Scene 1: a carved stone wall. In the bottom center, a mage/priest figure with a long beard is holding his arms up, in his right is some sort of scepter. To his left is a warrior in heavy armor, to his right is another warrior with what appears to be long hair. The background has many other figures, though the 3 take central importance. Most of the wall is taken up by a colossal, coiled dragon.
VO, black ground: "You should have acted."
Scene 2: close up of the left section of sn1, including what was previously off-camera. Shows several dragons spewing fire onto the cliffs while tiny people run away. Cliffs appear to have buildings carved into them, and a large rectangular structure with 4 half-arches (temple?) is also featured. Zoom into this structure.
Scene 3: close up of two dragons from previous scene, panning towards top-right. cliff-buildings clearly visible.
VO: "They're already here. The Elder Scrolls told of their return."
Scene 4: close up of secondary figures on wall - people running, cowering, looking upwards. Some are on horses. Panning right.
Scene 5: Close up of 3 primary figures, panning out an up.
VO: "Their defeat was merely a delay."
Scene 6: Another wall detail - helmeted warrior on the left, stylized Oblivion gate on the right. Slow zoom towards the gate.
VO: "Their defeat was merely delay. Til the time after Oblivion opened. "
Scene 7: close up of right side of stella. Armored men fighting. The people on the right wear pretty solid armor, slit skirt things, and horned helmets. Those on the left have shorted, full skirts with slits and segmented armor, appearing more Imperial. Area below is segmented (some sort of platform?) and littered with what appear to be bodies. Slashing swords heard in background.
VO: "When the sons of Skyrim would spill their own blood. But no-one wanted to believe."
Scene 8: Same stone as the stella, but more relief. Slow pan down, revealing claw, wing, and eventually face of dragon, coming alive from within the stone. Dragon opens eye dramatically.
VO: "Believe they even existed.And when the truth finally dawns: It dawns in fire."
Scene 9: Dragon comes alive, fully 3D, out of a cliff. Apparently not part of the stella. It stretches and breathes stylized stone 'fire' onto the stella. Little skeletal men are seen burning (think medieval manuscript illustrations of hell). Slow pan to an armored hand.
VO: "But..."
Scene 10: Armored leg, pan up.
VO: "There's one they fear."
Scene 11: Torso of an armored figure, standing in profile, a sword in his right hand and his left held in a fist in front of his head. He has a mustache, and appears to be breathing fire (or perhaps performing Thu'um). His armor appears to be Lorical Segmentata, suggesting Imperial origin. It is very similar to the Oblivion Blades armor. The fire wavers in front of him, not touching his person.
VO: "In their tongue, he's Dovahkiin"
Scene 12: Zoom in on guy's face.
VO: "Dragon Born!"
Scene 13: Skyrim logo, on black. The traditional TES theme (head in both MW and OB) plays in the background, this time with a male chanting choir.
Central figure has something on the palm of his left hand. Maybe an eye? The left hand is a symbol of power in lore. I assume he is a graybeard.
The left figure is actually a mage. He holds a staff and is casting a spell.
The right figure has some sort of pole arm and a lot of tentacle hair things coming out from all over the place.
Thats definitely Akulakhan in the top-right. Next to it is both an Oblivion gate and a citadel tower above it.
There are three people, two male and one female, line up to the left of the Dragonborn, dressed in the same armor as he.
Above the Dragonborn's helm is a strange symbol. Flat at the bottom, with two curved hands coming out and a three-pronged shape in between.
Recap of info courtesy of ShadowPampers
Ok, here is my recap of the info, hope it helps. This is not all the info, however.
On leveling:
Totally revamped, no more class selection at the start of the game, every skill you level contributes to your overall level. And each time you level you get extra health plus the ability to get either more health, magicka or stamina.
Each level also brings you perks. Cool abilities I guess like in Fallout 3.
Also, the leveling was moved from 1-25 or something like that to 1-50, but 50 is soft-capped, you just advance really slow after that.
On skills:
Mysticism is gone.
18 skills, down from 21 on Oblivion, and 27 on Morrowind.
Tries to accomodate players who want to specialize in a certain proffesion (like mage or thief), while at the same time giving room for players who like to do plenty of everything. They want to keep a special care so that this feels good, not prone to cheating and organic.
On the story and lore:
200 years after Oblivion. Set in Skyrim, a region north of the imperial city, where the Nords live.
The dragons are returning, as it was prophetized. You are gonna be trying to stop the wicked dragon god. You are a dragonborn, a dragon hunter. Your mentor is one of the last blade, voiced by some old dude from Shutter Island and Minority Report.
Also, there is a civil war, since the king is dead.
Enemies include were-yeti's, giant spider, dragons and other cool creatures.
On combat:
They want to make it more dynamic and tactical. You have to assign each hand with a function I think, either magic, 2 weapons, a weapon and a shield, etc.
You can also waste stamina by sprinting, allowing you to get access to tactical postitions.
Emphasis on really improving the combat this time around.
They are also putting care on how each weapon feel on your hand.
Other:
Third person view has been improved
5 massive cities, more variation in caves and underground stuff.
On quests:
Quests are much more dynamic now.
The quests are now more determined by how you build your chracter, individual actions and overall much more dynamic. Examples provided: If you are more of a magic user, some other mage may approach you who may not have had if you were just a melee character. Or if you killed some dude who owned a store that was gonna give you a quest, his sister would inherit the store, but she may resent you before giving you the quest. Also, if you drop a weapon in the street instead of selling it, it may just dissapear, some kid may get it and give it back to you, which would lead to a series of stuff, or some dudes may fight over who gets it.
Also, it said that the quests you are given would be modified by how you have played (I guess like scaling the quests). For example, the location of a rescue mission would be determined by which location you have visited (it will try to give you a dungeon you haven't been in) and I guess also giving you appropiate enemies to your level.
I can add that there is an option for no HUD.
On Conversations: (thanks MrBig)
Conversations aren't done in a zoomed in static shot anymore.
Start a conversation with some and they will act like someone would in real life, looking at you occasionally and walking around a bit and also continue doing a task if they were doing one while talking.
