What CVG Wants to See in The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

As it turns out, CVG’s briefing of what they want to see in The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim actually reads much more like a suggestive preview than the standard list affair you might have been expecting.

This is another way that Bethesda can make the Skyrim world feel more real and alive. It’s also an idea that was nicely executed in the Fallout series: random encounters.

We love random encounters in open world games – whether we stumble upon two NPCs duking it out, stumble upon a gang hunting or even get caught up in an unprovoked ambush, it just makes us smile.

It doesn’t have to be NPC activity either, the Fallout games have all kinds of quirky, semi-hidden little locations for players to stumble upon if they happen upon the entrance. Sometimes they contain stashes of ammo or a particularly rare gun, for example, but more often than not we like them simply because they make us feel like we’ve discovered something no-one has.

Mostly though, these random encounters and hidden locations aren’t in anyway connected to the main quest, which is crucial. They make the world feel lived and give the player a sense of being a part of something bigger rather than being the centre of the universe. We want to see loads of them in Skyrim; big and little, epic, emotional, funny and quirky – more is definitely more.