The Elder Scrolls - Rumor: V is a Direct Sequal

Interesting.

The newest Bethesda Newsletter speaks of a recently aquired developing studio called "MachineGames" of Sweden, formerly named (as the newsletter states) "Starbreeze Studios", which was bought by Zenimax,
and that it is already working on an "unannounced project" which is based on "id tech 5 engine".

GothicGothicness said:

It means no change to the gameplay, just much better looking 3d-graphics.

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Could be, could be, regarding this newsletter.

rich ruffo said:

I wish this game would have IDs technology and the Developers from Arx Fatalis, One can dream cant they.

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Perhaps your dream became partially true.


The only drawback in this is that they are directly going for the "graphics whores" types of gamers.

Which most likely will give them LOTS of über-points in reviews, and LOTS of graphically impressed people,
but those who prefer story and "intensity" over graphics might just be alienated by yet another company.

TheMadGamer said:

Is it too early to start bitching about the game and saying how lame it is compared to Oblivion?

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Sorry but this made me lough out loud at work

max killen said:

Where is the pre-order list? Sign me up

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Me Neither

DArtagnan said:

This should be interesting.

1. Hire a good writer.
2. Hire a good animator.
3. Hire a good gameplay systems designer.

Profit

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My exact opinion also.They can create game worlds but cant create good story's or animations.Despite that the games sell well some how.

Couchpotato said:

My exact opinion also.They can create game worlds but cant create good story's or animations.Despite that the games sell well some how.

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I think a lot of people enjoy world exploration with few (or no?) boundaries - I know some for whom the quest (s) are really secondary. Admittedly, seeing the same old ruins with the same old creatures time and again gets tired after awhile. Fortunately fan mods come to the rescue. Seems a little unfair though that the fans have to finish the game for the them (with no compensation!)

Actually, they tell pretty good stories but all the main quests have been really weak. The side-quests are generally pretty entertaining. I liked Mazoga the Orc, Aleswell, and many of the little quests. It's just the "epic" quest that kinda ends up sucking. It's not the reason I play TES games, so I can overlook the main quest. I liked Michael, Barus and the GrandMaster as people, but the whole invasion of Oblivion was meh.

I'm totally looking forward to the next sandbox game, of course.

It´ll be interesting to see how much inspiration they´ll take from mods and what they´ll do with level scaling which, at least in its Oblivion iteration, through times became pretty much unanimously frowned upon.
I´m also quite interested in the art direction, just showing pics/vids of lush vegetation to lure people on visuals won´t work nowadays.
Radiant AI will become superpolygonal AI or something like that I´m sure, and will be as hilarious as ever.

Anyway, can´t say I´m exactly happy I could burst seeing this is in works, but I kinda expect a lot of intrigue following this game´s development/marketing.

A sequel is just a sequel, it is always direct.

JDR13 said:

Great… Bethesda finally decides to make a direct sequel, and they choose the worst ES game to make a sequel for.

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Oblivion is the direct sequel of Morrowind. So why would the next TES be anything different.

I don't get why people think Direct Sequel means anything else.

What they mean is that TESV will be the sequel to TESIV which was the sequel to TESIII.

This means a change of location, a jump of a few decades in narative, a new story in which a new hero rises. Graphic changes and gameplay changes (good or bad depending about how one feels about the direction of said changes). I'm betting that animation will not be improved, and I don't really care.

The Direct Sequel bit was a dumb way of saying it won't be an MMO, Adventure (Redguard) or Legend (Battlespire) offshoot.

It will instead be a sequel in the tradition of the main series (Arena, Daggerfall, Morrowind and Oblivion).

And I'm glad they will be using Gamebryo. I have yet to see a different engine that could pull off presenting an open world with hundreds of detailed interriors. And be able to implement the types of quests an ES game has.

The Gamebryo bashing is simply a fad that many people seem content on perpetuating. They often bring up new engines that supposedly look great but have hitherto only been used as shooter engines or open world engines that are (yet) missing some elements that are needed in a BGS game.

Gamebryo is a just a platform, they don't need to use the same assets on the engine. It could push more pixels and textures and load areas as we have all seen with mods. Lets just hope for some real writing. It took me 130 hours to dislike Oblivion, so I guess that means I got my moneys worth!

