Elias Toufexis, voice actor for Deus Ex: Human Revolution and Mankind Divided's cyborg protagonist Adam Jensen, has bid a formal "goodbye, but hopefully not farewell" to the character, expressing hopes that somebody with a lot of money will buy the license and restore poor moody Adam to our screens. Toufexis also shared a few parting speculations about the unannounced Deus Ex sequel from Eidos Montreal that was reported cancelled last week. Toufexis wasn't involved with this one, and according to him, it likely wasn't a continuation of Jensen's story from Mankind Divided.
]]>The latest Embracer studio to suffer under the megacorp’s ongoing restructuring efforts are Eidos Montreal, with a new Deus Ex title two years into development reportedly cancelled and dozens of staff confirmed to be laid off.
]]>A return to the cyberpunk world of Deus Ex is coming courtesy of Human Revolution and Mankind Divided developers Eidos Montreal, it’s been claimed. The snippet of info that the new Deus Ex game is in the very, very early stages was reported by Bloomberg following yesterday’s revelation that sister studio Onoma is closing down. Eidos Montreal are also alleged to be working on a completely new game, as well as helping out with some co-development on some Microsoft-owned series, including the new Fable.
]]>It's been a hot minute since we last gathered round the RPS Time Capsule vault (thanks, Gamescom), but at long last we have returned with another cracking year of PC games to preserve: 2011. In hindsight, it's a bit of an interesting year for Time Capsuling purposes, as we're now getting to the point where games from this era are getting their own remakes and remasters, or fancier, super duper director's cut special editions. We've included the original 2011 release of one of these games in this month's Time Capsule, but there's another notable exception we've decided to save for further down the line. I mean, seriously, would you really recommend vanilla Skyrim from 2011 over 2016's Special Edition?
]]>Eidos Montreal, the studio behind recent Thief and Deus Ex games, say they are "now the owner of the games [we] developed, like the Deus Ex and Thief games." Likewise, Crystal Dynamics say they have taken "control" of its Tomb Raider and Legacy Of Kain games from their previous owner, Square Enix.
Which sounds like a big deal, but really both studios are just reporting a change to their terms of service and privacy notices since they were bought by Embracer Group last month.
]]>Mary DeMarle, narrative designer and lead writer on Deus Ex: Human Revolution and Mankind Divided, and on the more recent Guardians Of The Galaxy, is now senior narrative director at BioWare. The switch comes just a couple of months after Embracer Group bought Eidos Montreal and said they saw potential for Deus Ex spin-offs, sequels and remakes.
]]>Earlier this month, Embracer Group announced their intent to buy Crystal Dynamics, Eidos Montreal and Square Enix Montreal from Square Enix in a $300 million (around £240m) deal. The acquisition includes the original IP associated with those studios, including Deus Ex, Thief, Legacy Of Kain and Tomb Raider.
In their quarterly earnings report, Embracer now say they see "great potential" in leveraging the heck out of that IP with sequels, remakes and more.
]]>Ten years ago, we were whizzed forward to the year 2027, where the light is golden, the corps are mega, and the first keycode is 0451. Deus Ex: Human Revolution came out on this day in 2011, with new developers reviving Ion Storm's immersive sim series eight years after the second game. Thinking about it again today, yeah, I do fancy a replay. Today is also five years since the launch of its sequel, Mankind Divided. How do you feel about the revival now?
]]>A defining part of Deus Ex: Human Revolution's look is a golden haze over everything, a flourish that some mocked it for. I don't know if Eidos changed their minds about the golden wash or just got sick of the jokes, but either way it was wiped away as part of the Director's Cut a few years later. Bit of a shame, really. Purists and goldlovers, rejoice: an enterprising modder has faithfully restored that filter in DXHR Director's Cut. It took a lot more effort than you might expect.
]]>Happy love day, you disgusting piece of filth. Got you. That was an example of what today’s young people call “neggling”. This is when you are nice and nasty in such quick succession that the body becomes inexplicably aroused. Spasms of lust take over both neggler and negglee, resulting in a paroxysm of extramarital sex and, subsequently, the degeneration of humanity. This is just one of the signs of an unhealthy relationship. But there are many more examples in videogames. Here are the 10 most toxic couples out there. Don't worry, you can argue fruitlessly in favour of any of them. That's the point of these articles.
]]>Cyber Monday is, of course, a pure and honest celebration of all things cyber. We hack the planet as one, united against corporations, capitalism and the class divide. Then we all burn our 4K televisions and go off to have a massive rave-orgy in an abandoned sewer. Such is the way of the Cyber Monday Warrior.
But it's not all talking in C++ and overthrowing distant tyranny. Cyber Monday is also a time to remember the sacrifices made in the name of the hacking. None of these are quite so tragic as otherwise great games laid low by poorly-judged hacking minigames, forcibly inserted by executive pressure to pad out the running time. Today, let us honour the fallen.
]]>What Works And Why is a monthly column where Gunpoint and Heat Signature designer Tom Francis digs into the design of a game or mechanic and analyses what makes it good.
Games about one player character against hundreds of enemies generally have to give you some kind of unfair advantage. In action games, it's usually resilience: getting shot in Call of Duty covers you in jam for 3 seconds but leaves you otherwise unharmed, gunshots in Wolfenstein can be fixed with chicken dinners, and in Doom 2016 punching a demon feels so good it physically mends you.
Stealth games need a different solution, because the fun part is generally over by the time you get shot. That's good - they don't need jam vision or dinner magic. Instead they need a crutch that helps you before things get that bad. And in games about hiding from everyone, that's usually intelligence. Information is power. To evade improbable odds, you need to know more than you reasonably should.
