Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

[fasteasyfree]

My male orc looks absolutely awful in it. Mind you, he looks awful in the Nightingale too. Makes me think I'm playing Arkham City.

The Nightingale armour makes me instantly switch into Batman mode. Albeit, Batman with an instakill knife.

[deerokus]

Cutscenes schmutscenes. It's not that sort of game.

[Rudi von Starnberg]

Cutscenes schmutscenes. It's not that sort of game.

It tries to be, though, fairly regularly if you follow the main-ish quest lines (Companions, Thieves' Guild, Mages, etc) rather than just doing miscellaneous stuff. And every single one that it attempts is laughable - right from the beginning, before you even get control. In an environment that should be entirely controlled and unaffected by anything that the developers don't want to be in the scene, you've got actors slipping and sliding into place and juddering about.

Where Skyrim excels is in the sheer wealth of things to do, the sense of place, the beauty of the environments, and so on. It's possible to acknowledge this as well as the shit cutscene bits, instead of pretending that the shit cutscene bits don't matter at all because of the strengths of the game.

[Sng]

It looks and acts like a game from the 90s for the most part but all is forgiven once you get into it.

[scottcr]

It tries to be, though, fairly regularly if you follow the main-ish quest lines (Companions, Thieves' Guild, Mages, etc) rather than just doing miscellaneous stuff. And every single one that it attempts is laughable - right from the beginning, before you even get control. In an environment that should be entirely controlled and unaffected by anything that the developers don't want to be in the scene, you've got actors slipping and sliding into place and juddering about.

Where Skyrim excels is in the sheer wealth of things to do, the sense of place, the beauty of the environments, and so on. It's possible to acknowledge this as well as the shit cutscene bits, instead of pretending that the shit cutscene bits don't matter at all because of the strengths of the game.

you are in my head and saying what I want to say, only better.

[scottcr]

It acts like one, though I wouldn't say it looks like one.

the character animation does... with it's knees-bent running around advancing behaviour of the NPCs

[Ferine]

I actually think Skyrim is an excellent example of what sets games apart as a storytelling medium. Which is to say the cutscenes are poorly handled — I've lost count of the times dialogue has been lost behind the blaring of a triumphant musical sting — but the explorable environments reveal all sorts to the inquisitive or attentive player. You can learn a lot about characters simply from nosing about their houses, or routing through their pockets, whilst other environmental cues can lead you to tableauxs that tell their own small tales.

To give an inconsequential example of the latter, I was trying to take a shortcut over some mountainous terrain when a pack of wolves attacked me. I quickly dispatched them, but whilst looting their pelts I noticed a suspicious patch of blood just off from where I had fought them. When I went to investigate I discovered a small trail of blood-soaked snow that led me to a discarded hunting bow laying on the ground, the blood then curving around behind some rocks. At the trail's end lay a dead Breton. Suddenly I hadn't just dispatched another pack of wolves but avenged a fellow explorer who had been overrun by the beasts, become badly wounded during the fray, dropped her bow whilst retreating and eventually bled out upon the edge of the mountain.

The game is full of wondrous attention to detail, so whilst the dialogue is often stilted and the character animation leaves a lot to be desired, as a showcase of building an involving world it shows how the interactive nature of games doesn't have to be a hindrance when it comes to telling stories.

[scottcr]

and that's great - that whole emergent stuff is what we all enjoy about Skyrim. My favourite part of the game so far has just been walking up to the Greybeards in the snow. Was brilliantly realised and looked wonderful and loaded with atmosphere. But when it actually wants to direct you through a story that they developers have crafted, it does it really quite poorly and it hasn't moved on from Oblivion in that respect.

I also have to worry about anyone who spends any time reading the books.

[Rudi von Starnberg]

The books vary in quality. A few of the ones new to Skyrim are actually written quite well, or at least entertainingly, but most of the ones that are holdovers from Oblivion and so on can be deathly dull. I can definitely recommend the book entitled 'Wabbajack' for entertainment.

Another flaw I'd identify in the game is how many of the locations - as well-realised as they are - give the impression of having been designed before the associated quests. It's like the development process is "We made this totally sweet necromancer's lair, how should we integrate it into the game?" -> "Oh just stick in a powerful enemy called Gothrul the Cunning and we'll have a quest to go kill him, that's literally it." It's a bit of a shame, because some of these dungeons and caves and hideouts and so on are stunning and a joy to explore; just a shame that the quest furniture rarely goes above 'generic bare-bones'.

[SaintM]

It tries to be, though, fairly regularly if you follow the main-ish quest lines (Companions, Thieves' Guild, Mages, etc) rather than just doing miscellaneous stuff. And every single one that it attempts is laughable - right from the beginning, before you even get control. In an environment that should be entirely controlled and unaffected by anything that the developers don't want to be in the scene, you've got actors slipping and sliding into place and juddering about.

