When it was launched in 2006, The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion was the most one of the prettiest games you could wish to bless your eyes with. Five years on, the Gambryo engine isn’t going to cut it for the winter realm of Skyrim. Enter the Creation Engine. Follow us through for the latest info.

The guys at GameInformer have been having a chat with Bethesda Studios’ creative director Todd Howard who’s explained some of the impressive developments in the game’s development.

The new Creation Engine provides more impressive draw distances and a significantly improved dynamic lighting system.
Snowfall will land on objects and accumulate over time.
The Radiant AI system has been heavily improved, with NPCs reacting to characters behaviour realistically. Turning up uninvited to a friendly NPC’s house will prompt them to offer you lodgings.
Havok's new Behavior system will be used to generate exceptionally fluid animations.
The less-than-well-received third person view from Oblivion is gone, replaced with a greatly improved one.
An organic side-quest management system – known as Radiant Story – will direct you to areas you’ve yet to explore by placing quest objectives in undiscovered dungeons.
Side quests will be "conditionalized", meaning they will adapt to what you’re character has done in their past and create objectives based on who you’ve become.
Random encounters will feature, one of which has been confirmed to be a pack of wolves attacking a mammoth.

Despite being a long, long eleven months away, Skyrim is already shaping up to be one of the most exciting titles of the year. If you’re as excited as we are by the prospect of an expedition to Tamriel’s snowy north, you’ll agree that November 11 can’t come quick enough.

Each year, our staff plays hundreds of games as we separate the good from the bad and the great from the good. Now, we separate the year’s truly exceptional from the rest, and crown our singular Game of the Year. Drumroll please...


Game of the Year/Realtime Strategy Game of the Year
Starcraft II - Wings Of Liberty



Years from now, PC gamers will remember 2010 first and foremost as the year that StarCraft finally returned. StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty hasn’t just wowed the hardcore PC faithful, it’s a beacon that’s drawn hordes of gamers back to their PCs, and reminded them what they’ve always loved about the kind of gaming experience you can only get here.

Its accomplishments are dazzling. With outstanding and innovative campaign mission design, and a meticulous, artful graphical update to its classic factions and multiplayer battles, it’s revitalized and restored confidence in the traditional resource gathering, base building realtime strategy game formula. We’ve heard suspicions voiced over the years that this formula had become outdated or in need of reinvention to be relevant, but StarCraft II has proven that the old-school model didn’t abruptly become un-fun five years ago.

What’s more, by applying the between-mission story mode (which harkens back to classic PC games like X-Wing and Wing Commander), to realtime strategy, Blizzard has cracked a problem that has plagued the RTS genre since its inception: making the characters who appear tiny on the battlefield feel like larger-than-life heroes, and bringing us in close to immerse us in the universe we usually only get to see from far above.



Finally, the spectacular multiplayer action is so exciting that it doesn’t even need to be played to be enjoyed—StarCraft II has successfully introduced gamers to the idea that games can be enjoyable as a spectator sport. In just a few short months, the audience for commentated professional-level matches and tournaments has exploded from a small and dedicated niche to a thriving community of hundreds of thousands of viewers who regularly tune in to view games on YouTube, GOMtv.net or Major League Gaming, and follow their favorite players.

In those ways and more, StarCraft II is a monument to PC gaming. It’s a game that can be enjoyed by everyone, from the newest and most inexperienced players to the gamer’s equivalent of the world-class athlete—and even those who’d rather just sit back and watch.

Next page: PC Gamer US's choices for Shooter, Puzzle, and Free-To-Play Game of the Year.


Shooter Of The Year
Call Of Duty: Black Ops



The unrivaled control of our mice and keyboards demands high-skill, athletic multiplayer experiences. Some of the PC’s finest multiplayer shooters (Tribes, Quake III, Team Fortress Classic) earned our respect by offering brutally uncompromising arenas that demand pixel-point accuracy and to-the-nanosecond finesse. Anything less is a waste of the agility and precision that we’re able to manifest with these devices.

Despite being designed as a cross-platform game, Call of Duty: created the kind of hyper-competitive itch that our trigger fingers love to scratch better than any other shooter this year. Its breakneck-paced, kill-or-be-owned multiplayer modes have an arcade feel to them, but Treyarch’s rejiggering of CoD’s multiplayer formula hooks us right in the competitive center of our brains. Being a successful player means summoning every ounce of marksmanship skill and tactical battlefield awareness that you can muster while allowing physics and playful weapons, such as an RC car bomb or a crossbow with exploding bolts, balance that tension with entertaining doses of dumb luck.

