The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

Grail

Feel the funk blast
I also had a brief chance to play on the Xbox version after a coworker brought his cracked copy to work. While I only got to play for about a half hour or so, I was really excited by what I saw. :ubik: I have a feeling that I'm gonna spend a lot of time fooling around in character creation!

By the way, some new game footage was uploaded to Bethesda's youtube yesterday: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fn0N294NFy0
 
Grail said:
I also had a brief chance to play on the Xbox version after a coworker brought his cracked copy to work. While I only got to play for about a half hour or so, I was really excited by what I saw. :ubik: I have a feeling that I'm gonna spend a lot of time fooling around in character creation!

By the way, some new game footage was uploaded to Bethesda's youtube yesterday: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fn0N294NFy0

Does the game look as good as the video on the xbox?
 

Dar_Klink

Last Guardian when? - CyberKlink 20XX before dying
Played a good deal of it... it feels like a slightly reskinned Fallout 3/Oblivion in some ways. :judo:
Spoilering my in-depth complaining so people can have their own expectations I guess. :ganishka:
Pros:
Voice acting is better
Running water
Cooking, crafting, and upgrading armor/weapons is easy but in-depth enough
The factions seem to all be better thought out and more interesting than Oblivion
Main quest is more interesting too
Puzzles and traps are better and more interesting
Soundtrack is on par with the other two, although I like Morrowind the best for its exploration and battle music, and Skyrim best for the main theme

Cons:
Animation, character models, battle system, and all that are hardly improved enough. Combat consists of pushing the attack button over and over while the enemy stands there hacking at you as well.
They took so many skills out, I really don't like weapons only having two skill paths, 1hd and 2hd, also only light and heavy armor, took out some magic and moved it around to other schools, but they have sneaking, lockpicking, and pickpocketing all as different skill perk trees, no athletics or acrobatics anymore, which I loved leveling up in the Morrowind and Oblivion.
No Sign to choose from(the system they put it to make your "custom sign" is a weird perk system that is pretty uninteresting)
They took out all attributes but Health, Magicka, and Stamina
No character persuasion(It's more like Fallout 3 where you pick choices based on some of your stats, but you can only use it on specific quest/story people)
No spell creation, instead each spell can be used in 3 different ways I guess... pretty big letdown for me
The UI is fucking horrid. It's like I'm scrolling through my iPod. Sometimes you have to click when it'd be easier to use a key, other times you have to press a key when it's easier to click and scroll. Ugh, what were they thinking? :schierke:

In conclusion:
These are just off the top of my head so far, and I haven't tried out the Dragon Shouts yet at all. Pretty much it feels like it'd be just as good if not better as a 30 dollar expansion pack for Oblivion, not a 60 dollar new game being hyped as some AAA title of the year. Fun enough for me to sink a lot of hours into it though, and I hope the story and characters are good enough to keep me going through the pretty boring gameplay and general ugliness of the game(expected from Bethesda I guess)
 
Dar Klink said:
No spell creation, instead each spell can be used in 3 different ways I guess... pretty big letdown for me

Oblivion spoiler:
That was a pretty big exploit. You could increase your destruction, restoration, illusion, and conjuration skills at an unnatural pace and without fighting by making skills with extremely minimal damage or a short duration. For example I could make a fire spell that hurts me for 1 fire damage and then heal myself almost continuously. It was almost as bad as the invisibility spell which made stealth completely pointless. These features felt like cheating.
 

