Of all the trailers and previews I saw for the top-budget games, as some people who read this space might predict, my interest in Skyrim seems to be the strongest. I continue to follow the development of Star Wars: the Old Republic (the trailer got the most attention but they also had hands-on gameplay available) and Guild Wars 2 (who didn't do the E3 thing this time around) even though I usually don't look too closely at Massively Multiplayer Online games with the express intent of actually trying them out, and there were a few others, like the new Bioshock game, that make me curious where things will go. But Skyrim seems to get me the most energized. Energy is a rare resource with me lately, so I'm happy to just accept this, and capitalize on it.
 
The Skyrim demo, where Todd Howard would talk to [hosts] and give his spiel while [hosts] tried to interject questions when they could, gave me a better idea what the game actually looks like in action. I wasn't terribly impressed with how it looked, at least with the way the rocks seemed to jut out randomly and the trees seemed a bit samey (I guess it's an advantage not to see the trees for the forest). Even if they never bothered to polish it after this point, though, I still think the game's overall prettiness isn't really a problem with me as long as it's not too depressing to stroll through these areas. The water to me looked more impressive this time around even though it still looks like a rolling, bumpy texture. It looked a lot more like it was spraying and moving in a torrent that wouldn't be that safe to step in, and the special places like cities and barrows, and the indoor environments looked nice and varied. ("150 dungeons" will probably cut down on the varied-ness a bit, but there had to be some balance between amount and complexity. I hope they found their sweet spot.)
 
 As for the actual creatures, the dragons look quite nice from what I've seen so far, as do the giants and mammoths I got to see. The mammoths, especially. I want one as a pet. The fact that monsters don't mindlessly attack you like zombies is a thrill for me; it's one of the things I put on my little wish list so long ago and it was one of the first things confirmed, but to see it in action is satisfying. I even saw a talk prompt pop up as the giant passed by, which I HOPE will be a possibility in the game. I don't get all starry eyed when they mention dragons, though; I'd rather they make these particular creatures fun to fight and see, but not focus too too much on them.  Come to think of it, even though I'll mention cliff racers a few times further down in this essay, now I'm wondering if dragons will be a bit too common, sorta replacing cliff racers as the most annoying monsters of Elder Scrolls. Maybe there's an algorithm that keeps them under control. Who knows at this point.
 
It seems like they spent a long time with the item system, with a crazy amount of detail on individual items. Cooked salmon really does look like cooked salmon. There are some puzzle solving elements to this item examination, but even stackable common items will get this treatment, too. I do hope, for modders' sakes, that they'll allow a placeholder picture instead of a 3D model if they can't be bothered crafting expert little bits for any new items they introduce in unofficial expansions, and I can't help but wonder how much I would use such a feature, but it's gratifying that I don't have to spin around my character and stare deeply at every little item in order to appreciate the work that went into them.
 
It's a good sign that the biggest worry that I saw a few writers have was that the font reminded them of Fallout 3. They said the associations with the tone of that game were jarring for this fantasy setting, but as someone who never really played the later Fallouts it doesn't bother me personally. I imagine they'll probably get around to changing the font before release, but if they don't I probably won't even notice unless someone points it out. My lingering worry about the abrupt music change issue is always in the back of my mind and will probably annoy me if it's never addressed in at least a cursory way, but I'll live. At least there aren't cliff racers.
 
Among other thoughts: The one hand/two hand model they have for equipping weapons and spells seems excellent so far, and the perk tree looks like it'll be fun to navigate if there are a lot of branches for those skills. And as far as the features on the game, I have to say: even I've been guilty of the odd horse armor joke, but fuck, people, give it a rest.  Horses are nice to see, although I imagine they're just getting started hashing those out. The third person perspective looks rather beautiful, actually. I think it's the first time I've considered trying the game out a bit in 3rd person perspective, at least for a while, although I wonder if I'll be able to hold off on the temptation to skippity-hoppity everywhere.
 