]]>The CEO of Square Enix, Yosuke Matsuda, has spoken out about the future of Deus Ex. At the start of this year, Eurogamer reported that we shouldn't expect a new Deus Ex game anytime soon - and they're right, though we should get one eventually. It simply isn't Deus Ex's turn yet, with the studio first focusing on other projects such as the next Tomb Raider and an Avengers game.
Matsuda explained all this in an interview with GamesIndustry.biz, where he also talked about Final Fantasy's anime spin off, the studio's approach to the Eastern and Western markets, as well as augmented and virtual reality.
]]>Deus Ex: Mankind Divided, the story of a robo-boy who never loses his sunglasses, is free on Steam at the moment. You can play without spending a dime until tomorrow evening. If you decide that you can’t part with it after taking it home and introducing it to your family, then you can also buy it at a discount of 75% from the usual price.
]]>I'm a big fan of artbooks, which is quite lucky since not only are there plenty of them around right now, the quality of them has never been better. Forget the scrappy little affairs that used to be used to bolster out the Collector's Editions of games, much as concept art used to fill in for interesting secrets to unlock. Today's artbooks are typically huge, prestigious affairs, that come hardbound and printed on excellent quality paper. You might not put them on your coffee table, but they certainly look great on the shelf. This week, I thought we'd take a look at a few of the RPG ones that have found their way to mine - not all the recent ones by any stretch, but a few.
]]>Deus Ex: Mankind Divided [official site] has a problem, and his name is Adam Jensen. Human Revolution's returning protagonist has been my single greatest obstacle to enjoying a game I had, frankly, taken it for granted that I would enjoy. I don't understand why this is his game - other than on a commercial level, of course. In the public eye, the Deus Ex brand is not the DIY route and vaguely philosophical reality-questioning that it might be to an older PC gamer. It's The One With The Bearded Bloke With The Elbow Swords And The Sunglasses Built Into His Eye Sockets. That's why Jensen's back, not because the story DXMD is trying to tell needed him. If anything, he undermines it.
]]>With Deus Ex: Mankind Divided [official site] coming out on Tuesday (read our review), Pip comes to Alice with an important request.
Pip: ALICE!
Alice: Hullo there, old chum! What's cracking?
Pip: The internet under the strain of all the Deus Ex: Mankind Divided reviews popping out of their embargo wombs, through the various CMS birth canals and into the digital world, I should think. On a related note, I have a question...
Alice: You evidently already know where babies come from, so what can I help you with?
Pip: Alice, I don't get Deus Ex. Explain to me Deus Ex.
]]>Shower scenes seldom Make You Think, unless it's about what exactly you're getting for that Premium Netflix subscription, but if anything sticks out for me about the impressive yet oddly unexciting Deus Ex: Mankind Divided [official site], it's the sight of Adam Jensen washing his hair. Eidos Montreal's latest presentation begins in Jensen's new Prague apartment - a casually affluent man-den where you can phone other characters, watch newscasts that track your decisions through the story, answer emails, tinker with crafting resources, and generally get acquainted with the sleek, cadaverous sort-of-human in your charge.
]]>Have You Played? is an endless stream of game retrospectives. One a day, every day of the year, perhaps for all time.
Human Revolution has myriad faults, but they hardly matter to me. Square Enix Montreal's first crack at replicating Deus Ex is a perfect example of how the right creative decisions can make up for any number of constraints.
]]>Everything looked rosy when I traveled to Montreal to take a look at Deus Ex: Mankind Divided [official site] earlier this year. The areas I played improved on Human Revolution in every way that matters and Adam Jensen controlled better than ever. All was well and I was looking forward to playing the game in February, right around my birthday. Moments ago, word arrived of a six month delay - the game will now be coming out on August 23rd.
]]>Disappointing endings are a staple of Deus Ex games, aren't they? That's fine, though, because almost everything leading up to those final two minutes when you choose which button to press is pretty great. Unsurprisingly, Deus Ex: Mankind Divided [official site] will be continuing the series's sequel tradition of openings which kinda ignore which button you picked, but the ending this time will be more than a mere button-press. So its lead writer say, anyway.
]]>I've played Deus Ex: Mankind Divided [official site] and I liked what I saw. A brief visit to just two areas suggested a more confident and open approach to first-person stealth-action. My preview focused on the level design because that's where most of the improvements seemed to be but Eidos Montreal are also determined to improve player character Adam Jensen. That's already evident in the improved control scheme, particularly as it relates to use of cover, but it'll also be felt in his new augmented abilities. You can see some of those in the new trailer below.
]]>Deus Ex: Mankind Divided [official site] is already looking like a worthy follow-up to Human Revolution as well as an inventive prequel to Ion Storm's original cyberpunk classic. When we visited the studio to play the game earlier this month, we also spent time talking to two of the brains behind the game about the inspirations and processes that go into this bleak vision of the future.
First up, here's Jonathan Jacques-Belletête, executive art director at the studio. We spoke to him about collaborative storytelling, fashion, architecture and graphic design. Along the way we learned about content cut from Human Revolution, the places that Deus Ex is going next and why Jacques-Belletête believes that India could be a perfect cyberpunk setting.
]]>Deus Ex: Revision [official site] is a project that overhauls "the environments and soundtrack" of Ion Storm's classic, and it's out now on Steam. The release has the backing of Deus Ex's current publishers and developers (Square Enix and Eidos Montreal), and is designed to work exclusively with the Steam release of the original.
]]>I’m in the camp that thought Deus Ex: Human Revolution was a hell of a good starting point. The level design ran up against apparent technical limitations, chopped into distinct sections rather than flowing naturally from streets to interiors and back again, and the stealthy approach sometimes felt more difficult than it should have been thanks to sticky cover and too-rigid AI.
During a day of hands-on experience with follow-up Mankind Divided, it became apparent that Eidos Montreal felt similarly about their first stab at their cyberpunk revival. Moving from the tech renaissance of Human Revolution, the sequel steps into a fractured world of corporate feudalism. It’s looking superb.
