He also praised the work that went into the backwards compatibility features of modern Xbox consoles, especially when it came to running titles like the original Xbox’s The Elder Scrolls 3: Morrowind, and Xbox 360’s Fallout 3. “They did an incredible job with backwards compatibility,” he said. “Right now, you can go and play the original Oblivion, you can play Morrowind, you can play Fallout 3. It’s backwards compatible, it’s 4k, and like, great.”

“So that to me was like, job number one – can you play them as they were?”

He also revealed that work on The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion Remastered started because the idea of remastering older Bethesda games “kept coming up.” The fact that there hadn’t been a new mainline entry in the fantasy RPG franchise since 2011’s The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim also likely proved to be enough motivation.

“Feeling like this also serves the Elder Scrolls audience that we hadn’t had this, this is good for that audience, and having a single player game and kind of this pocket of time. But there’s a million ways that that could have gone wrong,” he said.

As for the Fallout franchise, a report from last month has indicated that the team working on Fallout 3‘s remaster is aiming for a similar level of polish and quality as The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion Remastered. “The game is still in active development, and I understand Bethesda is keen to ensure it’s as well polished as the surprise release of The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered last year,” wrote The Verge’s Tom Warren.

More recent reports have been adding more fuel to the fire when it comes to a remaster of Fallout 3. Earlier this month, a listing for new McFarlane toys indicated that an “Elite Edition” for Fallout 3 Remastered was planned. This edition would include a 7-inch-tall “T-45B Nuka Cola”. While few details were revealed, the name indicates that it might be a figure of power armor featuring a color palette based on the Nuka Cola brand.

Interestingly, a remaster of Fallout 3 might involve more work than previously thought. Former Bethesda developer Bruce Nesmith spoke about this back in April 2025, noting that the project would require a major revamp of the RPG’s gun-based combat. He referred to Fallout 3‘s gun combat as being “not good,” especially when compared to its contemporaries.

“[Fallout 3 combat] didn’t hold up to shooters at the time,” Nesmith explained. “Also, it’s an RPG shooter; it’s not a run-and-gun shooter. But a lot of work was done on that for Fallout 4. So I anticipate seeing a lot of that work go into it, assuming they’re doing the same thing.”

“The problem with doing Morrowind is that I bet they don’t have the original code,” he said. “The game is so old. I don’t know if the original source code exists anymore. If it does, can you even compile it? When you’re looking at Oblivion, they still had the code. They could still compile it. Putting the code into the new version of the engine was a possibility.“

He also challenged The Elder Scrolls fans to “go back and play Morrowind and tell me that’s the game you want to play again. We all have these fond memories of things that were pivotal moments in our gaming fantasy histories that we absolutely move but you go back and play a 20 year old game and you will cringe.”

While he doesn’t bring up any specific moment that he considers notably “cringe”-worthy, Nesmith noted that Oblivion Remastered also has similar vibes that players are forgiving thanks to the nostalgia they feel for it.

“People even had cringe moments with the Oblivion remake but they forgave it because they’re reliving something, they’re enjoying the nostalgia,” he said. “I worked on Oblivion. I’m even responsible for some of those cringe moments! The further back you go, the more that’s going to be an issue. The reality of playing Morrowind would not stand the test of time, in my opinion.”

As for a potential ground-up remake of The Elder Scrolls 3: Morrowind with a modern engine, Nesmith believes that the time could be better spent on making something brand new instead. One suggestion he had was to focus on the same setting, but telling an entirely new story.

“Now if you were to completely remake Morrowind with the Skyrim engine, to try and rebuild it from the ground up, that’s a whole other story, but that’s an entire project,” he noted. “That’s a whole four-year development cycle. Why not go and make something new?”

“Let’s revisit the lands of Morrowind and do a new story. You can include the giant crab palace and all of that stuff but make it new and avoid all the things that would not have survived the test of time.”

For what it is worth, a remaster of The Elder Scrolls 3: Morrowind might not be as “cringe” as Nesmith believes, but it would likely have difficulty attracting a new audience. While most elements of its story and worldbuilding still hold up today, gameplay aspects like its dice-roll-focused combat and more complex leveling system than modern The Elder Scrolls game might end up being too much for many. In the meantime, PC players can still easily pick up Morrowind and see for themselves if they would want a remaster, remake, or even a follow-up.

