Deus Ex 3 : the music

I instantly liked the main menu music. It feels exactly right, it honors the past Deux Ex, while still being new.

In-game music is not so well balanced. There's a little too much call-back to Deus Ex music, so much so that it stinks of desperation. Even more jarring is the background music on the various radio programs you come across - they use a lot of Deus Ex music, slightly modified, but very recognizable. This produces multiple levels of cognitive dissonance. This is supposed to be a prequel, a generation at least before the original Deus Ex game. I doubt they're trying to say something meaningful here, they just thought hey let's throw in a little fan service. I appreciate the effort, but in a game context it really ruins whatever immersion you may have going.

Anyway, the background music in your apartment is beautiful and haunting. Between that and the ambience (especially when you first walk in), it feels very Bladerunner. This sounds like it should come across as really fake or cliche, but I think they actually got it right, and this is no small accomplishment. I hope there's a good quality soundtrack available sometime, I would love to just loop this in the background for days.

Deus Ex 3 - where do i put my stuff

RPGs are mostly about acquiring and collecting loot, getting a safe base to stash it in, sorting it, selling some of it to get different loot, and going out into the world and using it to get even more loot.

Fallout 3 gave you a nice big house early in the game, with many lockers to sort your stuff - this is a huge motivator for the OCD component that makes RPGs so much fun. Deus Ex has no containers you can put anything in. You can loot people you incapacitate and there are drawers and cabinets, but in all cases its a one way trip from their inventory to yours.

As a result, I'm sorting my loot on the floor of my apartment. Guns and ammo on the landing stacked by ammo type, grenades in the bedroom, food and meds in the kitchen, weapon upgrades in the living room, and cardboard boxes (useless) in the front hall. And though there is a well-thought out method to grab boxes and carefully move them around (for getting to secret places), you can't pick up any equipment and move it around simply. To manage your equipment you have to pick it up, walk to the destination, go into your inventory menu, and then drop it. And sometimes stuff rolls for a while.

For an RPG to handle loot and equipment so crudely really pours sand into the oil. Why even give you an apartment, especially one with a secret compartment, and not let you live in it?

An RPG is not just character development, its also loot development.

Deus Ex 3 : game physics

The 30 second plus disk load time knocked me out of the immersive state everytime. Fortunately this has been patched down to about 10-15 seconds, which is annoying but acceptable.

I'm warming up to the game's engine. Gaming physics engines are like buying socks that fit a wide range of foot sizes; some will fit you better than others. My most favorite ever is the Half-Life engine, and its a joy to move amongst other games with the same engine, such as Team Fortress and Portal, because it feels like there's no learning curve. When you can slip into a new game like its an old pair of broken-in shoes, any game you play that doesn't fit as well is going to hurt by comparison.

Recently in Fallout 3 I often felt mismatched, like my character was almost too short and the world was too big; which could be somewhat fixed in third-person view. Sadly, the original Deus Ex always felt like characters were floating a few inches above the ground, and not quite in the environment. The current Deus Ex feels better, but there are still some size and spacing issues.

I'm already wishing I could see Deus Ex original ported to the Deus Ex 3 engine. I wonder what its going to be like to play the original again, considering this is a prequel and looks so much better then the future in Deus Ex original (like the Star Wars prequels).

I wonder if there will be a mod scene.

Deus Ex 3

I picked it up yesterday at Best Buy. I'm going to try and stop accumulating boxed software, but I had a gift card to burn. When installed, it still integrated nicely with Steam, so that's nice.

I'm barely an hour of game time in, and its impressive. My system seems up to it, except for disk reads, but I can't do anything about that until I can get a SSD.

I'm still a little overwhelmed by all the newness, but as that fades, I expect to be totally absorbed by this one.

back to GTA

How about Vice City, for a nice filler game. There's nothing quite like tearing through Miami by motorcycle on a hot 1980s night.

Installing on Windows 7... running 1920x1080. Mouselook won't work... trying Set Affinity to 1 core. OK. No mouselook while driving, but supposedly that's normal, though I don't remember it that way. Some research... it looks like mouselook while driving was an innovation that didn't come about until GTA San Andreas. I wish I could play Vice City using San Andreas' engine. Maybe I should check out the mod scene.

Starting up game again, I forgot how awesome the loading screen is - an audio visual representation of a Commodore 64 game loading sequence, so evocative of early 80's gaming. This is the kind of thing that inspires loyalty to a franchise or gaming shop, when they let you know they get you, that they are you.

Trying XP compatibility mode to get mouselook working - doesn't work. Tabbing out to change CPU cores back to 1. It'll do for now. Must find game controller, see if it helps for helicopter flying.

This should keep me busy until Deus Ex 3. I like to play mostly one game at time, alternating with something I've already played, and in a different genre. The GTA series is great for easy pickup games.

back to System Shock playthrough

Joey's System Shock Commentary_ Part 14 - Down to Reactor

Resurrection Booths - really? We can reload from save, there's no need to ruin the story.

Joey's System Shock Commentary_ Part 15 - Lost inside her Corridors

between RPGs

Given a little time, I'm starting to miss Fallout 3, but there's nothing left to do there. I really should wait until Fallout New Vegas (i.e. Fallout 3.5) completes its add-ons and releases a Game of the Year Edition, but I could pick it up now for only $20 in the bargain bin.

Going through the screencaps is a nice walk down memory lane. I am reminded of the hours of effort, and the tedium at the end; now I don't miss it so much.

Fallout 3 GOTYE completed

I'm done with Fallout 3 GOTYE, or rather, it is done with me.

Sadly things ended with a whimper instead of a bang. The last DLC I played - Point Lookout - was some of the worst writing I've ever seen in an RPG. If I ever play through this way again, I should just remove that whole module.

Deus Ex 3 is not far now, and I've got a gift card to burn on it. No need to start anything heavy just now.