Dar_Klink

Last Guardian when? - CyberKlink 20XX before dying
Groovy Metal Fist said:
Oblivion spoiler:
That was a pretty big exploit. You could increase your destruction, restoration, illusion, and conjuration skills at an unnatural pace and without fighting by making skills with extremely minimal damage or a short duration. For example I could make a fire spell that hurts me for 1 fire damage and then heal myself almost continuously. It was almost as bad as the invisibility spell which made stealth completely pointless. These features felt like cheating.
So? That means they fix the system and make it better. Not just get rid of it, considering it's been there since at least Daggerfall. I don't think they should ever justify removing features unless they're useless, but definitely not because "it's too hard to make it non-exploitable." Why is Bethesda's philosophy "If it's broken, throw it out the window. Then make more things broken" these days? I mean, I understood some things, like levitation, because towns can't be fully open due to the X-box 360 not being able to handle that, but still, why remove
Acrobatics, Athletics, and all the stats? The game feels so half-finished when it comes to the actual game mechanics, at least the world is holding up so far. Oh, and I hate how they didn't even do a new lockpick system, it's just the Fallout 3 one.
Not to mention that (this is an actual game/story spoiler)
Werewolves are just reskinned Death Claws.
I guess in the end it's like "Why put too much effort into it when it will sell millions based on the name alone?" They focus so much on either gimmicky stuff (NEW RADIANT AI/QUESTS!) or stuff that's so AWESOME (DRAGON SHOUTS! EXECUTION ATTACKS! DUAL WIELDING!) instead of making the base mechanics solid.

Anyway, it's expected of Bethesda sadly, even my favorite game of theirs was and still is buggy and poorly optimized gameplay-wise without tons of mods. I should stop ranting, especially since I'm gonna play the shit out of this game. Just so I can complain more of course! :troll:
 

Walter

Administrator
Staff member
I've read there's a notable lack of dragon sightings, even by people at higher levels. Anyone else experience this yet?
 

Oburi

All praise Grail
I heard the opposite. Too many.

Anyway I only was able to play for 4 hours but I'm loving it so far. I haven't got that deep so I won't complain yet but I think its amazing. I'm having a blast do just what I said, reading books by candllight. I like you can get new quests by reading books too. Like you read a legend about a mythical flaming sword and then shut the book and go look for it.
 

Aphasia

ALL MYSTERIES MUST BE SOLVED
About 10 - 15 hours in. Can't remember. Haha. Also loving it. So far I'm very impressed with how many things it improves upon over its predecessor. Skyrim is pretty generic in terms of fantasy, but it manages to have a certain charm and culture that was lacking in Oblivion. The landscapes are stunning, the character animation and models are vastly improved, and the combat feels better. I also love the way they handled the skill system, and leveling up in general. It feels like a very natural progression as you discover what you enjoy improving.

The difficulty is also satisfying. I'm playing on "Adept" which is normal, I believe. I don't know what kind of system they're using this time around, but it feels really good. Been getting killed by high level creatures, and I'll occasionally wander someplace that requires me to come back later so I don't get rolled. The sense of danger in the world is really nice. Oblivion was just jank. Here, I feel like I'm actually getting stronger.

Wheeee!!!
 

Grail

Feel the funk blast
I'm not too far in yet, but so far I'm agreeing with your early assessment, Aphasia! At this point, I'm enjoying this as much as I've enjoyed playing Morrowind over the years, which for me is a big deal.

Despite my enjoyment of it, Link, I gotta agree on a couple of your complaints, namely the UI issues. Playing on the PC, it doesn't feel intuitive at all, and occasionally takes me out of the experience if I have to shuffle around in the menus during battle. As for combat, well... it's nothing to write home about compared to other titles, but I'm just happy they added the crosshairs. :ganishka:

As for what I liked specifically, the visuals and overall atmosphere are truly impressive. I really like the fact that you can just be walking around and hear characters interacting in a meaningful way, not just trading cookie-cutter lines the way they did in Oblivion. I'm also not turned off by the fact that they pared down a lot of the old skill/leveling standards from previous games. I can understand that people wanted to be able to level up their acrobatics and athletics skills like in the previous games, but I personally found them to be a bit of a distraction, and didn't add much to my play experience. Then again, maybe it was just the type of characters I was playing?

