Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim announced

[Nithrakis]

In a long, slow ramp-up towards 11/11/11 (never forget!) I am occasionally booting up Oblivion on the X360 to finish up some stuff I didn’t get to before, in particular the Knights of the Nine. The other day I had some time and sat down and booted up.

Now, it has been almost a year since I last played so I decided first to run around a bit and just get used to the controls again. I sallied forth from my home in Leyawiin, northwards up the east bank of the Lower Niben towards the heart of Cyrodill. Making it about two-thirds of the way north to Bravil, I was just getting comfy with the controls again and preparing to fast travel to Anvil to begin KotN when, in the short distance, I saw the sparkling green leaves of a nirnroot.

This surprised me as I had spent hours in the game before scouring the rivers and lakes for nirnroots as part of that quest, and surely that included this section so close to my base. But nevertheless, there it was. I plucked it and thought “I wonder if that was an accidental miss or if I didn’t check this part of the river for nirnroots at all?” So I continued north, by foot, and found another. And another. And another. At the Niben Bay, I ventured east and scoured both the south and north shores of the Panther River for more.

Four hours later, I had found 30 more nirnroots, two new locations, and cleaned out an old mine of its degenerate necromancy cultists; further, I had completed two Daedric shrine quests (one of which included killing off a second location full of necromancy douches, the second of which netted me orcish armor pieces and a magical axe that I did not yet have in my “completionist collection”). But I hadn’t done even one thing toward the KotN quest.

This, my friends, is why Oblivion is such a good game.

Exactly. I love this aspect of the TES games and as long as Todd Howard is at the helm I’m sure it will stay this way.

Speaking of Todd – here is an interesting conversation between Todd and Notch of Minecraft about their respective games: http://www.gameinformer.com/b/features/archive/2011/06/14/notch-and-todd-howard-the-one-on-one-interview.aspx

A bit awkward at times (I assume it’s entirely unscripted) but interesting.

[Becoming]

I know! They better not change things too much up in Skyrim… no Nirnroot, no sale!

Lucky for you, one of the items shown in the inventory during the E3 video was Nirnroot.

[Aeon221]

Dear Materials Arguments:

A wizard did it.

Tnks!

Lucky for you, one of the items shown in the inventory during the E3 video was Nirnroot.

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

God I hated that quest. I ended up killing the alchemist, using a mod to reanimate him as a zombie, and then killing him again.

[walTer]

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

God I hated that quest. I ended up killing the alchemist, using a mod to reanimate him as a zombie, and then killing him again.

And that is why I buy every release on day one.

[Alistair]

Playing New Vegas now - I think Skyrim should have VATS…

[Scotch_Lufkin]

Playing New Vegas now - I think Skyrim should have VATS…

This reminds me I wanted to compile the top 100 worst ideas of all time.

[Aeon221]

There’s apparently a slow time dragon shout thing, so that’s pretty similar.

I’m more concerned by the lack of fisting in this game. I am sad that I can no longer go around punching everyone to death. It was my favorite activity.

Heck, the only reason I played Fallout 3 was so that I could punch everyone in Megaton to death. That was a slow process.

[Razgon]

I’m more concerned by the lack of fisting in this game. .

There are a few pornographic mods for Oblivion so I’m sure if you requested it, someone will cater to your needs

[JM1]

There’s apparently a slow time dragon shout thing, so that’s pretty similar.

I’m more concerned by the lack of fisting in this game. I am sad that I can no longer go around punching everyone to death. It was my favorite activity.

Heck, the only reason I played Fallout 3 was so that I could punch everyone in Megaton to death. That was a slow process.

Is there a mod to add the Fragdolls in? I can think of someone who’d be interested.

[Kunikos]

Playing New Vegas now - I think Skyrim should have VATS…

I think it could work well for mages and archers. I would like to see other ranged weapons appear in Skyrim as well, such as throwing axes, spears, crossbows, etc. Caltrops and bolos would make such interesting additions in terms of what you could do for crowd control as a non-mage. While I’m talking about new weapons, the game could also seriously use a blackjack for stealthy types who don’t want to murder the people they are robbing.

[Mightynute]

the game could also seriously use a blackjack for stealthy types who don’t want to murder the people they are robbing.

Otherwise known as “wimps”.

[Matt_Bowyer]

I think it could work well for mages and archers. I would like to see other ranged weapons appear in Skyrim as well, such as throwing axes, spears, crossbows, etc. Caltrops and bolos would make such interesting additions in terms of what you could do for crowd control as a non-mage. While I’m talking about new weapons, the game could also seriously use a blackjack for stealthy types who don’t want to murder the people they are robbing.

Especially since they’re getting rid of punching! I loved punching! I tried to build a brawler character with lots of Drain Fatigue spells and then punching people to sleep. It wasn’t very effective, but it was fun. The most fun I had in Fallout 3 was making a straight-edge character who wouldn’t use drugs, including stimpaks. That was HARD.

[zengonzo]

Man, sometimes the concepts that games inadvertently create really tickles me.

‘Punching people to sleep’ is one of those perfect examples for me.

[Sir_Digby]

Otherwise known as “wimps”.

Or “taffers”.

Days left until I stop being pissed that there are no spears in Skyrim: 322.
Days left until I recover from my dream of a kickass 300-like Spartan Khajiit wielding spear and shield shattered: countless.

[John_Reynolds]

I’m more concerned by the lack of fisting in this game.

My ribald sense of humor went to a bad place after reading this sentence. I’ll just leave it there in the limited confines of my skull.

I’ve played every ES game and really don’t care about this being removed. I do care more about the stats reduction, and despite reading Desslock’s latest PCG piece that argues fairly convincingly why there’s no real reason for concern, I think there’s just too many years of multiple sources of reinforcing expectations that wants lots of attributes and stats in my hefty RPGs. The lack of them immediately gives a sense that this is a simplified, console-ish game design that while potentially still might be fun nevertheless won’t be the epic roleplaying experience that I crave finding every so many years.

[RepoMan]

AAGH PHANTOM 55TH PAGE KILL IT WITH FIRE!!!

…or with another post, which is more effective.

[Sir_Digby]

[Aeon221]

That’s pretty funny.

Also, NO SPEARS?!?!?!??! WTF!!!

[MrCoffee]

There hasn’t been any spears since morrowind.

[Imryll]

Especially since they’re getting rid of punching! I loved punching! I tried to build a brawler character with lots of Drain Fatigue spells and then punching people to sleep. It wasn’t very effective, but it was fun. The most fun I had in Fallout 3 was making a straight-edge character who wouldn’t use drugs, including stimpaks. That was HARD.

Actually, I don’t think they have removed fist-fighting. I know it doesn’t appear to be a skill, but there’s an E3 video interview with Ashley Cheng in which he says it’s possible to play a monk-type character. I’ve no idea what the mechanics are, but apparantly hand-to-hand is in in some form. Maybe each hand is a one-handed weapon?