Thief 3 Website Goes Live 238
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.
The question is... (Score:5, Funny)
thaen
Re:The question is... (Score:4, Funny)
If you copy a CD the Pirates should come, not just Thiefs.
Re:The question is... (Score:2, Offtopic)
I guess if you're going to copy a game, go for that one instead.
Seriously, that was a great game on the Commodore 64... will be interesting to see what he does with it when he revisits the idea.
Re:The question is... (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:The question is... (Score:2, Funny)
Re:The question is... (Score:5, Funny)
When you try to lift the loot, pick a softwre store that is very poorly lit and has soft, sound-absorbing floor covering. Somethig along the lines of carpeting or wood.
If you cannot avoid walking on granite or other hard stone, take a moss arrow or two with you.
Finally, the club might come in handy in case a kid, of which there are a plenty at any games shop, draws attention to you.
Don't kill anyone.
Re:The question is... (Score:5, Funny)
Well, ThaenRT, it all depends on how noticable you are.
If you make a little noise or the guard catches a glimpse of you, then you can still avoid being chased if you are able to lie low for a while. I find that it usually goes something like this:
Me: [scuffle]
Guard: Hello? Is somebody there?
Me: (Desperate silence)
Guard: I thought I heard something move...
Me: (Not even breathing)
Guard: Oh well. It was probably just rats.
Me: (Sighs with relief. Proceeds to sneak past the guard, and robs the place blind.)
Of course, the problem with this is that CompUSA has even more tile floors than even the Bank level in Thief II, and it's simply loaded with the kind of lights that you can't shoot out with water arrows. Your best bet is to avoid the guards by shooting rope arrows into the ceiling, because the guards rarely notice anything above eye level.
WIth any luck (Score:4, Funny)
No kidding (Score:4, Insightful)
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.
Re:No kidding (Score:5, Insightful)
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.
Apparently they don't. You know what one of the -best- features of Deus Ex was? It was a LONG game. The fact that it was long made it immersive, like reading a good novel. It worked really well with the conspiracy angles in the game. It also had RPG like qualities, with the skill system and all. By dumbing it down to play well on a console, and making the game pathetically short, they managed to extract all the unique and fun stuff out of it.
So if they follow their current trend, Thief 3 will be a short-lived, dumbed down, insult to its predecessor that can be finished in 10 hours... (I have never understood why a game company will spend years writing an engine, and then skimp on the levels to the point it can be finished in a day or two)
Re:WIth any luck (Score:2)
Talk about sloppy diesign...
Hmm.. (Score:5, Funny)
is being released
Yaaaay!
by the same guys who recently gave us Deus Ex: Invisible War.
Boooooo!
Re:Hmm.. (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Hmm.. (Score:2)
If so, I'm avoiding it like the plague.
Console-ification (Score:2)
Thank god for id, 3d Realms (even if DNF is taking...forever), and other PC-centric companies who aren't abandoning us for dumbed-down crap.
No blind gamers, I suppose (Score:5, Funny)
What's that third, unclickable flag for, btw?
What's that grayed-out flag for? (Score:2, Informative)
Re:No blind gamers, I suppose (Score:4, Funny)
Re:No blind gamers, I suppose (Score:2)
Dumb Down (Score:5, Insightful)
Just so they can put it on the xbox.
Bioware did alright (Score:3, Interesting)
Cross your fingers?
Re:Dumb Down (Score:3, Interesting)
First- I am a big Xbox fan, so don't get me wrong, I might be biased.
Second, I was a HUGE fan of the first Deus Ex. That game was incredible.
So, when I found out that Deus Ex: Invisible War was 'designed for the Xbox'. Wow- best of both worlds?
Wrong...DX:IW was a piece of crap. I still haven't finished it, but I will eventually, just because I feel compelled. I also originally thought that it was just suff
Re:Dumb Down (Score:3, Insightful)
Have you played Splinter Cell? It is far from a 'generic first person shooter'.
