A good, stealthy life

All in favor of sneaking in there and taking out all the guys with a few well placed arrows in their soon-to-be not so pretty nor complete skulls, raise your hand!

Is your hand raised? Mine sure is! My first play through Oblivion, I based my character completely on stealth, 'cause I thought that the system was the coolest I had ever seen in an RPG, which I still stand by today. Stealth games are great - Just think about Splinter Cell!

Still, it can always get better! In Skyrim they turn great into awesome on many points, but one has got to get high over the new stealth gameplay. If you've played Fallout 3, or New Vegas for that matter, you'll recognize these three stages of stealth:

• Hidden: Duh, you are hidden! No one sees you!
• Caution: Enemies are aware of your presence, but have not yet located you.
• Danger: You've been spotted and are most likely to get stabbed

I marvelled over this simple, yet entertaining system. If you did so too, then you'll be happy to know that it also exists in Skyrim! But there are more to it, my hairy friends! Once you reach the "Caution" phase, an eye on your screen will begin to open. The closer your enemies are to spotting you, the more the eye will open. This gives you time to adjust your movements, in case you wish to stay hidden. We are totally gonna go ninja on their ASSES!

But wait! There is more! Weapons! We all know that the classic RPG weapons for stealth-types are daggers, as well as bow and arrow. They got the ranged part right in Oblivion, which has even been improves. It takes longer to sting your bow in this game, but arrows damage a lot more, so now we can get the one-hit kills we deserve. That is the point of stealth after all.

Distracting a patron

Still, the melee thing didn't quite come across in Oblivion. It was actually more favorable to use a bigger weapon, given that it provided more damage. Again, Bethesda corrects their gruesome mistake. This time around, daggers will gain a much greater damage bonus, making it the most lucrative weapon of choice for us sneaky-types. There might even be a back-stab animation, but that is just speculation.

So that should be pretty simple. Weapons and Sneaking. That's all that there is to stealth, right? WRONG!! If you just thought that, then you are not a true ninja! There is in fact a crafting skill for all the major play styles, which includes Magic, Melee and Stealth.

The skill belonging to stealth is Alchemy, which will be a lot more interesting in Skyrim. I don't exactly know how, but Todd Howard said so. He also mentioned that it has something to do with the different climates, which probably means that if you want some of the "good" poison, you will have to travel all over to get the right ingredients. 

Frost Trap

I've also noticed that there are stealth-friendly spells! Like fire, frost and lightning. You can use them to place traps on the ground, that explodes when your enemies step on them. There are also detect life spells again and then there are what i suppose is a "frenzy" spell. Todd used it in the E3 demo, to get rid of two guards. He tossed the spell at one of them and he suddenly went nuts on the other one, thus eliminating 50% of the enemy pool. Huzzah! After such a trick, one may casually string ones bow and offer the remaining guard a poisoned arrow to one of his respective organs. 

I suppose that my cynical nature reveals my excitement for this function.

The return of X

You all remember the most awesome thing in Oblivion! I don't even have to say the name, so awesome is it. Everyone of you already knows what I am talking about. You know what? I'm just gonna call it X! You know what it is!

The first side-quest I got in Oblivion was the one about X. It was also the most important side-quest in the game. Therefore, I feel proud and a little drunk with passion to announce: X will be returning in Skyrim! That's right!! If you still felt like there was something missing, I'm guessing that that hole has been filled.

Is there again a quest to gather it and make über-potions? I don't know, but its mere presence will be enough to make my knees shake and my heart pound. It is one hundred percent confirmed!

A picture of X

Economic Crisis, soon to be!

 No, the title of this topic has nothing to do with real life, which none of us really care about.
Skyrim will feature a lot of awesome things, but I nearly pissed my G-string when I heard.... I mean, I nearly pissed my pants, when I first heard about this next part: Economy.

Riverwood

In a neat way, you could say that it has always been there, giving that you can both buy and sell stuff, as well as earn money by being peoples' handyman and by raiding dungeons. That's all very basic, but it would seem that the devs are expanding upon this system. Remember to take your birth control, 'cause these news will rock your world.

Cities will have their own, individual economy and as I've mentioned before, every NPC will have a job, which you also will be able to do, in order to earn money. The only example of the economical features of cities we've seen so far, is the town of Riverwood, visited in the E3 demo.

First up, we saw the Blacksmith of the town and some conversation features. We also saw the man, hailing lumber logs onto a woodchipper. And here I come to the interesting part: We can destroy the economy of the town! We're evil puppetmasters!! Or... I mean, we can be.... yeah.

You can destroy the lumber-thingy and you can steal the towns crops, or set it on fire I'm guessing, but it will of course have consequences. If you sabotage their lumber-stuff, then arrows, which are already more rare and expensive in this game, will cost more in the stores of said town as well as be smaller in quantity.

Lumber Mill

Decide to nuke their crops instead? Ha! Wait, I said instead! I meant: Decide to nuke their crops also? Then the same will happen to food and alchemy ingredients.

So there we go, economy in Skyrim, folks! Enjoy your day! I encourage you all to ruin your towns' economy for practice, so you're ready for the release.

Small details, big difference - Part I

As of Western RPG's, it has always been the small details, which add up to the big, and in The Elder Scrolls' case, often awesome picture. In the following article, I will show you what little details I've caught a glimpse of, which I personally think is very "def." (meaning cool.)

1. Holes and cracks in the roofs and ceilings of dungeons and ruins

Look at the detail!

2. Bats - In the E3 demo, we saw bats appearing, or more like fleeing, when the Dragonborn proceeded through Bleak Falls Barrow

Looks like we found the batcave!

3. When you summon a creature, it will enter out of a sort of Void / Portal thingy. In the demo, I got a short glimps of a Frost Atronach being summoned

Right now the Atronach is kinda crumbled together, and when it is out of the void, it stands up fully in a stunningly realistic motion.

Dwarven Ruins be back, lad!

Most of us who played Morrowind both remember and enjoyed the dwemer ruins, or dwarven ruins if you prefer. Morrowind was kind of an alien world, with giant mushrooms and strange creatures you don't normally see in western fantasy games. It also had Cliff Racers, which made us want to poke our eyes out, but that's another story.

To me, the dwarven ruins were sort of the only thing I could relate to except for stuff like grass and water. Naturally, not seeing them in Oblivion, was kind of a set back, yet a minor one. Instead they were "replaced" by Ayleid ruins, which in a way were also kind of cool.

It is however with great joy that I can announce the return of Dwarven ruins in Skyrim. I think it only fair to assume that they won't look that much alike those in Morrowind, though. It's exciting and you're happy, and that's final!