Head over to the Epic Games Store on April 4th and you'll be able to grab The Outer Worlds: Spacer's Choice Edition and Thief (2014) for free and to keep forever. Like a thief!
]]>Eidos Montreal, the studio behind recent Thief and Deus Ex games, say they are "now the owner of the games [we] developed, like the Deus Ex and Thief games." Likewise, Crystal Dynamics say they have taken "control" of its Tomb Raider and Legacy Of Kain games from their previous owner, Square Enix.
Which sounds like a big deal, but really both studios are just reporting a change to their terms of service and privacy notices since they were bought by Embracer Group last month.
]]>Swedish media buyer-uppers Embracer Group have completed their $300 million (£253 million) acquisition of former Square Enix studios, begun in May this year. The deal sees Crystal Dynamics, Eidol Montréal and Square Enix Montréal become part of a 12th operating group within Embracer. Square Enix Montréal will now change their name.
]]>Square Enix are to sell most of their Western studios and intellectual property such as Tomb Raider, Deux Ex, Thief and Legacy Of Kain to Sweden’s Embracer Group for $300 million (£240 million) in cash, it has been announced. The studios being sold to Embracer include Crystal Dynamics, Eidos-Montréal and Square Enix Montréal, but not the UK-based Square Enix Collective. This means Square will retain publishing rights to IP including Life Is Strange, Just Cause and Outriders.
]]>Ages ago I learned how to lockpick in real life, and ever since I've been so impressed at how video games emulate the feeling of managing to crack a lock open. I think maybe it's the noise, that signature *clunk* that makes it so satisfying. It's a staple of RPGs like Skyrim, where lockpicking is literally a skill you can level up. But loads of games have introduced their own unique minigames to let you unlock things, and now you can see most of them in one place thanks to the museum of lockpicking mechanics.
]]>Stuck for things to play this weekend? After offering their exhaustive JRPG lineup at a pittance last week, Square Enix have this week gutted the price of their Eidos Anthology bundle on Steam as part of their "Stay Home & Play" campaign - offering 54 PC classics, contemporary bangers and bizarre curiosities for just under 30 quid, in aid of charities affected by the Covid-19 pandemic.
]]>My agenda: I really wanted to return to 2014's hated Thief and prove that it never deserved the vitriol it received. My reality: before the game even started I was bombarded by a barrage of pop-up windows informing me which new heists and levels were available to me as DLC, and I started to hate it a bit already.
So why this desire to defend it? Well, it's partly because I remember reviewing it six years back, and finding qualified enjoyment - trying to recognise it for the game it is, rather than measuring it against the games it foolishly tried to link itself to. And partly because I wondered if Dishonored had been called Thief: Dishonored, would it too have been so harshly judged? Maybe in 2020 Thief could be, if not amazing, a decent game in its own rights? Maybe?
]]>It's the weekend, or at least after work-hours for most on a Friday, so might as well pick up something to demolish your free time. Square Enix are running a rather nice sale on Steam for the weekend, cutting 50% off the price on most of their bigger games, and slapping deeper discounts on a lot of more obscure stuff, including their old Eidos catalogue. Check out the sale page here, and peruse below for a couple oddball recommendations (and some boringly normal stuff) from me.
]]>In 2007, I was in a bar in Soho. I was waiting to order a drink. Two guys in their early twenties were standing next to me. They were gamers. One was talking loudly about an old guy he had befriended. “He bought a Commodore 64 the day it came out” he said, with clear wonder and delight, “I have a friend… from back in time.”
Hi. I’m Kieron Gillen. Today, I will be your friend from back in time.
]]>Is Thief: The Dark Project the best game ever? If Thief II isn't, then it definitely is. With its twentieth birthday arriving today, I've been replaying the original sneak 'em up to see if it still holds up (of course it does), and whether my memory of it stands up to reality (it's way better than I remembered).
]]>One of my favorite parts of getting a press release is getting a press release that doesn't reveal any information about the game itself. You get a vague promise about a game that might happen someday if some people get together. Normally, I don't give that much of my time. This announcement is different. There's a new MMO and the folks behind it represent some of my favorite games in recent memory. I think you'll be stoked on this too.
