The Elder Scrolls: Legends, the free-to-play card game set in Bethesda's fantasy world, has been removed from sale on Steam. Its servers will shut down for good on January 30th, 2025, after which it will no longer be playable. The closure comes five years after the game was last updated.
]]>You may have noticed a mounting squabble between Starfield fans and detractors concerning the game's planetary maps, triggered by some leaks or fake leaks over the past week. Said skirmish has now escalated to "-gate" status, with "Tilegate" doing the rounds on forums and even creeping into search results, presumably much to the alarm of innocent, unaligned ceramics company Tilegate Trading Llc in Florida. The nub of the dispute seems to be thus: some people claim the procedurally generated tiles that comprise many Starfield environments actually glue together into complete globes, so that you can see and walk from one to the other and, indeed, all around the equator, while others claim they're discrete maps with invisible walls, similar to those of the astonishing "dreamable" space sim Noctis.
Who knows, we might have an under-embargo Starfield review in the works that will lay matters to rest. In the short term, the uncertainty about whether Starfield's planets are actually planets puts me in mind of comparable celestial angst in Bethesda's Elder Scrolls games, where planets are more properly described as planes of existence, conjured by immortal beings, which sort of orbit the mortal world of Tamriel. I've been revisiting how Bethesda's mainstay fantasy games thought about outer space in the run-up to Starfield, and while I'm intrigued by the new game's portrayals of celestial mechanics (latest discovery: the Starfield starmap represents stellar and planetary gravity as dimples on a kind of galactic tarpaulin, as in old Stephen Hawking documentaries), I'll be very surprised if it offers anything quite as wonderfully bizarre.
]]>Bethesda have indefinitely halted development on The Elder Scrolls: Legends, the free-to-play card game set in their RPG world of swords and shouts. The game is still up, you can still play it, and Bethesda will still run events in it, but no new content substantial updates are being worked on or planned.
]]>To celebrate a quarter-century of Elves, Daedra and cat-people with bafflingly complex lore, Bethesda are giving away The Elder Scrolls 3: Morrowind today (March 25th) only, so snap it up quickly here. You'll need a Bethesda.net account and their launcher to grab the game, too. A bit of a hassle, but you're getting a sprawling adventure through a deeply alien corner of Tamriel, filled with giant insects, inscrutable demigods and enough Cliff Racers to drive any adventurer to distraction. If you've never played what many consider the best Elder Scrolls game, now's the time.
]]>Collectible card games have been around for decades, but they've really been running hot ever since Blizzard unleashed Hearthstone four years ago. Since then, we've seen Shadowverse, Gwent, The Elder Scrolls: Legends, Duelyst, Faeria - there are a lot of these things, if you haven't heard. They all put their own spin on rectangles with numbers on 'em, but they also universally take cues from Hearthstone and, just as often, each other, and as a result they regularly run into similar problems, the biggest two being how to balance a competitive system and how to price card packs fairly.
Artifact, Valve's upcoming Dota-inspired card game, is definitely using some pages from the same books, but it's also doing enough things differently that it has the potential to solve a lot of those problems.
]]>Welcome to Spawn Point, where we take something wonderful from the world of gaming and explain what it is, why it’s worth your time and how to get involved. This time: collectible card games (or at least, the videogame kind).
Hello, I would like to collect some cards please. Of course, friend. We have a wide variety of fantasy themed cards, ranging from hostile dragon to raving ghoul to –
Hang on, what are these numbers? Oh, ignore those, they’re nothing to worry about. Look at this wizard!
]]>It’s a card game! As discussed on this week’s podcast, I’ve been somehow saddled with the reputation of being “the collectible cards game guy” at RPS. This is partly my own fault due to my Duelyst-ing but also partly due to my fellow journos typecasting me, like some kind of grubby-fingered Bryan Cranston. This isn’t the first time this has happened. Remember when I became “the tanks guy” because I once asked too many questions about tanks?
]]>The hosts of the RPS podcast, the Electronic Wireless Show, know neither respite nor shame. This week we have a chat about "replayability" - what games are the most replayable? Why do we always go back to our "comfort games"? Exactly how many hours has Adam spent in Crusader Kings II? Hint: QUITE LOTS. Meanwhile, Pip attempts to cultivate the excrement of wet monsters in Slime Rancher, Adam tells us about his cowardice in Playerunknown's Battlegrounds, and I am slumming it with another collectible card game, this time The Elder Scrolls: Legends. We've also got some reader questions and comments, all based on replaying old favourites. It's a theme!
