The Making of Thief
The excellent Rock, Paper, Shotgun plays host to a behind-the-scenes piece into how Thief: Deadly Shadows was made. The interview, between Kieron Gillen and designer Jordan Thomas, features some very memorable quotes, and touches on the rough road that Looking Glass studios had to travel in order to get the game out the door. Thomas is also not shy about the success of the game from a design perspective, if not in other regards: "If you want to look at a good example - and the Ubi guys will admit this freely - the Splinter Cell series owes a lot to Looking Glass and Ion Storm games ... That's a great example of what you can do if you take that same sort of design philosophy, at its core, and apply it to a much better positioned franchise with a more mass-market core fantasy."
When someone not interesting in FPS games is around and I have a machine up, I fire up Thief and let them wander around a bit. It's still a great way to introduce someone to the concept of creating a sense of place within a game. Darkness, large screen and powerful box helps deliver a good immersion. The fan missions are interesting, but after the 3rd in the series, the setting becomes a bit tiresome.
http://www.thieveryut.com/ Runs great in wine. Total Conversion for Original Unreal Tournament, Give it a go if you haven't already. Thief multiplayer using UT = awesome.
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