Daggerfall for free

Bethesda’s classic and much adored CRPG, The Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall, is now available as a free download from Bethesda. Of course abandonware sites have been offering it for free of charge for over a decade, but consider this an official distribution. Daggerfall in its day was a breakthrough for the role-playing genre - but more importantly - it helped shape what the Elder Scrolls series has evolved into over the years.

You can download all the files you need directly from www.elderscrolls.com. This is an old DOS game from 1996 so you may need to download an emulator to get it to work - but Bethesda is offering all that at the link above anyone, so enjoy!

Two Elder Scrolls Novels on the way

Bethesda Softworks and book publisher Del Rey will publish two novels based on Bethesda Softworks’ high-fantasy video game series, The Elder Scrolls. The books will be written by New York Times bestselling author Greg Keyes. Keyes is best known for the Age of Unreason tetrology (for which he won the prestigious “Le Grand Prix de l’Imaginaire” award), and three New York Times bestselling Star Wars novels in the New Jedi Order series.

The first novel – The Infernal City – is set to be published in Fall 2009. The Infernal City is set after the events of The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, and finds the citizens of Tamriel once again facing an uncertain future. Floating high above the land is a strange and mysterious city that is casting a horrifying shadow – wherever it falls, people die and rise again as undead. It is up to an unlikely duo – a seventeen-year-old girl named Annaig and the Emperor’s young son, Prince Attrebus – to rescue the kingdom from doom. Annaig and Attrebus’ quest will take them through the Elder Scrolls universe and their adventure is sure to add to the series’ mythology.

Could this book be a hint at some of the plot line we can expect in the next Elder Scrolls game? We hope so.

ZeniMax Online Recruiting at Austin GDC

ZeniMax Online Studios passed along word today that it will be recruiting at the upcoming Austin Game Developer Conference. The show will run September 15-18 at the Austin, TX convention center. The online-focused sister company to Bethesda Softworks is working on an undisclosed MMO title which will most probably be based on one of Bethesda’s popular franchise - one would guess either Fallout or Elder Scrolls. The ZeniMax Online team will be in booth 100 on the conference show floor. People interested in joining the company are encouraged to stop by to discuss employment opportunities.

“We’re hard at work creating the next big MMOG – one that will challenge the current market leaders – and are looking for talented developers to add to the team,” said Matt Firor. “Austin is known in the online gaming industry as a hub of talent – the perfect place for us to find experienced professionals.”