Category Archives: Todd Howard

Update on Skyrim fan interview

As it’s been about a month since we announced our Skyrim fan interview, we wanted to give a quick status update. Todd and other members of BGS are working through the selected questions, and we expect to share answers soon after E3. For your patience, today we’re releasing a new wallpaper (above) and two new screenshots on The Elder Council.

In the meantime, you can expect to see and hear plenty on the game at next week’s big show. For starters, Todd Howard will be showing the game at the following:

  • GameTrailers.com – In the hour following Microsoft’s Monday press conference
  • IGN Live Show – Wednesday at 5:00 pm PST
  • G4TV – Tuesday at 1 pm PST on their E3 2011 LIVE Show

Since we’ll be busy at our booth next week, keep an eye out for additional updates across Twitter and Facebook… should be fun!

Shout out your Skyrim questions

Like fire in a dragon’s belly, we realize many of you have burning questions you want to ask about Skyrim. Now’s your chance, as today we’re kicking off our first fan interview for the game.

If there’s something you’re dying to know about the game, give us a shout on the forums, at The Elder Council, or here on the blog. Game Director Todd Howard and other members of Bethesda Game Studios will be answering your questions in a few weeks.

Weekend Update: Extended Skyrim interviews at GameTrailers.com

If you’re looking for new details on Skyrim, don’t miss Geoff Keighley’s extended interviews with Todd Howard from our BFG press event. In the videos, you’ll learn more about dragons, how the game begins, and that yellow toboggans make great loot.

Watch the second video after the break. And for more on the game, check out the previews and interviews from our previous Skyrim roundup.

Continue reading full article ›

Weekend Update: RAGE, Skyrim, Hunted, and Prey 2

While our BFG event was more than two weeks ago, there’s plenty of new coverage to share for RAGE, Skyrim, Prey 2, and Hunted.

Don’t miss last Friday’s GTTV episode, which featured a new Skyrim interview with Todd Howard, as well as a first look at RAGE’s Subway Town. Catch both segments at GameTrailers.com.

If podcasts are your thing, Giant Bomb has 40 minutes of discussion on Skyrim, RAGE, and Prey 2. While I highly recommend the entire podcast, the BFG coverage starts just before the 50-minute mark. Elsewhere, Shacknews’ Garnett Lee shares his Skyrim impressions in episode 57 of Weekend Confirmed (scan ahead to the 33:25 mark of the podcast), and also divulges on why he’s so excited for RAGE in episode 58. Head to iTunes to download all three podcasts.

More after the break…

Continue reading full article ›

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.

Exploring the new Elder Scrolls website

In case you’ve been staring at the trailer for the last 24 hours (we’ve been doing that too), wanted to remind you to explore our new Elder Scrolls website. Front and center on the site is Skyrim, for which you can find the latest media, news coverage, wallpapers, and more.

The site also has plenty of cool stuff from previous games in the series. You can watch game introductions and trailers, read archived team diaries for Morrowind and Oblivion, and yes, you can once again download Arena and Daggerfall for FREE.

In the community section, be sure to check out the first team diary for Skyrim, Welcome Back Elder Scrolls, written by Todd Howard. Todd discusses the excitement of returning to Tamriel after creating Fallout 3, and how both the series and team have evolved. Here’s an excerpt…

“To do that this time, we knew, like before, we had to start over. We needed to reinvent large parts of the game and its technology. We started with the graphics renderer, and how we would bring the scale of snow covered mountains, dynamic weather systems, and massive dragons to life along with the small details of how people lived; from the forks they used, to the fish they caught, and the meat they cooked. We then rewrote all the major graphics and gameplay systems including lighting, shadows, level of detail, animation, interface, scripting, dialogue, quest systems, melee, magic, and more. All of those changes made it into our internal editor as well. So much had changed that we decided to call the engine and editor by a new name, the Creation Engine and the Creation Kit. We can’t wait to see what all the brilliant mod makers do with these tools.”

Read the rest here. The diary is accomodated by our newest team photo, which I had the privilege to snap last week. If you’re wondering why they’re smiling, there’s plenty of good reasons: 1) It was Friday, 2) our happy hour was about to begin, and 3) Like you, they’re fans of the series and can’t wait for you guys to have a chance to play it.

Between now and 11.11.11, stay tuned for new updates on the site.

Todd Time at GameInformer.com

5228.todd600.jpg

Pull up a chair and listen to Bethesda Games Studios’ Todd Howard in three video interviews now up on GameInformer.com. Across three separate videos, Todd discusses how he got into the industry, the evolution The Elder Scrolls from Arena to Skyrim, and his take on the gaming industry today.

Fun fact about Todd: In the third video, he talks about his interest in sports games, and he specifically discusses NCAA Football. At the office, we have an online dynasty going, and I can tell you Todd’s insanely good at the game. In the next week or so, I have to play against him (Notre Dame vs. Michigan). First person to correctly guess the score of the game wins a small prize.*

*You only get one guess.  Multiple entries coming from the same profile/IP address/email address will result in disqualification.

Take the Todd Tour

0447.Tour610.jpg

Game Informer continues their month long coverage on Skyrim with a video tour led by Todd Howard. See where the developers work, eat, play… and even battle. Keen observers will  notice Skyrim concept art and much more. And if you’re really paying attention, you’ll even get a glimpse at where Nick and I record the Bethesda Podcast — woohoo!!

Start your tour by heading to Game Informer. But remember, there’s no basement in the Alamo.