» Fri Oct 14, 2011 3:58 am 
-Melee Combat feels great. Really, really great, mostly down to those finishers - every time I killed someone, I leaned forward in my seat from just how cool it was 
-The see through water glitch works the same way as in Oblivion and Morrowind. Doesn't break the game at all, but it made me laugh.
-Dragonsare either really rare or were removed from the demo (thanks carbuncle!).
-Flame Atronachs look similar to the ones in Oblivion, apart from cooler - the flames have been replaced with http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-VwlbSZeZbnM/Ta1Rwp-b5NI/AAAAAAAAAD4/906Qse0sAZg/s1600/magma.jpg.
-Spriggans sort of 'trail' leaves, and when on low health crouch down to regenerate. The guy I was watching managed to counter this pretty effectively with a double-flamethrower, though
-The game can be absolutely hilarious. There were a couple of times I laughed out loud, like when this one guy helped some people out with fighting a giant, before realising that the guys he was helping out were high-level bandits (which I'd already worked out). He was soon killed.
-There are these Ordinator-style guys called Justicars, who were patrolling the roads kitted out in Elven Armour or something. When someone attacked them, he was killed in a flash of magic.
-People really do look good - not hyper realistic, but very far from the Uncanny Valley.
-When you 'kill' immortal NPCs, they cower and then stand up non-aggressively.
-Lockpicking system is pretty much unchanged from Fallout 3. Not sure about whether the jumps in level will still be there, though - I saw someone picking an 'adept' lock, when you started at about level 15 in all skills.
-Items have much more specified skills - in previous games, it's just been a list of abilities, but now it's formatted into sentences.
-There is an item called 'Staff of Zombies'. Initially I laughed - I thought it was quite a funny name, and it clearly summoned zombies, but get this: it resurrects corpses. The one I saw only rezzed weak ones, like rats, but there are probably more awesome variations.
-Mammoths shake the ground when they run past.
-The puzzles are quite interesting. I only saw one, which involved turning a pyramid with various symbols on to open a gate.
-There are a couple of other glitches, mostly graphical - for example, blurring when stuff moves (Only happened to one person), lagging, crashing, (although this was on the XBox), and ghosting (only saw that once, though).
-11/11/11 really can't come soon enough
-The see through water glitch works the same way as in Oblivion and Morrowind. Doesn't break the game at all, but it made me laugh.
-Dragons
-Flame Atronachs look similar to the ones in Oblivion, apart from cooler - the flames have been replaced with http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-VwlbSZeZbnM/Ta1Rwp-b5NI/AAAAAAAAAD4/906Qse0sAZg/s1600/magma.jpg.
-Spriggans sort of 'trail' leaves, and when on low health crouch down to regenerate. The guy I was watching managed to counter this pretty effectively with a double-flamethrower, though
-The game can be absolutely hilarious. There were a couple of times I laughed out loud, like when this one guy helped some people out with fighting a giant, before realising that the guys he was helping out were high-level bandits (which I'd already worked out). He was soon killed.
-There are these Ordinator-style guys called Justicars, who were patrolling the roads kitted out in Elven Armour or something. When someone attacked them, he was killed in a flash of magic.
-People really do look good - not hyper realistic, but very far from the Uncanny Valley.
-When you 'kill' immortal NPCs, they cower and then stand up non-aggressively.
-Lockpicking system is pretty much unchanged from Fallout 3. Not sure about whether the jumps in level will still be there, though - I saw someone picking an 'adept' lock, when you started at about level 15 in all skills.
-Items have much more specified skills - in previous games, it's just been a list of abilities, but now it's formatted into sentences.
-There is an item called 'Staff of Zombies'. Initially I laughed - I thought it was quite a funny name, and it clearly summoned zombies, but get this: it resurrects corpses. The one I saw only rezzed weak ones, like rats, but there are probably more awesome variations.
-Mammoths shake the ground when they run past.
-The puzzles are quite interesting. I only saw one, which involved turning a pyramid with various symbols on to open a gate.
-There are a couple of other glitches, mostly graphical - for example, blurring when stuff moves (Only happened to one person), lagging, crashing, (although this was on the XBox), and ghosting (only saw that once, though).
-11/11/11 really can't come soon enough
Note: most of these came from watching other people play while in the queue. The following is what happened to me:
OK, it's time to admit it - I am a total Elder Scrolls really devoted fan(<----damn wordfilter). When I was just 7 years old, my dad bought Morrowind from the local video game store, and I've been hooked ever since. However, Oblivion, while being a really good game, just didn't captivate me in the same way that TES III did - the combat was too clunky (I am aware of the irony of a Morrowind fan saying this ), the faces were disturbing, and the world was generally uninteresting. So I was a little worried about Skyrim, despite all of the reports of it being a massive improvement - so I was anxious to see how it held up at EuroGamer. And, like a Spriggan in the middle of an ash storm, I was blown away.
