By John Walker on September 8th, 2011 at 5:28 pm.
The order in which information arrives is very confusing. Everyone heard about Deus Ex: Human Revolution’s The Missing Link DLC earlier this week, and today Square have officially announced it. But that means we also get pictures and a video. I’ve augmented the post with the details below. Do you see? I said “augmented the post”. Because in Deus Ex you augment yourself with augments, and so in saying “augmented the post” I’m applying that theme to a piece of writing about the game. It’s a bit of wordplay.
How did Squenix/Eidos miss out on the marketing gold that was noticing their game came out in AUGust? Eh? Seriously, why am I not in charge of everything?
There are six screenshots released (the one above I’ve captured from the teaser, because it had dribble in it), but one of them is so awful I’m not going to waste your time. And then to finish we’ll have the teaser.
So, here’s Jensen in a chair, on a boat, drooling:
The DLC will appear some time next month.
08/09/2011 at 17:31 Linfosoma says:
Oh come on, there’s a screenshot that’s an eye and you added no “Staring Eyes” tags? I am disappoint.
EDIT: Let’s make that comment a bit more productive:
I loved this game, those screenshots look great (shirtless Adam, woo!), I look forward to this.
08/09/2011 at 17:32 John Walker says:
THERE IS ONLY ONE EYE.
08/09/2011 at 17:37 westyfield says:
He’s not even staring!
08/09/2011 at 17:45 Njordsk says:
I propose GLOWING EYE as a new tag then.
08/09/2011 at 17:46 Nick says:
staring eyes is only for the main post image, Shirley.
08/09/2011 at 17:33 Sidorovich says:
STAY CALM!
08/09/2011 at 17:33 N says:
He’s not drooling, he’s salivating.
08/09/2011 at 17:35 Delixe says:
I salute your superior dribble capture sir.
08/09/2011 at 17:36 ResonanceCascade says:
Thank God, new enemy models! But if this ends in a boss fight, you can bet I’ll be writing Eidos a strongly worded letter. I might even use some swears.
08/09/2011 at 17:45 Magnetude says:
If it ends in a boss fight, it would confirm that they made this DLC months ago and chose to cut it out of the main game. The terrible boss fights are about the only thing the whole internet agreed on. Fingers crossed!
Edit (I’m doing a lot of that today): It comes out next month? Jesus, at least pretend to make an effort on this stuff! No offense to the dev team, but the publisher has been terrible, from the pre-order incentives, retailer-specific weapons and now this?
08/09/2011 at 18:22 Maktaka says:
It’s pretty common for the first DLC to hit shortly after release. You need to strike while the iron’s hot and all that, or in this case release something people can buy while they’re still hyped up on the game.
08/09/2011 at 18:35 Okami says:
@Magnetude:
Why do you think that the developers aren’t making any effort on this? Do you really think that they’ve only been working on this for 30 days?
Now here’s how DLC development usually works (details may and will vary from studio to studio):
The workload in game development isn’t evenly spread across all disciplines during all phases of the projects. Different departments will have more or less to do during different stages of development. As the game nears completion, some people will find that their workload increases and others will spend a lot of time idling around (which should never happen).
In a really big studio (especially the huge development sweat shops run by the big publishers) people will be assigned to different projects as needed, in order to minimize downtime. Smaller developers will often have to let people go (I do love euphemisms) if they find their funds running dry. Some guys will start working on protypes for other games. And some people will start working on the DLC.
Actual planning for the DLC can begin months before release, usually when people find out that they won’t be able to include all the content and features they’d like to have in the game. “We’ll ship that as part of the DLC/expansion pack” is a commonly heard phrase.
A competent producer will look at the state of the project and slowly begin assigning people who are finished with their work on the core game (or who have only very little to do. Fixing the odd bug that comes in, for example), to work on the DLC. That level designer is done with his levels and they’re already bug free? Let him prototype some stuff for the DLC. Have a gameplay programmer who isn’t needed? Start implementing features for the DLC.
