Here is the first bit, it contains slight spoilers - http://www.gameinformer.com/games/the_e ... kecon.aspx
PLEASE post any other stories that come out of this event here. I am going to be out of town starting tomorrow and would love it if there was lots of info in one place that i can find when i get back.
Thanks
Game Informer 8/4 - http://www.gameinformer.com/games/the_e ... kecon.aspx
Eurogamer 8/4 - http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2011- ... on-preview
IGN 8/4 - http://xbox360.ign.com/articles/118/1186214p1.html
Destructoid 8/4 - http://www.destructoid.com/first-ever-h ... 7990.phtml
Gamespot 8/5 - http://uk.gamespot.com/events/quakecon2 ... id=6327397
multiplayerit 8/5 - http://multiplayer.it/articoli/91640-th ... agoni.html
Spoiler:
Version tested: Xbox 360
Sooner or later you will find a short article on QuakeCon 2011, the id convention being held in Dallas at this time at the Hilton Anatole, a large hotel complex situated in the middle of a city that exists only for business and for oil. It feels a bit like walking on the moon, especially coming from Italy, because I do not know how many colleagues have ever attended and since we are the only ones invited to this event.
The id family has grown recently, however, when Bethesda bought Carmack's software house and this is how it came to be that we have the opportunity to play one of the most anticipated titles of 2011: The Elders Scrolls V: Skyrim.
The game contains one of the features most requested by fans of Oblivion, dragons, but there was no sign of these flying reptiles. We will meet them during the main quest, which was disabled in this pre-alpha version of the Xbox 360 (Skyrim will also be released on PC and PlayStation 3 on November 11), which we played from the character creation until the early quests, freely, along with ten other colleagues for a moment in time when [everyone was so focused that] you could hear a pin drop. Imagine a room, wrapped in silence, except for the words of Pete Hynes and Todd Howard, Game Director and Vice President respectively, of Bethesda, who turned in their chairs to help those who were playing. In search of dragons ... that were not there, though.
In the footsteps of Oblivion
One thing is clear, Skyrim is a game too complex to be dealt with in one hour of play. Too many things to do, too many unanswered questions [and not enough time] to be able to concentrate and actually do something productive, really.
Imagine a dozen stations, and at each there was a journalist who did something completely different. The writer has found himself manufacturing armor upon leaving the starting area, delivering a letter and exploring dungeons a bit .
There are those who became archers, who killed wolves and deer, and who traveled through at least a couple of urban settlements, shown on a 3D map with the names of the outposts, including using fast travel, but only after having first explored the area on foot.
To reach this myriad of end results, we all started from a save following shortly after the start of the game, which takes place in a dungeon, as usual, leaving the details of the story to our previous article which is rich with details.
Character creation has always been the pride of Bethesda, and this is no exception, thanks to new engine models, which allow much more rough and realistic faces marked by a thousand details. Tattoos, scars, hairstyles and appearances can be modeled with detail even higher than previously experienced. The races are the races of Oblivion, what has changed radically is the class selection, which no longer exists, as the evolution of the character is completely linked to the skills that you decide to develop, as you level up by playing.
Each of the skills, from wielding two-handed weapons, one-handed weapons, or casting spells to heal, has an indicator that tells you how many times it is used. Each of these contributes to the skill level and every time we reach a new character level, we are asked if we want to increase the magicka, stamina or the health of our alter egos.
Afterwards you can invest one point in any of the skills, to select a perk that permanently increases the abilities of the main character. Each skill is represented by a constellation, each of these branches arranged in a tree, marked by perks that can be activated by having the minimum requirements. Each of the perks on the tree has different levels of development, going to create an overall picture that sounds like a headache, but already at first glance it appears to provide a sufficient level of complexity with greater immediacy than the guilds and classes of Oblivion.
Good old TES
Who has not played Oblivion may not be familiar with the controls of The Elders Scrolls V: Skyrim , at least at first. Upon discovering how the different spells and equipment are handled in detail via the favorites menu, the basic commands remain the same. You jump with Y, with A you interact with objects, with B you activate the inventory / map, with X you draw your weapon or stow it away for exploration.
