thief
Latest
Square Enix's 54-game charity bundle includes Eidos and Ion Storm classics
Square Enix has released a 54-game bundle of Eidos title to encourage people to stay at home during the pandemic, with all profits going to charity.
BMW remotely locks a thief inside a car
Here's an unexpected perk of owning a tech-savvy car: it can serve as an impromptu jail. When a Seattle-area BMW 550i owner's car was stolen from a parking garage, police got BMW to remotely lock the luxury sedan while the thief was sleeping inside with the motor running. The culprit briefly tried to drive away when police woke him up, but it's not as if he could get very far being trapped in the cabin.
Robber arrested after Facebook suggests the victim adds him
People know people. It's how Facebook works. Now it's a random force for good, helping to track and convict a thief in Birmingham in the UK. Omar Famuyide was spotted on the social network's "people you may know" feature by one of his victims, after which UK police connected him to multiple robberies and firearms offenses. The BBC reports that he was jailed for 17 years for robbery, attempted robbery, possession of a firearm and possession of a knife.
Square Enix triple packs March to the US
The Ultimate Action Triple Pack and Ultimate Stealth Triple Pack from Square Enix will launch for Xbox 360 and PS3 in North America on March 31, a spokesperson confirmed to Joystiq today. The Ultimate Action Triple Pack includes Tomb Raider, Sleeping Dogs and Just Cause 2; the Ultimate Stealth Triple Pack features Thief, Hitman: Absolution and Deus Ex: Human Revolution. North American Amazon listings for both packs hit the 'net earlier this week, with a price tag of $30 each. The Ultimate Action and Ultimate Stealth packs launched in Europe last year. [Image: Square Enix]
Square Enix action, stealth triple packs head to North America
Square Enix is preparing to launch the Ultimate Action Triple Pack and Ultimate Stealth Triple Pack for PS3 and Xbox 360 in North America this year, according to listings on Amazon spotted by @Wario64. The Action Triple Pack includes Tomb Raider, Just Cause 2 and Sleeping Dogs; the Stealth Triple Pack features Thief, Hitman: Absolution and Deus Ex: Human Revolution. Each bundle is $30 and available for pre-order. The release date – December 31, 2015 – is most likely a placeholder. The Stealth and Action triple packs launched in Europe last year for £30 / €40 each. We've reached out to Square Enix for clarification on the release date. [Image: Square Enix]
Deals with Gold: D4, Thief, Sonic the Hedgehog catalog sale
Oddball Xbox One adventure game D4: Dark Dreams Don't Die headlines this week's Xbox Live Deals with Gold offerings, giving subscribers the chance to pick it up for 33 percent off its regular price. Be warned: it's weird. Like, really weird. The Xbox One versions of Thief, Murdered: Soul Suspect, and Sherlock Holmes: Crimes and Punishments are also on sale this week, while Xbox 360 owners can grab cheap copies of Sonic Generations, Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed, and other games starring Sega's exalted hedgehog. Listed price drops remain in effect through November 11. [Image: Microsoft]
PS4 games added to PSN's Summer Sale in Europe
PlayStation 4 owners in Europe have access to a catalog-spanning sale on the PlayStation Network this week that discounts Don't Starve: Console Edition, Metal Gear Solid 5: Ground Zeroes, Trials Fusion, and other platform standouts. PS4-specific Summer Sale highlights include Murdered: Soul Suspect for £29.99, Wolfenstein: The New Order for £44.99, and Thief for £29.99. A number of digital-exclusive PS4 games also see steep discounts this week, including Transistor for £11.59, TowerFall Ascension for £6.49, and SteamWorld Dig for £3.99. Sale prices are effective through August 20. Additional discounts are available for PlayStation Plus members. [Image: Ubisoft]
Dungeon Fighter Online thieves go to jail
A pair of cyber-thieves have been sentenced to two years of prison time in China for stealing from another player in Dungeon Fighter Online. The unemployed thieves stole the login and password of a player, accessed his account, and sold off his inventory to the tune of $6,405. They were caught soon after and will face not only jail but fines for the crime. Late last year 10 Chinese thieves were caught stealing World of Warcraft accounts and selling players' possessions. They too received about two years in jail and had to cough up fines. [Thanks to Hagu for the tip!]
