While Nintendo managed to lose a cool $290 million USD this past quarter (for very good reasons), its one-time rival Sega actually managed to have a showing in the black.

Or, rather, its parent company Sega Sammy Holdings did. Because without all those yen flowing in from the company's pachinko business, Sega could have had a less impressive quarter. Sega's consumer division, the part that sells video games for consoles and PCs, saw "firm" sales according to the company.

Sega's major releases during the three month period, Alpha Protocol and Iron Man 2, were "slow." Sega sold 700,000 copies of Obsidian's espionage RPG, while the movie tie-in for Iron Man 2 moved a cool 1.12 million copies.

Fans hoping to experience the further adventures of Agent Michael Thornton will be sorely disappointed, as Sega West president Mike Hayes reveals that a sub-70 Metacritic average and slow sales rule out the chance for an Alpha Protocol sequel.

Alpha Protocol was a solid action role-playing game, but its more glaring flaws brought it to its knees, netting it a Metacritic review average in the mid-60's on consoles (the PC version scores a little more than 70.) According to Mike Hayes, speaking to CVG, this isn't enough of a score to warrant a second look at Obsidian's spy game. After pointing out the game's low sales, Hayes explains.

"The concept was brilliant, though," he added. "You know this whole thing with Metacritic where you have to be in the high 70s to mid-80s minimum [to have any success] - well, with RPGs you have got to be in the late 80s. Whilst we had a good game, I don't think we had a game that had enough to get us to that upper echelon and I think that was the issue. "

Why the difference between RPGs and other genres? Hayes says it's because role-playing games are such large and involved projects, the investment needed to produce them is that much bigger.

Don't cry too much for developer Obsidian Entertainment. With Fallout: New Vegas and Dungeon Siege 3 in the works, there won't be time to mourn.

Sega rules out Alpha Protocol sequel [CVG]

Aliens Vs. Predator fans who weathered the storm of mediocre review scores are being rewarded with a second helping of downloadable multiplayer maps next month in the Bughunt Map Pack, complete with environmental hazards and weather effects.

The Bughunt Map Pack, available on July 7, consists of four new multiplayer maps: Crash Site and Furious for the game's six different competitive online modes, and Tempest and Monument for AvP's co-op Survival mode.

The four new maps all come complete with environmental hazards and weather effects, both new features added to the game with this pack.

Look for the Bughunt Map Pack to hit the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and Steam on July 7 for $6.99 or 560 Microsoft points.

Crash Site

Furious

Tempest

Monument

Philosophers and Theologians have been debating the mechanics of moral choice for millennia.

Debates have ranged from the popular "nature or nurture" to total freedom of the will, to some modification that sits between these extremes. Video games have only recently begun to consider the nature of moral choice as an integral piece of a game's mechanics. Developers have started to craft experiences that will allow the player's moral and ethical choices to affect the context of their gaming experience. This enlargement of player empowerment is in some ways a logical next step from the existing paradigm of physical empowerment in game environments.

There are few developers, however, that have made the transition from merely allowing the player to affect the physical world to enabling him or her to influence the people and events in that world with more than a gun, sword, or spell-book. Of these, Bioware's Mass Effect games are perhaps the purest example of how these kind of systems have been implemented thoughtfully and effectively. There are real consequences that the player has to live with, and they carry over throughout the series. Players can choose between morally good (blue) and morally questionable/renegade (the choice between playing as Luke Skywalker or Malcom Reynolds) with a neutral choice in between. The player can always choose either good or bad, but persisting in one type of choice long enough unlocks a kind of super-powered good or bad choice later in the game.

The Bioware games are not the only ones to go this route. Alpha Protocol has recently attempted something similar, and games like The Witcher, though they do not use color coding for their good and bad choices, do allow you to make moral decisions which affect the world in real pragmatic ways. However, I would like to use the Bioware/Mass Effect system as an exemplar of the mechanics of interface between the player and the game world. The implementation is well done, but I would like to propose, from a philosophical and theological point of view, the possibility of implementing a system that more accurately reflects real life moral choice as described by some of the great thinkers of Western Culture.

As Aristotle said, the more a person does the good, the more they like doing the good, and conversely, the more a person does evil, the more they are inclined to continue to do evil. Both reason and experience back up Aristotle' s observation. If a person acts in a pattern of charity, they will become the kind of person who is inclined toward charity. If a person habitually degrades other people, they will find it difficult to think well of someone new they meet. One can make an argument for this easily observed reality from theological, philosophical, psychological, and physical grounds. Given this, perhaps the next evolution of the morality system in games should be one which pushed a player toward a particular choice depending on their tendencies. If the player has thrown someone out of the window the past three times he or she has argued, shouldn't that be what he or she is inclined to do this time?

