3721

Very disappointed to find that the Director’s Cut STILL has the Cloak And Daggers quest bug which has existed since the original release and was/is present on all platforms. Got hit with it last night and had to use a hack to enable debug mode to advance the quest state. Lucky that the hack itself has been revised to work with the DC otherwise I’d have been stuffed. Feel sorry for console owners who experience this. Very sloppy, Eidos.

http://forums.eidosgames.com/showthread.php?t=120836

3722

I finished the DC on normal difficulty and I’m going through it now on New Game + at hardest difficulty, though I did turn back on the reticule as I don’t like mistakenly opening and closing lockers and drawers while trying to pick up something. Turning off the object highlights though does help the whole look of the game. I’m also turning on the commentary for the first time, and it’s quite impressive. I wish I could extract it for my game students to experience, because the Eidos folks offer a lot of great insight into the challenges of making a game like this.

Another thing I realize is that, while the game does give you a pretty good amount of freedom to do things your way, it really works the psychology and emotion angles to manage the risk/rewards of those strategies. There’s no dramatic benefit that I can see to not killing people, but the way other people talk to you and the general experience you have changes if you act in an uncaring or bloodthirsty manner. For instance, despite the fact that the benefits are fairly minor, I’ve never been able to not save the hostages in the first mission. I’ve thought about playing the entire game as a pissed-off Jensen who is PTSD to the max but I just can’t be that uncaring for the digital dudes and dudettes in the game. Hell, I even feel bad when I run out of stun gun ammo or juice for invis in Panchea and have to shoot the wackos…

3723

Hey Wombat, you said you game students in your post. What do you teach?

3724

Oh, my direct connection with them is somewhat minor. The college where I teach in the general education division (we have a fully interdisciplinary GenEd program, so though my doctorate is in History I haven’t taught pure history in ages) also has as one of its major programs BS degrees in Game Art & Animation, Game Design, and Game Programming. As part of the overall curriculum, seniors take a capstone course that involves faculty from both the major and the general education division. Right now, for the game students, this capstone is a team-based pre-production course where they use agile development processes to iterate ideas and deliver a vertical slice proof of concept by the end of the semester. We judge them at a big show, and the winning teams go on to full game production in the spring, while the teams not moved on are broken up and the students assigned to the production teams. This course is team-taught. I’ve been doing it for several years now, partnered with a game program faculty. This year I have three teams in pre-production; last year I think it was four. My job is to help them integrate all the stuff they’ve been taught in both their program classes and their general education classes. As I also spent years as a freelance writer and magazine editor in the game journalism business, and have done some (very minor) work for game companies, I at least have some common ground to work with. And of course I’ve been playing games since before my students were born, which also helps.

3725

That sounds pretty cool. I wish programs like that existed when I went to school. Can you recommend any reading for someone who likes to think about making a game - I’m mostly thinking like a game design book? Something that may help me jumpstart some idea and maybe try to take it forward.

3726

One of my colleagues (GregB, who posts here) recommends Rules of Play: Game Design Fundamentals is a book on game design by Katie Salen and Eric Zimmerman, published by MIT Press. He also notes that

learning the theory behind game design is cool, but doing stuff, just jumping in and making levels and what not, is even better. Some tools he recommends include:

Game Maker
Stencyl
Inklewriter (if you’re into narrative)
Unity
Hammer Ed
UDK

3727

Thanks Wombat!

3728

So I FINALLY got to the new Barrett fight and I’m happy to report that the changes have resulted in his being much less bullshit than before. I got him by accident on the third attempt by breaking into the turret room and letting him grenade spam himself into oblivion while stuck outside, pending an EMP grenade and revolver to the head coup de grace from Adamski. I explored the whole fight area afterwards and there are a lot of options for sneaky/hacky characters, and a good deal more breathing room for all approaches. They haven’t changed Barrett himself much at all as far as I can tell, he’s still a tank.

3729

Yeah, I sniped him from the vents once, and the second time just Typhoon+Typhoon+EMP+Revolver did it.

