TES V: Skyrim

[sirdilznik]

So yeah the big announcement went down at the VGAs as Bethesda spilled the beans on their next game:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sRifj-2EEKs

I guess I need to update my list of most anticipated games of 2011. Although knowing how games get delayed more often than not I'm realistically expecting to see this March 2012. However if the game does come out on time then man, 2011 will be a seriously awesome year for RPGs, heck it's going to be an awesome year for RPGs even if TES V doesn't come out on time.

So it's going to take place in Skyrim and there will be dragons. Beyond that nothing else has been revealed. Let the speculation begin. I assume that the Gamebryo engine has been put out to pasture. Seeing as id is now also owned by their parent company, ZeniMax, I wouldn't mind seeing TES V running under idTech5.

[smokemk3]

amazing news.. couldnt believe my eyes at first. Its gonna be awesome!!!!!

[staylost]

I'm sure it will be a great world and I'm really happy they are getting back to their beautiful world of myth.

There are two things I really hope this game can come through on though:

1) Make me care about some of the people in this game. Allow story elements with personal relationships. It doesn't have to be Bioware, just at least make me care enough that I would give up the ultimate sword of smiting just to keep a certain NPC alive.

2) No level scaling, or at least Fallout style level scaling. No scaling named loot. It is a game and the goal is to win. If maximizing you ability to win is mostly an exercise in metagaming, then I'll pass until someone makes a mod removing this method of treating us like we're dim. I could deal with having less bandits wearing ultimate tier armors as well. Their swords alone are worth the cost of whole towns, but they still want to waylay messengers caring a couple coins at most?

3) Extra small nitpick. Don't make NPCs so weak to the environment. In the later game Oblivion, every traveling NPC gets wiped by lvl 30 trolls. That really ruins my gameplay experience.

[sirdilznik]

Yeah I totally agree about the level scaling. That was the part about Oblivion that pissed me off the most.

Well Bethesda has announced that TES V will neither be using idTech5 (oh well), nor the still broken Gamebryo engine (YAY!!!). It will be using an all new engine built in-house. I don't know anything about the new engine but it can't be as broken as Gamebryo... Can it? *gulp*

[realmzmaster]

2011 looks to be a good year for CRPGs. I am waiting for Dragon Age 2 and now have a new TES to buy.

[sirdilznik]

Here is gameplay footage of TES V: Skyrim from E3:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ic6dKnv3WdU

I have to say my fears of the game being dumbed down because of the removal of most stats have been put to rest to a degree because it looks like they've added much depth to the skill system. In the end all stats and skills are just a bunch of numbers plugged in that affect gameplay so as long as the gameplay is fun and there are enough options available to be able to customize and to provide replay value, then I'm happy.

The combat seems largely the same as in previous iterations though there does seem to be some added wrinkles, plus the additions of being able to go dual wield weapons and Bioshock 2 style one handed slash & cast are nice.

Oh yeah and the game looks really pretty. I particularly liked how the game doesn't cut away but instead zooms out to show a map of the world and the map is a moving, living world. Pretty badass.

I'm putting my faith back in Bethesda.

[Arkos]

Seems interesting, and I've never played any previous Elder Scroll games.

What I'm curious about is whether there will be level scaling, like staylost mentioned, and also what kind of DRM it will come with.

[sirdilznik]

Seems interesting, and I've never played any previous Elder Scroll games.

Do yourself a favor and at the very least play TES III: Morrowind; fantastic game that altered the entire genre permanently, for better or worse.

What I'm curious about is whether there will be level scaling, like staylost mentioned, and also what kind of DRM it will come with.

I would think, and hope, that Bethesda did away with the level-scaling enemies. It was almost certainly the single most criticized/hated/raged against element of TES IV: Oblivion. If Bethesda took even five seconds to consider the requests of their customers then they would certainly have done away with level-scaling enemies.

As far as the hated DRM is concerned, I fully expect SecuROM or another form of copy protection to be present on TES V: Skyrim for at least a few months. Of the big companies only CD Projekt Red (I'm not sure if CDPR qualifies as a big company yet, but they are certainly on their way) seems to be vehemently against DRM (god bless 'em for that) and even they had DRM on The Witcher 2 except on the digital version from GOG (wasn't really their call but the publishers'. Bethesda is their own publisher so it is their call) but they did away with it in the very first patch which came out barely more than a week after launch. Most companies eventually release a patch that removes DRM, but unlike CDPR, they usually wait a good 6 months - 1 year to do it. Worry not though, the pirate community will have NO DVD crack that will kill the DRM up within a week or so of launch, you can take that to the bank.

[Arkos]

Ah, that's too bad. As a PC gamer, I'm in a tough spot. I won't pirate a game, but at the same time, I won't buy any game that has DRM that is either a) intrusive or b) robs me of my rights as a consumer. Consequently, that just leaves me with games that are either very old (before the days of SecuROM and its ilk) or indie games like Eschalon.

Leaves me with very limited choices.

[sirdilznik]

Ah, that's too bad. As a PC gamer, I'm in a tough spot. I won't pirate a game, but at the same time, I won't buy any game that has DRM that is either a) intrusive or b) robs me of my rights as a consumer. Consequently, that just leaves me with games that are either very old (before the days of SecuROM and its ilk) or indie games like Eschalon.

Leaves me with very limited choices.

There's nothing stopping you from using a No DVD crack with a legitimate copy of the game, that's what I always do. I consider it removing malware, since that's what DRM essentially is, some protection programs even pick it up as malware, and rightfully so since it can harm your hardware.

[Re3st1mat3d]

Well from what I've read and seen in videos of them at conventions. There will be no DRM on the game, will not support windows live games, Will be using a new engine, will be using a new pixel shader, will be using advanced polygon technology, the skills are mostly the same as oblivion but each skill has their own perk tree, the perks can be chosen every 10 levels (I believe) of that skill, Also your actions will affect the economy of that city (say if you burned down the lumber mill of a city that city would have less money because they wouldn't have lumber to sell which in turn will lead to more crime in that city and less items in the shops.), Also yes there are dragons but they will be scripted to a minimum so their actions will be random every time (say one dragon lands and starts blowing fire at you, another dragon might do a sweeping maneuver and try to knock you down), the dragons can also attack you at any time without much warning, they can siege towns (from what I've seen (might be changed though)), all cities and caves are hand drawn artist crafted masterpieces, the conversation dialogue no longer zooms into the face and freezes time, Higher resolution character models that are fully customizable, The way the armor looks is based upon how your character looks (say your character is buff the iron armor would look bigger and more pieces to it rather than when a character who is less buff would have less pieces and not have armor as big) That's about it for the big stuff.

[Arkos]

There will be no DRM on the game,

None whatsoever? Awesome, if true. I was kind of worried they'd go with Steam only like New Vegas did.

[CrazyBernie]

Skryim will use Steamworks.

https://twitter.com/#!/ElderScrolls/sta ... 4413557760

As will Rage.

It sucks, but that's the way the AAA industry is headed. I predict that consoles will eventually have some sort of DRM as well.

[Arkos]

Wait, so does that just mean it will be available on Steam? Or that you can't play it without Steam? If it's the latter, they just lost themselves a sale.

[CrazyBernie]

They haven't released 100% of the details, so it's hard to say.

I'm sure the hackers out there will come out with a workaround.... I've never let DRM prevent me from enjoying my purchase. Although as long as they don't implement an always on DRM scheme I won't have an issue with using Steamworks.