The surprise is getting eveyone to speculate on the surprise

It is nothing more than an excuse to off load the blame for not having mods, to the console makers. A legitimate excuse, but nevertheless it will not change that console players do not get mods. You need to know a lost cause when you see one.

Todd wants mods on the consoles because Bethesda has always been open when it comes to modding their game. It's no secret that Bethesda copy ideas from modders for Skyrim. Consoles users have to put up with more controls because that how consoles work in a mass market like that.

Hey, people want to pay Sony and Microsoft money for mods on consoles that we get for free on PC, more power to them. Because Sony and MS WILL charge for any mods going thorugh their pipeline, most likely requiring PSN+ and Xbox LIVE Gold to access them.

Not true. My 3-year-old laptop is a little powerhouse with a GeForce 360m (which doesn't support DX11). It's running Skyrim smooth as silk at 1080p on a large TV with most of the settings on high and tons of medium-high res texture mods.

Paid testers!? Blasphemer!!

Mods have been hosted for free on steam for years

I just started getting into gaming a few years ago and still have much to learn. Everyone has to start somewhere. So, would you care to "put your money where your mouth is" and enlighten me?

I was hoping it would be More Angrier Giants.

Yeah, OK. it's like the guy who swears his 4 cylinder engine is powerhouse, then he steps up to an 6 cylinder and goes wowser, man I didn't realize how slow my car was. I'm really buying that that GeForce 360m is "running Skyrim smooth as silk at 1080p on a large TV with most of the settings on high and tons of medium-high res texture mods" Sure

BTW here's the spec's on your GeForce 360m - http://www.nvidia.com/object/product_geforce_gts_360m_us.html

That'd be awesome.

I think a high res pack has the highest probaility to be the surprise.

But there could also be a chance of a story dlc. Kingdom of Amalur is going to be released and Bethesda might start an offensive to hold customers.

http://www.gamesas.com/topic/1341992-ck-out-on-tuesday/page__st__30__p__20225306#entry20225306

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DirectX

In layman's terms, each version of DX brings more functionality and options to what can and can't be programmed, particularly graphics wise such as shaders, lighting, particle effects, etc ( although DX11 can also bring great performance improvements as well as graphical ).

But DX by itself does nothing without the hardware to support it.

For example, I've lost count of how many computer "noobs" I've seen asking on boards why their PC couldn't play Halo 2 because "Halo 2 only requires DX10 and my Windows 7 comes with DX11, so it should play fine!", yet their cards are only DX9 cards. They think because Vista/Windows 7 has DX11 support, that means they can automatically play DX11 games ( of course, most of these people don't even know what a graphics card is and think their DVD drive is the cupholder ).

You can add DX10 and DX11 options to any DX9 game, all it does is give those with DX10 more graphical options than DX9 and those with DX11 more graphical options than DX9 or DX10. But it does NOT remove the ability to play the game in DX9.

But I would highly suggest anyone who wishes to continue gaming into the near future buy themselves at least a DX11 card, as DX12 will most likely be released next year ( as Windows 8 is being released this year ).

Devs have stood by DX9 because the majority of gamers still use DX9 cards, due mostly to the fact DX10 was pretty much a flop due to both developer laziness and Microsoft's own corporate stupidity ( feel bad for the poor guys who bought the very first DX10 cards, only to find them completely useless when MS made DX10.1 the DX10 standard ). But even now, DX11 cards are more than affordable ( the GTX 460 I paid almost $300 for can now be found around $100 for example ) and becoming commonplace.

And it's going to be hard for dev companies to justify sticking to old DX9 when DX11 cards will be the common card and DX12 cards the new "performance" breed. Chances are, DX12 will support DX11 and maybe even DX10, but not DX9 as the architecture of the code will just be too different.

A couple examples of games that have had DX11 added after the fact are Crysis 2, Lord of the Rings Online, and World of Warcraft. You can still play them with DX9 or DX10 cards because they were originally programmed for those API's, thus the code is already there to support them. You just can't use the added features DX11 brought to those games without having a DX11 card.

I don't know how much credit they deserve for this, I mean PC gamers were the ones who funded the creation of Bethesda's empire. I suppose its "very nice" that they haven't COMPLETELY abandoned us, but I don't give them much credit because in fact its still not adequate treatment of the client base that built you.

And we have to consider what might they have further done for us if that deal with microshaft had not been made?

The deal with Microsoft only gives 30 days of exclusivity for the DLCs. It doesn't stop anything else.

I'm sure there was nothing in their contract with Microsoft to make the 360 the *preferred* platform, such as every video that was shown for the game, or at gaming expos where they had the 360 proudly and prominently on display as they demoed the game. I'm also sure it has nothing to do with Todd Howard being an xbox fanbot or that Todd Howard thinks the 360 is the best choice ever since Oblivion for developing games as it's "easier" and Todd prefers playing with the 360 controller. Nope, none of this. Nothing at all.

Pre release. Xbox is the most popular platform, and therefore the main focus in these events. They're going to show the Xbox version in pre-release stuff.

The PC version is technically superior. If they really didn't care then we'd be limited to the same graphics as the Xbox, the console would be disabled, INI files encrypted and the Creation Kit would never be released. Bethesda are paying enough attention to the PC version.

You go ahead and think it's all just coincidental. I'll stay here in reality. By the way, don't you just love the console interface on PC? Why, it's almost like PC's were a second thought. But surely not.

The interface is controller orientated, sure. It makes sense to orientate your UI to your most popular audience. However I can use it just as well on my keyboard and mouse, or using my Xbox 360 controller. The interface isn't completely unusable on the PC by a long shot.

PC gets tons more content, updates earlier, and more attention paid to it. Xbox has had two patches and the PS3 bless gets hardly anything. If anything the PC is getting all the attention.

SkyUI is better than the default. Problem solved. They were kind enough to have at least one developer assist with devising UI mods.

Console interface or not, it's better than Oblivion's horrid tab system in my opinion. In Skyrim I can open my inventory with my "I" key, my journal with my "J" key and my map with my "M" key. That functionality alone makes Skyrim's interface superior to Oblivion's in my book.

Sure, it's superior to Oblivion. Too bad it's inferior to just about every other PC game out there.

Well, at least Oblivion didn't at random select (eat/sell/say) the third item in a list when your mouse was obviously above the first.