]]>If you go on Twitter, where every second image is of a dog being cuddled, rated, or dressed up as a Star Wars character, it's a reasonable assumption that every year is the year of the dog - however Valve, not to mention the ancient Chinese zodiac, are here to tell you that's not the case. As of today, it legitimately is the year of the dog, which is why Valve's latest sale is adorned with images of famous game pups including Okami's Amaterasu, Half-Life 2's DOG, and I, er, don't recognise any of the other doggos.
]]>What the hell is Seven: The Days Long Gone? Is it cyberpunk or technofantasy? Is it an isometric homage to Thief, or an open-world version of Shadow Tactics, or some kind of bug-eyed, zoomed-out Assassin’s Creed? It’s too early in the day (half past twelve in the afternoon) for me to answer these questions with any clarity. But the developers would probably say it’s all of the above. It’s out today if you badly wanted to find out.
]]>I have this clear memory of playing the first Thief, crouching against the wall in a dark stairwell as a guard walked closer. I held my breath until he passed, hidden in a shadow inches away. The games in the original Thief trilogy were all about light and darkness, with a “light gem” at the bottom of the screen to indicate whether you were really in the dark, reducing the guesswork created by the oddities of first-person bodies and your own screen settings. It's an obvious idea more stealth games should borrow.
A a lot of things from the original Thief games didn't become standard in the genre, and even the 2014 reboot/sequel didn't pick up on some of them. For that we have The Dark Mod [official site].
]]>Every Sunday, we reach deep into Rock, Paper, Shotgun's 141-year history to pull out one of the best moments from the archive. This week, Adam's 2012 article singing the praises of videogame cities which are more than mere reconstruction, but are built from the bricks and mortar of ideas.
I've been visiting various cities recently, which always fill me with confusion and wonder, then Dishonored made me think about how much I miss Looking Glass. Put the two together and this happens. Join me in a meandering word-search for cohesion and theme in the use of the city across Thief, and the selected works of Rockstar and Charles Dickens. Be warned, there are spoilers for all three Thief games.
]]>A rather strange addition to Steam's Early Access list popped up over the weekend - the Eidos Anthology. Eidos, which sort of exists inside the maw of Square Enix, is no slouch when it comes to noteworthy games, and Eidos Montreal recently picked up a Golden Joystick for Best Hair or similar. An anthology of their games is quite the thing.
In a collection of quite enormous proportions, Square are selling 34 games (including all the Tomb Raiders, all the Thiefs, all the Deus Exes) and about forty-nine billion DLC packs at just over half the price of buying them individually. That price, however, is £160. Cor.
]]>Is there going to be a spring Steam sale? Or has Valve finally elected to give its wearied money counters - their abacuses gnarled and gnawed on, fear and desperation write large on waxen wood - a brief respite? I'm not entirely sure it matters now, though, as Humble has elected to fire the first shot with a sale of its own, and it's off to a damn impressive start. Check it out for deep discounts on games like South Park: The Stick of Truth, Batman: Arkham Origins, Broken Age, Shadowrun: Dragonfall, and Thief. Tons more below.
]]>With Square's Thief causing a great many of the Looking Glass/Ion Storm faithful to adopt a bulldog chewing a wasp facial expression for the best part of a month (I'm kidding of course - they'll retain that expression for at least twenty years), interest in Garret's earlier tealeaf adventures has heightened. Even the series' former red-headed stepchild, Deadly Shadows, has itself a new moment in the sun. Assorted fixes have long been available, but a newish and very appealing one is the removal of all loading screens from the game's notoriously chopped-up missions.
]]>We tried to play Thief: The Dark Project and chat about it. Honest! But Twitch, the purple scab of a service, wouldn't cooperate with one of the most storied series starters in gaming history. It's almost like I shouldn't have expected a 15-year-old game to be compatible with a crazy space-age cyberfuture streaming platform, but no, that's just ridiculous. At any rate, today - for real this time - I will be joined by former Thief: The Dark Project director Greg LoPiccolo and longtime Thief series designer/Thief: Deadly Shadows director Randy Smith. Expect stories from the dank depths of the first three Thieves’ development chambers, inside info on what could’ve been, and opinions from series vets on Eidos Montreal’s reinvention of their storied stealther.
