New Deus Ex games underway!

bcwood16 said:

Dont understand this, is the universe a MMO.....dont get how it would work?

I liked number 1, skipped 2 as it was reportedly very bad and as for Human Revolution, I have it, I started it, found it dull and did not like the main character, he was a whining little bi*ch that always seemed to want sympathy, understanding and a nice warm hug! Arr....it was just plain embarrassing playing as him. Also the game mechanics made no sense. I keep meaning to re-start it and give it another go though....the AI is super dumb too, its way too easy to kill everybody in the whole level by just standing at a corner and popping them all as they run past *sigh*, but I do hear they get tougher as you get tougher....right???

Anyway, not sure if this news interests me or not, guess its too early.

It was just my speculation that Universe would be a MMO since its called Universe and would tie in so many devices. But in hindsight, that speculation of mine was just silly. Eidos and Square Enix really haven't had a MMO. They pretty much focus on single player. Not all games, but most games.

In Human Revolution, everyone did seem really kind to Adam since he had died and they treat death like something sacred in the game. You however can answer their kindness by being a dick.

If you want a game where people are less kind, you still make choices, pick skills and get gunplay, go to Alpha Protocol. :-)

I thought the enemy AI was pretty dumb too after hearing people talk about how smart they are. There were some points halfway through the game even that they just literally got in a line and I shot them all. It kept happening, they'd all take the same path to get to me. From the beginning to the end of the game. They weren't always as dumb, but when a dude whit a sniper rifle closes in on me hiding behind a desk, it seemed a little silly. Snipers aren't really meant for close combat.

I'm back in the police station after killing everyone in the station. They're all cool with it. Dead bodies on the floor. No one gives a fuck. This is an hour or so after the police station incident.

geo said:

I'm back in the police station after killing everyone in the station. They're all cool with it. Dead bodies on the floor. No one gives a fuck. This is an hour or so after the police station incident.

It's cool, they know you've got PTSD and they're all just too embarrassed to confront you about that whole little mass shooting thing. "It's Jensen, let it slide" and all.

Dragonsbrethren said:

It's cool, they know you've got PTSD and they're all just too embarrassed to confront you about that whole little mass shooting thing. "It's Jensen, let it slide" and all.

^^^ hilarious line :-) You know I should just be known as the arch angel of death. I returned from the dead and all I do is kill people.

After the mission against Barrett I went out to escape in the helicopter. There were some dudes standing far away from it. I talked to them.... no one said anything interesting. Then I found some dude hiding talking about not liking the other guys.... so I shot the other guys and then the hater wanted to shoot me. So I put some bullets in him too. Just because I'm shooting someone you want me to shoot doesn't mean I'll shoot you too bro.

The Deus Ex games look cool. I still haven't played the first one because I can't get anything using the Unreal engine to run correctly on Windows 7.

Aliotroph? said:

The Deus Ex games look cool. I still haven't played the first one because I can't get anything using the Unreal engine to run correctly on Windows 7.

Try this:

http://kentie.net/article/dxguide/

Updated EXE and renderer. The game would run for me without these, but would randomly either play sounds awfully or run everything way too fast.

It doesn't run correctly for me with those things. The timing of everything scripted is always too fast or too slow.

Just scripted events - not the whole game speeding/slowing at certain points? Because the latter is very common, and fixable.

V Sync maybe?

Deus Ex: Human Revolution has many many qualities but I find the soundtrack is severely underrated. For instance, the LIMB clinic music is this slow, sombre chant which always made me think that the LIMB clinics are in a way the new churches (kinda like Apple stores).

So it's a Deus Ex open-world MMO but maybe without the multiplayer? I don't know I just skimread it.

Being a traditionalist, I'm sticking to Deus Ex 1.

Hrmm... :/

Human Revolution director's cut will be $5 if you already own the game and Missing Link, $10 for just having the game, and $20 if you don't already own it. Very reasonably priced considering (and ignoring all the $5 sales they've done) that the game with DLCs and bonus content currently costs $30.

I knew I was going to pick it up, but I figured I'd wait for a sale. Never expected them to price it so good for existing owners. New boss fights, integrated expansion (final chapter spoilers, ahoy), and commentary is definitely worth $5!

Edit: I really hope they don't give you the bonus SSG, sniper rifle, and remote charges right from the first mission in this one. I regret activating that DLC just because you're pretty much forced to either use them or throw them away, you don't have the inventory space for them.

So a little bump, the Director's Cut is out and it sucks. I wasted $5 - most disappointing $5 I've spent in a while, heh. Apparently they forked it from an earlier, pre-patched version of the game, so bugs that were already fixed in the original are back, and performance is terrible on my system. The original ran fine, some drops in really detailed areas, but nothing that rendered the game unplayable. This is awful. Dropping settings and res doesn't help at all.

I figure I'll play up to the Barret boss fight and see how improved it is. If it's good, I'll try bearing through this, hoping for an update that makes it run as good as the original. If not, I'll probably just reinstall the original and play that instead. It looked better and it ran better.

Also, since I bought them up in my other post, the DLC weapons are included in this, thankfully not thrown in your inventory from the get-go, but they can be found during the first mission. The shotgun's probably not too bad, but the silenced sniper rifle completely unbalances it (there's absolutely no reason to take the traq rifle anymore unless you're going for a no kills run), so this was an awful decision. Those weapons always felt out of place, like they gave them to you too early to justify stripping them out into DLC.

