Author Archives: gstaff

Around the web with Dishonored

Four weeks. You’re only four weeks from being able to play Dishonored for yourself. Until then, here’s a roundup of some of the latest online coverage…

To start, Revision3 named Dishonored their PAX Prime Game of Show. Watch their new interview with Raf Colantonio above.

  • Kotaku – reveals why they love Stealth games like Dishonored.
  • 1Up -  ”…if Dishonored doesn’t end up being one of the best games of the year, I’ll be absolutely shocked.”
  • The New York Times – “The most intriguing original fiction of the next four months.”
  • Kotaku – Mark Serrels plays Dishonored, possesses a fish, and shares, “In Dishonored there are seemingly endless matrices of choice, multiple different ways to approach multiple different problems. Room to breathe, room to think, space to engage meaningfully with an environment.”
  • PC Powerplay – “Not only does Dishonored look set to be Arkane’s best title yet, but if Looking Glass were around today, it is undoubtedly the kind of game they would be making”.
  • CVG – Calls Dishonored “the most amazing new IP of the year.”
  • IGN – Executive Producer Julien Roby discusses why now is a good time to release a new IP like Dishonored.
  • VG247 – New interview with Raf Colantonio

Finally, take a photo tour of Arkane’s offices in a new feature at Business Insider.

Four weeks!

Skyrim Workshop: Mod #10,000

This past week the Skyrim Workshop reached another milestone – it’s 10,000th mod. Learn more about the mod, Shannara Weapon Set from joedamarsio, in  an interview from the Skyrim Creation Kit (Public) Steam Group. Here’s an snippet…

Any advice you would offer to anyone playing Skyrim who maybe thinks about trying to make a mod but is intimidated?

It’s overwhelming when you first look at all the options on the Creation Kit but if you follow the Wiki it will talk you through everything and make modding a pleasurable and fun experience

Read the full interview here, and if you haven’t checked out the Workshop yet, visit mods.elderscrolls.com.

The Making Of Dishonored, Part 1 – Inception

With just over a month until Dishonored is available, we’ve released the first in a series of Developer Documentaries for the game. In this first video, appropriately titled ‘Inception’, the team at Arkane discuss how they embarked to create a unique gaming experience — a first-person game that puts the player in the role of a supernatural assassin.

The video features members of the team you’ve already met: co-creative directors Harvey Smith & Raphael Colantonio, art director Sebastien Mitton, and visual design director Viktor Antonov. In addition to these folks, you’ll also hear from:

  • Florence Lapalu – Lead Character Artist
  • Damien Pougheon – Lead Animator
  • Sylvain Praloix – Lead Gameplay Programmer
  • Christophe Carrier – lead level designer

Watch the video above and come back next week for another Developer Documentary.

Computer Whiz Kids

If you followed QuakeCon coverage last month, you likely saw the amazing Fallout-inspired PC that was on hand at the event’s BYOC.

I recently caught up with the computer’s creators, Michael Kraft (case builder) and Adam Stark (configured computer and programmed game). With names like those, expect these two Plano, TX natives to build amazing computers for years to come.

When did you guys decide to do the Fallout computer for QuakeCon?

We first thought of it in 2009, but what really got things moving was winning a Sapphire Edge mini-pc at the PC Perspective Workshop at Quakecon 2011. Prior to that, we had tossed around the idea but couldn’t find a motherboard that would fit the form factor we were looking for. With this tiny PC we won, that changed everything and we realized that hey, we could really do this.

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Summer School with Oblivion

It’s not surprising when you hear that someone spent most of their summer vacation playing Oblivion. Especially not on this blog. But what about playing Oblivion and receiving college credit? That’s exactly what happened this summer at the The University of Wisconsin – Whitewater.

Below is an interview conducted this past month with Cindy Lee Anderton & Elizabeth King, colleagues in UWW’s College of Education and Professional Studies. This summer they used Oblivion for their course “Cultural Studies/Gaming” using Oblivion.

Learn more below…

When did you come up with the idea for this class?

Cindy:  This idea started hatching itself when Beth and I discovered we were both women in our 40’s and loved role playing games. I had started playing Oblivion in July of 2011 and as I kept playing it I started to realize how often I would link what was occurring in the game to our society today in terms of cultural differences, inequalities, and social justice issues. I realized that my own play reflected aspects of my identity development, my belief system, and values and attitudes that I had. I also realized the game itself presented experiential opportunities for understanding discrimination, oppression, power, privilege, etc.

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