|OT| Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

[Longo_2_guns]

It's a bad thing, because it means that movement speed, health, stamina, magica, jump distance, natural endurance and strength, etc. don't differ from character to character. Beyond a few miniscule differences between the races, there's nothing. Absolutely nothing. It's pretty much just as easy to be an Orc spellcaster as it is a Breton one.

Oh, and I dislike how the only differences between your abilities are decided through perks. Like, there's no real difference between level 1 and level 100 sneak if you don't have the perks that go with it.

Though this is a really good game. Honestly, if they had just used the whole RPG skill system from Morrowind and just put it in this game, it would be great. Hell, it would almost be timeless. As it is, it's more of an action adventure game than an RPG.

 

[intoTheRain]

well back to level 26 with maxed blacksmith. perks spent right, race picked right. though as your saying the race isn't a big deal at all.

i love this game.. just exploring is so much fun.

i'm pretty much right back to where i was with my last character minus like 10 wasted perk points. excited to finish the main story and start to see what else is out there.

going for block/1 hand/heavy armor/smithing/speech

then probably enchanting once those are where i want them.

and whoever said lockpicking sucks, i LOVE lock picking. I still am not bored of it. i find it very fun lol. the master ones are great, i just save before i start it if i dont have a lot of picks, and restart if i burn through them all.

 

[Longo_2_guns]

Yeah, just random exploring is definitely the best part of this game. Better than Oblivion, where it was 5 designs that were copy-pasted.

Just did the first dragon fight. It was kinda fun, but a little anticlimactic. Pretty much all of the fights are just about tanking damage while whacking them and/or backpedaling with magic, and its attacks really didn't do enough damage to ever feel too tense during the fight. Though it was made to be a tutorial, so whatever, it's fine.

One thing that irks me, that I don't doubt that everyone else loved, is that it's constantly referred to as the dragonborn. As if there's only one ever. I get it, they're trying to overdo the whole epic destiny thing for your character. But really, like 1 in 1,000 people are Dragonborn. Again, look at the numbers in Oblivion. Out of the few hundred/thousand people in the game, you meet no less than five that are confirmed. Hopefully it doesn't stay like this as it goes.

Either way, I'm giving up with the main quest for a while. I need to stop getting annoyed by this stuff. I mean, I'm kinda just MST3King the little stuff to myself as I play, but still.

And as for lockpicking... it's alright. At least it's the Fallout 3 style. I would always rush to get the master key in Oblivion because it makes things easy as hell.

 

[intoTheRain]

I stopped the main quest too and am stopping the same spot with my new character. I want to save it so I feel like I have something to do if I run out.

I agree about the fights. I personally love the combat. But it never changes. Blocking, slicing, power blocking, dragon shout, slicing etc. I find very enjoyable. And I love the slow motion kills and beheadings and such.

I just wish there were more intricate fights, like dare I say it, world of warcraft but made for solo. Like you said longo every fight is the same. Some people just hit harder, block more and die slower. If some of the dungeons had awesome end bosses with strategic ways to be beat. Avoid fire on ground, don't hit when its glowing red, RUN when he's charging, etc. Itd be my favorite game ever.

There is minor strategy, like dragons stay on the sides so u don't get crisped/frozen/eaten, stay off the tail so you don't get smashed. Shield bash if you get caught in his breath. Still isn't enough for 400 dragon fights though. But ill admit I still get excited every time I get to fight a dragon. So its not all bad.

 

[Longo_2_guns]

You should honestly try Dark Souls. There's a good reason why I speak a lot of praise towards it, let me just say.

And yeah. The fact that a bunch of enemies just clonk you out in one, hard to avoid hit is discouraging. Fighting other people or having more fair fights? A little tedious at times, but alright nonetheless.

Obviously what I mean by this is... man, giants are dumb. I just wanted to kill a mammoth!

 

[madster111]

So, enemies are meant to be leveled, right?

Because now whenever i go into a dungeon with draugrs, i can just stand there and stare them in the fucking eyes while they're using every ounce of their strength to hit me.
Then after about 30 seconds of this i tend to laugh and set them on fire and watch as they slowly burn to death.
Then i continue on, and see a fire rune on the ground, look at it, and then carefully step onto it and laugh as my health barely moves.

Not necessarily a complaint - i love being a massively overpowered prick, getting all up peoples faces and watching them step back and stutter something while i twitch my flame hand at their face.

Only problem is it tends to get a tiny bit boring sometimes. Went against a Draugr Overlord, quickly turned from the room and ran because i was at like 20% health and 25% magic.
Ended up chilling while everything regenerated, entered the room and sneak attacked it.
Took it down to like 40% health with that one hit and then shouted at it, slamming it into a pole and onto the ground at which point i used flames and strong-attacked it once.
Entire 'fight' lasted like 5-10 seconds.
Might have to go call a dragon priest a pussy and see what happens.

