There are two Deus Ex games. The original classic, and the brilliant recent sequel, Human Revolution. Sure back in 2004 there was an ill advised follow up called Deus Ex: Invisible War, but shortly after its release we all agreed that it never happened, and we would never speak of it again.

Warren Spector apparently didn't get that memo. Speaking to IGN during a preview of Epic Mickey he said he regretted listening to the feedback of focus testers when making the game.

“We focus tested concepts." he said "and I was told, ‘Set the game further in the future and put the guy or the girl in a purple jumpsuit; people like purple jumpsuits. Why did I listen?”

Who on earth answers a focus test with 'put the guy in a purple jumpsuit?' What kind of questionnaire even asks that? Who could possibly think that was helpful or relevant advice? The mind boggles.

Thankfully Deus Ex did eventually get the sequel it deserved, years later and without Spector's involvement. You can find out why it works in our Deus Ex: Human Revolution review.

"Cheap as chips" is a throwaway UK saying for something that has plunged straight through the realm of "inexpensive," surpassed the grotty lands of "surprisingly good value" and come to rest in the sugary sands of "tat." Few things in this world are cheaper than the pots of oily polystyrene packs of potato shifted from small shops on street corners up and down this country, but thanks to Steam, one of our favourite games ever, Deus Ex, is cheaper than a small pile of fried potato. How has this happened? It's best not to ask. Instead, just head to Steam and grab yourself a copy if you don't own one already.

Eidos Montreal's excellent 2011 follow-up, Human Revolution, is also a steal at £5 / $7.49. If you already own that, Human Revolution's DLC pack, The Missing Link is also available for £2.24 / $3.74. Alternatively, you can buy all things Deus Ex (including Invisible War) for a bundle price of £9.99 / $14.99. The deal's set to last all weekend.

Graham, Chris and Tom Francis gather to discuss the Portal 2 Perpetual Testing Initiative, Diablo 3, Torchlight 2, upcoming MMO The Secret World and Deus Ex: Human Revolution's problematic cutscenes. We also talk about Graham and Rich's ongoing FIFA 12 rivalry and (try to) answer your questions from Twitter. Also, we decide that capitalism doesn't work. See below for show notes.

Download the MP3, subscribe, or find our older podcasts here.


Chris' Portal 2 Perpetual Testing Initiative hands on video and the final map.
Tom's Torchlight 2 video series.
Chris and Tom Senior's first look at The Secret World.

 

Eidos Montreal general manager Stephane D'Astous has been talking to OXM about the pressures of resurrecting a treasured franchise, a trick the studio pulled off last year with Deus Ex: Human Revolution. D'Astous said that "Deus Ex was the kick-start of this new series of great games, and Thief will be a part of that."

As with Deus Ex, the challenge for Eidos Montreal of course, is to deliver a new Thief that feels fresh, while also being immediately recognisable to fans of the original games. "We don't want to deliver the same each time," said D'Astous. "Our mandate is to bring new stuff to the table; games that we'll be talking about for years"

D'Astous didn't drop any specifics on how the studio are planning to accomplish this, but he did say that Thief 4 will have "more than just stealth." In addition, the studio has "more international staff working on Thief, which brings a great flavour to the game."

"There are a lot of challenges to bringing back a great cult IP, but we consider it like a new IP and we are going to respect the spirit of the franchise like we did with Deus Ex."

There are still painfully few details out there about the new Thief. A blurry screenshot appeared waaay back in February 2011, and more recently a bunch of images hit the web which appeared to show storyboard art for a new Thief cutscene. We can safely say that it'll probably have a bow, and hopefully a blackjack that makes a comedy "whump" noise when you KO a guard with it. What would you like to see from Thief 4?

Game designer at Square Enix, Francois Lapikas, has been talking Deus Ex: Human Revolution at GDC. We love that game. Tom even awarded it an outstanding 94%

Tom hates one bit of Human Revolution though: the boss fights. "They are terrible. And they cannot be avoided." he said in his review. "The game is so conflicted about this that there’s even a Steam achievement for completing it without killing anyone, which apologetically adds that boss fights don’t count." Ouch.

Unexpectedly, some of the design team agree. Francois has offered a sincere apology for the four bosses that featured in Human Revolution.

“We didn’t know what they were for. We saw them as a way to break the tension,” admitted the dev. But the fights weren’t designed until well into the game development and the team were pressed for time. “We figured by putting in enough ammo in the room, we would be fine and could move on... next time we’ll think about them more. They were a big part of the game and we should have put more effort into them. We are truly sorry about that."

Aww. Now I feel a bit sad too. How did you get on with the bosses in Deus Ex: Human Revolution?

The Games Developers Conference has just begun in San Francisco. Devs from every corner of the industry are congregating to talk about their craft. It’s a very exciting time.

GDC is less console iteration and booth babe than E3. It's more about quiet announcements and candid industry chatter. That said, this year’s show is already shaping up nicely, especially for us PC gamers. We have men on the ground, sniffing out scoops in real-time.

Will Valve open the Pandora’s box that is the Steam Box? What’s the mystery game that EA are due to announce on Tuesday? What will Sid Meier have to say in his keynote speech? Are Hitman Absolution’s crowds extremely good or a bit good? Read on for the highlights.



