Paranoia in The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion

Glarthir—upstanding citizen or local loon?

Glarthir—upstanding citizen or local loon? Screenshot by EbonySkyrim, The Elder Scrolls Wiki.

The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion is 10 years old, a terrifying fact that has done little but remind me that my days are numbered and senility is closing in on me like a determined mud crab. But for all that time may cloud my mind, I will never forget the quest that defined my experience of Bethesda's finest game and enshrined the RPG as the genre for me.

Paranoia requires you to exploit almost every mechanic Oblivion offers—combat, dialogue, timing, stealth and theft—resolving the story of a mad wood elf. Glarthir is convinced his neighbours are in cahoots, plotting his downfall. You can choose to take his side and keep tabs on the people of Skingrad, or you can brush him off as a total Fruit Loop. For me, a PC gaming novice at the time, this tangle of possibilities went horribly wrong.

Skingrad. Screenshot by, er, 'Maintenance script', The Elder Scrolls Wiki.

A little scene-setting: the PC I was running Oblivion on was my very first. Consequently, I hadn't had much experience with games more complex than Pokémon or World of Warcraft, which just about ran on my parents' early-'00s monstrosity. I didn't have a full understanding of what was and wasn't possible in a PC RPG, and that made the world feel far more scary.

When you enter Skingrad, Glarthir is programmed to run towards you and engage you in conversation, triggering Paranoia. I just saw a demented elf running my way and panicked—I turned on my heel and left the city. To my horror, as I caught my breath beyond the Skingrad loading screen, what should I see emerge but the same figure who had just tried to accost me. Assuming in my heightened state that Oblivion had marked me for death, I legged it across country, looking back every few seconds to glimpse the relentless silhouette of my pursuer.

Screenshot by Rpeh, via The Unofficial Elder Scrolls Pages.

As the chase wore on, I became hysterical, at last taking shelter in Goblin Jim's Cave (I hope you'll understand the depth of my fear in the knowledge that I was more prepared to face Goblin Jim than the abomination dogging my footsteps). I hopped onto a ledge opposite the cave entrace, crouched down and drew my bowstring. Minutes passed in horrible tension, and then a figure appeared. He was unstoppable!

The string went slack; the arrow flew true. Glarthir keeled over. In my panic, I had killed an overzealous quest giver—but of course I didn't know that's what he was. Neither could I understand the message now blazing on my screen beyond a nauseating sensation that it wasn't good news.

"Your killing has been observed by forces unknown..."

Screenshot by EbonySkyrim, via The Elder Scrolls Wiki.

Needless to say, when the Dark Brotherhood's Lucien Lachance appeared at my bedside the next time I slept, pants were dampened. By the time my heart rate returned to normal and I'd stirred up the gumption to do as Lucien bid, however, I had had a revelation. Somehow a cross-country pursuit and my own misplaced self-defence culminated in my becoming Cyrodiil's most deadly assassin. The bewildering chain of events that set me on that path was testament to Oblivion's complexity, potential and frequent shonkiness.

Oblivion felt impossibly deep, and that sensation of causality among its disparate mechanics—though it was sometimes a product of poor code—sold me on the genre like nothing else could.

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Making an Unreal Tournament CTF map is harder than it looks

Unreal Tournament developer Epic Games has released the last of a trio of behind-the-scenes videos showcasing the work that goes into creating a level for the upcoming free-to-play FPS.

The first video, which was actually put up in September, demonstrates the early stages of the creation of CTF Outside, the working name for the map that's now officially known as Titan Pass. The map at this stage is a very basic "shell," with a simple color scheme and no art assets attached. The second video, from October, sees it become more of a fully-realized level, as concept art is translated into an actual in-game look with proper textures, lighting, and a focus on the balance between detail and playability.

The third video is all about the process of testing and tweaking to make sure that everything works like it's supposed to. It's clearly a very involved and detail-oriented process, and it demands attention to things that I, as a non-developer, would not have considered. One thing that seems obvious in hindsight is the need to ensure that the map's dimensions remain the same after all the bric-a-brac is applied, and that the map doesn't feel "tighter and more claustrophobic" as the various layers are added.

"We're definitely not done with it," Senior Level Designer Sidney Rauchberger explains. "Since we're a 'living project,' there are a ton of things that we still want to touch up on and improve. It's an evolving process."

The new Unreal Tournament is still in pre-alpha but it's playable and, as long as you don't mind that it's far from complete, a pretty good bit of fun. And it's free, which is a pretty big plus. Grab it at UnrealTournament.com.

Oblivion is 10 years old

On March 20, 2006, thousands disappeared into Cyrodiil—a world populated by NPCs with potatoes for faces, distant landscapes that resemble mudslides and bored big-name voice actors.

The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivionis 10 years old. Let that fact sink in along with the crushing sense of your own mortality.

No, Oblivion isn't a looker these days. It couldn't have been stunning at the time to run on my first 'gaming' PC, which cost under £500, but there is a pervasive sense of possibility in its rolling fields, riverbanks and forests based on placid European heartlands. Farms and thatched villages don't typically make for high-octane roleplay, but Bethesda wove the unexpected into its pastoral scenes in a way that it hasn't achieved since: vampires off the quiet road to Cheydinhal; a Lovecraftian cult deep in the woods; a Mages Guild initiation gone wrong.

In Oblivion it was a wonder to discover these things. With a few spectacular exceptions (the Thieves Guild and Dark Brotherhood chains) quests were a guide to sightseeing rather than pointers to new loot. I realise that I've succumbed to nostalgia at 23 years of age, but if you escape your family this Easter weekend, install Oblivion, load up as many graphical modsas it can handle and see how it compares as a space to Bethesda's later games. It's wrinkled, and cantankerous as only the elderly can be, but that's because it usually knows best.

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Unreal Tournament gets spooky Halloween update

Unreal Tournament sure seems to have a lot going on for a game that's not even in full alpha .

. The fan-favorite CTF map Facing Worlds was added last month, and now there's athat includes time-limited unlocks and special content including offline challenges, seasonal leader hats, and Spooky Face. Spooky!

Spooky Face is not actually a spooky face, but rather a "twisted take" on the Facing Worlds map, with pumpkins and the "Boom Broom!" Collecting 6666 pumpkins will earn you the Pumpkin Fiend mask, which you can keep after the season ends, while gathering up the skulls of dead enemies will net you the Harvest Gourd at 200 skulls, the Harvest Spectre at 1000, and the Harvest Ember at 5000. Rewards for completing offline challenges include the Trickster horns, the Hellion horns, and the Baaler horns.

The Halloween content is part of an update released yesterday that makes more conventional changes like improvements to the tutorial, weapon balance tweaks, better support for custom content downloads, improved server admin support, and a goodly number of smaller changes and fixes. A full breakdown of the Halloween update can be found at the Unreal Engine Wiki. Halloween goes live on October 31.

Tour the world of Skyblivion in new 45-minute gameplay trailer

Got an hour to kill and a hankering to do some sightseeing in Cyrodiil?

Got an hour to kill and a hankering to do some sightseeing in Cyrodiil? If you find yourself in that rather odd situation, then I recommend you have a look at the new Skyblivion gameplay trailer.

Skyblivion, as the name suggests, is a remake of the 2006 Elder Scrolls RPG Oblivionin the more up-to-date and visually impressive Creation engine that powered the 2011 Elder Scrolls RPG Skyrim. It's very much akin to Skywind, a similar resurrection of the 2002 Elder Scrolls RPG Morrowind, which I think generally gets more attention because it's so much older and thus in more dire need of a facelift.

The Skyblivion world looks quite a bit emptier than I recall the Imperial Province being, although it has been an awfully long time since I was last there. It's also very early in the development process: The YouTube description says the video is taken from version 0.2 of the mod, which among other things lacks a "navmesh" that guides NPCs and keeps them from wandering into places they're not supposed to go. "Navmesh needs to be done if this is ever going to be in a playable state with quests," the mod makers said in a comment. "This is a huge task considering it has to be done by hand and Cyrodiil is huge."

