Did you ever think that maybe those defending it realize that it is possible to have a great game without good graphics ?

Also keep in mind DX1's graphics were also well below average when that game was released.

I can verify they said they would be "shifting the teams focus to Thief 3" but that certainly doesn't mean they won't be making a patch. Actually Warren himself said just today the opposite; that they are going to address these issues in a patch.

If you are like me and had fun with the demo regardless of these issues that's a good thing but I'm still buying the game. The demo kicked ass.

One other thing... how did you all feel about the "Bloom" effect ? I hated it at first but then I started to like it and now I love it. It still looks a little bit weird to me, but it also makes everything look so much more real. The whole game looks cinematic to me when it's on.

Well, I might be the first one here who really liked the demo. I was a big fan of the first game too. This is alot different though.

The first 5 minutes of playing the demo I thought it sucked. Sucked hard. Then I found out new things and got more used to controls/features. I personally don't see that it was "dumbed down" like everyone says. Yes, it clearly IS made to work on a console as well, but I don't think that automatically means its been dumbed down. The graphics amazed me. Alot of people have had problems with them but they looked fine to me. Shadows and lighting were both done extremely well and models were good enough. Not great but certainly everyone you meet looks very unique and easy to tell apart which I really like. Everyone has their own style, it's not just different shades of white/brown.

Talking to everyone you can see how much depth is in the game. Everyone has alot to say. A hell of alot.

Anyways, I was very impressed. It's not as good as Deus Ex 1 was in my opinion but it's so much different as well. I had alot of fun anyways.

Ok, here's some thoughts for all you people. I noticed alot of people are worried about the skills being removed from the game.

Here's a scenario to think about. Let's say I was playing the first Deus Ex and I was in a situation where clearly the safest course of action was to snipe someone off. But I've never put any skill points into Sniping and I don't have any to spend so it's out of the question. I am FORCED to do something else. Now with Deus Ex 2 that changes. I am always great with a sniper rifle. So the choice is always MINE, the players. I can snipe if I want. I can sneak if I want. I'm not limited by whatever skills I chose. See what I mean ? Same goes for anything in the game. If I want to hack into something I just can. I don't have to be limited by the fact that I've never put any skill points into Hacking. Doesn't this give us far MORE choice ?

You still get character development through Augs, which will be FAR more powerful than the last time around and of course the way your character develops will be determined more by your choice of allies and enemies than anything else.

Rock on !

After reading these posts I realize I'm nowhere near the only one who has been reading your site for years but not saying much along the way but I'd like to say that my prayers are with your family that things turn out as well as they can.

Good luck.

Demo's should be free. Demo's are an advertisment for a product and nothing more. When I ride a bus I don't pay extra to look at the advertisments and I don't insert a quarter at the urinal to make those advertisments pop up.

The problem with the magazine comparison is that it's an entirely different medium. I have not bought a gaming magazine in 3 years because all the information they have is basically always on the internet also. That means I would be paying 6-10 dollars for a demo. I won't do that. I try hard not to pay for advertising. So for me (and I am sure plenty of others) magazine don't even enter the equation. I download demo's off the internet and that's it. And yes these sort of exclusivity agreements have happened on the internet many times before. That doesn't make them right and it doesn't mean the damage it does to "mom and pop" operations like Blues here is right. It takes awhile to recognize the problem and to get together and do something about it. Last night was that time.

Do you honestly believe we bullied a major corporation out of their rights? Corporations ALWAYS act in their best interest so is it not far more likely that Activision saw more backlash then they cared to see and decided a change of policy was in order. They reserved the right to do whatever they wanted to do just like Blues reserves that same right.

I have one last question that I really hope you will answer for me. If this exclusive agreement had been for 1 month instead of 1 week would you still make the same arguments or would that be considered "too much"?

Rock on !

Meezy -

You should read closer. You said -

"Whoa whoa whoa, hypocrisy alert. So the exclusivity deal ends Friday. I thought you and the other sites weren't going to carry it even then."

