TES V: Skyrim announced

Tyrion · Post by **Tyrion** » Wed Jun 08, 2011 5:11 pm

They stopped religious factions in Oblivion, why bring them back now? The main quest will have enough to do with religion and the Blades to be their de facto questlines I would think.

The game looks gorgeous, but it's not very inspired. I don't know that I need to play this. It doesn't bring anything new to the table for me, unless I feel the need to kill dragons while dressed up like a viking.

Nemon · Post by **Nemon** » Wed Jun 08, 2011 7:53 pm

Tyrion wrote:...unless I feel the need to kill dragons while dressed up like a viking.

I'm not sure we ever looked like that

.

Tyrion · Post by **Tyrion** » Wed Jun 08, 2011 9:41 pm

Nemon wrote:
Tyrion wrote:...unless I feel the need to kill dragons while dressed up like a viking.
I'm not sure we ever looked like that .

Nobody ever said Bethesda was going for historical accuracy on what real world cultures they're ripping off. To me, what I see is too grounded in what I've already seen and what I already know of the fantasy genre. There's nothing new to get excited about except the execution of said staid fantasy genre. I'm sure they'll do a good job of presenting that world to us from a technical standpoint, but I'm really not looking forward to much else.

Sickjin · Post by **Sickjin** » Wed Jun 08, 2011 10:19 pm

yeah, I'm disappointed the Imperials turned into the Roman Empire and the Nords became straight Vikings (they were always sort of Norse-influenced, but not such a direct ripoff). The gameplay and graphics are improving, the originality is getting worse.

I doubt the Blades will be a major faction, even if they have a large quest chain, because according to the game's backstory they were wiped out bit by bit after the death of Martin due to lack of an emperor. Dark Brotherhood was mentioned. I'm sure with the amount of lore about Skyrim from previous games and books they'll have a ton of religious and political factions.

Lady Nerevar · Post by **Lady Nerevar** » Thu Jun 09, 2011 3:26 am

I think its a bit early to say that Nords are a 'direct ripoff' of Vikings. All we've really seen of Nords is one set of armor, which looks closer to Conan than it does to Viking. All we've seen of Imperials is a dude in the background. Lets play the game before talking about how it sucks.

P.S. There were not 25 major factions in Morrowind.

Sickjin · Post by **Sickjin** » Thu Jun 09, 2011 4:48 am

yeah, you're right about the Viking/Conan part. For the Imperials I was talking more about Morrowind/Oblivion compared to the Imperials in Arena/Daggerfall. Around the third game they stopped being Imperialistic normal humans and just became the Roman Empire, complete with horsehead helmets, banners, legions, Latin names and a cult that worships their Emperor.

Scamp · Post by **Scamp** » Thu Jun 09, 2011 11:15 am

Tyrion wrote:I don't know that I need to play this. It doesn't bring anything new to the table for me

It's sad to hear you always prefer games that add "something new". Skyrim is awesome, and it adds a lot of new things. And even if not, there are still quests and draugr to kill, so why does it have to bring something new to the table?

The Greatness · Post by **The Greatness** » Thu Jun 09, 2011 12:06 pm

Scamp wrote:It's sad to hear you always prefer games that add "something new". Skyrim is awesome, and it adds a lot of new things. And even if not, there are still quests and draugr to kill, so why does it have to bring something new to the table?

Because I don't want to play through another shoddy console port with more generic, flat locations. They've even turned the awesome draugr into generic zombies. Unless the other areas are a lot more interesting and varied than what we've seen so far I'm going to quickly lose my interest.

Katze · Post by **Katze** » Thu Jun 09, 2011 1:02 pm

The draugr in the the trailer looked like they were fast and capable of using swords, how is that in any way "generic zombie"? If anything, they look cooler in Skyrim than they did in Bloodmoon, that addon had some really shoddy animation :/

I'm going to admit I hated their animation for the horse in the demo. No horse moves like that, it looked retarded :/

Still excited about the game, though. I enjoyed Oblivion immensely, and Skyrim looks like it will be much better, even if it'll likely fall short of the awesomeness of Morrowind.

Scamp · Post by **Scamp** » Thu Jun 09, 2011 1:18 pm

The Greatness wrote:generic, flat locations. They've even turned the awesome draugr into generic zombies. Unless the other areas are a lot more interesting and varied than what we've seen so far I'm going to quickly lose my interest.

