The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

[Shabazz]

I just hope the engine is still very mod-able like Gamebryo was.

[FulGore]

I just hope the engine is still very mod-able like Gamebryo was.

I'm sure it will be, don't see why it wouldn't be.

[Shabazz]

I just hope the engine is still very mod-able like Gamebryo was.

I'm sure it will be, don't see why it wouldn't be.

 

Yeah, you're probably right. Gamebryo or not, the game will still be amazing I'm sure.

[FulGore]

I just hope the engine is still very mod-able like Gamebryo was.

I'm sure it will be, don't see why it wouldn't be.

 

Yeah, you're probably right. Gamebryo or not, the game will still be amazing I'm sure.

Well if Fallout 3 and New Vegas are mod-able I'm 90% sure Skyrim will be.

[FulGore]

This thread needs a bump.

 

Here are some Magazine scans. courtesy of Game Informer Magazine. And whoever it was that was nice enough to scan them. There is over 14 pages of detail on Skyrim, and over 20 screen shots. there are only of few screens the guy scanned.

Magazine Scans Here

[Purple Rayne]

That looks f***ing beautiful.

[Orion.]

Wow, that looks awesome. The detail in the graphics are incredible, look at the frigging veins and the wrinkles on the guys hand when hes firing a spell at that yeti-thing. And the bark of the trees in the picture of the hunter. And the detail in the snowy mountain. Its all just *censored*ing beautiful!

 

If that is real in-game screenshots then I have a feeling this is going to be one of the best looking games of the year.

[stenis]

This looks awesome. Too bad there are so many games coming out later this year =/

[Scorpion™]

A year? I'll play through Oblivion to have that special feeling in my pants again.

[HellHammer]

Some of those shots it's hard to believe it's even an Elder Scrolls game..it's so beautiful. Getting so use to Oblivion's graphics, now I sorta can see how Morrowind fans felt, when they first started seeing stuff on TESIV.

 

 

[Shabazz]

Looks incredible...wow.

 

Is the new engine just a heavily rebuilt version of Gamebryo? I hope so cause I want it to still be mod-able.

[Orion.]

For anyone who couldnt read the details of those Game Informer scans, IGN did an article which tells you pretty much all you need to know from them.

 

The latest issue of Game Informer contains fresh gameplay details on Bethesda's next massive title, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, set for release this November.

 

Skyrm's story is set 200 years after the events of The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, and the world of Tamriel is in shambles. The empire has fallen to the elves, the Blades are gone, the Nords hate each other, and a civil war is about the break out. Oh, and that big dragon the Elder Scrolls prophesied about? Yeah, he's arrived, too. Players will take control of the last remaining Dragonborn, a dragon hunter anointed by the gods to help fend off the threat.

 

Bethesda's newest title features a brand-spanking new engine where every object in the game now casts a shadow as well as improved draw-distances. Textures are sharper and more detailed and the environments are livelier. There's also the addition of a HUD-less first-person view and "improved" third-person camera option.

 

There will be five massive cities that span Skyrim's environment, which ranges from frozen tundra to rocky mountain tops. There is also new wildlife, such as Sabre-toothed Cats and Wooly Mammoths.

 

The combat is getting a bit of an overhaul, too. Players will be able to equip any weapon or spell to either hand at any time and even duel wield two of the same weapon. A new customizable menu is being added to help swap load-outs easily in battle.

 

Bethesda has also done away with the character class system and reworked the game's leveling mechanic. Players' skills will level up the more they are used, contributing to your overall level growth. "Raising one skill from 34 to 35 is going to level you faster than raising one from 11 to 12," Bethesda designer Todd Howard told the magazine. Players can also level pass 50, but it becomes much slower after that point.

 

The team has also added Fallout 3's perk system, where each new level gained allows players to add special abilities to their character, including increase in damage to dagger stealth attacks or allowing your mace to ignore enemy armor.