This will be a pretty special episode, so make sure to tune in. We're kicking off at 2 PM PT/10 PM GMT. A little late, I know, but come on: only amateur thieves skulk around during the (UK) day.
Update: We're done! It went quite well, all things considered. Watch the full thing below.
]]>This week's episode of A Game And A Chat is very special. Very special indeed. For one, I've got two whole guests this time - namely, former Thief: The Dark Project director Greg LoPiccolo and longtime Thief series designer/Thief: Deadly Shadows director Randy Smith. Yes, it is time to talk (and play) all things Thief. Classic Thief, nu-Thief, and everything in between. Expect stories from the dank depths of the first three Thieves' development chambers, inside info on what could've been, and opinions from series vets on Eidos Montreal's reinvention of their storied stealther. This is one you absolutely should not miss.
We'll be kicking off at 11 AM PT/7 PM GMT. Tune in below.
Update: We're having some technical troubles. New kick off ETA coming shortly.
Update 2: No end in sight to the technical issues. We're rescheduling for the same time tomorrow. Apologies to everyone for what was, frankly, an unmitigated disaster.
Update 3: I finally got Thief working with Twitch! So it's a lock: tomorrow at 11 AM PT/7 PM GMT. This will finally happen.
Update 4: This feature is cursed, clearly. A scheduling issue has come up, so we're doing this tomorrow at 2 PM PT/10 PM GMT. A late, spooky night show for Thief. Kinda makes sense I guess.
]]>So it continues. It's once again preening season in the gaming industry (Start of the year! Financial results! Losses! Fun, fun, fun!), and big studios are tightening their stylishly arrayed goth belts. 2K Czech, EA's Ghost Games, Irrational, Disney Interactive, and Turbine have all taken their licks on the chopping block, and now reports suggest that Thief and Deus Ex developer Eidos Montreal is up next. Kotaku sources suggested that more than 20 developers are back out on the mean streets of the city after spending eons working on the mean streets of The City. We got in touch with Square Enix, and they confirmed the unfortunate news.
]]>It's that time of week again, the strange, giddy twilight between the new week and the old. It gives me strength, allowing me to briefly evolve from my larval news slave form into a full-blown human being with thoughts and feelings and a face. "What should I do with this incredible yet oh-so-fleeting window of opportunity?" I wonder aloud. "Fight crime? Raise money for good causes? Escape from RPS' dank news basement and finally start a family?" But usually, I just end up playing videogames with a camera on my face. Yes, we're rather late with this week's episode due to various complicating factors, but shhhhh, shhhh, it's all going to be OK now.
This time, Floorlord Hayden Dingman and I are going to jump between Thief, Resident Evil 4 HD, and maybe a little Warehouse and Logistics Simulator because I don't even know why. We'll kick off at 6 PM PT/2 AM GMT. Tune in below!
Update: we're done! You can watch a recording of the whole thing below. Sadly, there was not time for Warehouses or Logistics, but we will venture down that unknowable rabbit hole in the future.
]]>As I played Thief non-stop for three days, as well as only dreaming Thief-based dreams, and perhaps losing my mind somewhere along the way, I began to notice that the loading screen tips were providing me the sort of advice I could take away from the game. Thief may not directly cause me to turn to a life of crime, but there's wisdom in those briefly appearing words that will stay with me forever.
]]>It's been a very long time coming, first confirmed in 2009, but the new Thief is out this week. Tomorrow in the States, Thursday in Australia, and Friday in Europe. Having just managed to get a copy of the game in time, I've done nothing but play Thief for three days in order to be able to tell you wot I think:
]]>Just before the weekend, Square Enix popped 17-minutes of unedited footage from the new Thief online. It's the game's opening mission, and being on YouTube for that time means I no longer need to offer any opinions of my own. I can just defer to what the commenters underneath the video are saying. Come, watch the video. It's either "so good this new rebote", or "looks solid but closer than shit rather than good."