Dude, you don't know what you're saying

Tyrion · Post by **Tyrion** » Thu Jun 09, 2011 2:29 pm

Weren't the draugr always kind of generic zombies? Their backstory was at least interesting I guess.

And whether we're talking Vikings or Conan its being pulled from the same generic fantasy melting pot. I just don't see them pushing their creative boundaries at all. I see them rehashing existing fantasy but painting "Elder Scrolls" over it. Now don't get me wrong, for all that their technical execution of that world looks very promising. The gameworld looks absolutely stunning. I can't say anything about gameplay yet, am a bit bummed over their cutting of more skills, but oh well. It looks cool but I'm afraid after I get over the graphics its going to feel lame, like Oblivion.

Scamp · Post by **Scamp** » Thu Jun 09, 2011 6:29 pm

How can it feel lame with such an amazing gameplay style and so many possibilities. I seriously don't understand what some of you are talking about... this game is going to be absolutely mind-blowing. Hell, it already blew my mind with the latest videos.

Evod Lighttaker · Post by **Evod Lighttaker** » Thu Jun 09, 2011 6:42 pm

I remember when my mind was blown when the oblivion videos came out. This time around I'm cautiously optimistic.

But anyway it'll be interesting to see if the falmer are introduced in some way.

Sniper4 · Post by **Sniper4** » Thu Jun 09, 2011 8:37 pm

Evod Lighttaker wrote:I remember when my mind was blown when the oblivion videos came out. This time around I'm cautiously optimistic.

Yeah, I'm with the "cautiously optimistic" crowd. It's hard to say what it's going to be like at this point. I have a lot of concerns, but I'll just have to wait and see. I'm still buying this game regardless of how mainstreamized it is, since I have a lot of free time, and I need something to fill that void.

Tyrion · Post by **Tyrion** » Thu Jun 09, 2011 11:29 pm

Oblivion with a new engine and dragons.

Personally I'm looking forward to Diablo III.

Lady Nerevar · Post by **Lady Nerevar** » Fri Jun 10, 2011 3:47 am

Sickjin wrote:For the Imperials I was talking more about Morrowind/Oblivion compared to the Imperials in Arena/Daggerfall. Around the third game they stopped being Imperialistic normal humans and just became the Roman Empire, complete with horsehead helmets, banners, legions, Latin names and a cult that worships their Emperor.

The Imperials as a race didn't exist until Redguard. Other than some names and Roman-like Legion armor, the Empire is nothing like Rome. Just look at anything in [url=http://www.abiro.com/lab/oblivion/ES4_Oblivion100013.jpg]Oblivion[/url], or next to anything in the [url=http://www.imperial-library.info/sites/default/files/pge01_cyrodiil_art_02.jpg]PGEs[/url], or most of the stuff in [url=http://tamriel-rebuilt.org/g/scrcaps/2/Helnim%202.jpg]Morrowind[/url].

RelinQ · Post by **RelinQ** » Fri Jun 10, 2011 6:08 am

cire992 wrote:... I better not pre-order this one, I'm picky about Fantasy games on a good day, and Skyrim just sounds way too similar to Oblivion for my liking.

I'm considering not pre-ordering this as well. I do however want to play it, but games in Exam periods are never a good idea, and that's November for me.

Myzel wrote: Vanilla Morrowind had 10 main factions with large questlines.
Naked Oblivion had 5, if you count the boring arena.
Skyrim will have 3. If there were more, I think he would have remembered to mention them. Top of his head or not.

That always got to me in Oblivion, I always felt like there were elements or variety missing because of that.
..As well as the decrease in skills and towns as well.

Hopefully there will be a few more towns though. Cyrodiil, for it's size, to me, seemed underpopulated in terms of the number of settlements.

