Skyrim

[maroule]

made me wet my paints in anticipation
still a long way to go though

http://uk.ign.com/videos/2011/02/24/...railer?show=HD

[Venom]

It does sound mighty impressive at this point. Though I've never been much of a fan of the elder scrolls universe.

[MDA]

I even played Arena.

[Ellipsis]

I loved Daggerfall and liked Morrowind. Oblivion, though, was craptastic. I hear there's no level scaling in Skyrim, which already is an improvement on Oblivious. I'm cautiously looking forward to it.

[Greg W]

Daggerfall was great. Except for the random dungeons where the automap was completely useless and it was way too easy to get lost.

Morrowind was a little brown and green for my liking. Call me strange (I am), but that killed a lot of it for me. I vaguely recall that it had no level scaling though, which was good.

Oblivion was ok, except I didn't like the concept of the main plot. Or at least how it was implemented. Thought the visuals were great, though it did show that visuals do not a good game make. And the level scaling made it a pain in the arse.

For this one, I am not letting pretty visuals fool me. Though I will likely pre-order.

[maroule]

Oblivion was ok, especially considering there are very few decent rpg on the xbox
on the pc I can understand it compared poorly

[Ellipsis]

Maybe I see Daggerfall through rose-tinted glasses for some reason... It had a lot wrong with it and it was buggy, but I found it very charming and atmospheric.

With Morrowind I liked the aesthetics, but I can see why you wouldn't.

Level scaling in Oblivion made it pointless to improve your level and even to collect better loot. Everything felt generic and dumbed down.

[Ellipsis]

Which isn't to say I don't like some dumb games. I just want to play some old school type games as well.

[maroule]

yes, I see what you're saying, but Oblivion was for me the first contact with this franchise, so my expectations were low + I loved how big and free it was, I was used to play Baldur's kind of RPG where you can't roam and pretty much do what ever you want

[MDA]

I had a lot more fun with Oblivion about a year from release, after players modded the living daylights out of it. Character leveling was changed and scaling was much less noticeable, there were areas you could wander into and get squashed immediately.

Oscuro's Oblivion Overhaul was the core bit of it, I think it's been mentioned here before.

Daggerfall had some craptacular bugs, but I loved it all the same.

[Fistandantilus]

Modded Oblivion is way better than vanilla, I agree.

But what really made Morrowind my favourite one of the series was the athmosphere. The Ghostfence, the three great houses and their politics and very different agendas, the imperial cult vs the Tribunal, the pigrimage, the ancient and mysterious dwarven ruins and so on.

It really felt a great shaped and detailed world and in comparison Oblivion seemed like the boring seen a thousand times fantasy medieval landscape.

Or maybe I just like mages carving their towers into giant mushrooms

Anyway Bethesda didn't disappoint me yet, highs and lows but I pretty much enjoyed all Elder scrolls titles (haven't played arena tho).

[MDA]

The mage towers were very smurfy.

I reloaded this (Oblivion, I mean) onto my laptop this week, with mods. Still fun, glacially paced (I think that can be adjusted), but I'm not in a hurry.

[MOBIUS]

Skyrim = sounds vaguely gay if you ask me.

[Greg W]

Originally Posted by MOBIUS

Skyrim = sounds vaguely gay if you ask me.

Especially if you're asked to do jobs for the inhabitants.

[Venom]

X-FEAR!

[Greg W]

I must be losing my marbles (what few of them I had left). I don't even remember quoting that.

[maroule]

Originally Posted by MOBIUS

Skyrim = sounds vaguely gay if you ask me.

why would we ask you?

[MOBIUS]

You wouldn't. That's why I'm telling you.

[maroule]

thanks for volunterring

anyway, you're mistaken. We see from the trailer a half naked, half covered in fur, very muscular man and his huge axe, nothing could be less gay.

[MOBIUS]

Sounds like a bear to me.

[MDA]

Well, it's knut.

[Venom]

Too soon!

[MDA]

Skyrim Canceled! — April 1, 2011

Bethesda executive producer Todd Howard dropped a bomb on the gaming community today when he announced that the widely-awaited sequel to Oblivion, Skyrim, was "indefinitely delayed". He claimed that although there had been some positive feedback about the game, the general feeling was negative and that the team needed to re-evaluate the reaction from the fanbase.

"We've read all the forum comments and realized that we don't have any idea what we're supposed to be doing", said Howard. "We need to look at the whole project from fresh."