This might seem like an evil thing, because surely everything a developer working on game X creates belongs by heavenly law to the gamers. Not quite. A game has a certain budget (well usually games have a number of different budgets that tend to get bigger the longer development lasts and people start to realize that all their nice project planning they did and that looked so nice on a spreadsheet didn’t survive first contact with that age old nemesis of planning: reality) and there’s only so much content you can create with that. The only reason developers are able to pay the people working on the DLC content is, because it has it’s own budget. Otherwise they would be working on other projects. Or be looking for new jobs.
Now none of this means that the DXHR DLC won’t be a hastily thrown together cash-in. That might still be the case. But just because it comes out one month after release doesn’t mean it has to be.
08/09/2011 at 19:17 DrGonzo says:
I think it’s the fact they are planning on this stuff before its even finished that is the problem. There is no reason not to make add ons and such, but they should be because you can see an opportunity for some interesting bits of the game or a good story. Not just for the sake of it. As Okami pointed out, cut content is often a decent reason if it wasn’t simply cut to make DLC, if they simply didn’t have the time or money then I see it as a good thing.
I have no idea about this Deus Ex DLC, screenshots look quite promising though. But there seems to be a complete lack of effort from some game companies to even pretend they are making anything other than just a product.
08/09/2011 at 17:40 Veracity says:
I do not see what you did there. Could you further explain wherein the humour resides?
08/09/2011 at 18:38 Droopy The Dog says:
The humour is derived from sarcasm, lots of sarcasm.
As is, I believe, the humour in your comment.
The humour in mine is derived from explaining something ad nauseum… Wait, that’s not funny.
Maybe it’s funny by replying to a sarcastic post entirely seriously? No, that’s not funny either.
Ah, but now it’s funny by means of cruel satire.
Openly acknowledging the ploy means the humour must now be classified as self-referential instead.
The ever expanding need to reclassify the humour would however make this borderline farcical.
Acknowledging the farce again establishes a recursive self-referencing/farce pattern which can be considered meta-humourous.
This post can now be classified as explaining something ad nauseum in a humourous fashion, overturning an apparently self-evident assertion at the start by means of a series of linked conclusions, and has trancended to more traditional wit.
08/09/2011 at 19:50 AlwaysRight says:
Can you elaborate please?
08/09/2011 at 17:40 AlwaysRight says:
I thought Deus Ex (HR… obviously) was missing the obligatory “hero gets caught and loses all of his weapons for a while to change up the gameplay then finds all of his kit in a box that the baddies have kindly kept all together” bit.
Edit: There, ammended for you Pedant252
08/09/2011 at 18:05 Danny252 says:
Hopefully you mean “DXHR”. Because DX1 certainly had that.
08/09/2011 at 18:07 Josh04 says:
It’s quite cunning, because it will hopefully mean the DLC can be played either on it’s own or as part of the main game.
08/09/2011 at 18:44 LionsPhil says:
DX1 had the particularly hateful quirk that picking up a duplicate of a weapon you already had took its ammo then annihilated it from the universe. Which was normally fine, and very consistent with genre conventions.
Except that on your way to your box’o'stuff, you may have picked up some generic pistol to make do, and in your haste forget to drop it, thus causing your treasured and heavily modified own pistol turn to ashes in your hands as you click use to reunite with it in the armoury.
08/09/2011 at 19:02 Jeremy says:
Random memory from DA:Origins. You were in prison without any gear for about 17 seconds before you ran into a chest that the guards somehow thought would be a good idea to place two steps away from your jail cell.
08/09/2011 at 19:14 somini says:
I’m playing DX1 now and the fact is that you keep the better weapon, even when you pick the crappy one first. Confirmed with quicksaves…
08/09/2011 at 19:31 AlwaysRight says:
I do like it when you get captured in games, Its a great technique to combat the whole inverse difficulty curve problem (when done well). I felt very overpowered from about half way onward in DXHR and I was playing ultra pacifist.