98% of the game isn't even first person- so I'm pretty sure you know nothing about it. And the 3rd person perspective is awesome for a stealth game- your character is much more than just a hand holding a gun- you get to see everything, know exactly where you are. In the light? Shadows? And as much complaint t
The original game was cool (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:The original game was cool (Score:5, Insightful)
I think that most Thief fans at this point are hoping the new game resembles either one of its predecessors.
Re:The original game was cool (Score:2, Interesting)
Anyway, my favorite levels are Bonehoard and Return to the Cathedral, so you can see I don't mind the undead all that much.
Re:The original game was cool (Score:5, Interesting)
Or maybe they didn't think that these over-the-top fantastic things belonged in the game?
Re:The original game was cool (Score:5, Funny)
Painful too. Not to mention how hard it was to find the damned thing afterward, seeing as how I had to keep my head cocked a bit to one side while looking for it.
I can't imagine how the Graiae sisters managed.
KFG
Re:The original game was cool (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:The original game was cool (Score:3, Interesting)
It also should be noted that their was some minor social commentary in theif 2 were thief 1 was just a game. S
Re:The original game was cool (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:The original game was cool (Score:4, Informative)
Re:The original game was cool (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:The original game was cool (Score:2, Insightful)
I disagree. I think it totally worked. Like the Haunts in Thief 1, the Mech Guards were the creatures to be feared. Hearing one nearby made your hair stand on end and knowing that facing one head-on was suicide and getting away from one when it spotted you was near impossible. Although I still think the Haunts were much more dangerous.
The industrial-era atmosphere gave th
From the makers of... (Score:5, Funny)
Thief changed my perspective on FPS (Score:5, Interesting)
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.
Re:Thief changed my perspective on FPS (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Thief changed my perspective on FPS (Score:3, Insightful)
Thief never really struck me as an "action" game. Suspense, yes, and careful observation and planning (one of the few games were I'd find a dark corner to just sit and watch people come and go for a few minutes to learn their patterns). Any "action" that actually occured was usually fairly quickly followed by death and a reload from the last save, as Garrett was *not* a fighter...
Re:Thief changed my perspective on FPS (Score:3, Insightful)
It is also an action/stealth game, but it is very, very linear and the variety between levels is mostly graphical.
I for one liked Thief because I had multiple options to solve most puzzles and the maps were pretty open ended. I never felt I was 'solving' any problem, just finding the only solution the game designers had left for me.
If you liked the freedom Thief gave you on most missions, Splinter Cell is probably not for you.
Bah (Score:5, Interesting)
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.
Re:Bah (Score:3, Insightful)
I smell another xbox port.
Re:Bah (Score:5, Insightful)
- Society developed along believable and interesting lines. I list this first since it is important in a plot-based game like Deus Ex.
- Interesting goodies and options.
- Some of the later levels are pretty good. Seeing the unatco base on liberty island again brought a tear to my eye.
- The physics engine really adds to the game. And when it screws up it can be pretty funny too (hint: try throwing a body at a flaming barrel. The thing will just about fly into orbit!)
Negative:
- Individual sections are too small (cut to fit the 64MB of XBox memory?). In Seattle, especially, I never felt like being in a city. And there are too few of them anyway, by the time the game really gets going it is just about over.
- Choices you make in one section barely influence what happens in another. The various parties are way too forgiving to you.
- Although everyone and everything casts a shadow, you yourself do not. It seems a strange oversight...
- The game is too easy. This was true for the first game as well, but since it was much longer that was less of an issue.
- The game rewards casual players far more than in-depth players. As casual player you will never run out of ammo or miss a story strand. An in-depth player is punished by hearing the same information over and over again, and will be forced to leave behind endless stacks of mod-canisters, ammo, weapons, and whatever. Speaking of which...
- I understand why they have one kind of ammo for all weapons, but I do not like it. There is far less strategy to weapon choice now.
- Since the game plays further in the future than the original Deus Ex, it does not feel quite so personal anymore. I've visited (in the great game of Real Life) Liberty Island, Battery Park, Hell's Kitchen, the Paris Catacombs, and many other locations from Deus Ex (Hong Kong and Area 51 are still on my todo list). By comparison, I doubt I'll ever set foot in a WTO arcology.
