2024
March, 2024

February, 2024

January, 2024

2023
December, 2023

November, 2023

October, 2023

September, 2023

August, 2023

July, 2023

June, 2023

May, 2023

April, 2023

March, 2023

February, 2023

January, 2023

2022
December, 2022

November, 2022

October, 2022

September, 2022

August, 2022

July, 2022

June, 2022

May, 2022

April, 2022

March, 2022

February, 2022

January, 2022

2021
December, 2021

November, 2021

October, 2021

September, 2021

August, 2021

July, 2021

June, 2021

May, 2021

April, 2021

March, 2021

February, 2021

January, 2021

2020
December, 2020

November, 2020

October, 2020

September, 2020

August, 2020

July, 2020

June, 2020

May, 2020

April, 2020

March, 2020

February, 2020

January, 2020

2019
December, 2019

November, 2019

October, 2019

September, 2019

August, 2019

July, 2019

June, 2019

May, 2019

April, 2019

March, 2019

February, 2019

January, 2019

2018
December, 2018

November, 2018

October, 2018

September, 2018

August, 2018

July, 2018

June, 2018

May, 2018

April, 2018

March, 2018

February, 2018

January, 2018

2017
December, 2017

November, 2017

October, 2017

September, 2017

August, 2017

July, 2017

June, 2017

May, 2017

April, 2017

March, 2017

February, 2017

January, 2017

2016
December, 2016

November, 2016

October, 2016

September, 2016

August, 2016

July, 2016

June, 2016

May, 2016

April, 2016

March, 2016

February, 2016

January, 2016

2015
December, 2015

November, 2015

October, 2015

September, 2015

August, 2015

July, 2015

June, 2015

May, 2015

April, 2015

March, 2015

February, 2015

January, 2015

2014
December, 2014

November, 2014

October, 2014

September, 2014

August, 2014

July, 2014

June, 2014

May, 2014

April, 2014

March, 2014

February, 2014

January, 2014

2013
December, 2013

November, 2013

October, 2013

September, 2013

August, 2013

July, 2013

June, 2013

May, 2013

April, 2013

March, 2013

February, 2013

January, 2013

2012
December, 2012

November, 2012

October, 2012

September, 2012

August, 2012

July, 2012

June, 2012

May, 2012

April, 2012

March, 2012

February, 2012

January, 2012

2011
December, 2011

November, 2011

October, 2011

September, 2011

August, 2011

July, 2011

June, 2011

May, 2011

April, 2011

March, 2011

February, 2011

January, 2011

2010
December, 2010

November, 2010

October, 2010

September, 2010

August, 2010

July, 2010

June, 2010

May, 2010

April, 2010

March, 2010

February, 2010

January, 2010

2009
December, 2009

November, 2009

October, 2009

September, 2009

August, 2009

July, 2009

June, 2009

May, 2009

April, 2009

March, 2009

February, 2009

January, 2009

2008
December, 2008

November, 2008

October, 2008

September, 2008

August, 2008

July, 2008

June, 2008

May, 2008

April, 2008

March, 2008

February, 2008

January, 2008

2007
December, 2007

November, 2007

October, 2007

September, 2007

August, 2007

July, 2007

June, 2007

May, 2007

April, 2007

March, 2007

February, 2007

January, 2007

2006
December, 2006

November, 2006

October, 2006

September, 2006

August, 2006

July, 2006

June, 2006

May, 2006

April, 2006

March, 2006

February, 2006

January, 2006

2005
December, 2005

November, 2005

October, 2005

September, 2005

August, 2005

July, 2005

June, 2005

May, 2005

April, 2005

March, 2005

February, 2005

January, 2005

2004
December, 2004

November, 2004

October, 2004

September, 2004

August, 2004

July, 2004

June, 2004

May, 2004

April, 2004

March, 2004

February, 2004

January, 2004

2003
December, 2003

November, 2003

October, 2003

September, 2003

August, 2003

July, 2003

June, 2003

May, 2003

April, 2003

March, 2003

February, 2003

January, 2003

2002
December, 2002

November, 2002

October, 2002

September, 2002

August, 2002

July, 2002

June, 2002

May, 2002

April, 2002

March, 2002

February, 2002

January, 2002

2001
December, 2001

November, 2001

October, 2001

September, 2001

August, 2001

July, 2001

June, 2001

May, 2001

April, 2001

March, 2001

February, 2001

January, 2001

2000
December, 2000

November, 2000

October, 2000

September, 2000

August, 2000

July, 2000

June, 2000

May, 2000

April, 2000

March, 2000

February, 2000

January, 2000

1999
December, 1999

November, 1999

October, 1999




Pre-News Database


September
1st - 14th / 19th - 25th


August
1st - 15th / 21st - 30th


July
1st - 14th / 21st - 31st


June
1st - 15th / 16th - 27th


May
1st - 15th / 16th - 30th


April
1st - 15th / 16th - 28th


March
1st - 15th / 16th - 31st


February
3rd - 11th / 12th - 28th



Travel to: Go Back / T-tc.com (home)