On Weapon smithing:
Go to a forge and carve a new weapon out of red hot metal.
Recap from raphier
Dual-wielding: you have two hands now in combat and you can wield anything to both hands. You may assign a dagger on left hand and use a mace with right hand. The choice as they say is yours.
Duel: You may duel any NPC on the streets western style.
Inheritence: When you kill a shopkeeper, his/her family member will inherit the shop and will be angry about you, but stil give you missions.
Level-scaling: It is coming back
18 skills: supposedly even less skills to play with?
No mysticism
Perks: Rumored to be in Skyrim. I may have understood it wrong.
Boosts: Pick stamina, health, magic boosts on level up.
Enchanting: This skill makes a return.
"Radiant storytelling" or Level Scaling 2.0: "The game eventually logs a huge storehouse of knowledge about how you've played, and subsequently tailors content to your capabilities and experiences. Entering a city, a young woman might approach you and beg you to save her daughter from kidnappers. The game will look at the nearby dungeons you've explored, automatically set the mission in a place you've never visited, and designate opponents that are appropriately matched to your strengths and weaknesses."
Fast-Travel: As you probably expect, you can instantly travel to previous locations with a tap of the button
Sprinting: You can now sprint about!
Town visiting: You may do more in towns, like tailor weapons, cooking, farming or mining. Not much details about this or how detailed they are as jobs.
Yet another recap:
-A variation of level scaling.
-Dynamic Shadows
-Overhauled Combat-system
-Improved Faces/Improved Models Example: Faces have been dramatically overhauled. Characters now exhibit more emotion show of distinctions between different races and just plain looks better.
-Radiant AI
-Updated Engine Snow falls dynamically (not as a basic texture on the ground)
Trees and branches move independently with the wind
Water flows
-Randomly generated quests.
-Beards
-You can't run backwards as fast as you do forward.
-10 races to choose from (Holy crap thats a lot of races)
-confirmed creatures: zombies, skeletons, trolls, giants, ice wraiths, giant spiders, dragons, wolves, horses Elk, mammoth, saber-toothed cats
-presumeably open cities (as dragons can attack)
-Hud-free first-person view and improved third-person perspective
-very unique landscapes! Also unique dungeons! In other words, lots of uniqueness!
-Character creation improved, body features customizable
-2-handed weapons and duel wielding confirmed.
-Finishing moves, unique to each weapon and enemy you fight.
-Kids
-The game takes place 2 centuries after Oblivion
-Sprint is added !
- Dialog will pop up when you approach an enemy
- cooking/farming/mining/woodcutting/blacksmithing
-18 skills.
-Perk picking at every level-up
-5 Magic Schools Destruction Alteration Conjuration Restoration Illusion.
On level scaling from the Senior Community Manager:
Originally Posted by gstaff:
Scaling is similar to what we had in Fallout 3. See the comment I put in our official forums
Quote:
Since people are asking, wanted to briefly touch on level scaling. All our games have had some amount of randomness/levelling based on player level. Skyrim's is similar to Fallout 3's, not Oblivion's.
Hoping this will be good, since with FO3 Bethesda proved they really are capable of making a decent game.
go play some hello kitty.Hoping this will be good, since with FO3 Bethesda proved they really are capable of making a decent game.
Word. Morrowind is atrocious.
Should be interesting to see if they can continue the downward slide they've been on since Daggerfall. I'm not sure how much lower they can go than Oblivion, but Bethesda is always full of surprises!
Seeing lots of speculation about #tesv game engine. It's brand new... and it's spectacular!
I thought it was the same engine?
With stuff like Witcher 2 and TwoWorlds 2 looking as good as they do now, it would have been kinda weird for Bethesda to release the next instalment of one of the premier fantasy rpg franchises on an engine that makes million-dollar games look like bad Half-Life 2 mods.
So is their new engine moddable? Or closed like MW2?
So is their new engine moddable? Or closed like MW2?
The animation in their games definitely pulls you out of the world. And for a game where you will be looking at a face and picking through dialogue trees they do themselves no favor by having that always look like shit. My favorite part of Bethesda games is when somebody has something to say to you and they do that shitty animated run up to you and the camera does that awkward turn pan and zoom move.
I know none of that stuff is about actual gameplay stuff which is the important thing but they really should have a few people on the team concentrating on things like that.
The animation in their games definitely pulls you out of the world. And for a game where you will be looking at a face and picking through dialogue trees they do themselves no favor by having that always look like shit. My favorite part of Bethesda games is when somebody has something to say to you and they do that shitty animated run up to you and the camera does that awkward turn pan and zoom move.
I know none of that stuff is about actual gameplay stuff which is the important thing but they really should have a few people on the team concentrating on things like that.
And the sad thing is, those simple kind of things are the most likely to be invisible to the team at this point, and just overlooked while they're busy 2.0'ing everything else.
A new era is dawning in the world of Tamriel, and we've got 14 pages of screens and details straight from Bethesda.
The February issue of Game Informer is about to hit subscribers, and you can now see a first look at the new cover image. The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim is the next huge role-playing game from Bethesda, the makers of Oblivion and Fallout 3. Bethesda was kind enough to walk us though the new game a few weeks ago, and we can't wait to share what we experienced with all of you.
The cover features a first for Game Informer. While this digital version of the image shows off the stark, black styling, the real treat comes in the print version. There you'll see a special ultraviolet coating that accentuates the symbol in the center, giving a striking, 3-dimensional texture to the image.
What's that on the back cover? The strange language seen there offers the first hints of Skyrim's story, along with a unique tie to the singing in the recent teaser trailer. What does it say? The answer lies in translating the stanzas into English. Check back later today to solve the puzzle. It's the first installment of our month-long extravaganza of online Skyrim stories, all of which will be found on the game's hub page as they release, linked from the image below.
We hope you enjoy the mysterious cover. And don't worry. The inside of the magazine has over 20 screenshots that show off Skyrim in all its glory, along with a 14-page article on the new gameplay, engine, story and setting for this latest Elder Scrolls epic.
Also in this issue, we reveal our top 50 games of 2010, including your reader picks for game of the year. What did we choose? What did you choose? And were they the same?
