Skyrim - Preview Roundup

The Bethblog has a roundup of recent previews and interviews on Skyrim from around the web. I'm pretty sure we've covered everything worthwhile but here's a straight rip just in case:

• OXM UK brings their Skyrim coverage online with a preview, podcast interview with Pete, and an interview with Todd. And for those with Xbox LIVE in the UK, you can check out video interviews conducted with Todd Howard and Bruce Nesmith.
• Planet Elder Scrolls interviewed me to celebrate the site’s 10th anniversary (congrats!).
• G4TV and IGN show how far BGS have come with Skyrim in comparison to Oblivion.
• A nice user-made piano tribute to Skyrim’s theme.
• Rolling Stone leads off their feature on the biggest games of 2011 with Skyrim. Article also mentions RAGE.
• NowGamer and Game Rant discuss what’s been learend about the game so far.
• CVG discuss what they want to see in Skyrim.

More information.

Dhruin -

The links for "preview" and "interview with Todd" are identical - both dated March 7th. Are these new?

"The number of people playing Oblivion on consoles definitely trumps what you d ever see on the PC"

(planet elder scrolls interview). Sad, but true.

kalniel said:

"The number of people playing Oblivion on consoles definitely trumps what you d ever see on the PC"

(planet elder scrolls interview). Sad, but true.

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I remember when some PC gamer asked on their forum shortly after Oblivion came out how much more the PC version sold. One of the community managers corrected him and said "the Xbox versions is selling many, many times more than the PC version." The guy was shocked, amazed, he could not believe it. I wondered where he had been for the 3 or so years previous.

Well, Bethesda games really are much better on PC than on consoles, despite being designed for consoles. The rather obvious reason: Modding.

Modding has been growing more and more limited on these type of games. Most mods are flavour balance mods as overhaul mods that were possible require too much efforts.

ChienAboyeur said:

Modding has been growing more and more limited on these type of games. Most mods are flavour balance mods as overhaul mods that were possible require too much efforts.

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I wouldnt say it's limited or has turned limited at all. It's far better than any other game series out there. If you by "overhaul" mean total conversion mods these are the least common for any game, because it takes years of effort and a big team, but mods like Nehrim proves it can be done.

bemushroomed said:

I wouldnt say it's limited or has turned limited at all. It's far better than any other game series out there. If you by "overhaul" mean total conversion mods these are the least common for any game, because it takes years of effort and a big team, but mods like Nehrim proves it can be done.

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To add to this point that overhaul mods can potentially be created, two of the finest mods I've ever played were for Rome: Total War. Rome: Total Realism and Europa Barbarorum still stand as the most impressive pieces of work that I have personally ever seen from a modding community.

Yes Total War has a really active modding community as well, with many TC's, never played any of those though.. They have a big LOTR TC too that seemed really impressive.

They can be done but they require too much efforts to flow in. That is what I mean. See for example a game like Mount&Blade/M&B:Warband to notice how 'total' conversion mods are quick to come, which gives the game quick after release a second life.

Some fans put a lot of efforts into efforts, which does not remove that for these type of games, 'total conversion' kind of mods require too much efforts to flow in.

There are several aspects to that - for one, the TES construction sets were never dsigned as "campaign-making tools", e.g. like the NWN toolset. Its just a polished up content developer interface allowing to do many things, but simply not designed for enduser campaign-making.
Secondly the whole setup of the way mods work in TES is that they can seamlessly "integrate" into the main game. That naturally creates an emphasis on "addon" and "improvement" mods rather than total conversions. However, there are quite a lot of quest mods that integrate into the base game (for both MW and Ob), and some are quite long.
Another problem, i think, comes from the nature of the base game. Since these TES games are so big and sprawling (and that is one of their main selling points), many total conversions aim at something similar: whole provinces, huge islands, entire continents even. Naturally such projects rarely succeed. If people would aim at a more realistic (but less TES-like) scale, we could see way more TC mods.
A final aspect is that the art has reached a level that requires considerable know how and resources to produce at similar quality. Many people have the expectation that a TC should also mean "completely new art" - this is another barrier.

Here's a suggestion I wish for:

CGV said:

What's hardcore mode when it's in a game like Elder Scrolls? It's a mode takes the role-playing element of the game and simply widens your responsibility. Where as normally you'd only have to think about keeping your ammo and health supplies plentiful (easy enough), Hardcore Mode makes eating, drinking, sleeping and healing more realistic in terms of application and effect, and then dumps them on your lap and says "Here are some other things you have to deal with if you don't want to die."

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One issue though is that it decreases the possibility of time bomb clicking over the hero's head main quest as it forces the player to interact with the environment to support himself on a regular basis.
Could give life to a ranger character type: hunting in the woods, living off the meat of preys and selling the hide.
This and no fast travel option could lead to struggling in the universe simply to support oneself.

There are mods that do that in Morrowind, Oblivion, Fallout 3, extensions to the one in Fallout: New Vegas, and probably will be for Skyrim also.

PS. That includes the no fast travel for most of the above games.

Yup, thats exactly the kind of stuff mods for Bethesda games do very well.

I played some of them. That is what I refered as balance mods (not having to eat/drink being an imbalance from my point of view)
I'd prefer it to be a feature developped by the studio. The integration of the feature possibly fits better. I never managed to get used to either Morrowind/Oblivion 'hunger' mods I tried as I felt them as attachment features that did not fully blend in. The penalties they imposed felt artificial, being applied harshly.
Added to that, they might have come with other modifications I did not welcome.

An integrated feature, if well done, has more tones than a mod can provide. The 'hunger' mod I tried for Oblivion applied penalties on strength. Hunger and its degrees could come with different symptoms difficult to provide with a mod.

That must have been a very basic mod since I know there are mods for Morrowind and Oblivion that do more then that.

Oblivion mods
http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=24079
http://forums.bethsoft.com/index.php?/topic/1162461-relz-bare-necessities

Morrowind
http://forums.bethsoft.com/index.php?/topic/1142629-rel-necessities-of-morrowind-30/

PS. I don't use mods like this myself because I don't really like being forced to eat, drink, and sleep in games. There was one exception and that was the Might & Magic games which was really basic and I didn't really mind it.

Number of PC Sales != Number of PCs on which the game is being played

Ok i watched the video comparison , OB had much more bloom .
I still don't get what is the point of making comparisons between 2006 (?) and 2001 .

Most people including the devs are forgetting about best mod ever "curry your bedroll"