All I can say is... sweet!

I can't wait to play this!

I have my Collector's Edition pre-ordered ans paid for, not I just have to wait til... November,,,

...

Dang it.

;)

Was the Shield Spell directional? Did it have a physical presence, like a barrier?

Or was it the Oblivion style shield spell that protects from all directions.

Am I the only one finding it normal that dual-wielding shouldn't be that effective at all?

So, I am curious. When you say you "caught" a butterfly, or fish. Do you mean you just pressed A and the ingredients appeared in your inventory like plants? Or does your character physically "catch" them as well?

Dual Wielding: I was misleading, at level 1 (which I forgot to mention) dual wielding seemed more unnecessary than weak. Later on, I'm sure it will be a faster way of killing enemies. No blocking was a good idea, if you wanna block, use a shield.

Ok, so let me first start off by saying that at PAX today I tried to do as much stuff as possible for all you guys so let me get into it.

First off, I got to talk to Pete Hines before I was up to play and he was such a nice guy! Also, for this demo I used an argonian and they look great. So as I started I went towards the birthstones that were in the todd howard walkthrough. I decided to take a hop in the river and use my underwater breathing to catch some salmon. *NOTE* I also noticed butterflies on a nearby bush and collected there wings as alchemy ingredients. I headed to the town, but got a little bored so I pulled out my sword and flame combo and started slaughtering some locals... (I'm so bad...) This wasn't too challenging as I picked some easy looking people and no guards were near by. *NOTE* Fatigue management is more difficult due to the sprint feature. It drains it fast so use it sparingly. Due to fear and time, I decided to leave the town and head into the mountains. I grabbed some mushrooms off a stump and some floweres on the way up and then I came across a small cabin. I went to the fire to try and cook my salmon, but there were 2 burned bodies there and that seemed more interesting. I went inside the cabin to look for clues as to who did this and found a note on the table reading something like "We heard rumors about the dragons but didn't believe it until we saw one recently." So basically they were torched. I took this oppurtunity to rest in the bed (which was not owned ) and travel at night. *NOTE* At night everything looks great. The moonlight adds a cool atmosphere. Anyways, I decided follow a small creek by the cabin to see where it led and on the way I caught some dragonflies (lots of bugs). I was then promptly attacked by a patrol of bandits. *NOTE* The AI is much improved in this game. A mage was walking towards me with a shield spell and using a frost spell to deal damage while 2 melee units flanked me. I was close to death so I opened the menu and popped some health potions, as well as a swift foot potion and a strength potion which increased speed and damage respectively. Unfortunately my demo was coming to an end so I quickly climbed to the highest point a jumped off to my death before they came to shut me down.

Equipment: So after creating my character, I was put into the same location as the todd howard demo and we are told we don't have any items equipped. I opted for the light armor which was all "Hide." As for weapons, I tried out all sorts so let me cover those.
-Bow & Arrow: WOW the bow is good! Feels alot more responsive and has a very satisfying *thud* to it when it hits it's mark. Only got to shoot wolves and a bunny with it but it felt great.
-Dual melee: I went with the sword and mace combo and I have to say I am highly unimpressed with the dual wielding. Something didn't feel right to me and using one weapon felt way more effective and practical. I did not look at the one handed melee perks so I can't say now if it will be improved by perks however my guess is there will be a dual wielding attack speed perk at the very least.
-2 handed: Used a claymore and I gotta say I love it. It was slow, but packed a punch with a great sense of impact when you hit people. Also, the killing blow was awesome, you spear the guy and lift his whole body up before throwing him back down and pulling the sword out.
-Sword & Magic:My personal favorite, this was almost OP at level one. I easily dispatched of 3 bandits who attacked me at night. I was using a flamethrower like spell and as they closed in one or 2 hits was all it took to drop them.
-Dual magic: Really good, massive flamethrower took people down before they could touch me, did I mention how good the magic looks?
-Sword and shield: I am a newb at blocking and I used this for like 3 seconds and stopped. Not much to say here.

Perks: So I was on a time limit, so I only looked at some of the perks. Some of them had multiple levels a la fallout, but here are some examples...
-Chance to stagger greatly increased when dual wielding magic
-Critical hit chance increased with bows (I can't remember if this had multiple levels but it started out at 10%)
-Silent footsteps while sneaking
SORRY I CAN'T REMEMBER MORE IT WAS SO OVERWHELMING D:

Closing Comments: So as much as this feels like a new game, it still feels like it's predecessors. Strange and new but definitely familiar. The back peddling speed did seem slow, but not completly unreasonable to use in combat. If you like any of the elder scrolls game, I know you will like this game. To sum it up... amazing.

Why did you not go to the city like Whiterun?

You sir, are so much better than any of those journalists on those magazine websites.

YOU GAVE US NEW IMFORMATION!!!!

THANKYOU!

Good read. I salute you.

Also can you confirm weapon degradation is in or not?

I saw no sign of weapons degrading, but I wasn't looking.