Skyrim - News Roundup

Our readers on the forum pointed out 14 minutes of Skyrim footage at G4TV, in case you don't check the forums.

The Examiner has a preview with extensive input from Todd Howard:

Skyrim is undeniably gorgeous regardless of which view (1st or 3rd person) you prefer to play from. The environments are rich, complex, and intricately detailed.  And none of the environment is lifeless eye candy or textured backdrops. If you see an enticing forest, cave, city, or mountain peak just begging to be explored, you can travel to it and do exactly that. “Our view distances go all the way,” Howard tells us.

You can pick plants, cook meat, and craft potions and countless other items. “Any job you see an NPC doing such as blacksmithing, you can do too.  And every NPC in the game has a life and skills that drive the local economy.”

“For example,” Howard continues, “in this town there are trees and a lumber mill. If you wanted to, you could sabotage the lumber mill and it would have an affect the local economy of the town.”

CVG has a video interview with lead producer Craig Lafferty.

IGN has a piece titled It's in the Details:

By details, I mean the finer points of the presentation. The way fish will jump up small waterfalls in swift streams, or the way clouds drift around the peaks of craggy, snow-clogged mountain peaks. I mean the way the horses animate with a noticeable sense of weight to each hoof step as you ride them up rocky passes into hostile territory. The way every spell you equip produces a different effect in your character's hand, like shards of light while the Circle of Protection spell is active and strips of electrical energy for your lightning spell.

I know these types of things may seem minor, but I've always felt detail like this does a lot to make the world more believable. If you get attacked by a frost dragon, for instance, its frigid breath will coat your equipped axe in ice. It's an effect that's so logical it can easily be overlooked, but one that lends even more of a sense of excitement to the battle.

The Bethblog has screens - I think we've already covered them but I'll link just in case - and also booth pics from E3.