          Thursday, May 29, 2003

IONer Comments on Latest T3 vid
- 1:12:22 AM - Dan
I noticed (with the help of BrokenArts) that an IONer had posted some comments about the latest T3 vid at the ION Storm T3 Forum. This is what he had to say...
I can recognize my play-style from E3. I'm always the sociopath who likes to chuck bodies off cliffs to bother the AIs patrolling below and force them to talk out loud about a murderer on the loose.

Incidentally, the fast bow shots are just practice. The zoom feature is completely intact.

The guard, if you had been able to hear him in the video, muttered, "huh? what the heck?" or something similar when his torch was doused, and turned around to check the area behind him.

They don't immediately go berserk, they're just a little unnerved when the torch goes out.

That's the reason he appeared to go back on patrol, he had checked back there while I waited, and then resumed his patrol by the time he found me out on the terrace. I thought he'd seen me, so I spent some time trying to lay an ambush back out there. When he got a good look at me, even in the half-light, he drew his sword, et cetera.

This video is a bit washed out, but I'm glad someone caught the moments of gameplay. What I *should* have done is climbed up the wall, waited for him to pass under me, and backstabbed him. I just like a good fight, I suppose.

---

At the moment, they're pretty much reacting as if the torch was inexplicably doused in front of them; it is more akin to a phantom super-soaker-blast from the Lurking Beyond than a real arrow with a crystal just strapped onto the end -- but that's early E3 tuning anyway.

Given the raw power & tension of a guard with a torch in T3, a more prolonged or disturbed reaction may occur when the same action is taken against a veteran guard.

All AI reaction times and alert states are subject to further tuning by the time we ship.

Nice to hear someone 'in the know' speak up. Many thanks for your comments, "null" ...




Thief 3 Preview at Firing Squad
- 12:46:11 AM - Dan
No new info, no new images, nothing really new at all... but if you crave Thief 3 previews, click and read anyway. :)





          Wednesday, May 28, 2003

Artwork from John Castiello
- 9:32:10 AM - Elenkis
Trouble in the Boneyard is the latest piece of artwork from gallery regular, John Castiello. Touch up work was once again done by Todd Schneider!

Thanks as always guys, keep up the great work!





          Tuesday, May 27, 2003

One New T3 Shot
- 7:30:42 PM - Dan
Thirith has posted in this thread about one new screenshot posted at GameStar.DE, which is a german site. If you can read german, or have the power of the internet translators, go take a look at the article. If not, then just look at the screenshot. :)




Long T3 Gameplay Trailer
- 5:55:41 PM - Dan
The latest T3 gameplay trailer shows off some sneaking, some combat, and some wall climbing. The wall climbing looks cool, but the combat seems unfinished (I could not see the player's dagger) and the movement of the AI looked unfinished as well.

Posted on our forums.

Thanks for the find, bukary and Pablo!




News and a Warning about FM Hosting
- 3:12:28 PM - Dan
Two things. One, we are very close to coming to a solution to the FM hosting problem.

Secondly, there is a bit of concern amongst us about those who are making honest attempts at creating new places for people to download FMs. The concern is, the costs are not trivial, and the long term implications could be disastrous, for YOU.

Maybe some of you don't remember what happened when TTLG hosted all of its own FMs. This was long before huge missions such as Calendra's Legacy or Gathering at the Inn. TTLG almost had to shut down after being given bandwidth bills costing multi-thousand dollars. Here's some words from our new FM host...


> ISPs make money by relying on the fact that they buy big chunks of bandwidth, and then carve it into tiny chunks based on the normal user statistics of short peaks and very long gaps, and sell to enough customers to cover costs and make a profit. That is why Apache recently got creamed, and why low-cost hosting will always have bandwidth caps - usually measured in a few GB/month not many GB/day.

> Storage costs money too - anyone selling storage has to amortize the hardware over typically less than 18 months, and they also pay labor costs to keep machines running.

