Game marketing, you gotta love it. How can you make your small indie game stand out? A great game doesn’t always stand on its own, so why not give it a ridiculously long name.
Why am I not putting the name in the article title like I usually do? Well, it’s called “If Letters Had Pants, Would They Wear Them Like This? What About Numbers? What If They Had Small Shovels And They Dug Stuff Up To Put In A Museum?” and uh, yeah that’s certainly a choice that was made. It’s not the longest name of a game ever but certainly up there in the top I think.
From PUNKCAKE Délicieux it’s a word-game that looks a bit like something i would have done at school, but turned into a fancy little roguelike.
Via the Steam page:
Make words that let you make words
Find words in a randomized grid of letters. The used letters will leave empty spaces, which the other letters can bridge, allowing for words that weren’t possible before, over larger and larger areas. And if words aren’t helping, you can also use bombs to clear up blocking letters.
Your score depends on both the length of the word, and the size of the area it spans. Make longer words over bigger areas to score more points and reach the level’s goal before the timer runs out!
But it’s also a roguelike?
If you manage to complete the level, you will be presented with 3 pairs of pants for 3 different letters. Pants give unique bonuses to letters, a letter can be worth more, or maybe it multiplies the whole word’s value, or maybe it gives you bombs or does other things!
And there’s a museum involved??
Beneath the earth you will find objects lost to time. (and to their owners) While making words, you also dig the earth and uncover these sometimes-precious items. Find them, sell them, and expand your museum, then place the items in the museum and unlock new gameplay modifiers as the museum’s collection completes!
Plays entirely with the mouse. An average run may last 15 to 30 minutes. You may play with the English, French, or Spanish dictionary.
Look at what it did to our poor little link embed. Ridiculous. I love it.
Nintendo’s lawsuit against Palworld has pushed the developer to remove the ability to glide using a Pal.
Furthermore, previous changes to gameplay were made to address Nintendo’s claims as well.
This is all because Nintendo claims Palworld infringes on Pokémon with its gameplay.
The recent Nintendo lawsuit against the Palworld developer, PocketPair, has been raging for some time. Although much has been away from the public eye, the recent Palworld update that changed a significant part of the game proves the lawsuit is anything but calming down.
Although initial reports and some ongoing misconceptions think the Pals are the issue, with many pointing out how similar the 3D models of the Pals were to Nintendo’s own Pokémon, the lawsuit has actually been aimed at mechanics and gameplay, as Pokémon inspire Palworld in more ways than just character design.
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As revealed in a recent tweet, an earlier November patch aimed to address some of Nintendo’s core allegations. To address the Pals directly coming out of the Pal Spheres that contain them, Palworld changed it so that Pals spawn at your feet to eliminate the similarities to Pokémon and Poké balls.
The most recent patch addresses yet another potential issue for the lawsuit. You will no longer be able to glide on Pals through the air across the open world, as according to Pocketpair, that is also a concern in the ongoing litigation.
Although you’ll still be able to glide throughout the air in the game, you’ll no longer be able to use a Pal to do so. Instead, you’ll be gliding through the air on a glider, akin to what’s in games like Breath Of The Wild.
Pocketpair’s tweet states that “these changes are necessary in order to prevent further disruptions to the development of Palworld.” The phrasing even suggests that Nintendo’s legal team is pushing Pocketpair to make these changes.
How can Nintendo assert that gliding through the world with a Pal encroaches on their property? It seems as though many fans agree that this claim is insane, with the most common reply to the announcement being the typical “f* Nintendo”.
By extension, many fans say they’ll no longer purchase a Nintendo Switch 2 after Nintendo’s recent actions degraded the experience of one of their favorite games. One tweet has stated:
“Not buying a Switch 2, not buying more Nintendo or Pokémon products. Digimon was always better anyways.”
The most common reaction seems to be flat-out confusion — people questioning “Gliding with your pal is patented?” or “How is Pokémon/Nintendo even allowed to do this?”