Finally, I guess I have to say that something old Todd Howard said during one of his conferences worried me a tad. He said they're trying to stuff as much as they can into the game, which I love in principle, but as fans of the Elder Scrolls series know, there are times when you should just stop stuffin' and start debuggin'. I hope they manage to put out a game that won't need major fixes to be playable.
 
Many months to go, though, so really, anything is possible. I guess that's why I'm still a fan of this franchise.

Of all the trailers and previews I saw for the top-budget games, as some people who read this space might predict, my interest in Skyrim seems to be the strongest. I continue to follow the development of Star Wars: the Old Republic (the trailer got the most attention but they also had hands-on gameplay available) and Guild Wars 2 (who didn't do the E3 thing this time around) even though I usually don't look too closely at Massively Multiplayer Online games with the express intent of actually trying them out, and there were a few others, like the new Bioshock game, that make me curious where things will go. But Skyrim seems to get me the most energized. Energy is a rare resource with me lately, so I'm happy to just accept this, and capitalize on it.
 
The Skyrim demo, where Todd Howard would talk to [hosts] and give his spiel while [hosts] tried to interject questions when they could, gave me a better idea what the game actually looks like in action. I wasn't terribly impressed with how it looked, at least with the way the rocks seemed to jut out randomly and the trees seemed a bit samey (I guess it's an advantage not to see the trees for the forest). Even if they never bothered to polish it after this point, though, I still think the game's overall prettiness isn't really a problem with me as long as it's not too depressing to stroll through these areas. The water to me looked more impressive this time around even though it still looks like a rolling, bumpy texture. It looked a lot more like it was spraying and moving in a torrent that wouldn't be that safe to step in, and the special places like cities and barrows, and the indoor environments looked nice and varied. ("150 dungeons" will probably cut down on the varied-ness a bit, but there had to be some balance between amount and complexity. I hope they found their sweet spot.)
 
 As for the actual creatures, the dragons look quite nice from what I've seen so far, as do the giants and mammoths I got to see. The mammoths, especially. I want one as a pet. The fact that monsters don't mindlessly attack you like zombies is a thrill for me; it's one of the things I put on my little wish list so long ago and it was one of the first things confirmed, but to see it in action is satisfying. I even saw a talk prompt pop up as the giant passed by, which I HOPE will be a possibility in the game. I don't get all starry eyed when they mention dragons, though; I'd rather they make these particular creatures fun to fight and see, but not focus too too much on them.  Come to think of it, even though I'll mention cliff racers a few times further down in this essay, now I'm wondering if dragons will be a bit too common, sorta replacing cliff racers as the most annoying monsters of Elder Scrolls. Maybe there's an algorithm that keeps them under control. Who knows at this point.
 
It seems like they spent a long time with the item system, with a crazy amount of detail on individual items. Cooked salmon really does look like cooked salmon. There are some puzzle solving elements to this item examination, but even stackable common items will get this treatment, too. I do hope, for modders' sakes, that they'll allow a placeholder picture instead of a 3D model if they can't be bothered crafting expert little bits for any new items they introduce in unofficial expansions, and I can't help but wonder how much I would use such a feature, but it's gratifying that I don't have to spin around my character and stare deeply at every little item in order to appreciate the work that went into them.
 
It's a good sign that the biggest worry that I saw a few writers have was that the font reminded them of Fallout 3. They said the associations with the tone of that game were jarring for this fantasy setting, but as someone who never really played the later Fallouts it doesn't bother me personally. I imagine they'll probably get around to changing the font before release, but if they don't I probably won't even notice unless someone points it out. My lingering worry about the abrupt music change issue is always in the back of my mind and will probably annoy me if it's never addressed in at least a cursory way, but I'll live. At least there aren't cliff racers.
 
