A little while back, the guys at Planet Elder Scrolls pinged me about doing an interview in celebration of The Elder Scrolls’ 15th Anniversary. After locking Todd in the Imperial City Prison (i.e. his office), he emerged with answers to their questions. Here’s a snippet:

Has any the community had an impact on the creation of The Elder Scrolls games?

Todd Howard: Of course, absolutely. How people feel about the games, what mods they create or play with, all of it matters. We see most of it, and talk about it in the office, and it has a dramatic effect on what we do.

You can find the rest of the interview here, as well as a look back on The Elder Scrolls Series written by the Planet Elder Scrolls team.

Five years ago, to celebrate the 10th Anniversary of The Elder Scrolls, we released The Elder Scrolls: Arena as a free download. If you do the math, that means the series is now celebrating its 15th Anniversary. So despite saying we’d never do it, we’ve decided to release The Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall as a FREE download too!

One thing to keep in mind — the game is over 10-years-old and we’re releasing it “as is.” In other words, we’re not providing customer support or technical support on the game at this point. That being said, I successfully started up the game running DOSBox and following QA superstar Mike Mazzuca’s detailed walkthrough for installing the game. Follow the directions and you should be in good shape.

Having heard many stories of how you guys wanted to get your hands on the game, we’re excited that many of you will get to experience Daggerfall for the first time. Head here to download the game. Enjoy!

Back in March, we shared news that Planet Fallout had started a modding competition called Project Safehouse, which centered around creating user-made Vaults with The G.E.C.K. Today they announced the winners in all three categories — Personal Vault, Corporate Vault, and Government Vault.

Here’s a quick look at the winners, who each scored an e-GeForce 9800 GTX video card from the folks at nVidia.

Top Personal Vault — Carter Fallout Shelter by eagelchunk01

Top Corporate Vault — West-Tek Corporate Vault by Pax

Top Government Vault — Enclave Station (The Ark) by Nexusnesss

Head to Planet Fallout to download these Vaults. Congrats to all the winners!

There are a few things you’ll want to check out on Brink — particularly if you’re in Europe.

There’s a five-page cover story on Brink in the August issue of PlayStation Official Magazine -UK — which hit newsstands this week. The issue has new art, screenshots, information, and the cool cover shown above.

While you’re at the newsstand, be on the lookout for two-page previews in OXM UK and PC Zone. Elsewhere, OXM Italy awarded Brink “Most Surprising Game at E3.”

Speaking of E3 awards, Strategy Informer named Brink Best First Person Shooter in their Best of E3 2009 feature. Meanwhile, PSM3 included the game in their Games of Show list at #2. And in the most recent PSM3 magazine, they named it Best New Game at E3.

As more news on Brink surfaces, we’ll keep you posted.

The Bioshock/Oblivion bundle that was announced last month is now available at retail outlets across North America. The bundle costs $39.99 on Xbox 360 and $29.99 on Windows PC. The bundle will be available internationally later this month.

Splash Damage have a new developer profile up this week profiling Brink Character Artist Linus ‘Lanyo’ Lidberg. Rather than sharing a bit from the interview, I’ve included a sneak peek at the intro written by Steve ‘badman’ Hessel. Amazing!

“Joining us from a clafoutis baked by the gods of Mmmmmm and Oooooh comes Linus “Lanyo” Lidberg. Constructed from cross-braced slipware transoms linked by stringers larded with goat pemmican, Linus can upon occasion be utilised as an atlatl, that is to say, woomera, even though he is himself pelekyphorous that is to say axe-bearing. Upon occasion, he imitates the fearsome abatis, or knapps flints to the applause of the watching, waiting, whistling Production Otters. After an hour-long eisteddfod, it has been established that he favours the chorabates over the groma. Phew. Close, huh?”

Linus’ interview is just as entertaining…read it here.

We’re back for another Behind the Scenes with the developers from A2M. This week we’ve got Stephane Roy — Senior Producer on WET.

What’s your job at A2M?
Senior producer. In short it means making impossible happen with impossible deadlines.

What other games have you worked on, and in what role?
I worked on several titles. Among others were Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory, Splinter Cell: Double Agent, and Indiana Jones and the Staff of Kings. I was a producer on all of these titles.

What is the best part about being a producer on WET? The worst part?
Presently, we are at the stage of production when all the puzzles pieces of the game are falling into place. It’s like a good meal. To see all the ingredients on the counter is one thing, to taste the final dish is much more interesting! In a more general context, having the opportunity to work on an original IP is very motivating. It doesn’t happen every day and to be part of the first game is  always special.

Worst part? The tight schedule of course!

How did you get into the industry? Do you have any tips for breaking in?
Thanks to the « dot.com » boom at the end of the nineties. A company in Montreal was hiring like hell, and I was hired as a game designer for web-based games. Slowly my job evolved toward management. Today there are specialized schools in videogames and I think it’s a good way to start. Some of these schools even provide first-hand experience of working with a game engine — giving to the students an advantage when starting in the industry.

Also, I’ve seen a couple of times, kids asking how many days of vacation they will have BEFORE they push their first pixel Don’t do that! Basically, avoid the sentence “what am I gonna get?” and talk about your skills instead.

