Now that we have had the game for a little while, got our hands dirty so to speak, I thought it would be interesting to revisit some of the comments that the developers made prior to the release and see how we feel about some of the remarks.

Here are some links for your reference, plenty more interviews to be found on the internet:
http://www.vg247.com/2011/06/08/console-version-of-skyrim-bethesdas-lead-sku/
http://www.joystiq.com/2011/08/31/todd-howard-on-skyrims-worthwhile-glitches-mmos-and-when-big-i/

Here are a few I found most noteworthy:

"In Oblivion, we did ... maybe nine big cities? And here, we decided 'let's do five, and make them more unique.' There are fewer of the really large cities, but the ones we have here ... there's more to them," he said.

I'm having a hard time feeling like the five cities are substantially more unique than Oblivion. Certainly not so much so to justify a need to have less cities. The Imperial City in Oblivion was pretty impressive. I feel like I could describe Solitude in a few sentences. Inn and three shops by the entrance, check, a spattering of merchants, check, a district of private houses, check, bard college, check, player owned house, check, obligatory castle with a ruler in it, check and to wrap it all up a barracks on a hill.

“We knew we wanted to make the user interface a little bit more open and available … get away from the stats and things like that."

I guess they did deliver on this promise, hardly any stats anywhere in sight. Aren't stats what separate a role playing game from a first person shooter though?

"So we develop towards the consoles and then porting to PC is usually not too bad actually .”

This was was fairly obvious, but interesting to see it confirmed so openly by a developer, usually they try to keep this sort of thing hush hush.

Any other thoughts?

Overhype, overhype, overhype. Especially what they said about the cities is just funny. The cities are small, predictable and boring. Architecture might be interesting but it doesnt make up for it. Stats is another thing. Numbers and stats are needed for rpg. They also need to show somewhere. Porting was terrible and they should feel terrible for lying to us.

A few more things I remember is that they promised there would be more ways to complete quests and decorating your house would be easier. Quite the opposite.

I find the fact that todd howard said it looked like next gen graphics and that they built it from the ground up and its totally different then oblivion is hilarious.

I feel they lived up to the things u listed. Guess it's all in perspective.

Anyone ever notice in Oblivion that you could see the Oblivion Gate's "shimmering" fx even through trees, hills or other obstacles? I have noticed the exact same issue in Skyrim. Of course we all notice the flickering distance LOD textures as well. I have also seen the "sliding" movements of critters along the ground instead of the proper animations. LOL, is anyone actually buying this is a "from scratch" engine and all these similarities are just coincidences? If so I got a bridge to sell ya...

radiant story is a joke, has anyone witnessed anything like what he originally said "you could kill a shop keeper and his family will take it over. people may even come to avenge his death"

also, theres no actual way to affect a village economy... another thing claimed by todd.

this is just 2 off the top of my head btw.

I find the cities highly unique - the smaller hold capitals like Dawnstar and Falkreath also feels different if you ask me.
It's a matter of opinion, and I say that they delivered on this promise.

some things i feel like were over hyped and not delivered but this is still the best TES game to date and the best game to release in the past few years
just hope when next gen comes out we get all the stuff skyrim should have had and more.

People’s expectations where way too high, I’m pretty sure this game could have been perfect and people would have still said it isn’t good enough. I’m sorry that the game doesn’t come shipped with virtual reality glasses that allow you to slay a dragon yourself, because that is what it’s going to take to please some people.

They might have included virtual reality glasses but then how would you deliver the game digital only through Steam?

So we shouldnt believe what they say? These interviews are plain overhype.

I dont think im really asking for much. Branching, varied, interesting and longer quests and dialogue would already make me enjoy the game a million times more.

Some things will be like politicians' promises and over-hype will always detract from a game - and possibly ruin it, for some.

I think when I actually started playing, I didn't really keep in my mind a lot of what I read, to be honest.

Here's a great one. "PS3 and 360 versions will be the same. This is our third game on the PS3 and we understand how to take advantage of it differently than we would the 360 or a PC."



It's a load of bs.

I’ve always heard since the PS3 came out that it was very hard to work with.