Deus Ex Human Revolution EP17:You Make Me Poor

By Shamus Posted Thursday Feb 9, 2012

Filed under: Spoiler Warning 132 comments

An interesting note about our Spoiler Warning hosts. Rutskarn has a blog. Mumbles has a blog. Chris has a blog. Heck, even I have a blog. But not Josh. Josh hides in my blog-basement and pops up once a week to drink all my beer.

Speaking of Spoiler Warning, it looks like we’ve got another episode here:


Link (YouTube)

Say, who among you is headed to PAX East this year? Josh and I will be there. I’ll probably be hanging out around The Escapist events. I might end up on a couple of panels like last year, or I might just hang out with my fellow Escapist contributors. Or I might end up at the BioWare booth, trying to goad one of the Mass Effect 2 writers into facing me in a gladiatorial fight to the death. Hard to say right now.

The event is out of three-day passes, but they still have passes for all three single days available. That’s kind of a surprise. Saturday was long sold out by this time last year. In fact, the show itself might have been sold out by February. I can only assume sales are slower this year because the event falls on Easter weekend.

 


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132 thoughts on “Deus Ex Human Revolution EP17:You Make Me Poor

  1. JPH says:

    “It’s got the word black in it!”

    Racist :|

  2. Nawyria says:

    Yes, and the one thing that obviously makes it looks like an accident is when you shatter a man’s jaw with an augmented fist.

    Not to mention that Diamond Chan was in the middle of a phone conversation when he was alarmed. The person on the other side of line then hears him shout a warming, promptly draw a gun and then get knocked to the ground and dragged off.

    Clearly he committed suicide after dishonouring himself!

    1. Tse says:

      I don’t think that the shattered jaw will be a problem, just throw him off the roof head first.

    2. Dammit, and I was so sure Josh would go ahead and shoot the guy just because Reginald is in charge!

  3. Tobias says:

    Blackwater sounds like a plumbing company to me. :)

  4. Sydney says:

    I’ve lived in the slums of an urban Chinese city. It was an area so abysmally shitty that when the cameras came through for the Beijing Olympics, the city built these giant cubicle-wall-looking temp barriers to block the helicopter cameras from seeing in.

    Hengsha evoked the same atmosphere of the place so beautifully it actually triggered me. I could smell my old home (it smells pretty much like you’d expect Lower Hengsha to smell from looking at it).

    Bravo.

    1. tengokujin says:

      I get the feeling you’ve never been to an Old-World city before, guys. :p

      But seriously, even modernised, the backstreets of Seoul can be pretty cramped. I didn’t see anything wrong with Hengsha :p

  5. Drew says:

    I love PAX East, and wouldn’t miss it. I’ll be there Friday and Saturday this year. I never head over on Sunday; it’s a long drive, and after two full days of PAX, I’m pretty much exhausted anyhow. If I see you there, I’ll be sure to say hi. I guess you won’t have any copies of the book available by then, right?

    1. Rosseloh says:

      Ooh, I didn’t think about the book. Shamus, you should see if you can get that published before then just so I can have the joy of getting a copy signed.

  6. Sydney says:

    I got the impression that the Hive is sort of…hood rich, I guess?

    People who aren’t rich enough to get out of Lower Hengsha, but have enough money to count themselves “classy” by area standards, go there. That guy in the quest Malik gives you is “rich” enough to bribe his way out of trouble, but he lives in just another crummy Lower Hengsha apartment.

    1. Thanatos Crows says:

      It’s said that rich people from above also come hand out at the Hive.

  7. Factoid says:

    I would wager another reason it hasn’t sold as quickly is because Penny Arcade really hasn’t mentioned PAX East on their website very often. They do talk about it on Twitter, but that’s only hitting 20-50k of their 2 million readers.

    They’ll drop a line about it on their front page soon and the tickets will be gone in no time.

    EDIT: Oh, and apparently they got approval to sell more tickets this year. They proved to the fire marshal that they have enough stuff outside the actual convention center that the number of bodies in the building is below the maximum capacity the fire marshall will allow.

    1. X2Eliah says:

      Buuttt, looking at all the feedback from last year’s pax-goers, the palce was already crowed to all hell – so now they will attempt to jam even more people inside the same space? Wtf.

