The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim patch 1.5 beta adds spectacular stabbing and suplexes
Ever suplexed a lizard? Me neither, which is a shame, as “suplex a lizard” is 26th on my grand list of things to do in games before I die. After installing Skyrim beta patch 1.5, I’m going to walk from house to house in Tamriel starting fistfights with Argonians until I have. Then I can finally cross that off my list and move onto number 27: “tickle a giant.” Might not survive that one.
The patch adds a collection of new melee kill animations that’ll let you finish off Skyrim’s denizens with extra flair. The patch also adds kill cams for projectile weapons and spells, which look a lot like Fallout 3′s dramatic long-shot cam. Shooting men off precarious perches is much more satisfying when you get to watch them topple to their doom in super slow motion.
To install the patch, select “Skyrim beta” from the beta participation section in your Steam settings menu. It’s in beta, so it might be a good idea to backup your saves before making the switch, just in case. Here’s the full changelog.
Notch, Bethesda, Freddie Wong, Robin Walker (oh, and us) to fight in Team Fortress 2 for charity
Sometime soon, I’m going to be called to defend the honor of PC Gamer against Notch, Robin Walker, Yogscast, Freddie Wong, friends of PCG Brian Brushwood and Veronica Belmont, and other people that are more important than me. The men behind TF2 Mix-up have organized another showmatch, a 9-on-9 battle royale between web celebs that benefits Child’s Play.
Want to play with us? Donators are eligible to fill a vacant player slot. On April 1, the event’s organizers will randomly pick three donors who will each be offered a place in the match along with some signed merchandise. Donate more, and you’ll increase your chances. Donate here. The match’s date is secret, but it should be held sometime in April. We’ll post the match video once it’s available, assuming I don’t dishonor you all.
Dishonored trailer shows sandbox steampunk cityscapes
A new trailer for Dishonored has landed on Gamespot. There’s precious little in-game footage, but does feature creative directors Raphael Colantonio and Harvey Smith talking about the options that you’ll have at your disposal as master assassin, Corvo. You can take a stealthy route, eavesdropping on characters and executing guards silently, or you can use some of Corvo’s less subtle powers to carve a path to your targets, summoning rats, double jumping, teleporting and even possessing enemies as you fight through the steampunk city of Dunwall.
You can probably tell from the look of the city that art duties are being handled by Half-Life 2 artist Viktor Antonov. It’s being made by Arkane Studios, the team behind Dark Messiah of Might and Magic, with direction from Deus Ex lead designer, Harvey Smith. This cocktail of talent is one of the reasons we’ve named Dishonored as one of our games of 2012.
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim patch 1.4.27 fixes companion sneaking
Ever managed to sneak right up to an enemy’s exposed back, only to have your companion stand up and start stomping around the place screaming battle cries and alerting the entire dungeon to your presence? The latest Skyrim patch insists that companions will “now sneak properly when player is sneaking.” FINALLY. Hopefully that means lone rogues can roll with some company from here on in.
The Bethblog mentions that the patch has moved out of beta and will now apply automatically through Steam. The update also comes with fixes for a few mod issues, and will let you continue to download mods even when you’re subscribed to 50 already, hopefully bypassing the pesky limit that some players were running into.
Nvidia drivers boosts Skyrim performance by up to 45%, makes Modern Warfare 3 prettier
If you’re playing Skyrim and have an Nvidia card, you’ll definitely want to grab the latest driver update. The Nvidia site boasts of significant improvements to Skyrim framerates. Indoor scenes should run 45% faster and Skyrim’s grand outdoor vistas will see a 16% boost. The drivers also come with an improved version of the ambient occlusion effect added by the last set of drivers. This adds a subtle layer of extra shadowing and darken the deep cracks in Skyrim’s rocky landscapes, boosting their cragginess factor by about 14%.
Modern Warfare 3 gets the same ambient occlusion treatment, boosting war torn grittiness by 32%. Additional AO for the Diablo 3 beta applies a chunky 35.2% hike to lingering sense of dread levels and PhysX fixes improve Batman: Arkham City’s bat-punchiness with 10% extra Pow! 4% extra Zam! and a minor increase to overall levels of Biff! You can download it now from the Nvidia site, where they also have some fancy interactive screenshots that show off these Ambient Occlusion updates quite nicely.
Skyrim beta patch removes 50 mod limit, free official iphone map app released
The latest Skyrim patch has gone into Steam beta testing with a fix for the “issue with downloading mods when you are subscribed to more than 50 mods,” which seems to suggest it’ll fix the current 50 mod limit. That’s great news for those of us who just can’t stop whimsically adding user made updates, slowly turning our copies of Skyrim into a fairground of monocled mudcrabs and gianter giants. You can apply the beta patch by opting in via your Steam settings menu, though Bethesda warn that it is currently in beta, so you’re applying it “at your own risk.”
Also, if you’re unsatisfied with Skyrim’s map, or have the urge to perch an ipad next to your monitor so you can plan your route and scout ahead with a few gentle strokes, the Bethesda blog has word of a new official app that you can download to your Apple device right now. The free version will give you the map of Skyrim and the nine major cities. Interior maps and more locations can be bought as extras. You can grab that from the App store now. Meanwhile, here are those patch notes from Bethblog.
