Skyrim Creation Kit video tutorial – part 3
Making a mod for Skyrim actually isn’t that hard, and Bethesda are making it even easier with a series of 15 minute video tutorials. This is part 3 – if you’re just joining us, see part 1 of the Skyrim Creation Kit video tutorial first. We’ll be posting part 4 this time tomorrow.
Skyrim Creation Kit video tutorial – part 2
Making a mod for Skyrim actually isn’t that hard, and Bethesda are making it even easier with a series of 15 minute video tutorials. This is part 2 – if you’re just joining us, see part 1 of the Skyrim Creation Kit video tutorial first. We’ll be posting part 3 this time tomorrow.
Skyrim Creation Kit video tutorial – part 1
Making a mod for Skyrim is easier than you might think. The Creation Kit, released this week, lets you create new monsters, quests, buildings, landscapes and weapons without having to take up programming. Grab it by selecting ‘Tools’ in your Steam games library – it’s under C for Creation Kit rather than S for Skyrim.
Best of all, the developers themselves are doing a great series of video tutorials on how to use the Creation Kit, aimed at absolute beginners. They’re in easily digestible 15 minute chunks, so we’ll be posting a new one every day. Until Bethesda can’t keep up, of course, at which point we’ll start calling them and asking “Is it out yet? Is it out now? How about now?” until they do. Part 1 is above.
Graph: how Double Fine raised $450,000 for an adventure game in eight hours
Not long after the creator of Minecraft offered to fund a sequel to their much-loved Psychonauts, Double Fine looked to a different source to fund a different game. Kickstarter lets anyone donate to a project in return for rewards proportional to their investment, and they don’t have to pay anything unless the project gets enough pledges to go ahead. Double Fine set out to raise $400,000 for a point-and-click adventure game, in 34 days. They raised $450,000 in eight hours.
It’s a fantastic and exciting accomplishment that reflects how the games industry is shifting towards one where passion, as much as mass market appeal, can make games happen. But, much more importantly, it involves a bunch of nerdy numbers I can make a graph from.
Double Fine give increasingly ridiculous rewards for donations of amounts varying from $15 to $150,000. As you’d expect, the cheapest options were the most popular, but not proportionally so. Which of them actually made Double Fine the most money? I know, because I made a graph.
The best Steam Workshop Skyrim mods
Last night, the Steam Workshop was updated to support Skyrim mods. It’s a central repository for community made content, from tiny tweaks to total overhauls. After one night, there are already 459 mods up that you can add to the game with a click.
Steam handles downloading, installing and activating them in-game, and will even automatically update them when a new version comes out. But the sheer volume is kind of daunting right now, so we’ve trawled through to find you the highlights, divided into three categories that broadly reflect the trends in what people have made so far.
My strangest PC gaming problem yet: I’ve lost Games for Windows Live
The year is 2012, and yet somehow Games for Windows Live is still a thing. It’s a dark future, to be sure, but even so I never imagined I’d have a problem as weird as this: I need it. And I can’t get it. It’s hard to stay angry when you’re laughing.
I’m trying to play Batman: Arkham City on PC, an excellent game that was unfortunately developed in 1408 AD, the last time anyone alive didn’t know Games for Windows Live was universally hated. And it’s working – in fact, it’s working better than usual. It’s working without Games for Windows Live. That part of the game simply never starts – I’m not asked to log in, the Home key won’t summon it, the main menu option does nothing, and the game seems to function smoothly without it.
Ken Levine interview
This interview first appeared in PC Gamer UK issue 233.
BioShock Infinite is a first-person shooter like its predecessors, but a less lonely one. You play Booker DeWitt, who is trying to escape the flying city of Columbia with a girl named Elizabeth before a terrifying steampunk robot called Songbird catches her. The city is a spectacular airborne flotilla of districts suspended by vast balloons – a testament to America’s cultural might, and its fondness for things that are big but not terribly useful. Our last good look at the game was a spectacular 15-minute demonstration at E3.
I spoke to creative director Ken Levine about why Elizabeth is the centrepiece not just of the story, but of the technology that drives it.
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim – PC Gamer’s game of the year
We didn’t see this coming. Stupid, I know. But when we got our hands on an early build of Deus Ex: Human Revolution, I was certain it would be the game of 2011. Skyrim would be great, but it would just be Oblivion with a bit more snow. So now that it’s here, why does it feel like so much more than that?
Deus Ex: Human Revolution – PC Gamer UK’s action game of the year
Deus Ex: a game so good it gave us actual neuroses about its sequels. Invisible War, a shonky but interesting and sometimes hilarious shooter, became reviled as a crime against gaming for declaring itself to be Deus Ex 2. And when Human Revolution started looking seriously, seriously good, none of us could quite believe it.
The Humble Bundle guys – PC Gamer’s community heroes of the year
To give you some idea of how indie Wolfire games are, the rabbit-based kung fu game they’re making is not the first rabbit-based kung fu game they’ve made. It’s called Overgrowth, and it looks great, but it probably won’t change the indie scene forever. Their other project has already done that.
They launched the first Humble Indie Bundle last year, to enormous success: it’s just a bunch of great indie games, you pay what you want for them, and a cut of the money goes to charity. At first it doesn’t exactly sound like commercial genius – people generally pay about $5 for games worth at least $20 – but the good cause, slick presentation and friendly attitude created a perfect storm of goodwill.
Steam to host Skyrim mods via Steam Workshop
Bethesda have just announced that the Skyrim mod tools, the Creation Kit, will let players upload their mods to Steam’s Workshop service. That’s a slick, Valve-hosted database of user-made content that’s already being used for Team Fortress 2 models.
Players will be able to choose the mods they want on the Steam Workshops website, even via mobile devices, and they’ll be downloaded and installed automatically the next time you play. More details and the release date below.
Video: Skyrim’s pickpocketing gets sort of ridiculous
I’m a level 40 stealth character in Skyrim, and I’ve now honed my pickpocketing skill to the point that I can steal weapon from your hand and the the shirt off your back. In the Imperial castle at Solitude, where guards are using their weapons to practice and their armour to not be naked, this is funny. So I made a video.
Actually, it wasn’t quite that easy. Here’s why.
Dungeon Defenders review
The real heroes of the realm have gone off on a crusade, and only their young pupils are left behind to defend the Eternia Crystals from monsters. That’s the premise of Dungeon Defenders, a tower defence game where you place turrets to stop streams of AI-controlled enemies as they work their way around a maze to attack your base.
So instead of a Knight, there’s a tiny Squire in an oversized helmet and no trousers, and Huntress, who expresses her character by turning around and wiggling her buttocks. The intro warns that “these heroes-in- training will have to grow up quickly” – this might be too quickly.
Skyrim: A tourist’s guide
Skyrim is vast, and while there’s interesting stuff everywhere, there are some sights you can’t miss. When you’re done with the next leg of your current quest, or fancy a break from the frantic bandit murder, look up one or two of these and sigh in happy appreciation.
No plot spoilers here, but there are shots of the lovely scenes.
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim – Todd Howard Interview
This interview originally appeared in PC Gamer UK issue 232. Alongside our Skyrim preview.
Playing Skyrim made me realise just how huge, fresh and exciting it really is. I asked game director Todd Howard how far it’s come from Oblivion, and what some of his favourite discoveries have been.
