The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim was announced at the video games awards. Little was told of the game but there were only a couple of things told. The first is the title Skyrim and the other is the release date which is 11-11-11. Examining what these mean can begin to give you a few clues as to what to expect from this game.

What is Skyrim

Skyrim is not a name that is new to Elder Scrolls V. This is, like Morrowind, a province of Tamirel. The northernmost province it is a cold and mountainous area it is home to both elves and humans. This is where you can find the Nords. Whether this means that it will be central to the plot or the story takes place in Skyrim is not yet clear.
Although an difficult place to live Skyrim is an powerful province producing a considerable amount of raw material from its mining which is important to Tamirel. This lends some credence to expectation that the game may exist entirely in this province.

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim trailer

The trailer shown at the video game awards gives away very little. If the series were not already known it could be almost nothing, but there are a few clues. Perhaps the most interesting are the dragons which appear and the mention of a dragonborn. These imply that the dragons are going to be an enemy that can be fought in some fashion or perhaps even ridden.
It also mentions that this takes place after oblivion. This is natural to be expected but the implication may be that it occurs a short time after the events of oblivion. This could mean that some of the effects of the main plot of oblivion may carry over into this game.

Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim hopes and expectations

With little or no information the speculation has run rampant. The most pressing desire by most people is a new game engine. The engine which has run oblivion and fallout 3 was impressive but it is beginning to show its age. In Fallout: New Vegas it felt as if they had pushed this engine as far as it could go.
The next thing that each new Elder Scrolls game brings to it is a world to explore. With new cities to fight and enemies to challenge. The dragons seem to be one of those enemies but as you will be in the far north there are other interesting possibilities for enemies as well. In addition every Elder Scrolls game has had huge numbers of quests outside of the main adventure and it is hard to imagine that Elder Scrolls 5 will be an exception.

Conclusion

Bethesda has been working on Elder Scrolls 5 since oblivion was published according to the developers and with only 11 months left before it is released it seems likely that more information is going to begin to appear quickly about this game. Until then though there are a lot of questions to be answered and speculation is the best that can be done.

                        

Report: First Windows 7 service pack sent to OEMs

The first service pack for Windows 7 has been sent to original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), according to a post on TechNet by Microsoft's Russian Windows Visualization team.
Microsoft launched the first release candidate for Windows 7 SP1, and Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 in late October of last year, saying that it would be the only RC prior to the software being finalized and made available to manufacturers. The company also promised that SP1 would arrive in the hands of users in the "first half" of 2011.
Blog Winrumors, which reported the news earlier today, weighs in, saying that while SP1 is indeed going out to OEMs, it may be a while longer before consumers get their hands on it.
A Microsoft spokesperson told CNET, "we have nothing to share at this time but will keep you posted."
SP1 packs together a round of hotfixes, as well as an updated remote desktop client that makes use of RemoteFX. Besides bringing a boost to 3D applications, RemoteFX helps IT admins deploy Windows 7 through virtual machines using the technology, which it picked up with its acquisition of Calista Technologies back in 2008. Other SP1 adds include dynamic memory support for Hyper-V in Windows Server 2008 R2, and all previous Windows security fixes.
Earlier this week, Microsoft released KB 976902 through its Windows Update software before having the knowledge base article to explain what the update was for. Security expert Brian Krebs dug a little deeper and found out it was an update to the Windows stack to get the OS ready for future updates, something the company did ahead of the SP1 beta back in July.