Skyrim - Journalist Character Screens

When the 20 or so journalists who played Skyrim at QuakeCon recently, Bethesda sent them off with a screen of the character they created for their play test. Those screens are starting to pop up - here's a small list from the Bethblog:
G4TV (Nord)
Eurogamer (Khajit)
Game Informer (Khajit)
Epic Battle Axe (Nord?)
Ripten (Bosmer)
Kotaku (Orc)
Count Chocula also sends this news in, with a couple of additional bits - a comparison of the Khajit characters we've seen, and Destructoid's Argonian.
More information.

I kind of like that the variation in Khajiit is similarly subtle to the variation in people. The noses, ears, mouths, and jaw lines vary in shape rather than the orcs wearing differently painted cat-masks they looked like in Oblivion. I did like the idea of the backward bending knees from Morrowind, but they moved far too awkwardly.

I hope there is more variation in fur patterns, but this could just be a case of those writers going "ooh tiger!". Also, the facial hair and hair/fur in general looks far less like someone glued a wig and fake moustache on a cat mask compared to Oblivion. Some people might not like the new design compared to how they imagine the Khajiit, but the design team appears to have treated them as far less of an afterthought compared to Oblivion.

I do like tat Argonian quite a bit. They look more lizard-like and inhuman (as they are technically the farthest from human of the traditionally playable races) and also do not look like simple reskins of the Khajiit. They might actually be kind of freaky to run into some in a dark watery cave looking like that.

Comparing that shot to the earlier orc shot we saw there actually appears to be a suprising variety in Orc apperences. Over all I think they look more like "corrupt elves" as per the lore than they did in Oblivion. My only complaint about the Orcs (based on the two screenshots total seen to this point) is that although they look less hilariously stupid they also look a little too man-like. That is I would have liked to see them with a different build or posture even perhaps to show a bestial or degenerate nature (as they are supposed to be cursed/corrupted descendents of elves made hideous.)

Overall I like the variety and improved looks but it will be impossible to pass judgement one way or the other until I've had a chance to play with the character creation a little bit.

I think you get a good idea of the range of characters you can make...looks great so far.

I really believe that we barely saw what could be done with the characters, because everyone there knew they had one hour to see as much as possible. I imagine nobody spent more than 5 minutes generating a character, so I expect the possibilities have barely been scratched with what we've seen so far. I guess we'll find out in 13 weeks or 91 days, whichever comes 1st.

Liked the Argonian and the Khajit, but not the Bosmer or the Orc. The Orc looks nothing like it did in previous games. It looks more like some kind of Orc-Human hybrid to me.

Yeah the Bosmer didn't look like a Bosmer but that is probably because that is how the person chose the character to look like. With the Orc why couldn't there be interbreeding between Humans and Orcs.

So far there have been 9 pics released:

1. Eurogamer - Khajiit
http://images.eurogamer.net/assets/articles//a/1/3/8/8/0/4/5/Character1L_UK.bmp.jpg

2. Game Informer - Andrew Reiner - Khajiit:
http://portal.aecorp.in/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/Skyrim-Khajit-Gameinformer.jpg

3. Kotaku - Orc:
http://fastcache.gawkerassets.com/assets/images/9/2011/08/character2k_kotaku.jpg

4. RipTen.com - Bosmer:
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/8613775/Skyrim/SkyrimBosmer/p6Br1.jpg

5. Destructoid - Argonian Female - "LIZZLE-BOB"
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/8613775/Skyrim/SkyrimArgonian/Lizzle-Bob.jpg

6. EpicBattleAxe.com (Daniel Kayser) - Confirmed to be Nord
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/8613775/Skyrim/SkyrimNord/skyrim_kaysercharacter.jpg

7. G4TV - Nord "Shazam" :
http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6144/6036630186_b097ea1eaa_o.jpg

8. GameTrailers - Bosmer "Prometheus"
http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6124/6035520155_decb25caf1_b.jpg

9. Jeuxvideo.fr (Race not specified but looks like Redguard):
http://img.jeuxvideo.fr/photo/04498820-photo-the-elder-scrolls-5-skyrim.jpg

dicktits--really? (name of the bosmer)
who the fuck works at some of these sites...
and i thought kotaku was bad

guenthar said:

With the Orc why couldn't there be interbreeding between Humans and Orcs.

