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Source (Original Article in Spanish)

English translation (by me, probably some mistakes) of the complete article:


1. Scale
If something characterizes the games of The Elder Scrolls, it is their size. The first thing to keep in mind when discussing the disparity between Oblivion and Skyrim is the scale of the new title, decisively superior to the previous one. The new terrain at our disposition is similar in size to to Cyrodiil, but we are not faced with a virtual map of similar proportions, as the region of Skyrim and its grand stage have fewer wide open spaces, meadows, rocky zones or valleys lacking interactive elements, but rather the zones in Skyrim are quite distinct from one another and rough hewn [disimilar from one another].

Skyrim is much more overgrown, populated, varied and full of details. As a result the entire scale of the map has been increased, along with its design and habitats. What in Oblivion was an enormous field, with various cities and settlements sprinkled here and there, in Skyrim is an entire world, changing and alive, with five large principal cities and tens of villages spread across the land, each one with its own process of change, its own economy, neighbors, folklore, legends, customs and fears. The game manages a quantity of data that is enormous in this sense.

Thousands of personalities populate these communities, and they carry out their lives every morning in the face of the civil war brewing in this province, 200 years after the events of Oblivion. Every village lives from one or two industries and natural resources, according to its own ecological system and customs. It would be easy to encounter cities dedicated completely to the production of wood or steel and others where the production of agricultural goods is enough to maintain the entire population.

The people, as in the Middle Ages, which the game simulates in a fictitious sense, are accustomed to a certain way of life, and to change this can throw them into a deeper and more complex chaos than anything we have seen before in videogames, where even the local religions and beliefs play an essential role. For example, any of those cities can be attacked at any moment by a dragon, even by the PC provoking one fo these enormous creatures from the streets of one of these areas.

This is another element rendered immense by the scale of Skyrim: the lack of noticeable scripting. The dynamic and completely lifelike world where the adventure takes place provides for all of its pieces from the beginning of each playthrough, and it continues to interrelate these pieces in a random way. As a result, it is possible that we suddenly encounter one of these aforementioned terrifying attacks from the sky - destroying all the vitality and economy of the city as well as killing its citizens - or by coincidence one village can face off against another following a misunderstood event that has snowballed out of control. We can also find ourselves immersed in hunting a collosal mammoth, or witnessing a fire, all without initial premeditation, simply as a result of changes in the game world, very much influenced in some way by the PC's actions. This is the "butterfly effect" translated better than ever before into a videogame.

There are so many distinct environments, so many races, NPC occupations, ways of life for the NPCs, accidental elements, aesthetics, stories...that solely for this reason the game reaches a plateau never before seen in a videogame and makes it difficult to believe that Oblivion, left far behind as we will see, belongs to the same generational stage and was released on the same platforms, PS3, Xbox360 and PC.

In Skyrim it is possible to touch and pick up even more elements and objects than was possible in Morrowind and TES IV. For example, the wildflowers and herbs that we can collect to make use of alchemical crafting has been multiplied by a factor of five, and it is important to keep in mind that the previous game already had more than 500 unique species of plants. The interiors are more richly decorated and filled with objects, as well the open air locations, where we can almost pick up even the supports of the very fences. More of the same with respect to the equipment of our enemies, now in much greater quantity. We will need to review and organize our inventory very carefully, which is also taken to the next level by the new inventory UI.

Skyrim is set in a region tremendously uneven and harsh, with caves, valleys and mountains that are home to rivers, storm clouds, humid spots, lights and incredible shapes...All of this is intersparsed with altars, where the protagonist and other people can communicate with the divinity of this world of magic, now a world at war. The aesthetic nature of the previous games has also been expanded in scale, as we are definitely looking at most beautiful THE ELDER SCROLLS of them all, the most seductive with respect to the art direction, polygons and lighting. The sensation of enormity is absolute as soon as we begin the first steps, something we have already experienced in Oblivion but now it reaches a new plateau. It is enough to simply gaze up at the heavens and see a flock of dragons flying in lazy circles above our heads.

