Bethesda is a Beauty
Edition 49 - November 8th to 14th
Good morning gamers.
This week's edition of the Weekly Recon is dedicated to the passing of professional Overwatch player Kim “Alarm” Kyeong-Bo. The Weekly Recon team wishes his family and friends our most sincere condolences.
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Bethesda - Patience is Key
Bethesda is a power house in the video game industry, one of the many reasons Microsoft acquired them. Their development division has developed The Elder Scrolls series, multiple Fallout instalments and is currently working on Starfield. Bethesda Softworks is their game publishing division that has released multiple critically acclaimed games (and series) from other studios such as Dishonored, Doom, Wolfenstein, The Evil Within, Prey and Deathloop. Bethesda’s Director Todd Howard spoke to IGN in an exclusive interview and gave fans some very valuable insights as to what the studio is prioritizing.
Starfield is releasing on November 11, 2022. It’s Bethesda’s first new IP in twenty-five years and tackles the idea of open-space exploration. They’ve been trying to develop a sci-fi outer space RPG game since the 90s, and development on Starfield started around the time of Fallout 4. They considered Starfield a “now or never” priority. Some new details are,
Starfield will include character customization to the fullest extent and includes the ability for players to choose their pronouns
They will have full mod support and the game will include a robot companion
Bethesda revealed a whole bunch of new Starfield concept art as well as introducing the games music, by composer Inon Zur
The Elder Scrolls 6 was originally revealed at E3 in 2018 as a title in pre-production. Fast forward to today and the game still seems to be in early development since Starfield was the studio's main priority. Todd Howard explained that he would love to release ES6 earlier than expected but with such a large franchise, they want to make sure “they get it right”.
Fallout 5 was barely a twinkle in the eye until Howard confirmed there is an idea at the studio. He refused to divulge too many details, likely because there aren’t many to give, but he did say that they have a “one-pager on Fallout 5, what we [they] want to do”. He went on to say that Fallout is part of their DNA and refused the idea that another studio could take the helm on the games development. That said, it's still a long way away since their priorities are Starfield and then The Elder Scrolls 6.
Star Wars: Eclipse
In September, Kotaku reported that Quantic Dream signed a contract with Sony and Disney to create a new Star Wars game. The French video game developer is based out of Paris and is known for releasing Detroit: Become Human and Heavy Rain.
Last week, Venture Beat reporter Jeff Grubb revealed that the title for the game is Star Wars: Eclipse. According to Grubb, the game takes place in the High Republic Era. The High Republic Era lasted around 200 years and was known as the golden age of the Jedi. This era was considered a time of peace, however, there was an ongoing Galactic Civil War which made the Outer Rim dangerous.
Star Wars: Eclipse is an open-world game that will supposedly see the Jedi travel to the Outer Rim and explore these dangerous areas. The game is part of an initiative to introduce new stories and characters to fans. According to Grubb, the game is ready to be announced “before the end of the year”.
Esports Corner
Welcome To The Family, Y’all!
Those familiar with the Call of Duty scene, both competitively and in content creation have definitely heard of OpTic Gaming, one of the most storied organizations in Call of Duty history. Hector “H3CZ” Rodriguez has had his ups and downs with the team over the last few years, first being bought out by Immortals and then regaining control through the help of NRG Esports a few years later. Long story short, Envy Gaming have now acquired the brand and are renaming their Call of Duty League team to OpTic Texas. H3CZ joins long time friend and owner of Envy Gaming Mike “Hastr0” Rufail with a share position in the organization and will serve as the President of OpTic overseeing their competitive and content creation endeavours. Envy is now trying to sell the extra Call of Duty League spot before the start of the upcoming season.
Two For The History Books
Last week we highlighted some of the impressive viewership numbers achieved by major esport tournaments in October. At that time, both the League of Legends World Championships and the PGL Major Stockholm had not yet concluded their events, with both grand finals still needing to be played. Both those events set individual viewership records (excluding Chinese and Russian platforms), which is a huge step forward for the future of esports broadcasting.
The Grand Final match between Edward Gaming and DWG KIA in the League of Legends World Championships peaked at more than 4 million viewers, a new record for League of Legends Esports.
The Grand Final match between Na’Vi and G2 peaked at 2.57 million viewers, more than any CS:GO match ever (by 1 million viewers). Na’Vi also made history by being the first CS:GO team to win a Major without losing a single map.
Game Review - Forza Horizon 5
Forza Horizon 5 is finally here and it is the best entry in the series so far. Forza Horizon 5 is for all gamers who want to immerse themselves in an incredibly dynamic open world, filled with awesome sights, sounds and cars. As someone who’s played racing games since the first Need for Speed was released, this may be the best racing game ever. For those of you who have the Xbox Series X or are considering it, this game is the definition of a next generation gaming experience. The story and objectives are fun even though they may get repetitive after a while. As someone who is always looking for new content, Forza Horizon 5 has tons of different events and rotating weekly challenges, not to mention several DLCs on the way. Also, the ability to play Forza Horizon 5 with an Xbox Game Pass subscription is a huge plus. We give this game of the year candidate a score of A+.
Gaming Roundup
According to Tom Henderson, Electronic Arts is reviving their Fight Night franchise (last released in 2011). Henderson states EA’s focus will shift to the boxing series once UFC 5 is released late next year.
Concept Artist Goran Bukvic posted several Batman concept designs online this week. According to his LinkedIn page, Bukvic worked for WB Games Montreal. Bukvic says the designs were for the cancelled sequel to Batman: Arkham Knight.
This week marked the 10th anniversary since Bethesda Studios first released The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. On Thursday, the anniversary edition of the game was released on all platforms with new content and several next-gen enhancements.
Square Enix showed off the PlayStation exclusive Spider-Man DLC coming to Marvel’s Avengers on November 30th. Marvel’s Avengers next update includes an increased level cap, upgradable gear, a new cosmetic system and new missions.
Roblox has surpassed Activision Blizzard as the most valuable video game company in the United States. Activision recently took a hit when the delay news of Overwatch 2 and Diablo 4 went public, and the next closest competitor is EA.
Far Cry producer Dan Hay has left Ubisoft after 10 years in charge. The next Far Cry installment will reportedly be a live-service game similar to Assassin's Creed Infinity.
Halo Fans were in a frenzy over the weekend as several leaks indicated the Halo Infinite multiplayer will be releasing on Monday, November 15th. The date coincides with the 20th anniversary of the original Xbox and Halo: Combat Evolved.
The PlayStation 5 celebrated its first anniversary this week. According to Sony, PS5 users played more than 4.6 billion hours worth of gameplay. Jim Ryan, Sony Interactive Entertainment President and CEO says there’s plenty to come to the PS5.
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