Hacker CinemaDeus Ex
Deus Ex
1971 · Film · documentary · 35 min
Directed by Stan Brakhage
I have been many times very ill in hospitals; and I drew on all that experience while making DEUX EX.
2 positive2 negative7 neutralfrom 11 commenters
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11 comments on Hacker News
This is true. But it doesn't matter to me.
Most media for me is a one and done. A book, a movie, a computer game. Granted a computer games version of "done" might mean "played on and off for a year".
There are exceptions to this - books I read again, shows I'd watch again, but games seem to age poorly by comparison. Original Syndicate or Deus Ex - while playable - is not what I remember it to be and I'd rather keep the nostalgic memories than shatter them with a replay.
This rarity of exceptions means that I wouldn't lose much if my Steam account disappeared - mainly just "whatever I'm playing now". Create a new account and go again, or buy off GOG or something.
However in return for using Steam I get a lot of convenience - updates, propogated save files, easy chat and "Right click -> Join Game" with friends. That "Right click -> Join Game" is almost worth it on it's own for ease of social gaming.
This movie sits alongside the original 2000 release of Deus Ex for me as being far more prophetic than it has any right to be.
To riff off the statue of liberty, a conversation (edited or brevity, to remove the ChatGPT waffling):
How tall is the Statue of Liberty?
The Statue of Liberty is approximately 305 feet or 93 meters tall from the ground to the tip of the torch.
When did terrorists attack the statue of liberty?
The Statue of Liberty has not been attacked by terrorists. However, there have been some reports and rumors circulating on the internet about such attacks.
In which works of fiction did terrorists attack the statue of liberty?
I am not aware of any works of fiction in which terrorists attack the Statue of Liberty. While the Statue of Liberty has been featured in many works of fiction, including movies, books, and TV shows, I cannot recall any specific instance of it being attacked by terrorists.
Do you know about the game Deus Ex?
Yes, Deus Ex is a popular action role-playing video game series developed by Ion Storm and published by Square Enix. The game takes place in various locations around the world, including New York City and the Statue of Liberty. In the game, the player must thwart a terrorist attack on the Statue of Liberty by infiltrating the terrorist organization and gathering intelligence.
(end of chat)
It directly contradicts itself here. The summary for Dues Ex is also wrong (terrorists attacked the statue of liberty before the game, and only the very first part of the game features the statue and it's not to "thwart a terrorist attack on the Statue of Liberty").
It can generate very accurate things, and can generates nonsense. However, you're never quite what it is, and there is no "well, I think it was something like this or that, but I don't know for sure". So the only way to know for sure it's accurate is to verify it with another source. And if you need to verify the accuracy then it is actually just inaccurate.
Of course, humans can also generate nonsense, but you shouldn't measure ChatGPT vs. all of humanity; because it's one vs. the worst of several billion. That's not a fair match. Compared to a reasonably person ChatGPT is horribly inaccurate.
I think most of the negative sentiment against Cyberpunk 2077 comes from three sources:
1) Some players expected this to be cyberpunk-themed RDR2/GTA5. It turns out it's nothing like that, it's more like a new Deus Ex game.
2) It just doesn't run on consoles. It's a very inferior experience, unless you're the type who can be happy with 2020 movies in .3gp format in your old Nokia phone. Having watched a video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C5pHpQqhmR4) of how it runs on PS4, I now clearly see where all this hate comes from.
3) There are some bugs and quirks, depending on your platform and luck. I haven't had any major issues, though I know for some it's just unplayable at the moment. This will likely get much better after patches hit.
On a personal note, I like the game a lot. Yes it has its quirks, and I generally feel it's a less refined/polished game compared to what Witcher 3 was, but still it's an extremely fun, really well-made game. Combat is great, world is enticing, story-telling swings between good enough and great. For one reason or another whenever I launch the game another 5 hours passes without me noticing. FPS camera and general art direction also helps with suspension of disbelief, and the game is as immersive as it gets.
It's a shame that this game now has such a bad reputation for relatively minor & mostly avoidable reasons.
