It feels like an age since the last Elder Scrolls game was released (seven years, to be precise), and it's probably going to be several years more before we see the next one. It's an agonising wait, and for some older fans, it really is a race against time. But thanks to an online campaign, fans are hoping at least one Skyrim-playing grandma will be involved in the next game. In at least some sense of the word.
Looking at places to live in games, it would be easy for the most magnificent, pompous and elegant palaces and castles to dominate any appreciation. But there is plenty of room to appreciate those residences that are tucked away, perhaps underrated, that are not major hubs or destinations and that are only subtle intrusions. Some draw a curious sense of attachment from players, eliciting a sense of pseudo-topophilia - a close relationship with a virtual land or place. The resulting effect is sometimes enough to cause the sentiment: if this place were real, I would live there.
"Come on. Lighten up. Have a whiff."
Is there anything more spine-tingling than loading up Skyrim to hear those ominous chants? Now imagine that with a live choir, in London's Hammersmith Apollo, all in the name of charity. Oh - and with some epic Fallout music thrown into the mix too.
Had enough of Skyrim ports? Can't quite hold on until the next Elder Scrolls game? Don't worry, modders have your back - and you can now play one of their best creations without ever leaving Steam. Hooray!
In the real world, house prices are so high that owning your own home is a pipedream for millions.
Bethesda Games Studios, maker of The Elder Scrolls and Fallout games, tends to be a pretty secretive place. We won't hear anything for ages and then announcements for Fallout: 76, Starfield and The Elder Scrolls 6 come along at once and everybody frantically starts planning time off work.
When Todd Howard announced The Elder Scrolls 6 at the end of Bethesda's E3 show, the message was clear: we're working on the game but it's a very long way away. We saw a very brief trailer of a mountainous, coastal environment, and then a logo, and that was it.
Glaives, pikes, bardiches, halberds, partisans, spears, picks and lances. Javelins, arbalests, crossbows, longbows, claymores, zweihänder, broadswords and falchions. Flails, clubs, morning stars, maces, war hammers, battle axes and, of course, longswords. If you ever played a fantasy RPG or one of many historically-themed action or strategy games, you'll already be familiar with an impressive array of medieval weaponry. The medieval arsenal has had an enormous impact on games since their early days, and their ubiquity makes them seem like a natural, fundamental part of many virtual worlds.
You're sitting in someone else's house. You can't help but look around briefly at your surroundings. Ooh, that looks like an interesting selection of books in the bookcase and what's that pad of paper in the corner for? I wonder what that ornament on the cabinet represents. Is there a story behind it? Then the person you're visiting leaves the room for a minute. There's a strong urge to look far more closely, isn't there? A completely inappropriate part of your brain would love to open a cupboard, just to see what's behind the door. Not for nefarious reasons, of course. I couldn't even say why it's so appealing. Is it just the fact that you can't see behind that door in the first place?
It's been six months since E3 2017, when Bethesda announced its intention to add a Creation Club to Skyrim and Fallout 4, their massively-successful mega-RPGs known for their breadth of content and emphasis on player freedom. This club would task third-party developers with producing new pieces for the publisher's two marquee games, which players could then buy from an online storefront with real money. While some decried the service as yet another attempt to introduce paid mods to the single-player gaming ecosystem, Bethesda insisted the market for free fan-made content would remain unaffected. "We won't allow any existing mods to be retrofitted into Creation Club," reads the FAQ. "It must all be original content."
Skyrim's dirty little secret is that it isn't that large. Oh, it remains fairly gigantic by the standards of other virtual landscapes, even next to its youthful imitator and usurper, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. But set against what it pretends to be - a kingdom stretching from arctic wastes to the temperate south, racked by dynastic squabbles and laced with the treasures and detritus of millennia - it's actually pretty dang tiddly, a little over 14 square miles in scope.
The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim is coming to Switch on 17th November.
Nintendo just revealed this release date during a Nintendo Direct livestream tonight.
This handheld version of Skyrim should basically be the Skyrim you know and love, only with optional motions controls and a Zelda costume, complete with the Master Sword, tucked away for diligent explorers or folks who own the Link amiibo.
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Video games are guilty of reflecting humanity's more violent nature at times - and it's easy to see why when our screens are filled with nameless marines and musclebound maniacs eager to destroy every living thing in their path. As in reality, the virtual worlds we inhabit contain a wide array of human expression, ranging from violent combat to peaceful cooperation. Some players are taking things a step further though, opting to lay down their computerised weapons and adopt a nonviolent, pacifist approach to their virtual endeavours.
Cook & Becker, an art dealership we've reported on a few times at Eurogamer, now has official Skyrim fine art to gawp at.
There's a cool Skyrim mod that makes the game's NPCs act like Sims.
Archaeology doesn't get a very good treatment in popular media, and games are no different. The public image of archaeologists is dominated by pulp fantasy heroes, swinging and scrambling their way through trap-infested ancient ruins, one hand clutching a priceless treasure, the other punching a Nazi in the face. Of course, pulp heroics make for much more entertaining movies and games than Indiana Jones and the Afternoon of Context Sheets or Newly-Qualified Archaeology Student Lara Croft Spends Four Years Trying to Get a Stable Job. Even archaeologists grasp this, for all our protestations. Like lapsed Catholics who can't quite give up their patron saint, many of the archaeologists I've known would admit to Indiana Jones being a bit of a guilty role model. While writing this piece I tried to find a photo of my hard hat from my days as a field archaeologist, a promotional sticker from Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull emblazoned across the back, but sadly, all record of this sartorial triumph seems lost.
A new mod for Skyrim lets players travel beyond the borders of Skyrim and explore Bruma, the north-most region in Cyrodiil, previously seen in Oblivion.
Pretty much as soon as I started recreating video game foodstuffs in my kitchen last year, commenters have been asking me to make sweetrolls from Skyrim. Initially, I was reluctant - countless others have already given them a go at home and on YouTube, and it meant I'd have to buy a mini bundt tin. Over time, however, the volume and vehemence of the comments grew to an extent that I knew a sweetroll episode was inevitable.
A new 2017 video shows the ambitious Skyblivion project - The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion recreated as a Skyrim mod - going from strength to strength. Apparently the increased attention has attracted more voluntary help so progress has sped as a result.
But, whew, Skyblivion is taking on a lot. Hardly a small game, Oblivion, is it? When on earth are we going to be able to play this? I asked the Skyblivion team for an update.
"At this point the base game is done," Kyle Rebel, project PR, told me. "this means Oblivion's game has been completely recreated and can be explored freely.
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Enderal, perhaps the best Skyrim total conversion mod around, is getting a DLC expansion pack of its own.
Forgotten Stories is the work of Nicolas Lietzau, lead writer of Enderal, with support from some of SureAI, the group of modders responsible for the mod. It adds parts of the story content cut from the initial release of Enderal, which amounts to 10-20 hours of new quest gameplay, as well as a raft of improvements.
The teaser, below, gives you an idea of the tone.
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In the dank underbelly of Riften, through the sewers that service the town and into the dripping cistern that the Thieves Guild calls home, is a man called Rune. He rises at 8am, stands about for most of the day until 10pm, and then goes to practise with his dagger on a dummy for a few hours until bedtime.
UPDATE 19/11/2016 12.14am: Bethesda has confirmed that the mobile versions of Bethesda Pinball will be out on 8th December, while the rest are still on track for the 6th.
If you've been playing The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim with mods on PC (and, chances are, you probably have) then your save file probably won't work with the newly released Special Edition of the game.
Skyrim's one of those games that never really went away, but since it's back with a remaster this week, we thought it was time to take a look at the things that made it special - particularly in the light of Bethesda's next release, Fallout 4. Inevitably, there are some spoilers for both games in what follows. Enjoy!
Skyrim Special Edition will be out next week on 28th October bringing console mod support to it, but there's a catch...