What would you say is your personal favorite game of all time?
Impossible Mission on… C64!  Of course I’ve enjoyed and loved tons of games since that one. Grand Theft Auto and the feeling of freedom it gives you for example, it’s just amazing. The Resident Evil series is also great. But Impossible Mission remains special for me. At that time, the character’s animation, the mission, and the gameplay just blew me away.

What games are you looking forward to?
Uncharted 2 and some of the new Wii games using Wii MotionPlus.

What makes you get out of bed in the morning?
Wow! Which angle do you want? Philosophical (because I believe in human kind)? Down-to-earth (I have a mortgage to pay)? Sentimental (for the love of my kids)? I don’t have a pure answer to this question. Today my answer is because we have a crucial milestone to deliver.

Worst job you’ve ever had?
Watching a conveyer of wood panels during a 12-hour night shift and pressing a button if some defects show up. Very easy job, but brainless.

Any other hobbies and interests? What do you enjoy doing in your spare time?
Playing chess (I’m a weak player unfortunately but I love the game), reading novels, watching TV (I’m a father of young twins and they have a lot of energy… sometime, when they finally sleep, it’s just great to put my brain in a jar and watch TV!).

Today I received numerous emails about a Fallout-based LARP (that’s live-action roleplay) that took place last month at a deserted Soviet military base near Leningrad, Russia. According to The Vault, the LARP, titled Fallout 2009: Nothing Personal, was set in the year 2257 (between Fallout 2 and Fallout 3).

Around 300 fans participated in the event. If you haven’t already, be sure to check out all the photos from the LARP here.

Thanks to Ausir and everyone else that emailed me about the event.

This week we had a pretty heated battle for the featured game of the week. DOOM Resurrection and Prototype were popular picks, as was the already featured Plants vs. Zombies (hint hint, devs). Since DOOM Resurrection was already blogged about this week, my plan was to showcase Prototype (which I can’t wait to play) — until Ryan Lea begged me in the team meeting to showcase Personal Trainer: Walking for the DS. To quote Ryan, “This should win just because it’s that awesome! It measures steps per minute and your life rhythm! I’m not even sure what that last one is…”

Given that I walk about four miles to and from work each day, I think I’m going to check it out. Next week I’ll go back to picking a title based on the vote count…unless someone bribes me.

That’s all for this week. Have a splendid weekend. Happy 4th of July!

Craig Lafferty, Senior Producer: DOOM Resurrection, Baseball Slugger 3D, Tiger Woods golf and anything else portable I can play on the beach on my iPhone.

Jay Woodward, AI Programmer: Hitman: Blood Money (catching up to the Rebel FM Game Club crew), Duels of the Planeswalkers, Fallout 3 DLC, misc. board games (Thurn & Taxis, Dominion, Tribune, etc.).

Mike Dulany: Red Faction: Guerrilla and DOOM Resurrection.

Liz Beetem: Prototype, Planescape Torment, this weekend brought to you by the letter P and morally ambiguous zombie men.

Brent Krische: Getting the last of Fallout 3’s achievements on my home account and looking forward to checking out the new content for FF4: The After Years.

Cory Dornbusch: The Conduit, Punch-Out!, and Boom Blox. Going to the folks house for the 4th and that’s the system they have… its going to be a long weekend

Nate Purkeypile: Infamous, TF2, Killzone 2 and DOOM Resurrection.

Gary Powell: inFamous, Killzone 2, and Dynasty Warriors: Gundam 2.

Shane Liesegang, Designer: Magic: The Gathering on XBLA and Call of Duty 4 (finally!).

Jon DeVriendt: DOOM Resurrection, Worms 2: Armageddon, Aion, and Starcraft!

Sean Palomino,  QA Tester: Gears of War 2, Halo Wars, and Prototype.

Max Cameron: Puzzle Quest Galactrix, Unreal Tournament III, and Mercenaries 2: World In Flames.

Ryan Lea, Programmer: Going on vacation and counting my steps using Personal Trainer: Walking! Haha, and playing Pokemon when I’m not counting.

Ryan Salvatore: Plants v. Zombies, WoW, and Company of Heroes.

Dan Lee: Prototype (Xbox 360), Red Faction: Guerilla (Xbox 360), Valkyria Chronicles (PS3), and Dawn of War II (PC).

Aaron Mitschelen, QA: Aion beta, Overlord 2, and Prototype.

Matt Grandstaff: inFamous, Punch-Out!!, Plants vs. Zombies, and DOOM Resurrection.

Matt Ponton, QA: Garou: Mark of the Wolves.

Over the past two weeks, Rock, Paper, Shotgun Editor Alec Meer has provided readers with a journal of his day-by-day exploits in the world of The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind. His diaries begin with a two-part précis (part 1 and part 2), which set the stage and let folks know what user-created mods he’s using.

Since then, Alec has written six diary entries. You can find them below:

• Day 1
• Day 2
• Day 3
• Day 4
• Day 5
• Day 6

Won’t you join us in following his adventures?