Visceral And Thievious: More Thief Inspired mods [Mod Watch]

I happened to have an occasional glance over at ttlg again, and there was a thread bashing some new Thief mod, started late last year, called Visceral.

“Visceral is a stealth-action game in a medieval/fantasy setting with steam punk elements. It takes place primarily in the city of Cressport, a dismal place rife with secrets and those who would seek control at any cost.”

It’s a mod utilizing the Unreal 3 Engine, in which you play Slater, “a hired mercenary specializing in stealth assassination.”

Taking from the website’s pages up so far, I can tell you:

The game supports first and third person views, and allows you to switch between the two. It has the stealth elements from Thief, but has some RPG elements in it, with side-quests [more like Thief: Deadly Shadows, which inspired the team behind it]. The player can trade and sell artefacts and loot. The game takes place in a “Rich medieval & fantasy atmosphere blended with steampunk elements, uninterrupted, vast mission areas.”

Factions in the game borrow from Thief too, with the City Watch mentioned, thieves, Pagans, and the Beggar’s Guild, which is more from The Elder Scrolls: Oblivion, where the beggars worked closely with the thieves, as “the eyes and ears of the city”. The Penumbrals faction sounds a lot like the Keepers, and the Esoterians sound like the Hammerites.

There’s also ruins of an ancient lost city, called Gordion, likely inspired by Karath-Din from Thief or perhaps the Kurshock city from Deadly Shadows.

In addition to comparing it to the Thief games, it does look quite like The Dark Mod as well.

And that’s not all. I was over at Planet Doom the other day where they talked about another mod in the making, using the Doom 3 or id Tech 4 engine, called Thievious. Development on it has just started this week, but it’s set to be a co-operative Thief-inspired mod, where you can play with a friend.

The author, Oneofthe8devilz, was keen to see if he could make a multiplayer based mod much like was done with the Thief II Multiplayer mod.

This mod is also inspired by Thief: Deadly Shadows. And on the Doom3World forums there’s a discussion going on about it, where surprise, some Dark Mod fellas rocked up and started talking about the mod, and offered to lend some support, like letting him use their source code, seeing as both use the Doom 3 engine. Some said that The Dark Mod could even use his help on their team, and so it went.

Speaking of The Dark Mod, a new Fan mission was released for it just the other day, called the Builder’s Influence.

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Sources:

http://www.visceralgame.com/ [Visceral]

http://www.moddb.com/mods/thievious [Thievious]

Visceral And Thievious: More Thief Inspired mods [Mod Watch]

Thrifty Thursday: Magic Gauntlet Karath-Din [Freeware]

Okay, so version 1, and pretty much the only release of this little game so far, came out last year.

I noticed a post on the ttlg forums back then, right on Christmas Eve, that talked about a card game based on the Thief games, called Magic Gauntlet Karath-Din, or just Magic Gauntlet. I only managed to get around to downloading it just the other day though.

My hopes weren’t that high to be honest, but after a few days, I’ve become hooked on the bloody thing!

No doubt the game is heavily inspired by both Magic: The Gathering as well as the Thief games, Thief: The Dark Project, Thief: The Metal Age, and Thief: Deadly Shadows. Art from said games appears on the cards as well as the background of the playing area.

As far a MTG influences go, the game even “borrows” sounds from an old game from the 90’s developed by Microprose, which falls under the MTG universe.

It reportedly took 2 and a half years to make this seemingly simple but enjoyable little flash game, and several people from the ttlg forums contributed to the project, with some doing the art, either ripped from the games or concept art done by Looking Glass Studios, Eidos and Ion Storm, or creating new pieces, as well as coming up with ideas for the actual cards that you play with.

        

It’s been months since the V 1.0, and all has been quite quiet on further development on the game, but I would like to see some new stuff eventually, like some new cards and so on. Maybe they’ll be a resurgence in production when Thi4f or Thief 4 comes out, and there will be more content to be inspired by. Or else, just like was said a lot on the forums, you go digging in the thief lore scattered all over the internet on various websites for ideas. I’ve read through a number of these lore articles myself in the past, actually.

