Official Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim thread!

[Beskar]

on a simmilar note

Why post an identical video from a different author?

[Hamata]

realy? that was the same video? but by a diffrent author. man i realy need to watch them both next time XD

[frogbeastegg]

Turns out that Skyrim was intended to be my Christmas present. Now an early Christmas present due to sad froggy eyes

I hate the in-game map. It's useless. When I reference a map I expect to be able to work out how to get to my destination. This one? It had me walking around the foot of a mountain for 2 hours because it doesn't show roads or give any indication whatsoever of where I might be able to start scaling the heights. It's similarly useless for general getting around on flatter terrain.

The interface is not great. Some parts are ok, a very few work well. Others are clumsy, or slow, or put information I consider important in a lesser position than stuff I don't care about. It swaps buttons around too and that's led to some irritating accidents, particularly with equip/eat/store all swapping around between A and X depending on whether you are in the inventory screen, a shop screen, or a looting screen.

That perk screen is awful. Very hard to navigate: it keeps warping me to random stars. It's a terrible way to present information too.

It seems the same woman voiced all of the female Dark Elves. Every single one I meet sounds the same as the 'important' one in the storyline. Horribly distracting.

That's it for stuff I don't like. Everything else, woo! I am absolutely loving this game. I've done around 13 hours in 2 days, including a 2AM finish on the first day. My eyes were dying and I still didn't want to stop. It has been ages since I have enjoyed a game so much.

I'm rolling with an archer plus sword/shield Nord. He's intended to be more cunning warrior than sneaky sniper, and it's working decently. It took a few levels and perks before the archery became useful. Now it's a good way to put down a couple of enemies before I draw my sword, or to plink away at dragons. I'm doing a lot of smithing, and have sneaking (for hunting animals and scouting, not thievery), block, and light armour as secondary skills. The new character system works really, really well. I use the skills I want and as they rank up I get passive bonuses at the task, I eventually level up, I spend a perk on stuff I want to buff heavily, I increase my health/stamina/magiacka as I want, and all without needing a massive spreadsheet plan and/or staying at level 1 forever. It's natural, it's sane, and it works. Glory be!

Some of the incidental stuff is neat. I came back from a gruelling trip into the wilderness and decided to chat to some of the children (there's children! Amazing how that one little change makes the world feel more natural), see what they had to say. I found myself playing hide and seek around the village. Very amusing; I could practically see my battered warrior doing an indulgent, wry smile as a pig-tailed girl ordered him around. NPCs make quite a range of comments on my status, appearance and skills. Skulking in bandit areas has led to a lot of overheard tidbits. That's another thing - there are loads of little quests to discover simply by talking to people, or overhearing them. I know the previous Bethesda games did this, but it always felt kind of stilted and the quests weren't that interesting. This time, much better and there's a far wider range of them.

The world is glorious. Combat isn't rubbish. The music is fantastic; normally I don't like this particular composer's work so this was a real surprise. The writing is better, more natural and less stilted. The graphics are excellent, even on the xbox 360. The voice acting is far better and I enjoy the range of accents on display, they add so much in terms of atmosphere and differentiation from the rest of the market. The quest design is much less tedious and dreary, and the ones I've done so far have been quite fun. The dungeons aren't boring, they have more personality and more going on than the old tunnel clearance slogs. Smithing is more satisfying than it has any right to be.

This game produces some proper Norse saga boasting material. Yup. When Leif the Dragonborn introduces himself in the mead hall he can boast, "I have fought a dragon with the aid of 4 burning horses! I have been thrown from a mountain top by a frost troll and lived to tell the tale! I have been launched into space by a giant! I have caught salmon with my bare hands in a waterfall at the spine of the world! I have stood at the highest point in the world and shouted with such force all nearby were thrown back! I have stood alone at the gateway of a castle town, bow in hand, and defied a dragon's attempts to burn it! I have forged armour which makes steel look weak! I have out-run a hare, out-wrestled a bear, out-smarted a wolf, and out-clawed a sabre cat!"

[Tuuvi]

I feel your pain with the map, it looks cool, but I hate the fact that it doesn't show where the roads are. In the beginning of the game I spent like an hour trying to find Whiterun, it turns out it's just a few minutes walk from Riverwood by the road, which I didn't take because I couldn't tell if it was going the right way or not.

[johnhughthom]

It's a real hassle in the north, around Solitude. I spent ages running about, looking for a pass through the mountains.

[Drunk Clown]

It's a real hassle in the north, around Solitude. I spent ages running about, looking for a pass through the mountains.

There's a road around the mountain :)

[Gregoshi]

This sounds so good. It is gonna be a long wait for Christmas.