ZUBAT (POKEMON)

If you’ve spent even a couple of minutes in a cave in a Pokemon game – especially one of the earlier ones – you’ve cursed out at the sight of a Zubat. These pesky Pokemon appear with far too much regularity, forcing players to exit out of battles what feels like one every few seconds. If you don’t have some Repels handy, you’re in for a true test of patience.

While Xbox Game Pass has been praised for providing a wide selection of titles for both PC and Xbox subscribers, it also supports Android gaming via the cloud. This allows for playing big-name games on tablets and phones. But what if you wanted to turn your phone into a retro gaming device? Microsoft has you covered.

On Xbox Wire, the company announced that Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscribers could now play 16 Xbox and Xbox 360 titles on Android phones and tablets via backwards compatible. Check out all of the games below with some having touch controls enabled.

• Banjo-Kazooie
• Banjo-Tooie
• Double Dragon Neon
• Fable 2
• Fallout: New Vegas
• Gears of War 2
• Gears of War 3
• Gears of War: Judgment
• Jetpac Refuelled (touch controls enabled)
• Kameo
• Perfect Dark
• Perfect Dark Zero
• The Elder Scrolls 3: Morrowind
• The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion
• Viva Piñata (touch controls enabled)
• Viva Piñata: Trouble in Paradise (touch controls enabled)

More games will be “coming soon” to the service, expanding on the retro functionality even more. Xbox Game Pass continues to grow with more games added each month. Even big new releases like People Can Fly’s Outriders are joining the service at launch. What the future holds for retro games remains to be seen but being able to take some of them on the go is a nice bonus.

In a new Xbox Wire post, Microsoft has announced 20 games from Bethesda Softworks that will be added to Xbox Game Pass today. With a few exceptions, many of these titles will be playable on Xbox consoles, PC and the cloud. Even though The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim Special Edition is already available for console owners, subscribers on other platforms will be able to play it as well.

The full list is quite extensive and includes the following titles:

• Dishonored Definitive Edition
• Dishonored 2
• Doom (1993)
• Doom 2
• Doom 3
• Doom 64
• DOOM Eternal
• The Elder Scrolls 3: Morrowind
• The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion (Console, PC)
• The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim Special Edition
• The Elder Scrolls Online (Cloud, Console)
• The Evil Within
• Fallout 4
• Fallout 76
• Fallout: New Vegas (Console)
• Prey
• RAGE 2
• Wolfenstein: The New Order
• Wolfenstein: The Old Blood
• Wolfenstein: Youngblood

Prey and Fallout 4 will be returning to the service after exiting last year, though the latter is the base version and not the Game of the Year Edition. Dishonored Definitive Edition and The Evil Within are new entries while Dishonored 2 makes its return after leaving last September. It should be interesting to see if Dishonored: Death of the Outsider and The Evil Within 2 arrive on Game Pass at some point.

A roundtable discussion is currently on-going between Xbox Game Studios and Bethesda team members – find out more about that here. Microsoft has also confirmed that some future titles from Bethesda will be exclusive to Xbox and PC. Stay tuned for more details in the coming days on which ones.

The Elder Scrolls series is now 25 years old. But even as we look forward to The Elder Scrolls 6’s eventual release, Bethesda is celebrating by allowing players to go back to a game that is widely considered to be the best in the series by veterans, for absolutely free. That’s right, The Elder Scrolls 3: Morrowind is available for absolutely free on PC, just for today.

There are some caveats—you have to avail of it on Bethesda.Net. Okay, that’s the only caveat. For new players, other caveats are probably more related to the game itself—Morrowind is an old game, so obviously it’s janky. It relies on RPG mechanics a lot, which means even when you see your weapon connect with the opponent, you might deal no damage because the dice rolled zero in the background. Plus it looks old, obviously.