And the best part is it’s free! Non-commercial, and probably for the best, seeing as it “borrows” quite a lot from aforementioned sources. It even comes with a manual.

AAA says:  4/5

Download: [1] [2]

Forums Threads: [1] [2]

Thrifty Thursday: Magic Gauntlet Karath-Din [Freeware]

Hex in the City: Issue #2 [Video Game Comics]

This is just another one of those comics I talked about, that I made years ago. As you can tell, it’s Benny the lovable guard from Thief, with Garrett in his Thief II: The Metal Age get-up.

Hex in the City: Issue #2 [Video Game Comics]

Went Christmas Shopping, Got a Good Gaming Deal

Well, the Christmas tree has been put up, and of course now it’s all about the last few weeks before Christmas…and that means Christmas shopping.

I’ve been going through a lot of brochures lately looking for some good local game deals, and I did see a few which interested me.

So, off I went to the local mall, Tygervalley, and I was looking at some classic games. A lot of them have are available at between R49,99 and R99,99, and not just “old” games - games like BioShock, Mirror’s Edge, Mass Effect, Assassin’s Creed and Resident Evil 4, good games that were released in the last two or three years.

I was looking at some of the good old games and I was tempted to just take them all (the mall, get it?) but I was looking for some games in particular; ones I hadn’t played before. I came across a good deal in Operation Flashpoint. It’s the full game, plus the two addons, Cold War Crisis and Resistance. A 3-in-1 deal for R49,99. I played the demos of these games years ago, but I haven’t yet played the full versions of these games after all this time. After being kind of disappointed with Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising, I picked this up and bought it. I’ve read that the original is better than OFDR.

I still think that it was an odd choice, but I mean, at R50, if it doesn’t turn out to be so good, it’s no real loss to me.

I was also looking for a copy of Thief: The Dark Project, seeing as my disc isn’t working anymore, and I also want to get a hold of Deus Ex, ever since I saw it on Destructoid’s list of Top 50 games of the decade.

You know, I disagree with most of that list, but that’s life, huh?

I actually want to go back there with my brother or even on my own again, just to see if I missed anything, and perhaps pick something else up.

Went Christmas Shopping, Got a Good Gaming Deal

An Interview with Daniel Thron, AKA the guy who did the Thief box art

…as well as quite a lot of other stuff

The other day, I came across a thread at TTLG.com forums where a guy was asking for people to come up with some questions for one of the people who worked on the original Thief games with the sadly missed Looking Glass Studios, as well Thief: Deadly Shadows: Daniel Thron.

Thron, not Thorn.

Daniel Thron was mainly known to me and others as the person who did the voice of the guard who constantly bickered with “Benny”, the other, drunken guard in all three Thief games. I think his name was supposedly Sinclair. He also voiced the creepy sounding Eye from Thief and Thief Deadly Shadows, as well as several other characters, allies and enemies, from the series.

But he’s done more than that, it turns out. He made the box art for both Thief: The Dark Project, and Thief II: The Metal Age. He did the wonderful cutscene art and animation in both games too, and on top of that, he had something to do with the in-game maps, and the particle systems (whatever that means).

So, quite a lot to do with the art of the Thief games, in general.

Anyhow, a few days later, and after sifting through all the suggested questions for the man, the most interesting ones were picked and quite an interesting interview was put together on the forum in another thread, as well as on the same domain, except on Dominus' blog, which has some pictures.

I like reading through interviews sometimes, seeing as the reveal a lot of behind the scenes style stuff, and give you more insight into what it was actually like to develop a game. And not just any game, in this case, one of the most iconic PC exclusive titles that helped start a new genre, instead of the usual FPS titles of the nineties.

So, Daniel talks about what he did before getting into the video game business, what it was like working at TTLG, the art of the Thief games that he was so heavily involved in, his inspirations while working on the games, his opinion on why Thief Deadly Shadows paled in comparison to the originals, what he thinks of the Dark Mod, and whether he will work on Thi4f (Thief 4), announced this year. And he also gives some other info on what he’s working on, some movies mainly, as well as tosses a few names around and such.

