Probably the most sought after information regarding Bethesda's forthcoming The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, is what changes to the game-engine they've made, especially since it was revealed they'd be using an entirely new engine and not the Gamebryo one used for The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion or Fallout 3 and Fallout: New Vegas.

Thankfully Bethesda's Todd Howard was kind enough to speak to Game Informer in detail about the major changes to what makes their new world tick, all of which you can read in entirety by clicking here, but for those who just want the juicy bits, we've picked the feature apart for you.

"The big things for us were to draw a lot of stuff in the distance so we have a really sophisticated level of detail," he told GI. "More so than what we've had in the past for how things stream in and how detail gets added to them as they get closer to the camera.

"Because our worlds are so big all of the lighting has to be dynamic,” he adds. "That's something we had a little bit of in the past with shadowing, but not on everything. Now we have it on everything. It just makes the whole thing a lot more believable when you're there.”

The few screenshots that have leaked from scanned pages from Game Informer do show the game looking much more dynamic and detailed, and according to the feature on GI.com, they've revamped the Radiant AI for NPCs as well, making them much more intelligent.

You won't find townspeople loitering aimlessly in town squares anymore. Each denizen performs tasks that make sense in their environment. To impart the towns and cities with a greater sense of life, Bethesda has populated them with mills, farms, and mines that give the NPCs believable tasks to occupy their day. In the forest village we visited during the demo, most of the citizens were hard at work chopping wood, running logs through the mill, and carrying goods through the town.

"Your friend would let you eat the apple in his house,” Howard adds to the feature detail. "If you swing your weapon near an NPC, knock items off their dinner table, or try to steal something of value, they'll react with an appropriate level of hostility given their prior relationship to you."

And finally, some excellent news regarding the real-time pause that takes place when in any meaningful conversation with NPCs:

The increased animation fidelity and diversity has enabled Bethesda to ditch the awkward dialogue camera perspective that paused the game and presented you with an extreme closeup of the person with whom you were speaking. Now camera stays in the same perspective used during combat and exploration, and players are free to look around while engaging in conversation. Rather than drop their activities to give you their undivided attention, the NPCs continue to go about their business while in discussion. For instance, a barkeep may continue to clean cups while talking, and even move from behind the counter to a seat. A mill worker chopping wood may engage in conversation without turning away from his duties, only occasionally glancing toward you during the exchange.

It's a pretty decent read, and has me amped for the game much more - especially if they've thoroughly improved the third-person camera, movement and animation system. Obviously they have months of hype to go through before the game's November release date, so stay tuned for more as it becomes available.