Announced 4 years after Oblivion via a dramatic trailer, players of the extremely successful RPG (role-playing game) have been salivating over every scrap of news and expected improvements to a franchise revered by the gaming community, and Bethesda Softworks, responsible of the Elder Scroll series, hasn’t shortchanged the community on the good stuff by releasing nugget after nugget of increasingly important details about Skyrim.

Set 200 years after the ending of Oblivion, players won’t find themselves in the familiar lush surroundings of Cyrodiil and itss majestic capital, the Imperial City. Without giving too much away, players begin their journey in the cold and mountainous region of Skyrim, a province in the north of the Tamriel continent, where they’ll assume the role of a captured Dragonborn who’s apparently has pissed off the Nords, the dominant inhabitants of Skyrim. Newcomers to the Elder Scroll series might see this as a blessing because it takes away the complications that arise from having to integrate the lore of such an expansive game into its latest rendition. Veterans should have no qualms assuming the role of an individual residing in a world 200 years after the events of Oblivion, not only to experience the new content but perhaps to also discover how the Oblivion crisis has affected the realm.

The most prominent and well-received enhancement to the series is the graphic engine, one of the pivotal selling points of the Elder Scroll series. Oblivion utilised the Havok engine, which churned out a considerable level of detail for a game released in 2006. 5 years later, Bethesda has upped the ante with aplomb by utilising the overwhelmingly superior Creation graphics engine. Besides the a greater level of landscape detail, character animations will flow more smoothly and realistically, so it might be worth stretching out combat sequences just to appreciate the beauty behind each killer move.

Finally, DRAGONS! As a Dragonborn, you have an affiliation with dragons, or rather, your soul does. Making their first in-game appearance in the Elder Scroll series, you will encounter them in scripted and random events, but not all of them will be hostile. In a primarily frosty setting, these fire-breathing legends will provide an exciting contrast.

Are you geared up for a warm winter?

Watch this space for the UrbanWire’s review of Skyrim!