Skyrim

http://www.gametrailers.com/game/elder- ... yrim/14247

You just beat me to it.

I liked Oblivion a lot, so I'm looking forward to this instalment. There isn't much info though...

That's pretty much why I didn't bother putting anything more than Skyrim as the message Looking forward to this one though

Cool. I'll keep my eye on it. Oblivion was good, but it was no Morrowind.

I hope they move away from the engine though, because as we see from FO:VS, it's aged badly.

Yeah I certainly hope it's more Morrowind but with Oblivions interface. Oblivion was far too... normal. We need more of their amazing fantasy and lore to seep into the landscape, people and monsters. And more skills too.

Yeah, the real question is the console version development. I'm afraid we will never see an improvement on the interface since Morrowind unless they make a more dedicated PC version.

Although mods often turn vanilla games into classics, they often cause stability issues, especially when running multiple mods. This is the trouble I found with Oblivion, Fallout 3 and NV, and more recently Civ V. This is why I think game devs should steer clear from the seemingly increasing emphasis of "we'll let the modders develop the real content."

Very excited for this!

I do have a question though, are these stories pre-written? Like, does all the Elder Scrolls lore dictate the stories, or are the stories they are making up dictating 'new' lore?

I'm pretty sure that the games are writing the lore, but there's been a crazy amount of lore already written in the original games.

Yeah, Satis is right. The games are writing the lore, but you'd be amazed at how much lore there is already. Oblivion wasn't too big on it, but Daggerfall and Morrowind were packed with lore. Daggerfall had entire libraries full of books (I tried to read most of them), and Morrowind wasn't much lighter on books.

So basically, the greater lines of the history of Tamriel (the world/continent) have been set out, as well as the 'nature' of all provinces. They can take a little creative freedom to fill in how each of the 9 provinces looks, but the general lines are set:

, home of the Bretons
, the Imperial/capital province and home of the Imperials
, home of the Redguards
, home of the Nords
, home of the High Elves (Altmer)
, home of the Dark Elves (Dunmer)
, home of the Wood Elves (Bosmer)
, home of the Argonians
, home of the Khajit



I was kinda hoping for a game set in Black Marsh or Elseweyr, or even Summerset Isle. If Morrowind was any indication, Beth are rather good at going crazy creative in strange and harsh environments. Oblivion's world felt a little cookie cutter (even though it was a great game), and Skyrim looks like it may just be like Bloodmoon...which wouldn't be strange since Bloodmoon was set on the isle above Skyrim and Morrowind. But all rocks, snow and shit may become a little boring.

I think the snow theme should be pretty epic.

It should invoke some kind of survivalist winter wilderness feeling throughout. Stuff that was sometimes visible in Morrowind, but never so in Oblivion (basically a fairy fantasy land).

Yea, I like the Nords, they're a fun people. Nothing like swilling ale and conquering your enemies. I'm sure we've got another two years to dream about how wonderful this game will be before we're inevitably disappointed by a poor console port. I imagine by then that Derf will have been jaded into a solitary hermit existence in some shack in southern italy somewhere, playing 1980s games and cursing the gods.

Hahaha, I love imaging that. Because it sounds so very likely.

He'll also be playing Men of War...up to the point that he becomes one with the game and can command it with his thoughts. Or by tugging his hermit beard in subtle directions.

On the subject of releasing an overtly vanilla, sandbox and overall shit game, I thought i'd post this to make a point.

I was browsing the FO:NV forums and caught someone complaining that he was suddenly getting CTD's after the official update. He posted an ordered list of the mods he has runnning:

