Official Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim thread!

[lars573]

Even the though that this is a "quick fix" is such male bovine excrement it boggles the mind.

This proves consoles have killed the days of truely epic gaming, I don't care if arena was generic it was still an epic game. The elder scrolls started on PC and should stay primary for PC and console second, what they are doing now, as in basically making a console game and then porting it to PC just does not do any justice to the series at all.

These days not making an Xbox game and porting it to the PC and Playstation (which is the norm btw) is financial suicide for a game like the ES. That costs tens of millions and thousands of man hours over 5 years to develop. Console games out sell PC games 1000 to 1. The PC on it's own is not a cost effective platform anymore for anything beyond more-pigs.

[Veho Nex]

[CountArach]

30 minutes until I can activate it... Even though it broke street date in Australia, I can't play it because of Steam...

[Vladimir]

Greed works. Greed is good.

[CountArach]

These days not making an Xbox game and porting it to the PC and Playstation (which is the norm btw) is financial suicide for a game like the ES. That costs tens of millions and thousands of man hours over 5 years to develop. Console games out sell PC games 1000 to 1. The PC on it's own is not a cost effective platform anymore for anything beyond more-pigs.

Battlefield would beg to differ.

[Vuk]

Battlefield would beg to differ.

It is as much a sell-out as the next.

[JagRoss]

I have this massive backlog of games I have yet to play, so I think I'll wait this one out.

[al Roumi]

30 minutes until I can activate it... Even though it broke street date in Australia, I can't play it because of Steam...

Argh, I just got my despatch notice from Amazon. Delivery is to work, it had better arrive tomorrow or I will be going spare all weekend!

[lars573]

Battlefield would beg to differ.

Which is an Xbox game ported to the PC, for the main series anyway. Yeah just checked. Battlefield Vietnam was the PC developed game in the series.

[johnhughthom]

You need to count again. The main quest has like 40-50 quests. If you count the ones that have a dozen sub-quests (I'm looking at you allies for Bruma). The Fighters guild and Mages guild goes almost that high (~35). The Dark brotherhood and the Thieves guild clock in at about 30 each. The arena has 3 fights per rank until the Grand championship (I'm counting each one as a quest as your given the fight by an NPC and paid after you win). Seeing as there are 8 ranks under Grand Champion that's 24, so 25 with GC. Each city (minus Kvatch with 1) has and average of 6 side quests. There are 20 Daedric quests. Maybe a dozen settlement quests. And lastly Freeform quests (which are usually finding the quest item and tracking down the quest giver). So yeah 200 quests in Oblivion is not an exaggeration. With all the DLC is probably gets up to 250.

Meh, each arena fight counts as a quest? Laughable.

Anyhoo, I weakened and bought it. My enmity toward Oblivion is probaby more to do with it not being Morrowind 2 than anything else. Though I still think it was sparse quest wise. My dislike of Fallout 3 is more to do with my dislike of Liam Neeson as an actor, though again it had too few real quests, though I did enjoy exploring the wasteland. I believe it has a different level up system, something more akin to Fallout than Elder Scrolls, which would be good. Hopefully it's more than just having perks. I find it difficult not to manage levelling my skills in Elder Scrolls games, hopefully it isn't an issue this time.

[Drunk Clown]

Good news,

- Fast travel system.
- Imperial Legion is less medieval as in Oblivion.

[easytarget]

Console games out sell PC games 1000 to 1. The PC on it's own is not a cost effective platform anymore for anything beyond more-pigs.

Both of these statements strike me as unsubstantiated. The first sentence is baseless hyperbole, and suggests you're not aware of digital distribution. And the second statement would be news to zynga, blizzard and valve.

[Drunk Clown]

"Console games out sell PC games 1000 to 1"

I don't believe it unless you come with proof. As I have heard the opposite.
(server based games)

[Beskar]

Per Game basis, Consoles sell more.

Actually, per game basis, Mobile phone games do. Angry Birds has 500 million unique downloads.

[lars573]

Phone apps are what under $5 most of the time? REAL easy to justify that, especially if your provider puts it on your monthly bill.

Both of these statements strike me as unsubstantiated. The first sentence is baseless hyperbole, and suggests you're not aware of digital distribution. And the second statement would be news to zynga, blizzard and valve.

