ELDER SCROLLS V: Skyrim
- Thread starter Grapes Of Wrath
- Start date
Thats most likely a file error or your computer isn't good enough to run the game with water. Go into options and disable the water shader and reflections. Some of the other options helps too like disabling Anti-aliasing.
To get rid of lag and that annoying 2-3 foot grass that is always hard to see shit in, open the console by pushing ` (next to 1) and type tg (togglegrass) then enter. This will temporarily disable grass, if you want to enable it again type it back in or reload it.
To get rid of lag and that annoying 2-3 foot grass that is always hard to see shit in, open the console by pushing ` (next to 1) and type tg (togglegrass) then enter. This will temporarily disable grass, if you want to enable it again type it back in or reload it.
Problem with going into option is if I go into video options, once I click resume the game crashes. Any other options like audio or controls is fine. Oh well, guess that's what I get for downloading the game.
I'm still trying to get used to the command console. Never done it before so I don't know very many commands.
I'm still trying to get used to the command console. Never done it before so I don't know very many commands.
http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Oblivion:Console
Theres a list of console commands, they can be important and reliable since most games use these.
That really sucks though, I downloaded my oblivion with the expansions Shivering Isles/Knights of the Nine and put a mod on it. Works perfectly fine, but go into oblivion\data\textures\water and check if you have a file named water00 (if not you can download the file). Or go into the .ini file (game settings) mydocuments\mygames\oblivion\oblivion.ini and find this line (use Control+F and type in watershader, make sure you find the exact line match to this) bUseWaterShader=0 Change it to 0 so it looks like that
Whoever uploaded the game may have disabled that file for a reason though, who knows.
Theres a list of console commands, they can be important and reliable since most games use these.
That really sucks though, I downloaded my oblivion with the expansions Shivering Isles/Knights of the Nine and put a mod on it. Works perfectly fine, but go into oblivion\data\textures\water and check if you have a file named water00 (if not you can download the file). Or go into the .ini file (game settings) mydocuments\mygames\oblivion\oblivion.ini and find this line (use Control+F and type in watershader, make sure you find the exact line match to this) bUseWaterShader=0 Change it to 0 so it looks like that
Whoever uploaded the game may have disabled that file for a reason though, who knows.
Tried both of those and the water still isn't blue. Oh well. That being said, I'm about 5 hours in and I'm loving it. I'm probably gonna get Skyrim on release day. I would like to get it on PC for the mods, but my computer won't be able to run it well so PS3 it is.
Nevermind I just got it working. I placed the texture folder in the wrong place haha.
Nevermind I just got it working. I placed the texture folder in the wrong place haha.
Today, we're bringing you a brand new batch of details on Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim from the April edition of the Official Xbox Magazine. We've left a few of the good details out, so if you want the full story, you'll need to make sure you pick up the magazine within the next few days.
Your character will learn the acient language of the dragons. The phrases can include up to three words and are mostly found inscribed on dungeon walls. The phrases will allow you to do certain things such as slow down time, knock back foes, and more.
The phrases are mapped to the right bumper/R1 and you'll learn one word at a time for each phrase. Learning more words within the phrase will allow the spell to be either more powerful or longer.
Finishing moves will be available for your characters in battle. The article describes a finishing move where you plunge "your saber through a foe's chest".
Telekinesis will be an available spell, allowing those of you who are rather lazy the ability to pick up items or objects to launch at your enemies.
Runes can be cast and used as traps. The article describes a situation where you can throw a frost rune to the ground, and if an enemy walks across it, pieces of ice will impale them.
A perk is available that gives your enemies deeper cuts. A strategy talked about is simply hitting your opponent with a solid strike, then hiding as they slowly bleed to death.
Around 80 different spells will be featured in the game.
If you find yourself below average at using weapons, you should still be able to survive in combat using offensive and defensive magic.'
The two handed mechanic Bethesda introduces in Skyrim for fighting will remind a ton of gamers of the BioShock series.
If you happen to scale one of the many peaks in Skyrim, all of the snow you see is totally dynamic.
All of the established Elder Scrolls races will return in Skyrim.
The race you pick in the beginning will only effect your baseline stats, as what you actually do in the world with your combat, magic, and stealth will help shape your character instead.
The "perks" system will still allow you to make more direct changes to your character as well. As opposed to Fallout, perks in Skyrim are on a much smaller scale.
Graphics engine for Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim is "all but written from scratch".
Cities in Skyrim will all be unique, shying away from the reusing of assets we popularly saw in Oblivion.
There are 120 dungeons, with each one typically having its own feel. Far more traps and puzzles are featured in them too.
While you may be able to avoid them at some points in your journey, you're going to have to take dragons down at some point, and it won't be an easy task.
Dragons aren't scripted, they'll cruise the entire world and occassionally land on different objects or areas. Make one mad and it'll swoop down to take you on.
New to Skyrim also is the "Radiant Story system". An example listed in the article is, "If you discard a weapon on the ground to free up inventory space, you might find that a nearby character approaches you. If they like you, they might offer the sword back to you in case you dropped it by accident; if they're neutral toward you, they might ask if they can have it; and if they dislike you, they might simply nab the weapon and take off. Kill that character and the Radiant Story system will search for his or her relatives, and may even send one of them in pursuit of you to avenge the murder."
Your character will learn the acient language of the dragons. The phrases can include up to three words and are mostly found inscribed on dungeon walls. The phrases will allow you to do certain things such as slow down time, knock back foes, and more.
The phrases are mapped to the right bumper/R1 and you'll learn one word at a time for each phrase. Learning more words within the phrase will allow the spell to be either more powerful or longer.
Finishing moves will be available for your characters in battle. The article describes a finishing move where you plunge "your saber through a foe's chest".
Telekinesis will be an available spell, allowing those of you who are rather lazy the ability to pick up items or objects to launch at your enemies.
Runes can be cast and used as traps. The article describes a situation where you can throw a frost rune to the ground, and if an enemy walks across it, pieces of ice will impale them.
A perk is available that gives your enemies deeper cuts. A strategy talked about is simply hitting your opponent with a solid strike, then hiding as they slowly bleed to death.
Around 80 different spells will be featured in the game.
If you find yourself below average at using weapons, you should still be able to survive in combat using offensive and defensive magic.'
The two handed mechanic Bethesda introduces in Skyrim for fighting will remind a ton of gamers of the BioShock series.
If you happen to scale one of the many peaks in Skyrim, all of the snow you see is totally dynamic.
All of the established Elder Scrolls races will return in Skyrim.
The race you pick in the beginning will only effect your baseline stats, as what you actually do in the world with your combat, magic, and stealth will help shape your character instead.
The "perks" system will still allow you to make more direct changes to your character as well. As opposed to Fallout, perks in Skyrim are on a much smaller scale.
Graphics engine for Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim is "all but written from scratch".
