VOGONS


First post, by xjas

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Considering Unreal (1) is probably #3 or 4 on my all-time favorite games list, I feel like I'm virtually robbing myself if I never give its cyberpunk sibling a try.

What's the best way to experience this for the first time? I do have an original GOTY jewel case release right here, and I'm happy to play that, but I understand there have been a few attempts at HD updates with high-res models, etc. The Revision pack on Steam+GOG looks promising, but it also looks like I have to own the game on those platforms despite it being "free" and the mention of new / replaced music has me worried. (The stunning original tracker music is one of my favorite things about Unreal.)

Recommendations?

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Reply 1 of 16, by Tetrium

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Seems to me to be either this option:

xjas wrote:

I do have an original GOTY jewel case release right here, and I'm happy to play that

or this option:

, but I understand there have been a few attempts at HD updates with high-res models, etc. The Revision pack on Steam+GOG looks promising, but it also looks like I have to own the game on those platforms despite it being "free" and the mention of new / replaced music has me worried.

Do you own the version of the game that is required for that revision pack? If not, why not give Deus Ex a try on one of your retro rigs? For all you know you may not even like Deus Ex for whatever reason, which would give you a thing less to think about 😜

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Reply 2 of 16, by leileilol

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My way of playing it on the first time is unpatched on a period appropriate system........because that's how I did it 😀 single digit framerates were a thing to accept when you're stealthy.

I'm generally not a fan of "HD packs" and other things as they either add some silly cruft or just look uncanny (i.e. overly noisy blocky maps, and since Deus Ex is well blocky.....it's asking for immersive atmospheric interference)

You could probably get by with just vanilla on a (insert either Kentie's D3D10 or Cwdonhal's D3D9/OpenGL Renderers of choice here) or maybe even nglide'ing with the provided Glide renderer if that's your liking (there's no quality loss in Deus Ex as everything is 256x256 paletted at best)

Another quirk to note is that Deus Ex doesn't scale up the scope/binoculars view textures (higher resolution affects gameplay negatively!), so you'll have to go up to a 1280x960 minimum res to have them doublesized at least. 640x480 and 1280x960 are the only two valid canonical screen resolutions of choice here

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Reply 3 of 16, by M-HT

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If it was Deus Ex: Invisible War, then I'd say go for the enhanced version, because you'll probably play the game only once. But for the original Deus Ex I say go for the vanilla version with Kentie's D3D10 or Cwdonhal's D3D9/OpenGL renderer. You can try the enhanced version when replaying the game.
As for The Revision mod - it's also available as a standalone download here.

Reply 4 of 16, by xjas

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Tetrium wrote:

Do you own the version of the game that is required for that revision pack? If not, why not give Deus Ex a try on one of your retro rigs? For all you know you may not even like Deus Ex for whatever reason, which would give you a thing less to think about 😜

I actually don't have a "retro rig" that runs Windows. The only Windows game machine I have at all is a C2Q/9800GTX, which it's installed on right now. I figure anything I run it on is gonna be so far from its original environment anyway I may as well look into an update.

Am I going to run into timing bugs if I play the vanilla (1.112fm) version on something that overpowered? It seems to run fine so far but I had to switch to OpenGL to clear up some sound distortion.

M-HT wrote:

If it was Deus Ex: Invisible War, then I'd say go for the enhanced version, because you'll probably play the game only once. But for the original Deus Ex I say go for the vanilla version with Kentie's D3D10 or Cwdonhal's D3D9/OpenGL renderer. You can try the enhanced version when replaying the game.

The issue is I generally don't have time to play "big" games more than once at a time anymore (although knowing this one I'll likely at least go through far enough to get all the endings.) If there's a definitively-awesome way to experience this one for the first time, I want in on that. 😜

M-HT wrote:

As for The Revision mod - it's also available as a standalone download here.

Oops, thx for pointing that out. I was on that page and didn't even notice - just saw the link to Steam.

I guess I'll try the original with those updated renderers for now and switch to Revision if I decide it needs more oomph. Never had a problem appreciating the low-poly vis in Unreal though.

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Reply 5 of 16, by DosFreak

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I wouldn't do a first playthrough with Revision. First play through should be the original ver. If you don't want to play the original ver then the GMDX mod is recommended.

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Reply 6 of 16, by xjas

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...AND I just learned that inserting an (apparently) rotted USB stick and double-clicking on a bad file in a deleted directory that was still showing up for some reason, can hose an ENTIRE Windows XP installation. Like, sudden massive data corruption on running essential Windows services hosed. Or maybe the HDD is failing or something.

Fortunately the only things installed on it were Prince of Persia and Deus Ex, so I haven't lost anything other than time & some PoP savegames.

Anyway now I'm down to zero Windows gaming systems again. Maybe I'll go see if there's a Winebottle for Deus Ex.

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Reply 7 of 16, by clueless1

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Never played Deus Ex either. It's on my short list, but I keep picking other games to play. I think I've convinced myself it's a first person shooter, not a stealth/RPG game. And System Shock 2 was one of my favorites. I need to get past this mental block on Deus Ex and just play it.

