This week is Thief week. And it rings in the beginning of March, which may end up being the most stacked March in history ever. Also — Plants vs Zombies: Garden Warfare is out this week. That totally snuck up on me…
Major Mayhem (PC)
What is it? Wasn’t this supposed to be out last week? Well, anyway, the description says Time Crisis meets Metal Slug.
Should you care? I love the art style of this game, it looks like a lot of fun to me.
Plants vs Zombies Garden Warfare (360/Xbox One)
What is it? What? This is out this week? Man, time flies. How is it almost March. Oh, the game! Don’t mind me. Yes this Plants vs Zombies in FPS form. Looks hilarious.
Should you care? I think it’s worth caring about. I love the idea. I wonder if people will actually commit to buying this though.
Procyon (PC)
What is it? A glorious looking R-Type style shooter.
Should you care? I really want to play this, just from looking at one screenshot. Can’t see how this could possibly be bad.
Tales of Symphonia Chronicles (PS3)
What is it? This came out in Japan a while back, good to see it get a release here.
Should you care? One for fans of the series. I realise that’s the most redundant phrase anyone can say about anything, but yeah! It is what it is.
The Yawhg (PC)
What is it? Defines itself as a 1-4 player choose your own adventure game.
Should you care? Interesting concept. Head here to find out more.
Thief (360/PS3/Xbox One/PS4/PC)
What is it? It’s the Thief reboot that everyone’s excited/angry/nervous/hyped about.
Should you care? I’m not as invested in this as others. I get the feeling you might want to wait for reviews. I’m sure it’ll be good, but if you’re a fan of the series and have specific ideas about how a Thief game should play, you might want to hold out. Just to make sure.
Comments
40 responses to “This Week In Games: The Thief’s Theme”
Whoa, I thought Thief was still a couple of months away. Well… shit. It’s probably at least until next payday away for me then.
I’m not sure what to think of Thief, I think I’m just gonna sit way back here and watch the riot / rainbow when it’s released.
I never played the originals but I’m probably going to pick this one up, same as I did with Tomb Raider. Like Tomb Raider, I get the impression I’m going to love it.
Ys: Memories of Celceta digital version is out this week too.
I thought that was last week?
I’ve had a physical copy for months.
Given the state of the VITA you shouldn’t be using it for anything bar a US psn account. Better pricing better deals better freebies and far cheaper PS+.
Definitely be picking up Thief and PvZ:GW for my Xbone.
Hooray! Tales of Symphonia!
Indeed one for the fans, I loved this game on cube (my copy is sadly MIA with 2 controllers), can’t wait to pick up the CE this week.
Edit: Spelling
What’s the gameplay in ToS like? Is it similar to older Final Fantasy games? Thinking of picking it up if it is.
Real-time battle, operating in a 3D space but generally on a 2D plane when focussed on an enemy. Love the battle system. You can customise the AI for other party members, or if a battle gets tricky, just plug in another controller and get someone else to control another party member (this is how I was first introduced to the game by a friend many years ago)
Same guys who made DX:HR made Thief, so I have some pretty high expectations tbh. I’ll be surprised if it isn’t polarising though.
Not entirely true. The team that made DX:HR are working on the next DX game. Thief was made by a different dev team within Eidos.
What happened to Castlevania Lords of Shadow 2? Did it get pushed back?
To next week for Australians.
Thief from SquareEnix should be good.
Western releases thus far? Tomb Raider, Deus Ex: Human Revolution, Sleeping Dogs…
I’m going to say it will be polished. But waiting.
I think it’s a good sign that you’ve been able to preorder it on Steam for so long, and squenix has definitely be leading the charge on the war against shitty console ports.
The thing that concerns me is its ‘Thiefiness.’ It might be polished, but will it be a Thief game true to the spirit of the original? I got heavily into the original games, man… I got into the whole map&mod community, made campaigns for chrissake. I know my expectations are possibly unreasonably high.
But for fuck’s sake, do you know what we saw early on?
We saw CoD-style set-pieces with running-through-exploding-corridors, quick-time events, and a levelling system which rewarded its highest exp from combat, not exploring and you know… THIEVERY.
There have been terrible, terrible un-thiefy decisions have been made and dialled back at the understandable fan-rage.
They didn’t start in the right place and lose their way, they started in entirely the fucking opposite place to where they should’ve been, and made concessions on what people had seen and hated.
How much more terrible design lurks around the corner that we haven’t seen?
Didn’t the original Thief game have zombies and dinosaurs?
Yeah. Thief 2 is a lot better due to the removal of that crap.
I want to steal stuff, not fight supernatural beings in a cave dammit!