]]>The Deus Ex series, with its highest of highs and most middling of lows, is 15 years old. Old men, running the world. But not complicated pre-order schemes. They can't run those, it appears. The anniversary is being used to promote upcoming fourth game Mankind Divided, due out in February (thus I will be a man divided between it and XCOM 2), and so we get this animated trailer which is mostly tease for the new title but does include various shots of characters from the first game. Who ever would have thought glimpses of Bob Page and Walton Simmons could make us feel so warm and fuzzy?
]]>Expansion packs were once a core part of playing PC games, but they can often feel less essential in a world of constant updates and microtransactions. Original game Alec, expansions Adam and Graham, and brief DLC Alice gathered to discuss their favourite game expansions and why they still think the model works.
]]>At Gamescom 2015, I had the opportunity to talk to Deus Ex: Mankind Divided gameplay director Patrick Fortier. We talked about feeling a sense of ownership over Deus Ex at last, expanding the language of its level design beyond vents, and the politics of a "mechanical apartheid." Before I asked him about the game's ceilings.
]]>Deus Ex: Human Revolution had the best ceilings of any game ever made. I'm not kidding. I've had screenshots of that game's ceilings as desktop wallpapers and I know others who have done the same. Each one was a sculptural work designed to communicate the cyber renaissance setting. I spoke to gameplay director Patrick Fortier about this at Gamescom and unfortunately it sounds as if sequel Deus Ex: Mankind Divided [official site] won't carry on the game's ceiling-based legacy in quite the same way. "That dream is dying," he said.
]]>Fail Forward is a series of videos all about the bits of games which don’t quite work and why. In this episode, Marsh Davies discusses Deus Ex: Human Revolution [official site], its beards, its many lovely desks and what it says about power.
]]>I know it's not really called Deus Ex 4 in any shape or form, but 'Deus Ex: Mankind Divided' [official site] is long and headlines boxes are short. You get the point though: here's the best part of half an hour of Adam Jensen asking for it in Square's upcoming stealth-or-death sequel. On show: new augmentations, purportedly improved combat, 'social boss fight system', a gun which fires swords from your wrist and a new, grumpy pilot who keeps talking about coffee.
Also, it's very pretty, but my graphics card is frightened. Video and my own notes on it below, anyway.
]]>Maybe it's just a symptom of getting old, but increasingly I want to revisit games I feel I could yet get more out of far more than I want to play something new. I've got these two awful tendencies: one is to run away from something if it's too demanding, and another is to be so preoccupied with collecting or unlocking everything that I don't stop and smell the flowers. I deny myself appreciation for and insight about some games because I'm too worried that I'm missing out on some infinitely more ephemeral aspect of them, like whatever's behind that door or what that high-level spell does. So these are just a few of the games I want to play again, in an impossible world where I had the time to.
]]>As wonderful as RPGs are, some tropes and cliches and just general bloody annoyances really do spoil the fun. Some of them might only crop up occasionally, others just won't go away. Some, you might think, are just petty irritations. But no! All these incontrovertible sins must be destroyed at once! Here's a few of my least favourite offenders. What others would you add to the cursed list?
]]>This took rather longer than we thought. But after five entries, and two weeks, I've come to my conclusions. You can read the whole saga here, if you've not yet caught up, as I chronicle my experience of replaying Deus Ex - a game I've always maintained is the Best Game Ever - fifteen years later. Was I wrong? Is it even possible for me to be wrong? Read on.
]]>My chronicle of returning to Deus Ex fifteen years later, to see if I'm right when I tell anyone who comes near that it's the best game ever, is nearing its end. You can read the whole saga here.
In this fifth part I contemplate the significant change in approach in the last third of the game, and then make my choice for the ending.
]]>And so continues my chronicle of returning to Deus Ex fifteen years later, to see if I'm right when I tell anyone who comes near that it's the best game ever. You can read the whole saga here.
In this fourth edition, I once more fail to save my brother, become increasingly frustrated with the limits of the game's intelligence, and ponder whether real choice is actually usefully conveyed to the player.
]]>As my re-exploration of Deus Ex continues, I find my memories clashing with the reality of the game, as I try to establish if it's still the Best Game Ever™. You can read the whole saga here. It's accusing me of crimes I didn't commit, an in turn, I start committing some crimes.
]]>Deus Ex: Mankind Divided [official site] can be completed without killing anyone - even the bosses. This as confirmed by the game's Executive Game Director, Jean-François Dugas, in a tweet responding to the question. If you're a fan or familiar with Deus Ex, or particularly Human Revolution, then you'll understand why this is significant news. If not I'll explain below.
]]>Here continues my attempt to discover if Deus Ex really is the best game ever, like my brain thinks. Part One is here. Today I yet again struggle to get the game working, then struggle to work within the game. But cheer myself up reading some newspapers.
]]>When asked, “What is the best game ever?” I always give one reply. “Deus Ex.” Back in the days when my passport still allowed me into PC Gamer Top 100 meetings, I would furiously argue that it should be no. 1, and indeed become furious whenever it did not. While I may pick another name if asked for my favourite game, when it comes to “best”, I always say Looking Glass/Ion Storm’s greatest moment.
But what if I’m wrong?
]]>The reveal trailer for the new Deus Ex game [official site] shows the full meaning of that subtitle - almost every man in the video ends up divided right down the middle by a stonking great stabby cybernetic implant. Packed with ultraviolence, it's the sort of trailer that tells me absolutely nothing about how I'll actually play the game but I can't deny that it's done the trick. I'm even more excited than I was earlier today when I explained to Graham why Deus Ex makes my plastanium heart skip a beat.
It's the haves against the have-nots - that's the have-augmented-bits against the have-not-got-augmented-bits - and it looks spectacular.
