To be clear right off the bat, the mod doesn’t require you to be playing on a 16K screen to notice the changes. The ‘Bellyaches 16K-8K Dragon Replacer Pack (opens in new tab)‘ presents Skyrim’s dragons “cleaned of compression artifacts and upscaled to a maximum of 8K resolution.” As creators wrig675, XilaMonstrr, and I2edShift explain, the mod essentially lets you view dragon textures at true 4K resolution up close, since the original assets needed to be downscaled for performance on consoles.

“All resolutions specified are the maximum resolution, and most of the texture files are twice as long as they are wide,” the modders explain. “So the 16K version has files that are 8192×16384. Dragons are VERY large, and I would recommend that you think of this as two 8K files next to each other rather than full 8K.

“With 16K, a dragon wing is 7380x4020px, a head is 3320x2480px, and the entire rear body and legs is only 6080x4580px. If you are fighting a dragon up close and want to see it in 4K resolution, then you need the dragon to be in 16K.” 

You can see what they’re talking about in this zoomed-in image:

Before you go calling this Skyrim mod ridiculous, make sure you’re aware that there’s another mod that turns Bethesda’s classic RPG into an episode of America’s Got Talent.

Thanks, IGN (opens in new tab).

With Skyrim modding clearly alive and well in 2022, have a look through our guide to the best Skyrim mods currently available.

The post Skyrim mod makes dragons 16K so you can see the tiny cracks in their scales appeared first on Game News.

Skyrim Anniversary Edition launched late last year on PlayStation, Xbox and PC, leaving Switch players out in the cold. But Nintendo fans might soon be able to get in on that new and improved Skyrim action, as Skyrim Anniversary Edition has reportedly been rated for Switch in Taiwan. 

The rating by the Taiwanese game rating board has now been taken down, but not before Switch Brazil (opens in new tab) managed to nab a screenshot. The image shows that the rating was filed last week, on May 15. We’ll have to wait for word from Nintendo to know for sure that Skyrim Anniversary Edition is coming to Switch, but it’s not uncommon for a game to be officially announced shortly after it’s been revealed by a leaked rating.

Skyrim Anniversary Edition makes Bethesda’s mammoth RPG even bigger with a decade worth of content. Added to the base game are three expansions, Dawnguard, Hearthfire, and Dragonborn, as well as a wealth of Creation Club mod content. Lastly, and perhaps most exciting of all, there’s also a new fishing system.

Skyrim did, of course, get a Switch version which was released in 2017. On other platforms, the Anniversary Edition is available as a paid upgrade as well as a standalone game. Hopefully, this will also be the case if Skyrim Anniversary does see a release on Switch.

If you’ve already spent enough time in Tamriel, check out these 10 games like Skyrim that’ll satisfy your need for adventure.

The post Skyrim Anniversary Edition could be coming to Nintendo Switch appeared first on Game News.

Ancestral Whispers (opens in new tab) is a project aiming to improve soft-tissue reconstructions – the process of plotting what a person’s muscles and skin might have looked like based on their bones – using the work of Soviet-era archeologist and anthropologist Mikhail Gerasimov. Since the group met at a conference in Rome in 2019, it has reconstructed the faces of dozens of prehistoric humans, using a meticulous process outlined using the example of Sungir1, an adult male discovered in Russia, whose grave dates back to around 35,000BC. 

While all of the examples on the Ancestral Whispers site are based on real archeological sites, last week, one of the group’s members posted a reconstruction to Twitter. That post featured an image “of an ancient Atmoran from Saarthal, dated to the late Merethic era.”

Facial reconstruction of an ancient Atmoran from Saarthal, dated to the late Merethic Era. pic.twitter.com/jz8R5IgsT7April 1, 2022

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Skyrim fans were quick to spot what turned out to be a cunning April Fool’s joke. Atmora is a continent found to the north of Tamriel, where the Elder Scrolls games take place. Similarly, Saarthal is the long-lost former capital of Skyrim, and is now a tomb that you can explore near Winterhold, while the Merethic era is a time period that took place some 4,450 to 7,000 years before the events of The Elder Scrolls 5. Essentially, Ancestral Whispers had taken the head of one of Skyrim’s skeletons, and applied its reconstruction process to the model.

The result is quite the handsome chap, especially when you factor in that impressive Nordic beard. There’s a powerful jaw involved too, which is pretty necessary when your diet consists mostly of mammoth meat.

It’s not clear exactly what the limits of Ancestral Whispers’ reconstruction process is, but the group accepts payments for community submissions. Personally, I wonder what Doom Eternal’s Revenant might look like with a little extra meat on its bones.

Best Skyrim mods | Skyrim hidden quest locations| Skyrim hidden chest locations | Best Skyrim companions | How to get married in Skyrim | Skyrim enchanting guide | Skyrim alchemy guide | Skyrim builds | Best Skyrim quests | Skyrim Anniversary Edition differences | How to fish in Skyrim Anniversary Edition | Skyrim Elysium | Skyrim vampire choice 

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That Skyrim character would, of course, be none other than Nazeem, esteemed citizen and rampant airhead of Whiterun. Just below, you can check out a video of the player in question slaying the annoying character after he utters one of his most most notoriously obnoxious lines.

