Deus Ex: Human Revolution – Ongoing Impressions Part 4

Barret kicked my ass to the point that I had to knock the difficulty down to easy, so I need a brief recovery. I work my way back through the FEMA facilities to meet with chopper pilot Malik on the roof. The place is deserted after Barret blew himself sky high. As I’m traveling back, I’m noticing the paths I hadn’t taken – some that would’ve no doubt made life much easier. I’ll try these out next next time I’m in there. Scratch that, I’m going to blast everyone to pieces anyway. (more…)

Deus Ex: Human Revolution – Ongoing Impressions Part 3

Checking out some bodies at the morgue – all in an average night’s work. So now, I reach into the hackers body and remove the implant from our dead friend’s brain. Yep, he was augmented. Although, based on his expressions before he offed himself (the same scene from all of the trailers), it looks like someone was pulling the trigger for him.

More orders now. Pritchard, the tech guy and Human Revolution version of Alex, tells me to check out the augmentation at my home apartment. Too much heat at Sarif, I take it. Oh, and by the way, he’s also able to access anything from my home computer. There goes any sense of privacy.

After a bit of street wandering, I pass by some working girls. One happens to be working double-duty. No, no two guys at once, but as an undercover cop. One J Alexander, who’s computer I hacked back at the police station. And to think, I had myself fooled into thinking it was a joke login modeled after Seinfeld actor Jason Alexander. She’s got a few “off the book” assignments over in the anti-Aug gangland. It seems there’s a crooked cop who’s trying to cover up some his off-duty activities. Ok, I’m a nice guy; I’ll help her. (more…)

Deus Ex: Human Revolution – Ongoing Impressions Part 2

I’ve gotten lost in the game. No, not that I couldn’t find my away around. No, it’s not that I don’t know what I’m supposed to do. Instead, it’s a feeling created by looking at a clock and thinking, “Damn, I was playing that long?” A very good thing. I’ve mentioned it before, but this game is very similar to the first Deus Ex in that there’s a lot of reading, a lot to peruse, a lot of conversing, and a lot of smelling the roses.

Last night, I continue to bumble through the apartments of Detroit, looking into whatever rooms that I stumbled upon. Often times I’d find myself up against a lock. The solution? Hack it. And another. Hack it, too. And another. Now that I think about it, there’s a lot of hacking in this game. Gone are multi-tools and lockpicks. Instead, we have hacking, hacking, and more hacking. If you’re into that aspect of the game, there are plenty of aug upgrades for hacking use. I think I’m up to a level three hacker at this point. Lethal hacker – that’s me in a nutshell. At least when I’m playing Jensen in the world of Human Revolution. (more…)

Deus Ex: Human Revolution – Ongoing Impressions Part 1

Detroit. What a wonderful place. Not really, but I was happily impressed with it in HR. I spent yesterday just wandering through the streets of Human Revolution’s Detroit. I disabled the objective arrow from the onset of the game, giving me the freedom to discover things on my own. I much prefer it to being told what to do. This gives me time to generally muck about.

The place feels pretty alive. There’s a good number of folks just hanging out on the streets chatting about the recent augmentation protests. It’s great to just stroll by and eavesdrop on some conversations. Some folks seem pretty friendly, others are just judging Jensen due to the octagon stamped on his forehead. In a way, it seems like to much augmentation talk, but if you’re the 2027 equivalent of Gunther Herman, that’s probably what people tend to fixate on when they see you.

I happened upon a transient in front of a door that had a hackable password. What was in there? Nothing that I could tell. Bizarrely enough, I’m quite satisfied that this is the case. Sometimes you just need stuff to explore and a few duds make the effort more worthwhile. I’ve got a nagging suspicion that it’ll come in handy later, though.

I encountered one of my worries. A big concern that I had (and that I really disliked about Invisible War) was that all of the decisions would be laid out for us. Go left or right. Be lethal or non-lethal. Choose the Omar or the other crappy side Good news: that doesn’t seem to be the case.

So, as part of the mission objectives, Mr. Sarif is asking Jensen to check out a LIMB clinic. With no arrow to guide me, I wander in on my own and the very nice lady behind the desk informs me that there’s a generous donation made in my name to the tune of 5000 credits to let me buy a Praxis kit, specially designed to let me access augs early. The augmentations were installed on Jensen during his life-saving surgery, but have not been enabled for fear that it’ll overload his body. These Praxis kits are software overrides that’ll power up the augs before their automatic activation kicks in.

As I took the cash, I left the place with no such Praxis device in hand. I spent a little cash on a supplement to charge my batteries, but nothing else. What can I say? I’m a hoarder. Save that cash for when I need it. With my horrible stealth skills, that’ll be pretty damn soon.

And then it comes over the info link: “Jensen, why didn’t you get a Praxis kit?” barks an agitated David Sarif. Just like that, the micro-choices I’m making on a small scale are influencing how others perceive me. There was never a “click here to keep Mr. Sarif happy” or “Make Mr. Sarif mad” option. Instead, it’s just myself, making the choices I’d make, letting the world react around me. That’s Deus Ex.

Deus Ex: Human Revolution – First Impressions

Last night, I spent a few hours with Deus Ex: Human Revolution. After all of the anticipation, I finally got to sit down with it and see what it’s all about.

