Skyrim presentation for mortals (totally serious analysis)
G’day!
It’s Skyrim time! Bethesda released a demonstration for everyone to see (even without a youtube account). Actually it’s the one people saw at E3 already, so most aren’t in here for a surprise here I guess. But if you want a coverage of the whole demo, without any cuts in between, give it a shot.
Not sure if I should paint everything black now, as it’s quite disturbing to me how they keep distance from showing off the character creator. But that’s marketing we all love… and probably hate when we finally get our hands on the real walk.
To spice things up, I’ll add my own marketing to every video part. However, take it with a grain of salt, I’m pretty much just shooting blindfolded here, quite ironic, as in the end it probably just evens out expectations. ;]
On top of that, marketing gang war crap aside, I’ll give a small summary what you can expect from that part, if you’re in a hurry for whatever reason.
So, here we go:
- The engine has been completely rewritten, to make use of higher graphic standards,
- Animations profit from new code aswell, as they look worthwhile now.
- No trample-rampage on grass and bushes, still static objects it seems, at least wild-life got some more love.
- Combat feels more dynamic now, as you can combine both hands now to fulfill desired effects.
- There seem to be finishing moves when striking down near death opponents.
- Weapons aren’t blood defiant anymore!
- The inventory looks terrible, and reminds me of being a douche with an IPad.
- When it comes to the map, it’s fully rendered in 3D now.
- Skills upgrade as to be expected (=learning by doing), however, there are now perks associated to every single one of them, giving more options to create a unique character, visualized by star constellations.
- As to be expected, console players need to cheat to play the game.
- Some NPCs have emotional issues with expressing being frightened (at least the old lady didn’t do the moon walk).
- Time doesn’t halt when starting a conversation.
- Riding is in of course, doesn’t look as if mounted combat is though (hinted at by not showing it off and beating the living crap out of air).
- There are no major skills anymore, everything adds to your leveling progress.
- Snowstorms are awesome!
- Sometimes it’s a great idea to just back off, when you meet a dragon (apparently even if you cheat, chicken!).
- Old ruins are immune to snow storms (well kinda), although they don’t feel as generic as in Oblivion anymore.
- As to be expected, sneaking looks worthwhile now aswell, considering it’s part of the category “better animations”.
- NPCs react to killed companions, by drawing their weapon and doing nothing. Female opponents love expressing their departure with male voices. (indeed, that part is seriously messed up)
- Dual Wielding is in! Don’t expect to block anything with those though (Blocking seems to be an exclusive to shields, which makes sense, let’s see if parrying somehow finds a way in)
- Spells can be used to lay traps.
- Finally there are biiiig spiders aswell!
- Attacking chums being caught in spider webs, does make them feel better, don’t try this at home.
- “You fool, I run slower than you! cy@uuuaaahhrg”
- Electricity works on dead people.
- Following the waterflow is probably a good idea, although it’s not that you had another option here anyway, just don’t deny gravity. ^^
- Switching weapons with an IPad sucks.
- Some candles would receive a AAA+ rating when it comes to saving energy, and life expectency.
- A potentialy great puzzle gets revealed in a demo, let’s hope the rest are as worthwhile to be titled that way.
- Bats are Batman, and vanish out of sight!
- Water gets spammed in that dungeon like there is no tomorrow, although I’d show that off aswell… it looks awesome.
- Summoned NPCs can take aggro from console players, to prevent them harming the source which would get rid of summons aswell, at least for some seconds.
- There is more to see than just lush, endless forests, and awesome looking mountain passes full of snowstorm pleasure! (I made it sound as unimpressive as possible)
- Our beloved guilds are part of the game.
- Mammoths weighting like 12 tons, hate it to get attacked. Other than that not everything tries to charge at you on sight.
- Cheaters take a pounding from Giants to summon totally not scripted dragon events.
- You can’t back off, when there isn’t a cave nearby!
- The words “Come on! Monster” are taken serious by dragons, most notably when you’re burning already.
- Kill commands used by console players now summon badass looking thunderstorms. On a more serious note, those Dragon Words have quite an impact, not only on graphics but also on gameplay.
- Falling damage is for PC players (with Mods!)
- Let’s hope that head smashing kill animation is all they copied from Dragon Age 2.
All sarcasm and cynism aside… great videos, looking forward to NOT play it on a console. PC all the way… for the mods alone, I want parry (and fall damage)!
Anyway some random stuff as closing words:
- There will only be three attributes: Health, Magicka, and Stamina (they can be raised without cheating aswell).
- Skills also got cut to 18 in total, no Acrobatics and Athletics anymore for isntance, although I liked the idea of those two, they were realized in a totally useless way.
- There are no class archetypes anymore, you just do what you want to, and get defined by how you pick perks.
Hope that helped a bit, if you had a laugh, it was totally not intended.