Despite all these complaints I enjoyed playing Invisible War! It is a good game; the complaint really is that it should have been _great_. At least it tries to do something new, to expand on the art of storytelling in games. And despite all the whining, it mostly succeeds in doing that.
So will there be a part 3? I really hope so; the brand is strong enough to allow it and by now they have the tools and experience to do it. And I think we deserve a game that covers the 20 years between J.C. and Alex, sort of like Deus Ex: the Dark Age ;-)
And here it goes... (Score:5, Funny)
How sad... (Score:3, Funny)
Thief is out! (Score:4, Funny)
and maybe, just maybe... AmigaOS 4!
Re:Thief is out! (Score:4, Informative)
In other news.... (Score:5, Funny)
Go slashdot..
Does this mean that... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Does this mean that... (Score:2)
Re:Does this mean that... (Score:4, Funny)
Yes, from what I can tell, Revelations explicitly mentions DNF going gold:
"...and the Seventh Angel poured forth his bowl into the air and a voice cried out from Heaven saying 'it is done!'"
Re:Does this mean that... (Score:3, Funny)
oh ... you mean those people ... (Score:5, Funny)
Slashdotting (Score:5, Interesting)
Anyway to summarize: Thief 3 Good : Thief 3 Website -- can't say, don't know.
Re:Slashdotting (Score:5, Insightful)
Slashdotted Already (Score:4, Funny)
Some info.. (Score:5, Interesting)
whois says it was created Thu, Mar 23, 2000, so they had been planning for 4 years, at least.
Re:Some info.. (Score:5, Informative)
Well, the game was planned for a long, long time. The Thief series was supposed to be a trilogy from the very beginning. We've tangled with the forces of Chaos (the Pagans), and with the forces of Order (the Hammerites/Mechanists), now we're gonna mess with the forces of Balance (the Keepers)...
Shhh.... Don't draw attention to it! (Score:5, Interesting)
Still, the screenshots look great and I'm really hoping that they pull this one out of the bag.
Re:Shhh.... Don't draw attention to it! (Score:4, Informative)
Warren Spector was opposed to unified ammo (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Shhh.... Don't draw attention to it! (Score:2)
too dark (Score:5, Funny)
Re:too dark (Score:5, Funny)
Re:too dark (Score:4, Interesting)
(1) Play only at night.
(2) Turn off all the lights.
(3) LOWER the gamma in the game as much as you can.
Trust me... this really makes the game much more enjoyable.
Re:too dark (Score:4, Interesting)
I didn't find Thief (2) that good... (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:I didn't find Thief (2) that good... (Score:2, Informative)
The best part of the game is that it can be so different to regular FPS. How many FPS give you the option of not killing anyone? And I mean not being able to kill anyone. Combined with a great story which you would have missed with only a bit of game play.
Re:I didn't find Thief (2) that good... (Score:2, Interesting)
The AI was quite excellent, actually. The guards invariably did something in response to any noise or odd thing they noticed, but not necessarily abandon their stations and go looking. It sounds like you were expecting guards to either be oblivious or in pursuit mode, but nothing in between. In fact, there was "la de da" mode, the "what's that?" mode, but don't do anything beyond watch/listen more carefully (at which point, the sam
Re:I didn't find Thief (2) that good... (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:I didn't find Thief (2) that good... (Score:2)
I've heard it was great- but looking at the screenshots I can't figure out what is going on.
The main character looks like a heroine from a recent Disney cartoon. There is that warthog (as in a pig, not a jeep, or airplane derivative).
Can anyone shed some light on what the game is about? The official site doesn't tell me anything.
Is it like a third person shooter? A platformer? An RPG?
