So on the subject of bloody ness what do we prefer; i myself would really like it to be a REAL not "video game real" (aka people saying CoD is a realistic military shooter) but real, kind of like the difference between arma 2 and cod; one tries at it's core to be realistic in every sense of the way the other...not so much. Now i would post links to video's and pictures of what happens when one gets hit with a blunt weapon, or gets stabbed or even decapited but i'm guessing that's against forum rules. Anyways that truely realistic level of gore is what i desire, because in reality that is the kind of gore most people cannot stomach is the real footage of true violence and not "Hollywood" or over the top.

I enjoy blood and gore, maybe something similar to the level of L4D 2? That might be a little much but all the same I enjoy cutting peoples arms off and what not.

Out of the choices given, I'd prefer videogame realism. However, I'm not the hugest fan of super-gore, so I'd prefer to see little of it in Skyrim.

That actually sounds decent. As long as it isn't ALWAYS cutting off limbs or blowing peoples heads off like Fallout. Should be a rare, RARE treat.

I voted video game realism since having it be real life style would be a turn off and probably make gameplay cumbersome with feature creep adding too much tedious detail. Leave that for the creative talented Modders to come up with.

I also heard in one of the Bethesda interviews Todd Howard state SKYRIM is going to be violent but not over the top like FALLOUT 3. It will be grounded with a tad more commonsense yet still brutal.

I voted for "realistic" because I've never played CoD so I still don't quite know what videogame realism is lol. I reckon splashes of blood, no decapitation is what I meant though, so let me know if I should change my vote. (never been around a guy chopping someone up with an axe IRL either)
They've said it will feel more visceral and brutal, so I expect a bit of blood. Not sure entrails should be flailing or limbs flying off though.

[Edit] Like Hellbishop_ says, they've already said it won't be Fallout levels of gore, so I have faith.

I am not a fan of gore. I would prefer levels of gore below New Vegas, personally. I'm not even sure why they add so much in, sometimes. It never adds anything substantial to the games.

Think video game realism would a better choice for you. Realistically there would be entrails and brain matter flying everwhere, plus lot's of blood and a moderate amount of dismemberment. I went for video game realism because it'd be too distracting and if there were going to go the realistic route then a lot of fight would be over extremely quickly, especially for mage characters.

i dont think that type of real is stable for society, why do you think that people come back from war like that.

I think with Fallout it was to show off the brutality of the post nuclear wasteland. Kind of a "You don't watch out, you will die here." thing. It doesn't fit here as much. Especially the fact that it takes quite a lot of force to dismember someone, especially if they are in armor.

I voted realistic because lets be honest, alot of us will be swinging around large mostly sharp pieces of metal. At some point body parts will come off or be crushed.

Interestingly enough, rates of PTSD are higher among people involved in close quarter or hand to hand combat.

@Badprenup: Oh, I think you're under-estimating how well a sword or axe could remove a limb. While most skeletons found in medieval battlefield burials show very damage (meaning they bled out through cuts), there are plenty of examples of dismemberment.

Honestly, I'd be content with video game "realistic" gore, and by this, I mean to say, it doesn't have to be 100% realistic, it just needs to be believable. Fallout 3 level of gore isn't believable because it's too over the top, and Oblivion's isn't believable because it's too clean, sure, there's blood, but people who get hacked to death with large axes look like they might as well have died of poison. I want to feel like I'm actually hitting people with a sword, and not just having it pass through them and apparently hurt them despite causing no visible damage to their bodies. Guess I hit them in the soul or something. But I say it doesn't need to be completely realistic because let's face it, this is supposed to be a video game, not a melee combat simulator, it needs to be entertaining, and making the violence TOO realistic might actually become detrimental to that because it could just end up being disturbing. I want violence that won't strain suspension of disbelief too much, at least for someone who hasn't had much experience with real life violence, but it doesn't need to be completely accurate down to the smallest drop of blood. I want it to actually feel like weapons are impacting characters, not like they're just passing through them harmlessly, which it could often feel like in Oblivion. I wouldn't mind the occassional dismemberment, though it should be a rare occurrance, perhaps only seen with some finishing moves, not like in Fallout 3 where a few shots from a pistol can rip someone's arm off.



On that I can't agree. Watch a video of someone getting killed in a game in which there is absolutely no blood or gore at all, and watch one that has a believable level of gore, and they're not going to feel the same at all, and feel is really what it comes down to. Violence shouldn't be clean and pretty, especially when you want to show the brutality of you're setting, yet when I see someone getting killed without any blood "clean and pretty" is exactly the feeling I get, and I speak from personal experience here, because in the games I've played, I've seen both incredibly over the top violence, "family friendly" violence and a lot of things in between, and depending on how much violence you show, the feeling I get from it can be very different.

yea but i think he was talking about the real that is just disturbing, for example have you seen pans labyrinths, when that guys smashes that other guys face with a beer bottle, now imagine having that feeling everytime you kill someone, you would come out of that game as a different person, also if you havent seen pan's labyrinth then think of saw.

I'm mostly adverse to excessive gore. You shoot someone and blood splatters. Ok. You shoot someone and their arm goes flying off... That's excessive and doesn't add anything substantial in my mind. New Vegas did the latter, as do other games. I do expect to see blood when I hit someone with a sword.

Decent point. There are some kills with modern and medieval weapons that would be pretty low gore but if you slice someone's throat or bash them with a mace, you will see it. I'm fine with low violence, just not http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wqnNURx3Y6Q. Skip to 0:32

So um... it says "watch a real video of someone getting beaten to death and the impacts on the flesh and bone...yeah real gore" watch a video? WHAT?

Realistic violence is always much more brutal than over the top stuff like Fallout. Many people would be turned off by it even some who had no issue with Fallout 3 violence. I would like it though, I always prefer movies that have the most realistic depictions of things. Compare say Saving Private Ryan to Kill Bill for example, SPR has a much greater impact dramatically. Its so easy to become desensitize to over the top violence that it loses any impact at all.

True. It takes a lot to desensitize someone to realistic violence. In Basic Training I saw quite a bit of someone's hand disappear in a red mist because he picked up a practice grenade he thought was a dud. Luckily medics were on standby. I've played lots of GoW (Both God and Gears), MK, and Fallout but that was still shocking.

Exactly. I have played violent games and watch violent movies, but I one time saw the aftermath of an old women who got run over by a car. You could not see much except her body on the ground and a very large pool of blood. Its hard to capture that in any medium.

I just want what we've seen in the Trailer. Skeletons with decapitational heads, but no chopping off people's heads. Little blood splatters on your clothes, ect. But it eventually fades away, not like in some games *coughDRAGON AGEcough*

Maybe the removal of limbs could be part of a finishing move? i personally can't see somebody continuing a fight if they lose an arm. Assuming they don't die from shock/blood loss

i prefer realistic gore, this over the top stuff seen in most games is gratuitous and while it can be entertaining it is far from realistic, decapitation, dismemberment and cutting people in half has never been a part of sword combat or ax or mace, the human body is very resilient and it takes a TON of effort to do something like cut an arm off, sure a large bullet can do it but your talking about massive amounts of force hitting very very fast (a 50 BMG from an M82 hits at 2,799 ft/s with an applied pressure of 54,800 psi) a human cannot use this amount of force, blades except for Katanas where typically dull stabbing weapons not slashing weapons, running someone through is much more doable then dismemberment or decapitation which would take repeated blows

I'm fine with video game realism. As long as money doesn't fly out of you when you die it's all good.

what if they put more gore into it but had a mode that you could turn it off...like in gears of war 2: you can either have strong language or not and you can have gore mode or not