"Low-Fantasy" (Meaning the game does not look as vibrant, vivid and weird as Morrowind did, more like Oblivion) -> "Oblivion was for sure not over-the-top in terms of its style, but Skyrim should be considered low fantasy even more than its predecessor. Much of the locations look realistic, and could easily exist in our own world."

This is upsetting.

not really. I remember reading somewhere that dungeons have a certain range of level. say thereMs a dungoen that's for lvl 21-36, well if you visit it a lvl 6, then it's gonna be locked at lvl 21. THAT's what it means! not that every dungeon will be locked at level 1 if you explore without leveling

Source? Fallout 3 was not that big. I'd estimate it was 25 square kilometers. (it felt like 20).

Hmmm... spoiler is interesting. A little disappointed that I read it (but it would have worked it's ways into my ears (or more appropriately, my eyes, har, har har) eventually), but it falls into my "Please don't reveal anything we don't learn in the first hour or so of gameplay" rule.

Well, this is reasonably disappointing.
'Skyrim is approximately as big as Oblivion.' Really? That vast, nordic wasteland is only the size of Cyrodiil (and with fewer cities), which was relatively pathetic anyway?
'You can read in-game books in 3-D.' Glad to see you're focusing on the important things, Beth.
'You can use fast travel to revisit places you have visited earlier' Equally pleasant that you are somehow under the impression that everybody who plays your games is a babbling [censored]. There is no accessibility problem, systems such as Morrowind's fast travel have been used in so many recent open world games that it is actually amazing that Bethesda seems so adamant about ignoring their fanbase.

Bethesda shouldn't be relying on modders to make their games worth playing. It actually seems as though every time another piece of [censored] news comes out about this game, the community has to bring itself to a state of delusive denial in order to move on to hype the next ridiculously drawn out article from the GI hub.

This source: http://www.actionradius.com/jdl/default.asp?id=1801&qty=1

And if you google it yourself. You'll get most results like this. Fallout 3 is almost as "big" or "small" as Oblivion. Almost no difference at all.

Well, this is reasonably disappointing.
'Skyrim is approximately as big as Oblivion.' Really? That vast, nordic wasteland is only the size of Cyrodiil (and with fewer cities), which was relatively pathetic anyway?
'You can read in-game books in 3-D.' Glad to see you're focusing on the important things, Beth.
'You can use fast travel to revisit places you have visited earlier' Equally pleasant that you are somehow under the impression that everybody who plays your games is a babbling [censored]. There is no accessibility problem, systems such as Morrowind's fast travel have been used in so many recent open world games that it is actually amazing that Bethesda seems so adamant about ignoring their fanbase.

Bethesda shouldn't be relying on modders to make their games worth playing. It actually seems as though every time another piece of [censored] news comes out about this game, the community has to bring itself to a state of delusive denial in order to move on to hype the next ridiculously drawn out article from the GI hub.

You mean please don't spoil anything we learn in the first hour? Not "don't learn"? I'm guessing the spoiler has to do with the beginning of the game which is the first hour?

http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/1161723-dutch-cover-story-interesting-info/

The Dutch Power Unlimited dropped in my mailbox today. Highlights of the 4-page article:

"Technically speaking, Skyrim is an evolution within The Elder Scrolls, and not a revolution (but everything looks fabulous). The magic of the world that Bethesda has created is nevertheless unequivocally present."

Awesome, do I have to say anything else?


"All weapons have different properties, which you can take advantage of by choosing the right perks. Maces ignore a percentage of armor, and axes have bleed damage over time. "

Combat seems deeper than Oblivion's, I like it. Nothing bad about that.


"You can use fast travel to revisit places you have visited earlier."

Pretty expected, not mad at all. At least I'll have to visit cities first before being able to fast travel to them like in Oblivion. HUDless gameplay with no compass or markers will also make this more interesting.

"Skyrim is approximately as big as Oblivion."

If they are talking about the size of the world, great news. Morrowind was smaller but more detailed, Fallout 3 was 10sq/m and very detailed. Oblivion was 16sq/m and with little detail, it's safe to say that Skyrim will have much more detail. So having a 16sq/m world with a lot of detail is great. Red Dead Redemption was about 30sq/m, but it was very boring to explore, there were no dungeons and such, yet it felt gigantic. I am totally fine with this, and I see no reason to be angry with that.

"Five big cities and more than 130 dungeons."