      1. Factoid says:

        I believe they added more ancillary space than they had last year. Utilizing nearby hotel ballrooms and such for panels. That’s why they can sell more tickets. I’m sure the crowd in the main hall will still be about the same, but more people will be in surrounding venues.

        I think they only way you’ll ever get PAX to a comfortable size is to have about 12 of them a year. I’m hoping for a midwest PAX. Maybe in Chicago or Denver or Kansas City.

  8. noahpocalypse says:

    I recently had an epiphany:

    Shamus and co. should play through Kingdom Hearts. Blind.

    Make of that what you will.

    1. Elilupe says:

      I wholeheartedly agree! Josh would still somehow glitch out the whole game, without even seeing any of it.

    2. littlefinger says:

      We really need to make a list of games that would make great blind spoiler warning runthroughs. Something with decent text size and easy combat, though, on account of the stream and it’s not fun commenting or watching the same fight 20 times.

      The best way is if they could swap the save game around each week or so…

      1. X2Eliah says:

        Final Fantasy 13. The first one, not the new remake.

        1. The Hokey Pokey says:

          Dear God no! I was going to do FF13 for a lets play, but that “game” is so soul crushingly boring that I had to quit. The SW crew wouldn’t get through the 30hr tutorial without rage quitting.

          1. Lord of Rapture says:

            No. I want to see how they will Cuftbert their way out of FFXIII, and thereby make it exponentially better.

            1. Gamer says:

              You really can’t because of the linear nature of the game. A lot of “follow the rails” would ensue with constant (deservedly-so) bitching from the cast.

              And this is from someone who kinda likes FF13.

              1. MrPyro says:

                Yeah, I liked FF13, but a Let’s Play would just be boring because of the complete lack of variety until you get to Pulse, and that takes a good chunk of the game.

                1. Thomas says:

                  Not just that, I like FFXIII too, but what FFXIII excells at is the straight story and the combat is at best the same throughout the game. There aren’t new scenarios. So they’d talk over the good bits and have nothing to show us for 60 hours :D It’s probably the worst idea for a Spoiler Warning possible, even the faults aren’t the kind that are good to make fun of.

                  I think variety of situations is really important for a good Spoiler Warning. Unfortunately at the moment the games I’m thinking of are CoD type games which wouldn’t be a good playthrough

  9. Crowbar says:

    “Well, that’s for you, a gaijin westerner…”

    Word you’re looking for is laowai. :D

    I’ve never been a fan of the Hong Kong level from the original Deus Ex for the terrible accents. I mean, just dreadful. Godawful. I don’t know what they were thinking.

    1. Hal says:

      If I had to guess, probably budget limitations that made them stick to the same crew of voice actors. Either that or they were running out of money and had the programmers do it instead.

  10. Zaxares says:

    3:32: Really? I get it ALL the time due to my penchant of thoroughly exploring new areas whenever I first arrive in Hengsha. XD

    9:30: I TOTALLY agree with you there, Shamus, on how using the code should immediately give you all XP and bonuses as if you’d hacked it. DX:HR really does force you into a particular playstyle if you want to get all the XP possible in a game.

    10:05: See my comment in the last thread about my thoughts about the awfulness of the Asian accents from the viewpoint of a native speaker. :P On the bright side though, a lot of the random Chinese citizens in the street WERE voiced by native speakers. I still cringe whenever a major NPC like Malik horribly mispronounces Chinese words, but at least she has an excuse for doing it. There’s no such excuse for a character like Mei Suen.

    11:44: Literally translated? It reads: “Rain Field Hundred- Shop”. It might just be that Rain Field is actually the owner’s name, as opposed to trying to make it sound wise or mysterious.

    13:35: It’s game logic! Why does nobody ever question Link when he runs into people’s houses, smashes all their pots on the ground, and grabs all the rupees and other items hidden in them? :P

    16:48: HAH! I love it how Mei Suen just gets a little disturbed, but doesn’t go into an alarmed state when you punch out Edgar Lee right in front of her. XD

    17:49: … Josh, he said the “You make me poor” line back at 5:31! :P

    20:04: Heh, good one, Rutskarn, but such an injury COULD have been caused by a multi-story fall from a building’s rooftop, face-first. ;)

    1. Daemian Lucifer says:

      I get that code the first time there too.I see no point in not doing that.