]]>In this Thief trailer, someone has stolen Daniel Day-Lewis from the movie There Will Be Blood. Check your DVDS and you'll see all that's left is a mess of dangling pixels and a top hat. But in a surprising twist, another thief has stolen his acting ability and also made off with his voice, so what you get in this little slice of life from The City is, well, it's not well-acted. I'm actually okay with the words and the animation, even if makes it look like someone has stolen the in-game, but the Thief Taker General has all the authority and presence of a fluffed-up kitten.
]]>Credit where credit's due: Cyanide is a deceptively productive studio, not to mention a rather ambitious one considering the constraints it works under. It might not be the biggest-budget operation, but the French wearer of many hats and waver of many national flags has recently produced a not-entirely-terrible Game of Thrones RPG, Impire, Dungeonbowl, and Of Orcs & Men. The latter, while depressingly flawed, is most relevant here given that Styx: Master of Shadows presumably takes place in the same world. It stars fleet-footed, dagger-tongued goblin Styx, who is apparently the Very First Of All Goblins. The game will be a mix of extremely vertical stealth and fantasy role-playing, which sounds downright fascinating.
There's just one problem, and I'll let Jim's Of Orcs & Men WIT take it from here: "The game is essentially a series of stealth-then-fight setpieces. This would be fine, except it’s a terrible stealth game." That, um, doesn't bode particularly well.
]]>Remember when the announcement of system requirements was this gulp-inducing deal? Would your PC be up to it? Was it going to become time to upgrade in order to play the game you were most interested in? With a new Crysis no longer being a priority, and not a single big-budget game-changer appearing in 2013, it feels almost anachronistic to even make system specs an announcement these days. And that's no less true today, with the specs released for Thief. Unless your PC is built out of twigs, there's a good change they're not going to bother you.
]]>New Thief trailer = new Thief worries? Well, the worry here would be a complete lack of any in-game footage, this close to the game's next delay of its release date. Although we do learn that the game is apparently about a rat who must escape from some newspaper clippings.
]]>Here at the RPS retirement home for weary writers, our memories are often akin to a swirling sea of confusion. Just yesterday, I was watching the trailer for Peggle 2 and thought it looked terrible. I realised that Peggle the first has come to resemble a Jackson Pollock gallery retrospective in my mind's eye. How strange then that our collective memories of Thief were lucid and strong. Looking Glass' masterpiece is more than a memory though. Astonishingly, fifteen years after its release, the fan community has continued to work on the game and a modder going by the handle Bentraxx has released a Thief Gold HD Mod. It looks gorgeous and there's a full changelist and video below.
]]>Another week, another Thief trailer. Maybe I should just stop watching them at this point. If the game does turn out to be at least half-decent, I'd like at least some of the surprises to be surprising when I play it. Previous videos haven't revealed much beyond the basics of the City (it has a skyline with a clocktower, natch), and new-look Garrett, along with his dubious quips. The shiny new bauble below fell off the VGX Christmas tree over the weekend and it provides more plot to chew on, roll around it in the mouth and then spit back onto the plate. You know, like at a cheese-tasting session.
]]>Fifteen years ago to the day, with some variance depending on where in the world you lived at the time, Thief: The Dark Project, went on sale. It is one of the games that continues to define the possibilities of first-person architecture and also an example of interactive storytelling that has endured over a decade and a half without being fully tapped. Some of the lessons that the team at Looking Glass laid out in their masterpiece has influenced a great deal of gaming. Other parts, like the Thief himself, appear to have gone unnoticed. Here, we remember and celebrate the brilliance of The Dark Project.
]]>This is the latest in the series of articles about the art technology of games, in collaboration with the particularly handsome Dead End Thrills.
When Paul Weir gave a talk at GDC 2011 about GRAMPS, the generative audio system he designed for Eidos Montreal's Thief, the games press took notice. Not so much of the contents, though, or indeed the subject, just Thief. Here, finally, was a chance to get something on this oh so secretive game. Maybe, while prattling on about 'sounds' and stuff, he'd toss them a headline or two, get 'em some clicks. Suspecting as much, Weir recommended to his audience that anyone just there for Thief nooz should probably leave the room. Some people did.