Whats your favourite instance of this mechanic?
Mine off the top of my head was probably from Metal gear solid.
08/09/2011 at 20:51 Juan Carlo says:
Dragon Age: Awakenings was the absolute worst example of this ever. Mainly because they took your stuff, you had to fight through an entire long level without it. Then, after all that, there was a bug where if you were a battlemage class your stuff disappeared permanently and you never got it back.
To make things worse, Bioware never bothered fixing this bug.
It happened to me and I didn’t have a recent save game to fall back on so I raged and didn’t come back to the game for like 3 months I was so pissed.
08/09/2011 at 22:37 geoffreyk says:
I was not a Battlemage, but I ran into the same bug anyway; the explanation that I found had to do with you having gear from one of the expansions when you entered the mines. The background above the dude is black instead of the wall texture in the cutscene, and then you know you’re hosed. Very irritating to find out that it is a known bug, with no planned fix.
09/09/2011 at 02:52 LionsPhil says:
somini: Playing with Shifter or something? I distinctly remember this actually affecting me and having to revert to an earlier save. I guess that would have been first playthrough, though, so an official patch might have caught it…
08/09/2011 at 17:42 Orija says:
Pretty sure his abs are augmented too, remind of Batman’s utility belt.
08/09/2011 at 17:47 Njordsk says:
Nah got the same.
Oh wait…
08/09/2011 at 20:01 Salt says:
His muscles are quite curious.
His pectoralis majors presumably don’t attach to anything on the arms any more as those are now conveniently detachable. I wonder if the surgeons reattached them somewhere on the chest where they’d be useless, but at least not floating freely around. Presumably they will atrophy quite rapidly from lack of use.
Actually I notice he’s only bleeding from areas high up on his chest, above a subtle horizontal line in his skin. Maybe his bare chest and stomach are actually artificial. That would explain the lack of scarring from having most of his abdominal cavity scooped out and replaced.
08/09/2011 at 20:17 obowersa says:
That would actually make a fair bit of sense.
If I remember rightly the Typhoon Explosive System requires a reinforced torso chassis ( may be wrong on this will have to recheck.) So, it’s entirely possible a large amount beneath the skin is actually augmented.
08/09/2011 at 21:49 suibhne says:
That would also explain why his abs are so laughably, unrealistically symmetrical. Either that, or the artists simply don’t know any better.
09/09/2011 at 09:16 Dhatz says:
redesigning his arm muscles to ignore original chest muscles must be kind of counterintuitive to use.
08/09/2011 at 17:46 Theory says:
This might actually be the first time I buy any DLC. Unless the price is crazy of course…
08/09/2011 at 19:01 surv1vor says:
Et moi.
08/09/2011 at 17:46 Magnetude says:
Gunther and Anna Navarre in the third screenshot?
Edit: Just watched the trailer, nope. Unless their accents get augmented.
08/09/2011 at 17:48 Theory says:
Nice idea, but their accents in the video are wrong.
08/09/2011 at 20:12 morgofborg says:
At the time of the game, Hermann is getting rebuilt Jensen-style after getting exploded in the novel. Navarre is max 10 years old.
08/09/2011 at 17:48 ZIGS says:
I wonder how long this’ll be
08/09/2011 at 17:50 Kdansky says:
They sure have forgotten how to properly torture someone. Punching? Seriously? The old Romans were more creative than that!
Might actually buy that one, purely because I think the game was good enough to be overpriced.
08/09/2011 at 17:53 Magnetude says:
Haha true. Can Adam even feel pain? Getting chinned by Barrett didn’t even knock any HP off him, his jaw is literally made of metal for the Machine God’s sake!
08/09/2011 at 17:51 Calneon says:
Looks like Dead Space. Very interested in this.
08/09/2011 at 17:51 Balobam says:
Hey it’s raining!