      And yes,having the code should also get you hacking xp.Furthermore,you should get no xp for fighting dudes,but get the xp for clearing an area.So if you clear it without anyone noticing you,you get (for example) 1000xp,if someone notices you,but you knock them out/kill them you get 750xp,and if you leave them standing 500xp.

      1. Keeshhound says:

        But that disincentivizes combat, which should still be a legitimate method of playing the game. A better way would be to just give a flat experience reward for clearing an area without rewarding one route than the others.

        1. Daemian Lucifer says:

          However,combat is easier than stealth,and you need less augments for it.Having more xp for harder stuff is ok.

          1. Peter H. Coffin says:

            So award the XP for achieving actual goals instead of for ancillary things or particular methods of accomplishing things. Award XP for securing the key information that opens the plot-locked door, regardless of whether you hack the terminal or use a code to get in. Award XP for reaching (any) exit to a “dungeon level” regardless of whether it’s been ghosted through or the player has hunted down ever last mook and womprat in the place. Killing womprats shouldn’t help the player any, and killing mooks just makes them less likely to kill you, or alert other mooks if your game has a way to be subtle. Players get to play how they like without worrying about ending up under-advanced by the time they reach whatever the next (or end) thing is.

            1. Thomas says:

              I think things which are harder should be rewarded. Ghost is good, plus as DL mentioned, stealthing requires more XP.

              I think the way combat/stealth XP works is good, except as already mentioned, that if you Ghost a place you should also get rewards per person you didn’t take out.

              Combat is fun, but I don’t feel it needs equal rewarding, because allowing you to play the way you want IS the reward whereas the area of the game with the most variety is the stealth and so it’s good they’re pushing people to try that part of the game.

              I can even make a flimsy justification for it. XP is Jensen’s brain adjusting to augments right? Well killing people is slowly unhinging his brain (he kinda mentions that at the end :D) and so makes it slower to adjust

    2. psivamp says:

      I grabbed the access card right then every time except once — which I did only so that I could hear the prompt to go find it.

      1. Yeah, I’ve never not gotten the ID card either.

        1. Gamer says:

          Same. that buildings always the first one I enter because it’s right there and the card is easy to pick up on accident.

          1. Pete says:

            “Oh hey an ID card for some medical company! Im sure this will come in handy at some point.”

            -two minutes later-

            “A hive membership pin? Whats the hive? Oh well, loot is loot…”

            Obsessive looting FTW!

    3. Blake says:

      “Why does nobody ever question Link when he runs into people's houses, smashes all their pots on the ground, and grabs all the rupees and other items hidden in them?”
      Actually in Skyward Sword a lot of the townsfolk will berate you pretty harshly for doing that. I’m pretty sure one even makes you pay for the pots you broke.

      1. Reet says:

        They actually did that first in wind waker. I managed to get myself totally broke just before I needed to buy something so I had to spend half an hour cutting grass.

        1. Sumanai says:

          I think one of the 2D ones did it as well. I think it was Link’s Awakening.

          Personally I don’t feel it’s justified, since pretty much every Zelda game before them encouraged you to break them by rewarding you with hearts, mana or rupees. I mean, what if suddenly one of the games punished you in some way for cutting grass in a dungeon? Although they’ve probably done that as well.

    4. Simon says:

      As far as I can tell all chinese characters in the game (including Mei Suen and Ning Tsai) are voiced by actual chinese actors (check out the credits) so it doesn’t make any sense that their accents would be fake or that they’d mispronounce chinese words.

  11. Malkara says:

    I’ll be at PAX East! Can I be your second in the duel against Bioware?

  12. Eärlindor says:

    I’ve probably said this a million times (and probably at least once here already) but I really wish PAX would come to the Midwest…

    1. Rosseloh says:

      Heh, I say that a ton too. This year the two of us who are out here in our gaming group in South Dakota (the other two are already in the Boston area) just said “screw it” and got plane tickets.

  13. tjtheman5 says:

    Shamus, when did you get a blog? I have never heard of it. But I really like Josh’s blog called twenty sided.

    1. Jarenth says:

      I was under the impression Twenty Sided was a naturally occurring phenomenon. Hasn’t it always been a part of the Greater Internet?

  14. uberfail says:

    While Josh was talking to the hooker the second time, I was just sitting there waiting for the conversation to end and for Josh to punch out the Boss. I was not disappointed.

