Surprise! Out of almost thin air, a pair of unofficial patches have been released for PC classics System Shock 2 and Thief 2 that not only allow the games to be safely played on modern hardware (and operating systems), but look great while they're doing it.

Their origins are a bit of a mystery; they turned up yesterday on French forum Ariane4ever, uploaded by "Le Corbeau". Their benefits, though, are tremendous. I've spent the morning wheeling through System Shock 2 and, while it's obviously a little spartan, the smooth, and more importantly stable 1920 × 1080 visuals are something to behold.

There are two files available for each game; patches for those who already own them, and demos for those who don't (and just want to see the improvements to visuals and performance).

Mises à jour Thief 2 v1.19 et System Shock 2 v2.4 [Ariane4ever, via Chris Remo]