Quite a good read, so go and check it out.

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Questions for Daniel Thron
Out of the Shadows – interview with Daniel Thron
http://dominus.ttlg.com/?p=65
http://www.danielthron.com/

http://eidosmontreal.com/en/games.html
http://forums.eidosgames.com/showthread.php?t=98473&page=3

An Interview with Daniel Thron, AKA the guy who did the Thief box art

Do You Want Thief Ringtones for your Cellphone?

I came across this on the ttlg.com forums the other day. Someone went and made it possible to play sounds from Thief II: The Metal Age on your cellphone as ringtones. All it really is, is a bunch of mp3s, converted from another format, (WAV, I think) which you can also listen to on your PC and so on.

It's fairly easy to do this yourself. All you need is the Thief CDs, and you can extract the sounds in the CRF files. I've done it myself a while back, with Thief II and Thief: Deadly Shadows (different file format) anyway. My Thief: The Dark Project CD isn't working anymore.

I’ve always been a big fan of the Thief series’ music and sound effects, and of games in general, and I downloaded at one point the Thief Gold Soundtrack, which is basically one big long mp3 that you can play.

By the way, you can download the ringtones and such from here. I like mediafire. More people should use it rather than rapidshare or megupload, I think.

Do You Want Thief Ringtones for your Cellphone?

Musical Association with Video Games: What are you Thinking?

Friday the 13th

Do you remember that old word association game, that some people claim is used by psychologists and such on their patients? Well, when you listen to music, with a particular track, there’s usually some sort of thought that comes into your mind, and every time you listen to that track, that’s what pops in your head. Sometimes it’s easy, because the theme of the song pretty much does it all for you- it’s literal. But other times, there’s some inexplicable idea that revolves in your head when you listen to a song, maybe because it can be interpreted in many ways.

Well, I’ve just been thinking about it lately, and I have some examples of video games I think about when listening to some music tracks. I’ve been listening to Megadeth’s latest album, Endgame, since it came out back in September, and there’s a track on there by the same name, “Endgame”, and when I listen to it, I first think about Thief, particularly those Hammerites, and Cragscleft prison in Thief: The Dark Project. This is probably because of the theme of the song. "Endgame" deals with the infamous Guantanamo Bay Facility. As the song progresses however, I start to think about Wolfenstein 3D or Spear of Destiny, especially like a boss level at the end of an episode. Why I think it’s perfect in this sense, is because of the lyrics:

“This is the end of the road; this is the end of the line,
This is the end of your life; this is the end.”

Also, another track that makes me think of Wolf 3D is “To Live is to Die” by Metallica, especially part of the intro riff.

Another example: While listening to "The Unforgiven", by Metallica on their black album, it may be because of James Hetfield’s emphasis on the part of the song which makes me think of Duke Nukem 3D, when you kill those alien troopers and they scream.

"What I've felt,
What I've known..."

Finally, If I listen to "Wherever I May Roam", like a posted about the other day, while listening to the intro, I think about Assassin's Creed, and as the song progresses I get images of Quake II, because parts of the song remind me of the Sonic Mayhem composed track that plays when you're in the factory levels, like the Processing Plant.

Megadeth's "Holy Wars...The Punishment Due", and Motörhead's "Assassin" also turn my thoughts to Assassin's Creed.

Weird, you say? Well, you do it too, you know.

Musical Association with Video Games: What are you Thinking?

Eidos goes on about Thief 4 again

Speaking of vapourware, Eidos is still having fun teasing Thief fans. Apparently there has been an advert on their site recently with the same font used in the Thief games, and people think that their next big thing will be Thief 4.

Funny how people over-analyse things like that.

Anyway, people are now talking about Thief 4 again. I'm a fan of the Thief series, but I think if this one ever does come out, it'll probably not be as good as Thief: The Dark Project or Thief: The Metal Age. Those were the golden years...

For those of you wondering what their first project is, it's Deus Ex 3.

Eidos goes on about Thief 4 again

CGR Updates

My Classic Games Resurrected articles are going through some updates as of late. I've mostly added some new info as well as pictures and videos.

