Ahem http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/7.255837-First-Elder-Scrolls-V-Skyrim-Details-Leaked?page=1

Quote from Fisty

Ahem http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/7.255837-First-Elder-Scrolls-V-Skyrim-Details-Leaked?page=1

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There are 18 total skills, down from 21 in Oblivion.

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There are 18 total skills, down from 21 in Oblivion.

>CASUAL AS FUCK

So most likely Speechcraft and Mercantilism have been merged into one skill? Maybe Athletics and Acrobatics have also been merged?

No major loss.

Sorry, but that looks exactly like a goddamn Werewolf from Dragon Age: Origins... If Bethesda dare make a generic 'oh look, fucking goblins' style RPG I am going to cry.

What I loved about Morrowind was all the crazy beasts and races that were everywhere! Dreugh's, Guars', Kagouti and Netch to name a fucking few... Then the Daedra and Dwemer and Ash creatures too! Never before have I played a game with such indepth lore and stunning imagination. Vvardenfell was (to put it simply) a utopia for a RPG-er. The politics (Redoran, Hlaalu and Telvanni) coupled with the religion (Nerevarine, Imperial Cult of the Nine Divines) just made it fucking awesome...

I think the problem that game industries are facing today is this dichotomy between graphics/engine/detail and the actual lore/story/environment of their games. As they push for better graphics (in a better engine, requiring more talented artists) the lore/story slider gradually shrinks until you get story lines such as: "King has been killed, go here, find secret heir to the throne, omg demons are invading, kill them all"...

If Bethesda can pull this off (and I'm very skeptical in case you havn't noticed), they will create Skyrim with a whole bunch of unique factions and politics with dragon-worshiping cults and mysterious beasts. The storyline will be hellishly immersive and from creating your character to finishing the game you will never want to leave your computer screen. Quests and plot lines will be unconventional and intriguing.

If Bethesda don't pull this off... (which is the outcome I am sadly expecting), Skyrim will have Undead, Werewolves, Goblins, Dwarves and Dragons. The voice actor(s) will completely destroy any sense of credibility in the lore that a 'story-telling RPG' is meant to create. The combat system will be unwieldy, the magic system will be identical to the last however many Elder Scroll games and the AI of enemy creatures will involve simply running blindly towards you and attempting to attack (ie, no brain - so it will be very much like killing hundreds of zombies)... Anyways rant over...

Fingers crossed for the Skyrim that we all deserve.

Oh my GOD CARDINAL. The first elder scrolls game GUESS WHAT. GOBLIN.
Fucking casual. I just nerd raged enough to power Detroit.

Moron.

FUCK.

I WONDER WHAT THIS IS.

It's more than 15 years and 3 Lord of the Ring films ago. That's what that is.

Its your roots and you should feel bad for cheapening it.

That was Goblins before they were in (and out) of style

EDIT: Not sure about the rest of you, but I'd like to see the text dialogue make a return. I feel the reason for the decline in storywriting was addition of people with voices D:

Quote from Cardinal

What I loved about Morrowind was all the crazy beasts and races that were everywhere! Dreugh's, Guars', Kagouti and Netch to name a fucking few... Then the Daedra and Dwemer and Ash creatures too! Never before have I played a game with such indepth lore and stunning imagination. Vvardenfell was (to put it simply) a utopia for a RPG-er. The politics (Redoran, Hlaalu and Telvanni) coupled with the religion (Nerevarine, Imperial Cult of the Nine Divines) just made it fucking awesome...

I think the problem that game industries are facing today is this dichotomy between graphics/engine/detail and the actual lore/story/environment of their games. As they push for better graphics (in a better engine, requiring more talented artists) the lore/story slider gradually shrinks until you get story lines such as: "King has been killed, go here, find secret heir to the throne, omg demons are invading, kill them all"...

My main point still stands. Graphics engines are more or less stabilizing at an upper limit (mostly defined by what the latest generation of consoles and affordable desktop rigs can handle). And as all these graphics engines all reach the same depth of realism (anti-aliasing, ray-tracing, physics, particle systems, etc) games begin to look similar. Through no fault of the designers or content creators, it is just the boundaries of the current technology which cause all the fancy features (photon mapping, normal/occlusion mapping, etc) to sort of blend and merge styles together.

Take a look at the image (from the Article) that I posted earlier - the texture/hair/fur is 99% identical to the Werewolves in Dragon Age: Origins. Now, while these games have been built by two completely different high-end developers, since the technology is stabilizing (as it were), there results in striving for realism have (perhaps coincidentally) turned out very similar.

