The immersive sim has seen a revival in recent years. Not only from larger studios like Arkane, keeping the faith alive with their time loops and space stations, but also from a bunch of smaller developers bravely exploring a typically ambitious genre. RPS has always had an affinity for these systemically luxuriant simulations, historically lauding the likes of the original Deus Ex as the best game ever made. But given everything that has come since, is that still the case? Only one way to find out: make a big list.
]]>The Epic Games Store's spring sale is underway, from today until March 28th. That makes it twice as long as Steam's spring sale, which also started today. I'm not sure if that makes it twice as exciting, but here's what does: Deus Ex Mankind Divided is free to keep for the next week.
]]>[audience makes "wohhhhh" controversial noise]
I know, I know! Some might argue that Human Revolution is the best Deus Ex game, but they're wrong, it's clearly Deus Ex: Mankind Divided. The last, new Deus Ex game to be made will be free to keep from the Epic Games Store for a week starting March 14th.
]]>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.
]]>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?
]]>This is the shipping forecast; the synopsis at 5pm. Solid Snake just west of cloak room, expected to move towards Sam Fisher on dance floor before midnight. Wrecking Ball from Overwatch, mild at 1am, becoming rabid with lust at 3am. Agent 47 from Hitman: confused, occasional peeping, becoming horny later. Red Prince: cyclonic, mainly drinking alone, peering at Steve from Minecraft with questionable motives, occasionally licking lips.
(Yes. We did a podcast about romantically matchmaking game characters.)
]]>The old quote is wrong: neither death nor taxes are, it seems to me, as terrifyingly certain as the Steam Summer Sale. Yes, once more we can add to the heap that is our backlog by buying games for, what, five quid, on average? But there are so many to choose from that it's easy to get flustered, so who better than the staff of RPS to hand-pick the best ones for your consideration (rhetorical question; do not answer)?
Check out the full list below for a mix of games that should suit all pockets and tastes.
]]>Have You Played? is an endless stream of game retrospectives. One a day, every day, perhaps for all time.
It feels as if game developers have spent the past ten years learning how to efficiently build the design ideas conceived in the ten years before that. As a result, where the original Deus Ex's commitment to systemic design offered player's options which surprised, Deus Ex Mankind Divided has boiled those systems down to a tight, repeatable loop.
]]>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.
]]>We are living in a golden age of big-budget PC games that offer us choice and freedom. Be they descendants of the System Shock model - finding a route around a meticulously-crafted, locked-down and hostile place, most recently seen in Prey [official site] - or the roleplaying games based around choice and consequence rather than action alone, they are legion. There are so many, even, that I'm not sure we can fully appreciate how good we've got it.
]]>Your mate Adam Jensen is telling a story to his psychologist in the latest DLC for Deus Ex: Mankind Divided [official site] – a flashback episode, if you will. He’s telling her all about the time he went undercover in a maximum security prison for augmented people and how that made him feel. But this being Adam, the paranoid wreck with conspiracy theories coming out of his robot orifices, he’s likely exaggerated for the shrink’s sake. He probably just got sent to the drunk tank for wandering into a clothes shop and smashing all the mirrors again.
]]>A big Deus Ex: Breach [official site] today is bringing daily runs to the Mankind Divided side-game. Each day, hackers jacking into the datanet will get to run new randomly-generated server networks. The update, the first since Breach launched a free-to-play standalone version, also brings new weapons, items, and maps. Breach may not be my jam but ooh I am a sucker for daily runs; I do enjoy my Isaac daily every afternoon.
]]>Two free spin-offs from Deus Ex: Mankind Divided [official site] launched today, as its arcade mode Breach has become a free-to-play standalone game and a new virtual reality explore-o-zone is out too. Breach going standalone isn't a huge surprise, as it was already very cheekily monetised with microtransactions, but hey I'll welcome its cybersneaking in virtual virtual reality. And as for actual physical virtual reality, the new Mankind Divided 'VR Experience' lets cybermen poke around a few environments from the game and peer at some character models as if one were on Futuretinder.
]]>Adam Jensen is off to the cyberslammer next month in the second story DLC for Deus Ex: Mankind Divided [official site]. Square Enix yesterday announced the 'Criminal Past' DLC, a prequel mission which will send Adman undercover into a prison for robomen. That's why they call it Criminal Past, see: it's set in the past (of the future), and there are criminals. The marketing droids must feel chuffed with that wordplay but tch, they missed such great names as The Gig House, Rigbrig, Spring Spring, and The Clank.
