Hi, I'm an avid elder scrolls fan; played them for years. What I love most about the title is the players ability to become their character - after the character creation stage we're allowed to do what we want. It's a vast, open universe that really allows you to paint your imagination onto a canvas.

What scares me about Skyrim is that it seems to be trying to get out of this niche. It seems that it wants to develop a new niche in the action-adventure category of dragon hunting and combo finishing moves.

Can anyone confirm that the game will still be a sandbox? That I'll still be able to do what I want. That the tools for us role players will still be there like they have been in it's predecessors.

These "Dragon-Calls" are nice and all, but it feels like I'm being forced to do something. I can role with my character being the "chosen one", because that's how it's always been with Bethesda - you just role with it and do your own thing.

I'm probably just being cynical, but the more I look at these new screenshots the more I doubt the game will have the same 'feel' the others had.

What will upset me most about Skyrim is that it will just be another hack'n'slash non-linear adventure roleplay game. I really want it to have the same level of depth and care that it's predecessors had.

I just want it to be another masterpiece.

I don't see where all of you people are grabbing this whole "the game world wont be open" info from. Nothing points to that, at all.

In fact, the Gi article explicitly confirms that all the terrain in Skyrim is open and traversible in regular gameplay. So fear not.

Maybe they are just misunderstanding the whole Mountain thing, how a lot of the steep mountains wont be traversable?

You're not being cynical, you're being irrationally paranoid. There's a difference. Cynical is being negative about real things all the time. Irrationally paranoia is being afraid that certain things will/won't happen despite all evidence to the contrary without any reason to believe such a thing.

Of course it's a sandbox what else would it be.

In Oblivion you still are the Champion no matter what you did, Captain Picard saw you in his visions, and you are still the only person able to close shut the... Well, you know. I don't see much of a difference here.

Why would you think Bethesda would get rid of one of its biggest selling points in the series.

^ This.

Seriously. Where would you even get the notion that it won't be open-world? That just baffles me.

You know I can understand the OP's fear, of course it is a largely unfounded fear however I too has considered the slim possibility that Bethesda could take the same direction as the latest Gothic game.

Of course the odds of that were always very slim however never assume that just because it was handled one way in the previous game that it will be handled the same in the next.

It has to be a contained story that starts and finishes inside the context of the game, so yeah of course it's a sandbox - its just a REALLY HUGE sandbox with thousands of things to do and see - probably the most decked-out sandbox for RPG games we will see this year.

They can toss me into that sandbox anytime they're ready.

The lastest Gothic game was designed by a different dev, thats why it was not open world. The old makers made Risen, which is open world.

What's that about "regular gameplay"? Is there irregular gameplay?

Not in the menu,etc

It means that you can travel to any part of the game world yourself via control - i.e. no trailers or cinematic doing it for you.

Seriously people, are we losing our comprehension of basic English terminology now in our skepticism? Get a grip.

There's been a lot of emphasis on being your character in Skyrim. Remember how big a step up for roleplaying Oblivion was from Morrowind? I imagine Skyrim will be another big step up.

Yeah I know, however it still isnt wise to assume that because it was handled one way in the previous game that it will be handled the same in the next, expect nothing.

Absolutely no info has even indicated that it won't be sandbox. Actually, it's the opposite.

TES games will never be linear. /thread

We don't want the game to be linear 0.o

The game is an open sandbox, like TES 1-4. How do I know this? Simple, there are people who have tried current builds and not mentioned that it isn't, and it would be such a significant departure that that's the first thing anybody would mention.

Actually, if you take the first letter from every paragraph of every Todd Howard interview, he specifically says that it's going to be about as linear as Call of Duty.

Really though..dragon hunting and finishing moves are action/adventure? Dragon Age had finishing moves, and it was basically an open world (Slightly linear) RPG. The ability to slay dragons is not action/adventure, it is the ability to slay a massive, fire breathing creature.

As somebody else said, TES will never be linear.

Yeah well, it's been confirmed that the whole game is you, traversing a single ruin, and fighting a dragon at the end, seeingh is death during the ending credits... :shakehead:

seriously, what the [censored] does dragon hunting and finishing moves have to do with not being a sandbox. May I remind you of Assassin's Creed: sandbox, and it has some of the best looking "finishers" around. of course it's not that fleshed out, but their objective's kinda different.

Come on! TES not being a sandbox would mean the death of the company anyways, so they won't do it, period

Please elaborate on this, i am quite sure you inversed the names of the episodes, but i m not sure.
I don t see ANY point Oblivion has expanded, actually i see MANY POINTS Oblivion has contrived.

Nah, adding vastly better combat doesn't require a trade-off. Alot of people seem to have this notion but it isn't true.