Howard's comments were reiterated by VP Pete Hines: "We've missed the target on this one. We should have got the community involved earlier. I think we all realise, from feedback we've received so far, that we are all indeed 'lame' and it's certainly true that none of us have girlfriends."

Further comments from Howard suggested that there were deeper problems in the game. "We had to accept that we couldn't do that "Radiant Story" thing - it was too confusing, messed up the game world, and made us realize that we had to delay the game for another year, just to make it work"

The last word goes to Pete Hines: "We would like to thank to Game Informer Magazine for covering the story in-depth, but right now we have to sit back and think."
Nobody at Bethesda was prepared to give a revised date for release. From your roving reported, Polar Foil.

[Funko]

[Fistandantilus]

http://uk.ign.com/videos/2011/06/08/...objectid=93394

It still looks awesome at E3. There are longer gameplay video than this one around btw.

[MDA]

Out November 11, I'm cautiously optimistic (usually am, so that says nothing).

They dumped Mysticism and supposedly moved the spells to other trees. A couple of other skills have also been combined, but now they've added perk "trees" within skills. Could be cool.

I like the way they worked the weapon/spell/shield options so that you can wield a sword and shield, sword and spell, two hand weapon, two hand (more powerful) spell, etc. I do wonder if that leaves our staff wielding wizards empty handed.

[Fistandantilus]

Yeah but I did preorder it awhile ago so it's going to suck I'm sorry

[MDA]

jinx!

[Venom]

Pre-orders are evil

[MDA]

Now that I'm all grown up and have a real job, I don't get as enraged when the game sucks.

Two of those things are actually true.

[Greg W]

Well, you're still here so you can't possibly have grown up...

[paiktis]

touche!

Oblivion was great i think in technology aspects, great scenery, good gameplay etc but was to... blunt... dont know what else to say.

anyway my faith in rpg has evaporated after bioware released that pokemon dragon age 2. hopefully they took a hint and will try to make something that resembles their older masterpieces.

[Greg W]

Oblivion I think was a little bland (is that the word you meant?)...

[maroule]

a bit bland at times (like the faces of the people you taled to), but still pretty amazing in terms of scope

I also liked the natural levelling system

I'm pretty excited with Skyrim, and also pre-ordered it

Paiktis, Berthesda (fallout) is doing Skyrim, not Bioware, so no risk of pokemon baldur...
and I'm not blaming bioware too hard because I though mass effect 2, even if not a rpg proper but a bastard child with a cover shooter, was really splendid.

[paiktis]

I meant bland yes!
Maroule I know it's not bioware that makes skyrim but I was talking generally about the rpg genre which for me is tied to bioware (baldur II being the best rpg ever imo).

Apres dragon age 2 i kind of lost my faith in them because everyone was saying don't go that road it will suck, and they went anyway and imo it did suck!

haven't played mass effect 2. maybe it would be redemption (even though it was an earlier realease than dragon age 2)

[Fistandantilus]

Mass Effect 2 is very good but is a step in the direction you don't like paiktis

[maroule]

indeed
just don't consider it an RPG, and you'll love it
think of it as a space opera movie you can play (by mildly customising your character progression)

[Venom]

For some reason, RPGs built around guns and shooting, like Mass Effect, can withstand more pokemoning and actionification. Whereas your medieval, sword and sorcery fantasy RPGs tend to look and play like a spazz's wet dream when companies try to make them "awesome". To quote bioware on Dragon Age 2.

[maroule]

hum, sounds about right

[MDA]

They're dumping attributes and keeping skills (with perk trees, presumably like in Dragon Age, although that had attributes as well). Not sure how to feel about that. I've had six major attributes as part of most of my games since the 80's.

[Greg W]

STR, DEX, CON, INT, WIS, CHA FTW!

[MDA]

OK, spoiler free: played through the intro scenes and trotted down to the nearest town. All I can really say at this point is that the interface, on PC, is irritating. One example, I feel like I'm zoomed in way too close on the skill trees (too much bling and not enough informative).

Shop menu actually had a tutorial popup message, urgh.

[Venom]

Disappointing to hear as that would be the platform I would want to play on. I'm going to go out on a not very big limb and say it was developed for consoles. Like just about every multi-platform game these days.

[Fistandantilus]

Can you actually dual wield spells using a mouse? Am I missing something?

[Greg W]

I am enjoying it so far, after doing the intro, getting to the first town and then going to check out the local barrow (that was mentioned in the intro).

Some of the interface does seem a little clunky at times, I'll give you that, but I don't spend a lot of time in there, so no big deal. I do like the perks though, they're something different. Crafting is kinda... take it or leave it... but again I don't plan to spend much time on it. So far every person I have spoken to has actually spoken back to me (as opposed to just flashing text up on a screen), which is cool.