Skyrim Special Edition and Fallout 4 will both receive mod support on PS4, publisher Bethesda has announced.
Bethesda Softworks is putting on an orchestral concert dedicated to the tunes of The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim.
This all seems mighty familiar. The sun splits the trees to my right while long sprawling shadows are cast over the lake; fireflies flutter overhead, close enough to be plucked out of the air; a nearby waterfall cascades from a river hundreds of feet above.
There are few things less surprising about most fantasy games than how they portray magic, which is a pretty depressing state of affairs given that magic is, by definition, the art of doing the impossible. The impossible, it turns out, has a fairly limited set of applications. By and large, it means hitting foes with elementally-flavoured balls of fire, turbo-charging your stats or zapping wounded allies back to fighting fitness, in accordance with a collection of tactical rule sets derived from the works of Tolkien via Dungeons and Dragons.
It is made from The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim parts but its story, its setting and its mechanics are all built anew - the free total conversion mod Enderal is finally ready to be released.
"The German version will be activated on July 1-3rd," tweeted maker SureAI (via Reddit). "The English version will be released one or two weeks later."
Enderal is a total conversion mod that has been five years in the making, with planning beginning a month before Skyrim was even released. A team of 14 people have put it together, coordinated from Munich, Germany. It's the same team that made The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion mod Nehrim - indeed, Enderal is a sequel to Nehrim, not that you need to have played it.
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Don't expect The Elder Scrolls 6 for a while. Developer Bethesda Game Studios still has a couple of other "major projects" on the docket before it returns to its beloved open-world fantasy series.
UPDATE 2: It's confirmed that saves will transfer between vanilla Skyrim and Skyrim: Special Edition on PC.
Bethesda VP of PR and marketing Pete Hines confirmed the following on Twitter:
UPDATE: Bethesda has announced that if you own Skyrim on Steam and all its downloadable content, or if you own the Legendary Edition, you'll be upgraded to the Special Edition for free.
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It feels strange to say it again so soon, but E3 is nigh once more. As per usual, the rumour mill has been working full tilt in the run up to the conference, even if this year's rumours have been dominated by what won't be at the show as much as what will.
A PlayStation 4 and Xbox One remaster of The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim is rumoured to be announced at Bethesda's E3 conference this Sunday, 12th June. We'll be reporting from it live; check our E3 2016 guide for conference timings.
Eurogamer understands this rumour to be true, and we've also heard Bethesda will announce The Evil Within 2, Wolfenstein 2 and re-announce Prey 2 during the conference.
The Skyrim remaster rumours originate from reputable industry insider Shinobi602, as well as another apparent insider posting on NeoGAF as Enter the Dragon Punch.
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A big (4GB) fan-made modification for The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim, that overhauls cities and even adds new settlements, has arrived after nearly three-and-a-half years' work.
Earlier this week you might have seen Wes' post about hitting a potentially game-breaking bug after 91 hours spent playing Fallout 4.
In 2006, the Bethesda Games Studios team that brought fantasy RPG The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion to life comprised over 300 people. In 2013, in an interview prior to the launch of Watch_Dogs, Ubisoft managing director Pauline Jacquey said that a typical open world action game requires between 400 and 600 staff to make it happen. In 2012, Warren Spector claimed "over 700 people around the world" were working on his then upcoming project Epic Mickey 2. Big games require big studios, it seems.
Sometimes video game characters fall on hard times and, despite being the hero / heroine of the kingdom / world, they have to take a part-time job. These jobs (much like some of the part-time ones I've had in the past) are frequently mind numbing and occasionally demeaning.
The fascinating community project to recreate beloved Elder Scrolls game Morrowind in Skyrim's engine has progress to share.
The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion modded into the The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim engine? Skyblivion is a voluntary project that fans of The Elder Scrolls games have been plugging away at for a while now.
There are few things more impressive to a guest in your home than being confronted by the life-sized head and shoulders of a video game character. If you agree with that statement then prepare your bank account for a beating.
It's bank holiday Monday, a day on which all the bankers are allowed to come out from behind their side of the counter and roam the countryside for a few hours. At least I think that's how it works.
Well, look at that. Another week draws to a close, meaning it's time for another episode of The Eurogamer Show.
Spiders weren't always an issue for modder Cory Ferrier. Before the age of seven, they hadn't bothered him whatsoever, until an unfortunate encounter at the zoo kickstarted his condition. He's now in his late teens and although not something he'd consider 'crippling', his fear extends to similar insects like crickets and cockroaches. As he suggests, the onset of his phobia has negatively impacted his enjoyment of video games - particularly against the increasingly realistic depictions modern technology throws at him. Role-playing games are playgrounds of constant torment.
UPDATE 28/04/2015 1.22am: Valve has stated that it will offer full refunds on all Skyrim mods purchased in the few days paid mods were available.
Valve boss Gabe Newell has addressed concerns over the company's move to allow paid-for mods on Steam.
Can you believe The Eurogamer Show is five* already? Me neither. They grow up so fast!
UPDATE 25/04/2015 1.20am: Fishing mod Art of the Catch creator Chesko is furious at Valve for not removing their mod from the Steam Workshop entirely after they requested it be taken down and offered refunds to everyone who purchased it.
UPDATE 24TH APRIL: There were a few things that came to light surrounding the announcement yesterday.
I'm engaged to be married (hooray!) which, if social convention is anything to go by, means my fiancée and I are probably due a conversation about having kids at some point. God I hope she never reads this.
QuakeCon 2014 is under way in Texas and there's a Bethesda game sale running on Steam and (partly) Xbox Live to celebrate.
Ever wondered what The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion would look built in the newer Skyrim engine? Wonder no more! Skyblivion is what you're looking for.
How often have you gone back to a game you thought you'd exhausted, only to find it full of prospects and potential? In a fallow period for vast open-world RPGs, a lazy visit to see my Skyrim house opened more than furniture filled with hard-earned goodies. Nostalgia took hold and prompted a look at my open quests list, and from there I was picking up the threads of a game that had laid dormant for a good 18 months.
The most popular games on dominant PC download platform Steam are Valve's, with Dota 2 revelling in an estimated 25.9 million owners, and Team Fortress 2 an estimated 20.3 million owners.
Microsoft has launched a range of discounts on Xbox 360 games and DLC that will last until next Tuesday, 21st April.
The popular Video Games Live symphonic concert tour returns to the UK in 2014 and includes a London date for the first time in six years.
German tech company Cyberith has released a video demonstrating how its omnidirectional treadmill, the Virtualizer, works when combined with the Oculus Rift, two Wii remotes, and Skyrim.
UPDATE: Bethesda has explained the sighting as a website error.
Last month we took a look at Skywind, the fan-made Morrowind remake in the Skyrim Engine, and now the 70-plus person team behind the mammoth mod has released its first dev diary detailing the sorts of enhancements its making to Bethesda's 2002 open-world epic.
Got any money left? It's the last day of the venerated Steam Sale, dubbed "Encore Day", for which the most popular deals have been brought back.
And its true nature was revealed: Thomas the Tank Engine, a hero to millions of children across the world, terrorising the poor people of Skyrim.
Skywind, the Morrowind remake in the Skyrim engine, is ready to download and play.
Remember Alexander J. Velicky? He's the young guy who spent 2000 hours making that huge Skyrim mod Falskaar. Why did he do that? He wanted a job at Bethesda.
Skyrim and Fallout maker Bethesda has gone on the record to say it's not making any games for Nintendo platforms.
Jeremy Soule, the celebrated Elder Scrolls composer and now music director for Sony Online Entertainment's upcoming EverQuest Next, believes video games have the potential to overtake the likes of Facebook and become the dominant medium for online social interaction.
Got a few hours spare? Bethesda's got you covered with a new Elder Scrolls Anthology pack for PC.
Imagine being 19 years old and coveting a job at Bethesda Game Studios, renowned maker of The Elder Scrolls series of RPGs and Fallout 3. What would you do? How could you get this most prestigious developer's attention?
