Thief Should Remind Us to Avoid the Pre-Release Hype

Looking forward to the reboot of Thief? You shouldn’t be; amid horror stories concerning the game’s development, Eidos Montreal, the studio developing the game, just saw their General Manager, Stephane D’Astous, resign.

[malokevi]

Before hearing all of this noise as of late, I already though that the E3 demo for this game looked bland and terrible.

Now, the news seems to be confirming my suspicions.

Oh well, I never played the originals, so I have no expectations. Doesn't look like I will bother with this game, especially with so many great titles on the way.

[dedicatedtogamers]

After playing Dishonored last year, I'm holding Thief (and similar large-level exploration choose-your-own-path games) up to that standard. Dishonored is part of why I was so bummed by Bioshock Infinite's linearity.

[toxic-inferno]

Dishonored is a peculiar story for me. I own it, and absolutely love it (would certainly rate it 9/10), but for some reason, still haven't finished it. I don't know why - something about it just doesn't draw me in.

I'll get round to finishing it one of these days... just not sure when.

[EDIT: Sorry, forgot the whole point of my comment!]

I just can't help think that Thief might go the same way...

[cyguration]

@toxic-inferno

I have some games like that as as well, I think they call it Blockbuster Burnout or AAA fatigue or something like that.

I think the biggest problem is the over-saturation of the experience -- we're kinda of bombarded with a lot of these games that beg for our time and yet despite their strong initial appeal, they're not really setup for deep commitments.

I find myself starting a lot of AAA titles and then just not finishing them or losing interest quickly, even if the game isn't bad.

[dedicatedtogamers]

@ toxic

Dishonored is at its best when you're killing and using stealth to kill more people. I admit, I played the game stealthy at first and I enjoyed it, but on my second playthrough I tried to be a skilled killer and that's what made me fall in love with the game. Here are just two links that show how crazy you can be in combat if you try:

http://kotaku.com/5962581/t...
http://kotaku.com/5951894/t...

[Logak]

Well most people who played Thief before Dishonored would have held Dishonored to that standard. It did not make it to that standard in my opinion.
Thief 1 and 2 were easily the greatest stealth games I have ever played, easily excelling in every area Dishonored did not such as; atmosphere, story, characters, levels and stealth mechanics. I just hope the new Thief will attempt to emulate the originals thief games.

[starchild]

The original Thief games are amazing games. I think the Thief reboot could still be good. I don't think these kinds of troubles mean the game will be bad.

[Abriael]

So we're basically deciding that a game is bad way before its release? Yeah good idea.

Not.

Biased, unprofessional (and grammatically atrocious) article. Not worth the click.

[Master-H]

Well, the gameplay video from E3 looks fun, not as good as Dishonored imo but still good.

[Logak]

And Dishonored is not as good as Thief 2 lol

[Tevolofox]

your actually fully retarded you have obviously never played dishonored its amazing better than all those old s**t games

[Murad]

@Tevolofox
You're obviously just a douche.

[despair]

The fuck am I seeing a site telling you to cancel your preorders and write off a game because of one unconfirmed and anonymous report from polygon, that they have trouble with the game. Wow these people should be shut down, this kind of irresponsible and reckless reporting can hurt people's real livelihood all for hits.

[Lboogieskells]

I must admit I like some things about Polygon's website. But there is something very unethical about some of their articals.At times it seems the writers are on a personal vendetta.

[cyguration]

WRONG!

It's irresponsible to promote, advertise or influence people to pre-order a game based on hype, a few game trailers and a smoke & mirrors E3 presentation.

Are you so quick to forget Aliens: Colonial Marines?

I'm glad a site has balls to tell people NOT to fall for the hype.

Don't take on the demeanor of a reputation manager just because a game you're looking forward to gets called out on its hype.

[despair]

Ooh...quote the one game out of thousands as reason to justify this bullshit piece. They showed the game twice, twice playable and twice liked by some and dislikes by others. All games get this, why didn't you complain about the bioshock infinite gameplay reveal that never happens in the game, it was technically misleading, but the main elements remained, as did some of the scenes even if they were broken up.

Many games get hype and use scripted events and smoke and mirrors in their showings to promote the games. Sometimes it turns out like those and sometimes they disappoint so why not give them the same benefit here as we did infinite, that turned out great.

[cyguration]

Dude, it has nothing to do with "giving them a chance" it has everything to do with pre-order hype being irresponsible in the first place.

I don't think any pre-order hype is good because it's rare games turn out good and most times it's a gamble on the end of the consumer to pre-order without being able to play-test the game first (sort of like what Steam has opted to do with the early access where pre-order literally lets you play the game while its being developed and offer feedback to the devs).

If pre-orders worked the way Steam's pre-access worked then it would be a different thing, but in the case of AAA titles there is no pre-access unless it's a multiplayer beta and rarely ever do you get to send worthwhile feedback to the devs other than bugs and glitches.

It's a broken system and it's not journalism at all to feed people hype for pre-orders. This piece at least does the responsible thing of warning people first, something NONE of the big websites do for pre-ordering an AAA game.

[despair]

Except this game didn't get this preorder hype you are talking about, it was just a new game with 2 showings, why not complain about GTA V or COD or any number of games that you can preorder now and on occasion millions will preorder before launch.

Preordering is guaranteeing your copy and making sure you get it at launch, that's all, its not a broken system because its consumer choice and we should not be emphatically told to preorder or not preorder.

Not to mention the preorder deals and bonuses they offer now, some good, some unfair and some bad but its all incentives and coaxing for you to get the game. I preorder a number of games, right now I have 3 PS4s, 1 Xbox One, Xillia CE, FFX/X-2, KH 1.5 HD, GTA V, Watch Dogs, KZ Shadow Fall, Beyond Two Souls and Dragon's Crown all preordered and I will not regret any of them or consider myself a fool or idiot for doing so.

This piece does not warn people, it does the same thing you yourself are against, it overhypes a position or game unreasonably in the expectations of getting attention. They are saying to not get the game based on very very flimsy evidence and speculation and that is the irresponsible bit. As far as I'm concerned they are no better than Gearbox with Aliens: Colonial Marines in terms of giving misleading information.

Oh and pre-ordering from Amazon like I did will cost you nothing until release and gives you a lot of time to change your mind before launch.

[sdozzo]

Looks like dishonored. Not good or bad. Let's wait and see.

[Logak]

More like Thief looks like Dishonored :)

[SITH]

That is 100% what I said when I saw the demo months ago. I saw dishonored in the gameplay.

[Logak]

Goddaamit, that wasn't what I mean't to say... I was mean't to say Dishonored looks like Thief, whoops.

[sdozzo]

I see you working.

[Tevolofox]

i love doodles

[Tevolofox]

willy penis sperm