Let me Point this out as an FYI.
Ion Storm Austin Games Released as of April 3, 2004:
Deus Ex
Deus Ex: Invisible War
Let's Deux Ex was real good game and won several awards, but suffered from sales because the game was too intimidating to some people.
Deus Ex:IW has a good premise and game design, but the story wasn't deep enough for some fans. Warren Spector mentioned this at the GDC last month and mentioned the next DX game will be more involving than DX:IW. DX:IW faults were the development of 2 identical version for PC/Xbox. Here's what should've happened:
DX:IW Release Xbox Version is late 2003, PC Version pushed backed to Early 2004.
PC Version should've been pushed back to early 2004 simply because some crucial memory leaks were present and interface needed a slight a change of heart. I'm however impressed that Ion Storm managed to develop 2 versions simultaneously and still cranked out somewhat of a good game. Next time they'll have to things differently when doing simultaneous development projects.
Everyone has been saying Thief 3 will suck because of this same stage is happening with it. Here's a point I want to make regarding Thief 3 being developed cross platform.
Thief 3 isn't as complex as DX:IW was so Ion Storm can focus more on stealth and none of these excessive combat features and thus Ion Storm doesn't have to code interactive conversations like in DX:IW. The Conversation alone in DX:IW were thousands of pages code and that takes a good chunk of time to get working correctly. Thief 3 will not suffer because the Dev team isn't as constrained to get different systems or optimizations put into Unreal Engine to enhance the Thief 3 itself. Ion Storm is able to create a better game and increase visuals from a graphics standpoint more than they could've with DX:IW time constraints Ion Faced.
Making an early judegemnt on a game is not good. You don't know how the game plays or feels so I suggest wait for a demo(if any) and then piss and moan after you get a taste of Thief 3 and go from there.
-JollyRigger