The main rules to keep in mind for this list are that we deliberately avoided major crossover titles like Smash, PlayStation All Stars and MvC because then it would be no fun, and that really, that fun, is what this is all about, so you probably shouldn’t take it any more seriously than we are, which is not at all.

We begin our journey in the inconspicuous little golf game, Everybody’s Golf 5, perhaps better known in North America as Hot Shots Golf: Out of Bounds on PS3 takes us for a relaxing day on the links. As it turns out, even patricidal Greeks get a bit of downtime now and then. Kratos, the Ghost of Sparta, was introduced to the game in 2008 as a playable DLC character, where he could channel his unquenchable rage into something a bit more productive, using a rather unique chain club. Since this was before 3, I guess he chilled out between his latest PS4 game by taking up pottery instead?

Note: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of, and should not be attributed to, GamingBolt as an organization.

Hidden Bosses – Vulthuryol, Karstaag And The Reaper

These three hidden bosses are tough to find and even tougher to bring down. In the ruins of Castle Karstaag, the ghost of the frost giant appears if you bring his skull to his long forgotten throne. The Reaper appears once you collect three reaper gem fragments. The ghostly executioner charges forward with his trusty axe, spewing green slime and summoning throngs of minions. The last hidden boss is Vulthuryol, a massive dragon living under the Tower of Mzark. Use Unrelenting Force on the globe in the middle of the room and he’ll swoop down and attack, quickly causing trouble for any unprepared adventurer.

Meanwhile, among the top 20 PS3 and PSN titles, MLB 13 The Show is on top with Journey and The Walking Dead: Survival Instinct at number 2 and 3. Terraria is also in the top 5, thanks to a particularly strong debut and Tomb Raider is at the fifth position.

It’s amazing to see Black Ops 2 and Skyrim DLC still in the top, since the both had their packs delayed constantly for PSN. That demand continues to be strong for all DLC packs points to a lasting appeal for both games – though we can’t say how great that is when it comes to Black Ops 2.

Stay tuned for April’s PSN charts to see if they’re still dominating the DLC charts.

Starting today PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 players will be able to access Skyrim’s 1.9 title update automatically. For those who want to get the update all they have to do is make sure that their console has a working internet connection. This patch includes Legendary Skills and the new Legendary difficulty setting. Also, the update has a ton of bug fixes. Here is an entire list of features and bug fixes for Skyrim 1.9

Skyrim 1.9 

Patch 1.5 for The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim is now live on Xbox Live, a week after it went up for the PC version of the game. The patch should go up on PSN for the PS3 later today, Pete Hines of Bethesda has announced.

The new patch fixes several bugs from the game and adds many new features, like a kill cam, new kill animations for melee weapons and more. The full notes are given below:

New features:

• New cinematic kill cameras for projectile weapons and spells
• New kill moves and animations for melee weapons
• Smithing skill increases now factor in the created item’s value
• Improved visual transition when going underwater
• Improved distance LOD transition for snowy landscapes

Bug fixes:

• General crash fixes and memory optimizations
• Fixed issue with Deflect Arrows perk not calculating properly
• In “A Cornered Rat,” the death of certain NPCs no longer blocks progression
• Fixed issue where Farkas would not give Companion’s quests properly
• Fixed crash when loading saves that rely on data that is no longer being loaded
• Followers sneak properly when player is sneaking
• Fixed issue with weapon racks not working properly in Proudspire Manor
• Arrows and other projectiles that were stuck in objects in the world now clean up properly
• Fixed issue where “Rescue Mission” was preventing “Taking Care of Business” from starting properly
• Fixed issue where certain NPCs would fail to become Thieves Guild fences
• Fixed issue in “Diplomatic Immunity” where killing all the guards in the Thalmor Embassy before starting the quest would break progress
• In “Hard Answers,” picking up the dwarven museum key after completing the quest, no longer restarts the quest
• Killing Viola before or after “Blood on the Ice” no longer blocks progression
• Fixed issue where Calixto would fail to die properly in “Blood on the Ice”
• In “Waking Nightmare” fixed occasional issue where Erandur would stop pathing properly
• Fixed issue where letters and notes with random encounters would appear blank
• Fixed rare issue where dialogue and shouts would improperly play
• Lydia will now offer marriage option after player purchases Breezehome in Whiterun
• Fixed issue where if player manually mined ore in Cidhna Mine, jail time would not be served
• Fixed rare issue with skills not increasing properly
• Fixed issue where the Headsman’s Axe did not gain proper buff from Barbarian perk
• In “A Night to Remember” it is no longer possible to kill Ysolda, Ennis or Senna before starting the quest
• Fixed issue with the ebony dagger having a weapon speed that was too slow
• Fixed issue with “The Wolf Queen Awakened” where backing out of a conversation with Styrr too soon would block progress
• The third level of the Limbsplitter perk now properly improves all battle axes
• Fixed a rare issue where Sanguine Rose would not work properly
• In “Tending the Flames” King Olaf’s Verse will no longer disappear from explosions

Bethesda have announced the voice actors for Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim.

