Project Director Stephane Roy is interviwed on VGS, and admits the game isn’t perfect.

It's been nearly 10 years and finally gamers will get a chance to jump into the granddaddy of stealth games. THIEF will be out in just a couple days and Project Director Stephane Roy joined the show to discuss everything you need to know about the masked kleptomaniac.

Thanks to Joxer I have a link with a roundup of all the reviews for Eidos Montreal's Thief Re-boot. The reviews offer different opinions, but overall the game is just average.

Once again thank you Joxer. I don't have to waste time rounding them all up now.

Ubisoft Montreal has another trailer for the launch of Thief.

You are Garrett, the Master Thief. The City you once knew has changed. Your thieving skills are all you can trust as you walk the fine line between politics and the people, entangled in layers of conflict. With time running out, you'll unravel a dark, personal secret from the past that ultimately threatens to tear your world apart.

Eidos Montreal has posted a video walkthrough of the Lockdown Mission.

After a heist gone wrong, Garrett is trying to make his way back to his hideout in the clocktower. Along the way, he happens upon a jewelry store. Garrett being who he is, you can imagine what happens next...

Eidos Montreal has news that Thief has gone gold and will be available on February 28th. To celebrate they released a new trailer along with the news.

THIEF HAS GONE GOLD

That’s right folks; Eidos-Montréal’s THIEF™ has GONE GOLD and will be in the hands of all would be Master Thieves later this month. To celebrate the news we’re releasing a brand new ‘THIEF - 101 TRAILER’ that details everything you need to know about THIEF.

“It’s a wrap, Thief is gold. It’s nearly time for the fans to fall in love with Thief all over again, and time for newcomers to finally see what all the fuss is about” said Stephane Roy, Producer. “Thief is one of the founding-fathers of the stealth genre; we’re proud to have worked on such a well-loved series and proud to say; Garrett, the Master Thief is back.”

THIEF is the second game from Eidos-Montréal whose previous title DEUS EX: HUMAN REVOLUTION also saw them breathing life back into a classic, critically acclaimed series. It’s not an easy challenge – but they’ve gone and done it again!

Today’s brand new ‘THIEF 101 trailer’ provides key insights on the game’s story, its key characters, key gameplay and key feature set (including the fact that the game’s main character is a Master Thief who doesn’t need keys).

A site called Stevivor interviewed Thief’s Game Director Nicolas Cantin.

From the moment he walked into the darkened South Melbourne venue, Nicolas Cantin (above) was all about Thief. That’s really not a surprise when you consider he’s been working on the reboot of the iconic franchise since 2008. There’s no doubt about it, the man is passionate.

Still, passion doesn’t always result in a great game being produced at the end. Since we’ve started seeing more and more of the game, die-hard Thief fans seemed to become more and more concerned. Hysteria was at its peak when fans learned that the new game would feature an XP system that would reward players for killing, among other actions. The system was quickly scrapped, but their seemed to be an air of distrust from fans towards Eidos Montreal when all was said and done.

Sitting down with Cantin, my first question was of course about the pressures of producing a game that’s balanced for the die-hard fans as much as it is for newcomers to the series.

Here are some new preview for the next Thief game.

Strategy Informer

Some Thief series fans may still be worried, but this fan is optimistic. The story and the overall experience will be key to whether the game succeeds or fails, but I get the feeling that Eidos Montreal are pulling out all the stops to make Thief a great game. Just remember: everyone expected Deus Ex: Human Revolution to fail too and it ended up superb. 

AusGamers

I was terrified that Thief was going to be another blockbuster style reboot, all style and no substance. The storyline at the beginning gave strength to my concerns, until I remembered I never really gave a shit about the story in Thief games. When you finish a game like Thief, you don't sit down to talk about the narrative. You talk with your mates about how you used a water arrow on one torch and a fire arrow on another to confuse some guards while you stole a necklace. Or how you managed to finish lockpicking a door mere moments before a guard returned on his patrol.

OnlySP

So what we have is a remake that takes the spirit of the original and gives it a mechanical and graphical facelift. What I played was tight, enjoyable, and very intriguing. There is enough here in the core game, plus more than enough customisation options, to appeal to both first timers and series fans alike.

Destructoid

It's very clear that the developers at Eidos Montreal spent the last year looking at their game and fine tuning it with fan feedback and criticisms in mind. Even after his long absence, Garrett still has got some neat tricks up his sleeve. If you're of an open mind and willing to try out this new take on a classic series, you may find more to like about it than you think.

The first interview is from Press-Start with Thief’s Game Director Nicolas Cantin, and PR Manager Adam Phillips.

Diego: How long can players expect the main story to last?

Nicolas: It’ll really depend on your play style. If you want to open all the drawers to get every bit of loot, you’ll really extend that experience. After every mission you can go to the city hub and explore wherever you want or take side quests. From these things it can be extended. The main campaign isn’t something we can put a number on. We want the people to be able to finish the main story whilst still providing something else for the collectors. If you’re always crouching within the shadows, then it’ll definitely take you longer.

Adam: There’s also replay value with the leader boards and at the end of every chapter, you would’ve seen that you get a % grade. You might see that you only collected 10 percent of loot and that might inspire you to go back and try to get more. I don’t know if you saw it but we also have collectible loot. Some people who might not consider themselves collectors, but once you get 3 and see that you only have 2 left, your opinion might change.