That apart, though, the game is a masterpiece that has held up well—the world is a wonder that you get to immerse yourself in, with quests not giving you markers, but directions you need to follow. There’s no fast travel, as much as in-game facilities like carriages that can transport you along pre-determined routes. A lot of things that Red Dead Redemption 2 and The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild attempted years later in terms of world immersion and player agency, Morrowind did all the way back in 2001.

And now you can play it for free. It should make the wait for The Elder Scrolls 6 a bit easier.

Details on Bethesda’s The Elder Scrolls 6 are sparse, and the game is a ways off from release. It’s not even confirmed if it will release on the current console generation, in fact. Even though it’s still fairly early in the game’s life-cycle, it’s interesting to hear that composer Jeremy Soule is currently not involved with the project.

Who is Soule? He’s the man behind the music for The Elder Scrolls 3: Morrowind, The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion, and The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim. That’s not including a hefty portfolio beyond that, which includes Neverwinter Nights, Warhammer 40K: Dawn of War, Company of Heroes, and much more. So what’s going on?

On his official Facebook page, Soule said, “As so many of my fans have asked… While I’ve not said much about this out of courtesy to Bethesda, I would never turn my back on TES, and I believe that my involvement would hinge on a creative decision on their part and where they want to take the franchise. To confirm, I am currently not involved with TES 6.”

Of course, plans could change and Soule may become involved later once production starts rolling. It would be odd if he weren’t somehow part of the process, especially with all the iconic music he’s composed for the series over the years. We’ll just have to wait and see at this point.

Ever since it released in 2010, Fallout: New Vegas (which is now playable on Xbox One) has had a dedicated legion of fans. Obsidian Entertainment (of Pillars of Eternity fame) helmed development and despite numerous bugs, many consider its interpretation of the universe better than Bethesda Game Studios’ own Fallout 4.

Fallout: New Vegas would be the last title that Bethesda would outsource to a third-party studio, even with fans asking for Obsidian to develop another Fallout game. Even the developer itself doesn’t mind. Could we see another studio take up the helm on a future, Bethesda series game? “Never say never”, according to Fallout 76 director Todd Howard, but it’s becoming less likely in this day and age.

Speaking to The Guardian about the development of Fallout: New Vegas, Howard said, “I wouldn’t say never. [But] now that our company is so big, it’s always better to keep stuff internal… it becomes less likely, but I could never say never. I thought the Obsidian guys did a fabulous job.”

While we’re on the unfulfilled wishes train, Howard also talked about the possibility of older titles receiving remasters. Howard made some recent comments about not re-releasing The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim if fans would stop purchasing it. That being said, he’s also a believer in experiencing old games as they were at launch.

“For Skyrim Remastered, we had done some work on it but it was already pretty visually close. But for something like Morrowind, my personal preference is not to remaster it. We [also] get asked a lot to remaster [1997’s] Fallout 1, and I usually say, if you have a PC you can play Fallout the way it was. I think that’s how it should be.

“I think streaming technology is definitely coming, and it’s gonna make people’s access to games infinitely easier. You’ve seen it happen to music and movies and I think it’s a great thing.”

As for Fallout 76, it’s out on November 14th for Xbox One, PS4 and PC.

Dark Souls

The epitome of games that don’t hold your hand. From Software’s challenging hack and slash title provides a few basic instructions and then thrusts you into a world of pain. Forget the Poise debates of Dark Souls 3 or whether Dark Souls 2 was even any good – many players had a tough time just surviving in this age of fire and darkness. Where to go, what to do, whether you should kill that guy praising the sun abd so on and so forth. Of course, thanks to the summoning and message systems, players could actually help each other through tough situations. This ironically resulted in one of the more helpful communities out there.

Duke Nukem Forever

Duke Nukem Forever was in the works since 1996. 3D Realms would infamously throw the “when it’s done” line while hopping from one engine to the next. After a conflict with publisher Take Two Interactive, 3D Realms eventually went bankrupt. The project didn’t die – it’s rights were eventually acquired by Gearbox Software and Duke Nukem Forever released in 2011. Surprise, surprise but it was mostly mediocre. And don’t worry – this isn’t the last time we’ll mention the Borderlands developer.