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vseslav.botkin posted:Sure, but like... are the gold masks mercenaries? Why the masks? Why not make it MORE obvious they're associated with ARC, if that's the objective? For a while they seemed like an actual, radicalized splinter group. Are they all Illuminati? And somebody's going to the trouble of using the mask in graffiti, which seems odd for a covert ops hit squad. Same. The first three games each had respectively (and comparatively) tight plots. There's a lot to MD, but the good and thoughtful content is in the side missions to the detriment of the actual, you know, story. Everything we discover is setup with no payoff. We're down here on the end user side of things and really nobody gives a gently caress what we say and do - you'd think they would, but bad sales usually end up being the the genesis of some uniquely lovely micro-transactional decisions for future games (to recoup costs) instead of being a catalyst for a post-mortem that addresses the issues (both good and bad) that fans actually care about. Joke on us is that good sales somehow end up causing the exact same thing, courtesy of lovely publishers.* I don't know what the actual sales are for MD, but whatever they are they won't speak to the people that made the developers release a game that's the equivalent of the Matrix Reloaded. eeeeeeeeeeeeedit: that's a harsh comparison maybe, but for a gaming series so heavily influenced by a movie that came out seventeen years ago, it's fairly apt. *and while I'm wishing for horsies, I'd also like a publisher that isn't driven by the bottom line and mid-level executives who also aren't driven by the similar thing and who ask the developers under their working group to include the type of bullshit that we make fun of. Asbury fucked around with this message at 05:09 on Sep 16, 2016 |
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Sep 16, 2016 04:54
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vseslav.botkin posted:Sure, but like... are the gold masks mercenaries? Why the masks? Why not make it MORE obvious they're associated with ARC, if that's the objective? For a while they seemed like an actual, radicalized splinter group. Are they all Illuminati? And somebody's going to the trouble of using the mask in graffiti, which seems odd for a covert ops hit squad. They were an ex-Belltower hit squad, primarily. They drew on other groups, but the core was BT mercs that got deliberately "lost" post Incident and BT dissolving. Not sure why they went Greek Tragedy with the masks either, but it does server to link the incidents together easily (not that "terror attacks by heavily auged up squads" aren't enough of a calling card in post-Incident 2029). The bombing actually is covered by the "Save daughter" alternate questline, the extra content Downloadable novella "Hard Line" AND the pre-order DLC "desperate measures"--you'll get the who, how, and whys of that. Eliza wasn't fully under control in HR. Here, her being splintered was part of the way they handwaved the "press button" ending; now she's a wild card. Will probably play a factor in future games. Her note here was just to illustrate that the Illuminati have backup plans and can replace their tools. Everett didn't specifically send a hit squad after Jenson. He was only after the backup data, and the squad was prepped to deal with AJ should they encounter him/need to recover the data from him. Everett also is not privvy to the Janus gambit Lucius is running, so of course he doesn't care about Jenson living or not. Wheels within wheels. Proposition Joe posted:People doing manual labor were forced to get augmented, so because of the incident there is probably a lack of infrastructure/firms ready to build mega projects like Ra'biyah. That's why that building in Dubai was left unfinished. Well, that and Dubai was very Aug-friendly pre-Incident, so afterwards it was less a city and more of an unburied graveyard. Edit: Agreed about the "tie in novella" stuff. The Novella that was released covering Jenson's recovery post-Panchaea and his recruitment into TF29 was acceptable, since it's just filler backstory that doesn't really impact this game. "Hard Line" is mostly just a side story about Alex and offering some characterization on Prague. It gives the mindset and direct motivation of the bomber (ultimately) but it's not relevant otherwise. It's straddling the fence between "harmless filler" and "good details to know about the plot" OAquinas fucked around with this message at 05:14 on Sep 16, 2016 |
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Sep 16, 2016 05:05
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You know it just occurred to me, in lieu of curing cancer or other diseases, people in Deus Ex probably just had the affected parts replaced. There'd probably be a government discount on it that'd have more than just ex-soldiers buying neuropozyne. Neuro augs would probably be the most widespread though. Limitless possibilities there. Being able to use 1's and 0's to achieve transcendental meditation for instance. Or imagine if you're stuck in an elevator and it's gonna take hours to get you out, you could just put your brain in sleep mode til help arrives. Record your dreams. Or maybe you'd never have to sleep again. There'd probably be a promise of expanding lifespan too, obviously. That being said I still get why augs went to poo poo by the time of DX1.
