I was somewhat dissappointed in the choice of Skyrim, especially after seeing such a bland and mundane treatment of Cyrodiil (although I have to admit, it looked really beautiful until boredom set in). Solstheim was my least favorite part of Morrowind and its official expansions, and I never even finished most of the quests there (including the expansion's MQ). My opinion of Bruma and the Jerall Mountains wasn't much better, as I'm just not a "cold weather" person. Hopefully, Bethesda can pull off a decent game, with challenging mechanics and unique and inventive things to do and experience in spite of the setting, or that modders can work miracles with it, otherwise I'll have to forget about buying TES V.

Taking the series to either Black Marsh, Elsweyr, or the Summerset Isles would have been much more interesting, in my opinion, and I'd have been happy with Hammerfell or Valenwood. Anything but Skyrim, or back to High Rock or Cyrodiil, and I wouldn't even want to re-visit Morrowind (which is probably not very interesting anymore, at least after the initial shock at the devastation and ash).

So you're disappointed and you don't even have one in-game screenshot? Some people...

Tamriel is their world and they will do whatever they want with it. You don't know how it will look. Hell, Skyrim might even be a volcanic wasteland.

Basically, don't criticise a game you know nearly nothing about. That's just really stupid.

In my understanding Khajiit and Bosmer aren't on exactly friendly terms? A war between them could make a nice back story.

But first we need to freeze our assess off in Skyrim. I can do that just by leaving the house

Sounds perfect!
I can't understand why everyone assumes Skyrim to be 100% snow anyway.
I couldn't be more pleased about where it's set.
^_^

Skyrim has always been my favorite and even though I think it will be amazing, Bethesda could conceivably introduce small chunks of other areas like Black Marsh, Hammerfell etc...through expansions.

I'm very happy it's set in Skyrim. Solstheim was one of my favourite parts of Morrowind. I've always been fascinated by that kind of Nordic/Viking lifestyle and mythology. Huge Mead Halls, deep dark forests, simple architecture (for common stuff anyway). If it were set anywhere else I'd like to see Black Marsh or Valenwood. I'm just a svcker for woodland .

I loved Bloodmoon, Skyrim would be the first location I'd choose for the next TES game.

Did it take them 3 years to make a massive worldspace and paint it all snow? Obviously not. I have no doubt we will see very interesting locales.

I'm ok with it. I just hope it doesn't look like Northern Cyrodiil everywhere; I'm sure it won't though.

I really want to see the forested areas though.

Wouldn't have been my first choice but I can't say I'm disappointed. There's a lot to work with with Skyrim. I expect to see mostly cold, rocky mountains with frozen peaks and valleys of coniferous forests and plains of cold, dry grass and flowing rivers. The populated areas will probably be the most interesting aspects, with great cities of stone and wood surpassing the splendor of all but the Imperial City, nestled into canyons and mountainsides.

If I had to choose another province it would probably be Hammerfell. I have a thing for deserts.

I would rather have Elsweyr or Black Marsh, but Skyrim is alright.

I love the idea of Skyrim but am concerned that Bethesda is gonna turn it in to something bland and shallow like Cyrodiil.

Cyrodiil wasn't really a forest. Just rolling plains that had trees sparsely placed. But it's understandable. A real forest would be VERY hard to move in given collision detection.

But to the topic at hand. No, I'm not disappointed, and this new engine change makes me hope for actual mountains instead of slightly taller hills.

Very happy about the game being set in Skyrim; cold, northern regions are always my favourite areas in games, and I fully expect Bethesda to create a varied and beautiful environment. I'm hoping for rolling tundra, pine forests, ruins and frozen lakes as well as snow and mountains.

Second choice would have been Summerset Isle.

The Next game should be in Tamriel and not just in 1 Provence.
EDIT: I'm NOT disappointed in the location.

How could anyone possible want more provinces? :confused:

Cyrodiil felt way too small (considering that it was supposed to be a huge province and the seat of power in a empire) and now you want MORE provinces?

Am i the only one who hope they will just focus on a smaller region of Skyrim instead?

What I would really like to see is a game with the whole of Tamriel, and your race determines what province you start in.
Dunmer in Morrowind, Argonians in Black Marsh etc.
But it would have to be done well, with the kind of attention to detail Morrowind had.
Possible one disk per province lol.

