Deus Ex & Thief designer "waiting for the technology to catch up with the ideas"

[Hatesink]

Spector prepping two IPs

Speaking to the European press, the Deus Ex and Thief Designer reveals he has two new games in the works--one of which has a Hollywood connection.

'When asked why he had waited so long to begin work on his next games, Spector told Eurogamer that "I've been waiting for the technology to catch up with the ideas."'

http://uk.gamespot.com/news/6167439.html?action=convert&om_clk=latestnews&tag=latestnews;title;0

[jackinthebox]

sounds interesting :)

[Pinky_Powers]

With Deus Ex 1 still firm as my utmost favorite game ever released, Warren Spector, too, still commands much adoration from me... despite the let-down of Invisible War.

It has done nothing to help my nerves that he has kept his latest works so tightly cloaked in secret.

[witch]

With Deus Ex 1 still firm as my utmost favorite game ever released, Warren Spector, too, still commands much adoration from me... despite the let-down of Invisible War.

It has done nothing to help my nerves that he has kept his latest works so tightly cloaked in secret.

I'm playing through Deus Ex 1 right now and it's great, however I played Invisible War before and I thought that was good as well. While the story on the original is beating the sequel a lot of the game mechanics still remain the same. I see a lot of hate sometimes for the sequel and cannot really understand why.

[Hatesink]

I see a lot of hate sometimes for the sequel and cannot really understand why.I think everybody digs on a different aspect of each game. They imagine how that might evolve, and get disappointed by the actual changes.

For example, I really loved Hitman: Codename 47, couldn't wait for the sequel, and was mortified by Hitman: Silent Assassin. It just wasn't the direction I was expecting them to take it in. I thought is sucked in comparison and was really really disappointed that they'd 'ruined' a really excellent game.

[Necros]

Warren also said in a previous interviow on Gamasutra, that the game Doug Cgurch is working on closely with Steven Spielberg will shake the Earth too. :cool:

I really hope one of the games Warren's working on will have a similar gameplay to Deus Ex 1.:cool:


About DX:IW - I agree, it wasn't as good as the first game but it WAS a great game anyway. Much better than HL2 for example IMHO...
And what's the problem with Thief 3? :confused: I think it's at least as good as the earlier games.

[Hatesink]

And what's the problem with Thief 3? :confused: I think it's at least as good as the earlier games.No Mechanists :(

No parabolic arrows :(

Thief just isn't Thief without parabolic arrows and Mechanists (I guess I can live without rope arrows).

Plus, the 'follow the emissary' mission from Metal Age was interesting and made a change, but I thought the whole concept of the streets in Thief 3 could have been a lot better— it was frustrating (couldn't we have just had some kind of grapple arrow and used the 'Thief's highway' instead? Maybe venturing down to street level when we come to a marketplace or a junction or river etc.)

(Also, I don't like the Pagan's. The English they use sounds really fake and contrived, they're annoying and no way as good as the Mechanists (there weren't any Mechanists)).

My 2 cents :/

[Raveness]

Thief DS mostly was a step back from the previous two. It suffered from some symptoms of consolitis:

- The levels became smaller zones. You could have included 4 zones of TDS in one level of TMA

- The inclusion of third-person perspective allowed players to cheat by seeing around corners

- The lean became a ridiculous half-kneeling motion, movement was jerky like Garrett was a bit inebraited. Not fluid at all on the PC version, but fit well on the XBox.

- Stupid loot percentage total. For some reason, Garrett was omniscient about how much in valuables was in every place he visited

- The tools of the previous games had functionality taken away (blackjack couldn't be readied at raised position, no sword, arrows were not parabolic)

Like DXIW, on its own merits, it is a quality game. But once you compare it to its predecessor, disappointment is inevitable.

[Silent Film]

I wouldn't say I rate Thief 3 less than the previous two, more that I like it for slightly different reasons.

Although I thought loot glint and percentage was a particularly bad decision. Whereas previously thievery encouraged exploration and increased the risk as you had to cover more ground in search of loot, now you only had to follow the fairy dust. Having it all pointed out to you felt rather patronising.

It also removed a small element of player-skill that was there previously too. You had to examine each object (by highlighting them) and, using more realistic indicators (i.e gold objects = value), you had to use your own judgement to decide for yourself whether it might be worth picking up, or run the risk of making a noise placing a dud object back down. You learnt through experience which types of objects were valuable, or not. I would really liked to have seen this concept advanced further.

[Hatesink]

Having it all pointed out to you felt rather patronising.

It also removed a small element of player-skill that was there previously too. You had to examine each object (by highlighting them) and, using more realistic indicators (i.e gold objects = value), you had to use your own judgement to decide for yourself whether it might be worth picking up, or run the risk of making a noise placing a dud object back down. You learnt through experience which types of objects were valuable, or not. I would really liked to have seen this concept advanced further.It hadn't occurred to me that that was missing from Thief 3. Thinking about, searching for and collecting all of the loot was a really cool feature of the first two games. I remember one part of the city streets of Metal Age had a house that looked as though it was full of valuables. It was a real hassle to get through the window, but once you did, you found it was all worthless. The disappointment was almost palpable. My last two playthroughs of Metal Age I told myself I'd play on easy and just collect just enough loot to clear the mission, but both times I ended up cranking up the difficulty and going for 100% of the loot.

It seems that when you start making those kinds of major changes to the game's basic dynamic you're beginning to make an entirely new game. I think Raveness is probably correct in her diagnosis of consolitis (I've kind of always thought of Thief 3 as a Thief-themed console shooter). It happened to the Hitman series, the Rainbow Six series and also to — it seems — the Thief series.

I personally prefer console gaming (although the lack of free-look/mouselook is a drawback) and I think it's forced developers to be more creative, but when you take a much-loved title such as Thief or Rainbow Six and 'consolize' it, it just seems like exploitation.

Thief 3 felt like it was designed by committee. It's as if they sat around a table in some office somewhere and said "We need to make a console game— ideas?", and during the course of the brainstorming someone suggested Thief 3. When you play Thief 3 it doesn't feel as though they were thinking 'lets make Thief 3. What do we have at our disposal to do that? How can we utilise the console to make the best Thief experience to date?'...at least, that's how it felt to me.