  15. Daemian Lucifer says:

    Josh is the actual hipster amongst you guys.He is the cool one.Rutskarn is the kid,Shamus is the old guy,Chris is the new guy,and Mumbles is the girl.

    I always get both the parachute and jump augs before coming to hengsha.It makes it so much more easier.Plus you never have to use those ladders.

    1. Mumbles says:

      AHAHAHAHAH JOSH IS THE COOL GUY HAHAJSFDAFHAKLSFHASJKSAKJ BABBY MAN MAKE FUNNY

      1. Daemian Lucifer says:

        Dont feel threatened sweetie.As a girl,you will always remain cool,even though you are just the same nerd as the other 3 boring guys.Josh may be cooler than you,but you have boobs,so you are still in the lead.

  16. rrgg says:

    If I may ask a question, how did you guys end up using music from Kevin MacLeod? Do you actually know him, or is it a “wait for him to figure out we borrowed his music” sort of thing?

    1. Josh says:

      His music is royalty free, he just asks on his website that you give him credit somewhere in the work.

      1. Dasick says:

        On an un-related point, I like how clicking on Josh’s name takes me to Twenty Sided. And it’s in his older posts as well.

        Well done sir, well done.

        1. Cerapa says:

          Didnt we have thing a while back that everyone was the same person?

          At least Josh=Shamus has been confirmed now.

          1. rrgg says:

            Shamus picked up a really bad sore throat recently making it increasingly difficult for him to do the girl’s voice. That’s why his “Mumbles” character isn’t on SW this season.

    2. Shamus says:

      When I Google’d for royalty-free music, MacLeod was the first site to come up. Since then it’s just been convenient to stick with the same source.

      To be clear, the music is put on his site, for free, for exactly this purpose. Anyone can use this music in their podcast / video / game. MacLeod just wants credit, which he uses to establish his name and drive traffic to his commissioned work.

      1. Sumanai says:

        And he explicitly asks that you don’t ask him for permission, if memory serves. The reason was, if I remember correctly, that he has already given it in his disclaimer/whatever and that he doesn’t like wasting time with stuff like that.

        I understand it became a big problem for some students because their teachers insisted that they have to ask, and get, a permission directly.

  17. Rusco says:

    There’s always enforcing! When East sold out in 2010 I volunteered and have Enforced every PAX since.

    As far as being sold out, last year all passes were gone by March 7th. A mere 4 days before the show started. 3-day passes were gone in early February, so we’re actually ahead of last year.

    I have heard that the cap was raised and it is Easter and it’s also the beginning of Passover AND Anime Boston is at the Hynes Convention Center. So there’s actually a lot of reasons it hasn’t already sold out. But it probably still will.

  18. psivamp says:

    I went to PAX East last year and decided that I wouldn’t go to any con again unless I had a laundry list of events to go to. So, hopefully, they’ll post a schedule at some point so that I can make in informed decision as to a day to try to go…

    The one event I went to was amazing, but I don’t really enjoy the show floor too much — huge lines, masses of people, hundreds of conversations drowning my ability to hear the person next to me…

    1. Rusco says:

      There will be a schedule released, much like every PAX. Unfortunately it won’t get sorted out until it’s probably too close to the event for it to be useful to make much of a decision. It was out about a month before Prime 2011.

  19. Gamer says:

    This is a legitimate question because I forgot. What was the Hyron Project originally going to do?

    Also, telling off Darrow for being a moron was the most satisfying speech check in the game. He really came across as a bit of an narrow-minded idiot when his plan was revealed.

    1. Infinitron says:

      If you play the Missing Link DLC, you’ll see that there are actually a whole bunch of “Hyron Projects”.

      It’s basically a kind of supercomputer/AI that runs on the brains of young women – who need to be regularly “supplied” by Belltower, since it burns their brains out quite rapidly. The Hyron installed at Panchaea is required for regulating its systems to avoid a colossal meltdown (I forget the details).

      1. Gruhunchously says:

        The Hyron Project in Panchaea was designed to monitor the ocean pressure against the superstructure and making sure that it was not overwhelmed.
        It’s also an interesting call back (call forward)to the original Deus Ex as we see the infancy of the technology that allowed Page and JC to connect their minds to Helios.

        1. Reet says:

          Huh. I never really realized what the whole deal with that thing was. Mainly because it was completely fucking stupid and that boss fight sucked so bad I wanted to diembowel a puppy afterwards. Also they never actually explained it (as I have not played the DLC).