The city hub is really a change of pace from the rest of the gameplay. You can explore as much as you want, or not explore as much as you want. Eidos Montreal are all about value for money. If you look at a game like Deus Ex, it’s an absolutely huge game. If you want to finish the story missions, then you can do it quicker but hopefully we’ve created a world that you’ll want to spend more time in and fall in love with. It comes back to giving gamers options. If you’re forced into something it’s always going to be less fun, if a developer provides options then it’s going to be a better

The second interview is from Capsule Computers with Game Director Nicolas Cantin.

The thing that struck me when first starting up a campaign on this build was the depth of the options in the ‘Custom’ difficulty setting. You have really provided the player with every possible option to cater to their exact, desired gameplay experience.

We wanted to add a lot of things like that from the beginning, and more and more as we’re advancing, and more and more we’re seeing the feedback from the fans we thought, “okay, this’ll really please them”. We want to make sure that it’s your own experience. We want them to jump in the game and have a cool experience, but we don’t want to force things. We also added all this customisation, in part, as a PC homage.

Eidos Montreal has released the PC requirements for Thief, and we get information Nixxes handled the port once again.

Even with the advent of next-gen consoles, for many old-school fans, Thief will always be most at home on the PC. To ensure the best possible experience on the platform, we've teamed up once again with the pros at Nixxes, who previously worked on the PC version of Deus Ex: Human Revolution and last year's Tomb Raider.

Now that we're done tinkering and optimizing every aspect of the game, we can finally announce the minimum and recommended system requirements.

Minimum System Requirements
OS: Windows Vista with platform update
CPU: High-performance dual core CPU or quad core CPU
RAM: 4 GB
Graphics Card: AMD Radeon 4800 series / Nvidia GTS 250
DirectX: DirectX 10
HDD/SSD: 20 GB

Recommended Specs
OS: Windows 7 or 8
CPU: AMD FX 8000 series or better / Intel i7 Quad Core CPU
RAM: 4+ GB
Graphics Card: AMD Radeon R9 series or better / Nvidia GTX 660 series or better
DirectX: DirectX 11
HDD/SSD: 20 GB

OXM interviews Producer Joe Khoury for a few questions about Thief.

Do you think you've overcome fan resistance to the reboot now? To certain of the changes that you've made?

Good one! I think hopefully, our greatest sense of satisfaction will be when the game's released and that's where we'll overcome fan resistance. I think there are a lot of optimistically curious people just as there are some fans who don't know the full extent of what we're doing, so for sure they're basing their impressions on the little information that they have, and that's concerning for them.

We haven't shown everything we have in our pockets yet. And I think when the game hits the street is when there concerns will be met. We're looking forward to that day. Right now the team's working so hard to bring the game to where it is, taking into consideration everything that everybody's saying.

When I read a lot of the comments I do know where they're coming from, and I can guarantee that the team knows where they're coming from, and part of that is just 'wait and see, judge for yourself'. Hopefully it'll be good.

We're fairly confident, but then art is very delicate to judge - it's an opinion. There's a lot of people that remember things differently for the first Thief, and what they like about the first Thief games. And hopefully 15 years from now people will be talking about what they remember about this Thief, in comparison to the first Thief! We're reading what they're saying with a lot of care, the team is very aware of what's being said.

As a studio, you seem to have a very defined style now - first person, action-adventure, lots of choice. Are there any other genres you're interested in?

Yeah, sure. So far we've released those kinds of games, which I guess would lead to that impression, but there are a lot of experienced people on this team at Montreal, there's a bunch of other studios that we have back-and-forths with. We have people that we recruit from other studios, we lose people to other studios, so we have such a wealth of experience that if we wanted to venture off in another direction, we would have the means to do it.

 iDigital Times has posted a new hands-on preview of Thief.

All told my demo time probably took about 20 minutes, but I absolutely could've played Thief for much, much longer. The game lived up to the things we've heard so far and, as a fan of the series, really does bring back the bare bones feel that makes the game a truly rewarding challenge. I honestly can't wait for Feb. 25 to get here so I can plop down on my couch, turn out the lights and enjoy some AAA stealthing action.

The Late Night Gamer takes a look at the new Thief game, and gives his opinion based on a presentaion of the game.

The overall game feels good to play and watch so far but Thief feels a little unsure of its own identity. The handling could be the deal breaker of this game by far. That aside, it’ll fall to the areas beneath the cities crust, the dungeons that are the franchises traditional forte, to persuade me that Garret’s greatest feats are yet to come.

Gamingbolt interviews  Level Designer Daniel Windfeld-Schmidt, and Narrative Director Steven Gallagher at Eidos Montreal about Thief.

Ravi Sinha: We’ve heard that there will be changes to the progression system in Thief with the team eschewing XP in favour of using gold to buy equipment. How would it have worked if the XP system remained in place? Will these changes make the game more fundamentally Thief-like in nature?

Daniel Windfeld-Schmidt: We decided to put more emphasis on stealing and looting,that is what the game is about after all. We decided against having the XP system for a few reasons and we think the experience is strong enough without it. This also tallied with some feedback we received from the community and they reacted well to the news we were removing it so we’re glad Wedecided on that route.

Ravi Sinha: Thief will be releasing next year on next gen as well as current-gen consoles. It will also be releasing on PC. When stacked up to the PS4 and Xbox One, how does the PC version look in comparison? Did the more PC-like architecture of the PS4 and Xbox One make development across them easier?