The trigger buttons still handle the task of launching attacks, one for each player's hand and left hand side is the left trigger, until you have run out of stamina.
The similarities however, stop at the layout of the buttons, since the answer to the demands of the player is completely changed.
Just hitting your bare hands, with the new engine offers a physicality and a gravity unknown before, they actually feel like blows, and this makes it difficult to walk around beating your fists in empty air.
Even the new animations, especially those of the protagonist that can finally be controlled with a third-person view without being ashamed to show what really happens on the screen.
The surrounding world seems less obsessed with having to tie a physical reaction to any interaction, but the detail and quality are from a different planet compared to Oblivion. The pop-up problems, vertical sync and even management of polygons all appear to be completely resolved, leaving room for a glance obscured by trees, flowers, trees, rocks and houses far on the horizon.
At the E3 presentation, we feared, among other things, such grace had been bestowed on a world with an almost lunar quality, too devoid of NPCs or enemies, but this test has dispelled this doubt, since the animal encounters and NPCs were frequent, giving the idea of a truly populated world, even unexpected encounters and animated in a much more credible way.
First Steps
Apart from the desire to recover from back to playing with a new episode of The Elder Scrolls, enjoy the view and the new "physicality" of our hero (which Bethesda should send a screenshot in the coming weeks), there was just enough time to interact with some NPCs and explore a little the world of Skyrim.
One of the first events that struck us was the active quest indicator, in the compass at the top center of the screen, guiding us even to the doors of houses where you need to enter, thus making it much easier to move into cities in search of the NPC [related to the quest].
Load times appeared a little long, populated by polygonal models, however, interactive, and always different, at least in this first test, dragons, statues and figures of the main quest and all well made.
The ease and immediacy with which the the mode of progression in the game seems to have changed were also evident in some aspects of quests. As we helped a person to receive a letter in this brief quest, we could ask him to follow us, and he became an intelligent and careful fellow companion adventurer.
In short, among other things, we were able to craft some armor and weapons at the blacksmith's forge and carve skins to make our own clothes, under the watchful eye of a master blacksmith met after a few minutes in a village.
As the darkness fell, we appreciated the new lighting and thick fog that enveloped the earth, and this took us into the bowels of a mine not far from where we started playing.
There was the usual attack of robbers and rats of different kinds and sizes, with a pleasant sense of dejavu. In short, it seems that Bethesda in preparing The Elders Scrolls V: Skyrim has certainly given the strengths of Oblivion, creating an obvious point of continuity, but also sought to solve the cumbersome aspects that could have kept away many players.
Obviously it takes a lot longer to understand the balance of this new nature and the direction taken, in particular in assessing the behavior of the NPC and the merits of the new skill structure, but the first good news is that at this stage of pre-alpha, The Elders Scrolls V: Skyrim seems much cleaner than it was Oblivion at launch and this is already a good starting point.
The fact that this happens within the context of aesthetics so lush and detailed, then, can only be expected to improve further by November 11th, the game's release date.
Sooner or later you will find a short article on QuakeCon 2011, the id convention being held in Dallas at this time at the Hilton Anatole, a large hotel complex situated in the middle of a city that exists only for business and for oil. It feels a bit like walking on the moon, especially coming from Italy, because I do not know how many colleagues have ever attended and since we are the only ones invited to this event.
The id family has grown recently, however, when Bethesda bought Carmack's software house and this is how it came to be that we have the opportunity to play one of the most anticipated titles of 2011: The Elders Scrolls V: Skyrim.
The game contains one of the features most requested by fans of Oblivion, dragons, but there was no sign of these flying reptiles. We will meet them during the main quest, which was disabled in this pre-alpha version of the Xbox 360 (Skyrim will also be released on PC and PlayStation 3 on November 11), which we played from the character creation until the early quests, freely, along with ten other colleagues for a moment in time when [everyone was so focused that] you could hear a pin drop. Imagine a room, wrapped in silence, except for the words of Pete Hynes and Todd Howard, Game Director and Vice President respectively, of Bethesda, who turned in their chairs to help those who were playing. In search of dragons ... that were not there, though.