Among other thoughts: The one hand/two hand model they have for equipping weapons and spells seems excellent so far, and the perk tree looks like it'll be fun to navigate if there are a lot of branches for those skills. And as far as the features on the game, I have to say: even I've been guilty of the odd horse armor joke, but fuck, people, give it a rest.  Horses are nice to see, although I imagine they're just getting started hashing those out. The third person perspective looks rather beautiful, actually. I think it's the first time I've considered trying the game out a bit in 3rd person perspective, at least for a while, although I wonder if I'll be able to hold off on the temptation to skippity-hoppity everywhere.
 
Finally, I guess I have to say that something old Todd Howard said during one of his conferences worried me a tad. He said they're trying to stuff as much as they can into the game, which I love in principle, but as fans of the Elder Scrolls series know, there are times when you should just stop stuffin' and start debuggin'. I hope they manage to put out a game that won't need major fixes to be playable.
 
Many months to go, though, so really, anything is possible. I guess that's why I'm still a fan of this franchise.

Yeah I'm liking what I see so far of the game. I doubt I will get a computer to run it by the time it comes out. If I can't resist the temptation, maybe I'll just buy it for PS3 then wait until the Game of the Year edition comes out then I'll get it on PC again. I'm really liking the animations for the main character when viewed in third-person perspective. It seems like it is now a viable option to play. Fantastic.

I can barely run Witcher 2 on the lowest setting so I don't expect my computer to run any big blockbuster PC game that's released this year.

I was hoping Bethesda would impress me at E3 with Skyrim, and they did just that. The animations are gorgeous, and although the game doesn't look completely stunning, I'm satisfied enough with the graphics. The rocks honestly don't look like much of a step up from Oblivion, though. 
 
Hopefully the music changes won't be so abrupt this time around. Something I did notice about the music was that the battle music seemed almost too epic (for lack of a better term). I felt like I was listening to a Lord of the Rings soundtrack when the player was fighting the giant in the demo. 
 
Like you, I'm also very worried about the quantity of dragons. Every time Todd mentions them he seems to really emphasize the fact that they wanted dragons to be a common thing. Hopefully they haven't overdone it. 
 
All in all, I'm much more excited for Skyrim than I was prior to E3, however I still remain skeptical on many of the game mechanics. The game looks nice, seems to play well, but until I'm able to start playing myself and see whether or not the game's quest, economic, loot systems and etc. work well, I reserve my full judgement.

Having now actually seen that G4 footage, I can't really say it's anything other than what I really expected. To be frank, it looks like a Bethesda open world RPG with notably improved inventory (that font though. They could make due with making it a little more... fantastic) and now you can combine spells. That seems good to me. At the end of the day, I'm just going to have to get my hands on it and play it.

If I'm correct, Skyrim is running exclusively on DirectX9 shaders, hence why it looks somewhat older then most games today so I'd reckon if you can run Oblivion at a steady framerate then you ought to able to run this. I wouldn't be surprised if they released DirectX10/11 shaders for the PC version in the future though. The thing with TES games is that they look great on a macro scale so it's no surprise that Skyrim is any different but Todd Howard did mention that they've been working on the micro detail too (as seen in the vegetation and items for example). Frankly, it looks like Oblivion HD to me but that's entirely fine since Oblivion still looks pretty good for an old game and hey, 300 hours of game time? I was already sold by then 'cause there's nothing more I love then a good, beefy game. 
 
Also, INFINITE DRAGONS!!!

6 months to go. can't wait! :D

They can take their sweet ass time with this game, push it further back even more if they want to. I want the best Elders scrolls experience possible.
 
Also, I already know how i'm gonna play this game, which is exactly like I did for Oblivion : First playthrough is ALL about the main campaign, screw the side stuff, just focus on the main storyline and finish it. THEN, come back and enjoy the grandiose experience it has to offer. Otherwise, it'll end up like Morrowind and i'll never see the end of that game.