Cities in Skyrim will all be unique, shying away from the reusing of assets we popularly saw in Oblivion.
There are 120 dungeons, with each one typically having its own feel. Far more traps and puzzles are featured in them too.
While you may be able to avoid them at some points in your journey, you're going to have to take dragons down at some point, and it won't be an easy task.
Dragons aren't scripted, they'll cruise the entire world and occassionally land on different objects or areas. Make one mad and it'll swoop down to take you on.
New to Skyrim also is the "Radiant Story system". An example listed in the article is, "If you discard a weapon on the ground to free up inventory space, you might find that a nearby character approaches you. If they like you, they might offer the sword back to you in case you dropped it by accident; if they're neutral toward you, they might ask if they can have it; and if they dislike you, they might simply nab the weapon and take off. Kill that character and the Radiant Story system will search for his or her relatives, and may even send one of them in pursuit of you to avenge the murder."
The French edition of the official PlayStation Magazine has provided a wealth of new information regarding Bethesda's upcoming RPG "Skyrim." Here's a rundown of the newly announced features, with some descriptions to explain what they all mean.
* Unlike the previous games where melee combat were free-for-alls prone to friendly fire, "Skyrim" will feature a context-sensitive melee system described as "Magnetism" in the French PSN, where your melee attacks will automatically target foes instead of slashing everything in your path. This is somewhat similar to the autotargeting system in "Assassin's Creed Brotherhood."
* Unique weapons will possess hidden effects that you will only discover upon using the weapon.
* Players will be unable to block attacks if they are wielding a weapon in one hand and a spell in the other. Only players who wield two handed weapons or a sword and shield can perform blocks.
* The "Spell Shield" ability will see a return in "Skyrim."
* Taverns will serve as important locations in the game. Players will be able to overhear conversations, collect rumors, begin quests, acquire information and much more.
* Players can stalk non-player characters and chart their routines, and break and enter into their homes when they aren't around.
* The information quest givers provide you will depend upon their disposition towards you. Friendly NPCs will provide you with more information while hostile or distrusting characters will provide you with a lot less.
* A dungeon described as "Bleak Falls Barrow" is inhabited by Draugr--undead Nord warriors. Players can expect to encounter a ghostly dragon priest and fight a giant Frostbite Spider. The dungeon has been described by Bethesda as "terrifying."
* The quest to Bleak Falls Barrow is provided to you by a shopkeeper named Lucan who wants you to retrieve his priceless Draconic family heirloom--a golden claw.
* "Skyrim" will see the inclusion of new area-of-effect spells such as "Ice Trap," which is triggered when an enemy walks over it; "Circle of Protection," an area-of-effect spell which pushes enemies in your vicinity away; and "Fury" which causes enemies to fight amongst themselves.
* With a strong emphasis on melee combat, "Skyrim" will feature the addition of finishing moves, one of which has been described as "plunging your sword into the enemy's chest."
* As a game that's more or less an open sandbox, players will be able to perform free-form activities like cooking, woodcutting, mining, and blacksmithing.
* One of the new "Dragon Shout" abilities slows down time, and is similar to Bullet Time.
* One of the first cities the player visits is called Riverwood, and is decried as "a smattering of timber buildings, including a sawmill."
* The new "Radiant Story" feature of Skyrim--which generates side-quests based on player actions--is inspired by the random encounters in the Fallout series.
* "Skyrim" contains exhaustive environmental effects, such as the effects of wind on water and the creation of waves. The game will also contain meteorological effects, with clouds clustering around mountaintops and so forth.
* It will be possible to raise all skills to the maximum 100 points but it isn't possible to get every perk in a single playthrough.
* With regards to the story, the death of the King of Skyrim has caused a civil war to break out in the country.
* Dragon encounters will not be scripted events. These Dragons may attack towns and cities during its travels, which may cause it to be set ablaze.
* Every large settlement in the land of Skyrim will be unique. The city of Marketh Side is set into a cliffside, with buildings teetering on the edge. Haarfingar is said to be home to the largest trading port in Skyrim. One of the cities in Skyrim is even said to be heavily inspired by the Dunmer architecture of Morrowind.
* Bethesda intends to bring back a sense of eccentricity into the world of Vvardenfell, as each Nord faction will have its own customs and styles instead of being carbon copies.
* The economy of "Skyrim" will be better developed than the one in previous games. If you destroy a city's means of income (for instance, by razing their crops), its inhabitants will have to purchase crops from a nearby city, thereby raising prices.
* Archers will be able to hold their breath--an action which consumes stamina--while aiming in order to increase their accuracy. This ability is similar to the sniping abilities in games like Battlefield: Bad Company 2 and the Call of Duty series.
* Wounded dragons have a chance of crashing into the ground.
* It is possible to cut dialogue short by simply walking away from a speaking NPC.
* Dragon Shouts are assigned to the R3 button on the PS3 gamepad.
* Most NPCs will not have a complete set of dialogue, with only "important" characters having substantial dialogue
* Unlike the previous games where melee combat were free-for-alls prone to friendly fire, "Skyrim" will feature a context-sensitive melee system described as "Magnetism" in the French PSN, where your melee attacks will automatically target foes instead of slashing everything in your path. This is somewhat similar to the autotargeting system in "Assassin's Creed Brotherhood."
* Unique weapons will possess hidden effects that you will only discover upon using the weapon.
* Players will be unable to block attacks if they are wielding a weapon in one hand and a spell in the other. Only players who wield two handed weapons or a sword and shield can perform blocks.
* The "Spell Shield" ability will see a return in "Skyrim."
* Taverns will serve as important locations in the game. Players will be able to overhear conversations, collect rumors, begin quests, acquire information and much more.
* Players can stalk non-player characters and chart their routines, and break and enter into their homes when they aren't around.
* The information quest givers provide you will depend upon their disposition towards you. Friendly NPCs will provide you with more information while hostile or distrusting characters will provide you with a lot less.
* A dungeon described as "Bleak Falls Barrow" is inhabited by Draugr--undead Nord warriors. Players can expect to encounter a ghostly dragon priest and fight a giant Frostbite Spider. The dungeon has been described by Bethesda as "terrifying."
* The quest to Bleak Falls Barrow is provided to you by a shopkeeper named Lucan who wants you to retrieve his priceless Draconic family heirloom--a golden claw.
* "Skyrim" will see the inclusion of new area-of-effect spells such as "Ice Trap," which is triggered when an enemy walks over it; "Circle of Protection," an area-of-effect spell which pushes enemies in your vicinity away; and "Fury" which causes enemies to fight amongst themselves.
* With a strong emphasis on melee combat, "Skyrim" will feature the addition of finishing moves, one of which has been described as "plunging your sword into the enemy's chest."
* As a game that's more or less an open sandbox, players will be able to perform free-form activities like cooking, woodcutting, mining, and blacksmithing.
