After the disappointment of Hitman: Absolution, developers IO Interactive came to the Internet with their collective hat in their collective hands. Without quite admitting that Absolution’s small levels, linear missions, wonky AI, more personal story, and bottomless pockets didn’t pan out, they did write an open letter mentioning that they plan to do away with all those things for the next Hitman game. Reminding people that it’s still being made and they really did mean all that, IO have shown off a little concept art including a building which, they say, “on its own is larger than any location in Hitman: Absolution.”

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With Square’s Thief causing a great many of the Looking Glass/Ion Storm faithful to adopt a bulldog chewing a wasp facial expression for the best part of a month (I’m kidding of course – they’ll retain that expression for at least twenty years), interest in Garret’s earlier tealeaf adventures has heightened. Even the series’ former red-headed stepchild, Deadly Shadows, has itself a new moment in the sun. Assorted fixes have long been available, but a newish and very appealing one is the removal of all loading screens from the game’s notoriously chopped-up missions. … [visit site to read more]

Sometimes you want to charge guns, swords, and words a-blazin into a game world and tame the land until Iron Maiden writes a song about you. Other times, you just want to heft your heavy eyelids, sip a light tea, and gently sail through friendly old places made new again. You’ve got a long day ahead of you, but you don’t have to venture out into the cruel sadlands of life just yet. Remember better days. Here, let me help with videos of the original BioShock and Deus Ex: Human Revolution re-realized in Unreal Engine 4. They’re quite a sight.

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Well now, here is a brilliant little surprise. Who’d have thought the best game set in the Thief universe this year would be an itsy bitsy isometric Ludum Dare 29 entry? Maybe that’s a bit of an overstatement, but Beneath The City really is a smart (though sadly brief) execution of a really fun idea. In short (but undeniably stout), it’s a real-time turn-based stealther set in Thief’s City. Each time you dash in any direction with a lithe tap of an arrow key, so too does every guard on the map. There’s also light sources to account for, water arrows to fling, and a mystery to partially unravel. Garrett – the real> Garrett – would be proud.

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Texture packs, replacement models, and post-processing mods can do a lot to pretty a game up, but they can’t conceal that jagged old level geometry. It’s an awful lot more work to re-do and update levels but by gum, the folks at Deus Ex: Revision are putting in the time. The Caustic Creative team have been tarting up and reworking Deus Ex‘s levels with more props, more decorative architecture, and fancier lighting.

Version 1.0 of the “re-imagining” mod had been due on May 12 but due a mysterious alluring offer it’s pushed back into the nebulous “near future,” those PC Gamer chaps have spotted. In the meantime, we’ll have to make do with a new video showing off a few of the reworked levels.

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News of the now: there is a newish Deus Ex game on Steam. Deus Ex: The Fall is a conversion of the mobile game from a few years back, one that did an okay job of squeezing down to be prodded and poked at by commuters. I warn you, despite being a slice of Human Revolution-esque Deus Ex, the launch trailer below makes it look pretty bad. Better augment your eyes before watching.

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“We are about to reveal a new game!” No Time To Explain dev/burgeoning indie publisher Alex Nichiporchik told me over Skype. Almost reflexively, I braced myself for an excited slurry spew about some crazy new platformer or a zany comedy adventure or an emotional tale that would rock me to my very core. “It’s basically a fusion of Just Cause 2 and Battlefield 3,” he proceeded to tell me. “…Oh,” I replied, briefly mistaking a flock of birds fluttering by outside for a car tethered to a plane with a wildman surfing atop it, as I often do. “Go on.” And so he did. Go below to find out about JetGetters‘ plane-jacking antics, its accompanying Kickstarter (because of course), how TinyBuild hopes to make dogfights more interesting, shifting levels, purposefully limited player counts, and why TinyBuild’s not on board with free-to-play. >

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We tried to play Thief: The Dark Project and chat about it. Honest! But Twitch, the purple scab of a service, wouldn’t cooperate with one of the most storied series starters in gaming history. It’s almost like I shouldn’t have expected a 15-year-old game to be compatible with a crazy space-age cyberfuture streaming platform, but no, that’s just ridiculous. At any rate, today – for real this time – I will be joined by >former Thief: The Dark Project director Greg LoPiccolo and longtime Thief series designer/Thief: Deadly Shadows director Randy Smith. >Expect stories from the dank depths of the first three Thieves development chambers, inside info on what could ve been, and opinions from series vets on Eidos Montreal s reinvention of their storied stealther. >

This will be a pretty special episode, so make sure to tune in. We’re kicking off at 2 PM PT/10 PM GMT. A little late, I know, but come on: only amateur thieves skulk around during the (UK) day. >

Update: We’re done! It went quite well, all things considered. Watch the full thing below.

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This week’s episode of A Game And A Chat is very special. Very special indeed. For one, I’ve got two whole guests this time – namely, former Thief: The Dark Project director Greg LoPiccolo and longtime Thief series designer/Thief: Deadly Shadows director Randy Smith. Yes, it is time to talk (and play) all things Thief. Classic Thief, nu-Thief, and everything in between. Expect stories from the dank depths of the first three Thieves’ development chambers, inside info on what could’ve been, and opinions from series vets on Eidos Montreal’s reinvention of their storied stealther. This is one you absolutely should not miss. >

We’ll be kicking off at 11 AM PT/7 PM GMT. Tune in below. >

Update: We’re having some technical troubles. New kick off ETA coming shortly.

Update 2: No end in sight to the technical issues. We’re rescheduling for the same time tomorrow. Apologies to everyone for what was, frankly, an unmitigated disaster.

Update 3: I finally got Thief working with Twitch! So it’s a lock: tomorrow at 11 AM PT/7 PM GMT. This will finally happen.

Update 4: This feature is cursed, clearly. A scheduling issue has come up, so we’re doing this tomorrow at 2 PM PT/10 PM GMT. A late, spooky night show for Thief. Kinda makes sense I guess.

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So it continues. It’s once again preening season in the gaming industry (Start of the year! Financial results! Losses! Fun, fun, fun!), and big studios are tightening their stylishly arrayed goth belts. 2K Czech, EA’s Ghost Games, Irrational, Disney Interactive, and Turbine have all taken their licks on the chopping block, and now reports suggest that Thief and Deus Ex developer Eidos Montreal is up next. Kotaku sources suggested that more than 20 developers are back out on the mean streets of the city after spending eons working on the mean streets of The City. We got in touch with Square Enix, and they confirmed the unfortunate news.

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