The mod is apparently progressing toward a public release of version 0.3, but there's no indication as to when it might be ready. For now, enjoy the view—and if you want to find out more about what's going on, or even chip in to help (Skyblivion, as Destructoidnotes, is being created entirely by volunteers) you may do so at The Elder Scrolls Renewal Project.

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Classic CTF map Facing Worlds is reborn in Unreal Tournament update

Well hello, stranger!

Well hello, stranger! Fans of the old Unreal Tournament will surely recognize Facing Worlds, or CTF-Face, a capture the flag map—perhaps the capture the flag map—that wonderfully sucked up endless hours of their lives. It's back and it's gotten a makeover as part of an update for Unreal Tournament's free-to-play pre-alpha.

The update includes two other CTF maps besides Facing Worlds: Titan Pass and Pistola Battleground, the latter based on the UT 2004 map of the same name, and created by community member Jayoplus.

You can run around fragging people in these maps using two new playable characters included in the update, one a Necris and the other a Skaarj trooper. According to the release notes, there has also been some work done on weapons like the rocket launcher, sniper rifle, and link gun. Bot AI has also been improved for offline challenge sessions.

This being the start of Unreal Tournament's pre-alpha season, running through the end of October, they've also instituted a progression system in which players using official Epic servers gain experience they can use for character customization. You can read the full release notes here, and register for the pre-alpha at UT's official site.

Also, for old time's sake, here's the classic Facing Worlds circa UT2004. Hell of a view.

Bethesda discusses horse armor and the power of mods

Bethesda’s infamous Horse Armor DLC – the company’s first add-on for The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion – has a reputation for being among the lamest early DLC offerings.

– has a reputation for being among the lamest early DLC offerings. While that may be true on the surface, it was also a gateway of sorts for Bethesda, coming at a time when the company was wrestling with ideas for how to approach the newly developed concept.

The widely derided DLC “did a lot of stuff for us internally,” Bethesda Studios level designer Joel Burgess said during a presentation at GDC on Tuesday.

"Back in 2005 developers were wondering: what does DLC even mean? How do we make it? How do we expect to know what people even want to play or what it's going to cost?

"We needed something that would test our systems, add some new art and dialogue, and add some new hooks and quests to the game. [It would need to] test the pipeline and feel out the market for what was the best thing we could possibly do.

“So we came up with horse armor," Burgess said.

Nowadays, NexusMods and Steam Workshop have several horse armor mods for Skyrim. They’re not $1.99 and no one complains about them: they’re just there if you want them, and they weren't made with a profit motive. Modding was the focus of Burgess’s talk, and he made a case for modding tools being a key factor in the success of Bethesda’s RPGs, naming a number of obvious benefits (longevity, community dedication, ongoing media attention) in addition to some less obvious upsides.

“Mods can demonstrate alternative reality versions of your game,” Burgess said. He cited several key mods – including Oscuro’s Overhaul for Oblivion and Deadly Reflex for Skyrim – as influences for the team’s future work on the game.

Additionally, modders can expand on a game's universe with “less polish and no canon”, the kind of things studios are otherwise eager to nurture. Modders can explore possibilities that are otherwise off limits to the original development team, and thus reframe a game's essence in interesting ways.

Harking back to the ‘90s and his formative experiences using Duke Nukem 3D’s BUILD engine, Burgess compared the ‘90s modding heyday with modern indies, describing both as “disruptive” forces in an otherwise uptight, orthodox market. While ‘90s modders had the likes of id Software and 3D Realms championing their cause (to name a few), nowadays Unity can take a lot of credit for the flourishing indie scene, Burgess said, in the way it has helped make game development more approachable and less exclusive. He drew parallels between Unity and the modding culture of the 1990s.

With Source 2 and Unreal Engine 4 now freely available to aspiring and experienced developers alike, the climate is looking up for independent studios. But if all you want to do is make some fancy horse armor for your Skyrim steed, then you’re welcome to do that too, and Bethesda is eager to ensure that lessons learnt modding previous Elder Scrolls games will apply in the future.

“Even though we moved to a new engine under the hood [with Skyrim], it was important for us to maintain the same workflows, editor tools and pipelines we were used to, because that way our content creation process wasn't going to be disrupted,” Burgess said.

“This also meant that out modders could draw upon a decade of experience. Anybody who had done modding for any of our previous titles would be able to mod for Skyrim and have a familiarity with those tools."

It's a smart approach: Skyrim's modding scene continues to flourish, to the extent that last week it was the first game to bypass Steam Workshop's 100mb filesize limit. Meanwhile, Skyrim continues to be among the most played games on Steam four years after its release.

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The new Unreal Tournament is free and fun, but still primitive

I spawn into chaos.

I spawn into chaos. I’m immediately blessed by the wrathful deathmatch gods: at my feet lies an Enforcer pistol, its former owner reduced to a few gory streaks of blood beside it. I pick it up and it fills my left hand—a nostalgic display of akimbo pistoleering. On a raised platform nearby, a pickup timer signals an impending reappearance of the mighty shield belt. I use the platform’s elevator as a jump boost for a quick aerial survey of the area. I spot someone get cooked alive by a Link Gun’s crackling neon-green beam.

I land and nab the belt, but before I can blink, a pair of smoking pieces of molten metal arc over my head. I spin around and meet the business end of a Flak Cannon, the golden-colored reaper of close quarters. Reflexes kick in; I’m double-tap dodging backwards before I realize it to escape the cannon’s deadly killzone. My back hits a curved wall, and I mash a strafe key, sending me into a lateral wall dodge. My twin Enforcers roar to life, and for an instant, I’m a John Woo stuntman. Riddled, my opponent crumples. I’m about to fistpump over the flashy frag when I instantly turn into a greasy crater from a tri-rocket annihilation.

Unreal Tournamentis playable. The extent of its current functionality sits somewhere between primordial and primitive. I point my crosshairs at someone, I click, bullets/rockets/shrapnel/laser beams/green goo fires out of my weapon, and someone hopefully dies. Recycle, repeat, respawn. This is the quintessential definition of an arena FPS, a bedrock blueprint of the genre with a name representing one of the foundational pillars of influential shooters on the PC.

Far be it for me to call UT’s latest incarnation simple, though. Its developer, Epic, has far-reaching plans to collaborate with its communityon an unprecedented level. Anyone with programming or level design smarts can load up the Unreal Engine editorand contribute. New weapons, maps, and mutators are proposed almost daily. Epic wants competitive tournaments later this year. A Steam Marketplace-esque cosmetic systemis in the works.

But that’s all pins on a corkboard at the moment. Downloading the free pre-alphabrings a gut-level glimpse into the new UT with deathmatch, team deathmatch, capture the flag, and duel modes. That’s it. Finding a match is a single click or a quick browse through the dedicated server list. Alternatively, there’s 'hubs': clusters of player-hosted matches grouped by location for optimal response time. The client comes with a rudimentary set of audio and visual options—texture, shadow, and effects quality for instance, but nothing specific yet like fine-tuning anti-aliasing multipliers—which thankfully includes a working FOV slider.

By far the best demonstration of Epic and the community’s efforts is jumping into a deathmatch round on Outpost 23, UT’s first fully textured and properly lit map. The level of detail and visual clarity is phenomenal. Pipes, wires, cables, steel bulkheads, and even a thrumming reactor core push the limits of expressing artistic design in small-scale arenas. The Unreal Engine’s expertise at drawing gentle curves lends a soft-looking appearance which, in some brightly lit sections, skirt dangerously close to annoying filter territorybut doesn’t feel too smothering so far. Though gorgeous, some effects wind up a touch distracting after a while. Stepping into the outside area sends the map’s HDR into overdrive, darkening interiors seen through doorways and causing difficulty eyeballing movements and player models.

The rest of the pre-alpha’s map set sits squarely in barebones status. Outside of Outpost 23, the remaining 20 included battlegrounds look quite naked without proper textures to the point where the placeholder graphics appear almost cartoonish by comparison. Their layouts are luckily further along in progress, so they’re good playgrounds for mastering movement. Chaining pinball-like wall dodges across the rocky canyon of the low-gravity Bigrock Asteroid Mining CTF map is dumb fun. Classic stomping grounds such as Facing Worldsand Deck 16 are in a semi-constructed state, as well. Strangely enough, their unfinished surfaces fits as an appropriately vintage look.

