Ross Scott

Clothing, body language, architecture and 'realism' - DX:HR is a way symbolized game, like a theater. And for good reasons.

See this is the problem. You're absolutely right, this is theater. The original game was a fun videogame story, with reality bleeding in through the cracks the way I really haven't seen done in other games.

 

Game reasons: DX:HR is not a prequel. It's a reboot prequel. Asking it to be "realistic" is a bit too much.

I never got the memo this was supposed to be a reboot, so I was judging it by normal prequel standards. Most of your points below are irrelevant because we're judging by completely different standards. I'm expecting a halfway point between reality and Deus Ex. You're essentially saying we can reimagine anything, so we're in a fundamental disagreement with what the game is supposed to be. You can't really communicate effectively under that scenario. If this was an original IP, I wouldn't have half the complaints I do. But it DOES use the Deus Ex name and seems to be trying to connect it to the original, so you have to expect people like myself will be comparing this to the original game. You say asking it to be halfway realistic is too much, but from perspective, that's what it was supposed to be, but they've changed the terms.

 

Again, I'm willing to give them a free pass on augmentations and just assume those are a reality, same for mechs and other sci-fi elements already in the original. I wasn't expecting absolute realism, I was expecting a halfway point. By those standards, you can hopefully understand some of my criticisms.

 

Police rection: the developer is Canadian. All-Judge-Dread kind of police is the american thing only. For the rest of the world police reaction is just right if not "weak". (might be slightly offensive for patriotic US citizens )

I have a degree in criminal justice, I'm well aware of many policing differences around the world. And I say that no cop worldwide, be it Canada, the UK, France, or Japan, would be shocked and scornful of another officer shooting a terrorist who had a gun to the head of an innocent woman, let alone the leader of an extremist group who had already been shooting at the police with submachine guns. The ONLY reason that would be considered completely unacceptable would be if it further endangered other lives. So if there were 3 hostages and 3 terrorists in the building, firing on only one of them would be a horrible decision, because then the other two might execute the others.

 

The point I hope you get here is there's a WORLD of difference between questioning a suspicious person on the street v. resolving armed terrorist actively shooting at people and taking hostages. In the latter scenario, regardless of the culture, the police will respond in similar ways because their #1 focus is saving as many innocent lives as possible. In such extreme scenarios, the police will always gravitate towards whatever method has the highest possibility of saving laws. If lethal force against the perpetrators is the lowest risk option, you bet other police forces will take it. It all comes down to what has the highest probability of the victims (and officers) walking out alive.

 

Again. For stealing jobs see "migrants". For religions debates see "cloning", "aborts", "muslim", "gays", whatever.

Pretty much this and every other point you're making here comes back to the same thing: we had completely different expectations from this game. I was expecting something more like Soylent Green, instead I'm getting Kabuki theater. You were expecting Kabuki theater, so by your evaluation, it's great. The symbolism is there obviously, but it's very nebulous, shies away from logical connections, and tends to shed the connections to reality.

 

You mentioned all these advantages augmented people have, but do we get a single mention as to whether that's truly an advantage for EMPLOYERS in the job market? Hell, I hear stories all the time of talented and experienced programmers losing their jobs and getting replaced with fresh from college people who are half as good, but work for a third as much. While some fields always need specialists, for most employers maximum profit margin is what counts. So who cares if the augmented guy is twice as good if the job gets done 20% slower with the guy who costs half as much? I don't remember HR addressing that at all. Right now in the current world, it's an employer's market, there's already fierce competition for many jobs WITHOUT disruptions like augmentations, so I'm judging this by real world standards, the way I might for Deus Ex if I suspend my belief about the existence of some technologies. But if you're looking for dramatic symbolism, comparing this using the logic from the real world is unimportant, which is why you see this as a much better game than I do. I mean you mentioned that you can swap in migrants, perfect example:

 

Human Revolution would show increased migrant presence, show the divide of different people over it, and show how society is changing because of increased migrant presence and express concern over the migrant future and where it might go.

 

Deus Ex would show that also (though not as thoroughly), then it would go onto to look at WHY migrants are coming in, discover its due to political disruption in their native region, then discover that was partially due to actions a different government took that destabilized the region in order to achive more control over it. And in the process it would show that some of the things migrants are being blamed for ALSO have other causes that aren't getting mentioned publicly that you're able to uncover, and by the end of the game, you have a better understanding of all the factors in play.

 

But is it a true "successor" as a game to original deus ex. No. Original game was raising questions about the system itself - if it's correct that some people decide for everyone, but deception and lies or if it's not. It shows you flaws of the system itself. DX: HR shows you flaws or particular instances of the system

We're basically in agreement here. For me, that's a big downgrade, for you, it obviously worked.

