Trying to digest the pre-release information about something on the scale of an Elder Scrolls game can be tough. Bethesda Game Studios isn't simply crafting entertaining gameplay, but an entire world. That means giving thought to everything to rules of complex character creation and development to how you'll travel between towns and what you'll find in dungeons. The following list is an attempt to clearly call out a few of the changes in Skyrim . But mostly, it's an excuse to yet again write about dragons, which, in case you didn't know, are awesome.

Travel

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Dragons

<b>In+case+you+can't+tell,+this+is+a+dragon.</b>

The+Country+and+Cities

<b>You'll+be+able+to+disrupt+trade+in+towns.</b>

Radiant+Story

<b>Fight+to+power+up.</b>

Skills+and+Attributes

<b>Character+creation+has+changed.</b>

Getting from one place to another in a giant open-world game isn't a throwaway issue. Would you rather fast-travel between locations? Do you think real men walk between cities and fast-traveling is for trust fund babies with a grossly exaggerated sense of entitlement? Do you want to see something in Skyrim like Morrowind's giant silt striders?Getting around on foot won't be quite the same. The Acrobatics and Athletics skills have been removed from Skyrim. That means no more running and jumping around like an idiot to get skill gains. Instead, you get a sprint button. Todd Howard, Game Director at Bethesda Game Studios , explains."There are boats but you don't sail them around. As far as mounts and horses it is something we'd really like to have but we're still messing with it. We're definitely not ruling it out. We want to make sure it's a gameplay addition. Horses have come a long way in games. We want to make sure we're paying off on that. It's looking good right now but we'll yank the feature if we think it makes the game better."The fact that horses might not make it into the game is an especially intriguing point considering the well-publicized horse armor downloadable content furor that erupted following Oblivion's launch in 2006. That's back when Bethesda was still in a more experimental phase of pricing post-releaseto put on your horse, which many considered to be laughably pointless (Full disclosure:). If horses aren't in the game, there's no chance to dredge up this tired Internet meme yet again. Unless there's dragon armor.On the topic of dragons, as much as you probably want to, you can't ride them in Skyrim. You can definitely fight them, but there won't be any opportunity to go all Atreyu and Falkor across the Throat of the World. At least not without mods.These are the cliché but always appreciated super weapons of the fantasy world. They're in Skyrim, and there'll be a lot of them. There isn't a finite number, so it's not like you can run around Skyrim and kill every single dragon. Also, why the hell would you try to wipe out a race of dragons? That's like killing every great white shark and thinking you created a better world. If you did that, future generations would eventually consider Jaws to be historical record. Do you really want future generations to think Dragonheart is historical record?Todd Howard tells a story about a dragon encounter that's since been programmed into extinction."One of the designers put in a random encounter where three dragons swooped by this town. It's just a visual. But [the dragons] think on their own so here come the three dragons and they saw me and it was party time. So I ran up the mountain to try and lose them, it felt like Two Towers when Frodo's going through the swamp, it was really terrifying. But I did make [the designer] take it out. Three is too many."Even if triple dragon fights are out of the game, there'll still be plenty of encounters. Many dragons will try to fry you with fire. Some might speak English. Rounding the corner of a mountain range to see one of these spiny beasts perched atop a crumbling piece of ancient architecture is a terrifying sight. Running away isn't always the best option, though, since killing a dragon allows you to absorb its essence and power up.Because your character in Skyrim can speak the language of dragons, you'll also be able to use dragon shouts. These are learned in the depths of caverns on stone slabs called word walls. When you string words together, it produces magical abilities. You can scream out force waves, slow time and crazier stuff depending on how much effort you're willing to put into finding word walls. The shout system is on a separate resource system from magic, which means even if you decided to play as a ropey muscular monstrosity who only knows how to crush things with heavy stuff, you should still be able to take full advantage of this system.According to Todd Howard, Skyrim is "about the same size" as Oblivion. Note that Skyrim is not only in the title of The Elder Scrolls V, but also the name of the piece of land in which it's set. Unlike Oblivion's homogenous green forests, there'll be a lot more diversity in Skyrim, which lies to the north in Bethesda's fictional land of Tamriel. You'll travel through pine thickets, mist-laced mountains, grassy and volcanic tundra, autumn woods, and glaciers way up north. In all