Scrolls definitely is not The Elder Scrolls

Bethesda, I’m not really sure why you had any worries about copyright infringement to begin with, but seriously, what Scrolls has turned out to be is anything but.

Indie darling Mojang has pretty much been the loudest and most vocal of the indie gaming community (and that’s a pretty hard title to hold with Phil Fish in the game).  What with all the lawsuits from mega-titan Bethesda and even going so far as to challenge them to a round of Quake 3 to settle the dispute.  They also tend to talk up a storm about programming techniques and what they’d like to put in their games and how or why some of those things don’t come into fruition.  If they talked anymore they’d be encroaching on Peter Molyneux territory.

Indeed, Scrolls is actually about what any of us who were actually listening expected.  It was announced as a trading card type game around a year ago and…then we pretty much didn’t hear anything about it until the whole Bethesda showdown last year (they settled out-of-court by the way).

For what its worth take a look after the jump, personally I think it looks fun, but it doesn’t really interest me much more than many of the other Heroes of Might and Magic games would.  For that matter it doesn’t really interest me much more than a lot of Facebook games would, but I’ll reserve my judgement for an official (read: beta) release.

Let’s Play: Skyrim ep.1

And from the tail-end of our last Let’s Play comes the next series: Skyrim.  I’m really hoping this can last me some time, but what I’m hoping is it gives me some inspiration for other Skyrim-related videos which are currently the most popular on the FULLNOVAZERO youtube channel.  Anyway, enjoy this first episode of Let’s Play: Skyrim!

Bethesda now owns the rights to the Fallout MMO, so maybe it will see the light of day finally

That’s right, after years of silly lawyermen dancing around courtrooms, performing ancient rituals known only to the darkest circles of society, a settlement has been reached and Bethesda now holds the rights to produce a Fallout MMO, if they so choose.

Are games just overpriced?

 

Every so often a huge game like Skyrim or The Old Republic or Modern Warfare 3 comes out.  They charge $60 and we accept it because its the standard price for a high-quality, AAA title.  In these situations I think most people don’t mind because there is a significant premium associated with these titles and we all accept that they will be the most popular (and time consuming) of the crop.  They keep that $60 price tag for months, even years at a time.

Then other games come out at the same price point and only weeks later we see their price-tag slashed in half.  Duke Nukem Forever had a huge build-up of hype and had a lot going for it in terms of word-of-mouth prior to the game’s release.  Had it been a great game I think it would’ve retained its initial price tag all the way until Christmas.  Instead it was awful and people barely touched it even when it was on sale for $10 on Steam only a month or two later.

Skyrim vs. The best games ever made

Fus Ro...I don't know the third word yet

Skyrim is among us.  Its amazing.  You probably didn’t even need me to tell you that at this point, but I will anyway.  Some are saying Game of the Year, which is nice, but why not go for the gold?  How do we make this thing “Best Game Ever”?  You don’t just hand out a crown like that without some extensive consideration for other great games that have come before it.  What’s the best way to determine who’s the greatest?  Why a battle royale between each game on its own terms of course.  Read on to see if Skyrim can take the belt!

Full modding tools for Skyrim available next month

Bethesda has announced that they will be releasing the tools and instructions for what they used to make Skyrim.  That means potential modders out there will have a bevvy of tools at their finger-tips.  Expect to see a lot more significant Skyrim mods.

Additionally, Steam will now be supporting mod installation directly for Skyrim, so no more confusing read-me files.  Although its pretty bad news for the likes of Skyrim Nexus, which I think is a pretty slick site for the Skyrim modding community.  I imagine some mod portal will still have its place, so I don’t think this will effectively kill that site, but it could cause much less traffic.

Starting Next Month You Will Get the Tools To Reinvent Skyrim on PC

Skyrim only makes third place on Xbox Live

Is anybody else just a little bit surprised by this list on Major Nelson’s blog?  Its almost a little insulting.  Not only could Skyrim not top Modern Warfare 3’s towering list of fans, it couldn’t even beat Black Ops!  Its just….a little disappointing to those of us who have sung so many praises for Bethesda’s latest open-world RPG.  I recently admitted defeat to MW3’s addictive and enjoyable formula, so obviously I’m a part of the problem.

But for every hour I’ve played of MW3 I’ve played about 5 hours of Skyrim…on my PC.  And I think that is the problem right there.  Not only are many Skyrim owners on different platforms, they likely aren’t going online much to play a single player game on their Xbox.  Steam numbers in particular for Skyrim have apparently been quite good compared to Modern Warfare 3:

This screen was taken on 12/1/11

So maybe this arbitrary list from Major Nelson means nothing…or maybe it does.  Maybe Skyrim sells a hell of a lot more on the PC than the Xbox and MW3 blows everyone out of the water on consoles.  Maybe not.  We’ll see when Bethesda and Activision release their final sales numbers respectively.

 

How to get into the Dark Brotherhood in Skyrim

Joining the Dark Brotherhood in The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim is somewhat different from joining in Oblivion, although it still involves killing a few people!  This was my number 1 mission when I started playing Skyrim and eventually I was able to figure it all out and piece together a little tutorial for all of you out there.  This tutorial will show you everything you need on how to get started with the Dark Brotherhood.  (Concept art for the Dark Brotherhood pictured above)

The beauty of Skyrim

Over the weekend I played a LOT of Skyrim.  Like, a stupid amount of Skyrim.  But it was worth it because this game is just amazing and beautiful.  Check out some of the pictures I snagged during my playthrough:

Hit the jump for more!

Live-Action Skyrim Trailer Will Get You Pumped!

This live-action trailer for Skyrim pretty much highlights everything that is awesome about Skyrim, namely horned-helmets and dragons.  If they threw in a “fus-roh-tah!” I would give this thing an Oscar.

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim releases in a little more than 2 weeks on Nov 11.