In addition, the February issue includes our first look at Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception, our blowout on the new Mortal Kombat game (including two new characters), and our frightening look at the newest Silent Hill. Also watch for our final review of Dead Space 2.
As always, thanks to all of our readers for checking out the magazine and website. Let us know what you think about the new cover in the comments below, and don't forget to come back later today to learn more about its mysteries.
Man, Game Informer is really kicking ass with these covers lately.
Man, Game Informer is really kicking ass with these covers lately.
That Bioshock Infinity cover a few months ago was sick.
Indeed. I have Cover #1 and #2 since I have two Edge cards. I tried to find Cover #3 but could never do so.
Just got my gameinformer.
Screens look great! didn't read it yet.
Nice foliage on the trees like fall in new england in one screen.
and a cool city with waterfalls around it.
:hyperI saw you on Live playing Oblivion. Big fan, eh?
Possible bad news,level scaling is in
Not for me,never had problems with that,always played as some overpowered mage warrior.I guess if they do it properly,people won't complain.
Post all the pics here please, thanks. In links.
http://twitpic.com/3nwxb2/full (http://twitpic.com/3nwxb2/full)It's not everything,i think
http://twitpic.com/3nwzem (http://twitpic.com/3nwzem)
http://twitpic.com/3nx16h (http://twitpic.com/3nx16h)
http://twitpic.com/3nx2cc (http://twitpic.com/3nx2cc)
http://twitpic.com/3nx3es (http://twitpic.com/3nx3es)
http://img717.imageshack.us/img717/3391/1294436166308.jpg
http://img510.imageshack.us/img510/3854/1294436506003.jpg
http://img522.imageshack.us/img522/9150/1294437115139.jpg
http://img255.imageshack.us/img255/5374/1294437818940.jpg
http://img80.imageshack.us/img80/1619/1294438061177.jpg
http://img408.imageshack.us/img408/2659/1294438461636.jpg
i dunno, that art looks a bit fantasy-generic to me
JAPFAGS SEEN CRYING IN TO A PILE OF POCKY
Possible bad news,level scaling is in
Not for me,never had problems with that,always played as some overpowered mage warrior.I guess if they do it properly,people won't complain.
yeah, I'm SOOOOOOOO JEALOUS. Enjoy your asian nyquil substitute.
i'm counting on a certain amount of jank (not the "THIS FUCKING THING WON'T STOP CRASHING" kind), and looking forward to it
i still remember going into an inn in oblivion, accidentally bumping into some dude, who bumped into another dude, which somehow triggered a fight between them, and then everyone in the inn started scrapping, and a minute or so later i was standing surrounded by a pile of dead bodies when i hadn't even drawn my sword
i'm counting on a certain amount of jank (not the "THIS FUCKING THING WON'T STOP CRASHING" kind), and looking forward to it
i still remember going into an inn in oblivion, accidentally bumping into some dude, who bumped into another dude, which somehow triggered a fight between them, and then everyone in the inn started scrapping, and a minute or so later i was standing surrounded by a pile of dead bodies when i hadn't even drawn my sword
[youtube=560,345]1ATh4y4XRjA[/youtube]
http://oi53.tinypic.com/2cpx93t.jpg
When you wanna bone an in game character, you know something is right
Possible bad news,level scaling is in
Not for me,never had problems with that,always played as some overpowered mage warrior.I guess if they do it properly,people won't complain.
Level scaling I can deal with.....item scaling, not so much. IMO the item scaling killed Oblivion. When even random hobos you meet have daedric armor and magic weapons the game essentially breaks itself.
Damn, this is actually looking pretty good. I guess Bethesda really is on an upswing after making their first good game. Can't wait until 2012 when the complete version of the game comes out.
Mostly excited after reading the post that breaks it down on gaf. Glad to hear that conversations aren't just two people staring at each other anymore.
The level scaling was definitely the biggest problem in Oblivion. It was too aggresive. Moving it more towards the way Fallout (even though that game was really easy) was is a step in the right direction. I assume the quests hopefully won't be aggressively scaled also.
Check OP,summary is thereMostly excited after reading the post that breaks it down on gaf. Glad to hear that conversations aren't just two people staring at each other anymore.
link?
Doesn't look like many big cities :(
From what was talked about in GI, it really seems like they've taken the criticisms of their past games to heart.
-Improved UI that's functional and stylish
-Improved combat that allows great customization and strategy
-Improved character models and more voice actors
-More detailed world with more things to do
It's gonna be great, hope they show a video or something of it at this years QuakeCon.
From what was talked about in GI, it really seems like they've taken the criticisms of their past games to heart.
-Improved UI that's functional and stylish
-Improved combat that allows great customization and strategy
-Improved character models and more voice actors
-More detailed world with more things to do
It's gonna be great, hope they show a video or something of it at this years QuakeCon.
Expect it at MS press conference,like Fallout 3
To create a diverse country filled with steep mountain passes and dense forests, babbling brooks and violent waterfalls, glacier coastlines and snowy tundras, Bethesda went back to the drawing board and rewrote every major system powering the gameplay experience. The result is the newly dubbed Creation Engine and Kit.Good ,LOD system is like the most important thing in open world game(see RDR)...it was shit in Oblivion
“The big things for us were to draw a lot of stuff in the distance so we have a really sophisticated level of detail, more so than what we've had in the past for how things stream in and how detail gets added to them as they get closer to the camera,” explains Bethesda Studios creative director Todd Howard.
Draw distances are great for creating those postcard-worthy landscapes, but the players eyes aren't always fixed on the horizon. To give the immediate surrounding a more believable look and feel, Bethesda increased the emphasis on the play between light and shadow on the entire world.“Because our worlds are so big all of the lighting has to be dynamic,” Howard says. “That's something we had a little bit of in the past with shadowing, but not on everything. Now we have it on everything. It just makes the whole thing a lot more believable when you're there.”
