Like any big daft fantasy blockbuster, The Elder Scrolls needs war. Unfortunately, Bethesda’s open-world games have never been too great at the whole mass battle thing. Even Skyrim’s nation-rending civil war never amounted to much more than a gathering of drunk LARPers waving sharp sticks at each other in the snow. The Elder Scrolls: Total War – a complete overhaul to Medieval 2: Total War – launched this week, bringing some proper bombast to battlefields across Tamriel.

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Allegations of abuse have been made against multiple games industry figures in the past 24 hours. On Monday afternoon Nathalie Lawhead, developer of the IGF-winning Tetrageddon Games, wrote a post on her website alleging that Jeremy Soule, the composer of Skyrim, raped her while she was working for an unnamed Vancouver-based games studio. Seven hours later, comics writer and indie developer Zo Quinn posted tweets alleging that Alec Holowka, co-creator of Aquaria and Night In The Woods, sexually assaulted them. Later that same night, Adelaide Gardner posted a series of tweets alleging that Splash Damage tools programmer Luc Shelton sexually assaulted and gaslit her.

(CW: rape, sexual assault, gaslighting, emotional abuse)>

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Fan project Skyblivion has been rumbling along under the radar for a while, and now it’s resurfaced with a new trailer to show off its voice acting and a slew of other changes. The ambitious mod that aims to recreate Oblivion entirely within its successor Skyrim is finally shaping up to what we can call a proper video game, say its creators. You can see it for yourself below.

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It s International Cat Day! You know, one of those days reportedly invented by a charity, spread by the internet without question, and propagated by the scoundrel media because quite simply we are desperate to post pictures of cats, big cats, fluffy cats, kitten cats, any cat, any excuse for any cat, please, just let me have this day, please, I don’t care if it’s a fake day, please, I need this.

Here are some good videogame cats for International Cat Day.

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When Bethesda released the first three Doom games on modern consoles last week, they added (by accident?) a requirement for players to register and sign into into their Bethesda.net doodad before playing these decades-old games. What does that have to do with PC? Well! Continuing the fine PC gaming tradition of pulling the pisser of modern big-budget games with their modern ways, a new Skyrim mod has added the thrilling experience of failing to connect to login servers and being kicked to the main menu. PC gaming: making daffy jokes playable since 1873.

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It’s never a good sign when Skyrim’s back in the Charts. It means mischief is afoot. And not the good kind. In this case, it’s Bethesda’s Quakecon sale, meaning a whole bunch of the dreariest of usual suspects return to droop our eyelids and weary our souls. And Nier and Flibble Glibble Pants are both on sale yet again. In fact, this week’s top 10 features precisely one game released in the last TWO YEARS>.

So this week I think I shall describe to you the feelings I feel when I see these games appearing once more.

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Continuing to impress with a commitment to fanciness and authenticity in remaking The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind as a Skyrim mod, a new Skywind trailer has drafted an actual Skyrim voice actor to natter while we see how it’s shaping up. Spears are in, levitation is go, and oh god go away cliff racers. Azura there is played by Lani Minella, whose voice spilled forth from the digifaces of Skyrim characters including The Night Mother and several Dunmer folks. Fancy! Authentic! The devs also send word that they’re now making it for the fancier Skyrim Special Edition, so it won’t hit ye olde originale Skryime.

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There must be something in that icy water that makes the Elder Scrolls mod scene so volatile. Skyrim Together, a project to convert The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim into an online co-op adventure, was raking in a staggering $25,000 a month on Patreon up until allegations of code-theft from the Skyrim Script Extender (SKSE) torpedoed it. The good news is that it’s still in development, but you might be waiting a while. Yesterday on Reddit, the developers confirmed that the project is still alive despite the “entire codebase” being “scrapped”, later clarified as just being in the middle of a major restructuring.

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While fast travel is convenient in The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, teleporting around loses the wonder of roaming an open world. If only we could have the convenience of automatic travel without atmosphere ruining-loading screens. Friends, with the wonders of modern modding, we can now set a destination for our Dragonborn and watch them automatically walk or ride to your destination in real time. Call it slow travel. Call them self-driving characters. Call it a game to idly watch. Call it… new mod SkyTrek.

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To celebrate a quarter-century of Elves, Daedra and cat-people with bafflingly complex lore, Bethesda are giving away The Elder Scrolls 3: Morrowind today (March 25th) only, so snap it up quickly here. You’ll need a Bethesda.net account and their launcher to grab the game, too. A bit of a hassle, but you’re getting a sprawling adventure through a deeply alien corner of Tamriel, filled with giant insects, inscrutable demigods and enough Cliff Racers to drive any adventurer to distraction. If you’ve never played what many consider the best Elder Scrolls game, now’s the time.

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