Elder Scrolls games, I can’t even count the hours of my life spent toiling through the lands of Tamriel fighting off imposter Mages and invading Daedra. Through the years I’ve escaped from more prisons and acted as the right hand of the chosen emperor through possibly hundreds of dungeons alone.

Though the game series began with the venerable Elder Scrolls Arena and gained a lot of attention with the latest iteration Oblivion, I have to admit I will never forget the time I spent playing Daggerfall and its wonderous and often humorously buggy random dungeon creation system. Each of the Elder Scrolls games are known for their expansive settings, if not for their 1st person action and RPG flavor but for some reason no other Elder Scroll game typifies the open exploration of a fantasy world quite like Daggerfall for me.

If you’re one of the players who came late to the scene, long after Daggerfall went out of print, then Bethesda has a special present for you. Today they released the game for free from their website, much as they did awhile back with the first Elder Scrolls title – Arena. I can’t recommend highly enough how foundational Daggerfall is to enjoying the modern Elder Scrolls games. Its great to watch the series evolve and see where the concept behind such a massive RPG has changed.

A word of warning for graphic purists – Daggerfall is almost 10 years old at this point and the graphics, while good then have no hope of standing next to a modern game. Additionally for XP and Vista users you will likely need Dosbox to play the game but Bethesda includes a link to a pretty thorough how-to that even neophyte gamers unused to the intricacies of classic PC game configuration can follow.

What are you waiting for? Head over to FileFront and get to downloading!

Not an RPG fan? Well check out the recently free release of MechWarrior 4…

Gaming is a great hobby, one I’ve spent most of my life enjoying as a whole while moving from system to system, player group to player group but in reflection I find that I can illustrate my past with RPGs in one basic role – Storyteller.

I’m one of the lucky few out there who seems always consigned to the role of preacher, and never groom or groomsman. What do I mean by this? Well its simple. In over 20 years of playing pen-and-paper RPGs I have almost always been the DM. Sure I’ve gotten to play in more than a few campaigns over the years, but by and large if someone gets excited about a new setting or rule system and wants to have adventures in it (including myself I might add) for whatever reason I end up the one tasked with learning the rules, building the world and running the adventure.

I guess it’s rewarding to be in this position of trust and pseudo-respect. (pseudo because players tend to only respect you insomuch as it benefits them over the long term – which is painful to admit but true). I’ve been at it long enough that regardless of the actual system I find it easy to weave together a story. I also  learned long ago that too much preparation is not only unnecessary to the fun, but can be detrimental to your mental health as a storyteller.

This month, Wizard’s of the Coast is really pushing the concept of Dungeon Master Appreciation month. A concept introduced within the monthly column by staffer/blogger/sorcerer Shelly Mazzanoble, the self-appointed D&D Player-in-Chief. Shelly’s column in last month’s Dragon Magazine discussed her realization that the DM in her colorfully discussed tales often goes unappreciated by his players, and from time to time it’s a good idea to thank the person facilitating the game you enjoy playing.
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This week on Sessler’s Soapbox, Adam reveals how he got your dream job. Many people have asked game reviewers how they got into their jobs admiring the paid to play life style. Aside from not being able to pay rent or buy food with video games, it’s pretty great. Find out how Adam Sessler went from banker to videogame television host via Riverdance on the latest Sessler’s Soapbox.

John Harris, a writer over on the industry news site/blog Gamasutra,  writes a regular series of articles entitled Game Design Essentials. These long and exhaustively researched story discusses his position on many topics important to modern game design and the lessons learned along the way.

His latest installment discusses 20 RPGs that all designers should be familiar with and why. The feature article is interesting from the perspective of someone who has studied game design and as someone who has been using RPGs for storytelling and  enjoyment over the years. Aspiring designers could do far worse than to dig through this fairly dense statement of information covering RPGs from the classic pen-and-paper Dungeons & Dragons through the evolution of Wizardry, Ultima, Wasteland and more contemporary games like World of Warcraft, Final Fantasy and the Elder Scrolls titles.

You can check out the entire article here.

Cooler Master is introducing its latest mid tower chassis, the HAF 922. This tower is aimed directly at gamers with a case that’s cool both inside and out. This beast supports up to seven fans more maximum air flow. It’s also compatible with liquid cooling systems, with enough room for an internal radiator.