Hey Ross, good video as usual but I don't like how you casually SPOILED THE ENDINGS to both the first and second Deus Ex games. At least put in a warning, or even better a video annotation to skip over the MAJOR spoiler part.

 

You're probably assuming everyone who's watching the videos has at least completed the first Deus Ex. Well maybe, but that was 16 years ago! After your video of the first game, I started playing it again, only to have the ending spoiled before I even finished the second area. I am disappoint.

Can you believe I was actually getting more reports about warning people about spoiling the games prior to this? Anyway, I wasn't terribly concerned with it for Deus Ex since they are well known games. I'm not sure what the best route is. I think maybe to just announce the endings are next so people have a chance to turn it off if they want.

 

 

I remember clearly shooting an enemy with a poison dart, and quickly popping back behind cover, and watched with my x-ray vision as she did absolutely nothing and got knocked out like she didn't even notice. On the flip side, certain enemies that I tried to sneak past seemed to have superhuman hearing as they were able to hear me crawling on a different level than them.

I don't always pay too much attention to the AI. I mean there's FEAR and then there's everything else.

Ok, so I'm a little late to the party having just got back from vacation, but I feel as a DC lobbyist or lobbyist in training I have some insight into the political aspects of this game and RGD.

 

First, in regards to what you said about money controlling the outcomes of elections, that's often true, but you have to consider that the person with the most resources is often the person with the most compelling case for the job. People, corporations, and yes interest groups will contribute to that person if they seem the most qualified, but still that doesn't guarantee them to win.

I'd say it's more skewed than that. In order for most candidates to have a fighting chance, they need the most funding, so that means platforms that appeal to those with money to burn. I saw a video on this concept not too long ago:

 

 

The summary is that candidates essentially need to appeal to wealthy interests to a degree before even entering a general election, otherwise they simply can't get the exposure.

 

Ross, you come dangerously close to telling people their votes don't matter in this episode and in a democracy that's rarely the case.

It's a conundrum in a way. The people absolutely have the POTENTIAL power to get anyone they want in or out of office, but I think the reality is that the majority of voters are drastically influenced by large media influences like TV, radio, etc. So if those have any sort of narrative or topics they avoid or promote, that's really what determines our range of possibilities. I really do think we have a detachment of our officials from what I consider our most important problems because we don't have very good representation. This is definitely a theme in Deus Ex (maybe even moreso in Invisible War). I mean in your example, 90,000 votes can absolutely swing some elections, but what if neither candidate is addressing the problems that will affect people the most? I'm not saying each candidate would be identical, but again, we have a lot of limits as to our range of possibilites under our existign system. So it's not that I'm trying to say your vote doesn't matter, it's more like I wanted to try to look more at how our current system is operating. Hell, the framers of the constitution thought a well informed electorate was necessary for democracy and I felt like Deus Ex was trying to give hints as to informing the masses.

 

Also, getting back to money deciding elections, going over to the Republican's side, their primary was won by one of the worst financed candidates, Donald Trump, who despite his background ran on a very populist, anti-business platform, for a Republican anyway. Meanwhile Jeb Bush, one of the best financed candidates with numerous corporate and special interest ties, was crushed in the elections.

Well first off, those are just the primaries, so the voterbase is going to have a more uniform range of views than you would in a general election. Second, both the democrats and the republicans are currently undergoing some sort of transformation as there is a lot of dissent against traditional establishment. We're definitely in a transition, what I was talking about the video I think is much truer for the past few decades. Where we're going is anyone's game, though well funded interests certainly aren't going to take things lying down. Third, even for being lesser funded, Trump has had a significant amount of funds entering the race. In other words, if he didn't have the existing funds to begin with, he likely never would have been a nominee. So in this instance, it's more of a case of the underdog rich guy showing up the big rich guys. And hey 91% is not a guarantee, it's just a very clear trend.

 

Now, in regards to your diagram of politicians, corporations, and lobbyists, which we call the Iron Triangle, is a gross over simplification of what we do.

It absolutely is, I was just trying not to go on any longer than I had to with this episode. I would argue lobbying for a labor union is very different than lobbying for Monsanto or Shell. One thing I didn't really mention was revolving door politics. Currently 50% of senators and 42% of congressman go into lobbying after their career. In 1974, it was more like 3% of congress. There is much incentive to do so. Apparently the AVERAGE pay increase is approximately 1500% over being a politician:

 

https://www.thenation.com/article/when-congressman-becomes-lobbyist-he-gets-1452-percent-raise-average/

 

The lines between wealthy or business interests and government is increasingly blurred. I think we're in a state of regulatory capture now in many ways. Now this doesn't mean every special interest group is a bad thing, however it does mean you need a certain amount of money to sit at the table in influencing policy, which has a large effect on how it's determined.

