Production on Deus Ex 3 officially announced

[Briareos H]

And games like Psychonauts (the fact that it didn't sell was solely a question of marketing) and Bioshock (whatever I may think of it in the end) have shown that a dense plot-driven story can still appeal to the general audience when tackled right.

Our first "victory" here is that the team acknowledges that a core of die-hard fans exists and has to be satisfied. All this from a studio that has just been created to revive a semi-successful franchise with statements such as "letting our brightest professionals throw around all sorts of bizarre, off-the wall ideas, sometimes simply fooling around with the games we develop".
Frankly this is a most unexpected move from Eidos and I don't really know what they could have done better in order to please us while remaining realistic.

[Papy]

Scots Taffer : I may be wrong, but when someone says gamers have changed, I don't think he means they expect better games with less technical limitations. I think he means people who plays games now, are not just some kind of geeks like 10 years ago, but really ordinary people who view video games only as a light form of pastimes. I think he means gamers now are less interested with a challenging game, and more in an easy to follow interactive story. Personally, I haven't change and I still don't like mere interactive story or other unchallenging games. Have you?

To me the one important design decision is : will the game be made for people who want a challenging game, or for people who want an easy pastime?


Briareos H : I also thought Ken Levine acknowledeged that a core of die-hard fans existed. I guess he did, but he also obviously took the decision to cater to the mass market instead.

[Scots Taffer]

To me the one important design decision is : will the game be made for people who want a challenging game, or for people who want an easy pastime?

That really all depends on whether or not the game development is run by the numbers or by a creative vision, and that's a hard sell in this day and age: see BioShock. So colour me cynical.

[raph]

Well, if that first screenshot is any indication, it looks like we have a prequel to look forward to. (Deus Ex takes place in 2054, the date on the voting box is 2027)

Just a nerdy nitpick, hasn't DX been retconed to 2032 as DXIW took place in 2052, if memory serves...

[heywood]

I for one hope it is exactly the same as Deus Ex only with better AI

Likewise, I would be very happy if we got nothing more than a DX1 remake using a modern engine and good AI.

Also, no 'design inspiration' from Bioshock please.

Yeah, right. I'm sure the new DX team was paying close attention during the infamous Bioshock IGDA Montreal presentation. Hopefully, they are also paying attention to some of the critical fallout from Bioshock.

[TTK12G3]

We sure do have a lot of complainers.

I don't know what to expect from this game. I they stay with the basics, I think the game will be OK. Bioshock (which I have yet to buy) seems overly simplistic. So simplistic, I feel as if I have much less control over myself than in SS2. Oh well.

We can hope for the best.

[The Few]

The main question for me is: How much console? Console style was the main problem on DX:IW.

While I don't even dare to hope that it will be native PC and then ported to consoles (it's always the opposite now as we know), will there be at least a team adapting the game for PC interface? And doing a bit more adaption than in Bioshock?

[SubJeff]

Crossposting here but guys one date in a teaser doesn't make it a prequel, especially considering there are images suggestive of discrimination against the augmented - something which never happened in the DX 1 and 2 timeline/history .

[D'Juhn Keep]

You sure about that? There are definite indications of it in DX. Like the memos to the mechs saying how much they've given up by being augmented.

[G Freeman]

Please don't suck more than IW did. Please don't suck more than IW did. Please don't suck more than IW did.

exactly what I was thinking

I thought IW killed it glad to here it it didnt

[SubJeff]

Iggs - I never go the impression it was to do with being discriminated against, more to to with being made into a machine and thus losing something of your original identity. In DX the suggestion, to me, was that very few people were augmented and essentially all of them agents of some sort. Not enough to provoke the widespread discrimination hinted at here. Anyway, we shall see.

Given the recent trends with PC-console cross platform development my hopes are not high for this.

[D'Juhn Keep]

That's a good point actually, if it were just super agents, it'd more be a mark of distinction than anything else.

Venturing boldly into speculation then - what if the emerging augmentation industry was available to anyone with the cash before it leads to escalating violence, it being used criminally, etc. This would lead to augmented people being held in low regard and also a crackdown on it being available to just anyone and restricting it to national security.

[Silkworm]

Iggs - I never go the impression it was to do with being discriminated against, more to to with being made into a machine and thus losing something of your original identity. In DX the suggestion, to me, was that very few people were augmented and essentially all of them agents of some sort. Not enough to provoke the widespread discrimination hinted at here. Anyway, we shall see.

It was brought up in previews and the Deus Ex Bible that people with augs were discriminated against in society, and that there was class bias and class tension. That's part of the reason for the hostility and competition between you and Navarre and Gunther, and why some characters will brush you off if you try to bring up their mech-augs (ie the bartender in New York).

It's also a theme in a lot of other cyberpunk literature, drawing parallels between racism of the past.

[Papy]

Here's a conversation from two terrorists (hey, don't judge me, I just wanted an excuse to read some of the script again... damned I have no life)

TERRORIST 1 : That's the difference right there. Just take a look at him.
TERRORIST 2 : Bad?
TERRORIST 1 : They cut off his arm, replaced half of his face.
TERRORIST 2 : Hermann, right? He's a good soldier. Killed three of our men.
TERRORIST 1 : They'd've replaced his whole body if it would've improved performance. If that's how you judge a man -- by performance -- then eventually it's not about people but upgrades, versions, functionality...
TERRORIST 2 : All I know is we could use a few mechs for ops like this.
TERRORIST 1 : Soon as we buy into the cult of the machine we're just like them.
TERRORIST 2 : Rhetoric, always more rhetoric.