Honestly, this confusion makes the most sense. From films like Avatar (ironically, both the James Cameron film and The Last Airbender) to games like Panzer Dragoon, Hogwarts Legacy, and Horizon Forbidden West, riding on a massive beast is anything but uncommon throughout media.
So the question has turned into, what does it mean for Palworld to infringe on Nintendo’s content?
Why Is Nintendo Attacking Palworld’s Gameplay?
A few big pieces of the debate need to be brought up. For one, this case is being handled in Japan which, compared to America, means that litigation and infringement cases are carried out a bit differently.
This focus on Japanese markets can be seen in Pocketpair’s previous hesitation to release the game on PS5 in the country, which indicates that releasing the game on the platform there would probably fuel Nintendo’s previously established accusations in Japan.
Second, it should be noted that because Nintendo is focusing on gameplay, not previously assumed aspects like 3D models, all of these tactics should be expected. Nintendo is purposefully attacking gameplay elements like the Pals releasing out of balls, and the ability to ride around on these Pals.
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Simply put, Nintendo’s legal team is attacking everything surrounding Palworld’s gameplay. This is exactly what Pocketpair is referencing when they mention how “we have had to make certain compromises in order to avoid disruptions to the development and distribution of Palworld.”
But this begins to get murky because, like Warner Bros. patenting the nemesis system, taking control of gameplay systems is inherently vague and detrimental to the industry’s growth. What most fans are actually upset about is Nintendo essentially saying they have ownership of a certain type of gameplay.
However, from Digimon to other monster collecting games, some of which were founded before Nintendo even made Pokémon, it’s not as though Pokémon is the first and only to do it.
Sadly, we’ll likely see a few more compromises between Nintendo and companies like Pocketpair in the future, and it’ll likely take a lot more time to see who comes on top in this recent court case.
Palworld
Released
January 19, 2024
ESRB
T For Teen Due To Violence
Developer(s)
Pocket Pair, Inc.
Publisher(s)
Pocket Pair, Inc.
Engine
Unreal Engine 5
Next
Mafia: The Old Country Will Be Cheaper Than Expected When It Releases
Another ZX Spectrum announcement that’s well worth a mention, is a new release by Amaweks called ‘Telethugs’. This game available for purchase as a Patreon exclusive (annoyingly), is an Arcade run and gun game that was originally created and published for PC by Pedro Paiva in 2019, now ported over to the ZX Spectrum by Amaweks. To coincide with this news, below the latest gameplay footage by Saberman, as is the full details of this new release.
And here’s the info! “Telethugs is a “run and gun” game originally created and published for PC by Pedro Paiva in 2019, and now ported to the ZX Spectrum by Amaweks. The game is available in two versions: 128K or 48K, both in English and Portuguese. The 48K version is mainly intended for those who want to play the game on the TK90X, a Brazilian clone of the ZX Spectrum 48K. The 128K version is aimed at ZX Spectrum systems with 128KB of RAM or for those playing on emulators. There are subtle differences between the two versions, although both contain the main content of the game, such as the intro story screen, 5 stages with their respective bosses, and ending screens. Unique features of each version include”:
48K Version:
No music during gameplay, but it features beeper music (1 sound channel) on the title screen, story and ending screens, and short jingles at the start of each level.
128K Version:
Features a total of 8 AY (3-channel PSG) music tracks that play during the game, a more colorful and detailed title screen, more colorful HUD, and an extra credits screen at the end of the game.
The Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum will be directed by Andy Serkis, known for voicing and performance capturing Gollum in Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit movies. Since Jackson’s dual film trilogies, Serkis has directed a few big-budget project himself, including Mowgli: Legend of the Jungle and Venom: Let There Be Carnage. Jackson will co-produce the new Gollum-hunting flick with writing-producing partners Fran Walsh and Philippa Boyens, who also worked on the LOTR and Hobbit movies.