* One of the new "Dragon Shout" abilities slows down time, and is similar to Bullet Time.
* One of the first cities the player visits is called Riverwood, and is decried as "a smattering of timber buildings, including a sawmill."
* The new "Radiant Story" feature of Skyrim--which generates side-quests based on player actions--is inspired by the random encounters in the Fallout series.
* "Skyrim" contains exhaustive environmental effects, such as the effects of wind on water and the creation of waves. The game will also contain meteorological effects, with clouds clustering around mountaintops and so forth.
* It will be possible to raise all skills to the maximum 100 points but it isn't possible to get every perk in a single playthrough.
* With regards to the story, the death of the King of Skyrim has caused a civil war to break out in the country.
* Dragon encounters will not be scripted events. These Dragons may attack towns and cities during its travels, which may cause it to be set ablaze.
* Every large settlement in the land of Skyrim will be unique. The city of Marketh Side is set into a cliffside, with buildings teetering on the edge. Haarfingar is said to be home to the largest trading port in Skyrim. One of the cities in Skyrim is even said to be heavily inspired by the Dunmer architecture of Morrowind.
* Bethesda intends to bring back a sense of eccentricity into the world of Vvardenfell, as each Nord faction will have its own customs and styles instead of being carbon copies.
* The economy of "Skyrim" will be better developed than the one in previous games. If you destroy a city's means of income (for instance, by razing their crops), its inhabitants will have to purchase crops from a nearby city, thereby raising prices.
* Archers will be able to hold their breath--an action which consumes stamina--while aiming in order to increase their accuracy. This ability is similar to the sniping abilities in games like Battlefield: Bad Company 2 and the Call of Duty series.
* Wounded dragons have a chance of crashing into the ground.
* It is possible to cut dialogue short by simply walking away from a speaking NPC.
* Dragon Shouts are assigned to the R3 button on the PS3 gamepad.
* Most NPCs will not have a complete set of dialogue, with only "important" characters having substantial dialogue
Story
•Skyrim will take place 200 years after Oblivion and isn’t a direct sequel in the traditional sense of things – from a story perspective.
•You take the role of one of the supposed last remaining Dragonborn, a true dragon hunter, and will no doubt be tasked to stop the huge dragon God, Alduin, also known as the World Eater.
•Esbern, your in-game mentor of sorts, is one of the last surviving Blades and will be voiced by Max Von Sydow (Minority Report, etc)
•Your hero will be tasked with walking 7,000 steps to the high retreat of High Hrothgar to get dragon slaying training from a group of mysterious old men that reside there called the Greybeards.
Missions
•Thanks to something Bethesda are calling the Radiant story system, the game’s lesser missions will react to who you are and where you are, and present you with quests that are “flavoured dynamically.”
•That’ll take into account where you’ve been, who you’ve killed, what skills you’ve upgraded, who are your friends and who are your enemies. For instance, a magic user may give a fellow magic user a quest, but not someone who levelled up their weapon skill.
•If you kill a shopkeeper that was going to give you a quest, his sister will inherit the store and may give you the quest out of anger or frustration instead.
•The ability to duel in the streets is mentioned.
•Through missions, the game will encourage players to go places they’ve never visited. For instance, a woman might ask you to save her kidnapped offspring and the game will send you to a dungeon you’ve never been before. It’ll then set enemies that are appropriately matched to your strengths and weaknesses.
Levelling Up
•There is no class system per se in Skyrim and how a player plays depends on what skills the character gains. Use a one-handed weapon, watch that skill increase, etc. You get experience for everything.
•Skill increases contribute to your overall level growth. Each level gives you a boost in health and a chance to boost health, magika or stamina.
•There are 18 separate skills in Skyrim, including such things like Illusion, Destruction, Restoration, Enchanting, etc.
•It seems like there are 50 main levels, with Howard mentioning levelling up to 50 is roughly the same time as it would be to level an Oblivion or Fallout character to 25.
•You can level up past 50, but it’s a dramatically slower increase than before once you get past that threshold.
•Todd Howard confirms that Skyrim will use the perk system that they used in Fallout 3, noting that there was an automated perk system in place in Oblivion, but in Skyrim, the user has control over it. There are dozens of perks to choose from, that may increase dagger damage during stealth attacks and may mean your mace attack may ignore your foe’s armour skills.
•On the official forums, Bethesda responded to questions about the game’s scaling system that many didn’t like in the original. “All our games have had some amount of randomness/levelling based on player level. Skyrim's is similar to Fallout 3's, not Oblivion's,” said Bethesda’s Senior Community Manager on the forums.
General
•You can play Skyrim HUD free.
•The third person perspective is said to be improved.
•Characters can now sprint, using up stamina from their stamina supply.
You can read in-game books in 3-D."
"Every item has a 3D-preview in the Flash based inventory, which you can twist, turn, rotate, etc. Sometimes you will solve puzzles by analyzing these 3D-previews. Not only armor and weapons can be explored in great detail, also small rings and herbs can be investigated from all possible angles. Every single item in the game can be previewed in the inventory screen."
"Main Story is approximately 20 hours. Hundreds of hours for other quests."
"Every dragon you kill will make you stronger. A piece of his soul will be transferred to yours."
"It is not yet possible to combine forms of magic. It is difficult. Frost magic makes an enemy move slower, and fire does damage over time, and the fire remains on the ground for additional damage. If we would allow the player to use fire magic in one hand, and frost magic in the other, it becomes much more complex. Maybe we will implement this though, but for the time being, 'No'.
"Someone modded Oblivion by changing the physics of shooting an arrow. It made you shoot slower and you almost had to remain stationary to shoot, which increased the arrow's impact. We liked this mod so much, that we implemented it in Skyrim by default."
-"a cause-consequence tree for each mission",
-each mission will be a bit different from the same mission played by another player who has done other quests. Also can be different depending on which mission you did before.
-If you meet a Giant on the road he might totally not attack you unless you attack him.
Every city and town is bound to some particular resources meaning if you burn their mill or mine, you affect their economy and they'll be forced to buy flour or mineral somewhere else and when you'll want to buy these resources here again it will be more expensive. (good thing for evil characters and maybe desctructible environnement?)
•Skyrim will take place 200 years after Oblivion and isn’t a direct sequel in the traditional sense of things – from a story perspective.
•You take the role of one of the supposed last remaining Dragonborn, a true dragon hunter, and will no doubt be tasked to stop the huge dragon God, Alduin, also known as the World Eater.
•Esbern, your in-game mentor of sorts, is one of the last surviving Blades and will be voiced by Max Von Sydow (Minority Report, etc)
•Your hero will be tasked with walking 7,000 steps to the high retreat of High Hrothgar to get dragon slaying training from a group of mysterious old men that reside there called the Greybeards.
