The Scenery of Skyrim

And here we've got a little collection of pictures, featuring the scenery of: Da-da-da-daaaaam - Skyrim

Why you should choose the path of: Stealth

Continuing on from where we left on with magic, it's now Stealth's turn to show up on our radar and get a chance in the spotlight. Stealth has always been my favoured method of combat in every game, probably explaining my never-ending love for Assassins Creed, but more importantly, The Elder Scrolls have been no exception to my stealth addiction, which is why excitement should arise around this post! I'm excited - Are you?

Remain unseen and unheard
Stealth was nice in Oblivion, but it had its flaws. For one, it was easy to be forced into it, simply not to be noticed by enemies who shouldn't even be able to spot you in the first place. But as with everything else, stealth has been improved in Skyrim, finally allowing us to utilize our ninja potential.

Stealth or no, if we're not in line of sight, enemies won't spot us and that is it! Hur-f'ing-ray [Insert happy smiley!] Also, in contrast to Oblivion, the stealth-marker is no longer just "visible" or "invisible," but actually it is shaped like an eye, opening as you get closer to being spotted and of course it closes the other way around, allowing you to adapt to the movement of your enemies.

As always, the factors to take into account when you are sneaking is three-fold:

1. Line of Sight
2. Darkness
3. Noise

As said, if you are not in their LoS, they won't notice you, unless they're around the corner and making a big racket - If you are, then you're not ninja anyway! I think the best way to describe it, is that it'll be realistic and just leave it at that. The amount of darkness you are standing in can also benefit you; The darker, the better.

Then there is noise - This is where you want to use small weapons and light shoes to remain undetected.

Deal some serious damage!
If attacking whilst stealthed, you can multiply your damage. Also, Bethesda finally pays heed to the classic stealth rule and makes daggers the preferred weapon, granting not only more bonus stealth-damage when attacking with it, but also making it less likely to produce loud noise.

McBraas suggests: Dagger and Bow

Lockpicking
People (Brad) has been asking for info on this and I gave it to them (him,) but I will hurl ya'll an explanation here, given that lockpicking is a classic skill of the stealth-user (ninja.)

Did you play Fallout 3? Or perhaps New Vegas? If so, then you already have the answer as to what lockpicking will be like in Skyrim, 'cause it is completely identical - You use turn the pin around until you find the right spot and then you just crack it open; If you got the wrong spot, the pin breaks.

Crafting skill: Alchemy
Alchemy has now become the primary crafting skill of the Assassin, or thief, or whatever. It is quite the surprise, given that it commonly resides to the magicians to make potions. Unfortunately, I never get the one potion I want, transforming people into pigs - but I'll live.

In order to brew the radest poison, you'll need to travel all over Skyrim, due to the 7 different major climates of the land. Exactly what kind of poisons, other than damage dealing ones, we can brew - Well... That's exciting.

Guilds
The sneaky types will have two guilds speaking to them.

For the more peaceful types, we have the Thieves' guild, located in the sewers beneath Riften. Nothing beyond that is known about the guild so far. Hopefully most of the heists will be as big and epic as the last one we did in Oblivion. That. Was. Epic.

For the more awesome types, we've got The Dark Brotherhood, making their return of awesomeness. As we seep into our dark robes, sit down in our optimal-comfort chairs, boot up our personal computers and double click the Skyrim icon on 11.11.11, the first thing dwindling in our minds is this: Where the fuck do I find My family? My Brotherhood?! - And why will we be doing that, exactly? Well, we're pathological escapists, but foremost we see the brotherhood for what it is: Awesome!
Anywho, as far as I've gathered, we need to do a specific quest, gained from a child, which will catch their attention, meaning that killing an innocent will no longer cut it. Not that I'm stopping you, mind you.

Takedown
Like the melee path, stealth features takedowns, "one-shotting" your victims with your vicious blade.
There are several types, so be excited!

Just adding some screens...

... Revealing your full-blown, naked... Skyrim fanatasy!
Most of these are screenshots of the GTTV footage, which I stole from another site that wrote on the "weapons," which I really don't care about TBH. There's also a screen I haven't seen before, but evidently it ain't new.

