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.
I don’t know about Ion Storm’s groundbreaking anything, but I can imagine the next Thief game in the same engine used in Splinter Cell. Now THAT would be cool.
Well, they both are using the Unreal engine, so in a sense that’s what you’ve got. Ubi and Ion Storm have both heavily rewritten the graphics system, though, in their own different ways. What Ion’s doing for Thief 3 is probably more impressive than anything Splinter Cell did, since in addition to accurate volumetric shadows they’re also doing Doom 3-style per-pixel lighting with bump-mapping.
KW, point noted, and thanks for the info. However, after playing Splinter Cell on the Xbox, and seeing the 2 screenshots posted after my post, I can say that Ion Storm has a LONG way to go to get the game looking like SC.
SC looks, well, very very good. The 2 screenshots look, well, like 1998.
Besides the shadows, the recent screenshots for thief 3 look like… well like others have said… old and crusty.
I am hoping shadows play a role in stealth… like if the npc’s can see your shadows they turn around or somesuch stuff. As well, if the AI is good, I can take less than stellar graphics.
How many people are at Ion Storm Austin? Do they have the staff to handle two monster games like this? Could be there’s not enough artists to go around. Hence, you get ugly looking textures like those in the screens.
wumpus…enough with the Playstation 2 garbage already. No one cares, and no one agrees with you. The PS2 is your own personal Derek Smart and you’re its Bill Huffman.