]]>The pre-order virtuaguff of Deus Ex: Mankind Divided [official site], which includes an extra story mission, is now free for all players. A patch on Friday whopped it in. The 'Desperate Measures' mission isn't big but it does poke into that train station bombing which drives a fair chunk of the game so, er, good that it's finally available to everyone. This blob of freebies also includes some new skins to dress up Adam Jensen, though don't get your hopes up for more than different coats and body armour - no casual slacks and polo necks for this mopey cyberman.
]]>As mentioned last week, it's been one of those years. Lots of the biggest RPGs that we were expecting decided to spend a few more months in bed, or simply skip 2016. Can't blame them! It'll mean an awesome 2017, even if looking back there's only been a few big names to pick from. Still, tradition is tradition! This week, another year marks another set of the RPG genre's most fiercely fought-over fictional awards.
(Disclaimer: Actual fighting may also be fictional, all awards are based on the incredibly scientific principle of Wot I Think, awards cannot be exchanged for money, goods or services unless they too are entirely fictional. Please write all questions or complaints onto the back of a Myst CD using a Sharpie, break it into four pieces and bury them in interesting points around the globe for future treasure hunters to encounter, reforge, and then gag "Oh, god, Myst..." Or indeed, not. Completely your choice!)
]]>What was the best city videogames allowed us to visit in 2016? The RPS Advent Calendar highlights our favourite games of the year, daily, and behind today’s door is...
]]>Aside from starting a new tradition of unusually-named Steam Awards, Valve have also pulled out their worn and adored bargain bucket and have begun to fill it with games you’ll enthusiastically buy and probably never play. Yes, it's their Autumn Sale. In the streets, the apocalyptic jockeying for TVs and blenders has started. The moon has turned blood red. And I looked and behold a pale horse, and his name that sat on him was Black Friday, and sales followed with him.
]]>I'm sure Adam Jensen thinks himself a cool cyberpunk sticking it to The Man, with his cyberarm and cybershades and Beppebeard, but he doesn't truly know what it means to hack the planet. We've never even seen him use Linux, let alone rip some sweet nollie flips on his skateboard. You can now show him up. Porting house Feral Interactive today launched the Linux version of Deus Ex: Mankind Divided [official site] so you can put Jensen to shame while playing as him. Maybe don't play while skateboarding without serious augmentation, though.
]]>Surly cyberman Adam Jensen is teaming up with the pop star Sia and some wazzock to rob a data bank. That's the premise of the first Deus Ex: Mankind Divided [official site] story DLC, System Rift, which launched today. A little caper and a bit of banks might even put a smile on his cyberface. Here, check out the launch trailer:
]]>Yeah, yeah I hacked my cyberlegs to run a custom kernel I compile myself. You've got to, you know. The Man fills your legs with all sorts of spyware, you know. Yeah, the 'Aug Incident' and all that but did you know The Man can read your pedometer count, correct your gait for you, and even jack olfaction sensors to tell when you last changed your socks? No mate, it's Linux for my legs.
Which is to say that planet-hackers should be pleased that Deus Ex: Mankind Divided [official site] is on its way to Linux. They might scoff at news it's coming to Mac too.
]]>Meer stared at himself in the mirror. Was he really a man anymore? Or was he just a machine made of meat that endlessly pasted the same handful of game-names into a CMS post, week after week until he died?
Or was he dead already? Was this hell? Yes, that must be it. What else could writing "a href="https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/tag/Grand-Theft-Auto-V" for an eternity possibly be?
Yet still, there was faint hope in those dim, anguished eyes. Hope that one day there might be new games, new hyperlinks, new opinions to be expressed. One day. But not today.
]]>Following the release of Deus Ex: Mankind Divided In Unsubtle Ways [official site] many players have been struggling with stuttering, freezing, crashing and general technical problems. But Squeenix and co have been patching away, trying to exterminate all the problems and get the thing looking as shiny as a pair of edgy 90s sunglasses. The latest patch does some more of that. Perhaps more importantly, the developers are also introducing support for DirectX 12, which may or may not fix all your problems. It’s only a preview build though, so come with me to find out how to apply the update.
]]>Cos this stuff comes up in comments most every time I run one of these: these charts depict the top ten best-selling games on Steam as accumulated over the week leading up to Sunday just gone. They are not what are the top ten best-selling games at this moment in time, as seen on the front-page of Steam and which are invariably a little different. They come from this here Valve RSS feed. If there is any massaging of figures or weighing of e.g. revenue earned vs copies sold then I do not know of it, but neither can I say for certain that there is not. This is, however, pretty much all that Steam ever lets slip about what's going on, though you can look to the guesstimates on Steam Spy if you want to try and drill down further into actual figures.