That was the one thing I wanted included in the game, for it to be raining in the hub cities at least one of the times you were there. I bet it would look awesome.
08/09/2011 at 17:53 The Sombrero Kid says:
Lets launch a website in october adverising something coming in october.
EDIT: Why did i think this month was october & more importantly why did no one correct me!
08/09/2011 at 17:53 Josh04 says:
Ah! So this is the tragedy to match with Deus Ex’s sublime supertanker farce!
08/09/2011 at 17:55 glix says:
Now for the price to be announced, or at least the playtime for it.
Hell I’ll probably buy it anyway for the shirtlessness. Heh.
08/09/2011 at 17:55 Zedo Mann says:
Augmented and on a boat Left for (4) Dead?
How much can we link to this DLC?
08/09/2011 at 17:57 Sauceror says:
That’s the weirdest six pack ever..
08/09/2011 at 18:04 Linfosoma says:
@Sauceror
All character models in DX:HR had some seriously questionable anatomy, no mather though, the level design more than makes up for it.
09/09/2011 at 02:30 Juan Carlo says:
Yeah, torsos especially were very strange looking. I’m not sure what it was, but it was very “polygon-y” or something. It’s like they stuck very high rez textures on 3D models from 2001.
Either that or characters’ torsos/waists were just too long.
It especially jarring since, as you say, the art direction of the world was so well done. Design of individual rooms and, especially, all the clutter, art objects, appliances, books, and brickabrack was really well done. But the character design was really strange looking.
08/09/2011 at 18:09 der jester says:
I desperately want someone to re-cut the trailer to “I’m on a boat”
08/09/2011 at 18:35 ssbowers says:
You forgot the part where it’s free on PC.
08/09/2011 at 19:12 Magnetude says:
Criminal scum.
08/09/2011 at 21:01 HothMonster says:
you seem to be confusing someone with Valve
08/09/2011 at 18:40 Gunstar Zero says:
I wonder if they deactivate his arms
08/09/2011 at 18:42 Dana says:
Hopefully a closure to the awful ending.
08/09/2011 at 18:44 cristhianfs says:
His abs are augmented too it seems, as commented early which makes my comment totally irrelevant, carry on then
08/09/2011 at 18:49 stele says:
Go Adam Go!
08/09/2011 at 18:51 magnus says:
So no one’s thought of making a ‘Man in a boat’ reference yet? :(
08/09/2011 at 19:08 stele says:
I thought he was making a Go Dog Go reference.
08/09/2011 at 18:57 Jnx says:
This certainly is interesting.. oh wait, it’s not.
I can’t see myself buying this DLC or any other for that matter. Why don’t they just make games, you know, complete? Story based rpg’s are the worst place to try put dlcs on. Gah, I hate all the common trends of games industry.
On a sidenote though: I’ve bought all the DLCs released to Gratuitous Space Battles. That is stuff done right. Haven’t seen any major publisher / dev do anything DLC related right though. >:C
08/09/2011 at 20:08 skinlo says:
Pity GSB is a boring game.
08/09/2011 at 23:34 thecat17 says:
Jnx, see this.
09/09/2011 at 06:10 KenTWOu says:
@Jnx
http://www.elpixelilustre.com/2011/08/entrevista-con-chris-avellone.html/2
Chris Avellone: …no one gives a shit about DLC as long as it can boost sales of the original, blocks rentals and sell-backs-to-the-store, and be potentially rolled into a larger edition and make more money, so you have more freedom over the narrative, release dates (digital release is sooooo much better than physical copies when it comes to putting out a game, and I’d argue it makes for a better game as well as helping the environment), game titles (there is no way we could ever named a triple A sixty-buck title “Old World Blues” and gotten away with it), themes, and playing around with game mechanics to try out new ideas.
09/09/2011 at 17:07 Jason Moyer says:
How does the GSB DLC differ from what 2K has been doing with Civ 5? Or what Paradox has been doing with every game they have on Steam?
