Slashdot Mirror
Thief 3 Website Goes Live
Sabathius writes "If you're a Thief super-freak like me, you've been looking at the 'Coming soon' message at thief3.com for years...hoping they would finally put something there. Well, our collective prayers have been answered! This spring Thief 3 (Thief: Deadly Shadows) is being released by the same guys who recently gave us Deus Ex: Invisible War." S!: We've also recently covered previews of this new Thief title at Slashdot Games.
if I steal the game, will they come after me?
thaen
I hope its not as bad as DX, "Invisible Features."
is being released
Yaaaay!
by the same guys who recently gave us Deus Ex: Invisible War.
Boooooo!
Makes it easier to forget to put in ALT tags for graphics and use tons of Flash animations.
What's that third, unclickable flag for, btw?
I have been pwned because my
I hope they don't dumb down this game like Deus Ex.
Just so they can put it on the xbox.
I'm hoping Thief 3 will be more like Thief 1 than Thief 2. Thief 2's medieval-magical-industrial-robotic setting didn't really work, not to mention the fact that being able to throw your eye around corners is a bit ... odd.
Deus Ex: Invisible War. What other proof do you need that they have experience at thievery...
If my answers frighten you, stop asking scary questions.
When FPS games first came out, I wasn't nearly as stoked as my friends. Sure, I found playing Doom mildly entertaining, but it never gripped me as much as RPG/Adventure games.
Thief changed all of that. I bought the original Thief and instantly fell in love; it brought an entirely new dimension to a genre I felt was rather repetitive and boring. It also opened me up to trying other FPS games that I probably wouldn't have tried without my positive experience with Thief.
I probably haven't bought a computer game in 2 or 3 years (except for Deus Ex: Invisible War), but you can bet I'll be first in line when Thief 3 comes out.
"However," replied the universe, "The fact has not created in me A sense of obligation."
This spring Thief 3 (Thief: Deadly Shadows) is being released by the same guys who recently gave us Deus Ex: Invisible War.
That's not a good thing, seeing how botched Deus Ex: Invisible War was (especially compared to the original). Hopefully Harvey Smith has nothing to do with Thief 3.
Let the whining about Invisible War commence!
Manipulate the moderator system! Mod someone as "overrated" today.
I'm guessing it's going to be a French flag as soon as they have the French version of the site ready to go.
Now that they've put all that work into their content, it gets Slashdotted. Oh the irony....
C - A language that combines the speed of assembly with the ease of use of assembly.
This gives me hope for Doom 3... Duke Nuke 'em Forever...
and maybe, just maybe... AmigaOS 4!
..thief 3 website goes down..
Go slashdot..
There is hope for Duke Nukem Forever?
Every new games website should have a bloody good slashdotting! Thief has always warmed my heart, and I'm glad to hear that we're getting another one. Sadly, I'm unable to use their site because of the flash requirement. I long since disabled Flash due to the misuse of it via adverts. You'd think that webbies would learn that you need to provide non-flash content by now!
Anyway to summarize: Thief 3 Good : Thief 3 Website -- can't say, don't know.
I sure hope they are better at game design than at web design. Kids today just want some information about their future games in an efficient manner, they don't care if the webpage has pretty graphics. Why I'm sure if the games plot and features are as empty as the game is pretty, all of todays teenagers will switch over to playing Nethack and Go. I mean come on we're talking about the generation that put MTV out of business here. Oh... Wait...
the site is hosted over at Times Warner. The network pipes CANT be overloaded, but the server can be overloaded..but not likely.
whois says it was created Thu, Mar 23, 2000, so they had been planning for 4 years, at least.
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FM Clan
If Ion have got any sense whatsoever they will not draw attention to the fact that the developers of Thief 3 have anything to do with the developers that made DX:IW. Most of us that were fans of the original Thief games are praying that Warren stayed the hell away from the Thief team and let them get on with it. That, or we're going to end up with unified arrows. Grrr.
Still, the screenshots look great and I'm really hoping that they pull this one out of the bag.
People that believe in their opinions don't post AC.
all those screenshots seem to take place at night, in a shadow, with sunglasses on. dark games hurt my eyes.
I first played Thief 2 after Hitman 2 and wasn't at all impressed. The graphics and feel reminded me of old Quake-era games, and the AI seemed horrible (enemies repeatedly going 'what's that!?' but just standing there outside the doorway). Admittedly I didn't play for long - was I too quick to judge?
I suppose this would be as good a time as any to start begging for another system shock sequel.
Next game.... SYSTEM SHOCK 3?!?!?!?
;-)
Here's hoping its that and not Diakatana2
Good quote, too many chars. Seriously, the slashdot 120 char limit sucks!
