Publishers are eying Thief again...

Vasmarok on 27/2/2008 at 21:12

Quote Posted by R Soul

There's plenty of scope for some decent Thiefy story/gameplay.

After T3, there are now loads of former Keepers who now have to live among everyone else.

I have not played T3 recently, so I may remember incorrectly. Did not the ending movie show the Keepers aging very quickly? If I remember correctly there were references in T3 that the Keepers were using something to keep their youth. I have to watch that video again.....

jtr7 on 27/2/2008 at 21:23

It's confused many people, but the one Keeper that's crying is Gamall. Nobody's rapidly aging. Gamall wanted immortality and was addicted to using Glyphs to extend her life. Other Keepers were tempted, but took it nowhere to the level Gamall did, if they gave in at all.

In the movies where we see Caduca reading the Glyphs and the child Gamall interpreting, we see Caduca, a spider, a lemon wedge, etc., losing life force from the glyph magic at work.

SM3doversjournal:
"Keeper Dover - Journal Entry Number 2136
I should have known better than to bring it up in front of the entire council. Still, my words had some effect, at least now there is the resolution forbidding it. I believe that will cause many to think twice should the temptation arise. Meanwhile, we should all be on the watch for the telltale signs - the dead animals, their life forces drained. It is not a love of creatures that compels me to speak out. No, they are pitiable, but inconsequential. I can only speculate on how long a Keeper could extend a normal lifespan in this way...a hundred...two hundred years? Maybe longer. But it would take more than vermin to accomplish that. And I, now that I posses the knowledge, can I truly say I too am not tempted? This is why I cannot remain silent. That, and the glyph that Elder Beryl speculates must exist - though we have yet to find - one that enables shape-shifting. What a potent elixer of glyph magics that would be."

Vasmarok on 27/2/2008 at 21:26

Quote Posted by Vasmarok

Ooops, I just read Jtr's final cutscene: "...old, so old, all ruined" Could that be referring to the aging of the Keepers? In that case, the Keepers would not hang around for a long time.....

Vasmarok on 27/2/2008 at 21:28

Quote Posted by jtr7

Ok that explains it. Thanks

jtr7 on 27/2/2008 at 21:28

Yeah, that's Gamall talking about herself. It's a young man who asks what they (the Keepers) will do now that all the Glyphs are unwritten.

Beleg Cúthalion on 27/2/2008 at 21:35

However, afaik no mention of the "Unwritten Times" includes an end of all Keepers, does it? It's just about the glyphs being destroyed, so I see no problem in a Thief IV from the story's point of view.

jtr7 on 27/2/2008 at 22:34

Exactly. The people remain.

Queue on 28/2/2008 at 01:09

Coming in late....very late....

Who here has played Assassin's Creed? And, more importantly, what did you think of it? From what I remember about the previews, it looked like a cross between Thief and Hitman :thumb:

Currently, I don't have a PS3 (not sure I want to spend the money), but have thought about getting one just to give this game a try. Plus, now that GTA4 is on its way......:cheeky:

Zillameth on 28/2/2008 at 04:44

There will be a PC version of Assassin's Creed, soonish, so as long as you have a relatively modern PC, you'll be able to play it.

I didn't play it (the game, I mean) myself, but I have watched someone else play it for several hours. The impression is not so good, I'm afraid, although I do plan to buy a copy and play it through, so that I can get a better idea.

First of all, it's not a game about sneaking. It's a game about running away from guards. Which isn't necessarilly a bad thing, as long as you liked Prince of Persia, which this game has a lot in common with in terms of player movement and mechanics.

But - and that's my main complaint - it's not really a game. It's a set of minigames. Each of them is very repetitive and doesn't feel very rewarding (except for the watchtower minigame, which has you climb tall watchtowers and rewards you with a very nice view each time).

The surroundings are very "responsive" in that you can climb virtually everywhere - crates, beams, windows, rooftops, you name it. But the mechanic of climbing and mantling is glitchy, so it's hard to avoid occasional frustration.

Also, the story isn't very convincing, although it does seem to have a few pleasant twists. Dialogues are inflated: characters talk a lot, but tell very little. There is an unnecessary science-fiction element with an appropriate amount of pseudo-scientific babble. There is also a lot of talk about honour and principles, which I find very irritating (I hate people who talk a lot about principles, but do very little in terms of practical implementation thereof). The actual main character (who is an ancestor of the formal main character) is an anti-hero of the worst kind, because in contrast to Garrett he has no charm or charisma whatsoever. Garrett was antisocial in a somewhat romantic way. This guy is simply evil.

There are a few nice touches. There are beautiful countryside landscapes. There are three big towns to wander around, and each of them is very crowded, so they feel like living places. The game looks pretty. The soundtrack is good, too, although it stands out too much.

Beleg Cúthalion on 28/2/2008 at 07:31

I'm not even sure if this Scimitar Engine would help us because it seems this thing is merely usable for the big climbing parks that these cities are. No interieur, I mean. But the main thing that I accuse Assassin's Creed of (and also from the perspective of someone who gathered a lot of the released material but hasn't played it yet) is that it had the possibility of telling real history (since everyone wanted to play it from the first trailer on) and create a feeling for the complexity of the religiously-political conflict but chose to simplify things down to a usual computer game level. Now it seems the Assassins were only enlightened killers (instead of a shiite sect who sometimes sent assassins out) and the Templars were evil etc. etc... I think the ambivalence of Thief's factions told you more about the real world than this supposedly historical game.

Ah, back to topic; I'd like to have believable politics and actions in a new Thief game.