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Mar 16, 2012
Elder Scrolls Online reveal in May - report
The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind® Game of the Year Edition


Bethesda will unveil its heavily rumoured Elder Scrolls MMO in May, according to a new report.


Elder Scrolls Online, as it is apparently known, is set a millennium prior to the events of Skyrim, an "industry source" told Tom's Guide.


It is speculated that this means the unannounced game is set during the Second Era of Elder Scrolls lore, hundreds of years before any game in the fantasy role-playing series. It will, apparently, feature three playable factions, each represented by an animal: lion, dragon and bird of prey (either a phoenix or an eagle).


The Elder Scrolls MMO is then expected to be shown at the E3 expo in June, and again in more detail at Quakecon, alongside Doom 4.


It is in production at ZeniMax Online Studios, which has been after staff with MMO knowledge for some time now.


Indeed, rumblings of an Elder Scrolls MMO have been felt since 2007, when Bethesda registered the website address elderscrollsonline.com. Then, Bethesda marketing chap Pete Hines said the company was only snapping up URLs to prevent others from getting there first.


Then, in 2010, legal papers submitted in the now settled court case between Bethesda and Interplay revealed the company was working on a "World of Warcraft type MMO".


Apparently development on the MMO had been ongoing since 2006 and involved "close to a hundred people" and a budget of "tens of millions of dollars".


In 2007, Bethesda's parent company ZeniMax hired Mythic Entertainment co-founder Matt Firor to lead development of an MMO. His experience on Dark Ages of Camelot, a traditional fantasy game, closely fits the Elder Scrolls bill.

Feb 27, 2012
Bethesda hiring for next-gen project
Fallout 3


The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim and Fallout 3 developer Bethesda Game Studios is currently staffing up for a next-gen project.


A job listing on its recruitment site states that the developer "is looking for experienced programmers to work on cutting-edge technology for an unannounced game on future-generation consoles."


Among the preferred skills listed is experience working with DirectX 11, suggesting the latest iteration of the PC API will be the benchmark for next gen console visuals.


This tallies with comments made by a Crytek developer last summer:


"It's going to depend a lot on when Sony and Microsoft decide is the right moment to announce and launch things," said programmer Pete Hall, "but it does feel at the moment that the hardware we get in next generation consoles will be about the sort of level that DX11 is at - that's where it currently looks like it's going."

Dec 22, 2011
Fallout 3/New Vegas DLC discounted on XBLA
Fallout 3


Discounts on Fallout 3 and Fallout: New Vegas DLC make up the third day of Microsoft's 12 days of Christmas promotion.


The following add-ons have been reduced down to 400 Points a piece, but hurry - the offer changes tomorrow morning:

Fallout 3:

  • Mothership Zeta
  • Operation Anchorage
  • Broken Steel

Fallout: New Vegas:

  • Honest Hearts
  • Lonesome Road
  • Dead Money
  • Old World Blues
Sep 16, 2011
Euro Oblivion 5th Anniversary Ed date
The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion® Game of the Year Edition


Bethesda has confirmed the Oblivion 5th Anniversary for Europe. It will be released on 23rd September for £20 on PS3 and Xbox 360, £18 on PC.


European PR manager Alistair Hatch confirmed the date on Twitter.


Inside the Oblivion 5th Anniversary Edition is the Game of the Year Edition of Oblivion, which contains DLC add-ons Shivering Isles and Knights of the Nine.


Also in the box are a Making of Oblivion DVD and a colour map of game world Cyrodiil and the Shivering Isles.


A Skryim video is thrown in as well.


The Oblivion 5th Anniversary Edition doesn't come in Steelbook casing in Europe, but it does in the US.


Oblivion was the fourth Elder Scrolls game and is the predecessor to new game Skyrim. Eurogamer's Oblivion review awarded a modest 10/10.

Video: Shivering Isles.

Sep 8, 2011
Fallout inspires Polish political video
Fallout 3


Polish political party Poland Comes First has produced a video undeniably inspired by Fallout.


The video begins with a close-up of an old television set, its screen showing black and white photos presumably of Polish politicians. The camera pulls slowly backwards. And through a space where a wall once stood, a post-apocalyptic cityscape with half-destroyed and charred skyscrapers is revealed. "Maybe", the 1940s song by The Ink Spots, plays in the background.

It's identical to the intro of Fallout 1, but with photo-shopped images on the television set.


Poland Comes First is a relatively liberal centre-right political party. Its focus is on speeding up economic reform. How will the promotional video go down with Bethesda?

The two videos are below.

Sep 1, 2011
Bethesda discusses squashing bugs
Fallout 3


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.


