Skyrim!

[Jermofoot]

Anyone playing it? I’m finding it to be pretty amazing.  First game I can remember putting all the money down before it was released.

[frimmel]

I’m hearing good things and the reviews are all very positive. I haven’t picked it up being that I’m not much of an RPGer and I picked up everything on my ‘must have’ list for the fall. So between, Batman:Arkham City, Battlefield 3, Uncharted 3 and Assassin’s Creed: Revelations I’m pretty much covered. But this is firmly on my radar as fighting dragons sounds pretty neat and I enjoy games where I get to wander about and see what turns up.

I’m hearing there are really a whole lot of things to do. Is that so? Are the things to do confined to only a few mission types or is there a pretty big variety? How ‘heavy’ is the RPGness (I don’t like drilling through conversations to find out something I could simply have been told in the first place.) Is there a lot of influence on your missions from your RPG conversation choices or the RPG aspect more about managing a skill tree? If you get something wrong do you get a chance to make it right?

[Jermofoot]

@frimmel:

I’m hearing good things and the reviews are all very positive. I haven’t picked it up being that I’m not much of an RPGer and I picked up everything on my ‘must have’ list for the fall. So between, Batman:Arkham City, Battlefield 3, Uncharted 3 and Assassin’s Creed: Revelations I’m pretty much covered. But this is firmly on my radar as fighting dragons sounds pretty neat and I enjoy games where I get to wander about and see what turns up.

I’m hearing there are really a whole lot of things to do. Is that so? Are the things to do confined to only a few mission types or is there a pretty big variety? How ‘heavy’ is the RPGness (I don’t like drilling through conversations to find out something I could simply have been told in the first place.) Is there a lot of influence on your missions from your RPG conversation choices or the RPG aspect more about managing a skill tree? If you get something wrong do you get a chance to make it right?

Certainly the past month of releases have been amazing.  Not enough time.

The reviews tell you what it is: deep enough for the hardcore, accessible enough for the more casual.  They took the best parts of Oblivion and Fallout3/NV and then improved upon it even more.

I put over 200 hours into Oblivion over a couple characters and never finished the main quest yet still had a blast.  Skyrim is looking like it can accomplish that easily.  I’ve played maybe 20 hours or so and feel like I’ve barely explored the place even though I’ve taken down 3 dragons, a giant, tons of bandits and creatures and cleared a few caves and ruins.  This is one that I’ll replay again as a sneaky marksman/thief type, and then again and mage user.  After that I’m just doing whatever I feel like.

As far as RPG aspects, it’s there but you can circumvent it or avoid it if you want.  You can run menial jobs like cutting wood, crafting weapons and armor, enchanting items.  You can go hunting, fishing, spelunking, mine ore, cook food.  You’ll come across random corpses and will have an investigative quests.  Quests can be something like take down a dragon or clear a bandit camp, or investigate someone’s disappearance, or retrieve something stolen. I had an escort mission but it didn’t really amount to much.  Talking to everyone is beneficial, but some have more to say than others.  You development as a character matters on what you do, with the higher skills being developed going more towards your level progression as you get to higher levels.  You get a perk to use in a skill tree of each skill, which really help to embellish your character.

This is seriously about the best $60 you can spend.  I’d say watch a gameplay trailer (but not too much) to see if it looks like something you want, but I’m willing to answer any questions you have.

Just think Fallout 3/NV in a fantasy setting, but with a solid 3rd person game mechanic (if you want to play that way).

[FieldMarshalGames]

Just got my copy!  Looks great.  Just need some time to actually enjoy it.

[molinar13]

I notice how it says Elder Scrolls V. Will I be lost if i have’nt played 1 through 4? I have been wanting to get a good RPG game for my 360 and this one looks good but at the same time I do not want to be lost and confused. Also what exactly do you do?

[Jermofoot]

@molinar13:

I notice how it says Elder Scrolls V. Will I be lost if i have’nt played 1 through 4? I have been wanting to get a good RPG game for my 360 and this one looks good but at the same time I do not want to be lost and confused. Also what exactly do you do?

It is not necessary, but you may enjoy the game more with backstory (and the other games are fun too) as a big part of Elder Scrolls is the lore and environment.  However there are plenty of resources within the game, and on the internet, that can fill you in.  I’ll try to run across some basic stuff here:

The world is called Nirn, the continent is Tamriel, and this game takes place in north center of that continent in Skyrim. It is essentially the equivalent of Scandanavia in our world. Dragons are returning to the world in the midst of a rebellion of Skyrim natives against the Empire (founded by a Skyrimmer hundreds of years before who has ascended to divinity among the benevolent gods of the world). So the main quest deals with the dragons and the conflict.

Elder Scrolls 4 was called Oblivion, and took place in Cyrodiil, the dead center of the continent and Empire, 200 years before Skyrim takes place. It involved the Emperor (voiced by Patrick Stewart) being assassinated with no known heir. You get caught up in it and must find the heir then work on preventing the invasion of the Daedric lord (essentially evil super beings but not in the same way as the 9 benevolent gods I previously mentioned) Dagon from entering your realm from Oblivion. Oblivion is the plane of existence that the Daedric lords are from (which all aren’t evil, some chaotic neutral or somewhat good) and are nightmarish. It breaks through in parts but not completely. You battle a cult trying to help it along with the invading army and normal bandits and creatures.