We can often seem deaf to game audio in the same way we're blind to animation. Maybe it's because the best examples of both are so natural and chameleonic that they blend into a game's broader objectives. Maybe it has to be Halo ostentatious or Amon Tobin trendy just to prick up our ears; or make the screen flash pretty colours. Or maybe Brian Eno has to be involved, as we'll come to in a minute.
]]>There are a lot of words being written about the new consoles this week but when I spoke to Warren Spector a few days ago, he was clear about where his future lies: “I think all the interesting stuff is happening on PC now… Assuming I make more games, which I intend to do, PC and Mac are going to be my targets.”
It’s good to hear. We spoke at the Bradford Animation Festival and covered a wide range of topics, from his theories of design and pioneering role in PC gaming to thoughts on the current state of the industry. In this first part of our conversation, there’s insight into how Spector see his own legacy and the work of his former colleagues, and how frustrations with Thief’s difficulty inspired the player empowerment of Deus Ex.
]]>For all the flack we've given Eidos Montreal's reinvention of Thief, I will say that I'm quite happy the developer seems to be listening as of late. The game as a whole still might look rather bland, but at least a trendy-as-tight-pants XP system is out. Better yet, loathsome QTEs failed to press X to avoid the mighty game development guillotine, so they'll be joining it. Read on for Eidos Montreal's reasoning.
]]>First-person games, maybe all games, need "a thing". "A thing" is a technical term, referring to the unique mechanic that defines a game and make it seem exciting. It's separate from theme, or character, or setting. It's specifically something you're going to get to do if you buy the game. 'I can't wait,' you'd say, 'to [fight that Big Daddy/ride those skyrails/explore that island/free run across those rooftops/toss physics objects into those faces/vault myself with a portal].'
Thief's problem is that it doesn't appear to have a thing. Let's go looking for one in these seven new screenshots.
]]>Here is another trailer for Thief, a game whose series-legendary City we still haven't seen much of despite an impending February release date. Oh hey, it says here that this clip is called "Stories from the City." Well then clearly, that must mean...!
[Watches trailer]
Nope, no gameplay footage of The City. Or gameplay, for that matter.
]]>Thief hasn't exactly been well-received by longtime series diehards, but so far Eidos Montreal has opted to brazenly stay the course, claiming that "fan resistance" of its new direction is unwarranted. Until now, anyway. In a maybe too-little-too-late but still heartening turn, the developer's tossing aside an XP system that would've started Garrett off as A Pretty Good Thief - not, you know, the master of his sticky fingered art, that thing he's known for more so than anything else ever. Little XP pop-ups might've put an arrow right between the eyes (and "I's") of immersion too, so I'm happy to see them go. Details below.
]]>If you have the fear over the upcoming Thief, then I have a soothing salve to help alleviate the symptoms. The Dark Mod, a fairly well-known Doom 3 modification, has been freed from the sci-fi prison of Doom 3 ownership: the modders fulfilled the promise they made years ago and used the source code of the engine to turn their wonderful Thief restoration into a free download. Now all you need is a capable PC, an internet connection, and a cowl. That last one is non-negotiable.
]]>It's hard to know what to think about Thief. Previews haven't been impressive, and it's clear the project's been through all kinds of hell. As we nudge closer to next February's release, the trailers aren't exactly inspiring us. This latest, described as a "gameplay trailer", shows very little of that, and just makes me worry even more.
]]>There's been a lot of interest in the new Thief game - due out in February - but also an equally large measure of scepticism. That makes it interesting to see Eidos Montreal presenting their game at EGX this weekend, with lots of game footage, and an in-depth explanation of some of the decisions they made for their latest iteration of the great sneaking series.
Take a look, below.
]]>Oh, Thief. First it giveth, then it taketh away. I suppose that's better than most thieves, who aren't too keen on the giving part, but I'd much rather Eidos Montreal's reboot of my most beloved series would settle into a predictable pattern. Many people disagreed with my opinion that the previous trailer captured some of the City's character, but I reckon it's the best footage that has been publicly released so far. Nathan's experience when he managed to put his hands all over the game wasn't very positive though. The new trailer swings back toward the negative, with mention of multiplayer leaderboards and a...hnnnghh...exclusive...heeuurgh...preorder mission.
