Steamy Windows: Deus Ex 3 Patched/Defaced

"Patch notes, RPS? Really?" YES REALLY WHAT OF IT, EH? When it's a game as big as Deus Ex: Human Revolution, a lot of what might otherwise be minor becomes major. Square-Enix have chased a few bugs out of their bearded man simulator, including some important-sounding stuttering performance snafus, as well as adding in the really very useful windowed full-screen mode, the saviour of impatient alt-tabbers the world over. Most importantly: you can now skip the logos at the start of the game. Alas, it also introduces occasional tiny but silly/obnoxious loading screen ads, as seen above. No, I don't have time to watch a 70s cowboys in space soap opera for the millionth time, no matter how high its definitions are: I have a world to save from corruption and people with robot legs. Thank heavens the last patch improved load times so I don't have to stare at this cheekily-added promotional bumpf for even longer. There's a dark rumour more ads might come to in-game billboards, which is an extremely unpleasant and disruptive prospect. Let's hope it doesn't come to pass.

Update: there's an ad-disabling mod here. Thanks, Theory.

Meantime, full patch notes are below. Bulletpoints!

Fixes:
- We have addressed various issues that can occur for players that would result in ‘stuttering’.
- Stutters that are the result of graphics driver shader processing are now removed or significantly reduced.
- Stutters that are the result of data streaming have been removed or significantly reduced.
- Performance has been improved and made more stable on dual-core systems. This could previously also result in stuttering.
- Fixed issue where some players couldn’t complete the Motherly Ties side quest.
- Fixed an issue where doors in Omega Ranch sometimes wouldn’t open.
- The TYM medical card should no longer fall through the table if an NPC’s body comes into contact with the card. Players already stuck in this area will need to revert to a previous save before the card fell through.
- Occasional hangs for some players during video-playback have been fixed.
- A crash on startup when running DX11 on a single-core CPU has been fixed.
- An issue causing Eyefinity setups to not be correctly detected for some players has been fixed.
- Fixed an issue where the HUD would get permanently disabled for some players.
- Fixed certain issues that caused the mouse cursor to be able to leave the game-screen on multi-monitor setups.
- Fixed an issue that caused the mouse cursor to not be visible in-game when the user has mouse trails enabled in Windows. We still recommend disabling mouse trails for a smoother in-game mouse cursor.
- Fixed issue where ammo count for collected guns is incorrect when Adams weapon is augmented.
- In DX9 mode:
- Fixed error message for some users when trying to use FXAA Medium or FXAA Low anti aliasing modes.
- Fixed shadow-mapping ‘lines’ on some graphics hardware when using anisotropic filtering.

Feature Additions:
- The Enter and Numpad-Enter keys can now be bound to game actions in the keyboard control menu.
- Intro logos can now be skipped on all but the first run of the game.
- Added windowed mode.
- Selectable in the menu, and can be toggled between windowed, fullscreen, and fullscreen windowed using ALT-ENTER.
- Added an option to change the text language of the game. This setting only changes the text language, the audio is controlled by the language option in Steam.

I don't think I encountered any bugs in my playthrough, apart from an occasional clipping error. Either I was lucky, or unperceptive. I'd vote the latter.

Oh - and the Eidos Montreal Tumblr has revealed a few more nuggets about the upcoming Missing Link DLC. Firstly, you'll be able to play it at any point - it'll appear as a new menu option, rather than requiring you to reach a certain point in the main game. Seems a little jarring, but I suppose otherwise they'd require people to either replay or have kept a specific savegame.

Secondly, with regard to the story if the DLC, "“The new characters are Netanya Keitner and Pieter Burke. Both work for Belltower Associates. More info on them soon! And while it is not essential in any way to have read The Icarus Effect, it is certainly a good idea to do so not only because the DLC has subtle references to it, but also because it’s a great novel, period.”

More here, including the disappointing news that The Missing Link won't contain a new hub area.