Skyrim Preview ! New infos !

[Epicello]

http://www.bit-tech.net/gaming/2011/04/18/the-elder-scrolls-v-skyrim-preview/1

 

New infos :

 

Here are just a few examples of Skyrim's scope. A town's economy can be disrupted by cruelly (or for quest reasons) trashing its lumber mill; in turn, the price of wooden equipment such as arrows will be affected. Monsters and animals are no longer mindless killers, but roam the world with their own agendas - witness the hulking, somehow-sad Giant that thunders slowly past you without a second glance, or the pack of wolves that work together to take down a poor mammoth.

 

Many of the quests are now semi-procedurally generated too, cobbling together on-the-fly vignettes - so a challenge to save a villager's child from a nearby dungeon will not be pre-written, but rather based on the game picking a local villager with a child and deciding in which dungeon the nipper will be trapped. To avoid dreary mechanical churn, the story is handwritten, but the key elements and characters are random.

 

Specifically, it means being able to equip a weapon in one hand and cast spells from another, or better still lob different magic from each hand. Putting the same spell in each hand, meanwhile, offers the option of a mega-spell - double Chain Lighting, for instance, can blast a pack of Draugr (magic zombie Vikings, more or less) aloft and crunch them into a wall a few metres behind them. Meanwhile, another fight with a Frost Troll, an intimidating ape-like creature, sees his grey-white fur set alight with a flame spell, while the player character simultaneously hacks away with a blade. It's a dynamic, murderous fight; not a strange little puppet dance.

 

As such, double-wielding is really more like triple-wielding, as the Shouts add an extra tier of ability to the battle. They come in three strengths, with each tier adding more clout but leaving you unable to utter any other Shout for a longer period. Unrelenting Force is the Shout we see for now; a bellowed burst of energy that makes it clear the circling dragon doesn't have quite the upper hand it presumes.

 

Though recognisably dragons, these beasts are weirdly long-limbed and impressively heavy compared to games' usual take on them. When the beast's vast bulk is finally brought to earth by a barrage of spells and arrows, it hits the ground hard then skids a good 100 feet like a crashing plane. Even then, it gets back to its feet and continues to fight from the ground, dragging itself along on its hole-pocked wings like a bus-sized bat. These creatures don't die easy.

 

They do die, though. As the hulk finally breathes its last breath, its body catches alight from within, flames scorching it down to the bone. The reason? Well, you've just devoured its soul. Why and to what end is one of the many mysteries that still remain in Skyrim. Also yet to be unveiled are the game's guild and faction systems, its five cities, whether rideable horses will return and just how powerful those Shouts will get.

 

Even at this early stage, though, it's already clear that this is a game in which you need to be live. It's a game that takes the Oblivion and Fallout model and expands and improves it in every way possible, including the menus.