Right now, the player in question, Sidek, is up to day 138 of repeatedly killing Nazeem. You can head over to their YouTube channel for proof of their twisted dedication to the cause of brutally ending Nazeem’s life, which they sure have stuck to religiously so far.

Well, they’re sure going to have to keep this up for incredibly long time yet if they actually want to make it to the release date of The Elder Scrolls 6. Who knows, maybe we’ll be sat in here in roughly five years time marvelling at how this one user has murdered Nazeem in Skyrim well over a thousand times.

If this does keep going until the release date of The Elder Scrolls 6, we’re probably looking at another four/five years minimum. Back in November, Bethesda chief Todd Howard hinted we could be waiting until 2026 at the minimum for the sequel, given Bethesda’s development schedule. Assuming an autumn release window similar to Skyrim’s, that’ll amount to a total of nearly 1,900 dead Nazeems.

Best Skyrim mods | Skyrim hidden quest locations| Skyrim hidden chest locations | Best Skyrim companions | How to get married in Skyrim | Skyrim enchanting guide | Skyrim alchemy guide | Skyrim builds | Best Skyrim quests | Skyrim Anniversary Edition differences | How to fish in Skyrim Anniversary Edition | Skyrim Elysium | Skyrim vampire choice 

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LIGHT SPOILER WARNING: In order to give you an idea of whether or not each faction is worth joining, we’ve listed the rewards for completing each faction’s main questline. These rewards may contain very light spoilers, depending on how much you read into them. Also note that you can be a member of all factions simultaneously without any conflict, with the exception being the Imperials and Stormcloaks where you will have to pick a side.

Skyrim cheats (opens in new tab) | Best Skyrim mods (opens in new tab) | How to install Skyrim mods (opens in new tab) | Best Skyrim companions (opens in new tab) | Skyrim armor (opens in new tab) | Skyrim perks (opens in new tab) | Skyrim enchanting guide (opens in new tab) | Skyrim alchemy guide (opens in new tab) | Skyrim hidden chest locations (opens in new tab) | Skyrim hidden quest locations (opens in new tab) | Skyrim Black Books guide (opens in new tab) | Skyrim Daedric Quest guide (opens in new tab)

The Companions

Location
The Companions have set up shop in Jorrvaskr, the large hall found in the eastern part of Whiterun.

How to join
The Companions will probably be the first faction you discover. On your way to Whiterun you’ll encounter a few warriors fighting a giant. If you speak to one of these warriors after the fight, they’ll tell you about the Companions and suggest you speak to Kodlak Whitemane in Whiterun. Once you do that, you’ll be given the “Take Up Arms” quest. Engage Vilkas in a training exercise behind Jorrvaskr, making sure to use a physical weapon (or a bound weapon), because Vilkas won’t accept magic. Finish up this quest and the Achievement/Trophy will pop, signifying your initiation.

Benefits
Once you’ve joined the Companions, you’ll have access to trainers who can help you level up in most of the warrior skills (archery, one-handed, two-handed, smithing, heavy armor, and block) in exchange for gold. You’ll also find some decent warrior-related equipment as you complete the main and side quests. Another important benefit is the eventual introduction to werewolves, and access to a sub-faction of the Companions called “The Circle” (see section below for details). As a member, you’ll gain the power to turn into a werewolf yourself.

By joining this faction you’ll earn the “Take Up Arms” Achievement/Trophy.

Rewards
You’ll get a fairly powerful two-handed axe called Wuuthrad during the final main quest, provided you remember to grab it after you put in the hands of the statue. The damage output will scale up depending on the level and skill you are at when you obtain it. This axe is especially powerful against elves and can be enchanted. Finishing the main questline will also allow you to marry several of the Companions, if you wish.

The Circle

Location
The Underforge, a secret cave accessible through a secret entrance in the rocks near Jarrvaskr. You cannot enter the Underforge before taking on the quest involving it.

Benefits
You’ll be able to transform into a werewolf once per day using a power listed as “Beastform.” In werewolf form you have more health, more stamina, more speed, greater strength, and can roar to make enemies flee. In exchange, you cannot loot, use spells, use items, or talk to anyone. You’ll also be attacked or feared by anyone who sees you (beware of silver), but any crimes you commit will not count against you once you’ve changed back. However, be careful not to be seen while transforming, as that does count as a serious crime. You can stay in wolf form for at least two and a half minutes – longer if you feed on corpses. Finally, once you join the circle you no longer get any benefit from being well rested.

By joining this faction you’ll earn the “Blood Oath” Achievement/Trophy.

How to join
The Circle is a sub-faction of the Companions. Once you’ve joined the Companions, continue through the main questline until you get to “The Silver Hand.” During this quest you will transform into a werewolf if you choose to do so. After your night on the town as a beast, talk to Aela and the achievement/trophy will pop.

Rewards
The ability to transform into a kick-ass werewolf once per day. What more could you want?

