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Alpha Protocol |OT| Bourne, Avellone, Denton, and the Agency's Sagacious Secrets

C

Cep

Banned
Baloonatic said:
On the PC version? :/

I'm not having any problems with the controls outside of maybe the hacking mini game someone mentioned earlier.
Click to expand...

Yeah, bad enough to put up vsync and this killed the already stuttering framerate. The game seems very poorly optimized for an UE3 game.

Perhaps those with better machines will have a better time.
 
D

Deadly

Member
Yeah the M/KB controls are definitely really clunky. The sensitivity is crazy too, sometimes it's normal, then another second I did a complete 180 turn and I barely moved the mouse :lol . Don't even get me started on the password mini-game. Though I admit, it's actually harder than usual hacking mini-games.
 
C

Cep

Banned
Deadly said:
Yeah the M/KB controls are definitely really clunky. The sensitivity is crazy too, sometimes it's normal, then another second I did a complete 180 turn and I barely moved the mouse :lol . Don't even get me started on the password mini-game. Though I admit, it's actually harder than usual hacking mini-games.
Click to expand...

I think I should maybe wait for some serious patch/mod work before I return, because those mini-games piss me off.
 
B

Basileus777

Member
Deadly said:
Yeah the M/KB controls are definitely really clunky. The sensitivity is crazy too, sometimes it's normal, then another second I did a complete 180 turn and I barely moved the mouse :lol . Don't even get me started on the password mini-game. Though I admit, it's actually harder than usual hacking mini-games.
Click to expand...

Sounds like it could be a mouse smoothing problem. You could try disabling it in the .inis to see if it helps.
 
D

Darklord

Banned
HK-47 said:
:lol :lol :lol

I was wondering when you would show up, Dark. And wouldnt having no core game to base it off of mean more bugs? I dont get what you are going on about there.

You know what else was unplayable at launch. NWN 1. You know why KotOR 2 was in the state it was in? Lucasarts pushed it out the door. That not an excuse, its the reason. I'm not saying you arent right about some things, but keep it consistent. There is a bit of bitter bioware fan in you (hello influence system where did you come from? KotOR II? Well now thats interesting.)
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:D

I mean people are calling the gameplay, voice acting, writing and controls clunky and poor. With a game like Kotor or Fallout they have a base of how things should function and try and hit that mark(and falling slightly short of it).

I'm not a Bioware fanboy. I don't care who a game is made by as long as it's good. I just can't see past the flaws others can with Obsidian. They simply aren't the devs they once were. I don't hate Obsidian, far from it. I just disagree with the lavish praise they get. And Kotor 2 had more flaws than just the bugs, ones that couldn't have been fixed by a longer development time.

As another developer to use as an example. Obsidian are the RPG developer equivalent of Treyarch.
 
-tetsuo-

-tetsuo-

Unlimited Capacity
Darklord said:
:D

I mean people are calling the gameplay, voice acting, writing and controls clunky and poor. With a game like Kotor or Fallout they have a base of how things should function and try and hit that mark(and falling slightly short of it).

I'm not a Bioware fanboy. I don't care who a game is made by as long as it's good. I just can't see past the flaws others can with Obsidian. They simply aren't the devs they once were. I don't hate Obsidian, far from it. I just disagree with the lavish praise they get. And Kotor 2 had more flaws than just the bugs, ones that couldn't have been fixed by a longer development time.

As another developer to use as an example. Obsidian are the RPG developer equivalent of Treyarch.
Click to expand...

The biggest flaw was that they cut out like 1/4th of the game due to time constraints.
 
H

HK-47

Oh, bitch bitch bitch.
Darklord said:
:D

I mean people are calling the gameplay, voice acting, writing and controls clunky and poor. With a game like Kotor or Fallout they have a base of how things should function and try and hit that mark(and falling slightly short of it).

I'm not a Bioware fanboy. I don't care who a game is made by as long as it's good. I just can't see past the flaws others can with Obsidian. They simply aren't the devs they once were. I don't hate Obsidian, far from it. I just disagree with the lavish praise they get. And Kotor 2 had more flaws than just the bugs, ones that couldn't have been fixed by a longer development time.

As another developer to use as an example. Obsidian are the RPG developer equivalent of Treyarch.
Click to expand...

