The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

The fifth Elder Scrolls game is set to be released later this year, and it sounds really good. If you couldn't figure it out from the title, the game is set in Skyrim (homeland of the Nords) 200 years prior to the events of the last game (Oblivion, for those not keeping track.) The Septim Dynasty has fallen and the Empire is crumbling. Perhaps most pressing, however, is the propheciesed return of the dragons, including Alduin the World Eater.
You play a Dragonborn, the last of your kind, and the only hope there is of stoping Alduin, gifted with the same incredible powers as the Dragons themselves.

For more story info, go here.

Skyrim sounds much improved from Oblivion in the gameplay department, with improved AI, better animations, the ability to equip any item to either hand, and of course Dragon Shouts. These are special abilities that can let you teleport, slow down time, etc., and are gained by defeating dragons. One change that I'm certainly appreciative of is the new conversation system. No longer do you get locked into conversation with an NPC while being granted an extreme closeup of their face and having time cease to pass. Now, when talking to someone the camera stays in the regular view, and time continues to pass. Not only that, but the NPC's continue going about their daily tasks, chopping wood or whatever, while you talk, and you can break off the conversation at any point.

Graphics-wise, the game is being done on Bethesda's new Creation Engine, which, from what I've read, sounds quite impressive. Among other improvements, it adds dynamic lighting/shading to all objects in the game, something Oblivion lacked. If you don't know what that means, while buildings and characters casted shadows in Oblivion, objects and dead bodies didn't, which looked a bit weird. In Skyrim, everything casts a shadow.


You can probably tell that I'm looking forward to this one. For me Oblivion was a bit of a stumble but hopefully Skyrim can pull the series back up.

So, thoughts? Disapproval? Excited bursts of glee? If you're not ready to make up your mind, I suggest you go to gameinformer.com, they have quite a few articles on the game.

http://www.gameinformer.com/p/esv.aspx

The url above is a hub that links to all of them.

Unless they bring back the truly open world and freedom of Morrowind I'm not interested. I mean the ability to kill any NPC for any reason

I've never enjoyed any Bethesda game

I'm a big RPG fan, so yeah. Having said that I HATED Oblivion and only played a couple of hours of it. Two words :

Adaptive

Fucking

Difficulty

If your enemies level up when you do then ... what's the point ? If you got high enough in Oblivion (I'm told), you'd get wandering bandits on the roads with shit-hot weapons and armor simply to keep pace with you. The WHOLE POINT of RPG games is that you get better and better, so that you can beat enemies you couldn't before and thus progress into new areas / situations. Adaptive difficulty killed Oblivion for me. If they promise to have gotten rid of it then my loins will stir appreciatively.

Also, looks very pretty, but the plot sounds like every fantasy plot ever. I hear 'Dragonborn', 'return of the dragons' and 'prophecy' and my eyes just start to droop shut. Lazy writing.

Never played an oblivion game. Its basicly fallout 3 but without the guns, right?

Uberman wrote:

I'm a big RPG fan, so yeah. Having said that I HATED Oblivion and only played a couple of hours of it. Two words :

Adaptive

Fucking

Difficulty

If your enemies level up when you do then ... what's the point ? If you got high enough in Oblivion (I'm told), you'd get wandering bandits on the roads with shit-hot weapons and armor simply to keep pace with you. The WHOLE POINT of RPG games is that you get better and better, so that you can beat enemies you couldn't before and thus progress into new areas / situations. Adaptive difficulty killed Oblivion for me. If they promise to have gotten rid of it then my loins will stir appreciatively.

Also, looks very pretty, but the plot sounds like every fantasy plot ever. I hear 'Dragonborn', 'return of the dragons' and 'prophecy' and my eyes just start to droop shut. Lazy writing.

Adaptive Difficulty works in MMO games, but not in standard RPGs.

Definitely not in standard RPG's. The level scaling in Oblivion was actually bad to the point that money was essentially useless, because the bandits will always have better gear than the shops, meaning you should just loot them instead of throwing away cash on outdated armor/weapons. I heard, however, that the difficulty in Skyrim works more like Fallout 3.

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/106779-First-Elder-Scrolls-V-Skyrim-Details-Leaked

As for the story Uberman complained about, I realize my synopsis makes it sound pretty generic, but you have to look at the big picture. The Elder Scrolls has a lot to do with prophecy and there's a mountain of backstory. The events of every game are tightly connected, even though they tend to take place centuries apart.

No more Elder Scrolls, please.
Can't they do anything better then that.
Assasians guilds, warriors guild, dragons, demos and on and on and on.
All this "big background story" and "holy shit! I'm the chosen one" repeats every fucking time.
At least Morrowind was somewhat challenging (on max difficulty)
I hope that they will at least remove this adaptive shit and remake this holy-moly animation.
And I really...really, really hope they will put some logic in these guilds. (I became the leader of every single guild)

P.S. Some new screenshots showing new locations and NPCs concept arts.

why do you ALWAYS have to be a chosen one and ALWAYS have to save the world

why aren't there any games where you're just an above-average dude and you aren't the only person who can save the world from blah blah blah

art wrote:

why do you ALWAYS have to be a chosen one and ALWAYS have to save the world

why aren't there any games where you're just an above-average dude and you aren't the only person who can save the world from blah blah blah

and how will that work exactly?
you die after an encounter with an average lvl 3 wolf and watch someone else save the world?
In my opinion,the whole point of a fantasy game is to make you feel bigger then life (or in other words "epic") and not to be average or realistic.

I am looking forward to play the new Elder Scrolls,for all the flaws of the game series (like the fact that the main quest line absolutely SUCKS or the fucked up bugges in almost every quest)

art wrote:

why do you ALWAYS have to be a chosen one and ALWAYS have to save the world

why aren't there any games where you're just an above-average dude and you aren't the only person who can save the world from blah blah blah

That's kind of what happens in Oblivion. You're important to the plot, sure, but ultimately it's Martin who saves the world. You're more of an errand boy.

And it was Ok, but Martin is still a dick.

Casted wrote:

And it was Ok, but Martin is still a dick.

meh.
nobody does the main quest anyway...........
Dark brotherhood questline is way more fun,and that's just one example.

Casted wrote:

P.S. Some new screenshots showing new locations and NPCs concept arts.

I read this a little too late I think, but.....


DAMN YOU!

How about some actual screenshots, then?

Spoiler:

I liked those. They are pretty enough to make me go "oh". And at the same time they dont look so fantastic that I question if there real.

Now we just have to wait to see video to determine how poorly everything in the game is animated.

Make way for Pessimist Pete over here.

Well it looks good in screenshots, just like Oblivion or Oblivion 2, but Jesus Christ, all the atmosphere goes away when everyone looks like they were animated by a twelve-year-old who decided to try 3D modeling.

Drifter: Nice trailer. Has all Elderscrolls games that norse mythology-ish style? Trailer made me kinda exited anyway....


Art: Not that exited though. Fun vid.

AnonymousAdam wrote:

Drifter: Nice trailer. Has all Elderscrolls games that norse mythology-ish style?.

No, Oblivion was set in a pretty standard, generic fantasy setting, for the most part. Morrowind, on the other hand, is hard to describe, so here are a few images.

I hated the TES 4 : Oblivion vanilla but I love the the one with fifty mods slapped on it. And I am also very excited about TES 5: Skyrim.

When that giant charges at the player... holy shit man.