          1. X2Eliah says:

            Actually, it’s explained in the base game, in dialogues, those pick-upable books and a bunch of emails. True, they don’t brow-beat you over the head with a “Golden Spoon of Forced Infodump +4”, so.. I guess it is possible to miss that. But you dn’t need the dlc to get that info.

            1. Hal says:

              All the same, it’s not exactly explained in the emails. Lots of references and allusions, but nobody ever flat out says, “Linking three people up to a supercomputer is much better than just a supercomputer itself. We should get that news reporter out here to take a look at the thing.”

              I’ve gotta agree on the score that this thing wasn’t well explained. The whole antarctic installation felt like a scam all through the game, with the “global warming” story just a coverup for something more sinister. But no, that was legit, which felt very odd. And then you fight this shoe-horned cyborg computer. The CEO of TYM, whose name escapes me for the moment, hooks herself up to it. Why? No idea. Why is she even there? That’s unclear, too.

              Also, I’m guessing we’ve given up on spoiler tags at this point?

              1. Gruhunchously says:

                She hooked herself into the system so that she could use it to shut down the signal that was making the augs go insane. Jensen was able to shut it down without all that fuss because Eliza was helping him. As to why she was there, or how she was able to survive a station-full of crazy murderous augmented folks, who knows.

                1. Infinitron says:

                  As the CEO of the world’s largest augmentation firm, she would naturally be invited to the summit at Panchaea.

                  BTW, it was a shame you never got to meet any actual diplomats or politicians while you were there.

                  1. Hal says:

                    Except the summit was already taking place when you confront her in the Omega Ranch. You go from there, almost immediately, to Antarctica. Her getting to the very back of the installation ahead of you is kind of a plot hole, unless she knows some vents she can climb through to get there right away.

                    1. Infinitron says:

                      Good point.

                    2. Daemian Lucifer says:

                      She still had a head start on you,and why should we assume that you have the fastest plane.Its not really that much of a plot hole.

                    3. Simon Buchan says:

                      @Daemian: Didn’t you get to Antarctica on a space/re-entry rocket specialized exactly for being the fastest way somewhere at the expense of pretty much all comforts? You were chasing someone else using the same thing, but I think that was Darrow or something.

                    4. Daemian Lucifer says:

                      Oh yeah,right,forgot about that.But still,you left from the same place as her.Memory is bit fuzzy,but couldnt she have used one as well.

      2. Gamer says:

        That’s interesting. I’d played Missing Link a while ago, but it’s been some time since I played the main game. It was definitely much more refined imo.

    2. Daemian Lucifer says:

      Most geniuses are like that.When they decide to do something,they are blind to everything else,and end up looking stupider than even the dumbest of our kind.

  20. Thomas says:

    Rutskarn I went into every single one of those shops and I never took a single thing! It’s more than a video game!!

    ..yeah i’m a bit obsessive

  21. Rosseloh says:

    I’ll be at PAXE, along with some friends of mine gathered from various MMOs. Should be around Friday and Saturday, though we did get 3-day passes. I’m really looking forward to meeting you, honestly, despite the fact that I’m probably just going to stand there awkwardly. I’m not much of a conversationalist.

  22. Whisper says:

    As far as Blue Laser impressions go, it wasn’t the worst I’ve heard.

    Also to borrow a joke template from Graham Stark-
    Blog-Basement is my Flaming Lips cover band.

    1. Adam P says:

      Yeah, well “Blog-Basement is my Flaming Lips cover band” is MY Flaming Lips cover band.

      I think I’ve just borrowed that joke from Kathleen DeVere.

  23. SyrusRayne says:

    Xe is… Kind of badass? I mean, in a nerdy way. Iron, after all.

    1. Audacity says:

      But isn’t iron Fe?

      1. Reet says:

        Yes it is.
        I admit to also being confused by this.

        1. Museli says:

          The Latin word for iron was ferrum, hence Fe. See also sodium, which is Na as it was once known as natrium. There’s plenty of other Latin derivations in the periodic table, but the source word was very similar so they don’t stand out, such as aluminium (Al, alumen) and silicon (Si, silex).