Oh it's hyperbole all right, but I'm not wrong. Digital distribution is not 100% of PC game sales (these days it could be safely assumed to be 1/4 or 1/3). And PC games sales are a small percentage of a multi-platform games over all sales. Most of it is console sales. Digital distribution is not the thing that's going to get people using a PC for games. Unless you have a very good connection and the ability to use it for extended periods, it's far from a practical option. Speaking from my own experience of an estimated 23 hours to download ETW over my cable connection.

"Console games out sell PC games 1000 to 1"

I don't believe it unless you come with proof. As I have heard the opposite.
(server based games)

And you hear wrong. Going by multi-player numbers to correlate to games sales is stupid. Especially since Xbox isn't plug and play for online multi-player. And that consoles games don't have enormous MP communities. Infact outside the Halo/Battlefeild/CoD triumvirate most will dry up fairly fast.

[johnhughthom]

Yawn.

Totally off topic. You should know better Mr Beskar. Why they ever made you a mod I'll never...

30 minutes to Skyrim. I'm actually quite excited now, virtually ignoring it until now will probably make it that much better, no expectations to be dashed.

[easytarget]

Phone apps are what under $5 most of the time? REAL easy to justify that, especially if your provider puts it on your monthly bill.


Oh it's hyperbole all right, but I'm not wrong. Digital distribution is not 100% of PC game sales (these days it could be safely assumed to be 1/4 or 1/3). And PC games sales are a small percentage of a multi-platform games over all sales. Most of it is console sales. Digital distribution is not the thing that's going to get people using a PC for games. Unless you have a very good connection and the ability to use it for extended periods, it's far from a practical option. Speaking from my own experience of an estimated 23 hours to download ETW over my cable connection.



And you hear wrong. Going by multi-player numbers to correlate to games sales is stupid. Especially since Xbox isn't plug and play for online multi-player. And that consoles games don't have enormous MP communities. Infact outside the Halo/Battlefeild/CoD triumvirate most will dry up fairly fast.

Lars,

that you care enough to even broach the topic is a laugh in and of itself, what, you carrying a torch for old console technology are you?

and w/o proof of a source backing up your 1000 to 1 claim, which everyone in this forum knows is nonsense, you're pretty much just stuck with me calling you out on it

[tibilicus]

Went to Tesco at midnight to buy it and the goons in the shop said they only received 10 copies of the game... I was 11th in the queue as I had used the opportunity to buy some groceries. Turns out when you're a supermarket giant you can afford to be complacent and have a total twink as your stock manager.

[JagRoss]

On an related note, does anyone think I should play Arena and Daggerfall before playing getting into the more modern Elder Scrolls games?

[naut]

Ugh. Not more Bethesda crap! Why do they inflict the world with their constant stream of poop? [/grumpy]

[econ21]

On an related note, does anyone think I should play Arena and Daggerfall before playing getting into the more modern Elder Scrolls games?

I doubt it. The more modern games are big, so the three of them together would keep you more than occupied. The graphics of the older games doesn't hold up so well, as they were even more generic and lacking in story/character than the newer titles. Morrowind is still pretty impressive though, so starting with that rather than Oblivion would not be silly.

[Vuk]

Ugh. Not more Bethesda crap! Why do they inflict the world with their constant stream of poop? [/grumpy]

QFT

[Beskar]

First thoughts:
- One of the most graphically beautiful games I have ever played.
- Interesting leveling up system.
- PC controls are completely hideous. I had to plug in my xbox controller to make it playable.
- Alt+Tab crashes the game.
- Mobs don't seem scaled at all. Some mobs I can chop down without breaking a sweat, but go near a giant, wham, I am dead.
- Conversation doesn't have the Oblivion/Fallout zooming right up into their faces and is better presented.
- Random slash moments proc "vat style finishing moves"

Ugh. Not more Bethesda crap! Why do they inflict the world with their constant stream of poop? [/grumpy]

As for "Bethesda crap", huh? What games do you play?

[johnhughthom]

I'll never understand why people moan about games they don't like, I dislike most games but don't waste my time worrying about them when I could be playing game I do enjoy.