The College of Winterhold

Location
You can access the college from Winterhold, which can be found at the northeastern corner of Skyrim. You’ll eventually come across this location during the main storyline, but mage builds looking to level up quickly will want to make the journey early on in the game.

How to join
At the north end of Winterhold, there are some stone steps leading to the college. A Dunmer named Faralda will be there at first to greet you and block your path. Talk to her and tell her you want to join the college. She’ll then ask you to perform a magic spell to prove your worth. If at this point you don’t have any spells, she’ll sell you one for 30 gold. You can even convince her to accept you based on your shout. Once you’ve done what she asks, you’ll have access to the college and the Achievement/Trophy will pop.

Benefits
Joining the college will give you access to full range of trainers in all the different types of magic. This is extremely beneficial once you have the gold to afford it. These trainers also sell spell books, either right off the bat or after certain faction-related quests. The main and side quests associated with the college will take you to areas where you can find some spell books and skill books, and the loot found is often mage-centric apparel or staffs.

By joining this faction you’ll earn the “Gatekeeper” Achievement/Trophy.

Rewards
The reward for completing the main questline is the key to the Arch-Mage’s headquarters and the valuable Arch-Mage’s Robes. These robes increase your magicka by 50 points, reduce the cost of all spells by 15%, and boosts your magicka regeneration rate by 100%. This combined with the Morokei mask (which you can get during the Staff of Magnus quests and which also boosts your magicka regeneration rate by 100%) makes the rest of the game significantly easier for magic users. Finally, you’ll receive a permanent 10% discount when dealing with any vendors inside the college.

The Dark Brotherhood

Location
The entrance to the Dark Brotherhood Sanctuary is a black door in the southwest corner of Skyrim, just west of Falkreath. Unless you’ve completed the steps below, however, you won’t be able to open it.

Benefits
Unlike some of the other factions, joining the Dark Brotherhood won’t give you access to many trainers. You’ll only be able to level up your Light Armor with Nazir and your Alchemy with Babette. However, immediately upon joining you’ll be given the fantastic Shrouded Armor set:

Shrouded Armor: 32 defense, increases poison resistance by 50%
Shrouded Boots: 9 defense, silences your movements
Shrouded Cowl: 14 defense, 20% boost to bow damage
Shrouded Gloves: 9 defense, doubles backstab damage

Carrying out the assassinations quietly will naturally increase many of your skills, though it requires you to have some skill already. Also, the Dark Brotherhood quests are usually just plain fun.

By joining this faction you’ll earn the “With Friends Like These” Achievement/Trophy.

How to join
There are several ways to get started with the Dark Brotherhood using only information heard from NPCs. You can speak to any innkeeper or bartender and ask for rumors or gossip. You can find Maul in Riften and persuade/intimidate/bribe him for info. You can go directly to Windhelm (your goal) and look for Idesa Sadri on the streets. The objective is to hear about a young boy named Aventus Aretino.

Alternatively, you can circumvent all of that by simply heading directly to the Aretino residence in Windhelm. Pick the lock on the front door, enter the house, and find Aventus upstairs. He’ll give you the “Innocence Lost” quest. After you’ve completed it, find a bed to sleep in, and you’ll be awoken by a member of the Dark Brotherhood.

After you’ve completed her task, exit the shack and head towards the sanctuary, which will now be marked on the southwest corner of your map. Approach the Black Door found at that location and answer it’s riddle with “Silence, my brother.” Once inside, speak to Astrid. After doing so, an Achievement/Trophy should pop, signifying your entry into the Dark Brotherhood.

Note: If all else fails, the Dark Brotherhood will seek you out after you’ve killed enough innocent people.

Rewards
At the end of the second to last main quest, you can obtain (legitimately) The Blade of Woe, a powerful dagger that absorbs 10 points of health with each hit. The damage output will scale up depending on the level and skill you are at when you obtain it. You’ll also net 20,000 gold for finishing the main questline, which is nothing to scoff at, especially early on in the game.

The Thieves Guild

Location
The Ragged Flagon tavern located under Riften, a city in the southeastern corner of Skyrim. Look for a gate underneath the central plaza of the city to find the entrance to the Ratway, which leads to the tavern.

Benefits
Once you’ve joined the Thieves Guild, you’ll have access to trainers who can help you level up in most of the thiefy skills (pickpocket, lockpicking, sneak, and archery) in exchange for gold. You’ll also obtain several weapons and armors throughout the quests that buff thief skills like sneaking, lockpicking etc. If you have a stealth build, you should seek out the Thieves Guild as soon as possible to claim these rewards, which make the rest of the game much easier.

By joining this faction you’ll earn the “Taking Care of Business” Achievement/Trophy.

How to join
Go to Riften, located in the southeast corner of Skyrim, and look for Brynjolf. Talk to him and start the “A Chance Agreement” quest. Complete this little quest (make sure to save throughout, since it involves sneaking and pickpocketing) then head through the Ratway under the city to reach the Ragged Flagon. Talk to Byrnjolf inside the tavern and complete “Taking Care of Business” to join the guild and pop the Achievement/Trophy.

