Alpha Protocol Gets Inventory Comparison and Another Delay

Some games get delayed more than others, and while it's no Duke Nukem Forever, Obsidian's military RPG, Alpha Protocol, has quite a few missed deadlines notched under its belt. The game was initially announced for a February 2009 release, and has been constantly delayed ever since, at times in some pretty unique ways. The closest to an actual release date the title ever came to was in October 2009, when its launch day arrived and Sega had yet to announce a delay for it. Unfortunately, that didn't stop AP from pulling a "no show" and the publisher from not releasing the game yet again.

Last we checked, the title was scheduled for Spring 2010, and MTV Multiplayer had a chance to find out some of the reasons for which it got pushed back so many times. "We had a few reasons for [delaying] it. One: We wanted to position it better, give it a lot of time," Sega's Assistant Producer, Mathew Hickman, said. "The main reason: We really wanted to polish the game up, make it everything Obsidian planned it to be, and give the consumer a very polished game."

Polishing a title is a very noble purpose, but Obsidian should be careful not to rub the pain off of it. But while the developers did use the delay time to make it brighter, there were some gameplay elements that were added as well. "We added a couple of other things. Tweaks in lighting here and there, added the inventory comparison screen so you can compare what you're buying to what you have equipped. Just bringing the whole quality level up," Hickman added.

But if you think that this makes the game ready to be launched, then you're sadly mistaken. While Hickman did explain why the title had been delayed up until that point, he also announced that it would be once again delayed, and we'll have to wait for yet another season to pass. What was Spring 2010 up until just a few days ago has now become Summer 2010, but don't expect Sega to meet this deadline either, as other things could creep up in the development process.