The Fellowship of the Dragonborn (pun intended)

I once read something, by a very smart random guy on the internet: "As I lack the necessary social skills to make real life friends, companions in RPG's mean a lot to me."
In a way, I think that that is true for me as well and probably also for many others.

Oh, don't worry. This big slap I just gave everyone including myself has a point to it. I think it compensates more than enough for social retardation plaguing my mind <--- (Seriously, I don't really mind all of that, I'm just exaggerating.)

The point is that Skyrim will feature companions and many more than in Fallout 3,  if any of you landlubsters played that. Fallout featured few, but very engaging companions with unique background stories and personalities - Fawkes, I particularly liked! You know, 1: He had a minigun with an unlimited supply of ammo and 2: He was big, green, bad-ass and pretty much immortal.

The companions in Skyrim will however be heavier in quantity (meaning that there are more) but the quality has been taken down a peck or two. The companions you can find in Skyrim will have their own unique personalities, but their will not be deep, engaging background stories to spend hours listening to in a pathetic attempt to please the fictional character. As cute as these sessions were, I am fine with being rid of them.

Since they are your companions, they follow you around. We don't quite know how the command system is yet. Maybe like Fallouts? Still, we know that we won't be managing their levelling the least. They take care of the whole attribute / perk thing themselves, but different companions will have different perks and herefore fight differently.

A thing that I would like to see is something random and awesome. Say you have a low relationship with a "Chaotic Neutral" companion and you find a great big treasure - suddenly, greed overtakes him and he forces his hand on you (not attempted rape, just murder.) Naturally, you kill him for his insolence with a blade to the heart and a pool of pee on the corpse.

That would be great - that would make sure that they all aren't drooling followers of your leadership. Make it a trust thing.

Hoola Boola! Companions can also mean pets, BTW. We know that the first companion you receive is a pet named Wilbur, who'll help you fight. What the hell Wilbur is, I don't know and remains to be seen. I've already written an entire article on Wilbur, so I'll let that topic rest now.

This is a random Naruto picture - There is no specific reason for this to be here, whatsoever.

We have confirmed Marriage BTW - Maybe we'll even be able to woo our companions? Who knows?

What is this, an orphanage?!

You know, it is said that we learn something everyday. For instance, I learned yesterday that snoopy has a hard time with his German grammar.

It would seem that Bethesda has learned that the likelihood of an entire nation without any children, is near zero.

No child left behind

They first integrated kids in Fallout 3, and dazzled as we were, I guess we didn't give it that much thought. It's not like there were a lot of them, unless you went to little lamp light, which between a maze of dark, unruly caves and pestering younglings, was a fricken hell. Blasted kids.

A lot of people have questioned Oblivion since then. How come there are no kids in Oblivion? What, do people just... "appear?" This isn't like the dwarves of LotR, so Bethesda has heard your prayers and designed little snot-noses (kids) to roam the cities in Skyrim, which in a neat way, also opens up for more quest possibilities.

For the same obvious reasons that applies in Fallout, are the kids in Skyrim essential, meaning that they can't be killed. Who would want to kill a child anyway? (This guy!) Besides, why include that option when we know that it'll get them a horde of furious parents with the ethically view point that that is "just sick and wrong?"
I am also sure that Bethesda realises that one of the first mods we're gonna see is one that allows us to put a bullet in one of these little punks, without having them stand up again. ever.

Skyrim story... Discontinued?

Some people have been wondering, whether the game will end or continue, after you've defeated Alduin and completed the games main quest.

The reason for the distress is that the team made it so that Fallout 3 ended, after completing the main quest. Fans were in a rage and Bethesda took notice, which is why they changed it in their expansion pack.

So will they pull the same stunt in Skyrim? The answer is no. That has been confirmed. They really took notice to the uproar in Fallout, and will probably never do it again.

Which means that you can continue to wander the wastes, tundras, forests and mountains of Skyrim, even after you've completed your heroic world-saving quest.

New engine & Havok Behaviour

Everyone who played Oblivion, Fallout 3 and Fallout: New Vegas, will have noticed that all of these games share one thing: The Engine.

Not that I would call that an issue, although it is part of what made fans say that Fallout was, and I quote, "Oblivon with guns."

Since 2006, however, we have grown weary of watching the same engine at work, time after time. A magnificent job as it does, its time is over and we must wave goodbye with a tear in our eyes, all the while knowing that it had a good, long life with lots of joy.

Now, say hello to Skyrim anno 2011, using a brand new engine, developed by Bethesda themselves and planned for use during their next couple of games.

The engine features stunning possibilities, as you all may have seen.

The team is using Havok Behaviour technology for their animations, which is a huge step up. So you better be fricken excited!