Darth InSidious Posted September 14, 2009 Posted September 14, 2009 Official Xbox 360 Magazine Previews Alpha Protocol The good: OXM said: We could linger on the solid control of the cover and shoot combat, talk about the extensive character customisation list that'd have the average Fallout fan shivering in anticipation, or discuss the amalgamation of espionage thriller and RPG. But no. What stuck in the brain was the quality of the dialogue. Overall, it's a pretty positive review, but it still can't resist a superficial comparison with Mass Effect: OXM said: It combines Mass Effect's love of dialogue branches and deep plot with Splinter Cell: Conviction's action-orientated realism. An espionage thriller, where quick wits are as vital as good aim. A passing thing, but if the "dialogue branches and deep plot" are on a level with Mass Effect's near-total lack, I'm worried.
jrrtoken Posted September 15, 2009 Posted September 15, 2009 Darth InSidious said: A passing thing, but if the "dialogue branches and deep plot" are on a level with Mass Effect's near-total lack, I'm worried.DI, you obviously can not recall that Mass Effect is the latest watershed in role-playing games; everything aspect, no matter how minute, is overwhelmingly perfect, and supersedes everything before it. After all, if every review site gave it a perfect score, then it must be a perfect game, along with the five other perfect games that were published in 2007.
Rake Posted September 15, 2009 Posted September 15, 2009 The only thing irking me about this game is Sega/Obsidian's inability to choose a release date. With so many games coming out this holiday; I was hoping this game would be out as planned, October 6 .
Darth InSidious Posted September 16, 2009 Posted September 16, 2009 PC Gamer does Alpha Protocol A four-page spread in PDF format here, which is interesting. There's not a great deal that's new here, but it does present more of a synthesis of information than we've seen for a while, and the game is at last beginning to be noticed. Only one (small) mention of Mass Effect in four pages, too. And it's not about the dialogue system, either.
SpaceAlex Posted September 17, 2009 Posted September 17, 2009 Sounds good. Don't rush this one, dear OE.
Avisto Posted September 26, 2009 Posted September 26, 2009 What's with some websites moving the Alpha Protocol release date to 2010? Gamestop says it's being released on June 1st, 2010, but the Alpha Protocol website still says Oct. 2009.
jrrtoken Posted September 26, 2009 Posted September 26, 2009 Avisto said: What's with some websites moving the Alpha Protocol release date to 2010? Gamestop says it's being released on June 1st, 2010, but the Alpha Protocol website still says Oct. 2009.There's been a huge amount of debate of sorts traveling around regarding the release date. October 9th is definitely a negative, seeing as it's definitely a bit too soon. I'd still say that the semi-official date of October 26/27 seems to be the most accurate, although there seems to be far too many games to be released in that current window to quash any release-instigated marketing buzz (Particularly that dark, gritty and mature RPG to be released on November 3rd >_>). To be honest, I wouldn't mind an early 2010 release; that would allow more QA, more marketing (Although I'm highly doubtful of that ever coming to fruition ), and would inherently allow more sales.
Q Posted September 26, 2009 Posted September 26, 2009 Yes, I've heard June 1, 2010 myself. What the hell? I thought that AP was halfway out the door, already.
Avisto Posted September 26, 2009 Posted September 26, 2009 Oh. Too bad, I was about to put $60 down on a copy. I guess I'll wait until there's a solid release date to do it, and I'll put the money down close to the date.
Jeff Posted September 26, 2009 Posted September 26, 2009 Yeah, I've already pre-purchased the game on Steam, so I hope it's not too far off. I guess a later release date would give it more time for polish and marketing, but really, whether it's released this year or next, it is being released amongst huge franchises or better marketed games.
DarthParametric Posted September 26, 2009 Posted September 26, 2009 Evil Q said: What the hell? I thought that AP was halfway out the door, already. Well the most likely scenario is that, as ever with Black Isle and its offspring Obsidian and Troika, their games that are halfway out the door are only half-finished. PastramiX said: To be honest, I wouldn't mind an early 2010 release; that would allow more QA, more marketing (Although I'm highly doubtful of that ever coming to fruition ), and would inherently allow more sales.But it probably wouldn't be so great for Obsidian's current cash-flow and ongoing operation.