there'll be six or seven types of environments that'll be dramatically different, which should be good news for those who played Oblivion and were looking for a little more environmental variety. Howard also said that there'll be a much greater diversity in the 120 or so dungeons in the game so it won't feel like you're clearing the same one over and over again. As you run around the weather will change, but the seasons won't.Skyrim has five major cities, each with their own culture and architecture, and eight or nine smaller towns. Though the system still sounds like it's in its early stages, it sounds like you'll be able to mess up the economies of the individual population centers if you want. The idea is for your actions to affect products and services available in each town."I think it's always a good idea on paper," says Howard. "You make it too granular and the player can't tell those arrows are a gold piece cheaper. So what we're trying to do is actually remove things from the economy. That tends to impact it more." That means instead of cheaper arrows, there simply wouldn't be any arrows left in town. "The lumber mill, we have mines and smelters for iron that affects weapons, then we have farms that affect food and ingredients that affect alchemy. We have all that working but we haven't found the gameplay sweet spot."Hopefully that means if anyone in Skyrim mentions a town name as often as Kvatch in Oblivion, I can raze their farms until there's no more Kvatch-equivalent to mention.Remember all the talk about Radiant AI before Oblivion came out? No? That's just as well, because now it's all about Radiant Story. Essentially this system ensures you don't get locked out of quests if you killed Frank the Butcher's wife while testing that fancy new fire spell. Instead, someone else gets plugged into the quest."One of the things that we really struggle with in our games is control," says Howard. "We really have no control. It's a big playground, and for certain players it goes great but there's still a lot of players it goes poorly for. This allows us to control that some. Now we're at a good point where we know where we want to use it. We can use it for miscellaneous quests, you go into town, you want to make friends with somebody, we'll generate a little quest for him that seems simple and that it's ok to go through the radiant story system. For a bigger quest, we want somebody who you're enemies with. We want to use him in that quest in some way. We'll pick the closest person who hates the player. He fills in that role."This system can pull in dragons too. So if you've been a terrible adventurer and tried your best to avoid clashing with a dragon, one of your quests might soon include one. And if you're a pitiless pyromancer and delight in covering the living in lethal flame, ideally you'll still be able to continue to quest even after setting the world on fire.Bethesda's ditching the eight main attributes you may remember from Oblivion. Intelligence, Agility, Speed and all the rest are out. Instead, you get Health for hit points, Magicka for magic points and Stamina for doing anything athletic. It's a loss of a layer of complexity, but it's not necessarily a bad thing according to Todd Howard."In Oblivion you have your eight attributes and 21 skills. Now you have 18 skills and three attributes. What we found is that all those attributes actually did something else. A fan may say 'You removed my eight attributes!', and my answer is, which ones do you want? They're all a trickle down to something else. Now when you level up you can just raise your Magicka. In Oblivion you have to raise your Intelligence knowing that you're Intelligence raises your Magicka."Howard says it's a natural evolution and makes it sound sensible. I'm not really bent out of shape about it because it doesn't sound like there'll be a lack of decisions to make anyway. Like in previous Elder Scrolls games, skill levels increase with use. The more you use a sword, the better you're able to wield it. In Skyrim, each skill increase contributes to your overall character level, sort of like experience points. If you boost a skill that's at a higher level, you'll see a bigger increase on your character level gauge.That means you'll get the most benefit from leveling the skills you use most. If you're a badass Destruction magic user, it's beneficial to your character leveling rate to continue using Destruction magic. There's nothing preventing you from trying everything else out, but concentrating on a few skills to level is going to be the most efficient way to gain power. After level ups you'll be able to pick Fallout-like perks within each skill category, giving you additional abilities like zoom-in and slow time while using a bow. Considering each perk will have multiple levels and there are multiple perks within each skill category, it sounds like there'll be a lot of ways to keep you busy while determining how to specialize.

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Did I mention this game has gigantic, beautifully rendered dragons that soar through the air and spit fire at you on snow-capped mountain peaks? Oh I did. Just making sure. The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim