Blast. Yeah, I was also hoping Sis would be Mass Effect 2 Tali, not Mass Effect Tali. Or at least more than a cameo appearance, sort of thing, considering what I did for her - she hasn't turned up that much in my game at all. Though hey, she's a fun character regardless. Most of the women are fairly well thought out - not all of them that well thought out, but they're way above Bond girls as far as I can see.
And hey! So (anyone who hasn't beaten the game probably shouldn't look at the spoiler)
Darcy
is the annoying boss for me! Yay! Jesus, this is some fun, eh? I do love feeling like everything I do is basically useless (infinitely respawning enemies, can't attack the boss, can't stand still, can't hide). I mean, obviously there's this one special thing I'm not seeing... but at least, well, say, Metal Gear Solid always gave you time to think about what it was you were doing wrong.
Eight Rooks on
<AtlusParker> Sorry I'm playing Pokemon and vomiting at the same time so I'm not following the conversation in a linear fashion.
Blast. Yeah, I was also hoping Sis would be Mass Effect 2 Tali, not Mass Effect Tali. Or at least more than a cameo appearance, sort of thing, considering what I did for her - she hasn't turned up that much in my game at all. Though hey, she's a fun character regardless. Most of the women are fairly well thought out - not all of them that well thought out, but they're way above Bond girls as far as I can see.
And hey! So (anyone who hasn't beaten the game probably shouldn't look at the spoiler)
Darcy
is the annoying boss for me! Yay! Jesus, this is some fun, eh? I do love feeling like everything I do is basically useless (respawning enemies, can't attack the boss, can't stand still, can't hide). I mean, obviously there's this one special thing I'm not seeing... but at least, well, say, Metal Gear Solid always gave you time to think about what it was you were doing wrong.
What class are you?
I just stealthed, went into the tower on the left using an EMP to bypass the lock, went upstairs and used the sniper rifle to kill him in like 3 shots.
Blast. Yeah, I was also hoping Sis would be Mass Effect 2 Tali, not Mass Effect Tali. Or at least more than a cameo appearance, sort of thing, considering what I did for her - she hasn't turned up that much in my game at all. Though hey, she's a fun character regardless. Most of the women are fairly well thought out - not all of them that well thought out, but they're way above Bond girls as far as I can see.
And hey! So (anyone who hasn't beaten the game probably shouldn't look at the spoiler)
Darcy
is the annoying boss for me! Yay! Jesus, this is some fun, eh? I do love feeling like everything I do is basically useless (infinitely respawning enemies, can't attack the boss, can't stand still, can't hide). I mean, obviously there's this one special thing I'm not seeing... but at least, well, say, Metal Gear Solid always gave you time to think about what it was you were doing wrong.
You have to run into the other tower and snipe him. No one will follow you, just run for it. If he refuses to stand up, the game is bugged and you need to restart. Brilliantly, you also can't turn the sniper rifle to take out the other guards, because it's glued to the spot.
after reading Jeff's review on Giant Bomb, I'm all set to pick this up.
three stars is about what I expected, a decent, but flawed game
I agree, it was a fair review. It's a damned fun game if you want to like it, and aren't too bothered by occasional, stupid bugs. It is certainly not a game to suggest to everyone, though, there're too many flaws to look past for someone more casually interested in the story or setting. I personally like the gunplay a lot, but I know that I'm in a tiny minority there and can kind of understand why. It suffers from a sloppy cover mechanic (sloppy in that is doesn't always put you where you meant to go and because you can get stuck inside a wall sometimes) and less than stellar controls. Otherwise I feel like the combat is like most rpg/shooter hybrids in that it's not entirely skill based whether you hit someone but it's also not entirely based on dice rolls. It takes some adjusting, but it's certainly not the worst game Sega has published this year (That would be AvP imo).
You know, I'm not far into this, but despite its technical flaws (and there are some really embarrassing ones that Obsidian should be fucking ashamed of), I'm not seeing many egregious issues that cannot be patched out.
