Production on Deus Ex 3 officially announced

Matthew on 9/10/2008 at 12:56

Oh God. Universal keyrings for me thanks. There's fun and then there's tedium (Ultima VII Part I, anyone?).

The_Raven on 9/10/2008 at 12:59

I think the main thing at work here is verisimilitude. If the game mechanics provide a decent abstraction of the real world, then it creates more of a sense of being there. Of course, the amount of abstraction that people are willing to put up with in the simulation ultimately varies with each individual. Just like with most creative endeavors, the little things really help draw the audience into the world.

ZylonBane on 9/10/2008 at 15:20

Quote Posted by BlackCapedManX

Look, numbskull. Right now, when the game is just starting production, is the ABSOLUTE BEST POSSIBLE TIME to bitch and moan as loudly as possible about things that we think are horrible design decisions. Your "It is what it is, suck it up!" attitude is simultaneously pathetic and loathsome.

And no, it's not at all "obvious" that someone will enter into battle with full health every single time. It's obviously preferable, but in a game with limited resources, sometimes you just have to roll with the situation. It's more interesting that way.

Rogue Keeper on 9/10/2008 at 16:02

Pity that DX3 devs most likely don't visit TTLG for inspiration and hints from original DX fans.

Although, is there a point in it? Last time certain guru asked us here for advices, it didn't turn ot too well. :rolleyes:

We are nothing but sheeps for them, stupid consumer masses. Sheeps they can mislead, then sell them something quite different.

The_Raven on 9/10/2008 at 16:12

Quote Posted by ZylonBane

And no, it's not at all "obvious" that someone will enter into battle with full health every single time. It's obviously preferable, but in a game with limited resources, sometimes you just have to roll with the situation. It's more interesting that way.

I guess the best cinema analogy I can come up with for this is which is a more appealing character: Roger Moore era James Bond or Indiana Jones? I'm sure most people will respond with Indiana Jones. Even though the character was very over the top and unrealistic, there was a certain amount of flaws and humanity that the character possessed that made him more appealing. I was quite amused to see that the rebooted James Bond in Casino Royal was practically Indiana Jones. Hell, that movie even had a truck fight in it.

Ostriig on 9/10/2008 at 17:13

Okay, so I bought the PC Zone. 6 quid. 6 fucking quid. Oh, no, pardon me, 5.99. And what the fuck is up with not putting a fucking price tag on the God damned thing? I'd have still bought it, but at least I'd have picked the correct bill from my wallet from the first go.

Anyway, for those who haven't bought it or seen some full scans or whatnot, here's a couple of comments that I can be bothered to remember to post right now, on top of what info is already circulating around the net. Or at least I think it's on top of that, it's quite possible that the only thing this post will bring about into the world is a +1 increase to my post count. I will be posting just a couple of short snippets directly from the article in quotes - if this is not permitted, please remove them and I will attempt to paraphrase in an edit.

Augs
There are supposed to be "at least 20" of them, with effects in the following areas (and most likely more): Stealth, Combat, Physical Strength and Social. I'm quite curious what form Social augs would take.

3rd person perspective
Apparently, it is not limited only to the stealth cover system, but also extends on what was referred to as "we want you to see Adam do cool things" - more precisely, some of the available augmentations. The following passages are relevant:

Quote:

As before, you're in first-person perspective, but the action will switch to third-person when taking cover or executing special moves and abilities (see The Ultimate Warrior box for more).

The Ultimate Warrior box presents four augs, of which the following is relevant (bold for emphasis):

Quote:

Multi-Kill
When faced with multiple opponents, Jensen can unleash a combo of devastating martial arts moves, with the action switching to third-person.

:erg:

The World
From what I gathered from the article, it may well be possible that Eidos Montreal are trying to pull a more self-running simulation of a world, a bit more in the direction of games like Oblivion, Gothic or GTA. Note that this is more of a vague supposition on my part, and I am most likely wrong.

Conversations
There's a box in the article that suggests that Eidos are working on a dialog system that may offer more than just a set of responses, but also a variable in the way said responses are given:

Quote:

By watching an NPC's body language and the manner in which they speak, you'll have to ascertain not only which response is the most effective, but the manner in which you deliver it.

Either that, or I'm reading too much into it.

"The Lowdown"
As the author called it, a small box of pros and cons shares the article's first page with only a large picture of the protagonist and an "ETA: When it's done" for company.

