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[HK-47]

I've been secretly wanting Obsidian to break down so Avellone would join a company where he could really shine. Like that one canadian company.

:lol :lol :lol

Especially after KotOR II spit all over Bioware storytelling conventions (in addition to Star Wars). He probably respects and is good friends with Bioware people, but I dont think Bioware is at all a good fit for his writing. This isnt about whether Obsidian is either, just whether Bioware would be, having played every game in their library (I'm hard on Bioware but I still enjoy their games to differing degrees, other than NWN and Undertide, which are shit, and Tales of the Sword Coast, which is horribly boring).

 

[jediyoshi]

Mashing the melee in this game might be the most satisfying things I've done in a while.

Just finished up, the

Spoiler

last two boss fights between Darcy and Leland bugged out for me so I managed to get away with standing there and holding the fire button down while they stood there.

Definitely going to do another play through to play along with the Albatross/Sis arc, was a little bummed out

Spoiler

seeing Albatross crossed out when choosing handlers at the end. Didn't realize I'd done a mission eliminating them.

 

[pilonv1]

Is it just me or if you reload a checkpoint after being spotted, the enemies are still on alert? I reloaded a checkpoint last night and was sneaking in before being spotted and I had 3 guys running straight for me.

 

[Peff]

Just finished. The final mission was pretty engaging, especially seeing your choices come together and wondering how different things could have gone (and seeing an ending in YouTube it can be VERY different and there were characters I barely even met)

Spoiler

My ending was movie-like, I rescued Mina with Scarlet and then managed to kill Darcy and stop Leland. Then off to the sunset with Mina

. All in all, it's definitely a much better game than it may seem from the first hour thanks to how compelling the RPG systems are and how the higher abilities allow you to overcome most of the hurdles the gunplay and graphics provide. Very satisfied, looking forward to replaying it!

 

[Basileus777]

Is it just me or if you reload a checkpoint after being spotted, the enemies are still on alert? I reloaded a checkpoint last night and was sneaking in before being spotted and I had 3 guys running straight for me.

I've had the same problem along with other issues like enemies that were dead before the checkpoint respawning, and the game not saving changes in a hub unless you start a mission. The whole checkpointing system in this game is a mess.

Obsidian would have been better off using a normal save system instead of using a shitty implementation because it makes it more difficult to reload and redo choices. It doesn't even really stop that.

 

[The Last Wizard]

so has anyone tried the romances yet?

 

[Domino Theory]

Has anyone had their Amazon pre-order ship yet?

 

[The Last Wizard]

Has anyone had their Amazon pre-order ship yet?

still preparing probably because of memorial day, it hasn't shipped yet

 

[Shaheed79]

Three narrative designers worked on AP.

Travis "Dark Sun" Stout

and Mask of the Betrayer lead writer George Ziets is working on Obsidian's secret project.

SOLD!

I would buy a game from anyone associated with the Dark Sun franchise even the janitor.

 

[firehawk12]

:lol :lol :lol

Especially after KotOR II spit all over Bioware storytelling conventions (in addition to Star Wars). He probably respects and is good friends with Bioware people, but I dont think Bioware is at all a good fit for his writing. This isnt about whether Obsidian is either, just whether Bioware would be, having played every game in their library (I'm hard on Bioware but I still enjoy their games to differing degrees, other than NWN and Undertide, which are shit, and Tales of the Sword Coast, which is horribly boring).

Yeah, Avellone at BioWare would probably juts kill Avellone... and WRPG fans would be poorer for it.

 

[Deadly]

The NSA place is hilarious. "You're not going to like what this year's virus does. Two words:horse porn":lol . What are the repercussions that can happen here?

 

[rollingstart]

I decided to keep my order after a lot of back and forth on it. Even though the action looks pretty weak, I just got finished with Alan Wake and that's a game I enjoyed despite not enjoying the combat. From what I'm hearing, all the negative comments are about the action sections, so I'm willing to deal with the bad to get to the good, especially because it is the type of good that I like.

But about the PC version, what is the deal with v sync and mouse smoothing? are there ini fixes for it?

