I saw the ones from the first post, and yes, those look great, but I would hate to see Bethesda make it look darker, grittier, more barbaric, dull (you know what I mean). I just don't see why people could possibly want this game to look different. It looks fantastic as is.

Winter forests are nice too.

Im meaning like a few away from pitch black but this setting could be changeable by going to setting in the menu..

Starred night sky especially with a full moon tend to be pretty bright...

Me too, but I still want to get use out of my torches (and hopefully lanterns!!!).

Personally, I have no clue. I love Oblivion's beauty, as well, and don't want things to get "darker". I love just walking through the Great Forest on a sunny day, in Oblivion, and that joy is something I hope I'll be able to experience in Skyrim. The nights, with skies full of stars and dominated by Masser and Secunda, of Oblivion were also quite beautiful, in my opinion, and this bright beauty (that some people tend to criticize in favor of... an ash-covered rock I find dull) is what I'd love to continue seeing in the series. The dungeons of Oblivion, however, were undoubtedly darker than the dungeons in, say, Morrowind, and I'm fine with that because I love the contrast while still having the beautiful, relaxing world above to return to. I hope to find myself enjoying a calm moment of relaxation amidst a sunny, bright day in a colorful forest with a slight breeze moving the leaves and birds chirping, in Skyrim.

Yeah, I want the game to look pretty much exactly how it looks now, and I am hoping to see extra dark nights. That'll make sneaking a little more interesting. It'll feel like you are actually impossible to see, and may lead to a better experience.

yeah... It would also be cool (if their is werewolves) that werewolves would try to attack you, but another question is how bright a full moon can get.. Since i think it would be very cool if it's pretty dark and you hear howls, then bushes start to move, and growls can be heard from behind then you turn around to see great yellow eyes coming forever closer.. And with the new sprint ability it would be awesome trying to run from the beast...

Exactly! Just make the graphics a little more convincing (which has already been done), and you have a very good looking game.

I think your taking "darker" too literally.

That would be pretty freaky. It would make exploring at night a little scarier (which is reasonable and not game-breaking) without messing up daytime gameplay.

I may not have worded the OP exactly how I wanted to, but I guess I mean grittier, duller, more Fallout-ish, etc.

Am I the only one that doesn't think Skyrim looks "Darker" "Edgier" or whatever? It still looks very colorful and vibrant, the only difference is it has worldly contrast, with the snowy wastes, the lush forest valleys, much like Vvardenfell before it, with the Ash wastes, and verdant Grazelands/Ascadian Isles.

Nords/Vikings aren't this brooding group of emo malcontents. They were actually much more jovial and lively overall as a society, than the more conventional "Dark Ages" fantasy types. A society built on individual merit, rather than castes.

Oblivion's atmosphere was maybe a bit too "Disney" for my tastes though. Even in the face of unspeakable horror, everything just seemed to stay the same. Again, this is just part of the overall contrast issues Oblivion had, when something "Serioues" was happening, we had no real reference point around it. I mean sure, there was Kvatch, but that was a one-time deal, so instead of establishing a sense of contrast, it just felt totally out of place.

Just from what I see, Skyrim's atmosphere is more "Morrowind" than "Oblivion", in terms of feel so far. Granted, I'm only feeling it out from screenshots, trailers, ect, but I see something I didn't see in Oblivion. The realistic struggles of life coexist with the people, rather than seem at-odds with. And isn't that the very nature of Skyrim? It's all very Darwinian. Sort of that same Vibe I get from the Redoran in Morrowind. Where I'd liken Oblivion to the Telvanni, everything is just it's own deal.

Yep, I totally agree. While vibrancy can be beautiful, muted, more melancholic areas lend themselves an intense beauty as well. Be that the white frosted pines in a winter wood, or the twisting oaks on a rainy Last Seed day, I think they can convey just the same amount of beauty as the Great Forest or the Ascadian Isles at their most vibrant.

Because Elder Scrolls is known for its Dark-Age Mysterious worlds which are full of Danger and Hardship. And so people want to learn to survive in them.

Thats why the Rogue style has always been mine.

Oh, I really hope there are oaks or something similar in Skyrim.

I do enjoy snowy mountains...

As mentioned before;

There is a local civil war going on. Not the thing you have bunny foo foo parades over. Generally blood, death, and devastation are the results.
There are pyromaniacal carnivores flying around, helping themselves at whim. Not Puff the Magic Dragon singalong time.
The government of over a millenium is crumbling, and many of the institutions thereof are gone or changed beyond recognition.
Part of the region is now home to Dunmer who were (a) basically nuked in the fall of the Ministry onto Dagoth Ur and (B) Invaded and driven out of their homeland. This does not happy campers make.

Not the best of times.....

And the Fallout comparison isn't really accurate, as that was a technical civilization that blew itself almost back to the stone age, where Skyrim is just the usual chaos and despair asociated with the fall of a once stable government, with a Doomsday Dragon tossed in for good measure.

Skyrim is the gritty, raw, unadvlterated forge of humanity. The people are going to be symbolic of that, the culture, symbolic of that, the lifestyle symbolic. Everything in Skyrim is raw. And that's just a really damn good way of making an RPG. Raw aspects that the player can forge into other storylines.

If I want bright and shinny I play wow

I want skyrim to be dark and savage

@OP So, wait, are you complaining that Skyrim looks too dark or that people want it to look darker? I'm confused. It looks beautiful and epic to me.

Well, all this gritty dark stuff is kind of popular these days. With the Dark Knight's popularity and all that, people are starting to demand gritty realtastic stuff. Bethesda would be stupid to not try and make more money off of it.

And I don't think anyone wants to do away with vibrancy, merely broaden the range of emotions conveyed by the environments. I understand where you come from, I couldn't really get into the wasteland-y feel of alot of Vvardenfell for a long time because I wanted a brighter atmosphere, but I eventually saw what they were going for and immersed myself within it. If you're like me, and atmosphere is really important to you, and it's that bright vibrant fantasy atmosphere that really gets you smiling and enjoying exploration, I totally get why you aren't in favour of a darker turn. But for me, it's that darker, melancholic atmosphere that appeals to my tastes, not that I don't enjoy vibrancy as well. A balance of both, a broadened spectrum of emotion is I think the best option for the environments and atmospheres of Skyrim.

When I imagine how Skyrim should look, I think of Ted Nasmith's artwork for the Silmarillion. Not really dark or gritty, but not exactly bright and beautiful - just epic and very dramatic.

I'm happy with how the game looks so far though.

I agree 1,000%.