News
4 CommentsDishonored Void Walker's Arsenal bonus items DLC hits May 14
By Alexa Ray Corriea on May 03, 2013 05.03.13
The Void Walker's Arsenal add-on content, previously accessible only to those who pre-ordered Dishonored, will be available for purchase across at platforms on May 14, publisher Bethesda announced today. The DLC includes four bundles of additional items, bone charm slots, books, coins and other bonuses: the Acrobatic Killer Pack, Arcane Assassin Pack, Backstreet Butcher Pack and the Shadow Rat Pack. Dishonored players can purchase the content through the PlayStation Store and Steam for $3.99 and the Xbox Live Marketplace for 320 Microsoft Points ($4). The Void Walker's Arsenal DLC will be available for PS3 in Europe on May 15. Acrobatic Killer Pack: bone charm bonuses (drop-down assassination health bonus, bolt and arrow dodging, increased swimming speed), in-game hagfish statue...
Review
26 CommentsDishonored: The Knife of Dunwall review: devils and details
By Arthur Gies on Apr 19, 2013 04.19.13
It's often difficult to fully understand Daud's motives The Knife of Dunwall follows Daud, master of The Whalers assassin clan and murderer of the Empress. (Note: this review originally stated the DLC took place after the events of Dishonored. As it's never clearly explained that this is the case, this has been corrected. - Arthur) Like Dishonored's protagonist, Corvo, Daud is favored by the dark, god-like Outsider, and as as with most gods, The Outsider has a plan for Daud. As The Outsider gives Daud a name and a source of information, another competing conspiracy begins, all while Daud tries to find his mental mooring. More curious, resourceful players may remember Daud's regret at his role in the Empress's regicide, and The Knife of Dunwall explores that — somewhat. Arkane often...
Opinion
15 CommentsOpinion: Video Games Taught Me How to Write
By Austin Grossman on Apr 18, 2013 04.18.13
But I didn't get that job in publishing. Maybe my heart wasn't in it, maybe I sensed it rang a little hollow. Certainly I wasn't a promising candidate, with an eclectic transcript and an oddball portfolio of writing samples. So I didn't go into publishing or to an MFA or any of the other, regular paths to becoming a fiction writer. I went into video games. This was at Blue Sky Productions, which was shortly to become Looking Glass Studios, one of the most creative, challenging, intense video game studios you could ever become a part of. It was 1992 and Looking Glass was at the vanguard of real-time 3D gaming. Among the games it produced were Ultima Underworld 1 and 2, System Shock, Flight Unlimited, Terra Nova and Thief. It closed its doors in May of 2000, but its employees have...
Deals
4 CommentsDishonored on sale for $29.99 on Steam
By Jenna Pitcher on Apr 12, 2013 04.12.13
Dishonored, Arkane's first-person action game is on sale for $29.99 on Steam for Windows PC until April 16. Dishonored's Dunwall City Trials DLC is also discounted by 50 percent. The game features full controller support and cloud saves via Steam's Big Picture service. The title was released on Oct. 9 for Windows PC, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 and normally retails for $69.99. If you haven't played Dishonored and want to make an informed buying decision, read our review here and past coverage here. The game's upcoming The Knife of Dunwall DLC will release for $10 on April 16 for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and Windows PC. Steam also are also offering Limbo for $2.49, Farming Simulator 2013 for $13.99 and Jurassic Park: The Game for $7.50.
News
2 CommentsDishonored v1.3 title update fixes bugs, readies the game for Knife of Dunwall DLC
By Samit Sarkar on Apr 10, 2013 04.10.13
Dishonored developer Arkane Studios is updating the game to version 1.3 today to fix bugs and get the title ready for the upcoming Knife of Dunwall DLC, publisher Bethesda Softworks announced today. The v1.3 patch fixes a smattering of bugs in both the game itself and its first piece of DLC, December's Dunwall City Trials. Issues that the update addresses include crashes, achievements unlocking incorrectly and statistics displays. It also adds support for The Knife of Dunwall, the first part of an add-on campaign featuring the assassin Daud; the DLC will be released April 16 for $10. You can see the full list of bug fixes below. For more on The Knife of Dunwall, check out our preview of the DLC from PAX East 2013. Bug Fixes (Dunwall City Trials) Fixes a bug in Back Alley Brawl...
