Game News Alpha Protocol Stealth Weapons Pack

[VentilatorOfDoom]

Tags: Alpha Protocol; Obsidian Entertainment

<a href="http://ve3d.ign.com/articles/news/54475/Alpha-Protocol-Stealth-Weapons-Pack-For-Pre-Orders-At-Best-Buy">...for preorders at Best Buy.</a>
<br>
<br>
<p style="margin-left:50px;border-style:solid;border-width:1px;border-top-color:#ffffff;padding:5px;border-right-color:#bbbbbb;border-left-color:#ffffff;border-bottom-color:#bbbbbb;">Obsidian has announced that Alpha Protocol is getting some added firepower in the form of a "Stealth Weapons Pack", a perk for people who pre-order Alpha Protocol at Best Buy. This is applicable to in-store pre-orders only at Best Buy, and said pre-ordered copies of the game will come with a code to download the exclusive Stealth Weapons Pack. The pack contains the Hamilton Marksman High-Accuracy Pistol, the Samael Typhoon High Recoil Control SMG and a bonus arsenal of ammo and mines.
<br>
</p>
<br>
<br>
I want to stealthily shoot the shit out of everything too! But I preordered at Amazon.
<br>
What is this, Obsidian? My Amazon preorder not good enough for you, huh? You better find a way to give me my stealth weapon pack, or else...
<br>
<br>
Spotted at: <A HREF="http://www.gamebanshee.com/news/97669-alpha-protocol-stealth-weapons-pack-pre-order-incentive.html">GB</A>

 

[DraQ]

Would not buy on principle then.

There is a reason why preorder extras piss me to no end - they encourage blind, uncritical purchases - something current gaming industry certainly *doesn't* need.

 

[Clockwork Knight]

The pack contains the Hamilton Marksman High-Accuracy Pistol

sounds broken

the Samael Typhoon High Recoil Control SMG

sounds broken

and a bonus arsenal of ammo and mines.

sounds generic

also, why the fuck do I get more ammo for stealth play? A spy catsuit with gadgets or something would be more adequate

 

[TwinkieGorilla]

Best Buy: Yeah, we'll advertise your game...but you have to do an exclusive for us.

Obsidian: Fuck!

Best Buy: ...

Obsidian: *sigh* Fine.

Best Buy: Lol, you fucking whores.

 

[madbringer]

also, why the fuck do I get more ammo for stealth play?

You need it to rain down a hail of bullets at your enemies, killing thousands of them.

Stealthily.

 

[Azrael the cat]

Oddly this doesn't affect my purchase plans (I still intend to buy the better of this and FO:NV in the next 12 months, and then the other when it hits the bargain bins). It was justed added straight to my list of things I don't mind pirating, along with tv shows that have already come out in tother countries or are otherwise not on the air in Australia, individual songs when deciding whether to buy a CD, and games no longer owned by their developers. I'm paying for a complete game from Obsidian, and that's what I expect to get. Either this DLC is completely superflous, in which case I'm missing nothing, or it should be in the main game, in which case I'm already paying for it.

I seriously wonder whether anyone actually pre-orders because of these offers, or whether they just take pre-orders away from other retailers (leaving the developer with no net gain) due to people who would pre-order anyway choosing the vendor that saves them the trouble of pirating extra content.

Thing is, I suspect these kind of offers actually lose the developers money in a manner that they probably wouldn't expect, and may easily have been missed by the big players' market research. Baiscally, it creates a 'thin end' of the wedge for pirating. There's plenty of people who wouldn't pirate a full game, but will pirate a small DLC for a game they already have, due to their perception that they have paid for a complete product. That then takes them to the pirate-bay and torrent sites, gets them to download torrent software and learn how to use it, and gets them into the habbit of pirating.

They no longer have to go through the mental effort of downloading and learning software - and they've discovered that it's all a MUCH easier process than they imagined (these are people who get intimidated when a torrent site tells them to download software that doesn't come with windows, and think anything that requires even a brief readme file is beyond them). It's easy to forget that there are people like that out there, but the existence of DRM is premised on the (probably correct) assumption that they make up a significant portion of the market. Small DLCs that should be part of the main package are a pretty effective inducement to get into regular pirating.

 

[Azrael the cat]

also, why the fuck do I get more ammo for stealth play?

You need it to rain down a hail of bullets at your enemies, killing thousands of them.

Stealthily.

I actually don't mind that type of 'stealth', when done well. My favourite way of playing Deus Ex was on 'realistic' with heavy use of the silenced sniper, dartgun and other stealth weapons (yes, I realise that's kind of the 'standard' way of playing Deus Ex due to it being the equal most over-powered style together with the melee build). One of the things I've really missed in the switch from FPS to 3rd-PS shooters is that third person shooters tend to lose that style of play for some reason. Mass Effect was particularly irritating by offering a class that seems to be a 'sniper+stealth' class but doesn't actually let you use stealth to scope out enemies or take up sniping spots, making the sniper rifle just another way of engaging in head-on trading of shots.

If they allow a Deus Ex means of stealth+sniping, I'd be happy. Again thouigh, I'd be a lot less skeptical if this wasn't a 3rd person shooter. I know camera angle doesn't have to mean arbitrary environmental boundaries and linear maps, but it has overwhelmingly be used in such a fashion. I suspect that open environments just don't look as immersive from a third person perspective, whereas even in the original Doom, the moments where you broke from the narrow corridors into a large room or rare outdoor area (like for the Cyberdemon fight) would feel a lot more enormous than they were.

 

[madbringer]

also, why the fuck do I get more ammo for stealth play?