 

[HK-47]

Really? I don't see how it's really a bad fit at all. Chris Avellone is a designer and writer for western RPGs. He has worked on games using Bioware tech many times in the past, and he has no problems working on sequels to Bioware games. You're acting as it Obsidian (and previously Black Isles) is a developer which is some how in a totally different league compared to Bioware and has different design interests and works on different genres. That's bullshit. Black Isles and now Obsidian,is just like Bioware except with better writing on average, less polish, and much worse management.

Pretty much every single game system in Alpha Protocol is taken from or expanded from systems and interfaces Bioware created in Mass Effect and Mass Effect 2. There is almost nothing entirely original in the game itself in terms of brand new RPG ideas. To say that somehow it is a terrible creative fit for Avellone to work in Bioware, as opposed to working in Obsidian, is to ignore the reality that Obsidian isn't really any different from Bioware. Except Bioware is actually successful.

I dunno. AP seems to use to a high degree of success the expanded (expanding?) influence system they first started with in Black Hound/Van Buren and that was finally used in KotOR II. And Bioware has been moving towards that system of influences rather than just binary karma bars as well. So I think thats one instance (probably the major focus of Obsidian products) influencing other devs. Which is good. I hope Bioware also does interesting things with it.

 

[ShockingAlberto]

This game is hellsa janky.

But the dialogue/relationship system is so good it makes the game playable.

 

[daoster]

Man, I'm anxiously waiting for the Steam version to unlock already....30 more minutes, I hope!

 

[Llyranor]

If Chris Avellone starts fetching coffee over at Bioware, you can expect more games like vanilla NWN2. Heck, he can even cross swords with his old pal Ferret Beaudoin.

EDIT: Oh crap, I forgot to finish preloading this beforehand. I'm going to bed

 

[HK-47]

If Chris Avellone starts fetching coffee over at Bioware, you can expect more games like vanilla NWN2. Heck, he can even cross swords with his old pal Ferret Beaudoin.

EDIT: Oh crap, I forgot to finish preloading this beforehand. I'm going to bed

What about Icewind Dale 2 or Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance which were about Bioware level, or Champions of Norrath (I have no idea, never played, but I never heard again about it being good)? Though I dont think story was the concern of Dale II.

 

[duckroll]

Wow, Rome is REALLY awesome. I have to say, AP is definitely one of those games which starts out really mediocre/bad in terms of impressions, but if the player bothers to dig in and stick with the bad stuff while appreciating the good stuff, it gets REALLY fun. The skill levels are really great, and something ME1 totally failed at (while ME2 completely ignored in favor of streamlining).

At first the shooting is totally janky and pretty fucked up, but between picking the right weapons to use at the right times and investing points into stuff I actually use, you really feel character growth in the way you should for a RPG, more so than any of the shooter-RPGs I've played so far. I'm really LOVING the missions in Rome so far.

 

[Basileus777]

The game really does start off slow. The story doesn't really have any hook until after Saudi Arabia and the tutorial really showcases the game's weaknesses in gameplay at low levels.

It's a common theme in Obsidian games. Peragus is godawful, and NWN2's first act is incredibly boring.

 

[weekendCONFIRMED]

*waiting for Steam to unlock my copy*

Guessing it goes by PST, not EST like I was naively assuming?

 

[Basileus777]

*waiting for Steam to unlock my copy*

Guessing it goes by PST, not EST like I was naively assuming?

I doubt they unlocked it tonight. Steam doesn't really do midnight unlocks. You'll probbaly have to wait until tomorrow afternoon.

I'm in California, and it's still not unlocked for me! I knew it was too good to be true...they probably meant for it to be unlocked TOMORROW, instead of today

It says June 1st on the game page, so I assume the May 31st listed elsewhere is an error.

 

[daoster]

*waiting for Steam to unlock my copy*

Guessing it goes by PST, not EST like I was naively assuming?

I'm in California, and it's still not unlocked for me! I knew it was too good to be true...they probably meant for it to be unlocked TOMORROW, instead of today

 

[HK-47]

The game really does start off slow. The story doesn't really have any hook until after Saudi Arabia and the tutorial really showcases the game's weaknesses in gameplay at low levels.