 

Although I represent one of the Labor Unions and not an interest group with corporate ties, I will point out that what I spend most my time doing is meeting with representatives, or more often their staff, and INFORMING them about bills and legislation that pertain to labor and the economy in general. Politicians can never be an expert on everything or even most issues, so they rely on us to educate them. My group doesn't give money to every representative or candidate we work with, and when we do they're typically $5,000 contributions, which is a drop in the bucket for most politicians on the federal level, and on the state level they get far less attention from the media and far less money from corporations.

This doesn't really run contrary to what I was trying to say, you're working in order to have a voice at the table, which takes money now. I would argue Congress is largely detached from the average voter and instead is only affected by groups like yours. Some of these DO represent the interests of common people, many of them do not.

Again I'd never say that now we have it I'd want it not to have been a thing, because it got me thinking about oil again, and how I really need to get that whole socio-economical collapse survival plan wormed through the works.

Me too man. I think Europe is much better situated to handle a transition, but it's hard to tell how hard or fast the impact will go. I think the best plan would be to try and find some sort of community of people mentally prepared to be able to accept some sort of transition, but that's a lot easier said than done. Believe me, I hope I'm wrong on the oil issue, but like I said in the video, it was enough to alarm the US military.

 

 

I had forgotten the context of that interaction, but while I admit the animation can be clunky, but I don't think it had to do with anime--note, for example, the bizarre gesturing from the run animation you sometimes see. But I think you're wrong about Dr. Reed--replace her with Mark Zuckerberg---do you really think no one would be acting obsequious toward him because he's young?

Unless Zuckerberg is so eccentric he expects that display of fealty to him, no, I don't. I imagine they would be very polite towards him and not bother him unless they had something they thought warranted his attention, but the body language was so over the top to me and just isn't what I would expect of a reputable scientist of his age. Again, it's what I would expect from a nervous intern. The point is, these are just small things that don't mean a lot by themselves, but add up to paint a larger picture.

 

As for Taggart, it's all context. I just don't see this happening from the leader of a special interest group who is otherwise conducting himself like a lobbyist or person of influence among Congress. If you can find an example of a senator or congressman who is known for conducting himself professionally making a gesture like that while talking to someone, an example of that could change my mind. I think you'll have difficulty finding some C-SPAN footage showing that. The way you present yourself to a person is paramount to people like Taggart.

 

Besides, let's not forget the knockout punch for showing the anime influences: Eliza Cassan. Can you explain a plausible scenario where a major news anchor is dressing like that in the future? Aside from some small variations, news anchors dress now largely the way they did 50 years ago. Their job is to present the news, which means being rather neutral. The news is the story, not them. This isn't MTV news, as a prequel, this looks very unrealistic and I think draws heavily from anime influences. Which again, calls into question, if the game isn't concerned with maintaining believable continuity between the first game, why make this a prequel at all and not an original IP?

 

Yeah, I was unfair there. I think I meant more along the lines of...I don't you know if you're familiar with it, but I don't want the Game Dungeon to become /v/.

I'm not familiar with it. For what it's worth, I can get mildly frustrated with how many people don't realize just how many good games there are out there due to poor coverage. The top 25 video really summed up my thoughts on it. I really feel like the current industry is doing an inadequate job of helping with game discovery. And hey, as for more modern games, if it wasn't for the combat, The Secret World would easily one of my all time favorites.

It's his channel so Ross can say whatever he likes on it and if you don't like it maybe you should go somewhere else.

Hey, this is not my attitude at all. I'm totally fine with civil discourse. As long as everyone can act like mature and reasonable people, I'm fine with whatever people want to say about my videos. I thought daisekihan maybe misinterpreted some of what I was getting at, but he's not trying to antagonize me, he's expressing legitimate disappointments he had.

 

 

Well if your not the AAA video games industry's general audience then yes, for the past 10 years most games have been nothing but mediocre garbage and it's pretty clear that Ross thinks this way. If you look at his Top 25 Most Anticipated Games! video all the games he's interested in are from indies because like me he has lost all hope in the AAA video games industry getting better.

It's not quite that simple. I don't have a lot of faith in AAA titles producing much with great writing, but they can still make great games too. The bottom line is the simpler the concept (like a racing or fighting game), the more faith I have in the AAA industry having the potential being able to produce something good. The more complex it gets, the more my skepticism can rise, but I don't assume anything is going to be bad necessarily. The only thing I absolutely hate about some modern AAA games is the increased reliance on central servers. It's going to kill a lot of games, which I think is the worst thing I can imagine for the games industry.

 

 

To be fair, the riots were more due to people freaking out that the thought of augmented super soldiers basically instating martial law, since they only happened after a Picus fueled media-frenzy about "leaked" satellite footage of said super-soldiers.

