While Sega still hasn't responded to our multiple requests for confirmation on the delay, the publisher's official web site is typically a good resource for this kind of information. The PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and PC versions are all listed loosely for "Spring, 2010" but earlier today, some of those dates were for a more solid May 6, 2010.

We'd put that release date in pencil on your personal calendars, not pen. Just to be on the safe side.

Alpha Protocol [Sega]

Recently updated ship dates from GameStop and Amazon.ca list Alpha Protocol for June 1 and June 30, 2010, respectively. Most online retailers still show the game due the last week of October of this year, but if two independent retailers are showing a delay, don't be surprised if others follow suit.

If those retail listings are accurate, it wouldn't be the first time Alpha Protocol has been pushed back. The game was penciled in for a release as early as February 2009. Perhaps Sega took some of Sony Computer Entertainment America's rumored comments about the game to heart?

Whatever the reason may be, if Alpha Protocol has indeed slipped, it will join the recently delayed Blur as one of the many titles that will miss the typically heavy fall release schedule.

We've reached out to Sega of America to verify that change, but haven't heard back yet.

The document had been accessible early Tuesday morning. It appears to contain meeting notes, many of which detail Sega's games. It seems to have been first spotted on French website, Objectif-Sega but has since been removed.

Kotaku was unable to reach representatives from Sega or Sony before the publication of this post, but will provide any update we receive on this matter.

If real, the document portrays conversations between members of Sega of America and Rob Dyer, the senior vice president of publisher relations at Sony Computer Entertainment of America, in what is indicated as a quarterly update with Sony regarding Sega's plans.

Every major Sega game is mentioned in the document, often with details that appear to be either upcoming plans or at least ideas about what would the companies might pursue.

The document mentions a Bayonetta collectors edition that would include an action figure. No such edition has been announced. It indicates that a Sega product evaluator deemed the first level of this fall's role-playing game, Alpha Protocol, as too difficult at the time and described it barely feeling like a role-playing game.

The alleged Sony-Sega meeting notes include multiple mentions of Sega working with Sony-specific initiatives. Sega's Vancouver 2010 Olympics game, Iron Man 2 and Aliens Vs. Predator are listed as candidates for spaces or avatar item downloads in the PlayStation Home virtual world. The notes mention the possibility of Sony-specific characters appearing in a PlayStation 3 version of 2010's Sonic & Sega All Stars Racing, though the notes strangely disqualifies a Sony mascot in favor of Microsoft-owned properties: "Open to DLC to differentiate PS3 SKU [version] – not ratchet and clank but other characters maybe characters from Rare or Fable universes."

The document covers cult favorite series Yakuza, which has had two releases in the U.S. Two other Yakuza games , including the current-gen Yakuza 3, remain Japan-only games. Of the Yakuza games, the notes state: "Could put Japanese games directly on PSN for download in a special Japanese Import section (pricing $9.99 to $39.99 for full game). Might need to localize menus at least with subtitles. SCEA interested in helping on MKTG side if they can have period of exclusivity."

The possibility of interaction between the PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Portable is mentioned for Aliens: Colonial Marines, a game that was not yet announced for any portable system. The same option was also mentioned for something called Vanquish.

The final Sega game property mentioned in the document is Sonic, which is considered in the notes as a candidate for a "Best of Sonic" collection. The notes state that "SCEA would love PSN exclusive power ups/different game modes."

The document also included notes about Sony's plans for its motion controller and digital download store, which we've covered in an earlier post today.

Video games, on the whole, perpetuate a transactional model of sex, argues Alex Raymond at GameCritics.com. When you think about it, pursuing sex with an NPC in Mass Effect, however tastefully it was shown, is fundamentally no different from C.J. bedding women in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. Sex is presented as a reward, a result only, something won only by making correct choices attenuated to a woman's shallow preferences, and it's certainly not shown to be part of the process of a relationship.

The "Ladies Man" achievement in the upcoming Alpha Protocol spy action game - have sex with every woman in the game - really set Raymond's teeth on edge. This essay focuses not on sex objects, but on sex as an object - a goal only, a commodity, and the damage done by video games reinforcing such concepts.

Update: The first two paragraphs, while based in my analysis, were edited so as not to misrepresent the author's opinion of Mass Effect.

Women Aren't Vending Machines: How Video Games Perpetuate the Commodity Model of Sex [GameCritics.com, Aug. 26, 2009]

This design approach is extremely simplistic and perpetuates the commodity model of sex-the player wants sex, they go through certain motions, and they are "rewarded" with what they wanted (like a vending machine). Furthermore, when sex is included in a game, it is generally framed as the end result-the reward-of romance, rather than one aspect of an ongoing relationship/partnership. For example, one gamer commented that the romance in Mass Effect seemed like the romantic interest was really saying, "Keep talking to me and eventually we'll have sex". The relationship is not the goal; the goal is the tasteful PG-13 sex scene. The NPC's thoughts and desires aren't relevant; what matters is the tactics you use to get what you want. This is a boring mechanic in games and dangerously dehumanizing behavior in real life.