Plenty implements of destruction pepper each map. They’re fun, but they’re nothing innovative, a mixed arsenal from UT99 and its sequels. The guns’ granular characteristics are pretty fluid right now—each build update includes slews of weapon adjustments—but some properties are an enjoyable marriage between the original and its successors.

The Flak Cannon is a surefire showstopperup close, and the Minigun’s secondary fire lays small spike traps that can help propel jumps. The new Impact Hammer is the evolution of a humiliating melee kill into a skillful tool with its alt-fire, a knockback blast that can swat down projectiles and beams and control chokepoints (think the airblast from TF2’s Pyro). The Link Gun, already a mid-range menace, can lock an enemy at the end of its beam to prevent him or her from fleeing. I’m slightly disappointed at the absence of entirely new guns to try out, but the community is stepping up to eventually furnish the game with all sorts of armaments. ( Ripper, anyone?)

For now, Unreal Tournament covers the basics. I’m reminded of Toxikk’s equally elementary starting content, a gargantuan difference lying in Epic’s wise utilization of its fanbase for direct input. So much is left up to the community to decide—a recent huge debatediscusses the pros and cons of no dodge- or double-jumps—that the game’s current build feels almost husk-like in content. Is it fun? Yes. Just don’t expect to see the groundbreaking stuff for many months to come.

Elder Scrolls Online trailer sets up the main quest, shows off new Oblivion realm

When I saw Elder Scrolls Online a few months ago, it was revealed that the player will be sent on a central quest in the vein of those presented by the franchise's single player offerings.

a few months ago, it was revealed that the player will be sent on a central quest in the vein of those presented by the franchise's single player offerings. In ESO's case, it will revolve around the daedric prince Molag Bal, who takes the liberty of stealing your soul very shortly after character creation. This new trailer details the premise briefly, and shows off some in-game footage of Molag Bal's plane of Oblivion, Coldharbour.

In keeping with Coldharbour's nautical park theme, the realm itself is trying to quite literally drop anchor and merge with Tamriel. Dark Anchors will serve as part of the game's dynamic content, spawning enemies similar to the Oblivion gates we learned to love and hate in Elder Scrolls IV. Along with the tie-in to the main quest, we've also been told these will hook up with the Fighters' and Mages' Guild progressions.

The purpose of Coldharbour is, purportedly, to store the mortal souls Molag Bal has enslaved. By the looks of it, he just likes chaining them together and having them sway in mute misery. I guess it adds to the ambience, but I feel like he could be doing more with so many captive, androgynous, bald figures in drab robes. You know, get some frozen lemonade stands going. Those anchors are going to be bringing in a lot of foot traffic, after all.

If you haven't already, you can sign up for the ESO beta on the official site.

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Unreal Tournament update adds first high-res textured map

Unreal Engine is free now , and that doesn't just mean a powerful tool to create your own games.

, and that doesn't just mean a powerful tool to create your own games. You've also got a tool to make Epic's one, too. The collaborative community project that is the new Unreal Tournament has been opened up for all as a result of UE4's dropped subscription. To celebrate, it's received athat adds the game's first high-res textured map: Outpost 23.

Here's a quick look at the map, courtesy of Zaccubus:

It's a pretty thing, especially in the way that its crisp aesthetic is scuffed and muddied. It's not pristine, which gives the map a more lived-in feel that enhances the look.

The update also adds new characters and introduces the UT marketplace. Yes, there's a hat store now. That's how you know it's a free-to-play PC shooter.

To play Unreal Tournament you just need to go here, sign up for an account, and download the Epic Launcher. To make content for the new Unreal Tournament you probably have to do complicated things that I don't understand. Tutorials explaining what those things are can be found here.

Skyblivion trailer shows Oblivion's opening locations recreated in Skyrim

Morrowind revival project Skywind looks like a valuable resurrection of Bethesda's 2002 RPG.

looks like a valuable resurrection of Bethesda's 2002 RPG. So much so, that the community responsiblefor it are also porting another classic Elder Scrolls into the Skyrim engine. The name "Skyblivion" may look like what would happen if you sneezed too hard and smashed your head on a keyboard, but it signals the start of Oblivion's transfer into the newer TES. It's been in the works for a while, but a new trailer has surfaced, showing the progress the team have made.

"Skyblivion is very early in development and as you might have noticed textures and models are pretty much untouched at this point," the trailer's description admits. As with Skywind, the team are looking for help in the creation of this mod. "In order to do this project right we will need help from the community with either the development or simply spreading the word so that we can get people interested in helping out with this project."

If you'd like to get involved, visit the TESRenewal forum. If, like me, you prefer passive anticipation, you can see more of the project below.

Hearthstone: Goblins vs Gnomes – Blizzard doubles down on RNG

When a salty player complains about being beaten by a lucky top deck or a one-in-eight Ragnaros shot, the insult they tend to throw around is: ‘Ugh, more like RNGstone’.

When a salty player complains about being beaten by a lucky top deck or a one-in-eight Ragnaros shot, the insult they tend to throw around is: ‘Ugh, more like RNGstone’. RNG meaning random number generation. The suggestion being that winning at Hearthstone is mostly do with luck, and little to do with skill. (Which doesn’t explain why the best players are able to win much more consistently, of course.) So, given the seeming dislike of RNG, you might expect Blizzard to be steering clear of it with the first standalone card expansion.

Instead, they’ve done the exact opposite, and doubled-down on randomness, chaos, and—at least so Blizzard hope—fun. I played four games here today at BlizzCon using new cards that will be included in the Goblins vs Gnomes expansion released this December. Of those, I lost three, only winning the one in which I was pitted against a girl who was so young that her dad had to help with key decisions. The salt is real. But I also had a lot of laughs as the new cards brought havoc to the board.

There are two decks available to select on the show floor, dubbed the ‘Goblin Fury’ Mage and the ‘Gnome Mayhem’ Priest. The matches were played on a new board, which is surrounded by gizmos and widgets. The interactive clickable bits aren’t switched on yet, sadly, but in keeping with the theme should be suitably wacky.

I blame my poor performance on the fact I was desperately noting down the details of all the cards as I played, which ended up in multiple ropings. Below are the details of the cards that I and my opponents drew, with some initial thoughts on them. (You can see a gallery of all them revealed so far here.)

Piloted Sky Golem

Mana cost : 6
Attack : 6
Health : 4
Deathrattle: Summon a random 4-cost minion.
One of seemingly several new cards which feature a random pilot who pops out when the card is destroyed. Pleasingly, the new minion actually parachutes onto the board.

Piloted Shredder

Mana cost : 4
Attack : 4
Health : 3
Deathrattle: Summon a random 2-cost minion.
The little brother of the Sky Golem, essentially. Both are sticky minions, which echoes the Naxxramas theme of having more creatures out on the board battling for control.

Cogmaster

Mana cost : 1
Attack : 1
Health : 2
Has +2 attack while you have a mech.
Mechs are the new minion type in Goblins vs Gnomes, and there are a number of cards designed to buff them or enable their use. Playing this is probably going to be the Mech equivalent of running Undertaker in a Deathrattle deck.

Madder Bomber

Mana cost: 5
Attack: 5
Health: 4
Battlecry: Deal 6 damage randomly split between all other characters.
Troll decks are obviously going to be an even bigger thing post-Goblins vs Gnomes (which will please Randuin Wrynn-creator Noxiousif no-one else), so it makes sense to raise the ante on mad bombing with this even riskier version that leaves a meatier body on the board.

Spider Tank

Mana cost: 3
Attack: 3
Health: 4
Dark Cultist, the Priest Card introduced by Naxx, was previously the only 3/4 in the game. The Spider Tank now also fills that stat profile, and although it doesn’t have the benefit of the Deathrattle buff, its stats still pass the ‘vanilla test’ of value. Plus as another mech, should prove a staple in themed decks.

Bomb Lobber

Mana cost: 5
Attack: 3
Health: 3
Battlecry: Deal 4 damage to a random enemy minion.
Or in other words: a slightly more sane bomber. The 4 damage could prove handy against Gadgetzan Auctioneers, making this another piece of nice anti-Miracle tech.