Dungeons in Oblivion were forts, mines, ayleid ruins and caves. There were 200-250 of them, a lot of people complained about being copy 'n pasta dungeons with no interest. Morrowind had less dungeons, but they were unique and varied. Skyrim having over 130 UNIQUE and VARIED dungeons is great. Remember, dungeons are not the only locations, we have towns, settlements, unmarked locations, etc. Making up for at least 200-220 locations.


"Low-Fantasy" (Meaning the game does not look as vibrant, vivid and weird as Morrowind did, more like Oblivion) -> "Oblivion was for sure not over-the-top in terms of its style, but Skyrim should be considered low fantasy even more than its predecessor. Much of the locations look realistic, and could easily exist in our own world."

I see absolutely no problem here. If you played The Witcher and Demon Souls you know you are in for a treat, they are both low-fantasy RPGs, but stilll very unique and awesome worlds.

"The overarching narrative of the Dragons is less prominent than the Oblivion Gates were in Oblivion, which does not give you the feeling that you are doing 'useless' quests when you lay aside the Main Quest."

Great news here, Dragons are not an excuse like Oblivion gates for the Main Quest like a lot of people were worried.

"Dragons are not rare."

Dragons are not rare... okay, but if you read this and thought this means dragons will be absolutely everywhere, all the time during the whole friggin' game, than you are dumb.

"Dungeons will be locked at their level once you have been there." (Once you go to a dungeon, it will remain lvl 5 when you entered it on lvl 5. This does not imply that all dungeons are level-scaled, it just confirms that dungeons don't change difficulties throughout your savegame after you have entered them.)

Fallout 3 already did it well, no doubt Skyrim will make it even better.

"Even in third person, animations look really good. There has been a lot of progress since Oblivion."

Awesome!

"You can read in-game books in 3-D."

Adds to immersion. People seem to be confusing this with watching the player read the book, or 3D Avatar like effects. Just read the quote bellow to understand what it means.

"Every item has a 3D-preview in the Flash based inventory, which you can twist, turn, rotate, etc. Sometimes you will solve puzzles by anolyzing these 3D-previews. Not only armor and weapons can be explored in great detail, also small rings and herbs can be investigated from all possible angles. Every single item in the game can be previewed in the inventory screen." "

Awesome, puzzles, cool inventory, attention to detail to every small items. Nothing bad here.

"The Dark Brotherhood is back."

If they are back as guild, then we will be seeing more guilds and factions. Great news, I was worried about the lack of guilds, but this is good.

"Active blocking."

Okay, nice. Just like Oblivion's, I am fine with it... I don't see any other way of making blocking better.

"More traps and puzzles."

During my gameplay with Oblivion, I only stumbled upon one puzzle in a Mage's Guild quest. This is great, and I love dungeon traps.

"Main Story is approximately 20 hours. Hundreds of hours for other quests."

Best news ever, Oblivion mainquest was 6-10 hours long, Fallout 3 was about the same, Morrowind felt longer because the pacing was different and it didn't have an arrow pointing where to go. Also something that Skyrim will not have, so yes! And great, we get 20 hours of Main Quest, 150+ hours of side quests, guild quests, random quests, and even repeatable quests making up for infinite hours of questing.


"Every dragon you kill will make you stronger. A piece of his soul will be transferred to yours."

Very Demon Souls-ish, I like it!

Low fantasy? Hardly. Skyrim may draw upon as many classical fantasy elements as Oblivion, but in terms of art direction I think it feels much more unique - less crappy inflated plastic castles, a more believable color palette, etc. To an extent, the dreary feel of the game reminds me of Morrowind more than any other.

Pleased with everything else, although I would like more specifics on fast travel. *BLEEP*

Low fantasy? Hardly. Skyrim may draw upon as many classical fantasy elements as Oblivion, but in terms of art direction I think it feels much more unique - less crappy inflated plastic castles, a more believable color palette, etc. To an extent, the dreary feel of the game reminds me of Morrowind more than any other.

Pleased with everything else, although I would like more specifics on fast travel. The execution opener sounds really cool.

I agree with you on the fast travel and ignoring the fanbase, but there is the slight possibility that they are not ignoring the fanbase but are just having such money troubles because of the current times (credit crunch and all) that they have to reduce game quality for the sake of better mainstream sales, when I think it over I′d rather get a bit worse game than see Bethesda go bankrupt.

