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.

A director's cut version of Deus Ex: Human Revolution is coming soon to PC, according to a new report by Gamespot. Although it had previously been announced as a Nintendo Wii U release, the new multi-platform edition will integrate previously released DLC as well as offer updated boss fights, altered combat, and "enhanced visuals," according to the title's official website.

This is good news for anyone who liked the original (we did) and at the same time felt there were some dissonant areas that could be improved upon. A director's cut, be it a film or video game, can often see itself reinvented in a new version (see Ridley Scott's Blade Runner). The boss fights are definitely one aspect of the original game that I would love to see re-imagined. Per Gamespot, it's not obvious from today's announcement whether or not the new edition will be available as DLC for people who already own Deus Ex: Human Revolution.

The director's cut is set to include support for a variety of touch devices for consoles, but it's not clear yet how this intriguing functionality will be implemented for PC.

For the latest from E3, check out our complete coverage.

Update: And we have an official announcement trailer for Deus Ex: The Fall, an upcoming video game for "mobile and tablet devices." Er...

Altogether now: What a shame.

Original story: Here's a video whose length and content are inversely exactly proportional to my excitement at what it's purportedly teasing. Here's what we've got: seven seconds, a few notes of ethereally bleepy soundtrack, yellow triangles, the words Deus Ex: The Fall, a date, and a voice saying "are we ready to begin?" Why yes, I rather think we are. No! Because, as noted above, it's for phones.



So, that date: the 5th of June, and not the 6th of May as my brain - so used to American date formats in trailers - first read it. (The clue's in the linear progression of time, Phil; they didn't announce it in the past.) That means we can expect more information on what is presumably a sequel to Human Revolution at some point tomorrow.

All in all, great disappointing news, despite the eye-roll inducing deployment of a flimsy pre-reveal trailer. DX:HR was an excellent reboot of the classic immersive sim, and I welcome some more opportunities to lurk in some cyberpunk vents.

So what do you want to see from the new Deus Ex? I can tell you what we think, because we were speculating about an ideal sequel back in March.

After a disastrous financial year, in which Square Enix not only failed to make their expected profits, but were hit instead with by massive financial loss, the company's senior executive managing director Yosuke Matsuda has been looking at Kickstarter as a possible guide to improving "asset turnover". Which isn't to say they'll attempt to raise $100,000,000 for a Tomb Raider sequel via the crowd-funding site. ($110,000,000 stretch goal: add some proper tombs.) Instead, Matsuda wants Square Enix to interact with its customers at an earlier stage.

"One could go as far as to say that in today's times, making customers wait for years with little to no information is being dishonest to them," Matsuda said, in an earnings call two weeks ago. "We're no longer in an age where customers are left in the dark until a product is completed. We need to shift to a business model where we frequently interact with our customers for our products that are in‐development and/or prior to being sold, have our customers understand games under development, and finally make sure we develop games that meet their expectations."

"There is a crowdfunding website called 'Kickstarter,'" he continued, "which does not only serve as a method of financing for developers, but I believe should also be seen as a way to unite marketing and development together by allowing us to interact with customers while a game is in development."

Matsuda also pointed to Steam's Greenlight and Early Access initiatives as ways in which game makers are communicating with their community:

"Valve's Steam Greenlight and Early Access, are also very interesting, in that they raise the frequency by which we interact with customers, increasing their engagement and reflecting customer needs. We are also looking at what initiatives are possible from this perspective. What should we present to our customers before a game is finished, how can our customers enjoy this, and how do we connect this to profitability, is something we are thinking about implementing, and which can improve our asset turnover in the process."

Traditionally these services have been used by smaller developers, with smaller communities, making direct engagement a more manageable prospect. How Square Enix would scale these ideas out onto a much larger scale remains to be seen. But more openness and interaction from the publisher surely can't be a bad thing.

Thanks, GamesIndustry.

Deus Ex: Human Defiance was trademarked by Square Enix recently, sparking speculation that a follow up to Human Revolution may be brewing deep in Eidos Montreal's fanciest limb clinics. Human Revolution was a faithful recreation of the original shot through a cool, edgy black and gold cyber-renaissance lens. It was a successful modernisation of a PC gaming classic that made our Tom Francis very happy indeed (find out why in our Deus Ex: Human Revolution review). But, like the man who's just received a pair of awesome bionic arms and can't help but complain, we're never entirely happy, so we got our heads together and formed a list of things we'd like to see from the next Deus Ex.