Mechwarper

Mana cost: 2
Attack: 2
Health: 3
Your mechs cost (1) less.
Another card designed to enable mech-themed decks. In practice the one mana cost saving actually proved substantial in terms of being able to flood the board.

Goblin Blastmage

Mana cost: 4
Attack: 5
Health: 4
Battlecry: If you control a mech, deal 4 damage randomly split among enemy characters.
This is a Mage class card, and each hero type will have an injection of new cards that synergise with Goblins vs Gnomes set. The animation when the Blastmage’s Battlecry goes off is a lot like Paladin’s Avenging Wrath.

Unstable Portal

Mana cost: 2
Add a random minion to your hand. It costs (3) less.
There are a number of cards, like this cheap new Mage spell, which draw or play completely random minions. Blizzard has clearly reacted to how much people ended up liking Webspinner, and gone a step further. When I played this, RNGesus served me up a Patient Assassin (one of the least-loved cards in the game), which I was able to play for free and created quite a problem for my 10 year-old opponent.

Next page: More cards and conclusions

Watch Epic play the new Unreal Tournament's team deathmatch mode

The new Unreal Tournament keeps surprising me with how far along in development it is.

The new Unreal Tournament keeps surprising me with how far along in development it is. Recently, for instance, we saw concept art that was, in fact, a fully rendered level. Now, we get to see the game's team deathmatch mode being played. No big deal, right? We've seen nu-UT deathmatch before. Only this time, the team say they've got all weapons working in the game.

If I had one wish... well, it would be to get my hands on the game to test its feel in comparison to previous UTs. If I had another, though, it would be for Epic to install Fraps or similar, so we could finally see some direct-capture footage.

Want more info? For an insight into this new Unreal Tournament's crowdsourced development plan, check out our Epic interview.

Skyrim, Dishonored, Morrowind and other Bethesda soundtracks now available on iTunes

Bethesda have made a number of soundtracks from their back-catalogue available digitally, many for the first time.

Bethesda have made a number of soundtracks from their back-catalogue available digitally, many for the first time. Albums for Dishonored, Rage, the two Fallouts, as well as Jeremy Soule's excellent Elder Scrolls scores have been released. Now you can pretend that simple chores are epic undertakings, re-imagining your vacuuming as a fight against giant spiders and their webs. It's not just me that does that, right?

Most of the soundtracks are available for £8, although the 53 track Skyrim score is inevitably a bit costlier at £15. The only problem with the deal is that they've only been released to iTunes, Apples abhorrent mess of music store. Is a Spotify upload really too much to ask for?

Still, battling against the creaking iTunes may just be worth it for songs like this.

Humble Bundle supporters have donated more than $50 million to charity

The Humble Bundle has been around for awhile now, it's sold a lot of games (and ebooks, and music), and even established its own digital storefront .

. It's therefore not terribly surprising that it's raised a solid chunk of change for charities in that light, but $50 million? That, I find very surprising, and also very pleasing.

Humble Bundle is probably best known for its "pay what you want" sales and that's what makes this ridiculous sum of money so unexpected, given that generally what people want to pay tends not to be very much. But clearly it's been effective approach: Funds raised have gone to support more than 50 charitable organizations including Child's Play, the EFF, the American Red Cross, charity: water, and Doctors Without Borders.

"It is hard to truly comprehend the magnitude of $50 million for charity," Humble Bundle co-founder and COO John Graham said in a statement. "We owe our thanks to the generosity of the Humble Bundle community—to the content creators who entrust us with their works of art and to the consumers—for making this possible."

The Humble Store Winter Saleis currently underway, with today's highlights including Alien: Isolation for $25, Antichamber for $2, Dead Island Game of the Year Edition for $5, Divinty: Dragon Commander for $10, and Stealth Bastard Deluxe—which, sadly, seems to have dropped its glorious Tactical Espionage Arsehole subtitle—for $1. The sale runs until December 22.

Epic reflects on Fortnite alpha; shows off impressive user creations

Epic Games has just wrapped up the first Alpha testing period for Fortnite , and it appears the game's in pretty good shape.

, and it appears the game's in pretty good shape. The studio reports that no huge, game changing problems emerged, with tweaks to the user interface and "the availability of traps" cited, as well as connectivity fixes.

"The biggest change we made was to the hours that the game was available," the. "We heard many requests from fans in different timezones to allow more flexibility in Alpha hours, so we updated the game shortly after the Alpha began to expand those hours." If conflicting timezones are among the biggest problems in your Alpha, then it's safe to say you're doing a good job.

The studio also ran a competition for the most impressive in-game creation, with that image at the top showing the FlippinPony’s prizewinning entry. Another Alpha will run in the coming months boasting new game systems, features, enemies, weapons and more. You can sign up here.

Fallout 3 guy sneaks into new Skyrim Dragonborn screenshots

In an effort to recapture the limelight a soldier from Fallout 3 has invaded the upcoming Dragonborn expansion for The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim.

In an effort to recapture the limelight a soldier from Fallout 3 has invaded the upcoming Dragonborn expansion for The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. Desperate to relive the glory days of 2008, when Fallout 3 was quite popular, the Brotherhood of Steel member tunnelled his way into Tamriel. His plan to set up a shop in Whiterun before Skyrim's release where thwarted by a poor sense of direction and an inability to see anything through his helmet's ridiculously tiny eye slit. "It was the worst thing that's ever happened apart from the thing with the giant robot," he said. "And no, I don't want to talk about it."

The soldier, who wishes to keep his identity a secret, broke down quickly under questioning, revealing that all he wanted was to have an adventurer stray within earshot so he could loudly announce his life story. "Am I doing it right?" he asked forlornly, before folding his arms and resuming a well-practiced idle pose.

Authorities vowed publicly to have the soldeir removed in due course, but added that they couldn't right away, as they were too busy admiring the weird creatures and "mad awesome sky-lizards" present in the latest batch of Dragonborn screenshots.

The Humble Store raises $1 million for charity

Capitalizing on the popularity of the Humble Bundles, the Humble Store launched late last year , offering a raft of games both indie and otherwise.

, offering a raft of games both indie and otherwise. And much like its bundle forebears, it also committed to the ongoing support of good causes through the donation of ten percent of all sales to charity. That may not sound like a very big slice of the pie, but in a little over half a year it's added up to more than one million dollars.

Unlike the Humble Bundle, which has supported a number of different charities with various game bundle releases, the Humble Store supports five specific charities: the American Red Cross, Child's Play, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, World Land Trust and charity: water. "One million dollars for charity is a big deal," Humble Bundle co-founder John Graham said in a statement. "In just six months, the Humble Store has grown from a mere humble experiment to something that gamers and game developers big and small want to be a part of."

The Humble Store now offers more than 500 different games and now carries major triple-A releases alongside its popular lineup of indies. And while $1 million is indeed a big deal, it pledged to continue its support, noting in the announcementof the milestone that "Ten percent of every Humble Store sale still goes to charity. Every sale, every game, every time."

Fortnite alpha invites sent out, will run for a fortnight

Fortnite , Epic Games' Minecraft-inspired third-person shooter, will launch its first alpha on December 2.

, Epic Games' Minecraft-inspired third-person shooter, will launch its first alpha on December 2. Invitations are being sent out right now, with the alpharunning for a thematically appropriate fortnight (that's until December 19). According to the studio, the alpha will test all of the game's fundamental elements, "from the launcher to all the game systems".

"The game is still rough around the edges but we think it can benefit from your input even at this early stage," a studio spokesperson wrote. If you didn't get an invite or are just curious about what Fortnite is, this handy gameplay videohas some illuminating commentary. Apparently the shooter will involve the construction of forts which will invite player creativity: they aren't predetermined buildings. Users will be free to construct whatever they wish, providing all the more incentive to protect them from hordes of enemies.

The PC exclusive still has no firm release window.

The Elder Scrolls Online video interview: game director Matt Firor on evolving TES into an MMO

[VAMS id="wX7fG2eR99FYi"]
Tom went to visit Zenimax Online Studios recently to take an early look at The Elder Scrolls Online.

