Spector Talks Deus Ex Sequel

Thanks to GameSpy for their interview with Deus Ex creator Warren Spector regarding the eagerly-awaited FPS sequel, Deus Ex: Invisible War. Spector discusses the equal co-development of the different DX2 versions ("We started right at the outset wanting to make a game simultaneously for both the Xbox and the PC"), the state of the US games industry ("The costs of doing business and the risks are so high that everybody's getting super conservative"), and what needs to evolve in the future ("I think that the challenges for us, the places where we really didn't even try, are in the areas of non-combat character interaction.")

Comments

It's Sarah Paestch, not Page...

[Dimwit]

Just so you know...the "other" writer is Sarah Paestch, not Sarah Page.

Yes, yes, I'm dating a video game writer. And she's a *girl*! How cool is that?

Re:I'm still pissed

[SmallFurryCreature]

I will ask you a question. Have you played morrowind? It is available for both the x-box and the pc.

The game was great but it had a lot of loading as you walked through the world. It is a continues world with new areas being loaded in as you move along. This actually went through the point of being annoying as you got spells to move faster. Although it was beautifull to just walk from one city to another the constant loading made it a pain.

Then a expansion came out. The expansion was PC only. Suddenly the areas were much much larger. You could now move in a city without any loading whatsoever. Even in between areas the loading became much much faster? The reason? Well they made use of the PC's far greater memory. Mine got a very convervative 512mb with a further 128mb for the vidcard. Sure I pay a hefty price for that, probably 3-4 x-box'es. But I find it worth it.

So yes play the game on the x-box if you want. The crashes are indeed annoying, not annoying enough for me, but you have your own choice.

Just don't fucking cripple my game. And that is the real problem I have. When I read the interview my heart froze. They made the levels to fit on the x-box? Oh shit. You see level size does make a difference. It make the diffrence between a fake skyline and a skyline that is actual 3D buildings. It means you really can walk multiple routes even routes that are the wrong way.

You say you prefer the x-box version, that is your good right. But we don't get the same choice. DX2 is an X-box game wich will also run on a PC. Hell if the interview is correct we don't even get better textures. So there is only 1 version of the game. Just if you happen to run it on a PC you can choose the mouse and increase the resolution. Big fucking deal. Oh well another game I won't buy.

Disappointed.

[Kwil]

Sad to see this from Warren.

It seems he's completely neglecting one of the major differences between the X-box and the PC, namely, the UI.

I mean, having a keyboard makes a difference. It allows more options, more diversity of control in a rapid manner. Unless the game is undergoing some kind of *insane* level of menuing, you can guaruntee that the game will not approach the complexity or detail possible using a PC. If the UI didnt make a difference, would Capcom have bothered to make a controller like this for one of their games? Considering that it added to the cost and made people less likely to buy the game, there must be some reason they felt it was important enough to include.

And to say that all the innovation is happening on the console side is completely ignoring the plethora of small, independant developers working on the PC platform. It's also ignoring the *history* of PC games, which are a mine of innovative material that often failed not because of a lack of quality, but because of a lack of marketing.

Of course, then you look at the games Warren has put out and realize that he doesn't really do a whole helluva lot in innovation anyway. He does a lot of refining of ideas, but not much for anything that's actually new.