Ignore the fact that this character's name appears to be "Bendu Olo".

According to Todd Howard, it'd be The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim.

Yes, it's that time again kids, GAME INFORMER NEWS DAY!!! Today we've got a new article on the new menu system of Skyrim. This has been a big question on the minds of the fans since the overhaul was announced, so lets drop this on the cutting board and dissect it.

In a move that nobody really asked for (well, not the fans anyway), the team at Bethesda have taken it upon themselves to develop a new menu interface for Skyrim, one that they intend to feel more "tangible".

You start out, like all Bethesda games, by pressing the B or Circle button to being up the menu. Now though, instead of opening up a journal or some other such item that stores data and things, you get a radial compass menu with four options. From there, pressing right will bring you to your inventory where all your items are sorted by type. Each item has it's own rendered 3D image and it's own unique abilities. You can zoom in and look around at the item, checking out it's fine details. No clue where the stats are, but okay. UNIQUENESS.

Pressing left on the compass menu will bring you to your magic list where each spell is broken down to describe how it works. There are over 85 spells.

Hotkeying has been replaced with "Bookmarking". What's the difference? You now go to a "favorite's menu" when pressing up on the D-pad, pausing the action. You can map anything from your spells or items menus onto your favorites, with no limit to how much stuff you can put there. Sounds kinda like making it just more of a hassle than hotkeys really. Why not just open the whole menu at that point? They're both lists. STREAMLINED.

Back to the compass menu thing, pressing down will take you to the map. You can explore the whole topography of the games world here IN HIGH-DEF 3D. From the map you can plan travel routes, manage quest icons and fast travel. Yes, it looks like fast travel is showing up once again, regardless of how many fans dislike that feature.

And lastly, pressing up on the compass menu shows you the skies where you can check out constellations and stuff. Bethesda may have ditched the class system but Astrology is here to stay. The three big nebulae in the heavens are the thief, the warrior, and the mage. Each of those represents one of the major skill sets. Within each nebula are constellations for each of the 18 skills. Any player can use any of these skills and they'll level up with use in old Elder Scrolls fashion.

A carryover from Fallout 3, whenever you raise your overall level, you can pick a perk. They each pertain and supplement one of the 18 skills. A lot of perks have their own level, so you can pick them multiple times to increase there effect. When you pick a perk, it star lights up in the constellation. This means that when you look at the sky with your high-level character, it will appear different than somebody else's sky in their game.

And that's it for the menu. Is it just me or does the "look to the heavens" part sound like they really wanted something for up on the compass but couldn't think of anything to put there? I'd have thought it'd make more sense to just have an overall character screen there. Is that actually it? Is there just more to it than we've gotten out of GI in this article, or is the character overview section somewhere else, or is there even one anymore? this just sounds like a possibly annoying interface. I'm all for innovation here, but I'm an RPG gamer. I LIVE for lists and text. Abandoning that just seems like a play to appeal to everyone. Either it's oversimplification or too much cumbersome flash. I hope I'm wrong here. In any case we will see come November, maybe earlier.

By the by, Game Informer also released a video of art director Matt Carofano talking about how the look of the game is different from previous Bethesda titles. Cool, quick watch for all you atsy kids.

BethBlog claims that next week will be the end of Game Informer's Skyrim coverage. Look for updates throughout next week for my wrap-up of the big news we've had all this month, as well as the end of Game Informer's tyranny of Elder Scrolls news oppression.

Source: Game Informer

Skyrim sounds like its gonna be like Fable 3, simplified to the extent that its no longer an RPG but an FPS with a few skills thrown in. I hate the changes they've made.

I'll hold out until we get some actual gameplay trailers, but as of right now, this more than any other bit of news has be on edge. I don't like that feeling.

I have to agree with you. I mean, Bethesda has always given TES their most epic efforts - but so far the storyline has not thrilled me at all, neither did the trailer. I didn't care much for the music till Jeremy Soule slid the original theme in behind all the gutteral grunts. I will love to have a new world to explore, but not very excited about what seems to me to be a rewrite of the Lore and another "Unknown Must Save The World" theme.

They said the quests will come to you by people coming up and talking, do one and they may have another for you - I agree again that THAT reeks of Fable.

