The trailer had some pretty cool graphics, especially compared to Morrowind, which is what I've mostly played

But at GDC there have been a few awesome demos that show what upcoming game engines are capable of on PCs via http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YHNWj8HmWwQ&feature=player_embedded, http://link.brightcove.com/services/player/bcpid15253964001?bckey=AQ~~,AAAAAFiRrus~,m1kMQiNjWmFHvuRG3RmDbrYX8g-s3R3n&bctid=810974979001, and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n3XeCHywNYM&feature=player_embedded#at=13 (unfortunately a cam version). (I found the vids though http://www.pcauthority.com.au/News/250462,opinion-how-the-pc-is-making-consoles-look-out-of-date.aspx.)

It'll be interesting to see how for Bethesda's new engine can be pushed on gaming PCs....

The trailer footage looked amazing and it was only on 360, PC will look fantastic. It doesnt have to be Crysis level, and honestly if Skyrim looked like Crysis it would look [censored] imo..

This just in: RPG's aren't centered around graphics!
News at 11.

I laughed hard.

So long as its better than Oblivions I'm fine with it.

You know, a game can have great graphics and still have great gameplay. You needn't sacrifice one for the other.

The graphics looked very satisfying, and being a graphics-ho i can see your concern, as its flown through my mind as well. There are some fantastic looking games arriving this year that probebly will blow skyrim out of the water. But, The elder scrolls is known for both extremely good graphics combined with boundless variety, artistic value, and everything else that a graphic-ho game would fail to have. I have full confidence that no game this year, or next, will be able to stand up to the combined righteousness of all of the aspects of Skyrim combined.

Did you know there are mods for Morrowind that can make it look about as good as Crysis? Not as good as the videos you linked but still pretty darn good.

Sure... I first played Morrowind in '06-'07, on a decent machine, and heavily modded for graphics. However, Morrowind's engine was already fairly behind then current games in terms of lighting, shading, character motions etc.... Of course, that didn't reduce my enjoyment of the game at all... In fact, I'd gotten so used to Morrwind (gameplay mechanics AND graphics) that I never fully got into Oblivion

Even so, better graphics can only add to the enjoyment...

Ohhhh!!!! Now I understand why I enjoy paper-and-pencil D&D so much. Thank you for enlightening us o great guru!

Relax dude... I'm not worried about Skyrim's graphics... Just wondering how it's going to look on a good PC, now that I see what modern machines are capable of.

They can't get cutting edge graphics on the consoles (anyone who says otherwise hasn't seen some of the Crysis 2 shots or that newest RAGE trailer), so I don't see how they'll get cutting edge stuff on the pc.

Of course, I'm one of the only people existence that thinks games can be pretty, but what'r you gonna do? :shakehead:

The Witcher 2 already looks better from a graphical standpoint. http://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=AEUazuUBZ4Y&vq=hd720

I am hoping the PC version of Skyrim looks at least that good.

That witcher 2 video doesn't look that impressive at all. Theres pop up in places,the graphics in the distance don't look as good as skyrim,and the water looks awful.
I think skyrim on the xbox looks as good.That video was not a good one to showoff.

You need to watch the video in HD and do a side-by-side comparison. The Witcher 2 looks better graphically, better than anything the 360 is capable of handling. It's still pre-beta.

Bethesda has some great artists as we've seen from previous games (environments have always been stunning), but making great graphics for an aging consoles isn't about your artistic prowess its about how well you can optimize your programming. Bethesda's programming record isn't exactly extensive and robust, but we'll have to wait and see what their new engine is capable of.

They will try to tell your otherwise of course. Already Beth has stated the game has been developed primarily on PC. This of course means that their creation kit runs on the PC therefore that statement is valid. However, the target has always been the Xbox and this means graphics will be limited to what that machine is capable of. If we're lucky we'll get some higher res textures - but it will be nothing like a game developed with high end PCs in mind.

If thats the gap between consoles and PC's it's not very impressive,especially since the tech in PS3 and xbox is about 7 years old,if not older than that.
Looks good close in,but background wise,and water wise,not too good at all,also the the hands on the characters in the bar when they are arm wrestling,don't look good either.
You can barely tell they are arm wrestling,not enough bend in the arms...looks like they are shaking hands.

I'm not trolling...just saying what i see. And what i see is not that impressive.

You need to get your vision checked. The water may not be revolutionary, but the textures, the lighting, the high-poly models, all too much for the 360 and even mid-range PCs. It's not even up for debate. I recommend anyone curious watch the video.

My point is,alot of PC users were complaining about skyrims graphics,and consoles etc.They made it sound like PC's were light years ahead....and judging by that video you showed,that is not the case. Like i said looks good close up,but thats about it. That is not a million miles away from consoles.

I'm sure it'll be pretty, but I can't say it's a major concern. Oblivion level graphics are all I'll ever need to enjoy a game as long as the content is good (not that I'm opposed to graphical improvement). I'd say a bigger concern is whether it will run smoothly, as Oblivion had a tendency to drop below an acceptable framerate on the 360.

Anyone wish console games came with some graphical options so you could turn down some effects if you're not happy with the way it's been optimized to run on a console?

Never said PC was a million miles ahead of consoles, but it is evidently 5 years ahead.

Which in terms of technology and the current rate of progression is about a million miles ahead.

http://www.gametrailers.com/video/debut-trailer-samaritan/711466?type=flv

^techdemo...inb4 people who don't know a thing about computer tech going "WELL HERP DURP IT"S NOT INGAMES WAAHHA" running on a high end PC.

Or if your'e not into the U3 engine

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YHNWj8HmWwQ

yesums...most likely crysis 2 will look similar to this once modders have there way.

Oh yeah and this 4 year OLLLDDD GAME.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=shZzYkpl5Nk

released 4 years ago; also btw...oblivion for crysis proved you can make a game look as good as crysis but the size of oblivion.

Well the thing is, Todd Howard CLEARLY said that he wanted to make all versions look fairly similar, aside from maybe texture resolution and anti-aliasing.
So yeah, it'll look better on PC, but not a lot.

That's it, fact. no opinions. just answered to damn question by respecting the line under the tile, which said that no flame war was intended

never understood why though, i mean why should the weak hold back the strong ect.

No idea how robust the CreationEngine is but I don't think Skyrim is going to be in the same class as Rage or Crysis. Demo shows some pretty chunky meshes.

Probably because most PC owners don't have High end gaming rigs, they have core 2 dous or an i5, not overclocked sandy bridge i7's. If they made they game look like that, most people wouldn't be able to play it like that anyways, so they would really just be wasting a lot of development time on something that's kind of unnecessary.

And the reason this doesn't look like rage\ crysis is because, while those games look great, they aren't interactive environments, just pretty ones, which is not what TES is about. An example of that is rages engine, id Tech 5, which uses a massively complex texture system that is only designed to be pretty while run through it, and no possible way to mod it, due to its sheer complexity.