I played The Fall on a tablet and thought it was pretty good. It did a solid job of translating Human Revolution to a mobile platform, at the expense of some complexity. But on PC it s like watching a 240p YouTube video on an IMAX screen.

Its mobile roots are obvious, from the tiny environments, blurry textures and low-poly character models, to the on-screen prompts, which use the old touchscreen icons. It s an unforgivably half-arsed port.

You play Ben Saxon, a gravel-voiced English war veteran and mercenary who joins the Tyrants, otherwise known as those annoying bosses from the main game. Your missions still revolve around a city hub, in this case Panama City, and it s filled with the requisite sidequests, chatty NPCs, vents, hackable doors, and hidden items. But it feels so small, even compared to the not-even-that-massive Detroit and Hengsha. The streets are bizarrely narrow, and there s no sense of it being a metropolis that s sprawling and alive. This wasn t such a big deal on a mobile screen, but on PC it feels claustrophobic.

This goon will vanish when he hits the deck.

It might look like Human Revolution at first glance, but it won t take you long to discover that it s a stunted and hamstrung version of the game you like. The AI is dismal, guards patrolling in slow, predictable patterns and standing motionless in firefights. When I was wrestling with the laggy touchscreen controls on the mobile version that was a blessing; here, with traditional FPS controls, the lack of intelligence is wholly unsatisfying. Enemy bodies vanish, even if taken out nonlethally, which was presumably to save memory in the mobile version, but makes no sense on a modern PC. Robotic animations, weedy shooting and floaty movement don t help.

The menus have been streamlined, the inventory Tetris elements removed, and you can buy anything you need at any time from a magical shopfront. This is, of course, the microtransactions store from the mobile version, which has been brought over unchanged except for the removal of the real-world money option. Ridiculous. And why are the menus so unresponsive? Often you ll have to click on a button several times before it registers. Something as simple as upgrading your gun is rendered frustrating by the sticky, messy menus.

Panama City, capital of bad voice acting.

It s a shame, because this could have been a very decent slice of DLC had they remade it in the Human Revolution engine. There are a few good missions in here, and fans of HR s story will appreciate learning more about the motives of the Tyrants, whose backstories were only touched on in Jensen s story. Don t be fooled by the black-andgold screenshots and the familiar interface: this is not the Deus Ex you know and love. It s a bad cover version, and truly one of the worst PC ports I ve played in some time, and I ve played Deadly Premonition. I definitely didn t ask for this.

Details
Expect to pay: 8 / 10
Release: Out now
Developer: Eidos Montreal, N-Fusion Interactive
Publisher: Square Enix
Multiplayer: None
Link: www.deusex.com/thefall

We never asked for this reportedly shoddy PC port of the Deus Ex mobile game The Fall. We never asked for this impressive Human Revolution short fan film, but we're glad it got made anyway. We also never asked for this Deus Ex expanded universe thingy, but we'll be glad if it results in another PC game as good as HR. That day may be sooner than we thought, if a recent filed trademark is anything to go by. Deus Ex: Mankind Divided is its name, and there is a modicum of evidence to suggest it may be a proper HR sequel, rather than another mobile game. We never asked you to join us after the break.

The trademark details have been collected here by NeoGAF user R sti, and suggest that it relates to "Computer game software", "Printed matter" and "Entertainment services", ie the sort of things that tend to encompass your average Square Enix release. That admittedly sketchy evidence involves the following quote from Eidos Montreal head David Anfossi, taken from an old blog post regarding a future Deus Ex game.

"I want to leave you with a piece of concept art from our next-gen Deus Ex game that shows trans-humanism segregation, which is a backdrop to our vision for the next Deus Ex. It represents a "ghetto-city' voluntarily built in order to separate the classes. The people in this segregated class have reshaped their environment, nostalgic for their ideal of Cyber Renaissance. This dark and dystopian vision sets the tone for things to come in Deus Ex." Trans-human segregation, eh? Sounds a bit like Mankind is Divided.

Let's not get our hopes too far up about this trademark, seeing how the last one resulted in a mobile game, but still: I'd say we're long overdue a proper Human Revolution sequel. And with E3 around the corner, the timing seems about right too.

Thanks, NeoGAF.

A short minute-long teaser for the Deus Ex: Human Revolution fan film was released back in December 2012. Fifteen months later, and you can finally see the short film's extra eleven minutes. They contain improbable hair, piercing arm-spikes, and the non-standard use of a cigar clipper. As was the case back then, it's still a brilliantly realised recreation of the looks and feel of the game.