Will you agree? There's only one way to find out, and that's to hack our brains have a read and see.

Bosses like the Missing Link
Eidos Montreal have already figured out how to make a great boss fight in a Deus Ex game, and they did it: just the once. The final bad guy in the Missing Link DLC is just a guy. The challenge is all in getting to him: he's in an office at the back of a large hangar crawling with powerful guards and security systems. But if you can get past them, there's nothing to stop you just knocking out the final boss in a single punch. There's nothing to stop you tazering him, chucking a gas grenade into his office, or anything else that works on normal enemies. There's even a way to steal his awesome custom revolver before the final confrontation, leaving him with a crappy standard issue one when you fight him. More of that, please!

Better living cities
Though most of the action in DXHR takes place after hours, and the streets have a certain appropriate sparseness, the hubs did occasionally feel a little too hokey and static. Detroit is supposedly decimated by riots - but they all happen off-stage. The odd moving car or clump of pedestrians going about their business would make the environments come alive.



New power resource
Why does one energy blip recharge after using a special ability, but the others you’ve spent valuable Praxis points on don’t? Why does punching a man with your awesome blade arms instantly exhaust a blip? If you’ve managed to get that close to a guard, it shouldn’t require a massive energy expenditure to take him down - the hard part is already done. A power resource mechanic that feels less arbitrarily restrictive would be a welcome.

Deeper hacking mechanics
For a fiction totally centered on the potential and threat of interconnectedness, the mechanics which reflected this in-game were spartan. The hacking mini-game was great, but it didn’t describe the range and power of hacking in a way which gave you control over a swathe of disparate systems. If more things were hackable - perhaps even other people - and the things you could then do with them more varied, then it would better realise that fundamental of cyberpunk fiction.



Alternatives to air vents
Deus Ex has to give you multiple paths through every location - it wouldn’t be Deus Ex, otherwise - but Human Revolution relied a little too heavily on air vents for its alternative routes. The act of crawling slowly through a narrow tunnel just isn’t terribly interesting. You could punch through walls, but only in strictly defined zones. It’d be nice to play with more inventive augmentations like this, all designed to let you traverse the environment in unusual ways - cutting openings through bullet-proof glass with finger blades, or rappelling down walls to reach an open window, perhaps.

Better ending
Human Revolution, like the original Deus Ex, is guilty of suddenly locking you in a room at the end of the game and asking you which final cutscene you’d like to see. The options are interesting enough to create a fraught moral dilemma, but they’re offered offered in such a contrived manner that it’s hard to take the choice seriously. If the competing themes you’re choosing to side with in the final moments have been foreshadowed throughout the game you might have more sense of the impact your choice will have on the world. However it’s presented in the next Deus Ex, it shouldn’t feel like a fire-and-forget button press.



More non-combat augmentations
The social augmentation was a surprisingly neat addition to Deus Ex’ cyborg arsenal. It allowed you to read subconscious cues to better manipulate NPCs, and even release persuasive pheromones to nudge their opinions in the right direction. It felt like a novelty to use Jensen’s cyborg powers outside of a combat scenario. It would be nice to see that more. Denton and Jensen are hard-hitting SWAT types, but there’s no reason they can’t use their augmentations to become great detectives, using new implants to read more of their environment than the ordinary human eye ever could.

Visible augmentations

Nothing hammers home the gruesome nature of your diminishing humanity better than a cyborg eyeball. In Human Revolution, all of Jensen's augmentations were implanted in one crazy intense game of Operation at the very beginning, and gradually turned on as the game went on. Imagine seeing those augmentations change your character. A Borg-esque eyeball would look a bit out of place given the slick Ghost in the Shell technological aesthetic Eidos Montreal's artists rolled with, but even subtle effects like a change in eye colour or the spidery web of faintly glowing electrodes would map your augmentation decisions onto your avatar and mark their journey from ordinary Joe into a paragon of transhumanism.

And also...

You discover that your dog Kubrick wasn’t really put down at all and is living on a farm.
You can flick your futuristic shades on and off with the press of a button at any time.
Stronger mirrors.
Retractable knee chisels.
In the next Deus Ex, you actually did ask for this.
Datapads stream from the game onto tablets you own.
When left idle Jensen produces a glass of whiskey and a cigarette and stares moodily into middle distance.
Cancellation of idle animation causes Jensen to accidentally crush the glass and stare in horror at cold metal hands.
Augmented horses.

And that's all from us for now, but what would YOU like from a new Deus Ex game?