Bethesda Reveals Elder Scrolls Anthology. Options

[Darkness Eternal]

Today at QuakeCon 2013, Bethesda revealed The Elder Scrolls Anthology, a complete PC compilation of every single Elder Scrolls game ever created.



The collection will be released at retail on September 10th, and it will cost $79.99. The Anthology includes the following:

•The Elder Scrolls Arena
•The Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall
•The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind
•The Elder Scrolls III DLC: Tribunal
•The Elder Scrolls III DLC: Bloodmoon
•The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion
•The Elder Scrolls IV DLC: Knights of the Nine
•The Elder Scrolls IV DLC: Shivering Isles
•The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
•The Elder Scrolls V DLC: Dawnguard
•The Elder Scrolls V DLC: Hearthfire
•The Elder Scrolls V DLC: Dragonborn

The boxed compilation will also come with five maps “detailing the lands of Tamriel, Iliac Bay, Morrowind, Cyrodiil, and Skyrim.

[Grits]

Holy crap, really?!

*dance of joy*

[Elisabeth Hollow]

Why poor, Liz? Whyyy pooooooooor??!!

Waaaaaaant! Words gone!

[Darkness Eternal]

I'd try Arena and Daggerfall, the others I played before and already have. But to play ALL of them at once?

[SubRosa]

I wonder if Arena and Daggerfell have been somehow optimized/updated/altered to run on 64 bit systems? Gog.com does that to old games by building in Dosbox to them and having the game's install program automatically configure Dosbox to run it. If not that would be a big letdown.

I'd try Arena and Daggerfall, the others I played before and already have. But to play ALL of them at once?

She's right!

This post has been edited by SubRosa: Aug 2 2013, 03:27 AM

[Grits]

That's my hope, Rosa. The chances of me working it out on my own are too slim to consider. So hopefully it's not a big set of coasters.

[Colonel Mustard]

*Crosses fingers*

PleasereleaseeachoneseparatelyonGOG, pleasereleaseeachoneseparatelyonGOG...

[jack cloudy]

The question I have is this an america-only thing or does it also get released in europe? (the only price I found so far is usd)


And I know I shouldn't because I already have all the big ones inhabiting my shelf, but maps! And a big box! Must resist frivolous buying of things I already posess!


Random observations: I notice the image has Bloodmoon and Tribunal and the construction kit as separate disks, but Oblivion bundles KOTN and SI. Skyrim only gets a single disk. And Arena and Daggerfall both get their own disc. I wonder if this is just a promotion image or if they really have more dvds than is needed.



And I notice they elected to skip Battlespire/Redguard. They're also missing all the non-pc games but who even has that phone anymore these days? (this box is for pc, right? Arena and Daggerfall predate the big playstations/x-boxes at least.



Now if you excuse me, I'm going to toss fireballs at the walls of my flammable fisherman's shack in the hope of leveling up my willpower.

This post has been edited by jack cloudy: Aug 2 2013, 09:14 AM

[ghastley]

Has it all been Steam'ed? I.e. will it be a rental like Skyrim, or will I actually own it?

[Grits]

Good question. For some reason I just assumed it would not be Steamed. Or I suppose I assumed that for no reason.



*dance of hope*

[jack cloudy]

Good question. Here is my entirely unsupported by actual researched opinion.

Skyrim: Definitely Steam.
Oblivion: Possibly Steam but not necessarily.
Morrowind: See Oblivion, but odds of Steam are getting lower.
Arena/Daggerfall: I very much doubt it will be Steamed. For one there is the free version and for another the two games aren't really worth much money. (Not that age seems to be much of a deterrent to digital publishers when it comes to pricing.)
That said, having one game require Steam and the others not would seem like a bit of an oddity so I wouldn't be surprised (but dissapointed) if Skyrim to Morrowind are all the Steam versions. In which case you are really buying a set of really expensive maps.