The conference begins low-key but unpredictable. Today, we’ll be attending various talks from indie developers and meeting up with Paradox Interactive. Tuesday is a similar affair, though some Planetside 2 news might break later on.

Things get really exciting on Wednesday. Lord of Civ, Sid Meier is doing a talk on Interesting Decisions, Notch is having a Fireside Chat, Square Enix are talking Deus Ex and Valve are talking TF2. There’s also rumours of a mystery game getting announced by EA in their Game Changers conference. It could relate to more Sim City news, or something even more exotic. IO Interactive will also be unveiling Hitman Absolution’s outstanding-looking crowd tech.

We’ve got a bundle of interviews on Thursday with some of your favourite devs, but we can’t give away too much yet. We’ll also be attending postmortems on Portal 2, The Old Republic, Fallout, The Witcher 2 and League of Legends. It’s going to be one hell of an insightful day. Keep an eye on our GDC 2012 tag for more.

Bioware kick off Friday’s schedule with a talk on Contrast and Context in Story and Cinematics. There’ll also be discussion from Zynga and PopCap, an analysis of recent Indie hit Dear Esther, along with chats on experimental play sessions, game dev parent’s rants and the nature of game reviews. We’ll almost definitely have something to say about all that.

And then it’ll be over. The most exciting developments won't be on the schedule, so keep an eye on our GDC 2012 tag for more. Excitement!

Perhaps you missed out on Deus Ex: Human Revolution last year. Maybe you've been biding your time, waiting for a price drop before you pick it up. Now's your chance. It's on sale this weekend for one third of its usual price on Steam. That's £10.19 for Brits and $16.99 if you're in the US. That's a pretty good price for a great game. We gave it a score of 94 in our Deus Ex: Human Revolution review.

Perhaps you own Deus Ex: Human Revolution, love it and wish there was more of it. In that case, you should definitely check out The Missing Link DLC. It's similarly discounted for the duration of the weekend. For £3.05 / $5.09 you'll get a 5+ hour campaign set on board an enormous futuristic ship caught in the midst of a storm. Find out why it's so good, and how it improves on Human Revolution's dodgy boss fights in our Missing Link review. The deal's set to expire on Monday.

Update: Thanks to commenter andrewfudge for pointing out that Deus Ex: Human Revolution is reduced to £7.50 on Green Man Gaming today.

We're not sure exactly what this is, but it we like it. It looks like a highlight reel designed to show off the skills of the ENSO team of stunt designers and performers, but it includes lots of shots of scenes involving Deus Ex: Human Revolution characters. There's a convincing likeness of Jensen at 1:55 and Human Revolution boss Yelena Fedorova appears at 00:23. It's not hard to imagine the big guy in the car park as Barrett.

There's evidently a bit of a budget behind it. It may well be part of an official ad campaign or upcoming short film licensed by Square Enix. It could even be a fan project. Either way, we want to see more.

In this recurring video segment, three editors go head-to-head-to-head as they take on the same section of the same game with dramatically different strategies and play styles. Once they've put their methods to the test, the editors reconvene to survey their colleagues' trials and exercise their inalienable right to copious wisecrackin'.

In this edition, Evan, Logan, and Dan "Former Reviews Editor" Stapleton attack Deus Ex: Human Revolution as a stealthy vent-crawler, a persuasive chatterbox, and a gun-slinging murder machine, respectively. Check out the introduction above, and watch the team's attempts in the videos that follow!



Dan: The Psycho Killer (qu'est-ce que c'est?)



Evan: The Vent Crawler



Logan: The Chatty-Pants

Deus Ex: a game so good it gave us actual neuroses about its sequels. Invisible War, a shonky but interesting and sometimes hilarious shooter, became reviled as a crime against gaming for declaring itself to be Deus Ex 2. And when Human Revolution started looking seriously, seriously good, none of us could quite believe it.

But it happened. This third game has the wealth of alternate routes and versatile tools that made Deus Ex great, and expands it with huge city hubs, packed with more sidequests and background story than the original ever had. It reworks the system for augmenting yourself to give you trickier choices between more powerful abilities. And all of those abilities are more slickly designed and satisfying to use. It’s not better in every way, by any means, but nothing else comes this close.



It’s an action game, which our neuroses tell us is automatically bad, but most of the concessions to blockbuster accessibility are genuinely, and surprisingly positive. Melee was almost comically unconvincing in Deus Ex 1: now it’s jaw-droppingly brutal and consistently satisfying. A cover system seemed like a frightening departure, but it ended up making for a much more developed and complex stealth option.

Mainly, though, it’s just so good to have it back. It’s Deus Ex! But shinier! And we haven’t played it through 26 times yet! And DLC is coming out for it! And everyone’s sharing stories about the incredible things that happened to them, and all the ways the quests can play out, and all the people they punched in the face, and what aug builds they want next. Deus Ex 4 is bound to be shit, though.

Read our Deus Ex: Human Revolution review for more.

Highly recommended: Battlefield 3, Orcs Must Die!