]]>Deus Ex: Mankind Divided has been announced. Adam and Graham decided to activate their social augs and discuss their reasons for being united in excitement for Adam Jensen's return.
Graham: Adam, Adam, get this. I have… great Deus Expectations. The title for this (potentially regular?) feature is already paying dividends.
Adam: Oh lord, give me the augmented strength to bear this load.
]]>I've seen Adam Jensen from Deus Ex 4* and his hair is lustrous.
I like to make the time at every GDC to attend one talk I almost certainly won't understand, because it's useful to remind ourselves every now and then of the absurd technology that underpins the games we play. This year I picked Augmented Hair In Deus Ex Universe Projects, because not only does it fit this mission, but I thought I might get lucky and hear a few hints about Deus Ex 4.
Instead I left the talk with a question: does anyone really care this much about hair?
]]>Eidos Montreal aren't saying this is a screenshot from the next Deus Ex game, right. Today they announced the shiny new(ish) engine that'll power their next cyberfest, and simply wanted to illustrate that with an image. This here Dawn Engine is based on "a heavily modified version" of Glacier 2, the engine IO Interactive created for Hitman: Absolution. This Dawn demo screenshot is perhaps not Newus Ex, but it is quite Human Revolution-y in its gold-washed technohole with metal walls, metal floors, and so many cables and tube lights, yet incongruously swanky furniture.
]]>Sometimes you want to charge guns, swords, and words a-blazin into a game world and tame the land until Iron Maiden writes a song about you. Other times, you just want to heft your heavy eyelids, sip a light tea, and gently sail through friendly old places made new again. You've got a long day ahead of you, but you don't have to venture out into the cruel sadlands of life just yet. Remember better days. Here, let me help with videos of the original BioShock and Deus Ex: Human Revolution re-realized in Unreal Engine 4. They're quite a sight.
]]>News of the now: there is a newish Deus Ex game on Steam. Deus Ex: The Fall is a conversion of the mobile game from a few years back, one that did an okay job of squeezing down to be prodded and poked at by commuters. I warn you, despite being a slice of Human Revolution-esque Deus Ex, the launch trailer below makes it look pretty bad. Better augment your eyes before watching.
]]>So it continues. It's once again preening season in the gaming industry (Start of the year! Financial results! Losses! Fun, fun, fun!), and big studios are tightening their stylishly arrayed goth belts. 2K Czech, EA's Ghost Games, Irrational, Disney Interactive, and Turbine have all taken their licks on the chopping block, and now reports suggest that Thief and Deus Ex developer Eidos Montreal is up next. Kotaku sources suggested that more than 20 developers are back out on the mean streets of the city after spending eons working on the mean streets of The City. We got in touch with Square Enix, and they confirmed the unfortunate news.
]]>Before Eidos Montreal tore the internet asunder with their Thief reboot, they made Deus Ex: Human Revolution. It was well liked upon release, but I still feel like it doesn't get enough attention. It did, however, get a recent, somewhat crappy tablet spin-off called The Fall.
That spin-off is now coming to PC on March 25th. If it was somewhat crappy, why does that matter? When The Fall is all there is of Deus Ex, it matters.
]]>The next bright, gold sun in the Deus Ex Universe might be on the way, but that doesn't mean we've seen all Deus Ex: Human Revolution has to offer just yet. There's more stuff - some of which was cut. By directors. But now it's back, and some of it is entirely new. Also, Eidos Montreal is claiming that boss fights are now less awful. Is it an honest-to-goodness miracle or merely hyper-sophisticated science in the trench-coat-clad guise of wizardry? We'll probably never know. But I can say this much with certainty: Deus Ex: Human Revolution Director's Cut is just around the corner, and it's actually quite cheap - especially if you already own the vanilla version of HR.
]]>Against all odds, Deus Ex: Human Revolution was marvelous. It wasn't quite a perfect continuation of the original's legendary legacy (and those boss fights were utterly atrocious), but it let us dissect a rich and, um, very gold cyberpunk world with a surgeon's belt of clever tech toys. Also vents. Just the right number of vents. But what's next? Well, Deus Ex: Human Revolution - Director's Cut is coming out on October 22nd, but that's just tying up some loose ends. Deus Ex: Universe, however, is the future, and it promises to be quite grand in scope indeed.
]]>UPDATE: STAND DOWN. It's an eye-tablet game. Sighs!
Oh, video game marketing, you are the worst of all the marketings. Five seconds! What a shame. Most of said five second teaser trailer is a logo. The rest of which is a voice - is that Bob Page or do my ears deceive me? - saying "are we ready to begin?" Oh, I've spoiled it now. Yes, much internal RPS grumpiness about the paucity of this teaser trailer for what appears to be a new Deus Ex game, subtitled The Fall. Some claimed we shouldn't post it all. Others claimed we should fill the internets with rabid speculation. Then there was me, just trying to fill a bit of space before posting the video.
]]>We sat out April Fools' Day entirely on RPS, because we are cheerless fucks who can't abide even the mere idea of other people having a laugh. Also because it was a bank holiday in the UK, but, y'know, principles. The upside of this is that I can safely ignore everything which arrived in my inbox yesterday. The downside is that a couple of genuinely lovely things get overlooked. Thus, I shall break all the rules and not overlook a couple of them after all. For instance, Eidos Montreal's Deus Ex: Human Defiance, which starts off with the rather videogames industry-stereotypical April 1 jape of 'hey wouldn't it be funny if we went retro?' but winds up, perhaps inadvertently, making a 16-bit, 2D, reductive Deus Ex look hugely appealing.
]]>Following his exploration of that murky world of game-to-film adaptations, movie brat David Valjalo finds himself in deep debate with Deus Ex overlord David Anfossi, talking cyberpunk, Sergio Leone and why the forthcoming Deus Ex film will break the trend and be one to watch.
