Depending on how much you enjoy retro gaming, Id probably recommend Daggerfall. You can get it for free now (legally) on the elder scrolls website. The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim However, you may not like it, but i found it pretty good. Now onto the real topic: WOOOOOOO Ive been trying to complete Oblivion lately (Every quest, all artifacts e.t.c) and its so awesome. Also, DRAGONS! **** YEAH! I may be one of the four people in the world who actually liked Two Worlds, but it had some elements that would have made Oblivion great, Dragons being one, and a more varied world being the other. I dont care about the size. I care about the content. Two Worlds world was twice as big as Oblivion, BUT the world was also more diverse. From green plains to lava filled volcanoes to huge deserts to rolling mountains. Just epic.
Agreed, thats all i want. I don't want to be stuck with an eternal wasteland (most of morrowind) or eternal grasslands. I want variation! o/ Plus, that game was pretty sweet.
They are using a brand new in-house engine, which they have creased specifically for the game. This in my opinion is going to be the make or break aspect. Bethesda are prone to testing new technology in their games, and Oblivion is a prime example, and it is strategies like this that make games prone to bugs and processing difficulty. At the moment we can only speculate, but from comments on the Bethesda blog, the engine looks 'fantastic'. Is anybody considering getting this for PC? I don't need to tell you that the mods people make will blow your mind. This just came out for New Vegas. It now has Forge. YouTube - Fallout New Vegas: Wasteland Defense Trailer To the people discussing lack of indiduality in the landscape, you need to understand the premise behind natural beauty. To create it in an organic way, where you don't feel like your sat in a shot or even a scene but in a whole world of equal visual quality, you need to make it big. That's what elder scrolls really was. It wasn't in the trees, or the grass quality, the sky or the shape of the terrain. It was the whole package, across the entire landscape that seals the deal. Knowing that you could walk to that hill on the horizon, and just see more of what you did before, not something 'refreshing' and vastly different and contrasted. Coca Cola is refreshing. But Coca Cola is not beautiful. Tamriel as a conceptual piece, like all of the othe regions of Cryodil, is one of very specific qualities. And by that i mean it wasn't trying to be like other RPG's that throw you in a range of environments and plot rythms for the sake of maintaining interest (Fable and Guld Wars are good examples). Instead it has a specific conceptual style, both aesthetically and with regards to the way it's lore and history is explained. It's a lot like Lord of the Rings in that way (Infact it has many similarities) It is this that can make it feel bland at times. It's like staring at the same photograph, but the only way to overcome that sense of doubt is to stop thinking of things you'd like to see, and start appreciating the micro aspects of the environment you are studying. Because basicly, that environment isn't going to change.
I dont explicitly remember commenting on the Oblivion landscape at all, apart from saying that I WOULD HAVE PREFERRED if it was varied. Oblivion had an immense and beautiful landscape. BUT, and as Yoyo said, both Morrowind and Oblivion had very plain landscape. And by plain, I mean it gets repetitive. Morrowind had what appeared to be an endless wasteland of an environment. The first time you see it you think "Wow, thats desolate" and then wait for some change as you explore. But the only thing that changes is the size of towns, or the enemies you meet. You dont see much difference. And its the same with Oblivion. Once you leave those dark and damp sewers and see the Ayleid ruins across the river or the mountains in the distance and the seemingly endless sea of green plains and forest, you think "Wow, thats beautiful". But a few hours into the game, youre hoping for some sort of difference. After a while, you want to see that beauty used on some other type of environment. An environment doesnt NEED to stay the same, for the sake of being different. A game like Skyrim, Oblivion or Fallout is already different. We have stared at the same photograph for a long time, and we dont need to get over something such as the need for variety. We never needed it. We just think the game would be improved with it. Every Elder Scrolls and Fallout game had a horrible story. And I say this in comparison to stories of all games. Its a generally low grade story. But its whats behind it that matters. We see the beauty of the landscape, sure, but we also see the amazing world around us, and Im not talking about looks. The LIVING world filled with LIVING people, who live their lives. Each one has a backstory, and each one has something unique to it (aside from the voice acting...). The sheer amount to do is amazing. BUT, Skyrim is set in the North, where the Nords come from. The world will be snowy. But we dont want a world thats JUST snowy. We want more. And it isnt that difficult to replace the white with a different colour. A varied environment will improve the game drastically, and nothing thats said about organic landscapes can change that. With enough work, and enough imagination, varied environments can feel organic. Of course Two Worlds did pretty badly in that. There were varied environments, sure, but they were so randomly out of context. Youd move from a snow plain to a volcano with no transition. But Skyrim can change that. With a new engine, which is supposedly beautiful, why waste it on a repetitive environment?
