Fireside Chat: Alpha Protocol reception and New Vegas

Ixyroth said:
Any game that a majority of people are inclined to play through more than once, especially back-to-back, I would consider a good game. This is assuming, of course, that the people in question are not mindless matrix drones.

Not for an instant did I consider replaying FO3. I was glad to be done at the 13 hours.
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That's the strange thing about AP, it's the first game that after finishing, I started over again instantly. Every other game I've played more than once had to wait at least...I don't know, a year or so, before any interest in it would return. That's usually because I don't really like to play a game like Deus Ex or AP in any other way than the stealth-route, with some specks of action whenever I can't avoid it. Gameplay-wise, nothing much chances then. But because the conversations actually have some sort of an impact and are quite enjoyable to go through, and are so incredibly varied, AP is the only game I don't mind playing again so soon. That and it's really not a long game, so it hasn't worn out its welcome once you've finished it.
 
I am in my third playthrough now. This time, I am visiting the locations in a different order and change a bit more in dialogues... I have planned to try to focus more on Heck this time, as handler and so on. Want to see what happens then.
 
Trying to be stealthy, I didn't quite like Heck's approach. Apart from that, I really like the guy. The description 'either a ingenious agent or a wackjob' (something like that) fits him perfectly, and he's so well done that I just can't make up which of the two I should categorize him in. In the hotel mission I ended up popping everyone with tranq ammo to get through, he didn't really offer me an opportunity to sneak in or past the guards when he starts a fight right where I need to be, and as I can't put my weapon away and/or pretend to be a civilian, I'm a sitting duck while trying to get info and loot.

Seeing how he runs an arms empire, knows a bloody lot, has skills, experience and a temper, he's probably ex-something-intelligence gone rogue/freelance.
 
I finished Alpha Protocol 4 times and got only minor bugs, loading pauses and few broken AI behaviors but for some reasons pistols seems to me to be overpowered cause u can blindly aim crits from behind covers and also chain shot + AP ammo = instant kill.
Anyway there is difference between a melee + thougness + shotgun build and a an assault rifle + pistol + sabotage build and the gameplay really change. loved the story and C&C value even if a bit railroaded. it's an 8/10 to me. I saw some video review and the player keeps shooting without even trying to aim than the guy vomit something like: "u cant hit sht so the aim sucks" or "splinter cell is a better stealth game". maybe reviewers need to know how the game works in order to do a "review" not simply presume that every game is halo like "keep shootin and jump around"...
 
Well, the game could've done a bit of a better job interface-wise. For example, I would've preferred if the crosshair, or cross-blob, whatever it is, would clearly get smaller when aiming, and whenever you get an improvement in skill. Instead, in the end it's still the same wide ring of 'you might hit here' with a dot in the middle, but only with an improvement in the crit-speed area. Would've been nice had they gone the Deus Ex route, or the Vampire: Bloodlines route, where your crosshair shows your aim has improved through skills.

But yes, I'd rate it at about 8/10 as well. It needs finishing and polishing, but damn it's good already in so many areas.
 
Considering how long we have been in this multiformat market (6 years at least at my reckoning) it's amazing how gaming websites like this and gamers themselves give so little thought to it!

This article, for example, connects to other sites that list review scores for Alpha Protocol. Posters in this thread also give links, but what do they all nearly have in common?

No mention of format played on!

So we get a list of review scores from 5/10 to 8/10 but we don't get a list of formats. So for all we know all the 5/10's are on Playstation, meaning a bad port, and all the 8/10 could be PC reviews, showing that format is more stable/better - or maybe its the other way around?

Surely then, when a title is released on multiple formats simultaneously, everyone reporting on the game, from gaming sites like NMA, to individual gamers telling us how great or crap AP (or any other game!) is, can we please always be told the format played/reviewed on?!

At the moment NMA have let me link to a list of reviews of various amounts, and I still don't know a thing. It could be good on one format and bad on two others, or bad on two and good on one, or bad on all three! So far, what NMA has told is, in reality, is nothing, because it doesn't realise we are now in a multiformat market, meaning a game can get a bad port or a good port (Fallout 3 on 360 good on PS3 not good, for example.).