Missions
•Thanks to something Bethesda are calling the Radiant story system, the game’s lesser missions will react to who you are and where you are, and present you with quests that are “flavoured dynamically.”
•That’ll take into account where you’ve been, who you’ve killed, what skills you’ve upgraded, who are your friends and who are your enemies. For instance, a magic user may give a fellow magic user a quest, but not someone who levelled up their weapon skill.
•If you kill a shopkeeper that was going to give you a quest, his sister will inherit the store and may give you the quest out of anger or frustration instead.
•The ability to duel in the streets is mentioned.
•Through missions, the game will encourage players to go places they’ve never visited. For instance, a woman might ask you to save her kidnapped offspring and the game will send you to a dungeon you’ve never been before. It’ll then set enemies that are appropriately matched to your strengths and weaknesses.
Levelling Up
•There is no class system per se in Skyrim and how a player plays depends on what skills the character gains. Use a one-handed weapon, watch that skill increase, etc. You get experience for everything.
•Skill increases contribute to your overall level growth. Each level gives you a boost in health and a chance to boost health, magika or stamina.
•There are 18 separate skills in Skyrim, including such things like Illusion, Destruction, Restoration, Enchanting, etc.
•It seems like there are 50 main levels, with Howard mentioning levelling up to 50 is roughly the same time as it would be to level an Oblivion or Fallout character to 25.
•You can level up past 50, but it’s a dramatically slower increase than before once you get past that threshold.
•Todd Howard confirms that Skyrim will use the perk system that they used in Fallout 3, noting that there was an automated perk system in place in Oblivion, but in Skyrim, the user has control over it. There are dozens of perks to choose from, that may increase dagger damage during stealth attacks and may mean your mace attack may ignore your foe’s armour skills.
•On the official forums, Bethesda responded to questions about the game’s scaling system that many didn’t like in the original. “All our games have had some amount of randomness/levelling based on player level. Skyrim's is similar to Fallout 3's, not Oblivion's,” said Bethesda’s Senior Community Manager on the forums.
General
•You can play Skyrim HUD free.
•The third person perspective is said to be improved.
•Characters can now sprint, using up stamina from their stamina supply.
You can read in-game books in 3-D."
"Every item has a 3D-preview in the Flash based inventory, which you can twist, turn, rotate, etc. Sometimes you will solve puzzles by analyzing these 3D-previews. Not only armor and weapons can be explored in great detail, also small rings and herbs can be investigated from all possible angles. Every single item in the game can be previewed in the inventory screen."
"Main Story is approximately 20 hours. Hundreds of hours for other quests."
"Every dragon you kill will make you stronger. A piece of his soul will be transferred to yours."
"It is not yet possible to combine forms of magic. It is difficult. Frost magic makes an enemy move slower, and fire does damage over time, and the fire remains on the ground for additional damage. If we would allow the player to use fire magic in one hand, and frost magic in the other, it becomes much more complex. Maybe we will implement this though, but for the time being, 'No'.
"Someone modded Oblivion by changing the physics of shooting an arrow. It made you shoot slower and you almost had to remain stationary to shoot, which increased the arrow's impact. We liked this mod so much, that we implemented it in Skyrim by default."
-"a cause-consequence tree for each mission",
-each mission will be a bit different from the same mission played by another player who has done other quests. Also can be different depending on which mission you did before.
-If you meet a Giant on the road he might totally not attack you unless you attack him.
Every city and town is bound to some particular resources meaning if you burn their mill or mine, you affect their economy and they'll be forced to buy flour or mineral somewhere else and when you'll want to buy these resources here again it will be more expensive. (good thing for evil characters and maybe desctructible environnement?)
Special Edition Podcast: Todd Howard Skyrim Q&A
good stuff
http://www.gameinformer.com/b/podcasts/archive/2011/02/03/toddhowardse.aspx
good stuff
http://www.gameinformer.com/b/podcasts/archive/2011/02/03/toddhowardse.aspx
Bethesda Wants Skyrim Mods on Consoles
Console gamers will have access to a whole world of Skyrim user generated content if Bethesda gets its way.
Although making mods for Elder Scrolls games will likely stay the exclusive purview of PC gamers, actually playing them might not be. Bethesda says that it is keen to get console gamers playing the mods for Skyrim alongside their PC brethren.
Bethesda's Todd Howard said that the content made with the Skyrim Creation Kit would work on consoles just as well as it would the PC; it was, after all, the tool that Bethesda had used to make the game. The problem, Howard said, was that there wasn't an avenue for delivering the content to console gamers yet, but that Bethesda was talking with Microsoft and Sony in order to try and make it happen. Even if these efforts were successful however, he didn't think it would be something that would be up and running in time for the game's launch in November.
""We'd like to see it happen," he said. "Because it works, it's how we made the game. I think it's something really cool about what we do, but 90% of our audience is on the consoles, so 90% of our audience can't even see this thing. So if we can solve that we'd like to."
Mods for previously Elder Scrolls games have ranged from simple cosmetic changes like more attractive maps and new eye colors, to new items and equipment, to complete overhauls of systems and mechanics. If Bethesda is able to bring mods to consoles, it would not only bring console and PC gamers closer together, it would significantly increase the scope and longevity of Skyrim.
Console gamers will have access to a whole world of Skyrim user generated content if Bethesda gets its way.
Although making mods for Elder Scrolls games will likely stay the exclusive purview of PC gamers, actually playing them might not be. Bethesda says that it is keen to get console gamers playing the mods for Skyrim alongside their PC brethren.
Bethesda's Todd Howard said that the content made with the Skyrim Creation Kit would work on consoles just as well as it would the PC; it was, after all, the tool that Bethesda had used to make the game. The problem, Howard said, was that there wasn't an avenue for delivering the content to console gamers yet, but that Bethesda was talking with Microsoft and Sony in order to try and make it happen. Even if these efforts were successful however, he didn't think it would be something that would be up and running in time for the game's launch in November.
""We'd like to see it happen," he said. "Because it works, it's how we made the game. I think it's something really cool about what we do, but 90% of our audience is on the consoles, so 90% of our audience can't even see this thing. So if we can solve that we'd like to."
Mods for previously Elder Scrolls games have ranged from simple cosmetic changes like more attractive maps and new eye colors, to new items and equipment, to complete overhauls of systems and mechanics. If Bethesda is able to bring mods to consoles, it would not only bring console and PC gamers closer together, it would significantly increase the scope and longevity of Skyrim.
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim - Preview
Pretty much every openworld game presentation I have ever sat through has included the bit where the developer points to something on the horizon and remarks that you can actually go there. In the old days this used to be a unique and exciting possibility, but over the years the thrill has worn off. Nowadays we just nod politely.
Today Bethesda Game Studios game director Todd Howard is leading us on a magical mystery tour of the early sections of Skyrim, the fifth Elder Scrolls game. He is commenting on how his team ripped up a lot of the previous engine to accommodate the huge variations in scale.
