Fireside Chat: Alpha Protocol reception and New Vegas

The thing about game reviews that always gets me is the fact that the reviewers are so damn selective when it comes to reporting on bugs or technical issues.

For example, Red Dead Redemption, 9's and 10's all over the board, I really like the game, but there are several bugs in it that force you to restart your game, voiding your progress. I've yet to see any review mention them, even though they aren't particularly difficult to run across. Hell, they're all involved with side-jobs that most players will attempt to earn money to buy things.

I still plan on picking up a copy of Alpha Protocol, mostly because I have a gut feeling that I will enjoy it, issues or not. (My gut is correct 90% of the time, haven't bought a game I didn't really like since I got Mercenaries 2)
 
WorstUsernameEver said:
http://www.joystiq.com/2010/05/28/alpha-protocol-game-review/comments/28270583/

You may or may not find this comment interesting.
Granted, it's anonymous, but sounds pretty believable.

As for New Vegas.. I'll wait, but I'm expecting a pretty glitchy game, probably on the level of Fallout 3.
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a tired dev said:
Sega should have canceled AP instead of Aliens...
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I weep for what could have been.
 
I don't think there's anything to worry about. I doubt it will be much more buggy than FO3, and that was fine for me.

I'll probably wait for the rapidly-approaching price drop before I pick up AP, though.
 
generalissimofurioso said:
For example, Red Dead Redemption, 9's and 10's all over the board, I really like the game, but there are several bugs in it that force you to restart your game, voiding your progress. I've yet to see any review mention them, even though they aren't particularly difficult to run across. Hell, they're all involved with side-jobs that most players will attempt to earn money to buy things.
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I've completed the game 100% and I've never encountered a single game-breaking bug of any kind, what bugs did you get?
 
Ratty said:
I assume this is due to Bethesda keeping a close eye on the project. Though Bethesda has a rather poor record as a publisher, New Vegas represents the first instance of an external studio working on their IP (well, "their" IP), so it stands to reason they are much more stringent on quality control.
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The self proclaimed dev blamed it on Chris Parker micromanaging the entire project, which I can completely believe (it could be his pet project), so project lead would be a major factor if that's true. I think that it also helps that they have people who worked on Fallout 2 and Van Buren, thus know the material and had much more of a direction from the start. AP sounds like the problem was a combination of never finishing the design phase, so they were constantly adding shit, and having horrible QA.

Starwars said:
While a lot of it is subjective, to me it's nearly impossible to understand how Alpha Protocol can get a 5/10 (or even lower) though. Perhaps the game is truly terrible on console, unplayable due to technical issues.
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Assuming the reviewer is doing their job properly (laughable, I know), 5/10 is average/middle of the pack.
 
There is no excuse to not be able to produce a mainstreamed action RPG like Alpha Protocol, there is none. The money is there, the resources & people are there and defenitly the time is there as well especially with a game like alpha protocol. This is the game industry, there is a unbelievable amount of money in the game industry its asinine.

your averagae graphic artist I know at min get paid $50,000 a year in the game industry, for a single bachelor thats not too terrible. Enough motivation to wake there fat azz up at 7 a.m. & get themselves to work everday until 6 pm at least and work on weekends sometimes.

That's all it comes down to wether its whoever is in charge of the entire project, the producer, the main game designer . . . from there its the unmotivated "hard working" staff of course but really there is no excuse.

The only defense that any game company has to my statement is that it cost soo much now day's just to make a profitable game which is the main reason for mainstreamed games. Its not alway's the company or the developer's are greedy exactly, there is soo much $$ going everywhere for everything its crazy.

So yea not to bash Obsidian or any other game company but if your game cost $ xx,xxxx,xxxx you better damn well make sure it doesn't suck.
 
shihonage said:
Dario ff said:
Hey, don't cross-post Ratty's jokes. :P
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What do you mean?
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Why?
"It would be bad."
I'm fuzzy on the whole good/bad thing. What do you mean, "bad"?
"Try to imagine all life as you know it stopping instantaneously and every molecule in your body exploding at the speed of light."