I dont understand. Immense but not varied? Sounds like expanding foam. I don't understand. I think that's an oxymoron. When i am talking about the style of landscape, and when i say 'conceptual' i'm talking about the art style on the whole. The ideas and methodology that was thought about before the game even began being produced. Just look at the first screenshots they showed on the original ES website for Oblivion. Trees. Trees. Stone Church. Cave. Trees. They planned for it to be 'repetative' (in your eyes atleast), not to piss you off, not to save time, but because that is how you generate natural and realistic beauty in landscape. Beauty that is preordained by randomness, so that it is'nt meticulous, it isn't even materialistic. You can't put a place on the map where the 'good view' is. This is how they wanted it. They didn't want good set pieces followed by seamless junk (Haaaaloooo). Were you not a little suprised when you started playing Oblivion, and thought that there was no information on beautiful natural scenery on the game map or in it's lore. However there are some 10 waterfalls in the game, and some absolutely spectacular views. All of these things you aren't directed toward. They don't even hint you toward these. Some of these i found years after first playing the game. Also some of the Oblivion quests are regarded as some of the best questlines in the history of RPG's. The DB quest where you have to kill all of the members at a party? Also it has been hinted on other websites that you the island of Akavir is playable. The trailer speaks of the Akaviri invading, (Tiber Septim, Pale Pass, Oblivion), and says they are coming again. This is also where the dragons originated from, even though nobody has seen them for a very long time. Two Worlds was shite. They didn't say the engine was beautiful. They said it was fantastic. Like when you say something is fantastic because it's intuiging. It means nothing other than that they have obviously found some interesting methodology within their workflow.
First off, they said the engine "looked fantastic". Im talking about the looks. Again, I mentioned how amazing Oblivion was, but the world didnt change much. There were some amazing places that stood out, but nevertheless, the majority of the world was incredibly similar. Second, I must apologize for whatever stupid spelling mistakes ive made, I type pretty fast and I have Spellcheck off. Again, you basically said lots of things that I stated in my last comment. Also, natural and realistic beauty can be attained even with a varied environment. According to your logic, the only way to have a realistic and organic environment is for it all to be basically the same.
But like i'v said since the start, it's not about what can be done. In concept design it's just as much about finding new ideas as it is about sticking to rules and parameters. The art team developing this game obviously intended for a unified look, and i'm not arguing that it wouldnt have been better if they didn't. It's just you have to think of this as a business process. It's in everybodies interest in the company to do what they were told and nothing more. It's okay. I'm just trying to get my point across that the visual aesthetic was completely intentional, and not the product of mistakes or laziness. I think we should move on though. There have been some other rumours thrown around too. The trailer speaks of the dragon-born. Which it has been said is the Septim bloodline. However they are all dead, but apparently capable of reincarnation. The only Septim who was ever a bother to the Akavir was Tiber Septim, the first one, who beat the Akavir invasion in the lore history of Oblivion, at Pale Pass. I hope dearly you do not play as this character. It absolutely sucks and cripples your role playing morality when your character is just straight-off handed such titles and associated morals. I hope that it is like Oblivion. You are random character #001, and oh ****, its the emperor, and his son! If you play this major character in Skyrim will be pretty pissed.
Oh I never was under any impression of Laziness within the team. Anywhoo, I agree with the fact that it would suck if we ended up playing as a character that starts off as a Major Character. That was one of the best things about Oblivion and Morrowing. You started as nothing, and carved your own path until you became someone truly special. And it was YOUR character, and YOUR decisions that got you there.
Oblivion's landscape was pretty spectacular in its beauty and variety. The landscape's realism actually helped bring me into the game more than the ridiculous over the top environment of Sheogorath's realm. Also, you've got to take into consideration the different dungeon and cave styles and the different landscapes. The game had a lot more than what you're giving it credit for and I am glad that bethesda has the sense to not make over the top utterly ridiculous environments like Wow.
Yea you wouldn't believe the depth of game resources for modding. There were like 12 different cave themes, adding up to hundreds of objects for making caves. There was an entire set for underground volcanic caves. I didn't even know these existed until years later i found a cave in an Oblivion gate, where you find Hatreds Soul. They were a very dark grey, with red lines of magma flowing through all of them. Some of you might recognize them, as i think they were partly in Mankar Camorans paradise. And onto that. It was the best RPG environment i'v ever seen. You wouldn't imagine how lifelike it looked with upscaled textures (size increaased by ^4) depth of field and increased foliage mods. I fooled Sarge into thinking one was real.
Game Informer The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Cover Translating The Cover For those of you wishing to translate the ruins yourself here is the translator, for everyone else I have included what is considered to be the accurate translation below. Spoiler Dovahkiin Dovahkiin Naal ok zin los vahriin Wah dein vokul mahfaeraak ahst vaal Ahrk fin norok paal graan Fod nust hon zindro zaan Dovahkiin Fah hin kogaan mu draal Ahrk fin kel lost prodah Do ved viing ko fin krah Tol fod zeymah win kein meyz fundein Alduin feyn do jun kruziik vokun staadnau voth aan bahlok wah diivon fin lein Dragonborn Dragonborn By his honor is sworn To keep evil forever at bay And the fiercest foes rout When they hear triumph's shout Dragonborn for your blessing we pray And the scrolls have fortold Of black wings in the cold That when brothers wage war come unfurled Alduin bane of kings Ancient shadow unbound With a hunger to swallow the world
Dragons! We're going to be walking along in the snow and then DRAGONS, there's going to be some many DRAGONS that we won't know what to do about the DRAGONS. DRAGONS DRAGONS DRAGONS. Dragon Age did it first, but if Bethesda puts any amount of time into the stories and side quests it's gonna be DRAGONS.
I haven't even finished Oblivion yet and I'm stoked. I love Oblivion so far, especially the theives guild ♥, and I can easily see why thousands of people are creaming themselves whenever they hear about ESV.
I want some freaking water and rivers and oceans in the game. I want boats and **** that sail around the seas and to be able to be at the helm of one. Oblivion lacked these, even though Cyrodiil was supposed to be the center of commerce and culture in the empire.