Thief III Goes Gold!

[Skanky Burns]

Well they didn't. I guess I'll have to change my location to "Australian Bastard".

[DrSpike]

That's even worse!

[Skanky Burns]

Part of a review by some lucky person:

Because I'm a terrible thief, I got caught by a wandering maiden. She screamed and ran to get a guard for help. The guard brought a torch (mobile light source! A thief's worst enemy) and remarked "Ooh, he is gone! He must have seen me go get help" to which the guard scoffed "Well, he's not gonna stand around and wait for us is he??" It was pretty cool.

Also reported was getting into combat put a serious dent into our reviewer's health, so it seems perhaps the game hasn't been console-ized after all.

[Skanky Burns]

Also, lockpicking has taken on a whole new life. Rather than pulling out a lockpick and just using it while you scan around checking for guards, the new version actually demands your attention. The actual system is difficult to describe (at least, I have yet to read a coherent description of it) but as with true thieving, you need to pay attention to the lock you are picking and rely on sounds only to warn you of approaching guards or the like. More immersion.

[DrSpike]

Mission 4: either sneak around stealthily to grab the loot, or pick up this UZI and mow down every mutherfu**er in a 2 mile radius, whilst spectacularly dodging bullets.

[alva]

As long as you don't have to find a new job and a house for the maiden this could be good.

[loinburger]

Originally posted by Skanky Burns
Also reported was getting into combat put a serious dent into our reviewer's health, so it seems perhaps the game hasn't been console-ized after all.

Yeah, I wasn't all that concerned by the "Medieval FPS" comment -- it's always been possible to kill everybody in the Thief games (playing on normal mode, of course), it's just that few people are able to go that route (especially on expert mode).

[Skanky Burns]

While it has always been possible, it has generally been easier to knock them out, and it has never been easy fighting off multiple guards. In Thief 1 it was possible to ghost most levels (complete them without anyone seeing you), knock everyone in a level out or to kill everyone. In Thief 2 you had some missions where you could not knock certain guards out, some missions where you had to knock at least some of the guards out. Take that to the extreme, they could make missions where you had to kill a certain person which just doesn't sit well with the whole Thief experience.

Not that far-fetched when they want some action moments in the game and the console version is expected to sell more than the PC version.

A whole bunch of Thief videos are available at http://www.bloodofthemartyr.com

There are a number of other controversies going around too.
* Arrows produce a blue trail through the air as opposed to, say, just going through the air normally. This makes the arrow appear to be dropping from the sky. Apparently it can be modded out though.

* Similarly, all loot now glows with an unnatural ghostly blue colour. It too can be modded out.

* Third-person view (nicknamed "cheating mode") is used by default.

* There are no rope arrows. They have been replaced by climbing gloves. I don't see this as being too bad though, considering how buggy rope arrows were in the previous games.

* Smart guards vs stupid guards. On expert difficulty, guards will notice doors you have opened, loot missing, chests opened, etc, and will then investigate. Apparently they will still wave to their fellow guards, even after you have knocked out and moved the person they are waving to.

* Loading zones. In the middle of the maps are loading zones, which work similarly to the way houses do in Morrowind. The loading zone is a misty blue area you walk into where you get the option of going through or staying. If you go through, the other side of the map loads and any guards that were persuing you before are stuck on the other side, ready to resume the chase when you return. A minor positive is there are two loading zones each map, so two different "doors" you can go through from one zone to another.
* No burricks

* Editing tools are not being released yet, although there is a petition to get the to release it. Sign it if you can.

* Someone was foolish enough to ask about a collector's edition. Aaarrrrrgggghh!!!


Exciting times.

[Kassiopeia]

* Loading zones. In the middle of the maps are loading zones, which work similarly to the way houses do in Morrowind. The loading zone is a misty blue area you walk into where you get the option of going through or staying. If you go through, the other side of the map loads and any guards that were persuing you before are stuck on the other side, ready to resume the chase when you return. A minor positive is there are two loading zones each map, so two different "doors" you can go through from one zone to another.

That's like what happened with DX:IW, sadly. Invisible War had incredibly small areas that had to be loaded every time you entered them, which got to the point of being ridiculous pretty quickly. This was AFAIK to conform to the limitations of console hardware.

This doesn't bode too well for the size or the playbility of the maps in Thief, if there are only two areas per map. Also, you'd think the whole "leave area, guard won't follow" trick/bug would be dealt with by now. Why can't the guard come to the other zone? It shouldn't be impossible to do, by any stretch of the imagination.

[Skanky Burns]

Agreed, although initial reports say that the map areas are of decent size, and one could spend 3 or more hours on the first mission looking for all the (brightly glowing) loot in the maps. The outdoors Morrowind approach would have been much better imo.

[DrSpike]

I'm surprised about those comments Kassi. Halo had a great loading system for the PC port, despite the limitations with the X-Box version. Why should these other games be limited?

[Skanky Burns]

I've been watching the movies from the site I linked to above. I now have a renewed hate for 3rd person mode, and for the arrow trails.

You aim your bow. It zooms in your aim so you can't help but hit. The arrow shoots and hits its target. The blue arrow trail then comes from the sky, hitting a guard in the head as he is already dying. Oh, so my arrow went right where I aimed it? Gee, thanks for telling me.

Lockpicking seems interesting, movie 5 from 4/21 seems to give quite a good example of it, although I must remember not to play movies that are still downloading.

[Kassiopeia]

Originally posted by DrSpike
I'm surprised about those comments Kassi. Halo had a great loading system for the PC port, despite the limitations with the X-Box version. Why should these other games be limited?

I've played both Halo's and Invisible War's PC ports, and Halo did this well, but Invisible War did not. Halo's portions were actually big, and it was of no consequence really whether or not the enemies from the earlier one "carried over" to the next one, but in IW one section would be a few dozen meters of a street. It got really annoying on the long run. And, quite simply, Thief III is coming from the same company that brought us IW - albeit from a different crew, I'm pessimistic nonetheless.

Of course, Halo's good port can be also explained by the fact that it was made for, what, a year after the X-Box version had been released. With IW the PC port was treated like the bastard child of the console version.

[DrSpike]

Hmm, shame. I guess the fact that it can be done well is beside the point. I hope Thief3 doesn't suffer from those problems.

[Skanky Burns]

The PC game will ship in 1st person by default.

The DS plot is an entirely new story in the same setting (The City), starring Garrett, and written chiefly by Terri Brosius. The plot won't require you to have played previous Thief titles, as par usual, but there are references here and there. It does indeed take place after the events of the Metal Age, as well. Suffice it to say, he largely defined Thief's aural presence, and he's iterating on (and making improvements to) that now-classic style in T:DS.

Reading books and notes pauses the game, so guards don't sneak up on you while you are busy reading. "You won't have to deal with that infuriating resolution-switch effect from the old days, however."