Plus, you know, rioters gotta riot. And, as always, it started as a peaceful protest.

I could have missed it, but we should have gotten the augmented equivalent of a Rodney King beating video if that was the case, something that the average person could see and it's obvious to see how controversy could break out.

 

I love the original, but the review even started with a snippet of dialogue that is more insane than anything in human revolution - and that snippet is not rare.

If you've ever talked to homeless people in the park, I think you would find that there was nothing unrealistic about that snippet.

 

As someone who has served in the army, I can say it's probably true - talks tend to focus around sports, sex, and the commanders' bullshit orders as they come - but after some time doing patrols with someone, you talk more and more about things like "what the hell am I doing here, guarding this piece of desert?" and there's always some guy that's eager to talk about the bible once we've exhausted all other topics. So yes, it can be lead to some philosophical conversations!

One of my favorite conversations in DX is the veteran and the old bum just shooting the shit, talking about his past service and the military making dumb decisions that are biting them in the ass now, it felt so natural. That's one thing DX had is some more variety. Not everyone is going to be concerned about whatever the plot is. Some people are hungry, some people are just clowning around, some people are worried about their neighbors, etc. Stuff like that makes the world seem real.

This series of reviews has really changed the way I view Ross as a reviewer, in the sense that I hope he doesn't move forward with his plans to start reviewing more popular games. I like Ross a lot, and I don't enjoy disagreeing with him for 30 minutes instead of being entertained and informed about a game I might have never heard of.

Well for the record, I'd rather get back to lesser known games, but I'll try and cover some of your points.

 

Does he really suppose the original Deus Ex wouldn't have taken a more elaborate production design if it had the graphical capacity to do so in 2000, when nearly all cyberpunk aesthetic weird in some way (look at, just like he said, the Matrix--the fashion there isn't too far from Human Revolution).

The thing is, making a character look cyberpunk v. making them look normal doesn't require more graphical power than another. Deus Ex has some cyberpunks, but they're a small number. Some are drug dealers, or more eclectic types hanging out in clubs, or part of a larger government organization. There's a difference between more fleshed out production v. LAVISH. I feel like you're implying every game would take things to ludicrous levels as opposed to exercising restraints that make sense for the setting. Deus Ex could have easily been more futuristic and less realistic if it wanted to, regardless of budget, but I think it's grounding had to be at least partially a conscience decision. It doesn't really take any more effort to make a sci-fi military base than it does to make a modern one.

 

I get that Ross hates non-Western stuff, I just wish he didn't have to telegraph it so much. What Taggart was doing is supposed to be showing he's nervous. People in fact do make awkward hand gestures all the time, and sometime you have to exaggerate that in dramatic setup to make it more obvious for the player. We get that you hate anime Ross, but not everything you dislike about this game is caused by anime.

First off, I don't hate all non-Western stuff. I think highly of many Kurosawa movies, I've read about 500 pages of Musashi (haven't finished it, it's a long book). I've read The Art of War. Eventually I hope to learn more about the teachings of Confucius. Yes, it's true I'm not fond of most anime, but I see value in some of it too. I do appreciate the wanton imagination that comes from some of it. As someone who generally doesn't like anime, I can't deny that I think Akira is a work of art. It's really blow-your-mind material. While I don't put it on the same level, GITS portrays a very interesting world also and I think it has a great soundtrack as well.

 

I attribute SOME of what I was seeing to the anime overtones (come on, they have a FF poster on the wall), because I seriously don't see this in any other sort of western media, like the overly humble researcher or some of the animation decisions. As for Taggart, here's the deal:

 

At the time he was doing that gresture, he was CONFRONTING Jensen, trying to throw him off guard, projecting confidence. If he's trying to act nervous, his body language didn't match AT ALL. Furthermore, he's a public official for a serious organization, that gesturing throws everything out of sync. People at that level with connections to government have a lot of composure about them and are essentially part of a different class. Even if they're caught red-handed with something, people like Taggart didn't get to where they are without being smooth operators. In the same way you expect a professional poker player to keep his cool, his whole job is public relations and staying composed under pressure (that is, if he was on the defensive, which he wasn't at the time). I'm sorry, but the anime-like gestures for that character just ripped me right out of it. If it had been for Pritchard, I might not have thought of it the same. Ultimately, it's a culmination of many different things. Really it's the police response to the terrorists that sent me over the edge, and that's not anime-related at all, that's just purely writing about what the author clearly didn't understand.