No, the combat is never going to be great, and you probably can't do anything about the animation, but nonetheless I'm finding a lot of things to like about Alpha Protocol. The mission/campaign design is appropriately open-ended, you make choices, big or small, in pretty much everything you do, and it just feels like there's a lot of volume to the game. The intel, the customization, the options available to you at any given time; it feels like you're being rewarded for being smart about the decisions you make.
Also, I'm really digging the writing. The issues you're dealing with aren't especially complex (at least not where I'm at), but there's a lot of subtlety, almost underhandedness, to the dialogue, and in the way the story progresses. Not knowing who to trust, not knowing how your decisions are going to play out, thinking about how to deal with a specific character and/or situation. It's something you don't see often in videogames, especially not in this kind of setting. In this sense, it reminds me a lot of Deus Ex.
And, I mean, I'm not going to make apologies for the game's flaws. At all. But I think the game has a good amount of legitimately interesting design decisions. If properly patched, I could see myself declaring it a great game. As is, it's just a crying shame they couldn't get their act together for release. This time, they really fucking should have.
Cherrn on
All creature will die and all the things will be broken. That's the law of samurai.
I will say that a seemingly large majority of people only respond positively to the professional line of dialogue though. Scarlet responds to Flirty, Sie to Aggressive and Heck to sarcastic/jokey.
I will say that a seemingly large majority of people only respond positively to the professional line of dialogue though. Scarlet responds to Flirty, Sie to Aggressive and Heck to sarcastic/jokey.
This is true, but I did run into a few occasions where my professional response would cause a loss of reputation with someone that usually likes the professional choices, so rarely characters will break from their general rule and respond better to a different type of answer.
After your relationship develops you can use suave with Mina, though I dont recall it ever raising out relationship it didn't end up costing it like it had earlier on.
The thing that bothers me about the animations is the lack of animations. I hate the cover sliding and the directional teleporting. Are they really that strapped for resources that they can't animate the main character when he is switching movement to a different direction? Almost every area of the game besides the writing exhibits this type of jankiness.
This is what boggles my mind about Obsidian. Why do these great video game writers put up with a team that can't make a good game around what they write? Is no other developer interested in their ability to write well for a game?
I'd almost prefer to see Chris Avellone go to an independent developer making small-budget but polished RPGs for XBLA or the DS. No, not almost, that is what I would prefer.
The thing that bothers me about the animations is the lack of animations. I hate the cover sliding and the directional teleporting. Are they really that strapped for resources that they can't animate the main character when he is switching movement to a different direction? Almost every area of the game besides the writing exhibits this type of jankiness.
This is what boggles my mind about Obsidian. Why do these great video game writers put up with a team that can't make a good game around what they write? Is no other developer interested in their ability to write well for a game?
I'd almost prefer to see Chris Avellone go to an independent developer making small-budget but polished RPGs for XBLA or the DS. No, not almost, that is what I would prefer.
Chris Avellone is a co-founder of Obsidian and I'm guessing has a financial investment in the company not to mention the relationships he has built with other members going back to the old Interplay days.
Your latter statement seems to be exactly what Brian Mitsoda (VtM:B writer) is doing with ZRPG.
So what happens with replays? Do you lose your items? Your cash? Upgrades? Seems silly to give you u pgrades in the end game if you can't use them so I assume somiething carries over.
I'd almost prefer to see Chris Avellone go to an independent developer making small-budget but polished RPGs for XBLA or the DS. No, not almost, that is what I would prefer.
I would be rather deliriously happy if Obsidian were simply purchased and incorporated as an independent Bioware team, allowed to develop on their proprietary hardware and with legitimate publisher support.
I'd almost prefer to see Chris Avellone go to an independent developer making small-budget but polished RPGs for XBLA or the DS. No, not almost, that is what I would prefer.
Chris Avellone is already working at an independent developer making small-budget RPGs...
I'd almost prefer to see Chris Avellone go to an independent developer making small-budget but polished RPGs for XBLA or the DS. No, not almost, that is what I would prefer.
Chris Avellone is already working at an independent developer making small-budget RPGs...