In the footsteps of Oblivion
One thing is clear, Skyrim is a game too complex to be dealt with in one hour of play. Too many things to do, too many unanswered questions [and not enough time] to be able to concentrate and actually do something productive, really.
Imagine a dozen stations, and at each there was a journalist who did something completely different. The writer has found himself manufacturing armor upon leaving the starting area, delivering a letter and exploring dungeons a bit .
There are those who became archers, who killed wolves and deer, and who traveled through at least a couple of urban settlements, shown on a 3D map with the names of the outposts, including using fast travel, but only after having first explored the area on foot.
To reach this myriad of end results, we all started from a save following shortly after the start of the game, which takes place in a dungeon, as usual, leaving the details of the story to our previous article which is rich with details.
Character creation has always been the pride of Bethesda, and this is no exception, thanks to new engine models, which allow much more rough and realistic faces marked by a thousand details. Tattoos, scars, hairstyles and appearances can be modeled with detail even higher than previously experienced. The races are the races of Oblivion, what has changed radically is the class selection, which no longer exists, as the evolution of the character is completely linked to the skills that you decide to develop, as you level up by playing.
Each of the skills, from wielding two-handed weapons, one-handed weapons, or casting spells to heal, has an indicator that tells you how many times it is used. Each of these contributes to the skill level and every time we reach a new character level, we are asked if we want to increase the magicka, stamina or the health of our alter egos.
Afterwards you can invest one point in any of the skills, to select a perk that permanently increases the abilities of the main character. Each skill is represented by a constellation, each of these branches arranged in a tree, marked by perks that can be activated by having the minimum requirements. Each of the perks on the tree has different levels of development, going to create an overall picture that sounds like a headache, but already at first glance it appears to provide a sufficient level of complexity with greater immediacy than the guilds and classes of Oblivion.
Good old TES
Who has not played Oblivion may not be familiar with the controls of The Elders Scrolls V: Skyrim , at least at first. Upon discovering how the different spells and equipment are handled in detail via the favorites menu, the basic commands remain the same. You jump with Y, with A you interact with objects, with B you activate the inventory / map, with X you draw your weapon or stow it away for exploration.
The trigger buttons still handle the task of launching attacks, one for each player's hand and left hand side is the left trigger, until you have run out of stamina.
The similarities however, stop at the layout of the buttons, since the answer to the demands of the player is completely changed.
Just hitting your bare hands, with the new engine offers a physicality and a gravity unknown before, they actually feel like blows, and this makes it difficult to walk around beating your fists in empty air.
Even the new animations, especially those of the protagonist that can finally be controlled with a third-person view without being ashamed to show what really happens on the screen.
The surrounding world seems less obsessed with having to tie a physical reaction to any interaction, but the detail and quality are from a different planet compared to Oblivion. The pop-up problems, vertical sync and even management of polygons all appear to be completely resolved, leaving room for a glance obscured by trees, flowers, trees, rocks and houses far on the horizon.
At the E3 presentation, we feared, among other things, such grace had been bestowed on a world with an almost lunar quality, too devoid of NPCs or enemies, but this test has dispelled this doubt, since the animal encounters and NPCs were frequent, giving the idea of a truly populated world, even unexpected encounters and animated in a much more credible way.
First Steps
Apart from the desire to recover from back to playing with a new episode of The Elder Scrolls, enjoy the view and the new "physicality" of our hero (which Bethesda should send a screenshot in the coming weeks), there was just enough time to interact with some NPCs and explore a little the world of Skyrim.
One of the first events that struck us was the active quest indicator, in the compass at the top center of the screen, guiding us even to the doors of houses where you need to enter, thus making it much easier to move into cities in search of the NPC [related to the quest].
Load times appeared a little long, populated by polygonal models, however, interactive, and always different, at least in this first test, dragons, statues and figures of the main quest and all well made.
