The new Deus Ex is about many things, but ranking high amongst them is DRM. I’m not even joking. (The following article contains spoilers to the very end of the game.)> (more…)
Here’s a huge news story that we somehow didn’t manage to post yet, because we’re big, silly poo-poo heads. Also, I was distracted by being stung on the eyelid by a wasp, which is something I can recommend to precisely nobody. While I was busy bellowing in horror, the Deus Ex Human Revolution DLC teased by last week’s rather inelegant ARG finally came to light. As suspected, it’s called The Missing Link, and as speculated it concerns the rather odd scene late in the main game where Adam goes on a secret journey to an unknown location. (And if you think that amounts to a spoiler for a game that’s all about mysteries>, I honestly despair.)
If you haven’t gotten that far in the game, don’t read on – because more fulsome details are below. If you can’t read the rest but are itching for safe DX reading – well, how about browsing RPS cunningly rejiggered to look like one of DXHR’s in-game electro-newspapers? Top work, Nir Yomotov. Truly, his vision is augmented. (more…)
Deus Ex: Human Revolution was supposed to be out Sept. 8 in Japan, but it's now slated for sometime in Oct. The reason for the delay is that "prohibited images" were found in one place in the game. In its official statement, Square Enix did not clarify what the offending content was.
In early August, Square Enix stated that the game would be sexual object free. In the Western version, there is a secret room. In it, you find a computer, a box of tissue, some lotion, and *cough* a dildo. Oh, and a vibrator. Since Square Enix said this would not appear in the Japanese version, it can't be the self-pleasuring goods.
It could be this section as the explicit depiction of the human body could rub the rating agency the wrong way. Any guesses?
Western games are often censored or edited when released in Japan for violence or adult content—areas of expression that the Japanese rating board is strict. PC games, which are self-regulated, often feature adult content. Likewise, movies have more freedom to depict violence.
In Japan, Square Enix is releasing the game under its "Square Enix Extreme Edges" banner, which carters to harder titles. Deus Ex—too extreme for Japan.
Kotaku is following up with Square Enix.
デウスエクス発売日延期のお知らせ [SQUARE ENIX EXTREME EDGES]
The more modern values of Deus Ex: Human Revolution, transplanted into the resolutely year 2000 Deus Ex 1. Admittedly, this video occasionally strays into tiresome ‘THE PAST WAS NECESSARILY BETTER AND EVERYTHING IS RUBBISH NOWADAYS’ whingeotron territory, but it’s nanotongue-in-cheek enough to elicit a good few guffaws, I think. What if… JC Denton had elbow swords? And augmented vision? And could only rescue Tracer Tong if he’d preordered? (more…)
Scaleform? Dolby Digital? AMD? I didn’t ask for this. Neither did you, probably, so if you fancy a way of disabling all those annoying unskipable splash screens, here it is. Word on the street is that the member of staff at Eidos Montreal responsible for them fully intended to make the splash screens skippable, but as they entered the meeting room to discuss it, a prerendered cutscene took over and forced them to make the splash screens unskippable. What a shame. (more…)
Earlier this week, code-crackers broke the secrets of a teaser site Eidos has put up for Deus Ex: Human Revolution, finding what appeared to be clues for the game's first DLC extension (above). Eidos now has officially confirmed it will arrive in October.
It'll be called "The Missing Link." According to a post yesterday on the official site, the story has Adam "mysteriously" disappearing for three days, so this sounds like it happens mid-story. Per the description:
After being tortured by Belltower agents and having his augmentations disabled, Adam Jensen must rely solely on his basic capabilities to escape from a freighter, destined for an unknown location. While fighting for his survival on the ship, he uncovers another layer to the conspiracy that he never would have suspected.
We're told to expect "sprawling new environments," "brand-new characters" an, oh yeah, "Rebuild Adam's augmentation set from scratch," so it sounds like an opportunity to re-spec if you're unhappy with your choices so far.
A specific release date was not mentioned.
Coming in October [Deus Ex: Human Revolution]
As I mentioned in my review, Deus Ex: Human Revolution is a game that comes to life in its details. The team at Eidos Montreal has shown a rare attention to detail and and willingness to engage in fan-service, filling the game with a nigh-on unprecedented number of hidden sight gags and easter eggs.
They're found in notes and emails, books and videos, corporate symbols, obscure dialogue references, and often in plain sight. In this post, I've collected some of my and the other Kotaku editors' favorites. A few of these contain minor spoilers, but nothing too major, plot-wise.