Guess what? It’s absolutely a Deus Ex game. No question about it. (more…)

Zero Day

I’m about to jump in to Human Revolution tonight, but as I prepare for it, my thoughts drift to the Invisible War launch. At that point, I was regularly lurking the official Eidos forums. The place was pretty swamped and amid the constant complaints, one of the biggest issues of the time was IW’s hardware requirements. It required a card with… shaders.

A few other PC games had done this, but it was a relatively new, forced step to the future. Some seem to applaud the idea. “We get better graphics. Who cares about old cards. It’s time to upgrade.” Others were left behind in the dust. I fell into the latter camp.

Now, the reason I checked the forum so often was to see if someone had figured out a way around the shader issue. Short answer is no. I’d eventually play the game a couple of years later. And yes, I’d had the game in my possession since launch. Personally, I got what was coming to me. I bought a game that specifically said it wouldn’t run on my hardware and I risked it anyway. No problems. The people who were really hurt were those hit by Nvidia’s marketing strategy. The Geforce4 Ti cards could run the game. The lowly MX? Not so much.

Coming around almost full circle, Nvidia has started reusing the Ti moniker. Any bets on how long it is before the MX comes back?

Wait, who cares? Time for Deus Ex: Human Revolution.

Final Countdown

In a way, it’s almost shocking that it’s happening. After all of the anticipation, Deus Ex: Human Revolution is going to be released tomorrow.

When the game was announced, I was surprised. After all, Invisible War had left a bad taste in gamers’ mouths and it’d been years since the term Deus Ex had mentioned outside of a retro review or a greatest games list. Despite the lackluster efforts of the then latest in the Deus Ex series, I already knew I’d have to try out Deus Ex 3 when it appeared.

(Slightly related: I’ve replayed Invisible War since its release and, without being tainted by the awesomeness of the first game, it’s not too bad. )

What followed was not pretty. I’d check the official Eidos forums every week looking for an update on the Deus Ex. What a horrible place. So much pessimism, so much hate, so much anger for a game that, for the vast major of us, consisted of a few pictures and a bizarre trailer for about three years.

Someday, I’d play the new Deus Ex. I knew it. My computer at the time would not cut it. So, I built a new system, where a small voice in the back of my skull whispered, “You’ll be able to play this game on it.” That was two years ago. Yes, I had convinced myself that DE3 would make an appearance at E3 2009. It didn’t happen.

I persisted. Soaking up each droplet of news. When it finally became real, when gameplay videos and interviews started appearing, I couldn’t look. It’s too close to home. The surprise, the joy of discovering something for the first would be ruined. So, I’ve been on a self-made Deus Ex media blackout for the last few months.

In the meantime, I’ve pre-ordered a game for the first time in my life. I’ve used Steam to pre-load a game for the first time. This also marks the first time in a long damn while that I’ve paid full price for a PC game. And to top it off – that computer from a few years ago – finally got a graphics card that wasn’t a POS. Yes, I”d been holding off to update it until Deus Ex: Human Revolution would be released.

It probably seems a bit much. I’m sure it seems in a way like I”m setting myself up for failure, that the game can’t live up to my expectations. It’s a real possibility, but I’ll still be playing this thing tomorrow anyway.

Portal 2

Portal 2’s hype was through the charts by the time it launched. A collection of mysterious messages and seemingly random images from Valve began emerging on various online gaming publications. Portal was modified with new ending and extra game content that hinted of the upcoming sequel. It was beautiful marketing that promoted the game and rewarded fans. The hidden messages were fun, there was more to do in the game, and it was all laid out with just enough clues that the Valve community could piece it all together. A huge puzzle. Very appropriate.

The Potato sack thing was a bit over-the-top, I think, but still very fun. Play Steam games. Earn potatoes. The more potatoes earned, the more fuel GlaDOS has and the sooner Portal 2 will be released. Official and unofficial countdown sites popped up and a buzz formed as avid gamers watched the potato count go up… and rapidly descend. Is this a trick? Was it only a joke? Was GlaDOS using these potatoes for something? (more…)

Prepare

I did something I haven’t done in years: I purchased a game at full price. That’s right, I just pre-ordered Deus Ex: Human Revolution, so you can expect a ton of updates, ramblings, spoilers, thoughts, etc. as I confusedly work my way through the game. Oh, did I choose any of those fancy Augmented Editions? No. Extras that I view once and throw in storage are not something I want.

Duke Nukem 3D

Back in the day, the local software shop had packaged, boxed software lining the walls, while an inside aisle held racks of 5.25″ floppy disks, almost all of which were branded shareware. The concept: you pay for the price of the disks ($1 for a 1-disk piece of software, $2 for a two disker…) and get to use the program as much as you want. Only there’s a catch: you don’t get the entire program. If you liked it, you were encouraged to buy the rest of it. If not, you just gave the disk to someone else.

Duke Nukem was sitting on the shelf with the rest of them. On its disk was Episode 1: Shrapnel City. In the intro, there’s a brief dialogue between Duke and the game’s antagonist, Dr. Proton, ending with Duke promising to get home, “in time to watch Oprah.” (more…)