While that is techically true, most of those are really just variations. Like the billion summon spells for different creatures or armor pieces that make up nearly the entire school of conjuration (the only other spell effect in it is the oh so useful turn undead, in case you're wondering).
“I think you get very used the idea that enemies are all there for you to mow through, but it doesn't seem like someone's life is going to end. We're trying to get that across.” ... “You end up doing it a lot in the game, and there has to be an energy and a joy to it,” Howard says.
Anyone else get the vibe that the guy's talking without thinking about what he's saying? One minute it's "this is serious business, someone's going to
die" and then it's all "...and we've made it really fun to kill people".
the sword perk increases your chances of landing a critical strike, the axe perk punishes enemies with residual bleeding damage after each blow, and the mace perk ignores armor on your enemies to land more powerful strikes.
What, so swords don't make people bleed? Arbitrary and gamey.
timing based blocking system that requires players to actively raise their shields
...eeeeexcept when you watch people who know what they're doing actually using shields, they hold them up all the bloody time.
If you hold down the block button, your character will attempt to execute a bash move. If you catch a bandit off guard with the bash while he's attacking, it knocks him back and exposes him to a counter or power attack.
How exactly can I catch a bandit off guard if doing a bash requires me to hold the button for some length of time? Won't the opening go away before the game registers that I want to bash?
Players can block and bash with two-handed weapons as well, but it isn't as effective as the shield.
God please don't tell me it's going to be the same as in Oblivion where blocking with a weapon still somehow resulted in taking partial damage.
Bethesda also smartly changed the pace at which characters backpedal
Aaaand by "smartly" I assume they mean "after being yelled at about it by the players of their two previous games".
you could blast enemies with a flame ball from afar, hold the button down to wield the spell like a flame thrower, place a rune on the ground to create an environmental trap that spontaneously combusts when an enemy steps on it, or equip the spell with both hands to deliver high damage fireball attacks that drain your magicka reserves quickly.
That actually sounds pretty cool. I've never understood the need for the various spell versions in TES and indeed pretty much every other game. Just determine the strength and cost of the spell by how long I hold the bloody button down (or even better, in case of the PS3 with its analog buttons, how hard I mash the button).
“There’s a gaminess to it that we didn’t really have before,” Howard says as if that's a good thing.
Well admittedly it might give a point and purpose to the bazilion of nearly-identical spell effects. Maybe.
consuming potions
Anyone else getting fed up with those?
the longer you keep the bow drawn the more powerful your shot will be
To what point and purpose? Why would I ever want to do less damage than the maximum I can?
Once you successfully sneak up behind an unsuspecting victim, you can unleash a deadly blow with the dagger, an almost useless weapon in previous Elder Scrolls games that is receiving a major boost in Skyrim. “Now when you sneak up behind guys, the dagger does something like 10x damage,” Howard says. “I don’t know if we’re going to keep that, but you feel like you should be killing the guy if you’ve gotten that close and you have a dagger.”
That actually sounds kinda cool, but why exactly wouldn't a sword do even more damage?