The inventory system in Skyrim is also much improved. With a fully 3D rendering of literally every object in the game, you can view each one close up to examine all the nuances. One particular puzzle I saw in the demo even required this, to find an icon puzzle combination solution on the backside of an inventory object. The world map is more vibrant than ever before as well, because it’s just a top down in game vantage point. Zoom all the way out to see Skryim border to border, or zoom all the way in back to your player. It helps truly define the height of some of the game’s mountains as well as the depths of the valleys. The skills menu has your player character look to the stars for inspiration. Constellations represent individual skills, and you go up different branches of each skill to unlock new abilities. Each constellation’s brightness changes upon how active you are with that skill as well.
Lastly, conversations are better than ever. There’s no pausing during them, and you see characters interact with their environments as you chat. You might be discussing prices with a blacksmith as he sharpens blades on a stone, or you might hike up a mountain path while talking with a random stranger in the forest.
Skyrim will flat out be the best looking sandbox RPG of the year, I can say that with some good confidence right now after seeing the live demo. Combat, interactions, menus, graphics and sound, almost everything in the Elder Scrolls games that matter has seen a significant upgrade in Skyrim. Words hardly do some of these things justice, but they’ll have to do because I again apologize, during viewing of the demo, it was forbidden to use cameras or photography of any kind.
