[Mentalist]

still chugging along in my Veteran playthrough of the original. found my 3rd alien base in a month, and it's only June!

Also, cannot wait for XCOM, got it pre-ordered on Steam. Sorry, Dishonored, but you're gonna have to wait. Probably till xmass.

[Aptorian]

I've been utilising Greenman Gamings 25% off everything vouchers to get my pre-orders cheaper. Buy the game on GMG, then activate it on Steam. Voila, saved 12 euro. Even works with games that are already discounted.

[Wolfy]

Had a splurg today to celebrate having a pc again finally and picked up Dishonoured, XCom and Torchlight 2

[Obdigore]

Xcom is pretty fricking awesome. Seems like each game is going to be shorter than the original, but I'm enjoying it so far. Having to stun specific types of aliens to move the main story along seems like a stupid move, but it really makes you put your soldiers out there since they have to be at 3 health or below and you have to be within 2 boxes of them, which is close. Extremely dangerously close.

[acesn8s]

I picked up XCOM over the weekend as well. Firaxis did it again. Another successful re-image of a classic game (Pirates and Civ Rev). Nice easy controls for the 360. I've only left one guy out in the open and put a couple guys on overwatch accidently. I love the class types with skill tree and base line stats on all the rookies. Now building a soldier is much better than running through your roster and dismissing any recruits with a low M or Aim score.

[Obdigore]

acesn8s, on 15 October 2012 - 06:21 PM, said:

I picked up XCOM over the weekend as well. Firaxis did it again. Another successful re-image of a classic game (Pirates and Civ Rev). Nice easy controls for the 360. I've only left one guy out in the open and put a couple guys on overwatch accidently. I love the class types with skill tree and base line stats on all the rookies. Now building a soldier is much better than running through your roster and dismissing any recruits with a low M or Aim score.

I wish you could tell what class the rookies are going to 'evolve' into.

When I have 4 snipers, 4 heavies, 4 assaults, and 1 support, I need more support. I have to randomly choose a rookie or two to bring with, make sure they get a kill, and see what they evolve into instead of knowing they are going to evolve into a support.

[Wolfy]

Obdigore, on 16 October 2012 - 03:28 AM, said:

I wish you could tell what class the rookies are going to 'evolve' into.

When I have 4 snipers, 4 heavies, 4 assaults, and 1 support, I need more support. I have to randomly choose a rookie or two to bring with, make sure they get a kill, and see what they evolve into instead of knowing they are going to evolve into a support.

Agreed! When my assualt colonel died all I wanted was a replacement but my game just had an endless stream of heavies and support

[Gothos]

Class evolving? I SHOULD GET THAT GAME. Smells like Disciples II (which is the best game in that series, by the way. oh, all those hours I spent on it...)

[Sindriss]

Obdigore, on 16 October 2012 - 03:28 AM, said:

acesn8s, on 15 October 2012 - 06:21 PM, said:

I picked up XCOM over the weekend as well. Firaxis did it again. Another successful re-image of a classic game (Pirates and Civ Rev). Nice easy controls for the 360. I've only left one guy out in the open and put a couple guys on overwatch accidently. I love the class types with skill tree and base line stats on all the rookies. Now building a soldier is much better than running through your roster and dismissing any recruits with a low M or Aim score.

I wish you could tell what class the rookies are going to 'evolve' into.

When I have 4 snipers, 4 heavies, 4 assaults, and 1 support, I need more support. I have to randomly choose a rookie or two to bring with, make sure they get a kill, and see what they evolve into instead of knowing they are going to evolve into a support.

But the randomness is fun! Don't be such a "modern" gamer

[Aptorian]

With all the buzz surrounding Obsidian I decided to take a look at Alpha Protocol which has been sitting in my steam folder for at least a year I think. Just about done with the first section "Saudi Arabia". Not sure what to think of this game. It was advertised as a AAA game but it feels like it had a very small budget. It looks a lot older than it is. The menus, characters and level design is butt ugly. The controls and menu system is somewhat clunky and unintuitive. The third person shooter gameplay clashes with the RPG elements.

It sort of feels like a less successful attempt at trying to steal Mass Effects thunder. It certainly deserves the less than stellar score that it got from the critics. And yet I kind of like it. The game seems to want you to be stealthy and smart about your choice of actions but doesn't penalise you for just brute forcing your way through the levels.

This post has been edited by Aptorius: 16 October 2012 - 04:21 PM

[POOPOO MCBUMFACE]

Alpha Protocol is a fantastic branching choose-your-own-adventure novel that forces you to stop between every page to play an awful, banal cover shooter. Terribly wasted potential. I want to play through it again just to see the insane amounts of differing choices and consequences in action, but I just can't bring myself to play the tepid, boring sections of... well, gameplay. Such a damn shame

Enjoyed it a lot more than I did Mass Effect, but that's not saying much.

