Well...like I said, I don't have much exposure to the consoles but that was just my impression. They are what they are, so if there's plenty of life left then I consider that a good thing. :tops:

They must have been lying. The 360 is a time capsule. It's graphical capabilities are what they were in 2005. In the past 5 years, PCs have advanced. The 360 and the PS3 are getting old. If either console still has some life left in it, it would be the PS3.

Well guys, since E3 is June 15-17 this year and the trademark 'supposedly' ends in July (or November, I really don't know, but if it's July), you can see the coordination between the two. :foodndrink:

Lets not have this devolve into a console war. That said, if anything is a time capsule, it's the Wii, yet it's still going strong.

Now look, none of us are anolysts. I've seen lots of actual anolysts say that this current generation still has a lot of room to grow. Nintendo, Microsoft and Sony have all said that they don't see the current generation ending any time soon. All signs point to this current generation not ending before TESV comes out.

Console war? I thought it was a fact that consoles in general are aging time capsules. I have also heard that the PS3 has more processing power than the 360. Anyway, this does seem to be a bit off-topic. However, what about my original question? Technologically, what could we expect from TES V? I heard something about Bethesda remaking some of their technology. Did they specifically mention which technology?

Todd Howard mentioned he was disappointed with their animations for just about forever now, and that he wants to really work on getting them right. He mentioned also that, while RadiantAI was powerful, it just didn't work out right and that he wanted to work more on the AI to create a living world like it ought to be. Of course graphics are always a priority (I'm sure they were just as disappointed as we were when they removed Dynamic Shadows from Oblivion. Oh lord that pissed a lot of people off).

Non-technologically, Todd mentioned he wanted to include more culture and religion and the like in the next game, so that combined with all the new animations, RadiantAI, and graphics that the game to truly feel alive. I'm sure this was also a sort of response to the huge criticism from long time fans that Oblivion felt empty culturally, especially compared to the insane melting pot of culture, lore, and religion that was Morrowind.

For some reason I want to say that Todd was referring to their engine that was being updated. Usually when I think of "technology" in reference to a game, game engine is what comes to mind.

I'm not sure what we could expect technologically. Probably the best places to start would be some of middleware links on everyone's sigs. However, this is probably considered off topic since they clamped the title to speculating the "when" and "if" of TES:V and not the "what".

Well, discussing the technology is too far off the topic, but discussing what they are doing to the engine is on topic due to its connection with how long it will take to make TESV. I expect it DOES have a lot to do with much of the middleware you see around here, like Umbra and other animation programs (like animated clothing, for example).

I forgot, when did they say they'd started working on their engine? That DOES represent a large problem with an announcement of TES V, because you can't work on a game if you don't have the tools created yet to do it, unless they created in peacemeal, because from what I hear creating the game world itself is actually the shortest part of the development, while voices, mechanics, and balancing take the most.

From Todd's interview I'd say they started working on the engine in October of 2008, but as you said, this is highly speculative since we don't for sure the if they peacemealed the work. I'm more inclined to believe that they've been working on the engine for a while beforehand because, again as you said, it would be difficult for everyone to be working on the next game if the tools aren't in place yet (which would require having a good handle on the engine).

What if they started working on their engine during Fallout 3's development and when they couldn't work on actually making TES V, they could work on the game's story and writing and decide what locations in the game should look like? They could get an idea of what they want the game to be like before actually making it and then, almost routinely, they transfer their ideas from paper to the game.

I think a lot of things can be made out-of-order pending engine updates (artwork, voices, dialogue, storyline, etc.) and Beth contracted artwork before so there's no telling how the game could come together. They could be 99% compelete waiting on inhouse QA for all we know.

Well remember guys, Bethesda doesn't need to show much of anything to announce it. A few screenshots of pretty scenes, some fighting, etc, nothing major. So regardless of the development status of the game they can announce it whenever they like.

The only time Bethesda really has to show off anything is at E3 2011, but that's a long way off.

Why can't they just do it already?!

Hell, they don't even need to show any actual information. A cinematic trailer with no gameplay at all, or even in-game graphics could suffice. Just look at games like Final Fantasy or the Mechwarrior reboot (the trailer claimed it was actual gameplay, but I'm not so sure).

But Bethesda isn't the type to do that. They usually do bust-out full on announcements that make everyone collectively soil their pants in anticipation.

Maybe E3...we can only hope. According to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electronic_Entertainment_Expo_2010#Notable_exhibitors_list, Bethesda will be present at E3. They have never announced a game there before, but Bethesda is also a very well known company after Oblivion and Fallout 3. I think the reason they didn't announce games there before was because they would be over shadowed by other games. Now they are large enough to make plenty of noise.

Yeah, I agree that they are big enough to announce it there for sure. So far we know that they are most likely there to show off:

RAGE
Brink
Hunted: The Demon's Forge
Their Natal game
Fallout: New Vegas
Doom 4 (unlikely)

But it's definitely possible they'll announce TESV there, you never know.

I can imagine the pleasant surprise of a Morrowind/Oblivion hybrid theme music start playing without warning as the name of the game slowly appears on a screen. :drool:

Well, I don't think I remember a time where Bethesda showed up at E3 without a game to show for it. They weren't there In the time between Oblivion and Fallout 3, were they?

And if Todd shows up, there's no if, ands, or buts, they're going to announce SOMETHING. Todd's always the one to announce their games.

The E3 website lists Bethesda Softworks, but not Bethesda Game Studios, so they do have games to show, but it's just a bunch of their published games. :shrug:

Unless....unless they're publishing TES V! :gasp!:

But that's just me being overly hopeful.

I thought we didn't want them PUBLISHING their own game

http://twitter.com/Andrew_Reiner

TESV?

Hehe, now that's what I call baseless speculation! Still, like I said earlier I'm definitely subscribing to Game Informer, I have a good feeling TESV will be featured in it soon.

If this GI issue comes out mid april it could actually be TESV. However, Beth needs to announce the game in the next 2-3 weeks. It's possible, but probably unlikely.

Then again, maybe he says the same thing for every game they preview. Maybe he just likes to really, really, really exaggerate stuff. Or maybe he's just happy he has a job. Who knows...

Speculation: I believe that the evidence is there to support the idea that the components of their engine which they were updating was actually them implementing all the needed features for NATAL. Furthermore I have reason to believe that it will be announced before or during summer as that is generally when Bethesda makes TES announcements. In general I am almost certain that ALL evidence does point to an upcoming announcement being made before June.

P.S. In all the time they were working on revamping their engine, they could have had their post production team working on storyboarding and writing. After all if you have writers on your payroll and they just wrapped up fallout several months ago what would you have them do in all that time?

Please Bethesda I am begging you do not make TES V another stupid MMO.
I hate them all.

If there is an mmo, Zenimax will make it, not Bethesda. An mmo will not impact on TES V.