> Now my case is different - MyT1 line costs my business ~$10K/year. I have to have it, and compared to revenues, the cost is small. Frankly, I've been using only about 0.5% of the bandwidth I'm paying for, which is why I'm offering it - the community might as well get some use out of a resource I've already paid for, and use so little of.

> This situation is amazingly rare, possibly even unique. I think members need to have this explained. The bandwidth is real, and its not going anywhere because my business makes money from engineering consulting, not selling bandwidth or storage. I have over 1TB of main storage for development purposes, so lots of storage is another freebie.


So, I want everyone to know that there's no reason to worry anymore. We're going to have the TTLG FM Archive back up soon. There's no need to take matters into your own hands and risk costing yourself thousands of dollars in bandwidth bills. And you DO know, that when a service offers unlimited bandwidth, it means that there's a limit in the fine print, and if you go over that limit, you pay by the meg. I do appreciate the efforts, but you need to know what you're risking.





          Sunday, May 25, 2003

Limit Your Thief FM Downloads!
- 11:00:43 PM - Darkwarrior
Beginning June 1st, 2003, Apache will again be hosting his Thief FM downloads at this website. However, each user MUST limit his downloads of ANY fan mission to a MAXIMUM of TEN per MONTH. Going over this limit drastically reduces what precious bandwith Apache has, and may end up forcing his site to close. DO NOT assume that only you are going over the limit and that everyone else is obeying it. STAY UNDER THE LIMIT or the FMs will NOT be available for download from Apache's webpage. I cannot stress the importance of this enough.

The same thing goes for the alternate download sites at The Keep of Metal and Gold (PLEASE donate to Komag so he can keep his FM server online) and this mirror. You may also access Thief FMs by visiting irc.starchat.net on IRC and going to the #thief-fms room. DO NOT exceed more than ten FM downloads per MONTH from any of these locations!

I would like to thank Komag, Apache, Nightwalker, and everyone else who is working to preserve our access to Thief FM downloads. Please, show these generous people some common decency and keep your downloads to a BARE MINIMUM!




Don't forget to check the T3 FAQ in the forums for updates.
- 6:52:42 AM - Azal
The T3 FAQ can be found in either the Thief III Anticipation, Ideas, and Concepts or the Thief Series General Discussion forum. This FAQ contains all the latest news and information about the game. From posts by the developers, to skerricks gleaned from those lucky sods who went to E3, everything we can find concerning the game gets put in the FAQ.





          Saturday, May 24, 2003

Thief 3 Article in Print PC Zone
- 8:54:49 PM - Dan
I got a great email from Joden which has some info straight ouf the PC Zone UK. It's a four page preview, with two new screenshots. One of the shots has an extreme closeup of an NPC's face, which Joden described as glorious. He also mentioned that it seems water arrows are called ice arrows now, and AIs are designed to notice when loot is missing and when doors are left open. And from the article:
"Rather than panicking, jumping out of the window and into the moat, why not carefully push a table, barrel or anything you can get your thieving mits on across the door to block it? With any luck the over-curious guard will think the door is locked or jammed and leave you to your job. If you're not so lucky the determined guard will be crashing down the door with 5 hammer guards also."

"We've got an advanced system to handle breakable objects, and you can watch objects fracture into their component parts, such as barrel which breaks into boards and O-rings" - Randy Smith Don't think this is all fancy aesthetics either. Once a barrel like that brakes up you can then pick up a bit of wood and knock out an enemy in the same way you might use a blackjack. Just like in the real world, what you do with objects you discover or create is limited by your imagination.

"Yet despite the main quest, T3 again retains the open ended nature of it's predecessors and presents a seductive list of targets; Churches, castles, shops, dungeons, ancient ruins, banks, prisons, museums and mansions are all there to explore, break into and rob blind."

"For us, getting into character invariably means spraying a variety of weird and wonderful arrows around the place. In fact, one of the things that always rather amused us was the moss arrow. Has Garrett finally sussed the idea of taking off his tap dancing shoes instead of firing this arrow into the floor? It's a question we put to Mr Smith who, after assuming we were taking the piss reminded us Garrett can tiptoe slowly across the room if he doesn't want to use his secret weapon. Talking of secrets, we're sad to say the rest of the gadgets and weaponry in the game is strictly under wraps at this stage. Our probing in this direction was met with a cheeky smile from Mr Smith and a rather unhelpful response of: "We've put a lot of thought into broading Garrett's toolkit and weapons and refining them from previous games."

