New details and images from Bethesda’s upcoming Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim deafened the internet earlier this week with the shouts of ancient Nords and bathed us in sticky hot dragon’s fire. Millions of nerds wet themselves with excitement when gameplay footage was shown to major gaming news outlets (one day, GN, one day…) along with a Q&A with lead developer Todd Howard. And we loved every minute of it.
Guess what kind of character I'mma play as. Go ahead, guess.
And why wouldn’t we? The world of Tamriel has finally opened up into a massively detailed landscape of mountains, volcanoes, and frozen tundra. Skyrim presents the chance to change everything we know about the Elder Scrolls universe in lovingly rendered positive ways.
Dazzling graphics, dynamic quests that change setting and characters depending on our previous actions, leveling systems that fully embrace letting players grow organically based on their playstyle, and a more fluid combat system to replace the old hack-hack-block and backpedaling nightmares of the past. So why even consider getting upset over this, you ask?
Because we’ve heard this all before.
One pretty face and we forget all about the past, apparently.
The last time we were promised changes this grand, we ended up with Oblivion. Now that doesn’t mean Oblivion wasn’t a good game. It certainly was, and I will admit to having spent an embarrassingly monstrous number of hours wandering through Cyrodiil closing gates to
Five years have passed since Oblivion, and Bethesda has put out two Fallout games to improve their systems and experiment with other possibilities. They have proven that they saw their mistakes and worked out a lot of kinks in the formula, but changes on this scale, that alter so many core aspects of the game that have been around since Arena…can things really go off without an issue? Could this really be the definitive open world, offline RPG experiences everyone hopes it will be?
Honestly, I think I’d be happy if there are just no leveling mountain lions.
Fight the god of destruction and save a kingdom? Check. Wander into the woods and be killed by a mountain lion? Also check.
So do you think it’s time to forget the past and move forward, or are you remaining cautious? Talk about it in the forums! And then join in on our ongoing tracking of The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim here!
Tags: 11/11/11, Bethesda, Dragons, Elder Scrolls V, Khajiit, Nerd Rage, nerdgasm, Nord, Oblivion, Orc, Skyrim