 

[kingg5]

There is birth signs in the game, you just have to find them. Only one I found was the steed. Greatest dragon moment I had was when I fast traveled to the town with the dark brotherhood door, and out of no where a guard pulled out his bow and a dragon swooped down and sat on the roof of the mead hall.

 

[LinksOcarina]

So, enemies are meant to be leveled, right?

Not necessarily a complaint - i love being a massively overpowered prick, getting all up peoples faces and watching them step back and stutter something while i twitch my flame hand at their face.

Only problem is it tends to get a tiny bit boring sometimes. Went against a Draugr Overlord, quickly turned from the room and ran because i was at like 20% health and 25% magic.
Ended up chilling while everything regenerated, entered the room and sneak attacked it.
Took it down to like 40% health with that one hit and then shouted at it, slamming it into a pole and onto the ground at which point i used flames and strong-attacked it once.
Entire 'fight' lasted like 5-10 seconds.
Might have to go call a dragon priest a pussy and see what happens.

Nope, and this is a welcome change.

Funny, people bitch when you have the leveled enemies in the shiny gold armor fighting you (which made no sense, seriously bandits just sell what your wearing) but while it does make some things boring, I am having a hard time fighting the tougher enemies personally, but that may be due to the fact that I shirked actual armor for my summoner, he just has tons of robes on that make his magic replenish able swiftly, even with the sign of the antronach activated.

 

[intoTheRain]

yea i love some quests where you have to go and kill someone. or one for the companions where an animal was in someones house and i needed to go kill it. i traveled across the province, go into the house, animal attacks me, i one shot it and leave. made me laugh. i swear some things die before my axe even hits them now. they just die from fear.

i think having everything level with you is stupid, and takes the excitement out of getting better gear, more hp, doing more damage etc. but i wish there was more high level stuff out there. exploring is just running through a dungeon one shotting things. with a guy at the end that takes 3-4 shots.

this game is incredible... and exploring is by far the most enjoyable part. i still get much excitement out of it. but there are a ton of things that can be implemented, fine tuned, fixed, removed, added, etc. for elder scrolls 6. i really don't think it deserves the near perfect score, unless all ratings are based on the entertainment level alone compared to other games.

i wouldn't give it a B like I was normally complaining about when i was getting bugged to death, but an A- is reasonable. anything below an A is just not enough for a game of this magnitude. the work that must have went into this blows my mind every time i think about it. it'd be an insult to the development team. so many minor facets of this game are what another development team would consider a full game.

 

[Longo_2_guns]

I think an A-/B+ is exactly the right grade. There is a whole lot of stuff in it, and yet there's a whole bunch of great stuff from the earlier games that would've added a whole lot to the game that they cut out for absolutely no reason. And when it's a game in a series, you have to consider the earlier games. You have to because they have a jump forward and whatnot. So, Oblivion, still got an A-. And while Skyrim improves in some ways, it does also falls flat in a whole lot of areas. So to say that it is that much better is kinda hard to do.

Please, consider the following. Morrowind, which houses more content and deeper content than Skyrim, was given a B+. Partly because of the silly combat, but still. The only other Elder Scrolls game to receive an A was Daggerfall, which DWARFS Skyrim in absolutely every regard and is one of the largest, deepest RPG's ever made.

So, yeah, A-. Nick's review, in all honesty, was pretty poorly done. It was very well written, but it completely glossed over just about every flaw the game had, and only mentions the earlier games, like, once.

As far as being overpowered goes, I think I've been spending my perks poorly or something, and don't yet have access to good magic (Why no magic maker?!). That and I'm wearing next to no armor. But even then I'm still tanking my way through some fights. I just need some better gear.

 

[NecroWolf]

Argh... Just argh. I've had it with my fellow gamers and their constant, non-stop complaining, usually from the more adult crowd. You know what? You don't like the game, don't play it. Go play Morrowind if you think it's better, because I'll be sitting here, playing this game, which I'm sorry, but it is better than Morrowind, Daggerfall, or Oblivion. You think Morrowind was better? Go back and play it... oh look... I've got... 3 faces to choose from, 3 hairstyles per race... and.. hmm... oh... there seems to be an ability to sit there, and jump up and down, and level from that... hrm... at least there is a lot of land to explore.. Oh... it's all the same... and.. its... empty, very... empty, with... lots of mushrooms. Alright, so I'll load up Oblivion, lets see-OH GOD WTF IS THAT! O.O It looks like John Goodman humped a frog, and thats just for the basic Imperial model! Oh... alright, cool, a dungeon... nice start, I'm a prisoner, as always... let's see here... goblins... rats..... more goblins..... some tool in a red robe.. more goblins... another rat.... another rat... goblins...