Howard angles the first-person camera down at a flower and explains that stuff like this needs to look good. It does. Butterflies dance around the flower's detailed leaves as they sway gently in the spring breeze.
But stuff further away needs to look good too, Howard says. So he angles the camera upwards, past moss-covered boulders and away from the thick brush covering the ground, and settles on a mountain. Later we'll be told it's called The Throat of the World. One day you will go there, climb the 7000 steps to the top and meet the Grey Beards, who will teach you some more of the language of dragons.
However cynical I may have become, I can't look at this game without wanting to do just that. Skyrim makes adventuring feel exciting again.
Following a brief character-creation process, the game begins with you being led to your execution. You will get out of that somehow, although we don't find out how today. As with previous Elder Scrolls protagonists, no explanation is given for your plight. Instead you can decide what happened for yourself - if you're a good guy perhaps you'll decide you were innocent, and otherwise you can fill your imaginative boots.
Our first sight of Skyrim in action begins on a mountain path. It winds down past The Throat of the World and through a valley towards the small town of Riverwood, one of nine major locations in each of Skyrim's nine counties. (There are also five huge and iconic cities - expect more on those later in the year.)
Skyrim is a rugged place. The northern-most province in the Elder Scrolls world, it's home to the Nords, the original humans. It's also very beautiful. Throughout the demo I'm struck not just by the epic scale but the little details. Salmon leaping upstream. Cobwebs. A man positioning a chunk of wood on a chopping block, then bringing his axe down to split the wood into two distinct pieces, which he deposits in a basket.
Bethesda's games have sometimes been criticised for their awkward character models and arthritic animation, but that should be moot once Skyrim resets your expectations. Switching to third-person (you can play the game in first or third), it's immediately clear that the protagonist's movements hold their own against any other third-person adventure. All the NPCs do likewise. Argument over, hopefully.
All these evolutions are part of a larger push to make the world more convincing. This is really brought home during our experience in Riverwood, where we receive our instructions for the big mission that will be the centrepiece of Howard's presentation.
There's a big lumber mill nearby. A man is hefting large tree trunks into position to be cut down by the mill's mechanism. He puts his hands around the top-most bough on a pile, heaves it over his shoulders and drops it into a groove on the floor.
It's his job. I implicitly believe that before Howard even points out that the key to a believable environment is making sure people and creatures have roles that they perform, and that you can also perform, if you wish.
If you hang around you can watch the guy put the log through the mechanism. You can also sabotage the mill, which takes wood out of the local economy and makes arrows harder to come by. Howard says Bethesda is playing around with variables for this kind of behaviour.
A good benchmark for the quality of a game is how much you wish you were working on it when you sit through a preview presentation. Right about now, I wish I was in a room talking to designers about the ramifications of disrupting lumber production.
Another design challenge which must have been fun to solve is the interface. Forget the spreadsheets and clutter of the past, now you just hit the B button (we're on Xbox 360 today) to choose from Inventory, Magic, Map and Skills on a translucent overlay covering your in-game view.
Select Inventory and the left-most third of the screen is given over to a simple pane with options like weapons and apparel. Pick one and a second nested pane appears, listing the stuff you have. Select an item and a 3D representation appears in the remaining space for you to rotate and examine, along with a few relevant contextual stats.
It's so elegant it's beguiling. You can even flick through books. And every item in the game is catalogued this way.
If you were to select Magic, the same pane-based system would appear on the opposite side of the screen. Both Inventory and Magic allow for bookmarking using the Favourites menu option. (Howard says that comparing items is not yet quite so elegant, but they're working on it.)
Select Map and the camera zooms out to show you a 3D representation of Skyrim from above. You can move around freely, examining fast-travel points and other places you have visited.
That's pretty cool, but the best bit is what happens when you hit the up direction to choose Skills. At this point you look to the stars and your perk trees appear as constellations. The lines in the stars show you routes of progression between specialisms, and the stars themselves represent the variations you unlock.
I strongly believe that if you have ever played a western RPG for longer than 10 hours and do not find that concept sexually exciting, you should close your web browser and rethink your life.
As you wander around Riverwood you may be given a random side mission. All of the objective content in Skyrim is built around hand-written dialogue and events, of course, but a clever bit of programming means the individuals and locations involved are determined by the things you've done.
For example, the mission may involve rescuing a child from some bandits. That's all preset, but the game will try to make sure that the specific child, bandits and dungeon you enter to take on the quest will be acquaintances you haven't made yet and locations you haven't visited, or at least some that you have not encountered for a while.
The mission we get to see starts as you wander past a woman doing some sweeping. She remarks that there was a robbery at the general store recently, but says the proprietor, Lucan, doesn't appear to have lost anything. Your interest piqued (and the quest opened in your log), you enter the store to see what's up.
Inside there's a roaring fire. Ivory horns are scattered around as candle-holders. (I know I've banged on about how pretty Skyrim is already, but it's worth adding that it's also fantastically and consistently well-lit. The interior of the store is appreciably warm - there's an ambient glow and the flames cast flickering shadows. Outdoors the spring air is as crisp and fresh as an iceberg lettuce.)
Lucan is behind the counter arguing with his wife, Camilla, about the robbery. He apologises for their feuding once he spots you, and explains there was a theft - a golden dragon claw ornament of some sentimental value.
There's a new conversation system in Skyrim. You still listen to someone and then choose options from a list, but the selections are nicely arranged and you can look around the shop while you listen, rather than staring intently into each other's eyes in the tunnel-vision fashion of Fallout. (There's no persuasion wheel, although a speech skill remains.)
So you express an interest in retrieving the claw for Lucan. He then reluctantly saddles you with Camilla, who will guide you out of town and point you in the right direction - up a nearby mountain. As you set out there's a bit of West Wing-style walk-and-talk. Camilla explains she doesn't understand why the claw was targeted because it's not really worth much, and Lucan has never explained its significance to her.
As you ascend the mountainside, the dynamic weather system kicks in and snow begins to fall - lightly at first, dusting nearby boulders and shrubs, and then more heavily. On the way a giant appears on the path. He has a club on his shoulder and is about three times the size of you. His footsteps boom and shake the screen slightly as he passes by without incident. (He, along with plenty of Skyrim inhabitants, have no real beef with you unless you start something.)
As you climb further, there's a huge stone tower stacked over a precipice, guarded by soldiers. You don't approach it, but it's there. Everywhere you go in Skyrim there seems to be something that belongs to a process - industrial, military, natural, whatever - that is just left to speak for itself. The surety of these presences and the implications they embody breathe depth into the world.
Eventually, as the falling snow becomes more fearsome, you close in on the summit and reach the dragon temple where the robbers supposedly took Lucan's ornament. The temples were built by the Nords, who worshipped the dragons. The main story of Skyrim focuses on the return of dragons to the world, and as a Dragonborn your fate is tied into that.