Last year, Boyens described The Hunt for Gollum as a stand-alone movie — it won’t be split across multiple films — and “quite an intense story, which falls after the birthday party of Bilbo and before the Mines Of Moria” in the original Fellowship of the Ring.
It’s unclear who besides Serkis will star in The Hunt for Gollum, considering much of the principle Lord of the Rings cast will have aged some 26 years since The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring came out. Also, primary characters from Fellowship — with the possible exception of Aragorn — would understandably be busy doing other things during the time period when The Hunt for Gollum is set. I’m sure Jackson, Serkis, and screenwriters Walsh, Boyens Phoebe Gittins, and Arty Papageorgiou will figure something out.
It’s almost always been the case that you have to wait a good long time between grand strategy and 4X sequels, but those gaps have stretched longer and longer for Paradox Interactive’s most notable series. After the 12 year gap before the much meme’d Victoria 3, it’s now almost 12 years from EU4 to the announcement and reveal of Europa Universalis V as well.
Of course, the tone of that wait is different, when EU4 has had a steady flow of expansions over the years, but with a numbered sequel comes the opportunity and the expectation of great changes.
The first thing to note is that EU5 shunts the starting date of the game even earlier than before, going back to 1337 and capturing more of that transition from the late Middle Ages and into the Renaissance. More importantly, it also brings a few truly seismic world events into the game’s opening few hours (depending on how much you pause the game, that is). The Hundred Years War kicks off between England and France literally months after you hit play, and then just a decade or so later the Black Death rolls through the world, adding an early game crisis point that you’ll feel the ramifications from for decades to come.
As the Black Death is first reported, you’re given a few choices for how to react. You can just keep going business as usual, keep up trade, allow migration and for people to just do their things, or you can enact various isolationist policies. Spending influence you can try to source cures, you can draw all the Nobles to a little retreat that tries to keep you away from the riff-raff, you can close down cities, exile the infected, make scapegoats of the healthy, and more. It’s difficult to know what the best path to take here is – obviously there’s no actual cure or vaccines at this time, so you will feel the pain, and it’s almost just about how long you want to drag this out for. Playing as Portugal, I got the plague fairly late on, but with my choices, I still had that wash of green within my borders much longer than Spain, Morocco or England did. I clearly bungled it…
And that flushed my economy right down the pan, to be honest. With trade massively impacted, production all starved of workers, and my coffers completely dry, I needed a slew of big loans from my nobles, which were then being traded back and forth to foreign banks, and my attempts to micromanage this were barely keeping my kingdom afloat.
Thankfully this is where I could lean on one of the major areas of improvement within EU5. There’s much more automation available to you which, in the long run, will give you more freedom to play this game in the fashion that you want. Initially I was micromanaging trade, putting in deals to meet the needs of the pops and production, quickly clicking through on individual deals, but then seeing them quickly become unprofitable as supply dried up – this can be applied to trade in general, as well as to specific markets. Similarly, I was somewhat fearful of raising taxes across nobles, burghers, and the common folk, lest they get all angry and rebel, but got into such financial straights after the pandemic that I told the AI to take over and rake in enough cash for me to start recovering. There’s further automation for other areas, with the Automation AI based on the same AI leading computer-controlled nations, so you likely will want to keep key areas under your control or supervise, otherwise you could end up in a pseudo spectator mode – albeit one where there’s regular events to make decisions on, where foreign policy and wars are in your control, and so on.
Of course, each of these areas has also been revisited by Paradox Tinto to reconsider how they work, whether you put them in the hands of AI or furiously click your way through menus yourself.
