The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim voice cast includes Academy Award nominees and Wonder Woman
Bethesda have announced the voice cast behind The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. The man who voices the big bad from Pixar’s Up, Christopher Plummer will voice an elder Greybeard philosopher monk called Arngeir who lives “in silent isolation atop Skyrim’s largest mountain.” That’s right. One of the lead voice star in Skyrim plays a man who lives lives in lonely silence several thousand feet above the ground. Hopefully we’ll hear from him at some point. Read on for the rest of the impressive cast.
Mojang vs. Bethesda: Scrolls battle heading to court
Mojang’s fight to retain the name for their upcoming fantasy card trading game will go to court. It’s the result of a legal challenge made by Bethesda earlier this year claiming that the word “Scrolls” infringes on their The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim trademark. Notch cheerily announced the news earlier on Twitter.
“The Scrolls case is going to court! Weee! :D”
Notch’s first assumption that “this is hopefully just lawyers being lawyers” doesn’t seem entirely true in the light of a looming court case. It seems that Bethesda are very serious about getting Mojang to change the name of their new game. It could set a worrying precedent, and certainly screw over the scribe-sim I’m currently working on, The Elder Elders: Scroll of Scrolls (V). If only this lawsuit could somehow all be settled with a game of Quake 3.
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim perks and racial skills revealed. Be a Dark Elf, set yourself on fire
Elder Scrolls fans had a chance to get some hands on time with The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim recently at the Eurogamer Expo, and have collated a big old list of information on most of Skyrim’s Perks over on The Elder Scrolls Skyrim fan site. These extra abilities can boost your major skills. One will cause your lightning bolt spell to outright evaporate your enemy if their health is low enough. Another will make items cheaper when you buy from the opposite sex you charming rogue, you.
There will be more pronounced racial differences in Skyrim, too. A scaly Argonian will have different baseline stats to a sturdy Orc. They’re more adept at picking locks, but can’t take a punch quite as well. As with Oblivion, each race will start with a racial ability of which the most impressive is surely the Dark Elf’s Ancestor’s Wrath, which surround him in wreaths of flame. In Oblivion, these abilities could often only be used once every 24 hours. A bit of Ancestor’s Wrath after breakfast would be a great way to start the day, don’t you think? Read on for the full list of perks discovered so far.
Notch on the Bethesda lawsuit, in court and in Quake 3: “I will fight this for as long as it takes”
Recently, Minecraft creator Notch challenged Bethesda to settle their legal dispute over the name of Mojang’s next game, Scrolls with a game of Quake 3. He’s since spoken to Wired about his chances, with reference in particular to the fact that Bethesda own id, and therefore Quake, and are likely to have some quite good Quake 3 players on staff.
“In retrospect, Quake 3 might have been a poor choice,” says Notch.
The Elder Scrolls IV: Andoran – a stunning Oblivion overhaul
Sometimes a trailer can make you want to jump right in and explore the world. This video of the Andoran mod for Oblivion, spotted by Redditor SolInvictus, is one of those trailers. The voiceover is in Russian, but you don’t have to speak the language to see what the modders are going for. It’s a darker, grittier take on Oblivion with new cities, factions and creatures. The remarkable new architecture and strange environments have a whiff of Morrowind about them, but the engine upgrades make it look more like Skyrim.
The Andoran mod site is down for now, so it’s hard to get hold of precise details, but we’ll provide a link and more info as soon as it’s available. Viewed alongside yesterday’s amazing GTA IV overhaul, it’s been a good week so far for ambitious mods.
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim DLC to be “more substantial” with “an expansion pack feel”
Skyrim game director Todd Howard has been talking to Ausgamers about DLC plans for The Elder Scrolls V. Bethesda’s last game, Fallout 3, had no less than five DLC packs, delivering a series of small adventures separate from the main quest. Howard says that while they have no specific plans in place for Skyrim yet, they want to do fewer but much bigger DLC packs with “an expansion pack feel.”
E3 2011: Skyrim’s main quest 30 hours long. Additional content “two to three hundred” more
Bethesda have been discussing the length of Skyrim at E3.
Lead Producer on Skyrim, Craig Lafferty went into detail about how long the upcoming RPG will take for you to complete. Don’t worry – it’s a long, long time.
E3 2011: Incredible new Skyrim footage shows interface, horse-riding, delicious salmon
Earlier tonight I talked a bit about what we saw in the 7 minute demo Bethesda gave to Spike TV. Now there’s a 14 minute presentation – with about 7 minutes of overlap – on G4. It shows the in-game interface – including the gorgeous in-engine map – and some hot man-on-horse action. I mean literally, he’s on a horse.
E3 2011: Fresh Skyrim screenshots show horse-riding, cities
NO TIME FOR TEXT! There are new Skyrim screens! Click ‘Read and comment‘ even if you don’t want to read or comment!
E3 2011: Skyrim impressions
E3 started properly just a couple of hours ago, and the first game I saw was probably the one I’m most looking forward to: Skyrim. The presentation Bethesda is showing behind closed doors is similar to the seven-minute video they released yesterday, and to the one we wrote about in PC Gamer last month.
What we hadn’t seen in action before, though, was horsies. Riding horsies.
E3 2011: Skyrim trailer analysis
Here’s my summary of E3 so far: blah de blah Far Cry 3! de blah Hitman 5! blah SKYRIM. There’s a full stop after Skyrim because that’s when I started humming the theme tune too loudly to hear anything else.
Bethesda showed 7 minutes of in-game stuff while Spike TV asked some rather TV questions of exec Todd Howard. It showed the game in a much more candid way than they have before, including a lot of systems they’ve previously only talked about, so I want to go through and pick apart how it’s all looking. I’ll embed the video below for anyone who hasn’t watched it yet, then my analysis.
Skyrim has 60,000 lines of dialogue, new dragon shouts revealed, horses confirmed
More Skyrim details have broken in the latest issue of Official Playstation Magazine, with more information on the game’s dragons, dragon shouts, dialogue and travel options. Also revealed: horses, revamped city guard and more. Read on for the full scoop.
Bethesda’s Todd Howard: “Oblivion sacrificed what made Morrowind special”
Creative director on The Elder Srolls V, Todd Howard, wants to bring Morrowind’s “wonder of discovery” to Skyrim. He admits that Oblivion lacked some of the imagination of its predecessor, but wants to ensure that the world of Skyrim “has its own unique culture.”
The Skyrim trailer analysed shot-by-shot
The first in-game footage of Skyrim is out, and we have watched it several times at the loudest possible volume. It’s extraordinarily exciting. It’s also very fast, once it picks up, and crammed with interesting details it’s easy to miss. Here’s our analysis and thoughts on every shot. Except the stone mural stuff, we feel chaotic neutral about that.
Bethesda advise on when to conceive if you want your child to be a Skyrim competition entry
Vice President of Bethesda Softworks Pete Hines has issued a challenge to potential parents everywhere. If your child is born on the game’s release date – 11/11/11 – and you name them Dovahkiin – the protagonist’s title – you will receive… an unknown reward. He adds that Friday was the optimal time to conceive if you wish your child will be born on that day and therefore eligible to win a prize.
The quest was announced on the Bethesda blog, with an entertaining disclaimer and a mock screenshot.