]]>Now, don't go jumping to any conclusions just yet. That's how poor old Richard Kimble ended up having such a hard time of things. All that's happened is that Squeenix have taken out a trademark in the name of 'Deus Ex: Human Defiance.' It could be anything. It could be nothing. It could be a game. It could be a movie. It could be another ropey spin-off comic. It could be a typo. It could be the official Deus Ex pancake mix.
It's probably a game though, innit?
]]>Somewhat surprisingly (by which I mean completely unsurprisingly, given the era in which we live), Tomb Raider has multiplayer. Naturally, this has been a source of great outrage among even the least fly-harming-est of gamers, as it's a distinct disruption of The Natural Order. Granted, it does have two things working in its favor: 1) Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light added co-op multi to pretty great effect and 2) the mode's an entirely separate, presumably cybernetic leg of the game being attached by none other than Deus Ex: Human Revolution developer Eidos Montreal. Here, now, brown cow, is a video of some finely mustachioed men introducing it to the star of spy dramadey Chuck for some reason.
]]>Insatiable film fiend David Valjalo stops by to offer his musings on adapting the unadaptables - how Hollywood has its work cut out for it, what we can read into the studios and production houses attached to silver screen versions of Deus Ex, Splinter Cell and Assassin's Creed, formalist vs realist styles, the need to make 20-hour, splintered narratives conform to the three-act structure, why auteur directors aren't the solution we might think they are, and why Russell Crowe is abstractly key to getting game to film right.
]]>Why distort one beloved franchise when you can do two at once? The latest DLC for Hitman: Ablutions once again fails to add new missions, ideally in a Streets of Hope vein, but instead a new costume and gun which can only be used in the Contracts mode. This new costume is the kevlar'n'metal duds of one Adam Jensen, he of Deus Ex: Human Revolution fame. This happens due to Hitman and Deux Ex being publisher stablemates, of course. As far as I can tell there is no narrative justification for why Baldy McChoke would come to acquire the augmented form of a mopey, bearded cyborg from the future, but hell, if Ridley Scott can contrive to unite the Blade Runner and Alien universes then this is no less silly.
The DXHR togs do make 47 look a bit like Gunther, mind.
]]>Videogame movies! No one really asked for them, but we're getting them anyway. I now imagine Ezio and Adam Jensen leaping hand-in-hand off the rooftop that is their medium of choice, but with Jensen engaging the Icarus Landing System while Ezio dies horribly because hay doesn't work that way. At any rate, Deus Ex's film rights have officially fallen into the hands of CBS Films, and Human Revolution - not the original or Invisible War - will be its foundation.
]]>It's starting to feel like intro day here on RPS. Art Of The Title have just concluded their first gaming title sequence dissection, cracking the chest of the appropriately surgical opening of Deus Ex: Human Revolution. Production company Goldtooth Creative Paul Furminger's discusses the scene's grand theme: "The original concept was a descent from the macroscopic to the microscopic and from the organic to the mechanical. We started working on storyboards and animatics that began with the gruesome reality of Adam's beaten body and ended with the sublime perfection of veins and circuitry combining at a microscopic level." Man, I regret skipping it now.
]]>Right, Deus Ex is back on its feet and looking hale and hearty, whether it asked for this or not. What vintage PC game shall the electro-paddles be applied to next? Why, it's Thief IV, a game about which we currently know all but nothing other than that Eidos Montreal are pulling the strings again and, I am 99.99% sure, it'll have some sort of funny subitle rather than a number in the name. Well, anything's better than 'Thi4f', right?
An industrious fellow on Neogaf has done a spot of digging around the quiet info-goldmine that is LinkedIn, and turned up a couple of starting, tantalising facts. Let's have a look, and then hear what assorted Thief fans want to see from the new game.
]]>I can already hear Horace's giant claws tearing away at the fabric of reality, preparing for his grisly entry into our "Earth" on tomorrow's tomorrow of Horacetide Day. Children will press their noses against the frosted panes, watching as he tears through the fragile frames of any too slow to avoid his infinite arrival. Ah, so lovely. But today there's this:
]]>Gameworlds have become ever-more lavish, but has there been a dark price paid for this? Craig Lager believes so. Production values are up but these worlds don't seem to react to players' actions as fulsomely as they once did, he worries - are we allowing games' strange logic to take us for granted? But there is yet hope. Frowned at: Deus Ex: Human Revolution, Dragon Age II, Skyrim. Smiled at: The Witcher 2, Dwarf Fortress, Outcast. Please note these are Craig's views, not necessarily those of RPS.
In my version of Human Revolution, the police station should be surrounded. There should be SWAT teams, negotiators, probably even an evacuation zone. Adam Jensen’s face should be being projected from every single screen that litters Detroit's streets as Eliza explains him as being a more-than-prime-suspect in a new, horiffic incident. An hour ago, she would explain, Jensen asked for access to the police morgue and was declined. Now the back door has been broken into, and a path of corpses and hacked computers lead to the morgue in which a body has been clearly tampered with. Instead, Jensen walks into the main lobby and is greeted with “Hello”.
]]>Deus Ex: Human Revolutions's first piece of expansion DLC turns up on the 18th, for the price of $14.99 USD, €10.99, or £8.99. I've been having a bit of a play, and I'll be able to tell you a bit more - while attempting to dodge spoilers (there are few quite stealthy ones, but nothing fatal) - below.
]]>Deus Ex: HR came saddled with a selection of preorder incentives, a phrase that tastes like a little bit of sick in my mouth. The upshot is that if you didn’t buy the game from a grid coordinate during the correct lunar sequence, you may be missing little bits of content. No longer. Now, everything can be yours, provided you’re willing to reach into your digital wallet once more. There are two packs available, neither of which I have any experience with so don’t expect an informed opinion. Personally, I haven’t found the game to be lacking any of the things that are listed below. Have you?
]]>Update: new video!