 

He also never seems to consider that the idea is that people are being whipped up into a frenzy about augments by Illuminati in total disregard for facts like how many jobs are really lost, which is exactly what people like Donald Trump do in real life--take a relatively minor issue that doesn't effect a lot of people but involves a minority that is out of the mainstream and make them into a scapegoat. It's not hard to see relation between augs and undocumented workers (i.e. illegal immigrants), and Ross doesn't mention that construction is basically the main area where augs take jobs from naturals, getting sponsored by they're employers so they essentially become indentured servants---which isn't that far from undocumented immigrants. Not to mention, Ross is wrong about nurses having no need for augs, as they are in fact one of the main professions to use mechanical exoskeletons for moving patients around (http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/panasonic-assist-suit-robot-exoskeleton-aids-factory-workers-nurses-care-workers-1550399).

See this is where I think it really falls short of Deus Ex. Besides not making very compelling arguments for augmentations being a big deal, they don't try to show any REAL reasons that employment is being lost that you as the player could see even if the public is fixated on augmentations. The short version is the concerns of the citizenry seem very real in Deus Ex, whereas HR's narrative felt incredibly artificial to me and felt like it was entirely rhetoric. They needed better propaganda in other words. I found it easier to believe the cult of the Omar was trying to actively advance evolution because they explained what they were doing and why. HR really likes to dodge the "why" and keep things as vague as they can. That's not good for what's your central premise. You're right in that I may have been hasty about nurses and possible a couple other occupations, however we're ALREADY in an employer's market, people are going to be tripping over each other for jobs and HR could have tried to explain the dynamics of that more, but it really felt like it was all augs, all the time.

 

I could go on and on, but I'll just boil it down to this: I really liked Human Revolution and I'm sure Ross knows a lot of people did to.

Hey, I think the gameplay was great, I honestly can't decide which I like better, HR's or DX's. A lot of the combat was excellent. Coloring aside, I also thought it had great art design, IF it was a different game. The thing to understand is this is a PREQUEL. So when you make a prequel or sequel that clearly shows signs of not respecting the source material, how can you expect a fan of the original to be comfortable with that? It would be kind of like adding Roman Chariots and Naval Battles to Lord of The Rings or The Hobbit. Cool concepts on their own, but doesn't really belong in what's already an established universe. So try to appreciate this from my perspective, it's one of my favorite games being invaded by a different intellectual property. It doesn't mean that the new concept is bad, but it's not unreasonable to see how that can ruffle feathers. I'm sure there are games you appreciate that you would not want to see a sequel mixed with an IP you thought was a poor fit for it.

 

Look, it's obvious there's talent behind DX:HR, but I honestly think the Deus Ex IP is holding them back and I'd rather play the game they would make without DX being an anchor around their neck. Something where realism isn't as much of an issue as it is for DX fans and they could go wild. I think they have the chops to pull off something truly imaginative that could be a modern classic if they were to launch a new IP.

 

I also know that he doesn't like Bioshock, for example, another game that takes a series he liked in a different direction. But whatever his reasons, I really don't want a repeat of this saying how great System Shock 2 was how Bioshock is garbage by comparison because it isn't more of the same.

That wouldn't be my argument at all, in fact, quite the opposite, but let's not get into that, this is long enough. The larger point to take home is expectations for successors / sequels / prequels of existing IPs are different than fresh ones.

 

More generally, I just don't want Ross to become a more long winded Zero Punctuation about how all games from the last 10 years are garbage.

Won't happen. I think we have more great games than ever, it's overwhelming. Hell, I made a list and had LOADS of runner-ups! Why would I do that if I thought modern games were garbage? Hell, I mentioned Party Hard in the last episode, that game was like crack for me. I literally have a list of hundreds of games (old and new) that grabbed me enough to warrant further research on because they looked like they could be pretty cool at first glance. I think you have me all wrong if you think what I'm writing is just pedantic bandwagon griping.

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Deus Ex concludes! If I had known how much time these episodes would have ended up taking me, I think I would have poured it into something a little more worthwhile, but as always, my motto is it's better to regret things you have done than things you haven't. I originally thought this episode was going to be about the same length as Invisible War, but upon replaying parts of it, so much about it that formed my opinions of the game became really obvious, so I felt compelled to point it out.

 

Anyway, I originally hoped to have this done about 2.5 weeks ago, so I've been working pretty much nonstop trying to catch up. For the near future, I'm going to try my best to respond to people who contacted me, get more work done on the movie, start the next Game Dungeon, the offshoot of it, and hopefully get more progress done on the website. Lots to do!

 

 

EDIT:

Because the episode ended up so long, I cut some things out. Some things I didn't mention:

 

-All game footage from DX:HR is as-is. I didn't exaggerate the colors in any way in editing (I did brighten the CGI cutscenes a little bit because they were a tad dark, but that's it).

 

-This game offers 3 different forms of antialiasing, all of which do about the same thing, none of which will process the scene completely. I was able to brute force SSAA, which looked pretty good, but caused smearing at the top of the screen.