Tom went to visit Zenimax Online Studios recently to take an early look at The Elder Scrolls Online. He sat down with game director Matt Firor to talk about the challenges of bringing The Elder Scrolls into an MMO setting, with reference to character building, skills and more. To hear more from the designers of The Elder Scrolls Online, check out our 20 minute video interviewwith Maria Aliprando, Nick Konkle and Brian Wheeler. Check out our post on everything you need to know about The Elder Scrolls Onlinefor more details.

Awesome Games Done Quick 2014 is streaming speedruns for charity

Charity speedrunning event Awesome Games Done Quick 2014 is all about doing things in a timely manner.

is all about doing things in a timely manner. That's kind of ironic, given that I'm posting about it a good two days after the event's opener last Sunday. The good news is that, despite being slow off the mark, you've still got another four days of non-stop speedrun livestreaming to enjoy. And it's all in the name of charity.

Over the seven day event, the organisers have arranged for more than 115 games to be sped through in a back-to-back marathon. Throughout the stream, donations are being taken for the Prevent Cancer Foundation, with almost $150,000 raised so far.

If you take a look at the schedule, you'll notice the balance is heavily in favour of console games. That said, there are some dedicated PC blocks, with last night's games including Jazz Jackrabbit, Bioshock and Deus Ex. Upcoming PC games include VVVVVV, Barkley: Shut Up and Jam! Gaiden, the Half-Lives, Portals, Typing of the Dead, and Surgeon Simulator 2013. To name but a lot.

Not that the many console games should put you off. As of writing, Metal Gear Solid is being put through its paces, which is plenty entertaining. See the stream below, but be sure to check out the official event sitefor more details, and for any donating you may like to do.

Fortnite gameplay video offers commentary and comic violence

Epic Games' forthcoming free-to-play shooter Fortnite is much more than a shooter, and the studio is eager to emphasise this point of difference.

is much more than a shooter, and the studio is eager to emphasise this point of difference. In the video below, Systems Designer Cameron Winston and Community Manager "KL" Smith spend just under 15 minutes explaining how the game works, addressing the differences between character classes, combat, and - most importantly - how the game's central building mechanic will work.

Fortnite hasn't got a release date yet, but you may have signed up for alpha accesswhen it was offered back in April. Until then, there's a commentary-free gameplay video to enjoy over here.

Bethesda: reaction to Oblivion's Horse Armor DLC was a lesson about value

Bethesda's Vice President of PR Pete Hines recently spoke with GamesIndustry.biz about the lessons Bethesda has learned about how to earn both fan satisfaction and money, an especially critical component for The Elder Scrolls Online's business model.

"You can look at something like [Oblivion's] Horse Armor pack as an example," Hines says. "The reaction to Horse Armor wasn't just about price. It was more of a lesson: when you're going to ask somebody to pay X, do they feel like they're getting Y in exchange? If they don't feel like they're getting their money's worth, they're going to bitch."

Bluntness aside, Hines' thoughts seem like a sensible take on the public's reaction to common controversies like day-one DLC.

"It's not about the amount of money," he states. "It's about giving players really good value for what you're making them pay for. That's not an Elder Scrolls specific philosophy; I think that's a philosophy for us across everything, whether it's a game or DLC or an MMO or whatever. We have to make sure we're providing enough quality for what you're paying for, whatever you're paying for, so that the customer feels satisfied enough to declare, 'I got good value for my money.'"

Check out GamesIndustry's reportfor the full interview.

SpecialEffect launches crowdfunding campaign Playing With Your Eyes

Crowdfunding isn't just about resuscitating genres, pandering to nostalgia, and making roguelikes.

Crowdfunding isn't just about resuscitating genres, pandering to nostalgia, and making roguelikes. The charity SpecialEffect have just launched their first crowdfunding project, Playing With Your Eyes. They're looking to raise £5950 to purchase specialist eye-controlled equipment, which would help bring gaming to people with severe disabilities. Look at this way: Star Citizen probably has enough money.

"We set up, create, lend and support the use of specialist games controllers from our library of equipment," explains SpecialEffect CEO Dr Mick Donegan. "Everyone we work with is different. Some of the people we work with find it difficult or impossible to control parts of their body other than their eyes. In these instances we use computers which are controlled just by moving your eyes.

"The demand for this work is growing all the time, so we are asking the gaming community, who have always been enormously supportive of our work, to help SpecialEffect through crowdfunding. The Playing With Your Eyes project will help us meet this growing demand and enable us to purchase this very special piece of eye-controlled equipment in order to reach and help more and more people with disabilities to play games." With the equipment, SpecialEffect will be able to help gamers with locked-in syndrome, motor neurone disease, muscular dystrophy, cerebral palsy, among other conditions.

To read more about the work SpecialEffect are doing, head over to Andrew Tsai's recent profile of the charity. The Playing With Your Eyes projectwill run until October 13th.

Fortnite game footage shows base defence and bee-hive wearing baddies

Want a new look at Fortnite, Epic's free-to-play co-op shooter?

Want a new look at Fortnite, Epic's free-to-play co-op shooter? Wait, you did remember that Epic were making a free-to-play co-op shooter, right? Admittedly it was first announced a long time ago, but the game has recently re-emerged from its years-long silence with the renewed promise of an upcoming alpha.

New game footage shows the the game in action, and clearly reveals its mix of inspirations—including Team Fortress 2 and Minecraft. The cartoonish characters must build and defend against an onslaught of baddies, some of which seem to have bee-hives on their head.

If that's piqued your interest, Fortnite is currently calling for alpha applicants. You can find more info at the game's website.

How The Elder Scrolls Online plans to improve MMOs: "I look at the world, not at my hotbar"

High level MMO play is typically associated with stacks and stacks of ability icons lighting up and flickering in and out of of cooldown animations.

High level MMO play is typically associated with stacks and stacks of ability icons lighting up and flickering in and out of of cooldown animations. Zenimax reckon that modern technology and improved latency means there's no need to rely on those flashing icons when you can accurately see how the action is playing out in the game world. You'll still have combat skills, of course, but they'll be tucked away in a minimalist interface designed to bring the player further into the world.

Lead gameplay designer Nick Konkle explains. "I think a lot of the previous generations of MMOs a lot of the game is looking at that UI and playing it. Technical restrictions were such that we couldn't have that sort of fully immersive battle experience because people weren't where they were, where you would see them, they were somewhere else.

"But we wanted to create an immersive experience because that's the modern game, that's the modern RPG," he says. "One in which I look at the world, not at my hotbar. Not at numbers that are flying up."

That'll be the only way to see some of the massive fights that will feature in The Elder Scrolls Online. "If you're looking at your UI when there's 200 people on your screen fighting each other you're kind of missing out on one of the big things that we're trying to do which is these huge battles," says PvP designer Brian Wheeler. "If you're looking at the UI then you're missing all the fun of just seeing people jumping in and beating the crap out of each other. It's really cool."

Even beyond The Elder Scrolls Online's big PvP plans, the reduced UI is intended to help players confront Tamriel's monsters. Zenimax suggest they'll be tougher than your typical MMO trash mobs. "We want monsters to be a challenge to the player every single time you fight them, not a speedbump for the player. We don't want fighting monsters to be boring or you can eat a sandwich or do five other things while fighting a monster," says gameplay designer Maria Aliprando.

"We want to reward you for executing moves and fighting against monsters as well. So when monsters present their dynamic behaviours we don't want to confuse you with UI all over the screen we want you to be in there fighting with the monster at the moment."

Game director Matt Firor mentions another reason for the slimmed down interface. "We made a lot of choices to make it very accessible to the player who's only experienced the console versions of The Elder Scrolls."

"Things like the interface is very minimalistic and it lets you concentrate on the world, not on the interface, so we made it feel much more like a console game from the interface side than an MMO, just for that reason, to make sure that everyone feels comfortable when they play it."