Skyrim mods are quite popular: two million downloads in three days
The Skyrim Creation Kit was released last Wednesday. Within hours, the Steam Workshop was stuffed with mods, including good ones, bad ones and downright scary ones. In case it wasn’t obvious already, Skyrim mods have proved extremely popular with players. Bethesda say that two million mods were downloaded within three days of the release of the Creation Kit.
Players have had plenty to choose from. According to Bethesda “more than 2,500 mods have been published by the gaming community.” It’s an almost overwhelming selection that ranges from new armour and upgraded textures to new combat moves and devastating magic. Thankfully, the Steam Workshop now has a much needed search bar, making it easier to find mods your friends have recommended. Speaking of which, here’s our round up of some of the best Steam Workshop mods so far.
Skyrim video shows fantastic unused features: colossal crabs, spear fighting, house building
This video is from Todd Howard’s speech at the DICE 2012 keynote in Las Vegas, spotted on Eurogamer. It shows the results of a week-long Bethesda game jam, in which developers were given one task: “Do anything you want, and add it to the game.” The results were impressive. Enormous crab monsters, a lycanthrope skill tree, seasonal foliage, moving platforms, adoption and house building were just a few of the ideas the team came up with.
Skyrim gets high resolution texture pack
Last week Bethesda mentioned that the Skyrim Creation Kit would arrive with a “special surprise.” Rumours immediately appeared which hinted at an official high-res texture pack, rumours which turned out to be entirely true. You can download it now from Steam.
It could tax your machine a bit. Bethesda recommend the mod to those with “a minimum of 4GB of system RAM and a DirectX 9.0c compatible NVIDIA or AMD ATI video card with at least 1 GB of RAM and the latest drivers.”
The pack adds three gigabytes worth of sharpened surfaces, which should hopefully clean up some of Skyrim’s smeary walls and blurry rock textures. I quickly booted it up to have a look, but was stabbed by a barbarian while I was busy pushing my face into a wall :(
Skyrim Creation Kit released, Skyrim goes mad
The Skyrim Creation kit is live! The Steam Workshop is already filling up with dozens and dozens of mods, some of which are quite mad. Not enough goats? Download the goat summoning mod. More dog eyebrows? Mod some in. Giants not big enough? Download the bigger giants mod. Skyrim is going nuts. In a very good way.
Skyrim Creation Kit to be released tomorrow with “special surprise”
A tweet from Bethesda’s VP of PR, Pete Hines, on Friday announced that the long-awaited Skyrim Creation Kit will be out tomorrow. TOMORROW. The tools will let modders create their own campaigns using the same tools that Bethesda use to create their environments. Take a look at last week’s Creation Kit trailer for an idea of what’s included.
Skyrim patch 1.4 optimises performance, fixes Wabbajacks
Wabbajack-loving Skyrim players will know that there’s nothing worse than a Wabbajack you can’t equip, which is why it’s vital that Skyrim players log into Steam immediately to download the full release of patch 1.4. It fixes a “rare issue” in “The Mind of Madness” that would leave players burdened with a Wabbajack that they’d be unable to wield. A fate worse than death.
Now we’ve won search ranking for the Word “Wabbajack,” we can move on to the full list of patch notes, which will be familiar to those who road tested the beta version. The patch will apply automatically through Steam, and adds some behind the scenes support for the incoming Skyrim Workshop. According to yesterday’s Skyrim Creation Kit trailer, that’ll be arriving soon.
Skyrim Creation Kit trailer shows mod tools in action
Here’s a video Bethesda just sent over showing off the Creation Kit for The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. The video mentions extensive wiki documentation written by Bethesda staff and shows how Skyrim mods will integrate with the Steam Workshop. It’s exciting to contemplate the astonishing things that modders will make with the kit in the coming months. They’ve already been hard at work making massive changes to the game, as you can see in our round-up of the top 25 Skyrim mods.
But what’s this at 1:12, on the left of the centre row? Mudcrab armour? A familiar sight for readers who reached the back page of PC Gamer UK issue 232, drawn by the lovely Marsh Davies. The mod tools are due to arrive soon, which isn’t soon enough.
Skyrim patch 1.4 beta available now
Patch 1.4 for Skyrim is set to arrive soon, but if you’re really eager to take advantage of the latest round of fixes then you can sign up for the beta through Steam. A post on the Bethblog says that you can opt in on the accounts tab of your Steam settings page. You’ll want to back up your saved games first, though, just to be safe.
The preliminary patch notes for patch 1.4 include many, many quest and crash fixes. Bethesda recommend that you sign up for the beta if one of the fixes applies to your game. You’ll find the list below. The first entry suggests that Skyrim will be getting Steam Workshop support shortly, the infrastructure that will let modders share projects created with the incoming Skyrim Creation Kit. The mod tools are still set to land sometime later this month.
Bethesda to release Skyrim modding tools and patch 1.4 fixes as early as next week
The updates and improvements to Bethesda’s already amazing Skyrim just keep coming. The latest additions: The Creation Kit and Steam Workshop (to be bundled in patch 1.4), and they’re almost ready to be unleashed, amidst a plethora of other game-related fixes. More details within!