Rewards
When you become Guild Master, Brynjolf will give you the Amulet of Articulation, which grants you instant success at any persuasion attempt and increases speechcraft depending on the level you are at when you receive it. Tonila will give you the Guild Master’s Armor set:

Guild Master’s Armor: 38 defense, +50 carry weight
Guild Master’s Boots: 11 defense, increases pickpocket success by 35%
Guild Master’s Gloves: 11 defense, improves lockpicking by 35%
Guild Master’s Hood: 16 armor, improves prices by 20%

You’ll also have access to three different Nightingale roles at the very end of the main questline, which you can change as you please after each day. Here are the roles, each of which grants a special power:

Agent of Subterfuge: Casts frenzy on any single enemy regardless of their level
Agent of Strife: Absorbs 100 health from an enemy
Agent of Shadow: You can turn invisible for two minutes

Finally, as guildmaster, all fences that you’ve discovered (NPCs that will buy stolen goods from you) increase their buying allowance from 1000 gold per day to 4000.

Imperial Army and the Stormcloaks

The Imperials and the Stormcloaks are in the middle of a massive civil war, a fact you’ll discover almost immediately upon starting Skyrim. Choosing a side can be a tough decision, but rest assured you’ll earn the same Achievements regardless of which faction you join. There’s also no real item advantage to either side, so don’t worry about missing out on some incredible sword or jewelry. As a matter of fact, the weapons and armor you receive as quest rewards are usually leveled, which means their stats scale to match whatever your current level is at the moment of collection.

That just leaves story as the determining factor. Are you the type who loves decimating rebel scum? Or do you prefer toppling your rulers because you think you know better? If you’re dying to see both outcomes, create a save file just before you make a decision, then load and try joining the other side.

Once you’ve joined either faction you’ll earn the “Taking Sides” Achievement/Trophy.

Stormcloaks

You can join up by visiting the headquarters in Windhelm, found in eastern edge of Skyrim. After you complete the “Joining the Stormcloaks” mission, you’ll have the opportunity to recite an oath to Galmar. Doing so cements your decision to join the Stormcloaks, so if you’re having second thoughts, now is your chance to back out.

Imperial Army

You can join up by visiting the headquarters in Solitude, found in the northwest corner of Skyrim. After you complete the first quest labeled “Joining the Legion,” you’ll have the chance to recite the Imperial oath to Tullius. Doing so cements your decision to join the Imperials, so if you’re having second thoughts, now is your chance to back out.

Bard’s College

The Bard’s College is just east of Solitude, which can be found in the northwestern corner of Skyrim. This is a minor faction, but well worth your time. After completing the first quest called “Tending the Flames,” you will receive upon completion of each subsequent quest an instant +1 to six of your skills. For example, after completing “Finn’s Lute,” Finn will give you +1 in Light Armor, Sneak, Pickpocket, Lockpicking, Alchemy, and Speech. There are two additional quests that cover the remaining skills.

The Blades

The Blades can be found in Sky Haven Temple. Unfortunately, you cannot reach this location until after you complete the main story quest called “Alduin’s Wall.” Once you meet Delphine, you can bring any follower to her and she’ll “recruit” them. These recruits will still be your followers, but they will now live in Sky Haven Temple and be able to equip the powerful Blades armor and weapons.

If you bring three followers for recruiting into the Blades, Esbern will start marking on your map the locations of dragons, one at a time. Once you’ve killed the dragon, return to Esbern and he’ll mark another. If he won’t give up the next one, wait at least three days and try again.

The Greybeards

The Greybeards reside in High Hrothgar, found on the tallest mountain in Skyrim. You’ll eventually get here if you follow the main questline of the game, but if you want to go early, look for the massive set of stairs leading up the mountain that start in Ivarstead.

Provided you’ve completed the main story quest called “The Horn of Jurgen Windcaller,” you can talk to Arngeir and ask him to mark a location on your map of a single undiscovered Word Wall. You can repeat this after each discovery until all the walls have been found. If he won’t give up the next one, wait at least three days then try again.

The post The best Skyrim Factions and Guilds to join appeared first on Game News.

I’m playing opusGlass and VictorF’s Skinshifters – Forsworn Doppelgangers (opens in new tab) mod, you see, which transforms random unassuming non-playable characters into shape-shifting beasts said to conceal something monstrous. “If left alone, the beasts will eventually leave town,” reads the mod’s description. “If you don’t follow them, you’ll be fine.” 

I’ve chosen not to follow this guidance, of course, but am now starting to think the lad I’ve been tracking isn’t a monster at all, but an ordinary, run of the mill NPC with nothing to hide. He’s barely given me a second look this entire time and – Holy shit! What the hell is that thing? In a flash, my in-game avatar has been mauled to death, my real-world control pad has been tossed across the room in a fit of panic, my one-year-old son is now very much awake and screaming the house down, and my unhappy girlfriend is giving me a stern telling off.