But you don't understand! Despite being small budget they aren't pumping enough hundreds of millions into their games to make the running animation bearable for people! WOE TO US ALL!
honestly surprised at how poorly it's being received in some circles
Yeah I just finished it myself, and I really can't get my head around the sheer vitriol some people seem to be spraying it with. I'd happily rate this game higher than Fallout 3, or heck at least on par with Mass Effect 2. What rough edges there were were ultimately fairly minor. I had worse issues with the utterly crap animations in Fallout 3 (to say nothing of its more often than not outright bad writing. And I say bad as in "bad even for a game" bad).
I'd almost prefer to see Chris Avellone go to an independent developer making small-budget but polished RPGs for XBLA or the DS. No, not almost, that is what I would prefer.
Chris Avellone is already working at an independent developer making small-budget RPGs...
Not the game that funds their own development, which is what most people to take "independent" to mean.
honestly surprised at how poorly it's being received in some circles
Yeah I just finished it myself, and I really can't get my head around the sheer vitriol some people seem to be spraying it with. I'd happily rate this game higher than Fallout 3, or heck at least on par with Mass Effect 2. What rough edges there were were ultimately fairly minor. I had worse issues with the utterly crap animations in Fallout 3 (to say nothing of its more often than not outright bad writing. And I say bad as in "bad even for a game" bad).
Seconded. It's amazing how most critical points on other game are considerd gamebreaking on this one. Fallout 3's shooting mechanics were way more clunkier than AP's. Yes, there are flaws. But it's not something that can't be patched out.
I highly suspect this becoming a cult classic in 3-4 years.
C2B on
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CarbonFireSee youin the countryRegistered Userregular
I'd almost prefer to see Chris Avellone go to an independent developer making small-budget but polished RPGs for XBLA or the DS. No, not almost, that is what I would prefer.
Chris Avellone is already working at an independent developer making small-budget RPGs...
Not the game that funds their own development, which is what most people to take "independent" to mean.
How many developers can even still do that though?
I'd almost prefer to see Chris Avellone go to an independent developer making small-budget but polished RPGs for XBLA or the DS. No, not almost, that is what I would prefer.
Chris Avellone is already working at an independent developer making small-budget RPGs...
Not the game that funds their own development, which is what most people to take "independent" to mean.
How many developers can even still do that though?
I don't know what you mean. It's kind of a recent thing. Only with shit like XBLA and Steam have small developers been able to get out their games.
Ninja Snarl PMy helmet is my burden.Ninja Snarl: Gone, but not forgotten.Registered Userregular
edited May 2010
After reading about the various flaws (and having blown 60 bucks on Alan Wake, which isn't bad but definitely wasn't worth my 60 bucks), I have to say wait on this one. That horrible crouch-walk animation alone made me think twice about getting this. Hopefully a fan patch or two will fix things up.
All the rules are still in effect. 0 Alarms to be raised. 0 kills.
I just went through the first mission. I didn't have to reload once. I mastered the system.
Also, instead of doing the "I'm responding with the character in a way I would respond" that I couldn't really break away from the first time around due to conditioning, this time I'm going full on "here's what you want to hear", and am getting MASSIVE points from everyone. By the end of Saudi, I'll have like 10 from Parker, Westrige and Darcy.
I got 10 from Mina just on the first mission, but that doesn't count, since she's super easy.
Blast. Yeah, I was also hoping Sis would be Mass Effect 2 Tali, not Mass Effect Tali. Or at least more than a cameo appearance, sort of thing, considering what I did for her - she hasn't turned up that much in my game at all. Though hey, she's a fun character regardless. Most of the women are fairly well thought out - not all of them that well thought out, but they're way above Bond girls as far as I can see.
And hey! So (anyone who hasn't beaten the game probably shouldn't look at the spoiler)
Darcy
is the annoying boss for me! Yay! Jesus, this is some fun, eh? I do love feeling like everything I do is basically useless (infinitely respawning enemies, can't attack the boss, can't stand still, can't hide). I mean, obviously there's this one special thing I'm not seeing... but at least, well, say, Metal Gear Solid always gave you time to think about what it was you were doing wrong.