The province Id like to see most is Summerset isles. I do love the Altmer.

I think though that Skyrim has a lot of potential to be very interesting. A rich heritage, and landscape that if done right could be amazing. Hidden valleys, forests so dense there hardly is any daylight, ragged peaks, mountain passes, it can be wonderful.
I am positive Bethesda knows what they are doing and have learned from the previous games what to avoid and what to include.

I was thrilled that it's set in Skyrim. I love Nords and the viking/norse archetypes behind them, and as with many people here I loved exploring Solthseim. I think the best thing they can do to make Skyrim interesting is to make sure they add plenty of little villages, similar to Morrowind. These should really help to add character to the countryside. And making it by hand would really give the game a boost- none of this heightmaps and region generating stuff they had in Oblivion.

Skyrim should be interesting. If I could choose where the next TES would be set I'd choose Valenwood. Dark forests, villages in the trees, three different types of Vampires, including one that kills the child in the family and takes it's place. Then it waits for years before it slaughters the entire family. Wouldn't that make a delightfully horrifying quest?

Cyrodiil was disappointing (especially when it didn't have any jungle. Wut.), and Shivering Isles had some amazing scenery. It all hangs on what BGS feel like doing when they set out. At least LOTR was ages ago and hopefully won't influence the art style any more. A blend of Cyrodiil's landscape with some fantastic mountains but with more fanciful landscapes in other areas (if they did the beginnings of jungle on the border with Cyrodiil, thereby retconning the snowy mountain passes in Oblivion's northern border... that would make my day. I don't know how much of Cyrodiil was originally meant to be jungle in the first place though :shrug:). The Morrowind border should see a strange clash of Skyrim's and Morrowind's culture, architecture, landscapes and wildlife. I'm not expecting much variety on the High Rock border, though, as northern High Rock is meant to be rugged and mountainous.

Just as long as the northern half of the game overworld isn't a frozen tundra I'll get by, but variety would really make the game for me.

I think Skyrim holds great potential as a setting. More important than the landscape, I want a setting that has a presence, a sense of history and culture. I didn't mind the forests in oblivion, I thought the environment was beautiful. What I felt was missing was a real culture, a character to the setting. That is what seemed bland to me, and the races seemed to lose most of their uniqueness. That's what I want to see returned. This is the home of the Nords. A proud people with a savage histopry. They have a strong sense of culture. I want to be immersed in that, and experience. Morrowind felt like a real place to me, not because of the mushroom trees, but because of the culture.

If Skyrim had not been the setting, I would have liked to visit Summerset Isle.

I think the location is good, i love forests and mountains... but they need to be more foresty and more mountainy then they were in oblivion. Do a google image search of http://www.google.ca/images?hl=en&safe=off&q=nahanni%20national%20park&um=1&ie=UTF-8&source=og&sa=N&tab=wi&biw=1131&bih=620 in Canada and you'll get an idea of what i mean. Mountains should be imposing, not easy to climb slopes, rivers wide and majestic, and magnificent waterfalls! I hope bethesda decides to really spend a long time on making the landscape look awesome without having to do what they did in morrowind again and add fairy tale elements.... that sorta ruined morrowind for me.

Skyrim is my favourite province and Nords are my favourite race, so I'm more than satisfied with the location!

The wilderness settings in Oblivion are the best I've ever explored, bar maybe Farcry 2.

Morrowind was a wonderful game, but the wilderness was far more bland than Oblivion's. In some part, probably due to graphics constraints. What bored me in Oblivion was the barren wasteland through the Oblivion gates.

I have to admit I want conventional forest and mountain wilderness in Skyrim. I want bears, wolves, deer, lynx and all the rest of it. That's just what appeals to me. I've always felt alien-style creatures and landscapes in games have looked quite silly and (obviously) made-up. In my opinion (and I know it's not necessarily in keeping with the Elder Scrolls series), fantasy elements are best done with subtlety and reference to genuine mythology (like dragons, elves etc.)

Edit: I agree with Batty5, the problem with Oblivion was with the nondescript culture (and I'd add empty cities and towns). The wilderness was unprecedented in how excellent it was.

it would have been done eventually, there are supposed to be 8 ES and there are 9 landmasses, but I believe arena covered 2 land masses