Implementation could be achieved in game by either limiting the player's time to make a choice, and by weighing the way he or she starts off making the choice, i.e. it's easier to click that part of the screen, or you have to go a farther distance with the cursor to get to the alternate choice. This would allow the user to make choices both in line and out of line with his or her tendency, but it would also show how making choices shapes what is most natural for a person. It would also be a good indication to the player of what kind of road their character is heading down. There may come a day, the game might say through this interface, where you are so far gone that the good choice will be utterly out of reach in the time you have. Or it might say that there is a time ahead when that bad choice is so distant from your own character and morality, that it is well nigh impossible for you to make that choice.

One objection to this particular way of doing things might be that when people are going bad, they just don't realize it Medieval theologians viewed evil not merely as a form of guilt, but a privation, something that removed life and knowledge from people. The popular apologist C.S. Lewis expressed this by saying that Goodness knows both Good and Bad, but Evil doesn't know either. This might lead to an alternate implementation of the choice system. If one constantly chooses the bad choice, the interface might change to reflect the assumptions of the character in the world. If the good choice is always in the upper right and in blue, and the bad is always in the upper left and red, perhaps the more one chooses bad, the red begins to look a little more purple, and then finally changes to blue. The good choice will shift to the same purple, so that at some point, only their positioning differentiates them. It too would continue its color change until a shift back to good, or a full delving into wickedness once utterly and finally changes their colors to their opposites. When both become purple, might it not also possible that their position on the screen may shift randomly, so that the good choice is not always on the right, and the bad not always on the left.

Expressing the knowledge and perception of goodness would be a bit harder to implement, but if one were to attempt to duplicate what the philosophers and theologians tell us, perhaps some further explanation of the result of each choice is made available to a player playing the straight and narrow. It might also be possible to reward bad choices more quickly (as has been done in the Bioshock games) which would be a trade off for the information provided to characters who choose the upright path.

Lest this be considered to simply be a play for "morality in games" in the sense that I am asking for the content of games to be within particular "acceptable norms" I make no judgment on context or content. My goal here is simply to suggest the possibility of implementing interface which reflects real moral process in life as we know it, so that form is appropriate to matter. Acts of the will are habit forming. For many belief systems in the world, there are acts of the will which are ultimately and finally habit forming. An implementation of this particular worldview might not only be engaging on the philosophical level, but cause players to think more about what choices they are making in games.

Joshua Wise is a Seminarian at Lutheran Theological Seminary working on his Masters Degree in Systematic Theology. He has a BA in Biblical Studies with a focus in Ancient Hebrew and Latin. To fund his studies, he works full time as a .Net Systems Developer. His main areas of study are Soteriology and Patristics as well as Temporal Theory. He started the website The Cross and The Controller to discuss the intersection of Theology and Video Games.

Don't feel like playing through Sega's new espionage role-playing game, Alpha Protocol, to get to The Good Stuff? You might be better off that way, getting your Alpha Protocol satisfaction by enjoying its naughtier bits through YouTube.

Not only does this interactive cut scene from Alpha Protocol give you a taste of the kind of spy sex developer Obsidian Entertainment is capable of, it's also a guide to unlocking certain achievements. This is relatively tame stuff—Alpha Protocol's players don't have to take their clothes off to have a good time—with the only potentially offensive moment coming after the restrained intimacy.

It's not the sights and sounds that are salacious, it's the description of the odors. Wait for it.

Sega and developer Obsidian Entertainment conspire to bring you Alpha Protocol, the espionage role-playing game. Is it Mass Effect meets modern-day spy thriller?

After stumbling upon a global conspiracy during a failed mission, agent Michael Thorton finds himself on the run from the very country he vowed to serve. Betrayed by his superiors, Thorton's only choice is to enact Alpha Protocol, going underground to reveal the insidious plot.

Since its first public appearance, the gaming press has been comparing Alpha Protocol to BioWare's Mass Effect, citing numerous similarities, from the game's RPG progression to its branching dialog system. With those comparisons come expectations that few games could possibly live up to. Is Alpha Protocol up to the task?

Loved
Characters With Character: This was originally going to be a discussion on how much I enjoy a game calling me by my real name, but protagonist Michael Thorton is probably the least interesting of the colorful cast members in Alpha Protocol. That's not to say he isn't witty and charming; he's just outdone by folks like 80's fixated Russian mob boss Grigori, or conspiracy theorist Steven Heck, who I officially declare my new best friend. It's an ensemble cast, full of quirky characters on both sides of the conflict, that make some of the game's negative points much more tolerable.

Important Decisions: During its lengthy development cycle, Alpha Protocol was compared many times to titles like BioWare's Mass Effect, mainly for its branching dialogue system and a focus on player-made decisions affecting the gameplay. The comparison turns out to be a valid one. The decisions you make in Alpha Protocol have the power to alter the course of the game entirely. Mission objectives change, enemies become allies, and allies become lovers as you make key decisions. At one point in the game I made a choice that resulted in a boss battle, during which I died. Returning to my last save point, a different dialog choice allowed me to skip the fight entirely, making a character that would be my enemy a potential ally. This powerful mechanic makes multiple play-throughs a must, if you can get past the game's glaring issues.

