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Dishonored screens take a stab at ... well, everything
It looks like Ezio and co. are getting a run for their money in Bethesda's latest, Dishonored. The new slew of screens depict more of the madness we've seen in previous Dishonored media: giant walkers, stabby knives, and ... let's call them "ladies of the night." Take a peek for yourself below.
Prey 2 delayed beyond 2012, has 'not been canceled'
Prey 2 "will not be released in 2012," Bethesda Softworks announced this morning. The game has apparently "not been canceled," but at this point doesn't match Bethesda's "quality standards."Bethesda released a statement this morning revealing the delay. "The delay is due to the fact that game development has not progressed satisfactorily this past year," it reads. Despite the game showing "great promise," the publisher is "unwilling to compromise our quality standards to meet a release schedule."The Human Head-developed sequel to 2006's Prey suffered rumors regarding its cancellation earlier this year – rumors which Bethesda refused to engage at the time. Given Bethesda's track record with shooting down cancellation rumors, that put Prey 2 in a nebulous place for the past month.Update: Bethesda declined to comment "beyond anything that's in the statement."
Dishonored's steamy, Dickensian world as seen from its rooftops
Yesterday's tease from Bethesda depicting a Kurt Cobain-esque character down on his luck was in no way indicative of today's blistering, vengeance-filled Dishonored trailer. Sure, we've seen the game's crazy giant walking machines before, but glimpsing them in action threw us right back to similarly terrifying experiences in and around City 17.Regardless, Arkane Studios' latest for Bethesda Softworks looks to be a thrilling mix of Assassin's Creed-like sneaking, BioShock-like power-based action, and ... uh ... early Industrialization era Neo-Darwinism. Color us intrigued! Take a look for yourself in the lengthy new trailer, just above.
Skyrim's voice-enabled Dragon Shouts arrive 'the week of April 23'
When Skyrim's Kinect functionality arrives some time during "the week of April 23," it'll come in five different languages (English, Italian, Spanish, German, and French). Bethesda revealed said details to CNN in an exclusive interview, wherein the concept was referred to as "Project Adam" and outed as having begun "shortly after the game's release in November."Despite the addition of Kinect to Skyrim in a voice-based way, Bethesda VP of marketing and PR Pete Hines said replacing any combat with physical actions in front of a Kinect sensor wouldn't make a lot of sense. "Doing combat and swinging your sword and all that stuff without a controller would dramatically change the game. We're trying to enhance the experience as we designed it with some additional functionality." We can't help but agree, Mr. Hines.Take a look at the upcoming Kinect support for Skyrim in the video just above.
Skyrim adds Kinect support for 'more than 200' voice commands
Bethesda Softworks announced this morning that The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim is getting Kinect support for "more than 200 voice commands" at some point this month via a title update. The developer promises the commands will apply to a variety of verbs across the world of Skyrim, from Dragon Shouts (Fus Roh Dah!) to follower instructions, and a mess of other voice-activated actions.The Kinect functionality for Skyrim is the latest product of Bethesda's internal Skyrim game jam, following on the heels of the 1.5 update that enabled kill cams. There's an adorable video showing off how it'll all work just above.Update: A Bethesda rep told Joystiq that the update is exclusive to the Xbox 360, despite Kinect existing on PC.
Skyrim Machinima Theater: The fall of Markarth
Not since the great battle of Skyrim have we seen such a an impressive example of machinima in Tamriel. Unsurprisingly, this video is by the same folks who brought us that previous epic battle.
Bethesda's Todd Howard on Skyrim's biggest development hurdle, fan-made mods, and what happens next
Todd Howard and his clan of designers from Bethesda Game Studios walked off the stage with top honors for 'Game of the Year' at the 2012 Game Developers Coice Awards last week, for The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. As the large group shuffled off to party, Howard, the company's boss, took a few moments to speak with the media.Topics of discussion quickly merged into one frame of thought: what happens next? Everyone wants to know when the first piece of downloadable content will launch, how will it change the award-winning experience, and more.Howard, being as used to sidestepping media inquires about unannounced items as he is working with a talented team, quickly shot those questions down.Our focus, however, was slightly different. With a game as large as Skyrim, we wondered what complications arose during development. What is the hardest part about crafting a world meant to live on its own, away from the player's eyes?%Gallery-139026%
Bethesda hiring 'Future Generation Console Programmers'
Bethesda Game Studios is looking toward the future, hiring for "Future Generation Console Programmer" positions. We should be clear: these jobs are for working on "an unannounced game on future-generation consoles." They're not for future generations of people. In fact, you need 5 years of development experience, so not being born yet is actually a big disadvantage.The listing doesn't give much of a clue as to the technology Bethesda is targeting with its future Elder Scrolls or Fallout or whatever -- applicants need experience programming for PS3 and Xbox, and DirectX 11 experience is "a plus."
