Skyrim - Dragon Born, 7 Minutes of Footage, Preview

IGN has two E3 Skyrim features. The first is seven minutes of footage - I haven't compared this with the videos from yesterday but hopefully it offers something different.

Their second article is titled Dragon Born and looks at the role of dragons in the game:

The language of dragons -- these shouts -- are hidden throughout Skyrim, often carved into stone in the various dungeons of the world. Each dragon shout is formed by three words, each learned separately. The more words you know in a shout, stronger the effect. Knowing all three words of the shout can be immensely powerful. Discovering a word isn't enough. You still have to unlock its power in order to shout it. The key to unlocking the power of these words is in taking the lives of dragons.

You absorb the soul of every dragon you slay. One soul is strong enough to empower one word from any shout you've uncovered. Will you increase the potency of Fire Breath? Or Slow Time? Maybe you prefer the tornado style of Whirlwind Spirit. Just remember that this is the language of dragons, meaning that whatever you can shout, a dragon in Skyrim can shout right back at you. Good thing dragons can't hold battle axes or you might be in trouble.

Over at GameSpot there's an updated preview:

The demo began with some overlap with what was already covered back in April. Your character, living a renewed life after avoiding execution at the beginning of the game, faces a descending pathway leading down to a river in a heavily wooded area. Surrounding you are imposing mountaintops dusted with snow that immediately let you know that Skyrim is a different world from its predecessor. It's a harsh, northern frontier populated not only by dragons, but by giants and woolly mammoths as well.

The revamped game engine powering Skyrim is an impressive bit of technology. Whether it's a massive view of a distant mountaintop that you can actually go off and climb--one such mountaintop houses a race of men called Greybeards, who have become masters of communicating with dragons--or the ability to wander through the woods and simply pick berries, Skyrim is a game that concerns itself with the big picture as well as the little one. "We're trying to build this complete virtual fantasy world," said Howard. "And we're all about the little details that make it a believable place."