A lot of the environments are dominated by the untamed wilderness, which look great thanks to Bethesda's overhauled foliage system. In previous games the team licensed the SpeedTree middleware to render the forests. For Skyrim, they've created their own platform that allows artists to build whatever kind of trees they want and to dictate how they animate. Artists can alter the weight of the branches to adjust how much they move in the wind, which is an effective way of, for instance, actualizing the danger of traversing steep mountain passes with howling winds violently shaking branches.
Given its northern location and extreme elevations, Skyrim's climate is more prone to snowfall than Cyrodiil. To create realistic precipitation effects, Bethesda originally tried to use shaders and adjust their opacity and rim lighting, but once the artists built the models and populated the world the snow appeared to fall too evenly. To work around this problem, they built a new precipitation system that allows artists to define how much snow will hit particular objects. The program scans the geography, then calculates where the snow should fall to make sure it accumulates properly on the trees, rocks, and bushes.
The Radiant AI technology introduced in Oblivion went a long way toward making the NPCs act in realistic ways. If you followed a citizen through his daily activities, you would likely witness him or her eating breakfast, setting out to work the land, stopping by the pub for a pint after work, and then returning home to hit the sack.No shit...we'll see how this goes
In reality, the technology driving NPC behavior wasn't overly sophisticated. Bethesda could only assign five or six types of tasks to the townspeople, and there wasn't a lot of nuance to their actions. In Skyrim, the characters have much more defined individual personalities.
You won't find townspeople loitering aimlessly in town squares anymore. Each denizen performs tasks that make sense in their environment. To impart the towns and cities with a greater sense of life, Bethesda has populated them with mills, farms, and mines that give the NPCs believable tasks to occupy their day. In the forest village we visited during the demo, most of the citizens were hard at work chopping wood, running logs through the mill, and carrying goods through the town.
The improved Radiant AI technology is also more aware of how a citizen should react to your actions. As you perform tasks for them or terrorize them by ransacking their home, the NPCs develop feelings about you. If you're good friends with a particular NPC and barge into his house during the middle of the night, he may offer you lodging rather than demand you leave the premises. “Your friend would let you eat the apple in his house,” Howard says. If you swing your weapon near an NPC, knock items off their dinner table, or try to steal something of value, they'll react with an appropriate level of hostility given their prior relationship to you.
The expansive Oblivion and Fallout 3 settings created a wonderful sense of place, but the robotic and unrealistic character animations sometimes betrayed the sense of immersion the environments imparted. Aware of the disconnect, Bethesda has enlisted Havok's new Behavior technology to endow Skyrim's characters and creatures with a proper sense of movement.Good,no need to explain
“We looked at a bunch of [animation solutions], and this is about the tippy-top state-of-the-art stuff out there,” Howard says. “I think we're the first real big game to use it.”
Havok Behavior is a flexible animation tool that allows the developers to rapidly prototype and preview new animations and blend them together seamlessly with a few mouse clicks and minimal code support. Bethesda is using it to create more nuance in character and creature movement, govern special effects, and even to control how characters struggle to move when trapped in environmental hazards like spider webs. Characters now transition more realistically between walking, jogging, and running, and the increased nuance between animations has allowed Bethesda to better balance the combat in both first- and third-person perspective by adjusting the timing values for swings and blocks depending on your perspective. “We definitely have made a significant jump in how it plays [in third person perspective],” Howard proclaims.
The increased animation fidelity and diversity has enabled Bethesda to ditch the awkward dialogue camera perspective that paused the game and presented you with an extreme closeup of the person with whom you were speaking. Now camera stays in the same perspective used during combat and exploration, and players are free to look around while engaging in conversation. Rather than drop their activities to give you their undivided attention, the NPCs continue to go about their business while in discussion. For instance, a barkeep may continue to clean cups while talking, and even move from behind the counter to a seat. A mill worker chopping wood may engage in conversation without turning away from his duties, only occasionally glancing toward you during the exchange.
Radiant StoryGood,but again we'll see how this goes
Before they started planning missions for Skyrim, Howard and his team reflected on what they liked about their older projects. They kept returning to the randomized encounters in Fallout 3 and Daggerfall. To build off the success of those models and improve the experience so the random encounters feel less forced or arbitrary, Bethesda undertook the ambitious task of constructing a new story management system dubbed Radiant Story. Many quests are still completely governed by Bethesda, but the Radiant Story system helps randomize and relate the side quests to players to make the experience as dynamic and reactive as possible. Rather than inundate you with a string of unrelated and mundane tasks, it tailors missions based on who your character is, where you're at, what you've done in the past, and what you're currently doing.
“Traditionally in an assassination quest, we would pick someone of interest and have you assassinate them,” Howard says. “Now there is a template for an assassination mission and the game can conditionalize all the roles – where it happens, under what conditions does it take place, who wants someone assassinated, and who they want assassinated. All this can be generated based on where the character is, who he's met. They can conditionalize that someone who you've done a quest for before wants someone assassinated, and the target could be someone with whom you've spent a lot of time before.”
The Radiant Story system also helps deal with untimely deaths. Predicting player behavior in an open world is tough, as many often stray from the main quests and get into trouble by murdering quest givers. In Skyrim, if you kill a shop owner who had a few quests to offer if you spend the time to get to know him, his sister may take over the shop and offer the quest that was formerly ascribed to him. The quest logic automatically picks up with pre-recorded voice work because Bethesda already assigned her that contingency role. Tread lightly though, because she's not oblivious to your dastardly actions. She will still recognize you killed her brother and perhaps even try to exact revenge later in the game.
Radiant Story is also smart enough to know which caves and dungeons you've already visited and thus conditionalize where, for instance, a kidnapped person is being held to direct you toward a specific place you haven't been to before, populated with a specific level of enemy. This helps Bethesda avoid repetition and usher the player into areas the team wants you to explore.
The story manager is always watching you, which can leads to strange random encounters as well. If you drop a sword in the middle of town, someone may pick it up and return it to you, or two guys may get into a fight over who gets to take it. If you're really good at a particular skill, like one-handed weapons or destruction spells, a stranger who knows of your reputation may ask for training, challenge you to a duel, or beg you for a favor that will require you to show off your skill.
