Let’s get shot down by Martian colonials time and time again!

Those who have a use for tablets know the benefits of having one: a portable, focused, and personal. It’s a passive entertainment and communication device that you can take anywhere you want to do the simple things that most people care about: e-mail, browsing, reading, and perhaps watching some TV and movies.

But when we decide to get off of our asses and do something productive with our lives, writing that resume or great American novel on a touch screen is a ridiculous prospect. While a laptop is the most ideal solution, having the option to purchase a cheaper add-on keyboard–whether it be the Transformer dock or a portable bluetooth add-on–is great.

Being able to type on a device this portable and speedy, with a classic and compact clamshell design, is great.

In the Transformer’s particular case, though, having an actual dock that lets you close the two devices in a clamshell form factor–while barely adding any weight–is more portable in a certain respect. You don’t have two disconnected pieces hanging out sad and alone in their own corners. Closing the thing and picking it up is less clumsy than dealing with those disparate pieces, and the extra battery and storage is such an added value.

My experience has been great, but if there’s one thing that I regret about it, it’s that this whole affair has reminded me of just how much I yearn for the convertible gaming laptop-tablet hybrid to become a reality, and it’s shown me just how far away these tablet-first devices are from that.

A little history: When the iPad was first shown, I scoffed. What I wanted was a touch-screen device that could do everything that I would want a laptop for. The old Windows touchscreen tablets were a joke, and while the iPad had Apple’s mastery of design behind it, it still wasn’t what I wanted. I fell into the tablet landscape almost completely by accident when I decided that reading Kindle books on the small screen provided by my phone wasn’t such a fun experience. Why not just go the whole way and get something that could browse the web and display YouTube clips too, while I was at it? (A self-imposed $300-or-less spend on this market eliminated any Apple products or super high-end Android products–hence my old 7″ Iconia A100 tablet, now sold, and currently the TF300T.)

Now a tablet user of 16 months, have my views changed? Not so much. I do like what these types of devices offer from an accessibility standpoint, where prior to this I didn’t have much of a desire for it. Yet, it’s still not exactly what I want it to be–a device I can travel with that allows me to: edit the same Photoshop document I was working on at home; pick up a Steam game from where I last left it from my room; continue editing an episode of the podcast that I started from my desk; and yet still do all the things that we love tablets for.

In the Transformer’s case, its dock has bridged a large part of the gap in that at least I can work on documents mouse-and-keyboard style, and some of the games that interest me are coming out on the Android ecosystem (namely, Swords & Sorcery EP and other novel indie titles). But I recently tried spending a night with it as my only device and I almost went through multitasking withdrawal, pining for the ability to keep Audacity, Netflix and Gmail windows open at the same time, and unhappy with the fact that I could not open Photoshop to progress on a poster I’ve been working on. And forget, for a second, that I am so well-equipped with games that I am never at a loss for something to play–at the moment, I’m working on Torchlight II as the game of the moment. Last time I checked, I couldn’t open Steam on my tablet to boot that up. Bummer.

Tablets are great for what they’re focused on doing, but I still need a good laptop in my life. It’s why I still bothered buying my current Lenovo, whose GeForce GTX600M is fantastic at playing the same games I enjoy on my PC, and why I tote both devices with me when I’m on the road for work. (After all, a tablet and Pocket articles combine for a powerful bedtime story tool. Sidenote: Before my first tablet, I tried reading a Kindle book in bed with my laptop resting on my stomach. Not a comfortable experience.)

I still want, and need, a multi-tasking, multi-Window, portable computing solution.

Products like HP’s Envy X2 are along the lines of what I’m after. It’s equipped with a full version of Windows 8 (not the crippled RT iteration) and it still splits off from its base to satisfy the tablet/e-reader form factor. Razer’s just-announced Edge product almost amazes me, too–it’s perhaps the most powerful convertible on the market, sporting discrete graphics and undoubtedly the closest to exactly what I want. And out of sheer curiosity, I’m itching to see what Microsoft’s Surface Pro has to offer.