But Treyarch made Nazi Zombies and that is more fun than every other CoD related thing! =P
 
P

Plasma

Banned
Cep said:
Yeah, bad enough to put up vsync and this killed the already stuttering framerate. The game seems very poorly optimized for an UE3 game.

Perhaps those with better machines will have a better time.
Click to expand...

Really? I had no problems with the framerate, the game was smooth with all the settings turned up.
 
T

TheApatheticOne

Member
I was going to pick up this game for the weekend, but with grabbing a few games already this month, and this one reeking of being around $29.99 in a month or so, I can wait. Despite the early negativity, Im still very much looking forward to playing it.
 
L

lastplayed

Member
I'm quickly learning that stealth mixed with hand-to-hand combat makes the game far easier and much more satisfying. Michael Thorton can bust out some pretty cool moves.

He may seem pretty straight and wooden at first, but he's really growing on me, especially with the wisecracks he comes out with. :lol
 
A

Axiom

Member
I don't really get the people saying shooting is easier than stealth, maybe it's because I'm in pistols and shotguns but accuracy is just a pain, and one shot kills from behind are ideal.

I really love the hacking and lockpicking minigames myself, much better than what was in the Mass Effect's, Fallout 3 or Oblivion. Console controls likely help my opinion though.

Currently stuck on a boss fight with a Russian crack head, it's all well and good until he charges me. Then I'm fucked as I'm stuck in a loop of knife to the throat animations.
 
A

Acosta

Member
APGame_2010-05-28_03-31-54-30.jpg


Here is my dudebro, veteran Thorton, ready to kick some asses :lol

Ok guys, some tidbits after doing my firts run:

-I love this game, period.

-Perfomance wise, it´s solid, I have played PC version and I have not found any single bug, no one. I tend to be forgiving with bugs if the experience is good (happened with vanilla Bloodlines and with vanilla NWN2), but in this case I didn't find a single bug. Perfomance wise, I had no problem: 1080p, v-sync and everything on except the annoying blur activated, it gave me a steady 60 FPS with few drops and some tiny delays charging the textures, nothing serious.

-My first run I decided to go for a non lethal approach, focusing on stealth and martial arts, and it was fun and even challenging sometimes, especially when I was spotted. It takes a while to build a solid set of stealth skills to use and stealth is not useful for cameras and other automatic devices, so you are not a ghost. In my opinion, it´s better to knock out enemies instead of trying to pass through them, and it was fun taking them down with surprise attacks (there are two ways of taking an enemy by surprise, lethal and non lethal). The few times I used a weapon, I had no problem using them.

-I didn't find big problems with IA, it's a bit dumb in the sense that when I take down someone in "ghost form" (the most defining stealth skill that makes me invisible for 10 secs with 1 min of cooldown) and other see it, they go straight to my position to see what happens, instead of trigger the alarm. But they are quite competent at teamwork and I found them flanking me quite a lot when I turtled in a cover.

-Here comes the good part: the story rocks, it's not your epic, bombastic story about impossible conspiracies. It´s pretty down the earth, clever, and it makes sense and feels extremely solid, no holes and that's difficult because...

- I have never found a story driven game where decisions are so important and have such an impact, even the way you go through the mission can affect to the story. Do you remember Sie? the german blonde woman? I barely saw here in my first run, she wasn't fan of my professional and "soft" way of dealing with things, I just spoke with her a few times and that's it. There are real consequences to my actions, and some of them were not apparent until much later. If you were impressed with the consequences of The Witcher or Deus Ex, you are up for a great ride with AP.

- Another story aspect that I was impressed with was how there was not good/evil, not even paragon/renegade, sometimes I felt there was no "right" options and had to go with my guts. I can't speak much about this, better to discover it for yourself.

-Have I said the dialogue is fucking brilliant? well, it is, the time limit for answers is a success, Bioware should go back to that idea because it makes the flow of conversations much, much better, more engaging and more "cinematic". My "professional" run felt great, but I sometimes I went for the smartass/ironic option and it was hilarious, I will do a run going that route for sure.

- The game is short, I think I completed my first run in something like 14 hours but that was because I'm pretty slow and did all the missions. But it´s very replayable, I have tested a bit of things with saves and I surprised myself how I could change the story with some different decisions. My impression with hard mode in my second run make me believe the game will be more challenging, but not sure yet.