2. Radiant Freedom
From the moment we viewed this game in motion for the first time, there was one concept that its developers took pains to explain in great detail: the Radiant Story. Skyrim incorporates this idea of Radiant Story into its gameplay in such a manner that the experience becomes so immersive that the player almost has difficulty distinguishing whether he is in a persistent universe with characters controlled by other players, or in a single player videogame. All the personalities we see promise to be so coherent and unpredictable that no other RPG has ever outshined Skyrim in this regard. As all of this is subject to current technological limitations, of course, we are not expecting a utopian vision either. The Radiant Story was initially developed for Fallout 3, when the developer team of Bethesda Game Studios decided that its single player RPG should flirt with certain mechanics of MMOs, acquiring more uncertainty and not being quite so predictable in the behaviors of the NPCs, making each playthrough distinct, something that has characterized Western RPGs.

This led directly to a greater freedom of action, that despite continuing to be absolute as in Oblivion and Morrowind, now puts this absolute freedom more into the hands of the player, to the extent even entire populations of the world of Skyrim will be dependent on the player's choices. If in Oblivion we were permitted to go where we wanted, resolve quests however we wanted, kill or rob whomever we wanted, now Skyrim far exceeds this, so that each of these "wants" of the player has direct consequences on the playthrough and on the pieces of this game of chess, as moves and plays change depending on the choices of our protagonist, the Dovahkiin. Each step leaves a footprint, each dialog choice is recorded, each robbery has a consequence, each triumph exalts us...

Everything is recorded in Radiant Story, and our own style of playing the game gives a public image and personality to the Dovahkiin, for example with his first steps into a new town, he might be the object of threatening looks or applause and elogies shouted from the balconies. It would be wise to consider carefully what type of character we want to play and with whom we want to interact.

With what this brings to the table, having seen it in motion during gameplay, we must admit the work that Bethesda has done with the A.I. of this game is sublime, without imperfections. Developing a similar depth and well-roundedness for unpredictible characters and applying it to thousands of NPCs results in a very unique experience, capable of leading us to play the game again and again, exploring all of its dramatic possibilities. Of course, these possibilities will be impacted by the Radiant Story elements the player brings to completion, the unbroken chain of tangible interrelated actions by the player, including the transformation of conflicts and war within the province between one side and the other, utilizing the power and the unity of the dragons to our advantage, not necessarily always the ethical or most respectful choice for our fellow Skyrim residents.

3. A Coherent World
The third enormous leap that separates Skyrim from Oblivion results from all the labor of love efforts that its developers have given so that the game is as realistic, believable and lifelike as possible. From the changing and conditional attitudes [of NPCs] mentioned above, to the behavior of the wind patterns on water surfaces in the world of Skyrim, everything in this game is carefully planned to import a sensation of realism to the player. No detail is overlooked, and the final result promises to be engaging, an epic simulated adventure.

Beginning with the non-human creatures - where Oblivion and the previous games had some defects and strange animations - Skyrim seeks to correct those errors. There was a sensation in Oblivion that we were swinging our swords at empty surfaces that fell to the ground upon dying in the same way. The proven Havok physics engine permeates the entire project, from the tinkling movement of grass - now dynamic - beneath a gust of wind, to the weight and gravity of creatures and particles of dust that the larger creatures raise in clouds when they fall on sand or snow, each treated differently.

This echoes also in the animations of monstrous enemies, like the dragons or giant spiders, which move with absolute fluidity of motion, without predetermined paths, each of their bodies responding in the way they would in real life. The horses on which we ride, with a greater presence in Skyrim, also behave in a more coherent way.

And on this stage, weather and climate phenomena affect these creatures in dynamic ways. A period of wind and rain can change the course of a river or even cause it to overflow, which could harm the economy and way of life of those populations dependent on the river. Or a sudden snowstorm is capable of burying roads and even trees, making difficult any access to the highest peaks, blocking entrances to underground caves...

