Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim races' faces shown off

Bethesda has unveiled the default faces of Skyrim's ten races, and you'll be relived to find they're far more normal-looking than those often seen in its earlier RPGs.

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Bethesda's RPGs have boasted impressive arrays of sliders and options to customise your character's appearance, but it's always been tricky to create someone who wasn't a bit, well, funny-lookin'. Fret no more! Snaps of the twenty default variations for each of the ten races in The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim show you'll get to look quite human (or elven, orcish, or argonian, for that matter) in Bethesda's latest. Of course, you'll still be able to tinker with sliders to your heart's content, but a fine and broad assortment of default variations is certainly welcome. And one would imagine that, if you so desire, you'll still be able to find the magic settings to create monstrosities such as this horror created for The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion by Shacker 'tyrelhill.' Skyrim is headed to PC, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 on November 11. If you're headed to PAX Prime, you'll be able to play it there this weekend too.

Half of the default Argonians - click for the rest and everyone else

From The Chatty
  • reply
    August 24, 2011 11:00 AM

    Alice O'Connor posted a new article, Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim races' faces shown off.

    Bethesda has unveiled the default faces of Skyrim's ten races, and you'll be relived to find they're far more normal-looking than those often seen in its earlier RPGs.

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      August 24, 2011 11:09 AM

      Iwantthisgameinmyface.

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        August 24, 2011 11:19 AM

        There's such thing as a space bar.

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          August 24, 2011 11:25 AM

          Sorry, I got all hot and bothered.

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      August 24, 2011 11:26 AM

      [deleted]

    • Zek legacy 10 years legacy 20 years
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      August 24, 2011 11:41 AM

      hey assholes where are the gnomes

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        August 24, 2011 12:17 PM

        Have you played the Elder Scrolls games? There are gno gnomes. Horrid creatures, anyway. ;-)

        • Zek legacy 10 years legacy 20 years
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          August 24, 2011 12:41 PM

          like i give a crap, if your lore doesn't have gnomes you better get to retconning them

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        August 24, 2011 12:20 PM

        If you're desperate for gnomes, I'm sure there will be a mod for it eventually. :)

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        August 25, 2011 1:26 AM

        lol, reeling in the front pagers

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      August 24, 2011 11:42 AM

      Something about the far right male argonian screems "Mage who would do things like Tim? from Monty Python and the Holy Grail".

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      August 24, 2011 11:53 AM

      They forgot to show us the giant yellow swirl hairdo in these screenshots. And let's not forget the aged hair metal rock star style. You know, the one with the ridiculously high widow's peak. Come on, those are Oblivion classics!

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      August 24, 2011 12:17 PM

      Hmm, I'm no expert on the area of 3D models in games, but in some areas of the models it kind of looks like they're not using smoothing groups. I thought that was a common thing to make use of. It's particularly evident on their noses, where the individual faces in the mesh are very visible.

      Maybe it's a restriction caused by the need for customization of the character models? Or maybe I'm just seeing things?

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        August 24, 2011 12:24 PM

        On second thought, it would probably have looked much worse if they didn't use smoothing groups. I still think their noses look weird though.

        With that said, I think they've done a terrific job with the character models compared to previous games.

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      August 24, 2011 12:41 PM

      Honestly compared to most new games these days they don't really look that good, but compared to Oblivion and considering the size of the game and how awesome it is I don't really care. It still looks good.

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        August 24, 2011 12:42 PM

        I guess I was being harsh, they actually are pretty good.

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          August 24, 2011 2:56 PM

          no you were right the first time

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        August 24, 2011 5:56 PM

        They don't exactly look "next gen", but they don't need to. If they loaded too much detail into the faces, it would eat up too too much of your system's resources when a bunch of characters are on screen at the same time. What they have here is a pretty good compromise. None of them look like Oblivion monstrosities, and there's a good sense of character distinction. I was able to recognize each race before reading what they were. Some of them are a little bit on the fugly side, but they all fit your role in the game perfectly. The men all look like they've been living out in the woods, and the women look ice cold. The opposite side of the spectrum would be Final Fantasy, where half the men have luxurious flowing white hair while the other half have angsty hairdos, and the women all look like pre-teen fashion models.

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      August 24, 2011 12:43 PM

      The Khajiit are looking decidedly hot

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      August 24, 2011 12:59 PM

      So Rage is not the only FPS with racing!

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      August 24, 2011 1:32 PM

      just as long as i can make my guy look retarded, i'm all good.

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      August 24, 2011 1:39 PM

      hello oblivion 1.5, what shit gfx

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        August 24, 2011 2:04 PM

        lol

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        August 24, 2011 2:34 PM

        Beshitsda

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        August 24, 2011 2:35 PM

        i hear you man, graphics > gameplay, fuck everything, more textures and triangles solve everything

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          August 24, 2011 5:11 PM

          Problem is, Bethesda hasn't been very good at the gameplay side of the equation either. Dropping you into a meadow and letting you do retarded things just because you can does not = gameplay. They can't even come up with good story and Skyrim looks like it'll be no exception to this rule. Skyrim's story is centered around a prophecy, which is a horrible plot element because, on top of being disgustingly cliche, it makes free will seem almost meaningless. So you killed a dragon? Good job asshole, the prophecy said you would. Now go kill some more. It's especially bad for an Elder Scrolls game, which is about empowering the player.

          That said, I think the faces look fine.

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            August 24, 2011 5:18 PM

            I'm pretty sure the Elder Scrolls series pretty much always does prophecy based stories in some form or another. Morrowind was definitely prophecy based and it had the best story of the bunch, imo.

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            August 24, 2011 5:23 PM

            For me the main draw is exploration. I love being dropped into their worlds and roaming around finding things to do while I wander into different situations/locales.

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              August 24, 2011 5:27 PM

              I agree with you there. It's why I still end up buying Bethesda's games despite the fact that I'm always dissing 'em so hard. The sense of exploration you get from playing them can't be beat. By the time you've seen all there is to see, there's mods available to polish up the rough aspects. If you get it on PC anyway.

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                August 25, 2011 1:23 AM

                I've no idea what you guys are on, but you're jusy WAAAAY off.

                Bethesda games are awesome, I've spent more hours than I can count wandering around in Oblivion and Fallout 3. Not to mention Morrowind as well (which IMO was better than Oblivion). Just that sense of exploration and the fact you can pursue the main story in your own time makes the games special.

                Also I'm sick of people going on about stuff being "clichèd" all the time, the vast majority of stuff is, its the delivery and execution that counts. Admittedly tho, Oblivion kinda licked balls on the delivery, what with all 4 of the voice actors they employed :(

                Still, Skyrim is an insta-buy for me.

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          August 24, 2011 6:12 PM

          It's not even about that. Those just are pretty bad looking in terms of design. God damn the females look like busted-up hookers.

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        August 24, 2011 2:52 PM

        I know, man - this is going to look like shite on my 3DO

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      August 24, 2011 2:14 PM

      Looks as subpar as ever.

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      August 24, 2011 2:41 PM

      Cat people in Elder Scroll games annoy me more than they should.

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      August 24, 2011 4:34 PM

      this is me when i saw the lizard people: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c9eGtyqz4gY

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      August 24, 2011 5:24 PM

      I see no changes, all I see is races' faces.

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      August 24, 2011 6:08 PM

      their mouth parts still look too weird.

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      August 25, 2011 1:25 AM

      [deleted]

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