Alpha Protocol - Obsidian's new RPG

[Achilles]

^Oh, this annoyed me as well. I was stealthy CQC (with rifle) and never killed people (because I Judo-chopped them) unless I got involved in a shout-out. And, like you said, innocents and ehm...not-so-innocents aren't that different so I accidentally shot them. Which got rubbed in my face multiple times....

Hey there,

 

I didn't mention that as an annoyance so much as a "erm, they kinda sorta already did what's being suggested".

[Ztalker]

Sorry, I misread or misunderstood....busy doing to many things at once.

[Prime]

And Obsidian kills yet another game franchise.

 

Low Sales Kill Alpha Protocol Sequel.

[igyman]

Is anyone surprised by this turn of events? Anyone?

[mimartin]

And Obsidian kills yet another game franchise.

 

Low Sales Kill Alpha Protocol Sequel.

 

Most likely spells doom for my long anticipated patch too.

[jrrtoken]

And SEGA kills yet another game franchise.

 

Low Sales Kill Alpha Protocol Sequel.

Fixed

[Achilles]

Not sure I would want a sequel (VtM:B II anyone?), but I will be kinda sad if there isn't a patch.

 

Granted the bugs I've encountered are minor (with two one-off exceptions), but still. I'd like to read a post-mission report and feel comfortable that some of the stats aren't completely made-up (love the missions where I get negative XP in some categories).

[Q]

Well, someone stick a spear into Obsidian's side, because I believe that "it is finished".

[Darth InSidious]

Well, someone stick a spear into Obsidian's side, because I believe that "it is finished".

They've still got New Vegas and DS3 to fall back on. One of the two may turn a decent profit yet, and F:NV in particular looks set to be a fairly big seller.

[Achilles]

I'm certainly not jumping to the conclusion that "didn't sell as many units as we'd hoped" = "the game did not turn a profit". I totally get "not profitable enough to justify a sequel" but that isn't the same thing.

[DarthParametric]

Fixed

Lol. But presumably if it was a financial success that would all have been completely down to Obsidian no?

[jrrtoken]

Lol. But presumably if it was a financial success that would all have been completely down to Obsidian no?

For the financial failure, I'd place most of the blame on SEGA's marketing campaign (or lack thereof; see all other recent SEGA titles). Concerning the critical outlook, then feel free to point at Obsidian, but SEGA is also responsible for maintaining developer quality control, which in according to both SEGA and Obsidian's perspective, is sub-par, at best.

[Sabretooth]

And Obsidian kills yet another game franchise.

 

Yes, such as the Old Republic series which may have gotten a loosely-connected MMO sequel if it weren't ruined by Obsidian, or Neverwinter Nights 2, which unfortunately gained cult popularity despite being the sequel to a game that thrived on cult popularity. And made three profitable expansions on it too, the monsters.

 

I can only imagine how much they will ruin prestigious franchises like Fallout 3 or Dungeon Siege, which have been the paragons of gaming excellence.

[Lynk Former]

For the financial failure, I'd place most of the blame on SEGA's marketing campaign (or lack thereof; see all other recent SEGA titles). Concerning the critical outlook, then feel free to point at Obsidian, but SEGA is also responsible for maintaining developer quality control, which in according to both SEGA and Obsidian's perspective, is sub-par, at best.

 

 

Sega is responsible for the badly executed marketing... as for quality control... that is Obsidian's responsibility. Sega reached out to a lot of developers this generation to make all kinds of different games and actually gave them a chance to prove themselves when no one else would. Alpha Protocol was one of these games. The Conduit and MadWorld and of course... Bayonetta are some others that Sega published that probably wouldn't have been released at all without them.

 

I'm sure there are a lot of other games that Sega is publishing for some other developers... but the point is... it's not Sega's fault that the internal management at Obsidian sucked since Sega is simply trying to give developers a chance to have their vidya released.

[Jeff]

But Sega made Obsidian make numerous changes to the game after claims of it being too hard among other complaints between the originally scheduled release date and its eventual release, so I'm not sure Obsidian could have done much about it either. There is no way to say for certain but I am confident it would have been a different and probably better game with a different publisher.

[Lynk Former]

That's very common in a publisher/developer relationship... a lot more than you realise. Obsidian would know this from their previous dealings so it's kind of sad that they can't seem to handle it with Alpha Protocol. Quality control is their responsibility and they were given quite a lot of time to do what needed to be done... so as I said in LucasCast, it seems like Obsidian has to do something about its internal management to prevent this sort of thing from happening in the future.

 

 

Also, if Sega hadn't have published Alpha Protocol I doubt anyone else would have and then there would be no Alpha Protocol.

[Q]

Yeah, it's been mentioned more than once that Obsidian suffers from the same QC problems as Troika did.