Bethesda has announced the heavily-rumoured Skyrim: Legendary Edition.
It launches in Europe and Australia on 7th June for PC, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 for £39.99.
The Legendary Edition includes all the downloadable add-ons, Dawnguard, Hearthfire and Dragonborn, and all the nifty added features implemented since the game's 2011 launch, including combat camera, mounted combat, the Legendary difficulty mode and Legendary skills.
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Our friends at Eurogamer Poland have unearthed the Skyrim: Legendary Edition, which is said to contain the core game along with its Dawnguard, Hearthfire and Dragonborn DLC packs.
UPDATE: Bethesda has confirmed what we suspected: no more Skyrim downloadable content will be made.
The votes have been counted and the Classic FM Hall of Fame 2013 compiled. Soundtracks from The Elder Scrolls and Final Fantasy series are in the top five.
Jeremy Soule, the composer of Skyrim and a horde of other great video games, has taken to Kickstarter to raise the modest sum of $10,000 to write and record a classical symphony.
Not a lot grows in Skyrim, where snow covers the ground and frozen winds rampage. I'd much rather be in the turquoise waters and lush tropical jungles of Far Cry 3.
$300! I couldn't believe it. It's only 16 inches tall.
Update #2: The patch is now out on Xbox Live, too, which is nice. Confirmation comes by way of The Elder Scrolls Twitter account.
Subsequent tweets clarified that the patch will be released on PS3 later today.
Update: Skyrim patch 1.9 has been released in its final form on Steam. "For console players out there, we're hoping to release 1.9 later this month," wrote Bethesda on its blog.
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PlayStation 4 and the Next Xbox are already behind.
Can you name five Skyrim characters from memory?
Update: The UK release dates for Skyrim's PS3 DLC have been confirmed to follow a day behind their US counterparts. That means Dragonborn will be out on 13th February, Hearthfire on the 20th and Dawnguard on the 27th.
PS3 fans: Dawnguard and Hearthfire are heading your way - finally.
Behold Razer Edge, a Windows 8 tablet powerful enough to play all current PC games and boasting a nifty array of peripherals capable of transforming it from tablet into home console, mobile console and desktop PC.
I've fallen back in love, and it feels great. My romance with Skyrim last winter - has it really been a year? - was heady and intense, but over the months since it cooled considerably. My levelling up had levelled off. The map markers were all filled in, and all that was left for me to do was maybe consider finally trying my hand at alchemy.
My malaise was deepened, rather than alleviated, by the lacklustre DLC so far. Dawnguard tried to spice up our waning passion by squeezing a perfunctory questline into an already busy map, but leaned too hard on a clumsy gimmick that let me turn into a lumbering Vampire Lord who couldn't fit through doors or open cupboards, as if that was a thing I'd ever expressed an interest in. Hearthfire tried to get me to settle down, offering three plots of land on which to build identical houses that I could fill with furniture, provided I didn't mind having no say over what the furniture was or where it was placed. There was also talk of adoption, but the life of an adventurer leaves little room for watching an eerie digital child loop through the same animations and voice clips over and over.
Just as I'd resigned myself to the thought that it was time for me and Skyrim to part ways, along comes Dragonborn and all the wonder, the thrill, the passion comes flooding back.
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In today's Dragonborn DLC (Xbox 360) came a quest only sky-high level 81 Skyrim characters could begin: Ebony Warrior.
Update: When asked why Dragonborn would be coming out on all formats when the previous DLCs still hadn't made it on PS3, Bethesda responded, “We think Dragonborn is our best add-on for Skyrim yet, and we didn't want fans to wait long, so that's our current focus. Each platform takes a lot of time and attention.”
But where are all the other DLCs on PS3? Are they in the pipeline? “As noted in our blog post, we're not done with content for Skyrim," said Bethesda. "When we're ready to share more details, we'll update everyone.” I'm afraid that's all we're getting on the MIA DLCs for now.
Original Story: Bethesda has confirmed that Skyrim DLC Dragonborn will be released on PC and PS3 early next year.
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Screenshots of upcoming Skyrim DLC Dragonborn have been released. There's a picture of a character riding on the back of a dragon! It's hard to see if this is the player-character, but whoever it is sits hands-free ready for battle.
Oh look at that! And that!
New content is coming to the PC and PlayStation 3 versions of Skyrim, Bethesda has said.
Skyrim Dragonborn has been confirmed. This next batch of DLC will be released for Xbox 360 on 4th December for 1600 Microsoft Points. No PC or PS3 release dates were mentioned.
A video revealed the setting as the north-easterly independent island of Solthseim, and that there will be ridable dragons. In the video, a hero character mounted and then flew a dragon, and it looked like the beast was controllable.
The DLC title Dragonborn refers to the first of your kind - a sinister and powerful entity known as the Dragonbeast who wants to return to the land he once ruled, Solstheim, and consume all dragons again.
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UPDATE: Bethesda has confirmed the Skyrim Premium Edition to Eurogamer and announced that it will launch on these shores.
Some relatively good news about Windows 8 at last: Microsoft won't prohibit PEGI 18-rated games like Skyrim, Dishonored and Mass Effect from sale on the Windows 8 Store.
The London Philharmonic Orchestra has again blown its trumpet at music from some of the biggest games ever.
Prestigious private university Rice in Houston, Texas is offering a course on Skyrim.
An integrated graphics face-off as AMD's latest APU goes up against a quad-core Intel part with HD4000 graphics.
The laptop version of the same chipset pitted against the desktop rendition.
Update: Spears! Source code reveller Mardoxx has uncovered evidence of spears in the Dragonborn DLC. What next - whips?!
Duncan Harris takes clean, artistic screenshots of games at their highest resolution and best possible settings. The results are stunning.
For all of the state-of-the-art tech packed into the Retina Macbook Pro, these are still off-the-shelf parts available to other OEMs. At lower resolutions, performance can be matched at a lower price-point.
The Skyrim Hearthfire downloadable content is now available to PC owners through Steam, Bethesda has announced.
Both the GTX 660 and its more expensive counterpart have no issue with a maxed out Skyrim at 1080p.
Performance of the RPG classic compared between the GTX 660 and its cheaper Radeon rival.
The creation engine is put to the test on the GTX 660 and its nearest Radeon rival.
Elder Scrolls series: thou hast been a "huge" inspiration to gory tropical open world shooter Far Cry 3.
Intrepid Elder Scrolls fans are recreating old game Morrowind using the Skyrim engine.
Skyrim's NPC-laden intro is an excellent repeatable test for measuring performance on these high-power laptop graphics cores.
If you can, own an Elder Scrolls game on PC - partly for the performance gains, but mostly for the mods. These fix, alter and improve the games in ways Bethesda wouldn't, or is too busy to.
See how the overclocked 7870 compares against its last-gen counterpart in Skyrim running at 1080p at max settings.
AMD's enthusiast level price vs. performance winners slug it out on a fully maxed out Skyrim.
Skyrim's intro plays out on both the HD 7870 and its nearest NVIDIA rival, the GTX 660 Ti.
What sort of Skyrim player are you? Are you there for the story and the Achievements, taking advantage of the game's loose logic to play multiple characters in one playthrough, heading up the Mage's College even as you take charge of the Thieves Guild, and saving the world while playing as an evil assassin? Or do you use Tamriel's vast canvas as a backdrop for your own adventure, setting your own limits and rules and immersing yourself in its rich milieu?
If it's the first then you've probably got no interest in Hearthfire, the new DLC that lets you build houses. There are no quests here, with no story and no definable ending. You may have already posted a witty comment about Skyrim Sims. Congratulations. Hearthfire is not for you.
If, on the other hand, you've already started planning which of your weapons you want to display where, whether to store gems in the same chest as jewellery, and are actually looking forward to spending hours trying to wrangle floating items into display cases so they're positioned just right, then Hearthfire is most definitely for you. It's just not that good.