Bethesda remembers Fallout 3 concept artist Adam Adamowicz
In a touching tribute to Fallout 3 concept artist Adam Adamowicz who fell to cancer last week, Bethesda is featuring a collection of his work on sites attached to their biggest properties. Though Adamowicz will no longer be seen sketching new worlds for players to explore, the development team at Bethesda says players have yet to see the end of his work."Right until the end he was drawing, creating images for a new game many years off. It is in that game, and our past games, that he will live on. You have not seen the last of his amazing talent and spirit," Bethesda's tribute page notes. "We will miss him terribly, but he will always be with us."
Watch Bethesda's 'Skyrim Game Jam' sizzle reel right here
Skeleton butlers? Seasonal foliage? Skyrim knows not these things, but it maybe perhaps we sure hope could according to a seriously noncommittal Todd Howard speaking at the beginning of the video above, shot at his DICE 2012 keynote last evening in Las Vegas.
Skyrim goes Braveheart in amazing machinima video
YouTube user "Tyrannicon" has a bit of flair for the dramatic, it seems. Between the epic music, dramatic shots, and hundreds (thousands?) of dead Skyrim characters he lays waste to in this incredible video, we're gonna go ahead and say he's got a pretty apt username.
The thrilling difference the high-res texture pack makes in Skyrim
Wondering what kind of difference Skyrim's high-res texture pack makes to the game's already gorgeous PC graphics? The folks at HardOCP are all over that.
Skyrim's Creation Kit released with 'surprise' High-Resolution Texture Pack, Portal cameo
Tamriel's PC adventurers have finally been granted access to the long-awaited Creation Kit for The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. A special surprise was promised with today's release, coming in the form of a High-Resolution Texture Pack for the game. "Experience The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim as you've never seen it before with the Skyrim High-Resolution Texture Pack," a press release noted.Skyrim also becomes the second title to be featured on the Steam Workshop, which acts as a "central hub of player-created content and tools to publish, organize, and download that content into your games."Valve and Bethesda have teamed up to bring users the Space Sphere mod, which adds the space-loving robot from Portal 2 to the game, following players around the world (pictured above). While the special mod appeared on Steam earlier today, it has since vanished. Joystiq has contacted Valve and Bethesda to find out when the new companion will land back on the dragon-infested planet. [Update: Steam Workshop is back online! Enjoy your new talkative friend!]Steam is also featuring the Elder Scrolls series in a mid-week sale, offering a discount on each game in the series or a bundle (Morrowind, Oblivion, Skyrim) for $49.99.
Skyrim takes top honors at NY Video Game Critics Circle Awards
You'd have to be a fus-ro-dummy to think that Skyrim would be through with receiving accolades. At last night's New York Video Game Critics Circle Awards, the Bethesda Game Studios-developed RPG took home yet one more, earning the "Big Apple Award for Best Game" as decided by a cabal of NY-based game journos from various outlets.Other winners include two apiece for Bastion and Portal 2, portable love for Super Mario 3D Land and Superbrothers: Sword and Sworcery EP, and explosive nods to both Crysis 2 and Saints Row: The Third. Harold Goldberg's "All Your Base Are Belong To Us" took home the "Algonquin Roundtable Award for Best Book" and Sony's "Michael" commercial won the "Mad Men Award," mysteriously beating out Robin Williams' luxurious beard. Frankly, we were baffled. The full list of winners can be found below the break.
How to kill a Skyrim dragon with a single arrow
Do you have the patience it takes to craft a mighty bow, capable of felling an elder dragon with a single strike? We ask because ... well, we'd love for you to take care of it for us. Here's our copy of Skyrim. Thanks![Thanks, Chris.]
