The magazine didn't mention how good the animation system was did it? It talked about more of the things characters do, but not the animations specifically...

I was most captured by the ancient ruin in one of the screenshots. I very much want to explore that.

I'm sure will see video at GDC or PAX

Oblivion: INITIATE ANGRY! ANGRY COMPLETE! INITIATE NORMAL!

That Radiant storyline thingie sounds a bit too ambitious for its own good. Look at what happened to Radiant AI.

But if it can be pulled off succesfully...

when do those conventions take place?

Look at what happened to Radiant AI.

But if it can be pulled off succesfully...

Supposedly they are well defined. People talking over their shoulder to you when you start a conversation with them even if they are mining or scrubbing dishes. Also people will pace while they are in a conversation with you to convey nervousness, there is crying the npcs can now do, gestures with hands such as pointing at your or possibly slitting motions with their hands to signify they want to kill you.

My biggest concern is the random guest thing. I imagine all quests relating to the various storylines will be set in stone, but will all side quests be random? Don't get me wrong I think it is a cool idea but I'm a bit concerned that some of the randomness might bite us in the ass. What if for one quest I was going to be sent to some HUGE ruin filled with all sorts of goodies, but since I had been to that ruin before I get sent to some dinky cave with little to no good loot? I'd like side quests to be different from random quests. Have the storyline set in stone, side quests set in stone, and random quests be the lowest tier of quests to undertake (not meaning they aren't as fun, just that they aren't as frequent).

Also, I found the number of cities to be quite alarming. There should be eight cities, there are eight on the map, EIGHT! I suppose that after 200 years three cities could have been destroyed but I still feel like five is too few, unless each of them is no smaller than the Imperial City was. I think a lot of the believability in Morrowind came from it's vast amount of cities and settlements. There had better be A LOT of small villages and settlements dotting the map.

And perks?!?! Really? It isn't necessarily a bad thing since they were included in Oblivion, but I don't know about the whole Fallout style they're implementing. I'm somewhat of a completionist (not a real word I know) when it comes to TES games, and I'd be a little sad if I couldn't get every perk available (you can in Oblivion).

And last but not least, I'm a little concerned about the sacking of the Major/Minor skills, but this mainly stems from my lack of knowledge over the new system for leveling up.

All in all the pros outweigh the cons, if they can even be considered cons at all, and I'm really happy and excited with all of the new info.

And even ! I remember vaguely rAI got stomped because NPCs were too erratic. Never seen that as a problem myself. There's gonna be bugs anyway, let them be hilariously weird ones.

The reason I say this is because Bethesda is now using Id Tech game engine (just guessing since they bought up Id software) instead of Glitchbryo. This will most likely allow them to make the world far more whole and open.

Thoroughly unimpressed and a little worried about the info. Seems like they made it more of an action game. If it isn't more in depth and bigger than Oblivion, Ill probably stop gaming.

Can someone explain the radiant storyline to me? Much appreciated.

Yeah but it is useful for a mage to open distance between themselves and the enemy or if your a touch mage (like me), close the distance. But as I said earlier, I believe that the Dragon shouts are only usable when your in combat with Dragons. The magazine claims that you will have 1 on 1 fights with dragons often and that you will have a great power to be able to combat the mighty dragons so I am assuming that that power is the Dragonshouts.

Thoroughly unimpressed and a little worried about the info. Seems like they made it more of an action game. If it isn't more in depth and bigger than Oblivion, Ill probably stop gaming.

Five massive cities, any guesses which they are?

You know how you can get the Mages in the Imp to go to war with the guards if you happen to commit a crime near both of them? Now imagine that happening every time an NPC picked up a rake.