Disclosure Alert: Alpha Protocol: Episode 20: Cougar-Lover Voice

This episode concludes the great train robbery! How exciting!


Anyway, there's not a whole lot to talk about this episode. This was pretty much a straight up combat mission. Aldowyn spent a lot of time doing poorly shooting targets with a pistol/shotgun this episode.

How you deal with the weapons shipment makes for a very interesting choice. Although we couldn't because we pissed him off, if Grigori likes you and you have yet to do this mission, he'll ask you to reroute the weapons to him. Doing so nets you a sum of money worth more than you could sell the weapons for, but causes Mina to like you less (-1 Reputation) and Grigori to like you more (+1 Reputation). This, and the follow up e-mails, are the only way you can get Grigori to "Like" you. In a similar fashion to SIS, Grigori drops out of the narrative past this point and will no longer be relevant to the plot.
Regardless, you still have two other choices. You can destroy the shipment and get Mina to like you, as we did, or you can send the weapons to yourself. Spending yourself the weapons nets you some okay pieces that honestly are inferior to any weapon you're likely to have, but you can easily sell them for some money and Mina's reputation is unchanged. It's overall an insignificant choice, but it serves as another opportunity to flesh out Thorton's character.

I forgot to mention, but that whole scene where we get a copy of the manifest is why we're here. We knew the missiles came from this trainyard, so we came here to get more information, which we did.

I'm going to be honest, there is absolutely zero reason to take part in this fight with SIE. We're doing it mostly because we also have no reason NOT to. You can get her Reputation up easily without this fight, you'd only really fight her if you want her knee pad and e-mail.

Speaking of her e-mail, this is one of my favorite trolls I've ever done. Anaphysik, Irridium, and I were ALL of the same page. The result was... beautiful. Thank you Obsidian, for making a character that has that particular line. I have mixed feelings towards SIE, but since her character trolls Aldowyn, she must be good.

PS: The next episode batch may take some time before it comes out. It's the end of college term, so time is precious and scarce.

Disclosure Alert: Alpha Protocol: Episode 19: A Mute Point

In this episode, we talk to an old man with a fetish for teenage girls. This isn't creepy AT ALL!


I stand by my statements regarding Sis and her backstory. I dislike how there is no follow or resolution to it at all. Things like this make the game feel like it was rushed out the door, with many facets left incomplete and/or unpolished. Obsidian always says that the reasons their games feel like this is due to some sort of constraint from the publisher, usually with regards to time. Since other developers do not have this problem, I often wonder who's truly at fault. Perhaps Obsidian is overambitious when it comes to these kind of things or perhaps they do just have very bad luck and often get screwed over by publishers. I suppose we'll find out definitively one way or the other once Project Eternity gets released, but until then it's interesting to speculate.
On the flip side, my disappointment may very well stem from the promise such a plot point had. I loved how they used the legend of Saint George and the Dragon as a means for Sis to communicate her story and position in the world was a very nice touch. We know enough to suss out the story of these two characters in broad terms, but we can't do any more than that. It's frustrating!

Albatross made an interesting comment when Thorton said that it seemed like everyone knows about Alpha Protocol. He said that it only looks that way because Thorton's been interacting within a small circle since he's thus far been focused on Halbech. When you think about it, Thorton really only interacts with about 25 or so characters throughout the course of the entire game. Out of those people, the majority are aware of the Alpha Protocol program. It also makes sense that the intelligence community would be a very small group. This line reminds players that this game is still set in the "real world" and that we're only dealing with a very small cast of characters. It's still a grand, globe-trotting spy thriller, but a focused one.

And now we meet SIE. SIE is a walking, talking, stereotype. The funny thing about her is that if you do complete Rome first, the main boss of that hub and SIE cannot stand each other, so you can get a +1 or +2 Reputation with SIE just from stopping his plan and/or killing him. With that, it's trivial to get SIE all the way to "Trusted" in just this one mission. As for her character, I feel indifferent towards. She's one of the games more "out there" characters, and while she can be entertaining, she's no where near as entertaining as Stephen Heck is. And her VCI are completely uninteresting, stereotypical dumb muscle. There's nothing special to make note of until we get into Rome. Given our current schedule, that should be sometime before Half-Life 3 comes out.

