C&VG: Sega rules out Alpha Protocol sequel

[WILL THE ALMIGHTY]

Obsidianites are just apolegetic elitists.

 

 

I would position myself as cranky grognard.

Oh we have a few of those too, must've forgotten for a moment.

 

 

PS: Our Trolls > Bio's Trolls R00FLES!

[Oblarg]

Obsidianites are just apolegetic elitists.

 

Bioware has those people who demand weird romance options, delusional fanboys, fanfic writers and probably a few grouchy old vets from when Bioware wasn't reusing the same formula.

 

And ME2's plot really was terrible. The amount of plot holes is staggering and there isn't any decent antagonist to speak of, which really leaves this void and makes the story a bit dull. I don't think that 6 part plot analysis focuses on the major problems, instead going into definitions about plot/story/whatever, I prefer Shamus Young's plot analysis simply because it points out just how terrible the whole story is.

 

And Shepherd will always annoy me much, much more than Mike ever will.

 

Reading this plot analysis, and yeah, it's better (though less humorous).

 

edit: Still I disagree with the "the only logical option is keeping the base" line of thought. I destroyed the base in my playthrough because I felt it was likely there was some sort of failsafe that would come back and bite me in the ass if I didn't. After all, the reapers are supposed to be smart, right? (debatable, I know, given the idiotic **** they pull in the second game)

 

Obsidianites are just apolegetic elitists.

 

 

I would position myself as cranky grognard.

Oh we have a few of those too, must've forgotten for a moment.

 

 

PS: Our Trolls > Bio's Trolls R00FLES!

 

Our trolls type with better spelling and grammar, so obviously.

 

Goofiness aside, I've never seen fanboyism quite so blatant on the Obsidian forums as I have on the BioWare forums. Most around here are willing to admit that AP had some serious faults (though I still love the game, regardless).

Edited July 9, 2010 by Oblarg

[Zoraptor]

Ironically the aren't the only ones.

 

 

Just look at this thread

To quote someone else, whenever something they like is criticised no matter how mildly...

 

 

h8rs_gonna_h8_.gif

 

[Flouride]

Which interviews are these? Certainly not this one with Matthew Hickman: http://news.softpedia.com/news/Alpha-Proto...ay-134262.shtml

 

Kotaku also mentions it here

 

Among other things.

 

Several interviews were they actually interviewed people from Obsidian and not from Sega. Can't be bothered to go diggin through old interviews though, but here's one quote from Gamebanshee interview

 

"GB: During the game

Edited July 9, 2010 by Flouride

[Volourn]

"I've never seen fanboyism quite so blatant on the Obsidian forums as I have on the BioWare forums. "

 

Kiddin' right?

[Oblarg]

"I've never seen fanboyism quite so blatant on the Obsidian forums as I have on the BioWare forums. "

 

Kiddin' right?

 

Nope.

 

There's some pretty amazingly retarded stuff on the BioWare forums.

[Oner]

I'm not elitist! I believe that EVERY HUMAN BEING is equal!

 

Equally stupid.

 

[Volourn]

"There's some pretty amazingly retarded stuff on the BioWare forums."

 

have you read this thread? It's littered with the same stuff.

[Oblarg]

"There's some pretty amazingly retarded stuff on the BioWare forums."

 

have you read this thread? It's littered with the same stuff.

 

Not even close to the degree to which I've seen it on the BioWare forums.

 

Besides, you seem to dismiss everything you don't agree with as fanboyism. You know, I legitimately enjoyed AP more than ME2.

[Jorian Drake]

"I've never seen fanboyism quite so blatant on the Obsidian forums as I have on the BioWare forums. "

 

Kiddin' right?

there are no better fanboys than Obsidianites

 

 

PS: reapers are the "ships" yes

Edited July 10, 2010 by Jorian Drake

[Thorton_AP]

Which interviews are these? Certainly not this one with Matthew Hickman: http://news.softpedia.com/news/Alpha-Proto...ay-134262.shtml

 

Kotaku also mentions it here

 

Among other things.

 

Several interviews were they actually interviewed people from Obsidian and not from Sega. Can't be bothered to go diggin through old interviews though, but here's one quote from Gamebanshee interview

 

"GB: During the game

[edgarcuk]

What people really disregard, especially Volourm et al, is that in marketing, you create a momentum with previews, "first hands on" and the such, the AP momentum was created on 09, even in 08... if you read all the previews, you'll see all that anticipation... Obsidian finished AP on the summer of 09, aiming for a launch in 10-11 2009... it was really stupid to back off the launch because on those dates other RPG's went into the market: DAO, Divinity 2, for example. If SEGA would have launched the game on oct. 09, there would have been a good additional percentage of sales above the actual sales on 2010... even at the range of 20% ( which is good)... if you compared all the games launched on oct 09, you can realise that AP would have got a good sale figure because there was an anticipation, people was looking forward to play AP... an example: DAO, people bought the game because all the marketing and anticipation, if the game (from Xbox 360 point of view) became the best selling game RPG and worst resold RPG, is because of the magic of marketing... Volourm et al, cannot approved, but I've got friends in the GAME shops in UK, that can tell the game that was returned the most in Xbox 360 so far has been DAO... if you want to resell it, they will give you 10 pounds at the most

Edited July 10, 2010 by edgarcuk

[Thorton_AP]

Would you feel the reviewers would have reviewed it differently?