There are, of course, dozens more in the game, and so I hope you'll share your favorites in the comments.
Image: Cherezoff / Shutterstock
Nigerian Email Scams
At this point, it's become a cliché to put fake Nigerian email scams into in-game inboxes. But DXHR has some fun with the trope, introducing the fraud emails early in the game but later having an administrator come down furiously on his employees for possibly falling for them. Heh.
UNATCO Theme on the Radio
On some of the in-game radios, the UNATCO theme from the original Deus Ex can be heard. I hope by now I've made it clear how much I love the UNATCO theme.
Chest-bump to Titch for the second tip.
And Only Taco Bell Remained
In what is now my single favorite hidden gag in the game, one of the bathrooms contains three seashells in place of toilet paper. This is a shoutout to one of the funnier bits in Demolition Man. I doubt Jensen knows how the shells work, so hopefully there's a ticket-dispenser located somewhere near by.
"Adam Jensen, you are fined five credits for a violation of the verbal morality statute."
Big ups to twitterer Havocks for the tip.
Final Fantasy, Still Going Strong
One of the more well-known easter eggs is the poster for Final Fantasy XXVII on the wall in Pritchard's Tech Lab.
Given that DXHR takes place in the year 2027, that means that there have been an additional 13 numbered Final Fantasy games in the 16 years between now and then.
Hmm… that puts Square Enix on pace to release almost one numbered FF game a year between now and then, with only a couple of years off for Tactics games and kart-racers.
Could this be a hint about the future of the franchise?
Well, no, probably not.
Forever Alone
Located on a number of post-it notes around the offices of DXHR are drawings of one of the characters from the meme-tastic web comic "Forever Alone."
Someone Sure Had a Party
I found this one via Steam, and so was not fortunate enough to stumble upon it myself. But apparently, if you punch through a wall in the sewers near The Hive in China, you'll find evidence of a fairly involved romantic engagement.
David Sarif's Office
David Sarif's office is one of the more detailed locations in the game, and a couple of small bits stick out. A book laying around is called "Daedalus Complex," which is a not-so-subtle nod to Sarif's tendencies to use his great mind to improve the world around him.
Of course, the mythological character Daedalus is perhaps best known for building wings for his son Icarus, helping him fly a little too high. Given the wing on Sarif's company logo and the fact that he constantly refers to Jensen as "Son," the symbolism here is pretty clear.
Also, Sarif has a groovy "DX" hat laying down by his desk, which I'm guessing looks like the actual Deus Ex hats that the team wears. And while I don't know what "The Planet of the Cakes" is, the guy's got enough copies lying around that it must mean something.
Working QR Codes
Strewn about the Sarif Industries warehouse in the first level are QR codes, which apparently actually work. I haven't been able to get my phone to read them, but it sounds like they lead to a number of websites and online clues about various aspects of the DXHR universe. We'll have to investigate this one further, but if you've headed down the rabbit hole, let us know what you found?
Update: Thanks to Maurício Munky for letting us know that the QR Codes lead to the Sarif Industries website.
Mr. Denton, I Presume
Among the references to the original Deus Ex (including plenty of emails from a certain FEMA official named Manderley) is an email found in the late game addressed to a "JC" in engineering. So before he became a vital cog in a plan for world domination, he was... a glorified Mr. Fix-it, reprimanded by his boss via email.
The Broken Mirror of Emotionally Tortured Protagonists
One of my favorite touches in the game is found early on in Adam Jensen's apartment.
Jensen is a hard-to-read fellow, delivering his lines in an gravelly monotone and keeping his emotions close to the vest. But that gruff exterior hides unseen anguish regarding his involuntary augmentations, as evidenced by his smashed mirror and the sad note attached:
Call landlord re: replacement mirror. Again.
Oh, Adam.
Those among you with your ears to the internet will have noticed that a mystery has been unfolding around Deus Ex: Human Revolution. Some people are referring to it as an “ARG”. That’s a pretty serious term and shouldn’t be bandied about lightly, but this does> have all the hallmarks of one. It all started with a code, or “some gibberish” as I call it, and eventually led to the image you see above. Quite how people worked it out is a mystery to my little meat-brain, which is to say I’m convinced they had some form of calculating device embedded in their skulls. Rather amusingly, even that wasn’t enough though because Eidos Montreal had to release extra clues. To be fair, I didn’t even understand those though. The story so far is here. What does it all mean? Were any of you involved in figuring out what’s happened so far? And am I actually quite stupid for not understanding how any of this worked? Arg(h)!