Bears!

I like bears - they speak to me (Not literally.) Therefore, I was very disappointed with the bears in Oblivion - and I was like 13 years back then; I had next to no standards. Why was the bears disappointing, you ask? They were puny! Bears are supposed to be large, threatening and majestic, causing you to cower in fear as they broaden their massive body in an attempt to frighten us, whilst they neatly extract their razor-sharp claws and bash us with their uncontrollably strong paws, breaking every bone in our relatively weak soon-to-be-crushed cranium.

They didn't do that.
They were small and laughable. Puny! PUNY! The puniness of the puny bears, was so puny that it was puny by puniness standards!

But never again! I've spotted bears twice now, as I've been covering Skyrim and the first time made me shiver in fear for them being puny again - I'm referring to the picture of a player with a "bound bow," about to blow a little brown bear to hell. It had me worried that that was all we were going to get, but after seeing a bear in the recent GTTV footage, I'm convinced that the bear from the picture is a fricken cub!

The GTTV bear is the fricken most dangerous thing I've ever seen! Finally the bears get the respect they deserve! It stand up on its two legs, showing off its brute and intimidating figure, and roars in rage. Da-da-da-da-daaaaam - I'm lovin' it!

List of Dragon Shouts

Time to make a list of dragon shouts - It was requested and I thought to myself: Why, that is a brilliant idea! GLEE!!!!!


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Anyway, let us begin - Once again I encourage you to make a comment, should I forget anything, which I probably won't (will.)

Should you have any questions on Dragon Shouts, I recommend you have a look at my Dragon Shouts post.

So, I'll build the list up like this:
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• Dragon Shout name (Not necessarily official) - Description

• Word 1 (Meaning) - Details
• Word 2 (Meaning) - Details
• Word 3 (Meaning) - Details

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Shout List:

• Unrelenting Force - Fires a shockwave of force energy, capable of stunning and pushing aside enemies of front of you.
• Fus (Force)
• Ro (Balance)
• Dah (Push)

• Fire Breath - Breath Fire (duh!)
• Yol (Fire)
• Toor (Inferno) - Extends time breathing fire
• Krein (Sun) - Extends even further

• Animal Allegiance - Summon a creature you aid you in battle
• ? - Summon a lowly or common creature
• ? - Assumption: An even rarer and powerful creature
• Dovah (Dragon) - Summon a dragon to aid you in combat (It's a specific dragon that you have to meet and befriend before you can use this shout - possibly you get the word at the same place that you meet the dragon.)

• Whirlwind Sprint - Allows the player to run forward at incredible speed.
• ?
• ?
• ?

• Storm Call - Call forth a storm that'll rain deadly lightning bolts.
• Strun (Storm)
• Bah (Lightning)
• Qo (Wrath) - [Found in Bleak Falls Barrow]

• Ice Form - Call forth Ice [Different shout levels have different effects]
• Liz (Ice) - ?
• Slen (Flesh) - Fire a torrent of Ice Crystals
• Nus (Statue) - Encase your enemy/enemies in a block of ice (Don't know if it's plural or singular)

• Slow Time - Slow Time (DUH!)

• Tiid (Time) 
• Klo (Sand) - Extends time
• Ul (Eternity) - Extends time even further

• Elemental Fury - Shout at your equipped weapon(s,) causing wind to from around them, increasing your attack speed greatly
• ?
• ?
• ?
• Ethereal Shout - Take on an ethereal form, making you immune to all types of damage and making you incapable of dealing damage.
• ?
• ?
• ?

Mai'q the Liar

"Hello everyone! I'm ba-ack!"

But I wanted to be a Lycan!!

I have hundreds of things that I'm excited about, when it comes to Skyrim and whilst Lycanthropy isn't exactly on the top of my priority list, I can't help but feel a little let down by the resent "spoiler" (notice quotations.) It just so happens that it was revealed that werewolves won't be a part of the initial release, disappointing many and motivating quite a lot of fans to post angry comments of Pete Hines' twitter wall - Luckily Pete Hines is bad ass and can take it; Hell, it's his job!