Bethesda's Fallout and Elder Scrolls games have a reputation for being buggy at launch, with some gamers complaining of system crashes and corrupted game saves.


The company has released a raft of patches and fixes for Fallout 3 and Fallout: New Vegas in an effort to combat these issues post launch.


With Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim fast approaching, Bethesda marketing boss Pete Hines told Eurogamer sister site GamesIndustry.biz the development team is working hard to make sure the fantasy epic is as free from bugs as possible.


"It's something we continue to try to address and design for," he said. "If you go back and look, Fallout 3 was an incredibly stable game. Certainly not bug-free, but there's a difference for us between a rock that's floating a little above the ground, which is technically a bug, and one you might have that causes your game to crash or your save-games to get corrupted.


"So there's degrees. We start at the top and work our way down. Does the game load when you click on it? Does it save properly? That stuff. So it's something we're cognisant of. I think for Skyrim we built a number of things into the game to cover that and to try to improve that."


Bethesda has a harder time with bugs than other game developers because of the size and scope of its games, Hines said.


"The truth of the matter is that it's far easier to bug-test and playtest a game that's very linear than one that's very open," he explained.


"It is a bigger undertaking to wrangle all of that and make sure you've squeezed out every possible thing, like, 'Oh, you've picked up this sword then talked to this person then gave them that, then this thing happens.' It is literally approaching infinite when you talk about all those possibilities."


Fallout: New Vegas, which launched in 2010, also suffered from bugs. The difference here, however, was that it was created by Obsidian, and independent developer.


According to Hines, the problems players saw with that game should not be repeated.


"I think we have and continue to get better at it. When you look at Fallout: New Vegas, it was not a Bethesda Game Studios title, it was different experience for those guys even though we worked with them on it, but I think Todd [Howard] and his team have continued, over the 12 years I've been here working with them, to make improvements, and I think they're in a good place with this."

Video:

Jul 29, 2011
Game restarts £5 Play Now/Trade Later
Eurogamer


UK shop Game has restarted its Play Now/Trade Later deal.


It means you can buy selected games and trade them in for a guaranteed amount, effectively meaning you pay a fiver for them.


Codemasters' superb racer Dirt 3 is on the list. Fear 3 on Xbox 360 (not PS3) is another.


Other games included are:

  • UFC Trainer (Wii)
  • Cars 2 (DS)
  • Art Academy (DS)
  • Call of Juarez: The Cartel (Xbox 360 and PS3)
  • Hunted: The Demon's Forge (PS3)
  • Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 (Wii)


If you trade in any of those games for credit before 12th August they'll effectively cost £5. The credit can be redeemed against any purchase in the future.


In February Game raised eyebrows when it guaranteed a £35 trade-in price for shooters Killzone 3 and Bulletstorm.


It meant you lost only £5 for 13 days of play.

Video:

Jul 19, 2011
Oblivion 5th anniversary ed UK bound?
The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion® Game of the Year Edition


A new BBFC rating for The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Game of the Year Edition has popped up online, suggesting UK gamers may soon see the launch of the 5th anniversary edition of the sprawling fantasy RPG.


The 5th anniversary edition launched in the US earlier this month.


The new BBFC rating, classified today, details the Game of the Year Edition of Oblivion, which includes the Shivering Isles expansion.


In the US the 5th anniversary edition includes a map, a making of DVD with a Skyrim trailer and a $10 Off Coupon for Skyrim.


This comes in a steelbook with slip cover.


Eurogamer has contacted Bethesda for comment.

Jun 6, 2011
UK Top 40: LA Noire locked in first
Hunted: The Demon’s Forge™


Dark detective drama L.A. Noire has extended its reign on top of the charts, spending a third week at number one.


Co-operative fantasy fighter Hunted: The Demon's Forge was last week's major new contender, but the Bethesda-published adventure could only capture 14th place.


Hunted's platform sales broke down to 63 per cent Xbox 360, 30 per cent on PS3 and 7 per cent on PC (excluding downloads).


Sims 3: Generations - the life simulation's fourth expansion - fared better, knocking up a tenth place entry on PC.


Lego Pirates of the Caribbean is anchored in second, no doubt buoyed by the release of fourth film On Stranger Tides.


Codemasters' rally racer Dirt 3 revved into third. Colourful caricatured shooter Brink held fifth place.


The Wii bundle-backed Wii Sports Resort spends its 98th week in the UK Top 40, reclining in sixth.


