Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim to Use New Game Engine

The two best bits of news surrounding Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim are that it's coming out next year, and that it's being built on a whole new gaming engine. Bethesda confirmed via tweet that the games engine is "brand new... and spectacular!"

Now while the average gamer may not find this news all that interesting, the gamers who follow stuff like this closely know that this means we won't be stuck with the decrepit "Gamebryo" engine, which has been known for being horrendously glitchy, and has been the structure for Fallout 3 and previous Elder Scroll games, as well as a few others such as Epic Mickey. Bethesda's community man Nick Breckon also stated in a tweet that the engine is being built in company.

I for one am overjoyed to hear this news, both Elder Scrolls IV, and Fallout 3 floored me, but the constant glitching more than once took me out of the experience. Look forward to Skyrim hitting store shelves on November 11, 2011 for the Xbox 360, PS3, and PC.

Final Fantasy XIV Team Restructuring, PS3 Version Delayed Indefinitely

Final Fantasy, you love it or you hate it. I love the story driven iterations, some love the MMO's versions, I do not. Still those fans now have something to be upset about. The PS3 version of Final Fantasy XIV which was supposed to be released March of next year is now delayed indefinitely.

What has caused this delay, the answer is because the PC version is horrible. Yoichi Wada Square Enix CEO released a statement to the FFXIV community apologizing for the game not being very good. He went on to say that the team is restructuring, with some new leadership coming in. Producer Hiromichi Tanaka is out, with Naoki Yoshida taking over as lead producer/game director, other positions are also being restaffed with the team working on a new direction for the game. Until this happens FFXIV will continue its free trial period.

So rather than base the PS3 version on a horrible mess of a game Square Enix decided to hold off until something better was made. Thus sparing us from a terrible PS3 game.

Battlefield Play4Free Starts Tactical Maneuvers Spring 2011

EA announced Battlefield Play4Free this morning, a free to play premium title that will support 32 player online combat. The game will activate in Spring 2011 but signing up for the beta could have you playing as early as November 30. Aesthetically the game is a major departure from EA's last free to play game Battlefield Heroes which was colorful and incredibly cartoonish.

DICE's BP4F will combine maps from Battlefield 2 and weapons/classes from Battlefield Bad Company 2. Player will be able to drive 16 different vehicles including a Fighter Jet, and of course players will be able to level up skills or deck their soldier out with some cool stuff.

DC Universe Online Pushed Backed To 2011

Comic book fans and gamers alike will be saddened to know that DC Universe Online has been delayed to 2011. Sony online announced that the anticipated superhero MMO is to be pushed back to 2011 to fine tune the game with the beta that will be starting in November. If you haven't signed up for the beta you can preorder the game before November 15th and have guaranteed access to the beta. SOE is also going to be releasing a collectors edition of the game for the PS3 which will absolutely kill any money I have around that time. Here's the truly remarkable cinematic opening done by Blur the team that has made the two Star Wars: Old Republic  E3 trailers. Enjoy.

OnLive Goes Free. Woo!!

If any of you are PC gamers then you are well aware of OnLive. The cloud gaming service that is eerily like the Phantom launched in March and while it offered games like "World of Goo" and "Borderlands" it had a monthly fee of $15 plus the money for the games which most certainly turned a wave of people off (myself included). Y'all can now rejoice as OnLive had dropped the monthly fee and is entirely based on "games rather than access" said Steve Perlman, CEO of OnLive. For those who haven't used the service, there are three ways to play a game. You could buy the full game for $50 and three-five day passes ranging from $6 to $9. You also need a high quality internet connection to run the games in HD (5Mbps recommended) and there is a micro-console that will have the same functionality. A smartphone version is in the works as well.