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Thief 3 Deadly Shadows Bug Neuters In-Game AI

Posted by simoniker on from the crossing-legs dept.

Channard writes "You can add another footnote to the strange fortunes of Ion Storm. It's been revealed that Thief: Deadly Shadows has a bug that affects the intelligence of the guards and other characters in the game, both in the PC and Xbox versions. Ion Storm Austin, the creators of the game, really went to work on the character AI in Deadly Shadows - on Expert level, the guards notice things like open doors, missing objects and the like. The catch, as reported on the official Ion Storm forums, is that a bug in the game resets the difficulty level to Normal level if you save and load your position in-game. The word from one of the Thief developers is that: 'We're looking into it.Can't say anything more for now, and there aren't any guarantees... but the find isn't being ignored.' The PC version should be relatively easy to patch, but fixing the Xbox version would be trickier, perhaps requiring a full recall (Microsoft doesn't allow the Xbox Live service to be used for anything other than patches that affect online play.)"

2 of 168 comments (clear)

  1. Re:YOU MEAN by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Troll

    Except that the publishers had to pay extra money to publish on the XBox. That money went to Microsoft, so that Theif 3 could be certified for the XBox console.

    Part of that certification process should be QA, ie. making sure that buggy games aren't released for XBox. This is supposed to be one of the plusses of console gaming: you have someone who has an interest in making sure only properly tested games get released.

    So yes, Microsoft does have a share in the problems with Theif 3 on the XBox. I would say the same of Nintendo if it were released on Game Cube, or of Sony if it was put out for the PS2. I am hardly a Microsoft basher; I have an XBox and think its great. I also think I should get a higher quality product, given that I'm paying a premium for it.

    Now, care to respond to my actual points, rather than whoring for karma?

  2. Re:They shipped Release Candidate 1 instead of 8 o by Danny+Rathjens · · Score: 0, Troll

    Wow; my first troll moderation since the moderation system was added(6 years?).
    Thanks. Variety is the spice of life. ;)