Deus Ex: IW Demo now available

Companion Cube · Post by **Companion Cube** » 2003-11-21 02:38pm

If you're interested, Fileplanet has some dedicated servers that don't require paying subscription, and if you look around, there should be some other download locations soon.

D/Ling at the moment, will post impressions later, if possible.

DPDarkPrimus · Post by **DPDarkPrimus** » 2003-11-21 03:02pm

Downloading now as well, will do same.

Companion Cube · Post by **Companion Cube** » 2003-11-21 05:00pm

First impressions: After playing for only a few minutes, I can't give an overall impression yet, but so far DX:IW seems to have an equally impressive level of immersion as the first game.

Highlights: NG Resonance, cock-fights with Transgenics in a pit.

Datana · Post by **Datana** » 2003-11-21 06:17pm

My general impressions on the demo:

The gameplay is pretty decent, though the interface has declined significantly. The menus are extremely mouse-unfriendly, and even just browsing your inventory is a chore (clicking on an item automatically swaps it for the last item you had selected rather than just selecting it). It's as though the menus were brought directly over from the X-Box with no effort at adapting them for the fact that they're now on a PC. Changes to your key config aren't saved between maps, though this will likely be fixed in the final version. The on-screen fonts are FAR too large for a normal PC monitor, and both item descriptions and Infolink comms are much more annoying to deal with as a result (taking multiple screens' worth of text to communicate what would have fit into a single text box in the first -- this paragraph would likely be four or five screens' worth in-game).

Unified ammo doesn't bug me nearly as much as I thought it would; it actually works out relatively well, and I barely noticed it at all. I can't believe, though, that there's no locational damage to speak of -- I can pump five rounds into a guard's head or torso, and it'll be the same as though I had just shot an arm or leg. Previews indicate that headshots will only be possible with the sniper rifle, and only in zoomed-in mode, which is rather stupid. I also miss the "lean" buttons -- being able to peek around corners without being seen was a big part of gameplay for me in the first game. Straight combat is still as fun as in the first despite these deficiencies, though it's going to make the sneak assassin style (as I used in the first) near impossible -- you can't kill anyone quickly enough to get away without revealing your position.

The framerates are utterly pathetic. On an Athlon 2100+ with a GeForce4 Ti4600 video card (Detonator 45 drivers, as the ForceWare 52 drivers seemed to actually hurt performance; I'll try rolling back to the 44.03 drivers to see if those will do any better), I can barely get 25 FPS at 640x480 with both antialiasing and in-game multisampling off. I know the demo isn't completely optimized yet, but this is pretty ridiculous, especially considering the low-res textures. I don't see how a P4 1.3 GHz with a GeForce3 (the minimum allowed specs) can be expected to run this game. Maybe an ATI card will do better, as DX2 uses pixel shader effects a lot, which is something Nvidia cards are terrible at.

Though this sounds negative overall, the game isn't completely bad. The game world is just as interactive as in the first, and practically oozes atmosphere. Many elements have been streamlined for the better -- you automatically pull out a multitool if a door needs one, for instance. The physics and dynamic lighting are also really good, as advertised.

All in all, however, DX2 feels like a rushed PC port of an X-Box game rather than a PC game with an X-Box port. Everything is far too consolelike, especially when compared to the first game. GTA:VC managed to handle the transition really well, though it remains to be seem whether DX2 can do the same in the final version. If Ion Storm can clean up the utterly atrocious interface and improve the framerate by the time the final version came out, though, it would still be worth a purchase. If things stand as they are, however, I wouldn't even consider it worthy of a bootleg copy (not that I endorse such things, of course).

Edit: Clarified the minimum specs a bit.

Faram · Post by **Faram** » 2003-11-21 06:28pm

Hmm waitong on a bittorrent linky.

I HATE fileplanet.

MKSheppard · Post by **MKSheppard** » 2003-11-21 06:30pm

More proof that the X-BOX is a DEVIL SPAWNED BY THE FOULEST DEMON,
forcing us to wait for KOTR, and turning Halo from a kickass game into
an average "meh so what?" game, and now screwing the
Deus Ex Franchise?!?!?

Hotfoot · Post by **Hotfoot** » 2003-11-21 06:33pm

MKSheppard wrote:More proof that the X-BOX is a DEVIL SPAWNED BY THE FOULEST DEMON,
forcing us to wait for KOTR, and turning Halo from a kickass game into
an average "meh so what?" game, and now screwing the
Deus Ex Franchise?!?!?

I fear for Thief 3. I really do.

DPDarkPrimus · Post by **DPDarkPrimus** » 2003-11-21 07:33pm

GRRRR!!

WHY! WON'T! YOU! FREAKING! WORK!

STUPID DEMO!!!

Hotfoot · Post by **Hotfoot** » 2003-11-21 07:51pm

DPDarkPrimus wrote:GRRRR!!

WHY! WON'T! YOU! FREAKING! WORK!

STUPID DEMO!!!

Don't play it, install it.

DPDarkPrimus · Post by **DPDarkPrimus** » 2003-11-21 08:10pm

No shit, asshole.

It's already installed. But it doesn't run.

Hotfoot · Post by **Hotfoot** » 2003-11-21 08:15pm

DPDarkPrimus wrote:No shit, asshole.

It's already installed. But it doesn't run.