    2. Xe is Xenon which has a way cooler name than Iron

  24. scowdich says:

    To me, “Belltower” has the connotation of someone sniping at the populace with impunity. As in, you know, a belltower sniper. Not exactly benign.

    1. X2Eliah says:

      Interesting.. having listened to a lot of british stuff, I usually think of “Belltower” = “Bell-end”, so.. that’s a somewhat negative connotation, but I can’t help it, it’s automatic.

      1. Indy says:

        My impression is something that everyone can see, but noone ever pays attention to it. Hiding in plain sight. Also negative.

        1. Sydney says:

          And I associated it with church belltowers, sorta like Rutsy did. So, ubiquitous and inimical until it rings for you. Then that kinda sucks.

  25. Irridium says:

    I completely missed that shop in the brothel my first time through. For like, all of Hengsha I was walking around with a full inventory going “why the hell is there no shopkeeper around here?! This is bullshit! What the hell were they thinking?!?!

    And when I was exploring the sewers right before I had to go to Tai-Young, I ended up going up the ladder which leads to the guy in the brothel. I opened the door, and promptly smacked myself for being so stupid.

    1. 4th Dimension says:

      There is one in Pod hotel too.

      1. Irridium says:

        DAMMIT!

  26. Klay F. says:

    Josh I have to ask:

    WTF YOU JUST IGNORED A DAMAGE UPGRADE FROM THE SHOPKEEPER!!!! AHHHHHHH HUBAGHUBAGUHALAH!!!




    I’m okay now. I’m calm.

  27. rrgg says:

    I think “Blackwater” is supposed to sound sort of ominous. I mean, would you really pay good money for mercenaries called something like “the Pink Flowers”?

    1. scowdich says:

      “What up. We’re with Happy Trail Ponies. Let’s kick some fucking ass.”
      -Mumbles, if I remember correctly

    2. Daemian Lucifer says:

      The pink flowers would be a terrible name for merc,but happy sunshine and giggles,bro that would be awesome!

    3. Chris says:

      I totally want to see a PMC named “The Lollipop Guild.”

      1. Audacity says:

        I think I’ll start that. The company motto will be, “We’ll give ’em a good lickin’.”

        1. Indy says:

          And your lead agent’s catchphrase will be “Sucks to be me.”

          1. Daemian Lucifer says:

            You know,the P int the PMC doesnt stand for pun.

            1. Simon Buchan says:

              It’s an unfortunate confusion of terms: they are talking about their “Pun Militarization Company”

    4. evileeyore says:

      You can never name a PMC something wimpy sounding…

      Maxim 16: “Your name is in the mouth of others: be sure it has teeth.”

  28. Adam P says:

    Regarding PAX East, I hope I can make it. I have my 3-day badge, I have my travel plans, but I haven’t been able to make headway on actually staying in Boston for the duration of the event. One of two things needs to happen: I’m allowed to stay someplace for free (highly unlikely); my luck getting a job improves very soon (considering I’ve been looking for the last 3 months, also unlikely).

    A third option is to sell my vast physical collection of console games to try and cover hotel expenses. I have yet to rule this one out. (Useless trivia: In the last 20 years, the only game I have ever sold/returned/traded-in was Bioshock.)

  29. Packie says:

    Shamus to josh: “That’s really cool, you know that’ll save us headaches later so you can give us different headaches later.”

    Yeah, I love this season.

  30. Deadpool says:

    I’ll be at Pax East again this year, this time with my girlfriend (although not sure how likely she is to be there until 2am)… She read yur auto biography (we kinda raced each other in the morning to see who read it first) so I’m pretty sure she’d be happy to meet you if we get a chance… We’d buy you dinner if you don’t think it’s weird.

  31. From what I remember there is an actual reason why its called “Belltower”.

    In a lot of the game’s websites, the origin of the Belltower name is attributed to the number “13311” which is supposed to be a calling card of the Illuminati. 13 = B, then 3 = a backwards E, and the 11 are the two Ls. I have no idea if this is based on an actual illuminati conspiracy theory or not – hopefully being a Deus Ex game it is, but it was used in the Missing Link promotional ARG as such all the same. The wiki says its actually the numbers 11, 13 and 33 separately that are based on conspiracy theories though and one of the ARG passwords is “11m13clinic” so presumably that’s just the combination used for that particular PMC.

    Basically, stuff to do with the Illuminati in this game uses those numbers, and that’s where it comes from.

