Alpha Protocol

infornography · 2010-11-30T17:51:01.000Z

A roommate of mine got the console version of AP. I would have also bought the PC version if not for the obnoxious DRM they put on it. As much as I want to see Obsidian do well and more games like AP get made, I can’t rationalize paying full price with that DRM. So I just played the console version and am waiting for a good price on a steam sale.

Black_Isis · 2010-11-30T18:18:31.000Z

infornography:

A roommate of mine got the console version of AP. I would have also bought the PC version if not for the obnoxious DRM they put on it. As much as I want to see Obsidian do well and more games like AP get made, I can’t rationalize paying full price with that DRM. So I just played the console version and am waiting for a good price on a steam sale.

7.50 wasn’t a good enough price?

Tim_N · 2010-11-30T19:04:05.000Z

+1 for played it and loooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooved it. Was so fun, if I didn’t have so many games in my backlog i’d jump straight back in for a second playthrough. I feel so bad for being partially responsible for no Alpha Protocol 2 (waiting to buy it for $7.50 instead of full price) =(

Lizard_King · 2010-11-30T19:06:26.000Z

Black Isis:

7.50 wasn’t a good enough price?

Seriously.

bandidoquest · 2010-11-30T19:13:08.000Z

Timsfker:

+1 for played it and loooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooved it. Was so fun, if I didn’t have so many games in my backlog i’d jump straight back in for a second playthrough. I feel so bad for being partially responsible for no Alpha Protocol 2 (waiting to buy it for $7.50 instead of full price) =(

I feel really bad for that as well. Wish I known that this game would be so awesome when it was released because I’d gladly pay full price for it.

habibi · 2010-11-30T19:15:55.000Z

bandidoquest:

I just finished it and man, what a brilliant game! I was playing it nonstop for the last of couple of days. Loved the story and the decisions. There was a sense that each decision was really meaningful, something I had not felt in a game in a long time.

I decided to go for a recruit/assault rifle-based character on my first playthrough and I came really close to regretting it sometimes, especially after reading everyone here talking about stealth and when fighting some (pretty cheap) bosses but I think it was worth it in the end.

I especially liked how the story turned out in the end <<DELETED by habibi>>

It’s very rare for me to replay story-based games because there’s such a big backlog to sort through but I’m already planning my next playthrough with a Veteran/Stealth character, can’t wait for it!

A shame that so many people were put off of this game because of the bugs. If i had not seen the INI tweaks on this thread I would probably have stopped playing after 5 minutes because of the massive stuttering and mouse issues. Fortunately the tweaks fixed that for me and I had no other problem for the remaining of the game.

This game is probably my game of the year and easily the best $7.50 I spent in awhile. If anyone’s still on the fence about buying it I can’t really recommend it enough. It’s that good.

Thanks for spoiling the ending!! ANGER ANGER!

bandidoquest · 2010-11-30T19:17:52.000Z

Wow, really really really sorry for that, I didn’t even realize that this wasn’t a spoiler thread. I’m going to edit my post…

habibi · 2010-11-30T19:23:51.000Z

:(

I forgive you. It’s not the end of the world. I guess it’s not like it’s a Bioshock 1 twist. Now, if I got spoiled for that one, that would be really unacceptable!

bandidoquest · 2010-11-30T19:29:09.000Z

Whew. Thanks! =)

infornography · 2010-11-30T20:10:21.000Z

Black Isis:

7.50 wasn’t a good enough price?

Was that on Steam? Hopefully it is still on because that is well under my biting price. I haven’t seen it drop below $30 on Steam.

malkav11 · 2010-11-30T20:26:08.000Z

Nope. One day only, first day of the recent Thanksgiving sale.

infornography · 2010-11-30T20:33:56.000Z

Curses! That was the day I was on the road the whole day. Blast my luck. Here’s hoping it gets included in the big year end sale.

Spoit · 2010-11-30T22:31:51.000Z

infornography:

A roommate of mine got the console version of AP. I would have also bought the PC version if not for the obnoxious DRM they put on it. As much as I want to see Obsidian do well and more games like AP get made, I can’t rationalize paying full price with that DRM. So I just played the console version and am waiting for a good price on a steam sale.