 

Skyrim's NPC conversations are a lot more realistic. Aside from including even more voice actors, the AI-controlled characters will actually move about and continue on with the activities they were doing before being interrupted. Towns also include more activities to do, such farming, mining, woodcutting and cooking.

 

Bethesda also revamped the game's menu system. Howard said the team used Apple's iTunes as inspiration and direction. Players will be greeted with a compass-style overlay with four options: Skill, Inventory, Map, and Magic. Weapons and spells can be tagged as a 'favorite' for quick selection. Every item is a 3D object than can be viewed and examined.

 

Check out the latest issue of Game Informer for additional details.

 

Skyrim is set for release on November 11, 2011 for Xbox 360, PC, and PlayStation 3.

 

Source: http://uk.pc.ign.com/articles/114/1143498p1.html

 

Personally I think all of this sounds awesome. Larger scale enemies, dual wielding weapons, Fallout-style perks, a new menus layout. Im very impressed by what Iv seen from this game so far.

[Mustacio]

I'm not crazy about Elder Scrolls or Bethesda-developed video games (Couldn't play Fallout 3 due to glitches) but I'll definitely have an eye on this. Oblivion is still an amazing game to this day that I enjoyed very much.

 

Don't forget about Morrowind. Probably the greatest RPG to exist.

 

Nail. On. The. Head.

 

Seen the Morrowind tweak-up mod, Saint?

[Fuse]

I'm not crazy about Elder Scrolls or Bethesda-developed video games (Couldn't play Fallout 3 due to glitches) but I'll definitely have an eye on this. Oblivion is still an amazing game to this day that I enjoyed very much.

 

Don't forget about Morrowind. Probably the greatest RPG to exist.

 

Nail. On. The. Head.

 

Seen the Morrowind tweak-up mod, Saint?

Morroblivion?

 

Also here are more Skyrim scans.

[3w4te5rgd]

For anyone who couldnt read the details of those Game Informer scans, IGN did an article which tells you pretty much all you need to know from them.

 

The latest issue of Game Informer contains fresh gameplay details on Bethesda's next massive title, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, set for release this November.

 

Skyrm's story is set 200 years after the events of The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, and the world of Tamriel is in shambles. The empire has fallen to the elves, the Blades are gone, the Nords hate each other, and a civil war is about the break out. Oh, and that big dragon the Elder Scrolls prophesied about? Yeah, he's arrived, too. Players will take control of the last remaining Dragonborn, a dragon hunter anointed by the gods to help fend off the threat.

 

Bethesda's newest title features a brand-spanking new engine where every object in the game now casts a shadow as well as improved draw-distances. Textures are sharper and more detailed and the environments are livelier. There's also the addition of a HUD-less first-person view and "improved" third-person camera option.

 

There will be five massive cities that span Skyrim's environment, which ranges from frozen tundra to rocky mountain tops. There is also new wildlife, such as Sabre-toothed Cats and Wooly Mammoths.

 

The combat is getting a bit of an overhaul, too. Players will be able to equip any weapon or spell to either hand at any time and even duel wield two of the same weapon. A new customizable menu is being added to help swap load-outs easily in battle.

 

Bethesda has also done away with the character class system and reworked the game's leveling mechanic. Players' skills will level up the more they are used, contributing to your overall level growth. "Raising one skill from 34 to 35 is going to level you faster than raising one from 11 to 12," Bethesda designer Todd Howard told the magazine. Players can also level pass 50, but it becomes much slower after that point.

 

The team has also added Fallout 3's perk system, where each new level gained allows players to add special abilities to their character, including increase in damage to dagger stealth attacks or allowing your mace to ignore enemy armor.

 

Skyrim's NPC conversations are a lot more realistic. Aside from including even more voice actors, the AI-controlled characters will actually move about and continue on with the activities they were doing before being interrupted. Towns also include more activities to do, such farming, mining, woodcutting and cooking.

