goes back to the store, unless Obsidian sees fit to fix it. Oh, one more thing, Obsidian: I don't think I'm going to buy another game you make. First the unfinished KotOR 2, then NWN2 with its various problems, now this. Don't count on my money in the future.

Okay, I've installed AP yesterday evening and, so far, have never made it past the activation, which crashed. According to the SEGA site, the game's been registered fine, though. I get the Visual C++ error on starting APgame.exe, the shortcut on my desktop seems to do nothing at all and my patience is wearing thin at an alarming rate. I've installed the Visual C++ 2005 and 2008 redistributables from Microsoft's website in their x86 and x64 incarnations, but still no joy. Might I remind the ladies and gentlemen of Obsidian and SEGA that I've paid for this game? With real money, that I had to work for? Just in case it slipped anyone's attention? So, this is how it's going to work, Obsidian/SEGA: - Either I get this game to work with or without your assistance within the next 14 (fourteen) days, - or, you're publishing a patch that addresses this issue inside of those next 14 (fourteen) days, - or, I'm returning the game on 21 July 2010 and get refunded. I'm sorry, but I'm tired of games that have issues or don't run at all, because, you see, the money I paid is perfectly useable right away, and so I expect the product I buy for it to be. Edited for driver information: I'm using Catalyst 10.4. motherboard and processor drivers are up to date, so are the drivers for the sound card.