Lots of great information coming out about this game:
ENGINE:
In what is perhaps the best news about The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim so far, Bethesda confirmed via a tweet that the game's engine is "brand new ... and it's spectacular!"
That's meaningless info to most, but for those of us who follow games a little too closely, "brand new engine" is more significantly "not Gamebryo," the troubled, notoriously glitchy skeleton inside Bethesda products like Fallout 3 and a few other titles, including the recent Epic Mickey. Bethesda community man Nick Breckon later tweeted that the new engine was built internally by the company.
Will it still feel like a Bethesda game if faces don't occasionally turn inside out, dislodge from their bodies and fly around the room? We'll find out when Skyrim launches on Xbox 360, PC and PS3 on November 11.
History:
http://www.gameinformer.com/b/featur...ostPageIndex=1Predictions:
http://xbox360.ign.com/articles/114/1141456p1.htmlhttp://www.pcgamer.com/2010/12/30/15...olls-v-skyrim/Cover:
http://www.gameinformer.com/b/news/a...-v-skyrim.aspxDecrypted:
Decrypted, and freaking awesome.
The song from the announcement trailer, although many thought it was in English, it was not.
dovahkiin dovahkiin
naal ok zin los vahriin
wah dvn vokul mahfaeraak ahst vaal
ahrk fin norok paal graan
fod nust hon zindro zaan
dovahkiin fah hin kogaan mu draal
ahrk fin kel lost prodah
do ved viing ko fin krah
tol fod zeymah fin kein meyz fundvn
alduin feyn do jun
krauziik vokun staadnau
voth aan bahlok wah diivon fin lein
Translates to.
"DRAGONBORN DRAGONBORN
BY HIS HONOR IS SWORN
TO KEEP EVIL FOREVER AT BAY
AND THE FIERCEST FOES ROUT
WHEN THEY HEAR TRIUMPH'S SHOUT
DRAGONBORN FOR YOUR BLESSING WE PRAY
AND THE SCROLLS HAVE FORTOLD
OF BLACK WINGS IN THE COLD
THAT WHEN BROTHERS WAGE WAR COME UNFURLED
ALDUIN BANE OF KINGS
ANCIENT EVIL UNBOUND
WITH A HUNGER TO SWALLOW THE WORLD"
Related Lore
The Nordic Akatosh is Alduin, a terrible, ravenous dragon who presides over the cycle of existence and devours the universe at intervals... recent days, it has been shown that the traditional Alduin can co-exist with the less adversarial Cyrodiilic interpretation of Akatosh the Time Dragon...
GI article comes out:
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.
I loved the sections about the graphics!!!
"Only a few moments into observing The Elder Scrolls V in action, the game takes your breath away."
"The world of skyrim is meticulously detailed. The new engine offers unparalleled fidelity for an open world game. Every object in the game casts a perfectly formed shadow. Trees and branches move independently and water flows in swift currents, imparting a sense of energy and life to the world even when no other creatures stand nearby. Incredible draw distances allow players to look out from a mountain peak across vast distances and everything you see - from the lowest valley to the highest distant snowcapped rock - is traversable. Snow falls naturally onto stones and branches, appearing not as a preset texture but falling exactly as it would onto that object given is shape and size."
Map revealed in a video:
http://www.gameinformer.com/b/news/a...of-skyrim.aspxAlduins wall:
http://www.gameinformer.com/b/featur...-the-wall.aspxRumor:
Latest rumor is that the game looks something like this tech demo. No idea if this is true:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T4kyEW1zKAM
