Fair enough. Most of it strikes me as a lack of imagination though. I mean, it's a fantasy world and you're supposed to be some kind of hero or champion with supernatural abilities.

Being able to leap 10 feet straight into the air, or be capable of some remarkable feat of sleight of hand doesn't sound strange to me at all. At least not within that context.

What I find irrational is to say that "this idea happens to be realistic, and this is not a realistic game, so let's drop it". If we find that being able to jump five metres into the air is silly, or that you shouldn't be invisible in broad daylight in plain sight, that's our prerogative.

Or to put it another way, if you play another non-sim game (like, say, Assassin's Creed) where you can't jump three metres in the air, do you go "zounds, this is realism, change it now!"?

I think the point was that in a game where you can create fire out of thin air using magic, enhanced jumping ability with extensive training is no less unlikely (as I recall it took a lot of training/practice to be able to jump really high). Heck there are plenty of stories and legends (with some truth in it) of people being able to jump much higher than normal. One of the parts of shinobi training was jumping in a large vat of water, to increase their jumping ability and leg strength, plus look at what basketball players can do.

Furthermore a good pickpocket could easily do what you described Takeda irl. Also I do not remember being able to vanish in thin air in broad daylight in that game with out having extensive chameleon equipment or spells. The guards are probably just ignoring you as your target didn't notice the pickpocketing. See if they still ignore you if you killed your mark, that will clearly show if they can see you or not.

Not saying that at all. If you want to put some realism in a FPS or any other genre, go ahead. Just saying the player shouldn't expect realism unless it's a sim.


Anyway, it was an opinion and stated as such, not as fact. I perfectly understand where you're coming from, considering I have the same trouble to 'suspend disbelief' when it comes to most shooters and RTS games. Mobile artillery that barely outranges a tank while it should (realistically) shoot halfway across the map, for example, but it's something they do to to actually make a game playable.

You raise decent points, I understand what you mean a bit better now. Still not convinced you have to have a sim to implement things such as compulsory eating, but at least now I see where you're coming from.

But more on topic, do we know anything about ES5 beyond the fact that it's a "Oblivion II"?

Don't think so, still very hush-hush. Haven't seen anything more at my regular stops, at least.

Which is a signal that it is probably a ways off. I don't expect that any of us will hear anything substantial until the next E3. If I'm unveiling a game with the magnitude of the next Elder Scrolls, I'd wait until the gaming world is watching.

I would peg it for Q3 2011, just to take a stab at it. :yep:

Dang, off by a quarter. :DL

Think of it not as wanting a game to be "realistic" but rather "intuitive".

For example, often in games/movies where people can cast spells or similar, the act of casting involves some physical gesture (see 2:24 here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p1Vyhve9gtg). It doesn't make it realistic, it makes it intuitive. A lot of people found Oblivion to be not very intuitive.

Whole new game engine too!

http://twitter.com/Bethblog/status/14010984884604929#

I found oblivion to be a ghost of its predecessors. When I first played Morrowind I was like wow this is a new world. It was breath taking even with its lower graphics. Oblivion looked like my backyard with the trees and lakes.. Something I've explored myself... nothing new..

Aside of all the other promises Beth didn't own up with oblivion they failed on the world.. The only thing that gave some return of the old feeling of wonder was with the expansion Shivering Isle. Planes of madness..

I did love playing as a vampire.. I would wipe out cities... muhahaaaa..

I can relate to that. Don't get me wrong; I didn't think Oblivion was that great, didn't spend all that much time with it, certainly not compared to Morrowind. It's just that some of the arguments against it didn't really make sense to me.
Now that is great news. The engine was really getting old. It was already noticeable with Oblivion, let alone the following 2 Fallout games.

I'm not terribly surprised by that. It is clear that Bethesda knew that the Gamebryo engine was suffering under the strain, but I always figured that they'd wait to roll out a new engine with the next TES, being their flagship series and all.

I just hope the new engine will be able to deliver realistic looking faces instead of the deformed things from Oblivion.

More info, you say? But of course:
http://www.vg247.com/2011/01/08/the-...e/#more-135907

Lots of interesting stuff in there, especially the dynamic stuff.

Just keep dumbing it down...

http://podlogs.com/tehmastersword/fi.../RageFace2.png

Easily fixed by modding.