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Skyrim's Hearthfire DLC has been released on Xbox Marketplace for 400 Microsoft Points (about £3.40).
Skyrim vampire add-on Dawnguard may never come to PS3, Bethesda forewarned overnight - and nor may the newly announced Hearthfire DLC, either.
Bethesda has insisted development of the Hearthfire DLC for Skyrim has not caused the delay of the Dawnguard add-on for PlayStation 3.
Hearthfire, the next slice of Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim DLC, will arrive for Xbox 360 on 4th September, Bethesda has announced.
From stereo to pseudo surround. Try out this video with your own stereo headphones attached for simulated surround audio.
A maxed-out Skyrim running on the new NVIDIA card up against the venerable Radeon 6870.
Skyrim's intro proves to an interesting workout for our test GPUs.
Skyrim patch 1.7 launches on Thursday, 9th August on Xbox 360 worldwide, Bethesda has announced.
On that day it launches on PlayStation 3, but only in the US. PS3-owning Europeans have to wait untl next week. The patch is already available on PC.
Patch 1.7 includes features PS3 players missed out on from the 1.6 update, such as mounted combat. It also includes a number of bug fixes and memory and stability optimisations. On Xbox 360 it improves recognition with Kinect voice commands.
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The annual QuakeCon extravaganza is rumbling away in Dallas, Texas, and Steam's having a Bethesda-related sale to mark the occasion.
Greek gorathon 300 - a film as famed for its washboard abs workouts as for its cinematic prowess - has been recreated really rather well using a modified version of Skyrim.
Skyrim patch 1.7 that fixes numerous bits and bobs is out now for all Steam users. Previously it was only available in beta form.
Bethesda also announced plans to submit the update to console manufacturers this week, so it should arrive on those platforms shortly. This is most exciting for Xbox 360 users as several of the bug fixes and updates are directly related to Kinect voice-functionality or the currently Xbox 360 exclusive Dawnguard DLC.
Speaking of which, no announcement has been made about just when Dawnguard will hit other platforms, but vice president of PR and marketing at Bethesda Pete Hines tweeted that more info will likely be revealed about that this week as its 30-day Xbox 360 exclusivity agreement is over.
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Bethesda marketing chief Pete Hines took to Twitter last night to comment on the Dawnguard downloadable content. Fans had expected it to launch on PC and PlayStation 3 this week after 30 days of Xbox 360 exclusivity, in-line with previous Bethesda Game Studios DLC, but it did not.
"We have not announced Dawnguard for any other platform, nor given a timeline for any such news," he said. "If we have news, I promise I'd tell you."
Then: "I was simply stating that expecting/demanding something today is unfounded. Not that news is never coming."
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The beta for Skyrim's upcoming 1.7 title update is available now on Steam, Bethesda has announced.
The patch will come to consoles next and include features PS3 players missed out on from the 1.6 update, like mounted combat.
Below is the full list of fixes:
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At 1080p, the extra muscle of the Radeon HD 6870 proves decisive.
A distressing lack of much in the way of extra performance at this resolution.
Update: The list has been fleshed out with additional information from the person who unearthed this content from the Steam registry - NeoGAF forum poster PaulLFC.
PC version on high settings with FXAA faces off against the Xbox 360 build.
PC version on high settings with FXAA (no MSAA) compared on both integrated GPUs.
PC version on 720p with high settings and FXAA versus the console version.
My name is Robert Florence, and we are going to have a fight.
UPDATE 2: Bethesda has issued a note explaining how to access the Dawnguard content, and confirmed that player characters do not have to be level 10 or higher to enjoy it.
"Once Dawnguard is installed, if you're level 10 or higher you'll hear rumors about the Dawnguard from guards in major cities," Bethesda explained. "You may also be approached by a courier who will give you a note about the Dawnguard.
"Otherwise, if your character is below level 10 or you wish to find the Dawnguard on your own, you can seek out the Dawnguard headquarters roughly east/southeast of Riften. It can be reached by a small cave through the mountains."
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The brilliant Lego Batman 2 has swooped down and taken the UK video game chart by storm, claiming the top spot all for its bricky masked self.
Digital Foundry's £300 gaming PC takes on the Xbox 360 on Skyrim, showing remarkable improvements.
The entry level £300 Digital Foundry gaming PC vs. Alienware's mid-level gaming laptop. A remarkably balanced conflict.
The £300 Digital Foundry gaming PC takes on Skyrim on the PlayStation 3, with night and day image quality and frame-rate boosts.
High quality settings at 1366x768, GT 640M vs GT 650M.
The GeForce GT 650M put through its paces on high quality levels at the two screen resolutions supported by the Alienware M14x.
Half of one per cent of Skyrim Dawnguard beta applicants received invites, Bethesda has revealed.
Around 75 per cent of the total invitations went out yesterday, Bethesda Game Studios tweeted. The rest go out today.
Dawnguard is the first downloadable add-on for last year's phenomenally successful fantasy role-playing game The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim. Bertie checked it out at E3. Read his Dawnguard preview here.
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The Skyrim 1.6 update is now live on Xbox 360, Bethesda has announced.
It brings mounted combat to the openworld fantasy role-playing game for the first time and implements a raft of bug fixes.
The beta update is already available on PC via Steam.
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Blood-sucking new images to feed on.
In Dawnguard, you can become a Vampire Lord. If you choose to, that is. Hours in, you'll face a choice - do you want to be a Vampire Lord or do you want to join the Dawnguard, the vampire hunters? You'll hear about the new content through Skyrim's guards, who tell you the Dawnguard are recruiting. The content will be available early on in the Skyrim game, but the real meat won't begin until level 10.
In our E3 demo, we're already hours into the Dawnguard expansion, and we're a level 29 Vampire Lord. We're in a tomb with a woman called Serana, who's either a vampire or had a very late night, judging by her red eyes. The quest we activate and follow with her has us summon stony steps to a place called Soul Cairn. It's an eerie, otherworldly place that's almost black and white. Skeletons and ghosts and ethereal balls of light roam around, and lightning strikes around us. Serana, it comes to play, is a very important part of the puzzle to find an Elder Scroll - the main quest - and to thwart the Tyranny of Sun prophecy that will wipe the vampires out. We'll leave the spoilers there, not that we got much further in.
A Vampire Lord is different to a vampire in the normal Skyrim game. You shape-shift to become a Vampire Lord, a bit like becoming a Werewolf, and you can Revert Form if and when you like. A Vampire Lord has two arms and two bony wings that have sprouted from its gnarled and twisted back. It's a devilishly cool look. The Vampire Lord is primarily a caster, similar to how the Werewolf primarily uses melee. The Vampire Lord can hover and walk. When hovering, the Vampire Lord uses magical attacks. When walking - a state changed by clicking the left analogue stick - the Vampire lord swipes with its clawed hands. Holding down the left bumper has the Vampire Lord flap its wings and fly-sprint, and the effect can be sustained for a relatively long time. The Vampire Lord can also walk across water by virtue of its hovering.
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Skyrim's Dawnguard DLC gets an Xbox 360-only beta run-out this Summer, developer Bethesda has announced.
Sign-up is now open over on the Dawnguard site, though you'll need to have an account for the official Elder Scrolls forums to put your name down.
Should you be picked out of the hat some time in the next week or so, you'll get early access to the entire expansion, Achievements and all, and will not have to pay for the privilege.
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The Elder Scrolls Online doesn't look like Skyrim because it can't - MMOs can't yet replicate those sort of graphics on the scale they offer, insisted developer Zenimax Online.
Mounted combat is the headline addition in Skyrim update 1.6, due out on PC and consoles soon.
As detailed on the Bethesda Blog, the patch will allow both ranged and melee combat on horseback.
Update 1.6 also brings with it a number of bug fixes and stability tweaks. PC users can try it out now in Steam beta, though a final release date has not yet been set.