I like the atmosphere though, it feels much more flavourful and real than the rather bland Oblivion.

[maroule]

- played about 10 hours over the last 3 days, and enjoying it
- it certainly works well on a console, the 2 hands action is obvioulsy very intuitive with the two triggers (I use two spells, one on each hand, one flame and one cold, I'm like an improbable son of a flamethrower and a fire extinguiser)... taking out opponents has a visceral effect about it that I find very enjoyable...
- some fantastic scenery, walking around is truly enjoyable (even if there always seems to be a wolf biting my arse when I don't pay attention)
- the craft system is great, love it... walking around with 100kg of crafting ingredients though is not cool...
- friendly AI is a bit idiotic
- some great secondary quests, morally ambiguious, i.e. accepting some quest with the best intentions still lead you to cause evil...
- levelling system is very slow, I'm at level 7 right now and still feel very underdevelopped... which is good, a slow learning curve means still plenty to play for...
- I find myself wanting to become an expert at everything at once, a good sign that all the ways to develop your character are fun

[Greg W]

I'm level 10 and my skills are barely reaching the 40s, and then only really in one hand slashing. The rest are in the 30s at most. Getting more into the crafting system and have made myself Dwarven armour and sword. Have killed my first Dragon, and what I believe is a respawn of that same Dragon. OMG, carrying around Dragon scales and bones sucks big time! Am just wandering off to join the Imperial Legion so that I can get somewhere to store all this heavy junk.

Without giving any hints away, I am enjoying the moral ambiguity of the Empire v Stormcloaks though, esp as I am playing a Nord. I'm going the Empire, though I could easily see myself joining the Stormcloaks in another game.

[MDA]

Cons: texture loading bugs?, some CTDs, inexcusablly awful UI
Pros: I put in over 20 hours playing this weekend. I stayed up too late last night. That's a pro, right?

I agree with pretty much everything maroule said, but can't comment on the console controller. Right and left hands are for me left and right mouse button, respectively.

Mild spoilers may follow, most of it I cut out on the fly.

crafting is great

I bought a house to store all my crafting materials in. I killed thr33!! dragons and the bones and scales were getting way too heavy to carry. I'm obsessed, so I don't want to sell that stuff. Then I had to furnish every room in the house, right? Hell yes. Carl stays at the house and guards my stuff. She probably hates being called Carl as much as she hates being left behind, but her AI will put her between my axe and the enemy more often than is healthy for her. Carl was a gift for... no spoilers.

The Falmer seem like an entire race of Gollums and they're tough but not impossible to kill. The centipedish things that hang out with them are absolute murder (and gorgeously ugly).

Found my first dwemer ruin last night, outwardly because I was helping... someone... find her lost sword; but secretly because I wanted a source of metal I could use to raise my crafting.

I'm sometimes getting a lot of untextured stuff when I load new outdoor zones. Dead bears look like blue gummi bears . Trees seem to be most often affected, sometimes armors, locks, doorframes. Things are, in "normal" circumstances, very good looking.

The menus have gone from irritating to something I actively avoid using. Its getting to the point where I avoid switching weapons. "Favorites" menu helps, but it's still a ported UI that hasn't seen any substantial optimization effort. There are shortcut key selections in some menus. Maybe they slapped a better font on it, maybe not. Hopefully there will be a Skyrim equivalent BTmod or DarnifiedUI soon.

Pretty sure the general store owner in Whiterun is the same guy that did David Sarif in the new Deus Ex. I keep expecting him to call me "son".

Random (but infrequent) crashes to desktop, too. I think Fallout3 did that to me when it first came out, but stopped after the first patch, hmm. Quicksave is my friend, and there are autosaves.

Traps: useful! leave them unpopped and use them against the <centipede, bandit chiefs, generic extra tough badguy>. Puddles of oil are extra fun.

Crafting, crafting, crafting. Finished the weekend with my first set of orcish armor and got to break it in in that dwemer ruin. I can't say I wasn't warned about a giant robot, but... no spoilers, but ow. Sword recovered, debated picking it up, because it meant dropping a lot of scrap. Guess I can come back for more scrap. All the mechanical bits lying around can be smelted and used for crafting. Totally worth a second or third trip. Now to find a source of ebony and start stocking up for the next armor set.

[zmama]

[MDA]

Is it not awful that I'm an axe-wielding Nord named Hew?

harr harr harr