Where Skyrim excels is in the sheer wealth of things to do, the sense of place, the beauty of the environments, and so on. It's possible to acknowledge this as well as the shit cutscene bits, instead of pretending that the shit cutscene bits don't matter at all because of the strengths of the game.

Strangely enough, my first impression of the opening scene was that the prisoners in the cart must have had fish hooks on their trousers to be able to sit without sliding forward as we made our way down the steep mountain.

[JoeK]

I think it's been the first RPG I've ever played where I've actually got so sucked in that I was actually role-playing the thing. The story itself is fine but fairly light-weight, but the majority of hours I've been playing I've been completely caught up with being this big Nord bloke in the world and actually getting swept up in Skyrim itself. Don't think that's ever happened to me before in a game - especially so as I do tend to play story-based games in the majority.

[NecroMorrius]

It tries to be, though, fairly regularly if you follow the main-ish quest lines (Companions, Thieves' Guild, Mages, etc) rather than just doing miscellaneous stuff. And every single one that it attempts is laughable - right from the beginning, before you even get control. In an environment that should be entirely controlled and unaffected by anything that the developers don't want to be in the scene, you've got actors slipping and sliding into place and juddering about.

Where Skyrim excels is in the sheer wealth of things to do, the sense of place, the beauty of the environments, and so on. It's possible to acknowledge this as well as the shit cutscene bits, instead of pretending that the shit cutscene bits don't matter at all because of the strengths of the game.

I think of it like an MMO, as in they shoehorn bad storytelling into an engine that doesn't really do it well. But it doesn't matter much, because Skyrim is a game in which you create your own dynamic story minute by minute. Like Left 4 Dead, for example.

[Guest]

I also feel that the game doesn't allow you to have your own farm, and ask friends for help when planting orange trees - like Farmville

[NecroMorrius]

Imagine if Skyrim was integrated with facebook. Shudder.

[scottcr]

thing is - I want to play the adventure and go through the quest. As much as I like wandering about and trying stuff, I'm not going to stand on a beach for an hour just to watch a sunset or smith for 3 hours on end to get my skills up - I'm not that kind of player. I want to go through it and enjoy the experiences... so, I noticed the stuff like bad story telling, awful dialogue, rubbish accents and lack of cut-scenes more than others.

I still love it mind. But in these areas, it hasn't moved on in since Oblivion at all.

[rumblecat]

....whilst other environmental cues can lead you to tableauxs that tell their own small tales.

Yeah, Todd Howard of Bethesda mentioned that as something they'd learnt from doing Fallout 3-

“We realised in Fallout 3 that that kind of environmental storytelling, where you come upon a little scene, is really good,” says Howard. “And so we’ve tried to do it a lot more

- certainly it's provided me with some of the most fun and interesting moments in the game. Piecing together what must have happened before- like a dungeon where bandits have set up camp already, not realising they've built their home on top of a nest of the undead... and your character being witness to the aftermath of what happened- lovely stuff.

[Space Gibbon]

When I'm on a particular questline - Companions, Mages, DB, main or whatever, I feel really involved in that storyline, and it feels like I'm playing THAT game, the one where the main character is THE Dovahkiin, or the one where the main character is 'the guy who joins the mage's guild and becomes embroiled in events' etc. But I feel these experiences are diluted by the rest of the game. It gets a bit ridiculous when you're THE guy who can save the mage's guild, save the dark brotherhood, save the companions, SAVE THE WORLD. It's my own fault, really, since I usually avoid progressing any single questline too much at one time, wanting to save them up because they're generally better than the side quests. What I should really do is take a separate character through each one, but then each character would never get to level up that much.

[Wroth]

Don't know if this has been posted already. Don't care, it deserves two posts.

I think my dragonborn just came.

[Guest]

Seriously? Again? What is it with this feminist commentary crap every time I ask you to hold some stuff so we can get back to town safely? Would you prefer we took hours to crawl miles back to the house just so you aren't feeling affronted and put upon that you're some kind of slave!? You don't cook, you don't clean (the house is a state have you thought of putting anything in a drawer), you don't offer any decent conversation either. You just roll your eyes even when I'm trying to give you a health potion that may save your life - and I've seen you use them! Shall I take them back?!

I know you don't technically get a wage from me, but I bet the Jarl pays you doesn't he! And look at your life now - you're out and about in the world, living adventures, slaying dragons instead of being stuck in a dusty old hall all day. And that armour you're wearing - that didn't come cheap. Maybe you've noticed you don't feel the cold as much too? Those enchantments didn't happen on their own.

Just stop it with this crap Lydia. if anything I'm empowering you and giving you a chance to make your name known all across Skyrim. You don't want to end up like Cow man do you? Good, now hold this Iron Ore....DON'T YOU DARE SAY ARRRGGGHGHHHHH.

[user removed]

LOL. Very good Dino.

Wroth:

woi oi. I missed it earlier. will be checking her site out for more.