The third game was Morrowind, which is another Province of Tamriel, home of the dark elves. I didn’t play it much but it again was a savior type thing of the world scenario.

There are recurring creatures, lore, spells, weapons, races, etc. Going through every game. It’s worth looking up on a wiki but won’t really change how your game plays.

What you do is up to you. You can hold off the main quest indefinitely and save it for last. You can make any type of character you want. It’s all up to you. It’s a huge world with many actions, battles, and quests waiting for you to explore.

[frimmel]

I hear RPG and I get a bit nervous but it sounds like more of a lean toward Red Dead Redemption sort of thing. The RPG part being more about your control over your character. I find having to drill through a lot of conversation threads a bit tedious (although I’m the sort to find all the feathers in an AC game or finish all the Riddles in both Batman games.) I talked to another guy who was very excited for it and it does seem like I’d have fun with it.

Maybe I can grab it for cheap on Black Friday but I just don’t have much time for it at the moment. I’m just getting rolling in AC: Revelations and Uncharted 3 is still in the shrink wrap. I finished the campaign but I’d like to go back to a couple things and get trophies in Battlefield 3 and there is of course the multi-player in that which if they fixed the voice chat and squading issues would be nearly monopolizing my time even with the aiming problems I’m having.

And I’m not really done with Arkham City and really want to do Asylum again.

I don’t have a problem with just putting something on the shelf (what good is a library full of books you’ve already read so to speak) but there does need to be a limit.

[frimmel]

@molinar13:

Also what exactly do you do?

Skyrim is one of the new fangled ‘open world’ or ‘sandbox’ games. There is this large environment/world your character is set into. You are for the most part able to move freely about this world. At places in the world you’ll have the option to start a ‘story mission.’ These strung together make up a narrative and usually finishing these missions is necessary to open up new areas and ‘level up’ your character.

There will also be ‘side missions’ that while not necessary to finish the story add to the immersion and give additional opportunity to level up. Also just moving about in the world causes you to get involved in random incidents (in Red Dead Redemption people will try to steal your horse or you’ll come across a train robbery.)

Gamers usually find that this type of game provides good value since they give you a great deal to do while also giving you control of the pace. You might finish a story mission in the equivalent of Pittsburgh but the next mission is in Philadelphia. Well getting across all that Kentucky in the middle is part of the game as well instead of just being whisked along by a cut scene although many games provide fast travel so that you can be whisked to the next destination.

[Jermofoot]

Comparing it to Read Dead Redemption isn’t quite fair.  Really, it’s more comparable to Oblivion or Fallout 3/NV, but there are still similarities.  You don’t have to exhaust yourself reading every little thing or talking to every person.  You could go straight through the main quest and be done with it.  Or, you could meander around and never finish the game after 200 hours.  It’s up to you.  It’s really a definite game of the year and probable game of the decade.

If anything, wait to grab it in a year or so when it’s the game of the year edition.  It will be cheaper, already include updates, and will have some of the initial DLC.  Then you can plan to play it with more time available.

[frimmel]

RDR is probably unfair as except for the improved weapons your character is sort of ‘set in stone’ at the start of the game. But you got to a spot and get a mission and complete it or don’t is what I’m kind of getting at.

My thing is I don’t want to be stuck with only one type of side task or something because of some choice I made before I knew better.

I don’t want to have to have the same conversation a bunch of times trying to figure out the right way to get the task unlocked.

It does sound like something I’ll like though and I’m sort of just making excuses not to get it because I’ve already bought four new games in the past month.

[Jermofoot]

For the most part, it really holds your hand on the missions and where you need to go.  Even if you’ve never found the town, city, cave, or structure you need to go to, it shows on your map and provides a waypoint on your compass as to where you need to go.  Occasionally you don’t have this, but for the most part it’s there.

The more you talk to people, the more quests open up.  Generally you get some information and you’ll know because your journal updates.  Less than half the dialogue is “useless”: filler that doesn’t add to a quest, allow for items purchase/sell, training, etc.

And again, you can delve as deep or shallow as you want.  You can suspend any quest at any time, unless the quest itself locks you in (some may imprison you, or keep you on a one way track until you clear the dungeon/cave/whatever), but those are very few.

And to give you and idea of what I have going in my own game of around 24 hours:

Main quest - find a special horn of the original Dragon Blood
Side Quests:
Find another artifact for the Companions
Discover the truth of the Galundar mystery
Kill an Ice Wraith on Serpent Isle to prove your worth to the Stormcloaks
Miscellaneous Quests:
Collect 10 bear pelts for a shopkeeper
Investigate the bard college
Investigate the Mage School
Inquire with Aventinius about the Dark Brotherhood
Return to Riften’s mayor for bounty on a dragon I killed
About 10 more that I don’t remember…

I can come and go from them as I please.

[frimmel]

Sounds like my big worry isn’t much of one. Guess I’ll have to add this to my list.