Okay, so not quite the look and feel of the game. For that to happen, every frame would need to be filtered through an unhealthy yellow sheen.

Square Enix have announced that mobile game Deus Ex: The Fall is being re-released on Steam in a new and reworked PC edition, to be released on March 25th. Did anyone ask for this? Probably, because The Fall was supposedly a competent if somewhat unremarkable extension of the atmosphere and ideas of Human Revolution. As you'd hope from a PC port, the game has been augmented to support keyboard, mouse and controller. The mobile version's in-app purchase options have also been removed.

Here's the feature list that Square Enix have released alongside their announcement:


No in-game purchase options
28 Steam achievements
Adjusted AI
Steam Trading Cards, Badges and (TBC)
Revised tutorial
Full keyboard and Mouse control optimisation
Rebalanced game economy taking into account no IAP
Microsoft Controller support
Removal of auto target options
Reduction in aiming recital size
Choice in cover style as DXHR (HOLD or Toggle)
Resolution options
Anti Aliasing option
Vsync
Control maps for keyboard and gamepad


Basically, they're doing everything that would be required of an iOS to PC port. Will it be enough? It's hard not to be massively sceptical about a mobile port, but, if Square Enix can deliver a quality conversion, The Fall should be a nice slice of Deus Ex to tide us over until the mysterious Deus Ex: Universe is further revealed.

Deus Ex: The Fall will release on Steam this March 25th, priced 8/$10.

The Deus Ex: Human Revolution Director's Cut does seem to be a matter of pride for Eidos Montreal. Director's Cut builds are a common way to offer new players a jumping-on point long after launch, but few redesign sections of the original game to account for fan feedback. When it comes to Deus Ex: Human Revolution's boss fights, the negative feedback was loud and unanimous. They've been reworked with new level geometry to allow for multiple approaches, thank goodness.

The Director's Cut also includes a 45 minute "making of" video, developer commentary, a strategy guide, and "major enhancements" have apparently been made to the energy system and enemy AI. There have also been "striking visual improvements", which seem to amount to toning down HR's yellow tint, colloquially referred to as "the piss filter" in certain corners of the Internet.

There's a sensible tiered pricing system to the Director's Cut. It's £12 / $20 if you buy it new, and that includes all Tong's mission (originally a pre-order bonus) and the excellent Missing Link DLC. If you own HR without the DLC, you can upgrade to the Director's Cut for £6 / $10. If you own the DLC and want the new boss fights, commentary and other improvements, it'll cost £3 / $5. It's available on Steam now.

Deus Ex: Human Revolution is brilliant. Here's our Deus Ex: Human Revolution review, and our review of the Missing Link DLC. And a video why not.

There sure has been a lot of activity with the Deus Ex franchise lately. After Eidos Montreal announced a new entry in the series, we get another, albeit much more tenuous, piece of information. A recent casting call for a "confidential video game" makes it sounds like the developer is either about to start or has already started shooting motion capture for the next game.

The casting call asks for a Japanese male to play a character in good physical condition who "has a mild Japanese accent, able to range from professional with his superiors, militant when undercover, and smirky when talking to enemies." The shoot would take place in Montreal, Canada, which is of course where the studio in charge of the Deus Ex franchise resides. But what might be the most indicative of this game's true nature is the description of the character's job: "Hiroshi Saito is an Illuminati Shadow Agent. His current assignment is to infiltrate the Augmented Rights Coalition, to replace its leader and to discredit its movement by committing a series of attacks in their names."

The Illuminati are a staple of the Deus Ex series, and the last game in the series, Deus Ex: Human Revolution, dealt with the emergence of "Augmented" people. "Augs" were mechanically-enhanced citizens who marked the beginning of that world's transition into cybernetics. Prejudice against Augs was a prevalent theme within the game, as some people feared their capabilities and believed that they violated what humanity's natural evolution. The inclusion of an Augmented Rights Coalition heavily implies that this sequel will pick up where Human Revolution left off with Augmented citizens.

All of this comes off as a big neon sign pointing to plot points for the next Deus Ex game to me. And even though this is the farthest thing from official you can get, I 'm just excited at the prospect of a new one.

UK newspaper, The Sun, have included fictional Sarif Industries cyborg eyeball tech in a roundup of "AMAZING GADGETS JUST AROUND CORNER". Such technology, they say, "is in its infancy now" but "will be commonplace to our grandkids."

When we spotted a tweet about the article from Good Gaming about the article I had to nip to the local corner shop to see it. Here it is. Page 28, item five in the feature, today's finest facepalm from Britain's most popular paper.