Quote Posted by The Lowdown

+ Trying to stay true to the original
+ Deep and intriguing plot
+ Open-ended and reactive world
+ Cyberpunk Renaissance art style
- May not please hardcore fans

In before ZylonBane

Inline Image:

http://i211.photobucket.com/albums/bb67/Ostriig/warrens.jpg
The text below that picture reads "Warren's Spector's dog".

Aside from that, the article is pretty well-written and made for an interesting after-lunch read. Thematically and artistically, the game seems interesting, but what I've read in regards to the game mechanics has done ~~little~~ nothing to alleviate concerns that appeared after the initial teaser scans popped up on the vast expanses of la toile d'araignée mondiale.

ZylonBane on 9/10/2008 at 17:52

Quote Posted by Ostriig

When faced with multiple opponents, Jensen can unleash a combo of devastating martial arts moves, with the action switching to third-person.

This isn't necessarily awful. The idea of combat computers that briefly take control over your body has existed in scifi for a long time. Whether it's cool or excruciating in-game will depend directly on how they implement it.

Let's just say I'm not a fan of so-called "quicktime events" (aka "Dragon's Lair events").

heywood on 9/10/2008 at 18:04

Quote Posted by BlackCapedManX

It doesn't matter what you want to be in DX3, because we already know they're putting auto-heal in, so whatever whimiscal aspirations of resource management you believe should be in place for health are irrelevent to what will be in the game. I was merely positing a manner in which this could at least be enjoyable for people who expect more sophistication than the "Halo-Heal."

Correction: You think auto-heal will definitely be in the game. But who knows, maybe if there is enough negative response they might think twice about it.

Regardless, I don't want it and there's no point pretending that I'm OK with it. I didn't like the health regen aug in DX1, but that was not a problem because I could install a different aug. If healing in DX3 is going to be little more than a waiting game, I think it will suck.

Quote:

More basically I'd like what Eabin said about "The Witcher," a "slow-regen" system so that when you could be better spending your time, I don't know, intereacting with the story, you don't have to "go fetch" for health packs, because outside of combat, combat-related "resource management" is just an annoying staple of the RPG moniker (you're obviously going to make sure you have full health before your next battle, so either it can refil on it's own, or you can do 10 mins of back tracking to your last medbot.)

Making best use of limited resources, inventory management, skills and character development, location specific damage and healing, etc. were all very important parts of DX1 for me. If resource management is just an annoyance to you, why play hybrid FPS/RPG games?

And more importantly, if DX3 is not going to be a hybrid FPS/RPG game, I'd rather they just go make something else rather than ruin the DX franchise the same way Bioshock ruined the SS franchise.

Quote:

Otherwise, I agree that if Rene is actually here to see what the fan base thinks (especially in what looks like fairly early into the developement process) we can at least try to give constructive feedback. We're already jaded enough that hype-mongering isn't going to get him anywhere, and in the off chance that he's actually here to listen to what we think about what we'd like from the game, being an asshole is going to pretty quickly get that chance revoked.

Offering frank and honest opinions is not being an asshole. I don't understand why some people feel like they have to kiss the ass of anybody in the biz who pops up in a TTLG forum. I'm not saying we should be rude, but we shouldn't be guarding our opinions just because somebody might be watching.

I don't know if the community's opinions matter to the dev team or not. If they do, and you think feature X sucks, it's better they hear that it sucks rather than offering wishy-washy "maybe you can tweak feature X this way..." comments that don't communicate any clear message. And if the community's opinions don't matter to the dev team, then who cares. There's no point in watering down our comments either way.

Ostriig on 9/10/2008 at 18:19

Quote Posted by ZylonBane

I don't necessarily mind that I'll be bereft of control for a couple of seconds, but I'm not too crazy about being jumped from first to third person perspective in the middle of the action. I think that what was done in the previous games, with the camera switching to third for conversations, was quite cool in that it gave a cinematic quality to these sections (just think how bland and un-dramatic Oblivion's dialog system is), but jumping me while I'm in the middle of a fight... I'm not too sure about that. Unlike the idea of "you don't like the cover system, you can just use the old-school approach" that was promised, the only way this sounds avoidable is to, you know, not take that augmentation.

I'm not saying this will turn out bad. And I certainly hope it won't. I'm saying it has a great potential to.

As for quicktime events, two words - God no!

The_Raven on 9/10/2008 at 18:41

Quote Posted by Ostriig

I'm quite curious what form Social augs would take.

"That's some heavy [breast] augmentation." :eek:

Free drinks at bars +2.