]]>Thief is a slippery game. When it finally revealed itself, the results were impressive, although I found cause for concern in the City's lack of character and the potentially staged nature of several encounters. Then there was news of disturbances during development, not altogether surprising considering the length of the job and the size of the team. It was when Nathan played the game and reported back that hope sputtered like the torches in Bafford's mansion. Today, I'm as surprised as could be that a trailer, with no in-game footage, has restored some confidence and interest. The depiction of class warfare is far from subtle, but there are images reminiscent of the earlier games' cutscenes, and the City looks recognisably magnificent. Also, release may not be as far off as I'd suspected.
]]>E3 is chaos. In its worst moments, it's a swirling maelstrom of poor planning and slip-sliding schedules - a thumping videogame Valhalla that feels like it was designed with techno-ravers and cosplayers in mind, not journalists. I guess what I'm trying to say is, sometimes you have to interview Thief's developers before playing their game. Optimal? Not really. But it still made for an interesting conversation - just between Eidos Montreal and its own game, not Eidos and myself. The question: was Thief's E3 demo able to live up to what lead level designer Daniel Windfeld Schmidt told me about it mere moments before? The answer: Errrrrrrrrrrrrr.
]]>Spike TV got to see Thief (no, just Thief now, branding fans) in motion, too. You can see their encounter with it below, as you refresh yourself with delicious Doritos and Mountain Dew. I am contractually obliged to mention that our kid Adam has already played the game, and you can read about his experiences over here.
]]>I was prepared to act dumb, pretending that I hadn't been able to make out the gruff witterings of a silly voiceover. Probably just rats. I'd even turn a blind eye to the live action robbery and harrowing arrowing that accompanied the sounds. Nothing to see there. Despite a pleasing shot at the end, which brings back delightful memories of the original games' beautifully stylised mission briefings, the latest Thief trailer isn't really worth watching, although you can do so below. It's worth drawing attention to the trailer because of what it isn't. Not a jot of the technically superb and far more stealth-friendly in-game footage that I've seen with my own eyes is shown, and that is a shame.
]]>"Hello, can you sssshchch - No turn the knob to the right... Hello? RPS? Yes, I think they've got me. Thanks, Kieron! Miss you! Hello, RPS. This is Craig. I accidentally fell into another universe when I left a spoon in the bowl of soup I was microwaving. Cara's chilli-laden recipe, combined with the destabilised positronic matrix caused by the spoon, dumped me in another universe. It's much like our own, only Kieron is now Prime Minister, running the country on a platform of Partying Hard, and the Thief series was never made. Instead the game it was before it became Thief, Dark Camelot, carried on development. Do you want to see it? Good. I'm transmitting the footage I have for you sssshchssscht- in the hope sssshchssscht better sssshchsssch understand sssshchssscht..."
]]>After ages and ages of (oddly fitting) silence, Eidos Montreal's Thief reboot finally saw fit to break cover last month, shadows still coiled tight about it like a snake ready to strike. And yet, something seemed ever so slightly off. Adam remarked, among other things, that the demo he saw seemed a bit too scripted, and as it turns out, there may well have been a very problematic reason for that. According to a large, rather troubling report from Polygon, development troubles have left Square Enix with a half-finished game and some tough decisions to make going forward.
]]>I spent a huge portion of my teenage years either playing Thief or thinking about Thief, and I've never really stopped. A couple of weeks ago, armed with a questioning mind, I travelled across an ocean to see Thief: No Longer Four and to talk to the development team at Eidos Montreal. The '4' is gone because crimes against typography and sense can only be endured for so long, and also because this is a reboot rather than a sequel. With my archaeological hat sitting atop my sceptic's cap, I was determined to find whatever traces of the old remained and to see what remains for those who remember the original series so fondly.