What (in my humble opinion) Skyrim has to do to truly stand out from it's competition (of which there is a lot) is capitalize on the gameplay and storyline. Basically, recreate the best parts of Morrowind, merge them with the best parts of Oblivion and put them in an entirely new engine and game environment: Skyrim. But knowing Bethesda's history, they will most likely hire a bunch of expensive celebrity voice actors and focus on making the game look amazing - with which I have nothing against. It's just when you have such high expectations from a software developer, you begin to doubt and become skeptical. Let us not forget that there has just been a global recession and the entertainment industry is always the first (and hardest) to get hit.

If ZeniMax / Bethesda are not 100% focussed on making Skyrim appeal to the casual console kiddies as well as the hardcore TESV fans - and of course, they have to make compromises along the way (no child violence, no sex trade, no massive quantities of skooma, no slavery etc)... This in turn keeps the rating down and widens the potential market for their game - another thing I have absolutely no problem with.

Worst case scenario for Skyrim? I buy it, I play it, I like it. Best case scenario? Very unlikely.

Edit (ninja'd by Fisty): I agree entirely. The less budget wasted on hiring voice actors the better in my opinion. If you're going to tell a story through a game, make it all text-based. Have us read the dialogues in our own voices and use our own imaginations for once. This is the one feature which made Morrowind a cut above the rest. But again, the likelyhood of this happening is about 1 in 1,000,000. Dragon Age 2 is already boasting 100% voiced main character dialog.

I wish this series was more like Dwarf fortress where they focus less on the graphics and use that computer power towards more realistic systems like people growing old and families coming and going. Their are SO many good features that can be done no one will ever consider them man. Shit feels really bad when the devs throw out "DUAL WIELDING LOL" and everyone responds with "LOL HORY SHET THIS IS GAME OF THE YEAR". It's like they are babying the devs by not expecting anymore. I swears.

I really want someone to make something with the graphics of marrowing vanilla and just add to it.

Also, Fucking perk system. GTFO.

There better be some snow whales in Skyrim, otherwise I"m gonna be highly disappointed.

Quote from MC²Voyager7456

There better be some snow whales in Skyrim, otherwise I"m gonna be highly disappointed.

I would be okay with this.

I also like the idea of having a heal spell in one hand and a shield in another.

I'm a little surprised that they took away the class system, but I guess it makes sense. You could have rolled a warrior class in III and still leveled entirely as a mage - with great difficulty, but it would have been possible. They must have another attribute bonus system in mind.

It doesn't look like I'll have to finish Oblivious to enjoy Skyrim, either, which is good.

EDIT: Wait, Voy, is that fanfiction or the manuscript of an in game item? There's some bad words in there.

It's not an ingame item, but it is from one of the main writers of TES. He posts stories and snippets of lore on the forums sometimes.

It's a Nord tale, and that's kind of how I'd imagine them to tell their stories.

lol yeaaaaa I think I see that too.

Quote from Blur

Quote from Fire_Kame

There was a game that you could complete in like two hours where you started as a kid. By the end of the game you were an adult. Gameplay was pretty meh. It was an rpg for the xBox.

...

And no, it is not Fable.

Was it Fable 2?

Quote from MadZombie!

Original xbox? I would have said Fallout 3 but thats for the 360 and you grow up at the beginning of the game.

Found It. I think you start as a child.

http://www.gameinformer.com/games/the_elder_scrolls_v_skyrim/b/xbox360/archive/2011/01/17/the-technology-behind-elder-scrolls-v-skyrim.aspx

SHIIIIIIIIIIIIIIT NIGGA THATS OUTRAGEOUS
FUUUUUUUCK YEAAAA
DAAAAAAAAAMN THATS GOOD
xDDDDD

fix'd

Maybe I'm misreading you over the internet, but isn't all the stuff in that article, well... good?

Did I just read that snowfall accumulates realistically?

http://badasspanda.com/first-skyrim-screenshots-and-info-from-game-informer/2566

No more Mysticism or Enchanting schools of magic. Enchanting is now a skill. There will be children. And you can have a motherfuckin' beard.

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10 races to choose from

DWENMER, IS THAT YOU?

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you will be able to edit their body

Probably not dynamic enough to get a 4 feet tall one armed hunched back Dark elf with slash scars going through both his eyes but w/e.

As long as I can dual wield shields or Cross bows I'll be happy with this game. Alternatively if they do something amazing with Archer related weapons and skills I would again be extremely happy.