Chart stalwarts COD: Black Ops, FIFA 11, and Portal 2 fill out seventh, eighth and ninth respectively.
















































































































































































































This Week Last Week Title Platform(s)
1 1 L.A. Noire PS3, Xbox 360
2 2 Lego Pirates of the Caribbean 3DS, DS, PC, PS3, Wii, Xbox 360
3 2 DiRT 3 PC, PS3, Xbox 360
4 4 Zumba Fitness: Join the Party Wii, Xbox 360
5 5 Brink PC, PS3, Xbox 360
6 6 Wii Sports Resort Wii
7 8 Call of Duty: Black Ops DS, PC, PS3, Wii, Xbox 360
8 7 FIFA 11 DS, PC, PS2, PS3, PSP, Wii, Xbox 360
9 12 Portal 2 Mac, PC, PS3, Xbox 360
10 New entry The Sims 3: Generations Mac, PC
11 10 Mario Kart Wii Wii
12 17 Art Academy DS
13 13 LEGO Star Wars III: The Clone Wars 3DS, DS, PC, PS3, PSP, Wii, Xbox 360
14 New entry Hunted: The Demon's Forge PC, PS3, Xbox 360
15 11 Just Dance 2 Wii
16 18 Red Dead Redemption PS3, Xbox 360
17 9 Crysis 2 PC, PS3, Xbox 360
18 16 Wii Fit Plus Wii
19 20 Wii Party Wii
20 14 Tiger Woods PGA Tour 12: The Masters PS3, Wii, Xbox 360
21 32 Killzone 3 PS3
22 28 The Sims 3 DS, PC, PS3, Xbox 360
23 Re-entry Virtua Tennis 4 PS3, Wii, Xbox 360
24 15 Mortal Kombat PS3, Xbox 360
25 22 LEGO Harry Potter: Years 1-4 DS, PC, PS3, PSP, Wii, Xbox 360
26 25 Kinect Sports Xbox 360
27 20 Homefront PC, PS3, Xbox 360
28 26 Sniper: Ghost Warrior PC, PS3, Xbox 360
29 27 Michael Jackson: The Experience Wii, PS3, Xbox 360
30 35 Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare PS3, Xbox 360
31 19 Fight Night Champion PS3, Xbox 360
32 21 Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood PC, PS3, Xbox 360
33 23 Pokemon Black DS
34 33 Football Manager 2011 PC, PSP
35 34 Pokemon White DS
36 Re-entry Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 PC, PS3, Xbox 360
37 36 Batman: Arkham Asylum PC, PS3, Xbox 360
38 38 Just Cause 2 PS3, Xbox 360
39 Re-entry LittleBigPlanet 2 PS3
40 30 Donkey Kong Country Returns Wii

UKIE Games Charts compiled by GfK Chart-Track.

Jun 1, 2011
Hunted: The Demon's Forge
Hunted: The Demon’s Forge™


Campaign co-operative play was once the preserve of the dedicated PC gamer, but these days it's become a standard gameplay feature and it's not hard to see why.


My experience playing Gears of War, for example, was infinitely superior once I had someone there to witness me punting a Locust corpse around a room while shouting that we do not negotiate with terrorists, and I know that Left 4 Dead was more memorable whenever someone had to fight their way across a level to save my life than it would have been if I'd just used a health pack.


The presence of a friend means that co-op is fun by default, and it would be nice to see more games embracing the concept from the outset rather than tacking it on.


Cue Hunted: The Demon's Forge. Developed by a team of RPG veterans at inXile Entertainment - the sort of RPG veterans whose reliance on pencils and paper for Dungeons & Dragons sessions was a quiet but competitive form of deforestation - it's the modern cover-based third-person shooter retrofitted as an eighties dungeon-crawler.


Two players take on the complementary roles of human powerhouse Caddoc and elven archer E'lara, and must work together to loot exciting swords and slay exotic demons as they explore the dark recesses of a traditional fantasy world.


Caddoc, whose accent wants to be English but whose dialogue sometimes isn't sure whether to be Scottish or Californian, and his haughty companion are mercenaries who begin the game wandering around swamps aimlessly. But they quickly find themselves drawn into a dark conspiracy - involving the orc-like wargar, minotaurs and demons - by a seductive spirit called Seraphine.


Their quest takes them through the war-torn streets of corrupted and impoverished Dyfed, into the depths of the dungeons that run far beneath it, across wild plains and port towns and far beyond.


Caddoc is a brawler with a shield at his back and a sword, axe or cudgel in his right hand. In combat he is a tank, working his way into the midst of the pesky wargar, where a flurry of light and heavy attacks decimate their health bars.


E'lara specialises in ranged bow attacks, the idea being that she can assist Caddoc from afar with covering fire and also degrade the influence of the enemy's ranged forces, in order that Caddoc can operate outside cover without becoming a sitting duck.