It's a common theme in Obsidian games. Peragus is godawful, and NWN2's first act is incredibly boring.

Nah Peragus was alright save for the addition of the Sith, which didnt do the original plot line any favors. It needed a little bit better management. Telos was the actual problem, especially do to loading screens.

 

[Vaporak]

I doubt they unlocked it tonight. Steam doesn't really do midnight unlocks. You'll probbaly have to wait until tomorrow afternoon.



It says June 1st on the game page, so I assume the May 31st listed elsewhere is an error.

My game page on steam says it releases may 31st, not June 1st.

 

[Basileus777]

Nah Peragus was alright save for the addition of the Sith, which didnt do the original plot line any favors. It needed a little bit better management. Telos was the actual problem, especially do to loading screens.

Telos was a problem, but there are some real tedious sections on Peragus. I dread doing those parts where you have to control the droid on replays.

 

[daoster]

It says June 1st on the game page, so I assume the May 31st listed elsewhere is an error.

That's weird, even on that page, it says May 31, 2010 for me...

 

[Deleted member 17706]

Hogshit. It's released according to the Steam store but I can't decrypt my pre-loaded copy.

This had better not be some mix-up where it doesn't get released until tomorrow.

 

[HK-47]

Telos was a problem, but there are some real tedious sections on Peragus. I dread doing those parts where you have to control the droid on replays.

What, really? Controlling T3 is fun tbh. Shock Arm is my god. You sure you arent thinking about the protocol droid in Telos?

 

[Basileus777]

That's weird, even on that page, it says May 31, 2010 for me...

Now that's odd. When I check Steam, they have all the dates for the game changed to June 1st now. And that has to be the correct date or they would have unlocked the game already.

 

[Bebpo]

Hogshit. It's released according to the Steam store but I can't decrypt my pre-loaded copy.

This had better not be some mix-up where it doesn't get released until tomorrow.

If you go to the game page it still says PRE-PURCHASE NOW.

I am so sad. I was really hoping to play this tonight after the countdown started up.

 

[weekendCONFIRMED]

The Steam release date was June 1st (if you go buy the countdown timer to unlock time) even though the page said May 31st (I figured it meant like 11:59 May 31st or something for semantic reasons). This is why I was expecting it to unlock 41 minutes ago at midnight, June 1st

If it's not unlocked by 4am EST (1am PST) then yeah, they're just going to wait and unlock it tomorrow. Could have sworn they did midnight unlocks on Steam. I still remember staying up till 3am (12 EST) for the HL2 launch unlock.

 

[Deleted member 17706]

Total BS. Sega can fuck off as far as I am concerned.

From now I won't be pre-ordering. I'll just wait until I know which region gets the game first and abuse proxies to get it as fast as possible.

 

[Bebpo]

Yeah, for once as a US Citizen I get to feel what it's like to be the last country to get a game

The most ironic thing of all is that Obsidian and Sega USA are located in the last place to actually release the game. lol

At the end of the day though I'm sure this all just boils down to pressure from gamestop and the other game retail stores. They won't get their copies to sell until tomorrow so they don't want other places to sell the games first because then people won't buy it at their stores.

 

[ClovingWestbrook]

Total BS. Sega can fuck off as far as I am concerned.

From now I won't be pre-ordering. I'll just wait until I know which region gets the game first and abuse proxies to get it as fast as possible.

I'd be careful about using proxies with Steam. Just an FYI. Instead just have a buddy from that region gift it to you.

 

[Deleted member 17706]

I'd be careful about using proxies with Steam. Just an FYI. Instead just have a buddy from that region gift it to you.

I use a dummy account to gift my main account. No idea if that covers my bases, but I haven't had any problems yet. I used to have to do this all the time to get games from the US store when I lived in Japan.

 

[ClovingWestbrook]

I use a dummy account to gift my main account. No idea if that covers my bases, but I haven't had any problems yet. I used to have to do this all the time to get games from the US store when I lived in Japan.

Wow. That actually is a very smart idea!