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Will you help fund The Thief, a short film inspired by The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim?
The main story in The Elder Scrolls Online will be "100 per cent solo" so that you feel like "you're awesome, you're the hero", game director Matt Firor has revealed.
The Elder Scrolls publisher Zenimax has taken legal action against the developer behind Dragon Shout, a free map app for the former's blockbuster RPG Skyrim.
The wraps have just come off The Elder Scrolls Online - a PC and Mac MMO due out in 2013.
According to Game Informer's reveal, it's set 1000 years before the events of Skyrim, with daedric prince Molag Bal attempting to incorporate Tamriel into his demonic realm.
It's Zenimax Online Studios' very first project, with Matt Firor at the helm. He's a former Mythic Entertainment producer whose credits include Dark Age of Camelot.
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Skyrim Steam mods are hugely successful, new statistics reveal.
The first major expansion for The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim is titled Dawnguard and will be out this Summer, Bethesda has announced.
All we've got to go on so far is a teaser image, posted on Bethesda's blog, but the developer promises to reveal more details at the E3 show in Los Angeles next month.
As previously announced, the DLC will arrive on Xbox 360 first, before rolling out to PC and PlayStation 3.
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Kinect support, like a mysterious stranger, arrives today for Skyrim on Xbox 360.
Nvidia's unveiled its brand new ultra high-end PC graphics card, the GeForce GTX 690.
It costs a pocket destroying $999, and launches 3rd May.
The GeForce GTX 690 has two Kepler GPU chips on one card. Power needs and heat are kept minimal by custom built vapour chamber heat sinks (miniature water cooling) and one central fan. And the whole unit is contained within a snazzy and functional black/silver box - a mix of cast aluminium and chrome plating, and injection moulded magnesium alloy.
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The recent Skyrim patch contains file strings that suggest downloadable content will feature Snow Elves, crossbows and more.
Skyrim fan Kerellan poked about in patch 1.5.26 update file and posted the findings associated with "DLC01" on the Bethesda forum.
Included is mention of Snow Elves, a Snow Elf prince, crossbows, new vampire feeding animations, and something prefixed "RF".
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Gargantuan role-playing game The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim will get Kinect support, Bethesda has announced.
Support for Microsoft's motion-sensing device will come via a free title update due out this month. A video showcasing how it works is below.
Over 200 voice commands are added, including for Dragon Shouts, Hotkey Equipping, Follower Commands, and all Menus (Items, Magic, Map, Barter, Container, Favorites, and Skills).
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Bethesda is attempting to trademark The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim dragon shout "Fus Ro Dah!".
The Skyrim 1.5 update is on Xbox Live, Bethesda marketing and PR boss Pete Hines has announced.
It should be up on PlayStation 3 this afternoon, he tweeted.
The new patch, already live for PC owners, fixes a number of glitches and bugs, and introduces a new kill camera feature. See our story on the Skyrim 1.5 PC patch for the notes in full.
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Amid claims the traditional console business is on its last legs and reports about the power of the next Xbox and PlayStation 4, the boss of Avalanche Studios, the developer of the Just Cause series, has warned better looking games on next generation consoles "won't save the game industry".
In the "next few years" there will exist a free-to-play equivalent of gigantosaurus single-player RPG Skyrim, reckons Ngmoco.
Dara O Briain is the fast talking Irish comedian known to us for his passion for video games, a hobby he sends up frequently during his renowned stand-up routines. O Briain also hosts satirical telly show Mock the Week, and this evening he'll host the GAME British Academy Video Game Awards (BAFTA) - a post he's filled every year since 2009.
Bethesda will unveil its heavily rumoured Elder Scrolls MMO in May, according to a new report.
Bethesda has unveiled details of what to expect from the next major The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim update.
As revealed on the developer's official blog, the new patch fixes a number of glitches and bugs, as well as introducing a new kill camera feature. See the full changelog and trailer below for more details.
Brave PC gamers can download a beta version of the update now via Steam. To access it, click on Steam in the store's top menu bar, then Settings, then open the Account tab. Go to the Beta Participation section and then select Change. Finally, select Skyrim Beta from the drop-down menu.
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My latest trip back to Skyrim didn't start with a dragon attack. It started with homework. Specifically, sitting down with a pen to watch a couple of hours worth of YouTube videos created by Bethesda, with the goal of transforming its Creation Kit from "Oh my god..." to "Oh, I see!"
UPDATE: ZeniMax has issued a statement explaining exactly how the settlement will work.
A new update for the PC version of The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim goes live today, developer Bethesda has announced.
Update 1.4.27 fixes a handful of bugs, listed in full below. Grab it now from Steam.
A post on the Bethesda Blog promised there's plenty more tweaking to come too. "Our team continues to work on new updates for the game," it read.
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The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim and Fallout 3 developer Bethesda Game Studios is currently staffing up for a next-gen project.
Skyrim's blockbuster success has motivated Alan Wake developer Remedy to continue to create story-driven games.
New GeForce drivers (295.73) are out, and they dramatically boost Skyrim and Mass Effect 3 performance.
Skyrim PC update version 1.4.26 is available to beta test now on Steam.
To opt-in, log into Steam, click on Steam in the upper menu, select Settings and under the Account tab go to Beta Participation and select Change. A drop-down menu will appear. On it, select Skyrim Beta. Then OK. Steam will restart, and Skyrim will be updated to the new version.
Remember, beta Skyrim patches are still in development. They may have problems. Back-up your Skyrim saved games first.
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Update: Unfortunately, this app is only available to people in the US.
What improvements are there to Rage texture pop-in with a hard drive/SSD upgrade?
DLC for The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim will be more expansive than the five add-ons released for Bethesda's last title, Fallout 3, but you'll have to wait a little longer to get your hands on it, the developer has revealed.
BAFTA has announced its shortlist for the 2012 British Academy Video Games Awards and Batman: Arkham City and L.A. Noire lead the pack with eight nominations each.
UPDATE: Bethesda has contacted Eurogamer to clarify Todd Howard's comments on the performance of the PlayStation 3 version of Skyrim.
In Skyrim, you can see neighbouring Elder Scrolls regions - and previous game settings - Morrowind and Cyrodiil because a believable horizon demanded it, Bethesda has explained.
No exclusive PS3 or Xbox 360 game sold more copies than Bethesda's formidable open world fantasy romp Skyrim last year.
Is my save playable again? This is the question PS3 owners will be asking themselves as they slot their Skyrim disc back in and download the latest patch.
There's a knack to getting good PS3 performance gains from new Skyrim patch 1.4, Bethesda has revealed.
Shared Bethesda community manager Nick Breckon:
To ensure the fastest jump in performance after applying the patch, be sure to first create a new manual save by entering the save menu and choosing 'save game'. You should then restart your PlayStation 3 before continuing to play.
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The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim was crowned Game of the Year at this year's video gaming Oscars, the AIAS Interactive Achievement Awards.
UPDATE: According to a Tweet from Bethesda, Skyrim update 1.4 should now be available for PlayStation 3 owners in Europe, with a US roll-out to follow.
ORIGINAL STORY: The long-awaited Skyrim patch 1.4 is now live for Xbox 360, Bethesda has confirmed.
It is trickling out across the various territories now.
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Heavy hitters Batman: Arkham City, Battlefield 3 and Skyrim have made the BAFTA GAME Award shortlist.
Bethesda Game Studios created dragon mounts, Kinect shouts, a werewolf skill tree and more as part of a Game Jam for Skyrim, Todd Howard has revealed.
Good news Xbox 360 patrons: Skyrim update 1.4 arrives tomorrow to clean house and squash a huge list of game-wrecking bugs.
A post on the Twitter feed of Bethesda marketing boss Pete Hines earlier today announced that the patch should be ready for Microsoft's console some time in the morning, US time.
"PS3 update is looking good too. We'll update if we get more info from Sony," he added.
