The excruciating wait is finally over. It's been more than five long years since The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion was released, but this week we get to unbox its successor, Skyrim. I don't want to fan the flames of the hype fire too much, but here are five of the top features that Skyrim will be bringing to the table this Friday.
5. Overhauled Menu System
I know what you're thinking right now, "How are menus a feature? They're the most boring part of games!" This may be true for a majority of titles, but it's hardly the case for RPGs. Game menus are critical for a vast amount of role playing functions - checking quest progress, switching between weapons, investing skill points and managing your inventory. A hardcore Elder Scrolls player will probably spend the same amount of time in the menus and the game world, so it's a good thing they're getting a major update.
Every aspect of the interface in Skyrim has been improved over its predecessors. Gone is Oblivion's book metaphor; instead Skyrim takes a very clean and minimalist approach to displaying information. The main menu is a simple compass design divided into four segments - Skills, Magic, Items and Map. For starters, the skills menu is really something else. Anyone who has played The Elder Scrolls series should be familiar with astrological signs making an impact on your character. This menu takes this concept to a new level, with special skills being made available by swooping between individual stars of a constellation. The effect is gorgeous and stunning.
Fire up the BBQ. I'm havin' salmon tonight!
The inventory for items and spells is equally appealing. Every single item in the game has a hi-res 3D model that you can view and rotate from within the inventory menus. At this year's PAX, we saw that even the depictions of salmon and horker meat are deliciously realistic. Any book that you pick up can be leafed through using a slick 3D page turning animation. There are even in-world puzzles requiring clues that can only be obtained by carefully examining artifacts inside of your inventory. The map view may be the most impressive part of the menus. The world of Skyrim isn't presented as a boring piece of paper. It instead is a highly detailed 3D topographical map that showcases all of the province's smallest crags and gullies. It's also notable how fast the interface is. It is highly responsive, and there's hardly any wait at all between switching menus and loading item previews.
4. It Fits on One Disc
Due to the the availability of Blu-Ray discs and digital downloads, this probably isn't an issue on the PS3 and PC platforms. On the Xbox 360, however, it's a big pain having to get up and change discs halfway through your gaming experience. It completely destroys immersion, which is very important in the rich world of Tamriel. Luckily, Bethesda has found a way to cram their massive game on to the 8.5 GB of an Xbox 360 game DVD (slightly less due to formatting and DRM). With some RPGs using up to four discs, having just one is a sizeable achievement.
One game disc to rule them all...
On the most recent episode of the Major Nelson podcast, Todd Howard (Game Director at Bethesda) explained some of the changes in Skyrim that allowed for this technical feat. In order to save some space, procedural generation has been used, but less than you'd actually think. It was used to map out much of the environment in Oblivion but Bethesda decided that they could do a better job themselves. Only the most mundane things have been left to automatic processes, like where grass grows, where snow collects on objects and where insects live. The main reason that they were able to fit so much content onto one disc is the redesigned game engine. Because it can draw so many more objects on screen simultaneously, they needed a way to quickly stream graphical content off of the game disc. To accomplish this, they needed to push their data compression to maximum efficiency. The side benefit of this was a much smaller game. Skyrim is a bigger game than Oblivion, has 50% more dialogue (60,000 lines!), and yet they still had extra space left on the disc at the end of development.
3. A Working World
Bethesda is constantly making adjustments to their games to make them feel more real and "lived-in". This time around, one of the additions is a system of professions in Skyrim. Compared to the lazy men and women of Cyrodiil, the Nords of Skyrim are very industrious. Rather than just standing around, NPCs will be engaged in the tasks of everyday life, like cutting wood or blacksmithing.
Just another day at the town lumber mill.
The Elder Scrolls V even lets the player take part in the world's economy. You can let an economy flourish or doom it to failure based on the tasks and quests you accomplish. A wide variety of activities for the player are available, such as cooking, hunting, fishing and alchemy.
2. It's So Beautiful...
Oblivion was on the cutting edge of graphics when it was released in 2006, but it's not turning any heads today. I remember being so stunned by the beauty of Cyrodiil that I literally paused outside of Imperial City to watch an entire sunrise. As Bethesda proved in Fallout 3, they can bring exquisite artistry to even the bleakest landscape. Although Skyrim's snow covered vistas are a little dull and gray, the artists have brought it to life in a fantastic way. During the small piece of gameplay I experienced at PAX, I was very impressed with the graphical changes. The flowing water of the creeks is as realistic as any other game on the market. The way sunlight bathes the ice veiled evergreens brings a level of realism that not many games can match.
If only Skyrim was as beautiful as it is fun. Oh wait, it is.
Although they're not quite up to par with the best in the industry, Skyrim's new facial animations are nothing to shake a stick at. They're not as repulsive and ugly as those found in previous entries in the franchise. Gone is the frustrating "face-zooming" animation. Conversations take place within the regular game world, and characters move and act naturally as they converse with you.
1. ALL THE DRAGONS!
That's right folks. According to Jeff Cannata of Weekend Confirmed and The Totally Rad Show, Skyrim has "ALL THE DRAGONS!" Technically, he is completely correct. The main story of the game revolves around the return of dragons to the world of Tamriel. However, you aren't travelling to a specific cave to slay a single dragon à la Smaug in The Hobbit. The dragons of Tamriel are simply a race of creatures, and as a result are very random and dynamic. The encounters with dragons are unscripted, and can occur at any time, in any location. At a gameplay demo at PAX, I witnessed bouts with dragons take place upon high peaks as well as flat tundra. Throughout exploring the game, you will always be able to find more dragons to slay, so the "All the Dragons" claim is the truth.
Skyrim has all the dragons. This is one of them.
Fighting the dragons of Skyrim looks like it's going to be a very engaging and thrilling experience. They have been programmed to use each of their strengths as deadly tools of destruction. The dragons do everything in their power to destroy you, whether that means tossing you into the air with their massive talons, or burning you to a crisp. Visually, the dragons are equally terrifying. Not only are they large enough to crush you, the fire emerging from their gaping maws looks real enough to burn away your eyebrows.
The only thing more bad-ass than fighting a dragon in Skyrim is defeating one. Immediately after victory, you proceed to absorb the dragon's soul. Besides looking really awesome, this grants you the ability to use devastatingly powerfuldragon shouts. These wonderful pieces of magic can hurl your enemies off cliffs or fry them like chickens. I cannot wait to gain major geek cred by memorizing all of them.
Thanks for reading! What's your favorite feature of Skyrim? Sound off below! If you have some extra time, check out my 7 Reasons to Attend a Skyrim Midnight Launch.
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