To watch the snow fall on the ground and color the pavement white is the sort of spectacle only this game allows us to experience. There are also some limitations. Unfortunately, if we throw a fireball, the snow in the area melts. As mentioned above, there are limits imposed by the current technology. All of this affects playability, since one of the draconic powers of Dovahkiin is, for example, to summon meterological effects.

In Skyrim the NPCs also interact with the environment. In the demos we have seen, set in Riverwood, we saw a woodcutter chopping trees that fell, others gathering and piling up logs, a hydraulic water wheel made of wood that rotated with the current of the river. To give another example, there were also delinquents that robbed and started fires. The sense of coherence of the world achieved by the game is felt also here, in the liveliness of this setting with personalities that take sides against it, destroy it or move elements to a different location. We must always keep in mind the passing of time in order to fully appreciate these thousands of changes occurring behind the scenes, to know when to make an appearance at a particular area, when to speak with X or when to accept his request for help.

4. Creation Engine to the MAX
All of these advances we are speaking of were conceived of and planned by the developers but would have been impossible without a technology to support them. The Creation Engine designed by Bethesda after Oblivion and Fallout 3 finds in Skyrim a new scale, sufficiently advanced beyond what we saw in 2006 and 2008. The vast game world now has a tremendous level of detail in the lighting, polygons, textures, draw distance and constant changes that only a cutting edge technology like this graphics engine is capable of supporting. The game does not seem to be functioning with the same engine as Oblivion, not even from a distance. Even though it is a version updated from that engine, its complete overhaul is enough for us to be able to discuss calmly a graphical and spectacular distinction in 2011-2012.

Details like the perfect behavior of the water and the flora, its delicate and flawless appearance on the screen and interaction with the PC are some of the better and substantial improvements, such as the meticulous perfection of the third person point of view, which was a bit crude and careless in Fallout 3, but now finally does not show errors and is even useful in certain situations.

Also surprising are the weather effects and the treatment of clouds and lighting, forming mists around the mountains, establishing a visual line of the horizon - which could be beneath a radiant sun - or the shadows and play of light on objects depending on the hour of the day and the conditions of the sky. There is an indisputable attention to detail in all the graphical elements, delivering us - and this can now be said - one of the games with the most eye-catching games of this generation and in history, capable of weaving artistic quality with graphics, far, far exceeding what we saw in Oblivion and Fallout 3, both also technical standards in their time.

This is the judgment of Bethesda, that its work has sought an epic visual quality, with huge settings, high draw distance, lighting... and specifically, great detail in every corner of the world and every object, no matter how small. An enormous team of more than fifty developers have worked for four years on all of this, making Skyrim a flawless visual work, from the smallest details on the level of a tiny slice of bread on a table to the unparalleled vistas from the top of a mountain summit. There will be thousands of graphical elements in play at any given moment to achieve a spectacle on this level, partly achieved during this generation thanks to some optical tricks and unparalleled digital designs for the player immersed in a playthrough. The programming team at Bethesda are experts in getting the most out of gameplay and optimizing existing technology.

5. Artificial Intelligence
We have mentioned the NPCs before but there is a huge change between the lamentable A.I. of Oblivion and the incredible advances achieved in Skyrim. The game seems to want to put us to the test at every moment, to measure our morals and bring us face to face with the NPCs, totally coherent in their behaviors, dialog and way of thinking. Now all of the characters in the game, thosuands, are interconnected and they move around the map according to the memories of their daily activities and knowledge. We could reach a town and the priest might call out us out as thieves where a few days before in another city, he served as a witness. And this would result in a bad image for the PC upon making his entrance, with respect to all the citizens of this new town.

