Alpha Protocol - Previews @ GamePro, Thunderbolt

A couple of Alpha Protocol previews from PAX East, spotted by GameBanshee.  First, GamePro:

Alpha Protocol will no doubt draw constant comparisons to Mass Effect 2 when it releases this summer, and for good reason; the conversation system is virtually identical, and the leveling system even appears to be very similar. While developers Obsidian Entertainment would have players believe that AP is a mixture of Bourne, Bauer, and Bond, in video game terms it's probably more accurate to call it a m‚lange of Mass Effect 2's RPG and conversation elements with a touch of Metal Gear Solid. The "three B's" analogy is still apt though; one of the neatest things I saw in the conversation system was that each possible response tends to correspond with one of those characters. Essentially this isn't a Bourne/Bond/Bauer mash up like many other spy games--it's a Bourne, Bond, Bauer lifestyle choice made by the player.

...and Thunderbolt:

With the demonstration concluded and the story hook revealed, one of the developers from Obsidian opened the floor up for a brief QA session. Much like the Madison sequence from earlier, he continued to stress how the combat could have been approached differently and how the General could have been spared. Keeping with the many middles theme it was revealed that the game has close to twelve hours of cut-scenes, but given the branching nature of the storyline it’s likely during a single playthrough you’ll only see about four hours worth.