]]>As yesterday's trailer revealed, there'll be no more Stephen Russell in Thief: and there was much anti-rejoicing. While the Thief/Looking Glass community is predictably and somewhat understandably up in arms about Garrett's larynx replacement operation (the inevitable petition is here, if you want to fruitlessly sign it), I imagine the game's sailed too far across the development ocean for Eidos Montreal to want to turn their ship around at this point. They have at least attempted to justify their ditching of the guy who's stoutly been with us for three Thief games previously, arguing that it's because they wanted to mo-cap and voice record one actor simultaneously.
]]>Good day. You might well have seen the Thief [just Thief now, not Thief 4] teaser trailer. But have you seen the full debut trailer? No? Well, it's around here somewhere. It's some kind of leak, apparently.
]]>Only a short post, because it is only a short trailer. One of those trailer for a trailer singularly 21st century things, in fact. But it's a chance to see the new Thief's engine in action, sort of, and find out a date on which we'll hopefully see and hear rather a lot more of Nu-Garrett and his light-fingered reinvention.
]]>We live in a world where a new Thief game is definitely happening, and any human being with an internet connection is free to look at screenshots of it. Imagine that. Sadly, in direct contravention of the 48th amendment and the Brazilian internet democracy act of 1873, Game Informer is currently keeping the lion's share of info on Eidos Montreal's reboot of the classic Looking Glass sneak 'em up to themselves. It's there you'll need to go to see videos of new screenshots, particularly of Thief star Garrett's new look. He's been watching The Crow, I think. Goth! Goth! Goth! Goth! Amusingly though, there's been a brief fan kerfuffle based on a worry that our beloved tea-leaf isn't gothy enough.
]]>"When the history of my glory is written, your species shall only be a footnote to my magnificence," said a terrifying lady, yesterday, to me. Or SHODAN did or whatever. But her legacy lives on thanks to the kind of innovation Looking Glass studios was interested in. Paul Neurath, the co-founder and creative director of Looking Glass from 'the day it opened to the day it closed' has been interviewed on this super fascinating podcast looking back on his time with the studio. The company was responsible for some of our dearest memories, such as Ultima Underworld, System Shock, and Thief, before it closed its doors (sob!) in 2000.
]]>Sound the news-horn! Sound it from the highest mountains! Ready your loins! Thief is back.
Unconfirmed leak, yada yada, you know the drill. But, yes, this very much appears to be screenshots of Square-Enix's rebooted Thief series and OHMIGOD THIS IS REALLY HAPPENING.
Update: now confirmed as real, called 'Thief', out on PC and next-gen consoleboxes in 2014.
]]>While Thief 4 has never had anything approaching a release date, following the ripe success of Deus Ex 3, and its having been in development for over four years, it was tempting to think it might be coming nearer. Well, forget that, because a rumour in the latest Official Xbox Magazine - and further validated by CVG - suggests that they're now aiming for it to be a next-next-gen console release. And that means it'd be Christmas 2013 at the very, very earliest.
]]>If you starve a man he will gladly chew a button in order to create saliva, which he will then swallow in an attempt to fool his body into thinking it is being fed. This brief cry in the dark is my attempt to nourish myself with a lump of plastic or wood, it is the splinter in my tongue and the grumbling in my belly. This is what happens when they don't tell me anything about Thief 4. I feast hungrily on scraps.
]]>I've been visiting various cities recently, which always fill me with confusion and wonder, then Dishonored made me think about how much I miss Looking Glass. Put the two together and this happens. Join me in a meandering word-search for cohesion and theme in the use of the city across Thief, and the selected works of Rockstar and Charles Dickens. Be warned, there are spoilers for all three Thief games.
]]>If I had a Thief 2 commemorative mug, I’d be supping water (because of water arrows, of course), while pondering losing weight just in case I need to use rope arrows. As it is, I just have a hoodie up. Why? Right now “The Making of Thief 2” is playing on my other monitor as the full game is downloading from GoG.com. Given how excited I was when Thief: Gold hit there last week, I’m even more excited that the second game available now. I loved the first game, but the second game’s rangy missions just edge it for me.