Apparently PC Zone usually puts their articles on their website, so hopefully we can see those new shots soon! Thanks Jodan!





          Thursday, May 22, 2003

New Thief 3 Gameplay Vid
- 11:35:45 AM - Dan
A new shakeycam video has been linked to on this thread in the forums. This new video is much longer than the old, shows off lockpicking, frobbing, a servant, weapon selection (Xbox style) and lots of cool shadows.

Thanks for the find, twitchy2!





          Tuesday, May 20, 2003

2nd Gamers Pulse Thief 3 Preview
- 10:02:38 PM - Dan
Finally, a preview with some indepth info! Here's a bit on the interface:
One of the first things I noticed about the PC version was the slight difference to the GUI of the game. I believe that the videos we have online showcase this difference. On the Xbox version, when switching weapons, a little submenu pops up showing the different options. On the PC version, the single icon switches to indicate the selected weapons, like the first two games. Whether this is the result of some preference or simply a difference between the releases, I'm not sure.

And here is some much anticipated info on difficulty settings. I am pleased by this news.

While this preview was originally billed as hands on information, I've got some information from the Art Director of the game, Sergio Rosas, that I feel might interest readers out there. I asked him about the difficulty levels, concerned that I wasn't given the option to choose a difficulty level at the start of my mission, and noting that many people had been killing guards while playing. He assured me first of all, that there will be four difficulty levels, with similar effect on mission parameters as before. One of the more common results of this is further "sidequest" objects to steal, or hostages to rescue, etc, very similar to previous games. As Eidos is attempting to make the game appeal to a slightly wider audience, not killing anyone is separate from these difficulty levels. That is, you can set the difficulty level for a level, and then customize it however you want. Do you want to restrict yourself to no killings? Do you want to force yourself to blackjack at least five guards? Do you want to force yourself to collect 100% of the loot on the level? These are all options available with the customizing tool in the game.
I'd like to thank Gamers Pulse for having, by far, the best Thief 3 coverage of the show. You guys rock. :)





          Saturday, May 17, 2003

Thief 3 Preview at ActionTrip
- 7:48:55 AM - Dan
No new info in this one, but it's nice to see another site pay their respects to this game. You can read the preview here.




Two More Thief 3 Gameplay Movies!
- 1:11:54 AM - Elenkis
Those crazy guys over at Gamers Pulse have released another two Thief 3 gameplay movies that they recorded at E3. The first movie shows off the lovely new lighting effects as Garrett douses a couple of torches with his Water Arrows. Unfortunately the movie ends just as Garrett is about to close the window shutter to completely darken the room. The second movie is the best in my opinion and demonstrates the new lockpicking mechanics in action - very cool, well worth checking out!

You can find both of the new MPGs (also available in ZIP files) along with the one released yesterday, right here.

Many thanks to Ripclaw and the rest of Gamers Pulse crew for bringing us this footage! :)





          Friday, May 16, 2003

Poster's Impressions from E3
- 5:25:33 AM - Elenkis
While browsing my regular forum hangouts for gaming news tonight I spotted the following post from PipBoy over at Gone Gold:
Played it today at E3. It was kinda weird, the displays all said just "Thief" and I saw a bunch of people w/Xbox controllers playing. I asked one of the Eidos reps where Thief 3 was and she goes "duh, it's right there." Then they said that the PC keyboard interface wasn't working so they had it rigged to use Xbox controls. Bizarre. Anyway, it looks very nice, a lot better than the screenshots show. The coolest new feature is these climbing-claw things that let Garret shimmy up rock walls. I cracked up when I snuck up on some guards because they have that same dopey guard voice (I believe it's the same guy who voices Garret). BTW, Thief is in fact coming out for Xbox too.
Natuarally I bugged the poor guy for more details than that and he kindly followed up with this:
I played for maybe 15 minutes, the level was the interior of a castle with an exit to a courtyard. The environment was a lot more realistic, the walls had a crumbly rock look to them, varying levels of shadows everywhere. The characters look a lot more lifelike too.

The light gem turns dark blue when you're hidden, not black like before. I thought I was caught the first time I hid because of this.

I hung out at a developer chat w/the Deus Ex 2 team, they had an interesting discussion about how they did sound propagation in the game (same engine as T3). Sound will bounce off surfaces and can be contained by closed doors & windows, it isn't a simple radius effect. Get this--you can open a door, the door's shadow will move, and you can then hide in the new shadow location.

