http://media.pcgamer.com/files/2011/04/The-Elder-Scrolls-V-Skyrim-wolf-showdown.jpg
http://pcmedia.ign.com/pc/image/article/114/1149185/elder-scrolls-v-skyrim-20110211094607486.jpg

Did a search, couldn't find anything already on this, thought I'm sure it's been mentioned.

What's up with his arms?! In the first pic, he's got a weird fold where the elbow is, and in both of them it's disgustingly veiny. They just look...odd. And wrong. And WEIRD.

Has this been talked about before, and is there a reason for me actually getting upset about a video game character's ARMS?! Fhanks.

It looks natural to me.

Replace those scans with the official screenshots.

First picture, that fold is the lower half of his bicep. Second picture, the veins are normal as having large amounts of muscle mass increase your vascularity.

Edit: You seem to have changed the first photo. Nevermind.

I dont think its a fold I think it is just a shadow, with the amount of different lights that are in the picture and the amount of various and off screen items/landscape that could be casting shadows on the arm. I think this is just a unlucky snapshot

What the hell are you talking about? They looked great to me IMO. Dude this game will be epic sit back relax and enjoy the ride!

C'mon. You're telling me that oddly hexagonal joints and a vein every 3 centimetres is 'normal'?

Maybe you have weird looking arms, and the arms ingame are infact anatomically correct? :whistling:

I'd imagine it's customizable to some point. I have to say I'm no fan of the grotesque (in my opinion) body builder limbs either (this picture is nowhere near as ugly as it can get in real life). I think as you get older your can see your veins easier too as you skin thins or something.

Since I'll be playing a Khajiit something like this would make the "painted on texture" technique super obvious though, since unless there's super short fur on the arms you shouldn't be seeing the bulging veins like that. The same goes for the Argonians due to scales. I'm sure the differences are more than spray paint this time though, considering they've put emphasis on the improved animation and art when talking about the game.

If you ever exert yourself beyond some light typing / computer use, you will notice that your arms have veins in them too... lol

Ever heard of a bicep. If not I'll giude you through this. Look at your shoulder, do you see it? Good! Now move your eyes down to just above your elbow. See that bump there? That's it! You found your bicep! :clap:

The shape of the arm and how it is bend is indeed a bit weird (I'm not talking about the veins... I like the veins! ). It's nothing serious, but it's not a perfectly good arm, I tell you that.

Just look at how low-poly it is
Looks bad, in a kinda fun way!

While we're at it, anatomically speaking, the fingers are wrong/weird as well.

Ask a good artist with lots of talent in anatomy, and I'm pretty sure he'll concur. At least the majority would.

Veins look like

http://www.legaljuice.com/arm%20wrestlers%20wrestling.jpg

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3230/2920268625_ae3e1e6604.jpg

Skyrim arms look like:

http://img.youtube.com/vi/MZke_2d3g-c/0.jpg

Yes. I'm not saying I agree with you in this particular case, but it makes perfect sense especially if you plan on playing that race.
If every male has those veins I'm sure it will be a trivial mod to change the texture. Granted if you are a console player that's not an option.

I'd notice bad tail placement on a Khajiit or Argonian (the tail extends from the spine). If you're going to be playing a character lots of course little details would matter.

thats what arms look like when you lift weights or workout

The only thing strange I noticed is how short his forearm is.

They're called muscles. If you ever had any, it would look more natural to you. I think they did an amazing job of making him look like a hard-working, weather beaten nord.

Perspective

What's the problem? Even if they do look a bit strange, Skyrim is supposed to be on a completely different planet, occupied by beings who may or may not have similarities (or similar physiologies) to us. Just because it includes "Human" races doesn't mean these races are going to necessarily appear 100% Homo Sapien... as in this planet... does it?

So there's nothing wrong with them, obviously. -_-

I'm glad we could all have just a nice discussion without resorting to personal jabs. =/

Also, biceps don't have points on them. Biceps are not pointy.

This. The arms in the photos don't look "veiny" compared to mine. And mine aren't particularly heavily veined, heaven forbid the poor OP ever run into a bodybuilder who's pumped up at the moment. :shrug:

Yeah, they look a bit weird, but nothing too serious. Although I think the hands look worse than in oblivion, they're stumpy, look overly wrinkled and bend in strange ways.

Looks absolutely fine here:
http://i.imgur.com/yUWKd.jpg

This should have been the end of the thread.

They look very low poly, it cant be done better on these consoles and with the graphics they want at the same time. The arms look like the arms in GTA IV when you use a first person mod on PC. It looks like its supposed to be viewed from a distance, where you cant see the low resolutions and the low amount of polygones.