The first demo of Deus Ex: Human Revolution sent to the press ran on the Xbox 360, but we were assured time and again by the developers that the PC version would be no cheap port. Our concern is valid: Deus Ex: Invisible War suffered from development that clearly put consoles ahead of the PC. Nixxes Software was even brought in to focus on creating a great PC version of Human Revolution, with many features unique to the platform.

It's easy to be skeptical, but when we contacted Square Enix to ask about the chances of reviewing the game on the PC, they made no fuss about sending us an early copy of the game via Steam. Furthermore, the company had no issues with my request to discuss how well the PC version of the game performed before the embargo drops on the game next week. After playing the game for hours upon hours, I can safely say you'll want to be playing the game on a PC.

What was done for PC gamers?

"First off, Nixxes developed a DX11 renderer that is used on the PC, when available. We did leverage this by adding several features you will see when you have DX11 hardware on your PC: real-time tessellation, improved Screen Space Ambient Occlusion, improved blurs and depth of field," Julien Bouvrais, the Eidos-Montreal Director of Technology told Gamespy. "We also added custom support for AMD's Eyefinity (multiple monitors), and 3DHD. On another note, the user interface has been tailored for the keyboard, and mouse controls can be fully customized for your gaming habits."

Our Velocity Micro gaming rig OS Microsoft® Windows® 7 Home Premium 64-bit CPU Intel® Core i7 2600k processor, Hyperclocked RAM Patriot 8GB 1600Mhz PXD38G1600LLK Memory Video EVGA GTX 580 1536 MB 015-P3-1580-AR Motherboard Asus P8Z68-V Pro Motherboard Storage Patriot 2 x 120GB Wildfire SATAIII SSD PW120GS25SSDR in RAID 0 Optical drive LG UH12LS28 BDROM/DVDRW

In practice, the game looks great, and is a large step up from its console counterpart if you have the system supporting these DirectX 11 bells and whistles. With so much time spent taking in the details of the game world and with an emphasis on finding secrets and exploring every nook and cranny, the added clarity and sharpness that the high resolution and extensive anti-aliasing options bring to the game are welcome.

The controls are also impressive, with every menu and in-game option usable with the mouse. The hacking minigame benefits from the speed and precision that a mouse brings, and the ability to use your keyboard to type in codes and passwords is better than directing a cursor around the game's virtual keyboards. The controls are fully customizable, and just in case you prefer a gamepad, that's supported as well.

I'm in the process of testing a 3D monitor at the moment, and was disappointed to learn that the game will only support HD3D, which is AMD's 3D standard. With a rig that is designed to use NVIDIA's 3D Vision standard, the 3D was all but unusable. There is also full support for the multi-monitor Eyefinity technology, allowing you to stretch the image across up to five monitors.

The option to adjust your field of view has also been confirmed for the final game, although that option didn't make it into the early review version. The ability to adjust your FOV settings is welcome, however, and we can't wait to try it. We experienced one or two crashes while playing the game, but frequent autosave points and the quick-save ability minimized the frustration. We're also playing on pre-release code, and it's not rare to run into that sort of issue before the launch of review games.

"We are obviously a little biased, but for us here at Nixxes, the PC version really is the version you should play," Nixxes President Jurjen Katsman stated. "...The extra crispness of the enhanced resolution, effects, and frame-rate, really give you superior visuals. And the speed and accuracy that you get from playing with mouse and keyboard compared with a gamepad, at least for me personally, makes it a pretty easy choice."

We agree. The game looks and plays better on the PC, and it's clear that extra time and effort were spent making sure Human Revolution doesn't feel like a console game when you play on the PC.

Deus Ex: Human Revolution will be available on the 360, PS3, and PC on August 23. We'll be reviewing the PC version of the game.