Skyrim also tracks your friendships and grudges to generate missions. Do a small favor for a farmer and it may eventually lead to a larger quest. Some NPCs will even agree to be your companion to help you out in specific situations.
Radiant Story doesn't limit these new missions to encounters in towns. Like in Fallout 3 and Red Dead Redemption, a lot of random events occur while you're exploring the wilderness as well. "There are a wide variety of these random encounters," says design director Bruce Nesmith. "Many of them are things the player can interact with, some are not. You might save a priest who then tells you about a dungeon where there are people trapped that need saving. You might run across mammoth beset by a pack of wolves."
You might run across mammoth beset by a pack of wolves.
I'm worried this wont make November.
I'm worried this wont make November.
Bethesda games are very popular in the West.I bought 360 just to play Oblivion,never regretted it,250+ hours...good times
It had tons of flaws but I still played it like a fanatic,no food or sleep needed
There is something magical in Bethesda games,you just can't stop playing them
Morrowind also :omg
Like it was yesterday...played it on PC of course
http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2011/01/20/pimp-rims-mod-support-confirmed-for-skyrim/
:bow2
even if this game is broke, the community can fix it :rock
Many aspects of The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim will feel familiar to longtime fans. The exploration of a vast open world, first-person combat, and interacting systems of melee, magic, and stealth are all tent pole ideas within the franchise. However, Skyrim introduces something new into the gameplay mix: dragon shouts. This special new set of powers stand apart from the existing magic system, offering a broad range of powerful effects. The ability to attain these abilities is unique to your hero in the world, and the path to attaining them is a quest in itself within the larger tale that unfolds over the course of the game. Dragon shouts give the player the same overwhelming might that drives the resurgent dragon population, and the same source of power that launched the last line of emperors.
The Dutch Power Unlimited dropped in my mailbox today. Highlights of the 4-page article:
"Technically speaking, Skyrim is an evolution within The Elder Scrolls, and not a revolution (but everything looks fabulous). The magic of the world that Bethesda has created is nevertheless unequivocally present."
"All weapons have different properties, which you can take advantage of by choosing the right perks. Maces ignore a percentage of armor, and axes have bleed damage over time.
"You can use fast travel to revisit places you have visited earlier."
"Skyrim is approximately as big as Oblivion."
"Five big cities and more than 130 dungeons."
"Low-Fantasy" (Meaning the game does not look as vibrant, vivid and weird as Morrowind did, more like Oblivion) -> "Oblivion was for sure not over-the-top in terms of its style, but Skyrim should be considered low fantasy even more than its predecessor. Much of the locations look realistic, and could easily exist in our own world."
"The overarching narrative of the Dragons is less prominent than the Oblivion Gates were in Oblivion, which does not give you the feeling that you are doing 'useless' quests when you lay aside the Main Quest."
"Dragons are not rare."
"Dungeons will be locked at their level once you have been there." (Once you go to a dungeon, it will remain lvl 5 when you entered it on lvl 5. This does not imply that all dungeons are level-scaled, it just confirms that dungeons don't change difficulties throughout your savegame after you have entered them.)
"Even in third person, animations look really good. There has been a lot of progress since Oblivion."
"You can read in-game books in 3-D."
"Every item has a 3D-preview in the Flash based inventory, which you can twist, turn, rotate, etc. Sometimes you will solve puzzles by analyzing these 3D-previews. Not only armor and weapons can be explored in great detail, also small rings and herbs can be investigated from all possible angles. Every single item in the game can be previewed in the inventory screen." "
"The Dark Brotherhood is back."
"Active blocking."
"More traps and puzzles."
"Main Story is approximately 20 hours. Hundreds of hours for other quests."
"Every dragon you kill will make you stronger. A piece of his soul will be transferred to yours."
The article also describes how the game starts:
Spoiler Warning:spoiler (click to show/hide)"This time, the game does not start in a prison. This time you witness your own execution, approximately 200 years after the events of Oblivion. Luckily, it seems like you are more than just a helpless convict."[close]
There's also an interview with Todd Howard in the article. These are the highlights of that interview:
"There are special animations for sneak kills with daggers." (The way it is written in Dutch does not imply that there are no special animations for other weapons btw...)
"We primarily look at how we can improve facial expressions and animations, graphics-wise."
"The game won't support Kinect. It takes too much memory."
"It is not yet possible to combine forms of magic. It is difficult. Frost magic makes an enemy move slower, and fire does damage over time, and the fire remains on the ground for additional damage. If we would allow the player to use fire magic in one hand, and frost magic in the other, it becomes much more complex. Maybe we will implement this though, but for the time being, 'No'. This one is confusing. The way it is stated in Dutch might imply that it is impossible to combine different spells, because of the extra animations. This might also imply that there will be no spells with more than one effect. Not sure myself either. Would like someone of Bethesda to interpret this for us.
"Someone modded Oblivion by changing the physics of shooting an arrow. It made you shoot slower and you almost had to remain stationary to shoot, which increased the arrow's impact. We liked this mod so much, that we implemented it in Skyrim by default."
Wizardry: Tale of the Forsaken Land :bow
Should I get Fallout NV or just get Oblivion?
NV kind of bored me, they shouldnt release two Fallouts in a row maybe, it get a bit same same. Plus Fallout needs some some run button or something.I just can't believe there's only one dev house that really does first person RPGs. It seems like such a underused genre and seeing the fervor for a new Bethesda games which generally have similar aspect between them (Morrowind to Skyrim and the Fallout games) you've got to wonder if gamers would eat up a First Person RPG by another developer with a radical difference in the system they implement. Basically this is a long winded way of saying From Software give me King's Field V.
Nice thing about nice things is that they are unique.
Bethesda has revealed that the overhauled menu system in The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim will draw inspiration from a rather trendy source -- Apple's iTunes. In fact, the studio wants to make Skyrim look like Apple designed a fantasy game ... seriously!
"You know in iTunes when you look at all your music you get to flip through it and look at the covers and it becomes tangible? One of our goals was, 'What if Apple made a fantasy game? How would this look?' It's very good at getting through lots of data quickly, which is always a struggle with our stuff," said Bethesda's Todd Howard.