Disclosure Alert: Alpha Protocol: Episode 18: Grand Theft Yachto

Dear god, it's been so long. Sorry for such a late post guys, but we have been busy. And by "we have been busy," I mean "Aldowyn has been lazy." Regardless, we're back.

I apologize in advance for this week's episodes. Not only were we slacking on the commentary, but the recording was a bit of a... massive failure. The net result is that I have to make it all up with witty and informative posts.

Shame that's never going to happen. Oh well, at least we managed to rope Tyler/Irridium into our symphony of mediocrity. Anyway:


All I want is the Lumberjack beard (and another thing, but we'll get to that later). Instead, we got the Douche Patch. Goddammit. This is like a Cannibalism in the Spoiler Warning season of Fallout: New Vegas. At the very least, we got a very nice view of the Moscow safehouse. It's still amazing that Obsidian took the time to create all of those details for people to look at. It would've been easy to put blinds over them or a crappy texture.

Though we only meet Grigori this one time, the time players spend with him is so much more memorable than the encounters with some other one note characters like Hong Shi. Part of it is simply how customized the whole affair is. Grigori will change his dialogue based on both whether or not you did other hubs before meeting him in Moscow and whether or not you finished other missions in Moscow before talking to him. This is one top of the number of ways you can go about this conversation that all feel unique. Truthfully, I like Grigori and only voted to headslam him because I doubt people other than those like me, who played through multiple times, actually saw that scene. He's a pretty interesting guy who feels a bit more "real" than other characters and has a very dry sense of humor. It's almost a shame we missed that conversation, but on the other hand we slammed a dude's face into a desk, what could be better than that.

This horrible failure on the Yacht marks Aldowyn's very first use of a Med-Kit. Make a note of that because I don't think we'll be see it too often as he'll be too busy dying in the future.

There usually is an intel to hack a computer to get money off this mob underboss's account. I have a suspicion that we didn't get it because Grigori hates us. I wonder why he hates us so much....

As you all have no doubt suspected, I was the one who proposed that we kill Sis. It's not even for the reasons you would think. I like her character. In fact, I wish they utilized her a bit more because she is a pretty interesting little firecracker. I just wanted her to die because so few people actually do that and it really does change the way you and Albatross interact as the game goes on. With her dead, you can either make amends to Albatross, showing that he's willing to put personal feelings aside in order to work with you, or mock him with her death. Had we done Taipei after this and instead chose to kill Sis here, for example, Thorton could meet Albatross by saying, "Hey Albatross, how's Sis? Oh, she's probably not well since I KILLED HER!!!" I like the way the game accounts for her death and changes the dynamic between Thorton and Albatross accordingly. I thought it would be interesting for the viewers to see it for themselves. Still, I don't mind being outvoted. The contact mission it unlocks is one of my personal favorites, which we'll see next episode.

Bioshock: Infinite Podcast with Marc Price and Javy Gwaltney

This weekend, I had joined a discussion with two friends of mine, Marc Price and Javy Gwaltney, over the recently released Bioshock: Infinite. All three of us had finished the game at least once and we all had our own thoughts on the game. (Warning: There were a LOT of spoilers.)

The resulting two hours conversation was a delight. I hope you guys out there enjoy listening to it as much as I enjoyed having it.

You can listen to it, here:
http://www.vgrevolution.com/2013/04/behind-the-bits-bioshock-infinite-spoilercast/

Disclosure Alert: Alpha Protocol: Episode 17: That Deng Boss

So now we finally reach the finale of Taipei. And I find an entire different reason to bitch about Taipei.

First off, the cape drop is supposed to be badass, but all it communicates to me is that Omen Deng is trying too hard.

I'll say it right now, the bosses in this game really, truly suck. They are almost universally unfun and unfair. As we'll also see in Moscow and Rome, this game turns from an interesting spy thriller into "just another video game boss fight" whenever we get the a hub's finale. I just don't understand the choice to have such rigid boss fights and to not allow you at least the option of talking your way out of them. (Especially for an Obsidian game like this, where conversation is really the most interesting part.) In all 3 of these points, all the problems with the gameplay just come together all at once and it's really frustrating.