In the here and now, though, we're mostly concerned with the very real and actual dragon perched on top of the temple arches.
Dragons are the game's bosses, effectively. There aren't a finite number of them, they do what they want (at least according to the logic Bethesda has built for them), and some of them have more narrative significance than others. This one leaps into the air and swoops down to attack. Wisely, we flee into the temple interior rather than taking him on.
Inside, two robbers are having a chat by a fire. You approach them quietly (and stealthily - an on-screen eye icon indicates your level of visibility) through shafts of light filtering in from outside, which highlight snowflakes being swept around on air currents. As you move further into the dark, the lighting graduates beautifully to shadow. The two robbers are discussing how their colleague Arvel grabbed the dragon's claw and raced deep into the temple.
Skyrim's combat is as elegant and varied as everything else about it. On console at least, the triggers control what's in each hand. Equipped with a sword and shield, you could hold down the right trigger for a powerful attack or bash with the shield using the left.
You could also switch to a two-handed weapon like the bow and arrow and attack from range. Or you can mix it up by throwing spells in there. Perhaps a nice fire spell on the left hand and a healing one on the right. Or vice versa. Or both hands doing fire, because as well as certain spells being chargeable, dual-wielding yields even greater effects.
In this case we just shoot them in the head with arrows (using a bow perk to zoom in and steady our aim). They crumple. Further along there's another dude, and this time we get up close. The physical combat is really visceral, especially in first-person - blood splatters the screen, each strike visibly and audibly hurts the recipient.
This robber starts cursing as his demise becomes imminent. The coup de grace is a contextual finishing move - a charged-up sword blow translates into a grab and upward thrust into his midriff. The whole encounter - a throwaway, of course - feels stylish and weighty.
Had we not killed him, we could have observed him wandering into the circular chamber further down an undulating round tunnel, where moss-covered stones with symbols lie strewn about ahead of a portcullis. There's also a lever, which he might have pulled, demonstrating that the wrong configuration of nearby symbols results in a volley of poisonous darts to the face. Instead we get them in the face ourselves. The puzzle is easy to solve, it turns out - the order of symbols is hinted at elsewhere in the room.
Beyond the chamber we're rewarded with treasure, including a soul gem, which is relevant for enchanting - buffing items, effectively. There's also an Elven glass sword and a Frost Rune. The Frost Rune can be used to create a sort of proximity bomb on the ground, which is bad news for any enemies who wander over it. Later on we also find a Staff of Magelight, which fires little balls of light into the darkness. You can dual-wield staffs. (Hubba.)
Arvel is in another cavernous area down some spiral wooden stairs. We can hear his voice. Ominously, cobwebs accumulate and thicken the further we go, and predictably but in no way disappointingly, Skyrim's own little incidental take on Shelob emerges and has to be put down before you can reach Arvel, who is caught in her web.
You can interrogate him about the dragon's claw, and he says he knows how it works and the incredible Nord power it unlocks, and that he'll cut you in if you cut him down. Obviously he then does a runner. "You fool," he says, running away. "Why should I share the treasure with anyone?" Because otherwise I'll fire a slow-motion arrow into the back of your head and steal your claw and journal anyway. Bye bye, Arvel.
The next few minutes are a series of testing encounters with Draugrs - undead warriors from ages past, buried down here to protect a special place where the Nords prepare their dead for their passage to heaven. They're skeletal warriors who are pretty basic hackandslash fare, but the way they slip out of berths in catacombs and emerge from shadowy enclaves is quite unsettling.
Fortunately you can use chain lightning on them, or take advantage of the environment to skewer them on spikes or drown them in burning oil.
After several more Draugr showdowns, rooms full of spinning blades and a pleasant trip through a cave with a stream (running water is often used as a visual cue to guide you forward in dungeons, apparently), you make it to the Hall of Stories, where the dragon's claw can be inserted into a locking mechanism. But it doesn't open the door. The trick, it emerges, is to examine it in your inventory, where you discover that it has a sequence of runic inscriptions on the reverse that give you a clue how to use it.
The door slowly opens and you go up another tumbledown stone staircase, through a cave - startled by floods of bats - and into a beautiful cavern where shafts of light and bustling waterfalls surround an altar, of sorts, where some ancient writing is illuminated.
This is one of Skyrim's Word Walls. As a Dragonborn, you are able to command Shouts - words spoken in the ancient dragon tongue. At the end of certain quests, at other logical intervals and when you visit the Grey Beards up The Throat of the World, you will learn some of these. There are around two dozen distinctive three-word Shouts.
The words alone are like powerful spells - this one allows you to slow down time - and as you gather more words and create entire Shouts, you can deploy them as another dimension in combat or exploration. So you can wield a combination of spells, weapons and whatnot and also Shouts at the same time. To receive one feels like a worthy reward at the end of a long, hard quest.
As we emerge into the Skyrim daylight a few minutes later, the presentation concludes with a battle against the dragon from earlier on a hillside. The dragon uses his own Shouts, of course - breathing fire is a form of speaking for dragons - and you fight back, slowing time and clobbering its face with an Elven Mace, while dodging its attacks as it swamps you with fire and tries to drive you onto unsafe terrain.
Eventually the dragon is dead and the corpse immediately bursts into flames, leaving nothing but a skeleton. "Because you're Dragonborn, when you take down a dragon you devour its soul," says Todd Howard. He won't elaborate on that yet. Fade to black.
During the Q&A that follows, it's funny to observe how much we still have to hear about Skyrim and how much is still being decided. Right now Shout usage is based on a cooldown timer but it could be resource-based, for example.
There's no decision yet on mounts or difficulty levels. Inquiries about guilds, factions, alchemy and crime are all batted away. We do at least find out that you can buy property, and Howard hints that some dragons may not be your enemies.
We also learn there is no set level cap, but levelling is faster in Skyrim than in either Oblivion or Fallout 3, so you accumulate more perks. (Don't worry though, you won't max out too quickly.) A new take on the skill system means that every skill effects your levelling, which Howard says will encourage you to use a broader range of them - although the slick interface already does a neat job of that.
Despite the gaps though, it's been an electrifying first taste of a world where we'll all very probably spend a significant chunk of time later this year.
Bethesda has been making Elder Scrolls games since 1994 and an outsider might imagine they are becoming samey. But an hour in Skyrim's company reminds you that while they have common themes, they really are not getting old.
Even as a first impression, Skyrim hooks you in with its majestic environments. It holds you with the conviction of its understated background details. By the time you start engaging with the content, using those wonderfully elegant new systems, you're completely won over. And to think, this is only the beginning...
Pretty much every openworld game presentation I have ever sat through has included the bit where the developer points to something on the horizon and remarks that you can actually go there. In the old days this used to be a unique and exciting possibility, but over the years the thrill has worn off. Nowadays we just nod politely.
