You never forget a place like Morrowind. It’s like something out of a dream, only you’ve actually been there. Maybe you used a mouse and keyboard, or the Xbox “Duke” controller, to visit it. But that doesn’t make it any less real. While hardly the first open-world game of its kind, the third numbered entry in Bethesda’s Elder Scrolls series cemented a formula and a set of expectations that are still alive and well today in games like Fallout 4 and The Witcher 3. It was an artistic and technical leap forward for mainstream role-playing games in the summer of 2002, and, for many, a beautiful and novel experience. A vast ashen landscape teeming with psychedelic flora and fauna — equal parts Jim Henson and George Lucas, with a dash of Tolkien — here was a game that resembled no other. For the people who made it, Morrowind was the product of tough crunch, a pressure-cooker basement environment, and constant uncertainty about the company they … [Read more...] about Morrowind: An oral history
Digital arts and crafts studio software
“We don’t like to follow trends”: Digital Extremes on Warframe’s five year journey from sleeper hit to industry titan
The games industry moves quickly, and it would not be unreasonable to see the year 2013 as a bygone era. By that metric 2008 looks more and more like a lost age. Pat Kudirka, producer at Digital Extremes, rightly states, “The video game industry is a constantly changing universe like no other. This industry moves faster than the TV and movie industries combined.” In 2008 Digital Extremes released third-person sci-fi shooter Dark Sector for PS3. Kudirka remembers the title, saying: “Dark Sector was the first title I ever worked on, so it holds a special place in my heart,” later joking, “which is possibly a murmur from the amount of coffee and energy drinks consumed during production.” Want to get more from your PS4?Subscribe via Print or Digital to OPM for as little as £16 / $9 for a quarterly digital subscription.The cover-based shooting was par for the course at the time, but what that title really had going for it was three-pronged … [Read more...] about “We don’t like to follow trends”: Digital Extremes on Warframe’s five year journey from sleeper hit to industry titan
Nintendo Switch upcoming games list, Switch Online NES games list and all 2018 release dates
After years of speculation and a missed E3 showing, the Nintendo Switch - formerly known by its codename Nintendo NX - has been unleashed upon the world. The successor to the Wii U and 3DS is a portable handheld console with detachable controllers, with the option to connect to a TV or play standalone in tabletop mode. This has paved the way for many, many games - which we've listed in entirety in this article to help you work out what to play next. On this page: Nintendo Switch games list coming in 2018Here is every confirmed Nintendo Switch game, first with known release date (for Europe, unless otherwise stated).Upcoming Nintendo Switch games with confirmed release dates:October 2018:Mega Man 11 (Capcom, October 2nd)Super Mario Party (Nintendo, October 5th)Child of Light (Ubisoft, October 11th)Darkest Dungeon: The Color of Madness DLC (Red Hook Studios, October 11th)The Missing (Swery + White Owls, October 11th)The Swindle (Size Five Games, October 11th)Game Dev Story (Kairosoft, … [Read more...] about Nintendo Switch upcoming games list, Switch Online NES games list and all 2018 release dates
Nintendo Switch games list, Switch Online NES games list and all 2018 release dates
After years of speculation and a missed E3 showing, the Nintendo Switch - formerly known by its codename Nintendo NX - has been unleashed upon the world. The successor to the Wii U and 3DS is a portable handheld console with detachable controllers, with the option to connect to a TV or play standalone in tabletop mode. This has paved the way for many, many games - which we've listed in entirety in this article to help you work out what to play next. On this page: Nintendo Switch games list coming in 2018Here is every confirmed Nintendo Switch game, first with known release date (for Europe, unless otherwise stated).Upcoming Nintendo Switch games with confirmed release dates:September 2018:Capcom Beat 'Em Up Bundle (Capcom, September 18th)Undertale (8-4, September 18th)Nintendo Switch Online (September 19th)Velocity 2X (September 20th)Broken Sword 5 - The Serpent's Curse (Revolution Software, September 21st)FIFA 19 (EA, September 28th)Namco Museum Arcade Pack (Namco, September … [Read more...] about Nintendo Switch games list, Switch Online NES games list and all 2018 release dates
From Shadow to Fire – 15 Years of Obsidian Entertainment
Black Isle Studios floundered and submerged as great game development studios often do, in quiet helplessness as painstakingly crafted projects were consigned to oblivion—Fallout 3, codename Van Buren; Fallout Online, codename Project V13; Baldur’s Gate III: The Black Hound, codenames FR6 or Jefferson. Interplay Entertainment, the parent company, had already been struggling with bankruptcy for years when Hervé Caen, the new CEO after the takeover by French company Titus Software, sold several game properties and shut down Black Isle Studios on December 8, 2003. One of the best profiles of the studio at its heyday was published by Gamespy in the beginning of 2001, shortly before the release of Icewind Dale expansion Heart of Winter, “We are not BioWare.” A studio isn’t just the sum of its games and projects. It is, above all, the people who develop the games. And people move on and live on long after the studios they worked in are gone. Even before … [Read more...] about From Shadow to Fire – 15 Years of Obsidian Entertainment