[Len Green]

I downloaded the (436 MB) Demo twice. It installs fine but on trying to start, simply locks up.

On enquiring, I find that apparently you have to have more up to date specs than I've got in order to play the game !

My video card is only a GeForce 4-MX-440-GPU which is not supported (nor is Windows-98 [I actually have XP which is OK] and some other requisites!).

~~~~ So the game's not for me! ~~~~

**Essential** specs H E R E !!

[RLacey]

Is this a good time to mention what a class game Thief: Deadly Shadows is?

Though, tbh, should this really be in the 'Adventure' section of the forums?

[Intrepid Homoludens]

It sucks purely on a technical level. The fact that it runs only on XP alone gives me reason to take many points off. Something got screwed up, the game contains a civil war between its trying to wow you with eye candy and sustaining a solid gameplay. The casuality is the frustrated gamer. Ironic, isn't it? The first 2 Thief titles were criticized for being a bit backwards graphically, and now this one is being spanked for being too demanding on systems for its graphics.

Oh, and this thread needs to be moved to General Gaming.

[RLacey]

Originally Posted by Intrepid Homoludens

It sucks purely on a technical level. The fact that it runs only on XP alone gives me reason to take many points off. Something got screwed up, the game contains a civil war between its trying to wow you with eye candy and sustaining a solid gameplay. The casuality is the frustrated gamer. Ironic, isn't it? The first 2 Thief titles were criticized for being a bit backwards graphically, and now this one is being spanked for being too demanding on systems for its graphics.

Oh, I agree that there is no reason why this game should require system requirements greater than those for Deus Ex: Invisible War - yes, this game has full real-time lighting, but you were supposed to have OPTIMISED the engine, guys.

Still, I maintain that, as a game, Thief: Deadly Shadows is very good - or at least the demo is. If you can get it to run...

[Intrepid Homoludens]

Well, I can't get it run. I'm still on ME, but will eventually upgrade to XP first chance I get some extra money. They've certainly f##ked up a good chunk of potential market share by excluding a big number of people who might have been drawn to this game. Ironic how Eid-ass and ISA, in their attempt to 'mainstream' this game by bifurcating it for both console and PC end up throwing the plan out of balance by crapping on a good size PC market. Splinter Cell and Silent Hill 2 & 3 had similar graphical effects and they supported earlier OSs.

[RLacey]

Originally Posted by Intrepid Homoludens

Well, I can't get it run. I'm still on ME, but will eventually upgrade to XP first chance I get some extra money. They've certainly f##ked up a good chunk of potential market share by excluding a big number of people who might have been drawn to this game. Ironic how Eid-ass and ISA, in their attempt to 'mainstream' this game by bifurcating it for both console and PC end up throwing the plan out of balance by crapping on a good size PC market. Splinter Cell and Silent Hill 2 & 3 had similar graphical effects and they supported ealier OSs.

I agree. I don't quite know how they managed to code the game so badly - I assume they didn't edit the engine between Deus Ex 2 and this. Which is a shame. But I do believe that you'll enjoy it, should you take the plunge and upgrade.

Please note that LaceyWare accepts no responsibility for any emotional, financial or physical damage, or damage of any other kind, caused as a result of upgrading your OS purely to play one new game. This post represents the views of the poster only, and is NOT a statement of fact.

[Kolzig]

I thought the game demo was quite ok, except for a few "little" things.

1) The engine is just ridiculously heavy

2) I don't like it when Garrett can pick up items while standing three metres away from them.

3) The third person view isn't funny at all, it ruins the whole Thief atmosphere. I'm glad that there's still the first person view option.

[wakane]

I'm a fan of Thief series. After finishing this latest instalments, I honestly think it's the BEST of the series, it'll be a classic. Many thief fans also agree (you can check out the forums in eidos and ionstorm to get the general feeling)

The cradle level itself is so creepy, you have to exprience it to believe it.

Regarding the slow engine, it'sl not slower than any other 3D engines now. Halo runs slower in my system with less detailed graphics/lighting compared to T3. and Halo was released months before T3. Seeing all the effects/graphics in T3, I understand the power requirement of the system.

The move to "XP only" is only natural in technology advancement, considering Win98/Me has been there for 6/4 years old (which is dinosaurs age in computing world) and the fact that MS has dropped the supports for these OSes years ago.