So: Steam's ten biggest games last week. Well, nine and a half. Deus Ex has been dethroned already.
]]>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.
]]>Deux Ex: Mankind Divided [official site] will get its first story DLC just one month after launching. Titled "Shadow Rift", this new story content will welcome back... well, obviously don't read on if you don't want to know who's been absent.
]]>Deus Ex: Mankind Divided is a beautiful game, but it doesn't deal in sweeping vistas and natural beauty. Its visual currency is instead invested in ornamental stag heads, tree statuery, fluorescent lighting, swooping electrical cables and complicated ceilings and stairwells. I took 18,000 screenshots while playing the game and I've collected the best inside. Beware: here lie spoilers for environments, locations and, probably, with some plot details embedded within.
]]>I am ill today. It's my guts, you see. My Goddamned guts. Despite my imminent death by a thousand craps, I am duty-bound to bring you the regular round-up of what sold best on Steam last week. Think of me, won't you, as you wonder how many humans who don't yet own Counter-Strike: Global Offensive there can possibly be in the world, and lament the total absence this week of anything we might traditionally deem to be 'indie.'
]]>A second PC patch has been released for Deus Ex: Mankind Divided, hopefully leaving fewer players divided (do you see, because "divided" is in the title of the game) over the annoying mouse issues, as well as other tidying up.
]]>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.
]]>Deus Ex: Mankind Divided [official site] has received its first patch-me-do, now ready to be added via Steam. It's not a biggun by any means, but should stop some of the more immediately annoying crashes people have experienced. They've also made some suggestions about improving performance by, well, telling you to switch off MSAA altogether.
]]>Just as night follows day, just as pudding follows main course, just as Westlife follows Boyzone, so too is Steam flooded with negative reviews following the release of a highly-anticipated new game. This time it's Deus Ex: Mankind Divided [official site], which was released yesterday to a mostly good critical response, but a cooler reception from PC players. Those who pointed their mecha-thumbs downwards are divided between complaints about performance, and being very upset about the inclusion of singleplayer microtransactions.
I did a quick poll of Team RPS to see how well this sucker is running on our many and various systems and, yeah, it seems like it's not exactly Captain Smooth From Smooth Town.
]]>If you've played Deus Ex: Mankind Divided [official site] yet, you'll already know that the game has an astonishing seven unskippable intro videos before you get to the main menu. You'll likely know it because you'll have seen all seven of them at least three or four times while you fiddled with graphics settings to get the ludicrously bloated game to work on your rig. You'll likely want to poke a stick in the eye of the person who decided to make them unskippable. Below we'll save you the expense of that stick.
]]>Change! Actual change! Other than, y'know, the three games that are here every single week, every single week I have to include them, every single week, they're there, undying, changing, every single week, every single week.
Yeah! It's the top ten best-selling games on Steam last week.
]]>Gosh oh golly, Deus Ex: Mankind Divided [official site] is out in less than 24 hours! Square Enix have confirmed Steam unlock times and I'm mighty excited. The cyberpunk FPS-RPG is pretty great, our Graham thinks - the lucky dog! Luckily for me and my overexcitement, publishers Square Enix have also poured a cool glass of cyberwater over my cyberhead to make me calm down and instead ask "Why would you do that now?" They've detailed the contents of Mankind Divided's DLC Season Pass, y'see. Nothing cools that launch giddiness like DLC announcements!
]]>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.
]]>Adam Jensen has blades sheathed inside his wrists, skin that lets him turn invisible, and robotic thigh muscles that enable him to walk in an almost permanent crouch. It's surprising that his real superpower then is the ability to turn on a visual overlay which reveals the locations of vents in the environment.
Deus Ex Mankind Divided is the sequel to Human Revolution, set two years after the events of that game caused the world's augs - humans who have had machines implanted in their bodies and brains - to momentarily lapse into a violent mania. Now distrust of augs has caused mass panic and various secretive groups are working to either heal society's divisions, incite further panic, or oppress the augmented further. It's your job as Jensen to pick your way through those secretive groups - via a lot of crouching through vents.