To find out more about how combat works in The Elder Scrolls Online, check out our article on how combat works in The Elder Scrolls Online. You can also check out how Skyrim and Oblivion have influenced The Elder Scrolls Online, or head over to our everything you need to know about The Elder Scrolls Onlinepage. Our chums at Edge also have plenty of exclusive info on The Elder Scrolls Onlineif you're looking for more.

Melt your golden wrench for charity

The guy that holds golden wrench number 31 is melting his wrench for charity.

The guy that holds golden wrench number 31 is melting his wrench for charity. He's getting together with some of the other wrench holders and doing a sponsored Australium-melting session on the 31st of August, and the 20 highest-rolling chariteers will get to join him in the server. Here's a video that sums it up nicely:

Do you know anyone with a wrench who wants rid of it but never had a suitably philanthropic reason? Do you know anyone with some money? Do you have any money? Child's Play is a charity that takes money and buys computer games with them - consoles and handhelds, mostly, for sick children in hospital. Because, let's face it, no matter how much you love PC gaming, you don't want to be rolling back your graphics drivers when you're trying not to scratch your chickenpox. Or when you're four years old. The information page is here, and just in case you're an impulsive millionaire who hates links to websites, you can donate below too.

[via Ubercharged]

Epic's PC-exclusive Fortnite opens alpha registration

We are fast approaching the first wave of Unreal Engine 4 releases, but so far we've seen very little of Epic Games' showcase for the engine, Fortnite .

. Today, Epic revealed a couple more details about it, and invited players to sign up to an upcoming Alpha test.

The news comes via Game Informer, which will feature Fornite on the cover of its May issue. The publication confirms that the PC-exclusive title will be free-to-play. If you sign up for the alpha, you'll also notice that you'll have to answer a few questions that pertain to your free-to-play habits, with direct references to League of Legends.

In fact, the questionnaire mentions League of Legends in a few places, along with Call of Dutyand Minecraft. From what we know, Fortnite is very much a mix of all those games. It's a cooperative builder-shooter with RPG elements in which you'll build defenses while the sun shines and defend it at all costs when night falls. It continues to look interesting, especially since it's such a stylistic departure for Epic Games.

If you're interested, you should sign up for the alpha on the game's official site.

Bulletstorm dev People Can Fly now called Epic Games Poland, working on Fortnite

People Can Fly , the Epic-owned developer best known for making Bulletstorm and Gears of War: Judgement, is now going by the name Epic Games Poland and is one of the many studios working on the detail-light survival game known as Fortnite .

The company confirmed the the name change to Pixel Enemy in a statement.

“We've changed the studio's name from People Can Fly to Epic Games Poland. We're a global company with talented people working toward one goal across the world. We think this helps better reflect that.” Epic Games said.

Epic also told Pixel Enemy that Epic Games Poland is working on Fortnite with the main North Carolina team.

Fortnite is a PC exclusive survival sandbox game and was announced as the very first game to utilize the Unreal 4 engine. I only mention this because it's been agessince Epic has breathed a word about Fortnite, so at least this studio name-change announcement confirms the game still exists . There's still no release date, and quality footage of the game is scarce, but hopefully People Can, er, Epic Games Poland can bring some of Bulletstorm's goofy nonsense to Fortnite.

How Skyrim and Oblivion influenced The Elder Scrolls Online

So, we've put dozens and dozens of hours into Skyrim, and we'll put in many more.

So, we've put dozens and dozens of hours into Skyrim, and we'll put in many more. The Dawnguard expansion is coming up and the Steam workshop is turning up new places to explore every few weeks. Why would we want to hop into The Elder Scrolls Online? For studio general manager, Matt Firor, the answer is simple. It's Tamriel. "It's a world you've always wanted to explore with friends, and now you can."

Zenimax Online Studios haven't had to sit down and draft an entire world from scratch. 18 years of Elder Scrolls games and expansions have poured oodles of detail into the lore of that world. From Morrowind to Oblivion and Skyrim, each game has sketched more detail onto that grand world map. The Elder Scrolls Online will let us wander those lands and discover new ones. "You've been able to explore parts of each province before, but now you get much more of the world," says Firor.

Zenimax are taking steps to ensure that The Elder Scrolls Online delivers an accurate rendition of Tamriel. They're modelling Cyrodiil using Oblivion's height map to ensure it feels right, and they're basing much of the northern lands on Bethesda's vision of Skyrim.

"With the height map for Cyrodiil, which was our PVP zone, we took the height map pretty much right out of the game Oblivion just to make it feel familiar to other players," Firor explains. "That's mostly because it's such a huge area, we wanted to put in the towns and villages that people were familiar with.

"For our Skyrim province we're a thousand years in the past remember so we have a little leeway on what we can do. But yeah you still find Winterhold, you still find Riften, the topography is very similar, the rivers are in the same place and so forth but we have different stories to tell in that time period."

He also said that the world designers "held up our version of the Skyrim province until Skyrim had shipped and everyone knew what it looked like."

The Elder Scrolls Online is set in the second era, much earlier than the other Elder Scrolls games. During that period, the Daedric lord Molag Bal tries to conquer the world, the mage guild is still young and the Dark Brotherhood is in the process of being formed. Zenimax have already told us a bit about how combat will work in The Elder Scrolls Online, for more, here's everything you need to know about The Elder Scrolls Online.

Double Fine exec says publisher flexibility is key to getting devs more creative control

For Double Fine, publishing means partnership.

For Double Fine, publishing means partnership. And with its new Double Fine Presents publishing venture, the Broken Agedeveloper wants to work towards supporting a games industry that is changing and becoming less "rigid," according to a new interviewwith COO Justin Bailey at Gamasutra.

"We believe the best games will emerge from arrangements where developers control the rights to their IP, own the creative vision, and where a publisher is incentivized to act like a partner," Bailey says. "One of our aims with Double Fine Presents is to help be a catalyst to bring this change to the industry. ... We've been publishing our own titles, and we know there's value there, but we're feeling around to figure how, or even if, we can leverage that externally to help other indies."

Two games that have seen the impact of Double Fine's partnership model are the recently-released puzzle-platformer Escape Goat 2and the upcoming Last Life, a point-and-click noir adventure. Still, from the interview it appears Double Fine is reluctant to overextend its work with other developers, no matter if the assistance is called publishing or partnership. For now, Bailey says the studio is planning to help out just one more outside developer, before going back to evaluate the process and find out "what worked best."

"For the short term, we just want to test the waters out and grow organically," Bailey says. "We don't want to force anything. If it turns out to be successful for both parties, and there's adequate demand, then we can always ramp things up, but it's likely to be a slow process for us."

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Our Verdict
A stunning technological achievement; give this game a better storyline, and you might have the best FRP ever designed.

Tyler Wilde provides commentary before our original review of the first Elder Scrolls game from the debut issue of PC Gamer US.

Oh, how fast things can change—no one says "FRP" to refer to fantasy role-playing games anymore, the 1994 Summer Consumer Electronics Show, which predated the first E3 by a year, was visited by Sierra On-Line, Interplay, and MicroProse, and had things gone a little differently, we might be playing Terminator Online instead of The Elder Scrolls Online.

20 years ago, "upstart" developer Bethesda Softworks was best known for three DOS games based the James Cameron films, but it sealed a very different future when it released The Elder Scrolls: Arena, which we called a "tour de force" and "a stunning technological achievement" in the May/June 1994 debut issue of PC Gamer US.

One of the most interesting things about this review is how the graphics were praised for replicating effects like fog, firelight, and reflective water. When I think of Skyrim, I see comparable details: the way snow swims around mountaintops, the transparency of streams, the flicker of flames. 10 or 10,000 polygons, it's still the little moments when physics and light do something we recognize from the real world that create a convincing sense of place.

My favorite thing about this 20-year-old review is how it approaches gestating fantasy game tropes with fresh eyes, exclaiming that you can complete the game as an assassin character (!), but also finds familiar criticisms, such as the lifelessness of NPCs, which is something that hasn't improved as much as I'd have expected after 20 years of character scripting, animation, and voice acting. A lot has changed since 1994, but so much has stayed the same.

The Elder Scrolls, Volume 1: Arena review

_Bethesda's first fantasy role-playing game is a graphic tour de force

that already has fans drooling for more.