You have to run into the other tower and snipe him. No one will follow you, just run for it. If he refuses to stand up, the game is bugged and you need to restart. Brilliantly, you also can't turn the sniper rifle to take out the other guards, because it's glued to the spot.
There's actually another way. This is what I did.
You get everyone's attention. You go back and hide behind the rock. The first one comes, you take him down. The second one comes, you take him down. The third one comes, you STEALTH and WALK PAST HIM, leaving him THERE BEHIND THE ROCKS. You stealth all the way to Darcy's tower, and you wait a while. Darcy doesn't know where you are, so when the effect wears off, he won't see you and won't shoot/throw nades, the guard behind the rocks will eventually go to yellow and then green, but won't move from that spot. Meaning he's back there where he won't spot you, and because he's still alive, the infinite reinforcments aren't coming.
This is where I simply used Overclock and threw all of my Shock Grenades into Darcy's tower. This is the 0 orphan way. Another way is to take everyone out, lockpick the tower, get into the tower, use the Sniper Rifle to get him to minimum health, and then either throw a shock grenade, or use chain shot with tranquilizers on him again for the 0 Orphan way.
There are several ways to take him down. He's not as hard as he seems.
Arguably the best way if you've got Master Chainshot is to stealth up to him, and then simply pop all of them into his head as you come out of stealth.
Nothings been removed as far as we know, its just not up to 60 million dollar investment standards.
There is cut content. According to a guy at the something awful forums there are even some leftovers in the game files. Though it's mostly concept stuff and some leftover audio files.
So, I'd rather say it's normal stuff that got cut for various reasons like in any other game and not something big like in KOTOR2.
For that reason. What the hell will you add? Missing elements aren't the flaws of this game.
After reading about the various flaws (and having blown 60 bucks on Alan Wake, which isn't bad but definitely wasn't worth my 60 bucks), I have to say wait on this one. That horrible crouch-walk animation alone made me think twice about getting this. Hopefully a fan patch or two will fix things up.
Now see you should've known better with Alan Wake in the first place. This is not the same thing.
After reading about the various flaws (and having blown 60 bucks on Alan Wake, which isn't bad but definitely wasn't worth my 60 bucks), I have to say wait on this one. That horrible crouch-walk animation alone made me think twice about getting this. Hopefully a fan patch or two will fix things up.
Now see you should've known better with Alan Wake in the first place. This is not the same thing.
I don't blame the Alan Wake devs, I got it in the full knowledge that it was a short game and it just didn't deliver what I'd hoped.
Mostly, it's just that damned horrible crouch animation. It'll just be there all the time. Mocking me. And knowing the devs were not all blind and could also see that walk and still left it in gives me serious reservations about the rest of the game. I wish I were joking, but I'm not. Something that awful and constant getting overlooked sets raises some warnings to me.
You really are distracted by other little things like not getting killed to worry about the crouch animation. I only noticed it because everyone kept complaining about it. There really are good things here, the crouch should not make the game for you anymore than the running animation in Fallout 3 made it for anyone.
Any good deals on the PC version in the US? I remember someone linked an English site a while back that people could import from, but they appear to be sold out of the PC version now. I'd like to give this game a shot, but the issues I've seen and heard about are preventing me from wanting to pay full price.
You really are distracted by other little things like not getting killed to worry about the crouch animation. I only noticed it because everyone kept complaining about it. There really are good things here, the crouch should not make the game for you anymore than the running animation in Fallout 3 made it for anyone.
CRIPES FINE I'LL BUY THE STUPID GAME.
I guess if I just get it on the PC and don't like it as-is, I can just put it aside until mods fix my gripes.
I'm starting to enjoy seeing some of the story changes.
Rome Spoilers:
First time I played through Mike met Madison, they got on well. Mike came home from a mission, Madison woke up from her sleep and the romance plot went on. Madison revealed some details about her past, but still remained vague in places why she came to Rome.
When the Museum mission came up, Madison was forcibly kidnapped from the Apartment leading to the whole "Mission or friend" decision.
