Again, we've seen far too little to really judge.

omg look so generic

YAWN

@Itwastuesday said:

omg look so generic

YAWN

Really, this looks more inspired than any part of Oblivion. I mean Morrowind was great for design, but it's not like Dunmer architecture would fit in Skyrim. It needs it's own unique style. Personally I'm loving the ancient scandinavian/pagan architectural style. Hoping to see some kind of stave church analogue.

We gave yet to see every detail in the game, so we can't quite judge the art design yet. Also, this isn't Vvardenfell, it is Skyrim. Just because it is different, doesn't necessarily mean that it isn't as artistically inspiring. Personally, I think the art style makes sense, it isn't an alien-esque world, ala Morrowind, but it isn't as cookie-cutter as Oblivion. So I guess we will have to wait and see.

@BabyChooChoo said:

@JP_Russell said:

I don't agree. Mostly everything I've seen in Skyrim has more detail, more color variety, more design craft, and more ambiance than anything in Oblivion. The art direction may not be as unusual as Morrowind's was, but I don't think that takes away from it (never mind the point others have raised that Skyrim isn't supposed to be a exotic place like Morrowind in the lore), and I certainly don't think it looks generic. Not everything in art needs to be unusual to have complete merit.

Couldn't have said it better myself. Besides, we still have yet to see everything and I'm willing to put down money that says there will definitely be some sights in that game that will wow the shit out of you.

I'm just gonna quote this. Because these fools are right.

@Aishan said:

But it does have an art-direction? It's all consistent. It may not be exotic (other than the Dwemer stuff), but everything we've seen so far is definitely consistent in style.

I second this. All the art in the game is consistently-Norse. The monsters are rough and mature. The NPC models look very tough and leathery. It all fits. And it looks stunning. I prefer this look to Morrowind's penis-shrooms-browness-blah.

Please learn what the term "art-direction" means. "Visually-interesting" does not equal "art-direction".

Morrowind does not look as impressive to me as it once did. It's sections are crammed right beside each other, yet look completely different from each other with no natural progression in the environments.

Skyrim is taking what Oblivion did well and is adding to it. It has this great natural look, set in a cold environment with it's civilization based around that climate.

I guess I don't understand the complaint in general because I like my fantasy art to be grounded and have form follow function. I've come to understand that others consider my favorite styles to be generic. I thought the art style in dragon age origins was outstanding because it felt real.

@AhmadMetallic said:

@KoolAid said:

I guess I don't understand the complaint in general because I like my fantasy art to be grounded and have form follow function. I've come to understand that others consider my favorite styles to be generic. I thought the art style in dragon age origins was outstanding because it felt real.

That's an interesting point of view. I'm no fantasy expert but I think there are two kinds of fantasy, the one that is rather hard and pseudo-realistic (dragon age), and the one that's batshit crazy and has all kinds of alien crap (Elder Scrolls, Witcher). So I think this guy's demand for Skyrim to be on the crazy alien side is actually legit.

I want giant mushroom houses.

@AhmadMetallic said:

@KoolAid said:

I guess I don't understand the complaint in general because I like my fantasy art to be grounded and have form follow function. I've come to understand that others consider my favorite styles to be generic. I thought the art style in dragon age origins was outstanding because it felt real.

That's an interesting point of view. I'm no fantasy expert but I think there are two kinds of fantasy, the one that is rather hard and pseudo-realistic (dragon age), and the one that's batshit crazy and has all kinds of alien crap (Elder Scrolls, Witcher). So I think this guy's demand for Skyrim to be on the crazy alien side is actually legit.

I want giant mushroom houses.

@AhmadMetallic said:

@YoThatLimp said:

@AhmadMetallic said:

@KoolAid said:

I guess I don't understand the complaint in general because I like my fantasy art to be grounded and have form follow function. I've come to understand that others consider my favorite styles to be generic. I thought the art style in dragon age origins was outstanding because it felt real.

