Envisioning a New Future

Prosthetic manufacturer Sarif Industries launches a new website. It’s worth digging around.
Via Sarif Industries.

Decluttering

As expected, there’s been a few parts of the site that broke with the new look, most notably every page that linked to the home page. Nothing spells fun like breaking links on hundreds and hundreds of pages. Good news: that should be fixed.

More good news: the Q&A has been updated. I know, I know… sending a message to me is like a game of roulette: there’s no guarantee what’ll happen. Will your question be answered in the next few days? Months? Years? If you sent a message recently, it’s answered. If you sent one back in February, I apologize for the horrible response time, but it’s answered, too.

Activision’s I ’76 Wallpaper has been added to the site, thanks to a generous visitor.

The Deus Ex page has been updated with a new look and more info. Really, more than anything else, it’s just a ramble about my experiences with the game, plus all of the old info.

The “Features” section is going to be very similar to this – more of a review/retrospective on a particular game rather than a ton of stats, files, cheats, etc.

Lastly, the search box is up and working well. Prior to this, it was working (mostly) from the news page, but not too well anywhere else.

Updates:
Q&A – More questions, more answers
Interstate ’76 Downloads – Wallpaper available
Deus Ex – Better looking with actual content

DE: HR Bonus

For those willing to pre-order (especially through Gamestop), Deus Ex: Human Revolution will contain bonus weapons (and a mission). An “Augmented Edition” of the game will also be available, containing an artbook, bonus DVD, and soundtrack.
Via Rock Paper Shotgun.

Human Revolution Trailer

A new Deus Ex: Human Revolution trailer featuring in-game footage has been released.
Via Shacknews.

10 Reasons

CVG has a list of 10 reasons why Human Revolution is faithful, presumably to the original Deus Ex.
Via CVG.

Sequels

Surprisingly good news has popped up, as it looks like a new Mechwarrior game will be announced shortly. Smith & Tinker had aquired the IP from Microsoft some time ago, and as I had mentioned then, there had to be a reason behind it.

According to Shack News, Piranha Studios is working on the new game. Should be fun to see where it goes…

In other sequel news, Deus Ex 3 has been noticably absent as of late. For whatever reason, I had convinced myself that the game would pop up in some form – screenshot, movie, demo – at this year’s E3, and even though I let myself sit through and watch it on G4, there was no mention of it whatsoever.

Stephane D’Astous of Eidos Montreal recently posted this cryptic message on his twitter account: “DX3 has never been so greenlight!” I’m assuming that it means some portion of the game has been given the go-ahead, and not that that Deus Ex 3 has been in limbo for the past several months. Either way, hopefully more info will be made available soon.

Visible War

Deus Ex 3 is still a coming and there are a couple of previews out for it. They don’t have a whole lot of info yet, but the story will be a prequel this time around, taking place in 2027, a few years before JC Denton was around and before anyone was let down by this Invisible War crap.

Players will take the roll of Adam Jensen, a security officer, who happens to be in the right place at the right time. His office is swarmed by a mysterious group and many are killed. Lucky Adam survives and sets off to find out what’s going on.

At this point, it looks like they’re calling for a 2010 release date. In the meantime, check out the artwork.

Lost Touch

Ok, I know, I’ve been neglecting the site a little bit. You’ve got to admit, though, it was a good run of updates. Lately, I’ve had the itch that only Mechwarrior 2 can scratch, so I’ve been jogging down memory lane while Clan Wolf destroys Clan Falcon in the Refusal Wars.

That also means I’ve managed to update some of the site. Like I’ve been promising to do for the past several years, I’ve finally put something up for the MBPT: 3025 section. The story is pretty shallow at this point, but I’ve got game manuals and a preview movie up, which should cover just about anything you’d like to know about how the game played.

On the subject of Mechwarrior 2, I was just checking around the ‘net for a few things, and happened upon the forums of one Eric Peterson – the guy that originally programmed Mechwarrior 2. Someone had asked him if he’d ever seen my MW2: The Clans page. Even though it’s really nothing, I do get a fuzzy feeling knowing one of the developers has actually read my highly inaccurate ramblings.

In other Mech news, Microsoft no longer owns the Mechwarrior license. If you’ve been keeping track, FASA, who created Battletech licensed Mechwarrior to Activision for the Mech 2 games, but took it back and licensed it to Micropose for Mech 3. After that, they spun out FASA Interactive to do their own games, which was later purchased by Microsoft. MS disbanded FASA Interactive and canned MW5, having since been sitting on the license for the last several years. What does this mean? If someone is shelling out the bucks to get it back, they plan on using it, hopefully for a new Mechwarrior game.

IGN has shown Interstate ’76 some love, so of course, I’ve got to spread the news. Check out my site first, then go check out their article.

Last note: Deus Ex 3 is in the works. Warren Spector & co. have nothing to do with the game. Instead, it’s being developed by Eidos Montreal. Let’s hope it’s better than Invisible War.

Updates:
MPBT: 3025 – Section is up with some interesting documents.
Mechwarrior Links – Updated and added.
Mechwarrior 2 FAQ – It’s actually up, though it’s pretty small.