Tyrion · Post by **Tyrion** » Fri Jun 10, 2011 1:46 pm

Lady Nerevar wrote:
Sickjin wrote:For the Imperials I was talking more about Morrowind/Oblivion compared to the Imperials in Arena/Daggerfall. Around the third game they stopped being Imperialistic normal humans and just became the Roman Empire, complete with horsehead helmets, banners, legions, Latin names and a cult that worships their Emperor.
The Imperials as a race didn't exist until Redguard. Other than some names and Roman-like Legion armor, the Empire is nothing like Rome. Just look at anything in [url=http://www.abiro.com/lab/oblivion/ES4_Oblivion100013.jpg]Oblivion[/url], or next to anything in the [url=http://www.imperial-library.info/sites/default/files/pge01_cyrodiil_art_02.jpg]PGEs[/url], or most of the stuff in [url=http://tamriel-rebuilt.org/g/scrcaps/2/Helnim%202.jpg]Morrowind[/url].

They were much more Roman in Morrowind. In TES IV they suddenly morphed into medieval England.

Evod Lighttaker · Post by **Evod Lighttaker** » Fri Jun 10, 2011 6:31 pm

More like someone watched "The lord of the rings" and thought it was the best thing evar.

Nalin · Post by **Nalin** » Fri Jun 10, 2011 8:10 pm

More like someone watched "The lord of the rings" and thought it was the best thing evar.

Todd pretty much said that was what happened. D:

I'm giving oblivion a try on xbox 360 (as I bought one recently) and I kind of feel like now I can just except that I can't change all the flaws with it (as it's on a console) and I'm actually enjoying playing through quests rather than only ever starting the game up to test out a new arena poster texture or somesuch.

Some of the Skyrim stuff I've seen so far has made me wince a bit but some of it has made me shake like a giddy kid with excitement. I'll be getting the PC version.

Katze · Post by **Katze** » Fri Jun 10, 2011 8:27 pm

I've been playing Oblivion recently (on the PC, Steam version) actually, and quite enjoying it. I think as long as you can play it with every setting maxed, and don't go mad installing mods to fix absolutely everything, the game is pretty addictive. I installed patch mods and one shader mod to change nighteye from horrid blue mess to a desaturation filter, and that's about it.

Tyrion · Post by **Tyrion** » Fri Jun 10, 2011 8:47 pm

I think TES IV is still a very visually engaging game. I'll still start games just to run around the woods at level 1 (without distracting and awkward high level monsters wandering around). Skyrim looks to follow that premise for me. I never really had fun leveling up my character in Oblivion. So I suppose I may play it for that purpose of just experiencing the gameworld they'll make. But it remains to be seen whether playing through matches up.

Scamp · Post by **Scamp** » Fri Jun 10, 2011 11:19 pm

Come on guys... Oblivion was great fun. It wasn't as good as Morrowind, but I really enjoyed it.

And seriously, what I have seen from Skyrim so far tells me it is going to be the best Elder Scrolls game so far. (Scamp hides)

Tyrion · Post by **Tyrion** » Sat Jun 11, 2011 12:38 am

Scamp wrote:Come on guys... Oblivion was great fun. It wasn't as good as Morrowind, but I really enjoyed it.

And seriously, what I have seen from Skyrim so far tells me it is going to be the best Elder Scrolls game so far. (Scamp hides)

The best looking, yes. Even if the story is awesome, it won't beat Morrowind's. These are still all my opinions of course.

Nomadic1 · Post by **Nomadic1** » Sat Jun 11, 2011 4:34 am

Oblivion made a few dubious gameplay decisions that prevented me from enjoying it as a more traditional hack-and-slash type game.

I might have used mods that addressed them, but I couldn't really get into it. I ended up not wanting to play it a second or third time (I did to give it the benefit of the doubt).

I had fun with Fallout 3 so it doesn't particularly concern me that BS is basing Skyrim around what they did there. I'm kinda excited to play it, TBH. I don't know whether the RPG part is going to be there though.

Post by **Haplo** » Sat Jun 11, 2011 5:13 am

Have minimum/recommended specs been announced for Skyrim yet?

RelinQ · Post by **RelinQ** » Sat Jun 11, 2011 8:56 am

I've been playing Oblivion on-&-off since about March, thought I should give it enough solid play before I get into Skyrim.

