(See also my upcoming articles on how the Beatles are actually pretty great and the Pacific Ocean is still wet.) But it's not an entirely uncontroversial choice. When suggested I write a piece about a game I loved, I felt abashed picking something as widely admired as Deus Ex. Objects with a patina no longer look new, but they sometimes look better.

'Patina' is a layer that accumulates on objects with time and use - a sheen or a verdigris or weathering. Distressing, on the other hand, was the faking of patination, and was actually a way of concealing a lack of quality.' That was how quality wore in, she said, as opposed to out. 'Everything they were wearing, he decided, qualified as what she'd call 'iconic', but had originally become that way through its ability to gracefully patinate. Here, kicking us off in grand style, is Failbetter Games' Alexis Kennedy, on the classic Deus Ex. Some will just be about something they especially enjoyed. Some will be about a game that changed the way a developer worked, or inspired them to create something new some will be about a game that got them through hard times, or put something poignant into perspective. is a new monthly series written by industry figures about their favourite games.

Deus ex statue of liberty