See the Skyrim, Fallout and Doom tables in this Bethesda Pinball video
As launch trailers go, it sure is ballsy.
Bethesda Pinball was announced back in November as a collection of three themed DLC tables for Pinball FX2, based on the studio's biggest properties: Fallout, Doom, and Skyrim. Those tables are now live on Steam, they'll set you back $11/£8, and this is what they look like.
Pinball FX2 is a free game that sells tables like this Bethesda set as DLC. New tables can be played for free for a limited period of time, but if you want to keep them accessible, eventually you'll have to pay for them. It's actually been around since mid-2013, and has accumulated quite a collection of themes over the years, including popular videogames like Portal (which we looked at last year), Plants vs. Zombies, and The Walking Dead, as well as movie franchises and television shows.
The Steam page says players will "craft weapons, wield magic, equip armor, buy and sell goods, mine materials, find trainers and complete side quests before defeating Alduin and fulfilling your destiny as the Dragonborn on The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Pinball table." That sounds like a lot of ground to cover with a silver ball and some flippers, but similar promises are made for the other two tables, and all three also offer leaderboards, score tracks, and "exciting social features."
(When I was your age, "exciting social features" meant we got to put our initials into the machine if we got a high score. And we were thankful for that fleeting glory! But hopefully there's a little more to it this time around.)
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Andy has been gaming on PCs from the very beginning, starting as a youngster with text adventures and primitive action games on a cassette-based TRS80. From there he graduated to the glory days of Sierra Online adventures and Microprose sims, ran a local BBS, learned how to build PCs, and developed a longstanding love of RPGs, immersive sims, and shooters. He began writing videogame news in 2007 for The Escapist and somehow managed to avoid getting fired until 2014, when he joined the storied ranks of PC Gamer. He covers all aspects of the industry, from new game announcements and patch notes to legal disputes, Twitch beefs, esports, and Henry Cavill. Lots of Henry Cavill.