Ashpolt on 7/7/2013 at 16:55

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I think Chade's already responded to most of this, but I'll have a look at the links and respond to reach briefly:

VG24/7: They seem to be just complaining about the fact that stealth is unrealistic - a topic that has already been covered on this forum several times. He seems to want cover based stealth rather than shadow stealth. Is it realistic? No. Does it work within the context of the game? Yes. More importantly - in a way, at least - does it work broadly similarly to the older Thief games? Yes.

Padinga: They only really complain about the bridge section, but say they enjoyed the infiltration, which is basically the same thing we've been saying. Given that the infiltration sections will apparently make up the vast majority of the game, and the "spectacle" levels will be few and far between, this isn't too big an issue. An issue though, sure, but not huge.

illgaming.in: This guy didn't play the game, just watched it, and his article isn't really negative. Why did you choose this one?

GiantBomb: Oh, this one's a video. Watching something else as I type this, so not going to watch. If it's particularly worth it I'll go back to it later on, but judging from the rest of these links...

incgamers: This guy has not only not played the game, he hadn't even seen the gameplay video at the time of writing. Come on!

The Escapist: Hasn't played it.

Polygon: Contains information about studio politics, then uses that to make assumptions about the game. Their thinking is logical, but that doesn't make it correct. And again, this was written in April, before the press actually played the game. I had a search to see if they'd posted any opinions after actually playing the game, but I couldn't find any.

...So, in summary, I asked you to post links to the "many other" examples of "large sites" who had played the game and posted negative previews. Excluding the GiantBomb video which I admittedly didn't watch, you posted 6 links, of which:

-4 haven't played the game (at least at the time of writing the articles you linked to)
-3 come from sites that could hardly be described as "large." One of them's little more than a blog, which anyone can do - I know, because I run one myself.
-3 don't really talk about the game itself, just politics / voice acting
-1 (of the only 2 which had played it!) enjoyed the infiltration, which will make up the vast majority of the game.
-1 (the other one from above) is basically complaining that the shadow stealth system works like in the old Thief games.

...This doesn't really speak to an overwhelmingly negative press reaction to me. It reads more as clutching at straws, and massive perception bias.



I feel your comments so far deserve more than a few words. In an effort not to clutter up this page, (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tin_foil_hat) please see this link instead.



I can't agree with you here: as far as I'm concerned, Thief is far more faithful to its predecessors than DXHR was. I was going to type out a long list of reasons I think this, but I realised that at the core it's just down to one reason: I'm more of a hardcore Deus Ex fan, you're more of a hardcore Thief fan, and we'll both be more likely to be more excessively critical and overly nit-picky about "our" relative franchises than the other. But when I finally got to play DXHR, I realised that despite many changes I disagreed with (and still disagree with) it was still a very good game. I'm confident that when you finally play Thief, you'll feel the same way - as much as you might not believe it now.

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Thanks to those who are actually being rational and reasonable here (Beleg Cúthalion, auricgoldfinger, Tomi - to name a few just from this page.) Your posts make it worth staying around through the ranting, raving and insane conspiracy theories!

Still happy to answer any (sane) questions you might have. But as before, you'll get a quicker response if you post them over on the EM forums, as I check there more often than here.

Silverwolf on 7/7/2013 at 18:13

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Ashpolt: I'm done listening to your crap (and the EM moderators). Saying Thief 4 is far more faithful to its predecessors (considering all of the things EM has listed that's been removed) than DE:HR is truly delusional. People don't have to play the demo to see whats wrong. They can see the game play footage and see what they like and don't like. Your and the other EM people are just writing off much of what the unhappy fans are saying just to discredit them. They aren't going to worship at the altar of EM and praise the almighty Thief 4 as the greatest Thief game ever.

Tomi: waiting until the game comes out to complain about it is just plain stupid. Fans are letting EM know now what that see is wrong so that hopefully EM will actually make some changes before the game hits the shelves.

auricgoldfinger on 7/7/2013 at 18:36

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When I think that little of someone, I say nothing.

There isn't a continuum here: he's either lying or he's telling the truth. If someone's made their mind up to lie, what on earth is arguing with them in aid of? Do you expect them to break down and admit their sham? Or do you think you have to alert everyone else to the 'crap' they're spewing? That shows a low opinion of other people, who can, I think, decide for themselves.

pavlovscat on 7/7/2013 at 19:56

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EM could go pretty far in gaining some credit with hardcore fans here by selecting some players from THIS community to test drive this game and offer their opinions. Commentary will always be biased, but we'd at least get to see opinions from people with whom we are familiar and therefore have a chance of filtering BS from reality. At the very least, how about some reviewers who have given less than favorable reviews.

If the game is really as good as all that, it will stand up to scrutiny. And, who knows, EM might even gain some credible converts outside the EM umbrella. If it sucks, then EM really doesn't lose anything because they don't need the niche Thief players to buy the game & play it over & over for years as we've done with the previous Thief games. They need to recoup the large amount of money already invested in producing this game. They need console kids & modern gamers to buy it, even if they play it once & never touch it again.

Azaran on 7/7/2013 at 20:44

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It's just a conspiracy and we can post freely over there? Great. So you guys won't mind if I post a link to our petition over there right?
I mean, it doesn't violate forum rules, and there's no rational reason to suppress it. Is there?...