Deus Ex: Human Defiance is April Fool's Joke - Could've Been Awesome

I don't really like April Fool's day since, at best, you generally get a bunch of companies and developers drastically missing the point and announcing silly things that are very obviously jokes and not even funny ones at that.  I believe Squeenix used last year to 'announce' an otome game starring the cast of Final Fantasy Type-0 which had the significant side effect of pissing off everyone who isn't in Japan since it's just reminding us that they know about Type-0 and refuse to do anything with it because they don't like money or something.  At worst, you have things teasing news that -could- be true, and -should- be true, and then it's just heart-breaking when it's not and you swear a blood oath.  A good example of that from this year would be RadioSega reporting leaked Valkyria Chronicles 4 news that said the game would be releasing on PS4 and would literally make me pick up a PS4 on launch day.  I'm not bitter or anything, though.  Nothing like that.  I'm not harboring very, very dark thoughts about them or anything like that, why would I?

...anyways, on rare occasions, you do get some folks who approach things with the correct degree of humor and possibility.  Or at least, you get folks that get -close enough- to it that you can't help but laugh and go with it because, damn, they put some effort into it at least.  Had it not been for the announcement on Facebook that there was going to be 'news' about a 'new Deus Ex game' tomorrow, as in today, then it would have been perfect.  You don't announce an April Fool's Day announcement because number one, you end up going "oh boy, that's April first hmmmm" and second, you build hype for what is, essentially a joke.  Which is one of the many things you really shouldn't build hype for because that is just cruel.

The announced Deus Ex:  Human Defiance is, as obvious from the above video, just a prank even though it's quite an ambitious one at that.  The video presents an 8-bit version of Human Revolution in that Adam Jensen is the main character and a lot of the design principles are there, but around the time where you can press a button to destroy the world and summon JC Denton as a Co-Op partner, there's clearly a bit that's...embellished, to say the least.  I can't fault them for making the most out of a trademark that they weren't going to use for a commercial product and, in all reality, I applaud it.  The video was very well done, especially towards the end when it showed how....well-liked the idea was around the office (clearly a skit, but still).  Again, had it not been 'announced', then it would have been perfect.

In all reality, it's still a bit of a shame since what I had hoped from the announcement of an announcement was that they really -were- making another iteration in the Deus Ex series.  Human Revolution is far from perfect, which I'll cover some other night, but it has a lot of good points and the Wii U Port seems to suggest that they understood a lot of the issues and have worked to fix them.  Not all the issues, granted, but some of the bigger ones nonetheless.  With all that knowledge under their belts, I'd love to see just what they can pull off now that they don't have to 'prove' anything, so to speak.  It's no small comfort that we will likely see more Deus Ex -sometime-, given its brand recognition and relative success (Squeenix's publishing ineptitude notwithstanding), since that sometime could be a year from now, if not more.  I need my cyberpunk augment-based shooters and Human Revolution is only going to sustain a single further playthrough, if that.

It's a good problem to have, I suppose.  Wanting something that isn't here rather than having something you don't want, but a problem is a problem is a problem.  Hopefully an announcement, a real one for a real game, will be on the horizon (perhaps even hinted at or teased in the Wii U port), because at least having the idea of what it's going to be like next.  Still, I can't help but wish that today had been the day instead of showing off something that they probably spent entirely too much free time making.  All in the name of humor!

April Fool's Day Sucks.

We all know what April Fool's Day is, when everyone is determined to make sure everyone else's day is pretty much as uncomfortable, inconvenient, and annoying as possible.  And, in most cases, simply for the goal of making an ass out of oneself.

Now, I'm sure we're all interested in The Origins of April Fool's Day, and I'm sure it's quite silly and fun and such, or maybe not, but really, who cares.  Why everyone clings to it so fervently is honestly a bit beyond me.  Which is to say, I'm not humorless, of course, you all know this by now.  But the problem with April Fool's Day is that 98% of the time, it just doesn't work.

Let's take Adult Swim for example.  A few years ago, on April Fool's Day, they decided, "Hey, let's get the worst movie we can find and play it.  It'll be hilarious!".  So, they played The Room.  Which, sure, it might have been okay the first year.  "Tee hee, oh this movie sucks, how unexpected is this".  But since, it's become a tradition, which is the antithesis of spontaneous, unexpected pranking.  Maybe I'm just lacking a pair of hipster glasses, but I can't bring myself to enjoy The Room ironically, as it's just awful.

 So, what are some other just, hilarious pranks that have been played on this day?

Cellphone ban: In New Zealand, the radio station The Edge's Morning Madhouse enlisted the help of the Prime Minister on April 1st to inform the entire country that cellphones are to be banned in New Zealand. Hundreds of callers rang in disgruntled at the new law.

Tower of Pisa: The Dutch television news reported in the 1950s that the Tower of Pisa had fallen over. Many shocked people contacted the station

In 2010, British newspaper The Sun ran an article about its new "Scratch and Sniff" paper, providing a sample of plain newspaper. This led to a lot of readers sniffing the paper in an attempt to smell the scent.

Assassination of Bill Gates: In 2003, many Chinese and South Korean websites claimed that CNN reported Bill Gates, the founder of Microsoft, was assassinated, resulting in a 1.5% drop in the South Korean stock market.

Truly, some fantastic things in there, with absolutely nothing that might cause people to have shitty days.  Still, I guess a few people get it right.  Specifically this:

MechQuest, an online RPG, replaces their sound systems (battle sounds include explosions and lasers), with home recorded human voices, startling many players.

 Honestly, that would be pretty hilarious.  "PEW PEW PEW"  "Uhhh".  That's the way to do it; something silly, funny, and easily changeable in case you're of the humorless type.

I guess the only reason why I'm angry today (aside from some stress things) is that apparently the weather is trying to prank me.  It snowed yesterday and the day before.  It heated up today.  Quite a bit in fact.  So much so that it will probably storm in an hour or so.  So, hey, thanks for that, Nature.