Report: Thief movie under way from Vertigo, Prime
A Thief film is in development from Vertigo and Prime Universe, Hollywood news site Tracking Board reports. Adrian Askarieh and Roy Lee, two of the people behind film adaptations of Deus Ex and Minecraft, are tagged to produce. There's no extra juice to the report, but we can imagine what a Thief movie would look like: Garrett, the brooding and highly trained medieval burglar, is on a mission to steal an expensive trinket from a castle overlooking a seedy village. After an hour of establishing his sad backstory, Garrett sneaks past the guards, kills a few (silently), and makes it to the grand ballroom that houses the shiny object. He approaches it, reaches out a steady hand, and then – a voice interrupts him. He turns, only to be immediately blinded by the regal beauty of the queen. His heart is forever stolen. Tagline: Who's the real thief? What. A. Twist. (Please, Askarieh and Lee, don't do anything like that. Not that you would, but ... please.) [Image: Square Enix]
Square Enix revises forecasts, sales exceed expectations
Here's something you don't see much in the doom and gloom of financial season: Square Enix is revising its forecasts up because it's posted better sales than expected across the fiscal year. The Japanese publisher said several games recorded positive sales, such as Final Fantasy 14: A Realm Reborn, Final Fantasy X/X-2 HD Remaster, Thief and, yes, Tomb Raider: Definitive Edition. What a difference a year and 6 million sales overall makes. The company also cited cost reduction initiatives and exchange gains on the ever-weaker yen as factors contributing to a greater net profit than projected. Square Enix expects now to record a profit for the year ending March 31, 2014 of 6.6 billion yen ($64.9 million). That's up a whopping 88.6 percent from the company's minimum estimates, and a significant 10 percent up from max figures. We should learn more about Square Enix's finances when the company releases its annual report, but the picture looks rosier than this time last year. After deciding to reform its AAA business in the wake of weak sales on console, the publisher continues to be pleased with the progress of Final Fantasy 14: A Realm Reborn. Registrations surpassed the 2 million mark following last month's PS4 launch, and in today's statement Square Enix called out the MMORPG's software sales as "strong." [Image: Square Enix]
Amazon Gold Box Event discounts South Park, Lightning Returns, more
Brobdingnagian online retailer Amazon has kicked off another all-day Gold Box Event, bringing discounts to games like South Park: The Stick of Truth, Thief, Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy 13 and the Android-powered Ouya console. South Park: The Stick of Truth is today's Deal of the Day . Normally priced at $60, during the Event, South Park has been discounted by 28 percent to $43. Appropriately, the PlayStation 3 incarnation of Lightning Returns is one of the site's timed Lightning Deals. It goes on sale at 10AM PST, at which time its price will fall by 33 percent. Thief on PS4 is another Lightning Deal. It goes on sale at 2PM PST, though Amazon has yet to reveal the game's momentary new price. Rounding out this sales extravaganza is the Ouya, which serves as today's Bonus Deal. Instead of the console's standard $100 price tag, the device has been slapped with a 30 percent discount, reducing the cost of ownership to $70. For more details on this sale and the other non-gaming items up for cheap purchase, pay a visit to Amazon's Gold Box page. [Image: Square Enix]
Thief, Deus Ex-branded apparel, merch in Eidos Montreal online store
Gaming-themed apparel can be great when done well, but a healthy love for the involved series certainly helps, too. If you're a fan of Thief or feel inspired by Adam Jensen's fashion sense, Eidos Montreal launched an online shop this week full of t-shirts and other apparel. The selection of shirts is joined by a Crippled Burrick cap and pilsner glass, recalling the pub from the original Thief. Initiation hoodies and iPhone cases are available if you're keen on joining The Watch. There's also a Deus Ex-themed coat, lined with the golden triangle design prevalent in Deus Ex: Human Revolution's menus. If you need something to decorate the walls, pre-sales have also begun for two lithographs that recall the Thief and Deus Ex universes. The earliest estimated shipping date for either one is February 26, but since they're from a batch of 250 limited-edition prints, you'll want to place an order sooner rather than later if you're interested. [Image: Eidos Montreal]
Thief yoinks top spot in this week's UK Charts
It's no daylight robbery: Thief is a deserving UK chart leader, especially since we're knee deep in the Q1 downpour of new releases. The Eidos Montreal game fended off plenty of competition to record the second highest sales for a No.1 game this year, and 75 percent of those were on PS4 and Xbox One. The new releases that fell short of the crown jewels include Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare in 4th, Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2 in 10th, and placing just outside the top ten is PS3 HD-em-up Tales of Symphonia: Chronicles in 13th. Konami may've been hoping to see the second Lords of Shadow place higher, but it's still the second biggest debut for the franchise (in Chart Track history), only topped by the first game.