When I started it up, I wanted to create an Argonian called 'AWESOMSAUR' - but I couldn't work the keyboard, and was aware that I was low on time to play (I only had 15 minutes total), so I mashed a few buttons and came out with 'Prisonyyyer'. After whacking a couple of items onto him through the well-formatted inventory screen, I darted out of the starting cave and into the intimidatingly beautiful world of Skyrim. Then, I ran across to the edge of the ravine that I was situated next to, and found a waterfall, which I thought it would be a great idea to jump down.
One loading screen later, and I spawned back at the starting cave's door. Being increasingly aware of the time constraints, I rushed off to the right, towards a hamlet that showed up on my compass. When I got there, I felt the urge to slaughter the highland cow that was just standing in the middle of the town. Soon after, a woman yelled at me for 'killing valuable animals', which was quite a nice change from the AI in previous games, where NPCs would either flip out and have a nervous breakdown or randomly attack you for committing even the slightest of crimes. She didn't even look like a monster out an old zombie flick - not hyper realistic either, but very far from the uncanny valley. However, I'm not the sort to just leave conflicts at that, so I used my battle axe to dispatch of her, the finishing move causing the weapon to plunge into her flesh - and even though it was just a small battle that lasted only 2 seconds, it felt awesome. Further along, I got to a small tower, which was defended by three bandits - finally, I could try out some real combat. And again, I really felt like I was in the game - the brutal, fast-paced combat making every battle an involving and exciting experience. Then, after looting their bodies to leave them naked on the stairways (because, after all, this is still an Elder Scrolls game), I wandered to the edge of a snow-covered cliff and couldn't help but just stand there stare down at the breathtaking landscape beyond. And it was at that moment that I was tapped on the shoulder and brought back to reality - my time was up.
The Bottom Line: 15 minutes really wasn't enough to experience The Elder Scrolls 5. Even after watching at least 45 minutes of gameplay on around 10 different screens while queueing, seeing Giants, Cities, dungeons and all sorts of different gameplay styles, I felt that I hadn't even come close to scratching the surface of the tip of the iceberg of what Skyrim really is. It's a game that you need to take slowly, allowing yourself to get completely immersed in the moment. It's a game that will take the classic TES tropes and make them 19 times more unique and interesting than ever before.
But most importantly, it's a game that you need to Pre-order. Right. The Hell. Now.
), the faces were disturbing, and the world was generally uninteresting. So I was a little worried about Skyrim, despite all of the reports of it being a massive improvement - so I was anxious to see how it held up at EuroGamer. And, like a Spriggan in the middle of an ash storm, I was blown away.When I started it up, I wanted to create an Argonian called 'AWESOMSAUR' - but I couldn't work the keyboard, and was aware that I was low on time to play (I only had 15 minutes total), so I mashed a few buttons and came out with 'Prisonyyyer'. After whacking a couple of items onto him through the well-formatted inventory screen, I darted out of the starting cave and into the intimidatingly beautiful world of Skyrim. Then, I ran across to the edge of the ravine that I was situated next to, and found a waterfall, which I thought it would be a great idea to jump down.
One loading screen later, and I spawned back at the starting cave's door. Being increasingly aware of the time constraints, I rushed off to the right, towards a hamlet that showed up on my compass. When I got there, I felt the urge to slaughter the highland cow that was just standing in the middle of the town. Soon after, a woman yelled at me for 'killing valuable animals', which was quite a nice change from the AI in previous games, where NPCs would either flip out and have a nervous breakdown or randomly attack you for committing even the slightest of crimes. She didn't even look like a monster out an old zombie flick - not hyper realistic either, but very far from the uncanny valley. However, I'm not the sort to just leave conflicts at that, so I used my battle axe to dispatch of her, the finishing move causing the weapon to plunge into her flesh - and even though it was just a small battle that lasted only 2 seconds, it felt awesome. Further along, I got to a small tower, which was defended by three bandits - finally, I could try out some real combat. And again, I really felt like I was in the game - the brutal, fast-paced combat making every battle an involving and exciting experience. Then, after looting their bodies to leave them naked on the stairways (because, after all, this is still an Elder Scrolls game), I wandered to the edge of a snow-covered cliff and couldn't help but just stand there stare down at the breathtaking landscape beyond. And it was at that moment that I was tapped on the shoulder and brought back to reality - my time was up.
The Bottom Line: 15 minutes really wasn't enough to experience The Elder Scrolls 5. Even after watching at least 45 minutes of gameplay on around 10 different screens while queueing, seeing Giants, Cities, dungeons and all sorts of different gameplay styles, I felt that I hadn't even come close to scratching the surface of the tip of the iceberg of what Skyrim really is. It's a game that you need to take slowly, allowing yourself to get completely immersed in the moment. It's a game that will take the classic TES tropes and make them 19 times more unique and interesting than ever before.
But most importantly, it's a game that you need to Pre-order. Right. The Hell. Now.