[Gargantua]

it really holds your hand on the missions and where you need to go

How typical of the gamer today.

This is disgusting.  And speaks magnitudes about the game itself, and our populace as a whole.  No wonder no one can do anything themselves these days, there’s always someone there to hold your hand for you.

Weak…

Skrim  is off of my list.

[Jermofoot]

@Gargantua:

it really holds your hand on the missions and where you need to go

How typical of the gamer today.

This is disgusting.  And speaks magnitudes about the game itself, and our populace as a whole.  No wonder no one can do anything themselves these days, there’s always someone there to hold your hand for you.

Weak…

Skrim  is off of my list.

In all honesty, hardly anyone would play it if it didn’t.  It would be too difficult to navigate.  But I wouldn’t mind seeing a realism setting like in Fallout.

[Gargantua]

Agreed JERM.

One of the coolest difficult settings I have ever seen for a game, was Silent Hunter 5.

There was no actual difficulty setting… it was simply, the more realistic you made the game, the more the “difficulty Score” would go up.  Things like whether you had radar, or map marked objectives, and how you would detect ships, or if your torpedo’s would automatically target things etc, etc.

LOL Trying to navigate and run a submarine, through a PC simulation, as they actually did in the WWII era is… lol, VERY difficult - we’ll say.

[dinosaur]

OK Jerm, I’m coming to the party real late.  My son received this game about January and I never paid any attentiion to it.  My home PC went Ka-Blewy right before Thanksgiving and I needed some electronic entertainment outlet.  I sat down to his game box thingy and now I’m hooked on the darn game.  It really does get you immersed.

My first question is, what in the heck is up with Smithing?  I got the first bonus in the Smith Tree but it doesn’t seem to have changed my Smithing.  Weapons are still Smithed up only one level even though the bonus says “twice as much.”

This is the one area of the game I can’t seem to crack with my online research.  What I read doesn’t explain why I’m having this problem.

Thanks for your help.  A Really Awesome Game.  I’m sure I’ll play a couple characters.

[Jermofoot]

@dinosaur:

OK Jerm, I’m coming to the party real late.  My son received this game about January and I never paid any attentiion to it.  My home PC went Ka-Blewy right before Thanksgiving and I needed some electronic entertainment outlet.  I sat down to his game box thingy and now I’m hooked on the darn game.  It really does get you immersed.

My first question is, what in the heck is up with Smithing?  I got the first bonus in the Smith Tree but it doesn’t seem to have changed my Smithing.  Weapons are still Smithed up only one level even though the bonus says “twice as much.”

This is the one area of the game I can’t seem to crack with my online research.  What I read doesn’t explain why I’m having this problem.

Thanks for your help.  A Really Awesome Game.  I’m sure I’ll play a couple characters.

Better late than never, and now you have the benefit of some of the add-ons if you choose to play them.  I haven’t yet, my disc got scratched on my second character playthough.  He was about at 150 hours and I was trying to get him to complete everything possible…sigh…

Anyway, realize that there are still bugs in the game that have yet to be fixed (some have): magic is pretty weak comparatively, there are a couple of loopholes/exploits that can really make the game easy, bugs, etc.  I don’t think this is one of those times, I think it’s just worded weirdly.

When it says that it allows you to improve weapons twice as much, it means that extra level.  You could only improve it to Fine, now it should be Superior.  If I recall right, individual ranks in Smithing will allow you to improve it further without getting the next level of perk.

I could be wrong on this, but I don’t recall noticing anything weird like that.

Also, take note that there is a physical damage cap on armor that’s 567 armor rating, I think.  I’m pretty sure pretty much every armor set, with the right perks, can reach that cap, so no type of armor is more effective that the other in the end.  My first character was an orc in orcish armor with Smithing as a focus, and even Daedric wasn’t as good even though it is a couple of levels beyond orcish in effectiveness.  Damage from weapons is very similar - I don’t think there is a cap, but the ultimate difference in highly refined weapons is just their base damage.  So the difference between a Glass Sword and a Steel one might only be ten or twenty points.

Additionally, I recommend getting the Arcane Blacksmith perk as soon as possible.  Improving magical items really sets them apart from nonmagical ones in midgame.

Hope that helps, and good luck.

[empireman]

@Gargantua:

it really holds your hand on the missions and where you need to go

Skrim  is off of my list.

Agreed!

[Jermofoot]

@empireman:

@Gargantua:

it really holds your hand on the missions and where you need to go

Skrim  is off of my list.

Agreed!

To be fair, you can turn off the quest (I think) so it removes markers and the single line goal explanation, or just switch to a different quest and ignore it.  Many would need the help, but all it is is an objective marker and a small explanation of your quest.

[empireman]

@Jermofoot:

@empireman:

@Gargantua:

it really holds your hand on the missions and where you need to go

Skrim  is off of my list.

Agreed!

To be fair, you can turn off the quest (I think) so it removes markers and the single line goal explanation, or just switch to a different quest and ignore it.  Many would need the help, but all it is is an objective marker and a small explanation of your quest.

I just dont like fantasy. I like WW2 strategy games, and some FPS.