@akiz_jack: Since I've been out of the PC hardware race for many years, I have no idea what would be required to run something like this. Maybe I shouldn't assume whatever PC we manage to assemble will be adequate...

Yeah i know that map, pretty handy indeed, ws not around at release time though, which made the paper map so more important hahaha. 
 
I'll read your stuff for sure man!

where do i find this "demo" for Skyrim? please answer i would really like to know and i have always been an Elder Scrolls fan!! 

where do i find this "demo" for Skyrim? please answer i would really like to know and i have always been an Elder Scrolls fan!! 

1) No more level scaling.
2) Adding the ability to remove spells.
3)????
4)Multimillion dollar profit.

1) No more level scaling. 2) Adding the ability to remove spells. 3)???? 4)Multimillion dollar profit.

@TheDudeOfGaming said:

1) No more level scaling. 2) Adding the ability to remove spells. 3)???? 4)Multimillion dollar profit.

You can remove spells!? GOTY then.

@ShiftyMagician said:

@TheDudeOfGaming said:

1) No more level scaling. 2) Adding the ability to remove spells. 3)???? 4)Multimillion dollar profit.

You can remove spells!? GOTY then.

That's just what I'm hoping to see/not see in Skyrim. Don't know if you can remove spells.

Ouch. 
 
Although what it really needs is a way to tree-list spells based on their fundamental similarities, I think. In just about any ES game I wind up getting weaker versions of spells, but they're useful in some contexts so I keep them, hindering my organization issues. If you could tree healing spells, with, on a PC version, a list of raw increase in cost and effictiveness, with a mouse-over of their actual names, you'd have a nice, slick, and QUICK spell selection system.
 
Hope that slick interface they're talking about expands to spells, but what I'm wondering more right now is if spell customization is still in full force. They had talked about revamping spell effects so it wasn't just a matter of tallying damage, but since that takes away some measure of control from the player, how might that effect the player's ability to make new stuff?

Don't get me wrong, I am more stoked for Skyrim than any other upcoming game this year. But is anyone else disappointed by the focus on dragons? I was hoping the game would be more rooted in somewhat reality, especially after they announced that the plot revolves around a civil war.

@christianiscooldood said:

Don't get me wrong, I am more stoked for Skyrim than any other upcoming game this year. But is anyone else disappointed by the focus on dragons? I was hoping the game would be more rooted in somewhat reality, especially after they announced that the plot revolves around a civil war.

I'm loving the dragon angle. While I'm sure it will have heavy focus on the politics of the province of Skyrim, the main plot is dragons. And what I've seen of the dragons has me stoked. I don't think any other game (Baldur's Gate, Dragon Age, World of Warcraft, even my beloved Witcher 2) has so perfectly captured dragons as what I've seen so far in the Skyrim demos.

@ahoodedfigure said:

there are times when you should just stop stuffin' and start debuggin'.

Made me laugh. I agree though. I'll gladly take a well polished game over a few more dozen hours of gameplay. My biggest problem with the elder scrolls games was the leveling system which they seem to be re-hauling. Whether or not it will be a big improvement will have to wait til I get my hands on it.

@ahoodedfigure:

I've only played Oblvion (I know I know I'm missing out on a lot by not playing the first ones) so that's the one I was referring too. My biggest problem was the way the skills were increased in Oblivion. Leveling up skills by use is a great idea in theory, but when the most efficient way to level is to cast spells on yourself over and over or game it in a variety of other ways felt unsatisfying. I want a huge boost if I kill a high level monster with a weapon or get more of an increase if I use high level spells. It seems Skyrim is addressing those issues but even if it doesn't it won't turn me off from playing.

I wonder if there will be perks that make leveling faster in certain skills and you can start to emphasize a class in that way? And I don't doubt there will be people that do speed/no skill runs, but unlike Oblivion where the monsters stayed level with the character the new enemy system with some static powerful monsters will make it more challenging I imagine.