What if Apple made a fantasy game? How would this look?
well if anyone knows kernel panics, it's bethesda
The cover story of March's OXM (Official Xbox Magazine) UK is Skyrim. There are 10 pages about Skyrim with an additional interview with Todd Howard, Bruce Nesmith (with the help of Matt Carofano). The article covers all the key points such as combat, Radiant Story, skills and the world. For an eager fan who has read the forums and other magazines such as gameinformer, there isn't a great deal of brand new information about key features of the game but it is an excellent preview and I highly recommend it.
I'll try to keep this topic brief and mention things I haven't read elsewhere.
Info
There is a perk that will lower the sound of your footsteps.
Perk for Axe that enables deeper cuts, which means prolonged bleeding. You can hit someone once and they will eventually bleed out.
Eventual perk upgrade for Maces that will allow you to hit for full damage, ignoring armor stats.
The article mentions placing runes on the floor (that we know already) but in particular talks about 'lob a frost rune down and if an enemy wanders over it, shards of ice will be launched through its body'
Telekinesis is an available spell.
'No more agility to build up so don't have to keep jumping around to level up' (I assume they mean no longer skills like acrobatics and athletes but they use the word agility)
When you kill a dragon you're able to absorb its soul which will make you learn a new dragon shout.
There is a dragon shout called 'Unrelenting Force' which pushes anything standing directly in front of you backwards.
Dragon shouts have cooldown periods after each shout performed. Individual shouts will have their own cooldown time.
In the northern parts of Solitude is the Bard's College. The city is a busy port and there's event similar to bonfire night that has the burning of an effigy of King Olaf.
Windhelm is the largest city. It has a palace that should look spectacular. This is also apparently the hangout for the Imperial Guards who monitor the path to Morrowind.
Bleak Falls Barrows is a dungeon, with ancient Nord catacombs which features rivers, tree roots coming through the ceiling and light coming through odd cracks.
120 Dungeons and they claim that 'no two areas will be alike'.
Just to re-confirm this fact straight from Todd Howard. Oblivion had 1 dungeon designer with artists doing the rest. Skyrim has 8 dungeon designers.
Whole world is hand-crafted. Oblivion had some generated landscapes and there is NONE of that anymore used in Skyrim.
The Shivering isles expansion inspired the team that unique, hand-crafted cities, where no two buildings look the same, was the way to go.
Example of a 'Radiant Story'. OXM UK recieved a quest to go to Bleak Falls Barrow and retrieve a golden dragon claw antique and take it back to shopkeeper Lucan. If you killed Lucan, the quest would change to his friend Camilla instead.
The Snow. Has been a lot of confusion about this. OXM UK says that snowfall is dynamic. Instead of a texture with a bit of white added, landscapes realistically get dusted with snow landing in appropiate nooks and crannies.
There are one-off puzzles in certain dungeons.
Example of new AI: 'Wolves have a den. Few times a day they go out and do a patrol and hunt in a pack. If they kill something then they'll hang out there. If you go outside and they're on patrol they will come after you. If they've killed something they will guard that and not chase you down as they want to look after it.
Dragon Shouts
The fact about the 'absorb soul of dragons to learn new shouts' has caused a little bit of confusion.
The dragon shout phases, of up to three words, can be found inscribed on the walls of ancient Nord dungeons. When uttered by the Dragonborn (the player) the words invoke powerful magic powers. For many of the shouts you can learn more phases which in turn will allow you to unleash a lengthier or more powerful version of the shout by holding the shout button down.
This appears to be the main way of learning shouts, by finding the word inscriptions. However the OXM article also mentions that you can learn new shouts in the process of absorbing dragon souls. The article doesn't mention anything else about this, maybe not all dragons give shouts, we don't know yet.
Key Map Locations visible on page 34
Solitude
Markarth
Dawnstar
Winter Hold
Windhelm
Whiterun
Riften
Falkreath
edit - These map locations may very well be outdated as OXM have used the old skyrim map with a new colour scheme.
Confirmed Skills
Alchemy
Illusion
Conjuration
Destruction
Restoration
Alteration
Enchanting
New Screenshots
Page 31 - We see a dragon on top of snow covered ruins. There is a huge backdrop behind it showing off mountains, new clouds and fog. Draw distance looks great.
Page 34 - There is a picture of the skyrim worldmap which lists the locations listed above. On 2nd look they've used the same map as the one on the UESP wiki, so it may be outdated.
Page 38 - A player appears to be wearing Elven armor and dualwielding a sword and staff. The staff is able to cast light along a corrider. (Was in gameinformer but bigger shot here and addition info)
Page 39 - 2 new screenshots here, we see a hooded stealth character performing a stealth execution (Assassin's Creed style, blade to the chest up close). We see a new dungeon called the 'Hall of Stories' which features a locked door and a puzzle to open it. Stonework looks fantastic with spider webbing across the walls.
I believe some of the screenshots I've mentioned are in the gameinformer, however different quality/size in OXM UK. The page 31 shot I believe in gameinformer was covered in text and colour tinted. In OXM UK it is a clear ingame screenshot.
It does appear all the screenshots we have seen so far have been from the xbox build.
I'll have another look through but I believe I've covered most of the brand new info. Enjoy.
120 Dungeons and they claim that 'no two areas will be alike'.
Just to re-confirm this fact straight from Todd Howard. Oblivion had 1 dungeon designer with artists doing the rest. Skyrim has 8 dungeon designers.
Whole world is hand-crafted. Oblivion had some generated landscapes and there is NONE of that anymore used in Skyrim.
The Shivering isles expansion inspired the team that unique, hand-crafted cities, where no two buildings look the same, was the way to go.
http://www.gamereactor.eu/media/59/elderscrolls5_235966b.jpg (http://www.gamereactor.eu/media/59/elderscrolls5_235966b.jpg)
http://www.gamereactor.eu/media/59/elderscrolls5_235971b.jpg (http://www.gamereactor.eu/media/59/elderscrolls5_235971b.jpg)
I still can't believe that Skyrim actually has good-looking female NPCs. It's like...how is that even possible?It's a mod.