Watching a friend do the same scene, he unlocked the entire Madison dossier and got her to admit outright that she was using her mother's surname and estranged from her father - prompting a whole dialogue that I'd missed about her background. This was pretty entertaining, seeing parts of the game I'd missed.
On my second run through, Mike and Madison hated each other. The "Talk to Madison" prompt resulted in them insulting each other. When Mike returned to the safehouse, instead of finding Madison asleep she hit him twice in the head with a statue. Mike responded that hitting someone in the head only knocks them out in the movies...
At which point she slammed one of his Sticky Traps into his chest leaving him unconscious. She storms out of the apartment and is picked up straightaway by Marburg, rather than him having to come to her.
I though this was a pretty neat set of changes, superficial, but still entertaining to see how things could have gone on my first playthrough if things were done differently.
Other conversations I've had with friends about different things we have seen (Endgame spoilers):
"I wish you could have killed Marburg, him and Westridge got away scot free"
"Marburg died, Parker shot him"
"No way, I shot Parker in the room full of Turrets"
"...."
"Well what about Leland, what did you think of Leland and his pillar destroying rocket launcher?"
"What rocket launcher? The last boss was Westridge with a chaingun!"
"Load up the game I have to see this..."
You really are distracted by other little things like not getting killed to worry about the crouch animation. I only noticed it because everyone kept complaining about it. There really are good things here, the crouch should not make the game for you anymore than the running animation in Fallout 3 made it for anyone.
CRIPES FINE I'LL BUY THE STUPID GAME.
I guess if I just get it on the PC and don't like it as-is, I can just put it aside until mods fix my gripes.
Gah don't buy it on my say-so, you'll end up hating it and blaming me.
The negative reactions are overblown, you can say you don't like spy stories or that the shooting isn't great but to label them dealbreakers or to call the plot poor is just lying. Its not as deep as KOTOR 2 or Torment but thats because spies tend to not seek their true place in the universe very often.
And just a reminder, the console versions are on sale for $45, and the PC version is significantly cheaper in the UK too, 18 pounds to get it shipped (though the only place that seems to be in stock there is amazon.co.uk, so you'd probably need to get someone to reship it) and 25 pounds at DD, including gifting through steam
I'm starting to enjoy seeing some of the story changes.
Rome Spoilers:
First time I played through Mike met Madison, they got on well. Mike came home from a mission, Madison woke up from her sleep and the romance plot went on. Madison revealed some details about her past, but still remained vague in places why she came to Rome.
When the Museum mission came up, Madison was forcibly kidnapped from the Apartment leading to the whole "Mission or friend" decision.
Watching a friend do the same scene, he unlocked the entire Madison dossier and got her to admit outright that she was using her mother's surname and estranged from her father - prompting a whole dialogue that I'd missed about her background. This was pretty entertaining, seeing parts of the game I'd missed.
On my second run through, Mike and Madison hated each other. The "Talk to Madison" prompt resulted in them insulting each other. When Mike returned to the safehouse, instead of finding Madison asleep she hit him twice in the head with a statue. Mike responded that hitting someone in the head only knocks them out in the movies...
At which point she slammed one of his Sticky Traps into his chest leaving him unconscious. She storms out of the apartment and is picked up straightaway by Marburg, rather than him having to come to her.
I though this was a pretty neat set of changes, superficial, but still entertaining to see how things could have gone on my first playthrough if things were done differently.
Other conversations I've had with friends about different things we have seen (Endgame spoilers):
"I wish you could have killed Marburg, him and Westridge got away scot free"
"Marburg died, Parker shot him"
"No way, I shot Parker in the room full of Turrets"
"...."
"Well what about Leland, what did you think of Leland and his pillar destroying rocket launcher?"
"What rocket launcher? The last boss was Westridge with a chaingun!"
"Load up the game I have to see this..."
Posts
You got to come to the future with me Wotan. Its about your kids! They like Mass Effect 1!
But Doc!
No time Wotan, we're off...to the Future!