]]>"You can kill dreams," Adam Jensen growls, "you can kill innocence, you can kill freedom, but you can't kill progress." A serious lad, that one. While Deus Ex: Mankind Divided [official site] doesn't launch until Tuesday, the cyberpunk FPS-RPG's launch trailer is already here. Very gruff. Very growly. Pretty flipping cool and all. Have a gander:
]]>Hullo! One day later than usual because I spent yesterday on a beach next to an industrial estate, but as always, here's what sold best on Steam last week. It is ever so faintly possible that you might have a very slight inkling as to what is number one. I could not possibly comment myself.
]]>You're damn right I'm primarily writing this post in order to make that title gag. But hell, I was genuinely surprised to hear that Deus Ex: Mankind Divided [official site] is only two weeks away. Time was a Deus Ex sequel was a seismic event, but now it's just one more tempting glint amid a vast sea of intriguing releases. It's been a bloody busy year for games, and I am genuinely anxious as to how I might fit in 40-odd hours of Never Asking For This. I am, at least, less anxious that my PC will be able to run it - I shall indeed see those lovely ceilings. That said, the recommended specs are pretty severe. All the relevant requirements are below, if you like. Also, preloads begin next week.
]]>The Official RPS Campaign To Get Billy Idol In Deus Ex gathers momentum. No, Eidos Montreal haven't yet given a rebel yell confirming ole spiketop's presence on the soundtrack, but it's surely a matter of time now I know we're musically on the same page. You see, Deus Ex: Mankind Divided [official site] has drafted the chap behind the flipping lovely soundtrack for Source mod NeoTokyo.
Ed Harrison is providing 'tunes' (and likely some 'choonz') for Mankind Divided's newly-announced leaderboard-climbing cyberspace mode Breach, says a hot new tweet.
]]>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.
]]>I have never played more than five minutes of a Deus Ex [official site] game, but I do find the transhumanism and the artwork fascinating. I also had a dream pretty recently about Adam Jensen where it turned out that instead of being a modified human he was actually a secret bee with all these insecty body mods.
His sunglasses were actually his compound eyes and he had a weird stabbing wing that he could shoot out of his arm and pin people to walls with what was inspired by the foreleg of a praying mantis. I think he might actually have one of them in the real game but not from a mantis, more from some kind of galactic hypertriangle or something. He also slept in a hive and was often covered in honey. LOOK IT WAS A DREAM I DON'T KNOW.
Anyway, I feel like that's as decent a set of qualifications as you need for writing a post explaining that you can watch the Deus Ex Universe pre-E3 livestream thingummy here from 4.30pm BST.
]]>A new live-action trailer for Deus Ex: Mankind Divided [official site] tells a little story of how the futureworld goes from the "Huzzah hooray, cyborgs are the future!" optimism in Human Revolution to "Cyborgs want to eat my baby, please lock them away" panic. I think I just enjoyed a live-action trailer...? Not only because of swish cybertech and dark megacities either. What times we live in!
]]>I have only three questions about Deus Ex: Mankind Divided [official site]. 1) Can I get a dollhouse-scale recreation of that tree sculpture? 2) Does Adam Jensen take showers or baths? 3) Have Eidos Montreal spoken to Billy Idol yet?
A new trailer answers that second question for me, but if you have any more you might find them answered in the six-minute overview of Eidos Montreal's cyberpunk FPS-RPG sequel. It gets into the plot, looks at Adam's cool new powers and pals, teases more consequences to decisions, and shows lots of pretty shots of cybercities.
]]>"Alice! Cara! Alice! What have you been listening to at your office Christmas party?" you beg. "Tell us, please!" Well, obviously the Rogue Warrior credits theme a whole lot, plus SomaFM's Christmas stream and... when she was napping, a song from Billy Idol's reviled 1993 concept album Cyberpunk. God help me, it's stuck in my head and I must write this to get his leering face out. So: after a day of festive cheer, I'm convinced that Eidos Montreal should bring in Billy Idol to 'do a Mass Effect' and provide a rockin' song for the end credits of Deus Ex: Mankind Divided [official site].
]]>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.
]]>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?
]]>"Never pre-order," we say, which is shorthand for "Pre-ordering is a gamble, so do be careful when placing bets and don't be swayed by the free shrimp buffet that is bonus DLC." Pre-order bonuses are usually harmless enough, but Deus Ex: Mankind Divided [official site] publishers Square Enix had the awful idea of saying they'd release the game early - only if enough people pre-ordered.
Following loads of folks telling them it was an awful idea, Squeenix have now scrapped the 'Augment Your Pre-order' plan and stuck the game with its original, unaugmented release date of February 23rd, 2016.