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Brilliant developer Valve has made a Portal 2 Space Core mod for brilliant game Skyrim.
UPDATE: Bethesda has confirmed that a Skyrim PC high-res texture pack is now available for free download from Steam, alongside the Creation Kit.
The PC Creation Kit for The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim arrives on Steam next Tuesday, developer Bethesda has announced.
A Tweet from marketing man Pete Hines earlier today read:
"For our Skyrim PC fans, the Creation Kit is on track for release on Tuesday. And, we also have a special surprise with it. #whatcoulditbe!?"
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PC update 1.4 for The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim is now available to download from Steam, Bethesda has announced.
A beta version of the patch has been available for the last week or so, but this is the real deal. See below for the full changelog.
Console owners will have to wait a while longer - the patch is being submitted to platform holders for approval this week.
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The biggest concern at Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning developer Big Huge Games right now is you're still playing Skyrim.
PC users can take an early look at The Elder Scrolls V: Skryim's 1.4 update via a Steam beta that's just gone live, publisher Bethesda has announced.
A post on the Bethesda Blog explained that anyone interested in testing it out should log in to their Steam account, click on 'Steam' in the upper menu, go to the 'Beta Participation' section in the 'Account' tab and select 'Change'. Then choose 'Skyrim Beta' and select 'OK'.
Once you've tried it out you can then post feedback on the update in Bethesda's beta forum.
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Bethesda has detailed what players can expect from The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim update 1.4, due out on all platforms soon.
The headline feature is of course a fix for the lag issues that have affected many PlayStation 3 gamers.
However, there's a long list of other trouble spots which the patch aims to address.
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Enterprising Skyrim player "zdzichorowerzysta" has updated the PC version of Bethesda's popular role-player by replacing the game's dragons with a character from My Little Pony.
The AIAS shortlist for the 15th Annual Interactive Achievement Awards - i.e. the game Oscars - has been revealed.
Call of Duty game Modern Warfare 3 sold fewer copies than Black Ops in the UK in a comparable time frame.
In 2011, Modern Warfare 3 shifted 2,814,609 copies, the Entertainment Retailers Association (ERA) has revealed (using data provided by weekly counter GfK Chart-Track).
In 2010, Black Ops shifted 3,266,298 copies.
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Modern Warfare 3 was the best selling video game in the UK last year, UKIE and GfK Chart-Track have revealed.
A new patch for The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim due before the end of January will tackle the lag problems currently blighting many PlayStation 3 gamers, Bethesda has announced.
"We're addressing that in the 1.4 update planned for this month," read a post on the developer's Twitter feed in response to a query as to when the notorious 'Rimlag' issue would be fixed.
Last month, Bethesda explained that the development had been working hard to isolate the causes of the problem.
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The best-selling UK video game during the first week of 2012 was FIFA 12. It was also last week's final top title of 2011.
Digital platform Steam has surpassed the five million concurrent users mark.
We've had our say. You've had your say. But what about the people who made the games? What were their favourites of the year just ended? Yes, it's that time of year again, when we pester our favourite creators for their reflections and then watch them show us up with their witty and insightful explanations.
The PC version of Skyrim now supports 4GB of RAM.
Update 1.3.10 was released yesterday (spotted by Rock Paper Shotgun and confirmed by Bethesda). It patches the gargantuan fantasy role-playing game so that it supports 4-Gigabyte Tuning (Large Address Aware).
It also fixed an issue with accented characters not displaying properly at the end of a line, which should make text easier to read.
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Did you know that there's a new Mission: Impossible film out this Christmas? I had no idea until the other day. I assume they must have masses of advertising running for that on TV, in cinemas, online and "outdoors" (I eventually spotted it on a train station poster), but despite spending most of my life hanging off the digital world like a conjoined foetus, somehow its existence had passed me by.
Gargantuan fantasy role-playing game Skyrim is the UK's Christmas 2011 number one.
Gargantuan fantasy role-playing game Skyrim is the fastest-selling game in Steam's history, Valve has revealed.
The Skyrim patch 1.3 is available to download from Xbox Live.
The patch - already out on Steam for the PC version - improves stability and fixes problems with the Radiant Story system and magic resistances not calculating properly.
The latter issue was the result of patch 1.2, which broke character resistances and made some dragons fly backwards.
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The PlayStation 3 version of The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim debuted at number four on this week's Japanese sales chart, with the Xbox 360 SKU not too far behind at nine.
Skyrim's DLC add-ons will "have a lot of meat on them", Bethesda has said.
Bethesda behemoth The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim has knocked Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 off of the UK all-format chart top spot.
UPDATE: Hardware sales numbers are trickling in. The Xbox 360 moved 1.7 million, the Wii 860,000, the 3DS managed 795,000 and the DS 350,000. Sony is yet to offer up its results.
A few game totals have been revealed too. Uncharted 3 sold 700,000, while Super Mario 3D Land managed 625,000. Skyward Sword sold more than 600,000 in its first week, but Nintendo didn't confirm a total for the month.
ORIGINAL STORY: Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 was November's biggest selling game of the month in the US, according to the latest set of NPD data.
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The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim's 1.3 PC update is now available for download via Steam.
According to the Bethesda Blog, console gamers will get it in due course - it has been submitted to both Sony and Microsoft and is awaiting approval.
Here's the full changelog:
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Graphics card maker Nvidia has compiled a huge Skyrim PC guide to help you tweak your computer's technical performance.
Bethesda has refuted allegations made by a senior Fallout: New Vegas developer about the Skyrim PS3 game save problem.
Every Sunday we dust off an article in our archive that you might have missed at the time or we think you'll enjoy again. On the eve of Dark Souls 2's PC release, here's Rich Stanton's take on the differing styles of storytelling at work in the original game and another great RPG of the year it came out, Skyrim. This article was originally published in December 2011.
Bethesda is working hard to stamp out lingering issues with the PlayStation 3 version of Skyrim, but a fix won't feature in the impending 1.3 update.
As detailed on the Bethesda Blog, the developer is aware some PS3 gamers are still experiencing problems with the game following the recent 1.2 update. It's currently attempting to isolate the cause of the problem.
"We've been reaching out to a number of those users to collect save games, so we can take a look at their specific issues," explained the post.
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In our weekend article on the Skyrim PS3 lag issue, we analysed the performance of the game running from a fresh save compared to a crippled 65 hour game, and then put the new patch through its paces - and found it wanting.
Updated: Obsidian's Joshua E Sawyer explains memory management issues affecting Fallout: New Vegas that sound very similar indeed to what is happening with PS3 Skyrim.
How bad does Skyrim PS3 lag get in the unpatched game?
An "incremental" patch for The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim is due next week to address issues with the recent 1.2 update, publisher Bethesda has announced.
As detailed on the Bethesda Blog, it will be available on PC first, with console versions taking a little longer due to platform holder certification.
"Among other things, the update will fix issues like magic resistance not calculating properly and the rare, amazing backwards flying dragon," read the post.
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More people logged on to Xbox Live to play The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim last week than they did Battlefield 3, Microsoft has revealed.
The recently released Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim patch 1.2 appears to have broken character resistances and made some dragons fly backwards.
Resistances protect your character and AI monsters/characters from a portion of harmful effects, be they fire, ice and lightning magic, or things like diseases and poisons.
As it stands, players take full damage, no matter what enchanted gear, race bonuses or perks they have.
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Top-marked title out next week in Japan.
New Nvidia GeForce drivers have been released that improve performance of games Batman: Arkham City, Skyrim, Modern Warfare 3 and Battlefield 3, among others.
Bethesda's gargantuan open world fantasy epic Skyrim is the first western game to receive a 40/40 review score in long-running Japanese video game magazine Famitsu.
Famitsu asks four journalists to review video games, each submitting their own score out of 10. Skyrim, according to Andriasang, received four 10/10 scores, and thus hit the magical 40/40.
It launches in Japan on 8th December for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360.
