Hello, you can call me Cernex. Let me tell you my story and the reason I'm here.
I'm an... ex-Bioware fan, I guess you could say. I was a big Bioware fan back when Mass Effect 2 and Dragon Age were released for the PS3. Long story short, I loved those games and they were, for quite some time, the only ones I played over and over again. Those two were great titles, albeit a little buggy, but nothing too bad or to make the games unplayable. I thought Bioware was "it" and that, outside the occasional retro game (Splatterhouse) or "franchise" games (Metal Gear, which I've been a fan since Metal Gear Solid back in 96-98), it was going to be pretty much the only company that I would need to follow.
Then DA2 came along. I must admit, I never dared touching the game, so I can't complain. Heard the fan outcries, read the reviews, saw the videos on youtube... that for me was more than enough for me to stay as far away as humanly possible from it. I saw how Bioware staff behaved on the forum, and it was such a colossal disappointment...
"But no matter," I thought. "A simple slip. Surely Mass Effect 3 is going to make everything worth it."
Ironic, ain't it?
Long story short: bought it one day after it came out, refusing to listen to the leaks... what a massive mistake. Bugs, bad decisions all over the place, horrible continuity issues in the story, poor production quality, day 1 dlc which (most of it) came already on the disk, the endings, and once again, how Bioware behaved to the fan outcry.
I'll stay out of the whole "entitlement" and "artistic integrity" discussion here. Those I've heard enough already.
So lo and behold, the company I thought was "it" had in just two games completely disappointment me, and judging from their behavior, they really didn't seem to care much. Mind you, that I can sort of understand: they're a business, after all.
That doesn't make it right, or that I should "like", let alone agree with it.
So I was, like always, venting on 4chan (and I wasn't the only one, I tell you that), almost as if it was a therapy group of sorts in order to try and deal with what a flop the whole thing had become, when somebody there asked about a game that felt like ME but "could erase the sour taste from my mouth," (wasn't me, btw) and somebody else went "Try Alpha Protocol."
Checked a couple of stores, found the title was quite cheap, so I though, "Well, why the hell not? It's cheap enough. Can't be worse than ME3 anyway."
Take in account that I really didn't checked youtube vids, clip, reviews... I was as green as they come to this title.
Let me tell you something: I think I owe the anon who suggested the title.
Although I could go paragraph after paragraph after paragraph describing how much the game has completely blown me away, I think I will rather summarize it with two simple statements:
I wasted two years of my life by NOT playing this game when it came out. Obsidian is now the "it" company for me.
So that's my tale. Just by mere coincidence of a suggestion from 4chan (of all places), now I'm here, thanking you guys (if the staff reads the forums, of course) personally for making such a great game, a game that managed to remove the horrible taste ME3 left.
I'll be buying more of your games as soon as I can.
Sorry for taking so long to do so, :/