One guard came looking for me with a torch in his hand, I shot an arrow into his melon and he fell, dropping the still-lit torch on the ground. How do you like them apples!

I didn't get to pick any locks in the pc version, but the xbox uses vibration in the left stick to let you know when you have the tumblers aligned. You can look around while picking locks.

I only saw guards. Gameplay felt like Thief, especially when I eavesdropped on 2 guards grumbling about their boss. The only new weapon I saw was a dagger, but all the old ones are there--blackjack, fire and water arrows, etc. I was quite excited the first time I frobbed a door open :)

Thanks PipBoy, we appreciate you taking the time to share your experience!




Thief 3 Preview & Gameplay Movie!
- 4:56:10 AM - Elenkis
Gamerspulse have brought us the first gameplay footage of Thief 3 along with their impressions of the game from E3. It's a low quality, shaky cam recording that lasts only 30 seconds - but it sure is good to finally see the game in action. It certainly helped me to appreciate the new graphics engine a lot more than the screenshots did. Being able to see Garrett's body when you look down is very cool!

Nothing new in the actual preview, but here's a snip:

Interestingly enough, the lighting effects are among the aspects of the game that the developers are most proud of. They showed them off quite a bit, extinguishing torches with water arrows, placing objects directly in front of light sources to cast the room into shadow, and even using fire arrows. Since the bow is controlled via analog controls (on the Xbox, not sure how this will work out on the PC without a controller), arrows can be drawn partially and then slowly released without firing them. This enables Garrett to use fire arrows as torches, and I watched as the cobblestone wall actually cast shadows upon itself when the fire arrow was moved around at close range to the wall.
You can find both the 9MB movie and preview right here. Note that you will need to sign up to view the movie, but it's completely free to do so.

Discuss!





          Thursday, May 15, 2003

Artwork from Ghandaiah
- 11:17:32 PM - Elenkis
These wonderful chalk works by Sam Shapiro (aka Ghandaiah) were actually sent to me about a month ago while I was overseas and unable to update. He had the following words to say about his inspiration for the work:
The first was particularly inspired by this image, and the man in front was actually referenced from a random tavern patron in The Fellowship of the Ring. I suppose we could call him a guard, looking over the city, or perhaps a Mechanist. Some sort of Thiefey character, anyway.

The second was created during my first time playing through the Thief series, which was actually about a year and a half ago. It is, of course, a sort of monochromatic Garrett in the Pagan Woods.

Thanks Sam, and sorry it took so long!




Fanfic: The Glamour of the Job
- 10:53:48 PM - Elenkis
The Glamour of the Job was written by Ben Hodges and is his second short story to go up here on the Circle. Here's a peek at this latest adventure:
“If I were you, I’d take the night off. Don’t worry, I’ll pay for any damage.”

I slipped her a handful of coins to help with the decision and, sure enough, stopping only to remove her apron she was gone. Looking about the kitchen I grabbed the things I needed for my plan and, putting on the fallen apron, stepped boldly out into the main room. I strolled over to the shadowy table, the lack of light working my favour, and placed the tin platter before the figures about it. They looked somewhat surprised at this and glanced downwards as I lifted the lid with a flourish. The shattered gas crystal that was revealed was not well received as, rather than applause for such a superb presentation, they merely reacted by toppling sideways off their seats and lying unconscious on the floor. The inn emptied swiftly, no one wanting to watch the show if there was any chance they’d get caught up in it. I propped the gang up in their chairs and tied them in securely so they wouldn’t fall out and hurt themselves again. After I removed their hoods I lit all the torches in the area, dragged a chair over for myself and collected a bottle of fine wine and a goblet from behind the bar. Then I merely sat and waited for them to regain consciousness.

The first one that did tried to break free briefly, discovering the strength of the ropes for himself, before sitting back as he noticed me sat opposite him with a rather off-putting smile on my face.

Thanks Ben!




Artwork from John Castiello
- 10:28:41 PM - Elenkis
John Castiello has submitted his ninth piece of artwork to our gallery, this one is appropriately entitled Thwack!

Thanks John!




Gamespy Thief 3 Preview
- 1:18:20 PM - Dan
GameSpy has gotten their thoughts in, though their thoughts look an awful lot like everyone else's! :) This caught my eye however... don't think it's been put quite like this before.
Finally, a note about the AI. While things were toned down a bit for E3, the guys at Eidos described some of the advances in AI that are in store. Guards now act more intelligently and intuitively when searching for intruders (that's you). If they walk into a room and can see everything except behind a table, they'll actually go check behind the table before declaring the room clear. I was told that this Thief game was going to emphasize a faster pace with more improvisation than previous games You'll have to think on your feet and adapt in order to succeed, instead of just memorizing patrol routes and paths.
Very interesting... you'll have to read the whole thing here.




