Cheers dude. Hmm well everyone's mileage may vary, though it sounds like he played a completely different AP to me heh. :D As to the bugs, again I have seen worse, especially since aside from some jerkiness I don't think I have seen any (I'm certain this will sadly change of course once I get further into the game), and aside from the texture popping he doesn't detail the bugs at all, so I can't really comment there. Still, having seen the atrociously gamebreaking bugs in games like Sims 2 that still got rated quite high (they were really bad), I'm not seeing the reason for all the hate.
I guess its a case of marmite...
Hmm I'll have to keep an eye out, perhaps its specific to 360 though I doubt it since DA:O had the same issue on both platforms.

Regarding the Joystiq review.
What a whiny bitch. He badmouths the game first because it is not what he wanted it to be. Yes, it is an RPG, it is not a SHOOTER. Don't mark it down for it! ffs.
Unreal engine pop ins are nothing new. This and loading during dialogue makes the game a technical nightmare? The guy needs to have some sex or is it he didn't get paid well enough for the review?
Then the moron continues that because of the above (and because he finds the game boring, great detail there) the company dares to ask for a full price for it!
What a failure of a reviewer.
He should quit. What a joke.
EDIT: BTW, at the end it says the review is based on EARLY review code... I can understand review code, but early review code? WTF is that? Sounds like beta to me.

First impressions...
My character: Bland, wondering how much you can stamp your personality on him...
Other characters: Okay so far, finding Darcy a pain in the arse but I assume you're supposed to think that...
Voice acting: Pretty good overall.
Dialogue: Generally good, but not a fan of the system. Sometimes it's not obvious what "agressive" or whatever will actually result in. Better than Mass Effect though (ME1 anyway, not played ME2).
Other thoughts: Not much of an RPG, but a good action game. Looks worth the money so far.

Btw. Scarlett is HOT.
edit: Oh, and about the 'technical nightmare'. It's bullshit. AP suffers from exactly the same issues that ME1, ME2 and Gears of War do: texture pop-up, so in short from the drawbacks of Unreal Engine 3.
As I said, the game has a raw feeling to it BUT it's not a technical disaster, quite contrary. I didn't notice any bugs at all in fact. Compared to vanilla NWN2 this is quite good.
Most of the reviews coming from the major reviewers are lukewarm: 6 from GameSpot and 6 from GI. Then, on the other had, RPGamer review is up and they gave 4/5.
I still stand by my previous claim. You need to look past the low-budget syndrome of this game but in the end, the it is much better than the sum of it's parts. It's 8/10 for me.
Oh yeah and did I say that Scarlett is hot? I have a thing for redheads :3

8.4
http://www.computerandvideogames.com/article.php?id=248379

Ok, so Joystiq have now posted an article about other internet reviews, whose opinion ranges from good to Destructoid.
Link: http://www.joystiq.com/2010/05/28/metareview-alpha-protocol/

Since Joystiq skipped RPGamer's review I'll link it myself for great justice.
[url=]http://www.rpgamer.com/games/other/xbox2/alphaprotocol/reviews/alphaprotocolstrev1.html[/url]
edit: I just wanted to add that AP is worth getting simply because there's nothing else like it right now. Despite it being a shooter I still consider the game a tiny breath of fresh air in the tight-ass genre. It's like a MGS made in the West.

I just died, reloaded the last checkpoint and now i have no baddies on the lvl anymore :(

RPG gamers review really describes what the game is like, I haven't looked at all the review but this one seems reliable, professional, and descriptive

You know you're sucking at the game when you find yourself reloading tutorial checkpoints a million times. I might post a picture of my guy, he looks like the terrorists he's trying to kill.

Saudi Arabia missions are hard. Doing the airfield one, and I have reloaded checkpoints a dozen times, still sucking hard. I mean, failing hard.

Getting the right equipment and extra intel makes a huge difference. Of course this costs money... which you don't really have at this point.
I made a bet and won during the tutorial so had enough cash for some minor starting stuff. Hoping to get a bit more on the first missions.
Went for the "recruit" class (or rather sub-class, all the types are very similar), which is supposed to be harder but I dunno really. It's tough, but usually only because I did something stupid.

One tip for a mission in Rome (won't say which one): set up Shock Traps before you hack the computer
Build rather than class. To use a D&D analogy its like you're always playing a fighter but you can specialise him to be a duellist, weapon master etc

Yes, that's exactly what it's like.
Which build did you go for? I wasn't keen on the four main ones, so went for "recruit", seem to be doing well enough for now.
Only done the start bits plus a little of SA, will need some more time in it to praise/criticise it more!
Had one crash so far though, loading a checkpoint after I'd died (top tip, don't run at a guy with a big machine gun). Was thinking it was generally stable before that, you had any other issues?

I did recruit too but in retrospect I should have gone for the stealth build since thats how I've developed him anyway, firstly because I enjoy the splinter cell sneak & murder approach and second because I suck at stealth in this game and need all the bonuses I can get.
I've had one lockup with the 360 version and one weird enemy resetting thing after loading a checkpoint (fortunately noone was around the checkpoint at the time). The only other issues I've had have been of the "how the fuck do they expect you to do this???" variety. Nowhere to hide and bombarded by enemies from every possible direction... Think I'll have to replay this level and take everything that can be used as a mine and just create a death vortex