How come some dutch magazine I have never heard of was given this info and not gameinformer, can someone provide a link to the story

"All weapons have different properties, which you can take advantage of by choosing the right perks. Maces ignore a percentage of armor, and axes have bleed damage over time."
I like this, a lot.
"You can use fast travel to revisit places you have visited earlier."
Fast travel was always optional, so again it doesn't bother me.
"Skyrim is approximately as big as Oblivion."
Good enough for me.
"Five big cities and more than 130 dungeons."
Woo! More uniqueness and less crampedness!
"The overarching narrative of the Dragons is less prominent than the Oblivion Gates were in Oblivion, which does not give you the feeling that you are doing 'useless' quests when you lay aside the Main Quest."
Huzzah, no "Yawn. Another Dragon to slay."
"Dragons are not rare."
I'd prefer if they were more rare, but as long as they boast a challenge (actually forcing you to take them on later rather than the moment you see it.
"Dungeons will be locked at their level once you have been there."
This could be handled a few ways and depends on their wording. "Been there" could be emptied out of monsters after all. Either way, I doubt you could break this by simply going into a dungeon and leaving. Even so, you'd only be ruining the game for yourself (and god knows if you did find something not scaled that was quite powerful, it'd be sure to take you out).
"Even in third person, animations look really good. There has been a lot of progress since Oblivion."
Behavior looked good, so I didn't have many doubts for animations this time around.
"You can read in-game books in 3-D."
Will be nice to see.
"Every item has a 3D-preview in the Flash based inventory, which you can twist, turn, rotate, etc. Sometimes you will solve puzzles by anolyzing these 3D-previews. Not only armor and weapons can be explored in great detail, also small rings and herbs can be investigated from all possible angles. Every single item in the game can be previewed in the inventory screen." "
I'm very glad to see this. It'll be interesting for puzzle items and just being able to see something from all angles. I wonder if this will apply to items in a store before you purchase.
"The Dark Brotherhood is back."
My least used faction since the minority of characters I make are stealth based, but I'll enjoy its return.
"Active blocking."
I didn't expect much less.
"More traps and puzzles."
Nice. I missed the traps/puzzles of Daggerfall dungeons.
"Main Story is approximately 20 hours. Hundreds of hours for other quests."
Sounds about right. Normally I'd be disappointed in the lower count for the MQ, but with TES side quests (and Radiant Story stuff) I'll be sure to have my hands full.
"Every dragon you kill will make you stronger. A piece of his soul will be transferred to yours."
Om nom souls.
"There are special animations for sneak kills with daggers."
I love me some more animations.
"It is not yet possible to combine forms of magic. It is difficult. Frost magic makes an enemy move slower, and fire does damage over time, and the fire remains on the ground for additional damage. If we would allow the player to use fire magic in one hand, and frost magic in the other, it becomes much more complex. Maybe we will implement this though, but for the time being, 'No'.
Only remotely disappointing thing here. I understand that if they combine things too much, spellcasting may be overpowered. Still, I'd like to see that you could cast two different spells but only one effect goes through (perhaps the higher magnitude spell inflicts its effect). That, or they could make certain elements counteract each other (eg casting frost and fire based spells simultaneously will only inflict damage and no special ability)

:facepalm: Are you expecting Skyrim to be huge? On the world map it's the size of, if not smaller, than Cyrodiil. 3D books is a nice little thing that should be fun, its not like you cant play the game because their are 3D books now.

Well, this is reasonably disappointing.
'Skyrim is approximately as big as Oblivion.' Really? That vast, nordic wasteland is only the size of Cyrodiil (and with fewer cities), which was relatively pathetic anyway?
'You can read in-game books in 3-D.' Glad to see you're focusing on the important things, Beth.
'You can use fast travel to revisit places you have visited earlier' Equally pleasant that you are somehow under the impression that everybody who plays your games is a babbling [censored]. There is no accessibility problem, systems such as Morrowind's fast travel have been used in so many recent open world games that it is actually amazing that Bethesda seems so adamant about ignoring their fanbase.

Bethesda shouldn't be relying on modders to make their games worth playing. It actually seems as though every time another piece of [censored] news comes out about this game, the community has to bring itself to a state of delusive denial in order to move on to hype the next ridiculously drawn out article from the GI hub.

That source is probably made of liers. :hubbahubba:

I got this one (50-80% size of Oblivion): http://kotaku.com/357125/