Gamespot Dev Video Viewable
- 11:04:57 AM - Dan
Finally, gamespot is allowing people to view the Dev video with Randy Smith about Thief 3 without paying to see it. No real new info here if you've been keeping up with the previews, but it's neat to listen to anyway. :)

Click here.




PC.IGN Thief 3 Preview
- 9:23:35 AM - Dan
Here's a few cool things I noticed while reading this. PC.IGN preview of Thief 3.
Similarly, the character models in Thief III have come a long way since its predecessors. Each guard, peasant, or zombie (yes, zombies) are incredibly detailed. As Garrett hid in the shadows during our demonstration, and a guard peered through the darkness looking for him, the guard's brow furrowed in consternation (no, he wasn't on the toilet). Similarly, when our cover was blown and we had to resort to fighting, the same guard's face changed and his lips moved in real time as he shouted for reinforcements. It all looks incredibly cool and helps add validity to keep the player in the moment.
Character animations, yes, we had expected this. Zombies? Some of us had hoped this, and some had hoped against this. Yet, there it is.
In addition to new improvements in gameplay offered through enhancements to the graphic engine, Garrett will also come prepared to wield new items and skills. One of the coolest of Garret's new abilities is his ability to scale walls with bricks in them. And don't think that this means there are occasional hot spots where Garrett is allowed the climb to reach a new area. In a castle environment with bricks everywhere, Garrett can climb every wall. Not only does this skill help our thief get to hard to reach spots, it also increases his chances at evading discovery. Suddenly find a slew of guards coming your way? Climb to a dark corner in the castle ramparts and peer down at the poor sods as they look around in astonishment.
Climbing walls sounds fun! I belive they forgot to mention that Garrett will require a special tool to do this. The main reason why this was never allowed, in my opinion, in Thief 1 & 2, is that the engine would up and die if the player was allowed to reach certain areas (by climbing) and saw too many polygons at once. Still, I wonder how they will deal with players who are intend on climbing to places which take them to the edge of the game world in outdoor missions.
Garrett's black jack makes a return, but if you're expecting to be able to draw Garrett's signature longsword to throw down with baddies, you'll be in for a surprise. Ion Storm has equipped Garrett with a more rogue-like dagger to make melee engagements the absolute last resort in any situation. Garrett must rely on his stealthy skills more than ever.
Again, some people were praying for a dagger rather than a sword, and others didn't like the idea. Yet, there it is.
This time around, Garrett is enlisted by a cabal called The Seekers to investigate a prophecy that they have foretold will bring about an age of darkness. Always reluctant to be a pawn in other people's battles (he lost an eye for Pete's sake!), Garrett finds his own special "incentives" to find out what The Seekers are really after.
Good thing they didn't call then The Peepers. :) I am guessing that The Seekers may be a group of renegade Keepers, but that's just my speculation. Again, I encourage you to Go read the whole thing.





          Wednesday, May 14, 2003

New Gamespot Thief 3 Preview, Interview
- 6:34:33 PM - Darkwarrior
Gamespot has written a short, hands-on preview about Thief III, which can be read here. I found this quote particularly interesting:
We were impressed with the new look of the game's lock-picking mechanics, which are central to gameplay. You can look side to side even as you're manipulating a lock mechanism, to make sure the coast is clear. We also tried out Garrett's explosive fire arrows, and knocked someone over the head with the blackjack. The game uses some convincing physics both for objects in the environment and for enemies that get slugged unconscious--they slump to the floor, listless.
It's a shame that the article isn't very long, although there are still two days left during E3. I'm sure that we can expect much more information to emerge about the game from other gaming press websites, which I will be actively monitoring over the next few days (as I'm sure many of you will be).

There is also a very interesting, very long interview with Thief III project leader Randy Smith available for streaming download from Gamespot. Check it out at this link, and scroll all the way down to the bottom. Randy explains a bit about the game's storyline and mission areas, and provides a recap on earlier Thief games for those who have not yet played them.

Stay tuned for more news about Thief 3, as I'm sure more will emerge in coming days.