 

Bethesda also revamped the game's menu system. Howard said the team used Apple's iTunes as inspiration and direction. Players will be greeted with a compass-style overlay with four options: Skill, Inventory, Map, and Magic. Weapons and spells can be tagged as a 'favorite' for quick selection. Every item is a 3D object than can be viewed and examined.

 

Check out the latest issue of Game Informer for additional details.

 

Skyrim is set for release on November 11, 2011 for Xbox 360, PC, and PlayStation 3.

 

Source: http://uk.pc.ign.com/articles/114/1143498p1.html

 

Personally I think all of this sounds awesome. Larger scale enemies, dual wielding weapons, Fallout-style perks, a new menus layout. Im very impressed by what Iv seen from this game so far.

I jizzed.

 

First day purchase.

[FrontFootCoverLines]

I have never played oblivion tbh.. But what from I can see of this game, it looks amazing.

 

So is it like Fallout 3 then? where you have a vast land to explore etc etc? Not really too sure about the type of game.

[d_ckface]

I have never played oblivion tbh.. But what from I can see of this game, it looks amazing.

 

So is it like Fallout 3 then? where you have a vast land to explore etc etc? Not really too sure about the type of game.

 

It is a bit like F3 only because of the vast customization and freedom of the game. But Oblivion was much better than Fallout 3 (this will be too). It was a lot less buggy, had better graphics, better quests and was a lot more fun than Fallout which to me seemed boring a lot of the time.

[Mustacio]

I have never played oblivion tbh.. But what from I can see of this game, it looks amazing.

 

So is it like Fallout 3 then? where you have a vast land to explore etc etc? Not really too sure about the type of game.

 

It is a bit like F3 only because of the vast customization and freedom of the game. But Oblivion was much better than Fallout 3 (this will be too). It was a lot less buggy, had better graphics, better quests and was a lot more fun than Fallout which to me seemed boring a lot of the time.

 

Is it opposite day today? >_>

[HellHammer]

I have never played oblivion tbh.. But what from I can see of this game, it looks amazing.

 

So is it like Fallout 3 then? where you have a vast land to explore etc etc? Not really too sure about the type of game.

 

 

It is, instead of using other pieces of armor, and weapons to repair your gear, you just use repair hammers. Also you can cast spells, instead of perks, you have fighting classes.. There is a thing at the beginning of the game you can choose that is sort of like a perk, but it's the only one you can have. It is less buggy than Fallout, and the graphics can be much better if you mod it on the PC version. Your weapon choices are Sword, Axe, Mace, WarHammer, Shortswords, Daggers, Bows, and Arrows. You can also use staffs to cast a staff specific spell.. You have horses you can buy to move around quicker, but you can't fight on Horseback unfortunately. One significant advantage Fallout has over Oblivion is that when you start out, the wilderness has alot less enemies, and the stuff you run into is stupid like dogs/wolves, rats, little imps, and you have to find dungeons/caves/ayelid ruins if you want to fight Marauders, Bandits, Necromancers, or Conjurers. Once you get past level 8 or so, and you start doing some of the main quests, things start to get much better.

[FulGore]

Wow, that looks awesome. The detail in the graphics are incredible, look at the frigging veins and the wrinkles on the guys hand when hes firing a spell at that yeti-thing. And the bark of the trees in the picture of the hunter. And the detail in the snowy mountain. Its all just *censored*ing beautiful!

 

If that is real in-game screenshots then I have a feeling this is going to be one of the best looking games of the year.

I believe that is an Ice Troll. but all n all this game looks beautiful

 

EDIT: Game Informer Update Time Lapse Video

[FulGore]

Game Informer released a new article yesterday about the combat. Long read, Enjoy

In game development, the visual improvements, non-player character AI tweaks, and new storytelling philosophies are all for naught if the base activity the player performs the most frequently is uninteresting or unrefined. In the case of an action role-playing game like The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, those activities are swinging swords, shooting arrows, or casting spells at the myriad bloodthirsty enemies rushing toward you in foreboding dungeons of Tamriel. Aware of the combat shortcomings and exploits players used in Oblivion, the developers at Bethesda Studios went back to the drawing board to forge a new direction for Skyrim.