But now that we’re so close to my portable dream machine, there are the little details that we have to worry about–and ALL of the checkboxes must be marked. Is overall performance a priority, as opposed to being sacrificed for ultra-portability? Can it play intense PC games at its screen’s native resolution without requiring me to strip off all of the high quality effects? Does it have enough high-bandwidth ports like USB 3.0 to satisfy any external drives I might want (I still watch Blu-Ray video on the road)? Can I connect it to my television via some form of HDMI, without paying an arm and a leg for a dock or converter? (That last one is the one thing that irks me about the Edge.)

The good news for me is that I’m no longer so adverse to being a three-tier consumer, thanks to more affordable Android products showing me the brighter side of the tablet form factor (and Apple’s great refurbished-products program for lower prices makes the iPad slightly more appealing to me), and the keyboard dock works great for typing something in a pinch. But when the day comes that a full-featured laptop with gaming performance and an optical drive–the kind that I prefer–also allows me to pop off its screen for some good ol’ Kindle reading, I’ll be more than happy to ditch the  third device tier entirely

Windows 8 appears to make this process much simpler than in years past, if you’re coming from Windows 7, at least. I haven’t verified this on any XP or Vista machines, entirely because I no longer run either OS on any machine I use, but the Windows 8 Upgrade Assistant made it a cinch for me to check what software or drivers might cause me issues. You can get a copy of it here.

The first thing it does is run a check on your machine. It took me about 10 minutes on both my laptop and desktop.  It then displays a window showing you what’s compatible and what items you might be concerned about. When you click on the latter, it’s sure to remind you that even if you don’t take any action now, Windows 8 will help you with those items if you decide to forge ahead and install it. Handily, after this step it also guides you to which version you should upgrade to depending on what you want to keep (and presumably, what OS you’re coming from, which it should detect on its own).

But more important options come about here before that next step. Each item on the list tells you whether you might need to install an update or it’s not compatible, and some of them provide direct links to either the manufacturer webpage or the actual file that you need. Very handy. In fact, I updated a driver for my sound card for the first time in a year because the upgrade assistant alerted me to it.

UPDATE: We have video showing you how Windows 8 totally won’t detonate your Steam install and games into a pile of digital feces.

Based on Epic’s original Unreal engine, Deus Ex doesn’t look or feel entirely adequate at first. The first thing you’ll notice upon watching the opening cinematic, along with the sharp and reflective floor textures of a building lobby, is how strange and ugly the character models and their faces appear. Like something out of Lawnmower Man, the first face you see is full of angles and points. Later environments suffer both from blocky and muddy visuals as well as mundane artistic design. As you start to control your protagonist, “code-named” JC Denton (you can change his “real” name to whatever you wish), you’ll notice his somewhat sluggish movement and encumbered jumping. You’ll find that the physics are a little wonky; try picking up and throwing a small box and it’ll look like gravity–for some reason–decided to be far more potent when it woke up that morning. When you fire your pistol for the first time, you’ll notice that the recoil isn’t exactly there and the “pop” doesn’t resonate quite like you’d expect it to. The presence of role-playing tendencies also means that your accuracy is not only controlled by cross-hairs that expand and contract based on your movement and positioning, but is also reliant on JC’s accuracy statistic. For the player looking to “Doom 2″ his way through the game from the get-go, Deus Ex might seem like a steaming pile.

This would be a mistake, because Deus Ex’s charms become more apparent as you further immerse yourself in what its multi-faceted experience has to offer. No, you can’t quite go in guns blazing at first. You’ll learn, though, how to crouch and wait patiently as your first terrorist victim turns his back towards you, before you snipe him with a headshot from your pistol. Or, you could incapacitate him with your tranquilizer dart (if you choose to go the non-lethal route, that is). Or you could sneak right by him and get to your goal through the back door. As you continue to explore different nooks and crannies off the beaten path, you’ll receive not only health packs and other small knick-knacks, but also experience points for exploring. Here’s where you can start to decide whether or not you want to go through with your Rambo tactics by upgrading your proficiency in heavy weaponry, among other such skills as lock-picking, computer hacking, small arms, swimming, and more.