Technologically, Black Ops’ integrated video replay and sharing system sets a precedent in post-game enjoyment. Revisiting game-saving headshots or how-did-that-possibly-kill-him Tomahawk tosses in slow-mo with a free camera grant the same StarCraft II provides players to revisit, analyze and share your best moments. We don't forgive Black Ops’ botched launch or brain-dead single-player campaign, but it celebrates a style of multiplayer that belongs on the PC--a speedy death-go-round we can’t get enough of.
Puzzle Game Of The Year
Puzzle Agent



There's more than one way to tell an adventure story--we just didn't realize it until Agent Nelson Tethers showed up with Puzzle Agent. Telltale replaced the usual pixel-hunting, inventory management and object-combination puzzles found in adventure games (which can all too often rely more on guesswork as to which items can be worn as hats than puzzle-solving techniques) with real brain scratchers. Whether we were bouncing Nelson’s snowmobile to safety, calculating the cargo capacity of swallows or solving word problems, Puzzle Agent’s puzzles added great gameplay to Tethers' surprisingly edgy saga and elevated a young genre--the puzzle-adventure.
Free-To-Play Game Of The Year
League of Legends



2010 saw games lining up around the block for the opportunity to entertain PC gamers for free, but none could match League of Legends’ steady stream of high-quality updates. The content machine at Riot churns out new champions every two weeks, along with new maps, items and meta-game systems. This year’s Season One update both opened up competitive play for top-tier players and strengthened the tutorial elements for newcomers. League of Legends continues to prove that a dedicated independent developer can make the free-to-play model shine.

Next page: PC Gamer US's choices for Roleplaying, Action, and Adventure Game of the Year.


Roleplaying Game of the Year
Fallout: New Vegas



Fallout: New Vegas shows us how great things can be accomplished by standing on the shoulders of giants. It demonstrates that the defining characteristic of a great roleplaying game isn’t flashy, state-of-the-art graphics; success as an immersive adventure depends much more on creating an irresistible, fantastical world, filling it with interesting characters— and then letting us mess with it.

Obsidian’s writing sparkles with fascinating characters and quests that pay loving homage to the franchise’s PC roots at every opportunity. Its main quest begins as a small-scale tale of personal revenge in the Mojave, but blossoms into an opportunity to decide the outcome of a wide-open conflict that will upset the balance of power of an entire region. Nothing empowers us as players more than seeing the effects of our choices play out, and Fallout: New Vegas’ conflict can be resolved in so many ways that it gives us a feeling of freedom and control virtually unprecedented among modern games. Roleplaying games don’t get a whole lot better than this.

And while it’s a cross-platform game, Fallout: New Vegas reminds us why the PC is more often than not the best place to experience an openworld RPG like this one. It looks far better on the PC than any other platform, and mods step in afterward to unlock its full potential. Fallout: New Vegas is truly our adventure.
Sports Game of the Year
NBA2K11



Sports games saw a resurgence on the PC this year, defying the perception that great sports games show up only on consoles. Leading the pack is NBA 2K11, a brilliant homage to basketball’s greatest hero, Michael Jordan. Its sharp AI and crisp visuals are good enough to fool you—just for a moment—into thinking you’re watching and somehow controlling a live game between the very best players in basketball history. NBA 2K11 proves the PC’s strength as the most versatile of all gaming platforms—the perfect place to play any kind of game.
Adventure Game of the Year
Monkey Island 2 Special Edition: LeChuck's Revenge



A great joke never dies. LucasArts proved that again by bringing Guybrush’s sophomore mix-up with LeChuck into the modern era gracefully with Monkey Island 2 Special Edition: LeChuck’s Revenge. The artwork has been reinvigorated, new voiceovers give each character even more style, and the new interface is expertly tuned for adventuring. The most interesting new feature is the commentary by the original creators (Ron Gilbert, Tim Schafer and Dave Grossman) who chat casually with each other as you play. It’s the sort of fun behind-the-scenes look usually reserved for film, and it injects an already great game with plenty of fresh hilarity and insight.

