Deus Specs: Concerning Adam Jensen's Glasses

While revisiting some of Yahtzee Croshaw's older Zero Punctuation videos on a slow afternoon, I pulled up his review of Deus Ex: Human Revolution, having forgotten most of his talking-points on the game and cyberpunk in general. When he brings up Adam Jensen's shades and how willingly they slide in and out of his skull, I began to wonder. Like he said, that's a ridiculously intrusive surgery for something that comes across in-universe as cosmetically badass at most. However, I think the shades are higher-tech than we can reasonably guess at first glance.

Quick disclaimer before before we start: I have played Deus Ex, but I have not played DE:HR. While this conundrum may already be addressed in the game and its supplements, my main goal here is to show you how close to this level of technology we actually are.These truly are exciting times we live in.

Regarding RTS Balance

To get things started, I figured I'd give a quick defense of my first GameRx review. After an associate of mine read my review of Dark Colony on the RSC blog, they mentioned that having identical sides shouldn't be a feature of an RTS. I agree with this to a point, but I also think that this overlooks some important changes in the gaming world over the past fifteen years, especially in the genre of real-time strategy.

Feel free to disagree, but I don't think this is a very consistent standard. It's not a perfect comparison, but I don't think anyone would call chess, checkers, or backgammon unfair or dull specifically on the grounds that both sides are evenly matched. Similarly, the first two Age of Empires have essentially equivalent teams with the exception of high-tier unit availability. The first two installments of the franchise are right up there with Dune II in terms of shaping the genre. Sometimes, there's something to be said for balance through simplicity.

Hello, world!

Doc Watson here from www.redshirtcrew.com, and it's nigh time this blog went up.

I started working with Chase (aka MaristPlayBoy) at RedShirtCrew in 2011, and since then I've found I have more things that I want to write about than he'll let me post! I'm setting up the GameRx Clinic to let me let off some steam away from the blog and get a little bit of rambling of my own done.

The stuff I cover will be pretty much the same as on the RSC blog. It'll be games, movies, history, humor, art, and whatever else you all want me to talk about, but being a little more open-ended than the articles I write for the blog.

For those of you who are worried, this is by no means a separation from my roots! My two review columns, GameRx and Prognosis, will both still be on www.redshirtcrew.com, along with a bunch of other swell writers. Be sure to give the site a look when you have the opportunity.

If you want to get in touch, go ahead and leave a comment or hit me up on Twitter @DocWatsonMD. I'm looking forward to hearing from you!