Final words, if you have the system power, PLAY IT, people! Thief3 is the best!

[Crunchy in milk]

Works a charm on xbox.

[ragnar]

Originally Posted by Intrepid Homoludens

It sucks purely on a technical level. The fact that it runs only on XP alone gives me reason to take many points off. Something got screwed up, the game contains a civil war between its trying to wow you with eye candy and sustaining a solid gameplay. The casuality is the frustrated gamer. Ironic, isn't it? The first 2 Thief titles were criticized for being a bit backwards graphically, and now this one is being spanked for being too demanding on systems for its graphics.

Oh, and this thread needs to be moved to General Gaming.

It runs on 2000 and XP, so it's not "XP only". I guess their reasoning is that anyone whose computer is capable of running the game doesn't use anything older than win2000. I saw somewhere that soemone succeeded in getting it to run on win98, but it was rather unstable, so I guess they don't want to support a platform where the game is known to be rather buggy. With that said I would say that the graphics isn't so good, imo, as to motivate the high specs. The gameplay is quite nice, but I have begun to tire a bit of it already.

[Intrepid Homoludens]

They suck!! They suck! They suckity suck suck!!

[ragnar]

Personally, I don't understand how you can still suffer under the horrors of windows 98/ME. The windowses based on NT (such as 2000 and XP) is very much better and I don't even like windows.

[Intrepid Homoludens]

I'm upgrading to XP soon, okay?!!

[ragnar]

You do whatever you want. Heck, it's not like it's my computer or anything. It's just that I felt that windows actually worked and I found it wasn't that unpleasant to work in it when I had upgraded to 2000.

[Erkki]

I plan to write a mini-review of Thief 3 once i'm done, but at the moment I have to say that although I like the game, some of the programmers at Ion Storm are wussies.

Somewhere I read a comment that they just couldn't get rope arrows to work, that's why they aren't there. WTF? The Thievery UT guys could get rope arrows to work in the original UT, without having the engine source code, but Ion Storm couldn't while having the Unreal engine source code?

Heck, even I could probably get rope arrows to work in an Unreal engine game.

[Intrepid Homoludens]

You know.......that's most likely. LOL

[ragnar]

Yes, a rope arrow would be fun to have. Another thing is that that damned thief is unable to place objects on the ground or on shelves silently. No, he is only able to drop the item from his stomach or throw them away. It's quite irritating.

And the AI is not what I would have expected (especially since they brag about how good the AI should be). It's almost only attack on sight or sound. They always know who it is that makes a sound. If I make a loud sound they instantly run to me and try to kill me, but if someone else does exactly the same sound and placed half a meter beside me, they completely ignore the sound. If someone hears you or get a glimpse of you, it is always possible to just wait out them in some hiding place. They never call on more guards and make a thorough search of the place.

Someone else had another strange behaviour that was rather hilarious. He bludgeoned a civilian on the street, he then went into hiding and before long another civilian comes up and notices the body and starts to shout about guards. A guard comes to the place and discovers the body and the civilian beside it and instantly thinks that that civilian is the perpetrator and kills him with the logic that anyone who stands besides the body must be guilty.

[Erkki]

Well, just finished it. Ok, there are a lot of small flaws (some of which maybe not that small), but
THIEF IS STILL THE KING OF STEALTH GAMES!

If just some things were done a little better, it would have been a perfect game. Might write that mini-review tomorrow, but I don't know if I can say all I want without spoilers (there are moments that just shouldn't be spoiled).

[Intrepid Homoludens]

Now that I have my new SoundBlaster Live 5.1 the original Thief sounds wonderful on my rig. I'm gonna re-install it and finally, finally get to frollick around with hot stealth stud Garrett after several years of being away (I had to abandon it because halfway into the game back then I had got a new CPU and its sound card and the game did not agree). Yay! Now I just need to find the cheat code that'll let me skip all the levels I already beat back then.

You can have your sputtering Dark Shadows, I will enjoy the best Thief game tonight!

[Erkki]

I actually just got Thief Gold recently. I once borrowed The Dark Project from a friend (near when it came out), but never finished it. I'll play it sometime this summer.

I just hope I can get it to run on Win XP