T w e n t y S i d e d

Oh no! Somebody changed my internet show and now it’s different! Change it back! I fear things that are new and strange!

Once you get over the shock, please welcome Chris Franklin to the show. You might remember him as Campster, the guy who had the AUDACITY to not love Half-Life as much as we do. Josh, Rutskarn and I have been plotting our revenge for weeks. After a long discussion, we couldn’t come up with anything more unpleasant than being on the show with the rest of us. So here he is. Our plan is to subject him to Rutskarn’s puns until he agrees to wear a “Half-Life is #1 game with no flaws” foam finger on his right hand at all times.

He didn’t crack this week. In fact, he pretty much just talked about Deus Ex the whole time. During the show about Deus Ex! Can you believe it? Whatta n00b.

On a less absurdist note: If you want some bonus content today, check out his take on Duke Nukem Forever, where he argues that people hated it for all the wrong reasons. This is just the sort of meta-commentary that makes me happy.

You might notice I didn’t review DNF. I couldn’t do it. Despite all the jokes I made at the expense of the game, deep down I really wanted to like it. When the game failed, I wasn’t angry. Just disappointed. I actually quit playing when I got to the platforming section in the burger joint. I meant to go back and give it another try, but I never did. I could never stockpile enough indignation to get a good rant going, and so I let the game slip by in silence.

Shamus Young is a programmer, an author, and nearly a composer. He works on this site full time. If you'd like to support him, you can do so via Patreon or PayPal.

This is what the show is all about: Serious, in-depth commentary. My fear is that someone will mistake our exhaustively researched review for Rutskarn and I ignoring Josh and acting like jackasses for twenty minutes.

Also: Pbbbth. Pbbbth. Pbbbth.

Having said all that: Am I the only one who wanted to punch out the dancer? Were we supposed to think he was awesome? I dunno. He’s technically got rhythm and athleticism on his side, but for whatever reason I thought “poser” every time I saw him.

He really is well-guarded. Aside from the crowd of inexplicably applauding onlookers, there are a couple of cops patrolling the area. I wanted to take him down without having to fight everyone in the Detroit subway system, but I couldn’t figure out how to do it.

Shamus Young is a programmer, an author, and nearly a composer. He works on this site full time. If you'd like to support him, you can do so via Patreon or PayPal.

The inventory system really got to me in this game. I was using Skyrim-style item hoarding in a cover-shooter with some light inventory elements. There was no way that was going to work out for me. I maxed out the inventory capacity as soon as I could, and even that wasn’t enough.

In the section where you have to deal with the gangers, I was compelled to sell off ALL of their gear.Of course, if you pick up a shotgun and you already HAVE a shotgun, it simply poofs the firearm out of existence and gives you the bullets. So, I had to… carry the guns to the shop one at a time. I did that. It was boring. It took forever. It wasn’t necessary. And it wasn’t something the developers intended the player to do.

And if I played through again? I’d probably do the same thing.

There is no cure for compulsive looting.

Shamus Young is a programmer, an author, and nearly a composer. He works on this site full time. If you'd like to support him, you can do so via Patreon or PayPal.

Weeks before this series began – almost as soon as we announced we’d be covering Deus Ex: Human Revolution – people were already listing all the things they wanted to see in a DEHR play-through. As the series has gone on, the number and specificity of these demands has grown. A great deal of the comment threads are dedicated to expressing outrage over items we missed or listing things we MUST do in future episodes. It has now officially gotten out of hand.

So: Relax. If there’s some particular way you want to see things done, feel free to boot up the game and have a go at it. If we overlook something that you enjoyed, feel free to talk about it in the comments without passive-aggressive (or even explicit) insinuations that we’re playing the game wrong.

Continue reading ⟩⟩ “Deus Ex Human Revolution EP8:
Venting Our Frustrations”

Shamus Young is a programmer, an author, and nearly a composer. He works on this site full time. If you'd like to support him, you can do so via Patreon or PayPal.