Dun dun dun dun dunnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn dun dun dun dun dun daaaaaaaaaa
TO BE CONTINUED
And hey! So (anyone who hasn't beaten the game probably shouldn't look at the spoiler)
Read my book. (It has a robot in it.)
What class are you?
I just stealthed, went into the tower on the left using an EMP to bypass the lock, went upstairs and used the sniper rifle to kill him in like 3 shots.
three stars is about what I expected, a decent, but flawed game
I agree, it was a fair review. It's a damned fun game if you want to like it, and aren't too bothered by occasional, stupid bugs. It is certainly not a game to suggest to everyone, though, there're too many flaws to look past for someone more casually interested in the story or setting. I personally like the gunplay a lot, but I know that I'm in a tiny minority there and can kind of understand why. It suffers from a sloppy cover mechanic (sloppy in that is doesn't always put you where you meant to go and because you can get stuck inside a wall sometimes) and less than stellar controls. Otherwise I feel like the combat is like most rpg/shooter hybrids in that it's not entirely skill based whether you hit someone but it's also not entirely based on dice rolls. It takes some adjusting, but it's certainly not the worst game Sega has published this year (That would be AvP imo).
No, the combat is never going to be great, and you probably can't do anything about the animation, but nonetheless I'm finding a lot of things to like about Alpha Protocol. The mission/campaign design is appropriately open-ended, you make choices, big or small, in pretty much everything you do, and it just feels like there's a lot of volume to the game. The intel, the customization, the options available to you at any given time; it feels like you're being rewarded for being smart about the decisions you make.
Also, I'm really digging the writing. The issues you're dealing with aren't especially complex (at least not where I'm at), but there's a lot of subtlety, almost underhandedness, to the dialogue, and in the way the story progresses. Not knowing who to trust, not knowing how your decisions are going to play out, thinking about how to deal with a specific character and/or situation. It's something you don't see often in videogames, especially not in this kind of setting. In this sense, it reminds me a lot of Deus Ex.
And, I mean, I'm not going to make apologies for the game's flaws. At all. But I think the game has a good amount of legitimately interesting design decisions. If properly patched, I could see myself declaring it a great game. As is, it's just a crying shame they couldn't get their act together for release. This time, they really fucking should have.
This is true, but I did run into a few occasions where my professional response would cause a loss of reputation with someone that usually likes the professional choices, so rarely characters will break from their general rule and respond better to a different type of answer.
This is what boggles my mind about Obsidian. Why do these great video game writers put up with a team that can't make a good game around what they write? Is no other developer interested in their ability to write well for a game?
I'd almost prefer to see Chris Avellone go to an independent developer making small-budget but polished RPGs for XBLA or the DS. No, not almost, that is what I would prefer.
had a blast
honestly surprised at how poorly it's being received in some circles
Chris Avellone is a co-founder of Obsidian and I'm guessing has a financial investment in the company not to mention the relationships he has built with other members going back to the old Interplay days.
Your latter statement seems to be exactly what Brian Mitsoda (VtM:B writer) is doing with ZRPG.
Chris Avellone is already working at an independent developer making small-budget RPGs...
But you don't understand! Despite being small budget they aren't pumping enough hundreds of millions into their games to make the running animation bearable for people! WOE TO US ALL!
Yeah I just finished it myself, and I really can't get my head around the sheer vitriol some people seem to be spraying it with. I'd happily rate this game higher than Fallout 3, or heck at least on par with Mass Effect 2. What rough edges there were were ultimately fairly minor. I had worse issues with the utterly crap animations in Fallout 3 (to say nothing of its more often than not outright bad writing. And I say bad as in "bad even for a game" bad).
Seconded. It's amazing how most critical points on other game are considerd gamebreaking on this one. Fallout 3's shooting mechanics were way more clunkier than AP's. Yes, there are flaws. But it's not something that can't be patched out.
I highly suspect this becoming a cult classic in 3-4 years.
How many developers can even still do that though?
Flaws can be overlooked if the awesome is in sufficient quantity.
