I found a Japanese article which had a pretty long interview with Todd Howard. It's from April, but when I used google translate it felt like there were some new bits of information.
I don't have much confidence on google translate though, and some parts of the translation becomes complete jibberish, but I still thought it was worth sharing with you guys. I tried my best trying to compare three different online translators, using my logic and trying to come up with a conclusion. Therefore take the following info with a grain of salt.
If any of you know Japanese, it would be very helpful to skim through the article and help with translation

Article: http://game.watch.impress.co.jp/docs/interview/20110421_441148.html (original), http://translate.google.se/translate?hl=sv&sl=ja&tl=en&u=http%3A%2F%2Fgame.watch.impress.co.jp%2Fdocs%2Finterview%2F20110421_441148.html (google translate)

Here's some key parts that I found interesting:
1. There's only one Dragonborn - you.
2. We can go to the world of Oblivion (the Daedric realms) in Skyrim as we have been able to before, but Todd Howard didn't want to comment how much or in what way.
3. There is politics in Skyrim. There are nine Holds and each one has a Jarl (a ruler of the hold). POSSIBLE SPOILER (it's not that serious of a spoiler though, and I personally didn't mind reading it. The "spoiler" is about the two sides of the civil war.):
4. There is no "good/bad" side like in Fallout 3. How you are good you are is determined more individually by each NPC and if you are in a faction that fights against another faction.
5. There are about 30-40 types of enemies that can appear.
6. In Oblivion, characters would suddenly disappeared into thin air when going through a door (due to cell seperation). In Skyrim, characters reach out to the door, open the door, and then disappears.

Here's another article from the same Japanese site:: http://game.watch.impress.co.jp/docs/news/20110608_451413.html (original), http://translate.google.se/translate?hl=sv&sl=ja&tl=en&u=http%3A%2F%2Fgame.watch.impress.co.jp%2Fdocs%2Fnews%2F20110608_451413.html (google translate)

What I found mostly interesting in this article was:
1. The size of the world is almost the same as Oblivion's, but because of the heights are different in the world, Skyrim's world is about 20 percent bigger. There are five major cities, 150 dungeons, and 500 registrered points of interests on the map.

Interesting, your last point about the world being bigger due to more height could mean that as its more 'bumpy' due to mountains it has a larger actual surface area. It can also maybe mean more scope of multi level dungeons?

i love the point about politics even tho i didn't read the spoiler. It means the world will feel more alive and fleshed out. Also enhances replayability so you can choose to side with different factions and help them to take the Kingship.

Thanks!

I certainly haven't heard it, and from all I've seen you're pretty attentive on this stuff.

Enemy types is, obviously, a bit vague but I'm interested to see what's considered a 'type'.

Everyone loves the Daedric realms, and I hope they're more like faster version of Oblivion gates.

Great to see there's no stupid karma. The only game it has not ever ruined is KotOR, but that held on nostalgia as well.

And choices. Sweet.

cool. didn't know bout the jarl . everything else I knew but am very excited about going to the oblivion planes

DRAGONBORN CONFIRMED! Yai!!

joking

Actually the "planes of Oblivion" thing was new to me

hmmm, thanks. that becoming a Jarl part sounds cool :biggrin:

:rock:

Without spoiling the spoiler but only taken the facts, I can tell you that it said that you can't become a Jarl for instance (you can't "do politics").
There's a little more info about the two sides of the civil war in Skyrim, but if you want to know, you can click on the spoiler tag.


I think you misunderstood, re-read the Jarl part of the spoiler again.

Awesome, thanks

Good find! :goodjob:

Thanks hlvr! When he mentioned NPC's opening doors, did he mean they will actually open the door, fade out, and the door will close behind them?

New to me. Nice find! :thumbsup:

Yup, the planes of Oblivion was new to me too

The reason I put the "you're the only Dragonborn" in the thread, was because I remember hearing before by Todd that you may not be the only Dragonborn left. This "new" info contradicts that.

I don't know about closing doors, but what I made out using the google translators was that NPCs open doors, then disappear. I'm guessing the door closes at the same time they disappear into thin air?
It's a little improved over Oblivion, in other words.

WOW :bonk:

Some new tidbits of information for me. Thank you for posting it.

Very interesting, never heard this info before.



This constantly worries me, seeing as most mountains in say Oblivion, have only a couple of actual paths up then and a large part is just inaccessible or sheer cliffs. I just hope those'll be less linear in Skyrim.

With mountains being a focal point, of course they spent more time designing them. They will be a big part of the gameplay unlike Oblivion.

Neat.

Bit of a shame about the Jarl stuff though, especially if youre like me and going to play a Nord. I wonder why...

Mostly old but some new, possibly mistranslated but I hope not tidbits. More grey morality interests me and karma not being an omnipotent world wide judge.

Politics ingrained into the story is what I hoped for. Oblivion was slated for it too ala the Shivering isles fan interview in the Oblivion forum but seems to be an actual ingame plotline.

I think it will be fine. Bethesda are the best and most experienced developers when it comes to doing interesting, open worlds. I think they've thought it through

I remember reading in the Japanese article that we can go up to any mountain, even the ones that are hundreds meters high, and there's also often villages and sometimes rewards up there (thus giving you incentive to go up high mountains). The translation was fuzzy though and I decided not to post it because I was unsure, but it makes sense that it's true.

by 30-40 types of enemies, you mean animals like deers too? is 'bandits' just 1 type?

seems like 30 - 40 enemies isnt very many. how many were there in morrowind and oblivion?

It didn't say, so I'm not sure.
But my guess is that 1 type would be giant, 1 type would be draugr, etc...

Which is why I found mountain climbing not being back in a strange miss of oppurtunity.

Still you have a point.

Mayhaps things like foxes and wolves fit in the same type?