And on a sidenote, I'm guessing that the Arena and Daggerfall in the compilation will be the cd versions. The freeware ones were the floppydisk-edition. What does this mean? Games in the early nineties sometimes came out in floppydisk and cd versions. The cd version would have animated FMVs (prerendered movies which nowadays look like low-resolution youtube vids full of compression artefacts), and things like voiced audio or higher quality music.

[SubRosa]

Looks like Arena and Daggerfall will work on modern systems:

The Anthology features the original version of Arena and will launch within a DOS emulator.

The same with Daggerfall.

[Kiln]

In my opinion, Daggerfall and Arena aren't worth playing. They're ridiculously difficult and it looks so bad that it hurts your eyes. There are useless skills (languages?!) and the combat is so bad that you'll probably die constantly.

[jack cloudy]

This. If you want to buy the anthology, pretend those two games don't exist. Both suffer from ridiculously labyrinthine dungeons (Arena even has a Labyrinthian that lives up to its name.), constant respawning behind your back and more limitations to your class. (want to wear armour as a mage? sorry not in the rules.)

And the combat system is horribly clunky with having to literally drag the mouse across the screen each time you attack. That said, I miss the old climbing skill. You still can in the modern games, but it relies on jumping along seams in the landscape or using the magnetic-hoofed horses.

And finally, I had a notoriously tough time getting daggerfall to run even with Dosbox, so don't expect everything to run flawlessly just because Beth set things up. (wait, does this mean Dosbox is now paid software because actual companies use it?)

As far as I'm concerned Bethesda games didn't find their niche until the modern three (Morrowind, Oblivion, Skyrim). It's a control and ui thing really. And the ui is still hard to get right.


So in short, I'd say you should buy the anthology only if you don't have the modern three yet or really want that box and its maps.

[SubRosa]

The only reason I would buy this is for Arena and Daggerfall. I already have the other games, so there is no point in getting it for them.

Like Mustard said, I have been hoping to see them on Gog.com. I have never had any luck setting up Dosbox to work on my old games. But I have rebought several games through Gog with their preconfigured Dosbox - Pod, Pirates Gold, Tomb Raider 1 - and all of them run beautifully on my 64-bit computer. So I have no worries about having problems getting them to work. They are asking a steep price for those two games though. But maybe some used copies will turn up on ebay after a while.

I am not bothered by the graphics - looks do not make a good game. I replayed Tomb Raider 1 a few months ago and loved every minute of it. I have been playing Pirates Gold, which is far older, and loving that too. I do know about the labyrinthian dungeons and the equally labyrinthian maze of skills you are faced with. The dungeons are the only thing that daunts me. But then again, they are part of what makes those old age RPGs. Being an old time RPG player myself, that is just like coming home. I remember the Temple of Elemental Evil.

This post has been edited by SubRosa: Aug 3 2013, 05:02 PM

[mirocu]

GIMME!GIMME!GIMME!GIMME!GIMME!GIMME!GIMME!GIMME!GIMME!GIMME!

This post has been edited by mirocu: Aug 3 2013, 11:00 AM

[King Of Beasts]

I want



But I don't got a proper PC to play any of the games! -sobs-

[mirocu]

I want



But I don't got a proper PC to play any of the games! -sobs-

That doesn´t matter! It´s all in the name of collecting!!!

[King Of Beasts]

I want



But I don't got a proper PC to play any of the games! -sobs-

That doesn´t matter! It´s all in the name of collecting!!!

You've got a point....

[ghastley]

A gstaff reply at the bethsoft forums makes it likely that the Morrowind is precisely the same disks as the GOTY edition. I've avoided the second-hand route and it hasn't been in the stores for years, so it looks like I might get it for MW/Tribunal/Bloodmoon (and KotN, which I passed up on the first time). I still can't see playing Skyrim through Steam, but it will be so tempting if I have the disk in my hands.

One oddity to me is that there's a disk for the MW Construction kit, but none for OB or Skyrim tools. Was that always shipped that way?