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Bethesda has offered full details of what's included in the latest Skyrim title update, as spotted by some PlayStation 3 users earlier today.
The headline feature is a patch for a game-breaking PS3 save bug - which it tags as "improved" rather than "fixed" - but there are a number of other performance-enhancing tweaks too, including a fix for the Xbox 360 texture installation issue. See the full changelog below for details, as published on the Bethesda Blog.
The update is available for download on PlayStation 3 now, with a PC and Xbox 360 roll-out expected on Wednesday.
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Skyrim players have reported that the promised patch for the PlayStation 3 version of the epic fantasy game is out now, bringing the game up to version 2.01.
Users on the Bethesda forum say the patch is 92MB and is live in some parts of Europe, including the UK.
An update is due for all three versions of the game. Last week Bethesda said the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 updates were in certification with Sony and Microsoft.
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Here's a small weekend Digital Foundry bonus. Last week we published our Skyrim: World in Motion timelapse, based on 1080p captures acquired from the PC version of the game running at ultra settings. However, before we began work there, we experimented a great deal on the Xbox 360 version which we received several days ahead of release.
A bonus timelapse presentation based on 360 captures.
UPDATE: The petition reported below is in fact the work of satirical website Christwire. It was a joke and we fell for it. Sorry guys!
Skyrim downloadable content may take us back to Morrowind and Cyrodiil.
Update: Bethesda has offered a solution to game crashing caused by the recent PC Skyrim patch.
If you're having trouble running Skyrim after today's small Steam patch, please try the following:
1. Right click on the game in the Steam library and select Properties
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The video game rental market may be about to take off.
Publishers are apparently offering companies like Blockbuster "an awful lot of support" in the hope that game rentals will damage the pre-owned market.
"We have ramped up the rental side of our business and we have got an awful lot of support from publishers," Blockbuster told MCV. "Publishers like renting as it takes away from trade-ins.
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A patch for Skyrim will launch the week beginning Monday 28th November, Bethesda has announced.
The update is for all three versions of the game. The PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 updates are currently in certification with Sony and Microsoft.
Bethesda PR boss Pete Hines said the patch will improve performance for "long-term play on PS3". This relates to a bug currently making the PS3 version unplayable for some. The bug occurs when save files exceed a certain size. After that point, the PS3 version suffers from lag and, according to some players, eventually becomes unplayable.
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The phenomenal world of Skyrim as you've never seen it before.
An enormous world rich in adventure, The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim is remarkable in that its entire game world - meshes, textures, characters, audio, logic - is all contained within a paltry 3.8GB on Xbox 360. In the age of the 50GB Blu-ray, it's amazing that what is arguably the deepest, richest adventure of the year could fit with on a single-layer DVD with space to spare. Even the PC version - with its higher-quality artwork and superior quality settings - still only weighs in at a 5.5GB download via Steam.
Someone did it - a child born on the Skyrim release date of 11th November 2011 has been named Dovahkiin.
Superb fantasy role-playing game Skyrim sold over 3.5 million units in 48 hours, Bethesda has revealed.
Bethesda expects Skyrim launch units to generate over $450 million in global retail sales. By comparison, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 made $400 million in one day, and sold over 6.5 million units in the US and UK alone.
Bethesda shipped seven million units of Skyrim for launch. More than 50 per cent of launch units were sold in the first 48 hours, which means Skyrim sold over 3.5 million units in that period.
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PlayStation 3 owners have called on Bethesda to fix a bug currently making their version of Skyrim unplayable for some.
Bethesda is hard at work on an update for all three versions of epic fantasy game The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim.
In a series of Tweets to fans, Bethesda PR and marketing boss Pete Hines moved to reassure gamers that an update is around the corner - and urged patience.
Responding to one fan, Hines Tweeted: "Patches/updates take a little time. We can't turn it around quite that fast. It's been three days. Calm down, we're working on it."
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Bethesda appears to have included a cheeky Minecraft Easter egg in The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim.
Spot the difference between console and computer.
The strongest vs. the weakest version of the game.
Punching dragons and murdering the innocent.
UPDATE: The Association for UK Interactive Entertainment has been in touch to say the "just under two million units sales" and £83.1 million revenue figures for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 are "unverified" and should be disregarded.
ORIGINAL STORY: Modern Warfare 3 demolished all opposition to conquer the UK video game sales chart this week.
Surprisingly, Modern Warfare 3 sold fewer units in the UK in one week than previous Call of Duty instalment Black Ops.
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Digital Foundry's Skyrim Face-Off is currently in production, and we've spent some time getting to the bottom of the texture streaming problem that's currently being reported and discussed in the wake of a fairly damning YouTube video published at the end of last week.
There are big games, there are massive games, and then there are this week's two banner releases.
This week marked the fifth anniversary of the release of one of my favourite Xbox 360 games ever made.
Viva Pinata was a cute and cuddly game where you planted seeds in a garden and then looked after the friendly animals who popped in to investigate the trees and plants that grew from them. There were 60 varieties to attract, each more delightful than the last, and as their ranks swelled you could sacrifice some to attract other, more exotic species in their place.
Of course, this week also marked the fifth anniversary of the emergence of another famous Xbox 360 series.
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Bethesda has advised Skyrim Xbox 360 players that clearing the game cache may increase save game load times.
Eurogamer's Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim review awarded 10/10 this afternoon. To coincide with this, we've collated the cheapest UK Skyrim shop deals.
Eurogamer's review now live.
Developing games for PC is "a headache", Bethesda has said. There are so many hardware configurations and drivers to consider that even the most robust game can come undone at the performance-seams.
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim promises players a near infinite amount of quests, according to the game's director.
We can't start at the beginning, of course.
Bethesda hasn't shown the opening scene of Skyrim's anonymous prisoner at preview events and - if you've been sensible enough to stay away from YouTube in recent weeks - it's one you'll be glad you waited for. Likewise, in this review we'll promise to tread gently around the story of a world that is far too rich to be spoiled in words.
And what strikes you very early on in Skyrim is that the world itself is the story. As you work through the game, the discoveries and side quests that pepper the map become compelling explorations, and the world map that initially appears vast for vastness' sake simply comes alive. Focusing on the "main quest" becomes an exercise in futility - everything feels connected and worthy of its place in the world, even if only tangentially connected to the game's overall arc.
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The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim will be patched to version 1.1 on launch day - Friday, 11th November.
Bethesda community manager Nick Breckon shared the news on NeoGAF.
"All platforms going to 1.1 by 11/11/11," Breckon wrote.
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The London Oxford Street branch of Game and the Birmingham New Street Gamestation outlet both stay open for a midnight launch of The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim this Thursday night.
You'll be able to pick up the game from 00.01am on Friday morning at either store.
The first 100 people in the queue at both locations get a complimentary strategy guide and soundtrack CD, while the first 250 are promised a goodie bag (no word on what's included).
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It's come round fast. The mythical-sounding 11/11/11 Skyrim release date Bethesda announced last year is soon to be upon us.
Don't buy an Xbox Live Arcade game, buy some Skyrim clothes for your Xbox Live Avatar.
There are two dragon-heavy open world fantasy role-playing games on the horizon: Bethesda's The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim and Capcom's Dragon's Dogma.
Behind the scenes of Bethesda's role-player.
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim's concept artists have revealed how they went about setting the latest entry in Bethesda's RPG series apart from it's predecessor.
Bethesda has revealed the system requirements for The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim.
As seen on marketing exec Pete Hines' Twitter feed, they seem like a fairly manageable set of figures from where we're sitting.
That said, Hines noted that the "recommended" specs are good for running the game on the 'High' graphics setting, rather than 'Ultra', so you'll need a little more oomph to get the best out of the game.
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Today's Scrolls victory for Mojang bodes well for the Swedish Minecraft maker, legal representative Sheridans has explained to Eurogamer.