* 00 falloutnv.esm
* 01 classicpack.esm
* 02 mercenarypack.esm
* 03 tribalpack.esm
* 04 caravanpack.esm
* 05 Goodsprings Hideout.esm
* 06 more perks.esm
* 07 Lings.esm
* 08 mikotobeauty.esm
* 09 Thermal Vision.esm
* 0A fook - new vegas.esm
* 0B Ambient Temperature.esm
* 0C Nevada Skies - Core.esm
* 0D darnifieduinv.esp
* 0E CASM.esp
* 0F centered 3rd person camera.esp
* 10 Readius_NV.esp
* 11 Sorter - Combined.esp
* 12 bobblehunt.esp
* 13 goodsprings filler.esp
* 14 Weapon House.esp
* ** MikotoBPWastersOverhaul.esp
* 15 fook - new vegas.esp
* 16 NoWeaponZoom.esp
* 17 BugFixes.esp
* 18 PitchBlackNights.esp
* 19 StrongerLight.esp
* 1A HeadWearShaderFX.esp
* 1B NoSneakWarnings.esp
* 1C Better Sneak.esp
* 1D LootOverhaul.esp
* 1E PerkEveryLevel.esp
* ++ CompanionsImproved.esp
* 1F Arwen_NV_Realism_Core.esp
* 20 Improved Sound FX.esp
* 21 BluesRadioNV.esp
* 22 more perks update.esp
* 23 animated prostitution.esp
* 24 companionde-equip.esp
* 25 level cap 100.esp
* 26 LightweightSanitizer.esp
* 27 Military Explansion Program.esp
* 28 Oven Cooking.esp
* 29 populatedcasino.esp
* 2A PortableCampsite.esp
* 2B Project13 - Populated Wasteland.esp
* 2C savecass.esp
* ++ Better Casinos.esp
* ++ Better Binoculars Max.esp
* 2D Moddable Unique Weps.esp
* 2E xcalibruniverse_impulsepurchasepack.esp
* 2F xcalibruniverse_mo'guns.esp
* 30 qs_blackwolf_nv_backpackmod.esp
* 31 Advanced Recon Gear.esp
* ++ Advanced Recon Gear-Power Armor.esp
* 32 Advanced Recon Gear-Locations Doc Mitchell.esp
* 33 Advanced Recon Armor.esp
* 34 Advanced Recon Armor-Location Doc Mitchell.esp
* 35 fallout heroes.esp
* 36 NewVegasBounties.esp
* 37 Goodsprings Hideout (Mojave Express Patch).esp
* 38 tailor maid - nv.esp
* 39 tailor maid black retex - nv.esp
* 3A thearmorer.esp
* ++ Thermoptic Power Helmets.esp
* 3B Weight_Balance_v07.esp
* 3C Sorter - Combined - Weighted.esp
* 3D Inventory Sorter - Moddable Unique Weps.esp
* ++ Boone0.2.esp
* 3E Veronica0.6E.esp
* ++ Cassidy0.4E.esp
* 3F NVBabyDeathclawCommander.esp
* ++ Companion Sandbox Mode.esp
* 40 Max Followers 12.esp
* 41 UnlimitedCompanions.esp
* 42 Bullet Impact Increased LOD.esp
* 43 dd - enhanced blood main nv.esp
* 44 Fellout.esp
* 45 Nevada Skies.esp
* 46 urwlnv.esp
* 47 NSkies - Fellout.esp
* 48 NSkies - URWLNV.esp
* 49 africanamericanaalbino.esp
* 4A fingerofgodnv.esp
* 4B RepairOverhaul.esp
* 4C mikotobeauty.esp
* ++ MikotoBPCCFull.esp
* ++ realistic headshots.esp
* 4D clanf_bt.esp
* 4E RefinedCasinoPeople&Suits.esp
* 4F SuitFixes+Factions.esp
* ++ Merged Patch.esp
* 50 Bashed Patch, 0.esp
* 51 XtraSpecialNV.esp
* 52 XSNVBalanceTweaks.esp
* 53 Imp's More Complex Needs.esp
* 54 Imp's More Complex Needs - JA - SORTED.esp
* 55 Ambient Temperature - IMCNNV.esp

My god. This is certainly not the way things should be, surely.

and this guy was complaining that his game was CTDing? What a fucktard. Having to deal with supporting idiots all day long, it's people like this that should be cleansed from the gene pool by being hung from telephone poles.

re: games being shit for this

To be fair, a lot of those mods are completely unrelated to actual game performance or gameplay. Silly stuff like "more perks" is a little silly and for kids who just want to cram more and more and more into their game (a perk every level is imba as shit), same for the level 100 cap. And that's just two things.

There are actually people out who test and balance mods in a very OCD manner to give working load orders/lists, so that kid is just retarded.

While I agree that it can't be that modders need to 'fix' parts of the game, apart from the lame ass console huge font there wasn't much putting me off in vanilla NV. It was still a great RPG, believe me. Twice the RPG that anything else was in over a year. All in all, I'd rather have a good game made great by the mod community, than a game that is just shit and doesn't get fixed - by whoever.

Kinda like what modders did for Vampire Bloodlines, really. Ambition and atmosphere are more important to a game than technical perfection, basically. That's why we're PC gamers and not console gamers (which are kept within certain non-exciting boundaries to make sure they can be bugtested properly to fit the console QA requirements from SOny, MS and Nintendo).