]]>One Deus Ex: Human Revolution mission centred around an old friend from the Deus Ex universe, Tracer Tong, was locked off in pre-order DLC (and later sold seperately). It was a bit of a gross move. Apparently not learning from their mistakes - a pretty Deus Ex-y theme, to be fair - publishers Square Enix have announced all the pre-order guff for Deus Ex: Mankind Divided [official site].
It's a big mess, of course, and includes the unpleasant step of saying they'll release the game four days early if enough people pre-order. How about we not pre-order games any more and Squeenix simply release it when it's ready, eh?
]]>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.
]]>Turn your mind back to Gamescom earlier in the month - it was via a Twitch stream that Eidos Montreal announced a few more details on Deus Ex: Mankind Divided [official site]. The game, they said, would get a New Game Plus Mode, which refers to a feature that was previously seen in the Director's Cut version of Human Revolution back in 2013. So here we go, a trailer recapping all the info you likely missed at the start of August while you were ogling German language conferences and the sauerkraut of their countrymen.
]]>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.
]]>Sending me four new Deus Ex: Mankind Divided [official site] screenshots for Gamescom (I say 'screenshots' - one looks like an actual screenshot and even that might be staged), Square Enix are probably hoping I'll gush over the graphics tech or pore over them for plot hints. Nope.
I am, however, really into a sculpture which appears in one screenshot of the Prague city hub. That screenshot up top there. The sculpture on the right - the withered tree holding aloft a concrete cube. That's great that, isn't it? Let's have a closer look:
]]>"Deus Ex meets District 9" is how the company described Deus Ex: Mankind Divided [official site] during a demo I attended at E3. Set two years after Human Revolution, Mankind Divided showcases a society still deeply fearful after the Aug Incident where mechanically augmented people turned violent, stripped of self-control after a signal deliberately interfered with their in-built bio-chips. The scale of the incident means augmentations are now viewed with suspicion and augmented people treated as outcasts. Adam Jensen himself is working as a counter-terrorist agent fighting some of the resultant crime. Well. That's his day job. He secretly believes the task force was set up by the Illuminti for a different purpose and is working to take them down.
"He's a tool and a weapon," is executive game director Jean-François Dugas' analysis of this Adam Jensen.
]]>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.
]]>Our first in-game glimpses at Deus Ex: Mankind Divided [official site] come from the FPS-RPG's E3 trailer, including an amazing moment when Adam EMPs a guy with mechanical legs and they go all wobbly. Also Adam now has the power to turn into a faceted black statue from a vaporwave album cover. Oh, and I suppose it reveals a release window: early 2016. It's a good thing to watch with your eyes and listen to with your ears. We've got a few screenshots too.
]]>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.
]]>When is Deus Ex: Mankind Divided [official site] coming out? Not that soon. Not soon enough. But while we can't magically give it to you to play now, now, now, we can give you a fun selection of things that will help keep the cravings at bay. From games to books and beyond, here are some recommendations for both getting into the cyberpunk, mechanical and freedom loving mood. Got any others to suggest? Let us know in the comments. For now though, grab your wallet and prepare to enter the future... even if you can probably do without something kinda like Adam Jensen's coat. (Nobody asked for that*.)
]]>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?
]]>I am, as you well know, always up for being a cool cyborg. Obviously I am jolly keen to play Deus Ex: Mankind Divided [official site] and pop my cybergoggles out after saying something cool, but quite how cool will my cyberman get to be this time around? The announcement trailer had a few hints but it was all gussied up, so how real is it? If you want solid details now, you'll need to wait on the magazine run by the USA's largest games retailer. Or wait for someone to read that and summarise it online. They already have.
Like: yep, it does still have boss battles. And: it'll draw from all of Human Revolution's endings. Also: heck yeah that is a P.E.P.S. electrogun popping out of Adam's arm.
]]>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.
]]>Square Enix have been teasing a project for the last couple of days, with the codename Project CKP - Can't Kill Progress. Now, Neogaf user arturkrang has revealed what appears to be confirmation that CKP was building toward the long-awaited Deux Ex: Mankind Divided reveal. The leak comes via Kanobu, a Russian website (as detailed here), and contains images, including the one above. The rest are below.
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.png?width=1200&height=630&fit=crop&enable=upscale&auto=webp "שחרורו של Assassin's Creed Shadows נדחה למרץ כאשר מועצת המנהלים של Ubisoft שוקל מכירת חברה")