 

-If the HUD looks small it's because I was using downsampling to make the image look a little better. Despite being a modern game, the HUD does NOT scale with resolution! This means as resolutions get higher and higher, the HUD will become almost unreadable.

 

-I was going to make an analogy of the story being like Lord of The Rings, except with no Sauron, no armies, no magic rings, and instead being about a cultural divide among Middle Earth about whether people should wear rings or not, because when you wear 4 on one hand, you can punch better.

 

-The entire internet talked about the boss fight inflexibility, so I didn't feel a need to, plus it was never that big a deal for me since if you had been playing the game like a slasher movie villain, this wasn't a problem. I think the more interesting point of all this is that game development is on such a level now that they need to outsource to other areas in order to complete such a large project.

 

-I was going to include more information for people who think peak oil isn't a problem anymore due to the surge in US reserves. This is a complex topic and take times to explain, but the short version is our proven reserves have been vastly overestimated and there are economic barriers to extracting that could bring the economy down even if there is still plenty of oil in the ground. CHEAP oil is a big part of the equation.

 

 

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Here's the September chat with fans. This one was conducted under some levels of sleep deprivation, but I managed to make it through. There's nothing too critical discussed, mostly my plans for the next videos after Deus Ex and a bunch of fan questions this time. Next Game Dungeon coming in a few days, I hope!

 

COMMENTS

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Here's part 2 of covering the Deus Ex games. This one isn't as serious as the last episode; really, I think the last Deus Ex is likely going to be a high water mark for the series as far as serious as I prefer to focus on more fun stuff. I really thought this episode was going to go faster than it did, but there was more to say about it than I originally anticipated. In any event, I'll be moving on to Human Revolution as soon as possible after this. It's my hope to have the next one done before the videochat on September 3rd, but I'll just have to see what's possible. On that note, you can post here or email me if you have questions for the next videochat.

 

Also, in case anyone is wondering, I'm not intentionally trying to ignore anyone since I'm sure the last episode stirred up a lot of comments, but I've been spending all my available time trying to get the current videos done, so I'm largely putting off going through comments until I'm done with all three videos. More coming!

 

COMMENTS

You can post questions you'd like me to answer for the September videochat here.

Just quick message, I've been spending all my time on the next episode, I'll try and go through all the comments a little later. Also I was playing the original CD copy of the game with a DX10 renderer.

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Deus Ex! While I knew this one was going to take a while, I seriously wasn't prepared for how much this one was going to put me through the wringer. I think I've probably put more time in on this episode than any other Game Dungeon, there were just so many parts to cover. I really have been working around the clock on this for I'm not even sure how long now. My original plan was to have all three Deus Ex games covered before the new one comes out, but I can see now that won't be possible, but I still plan to finish them and will get them out as soon as I can. I can say with certainty the next two will be shorter overall and likely lighter in tone. This episode got more serious than I normally like to get for Game Dungeon, but come on, it's Deus Ex. Next episode coming semi-soon!

 

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Here's footage from the latest Planetside 2 play session. This one was a little different as we ended up mixing up the gameplay some. I honestly would have cancelled this one if it hadn't been planned in advance as I'm still working non-stop on the next Game Dungeon videos. I'll definitely have at least one more Planetside 2 session in the future, but I admit the overall gameplay is starting to feel more anti-climactic, so I think we may have to come up with more ideas to make it more interesting, although if the turnout is similar to this session, we could just look into an alternate game also. Anyway, new Game Dungeon coming out soon!

 

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Here's the latest videochat with fans. I didn't have much in the way of announcements this time, aside from more Game Dungeon videos are coming, though people had several interesting questions. Coming up soon (the 13th) is the next Planetside 2 session. I don't have much more to say than that right now aside from expect more videos in the next couple weeks!

 

COMMENTS

Wow, I feel dumb. That absolutely fixed the problem. I would say that maybe the program having a default setting to use non-whole pixel numbers for its axis isn't a great move, but you did indeed fix it, thanks.

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More Game Dungeon! Once again, this one is running late, though I'm relatively happy with how it came out. This one is on the short side comparatively, but I never really intended for every episode to be a marathon session the way some of them have. Next up is the Deus Ex trilogy, while it still remains one, which isn't for long. I've also fallen behind on Dead Games News, but will see about having another episode out at some point. Also, as a reminder, the next videochat is at twitch.tv/rossbroadcast on August 7th at 4pm EST. You can submit topics you'd like me to discuss here.

