But soft, what light through yonder window breaks?
It is the video game store, and Deus Ex: Human Revolution has arrived.
Arise, fair video game, and end the summer lull
Who is already sick and pale with grief
That thou, her maid, art far more fair than she.

... Shakespeare I am not.

Remember. Release dates are quite literally made at the whims of the publisher. The following are subject to change without any warning.

Releases To Watch For This Week

Larry always knew that sitting too close to the monitor would be the death of him

Deus Ex: Human Revolution (Xbox 360, PS3)

Tuesday August 23, 2011
Sometimes, a game comes along that just feels like it’s brimming with possibilities. For most that implies an open world game, but for me, it means a game that offers up different ways of approaching the same situation. Deus Ex: Human Revolution, prequel to the seminal Deus Ex, looks to offer exactly this kind of an experience.

Taking place in 2027, the world of Human Revolution teeters towards revolution with the issue of human augmentation at its core. Private security officer Adam Jensen, a recently augmented fellow, finds himself knee deep in a conspiracy surrounding the future of humanity and augmentation.

At its heart, Human Revolution plays is a third person shooter, but the developers made it so that the missions and side missions within the game can be resolved via one of four ways: Combat, stealth, hacking, and through social elements. Combat, stealth, and hacking should be pretty self-explanatory. The social method of solving problems involve talking to people and analyzing their tone and body language to help you figure out the best way to direct the conversation to your favor. Gaining their favor then leads to either them divulging critical information or lending you a hand in your mission. It obviously won’t work on enemies hell bent on turning you into Swiss cheese, but if you played the social elements right, you can side step these enemies entirely.

Thanks to Jensen’s augmentation, the player can customize him to suit the way you play. Jensen can be equipped with various upgrades such as the invisibility augmentation, for the stealth approach naturally, or one that helps him with hacking. Other augmentations even has multiple uses such as the X-Ray vision augmentation, which should come in handy if you’re either going stealth or taking the combat route making it easier to keep track of all the enemies. Even the social methodology gets augmentation support. The Social Analyzer profiles the person Jensen is talking to giving you an edge in persuading them.

Human Revolution doesn’t take Jensen from one level to the next. Instead, Jensen will visit five different cities through the course of the game. Jensen will be able to explore these cities freely in between mission and should be able to pick up side missions as well.

Although the original developer, ION Studios, wasn’t involved in Human Revolution’s creation, it certainly seems to live up to the original’s mantra of “playstyle matters.” Whether you just want Jensen to mow down everybody in the room or you take special glee at having him sneak behind unaware sentries, Human Revolution looks to be the game that lets you live out your fantasy as an unstoppable cyborg in a bleak world. That’s right up there alongside being an astronaut or a fireman one day.

Coming This Week

Tuesday August 23, 2011

Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Survivor Overclocked (3DS)

Ever get the feeling that Atlus has a slight obsession with demons? This strategy role playing game originally came out for the DS two years ago. Improvements include higher resolution art, new demons to recruit, an additional eighth day (The original plays out over the course of a week), and a new easy mode. Given how hard the original was, this new difficulty level could be a bit of a godsend. Obviously, it will also be in 3D. Not that I’m looking forward to seeing grotesque monsters in 3D mind you.