Next Page: PC Gamer US's choices for MMO, Strategy, and Simulation Game of the Year.
MMO of the Year
Lord of the Rings Online



A lot of MMOs thrived this year, but their success was dampened by a lack of major updates or innovation. When it came to keeping us entertained all year long with small updates, plus throwing us the occasional party with huge loads of free content, LotRO treated its fans the best. Two new Epic Books’ worth of quests alongside the franchise’s memorable characters and two new regions were added; character creation and starter regions were completely revamped, in-game events were expanded and UI elements were improved—and then the game went free-to-play in September.

Turbine’s signature hybrid free-to-play subscription model proved to be a great success, generously letting curious players browse Middle-earth and sample the content before deciding whether or not to open their wallets. It’s quickly redefining the way a successful subscriptionless MMO is run.

The future’s looking good for LotRO—even with this year’s huge additions, it’s wisely pacing itself to avoid burning through the books’ story content too quickly. There’s a long road ahead before we’re knocking on Mordor’s door with the One Ring, and that road is lined with good friends (LotRO’s community is one of the most friendly and enthusiastic around), excellent gameplay and free updates, and at the rate Turbine is going, we’ll be enjoying the journey for years to come.
Strategy Game of the Year
Civilization V



It’s no surprise that Civilization V wins this award—Civilization has been one of the PC’s definitive names in turnbased strategy for almost two decades, thanks to the deep, addictive turn-based experience that you just can’t get anywhere else.

With Civ V’s reinvention in particular, Firaxis has demonstrated that the series—and the entire genre of turnbased strategy—is teeming with new ideas. Its revamped tactical combat addresses a long-standing weakness of the series and made the inevitable wars between nations more engaging; its colorful graphics and redesigned interface reach out to gamers intimidated by complexity, grab them by their eyeballs and, before they realize what’s happened, pull them into all-night gaming sessions that don’t end until one nation rules the world; and its in-game mod browser opens up the world of user-made content to gamers who would’ve otherwise never known where to look for it or how to install it.

Wherever the series goes next, we’ll be able to look back at Civilization V and say that it took us somewhere new and enthralling.
Simulation of the Year
Lock On: Flaming Cliffs 2



An expansion pack for a 2003 flight sim might not seem like a slam dunk for Simulation of the Year honors, but Eagle Dynamics’ expertly crafted Lock On: Flaming Cliffs 2  is a truly exceptional revival of an existing favorite. By taking a strong but datedlooking sim and turbocharging it with a modern engine, an impressive international collection of warplanes, detailed cockpit renderings and freshly upgraded terrain graphics, FC2 delivers one of the best combat flight experiences that sim fans have seen in years.

Next page: PC Gamer US's choices for Action-Adventure, Mod, and Innovator of the Year.


Action-Adventure Game of the Year
The Ball



A masterstroke of minimalism, The Ball was the best gaming vignette of the year. There’s no dialog, sweeping cinematics or tacked-on multiplayer mode to burden The Ball—just a lightweight, focused, gameplay-driven short story. It benefited from this simplicity by giving us a campaign that felt paced and personal. As you kick the multiton marble around with your ancient Mexican gravity gun, it somehow makes the transition from object to character. You develop this subtle but strong relationship with the object—it doesn’t change or communicate, but it takes on the feeling of a pet following you through lava-soaked corridors.
Mod of the Year
Nehrim: At Fate’s Edge



It’s a total conversion for a four-year-old game (The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion), but Nehrim is so impressive that it was a contender not just for best mod, but for best RPG. Nehrim is massive, witty, occasionally vicious, incredibly ambitious and tremendously successful at injecting new life into a game that many of us have already played so much that we could scarcely imagine seeing anything new come out of it. Its world is wonderfully resolved—settlements look sensibly planned, residents have purposeful vocations, forests are dense and geography looks natural.

The dedication shown by the modders who took Nehrim from concept to realization is astonishing. Only on the PC do gamers have such power to shape their experiences.
Innovator of the Year
Minecraft



An unfinished, hyper-simple, low-fi independent game captured the imaginations of PC gamers more than anything else in 2010. But it isn't technical excellence that makes Minecraft the PC’s brightest innovator (although there's plenty of that). Rather, it's the way that it reveres players’ ideas. Minecraft doesn’t provide any goal, story or explicit reward for digging in the earth. Instead, it allows players to cultivate their own experiences out of the simple tasks of digging and building, punctuated by a few monsters every now and then. Players approach the blank canvas in different ways: erecting world-spanning railroads or waterfall wonders; strip-mining the ground for rare ores; exploring dungeons; creating multiplayer metropolises or hidden fortresses; using in-game tools for bizarre science—making each player's experience necessarily unique.