And in another case, we could find in the wilderness a traveler who makes his way from one city to another, confront and kill him and when we arrive at his destination all the town would be talking about his disappearance, even gossiping about strange legends and rumors as to why he hasn't arrived. If we robbed him, when we try to sell his possessions or if someone sees us wearing them, all the village might approach us with questions or distrust. Radiant Story takes care of manifesting all of this in dialog and changing situations that make us think twice about all of our actions before carrying them out.

But the A.I. also impacts other characters, such as bandit enemies with little conversation and rapid aggression. From the dragons to the wolves, the trend of Skyrim is that attacks from enemies are characterized by diverse and unpredictible offensive tactics, which exposes the player to challenging combat encounters. As a descendent of the dragons, Dovahkiin will not always call attention by aggresive actions and at times the enormous creatures have a more friendly behavior, with noble feats performed by the same creatures to defend against some other unforseen danger. A very special intelligence has been achieved for these dragons, which will cause us to view them as half pets, half threats. The relationship between the PC and these fearsome dragons will be very interesting, as supported by the powerful A.I. features they possess.

6. Nomadic "Protagonists"
Taking a closer look at the enormous flying fellow protagonists of the game (the dragons), if in Oblivion the portals to that infernal world were the foundation of the story, now it is the dragons, never staying in one place on the map, undergoing their own changes and capable of changing the story, as well as ending the lives of all the residents of a particular community. We have evolved from the fiery portals of Oblivion to the absolute freedom of movement each of the dragons possesses over land and air. In oblivion we could carefully plan our playthrough, saying to ourselves "now I will close this portal and then that other portal over there." Skyrim breaks with this geographic structure and it obligates us to look for dragons and capture their souls to become more powerful and learn new abilities, all of these vital in the course of each playthrough.

Moreover, for the PC to survive and progress, it is clear these winged monsters have an advantage over the protagonist, who must first see them and go after them to put down each one, exploiting certain factors such as the reduced mobilitiy or agility of these gigantic beasts, and the relative slowness of certain attacks, capable of damaging entire villages. One dragon appearance is enough to result in the complete terror of nearly every NPC, although there will be a few brave souls who decide to help us. The game will demonstrate that it is not so much the aggression of these creatures from which Dovahkiin is descended, but their ferocity when provoked.

7. Deep Combat
If anything has been criticized above all with respect to all the Elder Scrolls games, it would be its melee combat system, quite crude and simplified even in Oblivion. When Skyrim was conceived, one of the points taken into consideration from fan feedback was the great need to redesign and improve this system - efficient but not up to the same level of quality as the other aspects of the game - including the gameplay, numb from all the numerous inferior combat encounters that slowed down the experience. From all we have seen and what is known of Skyrim, now Dovahkiin will be able to execute combos, mixing weapons and magic at the same time - with new menus for each hand - and even devising offensive strategies with synergy, resulting in heroic combat actions much deeper and more effective than the simple repetitive sword bashing, so common in Oblivion.

Each race will have its own style of fighting, now more distinct resulting from the build and strength of each character, culture and variable attributes. Each race will also find specific abilities (perks), to be more easily acquired when leveling up through the constellations that inspire the player to progress in each skill. This doesn't mean that a particular race will be locked off from learning any particular perk, but rather that the stars in the constellation will be closer together in the skills that fit the profile of your race, which guides development in part but does not define it. In other words, every perk is one hundred percent available if we have the patience to improve skills and complete the constellations (perk trees) with stars that are separated more widely. This new system of character progression redefined the controversial leveling system in Oblivion and incorporates certain highly praised aspects of character progression in other games, such as Final Fantasy 13.

Dovahkiin wil have a second method of learning and improving, with the teachings of his ancestors, written in draconian lettering. To find these runes and makeshift altars will be a veritable odyssey but the benefits merit these efforts, as the most powerful abilities are related to the dragons and only by absorbing their souls and reading these ancient inscriptions can we reach the lofty heights of a demi-god chosen to bring peace to this distraught universe.