Christopher Plummer, a two-time Emmy Award winner, two-time Tony Award winner and Academy Award nominee, takes on the role of Arngeir, a powerful Greybeard elder.

Academy Award nominee, Max Von Sydow, stars as Esbern, a chronicler and agent of the Blades who has survived in hiding.

Tony Award winner and three-time Academy Award nominee, Joan Allen, will be making her videogame debut as Delphine, one of the last remaining members of the Blades.

“It’s been incredible to have all these actors together,” said Todd Howard, Game Director. “When you start a project, you always make your wish-list of actors, and to actually hear them in the game, it’s amazing. We can’t wait for everyone to experience it.”

Skyrim’s cast also includes
• Michael Hogan (“Battlestar Galactica”), who plays Imperial General Tullius, in charge of crushing the Stormcloak rebellion.
• Vladimir Kulich (“The 13th Warrior,” “Smoking Aces”) portrays Hogan’s nemesis Ulfric Stormcloak, Jarl of Windhelm and charismatic leader of the Stormcloaks, who aims to make Skyrim independent of the Empire.
• Claudia Christian (“Babylon 5”) joins the cast as Legate Rikke, General Tullius’s chief lieutenant, a loyal Imperial officer as well as a Nord who firmly believes Skyrim must remain part of the Empire.
• Diane Louise Salinger (“Carnivale”), Renee Victor (“Weeds”), and Saturday Night Live-alum George Coe (“Transformers: Dark of the Moon”) round out the star-studded cast of more than 70 different voice actors delivering over 60,000 lines of dialogue.

Todd Howard, game director of Bethesda’s upcoming massive RPG, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, has confirmed that vampires will be returning as enemies. They were discovered in a seemingly deserted mountain cave, as a preview at Ripten says.

It is not yet know if these will be playable as a class, but at least they’ll be there. And thankfully, they’ll not glow and sparkle in the sunlight, rather be harmed and lose chunks of energy.

The vampires in the game, as expected, are agile, quick, deadly and you should run from them as fast as you can as soon as you lay their eyes on them. If you don’t want to, you should be ready with the best of equipment, armour and weapons.

Other tiny little details, like a new and improved menu system which tells you what is the best weapon/item/armour out of the ones you are carrying and is a lot more streamlined and detailed than before, or the fact that you can push enemies off a cliff with a shove of your shield, or that the game looks “fu*king beautiful” were also delved upon in the preview.

Jim Cummings, a famous voice artist who has lent his voice in games like Mass Effect 2, Fallout, Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light, is also included in the game. Todd Howard did not give any confirmation about that, but revealed that Skyrim has over 70 voice actors.

Hit the link to read it. It’s quite interesting.

Skyrim releases in November on the Xbox 360, PS3 and PC.

Bethesda has released a new dev diary for their upcoming mega RPG, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. Todd Howard talks about dragons in the game and how they are handled. Have a look at it.

[GameSpot]

Fallout: New Vegas, last year’s entry in the Fallout franchise, was developed by Obsidian under the guidance of Bethesda. When Pete Hines of Bethesda was asked by GI.biz if they would ever outsource The Elder Scrolls to third party devs, he said he “doubts it”, but he would “never say never.”

“In the case of Obsidian it was a really unique opportunity,” he said while talking about Fallout: New Vegas. “We had a studio that had availability and a group of guys within that who had worked on previous versions of [the Fallout series]. You don’t have that same situation with Elder Scrolls at all.”

About Elder Scrolls, he said: “I doubt it. I guess technically never say never, but I don’t see that being something we actively look at or explore.”

Skyrim will be out in November. Stay tuned for more info.

Thanks, Beefjack.

Bethesda has confirmed that their upcoming The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim will not feature weapon or armour degradation, which means that you wont have to spend money on repairing your equipment and stuff.

“We replaced that w/ creating/improve weap/armor, instead of spending lots of time getting them back to where they were,” said Pete Hines via Twitter.

Players in the game will craft weapons and armour of their own and upgrade them and improve them throughout the playthrough, rendering thr repairing part practically obsolete.

Game comes out in November for the PC and HD twins. Check out the new dev diary here.