Minecraft also demonstrates that word-of-mouth on the PC is still the surest route to indie success. Minecraft sold more than 700,000 copies in 2010 by way of players sharing their creations and discoveries on YouTube, Reddit.com and forums. This remarkable popularity is only possible on an open platform like the PC, where Minecraft creator “Notch” can deploy weekly updates to the game and collaborate directly with fans on content and bug fixes.

While we wouldn’t expect Minecraft’s financial success to become commonplace, it opens up a new business model for self-employed developers: selling before official release in order to finance development.

The first solid details on The Elder Scrolls V have been announced, detailing the levelling system and revealing more about story, races and enemies of Skyrim. You'll find all of the info below.

The new information has all come from GameInformer's first look at the game. Here's everything we know.

The first thing to note is that there won't be a class system in Skyrim, your character develops from scratch based on the skills you decide to level up, meaning it's possible to create a rounded character who can do a bit of everything, or go slap happy with a sword and take a more focused warrior role. As in Oblivion, the individual skills you level up contribute to an overall level. When your character advances you get to attribute extra health, magika or stamina. There won't be a level cap, but your character will find it harder and harder to level as you stack up the skill points. Character creation has been improved and you'll be able to choose from one of 10 races when creating a character.

The 21 skill variants of Oblivion have been pruned to 18. The spell school Mysticism has been chopped, but beyond that not much has been revealed about the abilities in the game, except for one new addition. You'll now be able to dual wield weapons. Bethesda have said that one of the main focuses of the game has been on improving combat to make it more "dynamic and tactical". There will be unique finishing moves based on the weapons you're using and the enemies you're facing. Speaking of enemies, zombies, skeletons, trolls, giants, ice wraiths, giant spiders, wolves, horses Elk, mammoth, saber-toothed cats, were-yetis and of course dragons have all been confirmed.

One of the big complaints about Oblivion was the level scaling system that matched monsters in each area to your hero's power. The good thing about the system was that you'd never get hopelessly slaughtered by a wandering demon twice your level, but it also robbed the game of much challenge and made the world feel like a less wild and dangerous place. As revealed by a Bethesda community manager on the Bethesda forums, level scaling will return in The Elder Scrolls V, but it's much closer to Fallout 3's more tailored version of the system.

One of the most ambitious additions to Skyrim is the new quest system, which offers you new challenges based on your character's abilities and previous actions in the world. If you've specialised as a mage then you'll be approached and offered quests by characters who wouldn't speak to you as a warrior. The game will also store information on where your character has been in the world, and relocate quests to dungeons you haven't explored yet. Another example outlines a situation in which you've killed a shopkeeper who would have offered you a quest. The quest is passed on to the shopkeeper's sister and your character will have to work to redeem themselves if they want to get the mission.

As we know, Elder Scrolls V is set in the northern realm of Skyrim where the Nords live. The game takes place 200 years after Oblivion, and casts you as a dragonborn dragonslayer tasked with taking out the dragon god, who has made a prophesied return to wreak havoc on the world. Unfortunately the king is dead, which means you'll have to do all of this in the midst of a civil war. There will be five major cities in the game, and with the introduction of a series of professions, there will be a lot more to do when visiting. Enchantments, weapon tailoring, cooking, farming and mining are the activities that have been announced, but there's no word yet on exactly what each will involve. It will also be possible to duel characters on the streets.

Finally, the conversation system has been mercifully revamped, with attention being paid especially to the quality of faces and facial animation. The awkward 'crash-zoom to static NPC' style of conversation in Oblivion is gone, and characters will now move around freely as you chat with them. Most importantly, the updated faces now also allow for beards.

The game's due out on November 11th. Excited?

It turns out the strange language that can be heard singing in the Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim trailer isn't just a lot of made up nonsense. Bethesda have created a whole language for the game. and Bethesda have already been putting out cryptic messages, asking readers to translate them.