Q Posted September 26, 2009 Posted September 26, 2009 I suspect that you're correct, but the full game has already been reviewed by several gaming sites, hasn't it? What's up with that?
DarthParametric Posted September 26, 2009 Posted September 26, 2009 A review copy isn't necessarily a finished retail copy. I've not seen any reviews myself, just previews. Most of those have mentioned a need for further optimisation.
JediAthos Posted September 26, 2009 Posted September 26, 2009 Obsidian's web site is still advertising an October release but I suppose that doesn't necessarily mean anything. A delay wouldn't really be anything new, and usually I don't complain about a small delay a couple weeks or even a couple months, but then there are of course games that have been delayed into oblivion. *cough* duke nukem *cough*
Ctrl Alt Del Posted October 3, 2009 Posted October 3, 2009 Sabretooth said: Still, the music was very good (Jeremy Soule?) and I still remember some of the music fondly. Yes.
Char Ell Posted October 3, 2009 Posted October 3, 2009 I was planning on preordering Alpha Protocol but seeing as how the game appears to be unofficially delayed I think I'll wait for official word on the game's status. AP has turned out to be another reminder on why I don't place a preorder for a game I'm highly interested in until the game goes gold.
jrrtoken Posted October 6, 2009 Posted October 6, 2009 It's offishul. At least "Spring 2010" doesn't exactly equate to a June 1st release, although it's still an deviously vague estimate. The reason for the delay is an even greater enigma; hopefully Sega isn't trying to maximize sales by instituting a contractual delay a la Activision, while leaving the development team in a state of lame duck. It'd be most sad indeed for Obsidian to pull a Troika.
Astor Posted October 6, 2009 Posted October 6, 2009 PastramiX said: It's offishul. At least "Spring 2010" doesn't exactly equate to a June 1st release, although it's still an deviously vague estimate. The reason for the delay is an even greater enigma; hopefully Sega isn't trying to maximize sales by instituting a contractual delay a la Activision, while leaving the development team in a state of lame duck. It'd be most sad indeed for Obsidian to pull a Troika. Well that just sucks. Looks like Dragon Age (I know, I know) will be the only RPG i'll be playing this side of christmas. Although, the site still says 'October 2009'. Very strange.
Sabretooth Posted October 7, 2009 Posted October 7, 2009 Astor Kaine said: Although, the site still says 'October 2009'. Very strange. It's a graphic, they have to make a new one before they can change it on the site. Guess they're too lazy for that.
Jeff Posted October 7, 2009 Posted October 7, 2009 Yeah I've noticed the Obsidian site isn't kept very well updated in the past. Sucks about the delay, but nothing we can do but wait I guess. Will be nice at least when it does finally come out and I've already fully paid. Hopefully it can get some additional marketing aside from more Mike Thorton tweets till then.
cire992 Posted October 7, 2009 Posted October 7, 2009 Look on the bright side, saves you some money this holiday. At the rate at which games are being delayed, there's going to be one hell of a spring '10 lineup.
Pavlos Posted November 30, 2009 Posted November 30, 2009 Source Chris Avellone's company-friendly blog on the Obsidian Boards has been updated with a new article, "Alpha Protocol Narrative Process Backslash Ramble", in which our hero descends into the inner-most circles of the Underworld (Mundaniad CXII.52226) to "braindump on Alpha Protocol and the narrative process". Quote The final draft of Alpha Protocol began about a year and a half ago, and it occurred because of two iterative questions - the first was, "what if you don't kill the 'bad guy' at the end of Saudi Arabia and just talk to him instead?" And then we asked the same question in Moscow with a slightly different bent - what if you had more choices on how that end sequence played out? Then we started asking if we could switch around handlers on missions more often since there were some characters we thought would be cool giving you mission advice. And then we started asking if you could choose a lot more of the missions you wanted to take, rather than most of them. Read on, MacDuff.
DarthParametric Posted December 1, 2009 Posted December 1, 2009 Heh. Him moaning about being forced to add romances was a laugh. What I found more interesting though was the previous post from October where he mentions that the dev team was doing QA work and that the bug count was fairly low. Curious, given the release delay and media comments on the technical issues seen in preview builds.
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