I presume you'll all have already watched the gametrailers Hd footage, as have i! So i decided to go off the beaten track as much as possible... not following the path towards the tall mountain, where in Todd's run through you encounter two guards at a tower (as he get off the horse).. after passing through the first little village and crossing the bridge i went right over some mountain outcrop, hugging the falling surface i ended up in a huge field area with a massive city in the far distance... the draw distance of the foreground ie grass and small details is slightly further than Oblivion... the draw distance for the far stuff seems around the same if not a little further!

On my second play through i went left straight away and managed to find a dense forest, gone are over-the-top disney greens which have been replaced for a more natural look, i found a camp with some bandits, the fur pelts covering their tent looked very realistic, i then came across a burned out cart, i didnt notice many people or animals in the forest, but again i decided to avoid everything i have seen before... (i think the demo was structured, rather than i am playing a build of the full game)

The water is beautiful... very natural looking and i managed to catch a salmon with my barehands (who needs a rod)... going underwater the near area is crystal clear which grades out nicely to the farther distance which is a murky colour and losses detail, which seems pretty realistic to me... the only negative was the swim animation was just as bad as Oblivion (although this might be better for the release)

Running is done with left bumper and soon degrades your stamina (fatigue), i noticed i could not jump whilst using the left bumper run, the 3rd person view looks much better than Oblivion (but i will still never use it)

The final fatal attack sequence doesn't happen all the time and in my 2x 20 minute sessions it happened twice, the second time was very impressive using the shield to pin the wolf to the left and then sword stuck into it's side... very nice.

The character detail was brilliant, glad to see that the cartoon look has been dropped, the dark elves and orcs look dark and sinister...

I noticed two very bad things... when i went miles away from where i guess they expect you to go the, it must of loaded stuff in the cache memory as the frame dropped heavily and there was some light screen tearing at a few places (i guessing its because it was pre-beta)

Stole a horse, right stick only re-centres the 3rd person view

You can catch butterflies... and no i am not joking...

When you look up when standing below trees and spin around, you dont get a spiralling effect like in Oblivion it looks much better

The loading time was long, but the 3d objects placed on the screen can be rotated and zoomed in and out of... one being a map which i zoomed in so much that it went blurred out

Overall the game looks fantastic, the sound and music are great and having spent over 300 hours playing Oblivion, i was not disappointed... The three friends that were with me werent massive elderscrolls fans (although one of them has done the MQ, All Guild quests, SI and KotN) all three were impressed and will buy Skyrim on release day

Quite tired, so i have probably forgotten a lot

GAME OF THE SHOW

Please feel free to ask questions

PS.. Trust me your going to LOVE it....

OMG just give me the game!

http://steamunpowered.eu/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/Shut-up-and-take-my-money.jpg

Was the feeling of Skyrim darker than previous TES games?

Nice thxs man!

Thanks! Thats good news about the leaves i had forgotten about it actually and haven't seen any mention of it on these forums.

Much darker... Its like comparing Halo and COD

It all seemed a lot more refined, the menu system is beautiful to use, so simple and quick to get to what you want... the object detail and animation looks so good

See any new spells?

Thank you. Can't jump while running? Very strange. Nice to know finishers aren't too common.

There are so many of these now I'll never be able to read them all! :brokencomputer:

What's your overall impressions of the graphics and aesthetics? Thanks a lot!

Mmm nice nice, but still... all this waiting looks like an eternity.
Please just write anything about the game, it's all that's keeping me alive till 11. 11. :gun:

Did you happen to remember any perks?!

I knew I read in some magazine that you could catch butterflies! I just couldn't find it anymore and therefor didn't post it.

Did you try crazy things like flirt with a NPC or killing a farmer's livestock to see what happens?

Yeah, i tried to do stuff that everyone else wasnt, just following the path....

About half way through my first run, i remembered i wanted to test a couple of thing... i got strange looks from people waiting in the queue, mid fight with some bandits i ran off to go for a swim... it must of seemed like i had no idea of what i was doing...

... but actually i would bet my pre-ordered Collector's Edition to the fact i know alot more about the previous Elderscrolls than they do

Yes... Oblivion was probably my favourite game (until it seems, Skyrim comes out)

You can jump while running, but not while sprinting! :thumbsup:

See! It's all subjective! He thought underwater looked great!