Daily News - 18th November 2011 - Skyrim, Xbox Cloud Saves and 3DS DLC

Skyrim Ships 7 Million Units In 1 Week. That's A Lot.

Chances are if you're reading this right now, you either think Skyrim is awesome, or know somebody who thinks Skyrim is awesome. The game has received absolutely massive amounts of critical and commercial praise and adverts for the game are on TV frequently. All of this has contributed to the biggest launch ever for a Bethesda game, with the game shipping out 7 million units to retailers already. Now obviously not all of those will have been sold yet, but Bethesda estimate a 50% sale rate so far, which equals a heck of a lot of money. And rightfully so! The 20 hours I've played so far haven't disappointed, so it's great to see the game doing well. Robert Altman, ZeniMax CEO, said in the announcement:

"We are grateful for the fans' response to Skyrim. Todd Howard and his team at Bethesda Game Studios have crafted a very special game. Anticipation for Skyrim has surpassed any game in our company's history, and we are pleased that sales and reviews have reflected the quality and hours of amazing gameplay it provides."

Always nice to see games get the sales they deserve.

Ice Troll is happy!

Cloud Saves Coming To Xbox Live, But Only If You're Gold

We finally have a few more details about the Xbox getting Cloud saves, it was alluded to at E3 but there were no hard details until now, and it's pretty much what you'd want. For those of you who don't know, Cloud saving is where your game save information is stored on an online server, and linked to your account, letting you load one of you saves up from anywhere. Well, now your Xbox saves will be transportable to the Cloud, so you can pick up a game on a friend's console, or a new one if you have to replace your Xbox. also getting transferred to the Cloud, finnaly, will be your Gamertag, meaning no more having to "recover your tag" if something goes wrong (it was a pain in the bum bum). The feature will come in the next Dashboard update, along with advanced Facebook integration (posting achievements to my Facebook wall? Gimme!!!). Expect the update early next year.

Well now I'm genuinely excited for the update!

Nintendo Starting On DLC. Well, Sort Of...

Nintendo's 3DS E-Shop is already the most robust online service on a Nintendo console, offering Virtual Console games, downloadable 3DS games, video trailers and soon to add demos. Granted, all those featured are nothing new to games, with Xbox Live and PSN offering the same style services for years, but an absolute first for Nintendo will be when the company allows the inclusion of micro-transactions in upcoming system uopdate. The update will allow DLC to become a reality on a Nintendo console, but Nintendo Of America President, Reggie Fils-Aime, has come out and said they will only do so on Nintendo games, if they know they are releasing a full product at the game's launch:

"When we sell a game, we want the consumer to feel that they've had a complete experience. We're unwilling to sell a piece of a game upfront and, if you will, force a consumer to buy more later. That's what they don't want to do, and I completely agree. I think the consumer wants to get, for their money, a complete experience, and then we have opportunities to provide more on top of that."

DLC seems to be getting a little out of hand, especially after the Catwoman content was recently left off the disc at the last second to encourage less 2nd hand sales. I think if anyone can stick to their guns on DLC, it's Nintendo, they know how to make a game without the need for a day 1 patch.

He'll kill you with it. He don't give a fuck. He crazy!

And finally...

I reviewed Battlefield 3 yesterday. It took me a while to write it (I actually HAD a review written then decided to completely redo the whole thing) so if you missed it then take a look!

Battlefield 3 Review

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