Welcome back

One look at the hideous beast above, and I think the telling off was worth it. Skyrim is somehow 10 years old now, and yet it can still elicit a response from me like few other games can. In this instance, a player-made mod was the source of an, ahem, emotional reaction, but even wandering the plains, valleys, and mountains of vanilla Skyrim is as enjoyable today as it was way back in 2011 – its enduring popularity reflected in the multitude of platforms it’s arrived on since, the latest being Skyrim: Anniversary Edition for PS5, Xbox Series X and PC.  

“I heard the TI 81 graphing calculator version will be coming out in a few years,” says Mark Lampert, the audio director on Skyrim. “The reason Skyrim is still so popular today is because of its timeless game design. I don’t mean to build it up too much, but people still play chess because it is a good, solid, timeless game. Skyrim has that thing about it too. There’s something very compelling about it every time you jump in.”

Like a good book, film, or television series, Skyrim offers comfort. The pull it has on players, which Lampert alludes to, means that no matter how many times you’ve scaled the College of Winterhold, travelled to Nap Island, or woken up with a sore head in Markarth, if you fire up a save in any of these area’s vicinities – to test out a mod, or to revisit a favourite sidequest – resisting the urge to explore further isn’t easy.

This could be said of any open-world game with a similar lineage as Skyrim’s, but the fact that its devs fire up the game and get sidetracked too, while also using the fantasy role-player as a yardstick for future projects, speaks volumes for the allure of the game’s world and mechanics.  

“We might go back to check something, like: ‘hey, how did we do the stamina mechanic when sprinting, how did that work? You know, let’s say we’re working on a new game, sometimes we go back and we check our work through because you forget things,” Lampert continues. “Was there a curvature to how that stamina reduced? When did we start playing the heavy breathing and heavier footsteps? At which point did we stop you from sprinting? And so forth. So we might fire up the game, in order to check something.”

“To get to that point, you have to roll a new character into the character generation process, and it is very easy to get sidetracked and walk off to Whiterun to hear the arrow to the knee guard, you know? It’s easy to go down to Riverwood and pick up a quest and forget what you were going in to check in the first place. It’s very thorny, it just catches on you and pulls you back in because there are possibilities in every direction. That’s what makes the difference. In Skyrim, you emerge from a cave in the south of the map looking up and around, and you can go in any direction.”

The future’s bright

Despite the fact the original Doom can be run on literally anything has become a joke into itself in 2021, it does speak to the longevity certain games can have in popular culture. Skyrim is available to play on just about every piece of hardware going today, it’s spawned one of the biggest video game memes of all time, and has inspired a generation of fantasy action-RPGs in its wake.

Creative player-made mods, like the domestic dispute-inducing one I’m currently enjoying, breathed yet more life into a game already laden with things to occupy your time – at the time of writing, there are well over 100,000 mods available to download for PC on Nexus Mods alone, with scores also available for console players – and those player-created projects are growing by the dozen every day. 

For Lampert, the openness of Skyrim is what keeps players coming back for more. And whatever devices support it in another 10 years time, Lampert is confident players will continue to do so too. “In Skyrim, you can go wherever you like, even into an area you’re not ready for – the whole thing is wide open. So it’s a case of: let’s go see that, let’s go see this, those mountain points, let’s go find our way up there,” he adds. 

“All of which gives the game a real sense of longevity. And even though when we’re working on a game, and we might have played it, literally, 1,000s of times – I don’t know how many 1,000s of times I’ve heard the main theme – taking a short break and jumping back in, it all becomes so compelling again. I mean, hats off to the game designers in that respect, Skyrim just has that hook. 

“10 years from now, if Skyrim is still playable, then people will still be playing it. And of course it will be, it’s on everything. By then, we’ll be playing on screens, your refrigerator, your Tesla on your commute. And it’ll make you late for work.”

Need a leg up in Tamriel? Best check out these Skyrim cheats to rule the realm with. 

The post Skyrim survived the decade and Bethesda believes “people will still be playing it” in the next one appeared first on Game News.

Skyrim’s Hearthfire DLC allows players to build a home and adopt a child to live in it. Once you’ve given a home to your new son or daughter, you can interact with them, playing games or granting them gifts. Those gifts, as well as dolls or items of clothing, can include daggers, which is where this tale of woe begins.

In a post on the game’s subreddit, user Miserabell uploaded a clip of them handing over a dagger to their son. Little Alesan was delighted with his new gift, and took off to play with it in a different part of the house – children can playfight with their knives using training dummies.

Some time later, Miserabell was passing near that training dummy when their son nicked them with the knife. If Alesan’s gift had been the iron dagger that the player had in their inventory, perhaps they would have suffered little more than a few points of damage. 

Unfortunately, they had instead handed over a Daedric Dagger of Petrifying. As well as dealing twice as much damage as that iron dagger (and being worth about 1,600 gold more), the dagger of petrifying has a 25% chance to paralyze its target for six seconds. That slight graze triggered the paralysis effect, sending Miserabell tumbling to the floor as if she’d been instantly dispatched by the blow. Alesan didn’t seem to care – he carried on swiping without so much as a glance at his stricken mother.

Ten years on, Skyrim seems as popular as ever – prompting one player to power on their ancient laptop to create a version of Skyrim that looks like first-person Runescape.

The post This Skyrim player was almost murdered by their own in-game son appeared first on Game News.

