Now that the
February issue of Game Informer is out and being shipped to people across the US news has been pouring in about Skyrim. Details release in the magazine are being put online right now. Big, BIG stuff too. Let me break it down for you all.
1. StoryLook like
that blurb about The Infernal City was right; The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim will be set 200 years after the Oblivion Crisis. You play as one of the Dragonborn, the fabled heroes who would save the Tamriel from the destruction of the dragons as prophesied in the Elder Scrolls. Also, your mentor is one of the last of
the Blades from Oblivion.
2. CombatOkay, not much to say here other than
MOTHERFUCKING DUAL WIELDING!!! Not just weapons too. Each hand is assignable, so if you chose to, you can shoot magic out of your right hand and shank a guy with a knife in the other. Or use both hands to cast spells. Or use two weapons. Or...
dual wielding shields? Yeah, why not? I'd give it a shot. Point is
what was once teased for Fallout: New Vegas but later dropped from the game is now in Skyrim. Oh, and here's the list of confirmed enemies so far: zombies, skeletons, trolls, giants, ice wraiths, giant spiders, dragons, wolves, horses, mammoth and saber-toothed cats. Sounds fairly northern, snow based.
3. SkillsThere are 18 skills for the player to improve on. Mysticism was axed, Enchanting is still in the game and skills will work with the player who tries to go for a single profession or for someone that wants to be well-rounded.
4. LevelingOkay folks, this is a big one. There is no more class selection. What you pick to focus on by doing (as is the way TES works) will decide your specialty. I guess Bethesda decide they didn't want people planning the game out ahead of time. Each time you level up you get more health and can also pick to increase your stamina, HP or MP. Another thing you get from leveling are Perks (just like Fallout). No idea what any of them are yet or how exactly they'll work, but interesting news. The leveling goes from 1 to 50, but doesn't cap there. Past 50 experience will just slow down and take forever for you to level-up again. And level-scaling is back, which is kinda surprising considering how everybody hated it from Oblivion. Admittedly, it sounds like Bethesda's trying to go at it a little differently...
“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.”But I gotta be honest guys. This sounds like a fancy way to say "We didn't listen to what you had to say." Hey, no problem. Maybe they got it right this time. Maybe it really will be tweaked.
5. NPC InteractionsBig improvement in the realm of facial animation: they don't look like rotten potatoes. When you talk to an NPC, the camera doesn't zoom into their face anymore. Instead, they still do things like walk around and perform tasks. So conversations are real-time now I guess?
6. QuestingQuests are catered to your skills. For example:
"a frequent magic user may be approached by another mage and assign you a quest. Had you been a frequent melee fighter, the mage would not have approached you". Quests are modified depending on what you do. E.g.:
"you must rescue a girl from a certain location. This location will be in an area you’ve yet to visit with enemies that are of or near your level in order to have the player visit a new location and be combatant with challenging enemies". Also, dropping things in the will affect the world around you. If you drop a sword, two bandits might spot it and end up fighting over who gets it, or a beggar young boy might sell it. Apparently NPC's will even return it to you, probably depending on some scale of how well-known or good you are. Also, "young boy"? Does this mean children, or are we just going to see more
annoying man-child elf thing.
7. EngineNot much here, just that snow falls in dynamically, trees blow in the wind and water actually flows. And there are actual shadows that move according to the sun's direction.
8. What Else!?You have the option to spring now, fast travel is still there and works pretty much the same way it did in Oblivion/Fallout 3, third-person view is cinematic and looks like you can actually fight efficiently in and dragons and other creatures will attack one of the five towns every now and then.
Well, looks like that's all for now guys. I'll try to post more news as it's readily available, but I'm thinking I'm mostly gonna have to wait until my magazine comes in the mail, devour it and then mount it on my wall, after which I will post a news article here.
SOURCEPS: Oh yeah, I forgot that it's illegal to post English scans of magazines.
Hahahahaha!