Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Will Have "Infinite Quests"

Already preloaded on Steam and waiting.....

I can't wait for it to be released! I'm so excited.

YESSSSSSSSSS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ADDICTION IS BACK!

If this game does well, it may cause me to build a updated gaming rig. It's just another reason (among many) that I should catch up on a lot of games.

Please don't let this game fail like Rage, dead island, and dragon age 2. The only game this year that I was really looking forward to that wasn't a huge letdown was The Witcher 2 (which was the only PC only title hint hint to developers).

When i looked over the releases for the year i thought to myself "Wow best release year since 1998" then one by one every game i was looking forward to was a PoS port or so over simplified it ruined the game.

Lets finish the year with a great game Bethesda.

No co-op. don't care.

Idiot. This is TES, not some MP BS.

No way... I HATE randomly generated quests! And infinite quests will totally take away that sense of "completing it all". F U Bethesda, but I'm still getting this game (after first making sure it's more like Morrowind and less like Oblivion)

Why is this news? This thing isn't even new to a game, though it IS new to TES.

I disagree completely. Random generated quests in Diablo sucks because its just a loot fest. This sounds like it will be significantly more interesting. I can't wait either but I won't have money until January. I'm sure it will be worth the wait.

ooh... thanks for reminding me to pre-load. anyway endless quests.... er Hey boy, go fetch me 20 logs over and over and over.... is not my idea of a infinite quest... But anyway cant wait... =)

I'm now skeptical about the game... what if it looks ugly, has glitches, horrible acted voices, or boring gameplay. what about video settings and nice textures?, what about making it feel a real game for PC as older titles ? I'll wait and see what the PPL that already pre-ordered Skyrim has to say. Because we all knew all the hype that was made for MW3 and ppl is really mad about it, so mad they are that has a user score 1.5. Amazing isn't it? O.O

Oh man, I signed in just to tell you what a ridiculously stupid comment you made. I sure hope you're trolling.




Ha, the thought never crossed my mind that it wouldn't be the best game of the year. If it's not all the money I poured into my system to have it run Skyrim will sure be a waste... I have no doubts though. Bethesda is the master of RPGs and I don't think they would let themselves make a game not worthy of their reputation.

I really wish this had co-op so I could play it with the wife. We've been waiting for a nice RPG to soak up the long winter hours.

anyone else fearing they skimped on the side quests in favor of an infinate quest generator?

or worse yet, you need to do randomly generated quests to gain access to non random ones?

hoping thats not the case and that the game wont suck, but ill hold opinion till its out.

I hope they allow some sort of level capping or a better level up mechanism, thats why i quit oblivion, i wanted to level up a bit thinking that i would be better abled to handle the monsters and fiend them off...

well I was wrong.... they level with you.... D:

wish it was like a MMORPG like world of warcraft

I have the game case and everything.
Release date was broken here but I can't play until midnight.

the graphics in the older games were better; they had colors.

Hey Proxy STFU! It's blasphemy for you to even think for one second that bethesda will fail........

3 and a half hours to go!

I have to agree, i think the vibrant colors of GTA VC was amazing... it might just be nostalgia or something but i really like em....

the graphics of GTA IV are way to gray and whitewashed to me... anyone else agree?

i realise its supposed to be a semi depressing game but still (haven't completed it yet, no spoilers plz)

^woah can you downrate that comment for me guys? that was and epic brain fart on my part.... i shouldn't be awake at 2 am reading 3 articles at once....

What was wrong with Dragon Age 2? Perhaps it wasn't quite as good as the first, but it was still good and worth playing.

expected playtime: afterlife

This isn't exactly news, since I recall this feature being boasted about near the beginning of the year. Given the number of other heavily disappointing developments made for the game, (such as "we're reducing spells from the complex system used in TES I-IV to an FPS-clone") this is one of the few elements that are relevant to GAMEPLAY (and not just "shiny (console-level) graphics") that is a potential positive worth looking forward to.

