DEUS EX: Human Revolution Limited EditionXbox 360

Released on 26-Aug-2011.

• Deus Ex: Human Revolution Review

  Evolve, don't revolve

  In the world of Deus Ex: Human Revolution, the future isn't that bright - the whole game seems to be set at midnight on the darkest night of the year - but it certainly is orange. This first-person action role-playing game is heavily influenced by classic Ridley Scott film Blade Runner and so every scene is shot through with bloody auburn rays of mood lighting.

  A lot of them land on main character Adam Jensen, security chief at Sarif Industries, a company that specialises in biological augmentations. Augmentations are implants and prosthetic limbs and enhancements that increase the speed, reactions and mental capabilities of the people they are grafted onto, and in the year 2027 they are hotly debated. Should humans be allowed to upgrade themselves? What if it's their only chance of a normal life? Do we need regulation?

  New model armsies

  Jensen is at the heart of the debate because right at the start of the game Sarif is attacked and he is badly injured. In order to get him back on his feet, Sarif uses augmentations - new arms, neural implants and all sorts of other abilities - which Jensen can't use immediately but can activate later on as he recovers and investigates who it was who attacked.

  But while this is a game about Adam Jensen in a story sense, it's really about how you choose to play it. A bit like the Dragon Age and Mass Effect series from BioWare, this is a game where you can impact the world by saying certain things in conversation or by your use of violence or restraint. But unlike those games, it really wants you to experiment and have fun.

  For example, in the first main mission you need to infiltrate a Sarif factory that has been occupied by terrorists. Your goal is to retrieve some sensitive files related to a new augmentation Sarif is designing for the US government, and you can go about this however you like.

  Machina a mess

  You can use lethal force - sneaking up behind enemies and slicing them with your retractable arm swords, or shooting them in the back of the head, or ripping them to shreds with your combat rifle. When you reach the terrorist leader, you can shoot him before he can take out his hostage. Alternatively, you can bypass all the guards by sticking to rooftops and air vents, hiding behind crates, using non-lethal means like a tranquiliser rifle or stun gun to subdue enemies you can't easily evade. And when you reach their leader, you can let him go, or find a means to arrest him without losing the civilian he's pointing a gun at.

  Everywhere you go you can find out more about what's happening by exploring and using your hacking skills to break into computer terminals and side rooms. You're caught up in a global conspiracy, so information is power, and there's a lot of it lying around if you know where to look.

  Jensen Buttons

  Your augmentation abilities help. At certain intervals you get Praxis Points, which you can spend on new ones that allow you to jump higher, hack faster, see enemies' cones of vision on your mini-map, become temporarily invisible, run without making a sound, and so on. There are nearly 80 to collect and you can't get them all on a single playthrough, which - along with the multiple routes through every level - feeds into a real sense of making your mark on the world rather than just ticking boxes on your way through it.

  All the other key elements fit brilliantly around this core - the stealth system is almost perfect, allowing you to take cover elegantly and easily understand where you will be visible from, while the combat is close to Metal Gear Solid in the way it mixes close-quarters takedowns with high-powered futuristic weaponry. There are also side missions that tell you more about Jensen's past and it's all cleverly organised in a slick and efficient menu system that lets you get to what you want quickly and with a minimum of fuss.

  The only black marks against the game really are some annoying boss encounters, which force you to get into gunfights, and some bad loading times on console. The boss fights are actually pretty simple, but they are upsetting because the rest of the game is built around letting you choose your own approach and the boss fights give you no option but to fight.

  The only future is the one we make for ourselves...

  But they are easily forgivable. This is a huge game - 25 hours long, and you'll want to play it multiple times - and it looks and plays fantastically throughout. The story is gripping, the augmentations and level design give you an amazing range of choices, and it's as polished as anything else in the genre. If you like the idea of choosing how to save the world rather than just saving it, this is the game for you.

  

  HOT:
  + Brilliant level design
  + Cool abailities that you choose
  + Hack into people's email!!

  NOT:
  - Rubbish boss fights
  - Annoying load times
  - That's it!!!!

  Published: 25/08/2011

• Hitman Absolution will be 'the Hitman game we wanted to make' - IO Interactive

  Square Enix may not have had an official booth at Gamescom this week, but there were still some of their games on show thanks to European distributor Koch Media. One such game was the upcoming Deus Ex: Human Revolution, but some lucky souls also got to learn a little about Hitman Absolution, the long awaited revival of the cult assassination simulation series, dormant since Blood Money in 2006.

  Top games blog VG247 managed to get some face time with developer IO Interactive's Tore Blystad, who spilled some tasty beans on the return of Agent 47. As well as revealing that the game will feature Glacier 2, an entirely new game engine designed especially for Hitman, he admitted that the studio has been given free rein to develop the game they dreamed of making.

  What will this mean for us players? More gameplay choice, in a nutshell, which will help the game appeal to the hardcore fan as well as newcomers who just want to enjoy the story.

  ne of the things that was difficult with the old games was that there was a lot of freedom, but you really had to dig it out, it wasn really presented to you at all Tore confessed. o you could start a level and there was ten doors open to you and was like, ell, where the hell am I supposed to go? I don know, Il just have to try the first door, oh I got killed, now Il try the second one.

  Hitman Absolution creeps into action on PS3, PC and Xbox 360 next year.

  Published: 18/08/2011

• Deus Ex: Human Revolution on PC is 'the version you should play'

  The developer responsible for the PC version of upcoming Eidos sci-fi-role-playing-shooter-stealth mashup Deus Ex: Human Revolution has been explaining why this won't be another series to abandon its computer roots to chase the console market.

  Talking to GameSpy, Jurjen Katsman from Nixxes, the studio in question, said: e are obviously a little biased, but for us here at Nixxes, the PC version really is the version you should play. The extra depth you get from 3D or EyeFinity, and the extra crispness of the enhanced resolution, effects, and frame-rate, really give you superior visuals. And the speed and accuracy that you get from playing with mouse and keyboard compared with a gamepad, at least for me personally, makes it a pretty easy choice./p>

  Using their own DirectX 11 renderer, the studio boasts that PC players will benefit from such intimidating features as real-time tessellation, improved Screen Space Ambient Occlusion as well as improved blurs and depth of field. The game also supports multiple monitors using AMD's Eyefinity as well as 3DHD. The jargon-free version: it's going to look sexy.

  Deus Ex: Human Revolution launches on August 26th for PC, PS3 and Xbox 360.

  Published: 15/08/2011

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