Such an opportunity to use this old Ghostbusters quote :P
 
Burrich said:
I've completed the game 100% and I've never encountered a single game-breaking bug of any kind, what bugs did you get?
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I've gotten trapped in barns after doing horse-breaking jobs, had several horses drop dead for no reason mid-mission (checked for everything too, even snakes) and had to replay a mission several times over because Agent Fordham's horse kept on leaping into a nearby river for no apparent reason.
 
generalissimofurioso said:
I've gotten trapped in barns after doing horse-breaking jobs, had several horses drop dead for no reason mid-mission (checked for everything too, even snakes) and had to replay a mission several times over because Agent Fordham's horse kept on leaping into a nearby river for no apparent reason.
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I only done two horse breaking jobs, one in the town you go to sell snake oil with West Dickens at and the place in Mexico where you do missions for that old gunslinger and I never got stuck in anything. The only horses of mine that died were shot by enemies and I never encountered anyone whose horse had suicidal tendencies. I'm playing on the xbox 360 if that makes any difference.
 
Ausir said:
Well, I haven't encountered any bugs in AP yet.
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This, pretty much.

I'm like 4 or 5 hours in and I haven't noticed any bugs, or anything that really hampers my progress which isn't meant to be there.

And the thing said about Red Dead Redemption, I totally agree, the game is buggy as hell, but it is good. The first few hours of RDR were boring to me, but Alpha Protocol felt a lot better playing (once I got past all the tutorials).

I honestly don't see why AP is getting such bad reviews, maybe people are judging it thinking it's meant to be a TPS, and that's where they go wrong, because every gun has a select skill that can be shit if you don't invest points in it. Maybe all the reviewers are using rifles at level 1 for rifles, the aiming is horrible if they did that.
 
Reconite said:
I honestly don't see why AP is getting such bad reviews, maybe people are judging it thinking it's meant to be a TPS, and that's where they go wrong, because every gun has a select skill that can be shit if you don't invest points in it. Maybe all the reviewers are using rifles at level 1 for rifles, the aiming is horrible if they did that.
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While I like that type of design, and while I still haven't played the game (so I can't comment yet), my suspicion is that Alpha Protocol's team went overboard with it.
I mean, considering the setting and the premise of the game, people start with certain expectations that aren't totally dependent on the genre.
Things like 'I'm a superspy, I should aim just right'. Granted, I think gameplay should always trump realism, but some people would inevitably feel 'tricked' by this design choice, so it's not surprising that I'm seeing a fair amount of criticism towards it.

As for the bugs... I will talk about them (if I encounter any) when I play it, but at least, I still have to see someone complain about broken story/character interactions or similar things, sounds like we're mostly talking about glitches and general poor optimization on Obsidian's part.
I actually hope Alpha Protocol's management failures really just amount to Chris Parker being a douche and not wanting to abandon his project (it makes sense that one of the company founders could trump Josh), but..... I don't know, I'm not quite as confident as I was before Alpha Protocol's release.
I mean.. this time they had four years! Even if what the 'disgruntled dev' has said is true, Obsidian has pretty much damage their reputation almost irreversibly.
 
Have you seen the Dtoid review? It's like someone from the Codex made a review of Fallout3 and they changed it just a bit in order to present an AP review.
 
I'm near the end of the game and I don't understand these terrible reviews. I've encountered a few minor bugs, but nothing game breaking or ridiculous. I wonder if these reviewers were expecting Gears of War meets Goldeneye. Personally I'd give the game at least an 8. The only thing I don't like are all your responses are things like "aggressive" or "honest" so you don't know exactly what you're guy is going to say. There are tons of different ways to change the storyline though, Obsidian did a good job with that.
 
My copy hasn't come in yet (hurry up June 1st), but I'll certainly verify if the glitches are as bad as people say.
 
Briosafreak said:
Have you seen the Dtoid review? It's like someone from the Codex made a review of Fallout3 and they changed it just a bit in order to present an AP review.
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Yeah, I saw it.

I was pretty damn angry at that 2/10 score until I realized it was Destructoid and remembered all of their opinions on anything are shit by default.

Fallout 3 gets a 9/10
Operation Anchorage gets an 8/10

They're either retarded, trolling or paid-off a lot. I think maybe Obsidian didn't have enough money to pay the reviewers (or advertise on their sites). This game is at least an 8, I'm onto the Moscow missions and I haven't noticed any bugs at all so far.

In-fact, it's like someone paid for this game to get bad reviews, competition maybe? It's definitely not a bloody 2/10, not even a 5/10.
 
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