brethren

This is just a bunch of fear mongering and hyperbole - Trump may be racist and sexist and a bunch of other things, but he's just a man. And he's not Hitler. The American system of government only gives so much power to one person, it's called checks and balances. He may pass some bad laws into effect, and enact some questionable policies, but worrying about your immediate personal safety is going a bit over the top. And no, I know what you're thinking - but I voted for Hillary. After what we've been through with Iraq and the Middle East, there's no way Congress is ever going to approve of any kind of war without being an extreme situation.

Wow, I had a really tough time with this mission set. On one hand, it's beautifully crafted, the architecture and attention to detail were phenomenal, and the story was complex and unlike anything I've seen in an FM before. As far as creating a world, it's hard to beat Down by the Riverside. The ship itself was just a thing of beauty, and the starting mansion was much the same. But in the end, I thought the sneaking was just too difficult. The spaces were so cramped, with almost no place to hide, and moving around was near impossible in some areas (such as the lowest level of the ship with metal floors and no shadows). Just completely frustrating for me. I love exploring every inch of a level, and here it was just not possible without systematically going through the level and knocking everyone out (which usually took multiple attempts). Not typically the way I like to play FMs. I suppose I could have played on a lower difficulty level, but with the layouts the way they were, I can't see that things would have worked out much differently. On a very minor side note - the flickering electric lights on the ship were supremely annoying, I turned off the first two I saw, got shocked both times which knocked my health down by 1/2, and then I never touched them again. In any case, Dragofer, despite my complaints, I tip my hat to you, that's one hell of a mission you put together. I think in the end, I'm just a bad thief, so I like things a little easier.

If you use it with this mod, you might be on to something. Sneak Tools for Skyrim

I got the same thing (aas_rat out of date) and just finished the mission, so you should be fine.

Great missions Spooks, I personally loved the mazelike structure and figuring out where to go and how to get there, but other's mileage will vary on that. Really good narrative too with lots of backstory and little sub plots. I clocked over three hours on this one, and that doesn't include any reloads. Gotta admit, I get frustrated with many TDM missions because the difficulty can be more ramped up than standard Thief, but I thought this one was challenging without being unfair - good places to hide, good AI patrols,etc. Lots to do too, good objectives and all that - my only comment there would be that I think would have made the objectives mandatory, as players could potentially miss out on the entire part of the mission - I almost did. Considering the title of the mission, that just seemed odd. Anyway, great fun, one of the best missions I've played, looking forward to your next one.

Well Hitman has sold 270,000 copies, and Alekhine's Gun has sold...3,000. So no, not really. In any case, yes, I've also been waiting for all of the episodes to be released before buying Hitman, and I think there will be a big surge in sales once that happens. That final one is due out in about 2 weeks, so we'll find out soon.

What do yo mean by that, exactly?

Funny, there's a similar discussion going on over at the TTLG thread. I wouldn't dream of asking him to do any fan work free of charge. I'm more interested in what he can and can't do - for instance, is he allowed to play a thief type character in other games, etc. As much as our communities like the guy, and show appreciation for the work he's done over the years, he's a pro. It would be extremely insulting to ask him for any kind of free work, and he'd probably hang up on me if I did!

I wonder how much SR charges per hour for his services? (I won't be asking him that, btw). I think it would be cool if there was a TDM mission where he voiced one of the TDM protagonists, like Farrell or Thomas Porter or William Steele, but tweaked it a bit so the voice doesn't sound exactly like Garrett. Maybe something a bit more British.

The easiest way to apply the New Dark patch (plus other enhancements) to Thief 2 is by using Tafferpatcher.

Yes, I planned on mentioning TDM to him and also what his stance would be on contributing to it, if he were ever asked.