Focus on the right skills

First of all, it’s important to recognize the entire breadth of skills in the game. While it’s easy to commit to one-handed swordsmanship or Destruction magic, it’s essential that you remember the likes of Sneak, Alchemy, and Lockpicking. A lot of these skills can be levelled passively, so you’ll likely net some nice experience by simply playing the game. However, sometimes you need to consciously level these utility skills if you’re trying to level up fast overall.

This is because each skill has its own level value, which contributes to your overall character level. Every skill can be levelled to 100, at which point you can choose to make it “Legendary,” which resets it to 15 and gives you all the skill points you invested in perks back. For every individual skill level you gain, you’ll get overall levelling experience. It’s easy to dismiss your character’s level as relatively unimportant, given that perks are only tied to individual skill levels, but there’s a lot more to it than that.

Every character level you gain will net you a skill point and an increase to either Health, Stamina, or Magicka. Because of this, grinding utility skills can give you five skill points and 50 points of health in no time. Even if you don’t touch any combat skills, this automatically turns you into a far more formidable foe. It’s kind of like indirect combat levelling, because you’re getting stat buffs and extra perks, without gaining specific combat knowledge.

Some skills are far better than others when it comes to power-levelling like this. While a lot of levelling boils down to carrying out actions at the right time, you can exploit the experience system by repeatedly casting spells, or staying in a crouched position while you make your way through a dungeon. For example, Muffle is an Illusion spell you can get early in the game that quietens your footsteps. While this is useful in many situations, particularly if you’re wearing heavy armour and need to sneak around, you can also just continuously cast this while walking through a town. It’s not necessary and likely won’t have any effect at all, but you’ll gain tons of Illusion experience, which means netting a rake of skill points and stat boosts. 

Smithing & Enchanting can provide a lot of experience points

Smithing/Enchanting is another combination well worth investing in. If you buy leather strips and iron ingots, you’ll be able to craft iron daggers at a blacksmith’s forge. Iron daggers aren’t worth much, so you’ll be operating at a loss initially, but if you’ve got a good amount of soul gems you can enchant them and drastically increase their worth. The best way to get these is to buy a plethora of empty soul gems at an alchemist’s and fill them using a weapon with a soul trap enchantment, which allows you to claim the souls of the foes you kill.

Once you’ve got lots of filled gems, you can bring any piece of weaponry or armour to an enchanting table and assign it magical properties. Return to the blacksmith’s, sell off your magical daggers, and fill up on strips and ingots all over again. You’ll have 100 Enchanting and 100 Smithing before you know it, and your Speech should get a nice boost too from all the trading. As a nice byproduct, you’ll also be able to don some powerful, enchanted armour and wield magical weapons, so you’ll have a much easier time grinding combat skills from here on out too.

Fight high level enemies

Once you’ve got decent gear and a deep pool of health and stamina, you’ll want to start grappling with high-HP enemies to get the most bang for your buck. Dragons are obviously a good foe to farm, as they’ve got a massive amount a health. You can find them at all the overlooks dotted across Skyrim, usually guarding a Word of Power and a Master Chest. However, dragons also spawn randomly across the entire map, to the extent that you’ll likely encounter lots of them just wandering through the wilderness.

When it comes to combat, you’ll want to be targeting individual skills to level up. There’s no point in wailing on a giant with a two-handed warhammer and whipping out a barrage of fiery Destruction magic at the end. Dual-cast spells, use a greatsword, soak up damage with an enchanted shield – you can train whatever skill you want once you’re committed to that particular skill. The best way to level up fast is to level up smart, and juggling combat styles will net you versatility in the long run, but will fill your quest to become the fabled Dragonborn with unnecessary tedium in the moment. 

Although all of the above tactics work wonders for power-levelling, perhaps the most important thing to remember is the necessity of exploration. If you’re only following the main quest, you’ll become under-levelled pretty quickly. As a result, you’ll spend your time guzzling health potions just to make it through the first area of a dungeon. To level up fast, you need to do side quests, faction storylines, and just wander into random caves from time to time. Sure, there might be a group of vampires in there waiting to ambush you, but they’ll give you experience you wouldn’t get otherwise. It’s very easy to play a streamlined Skyrim, so you often need to remember just how wild and wonderful its world is. Also, if you spent a while casting Muffle and selling enchanted Iron daggers, you’ll be kitted out in armour fit for a king. No matter where you go, you’ll be able to take on all kinds of beasties and creepy crawlies with brandished steel. That’s the fastest way to level up combat skills in Skyrim: to be so well-equipped that even the most devastating foes can’t take you on.

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However perverted this might sound, being able to fight off bloodthirsty women as well as men makes me so god damn happy. Whether these nameless, cookie-cutter foes are being used as meatbag distractions during a boss fight or are the kind that roam across an open world and are all too happy to open fire on you, having a mixture of men and women in their ranks is one step closer to equality between the sexes in video games, and helps to get rid of the damaging notion that women aren’t aggressors. Let me explain why. 

