I've also been hearing complaints about the graphics, but take a true Elder Scrolls fan's word: They are GREAT. It EXCELS at where Oblivion failed. True shadows on every object, better overall textures, fluid animations to follow up on the breathtaking graphics. I've seen a picture from the book, one where there is a very well designed dragon above, flying above the player ( who is rendered realistically) in a barren tundra. A huge mountain lays in the distance, not like the one's we've seen in Oblivion. It isn't a giant mound basically, it's sharp and rugged/rocky.

With Dynamic shadows and my best judgment form these crappy scans the game looks phenomenal for its scale, what its keep track of and more on current consoles. Its really an astounding acheivement to do this on X360 and PS3. Many forget how much Skyrim is doing behind the scenes that eat up processing power. Radiant AI 2.0, thousands of items, wind blowing every individual branch. Thats ridiculous. So for a 2011 console title Im very impressed.
For a 2011 PC title this looks HORRIBLE! I believe I heard a rumor these shots are of the PS3 version. The PC version should look worlds apart cause right now Crysis destroys this thing. DX11, advanced physics, tessellation, Simulations of water, volumetric smoke and fog, no reason the PC version shouldnt look far far far better.

EDIT: Big step up from Oblivion though.

I would think true ES fans to not care about graphics that much. As soon as the story/lore and gameplay(skills, factions and everything else) are solid, I couldn't care less about the graphics. I mean, it's not graphics that made people true ES fans.

Completely agree, just helpin those who aren't true fans get closer.

i completely agree.

unfortunately as long as this current gen of consoles still exists multiplatform games will suffer greatly on the pc, mostly graphics, but some gameplay features also that would be unfeasible, too complex, heavy, memory svcking,not playable with a controller.

i curse the kinect and move and wish theyd just release the next xbox and the ps4 already

The graphics looked great, and that's on a low res, low DPI magazine still. What I really liked was the style of it. Very nordic, very...viking runic style, I guess I would say. Ancient and mysterious.

I also liked the look of the town the player was in. Everything seems...darker. Compare that to the sunshine and rainbows of Oblivion and it's pretty refreshing.

I really dont think any one element is more important than the other in ES games or any game for that matter. A more capable engine gives you far far more options in terms of gameplay to implement. Also in a big world about exploration its a fact the easiest way to immerse and get people to want to explore is to have a visually interesting landscape that you actually want to see what This and that look like. Graphics are a HUGE element of TES games. The supplement the game play and give it the breath it needs. This also works both ways. With out gameplay you get a hollow experience.
I know many in this thread think if you make a pretty game your gameplay suffers...that logic is insane and not true of game development. Your tech people make graphics, that's all they will ever do! They wont go make the best quest in the world because your happy with Morrowinds engine. Not to mention Bethesda has some epic artist! I want to see what they can do!

I am so tired of everyone saying the graphics aren't 2011 worthy or next gen good. This is what I have said like 15 times now and I will say it again, you don't know how good it looks compared to other games because you haven't seen the real graphics. You have seen a picture in a magazine of a screenshot. There were many times I have seen screenshots of a game in GI and thought to myself "Wow that's not very good looking" and then I was proven wrong and I have learned from it. NOW WHEN YOU SEE THE GRAPHICS IN A VIDEO IN 1080p THEN YOU CAN MAKE YOUR JUDGEMENT. I for one think that the graphics at the highest settings possible with the game will be stellar and the best of any game to date. Mark my words.

Agreed...you have to remember that everyone who has been hyping the game's visuals and describing it as "gorgeous" is either a developer or someone working at a company like GI. They have seen the game running at high resolutions...most likely on a PC with options such as AA, etc, etc... cranked all the way up. I still expect the game to look incredible when we actually see some HD video.

The graphics are far better then what i thought they would look like, i don't know why people were expecting next gen graphics.

It's just that I think graphics are important to some point. I mean, I don't need a photo-realistic looking game in order to enjoy it, I find Skyrim to be pretty enough as is. Sure better would be good, but we're far from Morrowind in terms of graphics, it's highly appropriate if you ask me, as long as there's no cut corners and that everything looks smooth, I don't need ultra realistic water and insane shadowing and all.

maybe cause its 2011??????


seriously.

Add to that they WILL only show console screens, that says nothing about pc graphics, they may be 2 times better for all we know when cranked up.

On the PC side certainly. On the console side, well you can only push 6 year old hardware so far........

why do developers insist on showing always console footage first? wouldnt it be better to show pc footage? it will (hopefully) look better and thus create more hype and reservations

From what I've seen of them. They look pretty damn good. Never cared much for them though.

Might have something to do with the sales the console versions rack up.

Well majority is going to be console users. Cause that encompasses two platforms. Another thing is you dont want the Crysis effect. Where the PC users dont buy your game thinking they cant run it because you showed it off maxed out, which is made for high end hardware. Most people don't realize they can play a game at medium settings and it be enjoyable. This is the reason we still havent seen Crysis 2 maxed out.

Omg, I just saw some screen shots and jiiiiz! OOoooooo the treeeeeeeeeeeeeeees loooooooook amazing!



ANYBODY who thinks the graphics are less than amazing seriously need their vision checked! GAAAAWR

This. PC does still sale a lot...idk why most game news sites and people lead us to believe otherwise. Crysis sold 3 million. But PC can and does steal sales from consoles. This is why many microsoft exclusives that are on both PC and Xbox come out on Xbox a month or so first. Hoping the PC people buy it for Xbox. Ubisoft has done this with ever Assassins Creed for the same reason..PC sales...and it sales enough to dent console figures.

i think the console players would be misled by the pc graphics, convinced that their consoles could produce pc graphics

As long as every object in the game casts shadows, I'll be happy.

So everyone knows what to expect. Console gamers don't feel cheated for not getting high end pc graphics, as well as show how it will actually look like for them and pc gamers will know what a decent rig can do.

I mean honestly.. It's just graphics. Not really that big of a deal. They are capable of more... Probably. But.. They have 10 months still before the game actually comes out so they obviously aren't as pretty as they will be when it gets released. TEN MONTHS. They're certainly not going to spit-shine it up by then!! Not to mention.. You haven't had the chance to view it in glorious HD yet.. You probably just saw grainy pictures on the interwebs.

but at least theyd preorder it