This post has been edited by POOPOO MCBUMFACE: 16 October 2012 - 06:16 PM

[acesn8s]

Sindriss, on 16 October 2012 - 03:52 PM, said:

Obdigore, on 16 October 2012 - 03:28 AM, said:

acesn8s, on 15 October 2012 - 06:21 PM, said:

I picked up XCOM over the weekend as well. Firaxis did it again. Another successful re-image of a classic game (Pirates and Civ Rev). Nice easy controls for the 360. I've only left one guy out in the open and put a couple guys on overwatch accidently. I love the class types with skill tree and base line stats on all the rookies. Now building a soldier is much better than running through your roster and dismissing any recruits with a low M or Aim score.

I wish you could tell what class the rookies are going to 'evolve' into.

When I have 4 snipers, 4 heavies, 4 assaults, and 1 support, I need more support. I have to randomly choose a rookie or two to bring with, make sure they get a kill, and see what they evolve into instead of knowing they are going to evolve into a support.

But the randomness is fun! Don't be such a "modern" gamer

I also like the randomness, but I can definitely see the appeal of knowing who becomes what. For my next play through, I'm going to try and bring everyone on at least 1 or 2 missions in the beginning of the game. It would be nice to see what I'm working with.

[Mentalist]

POOPOO MCBUMFACE, on 16 October 2012 - 06:16 PM, said:

Alpha Protocol is a fantastic branching choose-your-own-adventure novel that forces you to stop between every page to play an awful, banal cover shooter. Terribly wasted potential. I want to play through it again just to see the insane amounts of differing choices and consequences in action, but I just can't bring myself to play the tepid, boring sections of... well, gameplay. Such a damn shame

Enjoyed it a lot more than I did Mass Effect, but that's not saying much.

Played it 4 times through the summer I got it. That's right. 4.

The shooting was annoying, but the existance of a separate "crouch" button automatically makes it superior to ME, since I don't have to use the annoying "back glued to chest-high wall" cover system.

and the glitches were also frustrating. (esp Taiwan. only place where I ran into bugs that made me restart the level). If I played Taiwan first instead of last, I may have quit the game much, much earlier.

the game suffered from a ton of publisher meddling (SEGA gave Obsidian no time to do proper QA before shipping).

but the choice+ consequence, added with the cool skill system (that actually influenced story in serious ways (occasionally)), and a good character progression model made this game easily my GOTY in the summer of 2010? (i think that's when I bought it at a Steam Sale).

And Brayko is NOT OP. I killed him with a CQC build, just because I could, his insane coked-up knife attacks notwithstanding.

[Illuyankas]

I have heard three things about Alpha Protocol: it is buggy as hell, the pistol is overpowered, and you can choose to play as either Bond, Bourne or Archer. Obviously you want to play like Archer.

Spoiler

Also if you do you can piss off an NPC who normally escapes you so much he'll actually become a boss fight purely because of your dickery

[Mentalist]

Illuyankas, on 17 October 2012 - 12:28 AM, said:

I have heard three things about Alpha Protocol: it is buggy as hell, the pistol is overpowered, and you can choose to play as either Bond, Bourne or Archer. Obviously you want to play like Archer.

Spoiler

Also if you do you can piss off an NPC who normally escapes you so much he'll actually become a boss fight purely because of your dickery

it's actually "Bond, Bourne, or Bauer"

but, yes, the there are several bosses you may encounter, based on your actions. I really liked the

Spoiler

Madison-Parker-Marburg triangle

, and how the Obsidian introduced all those permutations. into it, based on what you do AND how much you know.

This post has been edited by Mentalist: 20 October 2012 - 07:36 PM

[Slow Ben]

Thanks for the spoiler tags Ment.


Alpha's been in my "to play" pile for a long damn time now. This thread isnt moving it up the list.

[Illuyankas]

Mentalist, on 17 October 2012 - 08:21 PM, said:

Illuyankas, on 17 October 2012 - 12:28 AM, said:

I have heard three things about Alpha Protocol: it is buggy as hell, the pistol is overpowered, and you can choose to play as either Bond, Bourne or Archer. Obviously you want to play like Archer.

Spoiler

Also if you do you can piss off an NPC who normally escapes you so much he'll actually become a boss fight purely because of your dickery

it's actually "Bond, Bourne, or Bauer"

but, yes, the there are several bosses you may encounter, based on your actions. I really liked the [spoilers] Madison-Parker-Marburg triangle [/spoiler], and how the Obsidian introduced all those permutations. into it, based on what you do AND how much you know.

THAT'S it, thanks, I misremembered because someone said it was more Archer Bourne and Bauer and I forgot which was left out because I haven't watched 24 in about a million years.

[MTS]

Oh God I don't think I can wait another year. The level of detail in this is amazing, and it's only pre-alpha!

[Gothos]

Yeah and then they'll slap simplistic-to-the-bone strategy and AI systems into it and ruin wonderful gameplay by stupid solutions.

[MTS]

Haha ye of little faith Gothos. Hopefully with all the extra money they have this time around they can at the very least bring the AI up to standard.