The whole point about open world games (for me) is to explore them the way I want to - not be led through by the nose. I love doing quests - but at my own pace and when I feel like it. I don't like to be "confronted" and have to either say (yes or no). In Oblivion, I accepted every quest and then ignored it till I was ready - exactly what I will do in Skyrim ... if it will let me.

This is not saying I won't buy the game, of course - it is just ... tension that it is not going to measure up to my hopes and expectations for it for the last 5 years. I am usually not a pessimist, but I am not getting a great feeling on this game like I had for Oblivion in the early announcement stages.

And I know that Bethesda did not make Fallout: New Vegas - but it had to meet their approval, so why did it arrive in the stores with game ending glitches that have not been fixed to date? The game came no where near the epic feel of Fallout 3.

Is Bethesda's perfectionism slipping into commercialism? I hope not.

They sold out the lore in those two books they put out last year. What I would like to have seen - and would pay any price to buy - a series of books on the original Lore the Elder Scrolls was written on - the story is fascinating !!!

Now I, surprisingly, have to disagree at this point. Despite the bugs (which are numerous indeed), I consider Fallout: New Vegas to be the stronger title. FO3 was fantastic for sure, but I feel like there were A TON more advancements made in New Vegas to 3. FO3 felt like Oblivion with guns in the Fallout world, and while I truly LOVED it every second, New Vegas seems like the true Fallout game. This was a tough decision to come to for me but I've definitely decided.

I do however think that Fallout 3 showed that Bethesda is indeed learning. It was definitely a step up technique wise for the studio and I'm really hoping it shows. Actually, part of me kinda wishes they were still using ol' Gamebryo. I feel like the improvements in FO3 could have translated well to another Elder Scrolls. But that doesn't change the fact that overall the tech was still terribly outdate.

This. It seems like every time they make a new game, they introduce another earth-shaking prophecy that no one's ever mentioned before for some reason. I can understand if no one's heard of the Nerevarine prophecies, and Oblivion's plot at least has a bit of buildup, but "dragons will destroy the world"? Seriously? Given the importance of the dragon motif in the Empire, you'd think it would have come up at least once or twice.

As for the quests, the Game Informer article said they'd be randomised according to your level and which places you've visited. Which means we'll presumably get dialogue like this: "Please help me, [PCNAME]! My daughter [NAME] has been kidnapped by [MONSTERS] and taken to [BORING CAVE]. Will you travel to [BORING CAVE] and bring her back?" I've seen lots of predictions about the direction Skyrim would take, but I don't think anyone guessed they'd be regressing to Daggerfall in terms of quest design.

...On the plus side, at least they've finally renamed 'fatigue' to 'stamina'.

The odd thing is, Gambryo had upgrades Bethesda could have gotten that vastly improved its performance - why did Bethesda not opt to do that instead of building their own from the ground up? The fear that it WON'T be an improvement over Gamebryo is what has me nervous.

Those quests will only be side quests though, so I think it will be an improvement. The main quest and any other major quest line will be scripted normally.


[to anyone]
Why do you want Gamebryo back??? That engine is TERRIBLE. I think it is amazing that Bethesda did so well with such a limited engine. I was going to be mad if they didn't announce a new engine.

I can't say I find randomly-generated quests an 'improvement' even for sidequests. I have to agree with you about Gamebryo, though - it's a crappy engine. Remains to be seen whether the new one will be better.

Well that is certainly worth whatever the cost of the game is to see printed in my journal, lol!

I don't like "go fetch" quests that are pat and dried - (follow red arrow to item, retrieve and return).

Now, if they only hint at your next move and cover a series of several places you have to search for each clue - that is different. I do like it if I have to work at a solution - those type quests.

Even worse (as you pointed out): the "Go Save" quests - because (what are you going to do, say "Hell no, save them yourself!") - and then you are taxed with keeping someone alive in spite of themselves.

I can't tell you how many times I had to reload saves to keep that idiot Farwel (?) and his friend alive, or the Odill brothers, that Donton boy (Eduard's flame), - Darma, (bless her heart) - and I hate to say it, but Martin died so many times in Bruma that I won a prize from my son for breaking some kind of record.

If the quest is linear and tries to lead me around by the nose - that kills it for me as far as enjoyment goes.