It looks like the original got pulled down from Steam, too. That really sucks, no one should play Missing Link before finishing the original game, I hope it's at least optional here (it probably isn't).

Eh... I hope they'll patch it eventually. So I'd rather wait for some time.
And TML is mandatory in director's cut afaik.

Honestly, for all the complaining about those DLC weapons ruining the game balance (not from you, from people in general when it was first released) I never found the game very balanced or interesting in pure gameplay to start with. Typhoon blowing everything up, non-lethal takedowns almost always being the better choice because enemies have a 20 feet patrol radius, and the godawful overemphasis on the strengthes/weaknesses enemy gimmick which made beating several sections more a question of anal retentive inventory management and spot the glowie ammo box or barrel than strategy or execution.

(I like the game, mind you. It's fairly enjoyable. I just don't think it's a very *interesting* game.)

Sure, several of these things come directly from the originals. These were flaws as well there. "Choose your own playstyle", right. More like playing rock paper scissors with limited inventory size and being forced out of my preferred approach half of the time (unless said approach is stealth everything and quicksave/load compulsively after every action).

At this point the DLC weapons would have to fire nuclear explosions to really break the game.

Yeah, that's pretty much true. I played through mostly using the silenced pistol and felt pretty unstoppable. Forcing myself to at least try the other weapons this time, although that shotgun got dropped immediately because what's the point of a shotgun in this game when you have an instant kill button a close range?

But the first mission was a lot more fun when I played it on the 360 and didn't have those weapons. It's one of the few points in the game where you're actually at (somewhat of) a disadvantage and need to rely on stealth/stupid AI to survive. Being able to silently snipe everyone in the huge rooms you have to cross kind of ruins it.

Dragonsbrethren said:

Yeah, that's pretty much true. I played through mostly using the silenced pistol and felt pretty unstoppable. Forcing myself to at least try the other weapons this time, although that shotgun got dropped immediately because what's the point of a shotgun in this game when you have an instant kill button a close range?

This sounds like the Dragon's Tooth sword in the original, although that isn't acquired super early in the game.

Yeah, at least you have the missions in Hell's Kitchen before you pick that up. It's definitely the same situation, though, once you have that sword, you barely use guns at all anymore. (The original's gun mechanics being awful IMO didn't help their case, either.)

I have to ask, what difficulty level did you guys play the original Deus Ex on? I always played this game on "realistic" and, honestly, Dragon's Tooth is not that useful towards the end, especially over at Area 51. Skill level 3-4 guns, especially when maxed on upgrades, are more versatile in general, especially against bots, MIBs and commandos. Dunno, Dragon's Tooth is pretty OP as far as damage goes but I have always felt that even the simple 9mil pistol has more utility if you bother to invest the skill points. When you can get killed by even a couple of shots from the shittiest weapons in the game, range gets to be kinda important.

Might as well dump skill points into maxing low-tech and run around shanking people with an ordinary combat knife. Which I did in one playthrough. It was pretty fun, except when you have to fight Walton Simons. That was not fun at all.

That's all assuming one does not use the game-breaking regeneration aug, that is. I have no idea what the devs were thinking when they were putting something so clearly imbalanced into their game (or maybe, considering modern trends, they were simply ahead of the curve).

Phml said:

(unless said approach is stealth everything and quicksave/load compulsively after every action)

Bingo. DXHR is best played by forgetting all about using weapons (except for the bosses, which I'd suggest trying to beat using only a handgun). Stealth takedowns earn you lots of XP (the non-lethal variety earning you the highest amount), which you can use to upgrade your battery recharge time and whatnot.

Though I'll admit, if you want game where the action doesn't feel like an afterthought and where you don't have to self-impose some kind of 'hardcore mode' to make it interesting, it might not be for you.

No, the best way to play DXHR is to try for a non-lethal playthrough, fuck up, and have to kill everyone in the building. Save scumming is for losers.

Edit: Also, vending machines should be your primary weapon ASAP.

So I fought Barrett in the Director's Cut today and it's definitely improved. Not "remade from scratch", so if you go in expecting that you'll be disappointed. They added some side areas, ducts the crawl through, and doors to hack. You can take a hands-off approach to killing him now - not non-lethal, but you don't have to kill him directly anymore. It's probably the best you could hope for from a budget rerelease.

I'm still disappointed with one thing about the fight, though. When you go into any of those side areas, Barrett won't come after you and I don't think he'll even shoot into them. That's pretty lame, there's basically no danger when you're hacking. If I were designing it, you'd have to make a distraction/gas him while you hack. The locks are all level 1 except for one, almost like they were designed to be really quick to get through for this reason, so it's lame that the boss can't even get near you.

Anyway, I've warmed up to this a bit more, but the performance issues are still a real killer. I hope a patch is out to fix those soon, like I said before the original ran just as bad until the latest patch, which made it very smooth.

Also, this developer commentary is just depressing. Seems like every other thing in the game is half-assed compared to what they wanted because of the engine. How, with the size of modern development teams, could something as simple as a three-person conversation system be beyond their means?