Mixed-sex cannon-fodder

It might just sound like an aesthetic choice, a small tweak that you don’t really notice when you’re gaming. But having both men and women attack you slowly but surely erodes the idea that men are the default setting for generic enemies: that they’re nameless cannon fodder, disposable and meant to be killed without a second thought. However, great as it is to have major female NPCs, treating men and women the same when it comes to the lowest level of nameless-NPCs is just as important. This is far from a new trend, though: Skyrim (opens in new tab) has mixed-sex guards and bandits, Far Cry 5 (opens in new tab) has cultists and Highwaymen of both genders, the soldiers patrolling Assassin’s Creed Odyssey (opens in new tab)’s forts and cities are both male and female, and other games like Dishonored 2 (opens in new tab), all the Bioshock (opens in new tab) games, and Left 4 Dead (opens in new tab) have the same gender balance. Most recently Borderlands 3 (opens in new tab) joined the party by giving us female psychos (at last). 

Whichever way you look at it, it’s good to prove that like men, women can be dicks and join causes that belong to the baddies, as well as leading those hordes of evil ne’er-do-wells. Pretending otherwise is just putting women on a pedestal, implying that we’re without fault and couldn’t possibly contemplate hurting another living being. But even though most games already include lethal ladies, part of what is holding some titles back (and could have occurred to you too) might be that faint and outdated idea that you shouldn’t hit a girl, no matter what. And you shouldn’t, as a rule, but – and I hope this is so obvious that I don’t have to point it out – nor should you hit boys. But there is one big exception: if they seem thirsty for your blood, gender doesn’t really matter when it comes down to making sure your vital organs actually stay inside your body. It’s like that scene in 22 Jump Street, where Schmidt doesn’t want to hit Mercedes (opens in new tab), or Colossus’ initial reluctance to fight Angel Dust (opens in new tab) in Deadpool (opens in new tab). 

Time to point out the obvious: if some girl is trying to whack your head in with a baseball bat, it’s alright to fight back. For whatever reason, for some fighting women who are pretty ok with fighting you seems to be one of those old weird chivalry rules that hasn’t quite gone away yet. I sincerely hope that if any of us were faced with Mickey and Lou from Far Cry New Dawn (opens in new tab), Doom (opens in new tab)’s Olivia Pierce, Irene Engel from Wolfenstein 2 (opens in new tab), God of War (opens in new tab)’s Valkyries, or Lady Butterfly from Sekiro (opens in new tab): Shadows Die Twice, we’d be ok with shedding some blood in the name of survival. 

Monstrous mobs

This goes far beyond just low-level female and male mobs though, and into the depiction of monsters and the monstrous in video games. Although with some creatures it’s almost impossible to tell their gender due to their androgynous appearance – like Devil May Cry 5 (opens in new tab)’s Hell Atenora or Metro Exodus (opens in new tab)’ humanimals – other games seem to incline more towards having a majority of monsters with masculine physical qualities. Take Outlast (opens in new tab) and Outlast 2 (opens in new tab), for example. Even though the second game had horrific female enemies like Val and Marta, the Heretics that you fought near the end of the game are all men, as evidenced by their almost-naked bodies and, ahem, genitalia. Then Outlast only had male enemies, despite there being a female ward at Mount Massive Asylum. 

Helwalkers, Trolls, and Draugr in God of War all have male physical characteristics too (broad shoulders, slim hips), plus in Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (opens in new tab) Lynels, as just one example, are all evidently buff lion centaur dudes. Depicting most monsters as having typically male qualities is limiting to say the least. Although they look cool as heck in a kind of horrifying way, monsters can and should have female characteristics too, like God of War’s Revenants or Left 4 Dead 2 (opens in new tab)’s Spitter and Witch special infected. By the way, those two examples also prove that women can be monstrous without using their gender as the reason for their monstrosity, which is unfortunately the category that enemies like Marguerite Baker from Resident Evil 7 (opens in new tab) fall into, with her twisted form seemingly relying on a twisted mockery of pregnancy (opens in new tab) to disgust us. 

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And yeah, I know my entire argument can be simplified into ‘let me kill more women in video games, dammit’, but I’m ok with that. You want to support a tyrant? A cult leader? You can, no matter what’s between your legs! Including women among those low-level mobs undermines the idea that women can’t be aggressors, and helps to combat the sexist idea that women can’t be violent. A notion like that harms both genders, and who knows, this could just be a small step towards men being treated as women’s equals in other bits of real life too. Since we’ve started to talk more about equality between the sexes it’s no coincidence that current trends indicate men are feeling more able to open up about being the victims of violence: reports of sexual offences against men having tripled in the last 10 years (opens in new tab), and reports of men being domestically abused have risen (opens in new tab) also. Having a balanced depiction of generic, evil men and women in video games might seem like a trivial point, but it’s small things like this that end up making it easier for all of us to be treated equally. 

If you want to know what’s going on this week, here’s our pick of the week’s best TV, movies, and games (May 6-12) (opens in new tab), or look below to see it in video form!

The post Men arent cannon-fodder: the addition of low-level female enemies in video games is one of the best patterns in gaming appeared first on Game News.

