“Deus Ex 3 Trailer” or “J.C. Denton Lives? Say it is so!”

I don’t know of anyone who didn’t love the complexity and depth of the original Deus Ex: Machina. Well except for Tom Chick, but he’s weird. Opinions on the second game vary, but contrasting it against the original masterpiece, I for one was severely underwhelmed.

GDC just launched the teaser trailer for the third game in the series, called Deus Ex 3: Human Revolution. Those cigarette screens from a week back finally make sense.

I am excited about it, although the CGI trailer tells you absolutely nothing about the gameplay, story or setting. Still, a great teaser!

They Said Whaaaat?: “Derek Smarted!” or “The More Things Change, the More They Stay the Same”

“The Dec 1st launch of the game should never have happened. It was a mistake that has not only cost the company money but has also cost people their jobs and put an otherwise exceptional product at risk.”

– Derek Smart, President, QOL, forum statement

Exceptional product? Really?

EDIT: Damn, Syp beat me to it!

“Jack ‘Lightening McQueen’ Shepard” or “Cerberus Network Rewards”

Click to enlarge

The Mass Effect 2 website just announced a new weapon for the game, available only to registered users for the Cerberus Network. The weapon, called the Arc Projector, is exclusively available to registered users of the Cerberus Network.

Preface: I love Mass Effect 2. I think it is quite simply the best RPG I have ever played.

That being said, here is a random question: how many people actually find the Cerberus rewards useful?I have been largely disappointed. The Cerberus Assault Gear was the only piece that I particularly appreciated.

The Normandy crash site was lame, 15 minutes of perambulating around a frozen landscape to place a monument that no one would see, collecting dog-tags that took forever to find, and getting absolutely zero closure of any sort. I wanted to find survivors. Or at least duke it out with some scavengers or even Collectors at the crash site. But it felt like a forced, unnecessary trip down memory lane.

The shotgun was quite frankly a non-improvement over the other gear I had already acquired. And even if it was, I did not regularly squad up with characters that specialized in the weapon.

And then there is Zaeed. I hate Zaeed with a passion. The guy is walking cliche, a two-dimensional afterthought that had less personality than Paris Hilton in any of her sex videos. Even his story did little to intrigue me because the set up to the story was a matter of forced convenience, than a subtle hint at the character’s dark past and inner demons. Every single one of the other characters came from a complex background and battled personal dilemmas that got me emotionally vested in their cause and their story. But Zaeed, not so much.

Now we have a heavy weapon that shoots electricity. Sounds cool, but it still doesn’t feel like it has any significant value. That being said, I am really looking forward to the Firewalker pack. As much as vehicular planet exploration in the first game sucked, I would love to pilot a hovercraft capable of precision-firing rockets while maneuvering at 120 kilometers an hour.

What are your thoughts on the Cerebrus Network rewards?