Adam Jensen's story (which he never asked for) may be the canon prequel to the cyberpunk conspiracy theorising of the original Deus Ex, but the future-world's a big place - there's plenty of room to tell new tales from the time before JC Denton trotted across the globe. 2027 is a massively ambitious, Russian-made mega-mod for Deus Ex 1, the English version of which launched last week. It offers a new, apparently highly non-linear story, levels based on real-world locations, amped-up DirectX 9 graphics with stuff like weather effects added and a slew of new abilities, weapons and spider-bots. Also, new fonts. I do so like a font. Haven't had a chance to give it a spin yet, but the below in-game footage certainly speaks for the visual upgrade.
]]>Last week, cloud gaming service OnLive launched in the UK. Americans have had it for a while now, and doubtless thus look down on us as some kind of addled-brained backwater cavemen who've only just discovered fire, but for this small and governmentally-besieged isle having local services for this ambitious technology could be a game-changer. Or maybe not. Everyone who's used it has something to say about it, and very often that's 'it kind of works but it looks rubbish on my PC.' I would say the same thing - full-screen play on my 1920x1200 monitor looks like someone threw grey jelly at my screen and like everyone in the game is melting into the scenery. In windowed mode, I can play for a bit without being too bothered, but if I want OnLive to use more than 25% of my monitor I give up within five minutes.
Then I tried out the Micro-console thing they've started giving out/selling over here and my tune changed almost immediately.
]]>The kerrrrayzeeeee hi-jinks of Adam 'Elbows' Jensen are set to continue very soon, with the impending The Missing Link downloaderised content injection. What mad scrapes and hilarious misunderstandings will our man with the facially-implanted sunglasses get into this time? Well, let's have a little look, as Eidos Montreal's Lead Narrative Designer Mary DeMarle narrates a five-minute taste of the new, ship-bound corridors, staircases and security control rooms Elbows is due to explore.
]]>Yesterday I had a chance to catch up with Deus Ex: Human Revolution lead, Jean-François Dugas, and to chat about the state of things now that the game has been released. Read on for what he had to say about the "disappointment" of the boss battles, the way in which the ending of the game did not match the original plan, and the delight the team felt in having managed to create this formidable game as their first project.
]]>Right, so here's the first step in answering the mystery of Deus Ex: Human Revolution's boss battles - they were outsourced. Meaning, a lack of continuity during the development process, one has to assume. That's not a condemnation of the work done by G.R.I.P., the company responsible for the bosses, who will have their own story to tell. As I said in my review of the game, the real story of how they happened will likely come out in a few years time, once enough people have moved on to be willing to explain. So why such a feature was outsourced, why there wasn't a coherence between them and the rest of the game, and why they weren't just ditched when it became clear they didn't fit in, are questions that will perhaps one day be answered. But not yet. But as a magazine noticed, there's a behind-the-scenes video with GRIP's president discussing the battles that quietly appeared last month. So yes, this information was always out there. You can see it below.
]]>"Patch notes, RPS? Really?" YES REALLY WHAT OF IT, EH? When it's a game as big as Deus Ex: Human Revolution, a lot of what might otherwise be minor becomes major. Square-Enix have chased a few bugs out of their bearded man simulator, including some important-sounding stuttering performance snafus, as well as adding in the really very useful windowed full-screen mode, the saviour of impatient alt-tabbers the world over. Most importantly: you can now skip the logos at the start of the game. Alas, it also introduces occasional tiny but silly/obnoxious loading screen ads, as seen above. No, I don't have time to watch a 70s cowboys in space soap opera for the millionth time, no matter how high its definitions are: I have a world to save from corruption and people with robot legs. Thank heavens the last patch improved load times so I don't have to stare at this cheekily-added promotional bumpf for even longer. There's a dark rumour more ads might come to in-game billboards, which is an extremely unpleasant and disruptive prospect. Let's hope it doesn't come to pass.
Update: there's an ad-disabling mod here. Thanks, Theory.
Meantime, full patch notes are below. Bulletpoints!
]]>Attention, owners of expensive, hard-to-upgrade aluminium PCs: Square-Enix have just sent word that Deux Ex: Human Revolution is going to be getting a Mac release. It's due out in "Winter 2011/12", and London based Feral Interactive are going to be responsible for it. They tackled the Mac ports of the likes of BioShock, Borderlands, Rome: Total War, LEGO Star Wars & Tomb Raider: Anniversary, so I guess they know the ropes. Has anyone played any of their ports?
]]>You there! Remember the parody video in which the likes of DLC references, object highlighting and iron sights from Human Revolution were added to the original Deus Ex, and how even-tempered everyone was about it? Well, now you can recreate that past-meets-present, JC/AJ mash-up yourself, as creator Ceski has released the mod he made to achieve the video.
]]>The order in which information arrives is very confusing. Everyone heard about Deus Ex: Human Revolution's The Missing Link DLC earlier this week, and today Square have officially announced it. But that means we also get pictures and a video. I've augmented the post with the details below. Do you see? I said "augmented the post". Because in Deus Ex you augment yourself with augments, and so in saying "augmented the post" I'm applying that theme to a piece of writing about the game. It's a bit of wordplay.
]]>The new Deus Ex is about many things, but ranking high amongst them is DRM. I'm not even joking. (The following article contains spoilers to the very end of the game.)
]]>Here's a huge news story that we somehow didn't manage to post yet, because we're big, silly poo-poo heads. Also, I was distracted by being stung on the eyelid by a wasp, which is something I can recommend to precisely nobody. While I was busy bellowing in horror, the Deus Ex Human Revolution DLC teased by last week's rather inelegant ARG finally came to light. As suspected, it's called The Missing Link, and as speculated it concerns the rather odd scene late in the main game where Adam goes on a secret journey to an unknown location. (And if you think that amounts to a spoiler for a game that's all about mysteries, I honestly despair.)