Where the simplistic relationship mechanics really get problematic is when someone makes a game where your protagonist is a James Bond-wannabe and there's an achievement for sleeping with every woman in the game. I am talking, of course, about Alpha Protocol. The quotes in the linked MTV Multiplayer article are infuriatingly sexist (as well as displaying insultingly limiting definitions of masculinity), but the relevant part is the bit about the "Ladies' Man" achievement.

It is seriously problematic to have a game where the male player/avatar can have sex with any and every woman in the game. On top of reinforcing the commodity model of sex, it is desperately heteronormative. For all the player's "choice" of with whom to engage, there's no possibility that the player might want to have a relationship with another man. It also shows that lesbians just don't exist in this world, if every single woman is open to a sexual encounter with a man. In addition, it perpetuates the narrative of the Nice Guy (described in Millar's essay, and elsewhere): that men are entitled to sex from women if they follow the rules and do the right things, or in the case of Alpha Protocol, "select your responses wisely."

- Alex Raymond

Weekend Reader is Kotaku's look at the critical thinking in, and of video games. It appears Saturdays at noon. Please take the time to read the full article cited before getting involved in the debate here.

Alpha Protocol, the spy-themed role-playing game from development studio Obsidian Entertainment and publisher Sega, once expected many months ago, is finally close to release. It's set for fall, that same season that brought Mass Effect and Fallout 3 to gamers in the last two years.

In theory, Alpha Protocol should seem quite different. It is neither set after an apocalypse nor in space. But a demo of the game I witnessed yesterday showed the kind of shooter-centric gameplay and deep, interactive dialogue exchanges that might make a gamer see much Mass Effect in it, despite its trappings in a world of spies, e-mailed assignments and James Bond-style villains.

Alpha Protocol certainly won't be confused with either of those other games, even though its gameplay style may satisfy the same itch.

A few things, though, stood out in the demo that are stark differences from those other two games. One of those would be sex, but hold on a second.

The Sega producer showing me the game showed a dialogue system that could feel more consequential than those of the other games mentioned here. Conversations are interactive, as in Fallout and Mass Effect, but remarks throughout the conversation trigger statistical changes and adjustments in character relationships.

Key decision points trigger auto-saves, in a manner similar, of all tings to the immediate saving of the Fire Emblem series. Dialouge and mission choices are designed to enforce consequences on players, though the path those choices might lead is intended to be obscured by what Sega is promising to be a more varied spectrum of moral alignments by its characters.

Some of the dialogue sequences will be so lengthy that there are missions unto themselves. The Sega producer described them to me as interrogations that could last 10-15 minutes, full of choices not just about what to say but whether to, perhaps, hit the person being interrogated with a bottle. In the interrogation described, violence squeezes accurate information out, but causes the player's victim to alert his friends and make a subsequent mission harder. Being smoother with the same guy will allow the player to make a pay-off and face lesser opposition later.

But what about the sex? After witnessing a flirtatious exchange between the game's male hero and the blonde commando lady Z who wielded a big machine gun and a visible bra, I inquired about romance possibilities. I was told we can expect as many as four love scenes. I inquired how they compare to Mass Effect's infamous sex scenes. They're on a spectrum, I was told, one of them being "pretty racy." Oh, and pretty "unexpected" too, in terms of when it happens and the "choices you make in it?" Sounds like an interactive sex scene, but the Sega producer said I might be getting the wrong idea. He didn't want to give more away.

So, if this game seems a bit Mass Effectish to you and maybe even Fallouty, these are some differences. Otherwise, expect a deep, combat-heavy, dialogue rich RPG. It comes out in October for PC and consoles.

I took the game for a spin during the lead up to E3 and was quite impressed with how well the game blended the best elements of shooter, action and adventure. I'm hoping my time playing the final game will live up to my new, heightened expectations.

In the game you play as a highly customizable Michael Thorton, a CIA field agent on the run from his former superiors. Developers Obsidian Entertainment describe the game as a modern-day espionage role-playing game, but it plays just like a shooter.

That's not surprising since the game is being developed by the same team that created Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II.

The first thing I got a look at was one of Thorton's many safe houses. It's here that you can customize your character's clothing, weapons, gadgets and upgrade his skills.

Thorton can be upgraded through ten different skills, all of which can have significant impact on the type of character he is from brawler, to techie, to smooth James Bond spy.

Weapons are broken down into four categories with mods for each which essentially buff or nerf the gun. There are also armor mods for Thorton.

