The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

It’s a grrrrrrreat day for RPG fans - first Mass Effect 3 is announced, then the long, long awaited sequel (if that’s the right word) to the acclaimed Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. And these were my good pants!

Trailer here. It seems to involve the return of the dragons, and their defeat at the hands of the Dragonborn (presumably the player character, like the Nerevarine in Morrowind or Champion in Oblivion).

It was a good guess that TES:V would set in Skyrim, the mountainous snowly homeland of the warrior archetypes; Nords, after Bethesda copyrighted ‘Skyrim’ as a domain.

Released penned as 11.11.11, according to the trailer. And ME is also ‘holiday 2011’. My cup runneth over!

YES

Goosebumps. Everywhere.

11-11-11? Not bad.

The only thing I’m worried about is the engine. It better not be the same engine. Damn consoles.

Seriously. Gamebryo is ass. id Tech 5 please.

Oh, and more than three voices actors please.

Cry-engine 2?

Build engine + voxels confirmed.

NM

Life is worth living again!

Same engine has been confirmed.

They supposedly updated it, but they said the same thing about Fallout 3.

I guess they figured new consoles wouldn’t be out for another 3 years.

And another title gets held back by the consoles…

It has?

Nevermind, guy misrepresented the quote. It’s from the devs talking about a “secret” project they’ve been working on for a few years. It’s possible they were talking about this, and it’s possible they weren’t.

Bottom line, we don’t know yet.

I don’t mind it using the same engine, just as long as the gameplay is good.

Why did this company buy id Software, if not to solve their engine problems?

Because John Romero made them his bitch.

Really?

I’m sick of this engine. It’s been in three games now.

It’s time to drop it and get with the times… except the consoles are still stuck in 2005.

I was going to just roll my eyes at you, but…

… yeah, suck it! The consoles are here to stay! All your games are gonna get dumbed down for us console jockeys, woo! Breathe it in, man, breathe it in. How does it feel knowing all the game developers are catering to the masses?

But seriously, it’s annoying to have to come into every game thread and see someone complaining about the consoles. Nobody wants to get into a fanboy shit-hurling match with you.

Eh, it is hard to get too excited about what essentially amount to expansion packs - new content with the same technology. It’s an entirely recent phoenominon - never in video gaming past were sequels to major titles equal or inferior (crysis 2) to their predecessors. It’s pretty sad.

I mean, look at the massive strides made from TES 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5… huge progress each time, but the next one will be more 5.1 than 6.

Then don’t. It’s that simple.

Lowest common denominators have been screwing up all manner of things since time immemorial.

We went from Morrowind to Oblivion to… Oblivion…

The announcement got me really exited 'cause I’ve been really looking forward to this game. The realization that the technology driving it will probably be a throw back to the technology of a half a decade a go, kind of bummed me out.

Sorry if I’m coming off as hostile. I’m just used to seeing the tech improve from 1 game, to it’s sequel 5 years later. As a PC gamer it’s just something I’m accustomed to. Something I look forward to.

Suddenly realizing that this is not going to be so anymore thanks to consoles, is a bit off-putting.

Here’s hoping the gameplay is solid and they are stretching the limits of those boxes to the max. Please Bethesda!

I’ve been playing the elder scrolls series since the mid 90s. Each new release is a gargantuan improvement. The world was bigger, more detailed, the characters more lifelike, the cities bigger, the countryside more beautiful, the magic … more magical. Each new release just blew you away. With 3 or 4 years to work on the game, you just knew they’d blow you away - the technology available to them was just so much better it would be a quantum leap in experience. You wondered how they’d wow you, and they did. Morrowind’s massive 3d world was a revelation from the technically primitive daggerfall, and Oblivion blew Morrowind out of the water.

And now… bethesda has 5 years to work on another game… and it’s going to be Oblivion 2: New Area. You won’t be blown away, it’ll be something you’ve seen before. It’ll essentially be an oblivion expansion pack.

That’s what he means, and he’s right. I was super excited about oblivion, but the best I can work up for this game is “meh, cool I guess”