The ease and immediacy with which the the mode of progression in the game seems to have changed were also evident in some aspects of quests. As we helped a person to receive a letter in this brief quest, we could ask him to follow us, and he became an intelligent and careful fellow companion adventurer.
In short, among other things, we were able to craft some armor and weapons at the blacksmith's forge and carve skins to make our own clothes, under the watchful eye of a master blacksmith met after a few minutes in a village.
As the darkness fell, we appreciated the new lighting and thick fog that enveloped the earth, and this took us into the bowels of a mine not far from where we started playing.
There was the usual attack of robbers and rats of different kinds and sizes, with a pleasant sense of dejavu. In short, it seems that Bethesda in preparing The Elders Scrolls V: Skyrim has certainly given the strengths of Oblivion, creating an obvious point of continuity, but also sought to solve the cumbersome aspects that could have kept away many players.
Obviously it takes a lot longer to understand the balance of this new nature and the direction taken, in particular in assessing the behavior of the NPC and the merits of the new skill structure, but the first good news is that at this stage of pre-alpha, The Elders Scrolls V: Skyrim seems much cleaner than it was Oblivion at launch and this is already a good starting point.
The fact that this happens within the context of aesthetics so lush and detailed, then, can only be expected to improve further by November 11th, the game's release date.
IGN 8/5 - http://www.gameinformer.com/games/the_e ... sions.aspx
G4 8/5 - http://www.g4tv.com/games/xbox-360/6471 ... z1UD8fGnef
Neowin 8/6 - http://www.neowin.net/news/quakecon-201 ... mpressions
Ausgamer 8/8 - http://www.ausgamers.com/features/read/3096375
Jeuxvideo 8/5 - http://www.jeuxvideo.fr/jeux/the-elder- ... kyrim.html
Spoiler:
First presented to a small audience, The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim was then invited to E3 in Los Angeles. In both places, it wasn’t a playable version and when Bethesda offered to let us try a pre-alpha of the RPG, we didn’t make them ask twice – although the test only ran an hour and only on Xbox 360. A pre-Alpha still has much work to be done, but we would still like to make note of some of the promising aspects.
An all new engine since Oblivion
In order to accelerate things, Bethesda removed the majority of character creation from this pre-version. We were still able to get a look at the tools available to personalize your characters’ face. You can really feel the progress since Oblivion, and Todd Howard should be proud. We were able to have fun with many combinations without coming up with unrealistic characters, and this is due to the accordance of the different options for faces. Those familiar with the Elder Scrolls won’t be surprised to find the same races from Oblivion (Argonians, Bretons, High-elves, Imperials, etc.)
This step finished, Todd Howard invited us to commence our adventure, all the while noting that the main quest is not active: the guys don’t want any spoilers whatsoever! Indeed, this first hands-on is a chance to speak to the feeling, to the ambiance and to the combat of Skyrim, not the storyline. The ambiance is what impresses the most at first glance. Graphically, the game isn’t a ‘revolution’ compared to Oblivion, but you can tell the developers have focused on the details, so that the player has more of a sense of progressing in a world that could continue to do so without him/her.
A living world, rich in opportunities
Thus, after having vagabonded about a bit, we found the path to Riverwood and it didn’t take long for to see the villagers going about their occupations. Here we could see a hunter discretely approaching a deer and there, two lumberjacks working some logs. This entrance to Riverwood is the first chance to enter into some dialogue, and since the main quest is off limits, we had to opt for some secondary conversations. Old Hilde imagines she saw a dragon, but her son Sven believes her to be crazy. This same Sven recounts his difficulties courting the beautiful Camilla, as another suitor with pointy ears is trying to ruin his plans.
At the tavern, we encounter several warriors searching for volunteers to join their clan and many little tasks (quests) await us! Many of them are brief, but even the most simple take several steps, at for example, the Sven/Camilla storyline – it’s possible to go directly to Camilla and give her the letter, or we can go visit the elfin suitor and see what he has to offer. After that, it’s up to us.
