Bethesda Thursdays

Bethesda are still struggling with Sony to bring Skyrim DLC to the PlayStation 3, which…isn’t really a surprise. I don’t know what it is about Sony/the PlayStation 3 that makes DLC such a headache for developers, but Bethesda are not the only ones struggling in this way, and it sucks to see.

Speaking of DLC, GameBanshee reviewed Dawnguard; they praised it in some regards, but mostly gave it a solid “meh”. Oh, and Tom Francis is still playing through Skyrim as an Illusionist.

Oh, and OpenMW has seen some good progress made in the last week or two. Zini, from the Titans of Ether, has been working on a “proper” alchemy system for the engine, including a functional UI.

Dishonored was released this week, with a midnight launch event held in Austin to celebrate. And review after review keeps pouring in for the game, heaping all manner of praise on it. It’s “dark, unsettling, and bloody“; it’s “a whale of a tale“; it demolishes “the idea that only sequels perform well“; it’s “nothing short of a masterpiece“; it’s “stealthy, steampunk world-building done right“; and it highlights “the wonders of exploration and player choice“. Reviewer after reviewer after reviewer has heaped praise on it, and the game has been scoring 90% of higher on most sites (the lowest score I’ve seen it given thus far is 4/5). Rock, Paper, Shotgun had three or four different people review the game, all of whom loved it.

In other words, it looks like the game is thus far living up to the hype, and it seems that Arkane have turned in a solid hit.

Naturally, then, people are interested in hearing from the people that put the game together, and people from Arkane have given interviews to Forbes, The Creators Project, and a whole host of other publications. Co-designer Harvey Smith even engaged in some back-and-forth with Kotaku about some of the odder aspects of the game. (Smith also offered up a blog post of “pro-tips” for playing the game. He and others were also sneaking around Austin signing copies of the game.)

Penny Arcade’s take on the game’s plot design is kind of amusing. And explains the “whale” reference above…er…slightly more. Or not.

Dishonored doesn’t have a multiplayer component, by the way; nor did anyone pressure Arkane to add it apparently. Boss monsters are also not to be found in the game, to the relief of many (myself included). Nor, apparently, is the story always spoon-fed to you. There’s also a really neat Thief easter egg, apparently, and someone has already published an iOS app of the game’s maps.

And if you want to get the game configured properly, PC Gamer has a rundown of the PC options and settings. Kotaku has some general tips, and both PC Gamer and Destructoid have tips on how to tweak the field of view.