It takes a lot to bring down a thick-skinned, fire-breathing winged monster. Dragons appear at random in Skyrim and, if they spot you running across the snow-crusted face of a mountain, will veer from their course in the sky, drop to the ground, and proceed to do their best to melt you with flame. They'll swipe at you, take off mid-fight and launch fireballs from the sky, and dive back down at you with high speed. Even if you're in a town you won't be safe from dragons.
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Many times the best idea is to run and take shelter in houses or crash through the nearest dungeon door. Other times it's best to go for the kill, since slaying a dragon allows you to absorb its soul for beneficial effects. It seems like this could be a fairly common occurrence in Skyrim, because there isn't a set cap on the number Bethesda is including. The encounters aren't supposed to be easy, either, but function in many cases like optional bosses you can choose to tangle with or flee from. If you want to have a chance against these things, you'll need to be smart about building your character, embarking on quests to gain rewards, clearing dungeons, and more in Bethesda Game Studios' upcoming role-playing epic.
It all starts with creating your character, a process that's been trimmed down in Skyrim as compared to previous Elder Scrolls games. You'll still get to pick from one of 10 fantasy races, customize your physical appearance, and select a gender, but after that it's right into the game you go. The eight attribute categories from the previous Elder Scrolls game, Oblivion, have been cut out. Now you only have to worry about your Magicka to cast spells, Health for your hit points, and Stamina, which serves as a limiting factor when pulling off axe slashes and mace bashes in combat.
Much of the leveling system you might be used to has been reworked. In Skyrim, all skill increases fill an overall leveling gauge, just as experience points tend to do in most role-playing games. So if you use one-handed swords all the time, your one-handed swords skill will continue to increase and gradually fill the level gauge. When the gauge is full, you level up, which nets you a point to unlock additional abilities -- Fallout-like perks -- within each skill tree.
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Much of the interface has been redesigned for Skyrim to feel more interactive. All items, including weapons, shields, plot items, and plants can be zoomed in on and inspected within the inventory screen. This can be taken advantage of for superficial reasons to marvel at the level of detail on each piece of armor, but also for practical reasons like opening and reading the various books you'll find in Skyrim or inspecting plot items adventure game-style to reveal information useful in solving dungeon puzzles. Meanwhile, the skill readout isn't a list but a bright, polychromatic display of star constellations, where each star serves as an unlock node for perks. The overwold map has been given an upgrade too, as it's a three-dimensional representation of Skyrim presented in a way that's similar to strategy games like Civilization V and Total War: Shogun 2.
When you engage in conversation the game no longer pauses – time continues normally, there's no more persuasion mini-game to worry about, and the overlay of conversation options takes up only minimal space onscreen. By hovering around NPCs while they're engaged in chatter you'll pick up bits of information that can lead to new quests that may differ depending on which NPCs are still alive as well as a host of other variables tracked by the game, including whether or not it's been a while since you've fought a dragon.
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The number of dragon shouts you learn and the tiers you unlock isn't a pre-set thing. It's dependent on how willing you are to explore all of Skyrim's 120 or so dungeons. In some you'll find word walls, giant slabs of stone upon which are etched symbols written in the dragons' language that can be interpreted and added to your dragon shout collection. You've got to be careful in these areas though because, as tends to be the case when you combine subterranean valuables and fantasy settings, powerful creatures will try to stop you. You'll face off against frost trolls, spell-slinging skeleton priests that can summon frost atronachs, as well as Draugr, basically zombified Nord (the original residents of Skyrim) and giant spiders.
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It's clear Bethesda's spent time working on the animations with its new Creation engine, as the sword swings and mace slams of combat have a more natural look. Bandits stagger and sway and your screen and equipped gear shake as slashes are exchanged. Notifications of skill gains from combat are also displayed with a flashier presentation, as you'll get a visual notification of each skill up and how that affects your leveling progress, paired with audio cues to make it feel more rewarding. But perhaps the best effect of all is, after you manage to bring down a dragon, how its corpse erupts into flame and slowly disintegrates while wisps of magical energy flow into your character to underline how your skill in battle was enough to silence something seemingly invincible.
Clearly there's a lot going on in The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, which like all Elder Scrolls games is absolutely enormous. From what's been shown off so far, it looks like a role-playing game fan's dream come true, and one of the most beautiful virtual fantasy worlds in existence.[/i]
Long rumored and much anticipated, The Elder Scrolls Online is finally being unveiled in the June issue of Game Informer. In this month's cover story we journey across the entire land of Tamriel, from Elsweyr to Skyrim and everywhere in between.
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Developed by the team at Zenimax Online Studios, The Elder Scrolls Online merges the unmatched exploration of rich worlds that the franchise is known for with the scale and social aspects of a massively multiplayer online role-playing game. Players will discover an entirely new chapter of Elder Scrolls history in this ambitious world, set a millennium before the events of Skyrim as the daedric prince Molag Bal tries to pull all of Tamriel into his demonic realm.
"It will be extremely rewarding finally to unveil what we have been developing the last several years," said game director and MMO veteran Matt Firor, whose previous work includes Mythic's well-received Dark Age of Camelot. "The entire team is committed to creating the best MMO ever made – and one that is worthy of The Elder Scrolls franchise.