The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (often referred to as just Skyrim) is an upcoming single-player role-playing video game developed by Bethesda Game Studios and published by Bethesda Softworks. It is the fifth installment in The Elder Scrolls action/adventure RPG fantasy video game series, following The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. The game was announced on December 11, 2010 at the Spike Video Game Awards with a release date of November 11, 2011. Skyrim will use a brand new engine, called the Creation Engine, which was built by Bethesda. This upgraded Graphics and Radiant A.I, along with Radiant Storytelling or Radiant Story.

Gameplay
The antagonist in this installment is the great dragon Alduin. New enemies to the series include mountain giants, frost trolls, mammoths, frost spiders, ice wraiths and draugr, a form of skeletal enemy. Skyrim is the northernmost region in all of Tamriel, and its geology consists of mountainous and snowy regions. The architecture and atmosphere is very similar to the town of Bruma in The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. It is the least populated of all regions in Tamriel and features fewer lush forests and grassy areas than Cyrodiil. There will be changes in your interaction with NPCs, specifically the camera angle. This has been modified to no longer freeze time and zoom in on their faces, but allow the NPCs will continue to interact with the environment, so they may turn back to their work (chopping wood, serving alcohol) while talking to you.

There are no longer classes, but you will level up with each level you ascend to in alchemy, block, destruction and so on. Mysticism is no longer present as a skill but its spells are distributed between the other schools of magic, while Acrobatics and Athletics have been removed entirely. Weapon skills are not removed, but they are now grouped under the one-handed or two-handed skills; it no longer matters if the weapon is an axe or a sword, as long as it is held by the same amount of hands. Instead, the true distinction comes about through perks, granted each level, which allow for further specialization.

There will be children present in the game for the first time since Daggerfall where there were a couple of quests in which they were encountered.

The option to choose from one of the 10 races of Tamriel - Imperials, Nords, Redguards, Bretons, Dark Elves, High Elves, Wood Elves, Orcs, Khajiit, and the Argonians- is still available.

Playable races
 * 1) Altmer (High Elves - Summerset Isles)
 * 2) Argonian (Reptilians, or Lizards - Black Marsh)
 * 3) Breton (Humans - High Rock)
 * 4) Bosmer (Wood Elves - Valenwood)
 * 5) Dunmer (Dark Elves - Morrowind)
 * 6) Imperial (Humans - Cyrodiil)
 * 7) Khajiit (Felines - Elsweyr)
 * 8) Nord (Humans - Skyrim)
 * 9) Redguard (Humans - Hammerfell)
 * 10) Orsimer (Orcs - Orsinium)

Game World and Environment
As of late April 2011, only a moderate amount is known about the gameplay. There is a decent amount of information that has been released, but it appears as though this information only scratches the surface.

The game is set to take place in the far northern land of Skyrim, home of the Nords, a hardy and Viking-like race. It will feature a new engine, developed in-house by Bethesda; the Creation engine. This engine is specifically designed with world draw distance and sophisticated graphics in mind, and can realistically simulate flowing water and the effect of wind upon foliage. Snow, rain, and advanced environmental effects have been confirmed, and snow is designed to interact with the land surrounding it. Snow will be blocked by tree branches when falling and build up on the ground unequally, just like in the real world. It is known that the higher in the world you go, the worse the weather becomes.

Radiant AI
Creation also utilizes the Radiant AI system. This system, (sharing the name of, but a step up from the Oblivion AI system) will allow NPCs to more accurately interact with the player character, performing many more tasks than seen in previous games. Programmers can now assign a large number of tasks to one NPC, as opposed to only several in Oblivion, such as eating, sleeping,drinking, harvesting grapes, and walking. This means that NPCs will all have individual personalites (or countless activities at the least), some heavy drinkers, some hard workers, some lazy but charming. There is sure to be plenty of variety in this department.

Instead of zooming to the NPCs face and freezing time,(as in Oblivion), the game will allow the NPCs to continue their life whilst speaking with you, basically the ingame clock is still ticking. This means that speaking to NPCs will never be the same experience as when you next talk to them. This paired with the massive number of things an NPC can be queued to do will create an incredibly realistic interaction in the game world.