It's an issue with some versions of the demo. The first Install/Play screen doesn't work properly, and when people try to use it to play, the game does not play. Other than that, don't let it install DirectX 8.1, and make sure your drivers are up to date.

Edit:
More to the point, you might have missed this little piece of text from Fileplanet, depending on how you went about downloading it.

Fileplanet wrote:Note: Make sure you select "Launch Installer" during the installation, rather than selecting the "Play Deus Ex Invisible War Demo.

Since you didn't give any indication whatsoever as to what your problem was, other than "it no worky", you shouldn't expect anything more than level 1 tech support. If this isn't what you wanted, well that's just too bad for you, isn't it?

Brother-Captain Gaius · Post by **Brother-Captain Gaius** » 2003-11-21 08:26pm

*snickers*

But on topic, I'm not liking where I think this is going... if this thread is any indication, DX2 is just screaming "port!"... yeeech. Never did play out the other two endings in the original, no time like the present I guess...

DPDarkPrimus · Post by **DPDarkPrimus** » 2003-11-21 08:32pm

I did select the "install" option when it gave me the choice between that and playing IW. It didn't work, so I uninstalled it, got DirectX 9, then tried installing it again.

Same problems.

Hotfoot · Post by **Hotfoot** » 2003-11-21 08:45pm

DPDarkPrimus wrote:I did select the "install" option when it gave me the choice between that and playing IW. It didn't work, so I uninstalled it, got DirectX 9, then tried installing it again.

Same problems.

How, specifically, was it not working? Did it start loading, then kick you back to the desktop? Did it give you an error message? What is your graphics card/driver combo? Did you read the readme?

Jedi: Yes, it does scream console port, which is almost amusing because the PC version was completed long before the console version.

DPDarkPrimus · Post by **DPDarkPrimus** » 2003-11-21 08:45pm

Okay, what the fuck.

The error message I am getting says that the engine needs a graphics card with "Pixel Shader 1.1". WTF? That wasn't in the specifications.

Hotfoot · Post by **Hotfoot** » 2003-11-21 08:49pm

DPDarkPrimus wrote:Okay, what the fuck.

The error message I am getting says that the engine needs a graphics card with "Pixel Shader 1.1". WTF? That wasn't in the specifications.

The Deus Ex 2 Demo readme wrote:* Supported Chipsets – nVidia GeForce 3Ti/4Ti/Fx (MX series not supported). Radeon 8500/9XXX or higher. (Pixel/Vertex shader required)

card/drivers?

DPDarkPrimus · Post by **DPDarkPrimus** » 2003-11-21 11:18pm

I don't even know how to see what fucking video card I have using XP! The stupid system properties is totally screwed up, it only lists the drivers for audio and video, not the hardware itself!

Datana · Post by **Datana** » 2003-11-21 11:30pm

Right-click on the desktop, select "Properties." Select the "Settings" tab. Click the "Advanced" button. Click on the "Adapter" tab. Under "Adapter Type" you should see your video card's type. If nothing of relevance is displayed there, either you have a completely screwed up system or you have integrated graphics (which stand no chance at all of running the game).

DPDarkPrimus · Post by **DPDarkPrimus** » 2003-11-22 01:28am

Shit. I got an MX series.

Datana · Post by **Datana** » 2003-11-22 01:36am

DPDarkPrimus wrote:Shit. I got an MX series.

This is something we can lay at nVidia's feet, as the MX is really just a glorified GeForce2. Things would really have been less confusing had they not given the MX the "GeForce4" name. I had to address the same issue for someone else having a similar problem with Silent Hill 3 (which also doesn't support the MX).

Crazy_Vasey · Post by **Crazy_Vasey** » 2003-11-22 01:37pm

The demo is pretty poor. The physics are terrible in places, which is kindof strange considering they use Havok 2: ragdolls are awful, and everything moves too fast. You kill someone and they do 18 backflips and a few spins before hitting the floor, all in 0.2 seconds flat. It looks bizzare.

The weapons are piss as well, but once I'd tweaked the INI files to double all weapon damage it was MUCH better.

I'm really not sure about it. It was a poor demo. The level was tiny and you didn't have anything to get your teeth into.

Ace Pace · Post by **Ace Pace** » 2003-11-22 01:50pm

I just finshed playing a bit, I don't know what your talking about, smooth 50+ fps, fun gameplay, headshots are easy.

locational damage exists, I tryed it.

I know i'm going to be flamed for this, but I really don't see anything wrong with the interface.

Crazy_Vasey · Post by **Crazy_Vasey** » 2003-11-22 01:55pm

Headshots are easy, yes. But how many does it take to kill someone? A fair few, in my experience.

I think locational damage is only sorta there. Headshots do more damage, that's about it.

I kinda like the UI as well. Once you've edited the INI file to give the HUD the PC FOV (it was left to the X-BOX value in the demo for some reason) it looks great.

Come on, you can't have missed the daft rag dolls!

Mind you, taking over the turret was kinda fun

Ace Pace · Post by **Ace Pace** » 2003-11-22 01:57pm

I think mostly that 1 preview was right, we ARE used to taking the gun filled, toxic barrel strewn path, I know I did, then I noticed a little shortcut

EDIT: my GPU has problems, getting flickers, and a lock after a few minutes now, any idea why?

also, whats the thing in the INI? which INI and what settings?

FUCK FUCK FUCK, a Radeon 9700 pro which works no better then a GF2 MX

FUCK