Today Bethesda Game Studios game director Todd Howard is leading us on a magical mystery tour of the early sections of Skyrim, the fifth Elder Scrolls game. He is commenting on how his team ripped up a lot of the previous engine to accommodate the huge variations in scale.
Howard angles the first-person camera down at a flower and explains that stuff like this needs to look good. It does. Butterflies dance around the flower's detailed leaves as they sway gently in the spring breeze.
But stuff further away needs to look good too, Howard says. So he angles the camera upwards, past moss-covered boulders and away from the thick brush covering the ground, and settles on a mountain. Later we'll be told it's called The Throat of the World. One day you will go there, climb the 7000 steps to the top and meet the Grey Beards, who will teach you some more of the language of dragons.
However cynical I may have become, I can't look at this game without wanting to do just that. Skyrim makes adventuring feel exciting again.
Following a brief character-creation process, the game begins with you being led to your execution. You will get out of that somehow, although we don't find out how today. As with previous Elder Scrolls protagonists, no explanation is given for your plight. Instead you can decide what happened for yourself - if you're a good guy perhaps you'll decide you were innocent, and otherwise you can fill your imaginative boots.
Our first sight of Skyrim in action begins on a mountain path. It winds down past The Throat of the World and through a valley towards the small town of Riverwood, one of nine major locations in each of Skyrim's nine counties. (There are also five huge and iconic cities - expect more on those later in the year.)
Skyrim is a rugged place. The northern-most province in the Elder Scrolls world, it's home to the Nords, the original humans. It's also very beautiful. Throughout the demo I'm struck not just by the epic scale but the little details. Salmon leaping upstream. Cobwebs. A man positioning a chunk of wood on a chopping block, then bringing his axe down to split the wood into two distinct pieces, which he deposits in a basket.
Bethesda's games have sometimes been criticised for their awkward character models and arthritic animation, but that should be moot once Skyrim resets your expectations. Switching to third-person (you can play the game in first or third), it's immediately clear that the protagonist's movements hold their own against any other third-person adventure. All the NPCs do likewise. Argument over, hopefully.
All these evolutions are part of a larger push to make the world more convincing. This is really brought home during our experience in Riverwood, where we receive our instructions for the big mission that will be the centrepiece of Howard's presentation.
There's a big lumber mill nearby. A man is hefting large tree trunks into position to be cut down by the mill's mechanism. He puts his hands around the top-most bough on a pile, heaves it over his shoulders and drops it into a groove on the floor.
It's his job. I implicitly believe that before Howard even points out that the key to a believable environment is making sure people and creatures have roles that they perform, and that you can also perform, if you wish.
If you hang around you can watch the guy put the log through the mechanism. You can also sabotage the mill, which takes wood out of the local economy and makes arrows harder to come by. Howard says Bethesda is playing around with variables for this kind of behaviour.
A good benchmark for the quality of a game is how much you wish you were working on it when you sit through a preview presentation. Right about now, I wish I was in a room talking to designers about the ramifications of disrupting lumber production.
Another design challenge which must have been fun to solve is the interface. Forget the spreadsheets and clutter of the past, now you just hit the B button (we're on Xbox 360 today) to choose from Inventory, Magic, Map and Skills on a translucent overlay covering your in-game view.
Select Inventory and the left-most third of the screen is given over to a simple pane with options like weapons and apparel. Pick one and a second nested pane appears, listing the stuff you have. Select an item and a 3D representation appears in the remaining space for you to rotate and examine, along with a few relevant contextual stats.
It's so elegant it's beguiling. You can even flick through books. And every item in the game is catalogued this way.
If you were to select Magic, the same pane-based system would appear on the opposite side of the screen. Both Inventory and Magic allow for bookmarking using the Favourites menu option. (Howard says that comparing items is not yet quite so elegant, but they're working on it.)
Select Map and the camera zooms out to show you a 3D representation of Skyrim from above. You can move around freely, examining fast-travel points and other places you have visited.
That's pretty cool, but the best bit is what happens when you hit the up direction to choose Skills. At this point you look to the stars and your perk trees appear as constellations. The lines in the stars show you routes of progression between specialisms, and the stars themselves represent the variations you unlock.
I strongly believe that if you have ever played a western RPG for longer than 10 hours and do not find that concept sexually exciting, you should close your web browser and rethink your life.
As you wander around Riverwood you may be given a random side mission. All of the objective content in Skyrim is built around hand-written dialogue and events, of course, but a clever bit of programming means the individuals and locations involved are determined by the things you've done.
For example, the mission may involve rescuing a child from some bandits. That's all preset, but the game will try to make sure that the specific child, bandits and dungeon you enter to take on the quest will be acquaintances you haven't made yet and locations you haven't visited, or at least some that you have not encountered for a while.
The mission we get to see starts as you wander past a woman doing some sweeping. She remarks that there was a robbery at the general store recently, but says the proprietor, Lucan, doesn't appear to have lost anything. Your interest piqued (and the quest opened in your log), you enter the store to see what's up.
Inside there's a roaring fire. Ivory horns are scattered around as candle-holders. (I know I've banged on about how pretty Skyrim is already, but it's worth adding that it's also fantastically and consistently well-lit. The interior of the store is appreciably warm - there's an ambient glow and the flames cast flickering shadows. Outdoors the spring air is as crisp and fresh as an iceberg lettuce.)
Lucan is behind the counter arguing with his wife, Camilla, about the robbery. He apologises for their feuding once he spots you, and explains there was a theft - a golden dragon claw ornament of some sentimental value.
There's a new conversation system in Skyrim. You still listen to someone and then choose options from a list, but the selections are nicely arranged and you can look around the shop while you listen, rather than staring intently into each other's eyes in the tunnel-vision fashion of Fallout. (There's no persuasion wheel, although a speech skill remains.)
So you express an interest in retrieving the claw for Lucan. He then reluctantly saddles you with Camilla, who will guide you out of town and point you in the right direction - up a nearby mountain. As you set out there's a bit of West Wing-style walk-and-talk. Camilla explains she doesn't understand why the claw was targeted because it's not really worth much, and Lucan has never explained its significance to her.
As you ascend the mountainside, the dynamic weather system kicks in and snow begins to fall - lightly at first, dusting nearby boulders and shrubs, and then more heavily. On the way a giant appears on the path. He has a club on his shoulder and is about three times the size of you. His footsteps boom and shake the screen slightly as he passes by without incident. (He, along with plenty of Skyrim inhabitants, have no real beef with you unless you start something.)
As you climb further, there's a huge stone tower stacked over a precipice, guarded by soldiers. You don't approach it, but it's there. Everywhere you go in Skyrim there seems to be something that belongs to a process - industrial, military, natural, whatever - that is just left to speak for itself. The surety of these presences and the implications they embody breathe depth into the world.