Let’s stick with trade for the moment, which is defined not by your cities, ports or nation as a whole, but rather by markets that can cross country divides and regions. For Portugal, my two markets were both based in Castile, both of them with their own tendrils of supply and demand. To a certain
At the heart of any nation is its people, and EU5 has population units more similar to Victoria 3 or Imperator: Rome. There’s some core demographics to pay attention to here, as they’re broken down by their class and working status – from Nobles down through Laborers to Slaves, if your nation’s laws allow them – while there’s also their religion and cultural background to consider for the harmony within your country. When looking at your government, these are broken down into Estates for Nobles, Clergy, Berghers, Commoners, which you’re trying keep their broad approval and happiness. Often times, you’re having to make concessions, especially if (as a monarchy) you hold a council and need their approval to push a new agenda. Approval gradually shifts in a given direction to a neutral position,
Those decisions that you’re making will tie in with the Societal Values system, reviving the policy sliders from older titles in the series and replacing the Ideas of EU4. This breaks particular issues down into polar opposites – Spiritualist vs. Humanist, Land vs. Navy, Aristocracy vs. Plutocracy – and measures along these scales. Naturally, you enact policy and make decisions that nudge things one way or another, but there’s tons of these elements to keep in mind.
One of the ways you can affect societal change is with your Cabinet, a small cadre of officers that you can send out to perform tasks for you. One key tenet is the notion of Control throughout your nation. While your ruler or government presides in the capital, the further away from the seat of power you get, the less it really matters to the people living there, the more like Monty Python’s Repressed Citizens skit it might feel like, and the more difficult it is to exert your influence (and gather taxes). Building roads improves Control as the time to travel and the kind of closeness to cities is improved. They can also be set to work restoring your country’s Stability after a period of upheaval or with a looming threat, work to develop a province, try to convert a region’s populace, and much more. They’re an extension of your will and gradually get things done.
In general, there’s a step away from having certain traits and skills be treated as resources. Instead of having to save up points before you can send your advisors on a new task, instead they have a particular skill rating that affects how well and how quickly that job will get done. This does mean that their impact feels much more gradual, but also gives you more flexibility to pivot as world events take place.
We’ve barely scratched the surface of many elements of Europa Universalis 5. For example, we didn’t get stuck into a war, so didn’t try out the revamped military systems, which borrow ideas from Imperator: Rome for having formations, while requiring you to have logistics and resources to keep an army marching. Meanwhile, there’s a new antagonism rating that could see alliances spring up against you if you’re too aggressively expanding through the world. Then there’s playing through the longer passage of time, as technology works through individual trees for the starting Age of Traditions, through the Age of Renaissance, Discovery, and beyond.
Europa Universalis 5 remains a deep and complex historical grand strategy game, and it certainly looks to build and integrate, not only idea that came from a decade of updates and expansions to EU4, but also to some of the more fundamental shifts and ideas that we saw in Victoria 3 and Imperator: Rome. Importantly, there is that on-ramp for newcomers, with the deeper automation set to lift some of the burdens of leaning the ropes, at the same time as lifting some of the micromanagement that can become a chore deeper into a campaign.
During a time when Xbox and Nintendo are raising game prices, and Microsoft and Sony are hiking the cost of their consoles, a new (well, old) hero is rising from the expensive ashes. Mafia: The Old Country was confirmed to be released on August 8th, as was previously leaked by developer Hangar 13 themselves. But that’s not the truly exciting news.
Mafia: The Old Country was announced today, alongside an excellent gameplay trailer, as costing just £45/$50 when it launches on PS5, Xbox Series S/X and PC next month.
“Mafia: The Old Country is a focused, linear experience that combines quality storytelling, authentic era immersion and a refined take on the familiar Mafia gameplay,” said Hangar 13 President Nick Baynes in a press release, possibly while plotting the downfall of a rival family. “That focus allows us to deliver a story that’s gritty, grounded, brutal and emotional. Embracing early 1900s era Sicily, this is a mafia origin story that follows our protagonist, Enzo Favara, as he takes the oath and works his way up Don Torrisi’s crime family.”
The idea of a short and sweet game that doesn’t bombard me with a million quests and 500 hundred hours of nonsense is immensely appealing, especially when combined with a lower entry cost.
“We think there’s a large audience for compelling stories that don’t require massive time commitments,” said 2K President David Ismailer. “We’re excited to offer a game like Mafia: The Old Country in our portfolio, and to provide a linear highly-polished narrative experience that can easily complement the other more persistent games our players also love and engage with on a more consistent basis.”
