Bards Confirmed: Additionally, there are new features such as...requesting a bard to play a song in a tavern. Now, if only you could get him to follow you into a bandit cave and abandon him.

My favorite piece of info so far

That was by far my favourite preview of today. Some new info, and the writer described how the controls and combat felt, which was the only thing I was worried about in Skyrim, and it seems I need not worry. :celebration:

I agree completely, this is the best of the "new" interviews today.

Thanks for posting.

Some highlights:

A Second Cave Near Starting Location: "I then made my way to a nearby cave. Near its opening, I was given my first opportunity to test out Skyrim’s combat. With a shield in my left-hand and a iron sword in my right, I went to battle with some [censored] bandit. Like all [censored] bandits, he had some dumb wolf with him. Or maybe he was attacking the wolf. Either way, I killed them both."

Combat: The hit-detection, sound and weight of melee combat feel great. As someone who never loved Oblivion due to its combat, this is somewhat of a revelation. You’ll still need to adapt to strong sword blows, but at least the timing is consistent. Even better, you now have critical deathblows that let you finish off an adversary with an intense thrust to the gut or slash across the throat...

Combining Weapons with Magic: After getting a handle on using my shield, I changed over to using a firespell with my left hand. It turns out that lighting people on fire and beating them with sharp things is a pretty good combination. If you really want to humiliate these cave-lovin’ freeloaders, though, you can carry a torch in your left-hand and set them ablaze with it.

Archery: My favorite weapon has to be the bow. The revamped physics and controls made me feel responsible for every arrow shot. The trajectory of the arrows is realistic and not randomly determined by stats, but the damage is. A stealth arrow to the head is something I don’t think I will grow tired of during the many hours I plan to spend with Skyrim.

Level Design: The cavern itself was rather impressive for being such a hum-drum locale. The elements of Skyrim’s new engine are displayed to great effect. The lighting generates a haunting atmosphere, and a waterfall coming down the multi-tiered levels of the cave presents a spectacle that interiors in Fallout 3 and Oblivion lacked.

Companions: NPCs will follow you based on their perception of you -- a mix of your karma, dialogue choices and quest favors all brought together through the new Radiant AI system.

Bards Confirmed: Additionally, there are new features such as...requesting a bard to play a song in a tavern. Now, if only you could get him to follow you into a bandit cave and abandon him.

"I also came across cheese wheels that violently shook on a table, but that was kind of awesome." Uh oh! exploding random items again :biggrin:

When walking into a room in Oblivion, cups suddenly flying off the table brought some joy to my heart.

All good stuff, I'd like to point out though that he mentioned third person was still awkard and "lagged". Out of all the hands-on previews so far he's the only one who mentioned that, I wonder if that was just his demo bugging out or if it is still a problem. Either way I'm happy there's new information again.

"3rd person isn't the best way to play"

He said he was thrown in the woods of southern Tamriel......


How hard is it to stick with the name Skyrim? THE GAMES NAME IS SKYRIM.

I instead spent my time searching the woods. Feeling an urge to destroy something fluffy and harmless, I slayed a small bunny wandering toward me.

i guess skyrim still has the floaty physics of oblivion. everything else sounded better from his description though. i dont know why he called it a late alpha though. there going to need at least a month if not more to print those DVDs and ship them out so they had better be in late beta stages at this point.

I have a feeling Princess Stomper's first mod will be one to make sure nobody can harm those bunnies.

Remember, most of these journalists aren't Elder Scrolls or RPG fans, so expect bias these previews.