Prognosticating Deus Ex 3

Deus Ex is a big deal(tm) for PC gamers, and the news of Deus Ex 3 now being on the way is well worth celebrating. Rock, Paper, Shotgun takes it to (perhaps) an unhealthy level. Kieron Gillen starts with the brand-new trailer, analyzes the imagery from the piece, and jumps off into an intensely detailed theory session about what the newest chapter set in our dystopic future might entail. "In a list, the themes are fairly striking - we hit the primary icons of the human body and perfection in nature, with Da Vinci's work as the perpetual primary shorthand. The other trend is that of social upheaval and prejudice - the signs are all deliberately retro, harking back to the more obvious prejudice and societal injustices. The key bit relevant to the plot is the Biopolitic vote of 2027, which places it twenty-five years before the start of the first Deus Ex game. Which would imply prequel or (as an outside bet, which is a shame, as it's my preferred option) alternate time-line story."

Big deal, eh?

Deus Ex is a big deal(tm) for PC gamers...

Slow down, everyone. No need for everyone to post at once.

Re:Big deal, eh?

Well, yeah, it's a big deal. I think though that the /. crowd blew most of its load on the article that was posted about the original announcement. Crazy kids these days (tm) who think that good games started with Halo and ended with World of Warcraft need to get back to their roots...

DX1 was fantastic because you got presented with a world in which it was possible to think about the philosophy of surveillance and posthumanism, and conversate with well-realized characters, and also in between the chats get to regulate the bad guys with some serious hardware.

While many here have already expressed their disdain for DX:IW, I liked its presentation of a morally bleak world with many possible futures (of varying bleakness), all seriously discussed and described, and also how in between you got to regulate the bad guys with some serious fucking hardware.

Me, if the thing is thoughtful and not an intellectual hack-job, and there is the possibility of some serious bad-guy regulation (preferably with hardware, though after Half-life 2 I've become more flexible on that point), then I think we'll have ourselves a winner.

p.s. to the Editors...perhaps it would be a good plan to space out the almost-dupes a little more; it's hard to get excited today about a game that doesn't yet exist if we were just all excited about it *yesterday* and got it out of our systems.

I'll be excited...

...if and only if they promise it's not going to be some half-assed PC/platform mutant like Deus Ex 2. :P

Hope is fighting cynicism

But I'm afraid that at the moment both are still overwhelmed by fear.

The most interesting new rumor today: I see that someone at Wikipedia claims to have noticed "coop" as one of the listed features on a Deus Ex 3 whiteboard on the Eidos Montreal webpage. This could mean, in decreasing order of probability:

A. Cooperative multiplayer was an idea they were tossing around but eventually dropped when they realized how much extra work it would be for the designers.

B. The "storyline" is so noninteractive and linear that it can be played either in single player or coop without too much extra work (i.e. they're just using the "Deus Ex" name to sell more copies).

C. They're managing to take the complex universe, huge multipath levels, engaging writing and interactive branching of the original Deus Ex story to make something which is just as brilliant but which still works seamlessly when you and your friends/significant other play together.

I'm pretty sure C can't be true... I mean, the "Baldur's Gate" games only pulled it off because even the single player game included a party of characters... but I WANT TO BELIEVE.

Wake me when it comes out

Deus Ex - Warren Spector = don't really care. Especially not enough to read another pretentious article by that anal wart Kieron Gillen.

Rob

orly?

Deus Ex is a big deal(tm) for PC gamers, and the news of Deus Ex 3 now being on the way is well worth celebrating

I'm too busy trying to forget DX:IW ever happened to give a flying fuck about the next shitty sequel that's planned.

DX2 wasnt that bad...

Why all the DX2 hating? I remember picking up the xbox version for cheap a while after it was new and it still seemed pretty fun. I thought it was fairly comparable to the first game and didnt seem as dumbed down for consoles as Bioshock was compared to System shock 2.

From the people who brought you...

The only thing you can conclude from this trailer is that video game trailers are now being generated by the same VoiceOver 3000 Random Voiceover Writing Machine that seems to generate every film trailer. All that's missing are the phrases, "In a world where..." and "Now, one man must..."

That game got this shit slapped out of me.

I stopped liking that game after I asked for Deus Ex II for Christmas. I asked my mom for it, and she whapped me across the face hard.

I was completely shocked and scared by that, until I realized that asking my mom for "Deus Ex II" sounds a lot like I was asking to "Do Sex Too".

What kind of fucking name is that for a game? Right up there with Windows Sex Pee.

BioShock

If you loved Deus Ex, BioShock is your game.

Conspiracy theory about a conspiracy theory

Considering the games are all about Conspiracy Theories, is it really so wrong to examine everything about the game *as* a conspiracy theory?

I'm going to stay reservedly interested until I see more, like a proper demo. But I won't discount it outright just because Spector's not involved. After all, neither is Witchboy, which can only be a good thing.

Re:Is this payola?

I loved DX1, and finally got around to DX2 (after avoiding it for a long time). It wasn't that great, but also probably not as bad as it was made out to be (dashed expectations and so on).

But it is true that so far, the quality of DX games has been directly proportional to the involvement of Warren Spector. Since this next one doesn't involve him at all....

Re:I think the smart geeks have better things to d

Geeks have something better to do that geek out about something geeky? Whaaaaat?

Re:Is this payola?

Deus Ex 2 certainly doesn't deserve a sequel, and such a poorly developed franchise certainly doesn't warrant a press release-like "Prognosticating" zonkpost.

I think most people are saying that Deus Ex deserves a sequel.