The brief gameplay trailer released alongside the pricing and release date announcement only provides a tiny glimpse of the game in action, but what we do get to see looks great. Given the time period, we’re going to get a mixture of horseback riding and car driving, plus plenty of shootouts and stealth.
Hangar 13 has also confirmed that it will not be an open-world game.
Calling all wiseguys — 2K’s acclaimed Mafia franchise is available to stream from the cloud.
Step into the gritty underworld of organized crime and experience the cinematic storytelling and action-packed gameplay that made the Mafia franchise a classic, captivating both newcomers and longtime fans of the saga.
It’s all part of nine games joining the cloud family this week, including Towerborne from Stoic and Xbox Game Studios.
Plus, the family is waiting — the Mafia saga’s highly anticipated prequel, Mafia: The Old Country, will join the cloud at launch.
The Cloud Is Made
Step into the world of organized crime with Mafia, Mafia: Definitive Edition, Mafia II and Mafia III now streaming on GeForce NOW for those new and returning to the family. Experience the gritty underworld drama and cinematic storytelling that made Mafia a legend — no need to wait for a sitdown with the don.
Keep your friends close and your enemies closer.
Start with the first game in the series, Mafia. An inadvertent brush with the mob thrusts cab driver Tommy Angelo into the world of organized crime. He’s initially uneasy about falling in with the Salieri family, but the rewards become too big to ignore. Plus, check out Mafia: Definitive Edition, a remake from the ground up of the classic first title, with an expanded story, gameplay and original score.
Sleeping with the fishies.
Years later, the criminal legacy continues with Mafia II. Vito Scaletta has started to make a name for himself on the streets of Empire Bay as someone who can be trusted to get a job done. Together with his buddy Joe, he’s working to prove himself to the mafia, quickly climbing the family ladder with crimes of larger reward, status and consequence — the life as a wise guy isn’t quite as untouchable as it seems.
Every family has its secrets.
The saga expands to 1968 New Bordeaux in Mafia III: Definitive Edition. After years of combat in Vietnam, Lincoln Clay knows this truth: family isn’t who you’re born with, it’s who you die for. When his surrogate family is wiped out by the Italian mafia, Lincoln builds a new family and blazes a path of revenge through the mafioso responsible.
Step into the tailored suits and fedoras of the criminal underworld with the Mafia series on GeForce NOW. Play anytime, anywhere across devices, just like a true mobster on the move.
The Cloud Is Full of Aces
Fight as one.
From Stoic and Xbox Game Studios comes Towerborne, a new kind of looter brawler, combining side-scrolling combat with action role-playing game loot progression and customization — available in the cloud at high performance for GeForce NOW members.
Take on the role of an Ace — a hero reborn from the spirit realm — to protect the last bastion of humanity, the Belfry, from monstrous threats. Embark on a series of daring expeditions beyond the city’s walls and into the wilds. Engage in fast-paced, combo-driven combat and experiment with different weapon classes like the heavy-hitting Rockbreaker, agile Shadowstriker and more.
Experience the vibrant, action-packed world of Towerborne on GeForce NOW, with high dynamic range support for richer colors and deeper contrast. Defend the Belfry on a Performance or Ultimate membership to get immersed in stunning, high-contrast visuals that bring explosive battles to life. Members can adventure solo or team with up to three friends for co-op action and stream the game instantly from the cloud, no downloads required.
Gacha New Games
Keep cool in the cloud when the kitchen heats up.
Genshin Impact version 5.6, called “Paralogism,” brings a new story chapter in which players return to the city of Mondstadt and help solve a mysterious crisis involving the character Albedo. The update also introduces an event in the city of Fontaine, where players can build and run their own amusement park. Plus, two new characters join the game: Escoffier, a chef who uses cryo elemental power, and Ifa, an Saurian veterinarian who fights alongside his Saurian companion, Cacucu. Catch it in the cloud without waiting for downloads.