Dinosaurs ? They’re called Burricks…
now I see the big issues they showed of early as more a problem with wanting to show something that was exciting and eyecatching so explosions and stuff like that is an easy way for them to do that, sneaking around thieving isn’t exactly the most exciting thing to watch.
I was extremely happy when they took out the xp and quicktime events
That’s pretty likely, but by the same token, it’s a pretty dishonest thing to do – advertising a game as full of action and explosions and murder, then… what. Fail to deliver and piss off all the folks who bought it for what it doesn’t contain?
It kinda serves to highlight that developers should have tighter reign over what marketing gets up to, rather than the other way around.
I haz Thief on Steam already, hopefully they allow it to be pre-loaded. Perhaps I’ll try out streaming for the first time?
I preloaded it yesterday afternoon after buying a key for $35AUD via Green Man Gaming.
Oh sweet, so they opened it up now? It wouldn’t let me last week.
Yup! The payload is 20GB FYI.
Cheers!
You gonna play with controller or kb/mouse?
Mine is pre-loaded. Going to play with a kb/m though. Thief (if done right) should need you to move around and aim with some haste to not be seen by guards two feet away.
Controller for this one. Doesn’t look like it requires a lot of precision etc.
Woo! PvZ:GW been on pre-order for a couple of weeks and is officially be my first purchase from ozgameshop (along with Titanfall.) Hopefully it arrives this week. Really keen to try it out at the weekend. I was saddened over the past couple of days at the lack of interest I had in turning on my Xbone at all.
Thief was gifted to me recently as a Birthday present, though I’d have preordered it myself if it weren’t. I’m not so big a fan of the original games that I’d find any major changes particularly offensive. I wager I’ll probably like it quite a bit.
Will probably also grab The Yawhg.
God damn you, Popcap. Frickin’ sell-outs, spitting on the PC PVZ fans who put you on the map! SOMEONE HOLD ME BACK! GRAAR!
Really looking forward to PVZ looks like it will be so much fun, thief looks really good too hurry up Thursday!
I’m gonna be picking up Thief but I’ve heard some not so good things about it. Thankfully if it’s shit I can get a refund and put the refunded credit on Infamous SS or South Park. Really don’t wanna get an Australian copy of South Park though because it’s censored.
You are right to have an exit strategy. Initial showings of Thief last year included quick-time events, CoD-style set-pieces including running through exploding corridors, and an leveling-up/skill system with exp from combat but not exploration/stealing.
The only thing they could do worse with the franchise is stuff it full of microtransactions, used to buy character skins in a tacked-on multiplayer mode.
Edit: Oh shit, what if that’s a real thing, I haven’t even looked that up…
Oh thank god. They were going to but eventually decided not to.
mm but they have changed almost everything that the Fans hated from that original video, I have high expectations still.
Major Mayhem? Is that the iOS game from Adult Swim?
That shit was fun!
Wow I was so excited for thief that I completely forgot tales came out this week as well, why does this year have to be so good for games, I just wish I had more free time to play them all.
I love the Thief series, but I know these big expensive games have to modernized some of their mechanics to suite the newer audiences, to try make more money (not saying I like it, but I kind of understand).
I went in with that same attitude when I first played DX:HR at launch, and it was a great game & a worthy modern sequel to my favorite game of all time (the original DX, not IW). My friends who were also hardcore fans of the original Deus EX were far more critical of HR, because they expected it to play similar to the original (which would be awesome, but I was never going to happen).
So I’m hoping for the same with Thief. I might not live up to greatness of the older ones, but I’m sure it’ll be a fun game regardless. If you expect to be like other games, prepare to be disappointed, because unfortunately times (and the tastes of the mainstream) change.
Or maybe I’ve just had exceptions of great sequels to old franchises beaten out me over years of disappointment and have become submissive. Who knows.
(I would love an old school Thief game though :D)
Good attitude.
Sure it would be great to play the old school game you know and love with modern graphics but times change and the company just wouldn’t make the money that’s required.
No one owes us anything so sit back and enjoy OR just don’t buy.
Excited for Thief, but heard rumours today on Reddit about Gamespot giving it 6/10. Might still pick it up if the ‘meh’ scores keep coming in, but not on launch as I am currently planning to do. (Arkham Origins is great as well. Mediocrity FTW!)
I am a massive fan of Thief, but I feel I am different to most ‘fans’ (this is for all games) as I never have specific ideas of how the game should be or what im expecting etc, I just get the next game in the set (I.e. AC1 AC2 AC 3 etc) and play them for what they are and I always have fun and enjoy them.
I have never once been disappointed in any game I have played doing it this way. I cant wait for Thief to arrive!!!