Daniel Windfeld-Schmidt: The PC version is hugely important to us as this is the platform that the series originated on. In a similar vein to Deus Ex: Human Revolution we are taking this platform really seriously. We’re really pleased with how the game looks and feels on all platforms and PC, PS4 and Xbox One all look great. The architecture of the new machines really helped us fulfill our vision too for sure.

GamingBolt has posted a short preview of Thief.

Putting together a blockbuster first person title on multiple platforms isn’t easy – especially if that title happens to be a PC fan favourite such as Thief. GamingBolt recently spoke to Eidos Montreal level designer Daniel Windfeld-Schmidt about the project, especially how the PC version would stack up to the PS4 and Xbox One versions.

Windfeld-Schmidt stated that, “The PC version is hugely important to us as this is the platform that the series originated on. In a similar vein to Deus Ex: Human Revolution we are taking this platform really seriously.

“We’re really pleased with how the game looks and feels on all platforms and PC, PS4 and Xbox One all look great. The architecture of the new machines really helped us fulfill our vision too for sure.”

A new trailer for Thief was posted on the internet titled "The Queen of Beggars Sees All" as part of the Stories from The City series.

Nobody knows how old the Queen of the Beggars actually is; rumour has it she's as old as The City itself. Some say that although she is blind, she sees through the eyes of rats that riddle the streets. In the second trailer of the Stories from The City series, the wise old crone gives her views on the City as it goes through a time of death and gloom.

DSO Gaming interviewed Eidos-Montreal's Jean-Normand Bucci about Thief's various graphic features on the PC.

DSOGaming: Before we begin, please introduce yourselves to our readers.

Jean-Normand Bucci: My name is Jean-Normand Bucci and I’m Thief’s art technical director at Eidos-Montréal.  I’ve been working in the videogame industry for a little less than 10 years, always in art fields.

DSOGaming: Will the PC version receive some extra love with exclusive graphical features? Will there be a slider for FOV, and will there be any mouse acceleration/smoothing toggle options?

Jean-Normand Bucci: The PC version will support all the graphical features of the next-gen consoles with numerous improvements, including even better anti-aliasing, higher resolution shadows and support for multi-monitor. Thief on PC will also be amongst the first batch of games that support AMD’s new Mantle API for high performance graphics.

A FOV slider and mouse sensitivity options will be included in the game. We don’t apply acceleration or smoothing to our mouse based camera controls – we want you to have direct control of Garrett’s POV.

DSOGaming: Let’s talk about physics. What kind of destructibility and interactivity can players expect from this new title? Are you using PhysX, Havok, or your own physics engine?

Jean-Normand Bucci: We have integrated the latest PhysX version although destruction is not one of Thief’s main gameplay pillars.  We developed the tools we needed for the vision we had for Thief and although destruction has never been a major part factor of the original games we do have breakable objects, pushable objects and so on.

DSOGaming: A lot of people believe that Ray Tracing is the holy grail of lighting. What’s your opinion on both Path Tracing and Ray Tracing, and do you see them being used in next-gen titles?

Jean-Normand Bucci: I believe Raytracing is better suited for reflection than improving the lighting. We use similar things to raytracing techniques for the reflection, we both raytrace the geometry on screen plus simplified geometry for the things that aren’t on-screen.

Eidos Montreal has relesed a new trailer for Thief called Basso's Gamble.

GamerHub TV has another exclusive video interview for Thief with Eidos Montreal developer Steven Gallagher.

Eidos Montreal developer Steven Gallagher explains what's in store for PC gamers when Thief arrives in this exclusive interview.

GamerFitnation has a new video interview with Joe Khoury a producer for Square Enix about Thief.

On February 25th 2014, once again the holy triumvirate of mage, warrior, and thief loses one of its members. Square Enix is employing the One Eyed Thief, Garrett, after a lengthy ten year retirement, to once again pull up his dark hood and meld back into the shadows. Fans of the series have waited long enough, and Square Enix is finally delivering.

GameZone has a new preview of Thief from the the NY Comic-Con.

When I got my hands on the game, I wasn't reminded of Dishonored. I was reminded of Thief: Deadly Shadows and the last time I experienced this franchise.

"It's tough to communicate that when no one has really played it, but a lot of games distinguish themselves when you’ve played them," producer Joe Khoury explained at a recent Square-Enix event. "There's that and there's some ex-Looking Glass guys that worked on [Dishonored]. If you blink really quickly, their hero looks a little bit like Garrett. There's always these comparisons between games, and when you're compared to a great game like Dishonored…all you can say is play the game and hopefully you will find the differences."

The differences start with Garrett himself, a thief whose toolset is built around stealth rather than choosing between stealth or action. “When you look at Garrett's tools and abilities, they shine the most when you’re in the shadow and trying to be sneaky,” said Khoury.

DualShockers has posted new information about Thief's story, and gameplay mechanics from NYCC 2013.