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Sep 16, 2016 05:05
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Games need to stop doing that "you'll understand character X if you read the tie-in novella" poo poo. Put that information in the loving game.
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Sep 16, 2016 05:07
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Slate Action posted:Games need to stop doing that "you'll understand character X if you read the tie-in novella" poo poo. Put that information in the loving game. The world left stand-alone plots behind long ago. Cross-genre tie-ins are the future. We have other profitables. MIcro-transactions? Formed by executive order after the success of horse armor in Oblivion. I have someone in place, though. I'm more concerned about CD Projekt Red. They're located in Poland. Our customer corpus is far in advance of theirs, as is our shareholder sentience. And their... ethical inflexibility has allowed us to make progress in areas they refuse to consider. The one-time DLC project? Among other things -- but I must admit that I have been somewhat disappointed in the performance of the primary unit. The secondary DLC unit should be online soon. It's currently undergoing preparation and will be operational within six months. My people will continue to report on its progress. If necessary, the primary can be put on sale. We've had to endure much, you and I, but soon there will be order again, a new age. Ubisoft spoke of the mythical lovely but profitable intellectual property. Soon that property will be a reality, and we will be given executive bonuses. Or better than bonuses. Parachutes. Asbury fucked around with this message at 05:28 on Sep 16, 2016 |
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Sep 16, 2016 05:16
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Novella tie-ins are the most effective means of delivering non-essential information though. Books are literally designed to be giant walls of text that can explain a character outside of the actual story, it'd be lovely and weird to have to click through a 20-page glass-reader in-game; reading about some guy's entire backstory while ignoring how the information got there in the first place.
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Sep 16, 2016 05:33
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You're right, but video game writing has hit a caliber where any missing backstory is painfully noticeable. It's on developers to use the conceits of the genre to tell a whole story. Nobody pays sixty bucks for a third of a book, especially one that's missing character-driven history (e.g. Alex and the JC) that's essential to character motivation.
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Sep 16, 2016 05:39
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Alex is a major character and it would have been nice if she got any character development in the actual game.
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Sep 16, 2016 05:41
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A nice bit of characterisation I noticed during the SM01011000 (Helle) sidemission on a replay that I musn't have been paying attention to the first time around - when Helle reveals herself as a part of the original Eliza, Jensen's sunglasses retract so she can see him properly. Reminded me of in HR when Jensen deploys the sunnies as soon as he walks into Sarif Industries for the first time as a nervous tic
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Sep 16, 2016 05:42
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goku i won't do what u tell me
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As long as we're going through this, I think I might have missed a few emails about Marchenko. I know he's tied into the Illuminati somehow, and I think I read somewhere that he's being forced to do this against his will? I'm also really curious about whether we're gonna see any MJ-12 in future games; I actually read a book about the real-life version and they're a pretty fascinating almost certainly not real bunch. I might need to go back to the original Deus Ex, because it seems strange that they would become so powerful in the future.
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Sep 16, 2016 05:46
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Don't believe me? It's all in the numbers. Number one: Square enix. Number two: Square enix.
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Sep 16, 2016 06:48
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3Romeo posted:The world left stand-alone plots behind long ago. Cross-genre tie-ins are the future.
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Sep 16, 2016 08:53
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Belltower did not dissolve, they did an Enron or Blackwater and just changed the name.
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Sep 16, 2016 08:55
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Slate Action posted:On PC I was able to tap Spacebar to speed through the vendor dialogue in a couple seconds.
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Sep 16, 2016 10:54
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if bob page is illuminati and they're trying to make people hate augs why does he have augmented eyes?
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Sep 16, 2016 11:15
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Oh man, I just finished I Never Asked For This difficulty, loud and lethal. The last mission I basically spent in constant focus mode because I had 50+ biocells saved up, just headshotting every soldier I saw in slowmo while sprinting. The combat in this game is a lot more fun than it was in Human Revolution.