Of course, the open question is how well it'll turn out; one must remember that this won't be the first TES game to feature a theoretically infinite number of quests, which can give us an idea of what might be possible. The Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall (1996) featured a quest system that, for all but the main questline, generated "randomized" quests; each started with one of a base "type" of quest, (track down a renegade guild mage, deliver a ransom for a kidnapped child, help a researcher find a long-lost magical relic) which then randomized all the variables to fit, (after all, the game had >1,000 cities and >2,000 dungeons) but ALSO could randomize things that could seriously alter the quest. (for instance, the relic might truly be lost forever; the quest would be adjusted so you'd discover this and reach an end there) Similarly, each quest could be played differently, with significant choices that branched to different results. (for instance, you could opt to hunt down the kidnappers and rescue the child... Or just later steal the ransom money back. Or you could instead pretend the renegade escaped you, hiding his location in return for further quest opportunities from him)

All in all, Daggerfall had 216 possible "quest types" here, so by no means did the "randomness" simply feel get feeling stale particularly quickly. With luck, Skyrim's so-called "RadiantStory" will manage to at least match this. We can safely presume that MUCH of the workings will have to be the same: the game will have to have an idea of what "sort" of quests are plausible; as the article itself suggested, there'll likely be a pre-set "base" for things like "assassinate someone," or "steal (insert item here)."

Beyond that, the implementation is perhaps up in the air; maybe Radiant will be able to piece together questlines here, or maybe not. At least, we can hope that it'll be able to have impacts in the way that Daggerfall did; infinite quests was necessary in TES2 to prevent most players from quickly running themselves into a dead-end: quests had time limits (and were failed if you went beyond them) and often you'd need to do multiple extra quests simply to get an important main-quest or faction NPC to be positive enough about you in order to advance.

Actually, it's not new to TES; as I'd mentioned above, TES II: Daggerfall has an infinite number of quests. (coincidentally, it was also the last main-line TES game to be PC-only)



Actually, I'm fearing that they'd have skimped regardless, given that Oblivion had fewer quests than Morrowind. (232 vs. 426) In fact, it was even smaller than the list available in Daggerfall. (248: 32 fixed main questline quests, plus 216 "randomizable" quests types that could be infinitely re-rolled much like how it'll likely be in Skyrim)

I'd LIKE to be optimistic here, and think that Skyrim will have more quests than Oblivion overall, but I have the impression that it, indeed, will be fewer. It's already telling when we've found that The main storyline has only 12 quests, which is a significant drop from the prior games. (Daggerfall, Morrowind, and Oblivion had 32, 25, and 20, respectively; we've lost 5-8 each game) Given the way the achievements are laid out for the game's 6 factions, chances are they also have fewer quests... So I'd put the total estimate that, given we have 6 factions and a main quest of 12 parts, we'll have a total of around 100-130 storyline (main+faction+daedra) quests; this makes up the bulk of most games' quests. Morrowind had the most total quests because it had 10 factions, vs. 6 for Daggerfall and 4 for Oblivion.

Given it's safe to say that BethSoft will likely think that the "miscellaneous" quests (those not tied to any specific storyline) could be reduced if they're repeatable, chances are we'll see them reduced by 33-66%; the previous three were almost identical in counts, (129, 127, 127) so that'll entail 42-86 further quests, bringing the total to 142-216... Which yes, does mean Skyrim will almost certainly have fewer quests than any of the three preceding games. It'll be an open question, again, whether the "repeatable" nature of the miscellaneous quests will make up for it, or whether they'll wind up feeling stale the second time through. (for all Daggerfall's strengths, most quests do NOT feel fresh the second time through)

I'd rather wait to find out if it is a buggy mess like fallout new vegas. If it is I might pick up the "game of the year edition" with all the add-ons. Although once a game is buggy at launch sometimes all the patches in the world can't save it. Keeping my fingers crossed Bethesda. Please don't dissapoint.

I really really hope that they got rid of the weird bugs that start to infest the game if you played 200+ hours, like more crashes to the desktop, textures not loading properly, strange behaviour of corpses and items... It happend to me in Morrowind, Oblivion, Fallout 3 and Fallout NV. It also happened on Windows XP and Vista and on more than one PC, GPU and drivers, so it is game-engine related.

Untill they got 3D working, I don't care.

DAII a failure? Yeah, they cut corners with level design and the combat system was controversial (though I liked it), but it was one of the most innovative RPG's in years because it managed to combine the strong storyline of a linear story with the rich details of a more open approach.

Daggerfall also had an insanely high number of settlements. I hope for the next Elder Scrolls game they'll feel confident enough to create a much larger, procedurally generated game world. Oblivion's towns already seemed like they were procedurally generated - a temple, a blacksmith, general store, inn, tavern, castle, just with different looking architecture.