Here’s a rundown of the most pertinent points:

• The mission is to steal a beautiful gem called the Heart of the Lion from the Baron’s mansion.
• The interior is well deigned with gorgeous patterns decorating the walls and furniture. Even with the graphical decrease (due to technical difficulties), Thief still looks beautiful and atmospheric.
• Garrett’s body is always present in your view and is actually his placement and stance, not from a trick in camera angles.
• Light and shadow play major roles in the game, in terms of stealth mechanics.
• Garrett has a gameplay mechanism called Focus, which helps the player hone in on targets and makes theft much easier. It can be turned off if you prefer not to use such an advantage.
• Items, such as keys from careless guards, can be swiped quickly. There is no experience system, however; instead you can earn gold to purchase new gear such as wire-cutters and different kinds of arrows.
• Creating distractions is also important in order to disable guards. For instance, in one section the player threw an object which caught the attention of two guards, then quickly disabled them in one fell swoop.
• Different surface types can also affect your stealth capabilities. Carpets for example, absorb sounds which means that Garrett can run on them.
• Natural ventilation gives Garrett more options on infiltration. He can also look through keyholes and cracks in walls for information.
• The Perception System is a very interesting beast. The detection systems that guards use actually comes from the eyes, rather than the torso like most games. They can also use peripheral vision to track movement and can actually catch Garrett this way. Players will know when they were spotted when an enemy makes eye contact.
• Extending from that, the Sensory System (aka the Light Gem) checks things in each area such as guard positions, stances, sounds, etc. in order to determine your vulnerability. A flash of light in each new area indicates Garrett’s transitioning into a new zone and therefore into new danger.
• While Garrett will narrate clues to himself but the amount of talking he does depends on the difficulty setting.
• The game’s morals align with the players–it’s completely player driven.
• The sense of progression comes from slowly mastering all the intricate controls in the game. Gathering loot plays another small part.
• No multiplayer or co-op in the game. There is a leaderboard that compares the skill levels of player but it’s based on single-player.
• The actual melee combat system is very difficult to utilize, in order to discourage players from relying on it.
• While there is a degree of freedom in the game, it is not completely open world. The City is made to be delved into and for all its secrets to be discovered.

PC Gamer interviews Senior Producer Stephane Roy and Narrative Director Steven Gallagher about mission structure, complexity, and lessons from Deus Ex: Human Revolution.

During my time with the demo, I noticed that jumping across rooftops and dropping down from heights swayed in sensitivity, even though I’d be using the same amount of pressure on the control stick (I was given an Xbox 360 controller for the hands-on) the entire time. I’d sometimes fall to my death on jumps I’ve completed before without changing my orientation. How would this be addressed on the PC, and how will PC gamers be able to pull off precise jumps on PC controls?

SR: This is a problem we’ve seen similar feedback from earlier playtesting. We’re close to distribution phase in the game’s production, but we’re still keeping close attention on making sure players movement aligns with their intentions, and I know it can get pretty frustrating if it doesn’t work out. I’m both happy and unhappy to get this kind of feedback from you, but I’m especially grateful it lines up with what we’ve seen so we can really nail it down.

I ran into the same problem while climbing rope arrows. I’d face the platform or rooftop I wanted to jump to, and Garrett sometimes just simply lets go and drops straight down like a rock.

SR: Yeah, it’s similar to the other issue you described. From a production standpoint, I’m glad to hear of these tiny details, especially when we’re showing off a demo. It’s easy to gloss over the little things when you have a strong part of the game to show off, but I know movement and navigation is such an important facet of Thief. We want to make sure everyone feels comfortable with the controls.

Even though a different team at Eidos Montreal worked on Deus Ex: Human Revolution, what potential lessons did Thief’s team learn from that game’s development and apply towards their own?

SR: Trust your instincts. Human Revolution’s team encountered the same challenges of taking a long established franchise in a new direction while under considerable pressure from core fans going, “No, no, you can’t do that to my Deus Ex.” It’s simply impossible to listen to everybody out there, so the guys working on Thief have really learned to trust their feelings behind their decisions. Nothing would get done otherwise. If we decided to backpedal and add in “taffer” because a bunch of people wanted it, we’d get another complaint the next day from someone else saying, “Why stay stuck in the past?”

Eidos Montreal has released a new gameplay trailer for the upcoming Thief reboot.

In this gameplay trailer, get your first in-game look at Garrett's hideout, the dark alleys of the City, and your old friend Basso. See all the pillars of Thief gameplay in action - Infiltration, Theft and Escape - as Garrett enters the Baron's manor, grabs the shinies and leaves without a trace.

I have another video from the Eurogamer Expo 2013 this time for the soon to be released reboot Thief.

It's been nearly 10 years since the last game in the Thief series was released. Eidos Montreal shows off the hugely anticipated reboot.

Square Enix has announced The MASTER THIEF PC digital download edition. Here is the link and press release.

Montréal (September 27, 2013) – Square Enix® and Eidos-Montréal™, the award winning studio behind the critically acclaimed DEUS EX: HUMAN REVOLUTION®, are pleased to announce that a digital download MASTER THIEF edition will be available on February 25, 2014 in North America for Windows PC.

The MASTER THIEF PC digital download edition is now available to pre-order at the SQUARE ENIX STORE* and includes the following:

• Official Digital Artbook - stunning concept art that offers a sneak peek into the shadowy world of THIEF.
• Digital Comic - Delve deeper into the shroud surrounding Thief's obscure world with this complete collection of digital comic books.
• Booster Pack - Get access to an exclusive bundle of optional in-game consumables that can empower you and hasten your progression through THIEF.
• Director’s Cut Original Soundtrack - a remarkable collection of THIEF tracks.
• THE BANK HEIST in-game mission: Infiltrate the City’s most secure location, Stonemarket First Bank, to steal a coveted family heirloom called the Star of Auldale. To this day, this heavily guarded and treacherous place remains impregnable, but that’s about to change…
  • A challenging mission that will put your thieving skills to the test.
  • Outsmart security measures found exclusively in this mission
  • Search for the Bank’s unique loot and many other secrets
  • A true homage to the Bank mission in Thief II: The Metal Age

Square Enix and Eidos Montreal announce The Bank Heist pre-order bonus for Thief.