It's all part of GameInformer's upcoming look at the game. The next GameInformer cover bears a mysterious passage in Dragontongue, which looks a little bit like this:

DOVAHKIIN DOVAHKIIN / NAAL OK ZIN LOS VAHRIIN / WAH DEIN VOKUL MAHFAERAAK AHST VAAL / AHRK FIN NOROK PAAL GRAAN / FOD NUST HON ZINDRO ZIN / DOVAHKIIN FAH HIN KOGAAN MU DRAAL

AHRK FIN KEL LOST PRODAH / DO VED VIING KO FIN KRAH / TOL FOD ZEYMAH WIN KEIN MEYZ FUNDEIN / ALDUIN FEYN DO JUN / KRUZIIK VOKUN STAADNAU / VOTH AAN BAHLOK WAH DIIVON FIN LEIN

Thankfully the collective megabrain of Reddit has already had a good look at the text, and have provided a translation, which reads as follows.

DRAGONBORN DRAGONBORN / BY HIS HONOR IS SWORN / TO KEEP EVIL FOREVER AT BAY / AND THE FIERCEST ROUT / WHEN THEY HEAR TRIUMPH’S SHOUT / DRAGONBORN FOR YOUR BLESSING WE PRAY

AND THE SCROLLS HAVE FORETOLD / OF BLACK WINGS IN THE COLD / THAT WHEN BROTHERS WAGE WAR COME UNFURLED / ALDUIN BANE OF KINGS / ANCIENT SHADOW UNBOUND / WITH A HUNGER TO SWALLOW THE WORLD

So we've got a dragonborn hero sworn to protect the world from evil, then something about the scrolls, then something worrying about an ancient shadow with a hunger to swallow the world. It looks as though the translation needs another translation, what do you think it all means?

I love Oblivion, but not because it was perfect. That and the previous Elder Scrolls game Morrowind were great because they tried more than they could do flawlessly - that's what made them so liberating compared to a lot of other RPGs. Now that we know Skyrim is coming, though, it's time to take a harder look at what the Elder Scrolls games could be doing better. This is what we want from The Elder Scrolls V.

1. A better level up system
If I want to be a good swordsman in Oblivion, the last thing I should do is pick Blade as one of my specialty skills. If I avoid it completely, I can still get better with a sword through practise, and it won't raise my character level. I can become the greatest swordsman in the world for any given level.

Improving skills with practise is a cornerstone of the Elder Scrolls series, and it has potential. But TES V needs to find a smarter way to blend it with the intentionality of character customisation.

2. Content that doesn't scale
We need to feel like leveling up makes us more powerful. If the whole world levels up with us, that sense is lost. It also makes the game world too even: nowhere is particularly dangerous in Oblivion because everything is so politely level-appropriate. Morrowind had some level-scaling, but enough fixed danger to feel wild, and enough genuine progression to be compulsive.

3. Vicious combat

At level 1, hitting someone with a warhammer feels great. They just crumple. In the late game, though, you and your enemies have such a vast pool of hitpoints that every fight is a war of attrition, which makes each blow feel meaningless. It needs to be quick, vicious and deadly, whatever level you're at.

4. A bigger voice cast
Unless one of them is Billy West (Fry, Dr Zoidberg, Professor Farnsworth, Zapp Brannigan, Richard Nixon, Abraham Lincoln, Leo Wong and Humorbot 5.0 in Futurama), you can't use the same few guys for a world with hundreds of characters. You don't have to stump up for big names like Patrick Stewart and Sean Bean again - their celebrity didn't make the game better. Spend that money on a dozen more decent, varied performances.

5. Better faces
Look what you did to Patrick Stewart:



6. No face zoom
Regardless of looks, it's not polite to get up in someone's grill to quite this extent. Particularly if it involves extending your neck more than three meters.

7. NPCs who know when to shut up
Hey guys, the player's here! Let's all make canned smalltalk at the same time! Make sure your reply doesn't quite relate to what I said, and it's one he's heard three times in the last two minutes! Good day!

8. A more exciting magic system

The Destruction school of magic I inderstand. Restoration: yes. Even Illusion - invisibility and whatnot, great. Then Alteration? Spells that alter things? Don't all spells alter things? And Mysticism - as opposed to scientific magic? Some of the spells are great, but the schools themselves are well overdue for an overhaul to make them more logical, distinct and exciting.

