Game News Arx Fatalis updated for Arkane Studios 20th anniversary, free giveaway on Bethesda.net

[Infinitron]

Tags: Arkane Studios; Arx Fatalis; Bethesda Softworks

Today is the 20th anniversary of immersive sim developer Arkane Studios. Bethesda have decided to mark the occasion by setting up an "Arkane 20" site where fans can sign up and get a free copy of the studio's first title, the 2002 Ultima Underworld homage Arx Fatalis, on the Bethesda.net store. It's clearly an attempt at doing some community building ahead of the imminent reveal of Arkane's next game Deathloop, but free stuff is always nice. The game has been updated on Steam and GOG as well, so you can play on Windows 10 now without having to use the Arx Libertatis source port. They even made a trailer:

​

Bethesda have published an article about Arx Fatalis' legacy on their website, and there are also some details about the game in Noclip's new documentary about Arkane. Did you know that Dark Messiah could have been Arx Fatalis 2 if Bethesda had published it instead of Ubisoft? Those were different times.

 

[Metro]

Where's muh Arx Fatalis 2?

 

[Don Peste]

They needed to be able to play themselves on Windows 10 in order to be able to develop the remake they are announcing tomorrow.

 

[Metro]

Would be so much better than that shitty Deathloop thing.

 

[vortex]

Big reveal tommorow: Deathloop is in same universe as Arx Fatalis.

 

[Siveon]

Honestly even in a AAA context a full dungeon crawler by Arkane sounds fun enough.

 

[Ghulgothas]

Merry Birthday, Arkane. Arx and Messiah were diamonds-in-the-rough, Prey was neat and Dishonored's still the most worthy Thief Successor in the modern age. I hope to god Colantonio's departure won't be looked back on as the beginning of the end as I eagerly await seeing... whatever the hell Deathloop is supposed to be.

 

[aratuk]

Alternatively, Arx Fatalis is available DRM-free for US$1.79 right now on GOG.



I would rather pay $1.79 than sign up for Yet Another Thing, but YMMV.

 

[Burning Bridges]

Where's muh Arx Fatalis 2?

It transformed into Messiah of Might and Magic

 

[PrettyDeadman]

If they announce Arx Fatalis 2, does that mean that they will stop developing Elder Scrolls 6? It doubt they are going to release 2 fantasy titles at the same (or close to the same) time.

 

[Burning Bridges]

Of course not. Arcane is only a small subsidiary of Bethesda, not the main company.

 

[Nyast]

So far I've been unsuccessful at getting that Arx free copy ( I already own an old physical copy ). Bethesda's launcher is a piece of crap - even more so than the other company's -, constantly freezes, and when it doesn't freeze the download never starts ( progress bar stayed at zero for 2 hours ). After I finally did a complete uninstall / reinstall, went on their website to get my copy, I found out you can only get that "free" copy by registering for their marketing emails. Want the game but not subscribe to their email spam ? No luck sherlock. I think I'll just get the GOG version, this shit is getting ridiculous.

 

[Outmind]

Ah, Arx Fatalis, the game where vegetable gardens can thrive underground and where making the best healing item in the game is literally following a recipe you could replicate at home.

It was OK I guess, a bit short though. The spell system was intriguing but clunky. It's cool you could experiment with the signs and discover hidden spells.

 

[cvv]

A nuArkane developing an Arx Fatalis sequel, in the current year, published by current year Bethesda?

No thank you. It'd be some turbo woke garbage (fight responsibly, liches are people too...) full of MTX. I'd rather fuck a bear trap.

 

[PrettyDeadman]

Prey was great.

 

[Nano]

What's the point? Arx Libertatis already does this and more.

 

[Infinitron]

What's the point? Arx Libertatis already does this and more.

Come on man, that's silly. "What's the point" in a game working out of the box after people have paid for it?

 

[rusty_shackleford]

Arx Fatalis source code was released publicly under the GPL, it has been independently developed and kept up to date for years as Arx Libertatis.
It has lots of bug fixes that aren't present in the base game.

What's the point? Arx Libertatis already does this and more.

Come on man, that's silly. "What's the point" in a game working out of the box after people have paid for it?

If they cared about that then they could have just provided Arx Libertatis by default.
Should we applaud a massive game developer for providing a worse experience to their customers?

 

[PrettyDeadman]

Prey was great.

yeah, but not Arkane's, though

Arkane's Prey was great, Human Head Studio's Prey was alright, but not great.

 

[Zariusz]

Reminder that Arx Insanity Overhaul is coming 30th october https://www.moddb.com/mods/arx-insanity-mod

 

[Fenix]

After I finally did a complete uninstall / reinstall, went on their website to get my copy, I found out you can only get that "free" copy by registering for their marketing emails.

I would hang them for that.

liches are people too

Fucking yelled to that man.

 

[ADL]

Reminder that Arx Insanity Overhaul is coming 30th october https://www.moddb.com/mods/arx-insanity-mod

The texture work looks alright but the fuck are they doing with the bloom in this? It looks like a shitty Morrowind reshade/ENB mod

 

[luj1]

So far I've been unsuccessful at getting that Arx free copy. Bethesda's launcher is a piece of crap and when it doesn't freeze the download never starts. After I finally did a complete uninstall/reinstall, went on their website to get my copy, I found out you can only get that "free" copy by registering for their marketing emails.

Same story as the Morrowind anniversary giveaway a few years back. They can go fuck themselves.

 

[Invictus]

Does this “update” conflict with Arx Libertaties? I bet the unofficial mod has more bug fixes than this “update”... so why not contact the modders and have a proper updated Arx?