The shot with the dragon flyover is probably the most hype inducing screenshot I've ever seen for a game :dizzy
A good looking Bethesda game?:rofl
FAKE!
A good looking Bethesda game?:rofl
FAKE!
Yeah, it's weird. When I see PC screenshots of Fallout 3 or NV, I think "Wow, that's not bad." And then I remember the 360 version I own.
:fbm
GAF is ready to jump off a bridge because it wasn't PS3 footage.
fuck those dudes that are like "fuck those dudes that didn't like the prequels i liked them all and will like this one", because i liked them more than you ever did and will like this one more than you ever will
(http://www.abload.de/img/theelderscrollsv_skyrikm9h.gif)
2011 is at least the best year for RPGs ever.
2011 is at least the best year for RPGs ever.
Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
Dragon Age 2
The Witcher 2
Deus Ex 3: Human Revolution
Two Worlds
Drakensang: The River of Time
Mass Effect 3
Dark Souls
Dungeon Siege III
Mount & Blade: With Fire & Sword
Neverwinter
Torchlight II
Yep.
:teehee all western
2011 is at least the best year for RPGs ever.
Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
Dragon Age 2
The Witcher 2
Deus Ex 3: Human Revolution
Two Worlds
Drakensang: The River of Time
Mass Effect 3
Dark Souls
Dungeon Siege III
Mount & Blade: With Fire & Sword
Neverwinter
Torchlight II
Yep.
2011 is at least the best year for RPGs ever.
Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
Dragon Age 2
The Witcher 2
Deus Ex 3: Human Revolution
Two Worlds
Drakensang: The River of Time
Mass Effect 3
Dark Souls
Dungeon Siege III
Mount & Blade: With Fire & Sword
Neverwinter
Torchlight II
Yep.
Sorry for the derail but wait wait what? Neverwinter Nights 3?
Not sure if its bullshit but someone posted that the people who worked on Dark Messiah are doing the combat for Skyrim
Not sure if its bullshit but someone posted that the people who worked on Dark Messiah are doing the combat for Skyrim
Zenimax bought them out last year, so it wouldn't be surprising to see them help out in that regard.
I never finished Oblivion. Is there a list of essential mods to use for it that someone can link to?
Hey guys, remember Japan? Me neither.
I never finished Oblivion. Is there a list of essential mods to use for it that someone can link to?
Planet Elder Scrolls (http://planetelderscrolls.gamespy.com/View.php?view=OblivionMods.HOF)
TES Nexus (http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/search.php?name=&scid=20&author=&mname=&desc=&size1=&size2=&downloads1=&downloads2=&udate1_day=&udate1_month=&udate1_year=&udate2_day=&udate2_month=&udate2_year=&ldate1_day=&ldate1_month=&ldate1_year=&ldate2_day=&ldate2_month=&ldate2_year=&endorsements=&images=&readme=&adultonly=&opensource=&page=1&orderby=name&order=ASC)
I never finished Oblivion. Is there a list of essential mods to use for it that someone can link to?
Planet Elder Scrolls (http://planetelderscrolls.gamespy.com/View.php?view=OblivionMods.HOF)
TES Nexus (http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/search.php?name=&scid=20&author=&mname=&desc=&size1=&size2=&downloads1=&downloads2=&udate1_day=&udate1_month=&udate1_year=&udate2_day=&udate2_month=&udate2_year=&ldate1_day=&ldate1_month=&ldate1_year=&ldate2_day=&ldate2_month=&ldate2_year=&endorsements=&images=&readme=&adultonly=&opensource=&page=1&orderby=name&order=ASC)
thx. the only thing that sucks is as with all mods there is a proper order to install this stuff and its always annoying trying to research and figure it out.
Oblivion's patch that came with Shivering Isles fixed a lot of issues. You could try sticking with that and see if the game looks good enough for you. Some of the graphical mods make things look much better but they could also make the game buggier. In terms of gameplay mods, I tend to like sticking with how the developer intended the game to be played, at least for the first run. A lot of gameplay mods seem great initially but end up ruining much of the gameplay balance.
Hey guys, remember Japan? Me neither.
What's a japan?
[youtube=560,345]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=egrlzkKa6O8[/youtube]
:D
(http://i.imgur.com/f1Sji.jpg)
(http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2770/4255884785_dd8544bf67.jpg) (http://i84.photobucket.com/albums/k33/GreatRumbler/fP98c.jpg)
(http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2770/4255884785_dd8544bf67.jpg) (http://i84.photobucket.com/albums/k33/GreatRumbler/fP98c.jpg)
Whoever they hired to do the face modeling the concept art that led to the awesomeness that are the Orcs and Khajiits needs a raise.
And in the comparison its almost like you've got well-to-do business Khajiit that gets a Mocha Latte every Monday on his way to his Khajiit career and then on the left you've got the same Khajiit that witnessed his family being murdered by High Elves and just lost his little Khajiit mind. Now its time for blood.
Wow, is that really oblivion? Man, they've come a long way.
when does this game come out
11.11.11
Hey guys, remember Japan? Me neither.
when does this game come out11.11.11
When will it finally be patched and working properly?
12.12.12
when does this game come out11.11.11
When will it finally be patched and working properly?
12.12.12
Basically wanting to move away from the hardcore RPG aspects. Its unfortunate but the unique leveling system and skill system of the past Elder Scrolls usually detracted from the adventure aspect (whole lotta grinding). We'll see if it works.
Months out from release, Skyrim no longer hardcore according to GR. No-one else need post in this thread.
I know pretty much everyone's digging the design/art overhaul for Skyrim, but I keep thinking of progressive rock album covers and wizards airbrushed on the side of vans every time I see a new screen or video.
My problem with Morrowind is that it doesn't really ease the player into the game. I don't want to be hand held all the time in a game like this, but give me SOME motivation to play. In Morrowind you start out on a ship for god's knows what (I don't remember), and you end up in some random town and you have to figure your way.
n November 11th, Bethesda Game Studios brings us the next installment in The Elder Scrolls franchise with The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. Xbox LIVE will be the first to bring players the experience of Skyrim's add-on content in this revolutionized open-world fantasy epic where players can explore any way they choose.