That's an interesting point of view. I'm no fantasy expert but I think there are two kinds of fantasy, the one that is rather hard and pseudo-realistic (dragon age), and the one that's batshit crazy and has all kinds of alien crap (Elder Scrolls, Witcher). So I think this guy's demand for Skyrim to be on the crazy alien side is actually legit.

I want giant mushroom houses.

Exactly.

Mod it in then. Literally NOTHING is stopping anyone from having the fungal mansion of their dreams here. Google some TES lore a little though to understand why all these artistic demands will be met with a silent yet stern 'no'. However it does give me a 'what if' dream of Bethesda making a new game going back to Morrowind, as unlikely as it may be.

I'm just going to leave this here

@Pinworm45: the problem is that you are saying you dont like how Super Mario Galaxy looks. I want much more games to be as inventive and amazing in their look as Galaxy. Best looking game this gen, and not even in HD.

I own a kickass gaming PC, and all current gen consoles. At the moment BF3 can produce something that looks about 80% a tree, it very obviously isnt real. If we cant produce reality, lets produce beautiful crazy shit.

thx for your opinion

You mean the poo brown filter?

Skyrim looks great, from what I've seen (which is another thing, none of us has played the game so we have no idea exactly how generic or varied the environments are). The ironic thing, from the people screaming "Make it like Morrowind!", is that copying that game, like many of these people would want, would make the game look like a Morrowind clone. I'm happy that Bethesda is trying to make every area of their universe look different. Oblivion looked different then Morrowind. Skyrim looks different then either of the two previous games. Variety between games in a franchise is good. People, die-hard Morrowind fans specifically, need to chill.

@TearsInRain said:

I don't think it matters, I thought Oblivion was a far better game and Skyrim will be even better.

I think that whatever art design they have in Skyrim looks fine. I thought Morrowind's art style was unappealing and drab, to be honest, so if getting rid of that designer made the games look like they do now, then good riddance.

The art direction isn't as strong as I expected.

@FreneticPony said:

What happened to the art director for Morrowind? It seems like he quit and Bethesda just decided "eh, we don't need one."

Skyrim looks as generic as Oblivion did : (

I'm not talking about the "art" itself here. That looks as well built as ever. I'm talking about the actual style of the game. Ok, I'm a bit of an art geek, but we need love to! All the concept art from Skyrim seems as if you could plug it into any other fantasy game out there and no one would notice. The giants are big, lumbering, wrinkly things that could be in any D&D Edition monster guide, same with the dragons and most of the other creatures. The architecture design could be put piece for piece into the original Dragon Age and few would be able to tell.

All I'm asking is where all the cool, unique designs went. If you take a look at almost any screenshot from Morrowind you can instantly tell it's FROM Morrowind. Not so with Skyrim : /

This game has a really strong art style, you're utterly incorrect. I'd recommend you look up Nordic mythologies like those of Boewulf and their Gods (Thor, Odin, Sif and so forth) and tale of the coming of Ragnarok because the Skyrim most certainly cribs from these influences in a really big way.

I should clarify that I hated the blandness of Oblivion when compared to Morrowind too.

i absolutely love the whole artstyle of the game and general feel, but that's because i'm a fan of Nordic myths and their culture.

I didn't like oblivion cause of the feel of the game, that felt generic as hell to me.

@SeriouslyNow said:

@FreneticPony said:

What happened to the art director for Morrowind? It seems like he quit and Bethesda just decided "eh, we don't need one."

Skyrim looks as generic as Oblivion did : (

I'm not talking about the "art" itself here. That looks as well built as ever. I'm talking about the actual style of the game. Ok, I'm a bit of an art geek, but we need love to! All the concept art from Skyrim seems as if you could plug it into any other fantasy game out there and no one would notice. The giants are big, lumbering, wrinkly things that could be in any D&D Edition monster guide, same with the dragons and most of the other creatures. The architecture design could be put piece for piece into the original Dragon Age and few would be able to tell.

All I'm asking is where all the cool, unique designs went. If you take a look at almost any screenshot from Morrowind you can instantly tell it's FROM Morrowind. Not so with Skyrim : /

This game has a really strong art style, you're utterly incorrect. I'd recommend you look up Nordic mythologies like those of Boewulf and their Gods (Thor, Odin, Sif and so forth) and tale of the coming of Ragnarok because the Skyrim most certainly cribs from these influences in a really big way.