JuliusMagnus said:

And I'm glad they will be using Gamebryo. I have yet to see a different engine that could pull off presenting an open world with hundreds of detailed interriors. And be able to implement the types of quests an ES game has.

The Gamebryo bashing is simply a fad that many people seem content on perpetuating. They often bring up new engines that supposedly look great but have hitherto only been used as shooter engines or open world engines that are (yet) missing some elements that are needed in a BGS game.

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And it always focuses on Oblivion and Fallout 3 (And now Vegas). It almost never revolves around other games like Civilization IV, Freedom Force and a good number of other Gamebryo-based games.

I've played all the TES games and more or less I thought each game had its own set of pros and cons. In my own opinion, I think all of the TES games, from the perspective of the points in time each were released, offered good value for the money, if you like these types of games.

I loved Arena so much that I volunteered and was accepted as a Beta tester for Daggerfall. That was a fun experience despite the ‘buginess’ of that game. It also showed me how the gaming community is splintered to the extent that games of these types cannot be released to the gaming community without small but militant groups of dissatisfied gamers showering the message boards with hate mail.

What has always amused me is this fairly consistent pattern that repeats itself with each new TES game, hence my first post in this thread.

Essentially, the pattern goes like this:

Arena is released. Well this is the first game in the series which kicks off the pattern for the next releases.

Daggerfall is released. Small but militant groups protest loudly on CompuServe how much the game sucks compared to Arena. Clearly, the series is DOA.

Morrowind is released. Small but militant groups protest loudly on various internet forums how great Daggerfall was and how far the series has fallen with Morrowind.

Oblivion is released. Small but militant groups protest loudly on various internet forums how great Morrowind was and how far the series has fallen with Oblivion.

I expect, fully, for this pattern to repeat itself with TES V. To be sure, I'll have my bowl of popcorn at the ready to enjoy the show.

Too me Fallout 3, NV, and Oblivion all look similar and have a similar "feeling". Isn't that due to how Bethesda uses the engine? I doubt that would change if they continue to use it.

I guess after sinking so many hours into Oblivion, I am still burned out on it, and would like something different…

It won't be the iDTech engine. http://pc.ign.com/articles/111/1112464p1.html

I'm guessing it's either thier new engine or it's Gambryo again since they've said they have worked on adding stuff to it since after FO3.

Can't wait, they do the most dynamic and most detailed RPG worlds out there, only the first Gothic games are close to that attention to detail..

Thrasher said:

Too me Fallout 3, NV, and Oblivion all look similar and have a similar "feeling". Isn't that due to how Bethesda uses the engine? I doubt that would change if they continue to use it.

I guess after sinking so many hours into Oblivion, I am still burned out on it, and would like something different…

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Yes. Basically it's the same permutation but advanced - Think BG1 to BG2. It's also why, in my opinion, a lot of Unreal Engine 3 games "feel" the same - Because it's the same engine.

JuliusMagnus said:

Oblivion is the direct sequel of Morrowind. So why would the next TES be anything different.

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Then why do they suddenly feel the need to use that phrase when they didn't in the past? Why not just say "sequel"?

Of course everyone will have their own opinion of what a direct sequel is, but most don't consider it "direct" when there's no significant connection in storyline and characters.

As long as they don't ditch the spellmaking system (to "streamline" the game), I'm a sure buyer. I loved Oblivion

I'd love to cast spells like in Arx :
Doing those figures on the screen with your character pronouncing
the phonetics of your letters.

That was cool.

bemushroomed said:

It won't be the iDTech engine. http://pc.ign.com/articles/111/1112464p1.html

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So what is MachineGames working on, then ?

enodenroH said:

I'd love to cast spells like in Arx :
Doing those figures on the screen with your character pronouncing
the phonetics of your letters.

That was cool.

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Meh. I loved Arx but didn't care much for scribing glyphs on the screen with my mouse.

TheMadGamer said:

Meh. I loved Arx but didn't care much for scribing glyphs on the screen with my mouse.

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How about using kinect

Actually, that doesn't sound that bad and a heck of a lot easier to make those symbols in the air with your hand than with a mouse.