 

Though I'm reading more complaints about AP's being annoying than its being buggy.

[Achilles]

People will always find something to complain about. That some people are annoyed hardly seems newsworthy.

 

If they are annoyed with the game and not pissed about bugs, then what specifically is their deal? They were expecting a Mass Effect clone and didn't get one? They were expecting a shooter (even though it's been billed as an RPG since it was announced)? Help me understand.

[Q]

Read through the thread. It's a real bitchfest, mostly over the mini-games, I think.

 

I'll check this game out eventually, patch or no. I always get a kick out of Avellone's writing. I just want to wear out Dragon Age first.

[Darth InSidious]

For the most part, the minigames are avoidable (except in the tutorial, perhaps for obvious reasons).

[Achilles]

For the most part, the minigames are avoidable (except in the tutorial, perhaps for obvious reasons).

 

QFT.

 

A vast majority of them are optional. A fair number of mission have one unavoidable minigame. Some people say they are too difficult. I've always considered myself to be...challenged...when it comes to minigames, therefore if I can figure these out, anyone should be able to. Seriously.

 

And if you can't, spend three AP buy one point of Sabotage and use EMPs to open everything.

 

EDIT: @EQ, I seriously considered holding off on AP and am very glad that I didn't. It's not perfect, but neither is it the PoS many people are making it out to be.

[mimartin]

People will always find something to complain about. That some people are annoyed hardly seems newsworthy.[/Quote]

When those complaints/reviews harm sells, then they may be at least noteworthy if not newsworthy. SEGA can be blamed for lack of marketing, but had all those negative complaints been positive praise, do we really thing that sales would not have soared despite perceived lack of marketing support. I may read and watch the “so-called” reviewers for laughs, but when it comes to deciding what I purchase I’m more likely to purchase based on what my friends and acquaintances tell me than the professionals.

 

I’m not complaining about the game (promised Sabre I wouldn’t until I finish AP, if that ever happens hopefully I will not have anything to complain about).

 

And no, for the record I was not expecting a Mass Effect clone.

[Achilles]

When those complaints/reviews harm sells, then they may be at least noteworthy if not newsworthy.

Sure, but that's a whole 'nother can o' worms.

 

1) How can you show that the reviews are impacting sales?

2) What is the baseline for establishing the legitimacy of the complaints?

 

Those are the big two the spring to mind but I'm sure I can come up with more.

 

Lack of sales could be lackluster marketing just as much as poor reviews. I'm sure each plays a role, but we can't point to only one or the other.

 

And I tend to agree with the argument that AP (and Obsidian) are being held to a different standard than other games are when it comes to reviews.

 

SEGA can be blamed for lack of marketing, but had all those negative complaints been positive praise, do we really thing that sales would not have soared despite perceived lack of marketing support.

IDK. You claim that you tend to ignore reviews. I doubt you are the only one

 

I may read and watch the “so-called” reviewers for laughs, but when it comes to deciding what I purchase I’m more likely to purchase based on what my friends and acquaintances tell me than the professionals.

Me too. I also consider the developer.

 

It seems that I'm a minority, but I do find Obsidian games enjoyable.

 

I’m not complaining about the game (promised Sabre I wouldn’t until I finish AP, if that ever happens hopefully I will not have anything to complain about).

 

And no, for the record I was not expecting a Mass Effect clone.

[Prime]

Yes, such as the Old Republic series which may have gotten a loosely-connected MMO sequel if it weren't ruined by Obsidian, or Neverwinter Nights 2, which unfortunately gained cult popularity despite being the sequel to a game that thrived on cult popularity. And made three profitable expansions on it too, the monsters.

 

I can only imagine how much they will ruin prestigious franchises like Fallout 3 or Dungeon Siege, which have been the paragons of gaming excellence.

I didn't say all.

 

My statement was a bit tongue-in-cheek, but I would argue that Bioware's TOR largely skips over Obsidian's offering for the MMO, and it seems that LA did not deem K2 enough of a success to continue the franchise in the RPG vein. Now that is all speculation of course, and I take your point.

[jrrtoken]

Ladies and gentlemen, we have a patch... after nearly three months.

 

A word of caution: people have been reporting runtime errors and corrupted save games when using this patch. The thing is, it works fine for me, and almost everyone with issues is using the EU version of AP. Since I have the US version, one can assume that the patch released in US-exclusive, and SEGA didn't publish localized executables, and linked all support areas to the same download. Just to be safe, though, back up your APGame.exe and all of your saves before installing.

 

SEGA refuses to release a changelog, but I can confirm that all of the major bugs seem to have been addressed in this patch, including the broken "Reload Last Checkpoint" option, as well as better mouse handling, nearly unnoticeable texture streaming, and a framerate boost