 

 

There is some argument that post ME2 people would look at AP differently, but at the same time, I don't believe ME2 was this giant influential game (if you look at the sales numbers).

[edgarcuk]

Indeed, because all that hype, if you compare the previews by Gamespot and else back on 09, they were hopeful... but still, ME2 would have been rated better because of the TPS, animations and graphics, but not in the RPG elements... not to mention the dialogue... even if Volourm and Purcake dislike...

Edited July 10, 2010 by edgarcuk

[fkldnhlsdngsfnhlsndlg]

Alpha Protocol is a game which died based on its review scores, and I think that's all there is to it. I know it was on a lot of gamers' radars, and most of the people who were interested in it, at least who I knew, lost interest when it started to get mediocre scores. We can debate how justified those scores are (I think that Mass Effect 2 simply set the bar for presentation too high), but in the end it's not a lack of advertising among the right crowds of gamers, but the fact that popular journalistic opinion of the game was generally poor, and to the target audience, popular journalistic opinion matters.

 

Some of the blame can fall on SEGA for this (they chose a poor time to release the game, and denied a lot of needed budget), and some of the blame falls on Obsidian for the management problems. Of course, since SEGA is the one controlling the money, they get to exonerate themselves of all blame - to them, Alpha Protocol was a failure, both commercially and critically, even if in actuality the game itself is just fine. It's sales that matter, and usually the people who pull the strings have little care for games as games - why do you think we see so many generic sequels to bland mass market successes? I remember reading recently that the indie game Joe Danger was turned down by dozens of publishers for reasons as baffling as "it focuses too much on fun" or "we don't think the target demographic is into motorcycles", which had very little to do with the quality of the game. As long as people like this are the ones making decisions, we will continue to see games live and die on sales and sales alone, since aesthetics are more important to those sales than the quality or depth of gameplay.

 

I'm actually far more concerned about Obsidian getting a patch for this game out. I really, really like a lot of aspects of Alpha Protocol, and some tweaks to balance as well as some fixes for technical issues would make it much more enjoyable for me. However, I get the feeling that the team who were responsible for making the game may not even exist anymore, and SEGA has no intent on spending money it doesn't have to. It'd rather forget the game was ever made, and that makes me sad.

Edited July 16, 2010 by sea

[SpiderMan1217]

I must admit... that sucks. The game is good. Really good.

[Purkake]

I must admit... that sucks. The game is good. Really good.

Does every good game need a sequel?

[Oner]

Last I remember you wanted BG&E 2.

[Purkake]

Yes, because the story ended on a cliffhanger. Alpha Protocol, on the other hand was wrapped up rather nicely.

[SirPetrakus]

I liked the game. I honestly think that AP was pretty good. I liked the characters, I liked the story, I liked how much it could change from the choices you made, I liked not being able to shoot straight from the first moment I held a gun! You can say that the game could have been this or that, sure, but it doesn't mean that it was a bad game in itself. AP got reviews that varied from 8.8 to 2. Well, the guy who gave it a 2 is quite possibly an idiot or played a different game, but a 2 it was nonetheless. It just didn't appeal to the majority of the gaming audience. Lots of good/great RPGs didn't. I am actually quite surprised how DragonAge and The Witcher were so successful. Still, I would pretty much rate AP about as high as I rate DA. But that's personal preference, just like Volourn stated his absolute loathing for this game, and power to you, man!

 

That being said, I don't think AP warranted a sequel. There wasn't much left to build on with such an ending. Maybe they could have made a spin-off with Sis because we hardly got any input from her (her being mute helped with that) and she's got quite the fanbase, apparently, but even that, I don't know how it could work. So I guess it's for the best! Better to not make a sequel instead of making a half arsed attempt at one. Especially with no build up.

[Tigranes]

I think we need to stop considering the Destructoid review as part of any sort of discussion... it was a joke review from a guy who does a lot of joke reviews. It really doesn't speak for anything, unless people start taking it seriously.

[pmp10]

I think we need to stop considering the Destructoid review as part of any sort of discussion... it was a joke review from a guy who does a lot of joke reviews. It really doesn't speak for anything, unless people start taking it seriously.

Even so the escapist rated AP at 2/5 in a serious review so the spread is still enormous.

[Tigranes]

Definitely, there is a large spread. But I think Destructoid was 2/10 or so? I just don't like the idea where a review which, for whatever reason, does not have any legitimacy or value, is, through word of mouth, lumped together with reviews that do, and then given a significance it doesn't deserve.

[Libertarian]

Alpha Protocol scored the same as Assassin's Creed II on Destructoid.

 

Both games scored one point lower than Naughty Bear.

 

Yes, you read that right. All 3 were reviewed by the same person.

 

I must say, though, I dig Deadly Premonition, which he gave a 10/10. Granted, it's certainly no 10/10, but it's insanely amusing, nonetheless.

[Oner]

I think we need to stop considering the Destructoid review as part of any sort of discussion... it was a joke review from a guy who does a lot of joke reviews. It really doesn't speak for anything, unless people start taking it seriously.

Even so the escapist rated AP at 2/5 in a serious review so the spread is still enormous.

I don't consider that lady particularly sane.