]]>Each year E3 rolls around like a giant evil worm, crushing all that's good and pure. BUT that worm also announces lots of exciting gaming news as it wreaks its carnage upon the Earth. Here we have gathered every announcement, reveal, and exciting new trailer that emerged from the barrage of screamed press conferences over the last few days. And lots of it looks rather spiffy.
A rather enormous 47 PC games were either announced, revealed, or updated upon, with new trailers, information, and released dates that will all be missed by at least three months. We've collected the lot, with trailers, in alphabetical order, into one neat place, just for you.
]]>Free-to-play card game The Elder Scrolls: Legends [official site] will take a trip to the icy land of Skyrim in its first expansion on June 29th. Legends already has a splash of Skyrim, with cards representing Skythings from Draugr to ha-ha-hilariously taking an Arrow in the Knee, but this will really Fus Go for it. Bethesda say the 'Legends of Skyrim' expansion will add "more than 150" Skyrim-themed cards (so, like, 151?), including dragons and their mighty shouts.
]]>It's barely safe to move this week with all the virtual paper flying about. Free-to-play CCG Faeria, the mail-flinging Morning Post, and The Elder Scrolls: Legends [official site] all launched this week, and I tell you someone's going to loose an eye. The Elder Scrolls: Legends, unsurprisingly but perhaps disappointingly, is more like the former. It's Bethesda's free-to-play CCG turning all your Elder Scrolls favourites in cards, including those potions you stole but never used and that meme. Seven months after entering open beta, TES: Legends this week escaped beta prison and properly launched.
]]>As December approaches like a runaway sled and we prepare to say our goodbyes to 2016, it's natural to reflect on the year as a whole. Those reflections could easily take the form of laments but we're keeping our focus firmly on the world of PC games, where we've identified ten trends that may not have defined 2016, but have certainly helped to shape it. We delve into Sorcery and synthwave, DOOM and Danganronpa, and much more besides.
]]>The Elder Scrolls: Legends [official site] - the digital card game based on the Elder Scrollsiverse - is now in open beta. I've already downloaded the game launcher and am currently going through the fun thing where you have to get Bethesda to remind you of your username and then, when you have your username, reset the password which you also can't remember and none of the reset emails have arrived BUT! I'm sure I'll be hurling nirnroots at a board before long...?
]]>If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, the team behind The Elder Scrolls: Legends [official site] must be great fans of Hearthstone. Much of this new collectible card game will be instantly familiar to those who've played Blizzard's Warcraft-based equivalent. There's a gradually increasing pool of magic points with which to play cards. The same attack value and health stats, with most creatures being unable to strike on the turn they're summoned. A slew of common special abilities that break the base rules, such as allowing for an attack immediately after being played, or having a one-hit shield to protect them from damage. Sure, everything has a different name, like "Guard" instead of "Taunt", but the initial sense of deja vu is overwhelming. Thankfully, that fades.
]]>Settling down to watch The Elder Scrolls: Legends [official site] bits of the Bethesda conference, I discovered a winking owl, some plot information for Bethesda's card game and also that the banana bread I made last night makes a perfectly serviceable breakfast.
]]>These days, you're just not a proper RPG unless you've got a fancy card-game spin-off either in or out of world. Gwent. Hearthstone. Arcomage. Triple Triad. Legends of Norrath. Pokemon CCG. Now The Elder Scrolls is throwing its adventurer's cap into the ring with The Elder Scrolls: Legends, as announced aeons ago, but only just going into closed beta. Quite a gold-rush, especially given that historically, these games haven't done particularly well in digital form, even when backed by a big name or license.
]]>As the end of the year approaches, a whole load of games optimistically slated to launch "in 2015" are about to become formally late. Such as The Elder Scrolls: Legends [official site], Bethesda's free-to-play CCG. When they announced it at E3, it was due to launch this year. Now it's not.
In other news about The Elder Scrolls facing a tough time aping Blizzard, The Elder Scrolls Online folks ZeniMax Online have reportedly all but closed their European customer services office in Ireland, which had employed around 300 people. [Update: or maybe not!]
]]>With the announcement of The Elder Scrolls: Legends, an upcoming free-to-play strategy card game set in the Elder Scrolls universe, Bethesda’s quest to become Blizzard continues in earnest. They clearly want a piece of that Hearthstone pie. At this rate we'll see Bethesda announce a MOBA, perhaps named Heroes Of The Scrolls, at E3 next year.
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