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Reply 8 of 16, by F2bnp

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I played through the entire game for the first time a couple of years ago. I unfortunately don't remember which mod I used, it was one of the more popular ones on modDB, however I know that it didn't include any texture packs as I prefer to keep things vanilla.

It did have multiple bug fixes, better HUD scaling, newer renderer in order to run properly on modern Windows.
Does anyone know which one I'm talking about?

Reply 9 of 16, by senrew

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I originally played it on a surplus Optiplex 260 with some kind of business-class integrated video. It looked like complete ass but the game was too awesome and kept me going till I finished it. Just find a way to play the game, how you play it shouldn't affect your feelings on it as the content will be enough.

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Reply 10 of 16, by infiniteclouds

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I'm jealous. I wish I could play Deus Ex for the first time again!

I can't complain though as I've been experiencing a ton of retro games for the first time that I missed because I didn't have a PC - currently going through the Sierra adventure games.

Reply 11 of 16, by Osprey

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clueless1 wrote:

Never played Deus Ex either. It's on my short list, but I keep picking other games to play. I think I've convinced myself it's a first person shooter, not a stealth/RPG game. And System Shock 2 was one of my favorites. I need to get past this mental block on Deus Ex and just play it.

It's nice to know that I'm not alone. System Shock 2 is one of my favorite games, too, and yet I've never played Deus Ex, which is a very similar game, supposedly. Actually, I do remember trying it when it first came out, but it didn't appeal to me on first impression. Perhaps it got patched up and ironed out, though, or it just takes a little bit of time to "hook" you. I imagine that I'll like it once I get really into it, since everything about it seems up my alley. I just have a similar mental block as you, where I just can't find the motivation or interest to start it.

F2bnp wrote:

I played through the entire game for the first time a couple of years ago. I unfortunately don't remember which mod I used, it was one of the more popular ones on modDB, however I know that it didn't include any texture packs as I prefer to keep things vanilla.

It did have multiple bug fixes, better HUD scaling, newer renderer in order to run properly on modern Windows.
Does anyone know which one I'm talking about?

It looks like it was probably Deus Exe + Direct3D 10 renderer, both by Kentie:
https://pcgamingwiki.com/wiki/Deus_Ex#Deus_Exe

I'll probably play with those, too, since I like patches that replace the renderer, add higher resolutions, fix bugs and improve compatibility with modern Windows. That's still vanilla enough for me. Thanks for the tip that led me to find those.

Reply 12 of 16, by F2bnp

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You know, I think I might have played New Visions instead. They apparently changed a lot of the textures in that mod, but they resemble the vanilla quite a bit, you might wanna take a look at it as well.

Reply 13 of 16, by Rekrul

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clueless1 wrote:

Never played Deus Ex either. It's on my short list, but I keep picking other games to play. I think I've convinced myself it's a first person shooter, not a stealth/RPG game. And System Shock 2 was one of my favorites. I need to get past this mental block on Deus Ex and just play it.

I'm the exact opposite; I've never played Deus Ex or System Shock 2 (or the first one for that matter) because of their RPG elements. I've never really been into the whole customization aspect of games where you have a crap-ton of stats to manage and upgrade and have to decide which ones are the most important. Mostly because I always pick the wrong ones and end up struggling with the game. I don't even do that well deciding what units to upgrade in strategy games.

Reply 14 of 16, by DosFreak

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RPG aspects in FPS aren't really (in most cases). If you just want to play the game then ignore them until you come to a point where you need to use those points to get past an obstacle. That's usually what I do on a first play through. When you play the game again then you can experiment and depending on how well the game is coded you get rewarded for it.

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Reply 15 of 16, by Osprey

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DosFreak wrote:

RPG aspects in FPS aren't really (in most cases). If you just want to play the game then ignore them until you come to a point where you need to use those points to get past an obstacle. That's usually what I do on a first play through. When you play the game again then you can experiment and depending on how well the game is coded you get rewarded for it.

Yeah, that's a good tip. Don't spend a point or upgrade just to spend it. Let them accumulate until you have a better idea of which weapons and/or play styles you prefer or have an obstacle to overcome. For example, you may find, after a few hours of playing, that you prefer taking a more stealthy approach and sneaking and hacking your way around, rather than using weaponry. If you had saved up your points and upgrades up to that point, resisting the temptation to put them into gun stats, you'd then be able to dump them all into stealth stats. Similarly, if you're not sure whether to put points into fire resistance or ice resistance, save them until you encounter an area or enemy that tests one or the other.

Reply 16 of 16, by DracoNihil

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I really don't recommend the Revision and other mods because of how significantly different they are. You should play regular Deus Ex GOTY with the Shifter mod atleast (since Shifter fixes a few problems GOTY introduced and added missing items)

Also Deus Ex runs just fine under Wine, just use UTGLR's OpenGLDrv.dll

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