Oh, how fast things can change—especially when it comes to fantasy role-playing games (FRP's). This genre, which looked to be undergoing something of a renaissance after last summer's CES in Chicago, is in a limbo of sorts. Twin Dolphin Games' Forgotten Castle, which looked incredibly promising, is both dead and forgotten. Dynamix's Thief of Dreams, the sequel to the mesmerizing Betrayal at Krondor, is in limbo, and SSI will soon no longer be developing TSR's Advanced Dungeons & Dragons games. And Stonekeep, Interplay's gorgeous 3D first-person dungeon crawl, seems to be perpetually hanging around the corner, just out of reach.

The time is ripe for an upstart, and Bethesda Softworks is ready for the job. The company that brought us three Terminator games has unveiled its debut FRP, The Elder Scrolls, Volume 1: Arena—and it's simply stunning.

Like Origin's Ultima Underworld series, Arena is a single-player fantasy role-playing game featuring smoothly scrolling 3D graphics, presented from a first-person point of view; unlike Ultima Underworld, Arena doesn't limit your explorations to subterranean settings. There's an entire world to explore here, with myriad villages, cities, and dungeons (of course) awaiting you, all rendered in jaw-dropping 3D graphics. While Arena's graphics engine isn't quite as sophisticated as Ultima Underoworld's (you can't look up or down, for example), it's still mighty impressive.

Bethesda has created a true virtual world, using light-sourcing and shadows to magnificent effect. Puddles on rain-soaked streets reflect lightning bolts in the distance; fog, snow, and mist impair your vision as you move through the countryside; you can discern caverns lit by firelight in the distance, and peek through keyholes before entering potentially dangerous rooms.

"Expect to find yourself whirling around in your chair to see if a nasty is creeping up behind you."

Arena's sound effects and music are up to the task as well. The game sounded simply amazing on a Sound Blaster 16/Wave Blaster configuration, with General MIDI support and stereo-panning effects heightening the experience considerably. Digitized wolf howls and the sound of shuffling zombies brought a real sense of atmosphere and anticipation. Expect to find yourself whirling around in your chair to see if a nasty is creeping up behind you.

But there's one area in which Arena could stand some improvement—the storyline. The plot seems rather shallow compared to games like Betrayal at Krondor or Ultima VII, and could never stand alone as a story. To be fair, though, Arena's storyline is as good or better than most of its recent peers. Here's the skinny: the Emperor's wizardly advisor-turned-traitor, Jager Tharn, has used the magical Staff of Chaos to secret the king in another dimension. This nogoodnik has also killed a sorceress friend of yours, and tossed you (as an unsavory type with possible heroic tendencies) in prison to rot, while taking the Emperor's place on the throne.

"The plot seems rather shallow compared to games like Betrayal at Krondor or Ultima VII."

The only way to rescure the Emperor is to reassemble the Staff, which has been broken and hidden in far-flung locations across the world. Your sorceress friend's life-force, held together by her magic, gets you out of your cell and starts you on your quest to kill the traitorous mage and restore the Emperor. There's much trekking through huge dungeons (what are all these dungeons doing here, anyway?) to gather items to give to non-player characters (NPC) who can give you information. This is pretty standard fantasy role-playing fare, reminiscent of The Bard's Tale II, in which your heroes had to retrieve the sections of the Destiny Wand.

But if it's standard fare, at least it's very well-implemented. Bethesda has created a unique magic system and new character classes; though you can choose your character from heroic professions like knights and rangers, you can also play as an assassin (!) and successfully complete the game. There are several classes of mage, like the Spellsword or Battlemage, whose specialty is the use of magic in combat. You can buy spells, or have fun creating and naming your own at the Mages' Guild through a simple yet flexible "spell editor."

Game controls are a breeze to master. A left-click on the mouse gets you going—where the cursor is positioned on-screen determines your speed and direction. The combat system in Arena is just as smooth and natural. Click and hold the right mouse button, then move the mouse as you would the weapon you're hoisting—left to right (or vice-versa) to slash or punch, down for a smashing blow, or up to jab or stab.

"The Arena game world is littered with crypts, abandoned castles, dungeons, and huge cities."

Movement can also be controlled via keyboard control, a method I preferred to mouse-only steering. Arena also sports an automap where you can jot down descriptions and reminders; there's also a quest-management auto notepad that keeps track of the various tasks you've yet to perform.

And, oh, the places you'll go! The Arena game world is littered with crypts, abandoned castles, dungeons, and huge cities with their own indigenous population walking the streets during the daytime. You can click on passers-by and ask them their name, where the nearest inn is located, and about any rumors they may have heard.

On the downside, each NPC may have his or her own name and profession, but it doesn't matter one whit to your heroine that NPC Wendel is a butcher, baker, or candlestick maker. The non-player character's identity has no bearing whatsoever on your interaction or your quest, and as a result conversations consist mostly of isolated questions and answers, never developing to reveal truly unique characters. In fact, NPC interaction is rather lifeless, with you learning things like "go find the empty shoe-polish tin of the gods in the crypt, and I'll tell you the location of the mystic dog polisher."

But despite this, Arena is still entrancing. My character has completed a few quests and is tracking down the next staff piece. There's a huge and dazzling (if a bit superficial) world to explore, more than enough to keep a jade gamer like myself playing long after I finished this review. If Arena had a better-developed story line and NPC interaction, it would be almost perfect. But stay tuned—Bethesda has cranked out a winner, the sequel may be the best FRP ever designed for computers. — Bernie Yee

Category: Role-playing

Developer: Bethesda Softworks

Publisher: Bethesda Softworks

M.S.R.P.: $69.95

Required: 3860X/33 MHz: 4 MB RAM (w/ 2 MB EMS); DOS 5.0 or later;

25 MB hard-drive space; VGA; Mouse.

We recommend: 4860X/33 MHz; Disk-caching utility;

Supported sound cards (General Midi strongly recommended).

The Elder Scrolls: Arena is still offered freefrom Bethesda, and can be played with DOSBox.

The Verdict

The Elder Scrolls: Arena

A stunning technological achievement; give this game a better storyline, and you might have the best FRP ever designed.

We recommend By Zergnet

Escape Goat 2 busts back into prison this September

MagicalTimeBean's sequel to their demonic puzzle platformer was announced way back in January , but the wait is finally (nearly) over.

, but the wait is finally (nearly) over. As the websitebleats, Escape Goat 2 will be out September 10th, and like all good goat-based games it will be DRM-free. Since we last looked, some new details and a trailer have come to light - you'll find them beneath the devious puzzle I like to call 'the break'.

First here's the trailer, which shows off the game's splendid new art style:

After breaking out of the Prison of Agnus in the first game, the sequel sees you busting into a new stronghold, on a rescue mission to recover a bunch of sheep that have willingly given up their freedom. Yes. If you played the original, you'll be pleased to hear that the mouse and the magic hat are both back, along with a level editor (this was previously up in the air, but will now likely be added for free in an early patch). New features include a "new world map layout with branching pathways and secret routes", and "new gadgets including one-way doors, chain-driven elevators, movable switches and more". It's looking rather splendid, as you can see.

Thanks, IndieGames.

PC Gamer US Podcast #322 - Feline Mothership

Listen in on our comms this week as we discuss Fortnite, Sins of A Solar Empire: Rebellion, The War Z .

. Is copying the mechanics of a certain Arma 2 mod lazy, or is it simply the beginning of a new genre? We've also got some hands-on details for PlanetSide 2 and answer listener questions. What is one to do when you dump coffee on your keyboard? The answer may surprise you.

All this, what we've been playing, DayZ storytime, and more. PC Gamer US Podcast 322: Feline Mothership

Have a question, comment, complaint or observation? Leave a voicemail: 1-877-404-1337 ext 724 or email the mp3 to pcgamerpodcast@gmail.com.

Subscribe to the podcast RSS feed.

@elahti(Evan Lahti)

@logandecker(Logan Decker)

@tyler_wilde(Tyler Wilde)

@AsaTJ(T.J. Hafer, the pretty one)

@belsaas(Erik Belsaas, podcast producer, licorice cowboy)

GTA 5 delayed on PC

Grand Theft Auto 5's PC release date has been knocked a couple of months into the future to March 24, according to an announcement today on the GTA 5 newswire .