Bioware did alright with the dual PC/XBOX release of KOTOR (Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic). Not only did it have the distinction of being one of the best Star Wars games around (not that they had a lot of competition), but they managed to strike a good balance. There was a push-button "do it for me" system with the console gamer in mind, and plenty of tweaking with the d20 system to satisfy to PC gamer.
;)
Cross your fingers?
Auto-reply to ACs: "Truly, you have a dizzying intellect."
www.thief3.org has some thoughts on the matter!
As other posters have mentioned, there were a number of people who were disgruntled with Deus Ex 2. Due to the following reasons:
1) Bad Framerate
2) Oversimplified controls (depth of wepons etc missing)
3) Bad AI
4) Simplified story
Now, I have not played Deus Ex 2 because of the above reasons, however, I have played every other game that Warren Spector was involved in with the exception of Terra Nova. In fact, of my top ten favorite games of all time, only one (Half Life) did not involve Warren Spector in one way or another. (Although, IMO, it was influenced by his work on other things...)
Thief 1 was revolutionary - it was the first sneaker ever. Out of it sprung things like Splinter Cell, which has been very popular.
However, I am very concerned that with the push that Spector currently has towards console games that Thief 3 will be runied by this direction.
As you can see here (not slashdotted like the real site) Thief 3 already has a third person mode, like Splinter Cell.
It will probably be sucessful on consoles, and probably be considered (ironically) a knock off of Splinter Cell.
But, will it please the hard core fans? I don't know about that. If they can keep one thing, I as a hard core fan will be pleased:
A really good story, like the first two.
I will buy it, I have to. I have to finish the trilogy and find out what happens to Garrett. I just hope I am not dissapointed on the journey.
Those of you who have played the first two will know what I mean.
Try to hack my 31337 firewall!
This, to me is the game anticipation of the year, years in fact.
:)
Fellow Slashdotters, if ye have not ever played a Sneak 'em Up game before, any Thief game is the one to buy.
The best part of Thief is the difference in the game to a shoot 'em up - in Thief, the character Garret is actually a weak character, he gets killed very easily.
This means that instead of the normal emotions that a shoot 'em up game gives, Thief gives all those emotions plus two extra, suspence and fear.
Yeah, fear. There was one time playing Thief 2 when I sneaked Garret around a corner just to come face to face with a Hammer Haunt. My brain went into shock, and my reflex action was to jump away.
The net result was me lying flat on my ass about 6 feet away from the keyboard, tangled around my PC chair
Not a game to play after a phat joint, I can tell ya.
You had me till you said "same guys who recently gave us Deus Ex: Invisible War". Deus Ex (and could people please stop pronouncing it like "deuce"? It's Latin, people. DAY-us) is one of a number of games that have suffered a less-stylish sequel, IMHO. (To Be Continued. I hear that Nihilistic isn't doing the new Vamp Masq, and that the new company is making it more like a first-person shooter. Great. We need more of those.)
/rant
What is the deal when sequel-makers get their hands on loads of cash and graphics capabilities, as a result of the popularity of the original, only to fuck the original squarely up the ass? I haven't picked up Max Payne 2, yet, and I sincerely hope this is not the case. Sure, DE2 looks... well, even to say "better" is to suggest that cartoonish bright colours and soft lines automtically mean better. The original DE looked grainy and that seemed appropros. Also, as a side note, the protag and his brother both looked and sounded like Stephen Baldwin, and that was a friggin cool edge. This new guy I want to smack.
Game makers pay attention: voice acting is important! Hell, even if Soul 2: Mythblighter wasn't a 10 out of 10, game-wise (though I'd rate it middling-high), the voice acting had me riveted. The diary entries with the first encounter with the undead, etc. were superb. Contrast with, say, Warcraft 3, esp Frozen Throne. Ok, that's a game that has me wanting to skip the crap and get to the game, but this just exacerbates that reaction. Whiny female non-acting "Our kingdom is in danger!" Whatever. End result: lowered respect for the game, generally.
If they do to theif what they did to deus ex I will be royally pissed. Deus Ex was my all time favorite shooter. The game introduced a very intuitive micro management system to the FPS genre and became one of the first and best FPS/RPG's of all time. Deus Ex 2 was a real dissapointment. Many of the problems were due to the dual xbox/pc development (many of the defaults for the game were optimised for console play, etc ..), but the game didn't live upto the original.
Keep an eye out on where they go with this, thief fans.
Steal This Sig
You admit you haven't played the game based on a bullet-point list of reasons. How do you know those reasons are true?
I loved Deus Ex enough to buy it a couple of times (PC and PS2 versions). I played through it several times. Even though I'd heard it was bad, I went and got the Deus Ex OXM demo disc and played it.