Along with this basic customization comes a plethora of modifications, both to your weapons (accuracy, increased clip capacity, laser sights) as well as your own body. JC, as it turns out, is one of a new breed of “augmented” soldiers, capable of receiving tiny nano-machines that can bolster his existing abilities as well as granting him new ones. The upgrade path is entirely up to you, and is structured such that you can never reap every benefit in a single playthrough. Installing an arm modification, for instance, lets you choose between increasing JC’s melee combat abilities or increasing his physical strength. (Granting him super strength allows him to move larger objects to reveal hidden entrances or arrange stepping stones.) It seems like a limitation imposed solely to encourage multiple playthroughs, but in reality, the game would probably be too easy if you had access to every single thing and would devolve into a cheat-code-inspired Grand Theft Auto romp. Deus Ex is not that kind of game, and it’s better for it.

Of course, that doesn’t mean that you’re not given the option to toy around with how to accomplish your goals. The skills, weapon mods, and augmentations directly impact how JC develops over the course of the game, dictating how you go about your tasks (do you pick locks and sneak around or do you hack security turrets to do your dirty work for you?), but the way in which you interact with non-player characters also determines the avenues of approach you can seek further along in the game. With the exception of a select few, you can kill characters before it seems appropriate to–and even when it would seem inappropriate at any time–and the game will adjust the story, and people’s reactions to you, accordingly. How you approach your first mission, for instance, can also determine the impression you give off; kill as many terrorists as you can, and you’ll receive reprimand from an old war veteran for not using tact while also receiving great praise from a meathead soldier who previously thought you were a wuss. Even small choices such as how you choose to answer questions in a dialogue tree determine what people think of you and what items (or other things) you might gain. There’s no “good/bad” meter running in the background, as there usually is in Bioware’s games, but most of your decisions need to be made after at least some cursory consideration.

For better or for worse, though, you can’t truly affect how Deus Ex’s story plays out at its core. Certain characters may drop; certain lines of dialogue may change; your development as a character may vary; but you will still follow the same overarching path. This allows for a conspiracy story that is at least consistent and engaging, if somewhat convoluted. Rarely does the story seem like an afterthought or nothing more than a quaint reason for you to be sitting in front of your monitor playing this game, and it’s supported by some pretty convincing, if slightly inconsistent, voice acting (strangely, JC’s own voice acting is probably at the weaker end of the spectrum, and a few other voices have all the emotion of a brick). You will find yourself caught up in a conflict between multiple factions with different motivations, including the token evil corporate executive, underground rebels, Hong Kong Triads, and even the game’s own interpretation of the men in black. Though much of the expository dialogue is delivered through talking-head in-engine cutscenes, there’s a ton of literature spread throughout the game world, including newspaper clippings, diary entries, emails, and books. From these, you can learn as little or as much as you want about what’s going on–from different perspectives, even–at your own pace and without removing you from gameplay. Even if it all gets a little absurd at a point, it should never be said that Deus Ex’s storyline is devoid of entertainment and content.

So, there’s plenty of meat here, regarding both exposition and gameplay. The real issues can be traced back to the game’s engine, which–in addition to hindering Deus Ex’s aesthetic and physics properties–isn’t really expanded to offer more immersive gameplay elements. Lock picking is simply a matter of having enough lock picks to use, and as your lock picking stat increases, all it does is decrease the amount of picks you’ll need to use on a given lock. The same thing applies for electronics bypassing, which is simply the lock picking mechanic in sheep’s clothing (instead of a lock pick and locks, it’s “multi-tools” and security panels). Computer hacking follows a similar route, with a higher stat meaning simply that the amount of time it takes to hack any given computer is decreased. Though overloading the experience with hackneyed minigames wouldn’t necessarily have made things better, it would have been nice for Ion Storm to imagine these actions as more than just, “Click here and don’t move until it’s done!” In addition, the artificial intelligence can be all over the place. Sometimes a soldier will spot you hiding in the shadows, even if there’s no way he could have seen you; in contrast, you can sometimes run around a corner and under a desk or behind a door, and your assailant will give up his chase after spending a minute standing in place, dumbfounded.

Yet, even as the bland graphics and some stilted play mechanics would seem to thwart the overall Deus Ex experience, its variety, hefty game world and ability to let you decide how you want to accomplish things–and to see what kind of impact your decisions can make–will wash away the sour taste of a crappy lock-picking mechanic. Let’s put it this way: Deus Ex is a game begging to be ported to today’s technology and design principles (dumbing things down as its sequel arguably did doesn’t count); but if such a remake never comes, the original is an absolute must-play, warts and all.

From the Trigames.NET Archive

Originally posted August 20th, 2009

Verdict: