Preview: The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim on PC

Skyrim is not a direct sequel to Oblivion; rather, it is a new chapter in the Elder Scrolls series, set two hundred years after the events of Oblivion. In the premise to Skyrim, the Empire began ceding territory to the Elven nations it once ruled, because there was no heir to the Emperor's throne. The Blades had no-one to defend, and gradually died, were murdered, or secluded themselves from the rest of the world. After the king of Skyrim was assassinated.

Release Date: November 11, 2011
Also on: Xbox360, PS3
RP-M+ for Rating Pending, Targeting a Rating of Mature or Above
Genre: RPG 
Publisher: Bethesda Softworks
Developer: Bethesda Game Studios

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Game Development:
In August 2010, Todd Howard revealed through interviews that Bethesda was working on a game that had been in development for two years, and that progress was very far along. In November of the same year, a journalist from Eurogamer Denmark reported overhearing a developer on a plane talking about the project, a new The Elder Scrolls game, although Bethesda did not comment on the report. At the Spike Video Game Awards in December, Todd Howard appeared on stage to unveil a teaser trailer which announced the title of the game, as well as the release date. The February 2011 edition of Game Informer magazine revealed the first details about the content of Skyrim. Their website revealed that the game would introduce a new in-world language, dragon language, which would be important in Skyrim's story and gameplay. In a January 2011 interview with Dutch magazine Power Unlimited, Howard elaborated on Bethesda's design goals for graphics in Skyrim. He said that "We primarily look at how we can improve facial expressions and animations, graphics-wise," and that "[we] are working at pop-up issues, and we want to make sure that the graphics of the PC, Xbox 360, and PlayStation 3 are alike. All three will look just as good, aside from the higher resolution and the anti-aliasing of the PC, of course."

Within Skyrim's universe is the usage of 'dragon language'. The alphabet was constructed to look aeshetically dragon-like, hence the use of claw-like markings.
Jeremy Soule, who composed the soundtrack to Morrowind and Oblivion, returns to compose Skyrim's soundtrack. "Sons Of Skyrim" is Skyrim's theme, and was recorded with a choir of over thirty people, singing in the world’s language of Draconic. The language was conceived by concept artist Adam Adamowicz, who developed a thirty-four character runic alphabet for the game. Swedish film actor Max von Sydow voices Esbern, a Blade whom aids the player character throughout the main quest.

Skyrim utilizes the Creation Engine, a game engine developed internally by Bethesda. The draw distance is farther than before and the technology allows shadows to be created by any structure or item. Speaking with Game Informer in January 2011, creative director Todd Howard explained that "[b]ecause our worlds are so big all of the lighting has to be dynamic". SpeedTree was used to produce flora for previous games; instead of this, flora is produced using Bethesda's own technology. The developer states that this allows more detail in flora; the technology allows designers to assign tree branches different weights, determining how wind affects the tree. Wind also affects the game world in other areas too, such as by determining the flow and direction of water in rivers and streams. The engine allows snow to fall dynamically, scanning the game world and then determining where and how snow falls upon the terrain. Future titles developed by Bethesda Studios will also make use of the Creation Engine.Character and creature animations in Skyrim are generated with Havok’s Behaviour toolset. It allows characters to fluidly cycle between walking, jogging and running, as well as increasing the efficiency of the third-person camera. It also allows conversations between the player and non-player characters (NPCs) to be rendered in real-time. NPCs will move around, perform tasks and make body gestures whilst conversing with the player. Children are present in the game, and NPCs will react with each-other, such as by fighting over loot that the player has dropped.

Predecessors to Skyrim made use of an artificial intelligence system known as Radiant AI. Skyrim makes use of an updated system known as Radiant Story. This allows side-quests to be dynamically altered based on player actions; they are tailored to the player's abilities and progress within the game. As an example, the player might be sent off to a dungeon that has not been previously explored, and face enemies that are tailored to the player's preferred combat style. Aside from dynamically altering side-quests, Radiant Story furthers the personality of NPCs. They will interact with their environment, such as by working at farms, mills, woodcutting camps and mines. They will also interact with the player character, such as by requesting favours, asking for training, or challenging the player character to a duel.

The art design of Skyrim is decribed as being "very different", as stated by art director Matt Carofano. While Skyrim's predecessor Oblivion is described as being "standard European fantasy", a design objective for Skryim was to make the game world feel more realistic and "closer to home". Carofano described Skyrim's art design as 'epic reality'; each location in Skyrim is designed to feel unique and offer "dramatic views". The game world is described as being hand-crafted; Oblivion's dungeons were created by one designer, whereas Skyrim's dungeons are created by a team of eight. With character design, efforts have been made to make each of the races unique from each-other. In addition, character creation has been furthered from previous Elder Scrolls games, introducing new customisation options and simplyfing facial construction.