New eidos Thief 3 site, and concept art
- 12:19:25 AM - Dan
If you go to www.eidosinteractive.com a pop-up will appear with a link to the Thief 3 E3 site by eidos. In it you will find this image:

Keeper Assassin

That's really all that's new, but yikes, that's quite a concept sketch. :)





          Monday, May 12, 2003

Christine releases 'Lord Ashton' Part 8
- 8:00:34 AM - Dan
The Wedding of Sir Andre is the 8th mission in the Lord Ashton series by Christine. The download link is to the bandwidth limited homepage of the author, so it may not be avaliable by the time you read this. Just try back tomorrow.

More information on the FM (provided you can read German) as well as screenshots of all missions in the series (as well as the unreleased Part 9) is avaliable here.

Additionally, please come to the forums to share your impressions!

Update: There is mirror avaliable, courtisy of Hrothgar.





          Sunday, May 11, 2003

Thief 1 FMs Uploaded!
- 10:19:19 PM - Darkwarrior
Apache has uploaded 113 Thief: The Dark Project and Thief Gold fan missions to his webpage! The site also includes Darkloader for those of you who don't have it, and you can get the FM patch for Thief 1 by reading my news post below.

Check out the FM archive here. Thanks a LOT, Apache!

As a sidenote, please do not download more than ten FMs each day (and, preferably, keep it much less than that). We need to keep the bandwith down so everyone is able to use these files.

You can also download Cull's "The Art of Thievery" from this link. Kudos to Toad for hosting this great mission!





          Saturday, May 10, 2003

Thief 3 Preview in Print
- 1:32:02 PM - Dan
XBox magazine has published a very excited article (sometimes it reads more like an advertisment than a preview) of Thief 3. No new info, and as if yesterday, no new screenshots, but it does have a new sketch of a flashbomb! Looks like they changed the design a little.

Thanks for sending me those scans, Marc!




New Thief 3 Screenshots
- 12:12:59 AM - Dan
I saw these new T3 shots posted over at BluesNews. To The Game has those shots plus one more. Additionally, Eidos has set up a little teaser page for Thief 3, which features This new shot.

Most of the above shots were already published in magazines, with the exception of the final eidos site shot, which hasn't. Oh, and it's the best one too, I think. :)





          Friday, May 09, 2003

E3 Teaser Trailer
- 9:15:03 PM - Elenkis
Eidos have released a very cool Thief 3 video trailer in preperation of E3! No game play footage, but the cutscene is similar to the intro sequences of the first two games. You can find both a streaming and downloadable version right here.

Thanks go to Alastis on the boards for bringing this to our attention. Discuss!




Thief 3 Press Release
- 7:04:56 PM - Dan
Eidos sent out another press release for Thief 3. Sadly, it doesn't tell the title yet. I found these bits interesting:
In this chapter of Thief, gamers once again take on the role of Garrett, a master thief who is rarely seen, never caught and capable of breaking into the most ingeniously secured places. Garrett steals from the wealthy and gives to himself, making his living in the dark and foreboding City. Although Garrett would prefer to be left alone to ply his trade, the prophecies of an impending Dark Age dictate a different plan for the thief. In his efforts to prevent the Dark Age, Garrett has inadvertently roused an ancient, hidden evil. Garrett finds himself without allies, standing alone between the City and the forces that would crush it.

Playing Garrett, gamers will use their skills to sneak throughout the City into castles, mansions, prisons, cathedrals, dungeons, and museums, past armed guards, hired muscle, angry thugs, hideous monsters, and much worse. Players must steal the City's oldest treasures in order to stop the darkness foretold in the prophecies. As Garrett, players have a wealth of thieves' tools at their disposal, including lock picks, arrows, wall climbing gloves, and flash bombs.

Sounds an awful lot like the plot from Thief 1 to me. ;) Wall climbing gloves, eh? Hmmm...

This part was also neat:

An innovative new key feature in Thief is "body awareness," which gives players the ability to see their hands and feet while climbing walls, leaning over ledges, and picking locks. Working hand-in-hand with body awareness is Ion Storm's dynamic lighting system. Garrett can manipulate the light and shadows real-time to his own advantage, creating entirely new stealth opportunities.
Sounds good to me. You can read the whole thing on Yahoo. (of all places...)





          Thursday, May 08, 2003

Four Page Thief 3 Preview!
- 7:20:20 PM - Elenkis
E3 is just around the corner and that marks an exciting time for us taffers as we await much needed Thief 3 tidbits. Well Gamespot have decided to give us an early surprise by writing up a sneaky four page preview based on a demonstration they were invited to see of the game in action!