[ZymeAddict]

Just a nerdy nitpick, hasn't DX been retconed to 2032 as DXIW took place in 2052, if memory serves...

Nope. There was a bit of a issue in the first game about whether it takes place in 2052 or 2054, but IW establishes it pretty conclusively that it is the former. IW takes place in 2072.

Crossposting here but guys one date in a teaser doesn't make it a prequel, especially considering there are images suggestive of discrimination against the augmented - something which never happened in the DX 1 and 2 timeline/history .

As others have pointed out, that's not true. It's quite obvious that this is still a pretty big issue in the DX universe by the time of DX1 (hence another reason why nano-augmented agents are considered to be preferable as they aren't subject to that sort of discrimination).

It seems that by the time of the original DX the societal backlash against mechanical augmentation has tapered off a bit, but DX3 is going to take place back when the shit hit the fan so to speak. Interesting idea.

[demagogue]

Whichever time period it takes place in, pre or post (edit: and it looks like that date on the ballot box is an indication; it just looks so deliberately placed), I'd think the advantage of focusing on aug-discrimination is they can have a protagonist that is from among the people, that starts off the game as a "normal" augmented person that turns against the authorities ... that way they won't trip over so much of the plot of the previous games; it'll be more of a home-grown conspiracy.

Thinking about what direction they might take it, it has a very X-men flavor to it, don't you think?

[ZylonBane]

I'll be extremely surprised if the game's final name ends up being "Deus Ex 3", especially since there was never officially any "Deus Ex 2". Like Invisible War, it'll probably be released as "Deus Ex: some clever title here". If it really is a prequel, Deus Ex Zero would be a fun name.

As others have mentioned, I think it would be fantastic if part of the gameplay involves deciding how far to augment yourself, and dealing with the changes that makes to how people respond to you. Kind of like VtM: Bloodlines when playing as a Nosferatu, only more variable.

[Papy]

As others have mentioned, I think it would be fantastic if part of the gameplay involves deciding how far to augment yourself, and dealing with the changes that makes to how people respond to you.

This could certainly be interesting (wasn't BioShock supposed to be about that?), but it would also change the main aspect of augmentations which, in my opinion, were clear rewards and not moral choices. Deus Ex' moral choices were about what happens to others, and not what happens to me. I must admit I don't like much when a moral choice is so low level. I love when the idea is about a greater goal rather than about something as insignificant as me.

BTW, as for the game's name, what about : "Deus Ex - BC"

[van HellSing]

About the title having a 3 when the previous one didn't have a number, it's not like it didn't happen before. Recently EA did this with the Command and Conquer series, the tiberian arc of which goes Command & Conquer, Command & Conquer: Tiberian Sun, and then Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars

As for the game, I like what's been released so far. Aside from the cheesy voiceover, the teaser is quite interesting with the art references and whatnot.

The mathematical stuff - spirals, formulas, symbols- reminded me of the movie Pi, which is interesting since in another thread here someone suggested Darren Aronofsky for the director of a potential Deus Ex movie, which I wholeheartedly agree with.

Actually, I can't help but think the developers looked to this forum for ideas - wasn't there a suggestion here, taking into account the finality of the IW endings, to make the third game a prequel focusing on mechanical augmentations?

[ZylonBane]

This could certainly be interesting (wasn't BioShock supposed to be about that?), but it would also change the main aspect of augmentations which, in my opinion, were clear rewards and not moral choices.

So make CASH the clear reward. Then you can spend your money on how you choose to enhance yourself. The game could even allow you to spend money on procedures that hide the visible signs of augmentation.

[Deus_Ex_Fan]

Gamasutra reports that Eidos has its Montreal studio working on the sequel.

Here's the teaser trailer.

...Please don't jinx it, please, please, please...

Okay, the only thing I want to know is -- was that a clone of JC??

At least the theme music is the same, so that hasn't changed.

...Please, almighty, let DX3 be similiar to the original.

[raph]

Nope. There was a bit of a issue in the first game about whether it takes place in 2052 or 2054, but IW establishes it pretty conclusively that it is the former. IW takes place in 2072.

Ah so that was the issue then, I didn't remember.

(Been a while since I last played either of them )

[failure2comply]

Did anyone else come just a little when the intro music played in the trailer?

Umm...sure.

Anyhow, I like the feeling I get watching the trailer. Also, I'm in Quebec City, so I'll make sure I zip down at least once to the office and spy on these guys. Maybe I'll pretend I'm a pizza delivery guy or something.

[aesir05]

Some not all people on these forums can never be satisfied by any game.
Not just talking about the games mentioned in this thread, but even if LGS reformed, made a new Thief game, a whole lot of people would hate it over here.

Some people here have set their standards of quality so high that all a game dev can do is tell em that if they can do better, start up your own studio.


Hope DX3 is nothing like the DX2 story and has more of the DX1 attention to detail.

[Vraptor7]

Anyhow, I like the feeling I get watching the trailer. Also, I'm in Quebec City, so I'll make sure I zip down at least once to the office and spy on these guys. Maybe I'll pretend I'm a pizza delivery guy or something.

Well according to the site they`re having an open house on December 1st, so go then. And bring back whatever you can steal.