Bethesda: Skyrim's Landscape is "Epic Reality"

by Nicholas Taylor, posted on 27 January 2011 / 1,969 Views

Art director Matt Carafano has referred to Bethesda's approach to Skyrim's landscape as "epic reality", highlighting the new title's visual departure from previous Elder Scrolls titles.

“With Skyrim we’ve come up with something we call internally ‘epic reality’,” he said in a video posted over at our source, Game Informer.

“What that means to us is dramatic views wherever you go. With every landscape or region of the game we try to make it look amazing and unique. … Definitely the landscape is something we’re pushing, to get you that sense of epic reality.”

He also commented on the franchise's big changes, visually, with each game. “With each game, we try to really reinvent the series, and really take it a huge step forward in just the visuals, graphics everything about the game,” he said.

“A lot of that is a direct reaction to the previous game. Oblivion was more kind of standard European fantasy, and with Skyrim, we wanted to do something more. That same feel wouldn’t fit for this game. We wanted to do something that [if] you were living in Skyrim, it is different. It is the home of the Nords. Everything is based off them.”

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim will be releasing on November 11th, 2011 for PC, PS3 and Xbox 360.


6 Comments

Rath
Rath (on 28 January 2011)

"Amazing and unique" Big change from Oblivion then, every bit of land in that game looked the same.

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Killiana1a
Killiana1a (on 28 January 2011)

Highly intrigued and highly concerned. As always I always anticipate the latest Elder Scrolls game ever since Daggerfall got me hooked. I am highly concerned because all this talk on graphics reminds me of Star Wars: The Old Republic developers heralding 20 gigs of sound files. Be it graphics or sound, too much bragging of them in the public realm makes me wonder is that all they are concentrating on? Is it just Oblivion with a new graphics engine in Skyrim and a few revisions to bring Morrowind game play back?

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Nintendology
Nintendology (on 27 January 2011)

One of the best things about Oblivion and Morrowind is the open nature of the game world. You could ignore quests and the story and simply go about your business in this living, breathing world where time passes and people live their daily lives. I can only imagine what they will be able to do with Skyrim.

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divwilson50
divwilson50 (on 27 January 2011)

cannot wait.! (:

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Chroniczaaa
Chroniczaaa (on 27 January 2011)

So what they're saying is they want to make the scenery more diverse like morrowind? That would be great since morrowind was the best TES.

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LivingMetal
LivingMetal (on 27 January 2011)

I remember playing Oblivion, and I was just enjoying myself running through the countryside. I can't wait to see how Skyrim turns out.

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