According to the specs, the HAF 922 provides 2 USB 2.0 ports as well as eSATA. It also supports HD / AC97 audio. Check out the full list of HAF 922 specifications and accessories at the Cooler Master website.

You may recall that in the Zero Punctuation: inFamous vs. Prototype video review, Yahtzee said he couldn’t honestly choose a winner because they were equally fun. Then he issued a challenge to the developers saying he’d base which game was best on whichever studio submitted “the best picture of the other game’s main character wearing women’s bra.”

To everyone’s surprise and delight, both Radical and Sucker Punch took up the gauntlet. The die is cast, the submissions weighed and a winner has been declared.
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TopWare Interactive aims to raise the bar for RPGs with it’s upcoming release of Two Worlds II. This sequel to the original hit Two Worlds will take players back to the world of Antaloor to explore the deserts and temples of the East.

Two Worlds II features a brand new engine from Reality Pump that makes the most of dynamic light sources, micro-detail Parallax Mapping, 24 Bit HDR Post Processing, Space Ambient Occlusion and Human Eye Accommodation. The AI and balancing standards have been overhauled as well. The new storyline features the work of experienced authors and the active combat system puts the adventure into this RPG.

When they claim that Two Worlds II will set new standards for graphical excellence, they aren’t bluffing. Just take a look as these screenshots.

Look for Two Worlds II for the PC, Mac and Next-Gen consoles this winter.

Hi, my name is Shawn and I’m a recovering Magic-aholic.

Magic is like paper crack to me. I find it consumes my life when I’m playing it. It becomes my goal in life, I will forsake food, personal hygiene and even intimate relations when I’m on a bender. It’s a sad part of my life but I thought it was behind me.

Struggling through Magic addiction is a daily challenge. I fight to avoid the Magic cards at the grocery, I refused the free Magic tournaments at the local game store. I’d been clean for almost a year when it happened.

I’m ashamed to admit my weakness but here, amongst a gathering of others with my problem I feel relieved to admit it. I had a moment of weakness and I slipped up. It wasn’t with that shiny foil packaging, I wasn’t huddled in the alley behind the game store.. no, I gave in to Magic last in my home and there was no physical evidence left afterward, just a note on my bank account for the purchase of 2500 Microsoft points. ( I only needed 800, but I wanted some extras on hand to buy cards later)

There is something so insidious about the digital version. It’s too perfect a translation in fact. While currently I can’t sidle up to the counter and pay for my next fix of booster packs and I don’t have access to the thousands of cards in my physical library I have little doubt the masterminds behind my addiction already have the plan for my digital downfall in the works.

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You’d have to be living in a cave to not have come across the Apple iPhone its many fanatical disciples. Most people who have them seem to not be able to put them down as if their brains might cease to function if they moveed too far away. We’ve even had to introduce a “no iPhones during gaming” policy for certain hard cases. Yes you know who you are.

There are a plethora of applications for this portable Pandora’s Box. Adam Sessler has taken it upon himself to look at the extremely varied apps labeled as games. Considering that both iShoot, the miniaturized Scorched Earth, and the infamous Baby Shaker apps are both classified as games, what comes to mind for each user can be vastly different. Sessler describes the phenomena best noting, “Distinction is not an American trait.”

I’m a fan of machinima productions, from the high quality like Red vs. Blue and the “Still Seeing Breen” music video to the Neverending Nights series, its amazing what a few creative gamers and cinematographers can come up with using video games as their tools. Well stumbling around the net I found an interesting article at LowPings.net featuring a number of interesting Half-Life 2 machinima that I’d previously not seen before that feel more like professional cinema productions than fan films.

The post includes some roughs and I found Combine Nation, which is like Combine Cops, and Ignis Solus which is like an existential art piece with flamethrowers. We keep having this debate as games not being or creating art.. but these cinema pieces definitely show that while you may debate the merits of games themselves, as tools of creation they can be something quite a bit more.

The post also links to some interesting series like Maintenance Man, Freeman’s Mind and Escape from City 17, a live action production I mentioned a few months back.

Here’s a quick reminder of how awesome video editing can make HL2 a tool for movie creation:

Any way you cut it the convergence of games and cinema is here.. lucky us, we just get to sit back and enjoy the results. I’m always on the look out for new series or shorts, feel free to share your favorites in the discussion boards in this post and maybe we’ll highlight them in a future article.