Deus Ex 2 - Invisible War

[TeePee]

It's out in the US, you just need to find a US games site which ships internationally. Mine came direct from the very nice people (or I thought they were really nice until I realised how crap the game was, but it's the thought that counts) at Ion Storm, but I pretend to write reviews.

[walibe]

They don't check out who you are?

[Russ]

he downlaods them

[Dave_07]

On the note about some games only performing well under certain VPU's eg Niv or Ati. Yes I have noticed this aswell, certain developers apparantly seem to be designing their games to talk best with certain graphic cards (The whole Ati and Valve: HL2 thing) even tho they may say their not. They may include some extra bit's and bob's so that a game can atleast run under another vid card, but usually it's half harted at best.
This I think is not a good way for the market to move forward, sure it may make the game developers a load of dosh which (if you wanna look at the world through roase tinted glasses) may allow the developer to make the end game slightly better than it might have been without the help of the vid card company..... So all is well you might say then hey ? No, what do you say to the guy then who just happens to have the graphics card that the game developers didn't chose ?!
I don't wan't to be coming out of my local game in a few years time still holding my dosh, instead of the lastest & greats hit of the time, because Ati payed the developers more than Niv or visa-versa. It's not gotten that bad yet tankfully, tho Valves close friendship with Ati is only gonna put idea's into the head's of other developers.

Dave

[shamus21]

Why don`t the software houses start at the top . Write the code Graphics,sound ,levels etc for the PC and then cut it down so they can fit it on to the Xbox ,PS2 or is that to much hard work.

[killgORE]

Development for the consoles is harder because you can't patch the thing. So it has to be tested to death. Pc has always been the forward thinking test junkie of a machine. Plus it is easier to scale stuff up, than it is to scale down (is this key to an xboxers enjoyment ?, can it fit on the joy pad ? etc) as opposed to 'it would be cool if...'. Ideally there should be development of the game as story etc, map arch. Then totally separate coding.

On a personal note. I got my new gfx card yesterday. A nice Asus 9600xt. It is pretty good. I needed the upgrade to play the new game. *senses massive 'but' coming*

BUT....

I played the demo of Invisible War - purposely dropped the deus ex part of the name as that THING is not worth the branding. The demo was buggy at best - sounds were muffled - I have all the right drivers etc - and a travesty at worst, patch available for retail only.

*Edits, sound has fixed itself now and this adds major bonus points to the game. I was not getting the atmosphere before the voice acting is good and the world also sounds great*

The first game was a work of beauty, depth, choice and storytelling genius. While the demo shows that elements of these are still evident the problems interrupt the enjoyment too much. Without totally re-working the interface I don't know how to solve the problems. I am never one to add too much importance to graphics. The world appears consistent and believable - that is all it needs to do. Though there are lots of nice pretty lighting tricks.

The keys are stupid. No arguments. I know I can re-define, but who the hell thought that 'v' was good for inventory? The reason seems to be because 'inventory' has a 'v' in it - no reason for not assigning it as 'tab' like every other game. Mouse wheel - if u have em - should be for rotating weapons not 'tab' - otherwise 1-through-0 would be nice ( like in the first game we can dynamically assert this by the items position in the inventory, but the inventory is really annoying).

There seems to be a distinct lack of information in the hud (heads up display). Confused about my health and ammo because everything had to fit the bright idea of being curved, so that when you smack 'v' - after hitting tab for ages and wondering whether or not it is worth living anymore - the game pauses and the inventory of despair spins courteously into place. Why the hell all the menus are not linked to the same key I will never know (for memos and all that jazz like in the first game). Oh yeah, it was developed for the x box, so you can’t have a mouse to navigate the sub menus. Same problem goes for hacking here. Prey tell, dear reader, why the hell do we have to use the enter key? In an age where nobody but the distinct freak uses the numpad for gaming, those of us that got ‘wasd’ ages ago need to move a hand all the way over to the enter key. Since you hack in real time – there is no pause – I can see loads of little Alex D’s getting shot ‘cause there hand is being rude.

WHY, WHY, WHY. Is there no accounting for ammo in this game. Figured it out now. There is one kind of ammo for all the weapons. So picking up that gun u see on the floor, from the guy that would have killed you if he saw you, will be empty. Sheer Genius. How immersed in this game was I. As I swigged my beer – which I couldn’t seem to throw other than drop from inventory – and picked up the gun from my ex-would be assassin chum. To try and chin the rest of his mates. Only to discover that this French pistol – only dropped once – has no ammo in it.

Still. This game is worth the effort of playing as I am sure the story is superb. Once I spend ages re-assigning keys. Hacking it so that all the menus appear as one again with mouse navigation. Add distinct classes of ammo at least. And re-add the skill up feature – so the game can fit into the nice in betweeny category of FPSRPG. I will be happy. Can’t wait for somebody to patch it in this way. Eidos?

now... Where can i buy it cheap online ?