Skyrim Allows You to Hide UI, Features New Speechcraft System

 If you're anything like me, then you probably obsess over the release of Skyrim and pore over all the details about the game. I'll save you the effort of having to dig through numerous Twitter accounts and forum posts to find out what you need to know, seeing that it's my job to report the news and all.

Here are some of the things Bethesda's Pete Hines revealed over the course of a day, as he took questions from fans of the Elder Scroll series and answered them with remarkable enthusiasm.

According to Hines, players will now be able to disable your HUD display entirely by setting the opacity of the overlay to zero. This will effectively allow you to hide the compass; health, stamina and magicka bars; and crosshairs, and play the game without any visual impediments.

When harvesting plants, flowers and stems will physically disappear from the environment to reflect the fact that you've harvested them.

As has been revealed in the past, the Speechcraft minigame from Oblivion has been replaced in its entirety by a system similar to the one in Fallout 3 and Fallout New Vegas. The Speechcraft skill will have a tree full of associated perks to further enhance its use.

As with Speechcraft, Alchemy has received a number of changes. First and foremost, alchemy can only be conducted within a laboratory or work station. No longer will you be able to brew potions wherever you like.

Finally, third person finishing moves occur automatically, and can be disabled. These occur much like the slow motion effects in Fallout 3.