You need it to rain down a hail of bullets at your enemies, killing thousands of them.

Stealthily.

I actually don't mind that type of 'stealth', when done well. My favourite way of playing Deus Ex was on 'realistic' with heavy use of the silenced sniper, dartgun and other stealth weapons (yes, I realise that's kind of the 'standard' way of playing Deus Ex due to it being the equal most over-powered style together with the melee build). One of the things I've really missed in the switch from FPS to 3rd-PS shooters is that third person shooters tend to lose that style of play for some reason. Mass Effect was particularly irritating by offering a class that seems to be a 'sniper+stealth' class but doesn't actually let you use stealth to scope out enemies or take up sniping spots, making the sniper rifle just another way of engaging in head-on trading of shots.

If they allow a Deus Ex means of stealth+sniping, I'd be happy. Again thouigh, I'd be a lot less skeptical if this wasn't a 3rd person shooter. I know camera angle doesn't have to mean arbitrary environmental boundaries and linear maps, but it has overwhelmingly be used in such a fashion. I suspect that open environments just don't look as immersive from a third person perspective, whereas even in the original Doom, the moments where you broke from the narrow corridors into a large room or rare outdoor area (like for the Cyberdemon fight) would feel a lot more enormous than they were.

That's true, aside from the occassional MGS or Splinter Cell game. Seems it's just more comfortable and easier for developers to skip the stealth element, either replacing it with some sort of mockery a'la Oblivion or removing it altogether. It's too bad, because, as you said, done right, like in Deus Ex, that style of playing can be tons and tons of fun.

And i think it's as much about the pov as it is about the game's pacing, and i don't just mean shooting shit up and running around, more about having something to do or see while you're in the process of transitioning from one combat situation to another. Certainly, climbing the rooftops of Hell's Kitchen while avoiding NSF snipers and being careful not to draw attention while you pummel one stray guard with a police baton, or running through demon-infested corridors of a lunar base, while low on health and hearing distant grunts of the abominations that hunt you, is more engaging than driving to mineral deposit 32253253 while on your way to Generic Quest Area 20000 on the planet Indescripta.

 

[laclongquan]

Vampire Bloodlines got that stealthily checking out sniping site. And it's got one target rich battlefield that kick your ass at lower level: You Can Only Die Once quest. And sniping duel with one boss, Bach the inquisitor.

Gunplay is very fun so I suspect my next play will still heavily invested in guns.

 

[Sannom]

Thing is, I suspect these kind of offers actually lose the developers money in a manner that they probably wouldn't expect, and may easily have been missed by the big players' market research. Baiscally, it creates a 'thin end' of the wedge for pirating. There's plenty of people who wouldn't pirate a full game, but will pirate a small DLC for a game they already have, due to their perception that they have paid for a complete product. That then takes them to the pirate-bay and torrent sites, gets them to download torrent software and learn how to use it, and gets them into the habbit of pirating.

I don't think that the pre-order bonuses get cracked, they're simply not interesting enough. Plus, they're not accessible in any other way than using that code they give you, so I think there is some trouble into getting those cracked.

 

[Cabeca Grande]

This game better have some good stealth mechanics. It's a goddamn spy game, not Gears of Neck Muscles! Pre-order bonuses have a really high risk-to-reward ratio. You risk not waiting for the reviews to see if you'll even like the game or if it has serious bugs, for the slight reward of something that is either completely superfluous or gamebreaking, and probably won't be cooler than the stuff you already can acquire in the game.

Do stores advertise games that they get exclusive DLC for? I can't remember ever seeing it, but if so, it could provide an incentive for publishers to offer exclusivity, as most likely the cost of that advertisement would be significantly reduced.

 

[CrusaderTemplar]

Preorders at Bestbuy?! They don't do that shit. They just attached it to every retail copy when its released. Everytime I buy their stuff, it says a code on every retail as it was like a preorder.

 

[JarlFrank]

Would not buy on principle then.

There is a reason why preorder extras piss me to no end - they encourage blind, uncritical purchases - something current gaming industry certainly *doesn't* need.

Yeah, the worst is when they even give *different* pre-order bonuses for different shops. I think Empire TW did this. Amazon gave you a different unit than EB Games or something like that, which led to up to 5 different special units of which you only could get one.

And later they sold all of them as a DLC pack anyways.

 

[denizsi]

 

[circ]

Oh please. I tried the ME 2 weapon and armor DLC's and it was all garbage, can't say Kasumi or Zaeed impressed either. Horse armor here we go again.

 

[poocolator]

What a fucking joke Alфa pRoToKeWL is turning out to be.

 

[Cassidy]

I was thinking of dart guns with tranq darts, tasers, electric prods, shivs and ceramic/composite-made guns and bullets capable of bypassing metal detectors instead of generic shit with silencers.

 

[DraQ]

I was thinking of dart guns with tranq darts, tasers, electric prods, shivs and ceramic/composite-made guns and bullets capable of bypassing metal detectors

And seemingly innocent accessories shooting ricin coated pellets...

 

[GarfunkeL]

Hitman/Deus Ex -style stealth play? YES PLEASE.

Probability of that? 0%, unfortunately.

I don't think that the pre-order bonuses get cracked, they're simply not interesting enough. Plus, they're not accessible in any other way than using that code they give you, so I think there is some trouble into getting those cracked.

Uh, no and no. They might not be that interesting but neither is Barbie Horse Adventures 7 but that does get cracked, just as DLC/Pre-order bonuses get. And getting them to work with the game isn't very complicated either unless your computer skills peak at the "order stuff from Sims store"-level.