As long as "dark" doesn't mean "everything is brown and gray" like so many games like to do.

Being in the north provides possibilities. Longer nights, with the cold and wind on the mountains driving you forward, or the howl of wolves in the forest. (And preferably, in packs like Fallout, not the individuals Oblivion had!) A clear feeling of isolation as you go away from civilization, to scavenge a ruin in some gods-forsaken corner of Skyrim.

Ravens are a type of crow.


Anyway, myself I would like a lot more darkness and urgency, but I do like the occasional relief of a sunny day. They should make it sunny a reasonable amount of the time. I don't want it like Twilight or the last few HP movies where it's cloudy 100% of the time.

Yeah, I know exactly what you mean. I played a few games that wanted to make the atmosphere seem dark and mysterious but all they really did was dumb down the color pallet to nothing but gray and brown. I think Morrowind is a good example of Bethesda's ability to make a dark atmosphere but keep the color pallet varied and not all vomit colored.

I think the game could use a little bit of that. Everything in Oblivion looked candy-coated. Some of the characters even glowed.

I want there to be some scary *sends shivers down my spine* moments but not the stupid cliche Dragon Age garbage of everyone is covered in blood at all times and an wearing low cut tops :wacko:

I want my scary to come from me venturing off into the woods or marsh and randomly coming across a spooky cave or little hut as I stumble through the mist. I want to find weird objects or notes lying around.

The best scares come from very vague hints that let your mind fill in the rest. Nothings scarier than our own imaginations :happy:

Seconded! Seasons would be awesome.

Either way they go I'll be happy.

Yes. And I think Skyrim will be darker; the teaser trailer put across quite a grim, chilly tone, which I hope will translate into the game world. That said, I don't think any heroic fantasy game benefits by being truly dark in the way a novel does (a game like, say, DA:O is more pretentious than dark, to my mind), and one of the TES setting's charms is its occasional quirkiness and humour.

But yes. Dark and harsh and wintry in atmosphere, without being too much of a departure from what Bethesda are best at.

Hopefully there wont be tons of zombies again. I hate the zombies, they are not creepy in a scary way, just annoying-ugly "im not hungry anymore" creepy.
Id much rather have more real scary undeads. Also, more non-agressive wildlife, sounds etc. in the wilderness, and calm dark music is good.

I agree with the OP. I loved the atmosphere in Morrowind, the sense of mystery and danger.

Oblivion had amazing graphics, but sometimes I felt like I was trekking through Disneyland.

in colour or feel?

Morrowind was has it's good and bad sides. It wasn't just "dark fantasy". It was more of a territorial thing. Oblivion had mainly good areas except when your in that dead town, or near a gate.

Oblivion became stagnat very quick. However, I can still pop in my Morrowind disk from all those years ago, and can still become wrapped up in that interesting world.

Both, something similar to what Morrowind had going

I can't vote.

Because I'd like both light and dark.

Parts should be dark and serious, even scary if they could do that. However, I'd really like a lot of humor too.

I would most of the game to be dark as in the game world, however i want there to be some sort of oasis where I could go and relax in beautiful, tranquil surroundings

Oblivion had a rather dark story. Nirn was being invaded by Mehrunes Dagon and his forces from the fiery depths of Oblivion. However, this menacing undertone was never really shown well throughout the game. The colors made it feel cartoonish a lot of the times, and it could be hard to take something as being menacing and evil when it was so bright and colorful. On the other end, Morrowind overdid it a bit with the dark colors. Every city and town, every area in the game was dark and drab. Some places, especially big cities, should be bright and inviting, while dungeons and caves should feel dark, menacing, and uninviting. Some areas of the wilderness, like forested areas during the day, should be colorful and lively, while there should also be harsher environments like the tundra in solstheim or the desolate wasteland feeling of red mountain.

The most important thing in an rpg's environment is immersion. For the world to be really realistic and immersive it needs to have a mixture of colors, tones, and environments. Oblivion's environments simply weren't varied enough, while Morrowind's environments almost all had the same tone's. Both are amazing games, but here's to hoping Skyrim blows both of them out of the water

I think a more dark moody overall tone could make those moments of beauty even more beautiful by contrast, so I'm all for it. Just don't forget color - even in dark areas, color is important!

Well put. Can't wait to see some screenshots, I'm eager to see what this game looks like.

Skyrim is supposed to be Tamriel's version of our own High North: with short days and long nights, cold summers and freezing winters; a harsh nature. It's has to be darker than Oblivion. The location is darker itself, but Oblivion wasn't dark enough, so it should be even darker.

Before Oblivion's release one would think that it too would be dark just like Morrowind. After all, Cyrodill was supposed to be jungle and the story in Oblivion is dire. But look at how it came out, it was bright and cartoony, and it wasn't the jungle it was supposed to be.

This isn't to say that Oblivion is a bad game, I love Oblivion to death, but I think they put more effort on wowing everyone with graphics than making the look of the game match the tone of the story. Whether it's bright and cartoony like Oblivion or dark and mysterious like Morrowind, I'm still going to enjoy the game. But I will enjoy it more if it's darker and more mysterious.

The thing I found to bright was night and interiors but mods fixed that problem.

Skyrim by far needs to be a lot grittier, darker, and more brutal than Oblivion was (this seems to be the way the gaming industry is turning anyway). I hope this theme isn't just emphasized in the environment in regards to lightning, but also in combat, creatures, even the radiant AI. For such a theme to truly work in the game, it would have to be continuous through all aspects. You need to have that sense of danger and awareness with a civil war going on at full force. You need to have a sense of danger with dragons invading and rauaging the lands of Skyrim. When I typically think of a much more darker/grittier/brutal dark fantasy, it's usually LOTR, and I kind of got that feeling from the teaser trailer. As long as Skyrim looks and feels fundamentally different from Morrowind and Oblivion, I think it will probably be great regardless.

Yes, I would appreciate if they did something like Morrowind, but if they did something different from both Morrowind and Oblivion it'd be probably just about perfect.

Grim dark! Rawr no rainbows anywhere.

:rolleyes:

I just want dynamic weather, moving clouds, random thunder storms and rare blizzards.