    1. Sydney says:

      So the fucking Illuminati uses fucking leetspeak.

      Great. There goes their impressive aura.

      1. Conspirators being incredibly skilled at deception and secrecy 99% of the time then doing phenomenally stupid stuff the other 1% so that conspiracy theorists can spot them is a time honored tradition. Why would the Illuminati have their pyramid eye logo on American currency so everyone can see it? Why the hell not?

    2. Stupidguy12 says:

      That might be true, but I think another influencing factor was that the greek word “bell” means war.

      1. Bubble181 says:

        Bellum, Latin. The Greek word for “war” would be “Polemos” or something in that family ;-)

  32. lurkey says:

    There is no use in beating up “Mass Effect 2” writers now, eh? Challenge someone from 3 – at least there’s a chance for consequences. Lessons learned if we’re lucky.

    1. Indy says:

      Somebody has to pay for that Collector Ship mission. They’re payment will be them being put in a horrible trap that doesn’t work simply because they have a gun. They will feel so much pity for our failure they will drive through our well-marked minefield to escape and still not get hit. Then they will show up at our house, blow up our car, kill our kid and still escape. That will teach them.

    2. Dasick says:

      The way the intro of ME2 is written, it makes me think that they outsourced their writing to college bros taking creative writing.

      So, yeah, take care Shamus, and don’t hesitate to give us a heads up before you go.

  33. Irridium says:

    To goad Bioware writers into a fight, print out you’re whole plot dissection and read it over and over again until one fights you. If more then one wants a go, well make sure Josh has your back. I don’t think they’ll attack you when you have a dude wearing muttun chops and a bonnet on your side.

    1. Indy says:

      No, it’s they won’t fight you with a former president of the United States on your side.

    2. Sumanai says:

      And remember Shamus, they cheated while writing ME2, you can cheat while fighting them.

  34. burningdragoon says:

    I’ve been playing Human Revolution myself right now, so I can’t/won’t watch this season until I finish it (at which point I will binge on every episode available).

    BUT! I will be at PAX East this year and I am totally going to find you, say hello, and then slink away before I make too much of a fool of myself.

  35. Jokerman says:

    Josh should have a blog, i would be all over it – Josh’s posts here are always interesting.

    1. Daemian Lucifer says:

      No he shouldnt,he should continue using this one,to remain hip.

      1. X2Eliah says:

        Josh was doing blogging before he even got a blog. Which was in the future.

        1. Dasick says:

          I kind of like the way they use the same blog (in a totally heterosexual, non gay, way of course.) It means less clicking, my favourite Internet space is updated more often, and most of the stuff Josh writes, thematically fits into what Shamus is saying.

          If Josh were to get his own blog, he might just go off on wild tangents, like how many bears he’s wrestled today, or the disadvantages of having nine testicles (according to cracked anyways.), because he’ll feel that since it’s his own blog, he doesn’t have to stick to any previously established theme.

          So Shamus, next time Josh pops up to drink all your beer, I’ll gladly re-imburse your losses. Trust me.

  36. Bubble181 says:

    I’ll wait around for PAX Europe :-P
    Completely unrelated but in response to your twitter: YOU may not like not being able to turn your head in a vehicle (or while walking), but that’s a personal choice. I’ve put aside any game where I’m forced to control head and body (or viewpoint and car, or whatever) seperately. I can’t control one with my one hand and one with the other; just can’t do it. Instead of driving onwards and looking at the wall, I’ll drive into the wall while looking to the road. Urck.

    1. Daemian Lucifer says:

      You dont have to do it in half life,you just can.If you dont touch your mouse,your view is locked to the front.

      And seconded for paxeu.

      1. Bubble181 says:

        Rereading this post, since I tend to be lazy and USE CAPS instead of, you know, italics or whatever for emphasis, it may seem too aggressive. I don’t say it’s a bad thing to be able to turn your head…I just find it annoyin if you have to.
        See: wasd-miovement and mouse controlled camera. I only evver use the Z and the mouse to get around in games like KotOR or Amalur or whatever RPG strikes your fancy today :-P

        1. Daemian Lucifer says:

          But in half life 2 you dont have to turn your head.You can just as well drive it the same way as in rage,using just your keyboard.

          And sure,moving with just your mouse is fine in rpgs,but rage and half life arent rpgs.