 

“We wanted to make it more tactile in your hands,†game director Todd Howard says. “I think if you look at our previous stuff I sometimes equate it to fighting with chopsticks – you sit there and swing them in front of yourself.â€

 

Bethesda’s solution is a new two-handed combat system that allows players to equip any weapon or spell to either one of their character’s free hands. This flexible platform opens up countless play styles – dual wielding, two-handed weapons, the classic sword and shield combo, ranged weapons, or even equipping two different spells. Switching between loadouts on the fly is made easier thanks to a new quick-select menu that allows you to “bookmark†all of your favorite spells, shouts, and weapons for easy access.

 

Taking Up The Blade

 

Repetition can be a game developer's worst enemy. As players move through the world slashing at enemies thousands of times, the gravity of the action dissipates to the point where it becomes as thoughtless an exercise as flipping a light switch. With Skyrim's combat system, Bethesda wants to restore the visceral nature of hand-to-hand combat. The first step? Changing the pace of the close quarters battles.

 

In the early stages of development, Bethesda watched fighting videos to study how people react during melee battles. The team found that most encounters featured more jostling and staggering than was present in past Elder Scrolls titles. Using the Havok Behavior animation system, the team is more accurately mimicking the imbalance prevalent in melee combat by adding staggering affects and camera shake. Don't expect button-mashing marathons where the attacker with a bigger life pool wins the war of attrition. If you're not careful on defense you may get knocked around, losing your balance and leaving yourself exposed for a damaging blow that can turn the tide of the battle. Knowing when to block, when to strike, and when to stand your ground is key to prevailing in combat.

 

“There's a brutality to [the combat] both in the flavor of the world, and one of you is going to die,†Howard explains. “I think you get very used the idea that enemies are all there for you to mow through, but it doesn't seem like someone's life is going to end. We're trying to get that across.â€

 

Nothing drives this brutality home more than the introduction of special kill animations. Depending on your weapon, the enemy, and the fight conditions, your hero may execute a devastating finishing move that extinguishes enemies with a stylistic flourish. “You end up doing it a lot in the game, and there has to be an energy and a joy to it,†Howard says.

 

As with Oblivion, players have several options for melee combat. Your warrior can equip swords, shields, maces, axes, or two-handed weapons. Specializing in a particular weapon is the best way to go, as it gives you the opportunity to improve your attacking skills with special perks. For instance, the sword perk increases your chances of landing a critical strike, the axe perk punishes enemies with residual bleeding damage after each blow, and the mace perk ignores armor on your enemies to land more powerful strikes.

 

A good offense must be accompanied by a good defense. To make defending a less passive activity, Bethesda has switched to a timing based blocking system that requires players to actively raise their shields to take the brunt of the attack. If you hold down the block button, your character will attempt to execute a bash move. If you catch a bandit off guard with the bash while he's attacking, it knocks him back and exposes him to a counter or power attack. Players can block and bash with two-handed weapons as well, but it isn't as effective as the shield. Warriors who prefer the sword-and-shield approach can increase their defensive capabilities with shield perks that give them elemental protection from spells.

 

Bethesda also smartly changed the pace at which characters backpedal, which removes the strike-and-flee tactic frequently employed in Oblivion. In Skyrim you can't bob and weave like a medieval Muhammad Ali as you could in Oblivion. Players can still dodge attacks from slower enemies like frost trolls, but don’t expect to backpedal out of harms way against charging enemies. If you want to flee, you must turn your back to the enemy and hit the sprint button, leaving you exposed to an attack as you high tail it to safety.

 

Conjuring Better Spell Casting

 

Keeping in line with the philosophy of making the combat more tactile, Bethesda took inspiration for its spell casting from an unlikely source in Irrational Games' BioShock. Fighting his way through the city of Rapture, Howard was impressed with how Ken Levine's team visualized the power of the plasmids in your hands. They're adopting a similar approach for Skyrim.

