The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Preview

AtomicGamer has doled out their own hands-on preview of The Elder Scrolls V: Skryim, with the brief article being based on time they spent with the game at this year’s PAX Prime.  The usual snippet:

I created a character, and made him both tough looking and kind of fancy. I don’t know, that’s how I roll with heroes: dark goatees and blond crew cuts. I have weird tastes in heroes; one time I’ll model a female warrior off of a New Mexico soccer vixen, another time I’ll make a mage who only studies magic in order to turn himself into a woman. Of course, I fill in all these blanks myself, but Skyrim’s visual creator leaves nothing to the imagination. You can create a very womanly looking man, trust me.

And so I did, and sent him skipping into the world! The environment is beautifully rendered in Bethesda’s hyper-real style, and you just know that fascinating details lurk in every stream and over every hill, just like this development team has been doing for most of twenty years.

Girding myself for danger, I equipped a sword in one hand, and fire in the other. Yes, you can basically equip magic as a weapon now, and wield a real weapon at the same time. I tended to use fire first and sword second, because I didn’t want to cut someone and then just cauterize the wound. I wanted to cook them, and then see how well done they were. (Then slice them up and make steaks – aww, but the only cannibalism you’ll apparently be resorting to is of the liquid diet variety after taking the opportunity to become a vampire. Yes, vampirism has been confirmed to be in the game but wasn’t present in the build we played.)