]]>Now that my initial excitement has waned to a deep, purple coloured throb in the centre of my soul, the stark reality of GOG.com's Thief port has settled in. It runs, which is the big step up from my original version, but it's not widescreen, the resolution is stamp sized, and it's a bit grimy. Fret not, lovely Taffers, for I'm about to tell you how to make it work. And it's ridiculously simple.
]]>I can't believe that writing about a 14 year-old game is getting both me and Adam so excited (He: "This is the best thing ever!”), but Looking Glass's genre-defining classic Thief is now available to download on Good Old Games. I'm downloading it right now, Taffer.
]]>Right, Deus Ex is back on its feet and looking hale and hearty, whether it asked for this or not. What vintage PC game shall the electro-paddles be applied to next? Why, it's Thief IV, a game about which we currently know all but nothing other than that Eidos Montreal are pulling the strings again and, I am 99.99% sure, it'll have some sort of funny subitle rather than a number in the name. Well, anything's better than 'Thi4f', right?
An industrious fellow on Neogaf has done a spot of digging around the quiet info-goldmine that is LinkedIn, and turned up a couple of starting, tantalising facts. Let's have a look, and then hear what assorted Thief fans want to see from the new game.
]]>Strategy Informer sends word of this, a photo posted by Eidos Montreal and subsequently picked up by French site JeuxVideo. You can find the original photo here. My feverish analysis follows.
]]>Quick, somebody sound the Thief 4 gong! Looks like we'll be getting a tiny glimpse of the still very much in-development title at GDC, which kicks off on the 28th of February.
]]>As of this weekend, Christmas has come early for the Through the Looking Glass community. A CD's been discovered containing the source code for the Dark Engine, aka the engine used by Thief, Thief II and System Shock 2 (not to mention Irrational and Looking Glass' cancelled cold war spy game Deep Cover).
What does this mean? Well, if the fans can get the code into a workable state, initially it'll mean versions of those Dark Engine classics optimised for modern systems. In the long term, you can probably look at the FreeSpace 2 Source Code Project for a glimpse at what lies ahead.
]]>[18:41] bremxjones3: "Square Enix's Tokyo developers are to work on the cinematics for Eidos Montreal's upcoming Deus Ex sequel, the studio's general manager Stephane D'Astous told us." [18:41] Ento: aieeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee [18:41] swiss-: noooOOoo [18:41] bremxjones3: Also, Thief [18:42] swiss-: all, is lost
]]>(Thi4f? 4FS.) The giant rumour-phone they call the Internet has been a-rumbling with Thief 4 noises for many months now, and so it seemed certain the announcement was imminent. Naturally RPS' enormous BFG-like ears had long ago picked up concrete information, but we couldn't confirm it. Now we can. Confirmed. The press release (in full below) reports that the game is still at a very early stage, and is being developed by Eidos Montreal, who are also handling Deus Ex 3. They're looking for new staff, too. Talk about labouring under the weight of expectations, eh readers?
]]>Okay, this is an interesting one. A couple of days ago Eidos Montreal lobbed up a notice they were now recruiting staff to work on their new game. To quote the statement from their site: "Eidos-Montréal is proud to announce the recruitment for our 2nd “AAA” project. … A hint! The title begins with the letter “ T”." Which doesn't mean much until you notice - as a forumite of theirs did - the previously existing line on their site here: "The first two games we develop will revive successful franchises." With the Montreal Studio already at work on Deus Ex 3, it's an easy leap to the further adventures of Mr Stealy rather than the further adventures of the-also-Eidos-Owned-Terracide. Or, less facetiously, they could be Tomb Raider... but that franchise doesn't need reviving. Let's be honest: It's almost certainly Thief. They wouldn't have said the teasing "T" otherwise.
]]>Upset that I didn't notice this immediately, but news reaches me from Broken Glass Studios' Subjective Effect that they've released an alpha demo of their long-in-progress Doom III mod The Dark Mod. For those who haven't been following it, it's basically... well, creating Thief, but in the Doom III Engine. It'll consist of a set of tools to allow you to make Thief-inspired levels and also a campaign made using those tools. It's a ludicrously hubristic aim, and while I admired that, I also thought that like most of these enormous projects, it'll all amount to nothing.
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