 

“Before when we had magic, it never felt to us like you were actually doing it,†Howard admits. “It was a separate button, it flew out of your fist, and you could have a shield in your hand or a two handed-weapon – you could do it with anything.â€

 

In Oblivion spells were cast with a face button, which allowed you to equip traditional weapons for melee combat and deftly cast spells between swings. By forcing players to equip a spell with one of their hands, players must make more of a commitment to learning the arcane arts. The ability to equip two different spells on your left and right hand raises the question – can you combine more than one spell? “We're not talking about that,†Howard says with a smile. “We're not sure. We'd like to; it'd be awesome.â€

 

Even if you can't combine spells, magicka students will have no shortage of options, with over 85 spells divided into five schools of magic – destruction, restoration, illusion, alteration, and conjuration. Longtime Elder Scrolls fans may notice that the school of mysticism is absent. That's an intentional move on Bethesda's part. “It always felt like the magical school of mysticism – isn't that redundant?†Howard says. The spells formerly housed under the domain of mysticism have been moved to other schools of magic.

 

One of the more alluring changes to the spellcasting in Skyrim is how you can employ spells in different ways. For instance, you could blast enemies with a flame ball from afar, hold the button down to wield the spell like a flame thrower, place a rune on the ground to create an environmental trap that spontaneously combusts when an enemy steps on it, or equip the spell with both hands to deliver high damage fireball attacks that drain your magicka reserves quickly. The shock and frost spells give players an equal amount of flexibility.

 

The Havok Behavior technology gives the spells more visual flair than we've seen in past Elder Scrolls games as well. If you cast a frost spell, you'll see the effects on the enemy's skin. If you're wielding the flame spell like a flame thrower, the environment will catch fire for a short while and burn anything that comes into contact with it.

 

More so than in Oblivion, Skyrim’s new magic system also gives players legitimate benefits to using one attacking spell over the other. Fire deals the highest amount of damage, lighting drains the enemy’s magicka, and frost drains stamina and slows down enemies physically. This gives players more incentive to use particular spells against specific enemies. Why shoot fireballs at a wizard when you can simultaneously drain his heath and magicka with a shock spell? “There’s a gaminess to it that we didn’t really have before,†Howard says.

 

If you come face to face with another wizard, you’ll want to keep an attacking spell in one hand and improve your defense by equipping a ward spell in the other. Suddenly, magic duels become much more interesting, as you must attack at the opportune time, use the ward as a shield when your opponent is casting spells your way, and manage your magicka level by consuming potions.

 

Dealing Damage From The Shadows

 

Magicians and warriors aren’t the only play styles enjoying the benefit of combat enhancements. If you prefer to do your killing from afar with a bow and arrow or assassinating enemies from the shadows, Bethesda has some improvements in store for you as well.

 

Ranged weapons could be effective in Oblivion once you improved your skill level, but you had to pierce enemies with several arrows to take them down. After playing an Oblivion mod that turned the bow and arrow into a formidable weapon capable of one-hit kills, Bethesda decided to adopt that approach. It now takes a lot longer to get off a shot, but the arrows are much more powerful than before.

 

As in Oblivion, you can zoom to aim, and the longer you keep the bow drawn the more powerful your shot will be. Unlike Oblivion, the arrows now violently impact enemies with a satisfying thud. To keep players from coasting through the world plucking enemies from afar, Bethesda has significantly altered the arrow economy to make them a valuable but limited option. You won't be rolling into combat stacked with 50 Daedric arrows anymore. Though you don't have much defense when using the bow and arrow, if an enemy gets too close for comfort you can still execute a bash move, which knocks your foe off balance and gives you time to create distance between you and your target.

 

Stealth basically works the same as it did in Oblivion, but Bethesda has slightly altered what happens once enemies detect your presence. Now when NPCs think they see or heard something, they go into an alert state. Characters with a higher sneak skill will have more time to duck back around the corner or find sanctuary in the shadows. This new system eliminates the sudden attacks that sometimes caught players off guard in Oblivion.