The allegations

It all kicked off when a SKSE developer posted on Reddit accusing Skyrim Together of stealing code from SKSE (opens in new tab), citing the fact that they’ve found core components of the SKSE mod deep within Skyrim Together. Here’s the entirety of their accusation:

“Skyrim Together is stealing SKSE code, uncredited, without permission, with an explicit term in the license restricting one of the authors from having anything to do with the code, who denies using any of it…The proof is pretty clear when you look at the loader and dll in a disassembler… Common is of course MIT-licensed and doesn’t require attribution (but is always appreciated), but the main SKSE source isn’t. It’s technically always been under common copyright law, but after Yamashi’s terrible behavior towards the script extender team (best left to another post if you really care) he earned a special callout in the license: ‘Due to continued intentional copyright infringement and total disrespect for modder etiquette, the Skyrim Online team is explicitly disallowed from using any of these files for any purpose.'”

The Yamashi mentioned in their post is the Lead Developer of Skyrim Together, who had previously worked on Skyrim Online, and addressing the claims about him is a whole other thing which I’ll get back to later. 

Skyrim Together’s response

Skyrim Together issued an official statement on the matter (opens in new tab) six days ago, stating on Reddit that “there might be some leftover code from them in there that was overlooked when we removed it, it isn’t as simple as just deleting a folder, mainly our fault because we rushed some parts of the code. Anyway we are going to make sure to remove what might have slipped through the cracks for the next patch”. In their subsequent March Activity Report (opens in new tab) posted three days ago, Skyrim Together owns up to their mistakes, apologises, and stated that they were “most likely going to end up handing over our first open beta binaries to the SKSE team to do their tests before offering them to you [the players]”. So the team are attempting to be as transparent as possible with SKSE, which in my book is commendable. 

Where this all gets dicey is Skyrim Together’s Patreon (opens in new tab), which was earning the team $33,000 a month as of February 23 according to Zaric Zhakaron (opens in new tab), a YouTuber whose area of expertise includes the Elder Scrolls community. That number has plummeted to $25,292 as of the date of publishing this article (overnight alone they’ve lost over 300 supporters), although that’s definitely still a lot of cash. Most mods are free, yet these Patreon donations mean that Skyrim Together is thought by some to fall in the realm of ‘paid mods’ (however, upon release it will be free of charge), as supporting them on Patreon got you access to January’s Closed Beta. So SKSE’s code-stealing claim pretty much means that the Skyrim Together team – whether knowingly or unknowingly – stand accused of making money from someone else’s work. Whether this was done deliberately is of some debate, and be warned: the whole thing gets messy from here on.

Did Skyrim Together deliberately steal SKSE’s code, or was it an innocent mistake?

Right. So. Let me introduce the two key players in this he-said-she-said debate about whether Skyrim Together knowingly stole code from the SKSE team. In one corner is the aforementioned Yamashi, Lead Developer of Skyrim Together. Then in the other corner is Lagulous, a modder who claims to have had the original idea for Skyrim Together and says that he was pushed out of the Skyrim Together team. In return, Skyrim Together says that all Lagulous did when he was on the team was to “drive everyone crazy and got multiple devs to quit. He never wrote a single line of code and just wants his internet fame”, justifying his expulsion from the mod. 

The two are bickering because Lagulous claims that he has proof that Yamashi knew that they weren’t allowed to use certain parts of SKSE’s code. Things have got unpleasant with each side making rather frank allegations about the other’s character.

Lagulous has Discord screenshots that he claims backs up his argument that Yamashi knowingly stole SKSE’s code. The screenshot below is especially important to Lagulous’ allegations, where Yamashi is made aware of the specific section of the SKSE license that prohibits his former team, Skyrim Online, from using any of the SKSE code. Yamashi’s response is “too bad we renamed the project”, which Lagulous argues proves that Yamashi was trying to find a workaround for using SKSE’s code in Skyrim Together. But that doesn’t prove they stole SKSE’s core code, just that they were knowingly including other bits of the code, which Yamashi’s old project was banned from using. SKSE haven’t clarified exactly why Skyrim Online aren’t allowed to use their code beyond mentioning him by name and citing “continued intentional copyright infringement and total disrespect for modder etiquette (opens in new tab)”. Which, admittedly, sounds pretty damning, though I haven’t found out what exactly was Yamashi did to merit SKSE’s response. Lagulous says that it’s because Yamashi reverse engineers their code quicker than them, using this screenshot as evidence (opens in new tab), but it’s worth pointing out that without the larger context of the Discord message chain it’s hard to clarify whether Yamashi is referring to SKSE. 

Skyrim Together haven’t yet specifically responded to Lagulous’ screenshots and their validity. However, in their March Report they do apologise to SKSE, indicate that they’re trying to make amends by letting them test the open beta to see if it still has any of their code, which is a step in the right direction and shows that the team are owning up to their mistakes. As for how the Skyrim Together community is feeling? Well, this pretty much sums it all up. 

Want to download more mods for Skyrim? Here’s the best Skyrim mods around right now for PC, PS4, and Xbox One, or just watch the video to see the best things you can see in Skyrim!

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