Look for the following games available to stream in the cloud this week:
What are you planning to play this weekend? Let us know on X or in the comments below.
Minecraft fans will be able to watch the wildly popular film adaptation from the comfort of their couches soon. Though preorders for the various Blu-ray editions have been available since the film hit theaters on April 4, the home video release dates weren’t announced until May 7. But we now know that A Minecraft Movie releases in digital format on May 13, and the 4K Blu-ray release will follow on June 24. You can preorder the digital version on Prime Video for $25. Multiple physical editions are up for grabs, including A Minecraft Movie’s Limited Edition Steelbook on 4K Blu-ray and Walmart’s exclusive (and very cool) Crafting Table Edition on 1080p Blu-ray.
A Minecraft Movie pulled in mixed reviews from critics, but it has proven to be a massive hit with audiences across the globe. The family-friendly film starring Jack Black, Jason Momoa, and Jennifer Coolidge is closing in on $900 million at the box office.
$38 | Releases June 24
A Minecraft Movie’s Limited Edition Steelbook is available to preorder at Amazon and Walmart for $38. The steelbook case features a bunch of Minrecraft characters on the front and back covers, while the interior design showcases the Creepers from the film.
Inside the case, you’ll find two disc slots for the 4K Blu-ray and 1080p versions of the movie. You’ll also get a voucher that you can redeem for the digital version. The bonus features will provide fans with a closer look at how the blocky video game made the jump to the big screen.
Here’s a list of bonus features included with A Minecraft Movie. These bonus features will be found on all Blu-ray versions of the film:
A Minecraft Movie Special Features
Building the World of Minecraft: Block PartyCreepers, Zombies, and Endermen Oh My!A Minecraft Movie: Pixel PalsA Minecraft Movie: Block BeatsMarlene + Nitwit
$35 | Releases June 24
This Walmart-exclusive edition of A Minecraft Movie looks pretty awesome. Available to preorder now for $35, the Collector’s Crafting Table Edition features foldable packaging that creates the iconic Crafting Table from the game/film. It has magnets to keep the box together, and the two discs are stored in the “walls” (sleeves) of the decorative display box.
The only downside to this unique edition of A Minecraft Movie is that it doesn’t include a 4K Blu-ray version of the film. That said, it does include standard Blu-ray, DVD, and Digital versions of the movie.
$30 | Releases June 24
A Minecraft Movie is also available in standard edition format on 4K Blu-ray, Blu-ray, and DVD. The standard edition 4K Blu-ray includes a digital copy, but unlike with the Steelbook, you will not get the 1080p Blu-ray disc. Likewise, the standard Blu-ray edition includes Digital, but you will miss out on the DVD found in the Crafting Table Edition.
Take a closer look at the Limited Edition Steelbook and Crafting Table Editions below:
A Minecraft Movie Limited Edition SteelbookA Minecraft Movie: Crafting Table Edition
If you want other ways to enjoy A Minecraft Movie, consider picking up one of the two books based on the film. The first is a large hardcover book that goes behind the scenes of its development–A Minecraft Movie: From Block to Big Screen. It released on April 22 and is available for $40. Since it’s packed with interviews, exclusive images, and a deep dive into the creative process, it should be a hit with fans. The other is A Minecraft Movie: Official Coloring Book, which spans 80 pages and is a relaxing way for young fans to spend time with the characters.
Plenty of other family-friendly video game movies have been released over the past few years, and most are now available in steelbook format. Consider rounding out your home theater collection with one of these popular options.
With Bethesda’s (sort of) surprise announcement of The Elder Scrolls: Oblivion Remastered, you might find that there are some out there who’d try to encourage you to play fan-made Morrowind remakes instead. Ignore those people, they’re cowards and fools. You should be playing Daggerfall right now, like any right-minded person. And with Daggerfall Unity, you can enjoy the all-time classic RPG in HD widescreen entirely for free.