Omen Deng has a bullshit version of Shadow Operative that Thorton won't even be able to get at Rank 15. The game does not allow you to use Shadow Operative if the enemy knows where you are and can see you. Here, we see Omen Deng vanish into thin air, which we shouldn't be able to see. You'll also see that his Cooldown is somewhere close to 0 where ours is around 90 seconds. I'm all for the bosses having player skills, but they should not have skills even a master in that discipline couldn't have.

I really hate combat taunts. I especially hate when they sound so mechanical. The only reasons I recall this otherwise uninteresting boss fight are that I died a lot on my first playthrough (to the other bosses as well) and that he kept telling me that "You're in, over your head." It's almost as bad as the Naked Muscle Man boss fight in Deus Ex: Human Revolution. Not quite that bad, but getting there.

I am honestly legitimately surprised that Aldowyn only took two tries to take him down. This is not because Aldowyn is unskilled. This is because there is almost always some wayward grenade incendiary device that will kill you almost instantly. Also, if Omen Deng decides to bum rush you with his martial arts, you have no way to defend yourself against it and no way to counter-attack. And you saw how much more health and defense this guy has compared to us. He took hundreds of shotgun slugs. Even on Easy, we can't take anywhere near that much punishment.

This conversation with Heck at the end of Taipei is one of my favorites. If he hates you, then he'll just take the deal and blame Mike for the assassination. If he likes you, he'll kill the VCI agent sent to blackmail him and set Wen Shu up for the fall, which he will later be executed for. I feel bad for Wen because as far as I can tell, he's done absolutely nothing wrong aside from get involved with Steven Heck for reasons unknown.

Overall, I like the concepts behind Taipei. I also like the overall structure of the Hub's mission. I take issue with the way they framed the whole plot. The moral choice is interesting, but set up in such a way as to frustrate players. The red-herring isn't an inherently bad idea, but there's no real reason to suspect him to be the would-be assassin. I promise you that the other two hubs are significantly better than this one. Taipei had great potential, but squandered it.

Lastly, it would be sinful for me to not link Shamus Young's comic detailing how comically stupid this particular boss battle is. Also of note is that while fighting him in the area with the statue, Deng makes the remark: "Here, before the eyes of our Nation's founder, you will die." Make of that what you will. Anaphysik and I have been discussing it, and we've got no clue exactly which person was meant to be referred to here.

Disclosure Alert: Alpha Protocol: Episode 16: Swan Sung

In this episode, I want to kill President Sung. Also, we spoil who the assassin actually is from 5:30 - 8:20. If you're following along, yet haven't beaten the game yet, skip that section of the video. Also, I spoil it in the second to last paragraph in the text following the video.


I took what anaphysik said to heart and really thought about. And then I realized something. In either interpretation of President Sung's character, he's a complete and total moron. For the sake of argument, I'm going to give the game the benefit of the doubt and assume that we can prove that the riots will occur without even hinting at a potential assassination, even if that makes no sense.

In my interpretation as a typical amoral politician, when Sung is confronted by the possibility that he could die for his cause, then he would take the side of caution in favor of his life when you can prove that their is at least one genuine threat at his rally (a riot) and put on a bulletproof vest. He wouldn't be afraid of "showing his weakness to the world" because there would exist the possibility of Mike being right on both counts. If Mike can prove one threat, but insists there is two, any typical politician would want to be as safe as possible. That's why gov'ts have highly trained security detail. He would not dismiss an assassination as "merely your conjecture."

In anaphysik's interpretation, where Sung is a wanna-be martyr trying to die for his people, he's stupid for a different reason under an entirely different circumstance. Sure, I'll give anaphysik that it makes sense if you choose to prove the riots. However, if you choose to prove the assassination, then why not put measures in place to quell the riots anyway. It's not like your in danger of "looking like a petty dictator" if it turns out that people were really trying to cause a riot. And besides, we would have literally just proved and attempt on Sung's life. In that case, he's justified in bringing extra guards on that merit alone. Any savior-of-his-people would want to place their safety and the hands of rioters as a top priority. They would not dismiss the riots that would kill innocent people as "merely your conjecture."