Whew, I'm out of that dungeon that copy-pasted their textures over and over. Alright, neat another dungeo-oh wait it looks exactly the same, and theres... about 12 voices in the entire game, hrm... Oh well, I suppose Morrowind is better than Skyrim though, it has more land! Oh wait I forgot... its empty, the combat system is tear-jerking, there aren't any likable characters or memorable characters. Theres... nothing. At all... and I was a fan of Morrowind.

Except you know, it's 2011, and Morrowind is, you know, old, outdated, ugly, and like playing San Andreas, as in, its empty, full of lands of grass, and the occasional giant mushroom. I loved Morrowind, I liked Oblivion, but Skyrim is an improvement in every way. OMG I can't believe I can't choose a Starsign! oh wait, yes I can... I just have to find 'em in the world. Oh, hey! The Racial Powers aren't useless anymore! Holy crap, they level up with me! Hey, look, memorable characters! Oh hey, I'm someone special, I'm the freakin' Dragonborn! I can craft, I can improve armor, NPCs do more than stand around and stare at the wall. They don't drift out of place like in Morrowind, fall off an edge and die, thus locking me out of playing some quests. Hrm, items don't randomly disappear, they're picked up.. the guards and citizens comment on things I've done, the leveling system has drastically improved and made less bothersome, the UI is better, because I'm not limited to a certain number of slots, I just press up on the D-pad and poof, a list of eveything I need.

The map doesn't suck... And yeah, I'm a fan of the Elder Scrolls series, but this game is far better than any previous installments. I could go on, but you know what? You aren't going to care, you're going to continue whining, and pick apart my post, or ignore it. It deserved the A it got, it is an improvement in every way.

 

[LinksOcarina]

Argh... Just argh. I've had it with my fellow gamers and their constant, non-stop complaining, usually from the more adult crowd. You know what? You don't like the game, don't play it. Go play Morrowind if you think it's better, because I'll be sitting here, playing this game, which I'm sorry, but it is better than Morrowind, Daggerfall, or Oblivion. You think Morrowind was better? Go back and play it... oh look... I've got... 3 faces to choose from, 3 hairstyles per race... and.. hmm... oh... there seems to be an ability to sit there, and jump up and down, and level from that... hrm... at least there is a lot of land to explore.. Oh... it's all the same... and.. its... empty, very... empty, with... lots of mushrooms. Alright, so I'll load up Oblivion, lets see-OH GOD WTF IS THAT! O.O It looks like John Goodman humped a frog, and thats just for the basic Imperial model! Oh... alright, cool, a dungeon... nice start, I'm a prisoner, as always... let's see here... goblins... rats..... more goblins..... some tool in a red robe.. more goblins... another rat.... another rat... goblins...

Whew, I'm out of that dungeon that copy-pasted their textures over and over. Alright, neat another dungeo-oh wait it looks exactly the same, and theres... about 12 voices in the entire game, hrm... Oh well, I suppose Morrowind is better than Skyrim though, it has more land! Oh wait I forgot... its empty, the combat system is tear-jerking, there aren't any likable characters or memorable characters. Theres... nothing. At all... and I was a fan of Morrowind.

Except you know, it's 2011, and Morrowind is, you know, old, outdated, ugly, and like playing San Andreas, as in, its empty, full of lands of grass, and the occasional giant mushroom. I loved Morrowind, I liked Oblivion, but Skyrim is an improvement in every way. OMG I can't believe I can't choose a Starsign! oh wait, yes I can... I just have to find 'em in the world. Oh, hey! The Racial Powers aren't useless anymore! Holy crap, they level up with me! Hey, look, memorable characters! Oh hey, I'm someone special, I'm the freakin' Dragonborn! I can craft, I can improve armor, NPCs do more than stand around and stare at the wall. They don't drift out of place like in Morrowind, fall off an edge and die, thus locking me out of playing some quests. Hrm, items don't randomly disappear, they're picked up.. the guards and citizens comment on things I've done, the leveling system has drastically improved and made less bothersome, the UI is better, because I'm not limited to a certain number of slots, I just press up on the D-pad and poof, a list of eveything I need.

The map doesn't suck... And yeah, I'm a fan of the Elder Scrolls series, but this game is far better than any previous installments. I could go on, but you know what? You aren't going to care, you're going to continue whining, and pick apart my post, or ignore it. It deserved the A it got, it is an improvement in every way.

So tell me, why is Vvardenfell no longer non-existent?

 

[NecroWolf]

I read your question five times, and I'm still not sure what you're talking about. "No longer non-existent"?