User Interface (HUD)
The new Heads Up Display (HUD) is designed to be streamlined and efficient. The development team took inspiration from Apple's iTunes to create a simple layout, in which you can see everything vital in one glance. Almost the only thing in common with Oblivion's menu system is the 'open menu' command, using Tab on the PC, circle on the PS3, and B on the Xbox 360. When you open the menu a four-way compass will appear, prompting you to push up, left, down or right. Pushing left will spin the screen that direction to a spell and magical items menu - the game has more than 85 spells, with detailed explanations of their effects listed in the menu. Back at the compass, pushing right opens your inventory. Every item you can carry in the game is rendered in 3D, allowing for a 360 degree view of the object, and varying zoom levels, and there are thousands of items in the game. Pushing down from the compass opens the world map - but instead of cutting to a new page, the camera whooshes back, zooming out from the ground and into the sky, revealing a topographical, 3D map of the Skyrim region. From this map you can set markers, routes, view quests, and more. Pushing up from the compass brings up your statistics page. GameInformer has written a detailed passage on the leveling and statistics aspect:

"'Three prominent nebulae dominate the Skyrim heavens – the thief, the warrior, and the mage. Each of these represents one of the three master skill sets. Each nebula houses six constellations, each of which represents a skill. As in Oblivion, every player starts out with the ability to use all 18 skills – any player can use a two-handed weapon, try alchemy, or cast a destruction spell (provided you find or purchase one). As you use these skills in Skyrim, they will level up and contribute to driving your character's overall level higher."

"Every time players rank up their overall level, they can choose a supplemental perk ability for one of the 18 skills. For instance, if you fight most of your battles with a mace, you may want to choose the perk that allows you to ignore armor while using the weapon. As in Fallout 3, several of the perks have their own leveling system as well, allowing you to choose them multiple times. Once you choose a perk, it lights up the corresponding star in the constellation, making it visible when looking up to the heavens while interacting in the world.'"

Also, instead of the d-pad hotkey system, which only allowed for 8 hotkeyed weapons or items, then new menu will have a 'favorites' menu. Clicking up on the d-pad whilst in the game world will freeze the game and open your list of favorite items. Bethesda has not set a limit on the amount of items you can favorite, so technically you could map every item you carry to the up button.

Combat
The combat has undergone large changes as well, as it is now possible to dual-wield weapons and spells. Therefore you could have multiple combinations of weapons and spells, such as a dagger and a fire spell, or two of the same spell to amplify their power. You could also weave the spells by casting them together from both hands, like combining fire and ice to make a spell that freezes the enemy and melts them. Another feature named 'Dragon Shouts' will be introduced. Dragon Shouts are abilites you gain by killing dragons or reading the information off of fabled Dragon Walls. Dragon Shouts vary greatly in ability, such as simply flinging an enemy against a wall, to actually calling on a dragon with its true name to aid you in battle. Dragon Shouts are made up of three key words, spoken in the language of the dragons. Bethesda also said the Dragon fights will not be scripted, meaning that the Dragons will make their own decisions while fighting and the battle will take place in real time.

There are also assassinations and finishing moves as shown in the official trailer. This indicates a potentially more stealthy approach to any combat situation, and implies that Bethesda may have some very intricate and unique missions involving stealth planned.

No weapons have been truly confirmed yet, however swords, shields and bows are confirmed and will likely share the names of generic weapons from previous games (i.e. steel shortsword, elven bow, iron mace, dwarven claymore, etc.). Bows now take a little while to pull back but do devestating damage.

Main Plot Line
This is to be updated when more information arrives. Please keep the info in chronological order

The High King of Skyrim is murdered and a civil war breaks out, the final event in a prophecy fortold by the Elder Scrolls that will lead to the return of the dragons. One side wishes to secceed from the Empire, while the other wishes to stay, believing it is still worth fighting for.

The Player starts the game in Prison. From what Todd Howard stated in a video is that your character is being sent to their execution as a result of crossing the border into Mexico.

The Skyrim article in Gameinformer said that while the player is led to their execution, a prison riot occurs, and the player escapes.

The dragons mysteriously reappear, and it is the task of Dovakiin to discover the reasons behind their reappearance. It has been hinted that there may exist friendly dragons, and some which are purely bent on destruction. The player, throughout the game, will find and utilize "Shouts". Exclamations of draconic language, holding great power. By killing dragons and absorbing their souls, the player becomes more powerful. It is likely that these souls will be important to the plot, and unlocking the secret of the dragons' return.

The game takes place chronologically in the year 4E 2011.