@Hap, I'm not sure if its officially announced but I've seen a few sites mentioning a list of min specs within this range below:

Minimum System Requirements

* OS: Windows XP, Vista or Windows 7
* CPU: Core 2 Duo 2.0 GHz or Althon X2 2.0 GHz
* RAM: 3-4 GB
* HDD: 10-15 GB
* Graphics: 512 MB card
* Sound Card: DirectX 9 Compatible
* DirectX: Version 9.0c

I'm not entirely sure how accurate this is, but I think its near the right amount (the above is fairly similar to The Witcher 2 min specs, except the ram is higher)

Post by **Haplo** » Sat Jun 11, 2011 5:16 pm

3GB of RAM for a minimum? Seems a bit steep. I mean, I'll be glad it if that's accurate, because it means the game will run that much better on my 8GB, and that there's much more going on... but I bet the minimum will be 1GB or maybe 2GB.

Sickjin · Post by **Sickjin** » Sat Jun 11, 2011 6:29 pm

I knew it, as soon as I finally caught up with modern gaming computers and got a 4 gig, it's obsolete. haha

are you guys going to be doing any potential Skyrim modding with that new radiant quest system?

Katze · Post by **Katze** » Sat Jun 11, 2011 8:20 pm

4GB has been the norm for gaming for about 2 or 3 years now, it's 8GB you want nowadays

(not that it makes much difference for most games I play)

Aeven · Post by **Aeven** » Sat Jun 11, 2011 8:59 pm

Cat,I think the norm is 2 GB, most certainly not 4 GB. Not everyone runs 64 bit systems.

Post by **Haplo** » Sat Jun 11, 2011 9:15 pm

It's been confirmed, though, that either Windows 7 or Windows 8 will be the last to support 32-bit architecture. Because this is the 21st century, here.

Scamp · Post by **Scamp** » Sat Jun 11, 2011 11:19 pm

Sickjin wrote: are you guys going to be doing any potential Skyrim modding with that new radiant quest system?

We currently aren't planning to mod anything but Morrowind.

Yeti · Post by **Yeti** » Sun Jun 12, 2011 1:03 am

Interesting to see quite a few people playing Oblivion here. I just started playing it again too with Oscuro's Oblivion Overhaul and Unique Landscapes installed (and Stirk too of course

) So far it's been pretty good.

Skyrim looks interesting but I'll probably wait until the Game of the Year Version comes out. That's what I did with Morrowind and Oblivion at least.

Worsas · Post by **Worsas** » Mon Jun 13, 2011 1:46 pm

I often notice at shotn that even if you deal with a more classical environment it is not easy to capture the full atmosphere. The people of Bethesda are pretty good at that and better than most other gaming companies, in my opinion.

There are such highly professional games like 'assassins creed' who feature many things the best way possible from a graphical point of view but for some reason do not capture much of an ancient, epic feeling.

Nemon · Post by **Nemon** » Tue Aug 09, 2011 9:14 am

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2011-08-08-notch-hopes-bethesda-isnt-doing-a-langdell

Meh...

Evod Lighttaker · Post by **Evod Lighttaker** » Sat Aug 13, 2011 5:23 am

Yay I gotta say that's a bit of a dick move on bethesda's legal department. I'll still be playing skyrim but still dick move.

gro-Dhal · Post by **gro-Dhal** » Wed Aug 24, 2011 5:47 pm

[url]http://www.bethblog.com/index.php/2011/08/24/the-races-and-faces-of-skyrim/[/url]

The new race faces are excellent, particularly the Bosmer and Altmer.

Bloodthirsty Crustacean · Wed Aug 24, 2011 11:01 pm

I say the Altmer look too much like the Bosmer.

Also everyone looks like they've been rolling in mud for a day or so.

The Dunmer look so much like the Morrowind faces I almost can't believe it. Heroic effort.

The Bretons look lamely undifferentiated, and human women look uniformly poor, it seems. Aside from some of the badass Redguard warpaint.

Beasts are like wtf good, for most part. Argonians hit and miss. The actual 'live screens' we've seen (and of all races too) look far better though.

I think more room could have been made for differentiation through hairstyles/accessories?

Katze · Post by **Katze** » Wed Aug 24, 2011 11:29 pm

I'm glad the non-human races look properly weird (in a good way) now, rather than humans with strangely-coloured skin and stick-on Spock ears

Really loving how the Dunmer and Altmer look, but I was totally hoping the Bretons would have slightly more pointed ears or some other vaguely elven features, somewhat disappointing.