Pre-order Thief 4 to receive The Bank Heist mission.

As the Master Thief, infiltrate the City's most secure location, Stonemarket First Bank, to steal a coveted family heirloom called the Star of Auldale. To this day, this heavily guarded and treacherous place remains impregnable, but that's about to change...

· A challenging mission that will put your thieving skills to the test.

· Outsmart security measures found exclusively in this mission

· Search for the Bank's unique loot and many other secrets

· A true homage to the Bank mission in Thief II: The Metal Age.

VG 24/7 has a new article style interview with Eidos Montreal that talks about why mystery is crucial to Thief’s success.

Part of Garrett’s journey – not just throughout the plot, but as an individual – is the way in which he interacts with other people. He’s out of his depth, thrown into a world gone drastically wrong and only other residents of the city can get him up to speed. Without a Facebook account to hide behind, the thief will have to get out into the world and start asking questions.

“We decided to adopt a traditional cinematic approach,” Gallagher continued, “but we try to keep it out of the way of gameplay itself, so basically you have this great first-person experience whereby Garrett internalises. He’s very intellectual, very clever and he’s quite funny, but only inside his own head, so the only person who can hear that is himself, and you.

“What’s interesting is, in the cinematics we externalise that so you actually get to see his body language, you get to see how he uses his mask when he has to deal with other characters. It’s a nice, contrasted story-telling style that I think will be very effective.”

It’s a noble approach, as Garrett’s internal mutterings will surely add new layers to the character we already know, he will still remain a mysterious, imposing figure to those around him. With that in mind, I asked Gallagher if the player will have a direct impact on the Thief’s plot and world state depending on Garrett’s interactions with the populace.

“I won’t lie to you, the story’s linear,” he replied. “It’s a single arc where Garrett sets himself up – ‘I do not kill without good reason’ – and the arc kind of follows that in a way. But in the end you buy the game, it’s your game, I’m not going to say ‘you must play like that’. I think as a player, even though you’re going to follow the story, the tools that you choose – do you want to be the ghost, non-lethal, undetected, or kill as many people as you want? – are up to you.”

GameGrin has more infomation about Thief in this new preview.

Much of Thief takes place within the walls of a pseudo-medieval city run by a tyrannical leader, Baron Northcrest, whose iron rule is making the rich richer and the poor poorer. After using military strength to secure his position, his uncaring and brutal rule is fostering growing unrest among a population ravaged by plague. Initially the plot seemed uncannily similar to Dishonored, but the maturity and complexity with which Thief handled comparable themes appeared to be more subtle.

Our presentation of the game involved Garrett infiltrating Baron Northcrest’s mansion with the intention of stealing a priceless gem called the Heart of the Lion. However, the growing civil unrest within the city has increased the numbers of guards on patrol, making the thief’s task much more difficult. Thief is played from a first-person perspective with a relatively minimal amount of information displayed on-screen. A single meter tucked into the bottom left corner indicated Garrett’s health, “Focus” (more on that later) and how visible he is to other characters.

Commenting on the nominal heads-up display, the developers explained they wanted to increase the level of immersion and provide feedback to the player in more subtle ways. While a small circular “moon” lights up when Garrett is visible, the edges of the screen become darker when he is hidden alongside the moon fading to grey. Equally, menu screens and Garrett’s inventory are kept simple, maximising information and reducing time spent out of the game.

PlayStationAccess has a new video interview with Narrative Director Stephen Gallagher were he talks about the games story, and setting.

Eidos Montreal has released a new GamesCom trailer for Thief, and announced the release date of the game for February 25, 2014.

Official THIEF - "Uprising" Gamescom 2013 Trailer by Eidos-Montreal.

Garrett the Master Thief is entangled in the growing layers of conflict between Baron Northcrest and the oppressed masses led by Orion, the voice of the people. In a City on the brink of revolution, his skills are all he can trust as he walks the fine line between politics and the people.

THIEF is currently in development for PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 3 and Xbox One and Xbox 360, scheduled for release February 25, 2014.

Credit goes to Grangokhan for this newsbit.

PC Gamer has a preview for Thief 4 fom it's PC Gamer UK Magazine.

We won’t be able to make everybody happy,” says Daniel Windfeld Schmidt. He’s the lead level designer on Eidos Montreal’s Thief relaunch, and he’s right. I recently played the first-person stealth game, and some people aren’t going to be happy.

This Thief game has third- person climbing sections. It makes minor use of quick time events. It has ‘Focus mode’, which gifts master thief Garrett with limited time-slowing combat abilities. It has context-sensitive controls that mean you can only jump when the game says you can jump.

Unhappy yet? I’m not. After playing the game for over an hour at this year’s E3, and putting all my concerns about the above to Schmidt, I’ve settled on being cautiously optimistic. Thief has changed, but not in the ways that matter.

GamesHQMedia offers the Thief presentation from E3 2013. The 30+ minute clip includes cinematics and gameplay footage, It ends with a Q&A where Eidos Montreal lays out the vision for the game.

