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.
A Game of Thrones trailer and screenshots explore Riverspring
Riverspring is the setting for the latest Game of Thrones trailer. It’s the home town of Red Priest, Alester Sarwyck, one of the RPG’s two playable characters. The other is Mors, a member of the hardened, reclusive order of the Black Watch. The threads of their separate stories are sure to tangle in a campaign that promises “a twisting plot filled with betrayal and violence.” A typical day in Westeros, then
Cyanide have taken the dark fantasy label a little too literally in the eight new screenshots they’ve released, but if you squint, you can make out some scowling warriors and the worn stone of Riverspring’s great halls. The release date is set for “early 2012.” Wait, that’s pretty much now! The RPG could bridge the gap until April 1, when the second series starts on HBO. You’ll find the screenshots below, but you’ll probably want to click on this first to set the mood.
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.
Mass Effect 3 trailer introduces all-star voice cast
Freddy Prinze Jr will be playing new squadmate, Vega, in Mass Effect 3, triggering panic attacks among those who remember his role in the Wing Commander movie. It’s okay, he’s been in Frazier, Friends, Boston Legal and 24 since then. He joins second newcomer, Jessica Chobot, who plays reporter Diana Allers.
The voice cast video above is worth watching to see how closely the cast resemble their in-game counterparts. Vega is essentially Freddy Prinze’s face transpanted onto a hulking frame, Joker looks as close to Seth Green as ever and The Illusive Man is like a young, bionic Martin Sheen, or “Mr. President” to West Wing fans.
The cast will feature a few more familiar voices. Tricia Helfer returns as the Normandy’s AI, Yvonne Strahovski reprises her role as Miranda. Carrie-Anne Moss is Aria T’Loak and Lance Henriksen is Admiral Steve Hackett. See Mass Effect 3 characters old and new in the fresh batch of screenshots below.
Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning trailer talks sidequests and world-building
Main quests are overrated. You’ll probably get to save the world, perhaps fight a dragon or two along the way and all that jazz. We’ve done that all before. The real treasure lies off the beaten path, in all the extra quests and characters you discover for yourself.
Rubbish sidequests can feel like padding, which makes the whole game world feel insubstantial. Conversely, good sidequests can make a game world feel vast and interesting. We’ll have to wait and see which camp Kingdom’s of Amalur falls into. Will we be killing giant rats in cellars for meagre coin, or vanquishing sky-demons for magical plate-mail? US players will find out on February 7. It’s out on February 10 in Europe.
The Witcher 2 Enhanced Edition trailer shows assassination on ice-bombed boat
On Friday CD Projekt announced that everyone’s copy of The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings will be upgraded to the Enhanced Edition on April 17. This will add extra areas, like “an underground system of chambers beneath Loc Muine” and “a temperate coniferous forest in the Loc Muine mountains.” There will be new characters to meet, quests to complete and foes to freeze-bomb, and CD Projekt will release a bonus digital map, soundtrack, game guide and manual for good measure.
The trailer above is the new cinematic created for the Enhanced Edition. You only see King Demavend’s severed head in The Witcher 2, but you don’t know that he lost it during an awesome slow-mo action sequence on board a shattering, ice-bombed boat. Good stuff. The Witcher 2 is on sale on GOG for the next week or so.
Mass Effect 3 trailer has grenade-throwing sentinals
I was just explaining this to our Production Ed, Tony. Basically, we’re just going to have to accept that in the far future things will be spelled and pronounced slightly differently. Sometimes, grenades will be “gernades.” Sentinels will not always be sentinels. Sometimes they will be “sentinals.” That’s just what happens and we should just accept it now. “NEVER!” Tony screamed, “NEVAAAARGH!” Then he beat his Mac to death with a dictionary.
These are without a doubt the best gaming typos made since … earlier today, when Capcom faced uncomfortable revelations regarding the release of their latest game, “Resident Evil: Revalaitons.” In other news, Mass Effect 3′s multiplayer mode actually looks quite punchy and exciting. Now I’m off to make some tee and write more wards for our wobsite.