Clear Your Calendar For Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth
Daggerfall Unity, a fan-made passion project that rebuilt the second Elder Scrolls game in Unity, was in development for over ten years. But last year, it was finally considered complete, the whole extraordinary endeavor made available for free. And thanks to Bethesda’s excellent decision to release the original 1996 game for free, you don’t even need to pay for the base game either.
Screenshot: Daggerfall Unity / Bethesda / Kotaku
How to install Daggerfall Unity
As with my post about Morrowind, my goal here is to provide you with an idiot-proof guide for getting Daggerfall Unity running on your computer, without needing to speak the secret arcane language of modders. Then, to just encourage you to play it. And thankfully, this one’s far easier to get running.
The very first thing you’re going to want to do is get yourself a copy of the original Daggerfall. That’s easily done—you just grab it from Steam or GOG, and as mentioned, it won’t cost you anything. (Bethesda was hosting the free version on its site for a bit, but now it just links out to Steam.)
Install that, and then head to this page to download the Unity version, the most recent being 1.1.1. As ever with these projects, there’s no “Download it here!” button at the top of the site, because that’d make life easy. Instead, you’re going to want to scroll to the bottom of the entry for 1.1.1 (just above the start of information about 1.1.0), or Ctrl-F for “dfu_windows” and then pick either the 32 or 64-bit version. If you’re not sure, then you’re safe to pick “dfu_windows_64bit-v1.1.1.zip,” the fourth one down in the list. (There’s also a version for Linux and Mac in the list.)
Download the .zip to your hard drive, and then unzip it into a folder. Open that folder and you’ll see a few files, including “DaggerfallUnity.exe.” Double-click on that, and it’ll ask you where you installed the original Daggerfall. Assuming you’re using the Steam version, you’ll find the game on the hard drive you installed it to, then “steamapps\common\The Elder Scrolls Daggerfall\DF\DAGGER.” Click OK, choose your resolution, and you’re good to go!
Having spelled this all out, I’ve just discovered that the glorious people at Daggerfall Unity have written a very clear guide themselves, which you can find here.
When you load the game, it’ll show you a bunch of basic options. But if you want to have a proper fiddle, click on “Advanced.” Here, you can do all sorts of important business, like adjust your mouse sensitivity, bump the quality up to max, and set it so it’s running in 3440×1440 on your ultrawide monitor in a way that the original developers in 1996 would not be able to conceive.
Screenshot: Daggerfall Unity / Bethesda / Kotaku
Get modding
But you won’t want to stop there. Daggerfall Unity has a built-in mod section, letting you enable or disable any you might have added. But you’ll need to get some first, so head over to the dedicated page for this version of the game on Nexus Mods. You’ll also want to have this page open, which is a superb step-by-step guide for installing mods in this game.
The first thing you’ll want to get is Daggerfall Expanded Textures. This is required for many of the other mods that’ll improve how the game looks, so is worth installing straight away.
As with most mods, the file has the extension .dfmod, and you’re going to want to put it in the rather buried “mods” folder of your main installation. So, go back to where you unzipped Daggerfall Unity, and in there, you’ll want to open “DaggerfallUnity_Data,” then “StreamingAssets,” and finally “Mods.” Put any .dfmod file you want to use in the game in this folder, so in this case, “daggerfall expanded textures.dfmod.”
Next time you launch the game, click on the “Mods” button bottom right, and you’ll see the mod in the list!
With that in place, many other mods will now work. For instance, DET-DREAM (do you see what they did there?), which overhauls a lot of the models. Taverns Redone makes pubs more pleasurable. Quest Pack 1 adds 200 new quests to the game. And Improved Interior Lighting…well, you can figure that one out.
Screenshot: Daggerfall Unity / Bethesda / Kotaku
And now get playing!
With this all done, you’re good to go. But it’s useful to know a few key details about Daggerfall that aren’t instinctive in 2025.