RPS also has a preview of the playable E3 demo.

In Conclusion…

What Eidos Said: ”Well, with a reinvention, it’s always gonna be a little different. And what people remember [varies from person to person].”

Also, in response to rumors of serious trouble behind the scenes:

“There have been some changes in personnel. The project’s been going on for a while. We were trying to get the DNA right – the essence of the game. It took a while because we tried a few things that just didn’t really fit. And hopefully, you’ll play it and see that we have a solid product. You know, rumors are rumors.”

My Experience: I am conflicted. As you can very obviously tell, the new Thief rubbed me the wrong way in quite a few places. AI and combat, especially, were well off the mark, and that’s definite cause for worry. Oh, and let’s not forget the linear, QTE-ridden escape scene, which felt completely at odds with pretty much everything ever – especially common sense, stealth (or even stealth-action), and the year 2013.

Thief’s level design, however, was solid, and I could see it meshing quite well with competent though basic systems and smart enemy placement if the AI gets stolen and replaced with pretty much anything else. No doubt about it, Thief needs some serious work, but I think there’s still potential. Deus Ex: Human Revolution was an absolute joy, and I can almost see the murky silhouette of a similar miracle skulking around in Thief’s gutters.

Also, there is still tons I wasn’t able to see. Other areas. More open slices of the world. Secrets (of which there will apparently be many). I’m also crossing my fingers for the story, which is still shrouded in a sooty smog of mystery.

Gamespot has a video interview called "Thief: Improving the Stealth Genre Through Iteration" for Thief 4.

Thief is a proud entry in this storied franchise while building on other themes from the genre.

GameTrailers has a new video from E3 about Thief 4.

We go hunting in the shadows in this demo from E3 2013 All Access coverage!

Square Enix has released the E3 2013 trailer for the fourth part of the Thief series. Thief is being developed by the same team who was responsible for Deus Ex: Human Revolution and is planned for a 2014 release on PC, PS4 and XBOne.

Some steal to survive, Garrett survives to steal...Get a glimpse of what it takes to be the Master Thief in this new trailer. Eidos-Montréal's new title, THIEF, is in development for PC, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.

According to Softpedia Theif 4 will be ported to the pc by Nixxes. If I remember they are the same company that ported Deus Ex: Human Revolution.

Thief, the upcoming stealth game from Eidos Montreal, will be ported by Dutch studio Nixxes for the PC platform.

Just like Tomb Raider, it's going to be optimized for AMD hardware.

Thief reboots the classic stealth franchise and will appear next year for next-generation consoles like the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, but also for the PC.

Now, according to PCGamesHardware, the PC version of Thief will be handled by Dutch studio Nixxes, the same developer who handled the porting process for Tomb Raider back in March.

Just like the adventures of Lara Croft, the new Thief will be optimized for AMD hardware, including CPUs and graphics cards.

No other details were offered but let's hope Nixxes' close relationship with AMD won't mean once again issues for PC owners who have Nvidia graphics cards.

Tomb Raider was a pretty good port on the PC but Nvidia owners encountered quite a few glitches that were solved through subsequent patches for the game and driver updates from the graphics card company.

PCGAMER has a preview for Thief 4. Not to much more to say just read the preview and comment.

One of the most interesting elements of the new Thief is an expansion of this pronounced sense of the world’s physical properties: the soft carpets, clopping flagstones, almost blanketlike darkness. Now on the borders of the first-person screen are Garrett’s hands. They rest on surfaces and obstacles, brush against walls – not always visible, but creeping into view when Garrett presses up against objects, giving a sense of the fabric and flavour of what the studio are calling a “tactile world”.

In the demo Eidos Montreal have prepared, this tactile world looks like one you wouldn’t necessarily want to touch. The introduction to The City, another core returning element, has a sense of BioShock-like parade. Garrett rides a bumpy wooden cart through a portcullis checkpoint, with piles of plague victims stacked nakedly on the filthy roadside, top hats and iron armour marking the clash of medieval and Victorian, bystanders and guards muttering and arguing as he passes by. There’s a sense that The City is happening on cue – on the left, a thief protests as he’s clapped into the stocks, on the right a noosed prisoner is kicked from a first-floor ledge and swings lifelessly into place alongside two or three others.

The City is the same place as before, with a different configuration. The Hammerite and Keeper ideologies that dominated the earlier trilogy are all but swept away (at least on the surface – the occasional Hammerite slogan might appear as a brickwork advertisement, and I did glimpse some Keeper glyphs in the demo).

Eidos contributor Adam Badke has a brief interview with Game Director Nic Cantin.

Hey Nic‚ tell us: is Thief a 1st or 3rd person game?

1st person!

Are there any 3rd person elements?

Yes‚ we do have some 3rd person elements – but they’re really kept to a
minimum‚ we don’t have a lot. 3rd person is used to improve your
awareness of your surroundings – for example‚ during vertical
navigation. We’re really taking particular care to make sure that we’re
not jarring players back-and-forth between cameras.

How would you describe the pace of the game?

We want to give the player a choice about pacing. It’s really up to the
player to decide how to use the tools at their disposal to define their
own pace.

Will fighting/combat ever be the best choice to take?

If you do choose to take that kind of approach you’ll be challenged by
both the guards and the environment/level design – people are certainly
going to react to your behavior!

Would you say Garrett is a Superhero/Ninja/Action hero?