[Space Gibbon]

I wish they'd fleshed companions out a bit like they did in New Vegas.

[Wroth]

Seriously? Again? What is it with this feminist commentary crap every time I ask you to hold some stuff so we can get back to town safely? Would you prefer we took hours to crawl miles back to the house just so you aren't feeling affronted and put upon that you're some kind of slave!? You don't cook, you don't clean (the house is a state have you thought of putting anything in a drawer), you don't offer any decent conversation either. You just roll your eyes even when I'm trying to give you a health potion that may save your life - and I've seen you use them! Shall I take them back?!

I know you don't technically get a wage from me, but I bet the Jarl pays you doesn't he! And look at your life now - you're out and about in the world, living adventures, slaying dragons instead of being stuck in a dusty old hall all day. And that armour you're wearing - that didn't come cheap. Maybe you've noticed you don't feel the cold as much too? Those enchantments didn't happen on their own.

Just stop it with this crap Lydia. if anything I'm empowering you and giving you a chance to make your name known all across Skyrim. You don't want to end up like Cow man do you? Good, now hold this Iron Ore....DON'T YOU DARE SAY ARRRGGGHGHHHHH.

Ditch her and pick up Mjoll, she's much nicer.

[Guest]

The continued misadventures of Dinobot, Orc about Skyrim.

It's been a right old time in Skyrim. Having to murder and bring people back to life to murder them again is brilliant! Yet it's not quite as challenging as hearing that booming, ominous music that echoes forth when an enemy attacks. It chills you and raises your heart rate, knowing that death is coming and all hell is about to break loose.

I had one such occasion just recently. Enemies in the distance. Atop a rocky outcrop I stood and knew the battle would be immense. I loosed off the first arrow! It thudded into one the beast's hide and they all turned as a group.

Horrible slavering beasts, huge teeth and gigantic when compared to your average wolf (animation). Up the beach they came, the music booming "DUM DUM DUM DUM DUMMM"...and up the beach they came, as I fired off more arrows, Lydia by my side also unleashing pointy hurt. And up the beach they came, coming still, up the hill, as they came...hmmm they're quite slow aren't they? At this rate I suspect they'll all be dead before they even "DUM DUM DUM DUM DUMMMM" - this music really isn't working now. They're flopping and flapping around pretty uselessly. A couple more arrows will do it I suspect "DUM DUM DUM DUM DUMMMM" - yeah that's not working, they aren't going to get near me...

Most un-threatening fight of all time...

"DUM DUM DUM DUM DUMMMM"

[Naysonymous]

100 destruction

[NecroMorrius]

Ditch her and pick up Mjoll, she's much nicer.

Or Anneke Crag-jumper

[Matt Defis]

Well 130 hours in and level 52 and I'm finally going to finish off the main quest and wrap things up, at the beginning of the year I didn't think anything could outdo the Witcher 2 and I never thought anything would ever knock KOTOR off my number 1 game but Skyrim has just totally blown me away. I've probably taken more screenies of this game than I have of all the games I've played in the last 5 years, I'm constantly stopping just to have a look and will be doing so for a quite a while longer. Bethesda really do deserve my thanks for crafting something that's made me full of wonder, excitement and boundless curiosity of what's over that hill.

I thought I'd just leave a few screenies here, it's modded quite a bit.

[NecroMorrius]

Did you mod the water? It looks weird.

[Matt Defis]

Yeah, you can get different types of high res water textures depending on whether it a river, ocean, lake etc. looks much better in motion.

This is the water mod.

[SqueakyG]

I can't believe I'm STILL playing this. This is STILL my main game. 91 hours and I haven't even got half way through the dragon or civil war questlines or started the Dark Brotherhood. I'm sure Oblivion only took me 85 hours to do everything.

I actually got a pen and paper out yesterday to calculate the best way to switch from Archmage Robes to full glass armour while enchanting the glass armour in a manner that doesn't lose any of the benefits of the Archmage robes. Of course this took loads of smithing to reach level 70 and make glass armour (now watch every blacksmith in Skyrim sell it...) and lots of enchanting to reach 100 and put two enchantments on each thing.

Also, hello "Elder dragon". No, not a blood dragon or a frost dragon. An ELDER dragon. They're levelling with me!

Ditch her and pick up Mjoll, she's much nicer.

I got so sick of Lydia saying she is "sworn to carry my burdens" that I needed another companion just so she'd say something different. Mjoll looked like a good candidate. Unfortunately Mjoll keeps saying the same incidental things all the time, which is more annoying than Lydia, who at least didn't speak until you spoke to her. I'm getting a bit sick of being in the middle of important quest-giving dialogue and hearing Mjoll right next to me saying, "This bandit tried to rob me once and when I pulled out Grimsever he almost soiled his armour..."

[scottcr]

Lots of spoilers abound... Some of us are only about 25 hours in...