THE ELDER SCROLLS V ANNOUNCED (OFFICIALY)

[Sean_W]

How do you know what engine it's using?

If they're using the old engine then they just need to up the detail level. Fallout 3 turned out to be a better than I expected with very good object draw distance.

[Johnny C]

Yay!

[ArrowMk84]

After Fallout NV, I feel a lot better about the Gamebryo engine, as it was far more stable than it was with FO3 and Oblivion (and yes, its extremely aggravating that it took four games to get most of the bugs worked out...). That said, they better replace the animation engine and the graphics engine in general (its really showing its age). From a mod standpoint, while it has its quirks, its far easier to work with than Dragon Age or Mass Effect (Mass Effect mods? what are those?). Also, having the same engine since Morrowind has been a plus for the mod community, as it takes no time at all for the usually community tools (script extender, Oblivion/FO3/FNV Edit and the mod manager) to get ported to the latest game. I also expect to see a huge number of oblivion mods updated for Skyrim in short order.

The real problem now of days (based on FNV) is quest bugs. QA really needs to pay attention to that this go around.

Now, I am bias toward Oblivion and FO3/FNV over Mass Effect and Dragon Age. Don't get me wrong, I love ME and DA, and they are far more story focused, but they are also more restrictive in terms of gameplay (i.e class/skill mixing) and environment (multiple closed areas, some of which are only available at certain times) than Bethseda's games. I'm willing to put up with a lot more bull**** for an open world, go anywhere do anything type game than I am for a more restrictive experience. Oblivion and Fallout give the player near total freedom in the game world, and that incurs far, far more technical risk (and far higher bug counts) than games like DA and ME.

[newparad1gm]

My excitement for this game is tempered by the fact that they are still using Gamebryo. However, a wiki lookup actually shows this engine is very versatile and has come a long way. Apparently even Morrowind used an earlier iteration of the engine, along with Sid Meier's Pirates and Civ IV and Dark Age of Camelot. So maybe if the jump is as big for Skyrim's version of the Gamebryo engine as it was between Morrowind and Oblivion, then there's hope yet (and probably new bugs as well).

[Destroy]

Meh seems to be my favorite word lately. Games of late do not impress me much lately, this trailer included.

My view would change considerably if I knew for fact that it was a PC designed game, not a console rooted one.

[Gregor976]

All they need to do is use nice large textures to start with this time instead of waiting for enthusiasts to make texture packs themselves, and listen to gamers about interface/leveling issues.

How many of you guys that are complaining about the engine used any of the addon texture packs? It looked like a different game with those. Those texture packs helped distant terrain look more natural and close up textures were 10x better looking.

If the engine is updated with physx, tessellation etc... and some of the clipping and other bugs were squashed, that would be alright too.

In some ways I liked Daggerfall better than Morrowind or Oblivion. I've played every elder scrolls game too. Arena, Battlespire, Redguard, Daggerfall, Morrowind, Oblivion. The java games don't count.

I'm looking forward to it. Next Christmas is a long time to wait and I can't remember offhand a single release that didn't take longer than their original announcement.

[mojoman0]

goofy engine with crap hand to hand combat. We need Project Offset, or the fighting mechanics of Dark Messiah...

[Sean_W]

Originally Posted by Gregor976

All they need to do is use nice large textures to start with this time instead of waiting for enthusiasts to make texture packs themselves, and listen to gamers about interface/leveling issues.

How many of you guys that are complaining about the engine used any of the addon texture packs? It looked like a different game with those. Those texture packs helped distant terrain look more natural and close up textures were 10x better looking.

Yes but those textures can take up gigabytes of extra space. I cannot see them shipping another DVD just for some extra textures for the PC.

Will the consoles spoil the graphics? Well Fallout 3 looked kind of mushy to me and I thought Oblivion looked better considering how old it is.

[nekrosoft13]

Originally Posted by jlippo

Sadly Bioware doesn't seem to be interested on doing RPGs anymore.
Although their Eroges seem to be a hit.

Dragon Age 2 looks and plays like ****.

But Oblivion wasn't any better.

[Gregor976]

Originally Posted by mojoman0

goofy engine with crap hand to hand combat. We need Project Offset, or the fighting mechanics of Dark Messiah...

DM combat is alright. What do you think of The Witcher combat?

[ArrowMk84]

Originally Posted by Sean_W

Yes but those textures can take up gigabytes of extra space. I cannot see them shipping another DVD just for some extra textures for the PC.

Which is part of the reason while the graphics engine needs to be replaced with something modern, so you don't need those gigabytes of textures for the game to look good.

Will the consoles spoil the graphics? Well Fallout 3 looked kind of mushy to me and I thought Oblivion looked better considering how old it is.

That wasn't a console issue - that was art direction. There are many mods that address lighting, weather and greenery for FO3, including removing that damn green tint from the game.

[Sean_W]

Originally Posted by ArrowMk84

Which is part of the reason while the graphics engine needs to be replaced with something modern, so you don't need those gigabytes of textures for the game to look good.



That wasn't a console issue - that was art direction. There are many mods that address lighting, weather and greenery for FO3, including removing that damn green tint from the game.

Well yeah, you can use lots of shaders like Crysis but it doesn't scale very well. DXTC is old but it's a damn good technology and something developers just don't fully take advantage of. We should probably blame Microsoft, they brought S3 over 10 years ago and took S3TC technology and haven't improved it.

S3 where demoing 1024x1024 textures over 10 years ago.