From creating circles of protection to carefully setting landmines of frozen ice or slowing down time, the new powers are more numerous than in any other game, reaching a total of more than 150 unarmed perks, and adding to this total all the combos and weapon-related perks, we become very dangerous whether fighting at a distance or in close quarters.

On the other hand, we have the abovementioned new menus for each hand, which muliply all the combat related possibilities at our disposal and revolutionize combat encounters as we know them. Combining magic and shield, it is possible now to equip a spell in each hand and combine them to create powerful spell effects. Of course, in this brutal Nord esthetic, the powerful two-handed staves of wizardry make an appearance as well, some of which can be used to launch defensive shield effects as well as offensive magic. The experience promises to be rich and enjoyable, mcuh more than what we expected when the game was first announced.

Skyrim has made combat and character progression more complex, to the point where it is almost difficult to believe that we are playing an Elder Scrolls game. This was a given considering the criticism bestowed on Oblivion at failing to improve on the classic design of Morrowind. The third person perspective is now acceptable for fighting or casting spells, but it continues to be secondary to the first person perspective, that affords greater precision with each blow or shot fired. Skyrim continues to be a first person RPG that only occasionally reconciles with the third person perspective.

8. Dramatic Transcendence
Oblivion was a disappointment for many with respect to the storytelling. Its plot did not have as much impact as many hoped and it quickly fell flat during the first few hours of gameplay. Many gamers were left with the impression that the sidequests were better written, more engaging and more carefully designed than the main quest. Even the ending of Oblivion was widely debated in various online TES fan communities, without giving honor to the powerful frightening epic endings of past TES games. As they did with the combat system, Bethesda took some of this fan feedback to heart when designing Skyrim.

The new game promises a memorable and uplifting story, that engages players as well as the best RPGs and manages to ingrain itself in the memory of those who play it. With support from the Radiant Story feature it will be possible for each player to live out from home a different TES V: Skyrim according to his choices, altering even the ending of the main quest, which now has more than 200 different possibilities, a new record figure exceeding the possible alternate endings of Fallout 3. Skyrim promises twists, turns, vital decision points, deception, surprises and unexpected deaths, with quests that truly go beyond simply carrying out mundane errands, but actually serve to advance the narrative of this story, which is among the most transcendent and important in the Elder Scrolls saga.

9. Non-linear Quests
In addition to the above-mentioned greater complexity and signficance of the main plot, each of the quests, primary and secondary, will also gain these two attributes. They will no longer be as linear, there will not be only three or four different ways to resolve each task or each problem set before the Dovahkiin as he rises to prominence, including even the ending of the war in the province, but Skyrim will allow us to completely redefine what we must do, including changing the objectives interweaving some quest missions with others so that we act in decisive directions. The Radiant Story feature has a great deal to do with this, as well as the freedom placed in the hands of the player, taking this concept to a new plateau we have not seen in previous games. TES V will revolutionize this.

From the very first time NPCs give the player a new quest, the conceptual change from Oblivion is evident. We are moving far beyond "go here, kill this guy and bring me this item," instead in Skyrim the basic tasks we are presented with is more along the lines of "infiltrate, rob, investigate, kill, bring, take and kill," for example, in order to complete a particular side quest, it might take us a few hours. And we are not speaking of the steps of the main quest, now much more carefully designed, which impact the principal storyline, which we can completely change with certain actions, even though [instead of killing them] some of the important characters can only be rendered unconscious. An excellent technique employed by Bethesda to avoid breaking certain parts of the main quest in the case of player error.

