Girls must really like astronauts, 'cause it says here they get all the tang they want .-  Micheal Kelso - That 70's Show.

After the feeding frenzy that was the last Steam sale, I've finished Alpha Protocol twice, and Singularity once.

Mina Tang, how I love you. You're as beautiful as Kansas in autumn and you can perform outer outer outer joins on whatever encrypted spook database I dig up as fast as I can find it. You wear a somewhat curtailed, erotically sterile, almost 'Spockish'  tunic and I would go to the ends of the world to save you.

To the end of the world a few times, heck sure. I love you. But chutcth (furball). Several several times? Whoa. Sweetie, really?

There are a few misunderstandings floating about. There is stealth here, just not the normal kind. Not the creeping, hide in the shadows so you're not seen kind, but the invest megabucks in your suit and stealth ability until no one can see you a foot in front of their face kind. Sadly, that can happen only after several several level ups, so the aspiring stealther among us will be immediately frustrated.

I'm wondering why Obsidian would have developed a game using so many writing, animation, and dialog resources on such a flimsy shooter base? The well done voice acting, the fairly well produced video segments, and the (seemingly endless) script sits on top of the most elementary shooting mechanics and the dumbest AI I have ever seen. Let's abandon our cover and use of automated weapons so we can get close and deliver some Karate chops. Please don't shoot me until I get close. Oh, and I won't use grenades like those S.T.A.L.K.E.R. guys, that must suck for you.

I'm not too bothered by most versions of checkpoint progress saving. I don't mind rehearsal. Maybe I'm a little bit weird, but I actually enjoy it, as long as it's done fairly. In AP though, game saving is done differently. Cross the threshold for a savegame, and the s/w duly writes a quicksave over the last universal worldwide savegame. If you fail to <esc> out and create a copy, once the next checkpoint is crossed, you can't go back to revisit your decisions, unless you're willing to go back to your own last personal savepoint.

So let's imagine you're finishing the last mission before confronting pure world evil. You're a bitchin', trifle worn, ammo depleted, shower needin', (gad look at that freakin' armour stinkin') dude, and the love of your life calls on the satellite phone and if you fuck up the answer you'll have to replay seventeen minutes of dialog to get the answer you want because it will save the checkpoint automatically without your (and prior to any possible)  intervention after the conversation ends. How do you think you'd respond?

Yeah. Where is my mind.

Singularity. It's over, I guess. I mean with time travel, who knows.