Hey all - We're going to conduct a little Q&A with Stephen Russell - if you have any questions you'd like to submit, do it here: http://www.ttlg.com/forums/showthread.php?t=147064

Myst 3/4 are easily obtainable used through either Amazon or Ebay, for no more than 5 or 10 bucks each. I guess the real question is whether they run properly on today's PCs. If you're really desperate, you can always pick up an orignal Xbox somewhere and play those versions (and also on the PS2 for Myst 3). And according to this reddit, all Myst games play fine on at least Windows 7. https://www.reddit.com/r/myst/comments/2tsy11/since_myst_iii_and_iv_are_not_on_steam_or_gog_how/

Polygon review is pretty good too: http://www.polygon.com/2016/8/25/12644808/obduction-review-myst-cyan-PC

I've been playing this too - everyone's mileage will vary depending on if you liked Myst/Riven back in the day, but personally I love it and am very impressed so far. I really love that it retains that old Myst feel but that it's a brand new IP. Visuals are gorgeous, and the puzzles seem challenging. I'm sort of at that stage where I'm just taking the whole world in, and trying to figure out what's going on and where everything is. Highly recommended, you should check it out for only $30.

Stephen Russell did do a bunch of voices for Fallout 4, the main one being Nick Valentine. It's very possible he did some of the SMs as well.

Ouch, Biker, I can't tell if you're just really picky or if our tastes just don't match up at all. I'm playing a game called The Solus Project right now, it's a first person exploration/survival game, where you crash land on an alien planet. Pretty interesting so far, but I'm just a few hours in.

I'm going to ignore the fact that you don't like old games. Three of my all-time faves here, great atmosphere and mood: System Shock 2 Condemned 1 Call of Cthulhu Dark Corners of the Earth Don't be such a graphics whore - play these games, they're excellent. Also, just going through my Steam list: Portal 1 and 2 Alien Isolation The Witness Vampire The Masquerade Bloodlines Miasmata Amnesia/Penumbra/SOMA Outlast Neon Struct Metal Gear Solid 5 Sir You Are Being Hunted State of Decay Firewatch I could go on....

Grayman - Ha, I was thinking more of something that would stick instantly, not over the course of 10 years. Wait, so, a vine arrow doesn't actually deploy any kind of rope/vine that you can climb up? Just creates a climbable surface? Man, you could have a lot of fun with that.

The idea of a vine sticking to stone seems odd - In T2 it made a bit more sense when a vine would wrap around a vent or grill structure.

It is patched, in my GOG library it lists the game as being "2.45 ND (GOG-11)." Not sure what that last part means though.

Has anyone played this yet? I see steam has it on sale for 50% off, but some of the site reviews I've read are brutally awful. Strangely enough, the Steam review are closer to just average.

Interesting demo, but TDM (and Thief) usually aren't so action or combat based. At least, I don't think that's how most people play. I'd say on average, a player probably only uses their bow 3-5 times per mission, if that. So this type of elaborate setup doesn't' seem worth it. It's probably better for a game like Far Cry or Crysis where you're using the bow on a more consistent basis.

Just a follow up on this, in case anyone cares. I did end up picking up a machine with these specs on Ebay for $300: HP Elitebook 8460w 14" i7 Quad Core 2.2 Ghz 8 GB RAM/500 GB HD AMD FIrepro 3900M GPU 1 GB This has worked just about as good as I could have hoped for. Keep in mind, this is very much a secondary machine, I have a more powerful desktop that can run about anything. This laptop just gives me the occasional fix I'm looking for on the road once in a while. It can pretty much run any Thief FM decent, including Keeper of Infinity and Death's Turbid Veil. I can get fps up into the 20s or more on those particular levels. Certain areas of King's Story are less than that. I can also run just about any TDM mission, with some tweaking. Sometimes I'd have to drop down to 1280x720, and/or turn off vertical sync (which seems to help a lot). Probably the mission I had the hardest time with was The Rats Triumphant, it was tough to get the fps up out of the teens on that one. Overall though, great little machine for my purposes. I couldn't really find anything used or refurbished with better specs on my budget, so this was the winner.

Nice finds there Biker - that last one looks great. Powerful and portable. Looks like they have a 30 day return policy, so maybe I'll try it out and see. I'm in the midwest U.S. (Wisconsin) if that helps.