Skyrim Info Bonanza Sheds Light on Perks, Skills, Locations and More

The latest issue of PC Gamer has brought us another heaping of Skryim info, with new details on the perks, skills and locations in the game we'll be losing our social lives to come November.

If the screenshots and videos haven't been proof enough, this article really drives home the sense that Skyrim is an immersive, beautifully detailed place. The piece describes being caught in a snowstorm as it gradually increased in severity up to a full-scale blizzard. Eventually it was nearly impossible to see what was happening. Those kind of little touches are what make Skyrim a significant step up from the previous Elder Scrolls games.

That sense of a fully realized world will be reflected in the region's cities. Take Riften, a forest town built beside a lake and across a river. Its cobbled streets run alongside sharp drops to the water. Down below, the locals have built their subterranean homes alongside the water, connected by piers. Somewhere down below, a network of sewer tunnels known as the Ratways harbor the local Thieves Guild.

The article also touches upon some of the other places you'll find throughout Skyrim. There's Markarth, an ancient dwarven ruin carved into the cliffside, Solitude, a stark castle city, Windhelm, a Nordic-style fortress, and Whiterun, a Viking-inspired settlement on the mountain tundra.

If you feel like taking a break from all the exploring, you'll be better off if you can find the right place to take a nap. Sleeping in a "good" bed will net you a temporary bonus to your health and magicka upon waking. In a lot of ways, it's similar to Fallout's Well Rested status effect, which granted you an XP boost after you spent the night in a bed you owned. There's no word on what exactly separates a good bed from a bad one, but it seems likely you'll get the buff for using your own bed or one provided by the factions and guilds you're aligned with.

The article also sheds light on some of the skill systems you'll have at your disposal in Skyrim. New to the series is cooking, allowing you to turn raw ingredients into prepared variants that have stronger buffs for your character. For example, you'll be able to turn venison into a stew that restores your health gradually for five minutes. Good news for animal lovers, too: You'll now be able to harvest meat from the bodies of dead horses.

Another new addition is blacksmithing, which will let you forge new weapons and armor for yourself out of the metal ore you collect. Creating some items will require you to have prerequisite perks, though, so don't expect to make the best gear right out of the gate.

You'll also find enchanting shrines scattered about the world. These will let you add spell effects to your weapons, as well as destroy any magical weapons you come across to learn the enchantments they contain. In practice, this should allow you to transfer spell effects onto higher quality weapons, saving you the hassle of having of constantly hoping you come across the right loot.