(laughs) No. Garrett is Garrett. He’s a thief. He’s THE Master Thief.

Does Garrett’s updated look reflect anything specific in gameplay?

Yeah‚ Garrett is a capable guy and I definitely think that’s reflected
in his costume. But if you look at the old Garrett I don’t think we’ve
changed him that much. He’s still that same dark guy‚ but with more
elements to reflect his new abilities.

What are the “action moves” that have been discussed in past coverage?
How do they work and are you able to fight without using them?

Yes – I think fans will be happy to hear that old school style melee
combat is still there like the classic Thief games‚ and it’s just as
challenging. We’ve also added an extra layer on top of that to empower
the player‚ Garrett has the option to use his Focus ability to give him
a temporary advantage if players choose – but it comes at a cost.

So you’re saying classic melee combat is still in the game?

Yeah – and the blackjack’s back as well!

Polygon brings news that develpment of Thief 4 is facing setbacks due to office politics, and high-level departures.

According to one source, each new lead and senior designer would come with a new vision for the game. Old ideas — including stages and mechanics — would be rebuilt or scrapped. In March of this year, the same month as the game's publicity push on the cover of Game Informer magazine, Lead Game Designer Dominic Fleury left the studio. The studio has seen a number of high-level departures

Sources emphasized the high level of talent and enthusiasm of team members, many of whom came to work on Thief because of their love of the franchise. Those same sources cited team politics and conflicting visions as cause for many departures and setbacks.

Due to a need to hit promotional deadlines, the latter part of 2012 and early 2013 was focused on creating press demos, the first of which was shown for the Game Informer cover and also at last month's Game Developers Conference. According to a source, the demo took nearly 10 months of development time, roughly six of which required the participation of nearly every content creator on the team. The level, which takes place in part inside a brothel, apparently featured "Cinemax-level" sex sequences at one point that some animators were uncomfortable creating.

Over the past few years, Square Enix has become increasingly concerned with the status of the game, now half a decade into development. A source says Eidos Montreal turned to a German investment firm for additional funds, something superiors within the studio claimed to be a common strategy in the industry and not cause for concern.

The current version of Thief barely resembles the initial concept, says a source. The vertical slice doesn't load inside Thief's current heavily modified version of Unreal Engine 3. Many programming tricks were necessary to run the current demonstration, like turning off non-playable character AI — the engine has trouble when too many characters are on screen.

Edge-Online has an article about Thief 4. The article goes into length about being respectful to the old games, and on being a reboot.

The first words spoken by shadow-hugging anti-hero Garrett in almost a decade are carefully chosen: “I’ve been away, but I couldn’t tell you where.” In that wry, noirish tone of old, they acknowledge his absence and also address the conundrum of bringing him back – the balancing act of continuity and reinvention at which Eidos Montreal proved itself more than adept with 2011’s Deus Ex: Human Revolution.

In some ways, this is a fresh beginning. The ‘4’ is gone from the title – a blessing, since at last look it appeared in the middle of it – and the game is aimed at PC and the next gen, confirmed for PS4 and “other next-gen consoles” (read: the new Xbox). These decisions are linked: Thief is now a new game for new machines. But it’s also still unmistakably Thief, a firstperson stealth adventure set in a world built around shadows, light and stealthily cracking people unconscious with a sturdy blackjack.

Certain building blocks have been identified as crucial to the Thief experience. Garrett is one of them. The 30-minute gameplay demo Eidos Montreal has readied for the press shows a scarred, angular hero strapped in buckled leather layers up to his high, peaked hood. The obvious concern is the jollification of this dark hero to appeal to broad console audiences, but if anything the new Garrett threatens to be too snarled, too icy. He delivers his signature line during a monologue – “What’s yours can be mine” – and it seems a shade more purposeful and directed than the appealing bow for hire of the original games. The team, though, see him as essentially unchanged. “The Garrett I know is back,” says producer Stephane Roy.

Thief fans are petitioning Eidos Montreal for the return of original Garrett voice actor Stephen Russell, and the campaign has already amassed 1,800 names.

PCGamesN reports that at present, Garrett is now being voiced by Assassin’s Creed 2 mo-cap actor Romano Orzari, and that some fans are none too pleased.

The petition is called “Eidos Montreal; Square Enix: Bring back Stephen Russell for Thief 4″, and you can sign it here if you wish.

Stephane Roy answered a few questions in a Strategy Informer article about Thief 4. Below is a short summmary.

While not confirming anything, in our chat with Stephane Roy, we learnt that perhaps Thief will harbour some disturbing moments like The Cradle from Deadly Shadows.

"Like you said, it’s a tradition, and when we started to work on this project I guarantee that we did our homework to understand why people were in love with this franchise," producer Stephane Roy told us.

"I think we understand very well what makes a good Thief game. That’s the maximum I can tell you without Adam cutting me off, but I think if you read between the lines you can get your answer there..."

Eidos Montreal is using a whole new team on Thief, which is an open world where Garrett can go off exploring and stealing some rather choice loot if he can find it. Mostly Eidos want this new Thief to stay grounded.

"For this one we decided not to be too magical, instead we talked more about mystical. On our side it’s really important to see players connect with the games and the realistic believable aspect is important for this, but that said we are going to have some stuff that looks weird and is mystical," said Roy. "But we will not have zombies in this one."

This new entry in the series is not a prequel or sequel - it's their interpretation.

