With camera swoops and thespian flourish, Bethesda’s new Skyrim trailer gives us just what we needed no more of: A whole lotta snow.
Look past that and you’ll notice some pretty spectacular reveals. There’s the part where the camera’s flying over a bunch of pine trees. Yeah, I know that’s what dragons do, but how about dragon-riding? Just because Bethesda’s cautioned not to count on saddling one of these fire-breathing lizards doesn’t mean it’s off limits to modders, does it?
There’s the part where someone’s running (you can run in Skyrim, who knew?) and the part where you’re sneaking up on a deer. Someone cuts someone else’s throat near a fire pit, while another stabs downward in what appears to be one of the battle system’s impressive new finishing moves. A bluish orb sparks from a staff, and someone punches the ground Neo-style and detonates a fire-wave. Cut to bowstrings, incantations, more finishing moves, blood spatter–it’s a crazy feature-tease smorgasbord. All of that’s intercut with scenes of the dragon-born (that’ll be you) pounding on a giant hook-winged reptile.
How about that choir half-singing, half-shouting Oblivion’s theme song? You want to dress something up, just add voices. It’s cliché because it works.
And cue finish, peeking over the craggy spine of some mountain range, pulling up and over some of the prettiest scenery I’ve ever seen in a game.
Then back to waiting–not patiently–for the actual game, which ships on November 11.
Update: Bethesda’s apparently confirming the trailer footage is from the Xbox 360 version, and that the draw distance isn’t faked “in any way” (source: NeoGAF).
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