In June we reported on Skyrim pre-orders coming with a “premium map” packed in.

While the map looked all pretty, like someone tripped and spilled all their watercolour paints all over it, it was a bit scant on detail.

Now, it seems, the “proper” full map for the game, detail and all, has been leaked onto the internet through Russian fan-site, elderscrolls.net.

When we say “detail” of course, we mean roads, paths, and a bunch of logos and symbols that have no real context, but likely indicate the locations of major towns and areas.

Sure, it’s an unofficial release – and we know how those go – but it seems pretty legit, following the same style and shape as the map above, as well as sharing similarities with Oblivion’s map (i.e. it’s aged and brown and stuff.)

Bethesda’s Todd Howard has been quoted saying that Skyrim is “too big”, with the landmass being roughly the same size as Oblivion’s Cyrodiil.

Looking at the two maps, it’s tough to picture the congruency there, but it certainly looks as if Skyrim is going to be massive – and much more varied than its predecessor, which was pretty much hugely full of…nothing.

Personally, I was never one for trekking massive distances between the rather bland areas of Cyrodiil, rather opting to use quick-travel and bypassing carbon-copy dungeons.

My hope is that there’s an actual point to such a huge landscape this time, with Howard mentioning “120 real caves, and more than 100 common points of interest outside.”

Whether these are 120 copy-and-pastes of the same cave with a different layout, remains to be seen.

Get your horse armour ready; The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim is due out the 11th of next month.

Skyrim map hits the internet, is brown << Comments and views