You know what? It's still Deus Ex. Yea, there are a few tweaks I don't agree with (the item management is simplified a lot, there is no positional damage to speak of, and the AI is a bit silly on the easier levels), but it's still a solid game. I didn't notice any frame rate issues, but then I was playing the Xbox version. People can whine about PC version all they want, but if they really want to play some Deus Ex, they should sit down and play it on the Xbox. It's good, more so than people are willing to admit on Slashdot because they're too busy talking about PC gaming (I expect PC gamers spend more time complaining about the half-baked shit that most companies put out than console gamers do, because console games are higher in quality and usually complete upon release).
I expect Doom 3 on the Xbox to rock hardcore, since the fine fellows at Vicarious Visions have been able to tune Doom 3 specifically for the GPU in it (in fact, they use some shader intstructions specific to the Xbox GPU and saved about 3 passes per scene render, meaning your Xbox will look as good as the version running on a 3,000$ USD computer!). Give it a chance.
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Internet Explorer (n): Another bug -- that is, a feature that can't be turned off -- in Windows.
Thief I and II were probably the best FPS games ever made. They were the anti-Quake: replacing twitchy running, spinning and machine gun fire with slow careful movements, hiding in shadows and methodically placed single shots.
From what I can see, the developers of Thief III have gone and made this great FPS into a 'Thief-flavored' Tomb Raider TPS. The game is 3rd person and playable on a console controller.
For the record: No console controller is even close to as precise as a mouse. And Thief is *all* about precision. Console controllers are clumsy and better suited to action games.
If I was going to play a console based TPS not only would I rather look at Lara's behind running around, but I'd also put my chips on StarCraft Ghost.
... Looking Glass Studio's were the folks who gave life to Thief, as well as the equally amazing System Shock series. I can't help but wonder what this game will be like without the ingenious developers who brought the FPS genre to new heights?
And recently, Warren Spector said Deus Ex 3 would be as different from Deus Ex 2, as 2 was from 1.
What's going on over at Ion Storm? They keep defending their awful design decisions as their "vision" instead of just realizing that they don't make the game more fun, they make it less fun. Why are they trying to ruin what made Deus Ex great? It's like they don't even know why people liked the first one.
Sadly, it reminds me of the Matrix sequels.
But Harvey Smith and team were insistent on it. They keep repeating the "streamlining" mantra about "removing what didn't work from Deus Ex 1." Clearly, they have no idea what they're doing, but Warren was opposed to it. He said different ammo types ground the game world in reality. He was right.
In the words of Ion Storm head Warren Spector, "you can't make games for MIT grads".
:/
Wonderful
anything about the engine used? Did they write it from scratch? The visuals look good, but not that great.
I say, give us something that captures the ambience of Doom III, with the gore and screams toned down.
Rapid Nirvana
[ ] The CEO of Ion Storm is known to keep a bag of jewels in his office. While you're there, steal them [Expert]
[ ] The beta of Thief III is on the Ion Storm file server. Put an eDonkey client on their firewall and p1mp that bad boy out. [Hard]
[ ] Remember, you're a thief, not a murderer: don't kill anyone. If you bought Daikatana, you can whack Romero with your blackjack though. [Expert]
I really hope that this sequel doesn't go the way of Deus Ex 2 - that game was a waste of 50 bucks :( .. The quality of the game kind of sucked comparing to the first one. The graphics were choppy and unattractive (on a mid-range GeForce, P4 2.4 Ghz), character faces looked poorly bitmapped, gameplay was underdeveloped, and the "new" interface left something better to be desired. The patch fixed some interface issues, but it seemed like it was oriented towards console gaming, not PC's (where this game should belong!). honestly, I didn't even finish the game, and if I could get my money back, I certainly would. Comparing to the first Deus Ex, it has been a disappointment.
Thief 2 is an awesome game. I really hope that this sequel will be that and then some. The screenshots look nice, but I'd like to see some hi-res screenshots from the PC.
--- sig moved for great justice.
People can whine about PC version all they want, but if they really want to play some Deus Ex, they should sit down and play it on the Xbox.
A first person shooter? On a console? Do you have any idea how painful that is? Some games work better on consols with controlers - fighting games for example - but it should be a capitol offense to release a first person shooter on any system that doens't come with a keyboard and mouse.
meaning your Xbox will look as good as the version running on a 3,000$ USD computer!
Who spends 3,000$ US on a computer and then runs it out to a television? You have obviously never done a side by side comparison between a game running on a television & a game running on a computer monitor. Even if use the same source driving them both, the television is severly limited in resolution. But if you think 480x240 is sharp as 1600x1200 I suggest you go and talk to your optometrist.
AFAIK, Its a fairly extensively modified version of the UT2003 engine.