"We want to give some homage to previous games, but if you compare this to what Christopher Nolan did with the Batman franchise – it’s still the same main character, still the same Bruce Wayne, but on the other hand it looks completely different to what’s gone before, different costume, and no Adam West! That’s the type of thing we’re aiming to go for."

Roy promises his team are doing all they can to avoid the dread 'port' for PC.

"No doubt on our side the PC version is extremely important. Just playing Thief with a keyboard and mouse it’s different so we must make sure we support that well. For making the PC version we think like a PC gamer, for consoles it’s a different type of beast. It’s one of our goals to make sure that the PC version isn’t just a copy of the console version."

Full article on SI.

Eidos has released an incredibly short Thief teaser that ends with the date of April 2nd, so presumably more will be revealed shortly. Meanwhile, Kotaku has some concept art from artist Nicolas Ferrand.

Every major site is running the rumour that Thief 4 has been switched to next-gen consoles, hence the delay. This would mean a release late next year. From CVG:

That's according to the latest issue of OXM UK, which reports in its gossip section that the long-in-development revamp will likely release late next year, when Xbox 720 (codename 'Durango') is expected to launch.

CVG sources indicate the report is accurate.

Kotaku writes a piece titled Worrying About Thief 4, discussing the apparent loss of several highly placed developers and suggesting Square Enix has been sitting on a concept video for a number of months:

After two-plus years of work on the project, Thief 4 audio director and composer Paul Weir left the Eidos Montreal in March. The month prior, lead level designer Adam Alim went to WB Games Montreal. He apparently is not the only lead level designer to hop off the team — Pierre-Olivier Clement, the previous lead level designer, apparently moved to another project at Eidos Montreal last year. Among other departures: two senior concept artists exited Eidos to a freelance career after nearly two and three years, respectively; a senior technical level designer left last month; a senior animator went back to Ubisoft last September; and a senior level designer moved to something else at Eidos in August.

You can check out the "missing" video here.

Industrious folks on the NeoGAF forums have been combing through Eidos Montreal jobs looking for hints in Thief 4. Based on the position requirements, they have good evidence that Thief 4 will use the Unreal 3 engine (no surprise) but will also have some sort of mutiplayer or online component. Examples include a job for an "online programmer" who will be "involved in many aspects such as networking, gameplay, debugging, online and offline tools on Thief 4".

VG247 has noticed a thread on the Through The Looking Glass forums with some story board concept art from Thief 4. It's hard to draw any conclusions but interesting because Eidos has stayed very quiet about Thief 4 to date.

This isn't much to go on but it will probably have to do until the reveal at GDC. French site JeuxVideo has a single photo of a play tester with - apparently - Thief 4 in the background. Controversially, it shows a 3rd-person view - an interesting choice for the first visual hint.

Thief 4 was officially announced some time back but we haven't actually seen anything yet.  It looks like GDC (late Feb to early March) might see the game actually unveiled, with NeoGAF noticing a Thief presentation is scheduled.  Here's a snip from Eurogamer's newsbit:

According to the accompanying blurb, "Innovative audio has been at the heart of the original THIEF titles and Eidos Montreals new THIEF is no exception, this presentation will mark the first time that the game has been spoken about publicly."

Stéphane D'Astous, the general manager at Eidos-Montreal, has been interviewed about the freshly announced Thief 4.  Not much is revealed and it turns out the game has been revealed even before pre-production:

So how far along the development process are you at the moment?

In the world of gaming there are mainly three phases – the concept, pre-production, and production – and right now we've reached our goals with the conceptual base, the story. Obviously, the tough part is still to come, so the team will be ramping up, which is good news because even with the hard times in the financial world, videogames still have bright skies – at least in Montreal! So we'll be hiring approximately 40 people in the next six months: artists, programmers, designers, all the works. They'll be working on the next phase, which will be pre-production, so it's too early right now to mention any kind of a release window or SKUs that we'll be working on. The important thing is that we have a great team, a core team of maybe 20 people, and we're going to the next stage.

Eidos Interactive has officially announced Thief 4, in development at Eidos Montreal alongside Deus Ex 3:

Eidos-Montréal is excited to unveil its previously secret second title in development at the studio, Thief™ 4, the next instalment in the legendary series.

The original Thief game, Thief: The Dark Project redefined first person gaming and established an entirely new genre of stealth based game play. The critically and commercially acclaimed Thief series has won numerous awards and accolades including GameSpy Hall of Fame, GameSpot Greatest Games of All Time and The Academy of Interactive Arts And Sciences Outstanding Achievement in Character and Story Development.

Eidos-Montréal, which is also currently producing the much anticipated Deus Ex™ 3, has recruited the very best core team for the development of Thief 4. The team is comprised of industry veterans who have worked on an incredible collection of AAA titles and who each bring personal expertise in their respective fields.

“We’re in the early development stages for Thief 4, but this is an incredibly ambitious and exciting project for Eidos,” said Stéphane D’Astous, General Manager at Eidos-Montréal. “While it’s too early for us to offer any specific game details, right now we are focused on recruiting the very best talent to join the core team at the studio and help us make what we believe will be one of the most exciting games on the market.”

Development is under way and the team is looking to recruit the very best talent as production ramps up. If you are a world-class developer looking to join the talented Thief 4 team, visit www.eidosmontreal.com to submit your résumé or www.thief4.com to join the community discussion.

Not, it's not an RPG but we've historically covered the Thief series.