The Witcher 2 Enhanced Edition to add free areas, quests and characters in April
Do you own the Witcher 2? Good news! On April 17 your copy of the Witcher 2 will be upgraded to the Enhanced Edition free. That’ll add new quests, new places to quest in and new “major characters” to meet.
There will also be a new CGI cutscene depicting the assassination of King Demavend. According to the news post on Good Old Games “BAFTA Award winner and Academy Award nominee Tomasz Baginski brings this key historical event to life (not actually historical – Historical Ed)” You’ll also get a game map, game guide, manual, soundtrack and Witcher comic free.
King Arthur 2 demo offers one hour of fantasy conquest
The new King Arthur 2 demo offers a hefty 1.7 gigs of magi-war. Paradox reckons it’ll take about an hour to complete the demo, which will let you play through the tutorial and the first campaign mission. That means you’ll get to quest, build armies and take cities on the turn-based strategy map, and fight some knights in the quite beautiful real-time battles.
You can get hold of the demo now from Fileplanet ahead of the game’s release tomorrow. If you were to pause the demo mid-battle, zoom your face right up to your soldiers and take a few pictures, they could well look similar to the new screenshots below. They show men being exploded by magic, fighting through a forest of ice spikes, and doing battle in a dark forest.
Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning trailer showcases sweeping soundtrack
Kingdoms of Amalur will have a complex, chromatic score played by huge orchestras of 90+ people, but no farting Gorillas, sadly. See the orchestra doing its thing over shots of Amalur’s massive locations, and hear audio director, Grant Kirkhope describe what it’s like to write big music for a big game. You can step into the Kingdom of Amalur to absorb the musical ambience and hit things in the demo, available now on Steam. It’s out on February 7 in the US and February 10 in Europe.
Mafia’s lead dev on the perils of project funding: “I know people who got their bones broken”
Dan Vavra was the lead designer on Mafia and Mafia 2. He’s started work on a new project with a new studio called Warhorse. While the new project is closely under wraps for now, Vavra has started a frank development blog which promises to deliver an honest account of the trials and tribulations of a new studio trying to bring a game to market.
In the first post published on the new Warhorse site, Vavra describes the studio’s struggles to secure financial backing in a difficult market unwilling to make big investment risks and, incredibly, hints at a darker side to the business. Vavra explains that the team pitched their game at every studio and publisher they could think of, except for “loan sharks and some strange underworld types.”
“I wrote a game about the Mafia and I don’t want to deal with those types of “businessmen”.” he writes. “The game industry is a risky business and nobody wants to end up under the boardwalk. I personally know people who got their bones broken or were kidnapped during game development. No kidding.”
Mass Effect 3 figures to come with multiplayer DLC
It looks like Mass Effect 3′s multiplayer mode will be getting extra DLC after launch, and Bioware will be offering a new way to get it. A series of toy store adverts spotted on Eurogamer show off a series of Mass Effect figures. Each one comes with a code that will unlock extra bits and pieces for Mass Effect 3′s new co-op mode.
The randomised codes “could include powerful new weapons and new characters,” according to a post on the Bioware store, or they could contain “character boosters, weapon modifications, and weapon upgrades to make your multi-player squad stronger.”
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.
Mass Effect 3 system requirements released, render Reaper invasion on 2GB RAM
I was driving around in the first Mass Effect just last night and was reminded that a) the Mako is the bounciest vehicle in the universe and b) Mass Effect 2 actually looks a lot better than Mass Effect. Based on the screenshots and trailers released so far, it looks like we can expect a similar visual leap for the grand finale, which promises more than a few enormous set pieces.
But will your PC run it? The full system requirements have popped up on the Bioware forums. We slipped the Shadow Broker a few credits and he sent them over stapled to the forehead of a courier Volus. Here they are.