Intel That Matters: Throughout Alpha Protocol you'll be collecting, buying, or receiving intel via the game's email system. Much more than collectibles, the intel you gather as you play also has a strong effect on the choices you have to make and battles you have to fight. Intel can tell you how an NPC will react to your character's attitude choices, or give you insight into a particular boss' weak points. A combination of the right intel and the right allies can change the course of certain battles entirely.

Making Your Own Way: Alpha Protocol allows you to pick and choose the skills you spend points on as you level, and does a great job of laying out the game's levels to take advantage of the skills you've chosen to hone. If you're a fan of straight-up shooters, maxing out your weapon and body skills turns you into a tank, perfect for running headlong into battle, guns blazing. Sneakier players (like me) can opt to level up stealth, sneaking up on opponents and silently dispatching them before they can raise an alarm. More strategic players can use the game's gadgets to take out their foes placing mines and then luring enemies into them. It's a game that nicely accommodates all sorts of players.

Hated
Artificial Stupidity: Some enemies in Alpha Protocol possess an uncanny intelligence, relentlessly pursuing you through closed doors, diving out of the way of grenades, and circumventing traps as if there were a real human in control of their actions. Other enemies in Alpha Protocol will stand still, facing the opposite direction in the middle of a firefight. Perhaps developer Obsidian Entertainment programmed varying levels of AI into the game's enemies. If so, then at least one of them is broken.

Power Leveling: Role-playing shooters generally feature enemies that scale with your powers and abilities, to keep things challenging. Alpha Protocol does not. Case in point, I spent an hour and a half trying to defeat a certain boss during the early stages of my first play-through of the game. The boss moved erratically, henchmen would spawn, and without many first aid kits available, it was a battle I was constantly losing. I set the mission aside, and came back to it after finishing most of the rest of the game. That same boss fight lasted all of 10 seconds. In fact, leveling up one particular power set makes most of the game's more difficult bosses ridiculously easy. It's a glaring imbalance.

Bugs And Glitches: At least two times during my initial play-through of Alpha Protocol I had to reload a save due to being stuck between two locked doors. One door closed, which should have triggered the next door opening, but it did not. Those two instances, along with various graphical glitches, texture pop-in, and polygon tearing give me the impression that this is one game that didn't get the play testing attention it deserved.

Ending With A Whimper: Alpha Protocol's ending leaves a great deal to be desired. After spending the better part of ten hours forging friendships and alliances, unraveling plots, and revealing a vile scheme that could change the political climate of the entire planet, I expected something astounding to cap it all off. What I got was a series of ridiculously easy boss fights, a cut scene where I expected some sort of giant battle, and a series of news reports while the credits rolled serving as the dénouement to this anticlimax. The entire ending feels tacked on, which is a real shame, considering the intriguing build up.

With its role-playing game progression, branching dialog system, and emphasis on player choice changing the way the game progresses, it's easy to see why many previews (including one of mine) suggested that Alpha Protocol was Mass Effect for the cloak and dagger set. And while the game does manage to ape several of the more attractive aspects of BioWare's epic space saga, it fails to deliver the same level of quality. It's like the store brand equivalent to a BioWare action RPG. It has its share of delicious moments, but it's likely to leave a bad taste in your mouth after all is said and done.

Alpha Protocol was developed by Obsidian Entertainment and published by Sega for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC on June 1. Retails for $59.99 USD. A copy of the game was given to us by the publisher for reviewing purposes. Played through the Xbox 360 version of the game once on standard difficulty, and started another game to try out additional skills and conversation branches.

Confused by our reviews? Read our review FAQ.

It's that time again! Time to watch the clock, solve the clues, and save big on the Xbox 360 titles featured all day long in Amazon's Gold Box. Is BioShock 2 for $40 really a good deal?

Either way, that's what Amazon.com is leading off with today, giving Xbox 360 owners a chance to revisit Rapture at 33% off the asking price. By the time you get done with shipping costs you aren't saving too much, but I suppose it beats not saving anything at all.

Then we have today's timed deals. The first deal, Battlefield: Bad Company 2 for $46.49, is about to expire. Next up looks to be Mass Effect, unless I am misinterpreting the clue, "Prepare to journey to the darkest reaches of space in this RPG hit." Why not Mass Effect 2? Wait for it...

Here's how the rest of the day unfolds:
11AM Pacific: BioWare's deepest universe to date just got bigger...
2PM: Rock out with your Stratocaster.
4PM: A legendary war between two of science-fiction's most popular characters.
6PM: Charge up your Xbox 360 controllers.
8PM: This hit franchise comes to life on Xbox 360.

So I'm guessing Mass Effect 2, some guitar thing, Aliens Vs. Predator, a small duck, and I don't know, Final Fantasy?

See anything you like?

Amazon Gold box Deals [Amazon.com - Thanks everyone!]