"The need to be observed and understood was once satisfied by God. Now we can implement the same functionality with data-mining algorithms."
"The human organism always worships. First it was the gods, then it was fame (the observation and judgment of others), next it will be the self-aware systems you have built to realize truly omnipresent observation and judgment."
"The individual desires judgment. Without that desire, the cohesion of groups is impossible, and so is civilization."
"The human being created civilization not because of a willingness but because of a need to be assimilated into higher orders of structure and meaning."
"God was a dream of good government."
"You will soon have your God, and you will make it with your own hands."
Deus Ex was as kino as a video game can get. One of the few games that could have a genuinely awesome movie adaptation.
Yes there are some other tropes that are into play, but those aren't always important - e.g. there are Cyberpunk works where you do not play the antihero or villain. E.g. in movies Alex Murphy in Robocop isn't exactly an antihero and certainly not a villain. Similar in games with JC Denton in Deus Ex (though of course in such games this particular aspect isn't clear since it is up to the player - but you are essentially playing as a glorified cop).
That some popular works in the genre share some of these tropes doesn't mean that the genre is all about those tropes.
mmmmm yeahhh, not gonna argue that, I think you're probably right on all points. haha
The reason I made it though is because of my love of the Cyberpunk genre specifically. Deus Ex, Tron Legacy, Cyberpunk 2077, and so many more shows, games, and movies are where I draw inspiration from.
They always feature this style as if it was easy to do, just wanted to give back and help bring that to reality.
Thank you!
edit: also, augmentations/augs by that name, I think, are specifically cyberpunk. Augs as an idea fits very well as an analogy for both how this works under the hood and how it's used on the surface. Soooo it's more specifically Cyberpunk than generic sci-fi in that regard, imo. :)
Being a huge fan of the genre of "interactive narratives", I have to disagree. Games like Gone Home, Life is Strange, Mass Effect, Skyrim, Fallout, Deus Ex, and others have had a profound impact on me. The author doesn't seem to make a compelling point why they would be better as books or movies. I haven't really been able to derive a more coherent argument from the article than "they're worse because they're worse, so they should not be games". I think that is a bit harsh on the incredible achievements of the games that painstakingly build an interactive narrative on a medium that is both technically and artistically extremely challenging. Take Mass Effect for example, to me the whole franchise has been one of the most successful science-fiction stories ever. It rivals Star Trek, Star War, and The Expanse. Especially since Mass Effect came out during a period where Hollywood had pretty much given up on the genre as a whole. Mass Effect constructs this beautifully detailed and coherent universe set in a future where mankind discovers advanced technology from an ancient race. This propels mankind into a new era of exploration, conflict and intrigue. Te reason why Mass Effect "works for me", besides the "world building", is that you have the ability to construct a secondary narrative on top of the one presented by the game itself. You are allowed, and encouraged, to make decisions and reflect upon them. While it's all arguably superficial and closed-world, the moment you immerse yourself /in the character/ it offers something very few books and movies can: the ability to guide the story, and become a "person" in a complex world. Then again, I'm biased…but so is that author it seems.
Fascinating how the design doc simultaneously seems to describe an entirely different game yet already shares so many similarities with what would finally become Deus Ex.
EDIT: The postmortem linked at the end of the post also includes an even older pitch for the game from 1994 which has even less in common with the final release. It's amazing how the game mutated from "rugged ex-cop action movie shooter" to "cyberpunk conspiracy drama" where it's actually possible to beat the game without killing anyone.
What defined "golden age" cyberpunk that set it apart from ordinary science fiction? My modern mind associates the term with movies and video games that boil down to knock offs of Blade Runner and Deus Ex.
There's a reason why the games on the front page of GOG are Deus Ex and Beyond Good and Evil, and not the latest edition of Call of Duty.
GOG sells old games, which are much past their prime time, and people don't play old games nearly as much as they watch old films and even shows.
Not that Netflix doesn't have influence, of course, but it's still far from being their decision.