 

[ClovingWestbrook]

Its released on Steam. Restart Steam but it may take some time to decrypt.

 

[daoster]

Damn them! Just when I was about to sleep! Now I won't be able to!

 

[Bebpo]

omg, it's outtttt

 

[Sinatar]

Oh my god this is the slowest Decryption evvvvaaaarrrrrrrr

 

[Tokubetsu]

Hope you guys enjoy it. Waiting on some dough to fix my measly finances. *hustle/grind*

 

[MannahContana]

What about Icewind Dale 2 or Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance which were about Bioware level, or Champions of Norrath (I have no idea, never played, but I never heard again about it being good)? Though I dont think story was the concern of Dale II.

Back on Avellone, I reckon the combination of Avellone writing the plot and overall story structure for a game along with David Gaider writing the characters and dialogue could create one of the best narrative experiences ever. Both complement each other nicely.

 

[Lafiel]

Back on Avellone, I reckon the combination of Avellone writing the plot and overall story structure for a game along with David Gaider writing the characters and dialogue could create one of the best narrative experiences ever. Both complement each other nicely.

David gaider writes good dialogue?

 

[firehawk12]

Back on Avellone, I reckon the combination of Avellone writing the plot and overall story structure for a game along with David Gaider writing the characters and dialogue could create one of the best narrative experiences ever. Both complement each other nicely.

I feel like Gaider is probably better known for writing good "situations". It's sort of disappointing that some of his best examples have been stuff that's been cut from the final releases of the games he worked on though.

 

[weekendCONFIRMED]

The funny thing is, I had a mini debate in my head on whether I should keep playing Space Siege or go play AP (once I saw it was ready). I really don't get the Space Siege low scores. And it's not like I'm isometric-rpg deprived either...I've played Torchlight a ton too.

 

[HK-47]

Back on Avellone, I reckon the combination of Avellone writing the plot and overall story structure for a game along with David Gaider writing the characters and dialogue could create one of the best narrative experiences ever. Both complement each other nicely.

Gaider characters and dialogue...over Avellone characters/dialogue?

Like maybe in opposite world or something.

 

[Deleted member 17706]

Well I just spent a good two hours on the game and I must say it's rather good. Sure the graphics aren't excellent, the controls are a bit janky (KB/M) and I the combat is odd, but damn if it isn't fun. The plot so far and the dialogue have been quite good. I'm still only a bit into Saudi Arabia, but I'm definitely happy with the game already. I was getting worried with some of the reviews out there.

I went with a Field Agent as my background and am mainly going stealth / martial arts. It's a ton of fun to sneak around and plan your attack using silent melee take-downs. I'm really enjoying the combat when I'm not actually shooting.

I think I might hook this up to my 47" screen and bust out the 360 controller to see how it plays as a more console-oriented experience. The menus definitely seemed to be designed with the consoles in mind.

By the way, did anyone else notice the Japanese Sega Saturn below the television in the Saudi safehouse?

 

[firehawk12]

Gaider characters and dialogue...over Avellone characters/dialogue?

Like maybe in opposite world or something.

Personal bias of course, but I feel like Gaider writes a female PC very well. There are times when it doesn't feel like a man writing his idealized version of a woman, which is a problem that plagues most game writing these days.

 

[HK-47]

SOLD!

I would buy a game from anyone associated with the Dark Sun franchise even the janitor.

I remember hearing good things about the Dark Sun game.

What a good campaign setting. And Planescape. And Ravenloft. And Spelljammers.

 

[HK-47]

Personal bias of course, but I feel like Gaider writes a female PC very well. There are times when it doesn't feel like a man writing his idealized version of a woman, which is a problem that plagues most game writing these days.

I think Avellone writes at about Gaider's level, regardless of gender, on his off games. When he is on...you get Kreia or Kaelyn or Morte or Ravel Puzzlewell (many of his best creations are females, oddly) and avatars like the Nameless One and the Exile.

Gaider is fine, but he doesnt have much flair and his prose and dialogue arent as good. And most of his characters are usually flat IMO and the player avatars standard fare. Not that flat characters are bad, but rounded ones are much harder to do.