 

Once you successfully sneak up behind an unsuspecting victim, you can unleash a deadly blow with the dagger, an almost useless weapon in previous Elder Scrolls games that is receiving a major boost in Skyrim. “Now when you sneak up behind guys, the dagger does something like 10x damage,†Howard says. “I don’t know if we’re going to keep that, but you feel like you should be killing the guy if you’ve gotten that close and you have a dagger.â€

 

Though the dagger is still considered a one-handed weapon skill, the perks for the weapon are housed under the stealth banner.

 

The Dragonborn Prophecy Fulfilled

 

As the Dragonborn, players can wield the dangerous dragon shouts during battle as well. The shouts may have magical properties, like the ability to slow time or call a dragon to your aid, but they are different than magic in that every character can employ them regardless of their spell casting skills. If you want to learn more about this supplemental power, read our in-depth discussion here.

 

Binding all of these improvement together into a cohesive system, Bethesda's reinvigorated Elder Scrolls combat looks to be taking a large step forward.

[d_ckface]

Todd Howard of Bethesda Softworks has detailed some more things for the upcoming The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim when speaking with the magazine Dutch Power Unlimited, which you can find below.

 

Graphics

 

Howard told them that they had very specific goals in mind for updating the series' graphics in Skyrim. “We primarily look at how we can improve facial expressions and animations, graphics-wise,†he said.

 

“We are working at pop-up issues, and we want to make sure that the graphics of the PC, Xbox 360, and PS3 are alike. All three will look just as good, aside from the higher resolution and the anti-aliasing of the PC of course.â€

 

The inventory meny has also gotten some polish, with flash-based previews allowing you to rotate and examine every item in the game, from weapons and armour to accessories and ingredients. This feature will be used for puzzle-solving, occasionally. The series' famous collection of books and texts make a return, but this time as readable 3D models rather than the walls of text from the earlier games.

 

World, Story and Mechanics

 

The "low fantasy" world of Skyrim is said to be "approximately" the size of Oblivion's, and equipped with fast travel to previously visited locations, as well as containing 5 major cities and 130 dungeons, each featuring a greater variety of traps and puzzles.

 

Though there is no level cap, every dungeon will put a lock at the level you are when you first visit to prevent limitless easy grinding. Also, since perks are restricted, no one character will be able to obtain them all.

 

The main story will be around twenty hours of gameplay, while sidequests can provide hundreds of more hours. To prevent the feeling of guilt and distraction players may have felt from sidequesting before, the overall plot of the game will be less prominent than in Oblivion.

 

Also, dragons are not rare, and every dragon you take out will make your character more powerful by adding a piece of its soul to your own and unlocking further dragonborn abilities.

 

Miscellaneous

 

Todd Howard confirmed that the Xbox 360 version will not be supporting Kinect, and that the fan-favourite Dark Brotherhood will be making a return. Contrary to statements made in Game Informer, Howard denied the possibility of combining magical effects.

 

Pete Hines of Bethesda also confirmed that future Bethesda titles will be taking advantage of the advances in Skyrim's Creaton engine.

 

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim is set to be released on November 11th, 2011 for PC, PS3 and Xbox 360.

 

http://gamrfeed.vgchartz.com/story/83732/more-skyrim-details-graphics-world-dragons/

[FulGore]

Earlier today, Bethesda revealed a countdown. A countdown to what you ask? It was revealed that there will be "Lots" of gameplay footage revealed at the end of the countdown. So in Nine hours, We will have the first glimpse into Skyrim. You can also download a new wallpaper off of the countdown site.

 

Link To Countdown

[Orion.]

Just watched the new gameplay trailer

 

 

Looks epic. A huge improvement on Oblivion and that was one of my favourite games of the past 10 years.

[FrontFootCoverLines]

Simply amazing. Cannot wait for launch day