(kind of still on this topic):

One of the mods I DL'd (that worked great, BTW) was the "Oblivion Werewolf Mod." It was a combination of "Legends of the North" and the "Curse of Hircine" werewolf mods. - it added a questline that was filled with mystery and intrigue, wound you via clues through several dungeons, Ayleid ruins, caves, an Arena type place - and a blue Oblivion gate that didn't take you to the known Oblivion world.

It gives you a follower before you have to fight anything (an old overweight man, and if his armor goes down to zero you will suddenly see him NUDE before you if you have modded away the men's diapers. Let's just say it was .. cough cough ... an interesting sight...or maybe NOT.

You had to fight treasure hunters, a mass of skeletons, wolves, regular werewolfs, three giant werewolfs, a giant lich, and a (massive, enormous, colossal werewolf). It gave you an awesome shield and some gems - and a summonable giant werewolf ghost spirit.

If in your fighting those werewolves you become one - from that point on the other werewolves and regular wolves never attack you again in the game. There are pods of them placed all over the mountain regions and woods that respawn as long as the mod is activated. Hearing their howls up in the Jeralls at night is an AWESOME experience.

(My dogs have wolf in their bloodlines and also howl. The puppy heard the howls and howled in response).

The mod adds an alert to watch for werewolfs to all the Legion and guards, and adds werewolf hunters to the game (that continuously respawn, and will also go after you in your changed form every certain moon cycle).

If you attack any NPC while in werewolf form, they become a werewolf in three days and follow you - unlimited number as far as I know.


To me, that mod was one of the best questlines I ever played - I had a blast playing it!

I loved both Mehrunes Razor DLC and the Knights of the Nine DLC because their questlines added a series of things to do, places to go to and explore, etc. (and some armor/weapons as a reward)

I like the idea because for example "The Killing Field" http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Oblivion:The_Killing_Field would be just a little different each time you played it instead of the set events that when you play it once there is nothing you don't know already. It should add some unpredictability to the game.

The main reason I dislike random quests is that by their nature, they have to be extremely simple. You can't introduce too much complexity when you don't know, for example, where the quest is going to take place. So you end up getting a lot of 'fetch this' or 'kill this monster'-type quests, without even an interesting location or characters to liven things up (since the devs can't be sure where the location will be or which characters will be involved). At least, that's always been my experience with random quests in other games - I guess it's possible that Bethesda will manage to overcome that problem, but I doubt it.

I doubt that random quests will be the majority of the game anyways. And many of the side quests in Oblivion were pretty simple anyways so your complaint applies to the majority of standard side quests anyways.

I am very optimistic about this game and it always surprises me how many people are so sure the game is going to fail before we know hardly anything about it.

Actually, it is not a matter of being sure it will fail to please ... but fearing it will. (all while hoping like heck it pleases).

I've quit going to the BethSoft forums because of all the people on there making wild predictions and assumptions about how the game is going to fail. I can't stand the people on there anymore.

It looks like we've all got a mission then. We need to ask Todd about our concerns here. This is a perfect opportunity to either dispel our fears or let Bethesda know how we feel about the changes.

King Coin, I don't want you to misunderstand my griping and unease about these changes. I have been a Bethesda addict since 2006 - I fully support them as the best game developers out there. I have been just as upset as you when they brought out games and everyone griped over them when I was thinking they were the most Awesome game I ever played.

I still love Bethesda, still think they make the best games out there. Most of what you are seeing in these gripings is 5 years of built up tension waiting for the game to come out - and knowing there are ten more months left before we will see it.

Look at it this way - everyone here (and on the BGSF) has to love the game and Bethesda. They have to actually be the greatest fans or they wouldn't be hanging on these sites 5 years after the last game came out - still writing fanfics in tribute to how much we loved the world they created for us.

Nerves will make people gripe - but I guarantee you we will all be buying the game, playing it, we may find some things we don't like, but overall we will be loving the game. Don't let it upset you, because you will never find greater love for Bethesda and TES than you will on sites just like this one and the BGSF - if we didn't love them, we would not be here griping. <3

I'm reserving the final judgement for when the game actually releases but personally I plan to rent it first. I won't have much interest in buying it if its as deep as a coffee cup. I personally felt let down by Oblivion and I'm kinda pessemistic about Skyrim. For me I think they've just made too many changes to the series and I just won't be surprised if its not my kind of game. As I said we'll see when it comes out.


King Coin: Don't take things so personally, people have different opinions and tastes. Each person is entitled to his or her own.