Hey, just so you know, that thiefstep thing is a theme for an alternate shell called litestep. you can find more info at http://chunkymunky.com/tin_omen and http://floach.pimpin.net :) it's pretty cool, anyways, you should be able to just replace your step.rc with the one in the zip and have it run, for your info :) adios

"Go' su'mare stuff fer ya, if yer intrse'ed." she pointed to the package and waited for a reply, which never came as I simply inspected it from where I stood at the doorway. "Cost ya though."
Looking up, I inquired as to it's content.
"Le'mi show ya." She bent down and opened up the package. "Rare these be. Perfect minatures, made fur The Lady herself, only I thou' mibbie thet'd be better off in yer hands." She pulled out a tiny water arrow and twisted it round. "Got a blackjack, fire arries, moss arries, even a baby fire elemental. But that ain't all." She replaced the water arrow and pulled out small black box. "Sound box." She pushed an almost invisible button and a zombie moan fills the air. "Full o' stuff like that is. All spooky like. And then," she pulled out four canvases, "there be these. Three spooks and a special map of the Haun'ed Cathedral. Very old it be. Interested?"

Suddenly realizing that what I was looking at was none other then a skillfully assembled Windows desktop theme, I smiled and offered her a few hundred gold coins for the whole lot.
Scoffing slightly, she barked, "Worth a bit more than this." She pulled out the already cracked lockpick. "Least you can do is gimme a few supplies fer me next job." Impressed with what she had brought, I gave in and had a servant supply her with two high quality lockpicks, a quiver of broadheads, two gass arrows, and an extremely rare set of footpads. Needless to say, she went home happy.

"Uh, I was searching the local temple for, uh, evidence 'gainst da Lady, when I's stumbled 'cross dese doodlin's in da attic. One of dem's a little weather damaged but 's'not ta serious. Thou' mibe ya'd knew whit ta do wi'em seeing as you's got... conections..." I looked at the canvases, and nodded with approval, explaining to her that I was sure I'd find a fitting home for them. "...Problem being, mi old lockpick broke in one o' da doors and I was wondering..." I shot her a quizzical glance as she started at me, all wide eyed and innocent, which didn't fool me for an instant. "...Canny bi gettin' ya mare stuff like dat if I dinnny be having nay lockpick..." Pausing for a moment, and fetched a small key out of the pocket of my overcoat. I briefly explained that this key was to the back door to a shop in town, where she could steal some lockpicks. She took it, and without so much as a thank you, she shrugged and walked back outside into the darkness.

After reading about this Ryan fellow I thought I would sneak on over to his home and grab a sample of what he was braggin about. Well it seems he has managed to recreate Lord Bafford's Manor for use in that graphically splendid and horrendously gory game, Unreal. I must say from playing the original that he has done a pretty good job, it includes the manor in full from the point when you first enter it in the store room. It does not include any outside areas however, which in this case is for the better, the manor is already very large for a deathmatch level. The biggest downside I would have to say is that he uses a lot of the flickering torch light which combined with a lot of bots managed to slow my system down a fair amount. So bottom line is, it is a good map, little large for less than 8 DM, but it needs to be optimized to run a bit better.

Mrr'Lin

"I made a recreation of the first level of Thief: The Dark Project for Unreal," he said, with mock confidence. "Now, you can blow your friends away in the familiar environment of Lord Bafford's Manor. If you don't have any friend to blow up, the level is fully implemented for Botmatch as well. Thus far, there is only a deathmatch version available, but a co-op version will be coming soon." I pressed him further for more information. "You can see it from my homepage under the Unreal section!"

The desktop wallpapers are now available in the Themes Section of the File Archive. Or you can download them right here.

Dig your hands into the earth, and then let the clay and dirt fall to the ground. After a year's passing, can you find that clay again? But drop a stone block, a wooden beam, a fired brick, a mission builder. It will persist a year, and another hundred years beside. - The Book of the Hammer

Game Post was first on redEye's hitlist. Payne's review is positive overall, noting, "It's refreshing when a company develops a game in a crowded genre but still manages to break a lot of new ground", and

As you and Garett merge, and Looking Glasss gameplay manages to transcend keyboard-and-mouse, Thief becomes a tense feeling of avoidance and paranoia. Its quite pleasant, and is a tribute to how good this game can be. I recommend playing it in the dark, alone, with the gamma/brightness turned down to increase the depth of the shadows that are your friends.

redEye's next target was Gamer Grand Central, which sports two reviews of Thief. The site leads off with a review of the Thief demo by Catnip, who pans Thief! Awarding it a 45%, he notes,

Thief is certainly something different, more an RPG in style than an action game. However, stealth and creeping are boring I find, and I want my graphics prettier, my action faster, my weapons more ridiculously destructive."

Well, taffers, there's a word in our community for people like this: Mark.

The same site also carries a first impressions of the full game, but it is pretty thin. Of more interest to those in need of special assistance, perhaps, is their link to a Thief Trainer. I have no idea if the thing works. In addition, they sport a link to a Thief Walkthrough which they claim was written by Looking Glass.

Moving to a better part of town, redEye's raid moved on to Gibbed.com, where Mike McCurdy reviews Thief and not only gave it a 92%, but also makes comments such as "Thief is one of the most exciting first-person games to date" and:

In Thief: The Dark Project, you witness the future of gaming to come and experience the exploration and manipulation of a believable virtual world. Thief is unlike any game anyone has ever played.

