GH: What are some of the big differences between your previous engine and your new one? How will they benefit the (stealth) gameplay?

HS: The new technology is very much cutting edge. The sound propagation, AI, physics and lighting are all new. (We're using Havok for physics.) To cite one example of how these technologies have gameplay ramifications: In the new engine, a sound is bounced around realistically (instead of being a simple go-through-walls radius broadcast) and is muffled or echoed by the surface materials in the world. So if you make sound while robbing an office, it matters if there's carpet on the floor, if the office window is intact and if the door is closed. Without those things, the sounds will bounce more and guards in the hall beyond are more likely to be alerted.

ZODIAC branches off from the storyline of Deus Ex. In Deus Ex, you played JC Denton, but in ZODIAC, you play his brother Paul Denton.

At the start of ZODIAC, you (Paul) have narrowly avoided death at the hands of the United Nations Anti-Terrorist Coalition (UNATCO) after several agents and troops show up at your apartment in New York City. With the help of JC, you manage to escape. In Deus Ex, it was possible for Paul to be killed, but in ZODIAC, it is assumed that JC does save him.

An arms dealer named Smuggler then helps you get to Hong Kong; your brother JC has made an alliance with a scientist named Tracer Tong who lives there. Tong was able to recently remove JC's "kill switch" in his underground laboratory.

Paul had been a double agent for both UNATCO and the National Secessionist Force (NSF). UNATCO considers the NSF nothing more than a terrorist group, and in fact, they do resort to terrorism to further their cause. Their main concern is the proliferation of a deadly plague called the Gray Death. They believe that the cure, known as Ambrosia, is being purposely held back by secret organizations. Paul's loyalties are with the NSF.

When you start the game, you will be playing Paul Denton and you will be at Tracer Tong's lab in Hong Kong; JC has already left on an important mission related to stopping the Gray Death. Talk to Tracer and Alex about a little mission of your own. Unfortunately, UNATCO has enabled your kill switch, so you'll have to find new augmentations to replace your existing ones, which have been permanently disabled.

Ahem. Yes, download the video, and see the ultra pretty real time shadow rendering of a very cool bot (eat your hearts out, lame-ass SS2 bots! ;) and a little bit of combat (very little).

Researchers at International Business Machines Corp. have punched holes about 6,000 times smaller than the width of a human hair in a piece of plastic, creating a novel form of data storage.

After six years of work the Zurich-based researchers say they can fit 1 terabit of data -- effectively the contents of a 100-gigabyte computer hard drive -- on a postage stamp-size piece of plastic.

The data takes the form of up to a trillion holes drilled by a precise and extremely hot nano-needle, the researchers said.