Minecraft maker Mojang has beaten Bethesda in the Scrolls versus Elder Scrolls court case - for now.
There are dragons! Unlimited dragons, purportedly, and I probably should have chased one of them down in my three hours with Skyrim. Instead, I got distracted by crafting swords. This may not have been ideal journalistic practice, but it does speak to what Skyrim really is, as opposed to what all those dramatic trailers present it as.
Less than one month to go.
A Bethesda QA tester has set the early pace for The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim speed runs, completing the forthcoming RPG epic in an impressive two hours and 16 minutes.
Approaching RPG colossus The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim will let you hire people from taverns to fight alongside you. They're called hirelings.
According to pictures of the Skyrim game manual, hirelings each have their own combat specialities and can be given rudimentary orders by you. You can ask them to wait, to use something, to attack something, to open something or to pick up something.
Friends may also join you on your journey, as they did in Oblivion. You can give them gifts in return.
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Bethesda has publicly discussed its legal row with Minecraft creator Marcus 'Notch' Persson over the Scrolls trademark for the first time.
The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim may not be out until 11th November, but its Achievements list has already leaked. The PS3 Trophies will presumably be the same.
Gamers are sophisticated enough to be able to easily distinguish between Bethesda's The Elder Scrolls series and Mojang's forthcoming Scrolls game, so say the solicitors representing Markus 'Notch' Persson's studio.
Bethesda has announced the voice over cast for upcoming fantasy RPG The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim.
The Scrolls copyright dispute between Minecraft creator Markus "Notch" Persson and Skyrim publisher Bethesda is going to court.
A vast list of racial abilities and perk tree skills available in The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim has hit the net.
Upcoming fantasy role-playing game Skyrim contains a reference to rape and includes a drinking contest, the US ratings board has revealed.
May contain living, breathing dragon.
Bethesda reckons it's much better at squashing bugs in its open world games than it used to be - and it's getting better at it.
While The Elder Scrolls' enormous universe might seem a perfect fit for an MMO, its developers have so far resisted the urge to take the RPG behemoth online.
Bethesda has managed to squeeze forthcoming action RPG colossus The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim onto a single Xbox 360 disc.
The first two downloadable add-ons for fantasy role-playing game The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim will be exclusive to the Xbox 360 for 30 days after release, Microsoft has announced.
After that exclusivity window the DLC is free to go live on PC and PlayStation Network.
No further details were offered on the add-ons. The game itself launches in November.
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Game has strongly denied a rumour doing the rounds that it has forced some publishers to have their games removed from Steam in the UK.
You can marry anyone in The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim, Bethesda has confirmed.
Chaps, ladies and lizards laid bare.
We're excited to announce The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim will be playable at this year's Eurogamer Expo.
Minecraft creator Marcus 'Notch' Persson has pledged to go the distance with Bethesda over the Elder Scrolls publisher's legal claim that Mojang's forthcoming Scrolls game infringes its copyright.
The PC version of Elder Scrolls 5 Skyrim will integrate Steamworks, Bethesda has confirmed.
Eurogamer is proud to announce the 10 nominees for its Game of the Show, gamescom 2011!
Minecraft creator Markus "Notch" Persson wants to settle the Bethesda "Scrolls" lawsuit in a game of Quake 3.
Orcs and Dark Elves, but no more cats.
We've played Skyrim for a whole hour!
Minecraft creator Markus "Notch" Persson has gone into detail on the shock lawsuit threat from The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim publisher Bethesda.
UPDATE: Bethesda has announced that the Collector's Edition of The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim is exclusive to Game and Gamestation in the UK.
Bethesda has accused Minecraft creator Markus "Notch" Persson of infringing an Elder Scrolls trademark.
Bethesda Softworks vice president Pete Hines reckons that the intense period of high-profile releases at the end of 2011 is good news for the games industry, but probably not good news for all the contenders.
You would imagine that getting to play The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim for the first time is an enormous pleasure, but let me tell you a secret: it is not.
Bethesda won't offer a public demo for huge open world role-playing game The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim.
Programmer legend John Carmack will once again deliver a keynote address at QuakeCon.
The id Software co-founder and technical director kicks off this year's show on 4th August 2011.
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, Prey 2 and Rage will all be in attendance.
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Improving the way non-player characters perform was Bethesda's "number one focus" for upcoming fantasy role-playing game The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim.
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim developer Bethesda is focusing on telling one story well rather than branching quests.
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim will have fewer DLC add-ons than Fallout 3 had, but they will be "more substantial", Bethesda has revealed.
If you pre-order upcoming fantasy role-playing game The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim you will get a "premium quality" world map, Bethesda has announced.
It began, as ever, with a leak. With just hours to go until Microsoft's absurdly lavish... Wait a second, this is last year's intro. Oh well, it turns out it still works: where last year we heard about Kinect before we'd even donned our space ponchos, this year we knew about Halo 4 and several new Kinect sequels before Don Mattrick even had a chance to start educating us about "growth and innovation".
Bethesda brings us our latest look.
A few new tidbits of information on The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim have sneaked out of Bethesda HQ, including news that the game contains 60,000 lines of voiced dialogue.
Sprawling fantasy role-playing epic The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion looks set for a limited re-release in June.
Video games have penetrated "mass consciousness" to the such an extent that Hollywood actors now approach developers asking to do voice over work.
Upcoming fantasy RPG The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim is a "1-50" game, Bethesda has revealed.
All three versions of fantasy role-playing game The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim look the same, creator Bethesda has insisted.
Pretty much every openworld game presentation I have ever sat through has included the bit where the developer points to something on the horizon and remarks that you can actually go there. In the old days this used to be a unique and exciting possibility, but over the years the thrill has worn off. Nowadays we just nod politely.
Bethesda does "like" the idea of multiplayer for The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim - game director Todd Howard said it would be "a lot of fun". But no matter how many times the conversation comes up at design meetings, multiplayer "always loses".
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim will hark back to Morrowind and the "wonder of discovery" - something Bethesda wittingly "sacrificed" for Oblivion.
Bethesda dragon-drops the first trailer.
Feeling horny? Bethesda has worked out that today is the ideal time to start growing a baby if you want it to be ready to pop out on "Skyrim Day" - 11th November 2011.
Game's engine shown off in fresh shots.
As you may have read, there'll be no classes in Bethesda's much anticipated RPG sequel Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. A controversial move, to be sure, but series creator Todd Howard insists the freewheeling new system is more "elegant".
Bethesda has redesigned the Elder Scrolls series' menus for new game Skyrim. The aim? To make something electronics wizard Apple would be proud of, were it in Bethesda's curly-toed deerskin boots.
The dates for QuakeCon 2011 are in. The event takes place in August, from 4th-7th, in Dallas, Texas - where limousines are fronted by bull horns.
QuakeCon used to be a place for id Software-related celebrations that usually involved huge old-school LAN parties, i.e. bring your own computer, plug it in and play an hours-long game of Quake.
That essence still remains, but there's a lot more going on now id Software is owned by ZeniMax - parent company of Bethesda.
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Combat in The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim will be more brutal, tactile and intricate than ever before, according to the latest nuggets of information spilling out of Bethesda Game Studios.
Besthesda has named the new engine underpinning The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. It is known as the Creation Engine.
Perks (unique abilities) will be offered when levels are gained in the fifth and new Elder Scrolls game, Skyrim - much as they were in Fallout 3.
Hyper intelligent super-beings from the internet have translated clues about The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim written in "the tongue of the dragons" towards the back of a recent issue of US magazine Game Informer.
Bethesda Game Studios' executive game director Todd Howard is pumped for the recently announced fantasy role-playing game The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim - and reckons gamers should be, too.
The technology powering next year's sure to be gargantuan fantasy role-playing game Elder Scrolls V has taken developer Bethesda "many years" to create, it revealed today.
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim will be powered by a new engine, Bethesda has said. But there are some important points to consider before you get carried away.
Bethesda shows first teaser.