The first is that this is a game about going with the flow. Sometimes you’ll fail at a quest, but this doesn’t mean you need to reload and start it over—just continue on in a world where you failed at that quest. There are plenty more to find, and let your experiences define you.
It’s also a game about vast exploration, the seemingly infinite stretches of the game procedurally generated, with a mind-boggling 15,000 cities, towns, dungeons, and villages to find and explore. The image below, created by Redditor Mister_Cranch, superimposes the entire map of Skyrim onto Daggerfall’s world. It’s that tiny brown rectangle in the middle of the sea.
Screenshot: Mister_Cranch / Bethesda
Oh, and fighting! It’s not instinctive at all, and in the 30 years since this game came out, I might not have been able to forget the door opening sound, which is branded onto the surface of my brain. I had forgotten that fighting isn’t just holding down the mouse button. (By default, the right mouse button, but you can change that.) Instead, you need to hold it down and swing the mouse around to attack. Believe me, you’ll be glad I said. (Or you can toggle it off in the options, but that’s not the spirit of things.)
On the subject, as the optional in-game tutorial will tell you, you’re not meant to be able to win every fight. The opening sequence deliberately has you encounter an imp that your weapons won’t be able to harm, leaving you only with the choice to run away. That’s important! Running away, like in life, is fine in Daggerfall. The game won’t give you XP for kills, so there’s no judgment.
So get in there. “Welcome to your new obsession,” as the tutorial concludes. It’s just a place for you to go live. There’s no big, opening calamity, nor desperate need to be somewhere by a certain time. Just a vast world for you to explore, find quests, join guilds, start fights, go to prison for years, whatever you wish to do.
It’s Wednesday (as I write this), and PlayStation has a new studio it’d like to you to meet. Come on, don’t be shy. They won’t bite. Only execs do that. This group of devs that’s just been granted full PS studio status goes by teamLFG, and it’s working on a multiplayery game that also claims to be inspired by “frog-type games”.
All of these teases were dished out by a PS Blog post, which sees Sony Interactive Entertainment studio business group CEO Hermen Hulst introduce his newest child like a proud dad. Well, one that may well cut you out of the family will if you don’t manage to keep your head above water in the very deep and scary live service seas.
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The studio goes by the name teamLFG, which stands for Team “Looking For Group”, rather than the cooler sweary alternative. It’s based in Bellvue, Washington, features a mix of newbies and vets who’ve worked on the likes of Destiny, Halo, and League of Legends, and is being spun out from Bungie.
“We are passionate about exceptional action-based gameplay, moment-to-moment game feel, and richly social virtual worlds,” it wrote, adding that its name is all about being “driven by a mission to create games where players can find friendship, community, and belonging”.
Basically, in line with PlayStation’s definitely going 100% hunk-dory so far live-service push, it’ll be working on live-servicey multiplayer games underpinned by action, with the first one being an “incubation project” that’s previously been mentioned in, well, announcements about layoffs at Bungie.
“Our first game is a team-based action game that draws inspiration from fighting games, platformers, MOBAs, life sims, and frog-type games,” teamLFG wrote of this upcoming title, “Players will inhabit a lighthearted, comedic world set in brand-new, mythic, science-fantasy universe. We can’t wait to reveal more.”
Frog-type games? Seemingly not straight-up frog games like you’d consider Frogger and Frog Detective, but Frog-type games. We have no frogging idea what that means, but consider us intrigued. Will we get a team-based hero shooter that’s somehow a bit Tekken, a bit Mario, a bit Dota 2, a bit InZOI, and in which all characters are mid-2000s viral sensation the Crazy Frog – possibly the only creature on Earth that fits the ‘frog-type’ label in my book?
Probably not, but it definitely seems like it’ll be getting some early access playtests, as teamLFG’s pretty clear about the stock it places in those and gathering player feedback here.
Do you think some kind of Crazy Frog Overwatch/Fortnite/insert other flavour of the half-decade here is what PlayStation needs, and are you keen to see what teamLFG cooks up? Let us know below.