 

PREMIERE PUZZLER:

 

EDIT:

Problem solved, thanks to "Xrott" the issue was Premiere was using a 0.5 pixel axis origin. So not exactly a bug so much as something I wouldn't consider great default behavior. I feel kind of dumb about this, but glad it was solved. Here's the rest of the original post below:

 

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I actually ran into a very notable bug in Adobe Premiere when trying to make this episode, it was on such a fundamental level, I was a little shocked it exists, it reminds me of the sorts of problems I would run into on the Source engine. I was trying to import an image file with fine pixel details and Premiere WOULD NOT output this image correctly. I doublechecked every setting I could think of, but it came out wrong every single time. This happened on both Premiere CS5 and CS6. I had to use an elaborate workaround to fix this issue. It makes me wonder if this has affected some of my past videos also. For those interested, here's the problem:

 

When importing an image with fine pixel details, it should appear like this:

 

Instead, Premiere would always display it like this (not just in the preview, but also in lossless RGB video output also):

 

Keep in mind the above pictures have been zoomed in for visibility, there was no additional scaling applied inside Premiere itself.

 

I honestly have no idea why this is happening. If anyone can confirm a solution, let me know. Here is the original image available for download if you want to experiment. My guess is this is strictly a problem with Premiere and other video editors don't have this problem, but it definitely surprised me for such a well known piece of software and for such a fundamental function.

 

COMMENTS

You can list questions / topics you'd like to be considered for the next chat here. The next chat will be on twitch.tv/rossbroadcast on August 7th at 4pm EST.

For those curious:

 

-It's hot in my apartment (you can see me sweating in the video). For some reason it tends to be even hotter here than it is outside. It's about the mid 80s right now. I don't have air conditioning, most windows aren't even set up for units in Poland.

-Having the side of my case off makes a difference since I have fan blowing at me / the computer also, it's more surface area, not just still air.

-I have four hard drives in the case plus a non modular power supply. While I try to keep the wiring neat, it means perfect airflow isn't possible, plus some of the intake is heated from the drives regardless.

-This likely isn't the power supply, since my videocard has almost double the power draw of my CPU and it never crashed during a game. The render was hitting the CPU on all cores and it took a few hours for it to happen, plus I wasn't happy with the temperatures of it.

-A fan donated an i5-2500k to me actually. I've been meaning to "sidegrade" to that anyway, though it's a massive undertaking for me to do a Windows reinstall since I have to install and configure so many programs. I seriously have a checklist of about 200 items. Once I get to that though, that has a lower thermal profile than the 8350 anyway.

Pretty cool, glad to hear the DK2 is as much better as folks say.

One other question in regards to the motion tracking, though. What are your thoughts on the Virtuix Omni running platform thing they have?

I haven't heard much about it other than that it exists, but do you think that it's a viable solution to motion controlling without running into a wall?

My main concern, as with VR itself, is with compatibility. However, I have heard some good things, and it looks promising.

I just have to wonder if I'm a big enough of a dork to have one of these things sitting in my apartment.

I would kill to be able to just walk for hours in large game worlds that I enjoyed. I think the Omni has a lot of potential, but it's also highly unlikely to receive mainstream support unless they specifically add it for a few titles. They need to come up with a motion-sickness free solution, which ironically, might coincide with what I was doing with VorpX.

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Here's another originally unplanned video to accompany the original unplanned video! This is a followup video to the last Ross Rants episode, since I felt like there was enough commentary from people to warrant it, plus I had some new information to add. There's nothing crucial in here if you didn't have any trouble following the last one, btu that wasn't the case for everyone. I originally planned for this one to take much less time, but all the minor diagram editing really ended up ballooning the time. In any event, it's done, so here it is.

 

Right now my plan is to have at least one more Game Dungeon this month before moving into the Deus Ex series, however, I can't promise any dates at this point. While rendering parts of this video, my computer completely froze up. I'm fairly sure it was due to the CPU overheating. Despite having a custom cooler and what I thought was decent case airflow, it's apparently still not enough to tame it. I'm currently running my system with the case off and a fan blowing on it. In light of this, it's just a reminder to me how technical setbacks can crop up, however I'll try to have more videos out as soon as I can. In any event, I don't have future plans to cover any more VR, I feel like I nailed it down between this and the last one.

 

COMMENTS

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Here's the footage from the latest playsession again. Unfortunately this is the lower quality footage with no in-game sound. While I did record those both locally, they're unfortunately out of sync with the twitch stream I think in about a hundred places and it's just not worth it for me to correct it like I did with the last feed, I'd rather spend that time on more of the real videos. I think eventually I'll come up with a better method of recording everything, but until then, this is what I have. I tried to timestamp a few of the highlights.

 

The next play session will be Emerald server on Augusth 13th, at 2pm EST again. I may try something different next time to make the game a little more interesting, I'll see. In the meantime, more videos are coming before too long!

