Penumbra Theatre creates professional productions that are artistically excellent, thought provoking, relevant, and illuminate the human condition through the prism of the African American experience. Penumbra Theater is celebrating it's 40th season. We saw August Wilson's play 'Jitney' this week and it was wonderful. I've been often enough to know the layout of the venue and I like it. Parking is very close by (and free) and the theater itself is intimate - we bought our. Penumbra theatre.

Deus Ex: Mankind Divided is an excellent return to the Deus Ex universe, though when compared to the previous entry in the series it has a Deus Ex: Mankind Divided is an excellent return to the Deus Ex universe, though when compared to the previous entry in the series it has a weaker story, fewer notable characters, a larger, more sprawling hub, and (basic) crafting. Most major gameplay mechanics are copied from Human Revolution (with mild refinements); stealth gameplay is much improved.

Any game bearing the Deus Ex name sets a high bar for itself, and yet, Deus Ex: Mankind Divided clears it handily. The followup to Deus Ex: Human Revolution retains the strong gameplay blueprint of choice-driven stealth and RPG gameplay that defines the series, but its superlative map and mission designs elevate it to new highs.Mankind Divided’s gorgeously realized version of Prague is deeply infused with meaty, multi-part quests that give you plenty of chances to leverage its toy chest of cool gadgets and abilities. Its story is just slightly limited in scope compared to the far-reaching conspiracies the plot often alludes to, but in terms of raw gameplay, this is the best the series has ever been. Even more so than its predecessors, this iteration of Deus Ex succeeds in making me feel like a cybernetically enhanced super agent that no security system can withstand. A handful of powerful, sexy new experimental augments that you can wire into grizzled cyborg protagonist Adam Jensen are at least partially to thank for that. The energy-draining Titan Armor ripples angrily as it shrugs off everything from bullets to grenades, the Tesla Arm attachment locks onto and incapacitates multiple targets at range, and when someone absolutely needs to die immediately, the arm-mounted nanoblade launcher pierces flesh and armor alike - knocking its target clean off their feet and pinning the corpse to the nearest wall with tremendous force. They’d almost be too powerful if not for the associated energy and ammo costs that come with them, which are fine-tuned so that I wasn’t too shy to use one, but it still felt a little bit special every time I made the decision to pull the trigger.

Prague Is Your PlaygroundThese deviously fun gadgets would be good on their own, but it’s the thoughtfully crafted environments that tease out their true potential. For instance, the Icarus Dash allows you to cover short distances in the blink of an eye, which makes it a fine escape tool. It’s also a great gap-closer for swiftly knocking out guards from a few paces out. But it wasn’t until I started noticing subtle new routes I could take towards objectives that I was sold on it. I once used it to dash across a series of rafters high above an entire roomful of enemies with none of them the wiser. More often, I used it to dash directly from ground level up to a second-story window.That particular use synergizes perfectly with the Remote Hacking aug, which is probably the most transformative upgrade. Experimenting with it allows you to manipulate everything from laser grids and mines to ladders and window shutters, opening up whole new possibilities I had no idea were there upon first glance.

Remote hacking a second-floor window shutter and then Icarus Dashing up to it became my favorite one-two punch of stealthy infiltration, granting me easy access to more than a few places where the front door wasn’t an option. This harmonious relationship between mechanics and environmental design extends to the returning augments as well, lending a sense of value and purpose to even the most basic-seeming of upgrades.Being able to leap, sneak, muscle, or hack my way into almost anywhere wouldn’t mean much if there wasn’t anything there worth discovering, but my feats of high-tech infiltration were always rewarded in one way or another. Soldat. An innocent-looking curio shop might have a secret passage leading to a storage locker full of valuable items, or sneaking through a neighboring apartment might lead to you stumbling into one of the meaty multi-part sidequests.

Set two years after Human Revolution in 2029. Adam Jensen is faced with the aftermath of the Aug Incident and the impact of his decision on how to resolve it. He feels as though the choice he made resulted in failure. Following Hugh Darrow's hijacking of the bio-chip signal, augmented people across the world were forced to violently attack those around them. The public is outraged by this event and they therefore aggressively oppose mechanical augmentation. This results in a divided world, where mechanically augmented humans are forcibly separated from non-augmented ones.