Modding Skyrim – Created by the Cominity

Video games are fun. Video games are also beautiful, especially when you get a dedicated team of enthusiast moding (modifying) their favourite game. In this case, as the title suggests, I am using Skyrim as an example.

Skyrim, released in November 2011, is the fifth instalment in the Elder Scrolls series. I played a heck of a lot of this game when it came out, admittedly it came close to an obsession for me. One of the things I loved about this game was the way it looked, here is an example screen shot of the un-moded game.

Now here is a screenshot of Skyrim in 2014, nearly 3 years later; spliced,changed and edited by some of the more fanatical about this game.

People have gone to extraneous lengths, changing the way light shines through the leaves, changing the textures of the leaves. The result is a completely reinvigorated version of the original game. Here are a few more screen shots for your eyes.

Thanks for reading.

Resetting stereotypes

Try typing “indie game” into Google Image Search.

Unless I’ve overlooked something, you should notice that all results look similar to this:

Now take a look at this indie game:

Reset is a first person puzzle game with “a grippingly haunting but beautiful story and an unparalleled immersive atmosphere”. Players must travel back in time to solve puzzles co-operatively with themselves.

In this case, it seems the high-detail graphics are not just a selling point but exist, more so, to surround the player with a rich, breathing atmosphere. When I watch the trailer my initial response wasn’t “damn, those graphics are SICKKK FAM” but rather “damn, that robot seems sad! Everything seems sad and now I feel sad. Can I save them?” Not only is this an example of independent studios eradicating certain stereotypes but also an example of how graphics do have more of a justifiable purpose than to solely be a wow factor.

But in order to save the game from time limbo, the developers need to raise an additional 30,000 euros on crowdfunding website indiegogo! The deadline is Christmas Eve :O.

In other news:

Found Footage Finds Video Games

Outlast is an indie survival-horror video game set to be released this year on PC and Playstation 4.

(In other news, I’m off to Morocco. I wish the rest of the YA team all the best!)

How Sony stole our hearts and returned us our kingdom

Last night saw Microsoft and Sony both take to the E3 stage to announce more details about their new console and upcoming games.

Towards the end of PlayStation’s conference, Sony took it to a whole another level.

“Re-announcing no drm and no-always online was a marketing ploy”:

When announced, the Xbox One faced two major complaints:

1) The Xbox One features DRM which means once you buy a game it will be locked and assigned to your Xbox Live account. This means you wouldn’t be able to share or buy used games (goodbye game rental services?). All this does is force to me question if we would actually own the game that WE bought.