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Feature: Don't gib it the time of day
When I turn my mind to choosing the next game for Past Perfect, I tend to pick between one of two agenda. The first is to replay a game I remember really enjoying to see if I was right to. The other is to replay a game that has a terrible reputation to see if it's deserved. I think it's obvious Daikatana appears in the…
Feature: A Keeper
Thief: Deadly Shadows will still have you fearing the light some 16 years on
I was a little afraid of returning to this one. Not because I knew it'd mean returning to The Cradle, even though I was very intrigued to see if it would still work. But because I once scored it 90% in a magazine, and I really didn't want to be wrong. What if I'd been caught up in the hype of reviewing a massive title…
Feature: Hey, teachers, leave those kids alone!
I reckon that when I was growing up I spent longer reading the manuals for games than I did playing them. The thicker the better (as the someone said to the etc.), and if it were up to me every game would come with a chunky instruction booklet. The standard these days is the in-game tutorial, and many of them feel like afterthoughts. Either they’re…
Feature: It's not bad!
Have You Played? is an endless stream of game recommendations. One a day, every day of the year, perhaps for all time. We'd remember Deus Ex: Invisible War more fondly if it weren't named Deus Ex, wouldn't we? So let's imagine that. Released in 2003 by Ion Storm, Invisible War is a flawed but pretty fun FPS action-RPG, where we get to be a swanky…
Feature: Electronic older men
Deus Ex is 15 years old, which means it's almost old enough to move out of our house and stop having to do what we say. For now though, John, Alec, Adam and Alice decided to celebrate the relentless passing of time by jotting down some memories of Ion Storm's beloved immersive sim.
Feature: Deus Exegesis
This took rather longer than we thought. But after five entries, and two weeks, I've come to my conclusions. You can read the whole saga here, if you've not yet caught up, as I chronicle my experience of replaying Deus Ex - a game I've always maintained is the Best Game Ever - fifteen years later. Was I wrong? Is it even possible for me…
Feature: Deus Examination
Is Deus Ex Still The Best Game Ever?
Part Five: Living, Playing, Ending
My chronicle of returning to Deus Ex fifteen years later, to see if I'm right when I tell anyone who comes near that it's the best game ever, is nearing its end. You can read the whole saga here. In this fifth part I contemplate the significant change in approach in the last third of the game, and then make my choice for the ending.
Feature: Deus Excruciating
Is Deus Ex Still The Best Game Ever?
Part Four: Fratricide, Gratified And Dissatisfied
And so continues my chronicle of returning to Deus Ex fifteen years later, to see if I'm right when I tell anyone who comes near that it's the best game ever. You can read the whole saga here. In this fourth edition, I once more fail to save my brother, become increasingly frustrated with the limits of the game's intelligence, and ponder whether real choice…
Feature: Deus Exclamation Mark
Is Deus Ex Still The Best Game Ever?
Part Three: Wrongfully Accused
As my re-exploration of Deus Ex continues, I find my memories clashing with the reality of the game, as I try to establish if it's still the Best Game Ever™. You can read the whole saga here. It's accusing me of crimes I didn't commit, an in turn, I start committing some crimes.
Feature: Deus Executables
Is Deus Ex Still The Best Game Ever?
Part Two: Struggles, Buggles and Reading Huggles
Here continues my attempt to discover if Deus Ex really is the best game ever, like my brain thinks. Part One is here. Today I yet again struggle to get the game working, then struggle to work within the game. But cheer myself up reading some newspapers.
Feature: Deus Existential Crisis
Is Deus Ex Still The Best Game Ever?
Part One: Memories And Hardware Renderers
When asked, “What is the best game ever?” I always give one reply. “Deus Ex.” Back in the days when my passport still allowed me into PC Gamer Top 100 meetings, I would furiously argue that it should be no. 1, and indeed become furious whenever it did not. While I may pick another name if asked for my favourite game, when it comes to…
Texture packs, replacement models, and post-processing mods can do a lot to pretty a game up, but they can't conceal that jagged old level geometry. It's an awful lot more work to re-do and update levels but by gum, the folks at Deus Ex: Revision are putting in the time. The Caustic Creative team have been tarting up and reworking Deus Ex's levels with more…
Feature: "I think we became an artform with Pong."
There are a lot of words being written about the new consoles this week but when I spoke to Warren Spector a few days ago, he was clear about where his future lies: “I think all the interesting stuff is happening on PC now… Assuming I make more games, which I intend to do, PC and Mac are going to be my targets.” It’s good…
Why wait until the increasingly plausible cyberfuture for life-extending augments, nano enhancements, and modifications? Our PC games are getting them right now, as they have been pretty much since the inception of our humble hobby. Case in point: Deus Ex. It still sees the occasional hugely ambitious mod now and then, and it's more than a decade old. Deus Ex: Nihilum, especially, fits the bill…
Remember Deus Ex's long-awaited New Vision mod? Of course you do. We brought you word of its incomplete release last year, and obviously, you've calibrated your cyber-brain's nanomachines to remember every last detail of every last revision of every last RPS post. I mean, what else would you use flawless memory superpowers for? At any rate, for those still running inferior flesh hardware, New Vision…
My wait, actually. The best bit of the PC Gamer Top 100 meetings was listening to Gamer's secret weapon Tony Ellis (if you've ever laughed at a caption or dark dark bit of humour, it was probably from Tony's sick mind), talking about Anachronox: we'd all stop flushing heads down the toilet and pause mid-Chinese burn as he told us about the insanity of Ion…
Edit: cos there are various theories flying around below about my perceived intent in posting this, I shall clarify my own feelings. I would really like to see contracts between publishers and developers more commonly include an arrangement whereby key (and ideally, but rather less plausibly, all) creatives on game projects continue to see some post-release royalties, as is the case in some other entertainment…