Eventually, as the falling snow becomes more fearsome, you close in on the summit and reach the dragon temple where the robbers supposedly took Lucan's ornament. The temples were built by the Nords, who worshipped the dragons. The main story of Skyrim focuses on the return of dragons to the world, and as a Dragonborn your fate is tied into that.
In the here and now, though, we're mostly concerned with the very real and actual dragon perched on top of the temple arches.
Dragons are the game's bosses, effectively. There aren't a finite number of them, they do what they want (at least according to the logic Bethesda has built for them), and some of them have more narrative significance than others. This one leaps into the air and swoops down to attack. Wisely, we flee into the temple interior rather than taking him on.
Inside, two robbers are having a chat by a fire. You approach them quietly (and stealthily - an on-screen eye icon indicates your level of visibility) through shafts of light filtering in from outside, which highlight snowflakes being swept around on air currents. As you move further into the dark, the lighting graduates beautifully to shadow. The two robbers are discussing how their colleague Arvel grabbed the dragon's claw and raced deep into the temple.
Skyrim's combat is as elegant and varied as everything else about it. On console at least, the triggers control what's in each hand. Equipped with a sword and shield, you could hold down the right trigger for a powerful attack or bash with the shield using the left.
You could also switch to a two-handed weapon like the bow and arrow and attack from range. Or you can mix it up by throwing spells in there. Perhaps a nice fire spell on the left hand and a healing one on the right. Or vice versa. Or both hands doing fire, because as well as certain spells being chargeable, dual-wielding yields even greater effects.
In this case we just shoot them in the head with arrows (using a bow perk to zoom in and steady our aim). They crumple. Further along there's another dude, and this time we get up close. The physical combat is really visceral, especially in first-person - blood splatters the screen, each strike visibly and audibly hurts the recipient.
This robber starts cursing as his demise becomes imminent. The coup de grace is a contextual finishing move - a charged-up sword blow translates into a grab and upward thrust into his midriff. The whole encounter - a throwaway, of course - feels stylish and weighty.
Had we not killed him, we could have observed him wandering into the circular chamber further down an undulating round tunnel, where moss-covered stones with symbols lie strewn about ahead of a portcullis. There's also a lever, which he might have pulled, demonstrating that the wrong configuration of nearby symbols results in a volley of poisonous darts to the face. Instead we get them in the face ourselves. The puzzle is easy to solve, it turns out - the order of symbols is hinted at elsewhere in the room.
Beyond the chamber we're rewarded with treasure, including a soul gem, which is relevant for enchanting - buffing items, effectively. There's also an Elven glass sword and a Frost Rune. The Frost Rune can be used to create a sort of proximity bomb on the ground, which is bad news for any enemies who wander over it. Later on we also find a Staff of Magelight, which fires little balls of light into the darkness. You can dual-wield staffs. (Hubba.)
Arvel is in another cavernous area down some spiral wooden stairs. We can hear his voice. Ominously, cobwebs accumulate and thicken the further we go, and predictably but in no way disappointingly, Skyrim's own little incidental take on Shelob emerges and has to be put down before you can reach Arvel, who is caught in her web.
You can interrogate him about the dragon's claw, and he says he knows how it works and the incredible Nord power it unlocks, and that he'll cut you in if you cut him down. Obviously he then does a runner. "You fool," he says, running away. "Why should I share the treasure with anyone?" Because otherwise I'll fire a slow-motion arrow into the back of your head and steal your claw and journal anyway. Bye bye, Arvel.
The next few minutes are a series of testing encounters with Draugrs - undead warriors from ages past, buried down here to protect a special place where the Nords prepare their dead for their passage to heaven. They're skeletal warriors who are pretty basic hackandslash fare, but the way they slip out of berths in catacombs and emerge from shadowy enclaves is quite unsettling.
Fortunately you can use chain lightning on them, or take advantage of the environment to skewer them on spikes or drown them in burning oil.
After several more Draugr showdowns, rooms full of spinning blades and a pleasant trip through a cave with a stream (running water is often used as a visual cue to guide you forward in dungeons, apparently), you make it to the Hall of Stories, where the dragon's claw can be inserted into a locking mechanism. But it doesn't open the door. The trick, it emerges, is to examine it in your inventory, where you discover that it has a sequence of runic inscriptions on the reverse that give you a clue how to use it.
The door slowly opens and you go up another tumbledown stone staircase, through a cave - startled by floods of bats - and into a beautiful cavern where shafts of light and bustling waterfalls surround an altar, of sorts, where some ancient writing is illuminated.
This is one of Skyrim's Word Walls. As a Dragonborn, you are able to command Shouts - words spoken in the ancient dragon tongue. At the end of certain quests, at other logical intervals and when you visit the Grey Beards up The Throat of the World, you will learn some of these. There are around two dozen distinctive three-word Shouts.
The words alone are like powerful spells - this one allows you to slow down time - and as you gather more words and create entire Shouts, you can deploy them as another dimension in combat or exploration. So you can wield a combination of spells, weapons and whatnot and also Shouts at the same time. To receive one feels like a worthy reward at the end of a long, hard quest.
As we emerge into the Skyrim daylight a few minutes later, the presentation concludes with a battle against the dragon from earlier on a hillside. The dragon uses his own Shouts, of course - breathing fire is a form of speaking for dragons - and you fight back, slowing time and clobbering its face with an Elven Mace, while dodging its attacks as it swamps you with fire and tries to drive you onto unsafe terrain.
Eventually the dragon is dead and the corpse immediately bursts into flames, leaving nothing but a skeleton. "Because you're Dragonborn, when you take down a dragon you devour its soul," says Todd Howard. He won't elaborate on that yet. Fade to black.
During the Q&A that follows, it's funny to observe how much we still have to hear about Skyrim and how much is still being decided. Right now Shout usage is based on a cooldown timer but it could be resource-based, for example.
There's no decision yet on mounts or difficulty levels. Inquiries about guilds, factions, alchemy and crime are all batted away. We do at least find out that you can buy property, and Howard hints that some dragons may not be your enemies.
We also learn there is no set level cap, but levelling is faster in Skyrim than in either Oblivion or Fallout 3, so you accumulate more perks. (Don't worry though, you won't max out too quickly.) A new take on the skill system means that every skill effects your levelling, which Howard says will encourage you to use a broader range of them - although the slick interface already does a neat job of that.
Despite the gaps though, it's been an electrifying first taste of a world where we'll all very probably spend a significant chunk of time later this year.
Bethesda has been making Elder Scrolls games since 1994 and an outsider might imagine they are becoming samey. But an hour in Skyrim's company reminds you that while they have common themes, they really are not getting old.
Even as a first impression, Skyrim hooks you in with its majestic environments. It holds you with the conviction of its understated background details. By the time you start engaging with the content, using those wonderfully elegant new systems, you're completely won over. And to think, this is only the beginning...