If you haven't gotten that far in the game, don't read on - because more fulsome details are below. If you can't read the rest but are itching for safe DX reading - well, how about browsing RPS cunningly rejiggered to look like one of DXHR's in-game electro-newspapers? Top work, Nir Yomotov. Truly, his vision is augmented.
]]>The more modern values of Deus Ex: Human Revolution, transplanted into the resolutely year 2000 Deus Ex 1. Admittedly, this video occasionally strays into tiresome 'THE PAST WAS NECESSARILY BETTER AND EVERYTHING IS RUBBISH NOWADAYS' whingeotron territory, but it's nanotongue-in-cheek enough to elicit a good few guffaws, I think. What if... JC Denton had elbow swords? And augmented vision? And could only rescue Tracer Tong if he'd preordered?
]]>Scaleform? Dolby Digital? AMD? I didn't ask for this. Neither did you, probably, so if you fancy a way of disabling all those annoying unskipable splash screens, here it is. Word on the street is that the member of staff at Eidos Montreal responsible for them fully intended to make the splash screens skippable, but as they entered the meeting room to discuss it, a prerendered cutscene took over and forced them to make the splash screens unskippable. What a shame.
]]>Those among you with your ears to the internet will have noticed that a mystery has been unfolding around Deus Ex: Human Revolution. Some people are referring to it as an "ARG". That's a pretty serious term and shouldn't be bandied about lightly, but this does have all the hallmarks of one. It all started with a code, or "some gibberish" as I call it, and eventually led to the image you see above. Quite how people worked it out is a mystery to my little meat-brain, which is to say I'm convinced they had some form of calculating device embedded in their skulls. Rather amusingly, even that wasn't enough though because Eidos Montreal had to release extra clues. To be fair, I didn't even understand those though. The story so far is here. What does it all mean? Were any of you involved in figuring out what's happened so far? And am I actually quite stupid for not understanding how any of this worked? Arg(h)!
]]>Come on now, you must have had some time to play DXHR by now? If so, head below and tell us what you thought of it. Let's assume SPOILERS for this comment thread, shall we?
]]>Deus Ex: Human Revolution is out in the UK today! Jim, Kieron, Alec, and John have assembled to pass judgement on it. They like it. They like it a lot. But not without reservation. Read on to hear about why a wall is a man's best augment, and why Kieron is feeling all dirty after kissing Geralt.
SPOILER WARNING: There are minor plot spoilers within. Endings and plot twists are not discussed, but there are a number of narrative elements mentioned as well as a few mechanical spoilers. Just beware. You know. As usual.
]]>The first line of discussion I seem to have had with anyone who has played DXHR (which is a considerable fraction of the people I know) concerns how we played it. And to talk about how is to say whether you approached it lethally, or non-lethally. Whether you relied on knockout punches, tranquiliser darts and stunguns, or whether you stabbed people in the dick. Most people I know felt that to be true to the game, and to themselves, they had to defer to a non-lethal route. I... did not feel that way. At least not by the end of the game.
This is my story. (Mild mechanical and narrative spoilers.)
]]>Update: This astonishing story on Ars reveals that GameStop - the US's largest games retailer - is having staff remove the vouchers because it competes with their own online service, Impulse.
]]>Please note: this includes some small spoilers, but none of them relate to the game's core plot.
I am not Adam Jensen, and Adam Jensen is not me. Our goals are not aligned.
This is not a complaint. This is exactly why Deus Ex: Human Revolution has been the mainstream game I’ve been most obsessed with this year. Jensen’s goals are these: to avenge his girlfriend and to serve his employer. These goals change over time, and most importantly become far bigger than such comparatively petty interests. They also don’t get in the way of my goals.
My goals are these: find everything, upgrade everything, read everything, buy everything, hack everything, don’t kill anyone. I am free to do them, and I did them compulsively for tens of hours. At the same time, I’m not terribly invested in why I’m doing these things, from the game narrative’s point of my view. I want to know how it all plays out, but being a dutiful employee and a dutiful boyfriend - those are Adam Jensen’s goals, not mine.
]]>There are very few games that all of us at RPS find ourselves all anticipating so hotly, and this week Deus Ex: Human Revolution is finally with us. Copies should unlock in the US at midnight tonight, while other parts of the world (needlessly) have to wait another four days. Are our anticipations met? I've finished the game and will do my best to tell you Wot I Think.
]]>On Wednesday, we reported that Square-Enix had decided to region lock the physical PC release of Deus Ex: Human Revolution, within Europe. Then yesterday, they issued a statement saying that they had decided not to go ahead with the region locking. But what does it all mean? We knew that we didn't like region locking and other artificial barriers between gamers and their games, but we hadn't got a clue about the legalities of them. Luckily we know a man who does. Games lawyer Jas Purewal took time out of his busy day games-lawyering to give us his appraisal of the legal lay of the land with regard to region locking of the stuff that you buy. Here's his expert opinion:
]]>Square Enix appear to have reversed their decision on region-locking the retail copies of Deus Ex: Human Revolution in Europe and the UK, which we'd noted yesterday. An Eidos forum post by Square Enix "mastering manager" Jason Walker says: "We’re aware of some discussion regarding the planned region-locking of boxed PC versions of Deus Ex: Human Revolution, and after careful review we have decided not to implement this in the UK/Europe. Please note, this plan only related to PC boxed games, and not digital or console editions."
]]>Oh dear, someone isn't supporting our No Oceans campaign. Square-Enix have sadly region locked the boxed retail versions of the PC release of Deus Ex: Human Revolution across Europe. Retail copies sold in the UK will only activate on UK Steam accounts. It's a similar story for copies sold in Russia/Poland, and the rest of the EU makes up the third European region.
