V The Elder Scrolls

[Orv]

I want Skyrim noooooowwwwww /whine

And play it for a whole year.

Ten more months and. . .what, seven days? FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF-

That really is just too long to wait. Maybe I'll go get hired by Bethesda.

[Erkki]

Ooh, a video... http://www.gametrailers.com/video/first-look-elder-scrolls/710616

... a video of the screenshots. What has the world become.

[elmuerte]

any screenshots of that video?

[Roderick]

I am horribly torn between wanting to know everything about Skyrim and wanting to know nothing about Skyrim. Someone knock me out until November.

[Erkki]

I am horribly torn between wanting to know everything about Skyrim and wanting to know nothing about Skyrim. Someone knock me out until November.

I was like that about Portal 2 but then I went into full want to know nothing about it mode. Don't know how I did it, I guess I just watched some gameplay videos and felt they were too spoiling and stopped watching.

Maybe if you watch that screenshot video over and over again, it'll help...

[Roderick]

Yes. I'm gonna do that. No more Skyrim teasers and trailers for me Or perhaps only the official ones!

[Roderick]

Already, destroying my resolve: the new trailer for Skyrim came out just now at www.elderscrolls.com. It's pretty cool, a sort of lengthier version of the teaser, but with lots of ingame footage. It's scripted, but uses the ingame engine and I presume also models.

Pretty rad! Loved seeing all those villages with their differing Viking architecture.

[JonCole]

Already, destroying my resolve: the new trailer for Skyrim came out just now at www.elderscrolls.com. It's pretty cool, a sort of lengthier version of the teaser, but with lots of ingame footage. It's scripted, but uses the ingame engine and I presume also models.

Pretty rad! Loved seeing all those villages with their differing Viking architecture.

I think I saw Nick say something to the effect that it was rendered on the Xbox 360 with real in-game footage.

Also, that score. So fucking epic, I can barely contain myself. I want to play Oblivion again, after hearing that.

[DanJW]

Looks nice alright.

Oh, it's out on Nigel Tufnel day. Hmmm.

[Orv]

Alright, aside from the giant tarantula, consider me on-board for this. All the way on-board.

[Squid Division]

For what's supposed to be a completely new engine (right?) that combat looked awfully familiar - the same wooden swings.

[Lu]

JSRtYpNRoN0

Youtube'd for your convenience!

[Gwardinen]

Well like Squid I didn't see anything that makes me think the combat is going to be any better than the last two games, but by god the music. It might be worth it just for the music.

[MrHoatzin]

I do get an urge to replay Morrowind every now and again, just for the music. As soon as I leave the ship and meet the first ugly denizens, the urge passes. It is too bad, since I really enjoyed the world of Morrowind more than Oblivion or Fallout 3...

[Roderick]

I love the warrior wizard shouting his magic along with the music around halfway through

[thl]

I do get an urge to replay Morrowind every now and again, just for the music. As soon as I leave the ship and meet the first ugly denizens, the urge passes. It is too bad, since I really enjoyed the world of Morrowind more than Oblivion or Fallout 3...

me too. The giant crab shell city, all that weird organic tower stuff on the east side. the vampires. I haven't tried to go back to Morrowind because I don't have the time and have heard similarly disheartening things about it not holding up, but it's firmly notched in my heart and memory.

[Orv]

This is why my Morrowind folder is 6.8GB of mods, chaps. It looks like Oblivion while still being Morrowind. Spifficus.

[MrHoatzin]

I don't know if that is necessarily a good thing... can you take some screenshots for us, for please?

[Roderick]

There were some movies of this big ubermod for Morrowind circulating a while ago. They really spruce up the game's visuals, though I didn't like it because it didn't 'feel' like dusty Vvardenfell anymore. But hey, to each his own. I wouldn't mind Morrowind's original graphics that much, I think. I have a pretty high barrier when it comes to accepting graphics.

And, for fuck's sake, Morrowind can still bring the pretty! I dare you to take a midnight stroll to Ebonheart, rest on some of the large rocks near the shore, hear the music swelling up and look at the giant moon rising amid a shifting sky. Tears to the eye, my friends!

Ahem.

Back to the trailer; I got really excited seeing the difference in architectural styles in the various shots of villages. They all had a distinct Viking feel to them, yet differed enough to set them apart. I hope there'll be a lot of cultural/political depth to this world, as there was in Morrowind (Oblivion not so much).

[Orv]

Sure, will do in a time here, Kingz.

I still really enjoy the original Morrowind graphics, and various things are making me consider dumping the mods, but I guess it'll all come down to how my experience is. I tried to get mods that stayed as close to the original feel as possible.

And when I say "as good as Oblivion" I mean "not 2001 graphics" because Oblivion didn't look great anyway.

[Roderick]

My mind is once again blown. Oblivion didn't look great? Did you look at the environments and towns, man? TES has never been strong design-wise, usually having weird people and lizardfaces, but I've noticed in various places people saying how ugly Oblivion (and Morrowind) are, and I am just baffled by this. They were gorgeous games, especially at the time of their release and still pretty much today. Enchanting, atmospheric, detailed and believable.

[Orv]

Granted, Rodi, I don't mean in that way. It's a point leveraged against Oblivion pretty regularly: Trees! So many godsdamned trees. And grass. Green, basically. I really enjoy the shifting visual style that you could get from moment to moment in Morrowind. Things like Aeylid ruins and the Frostpeaks or whatever the mountains were called were very nice, but Oblivion was very same-y.

Keep in mind I consider Shivering Isles to be essentially a separate game in which you can import a character from Oblivion. SI was amazing.

[Roderick]

Okay, you're off the hook. But don't let me catch you saying crazy things like this again.

I still need to play Shivering Isles though... I was waiting for a goddamned deal to get Oblivion + SI on the XBox 360, but it's completely vanished from stores.

Also: STILL not sure if I'm going to buy Skyrim for PC or Xbox...

[Orv]

Ye gods man, why would you ever play an Elder Scrolls game on console? Part of their immense and somewhat ridiculous longevity is the modding community. Hell, Oblivion is a palatable game because of mods, in many aspects.

If DLC for Oblivion doesn't concern you (there is no SI affected DLC, it's all for the base game) it's 20 greenbacks on Steam. If you want the DLC (there are some admittedly really nice ones, like The Frostcrag Spire) it's 30, I believe.

As generic as Oblivion can be, it does have some spectacular vistas.

(Both of these are from Frostcrag.)

Gods I love whoever invented draw distance.

[Sully907]

I haven't really played any of the elder scroll's games extensively, mainly because high fantasy isn't really my thing, but visually, that trailer made the game look very appealing, and if it gives the player as much freedom as I noticed oblivion had in the couple hours I played it, I might have to dip back into the franchise.