There is a HUGE difference between a exclusivity agreement being finshed and being canceled. It was canceled. It never started. You can't end something that hasn't started. You can only stop it from ever starting. See what I mean ? Fileplanet did not for one moment have sole access to this demo. Therefore exclusivity never happened at all.

You also said -

"Corporations (yes, these employ people) will now be considering the words of a few zealots in their actions."

Now look at this list Meezy:

3D Downloads
3D Gamers
AusGamers
Blue's News
EdgeFiles (Callofduty.org)
FileFront
FileShack
GameGossip
Gamer's Hell
Loadedinc
Tiscali Games
WorthPlaying

Those are most of the major gaming websites on the internet. Millions of people visit these websites. Now I am not saying millions of people agree with these websites but they do serve a gigantic number of people news about games and give other services. They dedicate their time and effort to keeping a community thriving. Do you really think it is fair to call all of these people "a few zealots" ? You seem to dismissing them far too lightly... something that Activision clearly did NOT do. Activision obviously sees how much this long list of websites means to the gaming community.

You also said -

"Sounds good, but in the long run all of you are now responsible for more freedom being eroded."

I fail to see how trying to head off exclusivity agreements before they start running rampant erodes freedom. Isn't freedom of choice the important issue here? And I don't mean for Call of Duty because this was only going to be a 1 week agreement with Fileplanet which isn't long, but for the future when possibly things could get more and more exclusive for longer time periods. Where is the consumer freedom in only being able to download something from one place?

I respect your opinion because you are kind enough not to be ignorant or obnoxious about it Meezy but I don't think you are looking to the future enough.

This is all preventative. It's not about the "now" it's about the later. Trying to stop these things from getting worse.

Rock on

Would like to say congratulations to Blues and all other sites who had the guts to stand up for all us gamers (even the ones who don't understand what the real problem is). It's things like these that keep our gaming "community" thriving and not being pushed into the ground by growing exclusivity and pay programs.

Everyone knows this one demo wasn't a big deal, it's the threat of things getting worse and worse that is where the problem is but it looks like Blues has helped Activision to understand (in record time too I might add) that moves like this do not strengthen the community but only add to the growing divide between the large "company" websites and the "ma and pop" operations like Blues or Shack who struggle just to keep their websites paid for.

Once again thanks Blue. Been coming here for almost 5 years (first night I've ever posted though) and will continue to come here as long as this awesome website is around.

Rock on !

Imagine this possible future perhaps 3-5 years from now.

There are 3 massive companies that are dedicated to gaming news and downloads. The companies are so big that unlike now they can actually handle the bandwidth they receive when every gamer comes to download a file like a demo of a game or even just a movie of a game.

But no company makes money without charging for their service so these companies all charge for the ability to download from their servers. They make enough money off of this to be able to pay the companies for exclusive rights to certain game demos. And by exclusive I mean only one company gets each game. So if you want to download three different demos you may have to be paying 3 different companies for the right to do this.

Where does this leave "the little guys" like Blues or Shacknews or anyone else on the list of boycotters? Well the problem is two-fold. One, they don't have enough money to pay for any exclusive rights even if they wanted to. Two, they don't have enough money to pay for the massive bandwidth needed to serve the gigantic volume of gamers downloading the file.

Free downloading would cease to exist.

The problem I have with this is that I LOVE GAMES. I buy games all the time. It's my hobby. Games make me happy. But I don't buy many games without playing a demo. So I would HAVE to sign up for some sort of service in order to play these demos. And I'd probably do it because like I said... I love games.

Anyone who doesn't think things are somewhat heading in this direction need only look at how only paying suscribers to fileplanet are getting the Call Of Duty demo when it is released. And fileplanet loves this. They get more traffic than ever. The publisher of the game WOULD love this (right now they probably are merely pleased by it) if everything went in this direction because of the revenue exclusive rights deals would bring in.

It's a scary situation because these deals would benefit both the publisher and the distributor but DO NOT benefit the consumer.

Also look at Gamespot for alot more "exclusive" members only features. In my opinion they have every right to charge for any features a website designs "in house" like a video review but at the same time it is a step in the wrong direction for us gamers who don't want to have to pay to find out how good a game is.

Anyways, just something for people to think about.

Rock on