As you progress you gather crystals that both characters can spend on magical abilities, and these follow form - so E'lara gets things like explosive and freezing arrows while Caddoc can greatly enhance his strength and perform area-of-effect attacks that lift enemies up and dump them to the ground.


On top of that, either player can temporarily become more or less invincible if they happen upon 'sleg' - a combat drug that also underpins a lot of the story.


Initially combat can be hard going, but within a few chapters you're both pretty badass, and if you like blowing up demons cheaply and bathing in their gory entrails then Hunted is very much the game for you.


The setup's reasonable enough, then, and there are some nice ideas along the way. These mostly occur when the game is confident enough to divert its attention from the story and let you follow a path away from the otherwise linear, corridor-based progression.


The riddles and puzzles you encounter here wouldn't exactly floor Dr Kawashima (or even Dr Nick), but the developers know how to arrange recessed switches, haunted crypts, false walls, eternal flames and giant spiders so that the 756-attack-point War Scepter at the end of the fight feels like an epic relic recovered rather than just another percentage point on the invisible completion meter.


And of course co-op means that when the going gets tough, the tough can get organised. Providing you aren't plagued by connection issues, you will be able to work together in combat to conserve health and mana, prioritise tougher enemies and make use of the environment.

Video: Hunted: The Demon Forge's first 15 minutes.









If you're anything like us, you'll also amuse yourselves with unofficial pastimes like "deathstone lottery" - the game of guessing whether the next ghost whose collectible voice recording you uncover will be Scouse, Irish, Brummie or whatever. (Winner gets first refusal at the next character-swap gemstone.)


In these days of launch patches it's hard to say whether connection problems will be an issue by the time you play Hunted, but we fared reasonably well pre-release over Xbox Live.


My first party of two averaged one and a half chapters - around 90 minutes of content - before one of us dropped out. The lobby system isn't very transparent but seems to work OK and in-game lag isn't an issue. (The game's also fully playable in split-screen.)


We do recommend you find someone to play with, too, although perhaps not for the gameplay reasons you imagine. While the computer AI does a decent job of filling in for another human if you do have to play the game on your own, it's much less fun to play when nobody else is around to frown moralistically at E'lara's ridiculous outfit, or comment that it's nice to hear the soundtrack from Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time getting another run-out.


You tend to need that because, left to their own devices, Caddoc and E'lara aren't exactly the most compelling people to keep you company. Their relationship is business rather than pleasure, but for people who seem to have voluntarily spent years together there's a surprising lack of chemistry and humour in their banter.


E'lara's snooty refrains and double-entendres clash uneasily with Caddoc's awkward pseudo-paternal everyman patter, and most of the dialogue is just flat. "We sent that demon back to hell," says E'lara. "Right where he came from," says Caddoc.


The greater shame though is that the relationship also has to be somewhat forced on the battlefield. On paper, E'lara's skills should complement Caddoc's brute force and create interesting opportunities - but while you can get more out of the game by co-operating, it is far from required.


On anything but the hardest difficulty setting either character can charge into battle from chapter two onward without too much concern for planning or coordination, and for most of the game the lightning spell and occasional button-mashing sees you through, whether the latter is Caddoc's hacking and slashing or E'lara's aim-and-explode archery.


There are times when co-op is mandatory - E'lara has to fire flaming arrows to activate puzzle-specific items, for example - but the majority of prompts to bring both characters together seem to have little to do with gameplay.


"Why are all these doors so damn heavy?" Caddoc moans at one point as you are both obligated to stand next to one another to progress to the next area. The answer is more that the programming requires you to cross that threshold together rather than anything to do with the core co-op conceit.


A solid eight hours of action takes you through to the end of the story, after which you can extend the life of the game through Adventure+ mode (toggling various tweaks) or by creating your own arena-mode extensions with the Crucible Map Creator.


Crucible is like Horde mode in Gears of War 2, except you can choose the manner of your destruction, specifying the sequence of rooms you face and the make-up of the enemies to be spammed upon you. After the story mode's six chapters, I feel I've had my fill, but if you want more of the core combat then this is a flexible and welcome extension.


Hunted isn't exactly Left 4 Dead for the fantasy genre, then. It's seemingly, and in the end rightly, insecure about its co-op credentials so it never fully embraces them, and the result is a fairly standard fantasy third-person action-adventure that can happily be played with a friend but for which you needn't rely on one.


Given the excellent concept that gave life to it in the first place, that's a rather disappointing conclusion. But those who can overlook Hunted's design shortfalls and occasionally tepid fantasy backdrop will extract a good few hours of fun slashing and exploring before something better comes along.

7/10

...
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