Skyrim's Creation Kit available 'soon' on PC; latest vid offers a first look
Trolls, dragons, giant spiders, giant crabs, giant ... people -- Bethesda's Skyrim has it all, at least in terms of things that can kill you. But series fans know that they can take the game a few steps further into crazytown with mods, as we've seen over the past few months. Bethesda knows this too, clearly, as the developer is releasing a Creation Kit sometime soon which will allow users to more easily mod and share creations for Skyrim.Interestingly, the company notes in its developer diary that it's "going to keep looking for ways to get mods to more people, and hopefully one day to our console audience," but comes up short of saying anything more concrete. Frankly, we'd love to be able to snap into a Skyrim with our fellow Macho Man fans out there (oooooh yeah!), but we simply don't have a PC strong enough.The Creation Kit will support Steam Workshop, allowing mods to be shared via Steam users easily. We'd suggest pushing that Steam Workshop support to PS3 given Steam's past with Sony's home console, but then we also know of Skyrim's ugly past with the PS3. Oh well, maybe next game, right?
Skyrim 1.4 detailed, PC 'Creation Kit' for mods coming soon
Skyrim's 1.4 update, which is not a patch of a previous patch, should be finalized by next week and submitted to console manufacturers for certification, as well as release on PC. Bethesda also plans to allow PC users to opt-in to "beta" versions of future patches through Steam, we're guessing so the company can opt-out of launching a patch if significant issues are found. The publisher also announced that the Creation Kit and Steam Workshop are nearly ready, and it is working with Valve and its modding community to do some final testing. To think, people will be able to mod back in backwards flying dragons and add even more of the My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic crew if they want -- and, honestly, who couldn't use a little more Rainbow Dash in their lives? The details of the 1.4 patch can be found after the break.
The MMO Report: Baby names edition
This week on The MMO Report, Casey discusses the un-disbanding of the Multiverse project and associated Firefly/Buffy IPs, Wakfu's bright and bizarre character classes, DC Universe Online's timely crafting update, and Razer's new Fiona gaming tablet. He also notes that Bethesda came away the clear victor in the Fallout Online settlement. Now, where's our Fallout MMO? Finally, Casey dips into the mailbag to dispense advice to aspiring game designers and gratitude to a pair of gamers who are planning to name their first child after Casey himself. Says the Beard: "I am equally honored and aghast... I'm just a loudmouth with a camera who reads hit-or-miss jokes about nerd stuff off a teleprompter so that someone can put it on the internet." Watch Casey blush at the prospect of little baby beardlings in the full MMO Report video tucked behind the break.
Skyrim's PS3 stuttering bug to be 'addressed' this month, Bethesda says
When Bethesda's Twitter account invited fans to "tune in tomorrow" (that's today) for a "Skyrim tweak guide livestream," one follower pointedly asked the question so many PlayStation 3 Skyrim players out there want to know about the upcoming 1.4 patch to the game: "What about PS3 lag?????" You see, the game has some major memory issues on the PS3, making the game chug as the player's save files weigh down the console. It appears that the next patch, 1.4, will correct this "lag" issue. "We're addressing that in the 1.4 update," Bethesda's Twitter account responded. The account also noted that the patch will be available at some point "this month." And though we imagine that folks waiting for the update would much prefer something more specific, that's the only launch window we've got for now, unfortunately. So you know, there are only 21 days left in January.
Bethesda and Interplay settle Fallout MMO lawsuits, Interplay's rights revoked
Bethesda and Interplay have been embroiled in a legal battle for quite some time now, arguing over whether or not Interplay had the rights to create a Fallout MMO. Well, that lawsuit has finally been settled and it appears that Bethesda has come out on top. In a press release today, Bethesda announced that "under the terms of the settlement, the license granted to Interplay to develop the Fallout MMO is null and void, and all rights granted to Interplay to develop a Fallout MMO revert back to Bethesda, effective immediately." Bethesda fails to make any mention of whether or not the studio will use its freshly re-acquired rights in order to actually make a Fallout MMO, however, so the future of the online wasteland remains in flux. [Source: Bethesda Game Studios press release]