So far I've updated the Duke Nukem 3D, Doom, and Thief: The Dark Project articles, and I will most likely continue with more updates.

CGR Updates

Games I want: Thief 4

There have been rumours ever since the last Thief game, Deadly Shadows, was released in 2004 that there will be a fourth game in the series. It’s true that Ion Storm was working on it before they went bang years back, and that they planned to make a modern version of the game.

For years, Eidos has teased gamers with news of Thief 4 in development and even advertising for positions to work on the game, their next ‘AAA’ project, probably after Deus Ex 3 comes out.

The thing is you just can’t do that to Thief! You can’t modernize it, otherwise it just isn’t Thief. It might be okay if it goes off in a separate direction as a spin-off series, but don’t bastardize the main series that all ready suffered a blow from Deadly Shadows, that some don’t even recognize as a true Thief game due to its dumbing down for the Xbox. It could use a different name or the same name but with obvious indications that it is different, like having a new character to play as.

A modern setting could work for a Thief-inspired game, but not Thief, if you know what I mean.

At the moment there is The Dark Mod, a thief-inspired mod for Doom 3 that looks pretty good, and the thing here is that it is being developed by fans for the fans- a real DIY project that has taken a lot of time and labour of love. 

Other than this, people are still ‘taffing’ around with Thief, Thief Gold, Thief 2, and T2X; replaying them, modifying them or making new FMs (fan missions).

I don't know about a sequel, as far as Thief 4 goes, seeing as Garrett became a goody-two-shoes keeper at the end of T3. Maybe a prequel could work. If you've ever read the fan-fictions 'A Keeper's Apprenticeship' and 'A Thief's Apprenticeship' among others at thief-thecircle.com, there's a lot that could've happened before, during, and after Garrett’s training and even before Lord Bafford’s Manor, the first mission in Thief: The Dark Project. Perhaps there might have even been events in the gaps between T1 and T2 or T2 and T3 that could be explored.

 I think TDS started something though, even though it was called ‘Thief Lite’ by some, and that would be Thief meets GTA. I'm not talking about riding on horses and doing ride-bys, although it's quite a laugh- that was all ready done by GUN. I mean a main storyline, and then LOTS of side-quests, either for gold or new equipment, possibly other incentives, like an unlockable feature, ala Chronicles of Riddick: EFBB, like a map of The City, which fans of Thief have waited for and some have even devoted every waking moment to, creating their own versions.

Some ideas that I’ve read about on forums, specifically on TTLG.com, have suggested that 
they make a game based on the thief series, but more like Command& Conquer. You could have the hammerites versus the pagans; maybe have the mechanists and the keepers, possibly the city army, all the factions. It might be a good idea for a mini-game- a trading card like game, like trumps or magic.

http://hubpages.com/hub/Thief-The-Dark-Project

Games I want: Thief 4

Classic Games Resurrected

November last year, I started a series on HubPages where I have two profiles. Yesterday I finished my article on Thief: The Dark Project.

The series is dedicated to looking at classic games- what they were like to play vanilla style, and what they are like now with all the mods and other improvements available off of the net.

There are pictures, vids as well as lots of links to resources. Hopefully with this project, I can get more people interested in the classic games as well as the PC instead of consoles, that seem to be taking over.

I'd buy a console but I don't have a lot of caps to splash around.

Here's the series of Classic Games Resurrected. 

As you can see, there's Blood, Doom, Duke Nukem 3D, Rise of the Triad, Shadow Warrior, System Shock 2 and Thief: The Dark Project. There should be others coming during the year, so check back regularly.

http://hubpages.com/hub/Blood-Game

http://hubpages.com/hub/Doom
http://hubpages.com/hub/Duke-Nukem-3D 
http://hubpages.com/hub/Rise-of-the-Triad
http://hubpages.com/hub/Shadow-Warrior
http://hubpages.com/hub/System-Shock-2
http://hubpages.com/hub/Thief-The-Dark-Project

And here is the home page where you can find all of them.

http://hubpages.com/_10i99ywqqk5ny/profile/ANDR01D

Classic Games Resurrected