I should clarify that I hated the blandness of Oblivion when compared to Morrowind too.

Of course they have, but they haven't adapted these aspects of the Saga's significantly in order to make them feel fresh, as a result I have agree with the OP's sentiments that it feels generic / cut and paste fantasy.

I'm with the OP on that one. What I really liked about Morrowind is how refreshing it looked. it had the feel of RPG but it managed to have it's own spin. Giant "Mushrooms" being used as houses, Using huge "flee" like animal to get around, unique architecture....I could go one. After that it just seems they switched to English countryside with oblivion and not it seems they are going for Scotland-scandinavian hybrid.

@Contro said:

@SeriouslyNow said:

@FreneticPony said:

What happened to the art director for Morrowind? It seems like he quit and Bethesda just decided "eh, we don't need one."

Skyrim looks as generic as Oblivion did : (

I'm not talking about the "art" itself here. That looks as well built as ever. I'm talking about the actual style of the game. Ok, I'm a bit of an art geek, but we need love to! All the concept art from Skyrim seems as if you could plug it into any other fantasy game out there and no one would notice. The giants are big, lumbering, wrinkly things that could be in any D&D Edition monster guide, same with the dragons and most of the other creatures. The architecture design could be put piece for piece into the original Dragon Age and few would be able to tell.

All I'm asking is where all the cool, unique designs went. If you take a look at almost any screenshot from Morrowind you can instantly tell it's FROM Morrowind. Not so with Skyrim : /

This game has a really strong art style, you're utterly incorrect. I'd recommend you look up Nordic mythologies like those of Boewulf and their Gods (Thor, Odin, Sif and so forth) and tale of the coming of Ragnarok because the Skyrim most certainly cribs from these influences in a really big way.

I should clarify that I hated the blandness of Oblivion when compared to Morrowind too.

Of course they have, but they haven't adapted these aspects of the Saga's significantly in order to make them feel fresh, as a result I have agree with the OP's sentiments that it feels generic / cut and paste fantasy.

Saying that it has one specific style isn't the same as saying it has generic cut and paste fantasy. Morrowind was the only game in the entire saga which was original in art direction so it's important to keep that in perspective.

I dont think there is a lack of art direction at all. In fact, I think it is pretty clear what direction Bethesda wanted the art to go. What's great is that the game looks so distinct from the previous Elder Scrolls games. Maybe it is just the improved weather or whatever, but the environments just look and feel more realistic than the previous games while maintaining a touch of fantasy here and there (like in the architecture and and other stuff). Usually I dont like weather effects in games because it doesnt look very good and it just makes the environments dark (thereby holding back the colors), but in Skyrim I feel like the snow and other effects are amazing. The game is just beautiful, both from a graphicss perspective and an art perspective.

It does have its own art direction, just one you don't seem to like. But saying it doesn't has an art direction is just silly. The game looks unique and follows well with the Nordic theme.

I would have it no other way. It's full of rocky snow covered cliff faces, vast tree covered areas, and the villages and towns are sculpted really nicely. It all melds together to create one single entity...there isn't huge variance between different places but there shouldn't be.

Such sweet sadness...

@IrishBrewed said:

It does have its own art direction, just one you don't seem to like. But saying it doesn't has an art direction is just silly. The game looks unique and follows well with the Nordic theme.

This.

@EdIsCool said:

If we cant produce reality, lets produce beautiful crazy shit.

Such an awesome quote.

I think everything has looked awesome from Morrowind and on.... and it blows my mind that people don't like the "brownness" of Fallout. Post-apocalyptic isn't supposed to be pretty, and a land of snow and vikings isn't necessarily going to be full of Alice in Wonderland kind of things.

Game mechanics always trump art, anyway.

Isn't art a matter of, for the most part, opinion? Skyrim looks exactly what I imagine a beautiful, freezing land, tucked away from the world, should look like.