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Sep 16, 2016 11:47
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Millions of Crows posted:Was Human Revolution as bad for it? I remember in HR that the cutscenes leading up to boss battles were the dumbest. Every single loving time Jensen would lower his guard for no reason and just wander into what was obviously a trap.
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Sep 16, 2016 11:51
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Dreggon posted:if bob page is illuminati and they're trying to make people hate augs why does he have augmented eyes? I think it's about control. Augmentations are seen as a threat to the Illuminati power base, and as such need to be controlled. How do you control augmentations? By controlling perception. If the very concept of augmentation makes people upset, they're far less likely to actually try to purchase them. They're effectively controlling themselves. Then those people oppress, and control, the augmented minority. Meanwhile, the elite can further expand their power base by augmenting themselves, further increasing the divide between them and the people they rule over. Page, like most of the rest of the illuminati, work behind the curtain, so it doesn't matter if they're visibly augmented. They have emissaries to serve as their public face.
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Sep 16, 2016 12:02
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Page is a known public face as the head of Versalife. He's simply rich and powerful enough he doesn't have to care.
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Sep 16, 2016 12:21
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Riso posted:Page is a known public face as the head of Versalife. He's simply rich and powerful enough he doesn't have to care. It helps that he has two lines on his face and beautiful eyes rather than grasshopper robot legs. This probably wouldn't fly, though: 
Xeremides fucked around with this message at 13:09 on Sep 16, 2016 |
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Sep 16, 2016 13:06
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He probably spent a billion a year to stave off death.
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Sep 16, 2016 13:19
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i wonder if juggernaut collective = jc = jc denton even though he was made by the illuminati i stealth punched my way through palisade bank and when the guards respawned in my second visit i did it again i have so much praxis  the hacker vendor restocked with more hack software and if tars restocked his praxis kits i'm going to be drowning in theme: hahaha just looked at millers computer on second prague visit, joseph manderly has a pornstache where the red fern gropes fucked around with this message at 14:00 on Sep 16, 2016 |
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Sep 16, 2016 13:52
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My favourite part of my visit to the Palisade bank was getting to the vault area, and instantly spotting a secret button to the security room from all the practice Grimrock gave me 
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Sep 16, 2016 14:21
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Riso posted:Page is a known public face as the head of Versalife. He's simply rich and powerful enough he doesn't have to care.
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Sep 16, 2016 14:32
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Pilchenstein posted:I heard that in their loving voices and I've not played the original in a decade or so. I started hearing their voices before consciously realizing that was the DX1 intro.
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Sep 16, 2016 14:37
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Danaru posted:My favourite part of my visit to the Palisade bank was getting to the vault area, and instantly spotting a secret button to the security room from all the practice Grimrock gave me i broke in through the back because i didn't have object highlighting on and figured i had to go around then i saw the rock then i saw the email with an attachment pointing out the rock still stole a lot of praxis from there
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Sep 16, 2016 14:37
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OAquinas posted:Well, that and Dubai was very Aug-friendly pre-Incident, so afterwards it was less a city and more of an unburied graveyard. Dubai irl has borderline slave labor and a lot of augs in the game are done to make more efficient manual labor. So Dubai in the game was probably pretty hosed up even before the incident.
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Sep 16, 2016 14:40
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Pharmaskittle posted:Dubai irl has borderline slave labor and a lot of augs in the game are done to make more efficient manual labor. So Dubai in the game was probably pretty hosed up even before the incident. Dubai is also a hub for human trafficking and prostitution, so if Hengsha in HR is anything to go by, there were plenty of augs to be found in that arena, as well. It's the perfect place for a mini apocalypse, what with all of the various types of slaves being forced to get augmented.
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Sep 16, 2016 15:02
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Where is the keycard for the tarvos security vault? I found the picus one and the one you're basically given but never that one
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Sep 16, 2016 15:15
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Digirat posted:Where is the keycard for the tarvos security vault? I found the picus one and the one you're basically given but never that one Sobchak Security basement. It's in a safe.
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Sep 16, 2016 15:30
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Xeremides posted:Sobchak Security basement. It's in a safe. Password: WhatDoesAnythingHaveToDoWithVietnam
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Sep 16, 2016 15:34
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you know what would really improve this series? racism
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Sep 16, 2016 16:20
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well sheeeeeeiiiit
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Sep 16, 2016 17:01
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Dreggon posted:you know what would really improve this series? racism It already has prejudice though. In my new game, for some reason the Sobchak Security store had police tape all over it and a cop out front. I didn't kill anyone. I always rob the place but this is the first time I've seen that.