Stepping over into a stranger district of town, redEye discovered that toNt of toNt's Review Corner stays up late at night worrying about dangerous liasons:

Ever wonder what would happen if Tenchu: Stealth Assassins or Metal Gear Solid and Heretic had a hot wild monkey sex and had a kid? Well since I know the whole world was thinking that same question, I'll tell you what you would get. You would have Thief!

I expected the game to suck, but it didn't!. It was actually quite fun. It takes the "pull out largest weapon on go crazy" style out of the first person shooters and adds the (saying to yourself) "yeah. That's right, turn around. " and down falls a guard" style.

Sadly, toNt's brain was eaten by the Half-Juggernaut, which he therefore think is better than Thief.

Stepping back out of the Twilight Zone, redEye next headed to Unnamed Gaming Review, where Zachary Rounds has written - you guessed it - a review of Thief. Don't skip it - this is a good review by someone with a clear familiarity with, and love of, Looking Glass games. The opening paragraph tells us that Thief is "a fantastic game that shows just how important innovation and gameplay are". He rates it a 9 over all, with a 9.5 for gamplay. Other notable demonstrations of his adherence to the True Faith include:

The cutscenes are really cool. Each advances the story, and they all have a certain style that I haven't seen before in any game. Oh, be sure to pay attention to the text blurbs at the beginning of each cutscene. They're important.

And while he liked the graphics least, he did note:

The monster models look pretty good, especially the crab people (the first time one attacked me I almost fell out of my chair from shock.)

But the best quote of all is this:

When you come down to it, no real gamer should be without Thief.

It might seem redEye had already done a lot of taffing about. But the Grand Raid was not yet over. His spirits bouyed by the encounter at Unnamed Gaming Review, he stoked up on mushroom tea at a safehouse, and continued to GameStream.net, where he found another review of Thief. While the reviewer was none too impressed by the monsters, comments such as "The thing that I think that Looking Glass have really achieved with this game is a sense of tension unprecedented in any game." and "This is a game again sets the standard for future games of this genre." are sure to warm the hearts of our Order, and indicate that the reviewer may yet come to walk fully in the Light of the Shadows.

Now becoming weary, redEye nonetheless pressed on, to 3DBytes, where Laughter has reviewed the Thief demo. This is a review by one who is obviously a fellow-traveller of our Order (and indeed the review links to TTLG). "I was amazed within 5 seconds of playtime.", he notes, continuing a bit later:

If this demo is any indication of the full game that should be out by this coming Tuesday we, my fellow gamers, are in for a wonderful and rewarding ride. I was truly and utterly immersed in this demo. It seems every kill I made (or didn't make) was like a little puzzle that had 3 or 4 interlocking parts that would eventually fit together....

"I confess," he said smugly, "I stole one of the Thief trailers from my Flight Unlimited 2 disk, and ripped the music off of it."

Impressed and grateful, I thanked him, and promptly vanished into the shadows before he could mention any type of payment.

In addition, Andrew Davis caught a typo I made in the link to the Camping.jpg image yesterday. The error should now be fixed. As he notes, "Exercise caution in the future; there may not be one of our Order around next time to lend aid." Indeed - and I am grateful for the correction.

Arrows.jpg: While simultaneously fooling around with the console and attacking the front guards at Bafford's I happened to die and become undead. With my newfound invinciblity I allowed the archer to shoot me numerous times (close to 1000 in fact :) and in the process he killed all his buddies. Well it just so happened that some of the rebounding arrows hit him as well. In this shot you are witnessing his suicide.... Have a close look at all the arrows laying around - you can bet I was surprised at how many entities the dark engine allows to coexist.

Camping.jpg: Hmmmm, apparently all of Constantine's guards decided to get together and have a campfire...(and I do mean ALL.) Can you guess how I did the campfire?

Thief is a brave step forward for game design. Ambition shouldn't be applauded on its own, but when it's coupled with such a fantastic game then we should give a standing ovation.

First up from his recce is a preview from PC Fan which escaped our surveillance earlier. The previewer comments " it will be well worth the wait" - which we can all attest to!

Next up - GA-Source has a review of Thief up, and it is pretty positive, with a 90% in Gameplay. In addition, the reviewer obviously remember LGT's past history, with references to both System Shock and Ultima Underworld:

The creators of Ultima:Underworld have once again given gamers a rich, involving world to explore, with another amazing twist on the actual role you play in the game: a thief.

Not content to rest on these laurels, Ghost snuck off to another site, GameFirst, which also has a review of Thief up. It, too, is pretty positive; Greg Matthews gives it 5 stars, First Place, and states:

I would buy this game for the sound and story alone. How often do you get to be the wise-ass Everyman sticking it to the oppressive establishment from the shadows? The fact that Thief also provides players with challenging missions and is a blast to play leaves me begging, along with young Oliver to Mr. Bumble: "Please, sir, I want some more!"

And before slipping off to a well-deserved rest, Ghost cast his gaze into Games Overdose and detected their review of Thief. John Kanellopoulos begins by asking How about testing how lawful is your dark side? and is fairly positive throughout, concluding:

Summarizing, the game is really good. Although none of the individual features of the game is perfect the overall feeling is excellent and most of all it is highly addictive. After all it is better to test your dark side in a game and face the virtual dangers rather than in real life. Because everyone has a dark side that needs to come forward now and then. Don't you think?