Some of the skills I saw in action included one that slowed time down while Thorton took enemies down with melee attacks. Another scanned an area for enemies, allowing Thorton to pop up and take them down quickly with his gun.

I was most intrigued by the way the weapons operate. Since the game plays like a shooter, but is actually an RPG, Obsidian had to find the right mix to reflect both styles of play. What they ended up with was a system that used your skill ratings and the weapon type to impact the size of your targeting reticule. The more skilled you are with a weapon, the better the weapon is, the smaller the reticule is.

So when you're fire off shots with a gun you're not proficient with, your reticule is pretty big and the shots can go anywhere in that targeting circle, either hitting or missing your target depending on how much space they take up in the reticule. It's a great way to have skill levels impact a shooter without taking control away from the player.

I'm really looking forward to how this game shapes up as it nears it's October release date for the PC, PS3 and Xbox 360.

Sega's official E3 line-up announcement doesn't hint at any big surprises, but it does mention a fair number of titles we're definitely keeping an eye on. It's all about alphabetical convenience this year, with Aliens Vs. Predator, Alpha Protocol, Bayonetta, and The Conduit making up the core titles in Sega's line-up this year. Three completely original IP to one licensed title is a very welcome ratio indeed.

The rest of the games Sega will be showing aren't quite as exciting. Planet 51 is tie-in with the animated movie of the same name, and the company continues to milk their Olympic license with Vancouver 2010 and Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games for the Wii and DS.

The list reflects the line up Sega mentioned via Twitter earlier this month, with the addition of Aliens VS. Predator, as foreseen by McWhertor.

I'm just hoping that Bayonetta will be playable this time around. I've seen quite enough; now it's time for some wholly appropriate touching.

Looking at Alpha Protocol in action, it's hard to imagine this is the same team that worked on classic role-playing games like Planescape: Torment. Despite their fine relatively performance working on Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic 2, I still think of Obsidian as the guys who made Planescape and Icewind Dale as Black Isle Studios. Perhaps I just want to say Planescape: Torment as many times as possible, in hopes that someone makes a sequel in the near future. Maybe if we just all chant it over and over again at the same time...

What gives with those button options in this screen? Threaten? Virus? Passphrase? Yes, please!

Making RPG-style character progression work in a realistic setting—more realistic than, say, Mass Effect or Final Fantasy, for example—always seems like a challenging thing to get right. We're not sure if Obsidian has pulled it off, but if they do, it may bode well for that in limbo Aliens RPG the developer was working on.

Make sure to stick around for the chinstrap bearded bad guy at the end. He looks like the Abe Lincoln of the terrorist underworld. Not something we see enough of. Evil dead presidents, I mean.

Obviously. You can't fill twenty-two minutes worth of programming with just Alpha Protocol footage and Geoff Keighley charisma. Also making their television debuts will be the expansion for Fallout 3, The Pitt, as well as a spoiler-laden first look at a new boss from Ghostbusters: The Video Game.

The show runs at the ludicrous hour of 1 AM, with much of this hot exclusive action hitting the web the next day.

“It all depends on how you treat them,” Rucinski said. If you have a strong relationship with female characters, they may help with missions. However, he told me that some of them are “bats–t insane” and can get you into trouble. “One may ask you to assassinate a high-level person,” he added. “Maybe that’s not something you want to do, but she’s really hot. But there are obvious repercussions.”

See? These are the sorts of decisions guys named Michael have to deal with every day. We don't want to kill, but the ladies are so hot! Alpha Protocol will let players get busy with women via Mass Effect style cutscenes, with achievements for being a total manslut as well as just saying no repeatedly. Achievements for having sex? Fox is going to have a field day.

‘Alpha Protocol’ Will Have Plenty Of Sex Scenes, ‘Ladies’ Man’ Achievement [MTV Multiplayer]

Rookie CIA agent Michael Thornton finds himself betrayed by his superiors and hunted by the U.S. government after a mission goes awry. In order to get to the bottom of a conspiracy, Michael initiates the Alpha Protocol, going undercover to clear his name and besmirch a few others in the process.

So the story is different, but not too much else. Throughout the game Michael will be given dialog choices that effect the way the game plays out, increasing his faction with certain NPCs and decreasing them with others. The main difference here is that Michael has a limited amount of time to make his choices, and they generally fall into three categories - professional, suave, and aggressive.

Leveling up and combat also play out very similar to Mass Effect, albeit with only one character instead of three. You gain skill points which are spread across ten different skill sets, unlocking new powers as you progress. One particular nifty power was shown that involved Michael pausing the action, selecting three different targets, and then shooting them each in quick succession. Don't know if there are any Firefly fans reading, but it was very reminiscent of that one episode where River peeks out from behind cover and then delivers three shots, taking out each of the bad guys that had her pinned down.

