» Fri Feb 18, 2011 9:35 pm There's a screenshot I think is new showing a wide river with woods on either side, some small islets in the river, and mountains shrouded in fog in the background. The river appears to end in a waterfall, but you can't see it clearly. This screen is quite awesome, actually -- it's a beautiful landscape... still, the water isn't top notch, but it's better than in previous screenshots, and the trees look kinda fuzzy. Well, maybe not, they're not bad.... (edit: It's not the picture featured in Gameinformer... that picture was just plain bad.... and edit again: http://twitter.com/#!/DCDeacon/status/36107734952706048 by Mr. Hines.)
You've all seen the cover I guess, it's the usual Nord warrior seen in other European mags. On the first page of the Skyrim article inside the magazine is the same guy standing on a rock with a dagger in one hand and a sword in the other. It's pretty dark, most of the pic is almost black, and there's a dragon's tail stretching from the center of the picture and up behind his back. It's not a screenshot btw. It's concept art.
Todd says they're not giving us multiplayer, because they'd rather focus on shaping the best possible singleplayer experience.
The rest is just the same info we've gotten elsewhere, but even though there's no new info, some people might be interested in hearing the info from a new source, in new words.
According to the article:
'Shouts' are always longer sentences which are divided into smaller parts. The more of the sentence you get to pronounce, the more powerful is the effect of the activated ability.
Dragons.... can appear anywhere in the world. Some times you might see a dragon in the horizon, other times you might find find a dragon in a remote cave, nothing is predetermined.
Different enemies get better [as you level] at different speeds, and different areas have different level ceilings.
[Skyrim] is markedly different from competing games, where we get to see neon-sparkling armours and swords that could be mistaken for jewelry. [So Skyrim is more realistic]
[Todd Howard tells about how good Oblivion felt after you came out of the starting dungeon. He went back and played it and walked around and enjoyed the atmosphere then....] "... then I saw one of the NPCs in our game and I froze in terror. What is this thing doing in our game !? What is Jay Leno doing in our game !? We are of course aware that some thing must be changed."
The surroundings are detailed down to microscopic level with dynamic snow, an updated physics engine and living light effects. What strikes me the most about Skyrim is how the game really lures you into believing that you're part of a breathing, organic world. The figures look like living creatuers that continue to live their lives even when the player is not interacting with them. For example: every little community works as a eco-system with inhabitants that do fishing, baking and smithing.... it's a sound goodbye to Bethesda's regular dolls and stiff robot personalities.
[In answer to what Todd thought about the claim that Beth's games had been dumbed down to cater to casual gamers...] "Oblivion's greatest strength, I think, was first and foremost that we had managed to create a game that also appealed to people who did not love roleplaying games. Or at least didn't know they loved RPGs... Skyrim continues this tradition and will be a game for both casual players and hardcoe RPG zealots. This is a game for them both."
... the perks can be anything from advanced magic combinations to running [I guess sprinting?] while attacking at the same time.
... you can for instance use a one-handed weapon in both hands to increase damage...
[about Radiant story] If you kill an NPC in a display of blind violence, it might just be that this NPC had a brother. The Radiant Storytelling will then function in the way that it will make this brother come to claim vengeance for the murder. Maybe he'll gather his other brothers to come find you?
Radiant Story also decides the difficulty of the game. If it so happens that everything comes natural to you and the game isn't challenging enough for you, the game might place the kidnapped daughter in a creepier cave than if you'd been a worse player. Given that there is such a quest -- I don't know.
Violence is fun, as long as it's virtual. Bethesda agrees. To such an extent that they've baked in different finishing moves for almost every weapon and every enemy in the game. The attack has no specific purpose or function except for looking cool. Finishing moves will not occur every time you kill someone, only if the enemy's health is reduced to a point where all that's needed to kill him is an extra brutal death blow.
... [3rd person perspective] has gotten a deserved update in the form of smoother animations and less stiff joints.
Also, there's this:
While describing a dragon attack, the writer of the article says: ".... a scream that made the ground tremble, set the sky in motion (not sure what he means by this) and made the snow fall from the ruins above. Fire came."
The part about the snow falling because of the trembling caught my eye. Hope it's what it sounds like.
And there's talk about following footsteps in the snow and cloaks while the writer describes the first minutes of gameplay.... might be just the writer filling in the 'gaps' with his imagination though.
All of this was translated by me, so I can guarantee you that the original meaning of the text written in Norwegian is intact.
Sorry, scans are not allowed here. 
That'll come in handy. 