. The reasons: "testing and polish". Here's there full statement.

"Our apologies for the slight shift in the date but the game requires a few extra weeks of testing and polish to make it as good as can be. Moving a release date is never a decision we take lightly and is a choice we make only when we know it is in the best interests of the game and our fans. Thanks everyone for your understanding and we assure you these few extra weeks will be worth it when the game does arrive in March."

The PC version will come with some extras. It'll run at 4K resolution and comes with a video editor so you can film your own Scorsese crime epics, or create gifs of Trevor falling off things in slow motion. Rockstar also announced the system requirementstoday, and they're not too bad.

The last minute delay is bad news for anyone who booked time off to play it in their pants for days—ahem—but we can at least spend the extra time daydreaming about the mods we'd love to see for GTA 5 PC, or new ways to play GTA 5 without breaking the law. It'll hopefully be worth the wait because, as Andy explains, GTA 5 will be best on PC.

Escape Goat 2 announced: new puzzles, a new art style, same goat (presumably)

Devilishly entertaining puzzle-platformer Escape Goat is going to receive a sequel, as revealed to those fine folks over on Indie Statik .

. While the fundamentals - solve single-screen puzzle rooms as a platforming goat and its adorable mouse sidekick - will largely remain the same, the graphics are getting a complete overhaul, thanks to artist Randy O'Connor (who worked on Waking Mars).

While the first game had a level editor, MagicalTimeBean's Ian Stocker is still pondering whether or not to include one this time. As he explains in the announcement's accompanying interview: "This is yet to be decided, since something like this could delay the release by over a month. It's possible that it will be added after launch if I don't have time to get it into version 1.0. I'd really like something like this, because there are some amazing user-created levels for EG1, but I bet most players don't know where to find them (hint: my forum at magicaltimebean.com/forum)."

Aside from the new art style, additional hats are a shoe-in (well, a hat-in), seemingly as a companion to the current 'magic hat' power-up, which allows the goat and the mouse to swap places. Escape Goat 2 is expected to be finished sometime this year, and if you've never played the original, here's what you've been missing out on:

PC Gamer US Podcast #322 - Feline Mothership

Listen in on our comms this week as we discuss Fortnite, Sins of A Solar Empire: Rebellion, The War Z .

. Is copying the mechanics of a certain Arma 2 mod lazy, or is it simply the beginning of a new genre? We've also got some hands-on details for PlanetSide 2 and answer listener questions. What is one to do when you dump coffee on your keyboard? The answer may surprise you.

All this, what we've been playing, DayZ storytime, and more. PC Gamer US Podcast 322: Feline Mothership

Have a question, comment, complaint or observation? Leave a voicemail: 1-877-404-1337 ext 724 or email the mp3 to pcgamerpodcast@gmail.com.

Subscribe to the podcast RSS feed.

@elahti(Evan Lahti)

@logandecker(Logan Decker)

@tyler_wilde(Tyler Wilde)

@AsaTJ(T.J. Hafer, the pretty one)

@belsaas(Erik Belsaas, podcast producer, licorice cowboy)

Cities: Skylines first-person mod lets you explore the streets

I like to imagine that city building games are already first-person; just that the person in question is an invisible floating omnipotent sky-mayor.

I like to imagine that city building games are already first-person; just that the person in question is an invisible floating omnipotent sky-mayor. A mod for Cities: Skylines offers the more traditional first-person view—albeit one from what appears to be an improbably tall citizen.

The mod allows you to explore the streets of your city. It's a simple camera switch, but one that offers an interesting perspective on your city's simulated citizens. It would have certainly let Chris L get down-close-and-personal to the occupants of his single-house city.

Below you can see the mod in action. If you want to try it out, head over to the Steam Workshop.

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Our Verdict
Fast, fluid and fun first-person platforming tied together with a warm narrative.

Fast, fluid and fun first-person platforming tied together with a warm narrative. Pace slows near the end, though.

It's fitting A Story About My Uncle seems to have lept from the silver screen, given it's a game all about, well, leaping. There's a touch of the Percy Jackson or Inkhart about its story in which a young boy inherits a magical jumping glove from his explorer uncle and follows his trail through vast cloud cities, mystical mountain passes, and twinkling shrines. It's pure children's adventure fantasy.

Further into this non-violent, narrative-driven platformer you discover more fantastic gadgetry. Along with the glove that boosts you 20ft off the ground after releasing RMB there's a plasma grappling hook on LMB that latches onto any surface and whips you through the air, and space-bar-activated rocket boots to extend jumps in a blurry blast. The game's at its best when you're combining them—sprinting straight off sheer cliffs, tethering onto windmills, slingshotting around great floating balls of stone and rocketing skyward before you fall too far into the misty void below. It's some of the most tight and responsive first-person platforming I've ever played.

It works because you don't have to think about where to go—you just go. Glowing marks left by your uncle's grappling hook during his initial adventure serve as unobtrusive waypoints, and locations where you're meant to jump from are clearly designated by lights and wooden platforms. Confident level design inspires faith in it. Unlike, say, Mirror's Edge, you can fully commit, swan-diving into the unknown with arms pumping the air because, even if you can't quite see it yet, you know something's going to catch you. The more linear the section, the better - freedom comes in the air, not on the ground.

But you're not always airbound. In the game's best bit set in a pitch black cave, a massive yellow eye on a stalk scans around like a searchlight. If you move when the eyelids open it'll blast you into the darkness. It's a beautifully executed encounter, from the set-up in which your character says, “This tunnel doesn't look naturally formed - it looks...dug,” to the way the eye's brilliant light glints off metallic rock.

The game's peril revolves around unforced error—mistiming a jump or using the rocket boots at the wrong moment, for instance. This dust-up, albeit brief, introduces a different kind of threat, one that's actively trying to kill you. It's just a shame there aren't more enemies in the game, because Gone North clearly have it in them to design memorable ones.

Between platforming you'll explore sections of this fantastical realm at walking pace, discovering artifacts left by your uncle—lipstick marks on a post-it note, a telescope trained on the stars. Interacting with them triggers voiceover of the boy—now a man—recounting stories of his uncle to his daughter, Princess Bride style. One involves his uncle cultivating a handful of frogspawn then learning, upon discovering several angry red bites on his hand, they're actually mosquito eggs. This bedtime story motif is used well as a framing device.

But the game's roots are hard to trace—some airbrushed Hollywood production this is not. Take the voice acting, a curious blend of accents reading not-quite-right sentences. In an argument with her father, a lizard girl called Maddy remarks, “You want me to be like you, but I'll never be!” Regarding the eye monster, she says “I never imagined a creature sounding as terrifying.” Shouldn't that be 'so terrifying'?

There's something odd about the delivery, about the Walken-like way unexpected words are stressed, and this only emphasises the game's enigma. How long have these creatures lived down here? How are these rocks floating? What powers their skyships? You're left to ponder these questions, or else piece it together through items and journal entries. You did kinda just fall down a hole into a weird society of blue people, after all.

There's a subplot with one of them (your character likens her to a salamander, but the game calls them Strays). She wants to escape her life underground, so for a while she hops on your back and provides a bit of company. “Bet you can't make that jump without using the grappling hook,” she challenges at one point. While you're embarking on a boy's own adventure, she's on her own coming of age tale. These character arcs colour an already vibrant world.

It's not perfect, though. Later come crystals that rejuvenate your glove meter mid-jump, glossed surfaces that prevent grappling, and over-complicated routes. One dizzying path in a majestic ice cave spirals up a monumental shaft, crosses deep chasms and doubles back on itself numerous times. You spend more time searching for where to grapple than actually grappling, and death comes often. Such sections only slow the game's pace and suggest Gone North lack confidence in what's there already.

A Story About My Uncle is fast, fuid and fun. As a story it successfully springboards off traditional adventure fantasy and vaults off elsewhere. The two converge into a unique platformer with real heart.

The Verdict

A story about my uncle

Fast, fluid and fun first-person platforming tied together with a warm narrative. Pace slows near the end, though.

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