Category Archives: Skyrim

The Bethesda Game Studios Interviews: Rick Vicens

Did you like the official Skyrim Trailer? Give today’s interview subject, Rick Vicens, a holla if you did.

What is your job at BGS?

I’m a character animator. Specifically, my focus has been on creature animation for Skyrim.

How did you break into the industry?

This is a two part answer for me. I broke into the animation industry with an internship at Nickelodeon while attending the School of Visual Arts. That internship then led me to working in Film and TV. After a few years of working as an animator in that industry, my friend Dennis Mejillones (character artist here at Bethesda), convinced me to make the jump to games. I put together a demo reel and just applied. Best decision I have made in my career so far.

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Press Event Recap (Updated)

As we continue to see new coverage from last week’s BFG event, we’ll continue update our recaps posted yesterday. Feel free to use this post as your portal to the latest updates, and while you’re at it, check out the screenshots we released online.

Update: Links have been updated as of 4/21 at 10:30 PM EST

New Skyrim previews come in for a landing

Following our spring BFG press event, a flock of Skyrim previews have now come to roost on the internet. Journalists got a long look at many facets of the game, and were also handed some brand-new screenshots to check out.

Stretch your wings with articles from the following outlets — we’ll update the post as more swoop in.

After the break, check out Gamespot and IGN’s interviews with Todd Howard.

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Weekend Update: New videos for RAGE & Brink at GTTV

Hope everyone’s having a great weekend. We’re here to make things even better with new videos for both RAGE and Brink — courtesy of GameTrailers.com. To get you started, watch their new video on RAGE’s weapons above. And at their website, you can check out a Geoff Keighley’s PAX East interview with Brink’s game director, Paul Wedgwood.

Elsewhere, check out news on our games at these sites:

  • 1Up discusses what they know and want from Skyrim
  • Props to our Marketing team for winning big at the MI6 awards. Our friends at AKQA received the gold award for Best Online Advertising for Fallout: New Vegas, while work for Brink received a Silver Award for Best Key Art.
  • Obnoxious Gamer includes Brink in their “Four Must-Have Games for the Xbox 360 in 2011″
  • RipTen interviews Splash Damage’s Paul Wedgwood and Ed Stern and brings along quadriplegic gamer Chuck Bittner. Learn how all three, especially Chuck, are big advocates of button re-mapping. It was great seeing Chuck have fun with Brink at PAX East. Watch the interview here.

Around the web: Checklist edition

There’s three things you should do this week.

  1. Vote for the the games to be featured next year for the Smithsonian’s ‘Art of Video Games’ exhibit. Among the games (spanning five eras), you can vote for DOOM II, Oblivion, and Fallout 3. Deadline: Extended to April 17th
  2. Vote in G4TV’s Game Franchise Deathmatch. Round 2 features Fallout vs. Gears of War and The Elder Scrolls vs. StarCraft. Deadline: Voting ends Friday.
  3. Do your taxes!

With that out of the way, here’s some other stuff you’ll want to check out

  • Inc Gamers has a two part interview with Brink creative director Richard Ham. Part 1 is here. Part 2 is over here.
  • The Sixth Axis learns from Ed Stern how many areas are in Brink (and more).
  • Todd Howard appears in the G4TV special, Gamers Heart Japan. It’s a really nice feature, but if you can’t wait to watch Todd, he’s at the VERY end.
  • PC Gamer explains how Brink starts to make perfect sense once you have time to play it.
  • OXM UK goes hands on with both Brink and Hunted.
  • VG247 looks ahead to our 2011 lineup and also makes predictions about the future.
  • GameDynamo looks forward to Hunted.

Beyond that, don’t forget there’s still time to bid on a Todd Howard-signed deluxe bobblehead, a team-signed Skyrim cover (above), and a Fallout: New Vegas neon sign. 100% of the final sale price will support Japan Earthquake and Tsunami Relief Fund – a GlobalGiving Project.

The Bethesda Podcast: Oblivion 5th Anniversary Special

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Before we look forward to Skyrim, we first look back to Oblivion.

Last week we marked the fifth anniversary of The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion’s release. In this episode of the podcast, we revisit the game that served as a landmark for Bethesda. Listen as key team members recount their memories of working on the project, followed by a roundtable discussion with Todd Howard and Pete Hines.


Grab this episode via any of the following methods:
Subscribe on iTunes
Direct Download
Streaming
RSS

What’s New in Skyrim

IGN today brings us the latest Skyrim interview with Todd Howard, “The Elder Scrolls Evolved: What’s New in Skyrim.”

Todd discusses many facets of the project, including the game’s story, combat systems, $300 unicorns, and dragons. One of those things may not actually exist. To find out which, give the article a read over at IGN.

Update: Check out a slideshow of new Skyrim screens after the break.

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Around the web

Matt back with another update from around the web.

Up first, G4TV let us know today they’ve kicked off a new deathmatch to determine the greatest game franchise of all time. Both Elder Scrolls and Fallout are in the tournament and up against stiff competition. In the first round, the Elder Scrolls faces Street Fighter, while Fallout squares off with Civilization. To vote, head to G4TV.com and register. I recommend listening to “You’re The Best” from the Karate Kid soundtrack as you vote.

Speaking of fan votes, we’ve got news that Bioware bested us in the March Mayhem Developers’ Challenge. Put on those headphones and prepare the training montage for next year!

It’s been awhile since we updated you on Skyrim. For all of you looking for every bit of info between now and 11.11.11, you might find something of interest below…

  • OXM UK brings their Skyrim coverage online with a preview, podcast interview with Pete, and an interview with Todd. And for those with Xbox LIVE in the UK, you can check out video interviews conducted with Todd Howard and Bruce Nesmith.
  • Planet Elder Scrolls interviewed me to celebrate the site’s 10th anniversary (congrats!).
  • G4TV and IGN show how far BGS have come with Skyrim in comparison to Oblivion.
  • A nice user-made piano tribute to Skyrim’s theme.
  • Rolling Stone leads off their feature on the biggest games of 2011 with Skyrim. Article also mentions RAGE.
  • NowGamer and Game Rant discuss what’s been learend about the game so far.
  • CVG discuss what they want to see in Skyrim.

Switching gears to Brink, be sure to check out The Video Game Writers, who have new features on Brink each day this week. So far they’ve talked with lead writer Ed Stern about how Brink takes notes from previous games, how Splash Damage is decreasing the learning curve and increasing the game’s fun, as well as conceptualization and replayability for Brink.

Speaking of Brink, if you’re wondering about the Ark image above, it was sent to our blog inbox from fan Tsenttachi,who created it in Minecraft. If you’ve made any Bethesda-themed creations in the game, feel free to email them to us at bethblog@bethsoft.com.

That about does it for this round. See ya next time.