- Overall, I would have liked a true overworld, some alternative activities and maybe a longer story arc. It's too straightforward (think on ME 2, but without ship travelling and mining) and while it offers a good set of alternatives to complete missions, the map scenarios are not big enough to touch Deus Ex. However, you have a good variety of tools to do the work and you are not forced to shooting if you want to advance.

Hope you find this useful.
 
W

water_wendi

Water is not wet!
Des0lar said:
As you can read in other posts, this is probably not true. Don't be so easily manipulated.
Click to expand...
ill admit.. i took the bait :lol Something like that isnt out of the realm of possibility though so i just got pissed when i heard it. Good to hear its not true.

im really surprised at the Eurogamer score. i was expecting much lower. Given their history in how they understand rpg mechanics, a higher score is worse imo :lol ill have to read the text of it but im excited to hear impressions of people liking it so far.
 
G

garath

Member
butsomuch said:
Eurogamer: 7/10
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A little better than I anticipated. I usually see pretty eye to eye with Eurogamer reviews. a 7/10 is certainly playable. I have a high tolerance for flawed RPGs with great character development. Looks like Alpha Protocol might fit that bill.
 
D

Deadly Cyclone

Pride of Iowa State
butsomuch said:
Eurogamer: 7/10
Click to expand...

Interesting, I will have to see other reviews. I like Eurogamer, but they gave Red Dead an 8, so if AP is a 7 and I think Red Dead deserves a 9-something, maybe AP will follow. Or maybe not, they also gave the Bourne game an 8.

Their reviews are kind of all over the place.
 
B

Basileus777

Member
Larsen B said:
Can imagine there'll be some disparity between those reviewing it on console and those reviewing it on PC.
Click to expand...

Considering it's a pretty shoddy PC port, I don't know if that's true.

Here's a video I found of some of the stuttering problems.
 
T

The_Inquisitor

Member
GAF's consensus so far? I plan to pick this up in a few months. Somehow I have developed an enormous backlog even though I swore never to have one again. :lol
 
P

Pooya

Member
CVG 8.4/10
cvg said:
Verdict
An ugly duckling that soon becomes a swan. The only spying game you need to play...
Uppers
Feeling like a badass spy
Flirting with the hot ladies
Neat minigames
Downers
UE3 visuals look plain hideous in places
Riddled with slowdown
At times the globe-spanning narrative.
Click to expand...

it's getting better scores than I expected.
 
G

garath

Member
Basileus777 said:
Considering it's a pretty shoddy PC port, I don't know if that's true.

Here's a video I found of some of the stuttering problems.
Click to expand...

That looks like a mouse smoothing problem. Ini tweaks might take care of it.
 
E

eznark

Banned
Holy shit, Jim Sterling dropped the hammer. A 2!

If you want to save time, let's get this out in the open right now -- Alpha Protocol isn't very good. In fact, it's absolutely dreadful and it should not have been released in the state it's in. It looks and feels every bit like a game that has been subjected to patches, fixes and panicked over-development, yet still managed to hit its (perpetually postponed) deadline without being finished. Alpha Protocol is a mess, and that's putting it kindly.
Click to expand...

Joystiq savaged it too.

Alpha Protocol is structurally flawed, but perhaps most damning -- considering the thing was apparently done six months ago -- it's a technical nightmare. Textures take forever to pop-in (and sometimes even pop back out!); enemies hover 10 feet above platforms; there are frequent, seemingly random load times that can range from 3 to 15 seconds, and even occur right in the middle of dialog. Trust me, I could go on.

As a reviewer, I can understand how a company can release a game with structural issues. Sometimes that stuff is just too deeply ingrained to fix, or maybe you really believe it's the right design choice. I'm going to call you out on that stuff, but there's a chance I'll be able to get past it. But to release a game that's just plain not finished and to expect people -- to expect your fans -- to pay the full $60 for it? That's where you lose me.
Click to expand...
 
E

eznark

Banned
Deadly Cyclone said:
Yeah, Joystiq and Destructoid tore it apart, wonder what the IGN, 1up, and other reviews will bring.
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Sterling is, as a rule, a moron but if the technical issues are really as atrocious as both he and McElroy say...I'm going to have to wait for a bit to see if it gets patched.
 
S

sflufan

Banned
Jesus -- there is QUITE a bit of difference between the 80% range scores some of the European outlets are giving it and the savage mocking of Joystiq and Destructoid.

I mean a 2/10 versus 8+/10? How can such a wide variation exist?
 
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