Deus Ex trailer

I would watch the hell out of this if it was an episode of Max Headroom, or a movie. Sadly, it instead appears to just be an ad for some twitchy shooter video game, meaning I could not possibly care less.

Nice ad, though.

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21 Responses:

  1. the original Deus Ex (~10 years ago) was one of the best RPG/sneaker/shooter combos that's ever shipped. multiple storylines, multiple endings, consequences to every decision, and an highly customizable ability/weapon/armor/augmentation upgrade tree. The sequel was crap, by all accounts I've heard. This would be the third in the series, and the first I've heard of it. Guess we'll see ...

    • I'm really hoping that the third game is more in tune with the first, if not in terms of game mechanics (because seriously, that sort of mechanic doesn't fly well with kids and their McGames nowadays), then hopefully in terms of having very unique designs and concepts, and a really deeply structured story.

      I hope it's not dumbed down, but then again, my ideas don't make money.

      • You call it "dumbing down", other people call it "streamlining". Take The Witcher 2, for example, which many PC gamers raved about, and other people found it frustratingly opaque. I don't have a computer that would run it--my off-the-shelf laptop would burst into flames if I so much as looked at the box for the game while I was standing in line at Best Buy--but I can't imagine I'd have much fun casting spells I can only recognize one of by name, and that's only because I'm very well-read. Why not just call them "Fireball", "Shield", "Charm", etc.

        And no, it doesn't matter if it's in some made up language. Everyone is speaking English. The original books on which the games are based are Polish. You're already translating, just translate a little more.

  2. bbot says:

    The first six hours or so, which is all I've played, is mostly robocop jokes, talking to people and reading e-mail.

    Not that you could play it anyway, of course, since it's windows-only.

    Also, it's interesting that this video lumps VersaLife and Sarif together. Though, Purity First, as an Illuminati front, probably isn't enormously concerned with factual accuracy in their propaganda.

  3. You think they'd lead with the drugs, then talk about the other stuff, going back to the drugs occasionally, in order to create an association between drugs and the other stuff. Like how 9/11 Truthers go "The gov't is lying to us!" or "our questions must be answered!" every few paragraphs.

  4. pedro says:

    If you liked that you should see the first 2 trailers (the third one is meant to present the opposing view). The first one in particular is the some of best game advertising I've seen.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jdERgfgB9Yc
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l4W5cTunKsg

    BTW the game will be an RPG first and a (hopefully non-twitchy) shooter second.

    • jwz says:

      I saw those, they're not nearly as interesting. Nothing new there. Ad agencies can write parodies of pharmaceutical commercials in their sleep.

      I'm pretty sure I still won't care at all. The video game definition of "RPG" is still, "select from the menu which of the four sentences you want your sock puppet to say", right? (That's a "choose your own adventure" flip-book, not an RPG.)

      About once every two or three years, I find a video game that interests me even slightly. I am clearly not the target market.

      Often I find the backstories cool, but just don't give a flying fuck about the gameplay itself. Generally, I hate RPGs, I hate FPSs, and I cringe every time I see the uncanny-valley machinima "acting" that passes for cut-scenes. And that's all they make now.

      For example, I really, really tried to like Bioshock, because the story, character design and environmental visuals are awesome, but I'm not sure I even made it to level 2 before giving up on it. When I quit, I thought, "Oh well, eventually they'll make a movie of this, and I'll enjoy it more, and it'll take less of my time to do so."

      • pedro says:

        I find the trailers interesting because they don't break character - note there aren't even any references to the game - and present things as the public of the fictional universe would see them - the cybernetics companies touting the beginnings of the post-human utopia, luddite/fundamentalist fringe groups accusing them of being scheming monsters. Who do you believe? We can already guess the truth will probably be somewhere in the messy middle.

        It may be nothing new in the greater scheme of SF (and advertising thereof) but it's already miles ahead of what you get in most games...

        Re RPGs: well, if you don't enjoy the moment to moment mechanics of these kinds of games then you're not going to like this one either. It's ok not to like Bioshock though, it was overrated :)

        • jwz says:

          "Overrated" tells me nothing, since obviously our quality metrics for games have little to do with each other.

      • tkil says:

        About once every two or three years, I find a video game that interests me even slightly.

        Have you happened across Geometry Wars?

        It's a nice mix of old-school vector games (Tempest and Asteroids especially), dual-joystick control (move + shoot, a la Robotron 2084), Japanese Insanity games (pods and powerups, e.g., R-Type, 1942), and lots of pretty explosions. It even reminds me a bit of the old Mac classic Grid Wars...

        It was originally a free bonus game on an XBox title, then they released a full version (Geometry Wars: Galaxies) for the Wii: I played the latter and really enjoyed it, although I would definitely recommend the classic controller instead of trying to play it with the Wiimote.

        [Apologies if this note appears multiple times; I was trying to use the LJ OpenID stuff, and it was failing...]

  5. The beginning intertitles are dorky in the extreme, but it's actually pretty good as trailer.

  6. Shay says:

    Shiny, but I gotta agree. Too lazy to play most games these days.

  7. Marcus says:

    Any guess of what this trailer's budget was compared to the entire Max Headroom series? :)

  8. Kyzer says:

    If you don't feel like playing the game, they wrote a novel for you. Same universe, same story, no twitching involved.