Desmidus on 18/3/2002 at 23:05

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One of the neat things about Deus Ex was the painstaking accuracy with which some real-world locations were recreated (a post from last year on these boards comes to mind, where someone took a trip to NY and brought back photos of DX locations in Battery Park and and the Statue of Liberty.)

But, aside from some real street names, Hong Kong was rather unrealistic. Now, Hong Kong holds great potential as a DX location, so I think it would be a very good thing to revisit it in DX2, reproduced more realistically.

So, I'm going to make sure to seek out the best locations in Hong Kong next week, take copious amounts of photos, and show you just what I mean :thumb:

Stay tuned.

ICEBreaker on 21/3/2002 at 02:03

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The following are information I have gathered from asking people as well as doing some information hunting on the web. Disclaimer: None of the info is from official sources, so don't take it word for word.

Wan Chai - Wan Chai lies between Admiralty and Causeway Bay. This area is the probably the second most accurate representation of Hong Kong (the first being the financial district, Central). The game seems to have taken the area of Wan Chai East which consists of a market. The area is a mixture of old dilapidated residential houses hiding in between modern office towers. Regardless of the building, shops occupy the lower floors. Wan Chai is home of the 6th tallest building in the world after the Empire State Building. Incidentally, 4 of the world's tallest 10 buildings are located in Hong Kong, and another 2 in China. I thought they were all in Chicago and New York.

Versalife - The global corporation Manulife which provides financial services has its asian-pacific head quarters in Wan Chai. Their presence is in the form of a a landmark skyscraper in Wan Chai. Is this a coincidence or the inspiration behind Versalife?

Tunnel - There is an submarine tunnel in Wan Chai North. It is the most direct tunnel to Kowloon out of the three. Wan Chai North ends at the harbour. There is a typhoon shelter there and small fishing boats as well as some old junkies can be seen. Some people actually live on these boats. However there are no canals in Hong Kong.

Maggie Chow - There is a famous local actress in Hong Kong called Maggie Cheung who has also starred in a few unknown western films. Is this another coincidence? Apparently, most people in show business in Hong Kong have links with the triads.

Possibly all made up: Tonnochi Road, Queen's Tower, Red Arrow, Luminous Path

santaClaws on 21/3/2002 at 14:22

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i think it was nice the way it was. it's always more fun to think that the places you walk around in exist in real life, and another aspect is that the places from paris, eg, weren't all that well-known. i've been to paris three times already, and i don't remember having seen anything such as club laroche or what it's called.

-claw

Phydeaux on 21/3/2002 at 16:58

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Not to nitpick, but Maggie Cheung was in several Jackie Chan movies (namely Jackie's girlfriend in the "Police Story" series). And over 70 other movies (granted, likely unknown in the States).

I'm not sure what you mean by show business in Hong Kong being linked with the Triads. However, one of the major expenses of filming movies in Hong Kong is paying "protection money" to them. Reportedly in the filming of John Woo's "Hard Boiled" he had to give thousands of dollars to at least a few seperate gangs.

Regarding other locational realism (in DX2), I would love to see some of Chicago. Namely the Picasso in the Daily Plaza.

ICEBreaker on 22/3/2002 at 01:23

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When I said "unknown western films", I meant that only her western films are unknown. When doing a little research on her, I noticed she was a prolific actress with over 80 movies under her belt. However I only noticed three English sounding title of which none of them were familiar. In other words, the chances that people on this forum would have seen her (even without knowing it) is most unlikely.

As for Jackie Cheung's Police Story, that is not a western film, and not like his recent Hollywood debuts. I suppose people watching cantonese martial arts movies might have seen Maggie Cheung.