Quite enjoying Skyrim, though the controls are rather clunky, and the UI is clearly geared toward the consoles. The early game reminds me more of Morrowind than Oblivion, just general feel and atmosphere rather than gameplay mechanics. If I had known there were no classes before buying I probably would have hated the idea, I actually like it, and the levelling system is so much better than the old method in my opinion. I generally use a mage, without weapons, and the ability to cast dual spells is pretty cool. You can even pick a perk which when you put the same spell in each hand casts an upgraded version of the spell.

I haven't come across any bugs yet, and the game has been smooth on medium settings on my PC, which is probably the lower end of mid range.

[Greyblades]

I am in love with the archery in this game, its been a while since I've played a game where arrows actally have some thwack to them, hunting alone is fun. I once snuck up on a guy in a tower, took aim, fired and watched as his body fell 20 feet to the ground with only one arrow in his back, it was one of the more satisfying moments I've had in a game.

[naut]

As for "Bethesda crap", huh? What games do you play?

I play LEGOS. It is fun.

I'll never understand why people moan about games they don't like, I dislike most games but don't waste my time worrying about them when I could be playing game I do enjoy.

Because it is UTTERLY hilarious how irate people get if you poke fun at their love children.

[Gregoshi]

I'm anxious to hear more about the game from those who have it. I'm definitely interested in it, but I'll have to put off getting it - it will probably be on my Christmas list.

Thanks for the first impressions so far.

[lars573]

Lars,

that you care enough to even broach the topic is a laugh in and of itself, what, you carrying a torch for old console technology are you?

and w/o proof of a source backing up your 1000 to 1 claim, which everyone in this forum knows is nonsense, you're pretty much just stuck with me calling you out on it

1000 to 1 is an exaggeration, which I admitted as much. Realistically it's more like 100:1, or at the outside 50:1. But since companies guard sales data like mother bear protecting her cubs we'll never know for sure how much consoles out sell PC. But if you believe that PC game sales can compete with console sales for a game like Skyrim, your fracking crazy.

I am in love with the archery in this game, its been a while since I've played a game where arrows actally have some thwack to them, hunting alone is fun. I once snuck up on a guy in a tower, took aim, fired and watched as his body fell 20 feet to the ground with only one arrow in his back, it was one of the more satisfying moments I've had in a game.

So is it better than Oblivion's ranged system? I could not stand ranged weapons in Morrowind or Oblivion (which I'm not a fan of at the best of times in these games). Still if they've gone solely with perks for skills or how you want to play. I'm not opposed to it. I rather liked how it was set up in Fallout 3.

[econ21]

My initial impressions are very like those posted above.

It's gorgeous. After feeling a little left out watching my son's Modern Warfare 3, I took some pride in now getting a game that looks about as good. (I thought the opening was a cut scene, until I turned my character to look around; the graphics were so cinematic in quality.)

It's just like Morrowind/Oblivion. Don't expect any fundamental change in the basic kind of game it is.

I like the combat, but then I preferred Oblivion's combat to Mount and Blade. Fighting with sword and shield just feels more solid, well paced and you can plausibly defeat superior numbers. Archery seems nice - my impression is that you shoot more or less where your cursor was pointing. You don't have to "aim high" like in Mount and Blade, or suffer from excessive wobbles like Fallout 3 manual aim with low skill.

There are no stats at character creation. Realising that nearly made me weep - doesn't RPG stand for min-max your stats game or something? But now I think it is a blessing. What killed Morrowind/Oblivion for me was trying to rig my stats so that I maximised them on level up (endless hours standing getting biten by mudcrabs, jumping off rocks etc). Maybe I have not figured out the optimal levelling approach, but now that you don't have endurance/strength etc, you can just level up as use your skills and pick a nice perk as a reward. The perk trees seem decent - a kind of hybrid of WoW's talent trees and Fallout's perks. There are lots of skills and perks (you can get to level 70 or so, but 50 is the norm, so that's a lot of perks), so the stat/levelling lover need not feel they are in an action game.

Oh and the interface is awful. I normally don't care about UIs, but this one makes me scream.

[Beskar]

Oh and the interface is awful. I normally don't care about UIs, but this one makes me scream.

Works very well with a controller but it is hideous using keyboard and mouse. On controller it is a flick of the thumb to go through it all.