Following the pathway towards the first large city of Skyrim – Whiterun – we had occasion to cross several creatures, and it was very agreeable to see that not all wild animals are hostile! Of course, two wolves quickly put this theory to rest and it’s time for me to verify the competency of my character. Stuck at level 1, he can only wield a small, relatively modest axe, and his magical aptitude only allows a small fire spell. We quickly assign them to the two triggers, and it’s on to a combat much more dynamic than usual in the Elder Scrolls, where the weapons seem to have a real presence in your hand.
The basics are all in place
Likely because of the quality of the animations, we really have the impression of having an axe in hand, with all that this implies of inertia when determining the power of our swing. On the spell side, things are obviously much less subtle because the only limit to use is the amount of mana our hero has. In regards to the enemies, we had only seen up to then about ten, but it does seem of note that each creature has particular techniques that are unique to it – a wolf doesn’t have the same approach to combat as a giant spider, or as the horrible zombie-like Draugrs .
Directly linked to combat – but not only – is the evolution of our character, which is determined by two criteria: experience points (combats, quests…) and practice. The hero grows his competence in destruction magic, alchemy, or armor mastery by practicing; but his increase in level allows “perks” which can be attributed along a very rich perk tree. It is thus possible to specialize your character. You can acquire perks, and you can hoard them until your destruction magic is high enough to take dual casting (which needs no explanation in English!)
“The use of the journal for quests and of the map cannot be more simple”
If we had only seen the console interface (Bethesda speaks of a substantially different PC version), we wouldn’t have been disappointed by the work done on it. Other than the inventory, a little long for our taste, everything is very easy to use. A representation of the constellations allows us to see our skills, and the journal couldn’t be simpler. A map allows us to quickly find our way to Whiterun in order to inform Jarl Balgruuf that dragons have been seen in the area. He then invites us to explore the zone of Bleak Falls Barrow and the first dungeons.
In this zone, we discovered many creatures, tried many different combat techniques and were able to test the traps set in place by the developers. In terms of creatures, nothing much new of note, although it’s is worth noting that the animations – painstaking according to Bethesda – are impressive. In terms of combat techniques, cold steel, magic and distance weapons can be easily combined and everyone will find themselves ready to go, although the bow might need a little more practice than the others to be mastered.
Lastly, the traps are undoubtedly a good way to see just how each dungeon is unique: in our example, the traps are too specific (like the axes which swing making us time our run through them) to be reused at will by the developers. In spite of the short nature of our hands-on experience, there remains much to be said about a game that will likely hold most of its promises. We could speak to the (hooking – maybe pathfinding? i.e. collisions with objects?), of the possibility of eating raw food or of cooking it instead to obtain more nutritious items. The fans of RPGs like The Witcher might not be convinced by Skyrim, and it is still too early to confirm anything, but this quick view “pounded in a nail already well in place” since the first presentation of the game!
An all new engine since Oblivion
In order to accelerate things, Bethesda removed the majority of character creation from this pre-version. We were still able to get a look at the tools available to personalize your characters’ face. You can really feel the progress since Oblivion, and Todd Howard should be proud. We were able to have fun with many combinations without coming up with unrealistic characters, and this is due to the accordance of the different options for faces. Those familiar with the Elder Scrolls won’t be surprised to find the same races from Oblivion (Argonians, Bretons, High-elves, Imperials, etc.)
This step finished, Todd Howard invited us to commence our adventure, all the while noting that the main quest is not active: the guys don’t want any spoilers whatsoever! Indeed, this first hands-on is a chance to speak to the feeling, to the ambiance and to the combat of Skyrim, not the storyline. The ambiance is what impresses the most at first glance. Graphically, the game isn’t a ‘revolution’ compared to Oblivion, but you can tell the developers have focused on the details, so that the player has more of a sense of progressing in a world that could continue to do so without him/her.
A living world, rich in opportunities
Thus, after having vagabonded about a bit, we found the path to Riverwood and it didn’t take long for to see the villagers going about their occupations. Here we could see a hunter discretely approaching a deer and there, two lumberjacks working some logs. This entrance to Riverwood is the first chance to enter into some dialogue, and since the main quest is off limits, we had to opt for some secondary conversations. Old Hilde imagines she saw a dragon, but her son Sven believes her to be crazy. This same Sven recounts his difficulties courting the beautiful Camilla, as another suitor with pointy ears is trying to ruin his plans.
