Lol yea they kind of did look like Teletubbies now that I think of it

The beginning of "Valhalla Rising" says it all

Is that what the trailer is called?
I know that's not in game graphics but I hope the game has the same dark and nordic feel to it.

You would think Necromancers would toy around with their zombies and the lives of others more...
Like creating huge frankenstein like monsters, frenzied abominations always crawling and shrieking in pain and agony, fusing bodies together with a few blades and two heads that occasionally complain to each other .-.

Now why would a blizzard be rare in Skyrim of all places? :wink_smile:

I think there is some confusion as to what the thread is about. Some people seem to be talking about a darker story and some people seem to be talking about darker lighting.

Minority here. I'm ready for something a bit lighter. Every RPG (Fable no longer counts IMHO, and they flat out said so...) seems dark right now. I'd like the game to be appropriately lit based on the themes and setting. I'm just hoping that it includes a lot of the beauty of Oblivion. The bright and shiny beauty. Not all dank and dismal beauty. I thought that the bright, amazing vistas of Oblivion were a phenomenal contrast to the bloody, hate fueled violence of Oblivion Gates and their surrounding environments. Until I'd closed a lot of them they always creeped me out.

So my vote, not all dark and depressing. Had plenty of that in FO3. Not quite ready to go back.

Wait...varied, you say? I agree with that. But the only variation in Oblivion was the difference between Tamriel and Oblivion itself. Each Oblivion gate led to the same, rather generic hellish landscape. Each ruin looked the same. Each cave looked the same. Each fort looked the same. The entire landscape of Tamriel, while beautiful, was boring and not threatening in the least.

I will say that when I ran in to my first Oblivion gate, it was great. The feeling of that hellish and fiery wasteland. But the effect wore off rather quickly. The color scheme was just too bright and cartoonish, and each gate was nearly identical. It had a great effect at first, it just wore off really fast.

Complete White-outs? Those are few and far between, even in the coldest of places, alot rarer than a thunder storm.

Both affect the overall feeling of the game quite heavily.

You're right, but I'm not referring to variety of landscapes, but rather a variety to the mood of the game.
Light = Cyrodill
Dark = Oblivion
Then, at the final mission, you see the bleakness and horror of Oblivion invading your non-threatening and beautiful home world. It really is some fantastic juxtaposition.

Seriously? Large towns are ripe with corruption, greed, gloominess and generally being darker. It's great. Now, if you say the upper class areas, then sure, but the lower parts of the main city should be dark and cramped. A bit like Vivec, but more exaggurated.

As long as they've drawn a lot of inspiration from Solstheim I think we'll be ok. Just with bigger more treacherous mountains and darker deeper caves.

Yes, I loved Solstheim. The harsh weather made me feel like I was constantly in danger, and I love snow

This. Darker yes but not over board so its depressing to play.

I absolutely hated how everything in Oblivion shined like it was a Xmas decoration. That and the goofy faces tore my focus away from what were otherwise, technically brilliant graphics.

I'm not saying you can't have a bright, sunny day. They just need to work on the lighting effects.

In Oblivion, nothing really felt foreign. All the landscapes were similar to those I could see outside or in another game, the enemies were all generic fantasy monsters, and if I did run into anything scary, it was at my level so I knew I would be able to take it. Also, all the NPCs were too humanlike. And too friendly. Skyrim is a mysterious place.

Personally, I'd love it if it was cloudy most of the time, with the small chance of seeing a beautiful sunny day. Of course, not everyone wants this, so I'd rather prefer a mod gives this to me.

Like an above poster said, the scariest parts are the parts that let you put the pieces together. This never really happened on Oblivion(actually, there were a few small quest that did this, that really should have been expanded on). I remember one time I walked into a cavern I was familiar with. I knew what was in there: bandits guarding the treasure I wanted. So I go in. I have my grey Cowl on, but see no indication of life, i.e. purple blotches.

I go around a bit more, and run into a sword, it bounces away from me(like items unrealistically do in Oblivion), and I look to see where it went. I see a body of one of the bandits. I don't know what happened, but I keep going. I find another body. I keep going. I find a bandit in the sleeping position on his cot, except he's dead. Unlike the others, there was no sign of a struggle. The entire cave was cleared out. There must have been nine or ten bandits in there. And it wasn't a glitch, you could see how many of them tried to fight.

That was the scariest thing I had ever seen in the game.

I felt like I was walking through happy fairy land in Oblivion. I hope that I get scared to go in the woods in Skyrim.

Nevermore!

Just like Solstheim

A combination of both throughout the game would be ideal. That way you don't get bored of either. The darker moments make you appreciate the lighter ones and vice versa.

Darker as in grittier, rougher, yeah, that'd be cool ("dark" as in monsters and evil though, no). I remember Morrowind was "darker" in this sense than Oblivion. I remember making the first trek to I think it was Ald'ruhn and getting lost in the mountains. That was a lot spookier than anything I can recall from Oblivion. Don't need too much, but a good balance, maybe a bit more than Oblivion would do well. Also I'd hope the "darkness" wouldn't come solely from poor lighting and dungeons/caves. Diverse terrain, flora and fauna, NPCs, and atmosphere and stuff are more interesting than running through dungeon after dungeon.

This poll has been consistently about 90% yes to 10% no
I think it's safe to say Skyrim should be grittier and darker than Oblivion

I dont wanna get depressed while im playing...I think Skyrim should be a bit darker-BUT, It needs to keep its charm and even in the frost up above, there ahout ald be times of optimism, bright and sunny. Not nearly as dark as Fallout, but darker than Oblivion. People in Fallout had an excuse to be depressed-they were living in post apoc hell. The residents of Skyrim could technically have a reason to be sad, civil war, dragons and all that, but not as depressed or the world as dark as FO3