08/09/2011 at 18:57 TheGroovyMule says:
That line in the trailer “Please, I just want to go home” Sounds almost exactly like that one line in Amnesia: The Dark Descent, similar audio effects 0.o
Or is that just me?
08/09/2011 at 19:13 Theory says:
Nobody says that. You’re having hallucinations.
08/09/2011 at 19:19 TechRogue says:
I’m hallucinating similarly.
08/09/2011 at 19:23 Magnetude says:
It’s one of the ladies, isn’t it? You know, the ladies that there are three of them. They complain of cold a lot. Near the end.
08/09/2011 at 21:01 TechRogue says:
Yeah, I think that’s what it is. What’s the deal with them, anyway? What are they for? Is there a way to save them or something?
08/09/2011 at 19:11 cluongo says:
So what was that crap that came with my game saying I get some DLC for free? Is this it?
08/09/2011 at 23:48 MrTrent says:
No, the free “dlc” that was included in the game if you pre-ordered it was the mission where you rescue Tracer Tong.
08/09/2011 at 19:22 Magnetude says:
Repleng feng.
08/09/2011 at 19:25 Saiko Kila says:
Eh, I was just going to buy DXHR, but now I see it would be smarter to wait for the GOTY or Santa Claus edition. Also cheaper. Fortunately I have a backlog to clear in the meantime. DLC so shortly after release is simply imprudent.
08/09/2011 at 19:38 AlwaysRight says:
Incisive consumer advice.
Thanks Martin Lewis (money saving expert).
08/09/2011 at 20:05 Iskariot says:
I would rather pay 19 or even 29 bucks for a really substantial expansion than several times 9 bucks for all those broken up little DLC’s. Breaking up a game in little pieces destroys the gameplay experience. The same thing happened with the butchered Mass Effect 2. I liked the game, but I am definitely not buying this.
08/09/2011 at 20:13 povu says:
I’m willing to pay more if it doesn’t end in a boss fight.
08/09/2011 at 21:17 Ezhar says:
John needs to put some praxis points in his wordplay augmentation.
08/09/2011 at 23:40 JackDandy says:
Freaking DLC… So soon after release.. I hate modern gaming!
But I really enjoyed this game too, so I’ll get it. orz
08/09/2011 at 23:45 Radiant says:
HIS VOICE DOES NOT MATCH HIS FACE!
It’s like Jack Palance is walking around narrating the whole game just out of shot.
The weird head bobs of everybodyinthegame is evidence of this as they look around and wonder what the fuck is going on.
08/09/2011 at 23:46 Radiant says:
They’re also wondering who stole all the cars. #copmonopoly
09/09/2011 at 00:50 L0Bi says:
Hey there is a save the girl mission? Is she stripper that falls asleep in a big cake? Time for some augmented gratitude, go go gadget peni-. C’mon it’ made in canadia, why wouldn’t it have pixelpron.
09/09/2011 at 00:58 Lazaruso says:
And go in, and go in, and go in, and go in, like the US Marshall and his three daughters?
09/09/2011 at 01:07 haisaic says:
Sex tool for sell that you will like them ,welcome to http://tinyurl.com/3zogvql
09/09/2011 at 01:11 hermpesaurusrex says:
I wonder if they’ll explain why our hero decided to take a nap in a random crytube thingy he found by accident in a skeevy dock owned by his enemies…
09/09/2011 at 02:26 Juan Carlo says:
EDIT! Posted wrong spot.
09/09/2011 at 04:05 LostViking says:
“I’ve augmented the post with the details below. Do you see? I said “augmented the post”. Because in Deus Ex you augment yourself with augments, and so in saying “augmented the post” I’m applying that theme to a piece of writing about the game. It’s a bit of wordplay.”
Haha. I love the dry humor guys, keep it up ;)
Btw, I tried the Hard Reset demo recently, and the first thing that struck me was “why didn’t DXHR have this level of graphics and physics!”.
Even without any people around the city just seemed so much more realistic.