At the tavern, we encounter several warriors searching for volunteers to join their clan and many little tasks (quests) await us! Many of them are brief, but even the most simple take several steps, at for example, the Sven/Camilla storyline – it’s possible to go directly to Camilla and give her the letter, or we can go visit the elfin suitor and see what he has to offer. After that, it’s up to us.
Following the pathway towards the first large city of Skyrim – Whiterun – we had occasion to cross several creatures, and it was very agreeable to see that not all wild animals are hostile! Of course, two wolves quickly put this theory to rest and it’s time for me to verify the competency of my character. Stuck at level 1, he can only wield a small, relatively modest axe, and his magical aptitude only allows a small fire spell. We quickly assign them to the two triggers, and it’s on to a combat much more dynamic than usual in the Elder Scrolls, where the weapons seem to have a real presence in your hand.
The basics are all in place
Likely because of the quality of the animations, we really have the impression of having an axe in hand, with all that this implies of inertia when determining the power of our swing. On the spell side, things are obviously much less subtle because the only limit to use is the amount of mana our hero has. In regards to the enemies, we had only seen up to then about ten, but it does seem of note that each creature has particular techniques that are unique to it – a wolf doesn’t have the same approach to combat as a giant spider, or as the horrible zombie-like Draugrs .
Directly linked to combat – but not only – is the evolution of our character, which is determined by two criteria: experience points (combats, quests…) and practice. The hero grows his competence in destruction magic, alchemy, or armor mastery by practicing; but his increase in level allows “perks” which can be attributed along a very rich perk tree. It is thus possible to specialize your character. You can acquire perks, and you can hoard them until your destruction magic is high enough to take dual casting (which needs no explanation in English!)
“The use of the journal for quests and of the map cannot be more simple”
If we had only seen the console interface (Bethesda speaks of a substantially different PC version), we wouldn’t have been disappointed by the work done on it. Other than the inventory, a little long for our taste, everything is very easy to use. A representation of the constellations allows us to see our skills, and the journal couldn’t be simpler. A map allows us to quickly find our way to Whiterun in order to inform Jarl Balgruuf that dragons have been seen in the area. He then invites us to explore the zone of Bleak Falls Barrow and the first dungeons.
In this zone, we discovered many creatures, tried many different combat techniques and were able to test the traps set in place by the developers. In terms of creatures, nothing much new of note, although it’s is worth noting that the animations – painstaking according to Bethesda – are impressive. In terms of combat techniques, cold steel, magic and distance weapons can be easily combined and everyone will find themselves ready to go, although the bow might need a little more practice than the others to be mastered.
Lastly, the traps are undoubtedly a good way to see just how each dungeon is unique: in our example, the traps are too specific (like the axes which swing making us time our run through them) to be reused at will by the developers. In spite of the short nature of our hands-on experience, there remains much to be said about a game that will likely hold most of its promises. We could speak to the (hooking – maybe pathfinding? i.e. collisions with objects?), of the possibility of eating raw food or of cooking it instead to obtain more nutritious items. The fans of RPGs like The Witcher might not be convinced by Skyrim, and it is still too early to confirm anything, but this quick view “pounded in a nail already well in place” since the first presentation of the game!
Gametrailers 8/5 - http://www.gametrailers.com/users/IW-Br ... &id=561048
Kotaku 8/5 - http://kotaku.com/5828687/an-hour-with- ... ts-amazing
Gamespy 8/5 - http://pc.gamespy.com/pc/elder-scrolls-v/1186740p1.html
Gamesradar 8/8 - http://www.gamesradar.com/xbox360/the-e ... 4555695026
1up 8/6 - http://www.1up.com/previews/skyrim-feel ... -best-game
Gameplanet 8/9 - http://www.gameplanet.co.nz/xbox/games/ ... -V-Skyrim/
Apologies dkjestrup I may have jumped the gun a little!
well, RAGE might cover it better.