Although to be fair I was thinking about it anyway because I don't really have the funds available to be purchasing games right now.
All the rules are still in effect. 0 Alarms to be raised. 0 kills.
I just went through the first mission. I didn't have to reload once. I mastered the system.
Also, instead of doing the "I'm responding with the character in a way I would respond" that I couldn't really break away from the first time around due to conditioning, this time I'm going full on "here's what you want to hear", and am getting MASSIVE points from everyone. By the end of Saudi, I'll have like 10 from Parker, Westrige and Darcy.
I got 10 from Mina just on the first mission, but that doesn't count, since she's super easy.
Also.
There's actually another way. This is what I did.
This is where I simply used Overclock and threw all of my Shock Grenades into Darcy's tower. This is the 0 orphan way. Another way is to take everyone out, lockpick the tower, get into the tower, use the Sniper Rifle to get him to minimum health, and then either throw a shock grenade, or use chain shot with tranquilizers on him again for the 0 Orphan way.
There are several ways to take him down. He's not as hard as he seems.
Arguably the best way if you've got Master Chainshot is to stealth up to him, and then simply pop all of them into his head as you come out of stealth.
There is cut content. According to a guy at the something awful forums there are even some leftovers in the game files. Though it's mostly concept stuff and some leftover audio files.
So, I'd rather say it's normal stuff that got cut for various reasons like in any other game and not something big like in KOTOR2.
For that reason. What the hell will you add? Missing elements aren't the flaws of this game.
Now see you should've known better with Alan Wake in the first place. This is not the same thing.
Anyone but Team Gizka, please.
I don't blame the Alan Wake devs, I got it in the full knowledge that it was a short game and it just didn't deliver what I'd hoped.
Mostly, it's just that damned horrible crouch animation. It'll just be there all the time. Mocking me. And knowing the devs were not all blind and could also see that walk and still left it in gives me serious reservations about the rest of the game. I wish I were joking, but I'm not. Something that awful and constant getting overlooked sets raises some warnings to me.
CRIPES FINE I'LL BUY THE STUPID GAME.
I guess if I just get it on the PC and don't like it as-is, I can just put it aside until mods fix my gripes.
Rome Spoilers:
When the Museum mission came up, Madison was forcibly kidnapped from the Apartment leading to the whole "Mission or friend" decision.
Watching a friend do the same scene, he unlocked the entire Madison dossier and got her to admit outright that she was using her mother's surname and estranged from her father - prompting a whole dialogue that I'd missed about her background. This was pretty entertaining, seeing parts of the game I'd missed.
On my second run through, Mike and Madison hated each other. The "Talk to Madison" prompt resulted in them insulting each other. When Mike returned to the safehouse, instead of finding Madison asleep she hit him twice in the head with a statue. Mike responded that hitting someone in the head only knocks them out in the movies...
At which point she slammed one of his Sticky Traps into his chest leaving him unconscious. She storms out of the apartment and is picked up straightaway by Marburg, rather than him having to come to her.
I though this was a pretty neat set of changes, superficial, but still entertaining to see how things could have gone on my first playthrough if things were done differently.
Other conversations I've had with friends about different things we have seen (Endgame spoilers):
"Marburg died, Parker shot him"
"No way, I shot Parker in the room full of Turrets"
"...."
"Well what about Leland, what did you think of Leland and his pillar destroying rocket launcher?"
"What rocket launcher? The last boss was Westridge with a chaingun!"
"Load up the game I have to see this..."
Gah don't buy it on my say-so, you'll end up hating it and blaming me.
The negative reactions are overblown, you can say you don't like spy stories or that the shooting isn't great but to label them dealbreakers or to call the plot poor is just lying. Its not as deep as KOTOR 2 or Torment but thats because spies tend to not seek their true place in the universe very often.
And just a reminder, the console versions are on sale for $45, and the PC version is significantly cheaper in the UK too, 18 pounds to get it shipped (though the only place that seems to be in stock there is amazon.co.uk, so you'd probably need to get someone to reship it) and 25 pounds at DD, including gifting through steam
Amazing, I had none of that.