Speaking of characters, what sort of setups did you end up choosing for your initial playthroughs? I went with an old standby of mine for the first go: cranky Redguard with an axe and heavy armor. :guts:
 

Oburi

All praise Grail
I'm a Bosmer with a focus on archery and light armor. However my sneak skill is highest because I tend to sneak up on them and get critical shots with the bow. But I love doint all the other sorts of things like smithing and alchemy. This game is amazing and was just what I was waiting for. I'm gonna sink a lot of time in this.
 

Aphasia

ALL MYSTERIES MUST BE SOLVED
Grail said:
As for what I liked specifically, the visuals and overall atmosphere are truly impressive. I really like the fact that you can just be walking around and hear characters interacting in a meaningful way, not just trading cookie-cutter lines the way they did in Oblivion. I'm also not turned off by the fact that they pared down a lot of the old skill/leveling standards from previous games. I can understand that people wanted to be able to level up their acrobatics and athletics skills like in the previous games, but I personally found them to be a bit of a distraction, and didn't add much to my play experience. Then again, maybe it was just the type of characters I was playing?

Speaking of characters, what sort of setups did you end up choosing for your initial playthroughs? I went with an old standby of mine for the first go: cranky Redguard with an axe and heavy armor. :guts:

I'm a warrior Nord with some serious mutton chops. Focusing on heavy armor/block/smithing/one handed for the most part. And my dude has the coolest mace in the world.
FyQ7t.jpg
Is he cute?

It's the one from the house of horrors quest in Markarth. That thing is so darn cool looking!
I almost never play a bruno warrior guy, so I decided to since it's Skyrim and all. Typically I would go for a stealthy dunmer female who focuses on her bow but has a small blade for backup. Thinking about starting another character already, in fact...I'm so excited to try out the magic/stealth!! Growl the meager doesn't dabble in the arcane arts. Too pussy. :guts:

I also agree with you on athletics and acrobatics. I'm glad they're gone. They just contributed to the overall silliness factor. I guess you could do them well, but jumping 15 feet in the air and running faster than a horse is totally goofy to me. I don't think it would've fit skyrims atmosphere. The sprint feature more than makes up for it, however.

Cranky old Redguard sounds fun! What's their power? I can't remember. Adrenaline rush?

Sorry the interface isn't much fun on the PC. It's obviously created for the console controls, because I find it's pretty easy to jump into the menu and get out of it. But I could see where it would be tedious with a mouse.

Have you guys had anything funny happen? I was patrolling a particularly steep mountainside on my horse when I heard a bear. I hate the roar they make, so I freaked out, fell down the cliffside, my horse cushioning my fall. Then the bear comes out of nowhere and we get set on fire somehow and I'm thinking "Oh shit oh shit oh shit" because I have a sliver of health left. Then I have the bright idea to use the whirlwind sprint shout. "I can get away! Ahah!" And I slam into a cliff and die. No idea how. haha.

I also had a follower glitch out. He would teleport and stand on the enemies head and smack them in the face. They just stood there, unable to defend themselves while he balanced on their head. I laughed.
 

Dar_Klink

Last Guardian when? - CyberKlink 20XX before dying
I'm getting into and enjoying the game a lot more now, the AI is actually starting to impress me a little bit too! I gotta strongly disagree about acrobatics(and athletics), I mean I'm in a game where horses can go up nearly 80 degree inclines and jump onto the tops of trees! I don't think being able to jump high and run fast myself would be too out of place. I'd love if they just rolled the two into one skilltree and maybe merged lockpicking and pickpocketing. It could gave some awesome perks, like attacking while jumping, run faster, roll, and other things that'd be pretty easy to think of really. Sprinting just makes me feel like I'm playing Apple Present: Call of Duty Modern iFantasy. :troll:

Oh, and I'm playing my good ol' Argonian specializing in Sneak, Archery, One handed swords, Pickpocketing, Light Armor, Lockpicking, and a bit of Destruction. I can never help myself in these game though, I end up with a sort of jack-of-all-trades carrying 1000 pounds of stuff that I think I might use someday.
 

