h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Well, I'm in...having been told upon linking directly to my page first time that "this user hasn't had time to write an introduction; has made no journal entries; is subscribed to no conversations" and worst of all: "has written no guide entries". Then when I logged in, it accepted me - says "Hello LeonardQuirm" at the top - but says "If you are not a member you can carry on browsing".

Upon closing that Explorer window and opening a new one, it works once again. I don't know whether to be confused, scared or relieved.

Anyway, as for what I've been doing of late...nothing much; but have nearly finished my exams (one more on Tuesday morn: Physics, easy; one more on Wed morn: History Paper Two, so-so). I feel lucky to be still able to write: after writing about eight sides of A4 in my other History exam last Tuesday in 1h45 I felt a little tired.

Finished the game "Deus Ex" - got all three different endings - they were sort of good endings, but like so many conspiracy thrillers it felt just that little unsatisfying - goodness knows why. I notice that Spector (the creator) seems to have had very definite feelings about which of the "moral choices" at the end was the right one, and I had chosen the same one.

Though seeing as how all three endings have rather different impacts on the world, I have no idea how there is supposed to be a logical sequel. But it's being/is made.

I'm afraid you'll get used to being temporarily removed from existence. We occasionally get announcements (A639056) about upgrades to DNA (the software h2g2 runs on, not U42), but we still have plenty to complain about.

Good to hear you're near the end of the exams. I hope you didn't get writer's cramp -- and that you're not getting terribly hot weather.

Deus Ex: Invisible War is available (have a look at http://www.planetdeusex.com ) and apparently uses a combination of the three endings as the basis for its plot. You'll need quite a powerful PC to run it -- my laptop has pixel shaders just under what's required, alas. Then again, there have been complaints that the game was watered down with console conversions in mind -- although that may just be the perspective of the PC hardcore.

There's actually a fourth 'ending' -- actually not an ending -- available via the cheat codes: http://cheats.gamespy.com/pc-cheats/deus-ex/?ui=gamefinder . The quotes available via one of the options make, um, interesting reading, too.

"We still have plenty to complain about"
Sounds like usual then.

Fortunately I didn't get writer's cramp or similar - my hand just ached a bit at the end. I wouldn't mind if the weather was a bit hotter over here at the moment, though.

I've got Deus Ex on PS2 rather than PC, so it looks like the fourth ending may be unavailable to me. You know what happens?

And it says no PS2 release of Invisible War. I don't play games on the computer very much anymore, so it looks like that might be out. Ah well.

SPOILER BELOW IF YOU HAVEN'T FINISHED DEUS EX: THE CONSPIRACY
Quite how Invisible War uses a combination of the endings is beyond me - seeing as one ending resulted in the destruction of all global communication; whereas the others didn't; one had everything come full circle so that there seems to have been little point, although it is possibly a nicer regime than before; and the other is supposed to be a positive "the world will be ruled fairly and kindly" end.

Quoted from some site or other: 'In Deus Ex, you could choose from three different endings, so the logical question regarding the sequel was which of these three ending will be used to continue the story. The script writers from ISA resolved the situation very elegantly, using not one, but all three endings: after arriving at Area 51, JC Denton killed Bob Page and stopped his plans for world domination, shut down the Aquinas router, which plunged the world into a chaos known as “The Collapse” and merged with the Helios AI. The story from IW joins the world some 20 years after the Collapse.'

The fourth 'ending', as I said, isn't really an ending. The fact that one of the codes for it is 'danceparty' tells you about all you need to know; suffice it to say it deosn't advance the plot, and is essentially just an Easter egg.