Bethesda to make 'considerably more noise' in 2013 as a publisher
By Jenna Pitcher on Apr 10, 2013 04.10.13
Bethesda aim to make "considerably more noise" in 2013 "as a publisher," the company's vice president Peter Hines said in an OXM podcast. "I think you'll hear us making considerably more noise this year than we did last year, as a publisher," he told OXM. "Obviously the Elder Scrolls Online is out and we've got the Dishonored DLC, but we will be announcing new stuff and making some noise, and I think when we get the chance to show you guys what we're up to, that you'll sit up and take notice." Hines went on to say "people will get really excited" when Bethesda reveals what it is up to, and that it is "continuing to push the boundaries, reinvent" and working with "passionate teams who know what they're doing." "So who that is, and what they're doing is TBD," Hines said. Polygon...
Report
4 CommentsIf you don't go, you don't know: Why Dishonored's art director traveled to build Dunwall
By Dave Tach on Mar 28, 2013 03.28.13
During a talk at GDC 2013 called "World of Dishonored: Raising Dunwall," the game's art director, Sebastien Mitton, said that visiting locations to study their people, places and things was a key component he used to create the visual design of game's host city, Dunwall. Narrating a slideshow filled with his inspirations, Mitton showed how Dishonored evolved from its earliest concept stages, when it was set in medieval Japan. The developers then shifted locations to 1660s London because they didn't feel comfortable in their historical knowledge of the Asian setting. They eventually created Dunwall, which was heavily influenced by London and other European cities. Mitton said that Dishonored contains something of a science fiction gap that combines the steam-powered technology of the...
Report
5 CommentsDishonored co-creative directors advocate attracting players, not dictating their actions in GDC panel
By Dave Tach on Mar 27, 2013 03.27.13
In a GDC 2013 panel today, Dishonored's co-creative directors Raphael Colantonio and Harvey Smith described how allowing players to improvise within a video game world creates a richer experience by attracting them to the goal. They worked to accomplish this in Dishonored by producing non-linear mission environments that allow players to make their own decisions within a branching storyline. "It's all about guiding and attracting, as opposed to dictating the player's path," Colantonio said. Although they admit that improvisation and story-rich environments are sometimes at odds, their aspiration was to widen the player's available decision path, while simultaneously attracting players toward the endpoints. "Most of the time we let the player play as fast or slow as possible - it's...
Report
11 CommentsDishonored's The Knife of Dunwall tells the tortured tale of a master assassin
By Alexa Ray Corriea on Mar 22, 2013 03.22.13
The Knife of Dunwall is a man cracking under the weight of his memories, burdened by doubt. After a lifetime assassinating the corrupt and unjust, has he finally set his blade to the neck of someone trying to do good? As Arkane Studios finished development on the game and began discussing post-game content, they knew they had one story left to tell: Daud's. "Towards the end of development on Dishonored, when we were thinking about what we could do for DLC, among the team the idea that kept coming up the most was Daud," Dishonored lead technical director and creative director on The Knife of Dunwall Ricardo Bare told Polygon. "He's this really dark tragic figure, the other side of the coin of Corvo." The Knife of Dunwall's story is not so uplifting; Daud is haunted by his memories of...
Culture
11 CommentsBethesda launches online store, selling Fallout shoes, Skyrim lithographs and more
By Tracey Lien on Mar 13, 2013 03.13.13
The official Bethesda online store launched today and is currently selling gaming-themed apparel, art, accessories and collectibles. The store is sparsely populated at the time of writing with only a few items in each category. Featured items include a pair of blue and yellow Fallout Vault 101 sneakers ($85), a Skyrim lithograph ($50), a Grognak t-shirt ($18), a Dishonored Mark of the Outsider pendant ($15) and a Skyrim Dragonborn statue that is available for pre-order ($300). Buyers can also pre-order an Alduin's Wall hoodie ($58), and pick up a Vault Boy Thumbs Up hoodie ($58), a Vault Boy t-shirt ($18), a Dunwall Whiskey hoodie ($48) and a Vault-Tec woven shirt ($35). More items can be viewed at the Bethesda store.