Yeah yeah yeah...offtopic, but I am at least responding to the previous post
System shock (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:System shock (Score:2, Funny)
Re:System shock (Score:2, Funny)
You know what this means? (Score:4, Funny)
Here's hoping its that and not Diakatana2
www.thief3.org has some thoughts on the matter (Score:4, Funny)
Re:www.thief3.org has some thoughts on the matter (Score:2)
I'm a huge fan of thief 1 and 2. However when they got rid of the Looking Glass team I was none too happy. I even liked their ancient Terra Nova game on my Pentium 133!!!
But will it work? (Score:5, Interesting)
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.
Re:But will it work? (Score:4, Insightful)
If you are that big of a Spector fan, I'm a little disappointed that you wouldn't at least rent DX:IW to see if you liked it.
People have said bad things about pretty much every game I've ever enjoyed. It seems to me that my opinion on the matter of whether or not I should have bought it is more important than theirs.
Would you like some cheese to go with your whine? (Score:3, Insightful)
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 si
Re:Would you like some cheese to go with your whin (Score:2)
Perhaps he played the demo. It was sure enough to convince me not to spend money on this thing, and I loved the original Deus Ex.
Re:Would you like some cheese to go with your whin (Score:2, Informative)
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.
Ah, Thief :) (Score:5, Funny)
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.
Re:Ah, Thief :) (Score:2, Interesting)
According to Warren Spector(on the TTLG site), in Thief 3, having a confrontation with a guard is going to mean death far less often than the other two. Garrett has apparently picked up some fighting moves, though he is still no powerhouse.
eeeehhhh (Score:5, Insightful)
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.
Re:eeeehhhh (Score:3, Informative)
It's exactly the same as the first one, which is either good or bad depending on what you're expecting. There's some witty dialog, but a lot of it sounds forced, and some of the funniest parts (like the TV episodes) are just run into the ground in the second. It looks exactly the same, and they even reused a couple of the worlds, so that's pretty weak. I won't give away the ending, but ugh. It's a definite renter.
Re:eeeehhhh (Score:3, Interesting)
Well ... (Score:3, Insightful)
If they did Deux Ex: Invisible Wars, do I want it? (Score:2)
I was a huge fan of the original Deux Ex, so I was looking forward to Invisible Wars. As far as I could tell Inivisible Wars was panned in reviews.
Given the reviews I've read for Invisible Wars (and please someone correct me if this is in fact a good follow-up to Deux Ex - I just don't buy that many games, and won't pay good money if for inferior product) what gives anyone hope that Thief 3 will be any good?
Re:If they did Deux Ex: Invisible Wars, do I want (Score:2)
Where'd you get that impression? Deus Ex 2 for PC [gametab.com]... average review : 80%. Looks like the critics liked it but the public stayed away. Too bad, I'm about halfway through and I'm liking the game.
Re:If they did Deux Ex: Invisible Wars, do I want (Score:2)
Not that it isn't good. It's a fairly enjoyable game, but it's a step backwards from the first one in a lot of ways, and an incremental step forwards in others. It's a shadow of what it should've been, in other words.
Re:If they did Deux Ex: Invisible Wars, do I want (Score:2)
I honestly don't know what reviews I read, as it was a few months ago now. May have been from players - but I was definately left with a do not buy impression.
Its more of a TPS than an FPS (Score:3, Interesting)
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.
Re:Its more of a TPS than an FPS (Score:2, Insightful)
The game is only third person if you want it to be (unlikely for old Thief fans), and I'm quite sure the PC version will be playable with a mouse...
As for "Tomb Raider", Thief 1 has a few Tomb Raideresqe levels, and a few monster hunts as well. It's like the game couldn't decide if it wanted to be Thief, Tomb Raider, or Q
Re:Its more of a TPS than an FPS (Score:2, Interesting)
I hate to say this, but... (Score:2, Insightful)
hmm (Score:2, Funny)
Wonderful
Does anyone know... (Score:3, Interesting)
I say, give us something that captures the ambience of Doom III, with the gore and screams toned down.
UT2003 (Score:3, Informative)
Objectives (Score:5, Funny)
[ ] 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'm not holding my breath (Score:3, Insightful)
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.