Throughout the game you gain new weapons which you can upgrade, collect a variety of suits - from a classic spy tux to high-tech armors - some of which NPCs will react to differently. You can even modify your Michael with accessories, change his facial hair, and basically customize him to your liking.

Furthering the Mass Effect parallels, not only do the graphics look extremely similar, the game even uses a nearly identical font for its text.

All of these similarities are simply coincidence though, as the folks at Obsidian - who have worked closely with BioWare in the past - assured me that they had started work on Alpha Protocol before Mass Effect was being developed. Whatever the case may be, AP looks like it is shaping up nicely, and being compared to one of the best action RPGs ever created isn't exactly a bad thing, now is it?

Alpha Protocol, though billed as an "action-RPG," sounds a bit weighted more toward the former than the latter, aiming for a happy medium that hopes to make RPG elements accessible to twitch fans, while still adding the depth to please RPG purists. Not only that, but the team's touted a heavy emphasis on character interaction and player choice.

It sounds like a a tall order to fil, but when the developers' pedigree includes projects like KOTOR 2 and Neverwinter Nights 2

The Obsidian team held a conference call today to answer tons of questions about the game. Is it challenging to do a modern, realistic RPG (especially with Star Wars and NWN in your rearview)? How do the action elements balance with the RPG elements, and just how much influence will the players have? What kind of man is hero Michael Thorton?

"When we made Alpha Protocol, we had just finished up Neverwinter Nights 2 [which was] pretty traditional, pretty rules-based... and we wanted to do something a little more action-based, a little bit more accessible," said Obsidian executive producer Chris Parker.

"We really liked the spy genre," he said. The team also thought it would be cool to give the player the experience of developing from a green rookie agent into a "modern-day superhero." Thorton will have many traditional weapons, but will level up on a skill-based curve.

One of the things the team said was that they hoped to welcome more traditional FPS players into the RPG fold by allowing the player to simply auto-level on a class-like track, while still allowing more experienced RPG players to develop whichever skills they wanted, and allocate their points on their own.

While they hope to offer a good deal of character customization, players won't, Obsidian said, be doing the "traditional 'make your face' type modifications" — instead, customization for Thorton is more about his skills, abilities and accessories, along with subtle appearance factors like hairstyles.

Interactions with different characters will influence which factions ally with you and which oppose you - in particular, the team said you can expect your endgame to be heavily influenced by your actions in the game. The conversation wheel, the team said, resembles Mass Effect's a bit, but with less looping back and more of a real-time feel; it's also possible to choose a single "stance" and carry it through all of your interactions.

Even though Alpha Protocol is a modern spy thriller, the team decided it shouldn't go too far into realism. "We originally went for a more realistic version of gameplay and the way Thorton interacted with the world, but that wasn't as exciting as having some kind of magical abilities," said Parker. "Michael Thorton is a super-agent, so we have added some abstraction, and something... like super-powers."

One such special ability will involve Thorton being able to stop time and line up shots to kill many opponents at once.

It was also a challenge to balance realism with an engaging RPG, the team said, so in terms of the story feel, they took inspiration from the post-processing effect film style of Syriana. For the visual style, though, the design team wanted to elevate the artistic language. "We wanted to stay away from just having guys in suits... it helps gameplay-wise if they have over-the-top characteristics."

The team also hopes that the game's opening events will draw players in on an emotional level. At the story's opening, a tragic event sends Thorton on a mission - "something that has value to the world and to other people immediately." From there, the world gets turned upside down when Thorton is forced to go rogue to unravel the mystery.

"It's a unique opportunity for the player to have an effect on real world events... basically, the player can affect things happening in the news, in the financial market... to bring down a real bad corporation, or the government if that happens to be the case. There's a chance for the player to affect things happening in our world right now."

Alpha Protocol is slated for release on Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC for February 2009.

Despite the theme, the games shown after the short presentation were distinctly, movie-themed free featuring, two both the upcoming RPG and traditional Sonic titles, Samba De Amigo, Golden Axe: Beast Rider, Valkyria Chronicles and Empire Total War.

While they didn't show it, Sega of America unveiled a brand new IP, a "spy-action" role-playing game for next-generation consoles called Alpha Protocol. The game, a modern day RPG is being developed by Obsidian for Feb. 2009.

The show wrapped up with a quick teaser video showing off what appeared to be a very slick, high-resolution glimpse of Aliens: Colonial Marines.

In the incredibly short video a camera pans away from a clutch of Alien eggs as a voice, obviously the voice of a Marine talks in the background.

One of the eggs breaks open unleashing a young Alien and you can hear the marine say:

"Wait a minute there's movement, looks to be some kind of bug or something..."

Sega promised to have the game at their booth during this year's E3.