It looks like they've been fooled by the apparently extremely convincing Sarif Industries viral marketing site, a fabrication of Eidos Montreal and Square Enix.

Augmented eyeball tech does exist in a basic form. Last year the BBC reported on retinal implant surgery that restored a semblance of sight to two blind men. We are still a long way from Sarif Industries eyeballs and, sadly, Sarif Industries elbow chisels.

This sort of thing happens more often than you might expect. A while back an ITV documentary mistook ARMA 2 footage for real war.

Deus Ex: Human Revolution's Director's Cut will be with us in just under two weeks, and it sounds like a significant augmentation to the game. But one thing Square Enix had kept hidden away in their top secret HQ was how much it would cost for people who already owned the original version. Worryingly, we didn't even know if there would be any concessions to early adopters. Now we do, and there will.

Here's the pricing structure that's been announced:


New purchase (if you don’t already have the game): £12.99/€19.99/$19.99
Own the basic game (with no DLC): £6.99/€7.99/$9.99
Own the game and Missing Link DLC: £3.49/€3.99/$4.99


That's great news, especially with this new version addressing some of DX:HR's few criticisms. This director's cut tweaks the boss fight, AI and graphics, adds a New Game+ option, developer commentary mode, and a making-of video. You also get all previous DLC, including Missing Link, bundled with it.

It's such a good move from SE, that I might join Adam Jensen in doing a little dance.



DX:HR - Director's Cut is out October 25th.

Eidos Montreal, sensing how much people love Deus Ex, and how disappointed people are when a Deus Ex announcement turns out to be an iPhone game, have revealed Deus Ex: Universe. Rather than one single game, it's a giant web of media spin-offs that "will include PC and console games". In fact, part of the announcement post confirms the existence of a proper Human Revolution follow-up, planned for PC and next-gen boxes.

"The concept behind Deus Ex: Universe is to create an ongoing, expanding and connected game world built across a generation of core games," writes Eidos Montreal head David Anfossi. "It’s a commitment on our part to deliver meaningful content that expands the franchise on a regular basis and to deliver a deep conspiracy that will span several connected Deus Ex games, creating a more immersive and richer experience than ever before. Deus Ex: Universe will include PC and console games, but also additional Deus Ex games and experiences available in other media such as tablets, smartphones, books, graphic novels, etc... You might have seen the name pop up recently in the press – well this is what it’s all about.

"I’m pleased to confirm that we are already into production of the starting point for Deus Ex: Universe with a new game for PC and next-generation consoles," Anfossi continues. "We’re very excited about it at the studio and I wanted to let you know that most of the team behind Deus Ex: Human Revolution is already working hard on this new game. It took us four years to learn how to create a unique Deus Ex experience with Human Revolution and it was important for me to keep this knowledge within the franchise."

Transmedia gubbins aside, here's what we should all be focusing on: New Deus Ex game! I suspect this is a thing that some people have asked for.

There's nothing firm to go on just yet, not even a name. Instead, we have a single piece of concept art, depicting "a 'ghetto-city' voluntarily built in order to separate the classes."



"The people in this segregated class have reshaped their environment, nostalgic for their ideal of Cyber Renaissance," Anfossi writes. "This dark and dystopian vision sets the tone for things to come in Deus Ex."

'Cyber Renaissance' may be the most Deus Ex phrase I've ever heard, so it's definitely off to a good start.

Thanks, OXM.

The general manager of Eidos Montreal, Stephane D'Astous, has announced that he resigned from the studio last Friday. In a statement made to Polygon, he criticised the developer's parent company, Square Enix Europe, over a "lack of leadership, lack of courage and the lack of communication".

"Since last year's financial short-coming performance of Square Enix Europe," D'Astous said, "we (HQ London and GM Eidos Montreal) have had growing and divergent opinions on what needed to be done to correct the situation. The lack of leadership, lack of courage and the lack of communication were so evident, that I wasn't able to conduct my job correctly. I realized that our differences were irreconcilable, and that the best decision was unfortunately to part ways."

D'Astous has been with the studio since its founding in 2007. Square Enix faced trouble back in March, when it was announced that they'd incurred "extraordinary loss" over the course of the financial year. At the time, their then-CEO stepped down, and in the months since, there have been lay-offs to both the publisher's LA studio, and Hitman developer IO Interactive.

Eidos Montreal had reportedly experienced years of office politics and internal strife during the development of their upcoming Thief revival.

We have contacted Square Enix for comment.