So let me be the one to enlighten people a little regarding Alpha Protocol:

Metacritic have it at 74 for PC, 65 for 360 and 67 for PS3.

The PC version had 9 reviews ranging from 85 to 60

The PS3 version had 23 reviews ranging from 85 to 40

The 360 version had 29 reviews ranging from 85 to 20

The overall averages tells you how many 80's, 70, 60's 50's, 40's 30's and 20's each format must have got to get the average.
 
so far i "liked" it ,its just really ruff around the edges .i'm having a problem (a few ) how do you switch to different ammo?(360) the tutorial really blows!
 
Actually, the game is more stable and plays better on the consoles than on the PC. It's the console reviewers that don't like it.
 
The average is 67.5 if you average the metacritic scores. There is always the question of audience with a game and it sounds like Alpha Protocol has real issues and hit's a less general audience than, say, Fallout 3. That said, it sounds like a lot of folks here are trying to marginalize the problems with the game, though obviously different people put different values on different elements.

By the way, using scores and not the content of reviews to determine the quality of a port is laughable. Also, the fact that the PS3 and 360 scores are within a margin of error and have many more reviews suggests that their average scores are more reliable than the PC average score.
 
Finished it today & I think with some decent patching, it could work.

The end is a bit underwhelming and I'd have liked it to be less run & gun (wouldn't want to fight through that shit without decent combat skills).


@Bimmy: good taste in avatar, but kinda annoying if you pick the same as someone who's had it for eons. ;)
 
I don't actually understand how people can even try to play FPS/TPS games on consoles. Sure, I've played the various editions of MGS on the PSOne and PSP, and I know how the analog sticks feel when you're trying to score a headshot (piss-poor, I'd say), but I still feel the need to fall back on those InstaGib skills and that requires a mouse in my hand.

So yeah, I'm not too surprised PC gamers like AP more than console gamers. Or it has something to do with the fact that more of us remember that an RPG isn't supposed to only be about the killing?

(By the way, you don't have to really run-n-gun the endgame except for the Darcy and helicopter scenes - everything else CAN be SolidSnaked, including the final standoff against Leland (or [spoiler:2a1317dab6]Westridge[/spoiler:2a1317dab6], depending on how your story went), although you would probably have to have Stealth pretty high up to get through some sections)

Oh, and why didn't anybody mention the mementoes Thorton keeps in his safehouses? Which one did you enjoy the most? The knife? The cigar cutter? The glass eye?
 
Just beat it last night, it kind of sucks that there weren't any specific screens to go with the news reports at the end of the game, but other than that I really enjoyed the game.

Even though I did regret picking Recruit a couple of times throughout.
 
I played AP on a 360 pal version installed on hd
few bugs, some loading screens no A bugs or crashes
 
uk_john said:
The overall averages tells you how many 80's, 70, 60's 50's, 40's 30's and 20's each format must have got to get the average.
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If a games ratings vary so wildly from 80+ to 20, then it’s says more about the people who review games then the game itself. I trust gamer’s opinions much more than the typical game reviewer. But it must be recognized that everybody has their own idea as to what a good game is, as well as the sort of games they prefer to play, so I’m not surprised by the wild swings in the ratings. A shitty rating might be more indicative a game reviewer who is completely intolerant of RPG’s and would rather be playing Bubble Bobble. :roll:
 
.Pixote. said:
If a games ratings vary so wildly from 80+ to 20, then it’s says more about the people who review games then the game itself.
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Not entirely. It's a certain kind of game that engenders such diverse responses. Sure it's a bit wild, there's no real justifying 20, but Alpha Protocol is just that kind of game.

Also having played it through twice prior to a review, I can only concur with my...errr..."colleagues", this is technically pretty shitty.

By the way, I assume everyone noticed this familiar sign?
o6p0b.jpg
 
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