Some Skyrim Development: Latest Updates and Analysis

Skyrim's development really came down to the wire, as one senior producer had to step in to make some critical tweaks just two weeks before it was released

Just two weeks before it launched, Bethesda producer Jeff Gardiner tweaked Skyrim because he didn't trust AI player models.

Is Skyrim a perfect game? Absolutely not, but I think one place it does deserve some credit in is that when it works, it really works. But it's entirely possible that there's another universe out there where the game didn't get some last minute tweaks that sound like it would have been a lot less fun of a game to play. In a recent interview with PC Gamer, senior producer on the game Jeff Gardiner shared that he tweaked Skyrim just two weeks before it even came out, all in the name of not relying on data models that didn't behave how real people do.

"I had this fight with the designers at the time. They wanted to do things through data and simulations," Gardiner explained. "And I was like, 'But the player does things, like backs up and double taps'. And they would run AI simulations, where an NPC and a monster would fight each other, and if over 10 times the simulated player won more than 50%, then it was balanced. But I was like, 'They're not backing up. The AI only does so many things.'"

The point Gardiner was making at the time is that people are weird and they behave in particular, sometimes unpredictable ways, and in games can often be quite defensive, whereas the AI model was just attacking. In turn, that could have led to Skyrim being balanced towards combat focused players, but Gardiner had seen a similar issue on Oblivion.

"So you had this problem in Oblivion with Clannfear, where they'd get you into these things called stun locks, which is the most frustrating thing to a player. But the AI, when it got stun-locked, would be doing something different than the player would be doing. So on Skyrim, I came in and I went through and I played the game with all these different archetypes, and then would tweak the creatures and the weapons and stuff. Right before it shipped I spent two weeks doing that and was like, 'Well, I hope this is good.'"

Still, it clearly worked out well enough as even more than a decade later, Skyrim is still one of the most popular and beloved games around. Let's just hope that recent Elder Scrolls 6 mention was a proper sign of life so we can at least start playing something new.

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Yes, Square Enix has announced a special Nier 15th anniversary livestream for April, no, it hasn't said anything about a new game

Nier is celebrating its 15th anniversary later this year, and to mark the occasion, Square Enix is hosting a special livestream.

This coming April 22, it'll have been 15 years since the original Nier released on PS3 and Xbox 360, a title that received pretty mixed reviews but has obviously gone on to birth an incredibly beloved series thanks to its sequel Nier Automata and its own remaster in 2021, not to mention a (now defunct) mobile game, books, and plenty more. So, as part of celebrating its anniversary, Square Enix is hosting a livestream on its official YouTube channel on April 19, where it will "deliver the latest information on events and merchandise planned to be held in commemoration of the 15th anniversary, along with talks from developers."

It is the 15th anniversary, though, and Saito did actually tease the next game in the series, as well as something more mysterious, in an end-of-year interview in 2024, so it is entirely possible something like that will be showcased. Nier Automata actually turns eight years old today, which is making me feel uncomfortably old, so it would be nice if another Nier game manages to come out before I enter the next decade of my life. For now, we'll just have to keep our fingers crossed that something gets shown off.

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Whoops! It looks like some players already have their hands on Assassin's Creed Shadows, so be wary of spoilers

Assassin's Creed Shadows might just be a bit cursed, because some players are seemingly already playing a month ahead of its launch.

In another world, one where Ubisoft isn't on the precipice of collapse due to a string of failures, we'd long be playing Assassin's Creed Shadows, but that is not the world we live in. Instead, the game didn't meet its November release date, at one point shifting to a February release date, except Ubisoft once again realised that's not quite enough time, resulting in the game actually releasing next month on March 20. It's a bit of a mess! And now, practically a full month before the game is set to be released, it seems that some players have somehow gotten their hands on physical copies of the game early, with some even claiming some kind of mistake led them to download it in full from the PlayStation Store. Very light spoilers ahead!

I can't quite verify that claim about the game being downloadable from the PlayStation Store, Assassin's Creed YouTuber The Hidden One not long ago stated he knows someone that was able to download it this way, claiming that one thing not previously introduced by Ubisoft that is apparently making a return are Animus Anomalies, which were little platforming puzzles that rewarded you with some mysterious memory fragments. But over on Reddit someone did share multiple bits of evidence that a player has a physical copy of the game, which includes some photos and a small gameplay clip.

The person who owns a physical copy also indicates that it's a much older build, seemingly without any of the improvements that would have come from the delays. This certainly seems plausible, Ubisoft's second delay of the game was only just over a month before launch, meaning there might not have been enough time to delay physical copies being printed beforehand.

Any which way, if you're particularly spoiler averse, you may want to be careful where you head on the internet. Or do what you want, I'm not your mum.

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