As I've mentioned previously, no, no arena

...Thus sounded the reply from Pete Hines, who were asked whether or not there would be an Arena in Skyrim. I've personally been aware of this fact for months, but evidently it ain't out there yet.

The arena in The Imperial City was one of the major Cyrodiilic attractions in Oblivion, allowing us to rise trough the different Gladiator ranks and eventually beat The Gray Prince and take his title as The Grand Champion. Maybe you performed his task as an easy way out of battling him, or maybe you stood up to him like a man and got your ass kicked - Never the less, you got there eventually.

After claiming championship of the arena, 2 things happened: first off, you could return each week to battle creatures and earn money for it, but more importantly you got an adoring fan; A small, chubby Bosmer with nothing but a need to be in your presence and follow your every command, most commonly resulting in having the player drag him to the top of a mountain, shoot him in the head with a well-placed arrow and watch with glee as he went all "rag-doll" down the mountain. Then we loaded and did it again.

Will we get an equivalent to the Adoring Fan in Skyrim? Who knows?! All we know so far is that there will definitely not be an Arena and I feel like maybe Pete Hines would appreciate it if people stopped asking. Just a guess, though.

Playable Races & Character Creation

So in Arena, we were able to choose between 8 races, which means that we were missing out on Imperials and Orcs. In Daggerfall they added the option of becoming a Vampire or a Lycanthrope, which in this case were either a werewolf or a wereboar, which, I am sorry, is just silly.

So did they add the remaining two in Morrowind? Yes, yes they did, and we love it! Indeed, these 10 races were also available in Oblivion. So will there be added any new races to the roster, in the upcoming title? No, there won't. The races remain Imperial, Orc, Redguard, Altmer, Dunmer, Bosmer, Breton, Imperial, Khajit, Nord and Argonian.

Disappointing as that may be for some, remember that 10 races is already a huge roster with many possibilities!

The team has already stated that they've worked hard on making each race a lot more unique, yet not more powerful than each other. They really want to give it a different feel when you play as an orc, as opposed to an Altmer, but still without any change in the gameplay. I am not totally sure of what they mean, but they really emphasize that there is a difference. They also mention that your race and gender, you be male and female, has an influence on how some people respond to you. In Morrowind we saw some heavy racism, especially from the Dunmers, but that kinda disappeared in Oblivion, since Cyrodiil is such a melting pot. Nonetheless, racism will return in Skyrim, especially given the turmoil after the collapse of the Septim Empire. As far as I've heard, Nords aren't too crazy about Dunmers and Altmers.

But lets take some time to talk about character creation. So far we've been allowed complete access to alter our characters face, and we will still be able to. Some Oblivion players will agree with me that the faces of Oblivion (I just popped a vein, whilst writing this,) eventually grew, well, ugly. We've been assured that making a cool character face will be A LOT easier. Besides, if you've seen the pictures, which you have 'cause they are in this post, you'll know that the faces looks absolutely gorgeous!

We'll have more options. By that I mean that we know can give our characters scars and a beard. That's right, we can finally create Chuck Norris, as we've always dreamed! The picture of an Orc and the one of a Redguard also shows a scar over each of their left eyes, killing the color of the pupil, turning it white. Awesome? Without a doubt! Have a look for yourselves!

Personally, I am set on creating an Orc! How about you?