]]>With a couple of weeks still on the clock for the release of Deus Ex 3 (it's still amazing to me that's really happening), however will we occupy ourselves? Well, we Britishers could start with considering how to help bridge the terrible gulf between rich and poor. Then we could replay the original Deus Ex, but adorned with new, high resolution textures. The New Vision mod repaints DX's world with pin-sharp new surfaces, which as well as making it look a little less geriatric also makes its world look a little more futuristic. Its 1.5GB of image files claims to increase texture resolution by some eight times. Sharp.
]]>Deus Ex: Human Revolution is finished, and the clock is ticking until we get to play it. But don't watch a clock, that'll make time go slower. Yep, if everyone in the world watches clocks at the same time, then time is actually paused. Little know fact for you there. Anyway, the game being finished hasn't stopped Deus Ex's video mill cranking out more and more stuff for us to watch, should we wish to get even more excited. The latest of these is a video (below, via Blues) which highlights the stealth and non-lethal aspects of the game. It's all about sound propagation, stun-guns, and listening in on other people's conversations.
]]>Humans! The promised day has arrived. Some said it wasn't possible. Some said rude, badly-spelled things in capital letters. Others were simply impatient. No matter: it has happened. Deus Ex: Human Revolution, the third game in the series that has an awful lot to do with why an awful lot of us remain faithful, unswervingly loyal PC gamers to do this day, has gone gold. And I'm not just talking about its colour pallete. It is finished, Eidos Montreal have just revealed. Complete. Ready. Well, ready as it'll ever be - and that means its release date on August 23 is actually happening.
And that means, hopefully, it'll be in our hands soon.
]]>We're not always enormous fans of live action trailers at RPS. Unless the game is somehow going to be live action, it seems a touch irrelevant. And then I stop and think, actually, how is that any different from a CGI trailer? Then I realise it isn't, and I say sorry to everyone. However, there's really no justification for snarling at Square Enix for releasing such a trailer for Deus Ex: Human Revolution. They've released so many in-game trailers for the game that I swear we must have seen it from beginning to end now. Also, this latest is a canny response to their previous live-action faux adverts for Sarif Industries. And this one's a touch bleak.
]]>We're in a for heck of a show today, ladies and gentlemen. It's done eight minutes! It's done twelve minutes! But can it go thirty whole minutes of in-game footage without stopping? We haven't seen a promotional campaign like this before, ladies and gentlemen - Deus Ex: Human Revolution is trying to go all out, all the way to the top, to show you so much footage that your bruised and battered corneas weep for mercy. Here it is now, ladies and gentlemen, our new heavyweight contender, striding confidently to the ring to the accompaniment of a bombastic little number from Vangelis - it's the one, the only Deus Ex: Human Revolution, and we've got thirty huge minutes of hiding and hitting to look forward to....
]]>For a trailer claiming to be about conspiracy, there's an awful lot of punching in the latest of over seven hundred million trailers for Deus Ex: Human Revolution. I think if you strung all the trailers together it would last longer than playing the game. But it matters none, as this is once again very intriguing. Oh, if this game isn't good I'm going to Montreal and I'm going to pinch the arms of every single person at Eidos. EVERY SINGLE ONE. You've been warned, Eidos Montreal.
]]>Check it out. Here are twelve (count 'em!) minutes of hot Deus Ex: Human Revolution footage, courtesy of the overflowing infinite video vat at IGN. Eidos Montreal Director Jean-Francois Dugas shows us around a section of the game located in "Tai Young Medical", where Jensen is on a critical mission to collect some information from a data core. Why is it always a data core? It's never data-lollipops or data-bears... Hmm.
]]>There are some new pictures of what Deus Ex: Human Revolution looks like. Some are good. Some are some of the worst screenshots ever taken. Want to look at them? Follow our handy 15 step guide:
1) Click on pictures
2) Develop eyes
]]>During E3 I sat down with Deus Ex: Human Revolution's director, Jean-François Dugas, and lead writer, Mary DeMarle. With the game nearly complete we talked about the experience of creating a game in such a renowned series, the transhumanist literary inspirations for its tone and design, and how characters nearly had deer legs. We explore the process behind how you can maintain multiple paths, whether it really can be just a straight shooter, and learn that the game was influenced by Johnny Mnemonic.
]]>There's a new trailer for Deus Ex: Human Revolution out - hardly a rare occurrence in and of itself, but this one is especially notable in that seems to have crammed in a few quiet nods to DX1. Until now, DXHR has stood relatively apart from its great forefather, but now all of sudden we hear mention of FEMA and... wait, who's that sinister-looking chap at 1:24 and 2:09?
]]>Once there were demos (something I plan to write about soon). Now there's just promotion, and promotion of promotion. The below video is an attempt to make you preorder the super limited megascloosive ultrobucks version of Deus Ex: Human Revolution, and contains lingering, porny close-ups of the various paper'n'plastic'digital goodies therein, to the accompaniment of what sounds like the Battlestar Galactic soundtrack.
Do you want these things? WELL DO YOU?
]]>Yesterday I got jolly (justifiably) cross about some Facebook-based nonsense "advertising" Deus Ex: Human Revolution. Today I would like to celebrate some really rather excellent nonsense advertising Deus Ex: Human Revolution. The very splendid fake ad below is a gag-free, wonderfully made commercial for Sarif Industries - they behind the beginnings of human augmentation.
]]>If I were Square Enix, and I were planning a promotion for Deus Ex 3, I might just avoid something where I ask gamers to unlock the results. Just for a couple more weeks, maybe. But that's what's happening with a campaign to "unlock exclusive content via Facebook". But apparently rather than employing the techniques of Chippy1337, we're supposed to do this by "liking" the game, whatever the bloody hell that means. Are they really so desperate for approval? It's a "slew of assets" that will become available - 90 of them apparently - when an unnamed number of "likes" are achieved. Guh. Let me tell you something...
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