Oburi

All praise Grail
Yea I always end up carrying too much which is why I bought a house first chance I got. Looks like you can decorate it like in Fallout. I wonder if ill be able to change my hair or grow a beard.
 
I definitely can't complain about the lack of character customization. This was probably the only game where you can customize your character to have white, black, or bloodshot eyes. I went with a spell casting Breton:

2011-11-11_00009-1.jpg


2011-11-13_00002.jpg


Blood will splatter on your hands if your enemy bludgeons you hard enough:

2011-11-13_00018.jpg




A few general notes

- As I said before, moving around is harder and aiming is easier with a mouse. I've played Oblivon on the 360 and Skyrim on the PC and it's hard to say which platform has the better controls.

- Difficulty can be all over the place. I may have no problem taking on 5 bandits, but taking on two ice wolves or 1 adept conjurer can be pretty hard.

- The skill leveling up system is a double edged sword. While it's nice that the skills that level up the fastest are the ones you use the most, it can also encourage you to be intentionally slow and inefficient in combat. The more hits you take, the more your armor and restoration skills increase. Sometimes the easiest way to level up these skills is to get the attention of 2 bandits and let them stab you repeatedly while you occasionally heal yourself for minutes on end. A conventional experience system wouldn't have this problem, but then the game would have to impose rigid class restrictions and wouldn't feel as free-form and non-linear anymore.

-The armor system has been revised so that cloth armor will always either boost total magicka, make certain spells cheaper to cast, or significantly speed up regeneration. Without the cloth armor, your ability to cast spells in combat is extremely limited.

-At first I thought dual casting was a gimmick, but it adds as much depth to combat as shields.

- Perks feel much better than stat increases; I hope all RPGs adopt a perk system in the future.

- Certain NPCs are randomly generated. When I loaded one game, I encountered an orc who wanted me to kill him. When I reloaded the game and went to the same spot, I found a hunting merchant instead.

- 3rd person is more practical for combat. When kiting monsters, like giants or mammoths especially, knowing how far behind you they are is of the utmost importance.

- This is the only game I've played that features mountains but is not a headache to travel through. That's because paths up and down mountains are frequent and ledges are constantly built on the side of mountains so that you never have to fall too far. Sometimes the game ignores physics and lets you walk down the edge of a mountain that is almost completely perpendicular to the ground; it's less realistic but it makes travel much easier.

- Skyrim's environment is much less repetitive than Oblivion's environment. You never feel like you're traveling through copy pasted tiles.

- The inventory system still sucks. You can easily become over-encumbered after clearing out one mine, frequently have to go back to town to sell your equipment to merchants who might not have enough to buy it all, and are constantly pausing the game to drop things so that you can continue. I wish the limit were 10,000 pounds instead of 300 pounds.

- Go attack a giant and then just stand there, I dare you.
 
Groovy Metal Fist said:
- The inventory system still sucks. You can easily become over-encumbered after clearing out one mine, frequently have to go back to town to sell your equipment to merchants who might not have enough to buy it all, and are constantly pausing the game to drop things so that you can continue. I wish the limit were 10,000 pounds instead of 300 pounds.

- Go attack a giant and then just stand there, I dare you.


This!!! I need to find a new merchant because all the ones I go to no longer have any gold to buy the loot I have... and on the subject of giants, I tried to attack one and before I could even get close he sent his wooly mammoths to trample me.
 
I'm 20hrs in as well. I'm mastering the Blacksmithing aspect as fast as I can. I'm interested in knowing if the Umbra Sword is in the game. I think its been in every Elder Scroll games to-date. I'm not far into the main story, but damn this game is beautiful. All those years in the nuclear waste land really make this game seem so other worldly. I'm lost in it. I love Skyrim. Come to think of it, its been a great year for video games in general!
 
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