 

[LinksOcarina]

Vvardenfell, in game, no longer exists. Was wondering if you knew why.

 

[Longo_2_guns]

Man, I sure hate people who can't take the tiniest piece of criticism. Especially when they either don't even understand what the criticism was or read it from the getgo. I mean, I've probably been most critical of this game, and never once said this game was bad. So I think you should reread what has been said before you throw another fit about nothing really that big.

 

[NecroWolf]

Red Mountain exploded, leveling most of the island. There are books about in Skyrim, most of the Dunmer fled to Solstheim, and Skyrim. Hence why there are places like the Grey Quarter in Windhelm, where refugees fled.

 

[NecroWolf]

Man, I sure hate people who can't take the tiniest piece of criticism. Especially when they either don't even understand what the criticism was or read it from the getgo. I mean, I've probably been most critical of this game, and never once said this game was bad. So I think you should reread what has been said before you throw another fit about nothing really that big.

Honestly, it really wasn't you, it just looks that way. Your criticisms where fair, and well-put, I've just been reading other posts, and Skyrim's main board. I'm sorry if it seemed that way. Well, not entirely you, anyway. While I do disagree with some points, and I honestly wish I knew why you were so critical of games, because you do look like you enjoy picking games apart and being very critical. But you know, everyone is allowed their opinion.

 

[Longo_2_guns]

Oh. Okay. Cool.

And I do agree, there are a lot of people who do do the whole "IT'S NOT MORROWIND 0/10" thing, which is annoying, but at the same time you have to consider the reason they're doing that. Because there was a whole lot that was good with Morrowind that they left out. When you make a sequel to a game, you should improve on the last one, not just make a stand alone game in the same world.

Either way, don't take your aggression out on us. We didn't do nothin'!

 

[NecroWolf]

Pfft, didn't do anything? There are the GR boards, you lot are evil as they come. =P

And yes, they should try to innovate, but it's.. Todd Howard, he always does things like this. It has its good sides, and bad. It does seem like every new sequel coming out takes four steps forward, and two steps back. The only real complaint here I've seen that I strongly disagree with is that Morrowind had more content, that I just don't see I guess.

 

[LinksOcarina]

Red Mountain exploded, leveling most of the island. There are books about in Skyrim, most of the Dunmer fled to Solstheim, and Skyrim. Hence why there are places like the Grey Quarter in Windhelm, where refugees fled.

Now, wouldn't that be a better story than being a Dovhakin?

This is part of the problem I had, the blatant disregard of the continuity by not only changing everything, but keeping the storytelling tropes static and (poorly) trying to make an interesting subplot.

The entire world of Tamriel has changed, and the biggest problem is that the changes barely affect you as a character. For example, the Vvardenfell thing with Red Mountain. First off it's out of left field because Dagoth Ur, the spirit of the mountain, pretty much had it erupt at the end of friggin Morrowind, and it didn't really effect much because of the Nevarine.

We also have the Dominion (the Wood and High elves mainly) basically going all elf-supremacist on the entire continent and taking over the Imperial Empire. We have Hammerfell withdrew because they disagreed with the Imperials submitting to the Dominion, the Argonians took over Morrowind, and elswyr is split in 2.

And on top of it all, there is a pointless rebellion between these Stormcloaks and the Imperials, one group is basically ruling with an iron fist because they have to and are losing power, the other is taking over and is looking to become an isolationist nation against the empire, the elves, magic users, and all Non-Norse races.

Seriously. Why the fuck is this not part of the storyline, instead of the typical "save the world" tropes that the Dragonborn has become. It irks me so much that were going down the same path as before for the main quest, a quasi-chosen one that will save the world because of his epic destiny, or bring balance to the force, or something like that. The reason why it doesn't work too well here is because were thrusted in the middle of this entire backstory with no explanation, no idea who to support, or no reason to honestly care about any of this except for the epic loots involved.

So as much as I like Skyrim over Oblivion, it is still a step-back/step-forward kind of game, no matter how many times you slice it. Story stuff not-withstanding, the level-up system is over-simplified, the spell power/talent tree system is unnecessary, the user interface is atrocious, and the in-game mechanics for puzzles and dungeons, while varied in looks, are over-simplified as slider puzzles and matching games. It's...off-putting.

Pfft, didn't do anything? There are the GR boards, you lot are evil as they come. =P

And yes, they should try to innovate, but it's.. Todd Howard, he always does things like this. It has its good sides, and bad. It does seem like every new sequel coming out takes four steps forward, and two steps back. The only real complaint here I've seen that I strongly disagree with is that Morrowind had more content, that I just don't see I guess.

I guess I can take that a compliment, but Honestly the comparisons between the games is impossible because of the limitations each have.