So if Sung's a moron by either interpretation, then I conclude that he is a moron.

And another question, if Omen Deng is such a great intelligence agent, should he not be aware that the guy who is supposedly trying to kill President Sung walked right up to the guy with proof of a conspiracy against him, trying to convince him there is a genuine threat to his life? For being a boogeyman in the intelligence scene, he looks dumber and dumber the more you get into this plot and the longer you analyze it. At the very least this would cause some doubt to creep in. And don't say that he wouldn't know. After all, the point to him being here is stopping the president's assassination. He'd have someone on watch.

*SPOILER WARNING*
And then Scarlet Lake appears. Really, her being the assassin would've been a great twist had we spent a bit more time getting to know her character and allowing her to feed you misinformation. It'd be perfect to have her use her journalist cover to her advantage in that way, making Omen Deng make sense. And the bullshit about not doing collateral damage which she tells you if you confront her on it later  makes zero sense. Basically, the whole plot to Taipei is stupid and doesn't make a lick of sense. Don't worry, I promise the other two are better.
*END SPOILERS*

Lastly, it is really weird that I'm so bloodthirsty in these LPs because when I play these kinds of games I'm such a White Knight Paragon that it's almost disgusting to other people. Also, the LA Noire video he and I reference is this one, which highlights how dumb LA Noire's interrogations can get at times.

Disclosure Alert: Alpha Protocol: Episode 15: We Kneed More Junk

In this episode, we steal some intel and make a very poorly framed choice.



Aldowyn and anaphysik bring up a very good point here, which is that Michael Thorton has the same problem Adam Jensen would go on to have in Deus Ex: Human Revolution. The problem being that players could sneak through an entire mission without ever being detected or raising alarms, yet still walk into the wide open rooms and expose themselves for no reason in a cutscene. It's one of those times where it almost feels like the player character is trolling the player. There is a way to set up this scene so that Thorton looks a bit more competent.
On the other hand, that room is the exact same room where Steven Heck can blow away all of your enemies with a machine gun mounted to a subway train if you buy the intel. This is again why people tend to like Steven Heck.

And now I can get into why exactly Taipei's plot chaps my hide. (But I will first concede that making it so that Mike hacks the flash drive himself instead of Mina if his Technical Aptitude is high enough is really cool. Do more stuff like that, developers!) We know that someone (supposedly Deng, but that's dumb) is planning to kill Sung at his rally, starting a series of riots that will no doubt claim more than a few innocent lives. This flash drive gives us the proof of the whole plan, but the data self-destructs once it's hacked into and gives us only enough time to save either the proof of the riots or the proof of the assassination. Sung will only believe in the threat that we can prove when we go to meet him, so your choice here could save the lives of thousands, or the life of a very influential person.

I theoretically don't mind this kind of moral choice. "Is it better to save a lot of innocent people or one very influential political figure looking out for them?" is a very interesting and ambiguous decision to make. I highly dislike the way it was framed. Since Omen Deng is apparently trying to get this information out to Sung and his people, why would he and his spies bother encrypting it in such a way that it would self-destruct the moment it is hacked into? What would he gain by destroying the information that proves the very thing he's trying to prevent is going to happen once someone besides his staff accesses it? Seems counter-intuitive to me. And as I mentioned, since the plan is to have the assassination trigger the riots, it's a bit far-fetched to have this proof be structured in such a way as to be able to prove the effect will happen without proving the cause of that effect. I have no idea how one would go about that. Once we actually meet Sung for real, I'll have even more to say on that.

I do want to call attention to the fact that the damage bonus you can on bosses with a completed dossier is only 5%. That's not a huge amount by any stretch and you're collecting dossiers more for background than any practical benefit. This isn't the difference between 20 and 30 damage. It's the difference between 20 and 21 damage and hardly worth worrying about.

Lastly, anaphysik made a reference to Delicious Cinnamon, which is a YouTube LP group you can find here.  Also, apparently "Does the Pope shit in the woods?" is just a bad reference.