But yes, your concerns are not misplaced. but as always I'd like to emphasize one thing: DLC.

If you be patient and await the DLC, then I am sure we'll gain access to some lycanthropy goodness - It was always clear that the chances of getting werewolves in the initial release were slim, but now it's a matter of waiting, and since you'll be happily playing Skyrim in about 3-4 weeks, I'm sure time will pass for you easily!

Should they screw us over on the DLC, well then a riot and a series of petty mods is in order and tradition!

But hey! Whilst you wait, enjoy vampirism! (Not cool at all, I know.)

About those new pictures...

... You've probably seen or heard of: I'm gonna post them here. Now. In front of everybody. Unless you do as I say and let me see your nake....
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... Oops - Wrong site.

Well, heck! I guess I've got some pictures for you too!

The rumored, already seen, and pretty dull Guardian Stone

One of the anticipated "Stealth takedowns!" Now we can finally feel like real assassins!

The northern light of Skyrim - Ain't it gorgeous? It's like a sea of fiery death... Or a rainbow :D

For some reason, this is my favorite picture so far. It made me think of how the world will just suck us in and make us feel like we're actually in Skyrim. Immersion!!! IMMERSION!!!

Is this new or old? I think it's new, but... Yeah, it's new. Just for safety, I might disable comments on this post.

This guy is fucking rude (Draugr Deathlord BTW.) It's like he doesn't even want us present! 

I like this one - It says: [Insert text]

List of known spells

So we have a list of known mobs, which is great, but what I'd really like to make a list of, is what awesome magic we get to see in Skyrim - Spell time!

As you know, each spell in Skyrim has its own unique animation and look, making it all the more worthwhile to learn it, as opposed to Oblivion, where all the spells looked alike, to the point where I my mouth got dry and my eyes got wet - Or that might just've been from eating raw NaCl, but honestly: who knows?

Let the list begin - I may very well forget some, so if I do, please throw it up in the comments or on the facebook page, and I'll add it to the list.

Destruction

• Fire
• Fireball
• Flamethrower
• Flame Rune (Trap)
• Ice
• Frostbite (Ice version of the Flamethrower)
• Ice Rune
• Lightning
• Lightning Stream

Illusion

• Frenzy / Fury - Sends your enemy into a fit of rage, attacking everyone in sight, even his comrades - Ranged spell.
• Detect Life - Detect life energy, even through walls and in darkness - The spell is active and drains mana as long as you hold down the "cast" button.

Conjuration

• Summon Atronach (So far, only 1 is confirmed)
• Frost Atronach
• Zombie Resurrection - Allows you to resurrect a fallen enemy as a zombie, to fight for you.

Alteration

• (Assumed Spells)
• Water Walking
• Water Breathing

Restoration

• Restore - Heal yourself

Dunno?

• Clairvoyance - Draw a path to your objective

Types'O'Dragons!

I love requests - It makes me feel needed and non-bored. Is there a word for that, BTW?
That aside, I was asked to make a list over the known types of dragons so far, so that is what I am going to do. We already did this on the facebook page a while ago, but I'll try to re-create our minimal work for you.

As one of the loading screens say: "There are more than a few types of dragons." Lets list up what we know in a bullet style list! Love bullets! Especially when they HURT PEOPLE!! (Kidding)

• Red Dragon (Fire Dragon?)
• Bronze Dragon
• Frost Dragon
• Black Dragon (Jill)
• White Dragons
• Reptile-like Green Dragons
• A Dragon described as: "Goldy kind of green," which is a potential new type, but might also just be the reptile-looking one.

See?! DRAGONS!!

So is this enough to add up to "More than a few?"

I don't feel that way personally, which is why I'd like to remind you that this is a list of the dragons that we know of - Not the "official Dragon List!"

*EDIT

Todd Howard has revealed that there are 6 main types of dragons, somewhat fitting out list.