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Okay I am totally a lore nerd for knowing this, but it doesn't work that way in the ES universe. Any half breeds always look like the mother's race. The half orc prince in Oblivion would be an example.

Damn, quite the sexist lot. All of them were male but the one from Destructoid. And a female lizard isn't exactly exciting to look at...lol

Nice screenshots. I think the graphic style is shaping up very well. However, what race to pick is going to be a difficult choice once again.

Khalus said:

Damn, quite the sexist lot. All of them were male but the one from Destructoid. And a female lizard isn't exactly exciting to look at…lol

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I'd say the last sentence of yours was the only really sexist thing in this thread.

I suppose Betheshda just can't make good looking characters…. there characters always look crappy at least the humans. Morrowind is acctually the best so far.

The overall graphics acctually looks worse than oblivion. Hopefully it means they have focused on the gameplay and other things this time around.

All the races looks a little more "hardened" to me then in Oblivion or Morrowind, but if the have grown up in Skyrim with the cold and hard weather, I suppose that to be expected.

The Argonian is just plain nice but the Khajiit look like it have skin instead of fur.

All in all, looks like a step up from oblivion, not that it could have been hard.

I think Morrowind has, by far, the worst faces. They really improved them in FO3 compared to Oblivion, and Skyrim seems to improve them even further. They've really worked hard on "beautifying" everyone, not sure it works that well for orcs..

The lightning / shadows has improved a lot compared to the old engine. Those fog covered mountains looks amazing too, never seen that before in a game i think. Not too impressed by the game world itself so far, looks really dull and generic, doubt it's gonna be even close to Morrowind's epicness.

GothicGothicness said:

I suppose Betheshda just can't make good looking characters…. there characters always look crappy at least the humans. Morrowind is acctually the best so far.

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Sorry, but that's simply bullshit.

To me at least it seems that they really improved that part of the system. As usual, the skin appears to be much more detailed than the hair, which is also more difficult to model. Creating acceptable faces was an awkward process in Oblivion -- unless you wanted to create a massively deformed inbred noble, I guess, which would have been exceedingly simple -- and this is definitely a step up from Fallout 3, which was already improved. Way better than the character creation system in Mass Effect, if the comparison is allowed.

Morrowind had a completely different system with far less variety and precreated faces, hence the comparison is nontrivial. Judging by the screenshots, though, I would say they have well surpassed Morrowind by now. On the other hand, I have no idea how much time the journalists spend creating these characters.

GhanBuriGhan said:

Sorry, but that's simply bullshit.

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Hah, called out So true.

Hey GBG, don't tell me that you haven't noticed that GG has become a total Bethesda hater. I guess if I didn't have a life, I could post in every single Gothic/Risen/Tactica thread, saying how much they all suck. Instead, I just pity the extremely bitter creature that GG has become Is she Todd Howard's ex-wife? Did she ask out one of the devs and he/she shot her down?

Honestly, the graphics in Skyrim are awesome. It has been stated so by every single non-hater that has seen the game. Even FPS players are awed about how pretty Skyrim is, and that's saying something. FPS games have such limited area that their graphics should blow away most games. For that crowd to give a nod to Bethesda's graphics is high praise indeed.

It's really starting to be the norm here, which is too bad....I am looking forward to risen 2, but if you go in that thread it can do no wrong but any Skyrim gets nitpicked apart(although it is quite aparent that it has much better graphics then Risen 2)

Well I read the statement from GG at first and was about to post a "WTF, are you blind or just lying to yourself?!" post but I think maybe its a mischosen word. I know some non-native english speakers who will use graphics interchangeably with "visuals" as a whole.

Perhaps GG was referring to the art direction and style rather than the graphical fidelity. Yes they hate bethesda, but I would hesitate to assume they meant that how it read.

Replace "graphics" with "art direction and style choices" and it becomes something altogether less ridiculous though quite subjective and ultimately a matter of taste. Nonetheless, i presume that is what they most likely meant and it is a valid though debatable criticism - if one preferred the alien styling of Morrowind in particular. I would still question comparing it negatively to Oblivion though for which I could not see such an argument holding much subjective merit.

If that's not the case and this isn't just a misunderstanding of the connotation of the word "graphics" as used then I'll have to agree with GhanBuriGhan; I could probably learn how to be more concise from them too.