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Looking Glass Studios is gone, although many of the employees did wind up working for Ion Storm Austin on Thief 3.

Big congrats to the the T2X team though, who started all this back when we weren't sure there'd be a T3. I look forward to playing this (and the Circle of Stone and Shadow, if that's ever finished....)

Thief isn't gone. There's a Thief 3. I love this game.

How about making a game that doesn't rely on cheap special effects and ugly-looking "eyecandy" as a marketing ploy? There are still good games out there on the consoles, bargin games that are loads of fun to play.

Heck, games even ten years old would surive in this market with a little boost for the next gen consoles. The problem is the developers rely more on sequels of previous hits that don't get the full development time they deserve and end up bombing, when fans would much rather see innovation and fun elements.

I thought we've been down this road before.

There has in fact already been a game that people bought for the sound. Friends of mine actually went out and upgraded their PC sound purely to get a better play experience out of Thief: The Dark Project (1998). It was one of the first games that used positional sounds as an integral part of the game, making for an innovative play style that spawned the stealth genre which now also includes games like Metal Gear Solid and Splinter Cell. Thief works slightly differently to the other Stealth games, since you are very weak in open confrontation. Not paying attention to certain important sounds (like a guard's footsteps for example) can lead to a swift and painful death. This new genre is very successful at the moment, with sequels for all three games mentioned coming out this year - Thief 3: Deadly Shadows, Metal Gear Solid 3 and Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow, all of which have received good to excellent reviews.

One aspect of Postal 2 that I haven't seen in other crime-centric games is the ability to forcibly enter a suburban home. That, itself, is a step beyond the acts of personal violation we've seen in other titles. GTA-3 allows you to eject an adult from his car and take it for your own. I feel relatively safe when I'm in my car; and I'd feel relatively well-violated if someone snatched me from it. But I imagine that's nothing compared to being abducted (or otherwise intruded upon) in the sanctity of my own home. (Violation of person would be an even more extreme example.)

Postal 2's creators believe there's an appeal in the act of violating another human being. A Clockwork Orange shows us a group of people who enjoy this; their behavior is perfectly believable. The 1971 Stanford Prison Experiment shows us that the capacity for cruelty and abuse of control can exist in all of us. Games like Thief (audio/flash) distance us from this by changing the setting somewhat. In breaking into those medieval homes, there exists the sense of being somewhere I shouldn't, but I never really felt like I was terrifying anyone. Knowing what we do about human nature, would the Thief series sell even better if the victims were people from our own experience?

The consensus here seems to be that Running With Scissors will not gain much by porting the title to Linux. Would an improvement to gameplay make a title centering on home-invasion more interesting?

Incidentally, is anyone else worried that all the screenshots on the Thief 3 website are third-person view?

Good for Half Life 2, now when will Thief 3 be released?!

There's only one I'm exited about: Thief III.

Of course, I'll have to check out DOOM III... it looks like it might be the first playable survival horror game, ever. It'll be nice to see if the id folks can make a good game (you know, with a plot and stuff) with their excellent engine... ;-)

Oh, and my Neverwinter Nights modules.

Thief 3 is scheduled for June of 2004, so expect it next Christmas. On the upside, however, they've already registered the domain name, and you can download the new trailer here.

Also, it was quiet interesting Americas Army came out before UT2K3 using the UT2K3 engine. So the engine does look good on other non-bouncy fps games. (Any other U2K3 engine based games out?)

From the Unreal Wiki, released UT2k3 engine games:

America's Army
Devastation
Raven Shield
Splinter Cell
Unreal 2
Unreal Championship
Postal 2 ...and of course itself, and any others I have forgotten.

Notable upcoming Unreal Engine games include:
Deus Ex 2
Thief 3
XIII

Unreal Warfare, Epic's worst-kept secret, is next-generation (from UT2003's engine) and is said to rival Doom 3s and Half Life 2s. Speculation I have heard is that is seems to be a large scale combat game (either that or i'm getting this confuesd with Digital Extreme's Stargate game), perhaps in the style of BF1942 or PlanetSide (yes, there are games in development (unannounced) that are using the Unreal Engine as a platform for a MMORPG, so it is a possibilty).

I'd think multiplayer games are inherently social events. Some people (myself included) don't like multiplayer games. Give me anything from the Thief series or the redone Doom stuff @ DoomsdayHQ. That makes me an antisocial bastard, not the people that gather together to game.

Bard's Tale I-III, Ultima III-VII, Thief & Thief II.

My all time favorites.

Now where is that Thief III Eidos!!!!

I've heard that in III you'll be able to see your own shadow, and be able to look down and see your feet. A much more immersive experience.

But given how nervous I get playing these games, I'm not sure having a shadow is such a great idea. I'll probably keep saying to myself, "Hey, something's following me! Oh, just my shadow..." over and over again.