9. Weird places
Forests are great. I have no issues with hills. I love a good lake. But I hope Skyrim has some regions that are just a little off, a little alien, a little non-Tolkeinian. That's why there are hordes of Morrowind fans who never accepted Oblivion - that and:

10. A proper PC interface
Come on, nerdy stats and inventory lists are what the PC was made for. Let us at 'em. Oblivion's interface is capable of listing between THREE and SIX items at a time before you have to scroll. Same goes for the map - if Bethesda have any idea how important a really good map can be to the sense of being in a fantasy world, the size of the damn thing in Oblivion didn't show it. These aren't huge issues, but look: modders fixed them in a day or two. If you seriously don't have anyone who can do that before release, hire those modders.

I know every cross-platform developer loves to say "All three versions are identical," to wash their hands of the platform wars, but guys: they're not. One of them is played with a mouse and keyboard from two feet away. Notice this.

11. Varied dungeons

We know you can do this now - Fallout 3 is an object lesson in filling an open world with interestingly different locations. Fantasy equivalent of that, please.

12. A main quest without the padding
The Oblivion gates themselves were the least interesting thing in Oblivion, reducing a freeform game to straight combat. So please don't ask us to fight through six of them in a row - very few players realised that they were even optional. The main quest in TES V should be as long or short as the interestingly different content you can make for it.

13. A villain we hate

It's hard to really get worked up about demons bent on destroying the world. I'd rather they didn't, but I have nothing against them personally. In Mass Effect, no-one really hated the Reapers. The guy we couldn't wait to kill was Saren, because our beef was personal. You don't have to have them kill our father/mother/brother/son/girlfriend - in fact that rarely works. They just have to be a bastard, and one who's getting away with it.

14. Modding tools

Bethesda have always been good with this - The Elder Scrolls Construction Set is a modder's dream, and the 24,000 mods it's led to demonstrates that. Almost every other niggle with Oblivion in this list was eventually addressed by the community. Unless you have a secret formula for making TES V all things to all people, please keep giving people the tools to tinker.

15. Free horse armour

Bethesda Softworks community manager Nick Breckon has confirmed that the next Elder Scrolls game, Skyrim, will use an all new engine. This is contrary to a recent rumour that Bethesda's next game would still use the Gamebryo engine that powered The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion and Fallout 3.

The controversy around Gamebryo can be summarised as: good at trees, crap at faces. It made Oblivion's landscapes gorgeous, but led to some ugly people and odd behaviour. The way it transitioned between low and high detail scenery as you moved through the world also caused some blurry textures and suddenly appearing objects on some machines.

Since Bethesda's parent company ZeniMax now owns id Software, the second most popular theory was that Skyrim might use id Tech 5, the engine developed for their next game Rage. Apparently not - "all new" suggests this is one developed specifically for Skyrim, or at least not seen in other games yet. Here's Nick's Tweet.

There's a new Elder Scrolls V trailer, oh yeah and the Elder Scrolls V was announced. The release date is 11th of November next year, it's set in the snowy province of Skyrim, it's called Skyrim, and oh my god:


 
Well, I think I know what I'll be watching on a loop for the next eleven months.

It looks as though Bethesda are indeed hard at work on the next Elder Scrolls game, with reports saying that it will be a direct sequel to Oblivion, and that voice recording for the game is already underway.
Eurogamer Denmark spilled the beans on the sequel after speaking to someone involved on the game's development. Eurogamer have translated the Danish news report, and it reads like this:

"This source not only confirmed that the game is in current production, but also spoke briefly about the content - with fantasy-sounding phrases like Dragon Lord, something with The Blades - and that voice acting for the characters in the game is currently happening in the weeks to follow.

The same source confirmed, with official game documents in hand, that this will be the chronological sequel to what happened in The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, which is the latest game in the now 16-years-old Elder Scrolls saga and by itself one of the better RPGs for PC and consoles."

Oblivion was released all the way back in 2006, and there has since been little word of a sequel, it might finally be time to get excited.

Update: if the information is accurate, the term 'chronological sequel' may simply mean that the game is set later than Oblivion. So far each of the four Elder Scrolls games have been set later than the last, but none have been direct sequels in the ordinary sense: very few characters appear in more than one game, the hero is always a new character, and the plots don't connect. That may still be true of The Elder Scrolls V.