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Sep 16, 2016 17:04
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Lunethex posted:It already has prejudice though. I noticed some of the safes didn't reset in my NG+ either.
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Sep 16, 2016 17:12
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My NG+ playthrough has been pretty fun, if anything just for doing quests in different order than the first time. I went and got the brain gizmo for my augs before Voller event asked me for it, and I'm pretty sure I accidentally blew Otar away in the process - I'm not sure what's up now though, because it's NG+ and I already have all my augs working without glitches, and Voller's shop is now entirely boarded up and inaccessible in my game. I put off going into Miller's NSN device and was able to run around taking care of some sidequests while ignoring the fake MILLER COULD COME BACK AT ANY MOMENT prompts, and wound up discovering what I assume is the Eliza Cassan sidequest that I totally missed the first time. Looking forward to doing the bomb quest instead of the bank this time. I never saved Miller my first playthrough and I guess I won't this time either, but I really want to see the Church of the Singularity stuff I missed last time. You can't even get inside that place until a certain point in the main plot, right? Haven't found the keycard to do so yet. Plot and gameplay discussion aside, does anyone know if the developers are *aware* on some level of the criticism the game is getting for pretty obviously being cut in half with missions cut out and repackaged as DLC? I want to believe that whatever the immediate sequel is will be "better" but I'm not holding my breath if it's just essentially Part 2 of the same game. Having read about the way Breach mode and the microtransactions were shoehorned into the game last minute, it seems pretty obvious to me that the whole NSN segment where you have to hack and play Breach mode to access the archived conference call was thrown in there last minute. The whole cutscene is set up like you originally just sat in the chair and pulled up the archive. Like, why the gently caress would Miller have to run around and hack a bunch of bullshit every time he wanted to use that chair? It felt really bolted-on. Last comment: I saw the preview for the new DLC coming out with Pritchard in it, and I have to say I'm pretty disappointed that they are including a bunch of hacker-Breach mode poo poo in it. Breaking into Palisade's big building - BETTER FIRE UP MY VR HACKING AVATAR, HELL YEAH SO SICK - OH NO I NEED HELP FROM SHADOWCHILD
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Sep 16, 2016 18:13
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This game's take on augmentations is weird. It treats augmented people like they're glorified forklifts - you hear more about construction workers and soldiers than anything else. Wouldn't the social and mental augments have a way, way bigger impact on society? Constant photographic recall and recording, always-online connectivity/research/communication, high-powered social manipulation... It's like they just wrote down AUGS = BLACK PEOPLE and didn't think about what kind of impact it would have on the world beyond people not really liking them.
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Sep 16, 2016 18:31
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The thing that bugs me is that augs live in a world where they're hated, feared, shunned and discriminated against because of their prosthetic leg or whatever. Why the gently caress do they all wear clothes with sleeves and legs cut off to show their augments? Wear a normal loving jacket and gloves and nobody would look twice. (Let's not start talking about how dumb it is that you can be mind-controlled into a murderous rage by your robot arm)
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Sep 16, 2016 18:50
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AwkwardKnob posted:Looking forward to doing the bomb quest instead of the bank this time. I never saved Miller my first playthrough and I guess I won't this time either, but I really want to see the Church of the Singularity stuff I missed last time. You can't even get inside that place until a certain point in the main plot, right? Haven't found the keycard to do so yet. I was able to go into the Church immediately after I did the bank mission. All the cops were still friendly because it was Act2 and I raided everything + the Praxis point.
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Sep 16, 2016 18:50
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Gort posted:(Let's not start talking about how dumb it is that you can be mind-controlled into a murderous rage by your robot arm) The better mechanicals require a direct link into the brain, with maybe a chip or something. They're not just metal versions of surface muscletwitch response prosthetics, they're literally machines hooked into your nervous system. And all it might take is a little extra uncontrolled voltage/amperes running through your system to gently caress up your chemical balances. *sci/fi*
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Sep 16, 2016 18:59
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