The first two add-on content drops for The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim will be releasing exclusively on Xbox 360, 30 days before it's available anywhere else. If you'd like to be the first to break new ground in Skyrim, Xbox LIVE is the only destination that won't keep you waiting.
For more information about The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim please visit http://www.elderscrolls.com/skyrim/ and http://www.xbox.com/skyrim.
The first two add-on content drops for The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim will be releasing exclusively on Xbox 360, 30 days before it's available anywhere else.
You specifically brought up sfags when in reality it's everyone except people who are getting it on 360. So because this includes pc gamers, the fact you explicitly targeted sony fans is stupid when most people here are most likely going to be getting it on pc and not 360.
When in reality it's everyone except people who are getting it on 360
Yes, I'm pretty sure most of the people at the bore are going to play skyrim on pc. are you fucking kidding me? how does this not affect them?
But we get day 1 nude patches 8)
Sorry maxy, I just find your ps3 hate stupid and this is coming from someone who's going to get Skyrim on 360.
:piss2QuoteIn an interview with CVG, Bethesda’s Craig Lafferty said that Skyrim has been developed with consoles as the lead target.
The lead producer on Skyrim said: “We use the consoles as our lead SKU… So we develop towards the consoles and then porting to PC is usually not too bad actually .”
The above comments are likely to cause PC gamers a bit of grief, and the next thing on Craig Lafferty’s mind was unlikely to appease them.
“[We wanted to take it and make it really accessible,” the producer said.“… We still have the complexity behind the scenes, but we wanted to make it so that you could pick up the controller and play and it was easy; the average person could get into it…We knew we wanted to make the user interface a little bit more open and available … get away from the stats and things like that.”
Hopefully this doesn’t mean we will be getting a dumbed down version of the RPG, but rather a slicker and more streamlined game. Simplifying RPG’s usually equates to commercial success, but also causes a split in your core audience, as we saw with Dragon Age 2. Bethesda will have to make sure they don’t alienate its established fan base in its quest to please the “average person”.
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim releases on PC, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 on November 11.
http://www.gamersmint.com/bethesda-consoles-to-be-the-lead-platform-for-skyrim-aim-to-make-it-really-accessible
:hyper
Go back to Polland,nerd
oh wait you are already there
Go back to Polland,nerd
oh wait you are already there
I haven't seen the stuff in the 2nd vid Herr posted. What bothers me is they only showed loot once. I'm guessing they want to keep that a secret though.
DeathSpank had a thing where you just dumped trash loot into a grinder and it made money, right? Can't somebody just develop on that idea, let you dump trash loot into upgrading weapons/armor?
EDIT: I fucking swear a game did this before.
the fight against the dragon looks kinda bad
Would be nice if they can 'Dead Island' their combat up a bit.
how can anyone be excited for this when Dark Souls is already out?
how can anyone be excited for this when Dark Souls is already out?
well of course this game will be more 'Hollywood', but how much of that shit do you actually need? Why not just replay Fable 2?
Oblivion never really grabbed me, but Skyrim is my most anticipated game in a looooong time.
how can anyone be excited for this when Dark Souls is already out?
http://imgur.com/a/qQnwM#0
the more screenies they release, the more it looks like gamebryo. just this time with a really dark gray filter instead of Green, or orange. anyone else getting that vibe?
BULLY used Gamebryo? :o
but yeah, Bethesda's version of GB is quite awful, and Skyrim seems to just have that 'sheen' and feel of the last generation. Luckily it's relying on good art, something that Oblivion didn't have. I'm always an art > graphics guy, it's why New Vegas can look decent despite being on ancient machinery
As the title says, I am a high school teacher. My history class will be reciting John Macrae's "In Flander's Fields" at the Remembrance Day assembly, much to their chagrin.
Yesterday, a student brought this note to me, written by her father, to explain why she would not be able to attend on November 11th.
:omgthe more screenies they release, the more it looks like gamebryo. just this time with a really dark gray filter instead of Green, or orange. anyone else getting that vibe?
Fun fact: Catherine, Bully, and Epic Mickey use Gamebryo.
It's more that Bethesda game just have a certain feel and look to them. Skryim does use a heavily-modified version of Gamebryo, however.
The HD port-up was done on Gamebryo. You guys act like this is news. Didn't we have a thread like a year ago where we finally came to the realization that Bethesda's shitty, broken games have nothing to with the engine they use and everything to do with Bethesda.
lol yeah me too, it's "crash and burn every few hours" feature really helps me stay focused on things like not playing video games
it's "super crash and burn + save corrupt" feature made me even stop for quite some time! Bethesda fuck yeah!
http://www.reddit.com/r/gaming/comments/lhyok/hey_reddit_im_a_high_school_teacher_and_received/ (http://www.reddit.com/r/gaming/comments/lhyok/hey_reddit_im_a_high_school_teacher_and_received/)QuoteAs the title says, I am a high school teacher. My history class will be reciting John Macrae's "In Flander's Fields" at the Remembrance Day assembly, much to their chagrin.
Yesterday, a student brought this note to me, written by her father, to explain why she would not be able to attend on November 11th.
(http://images.lazygamer.net/2011/10/SkyrimLetter_thumb.jpg)
:bow2
Is there a site where I can test my system specs for Skyrim? Most meet the requirements but I still want to see
Honestly, if you want real world results of how the game will run, you'll just need to torrent the game and see what happens. Sites like system requirements labs are only looking to see if your hardware matches up with the requirements on the box and really aren't a good judge on how the game will actually run.
How does your PC run the Fallout games?
Is there a site where I can test my system specs for Skyrim? Most meet the requirements but I still want to see
Honestly, if you want real world results of how the game will run, you'll just need to torrent the game and see what happens. Sites like system requirements labs are only looking to see if your hardware matches up with the requirements on the box and really aren't a good judge on how the game will actually run.
How does your PC run the Fallout games?
Never played them. I can run SC2 on ultra (although I just run it on good), WoW, TF2. WoW is a huge game but doesn't compare to Skyrim's detail obviously