Welcome to Through the Looking Glass

Get the full press release and some images at Tribal War. Here's a taste:

BELLEVUE, WA (April 25, 2003) - Vivendi Universal Games today announced development of Tribes: Vengeance, the next installment in the world-renowned and award-winning Tribes videogame series. Due in late 2004 only for PCs, the game is being developed by Irrational Games, known for some of the game industry’s most respected and revered titles, including System Shock 2 and Freedom Force.

“One of the goals for Tribes: Vengeance is to take single-player story telling to the next level,” said Philip O’Neil, VU Games’ SVP of Sales & Marketing. “We want to immerse the gamer in the story similar to the way a blockbuster film pulls you in. Our challenge to Irrational Games was to create a game that grabs hold of the player and never lets go, and they have risen to the task.”

Thanks for letting us know, Phil!

Very interesting...

Game Designer wanted at Arkane Studios: We're looking for a Designer who's worked in the US or England and who would be willing to move to Lyon (France) and join Arkane Studios' team to work on our next game.

Required skills: communication, writing and level design (3D, using CSG editors). Script coding would be a plus. Please contact us by email at job@arkane-studios.com

Toronto, Ontario, March 31, 2003 – DreamCatcher Games today announced a worldwide deal with Arkane Studios to publish Arx Fatalis for the Xbox™ video game system from Microsoft. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Arx Fatalis is a first-person RPG, which plunges players into an amazingly complex fantasy-world of trolls, goblins and ‘Snake-women’. Creating weapons, solving puzzles and completing amazing quests, gamers become heroes as they battle in an evil world. Players will also need to master a unique real-time magic system to cast more than 50 different spells based on 20 different runes.

Arx Fatalis takes full advantage of the power of Xbox, utilizing the unique asset-caching tools for smoother play and the amazing processing power to support complex A.I. Arx Fatalis will also take advantage of Xbox’s superb Dolby-Digital Surround Sound and unique hard-drive.

“The signing of Arx Fatalis is a signal that DreamCatcher is serious about publishing great console games,” said Richard Wah Kan, CEO of DreamCatcher Interactive Inc. “The game has had great success on the PC, and we’re confident that we’ll have even more success on Xbox.”

“We’re very excited about developing Arx Fatalis for Xbox,” said Raphael Colantonio, CEO of Arkane Studios. “The console has great capabilities which will allow us to give gamers the best version of Arx Fatalis they could ever dream of!”

Arx Fatalis will ship to stores in Winter 2003 with a suggested retail price of $39.99 (USD). The ESRB rating has yet to be announced.

That URL again:click

Sounds like this guy's idea of JC Denton isn't very close to my idea of him... heh. I wonder how similar this movie JC will be to DX2's NPC JC. We'll have to see how it goes.

This is Anarchic Fox, speaking to you as one who has, until recently, held a distant and aloof position - a judge of thieves, not a thief himself. All of that changed last night, for I found myself put to the test by one Master Nightfall of the Circle of Stone and Shadow.

As I swam through the sewers under his target's foundations, I knew that the stain and shame of thievery had now marked me permanently, and as I slid, shivering, across the inn's roof, I foresaw years of hardship and bloodshed to come. But the skill with which I slipped the riches of unsuspecting guests past their unseeing eyes spoke louder than my coward's conscience. The Circle of Stone and Shadow is here; its dark story has begun...

...And I am caught fast in its grip.

The Circle is kind to its new agents; the initial assignment, this test of skill, will be joyful and easy compared to what is yet to come. Some of you, the more experienced taffers, will find a small smile adorning your face as a familiar locale glides into view, as talented fingers dip into familiar pockets. The rest of you will delight in the smooth performance of a mission, and the novelty of a new life.

Countless taffers will stalk the wooden hallways of the Grieving Burrick, and countless gloved hands will draw the priceless artifacts from their owners' chests; I hope many will haunt the inn's interior with the silent serenity that only a master thief knows, just as I have done. After you have proven your worth, you will be a member of the Circle, its machinations your own, its tale set into motion by your actions.

Master Nightfall will be pleased.

I really hope everyone likes this mission. :) So does Mokkis, Totality, and the rest of the team. I'm very proud of the work they've done. Thanks for playing.

If TTLG goes down, Jason has a forum up that you all can use to talk about this mission if you'd like. It's at http://thief.math.uh.edu/forum/

GameSpot has posted up its voluminous awards, and some of our favorite games have made an appearance:

Freedom Force uses its super powers to garner the Best Story award, along with honorable mentions for best music and best artistic graphics, and a rather backhanded honorable mention as one of the year's best surprises.

Arx Fatalis grabbed an honorable mention for Best Sound and found itself in the list of nominees for Best RPG alongside Morrowind.

Hi TTLG peeps, best fans ever:
I'm writing to say bye, because today's my last day at Ion Storm. I've got a great replacement, Denise Fulton, who has been working with me, getting up to speed for several weeks. She's a big fan of Thief and of immersive sims in general, and I know she'll do a great job leading/supporting our kick-ass team.
I'm not leaving for another game company (not sure there's a better one...), I'm making a big life/career change toward health care. Anyway, I just wanted to say an official goodbye, and to mention that the dedication of our fan base has always been touching (as well as helpful!). I'm sorry that the last 2 communiques y'all have had from the Thief team have been departures. Good new will come soon - all I can tell you now is that the game is looking unbelievably good.

I can't wait to play Thief 3, can you!?!

--Lulu LaMer
ex-Producer, Thief 3
Ion Storm Austin

Thanks for all your hard work Lulu and welcome to the Thief World, Denise!