 

COMMENTS

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Behold The Chosen: Well of Souls! I'm over a full week late with this episode than I was intending to, though in my defense, it grew into a monstrosity I wasn't expecting. I originally thought this episode would be around 15 minutes, but it grew into a whopping 42 minutes as I found there was so much I wanted to say about it that I didn't want to leave out. While I cut material out of every episode that I think isn't the most vital, The Chosen is so packed full of "why did they do this" moments, that it was harder for me to leave so many out of the video. This really took a lot of time for me to do editing-wise, so I think the next episode will almost certainly be a shorter one, although I have lots of stuff planned.

 

I'd say it's safe to expect more videos this month, though The Chosen should remind me never to promise deadlines since I often underestimate how much work a video needs by a few dozen hours. In any event, I'm looking forward to getting more out! Also something not mentioned in the video is those shaman guys will resurrect each other in a potentially endless cycle.

 

EDIT:

I also meant to add this episode may have my favorite ending of any Game Dungeon so far.

 

COMMENTS

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Well I would have put this video off if it wasn't already pre-planned since I'm in the middle of working on others, but here it is. The short version is more Game Dungeons are coming soon! I don't have a 4th of July video planned this year I'm afraid, though I hope to again eventually. Expect a new Game Dungeon in a couple days, and more after that. More videos! Aaaaaah

 

EDIT:

The next videochat will be on August 7th at 4pm EST.

 

COMMENTS

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Well I have some bad news in that I'm running late on the next Game Dungeon. I just can't see it being finished by tomorrow. I intended to have it done this month, but it's going to take a couple more days. I do intend to have multiple Game Dungeons for July however, and I plan on posting a short follow-up video a little later to the latest Ross Rants since some confusion + good questions were brought up that I wanted to address.

 

Also a reminder, the next videochat will be on July 3rd at 4pm EST at twitch.tv/rossbroadcast. You can either email me or post any additional questions / topics you have in the comments below. I can't promise which will come out first, the videochat, or the next Game Dungeon, but they should both be pretty close to one another.

 

Also the next Planetside 2 play session will be on July 16th at 2pm EST on the Emerald server, also on twitch.

 

That's it for now. Expect several more Game Dungeons coming both July and August!

 

COMMENTS

Ross, I believe a lot of your issues with VR Sickness stem from the nature of the headset you're using and the movement system generally used for the DK2 and DK1.

Yes and no. I realized after I made this, I was focusing on a different point, but a lot of people thought I was assuming most native VR games for the CV1 and Vive would cause nausea also. I don't think that, my point was that motion sickness is EASY to induce unless the game is specifically designed for it. That unfortunately includes most 3D games made and limits mobility substantially on native VR ones.

 

Other then mods there is your idea, the 3D Theater. Some companies do indeed make software for that to sit you down next to a huge ass 3D TV essentially. Valve includes it with Steam VR and launches almost any title into it, but will only display 3D if it uses a specific standard. Otherwise its just a 2D image on a huge TV.

Yeah, that's great for games that get full VR adaption treatment, but I'd rather focus more on solutions for the huge bulk of existing games already out there that full immersion simply isn't an option for, but good 3D still is. And yeah, the 2D image virtual cinema thing I don't think would add to the immersion that much.

 

I don't know which consumer version to buy, to be honest. I do like the room tracking of the Vive but I have to admit to myself that I'm lazy where it comes to games. I want to sit down. I know you can sit with the Vive as well, but I'm still puzzled over which is better. Ross says "none" at the moment because of the launch stupidity, but I really do want to see some kind of unfiltered pros and cons of each.

Well the real answer isn't "none" so much as "it's really not obvious." In any event, there are two links I recommend. One, that review I showed in the video is THE best comparison of the Vive and Rift I've seen out of all the ones I've looked at:

 

 

Additionally, the HDK2 is coming out in July. No idea if that will be better or not, but it's certainly worth taking a look at it. It should have different lens than the Rift or Vive, so that could be a good thing.

 

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I personally would rather have the VR system depicted in Johnny Mnemnic... Those golves, with force feedback, would be far superior to any other hand controller system. Heck, I'd be perfectly happy with those having fully wired connections too.

Hell, I'd prefer to control my OS that way.

 

 

I have vorpX (something I got back when I got the Oculus DK2 for Christmas). I didn't really use it much because it didn't seem to work all that well.

I may have to bug you about this in an email then, I have a lot of questions.

 

However, when it DID work, it was beautiful. And the mouse controls, meaning weapon aiming, was uncoupled from my head tracking allowing me to aim naturally with the mouse. I thought it would be cumbersome at first, but I was surprised at how natural it felt. I became a crack shot really quickly--far more accurate than I've been with mouse aiming on a 2D monitor.

Well to each his own, personally, I do NOT want to aim with my head, even if it has high accuracy.