Goodbye, Ion Storm; Thief: DS demo now available

[Intrepid Homoludens]

Deus Ex

Tis a sad, sad day (also here).

And yet, I can only sense good things for Spector, Smith, and the team beyond the draconian, bitch confines of Eid-ass. They're far too good for that company, too innovative and visionary. Let's hope the best for them and that sometime in the near future they'll huddle together again and conspire to create yet another fantastic new game. Long live The Looking Glass Studios and Ion Storm Austin!

On a rather ironic note, the demo for Thief: Deadly Shadows has just been released. Note that XP seems to be the only way to play this, but I'm d/l it anyway to see if it'll cough on my ME. If not, ah well, I'll soon upgrade to XP anyhow. Mirrors are available on Gamer's Hell.

[schepton]

Yeah since Deus Ex they have been going downhill, maybe Warren can make a new company and some good games.

[Chris]

Yeah since Deus Ex they have been going downhill, maybe Warren can make a new company and some good games.

Er, how so? They've only released five games, in the following order (someone correct me if I'm wong):

Daikatana

Deus Ex

Anachronox

Invisible War

Thief 3

Their worst game, which most would agree was Daikatana, was released four years ago. After Deus Ex, when you claim they were going downhill, they released Anachronox. That game was very well received, and seems to have aged even better. It doesn't have quite the critical acclaim garnered to DE, but calling it a step down would be a bit unfair. Their next game was IW, which obviously didn't do as well as their previous two efforts, but they followed up with Thief 3, which has been getting some of their best reviews yet.

[Intrepid Homoludens]

Wait a minute! Daikatana was made by another team, another studio. Spector and his own team had nothing to do with it.

[Chris]

I was just including all Ion Storm-developed games. Ion Storm wasn't always as associated with Spector as it is now, and he hasn't designed all of its games.

[ysbreker]

http://www.rpgdot.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=92809

[vimes]

Wait a minute! Daikatana was made by another team, another studio. Spector and his own team had nothing to do with it.

There were two parts in Ion Storm : Ion Storm Austin leaded by Harvey Smith & Warren Spector and the already dead Ion Storm Dallas leaded by Tom Hall and John Romero.

Ion Storm Austin gave birth to Deus Ex and Thief II, Ion Storm Dallas produced Anachronox and Daikatana.

[RLacey]

Er, how so? They've only released five games, in the following order (someone correct me if I'm wong):

Daikatana

Deus Ex

Anachronox

Invisible War

Thief 3

Methinks you forgot critically underwhelming Dominion: Storm Over Gift 3, an allegedly shocking(ly poor) RTS...

[Chris]

Well, whaddya know. That was releasd in 1998. Was it their first game?

[Marek]

Dominion was bought off another developer. Ion Storm thought they could raise themselves some quick cash by finishing it as a sideproject. However, it took much longer than expected, and ended up not selling well at all.

[Jayel]

So Ion Storm so far published

2 poor games (dominion and daikatana)

2 good games (invisible war and thief 3)

2 amazing games (deus ex and anachronox)

nice track record

[Erkki]

So Ion Storm so far published

2 poor games (dominion and daikatana)

2 good games (invisible war and thief 3)

2 amazing games (deus ex and anachronox)

Thief 3 is definitely better than Invisible War, maybe even 'amazing'.

[schepton]

Invisible War is a horrible game when compared to the original.

[RLacey]

Dominion was bought off another developer. Ion Storm thought they could raise themselves some quick cash by finishing it as a sideproject. However, it took much longer than expected, and ended up not selling well at all.

This man knows his stuff ...

[Chris]

This man knows his stuff ...

Who else would recognize friggin members of the Bitmap Brothers walking around a convention?