          1. Atarlost says:

            Mouse only movement is a pain in the wrist. I’d far rather have the keyboard as my primary controller for an RPG. I’ll accept the need for mouse aiming in a shooter, but RPGs have no excuse for incomplete keyboard support.

  37. Mailbox says:

    Yeah PAX East! Josh will be there? You mean I get to meet the man behind the madness?

    I liked the accents in Hengsha, I don’t know why. I totally missed that vendor behind the door in the brothel the first playthrough. I always play with the highlight interactive option and objective markers turned off and that wall didn’t look like a door. There is a mission in Hengsha that made me realize how much I liked this game, hopefully you do it. It’s the one from the Hive Bartender collecting a debt from a girl. When you get to or past that point I’ll bring it up again and explain why.

  38. Raygereio says:

    To repeat Josh for a moment: it doesn’t matter whether or not global warming is real or not, it’s not important for this point.

    Now, about Hugh Darrow’s anti-global-warming-machine: you really want to start fixing a problem like global warming early. If only because if you get the point where it’s symptoms become obvious, a large portion of the earth will be frelled.
    So one interpretation might be that Hugh Darrow is an idiot to try and fix a problem that’s not “a problem” yet. Or another interpretation is that he has the foresight to start fixing it, before it becomes an actual problem.

    1. Atarlost says:

      Or we could look at a map, see the vast tracts of potentially arable land in northern Asia and North America and ask why global warming is such a bad idea.

      1. Bubble181 says:

        If ” Global warming” meant “it’ll be an even 2°C warmer, everywhere, all the time”, it’d be a great idea. Ignoring the overly politicized side of this topic – whether or not mankind has an effect on global warming, whether we can and should stop it, whether or not our input is significant – that’s a provably false idea that’s far too widespread. “Global warming” is a misnomer, in any case. The average temperature is rising slightly, that causes shifts in ocean currents (already very visible and partially responsable for the disappearance of 95% of all fish in the northern atlantic…coupled with over-fishing, of course). It’s causing far colder winters in most of Europe. It’s causing rising sea levels. To hit closer to home for americans: “Global warming” is responsable for the drastic increase in hurricanes in the southwest, the far higher prevalence of the higher-grade storms such as Katrina, and is a big reason for quite a few of the bigger forest fires in the world. If you happen to believe the more “Dr Doom” scenarios some like to propose and accept a sea level rise of 2 or 3 meters, that’s over half the world population needing to move or be submerged. Even if humanity isn’t responsable, it could very well be a good idea to try and stop it. Humanity survived ice ages and hot eras – men didn’t.

  39. ccesarano says:

    I look forward to stalking you and your wife again this year!

    …wait, that’s not how it was supposed to come out.

    1. Sumanai says:

      You’re supposed to drop the ‘s’ when you speak out loud. Take it from a pro.

      Edit: I mean “bro”. I’m totally a “bro”

      Edit2: Wait a minute, isn’t that worse?

  40. rrgg says:

    Edit, Wrong section.

  41. RCN says:

    Don’t call PMCs that. You’re playing into their game! You’re softening the meaning of their job just like they do it with neutral non-threatening names. Call it for what they are: Mercenary Companies, killing for the highest bid. And I say that as a kind-of light apologist for mercenaries. As far as I’m concerned, fighting and dying for money is more honest and straightforward than fighting and dying for a cause you’re most likely being goaded into with false promises. And hey, dictators can have legions of people willing to die for their country, regardless of how broke they are, but mercenaries will work of the good guys if they can pay. As I said, not that I think mercenaries are good, but official national militaries certainly don’t have any higher moral ground on them.

    Anyway… after that weird tangent segue. I think Hengsha is the reason for the Icarus implant. They figured the place’s vertical geometry was a pain to navigate and figured “you know, if there was an aug that let you fall all that without dying, people would totally put their aug points into that”. So they came up with their bullshit magnetic parachute so they didn’t need to soil the cool factor of Jensen’s augs with actual parachutes.

    On a final note, aren’t all game protagonists parkour masters anyway? A mean, at least free-moving games like Deus Ex: Cushion Dispensation.

  42. Johan says:

    On the subject of the horrible Asian accents, they DO however have very very clear Chinese accents.

    I’m only studying Chinese, but they speak so clearly (not very regionally accented) that I can understand most of what they’re saying without subtitles

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