Joystiq Weekly: Titanfall, Thief review, Twitch Plays Pokemon and more
Welcome to Joystiq Weekly, a "too long; didn't read" of each week's biggest stories, reviews and original content. Each category's top story is introduced with a reactionary gif, because moving pictures aren't just for The Daily Prophet. This week's news of a new Tony Hawk game isn't exactly what we were hoping for, but it can't stop us from digging out our old cartridges and discs to revisit the series that made us mount real-life skateboards for the first time. Without the killer soundtracks and a focus on pulling off special moves that progressively got more insane with each entry, we might never have spent hours trying to learn how to ollie. Or earning fresh headaches from trying to drop into half pipes. Or building ramps out of scraps from the garage so we could grind our faces off on the pavement. Thankfully, a revitalization of childhood injury memories isn't the only thing the Joystiq Weekly has in store - news of a Titanfall bundle, reviews of Thief and Plants vs Zombies: Garden Warfare and a sociological exploration of Twitch Plays Pokemon are also available for your immediate consumption! Dive into this week's biggest moments in gaming right after the break. [Image: Robomodo]
'Stiq Tips: A Thief guide
You should probably understand right away that Thief is not an action game. You're not going to go in with swords a-blazin', hundreds of flasks of explosive liquid, and psychic powers, taking on an entire army at once. In fact, Thief actively encourages you not to fight, and in the game's challenge modes it detracts points for engaging in tussles. This is Thief, a tactical game that can actually get really tough compliments of its customizable difficulty system. Like, really, really tough.
Learn all about Thief in this pre-release primer
Thief is now complete and slated to hit retail shelves on February 25, but before Garrett dives into another kleptomaniacal adventure, publisher Square Enix hopes to bring everyone up to speed with this six-minute lesson on the perpetually gloomy world of Thief. [Image: Square Enix]
Joystiq Weekly: News, reviews and original content from January 27 - February 2
Welcome to Joystiq Weekly, a "too long; didn't read" recap of the week's most happening ... happenings. Yes. We'll summarize the biggest news, freshest reviews and original content from each week every Sunday, just in case you missed it while tending to your weekday grind. We'll also segue into each section with a reaction gif to the top story, because moving pictures aren't just for The Daily Prophet. Now that we've reached life's designated "timeout" known as the weekend, let's dive in to this week's biggest moments:
Thief Video Preview
What does your moral compass say about Thief, a game in which you covet all that glitters and pinch every penny like a delicious, mineral-heavy morsel before dropping it into your gaping pocket? In our new video preview we find there's still an illicit thrill in stealing professionally as master thief Garrett, who returns in this Eidos-Montreal reboot of 1996's Thief: The Dark Project. And let's be honest: having spent several games looting fresh corpses, eating curative sponge cakes straight from the garbage and gutting leopards for tacky ammo pouches, kleptomania just comes naturally to us all. Thief is coming to Xbox One, PlayStation 4, PC, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 on February 25. For more on the game's open world, read our last preview, "Stalking the City in Shadow."
Rumor: Deus Ex dev cancels unannounced, original IP
While Eidos Montreal continues work on both the Deus Ex franchise and on the upcoming Thief, a third, unrevealed project has been scrapped. Kotaku cites unnamed sources for this revelation, but notes that "two different developer sources" had linked the now-canceled game to the Japanese side of publisher Square Enix. Furthering that tenuous connection, the site points to a recent OXM interview with Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII gameplay director Yuji Abe, in which Abe suggests that Square Enix might one day allow Eidos to develop a Final Fantasy entry. "Obviously, Square Enix bought out Eidos a number of years ago, and now we have direct access to American development teams," stated Abe. "That's certainly been discussed within the company, the possibility of say, Eidos or maybe someone else to look after or maybe take on the Final Fantasy series." Was this canceled game a new Final Fantasy entry? Did it even exist? We attempted to contact Square Enix for more details, but never received a response.
Thief homage The Dark Mod steals spotlight for itself, goes standalone
The Dark Mod, a Thief: The Dark Project-inspired mod for Doom 3, has been made standalone, meaning you no longer require id Software's sci-fi horror romp to play. The mod was originally created by Broken Glass Studios as a way to re-experience the gameplay of Looking Glass Studios' 1998 stealth classic with updated graphics. Don't expect to play through the original Thief exactly as you remember it, though. Due to copyright issues, The Dark Mod cannot use characters, names, locations or any other copyrighted material from the Thief series. Instead, the mod offers community-created, piecemeal missions which take place in an original setting that shares the medieval and steampunk vibe of the original games. It's more of a Thief ho-mod-ge. Buh-dum-tish! Anyone with a taste for first-person stealth games can now download the game, free of charge, from the Dark Mod website. If you're hungry for an official expansion to the Thief universe, the Eidos Montreal-developed Thief is planning a heist for February of next year.