3730

Looks like the PC version has a list of known issues: http://steamcommunity.com/app/238010/discussions/0/810939350891608249/

The DC reviews well though: http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2013-11-05-deus-ex-human-revolution-directors-cut-review

Wendelius

3731

LOL - most of those are the dumbest things to complain about. None of them I skimmed happened to me, which is good (and makes me wonder how common they are).

I completed it this weekend and it took about 30 hours, but it was a blast throughout. I was getting a little tired of the hacking game by the end, but never enough that it stopped me from trying to get every node or anything. I didn’t run into any bugs or had any problems progressing or doing anything, it never crashed on me, and outside of needing to update my video drivers and restart to get rid of a strange stutter when I first installed it, I had an excellent overall experience.

3732

Lots of them are, yeah. Though I’ve heard about the performance issues more than once.

Glad to hear waiting for a patch is not required.

Wendelius

3733

Yeah, no issues here either. Well, other than Jensen still having a bizarre pointed chin.

3734

His chin’s been augmented, you fucking Luddite.

3735

I’m pretty sure he didn’t ask for this.

3736

Ok, I can buy that…but it’s never used! Shouldn’t there be an ability for like chin attacks?

3737

Not every augment is combat focused - this one let’s him open his cans of soup.

3738

Ah, I never put any points into that aug.

3739

Finished. Clocked in at 44 hours (I like to explore). Really enjoyed it. The Missing Link DLC was all new to me, and I enjoyed that as well. I went with hacking skills and ghosted a few missions. The game seemed much easier this time around, probably because I know where all the vents are. :)

One thing that hasn’t changed: the futuristic Roomba vacuum cleaner in Adam’s office still just sits there. Why doesn’t it work?

3740

On a whim, I decided to go for the Wii U version of the DC.

I’ve only played past the intro and am into the first mission (without spoiling much of anything, a hostage situation).

But, so far, it seems to be every bit as fun as the PC version. And the use of the WiiU gamepad is pretty neat.

When I first started playing, I had 2 main reservations about it.

First of all, I’m not a huge fan of the WiiU pad as a gamepad. The buttons mess with my muscle memory. And I’m not the best at aiming with it. Otherwise, I find it pretty comfy to use. And things are getting better as I familiarise myself with the control scheme.

Second reservation is that I played a bit of the game on my PC 2 years ago. That was in 1920 x 1200. The WiiU can’t match that resolution (I’d guess it plays in 720p?). So even though I play on a 42" screen 7 or so feet away from me, which makes for a much more immersive experience, I found myself squinting to make out some details at times. But I’ve pretty much adjusted to it now.

On the plus side, the WiiU pad is really well used. Everything is a tap away and keeps the main screen relatively free (though I have selected to display the radar on it for when I don’t want to glance down at the gamepad). The map on the gamepad is also big and clear. And looting enemies, managing your inventory or praxis is easy.

I stopped just before the point where I’ll have to perform my first hack, so we’ll see how that goes.

One thing that was fantastic though is the way the gamepad screen slowly comes to life post intro, during the opening credits. Superbly done and very atmospheric.

And, of course, playing on a big screen with surround sound has its advantages.

I’ve noticed the framerate chugging during some early cut scenes. But the gameplay has been perfectly smooth so far.

Finally, I’ve got the game downloaded to an external HD and saves and loads are plenty fast. I think it’s pretty much as fast as my PC was when I last played. Saves in a second. Loads a game in a handful seconds (sometimes a bit more if it’s reloading a new level).

As for the game, well, I loved it before and am enjoying playing as a ghost again. I’m looking forward to seeing how I can now deal with the bosses as a stealth / hacker character.

So far so good.

EDIT: I will add that if you are perfectly happy with the PC hi res graphics on your monitor and the PC control scheme (or prefer to plug in a 360 controller to using the WiiU gamepad), I wouldn’t recommend double dipping with this version. It’s only relevant if you’re happy for it to be your gateway to play DE3 on the big screen and to enjoy the second screen features on the gamepad.

Wendelius