The exposition and resolution of these quests does not only make the gameplay more complex, but it provides new locations where certain steps of these quests must be completed. The dungeons of the first game were created by only one designer, utilizing certain copy-and-paste models in order to generate them all quickly. Now in Skyrim eight people have been dedicated full time, over the course of more than three years to design the dungeons, completely by hand. All the irregularities and differences among the more than 120 dungeons in skyrim is perfectly reflected during each playthrough. This careful hand-crafting translates to unique challenges, puzzles of all kinds and ingenious architecture, never before seen in previous TES games. If we combine this with the ability to carefully analyze every object in our inventory to solve certain puzzles or obtain information about these objects, as well as the addition of NPC collaborators, or the changes broguht about by weather phenomena or dragon attacks, the variety and depth of play is served up on a silver platter.

10. Music to Our Ears
Although we have left this part for the end, it is certainly not the least important. If The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion was an expensive, historic production, Skyrim must be considered the super-production, with a multi-million dollar budget larger than any previous TES game, the best development team that Bethesda Game Studios has ever dedicated to a project, with careful attention to every detail in the game, even hiring [new employees] from outside firms...With respect to this last part, we must mention the sound, luxuriously designed by specialists capable of dubbing thousands of lines of dialog and putting voice to certain characters. It will be a work of excellence in the end, including performing the greatest localization work for any TES game to our language [Spanish].

The music, now with more brand new, unpublished themes and remixes of the original melody at the hands of the indomitable Jeremy Soule - a vital asset and the man responsible for the magnificent soundtracks of the two previous games - is at the forefront of Skyrim, coordinated better than ever with the imagery and once again regaling us with those harmonies of the sort you can never get out of your head. More than 300 people have given form and sound to the musical score composed by Soule for the moments of combat, calm, different villages, cinematic peaks and discoveries. The result promises to be chilling, like the deep voices we have all heard interpreting the main theme, a revision of the melody of the Elder Scrolls.

The sound effects are not left behind either, much richer and more distinguished than any other TES game. For the first time, the protagonist will have more than 30 different sounds for distinct footsteps, depending on the surface he is walking on, and each combination of different spells will have its own distinct sound effect, allowing us to guess which spell we are casting solely by hearing the sound. Water spilling over a rapids, the wind and the rain are more dynamic elements that will have a spectactular audio representation. And we shall not forget the arduous task of dubbing a game of this scope and magnitude, with hundreds of characters to be voiced, even in our own language [Spanish], as Fallout 3 led the way in making this acceptable. Understanding the budget that Bethesda is investing in the entire game, we have no fears whatsoever that we will receive a Spanish version that is not worthy of this majestic work that is coming soon.

Definitely a good read; I'm getting hyped for this game! My only fear is that it will become too dynamic. Image a quest with no set goal, no set quest giver, no set nothing. In Oblivion we often got dialogue similar to this:

While a radiant quest might give us something like this:

So the gist of this article is that I'm only going to be playing one game from november until whenever the next ES game comes out?

Shaaaa-Wing!

Seems a bit ambitious on moments. And 200 alternate endings? You kidding me? And didn't Todd already said that the main quest would be more linear so they could work on a better told story? Rivers getting out of their beds and such? I feel there's quite a bit of things which are too realistic, as if the mag was making out things, I find it hard to believe some things particularly when they were never told by anyone before. The bit about the main quest is the hardest to believe considering some things Todd said that don't go too well with this. I doubt we'd get much new things until Quake Con...

I think the author is referring to the Fallout 3-style ending variations, where, for example there was a little slideshow that had a couple hundred variations depending on the various things you did during your playthrough, rather than, for example, the various endings to Dragon Age: Origins, etc.

That makes more sense then. Still, I find some things too ambitious here, particularly the rumour thing when you kill someone or steal something from him when there's voice action. There just seems to be too much variables to do that kind of thing properly, I'm afraid it would feel unnatural and rushed. As if you heard about the dude's death even before he was supposed to arrive.

If even a third of this is true...

Yeah, apparently this mag is known for outdated or made up information, it also happened for Oblivion.

I guess Beth has said that that magazine saw the same demo as everyone else, and any info that seems to be non-conforming with the rest of what we heard should be considered bunk.