Quite a bit of juicy info in there, such as:

We had the opportunity to see some of the game's cinematics, and these artistically rendered segments--which blend richly colored hand-drawn illustrations and 3D animation--set the tone of the game and introduce the major factions rather than tell a protracted story. According to Smith, Thief III will be a "show, don't tell kind of game," and much of the story will happen right in front of you, over the course of the missions. At one point during a demo of a mission, we walked in front of an arrow loop cut in a castle's thick stone walls and managed to overhear a conversation between two guards in a much brighter room on the other side. At other points during the game, characters may start to fight right in front of you, and may even kill each other.
And:
However, Garrett's lock picks are perhaps the most interesting and essentially tools available to him. Thief III's lock picking has evolved into a minigame that works particularly well on the Xbox controller. Like in Ubi Soft's stealth game Splinter Cell, picking a lock in Thief III requires careful manipulation of the analog stick, and the controller's vibration provides feedback when you're near a lock's sweet spot. Locks will have multiple parts to unlock, some more complicated than others, and they'll come in distinct types, so you'll get a better idea of how to approach them after you've successfully picked a few. A rusty-looking square lock is different from a silver square lock, which is in turn different from a silver circular one. We didn't see lock picking demonstrated on the PC, so it's unclear how it'll work with a mouse and keyboard.
You can read the rest of the preview along with a bunch of new screenshots to drool over, right here.

Thanks Gamespot! Hopefully this is the first of many such previews to appear over the next couple of weeks :)

The preview also contains a link to an 8 minute long video interview with project director, Randy Smith - unfortuntely it is currently only available to people who have paid for a Gamespot Complete subscription. We'll be sure to post an update if it becomes available to the rest of us at a later date.





          Monday, May 05, 2003

Alternate Download Sites for Critical Files
- 7:30:22 PM - Darkwarrior
I have uploaded some critical files to my server as a temporary replacement for the unfortunate loss of Jason Tibbit's server. I am hosting several patches there, as well as the updated version of DromEd for Thief 2. Here are the links (I'll get a website up for them shortly):

US/UK Patches
Thief: The Dark Project Retail --> 1.33 Patch
Thief II: The Metal Age Retail --> 1.18 Patch

German Patches
Dark Project: Der Meisterdies Retail --> 1.33 Patch
Dark Project II: The Metal Age Retail --> 1.18 Patch

Other Critical Downloads
Dromed 2 Update (to be applied after the 1.07 to 1.18 patch for Thief 2)
FM Patch for Thief I (allows Thief: The Dark Project users to play FMs made with the Thief Gold version of DromEd)

If you have any comments, email me (just click on my nickname). I don't know how much my server can take, so the downloads may be slow--but it's better than waiting 30 minutes on File Planet.

Also, email requests for specific downloads if you think they're necessary. However, my server has limited hard drive space and won't be able to hold many FMs--I'd rather get more important files hosted there first.




FM & Media Archive Offline
- 1:30:52 PM - Dan
Unfortunately, until further notice, no downloads are available from this site. Our generous file host, Thiefmissions.com (also known as Cheap Mission Downloads) run by Jason Tibbitts, has been forced to go offline indefinitely. For more information and discussion about that, there is a thread about it on our forums.

We, as well as the entire staff of TTLG, are looking into ways of making sure that this isn't a shot to the foot of the entire FM community. If you have any ideas, email us.

And of course, I need to take a moment to give my most sincere thanks to Jason for everything he's done for the community. Digi takes off his hat and bows his head.





          Thursday, May 01, 2003

Thief 3 at E3 Press Release
- 9:42:02 PM - Dan
Today eidos released to the press a description of all of their games which will be shown at E3. Amongst them, of course, was Thief 3. I though this description had an interesting point:
Thief (Xbox, PC) -- In this next chapter of the Thief series, gamers once again take on the role of the master thief Garrett. The stealthy character is rarely seen, never caught, a master of the ambush and capable of breaking into the most ingeniously secured places. Garrett steals from the wealthy and gives to himself, making his living in the dark and foreboding City. Although Garrett would prefer to be left alone to ply his trade, the prophecies of an impending Dark Age dictate a different plan for the thief. Thief pioneered the concept of stealth action on the PC, and gives gamers the opportunity to truly play a thief. Take advantage of Ion Storm's groundbreaking dynamic lighting and shadow systems -- every character and object, including Garrett, cast realistic, movable shadows that effect stealth gameplay.
Another dark age, eh? Hmmm....






Travel to: Go Back / T-tc.com (home)