We’ve come to a pretty pass
MICROSOFT’S acquisition of ZeniMax Media – owners of Bethesda Softworks – has gone through, for an eye watering $7.5billion.
“So what?” you might wonder, “business deals happen all the time.” But this one has big implications if you’re a PlayStation fan, as it’s been implied the majority of Bethesda games going forward will be exclusive to Xbox.
Speaking last week, Phil Spencer, the head of Xbox, said one motivation behind this deal was “delivering great exclusive games that ship on platforms where Game Pass exists”.
He also said the gaming giant would see through previous ‘contractual obligations’ and continue to support ‘games on other platforms’.
So while it appears pre-existing deals, such as PlayStation-timed exclusivity for Deathloop and Ghostwire: Tokyo, will be honoured, and ‘games as a service’ titles like The Elder Scrolls Online will remain multiformat, if you want to play any future big Bethesda releases – such as upcoming titles like Elder Scrolls VI and Starfield – you’re going to have to invest in Game Pass.
And as an added motivator, 20 Bethesda titles have been added to Microsoft’s subscription service.
Here are five of the best. a new benchmark that has influenced and shaped countless RPGs since.
The main story revolves around the Dragonborn and their quest to defeat Alduin the World-Eater, a dragon who is prophesied to destroy the world. Packed with quests and events, players can ignore it all and just explore the breathtaking environments.
Its popularity is such that it’s been ported to every modern console – even spawning a tongue-in-cheek Amazon Alexa version in 2017.
Skyrim will be one of five titles on
Game Pass getting a FPS boost, meaning their frame rates could jump up to nearly 60 FPS.
The ailing first-person shooter series was reborn in 2016 in a hail of gore and blood splatter.
And riding on that success, Doom Eternal was spewed forth last year – throwing you head-first into a maze of corridors filled with shuffling demons – and handing you a chainsaw to despatch them back to hell.
Frenetic and visceral combat is an assault on the senses as much as the hellish demons, with the explosion of bullets, roar of the monsters and sound of tearing flesh accompanied by a thunderous heavy metal score.
Some of the set pieces are glorious. The scorched, red wastelands of Earth interspersed with cavernous cathedrals, plant-entwined ruins and snow kissed clifftops.
The solo campaign is so meaty you may need a breather before venturing into multiplayer territory.
Starting where other titles in the series haven’t, Fallout 4 shows you a time before the bombs dropped and the world became a wasteland.
Waking up as the ‘sole survivor’ of Vault III, every second is a fight to stay alive. Sitting alongside the main story is a wealth of side quests to help build your character’s skills – and you’ll need them, as there are some scary and powerful creatures waiting in the wasteland.
The level of detail makes rummaging and searching for prenuclear artefacts so much fun.
Much
like the ground-breaking
A fantastic addition to Microsoft’s subscription service... The Elder
Scrolls V: Skyrim
Doom franchise, the Wolfenstein series had been struggling to remain relevant in modern gaming.
The New Order, released in 2014, blew away the cobwebs and gave it new life.
Bursting with visceral, gory action, it walks a perfect tightrope between genuine drama and dark, inappropriate humour.
In this alternative history, the Nazis won the war and now rule the globe with an iron fist.
Playing as the resistance leader B.J. Blazkowicz, you’ll encounter some truly horrifying baddies, be embroiled in blazing fire fights, and get swept along in what is one of the most compellingly preposterous storylines you’ll ever encounter.
Dishonored introduced a twist to the gaming world – the chaos system – which tracks your conduct, taking note of the levels of violence, friendly fire and deaths you cause as you move through the game.
These levels change the gaming environment around the player, altering how other characters interact with you and dictating how quickly you go through resources.
The setting is beautiful. Moving beyond the streets of plagueridden Dunwall to the coastal city of Karnaca, the attention to details is stunning.
There is a phenomenal amount of interaction in this game too. Most of the tasks play out like mini-puzzles, with your mind left racing over whether you made the right decision and just what the consequences of your action/ inaction might be.