They were true to their word and removed the DRM in the last patch. But it may not work on the steam version

Squee · 2010-12-01T00:10:16.000Z

For what it’s worth, the patch worked for my Steam version, and presumably Steam will make it the official version on Steam at some point. Unless Sega never updates it for whatever reason.

I do get a strange bug of it only listing me as playing AP while the launcher is running. Steam overlay works fine in-game but it doesn’t think I’m playing. To get around this you can just launch the launcher a second time after clicking play game on the first one.

roguefrog · 2010-12-01T00:19:17.000Z

It’s a shame the sales were so lackluster. I definitely want a sequel. The avalanche of negative buzz surrounding the game before it even came out didn’t really help it in that regard either.

Lizard_King · 2010-12-01T04:29:57.000Z

Squee:

For what it’s worth, the patch worked for my Steam version, and presumably Steam will make it the official version on Steam at some point. Unless Sega never updates it for whatever reason.

I do get a strange bug of it only listing me as playing AP while the launcher is running. Steam overlay works fine in-game but it doesn’t think I’m playing. To get around this you can just launch the launcher a second time after clicking play game on the first one.

When I installed it, the game would crash on launch. I’d like to get rid of the DRM since I think it is delaying startup and leading to crashes when I alt-tab.

Teiman · 2010-12-01T05:29:59.000Z

infornography:

A roommate of mine got the console version of AP. I would have also bought the PC version if not for the obnoxious DRM they put on it. As much as I want to see Obsidian do well and more games like AP get made, I can’t rationalize paying full price with that DRM. So I just played the console version and am waiting for a good price on a steam sale.

WHAT?
Consoles are the worst type of DRM: hardware DRM.

If you think a DRM in software is bad, imagine one that stop peope from adding mods to games (New Vegas in a console), that cypher savegames ( XBox ),… the whole thing encrypted and locked beyond barriers, so you can’t run a simple memory debugger to debug a crash on your game and write a patch to solve it. On the PC you can run your favorite game trought a memory debugger, use mods, edit /move /backup /trade savegames, … you have the full potential to do anything with the games you have buy. While on your console you can’t do anything.

belgerog · 2010-12-01T12:58:38.000Z

Timsfker:

I feel so bad for being partially responsible for no Alpha Protocol 2 (waiting to buy it for $7.50 instead of full price) =(

Ditto. Despite being initially put off by the action parts in the game, I kept going and I’m loving it.

I think you have to at least get through the Saudi missions to start seeing how reactive the game is, that initial part has perhaps too many missions. But from there on, man, what an great game. The ratio between missions and dialogue becomes better, at lest that was my impression. The Rome missions have been my favorite so far.

It also took me a while to notice how the skill choices also affected the game (and not only the dialogue choices). After a while I stopped hacking and bypassing systems because without any sabotage some of them are too hard (like the 12-tier keypads). I went for stealth/pistols, both maxed out by now, and my Thorton has become a demigod, those chain shots make me sometimes feel like I’m cheating. And I’ve consistently used casual clothes.

<minorSpoilers>The good thing about stealth is that I’ve been able to do pretty much every mission so far, but I could see myself avoiding a mission with lots of civilians (like the Taipei security guards in the Hotel) if I had no stealth capacity. I’ll probably go for an assault rifle guy on my next play-through.</minorSpoilers>

Squee · 2010-12-01T13:07:07.000Z

Lizard_King:

When I installed it, the game would crash on launch. I’d like to get rid of the DRM since I think it is delaying startup and leading to crashes when I alt-tab.

Did you make sure you got the digital download version?
http://help.sega.com/index.php?_m=knowledgebase&_a=viewarticle&kbarticleid=865
“EU, Czech, Polish, Russian and Digital Download Versions:” is the one I’m using, the other is US disc version. Would be easy to glance over the “Digital download” part of the first link and go straight for the US patch.

Kunikos · 2010-12-01T13:20:55.000Z

roguefrog:

It’s a shame the sales were so lackluster. I definitely want a sequel. The avalanche of negative buzz surrounding the game before it even came out didn’t really help it in that regard either.

Their box art and general art direction were kinda bland. They really needed some kind of strong theme to use than a generic shallow copy of things in Jason Bourne, James Bond, or Alias movies/shows. I really liked how the No One Lives Forever series of games embraced a time period, sensibility, and humor to differentiate themselves. Say what you will about the actual in-game graphics of New Vegas, but the box art, videos, and press packs have some real punch to them.