Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

[Malakili]

I saw a bunch of stuff posted over on www.reddit.com/r/skyrim and its looking fairly decent.  I almost always buy Bethesda RPGs on day 1 despite their usual bugginess, and I suspect I will end up getting Skyrim right away as well, unless I hear something absolutely terrible about it.  Even though Oblivion was a disappointment when compared to Morrowind, I still spent hours and hours just exploring.

edit: this is why I'm a whore for these games: http://www.gameranx.com/updates/id/2025/article/elder-scrolls-v-skyrim-6-minute-gameplay-footage/

[Paelos]

It does look really cool. Did he say there would only be 3 factions though?

[WayAbvPar]

I am assuming there are minor mission giving factions, but those are the three 'character' factions. Wow that video was gorgeous. Do want.

[Malakili]

I love the idea of being able to mix and match dual wield on the fly like that.  Sword/Staff Gandalf style imo.

[Hawkbit]

The whole concept of casting two spells, one in each hand, then combining them for effect is awesome.  I hope it plays out well. 

Also, dynamic dragons are awesome.  300+ hours of content?  Yes please.  I'm frothing over this like others are over BF3. 

[tmp]

edit: this is why I'm a whore for these games: http://www.gameranx.com/updates/id/2025/article/elder-scrolls-v-skyrim-6-minute-gameplay-footage/

HD version: http://www.gametrailers.com/video/e3-2011-elder-scrolls/714852

[Xuri]

Prediction: Dragons will end up being the Skyrim version of Cliff Racers. :P

[MuffinMan]

Prediction: Dragons will end up being the Skyrim version of Cliff Racers. :P

[K9]

Prediction: Dragons will end up being the Skyrim version of Cliff Racers. :P

doh

[Sheepherder]

Bethesda are absolutely goddamn horrible at implementation, case in point:

The Morrowind scripting community determined that the script engine would process all code inside of an If block (even if the condition was false) until the script engine could find an exit point. An exit point can be either an accessible RETURN call, or the end of the script.

http://cs.elderscrolls.com/constwiki/index.php/Minimizing_your_Script

 

[Paelos]

Prediction: Dragons will end up being the Skyrim version of Cliff Racers. :P

Nah, because injured ones will actually crash land. 

[MuffinMan]

It does look really cool. Did he say there would only be 3 factions though?

No mention of the Dark Brotherhood? 

[Paelos]

I'm sure there will be another assassination group.

[MuffinMan]

Hmmm... strange. Looks like the Dark Brotherhood was confirmed back in January. I would have thought that would be a faction mentioned in the video but of course the eye candy did say fractions.

[PalmTrees]

Hated that first person melee combat. He said you could do 3rd person though, hopefully that's better.

[Sky]

Yeah, it was odd to spend all that time on animations that you can barely see in 1st person. I wonder what the first-person experience is when he jumped up on top of the dragon's head. There was a finishing move he pulled on the undead that looked like it would've been cool...if you could've seen it.

[Xuri]

Considering how shit the character animations were in their previous games, I can understand why they chose to actually put some effort into it this time around. It has long been the weakest part of their games, art-wise.

[tmp]

Yeah, it was odd to spend all that time on animations that you can barely see in 1st person.

They likely used them for all other humanoid NPCs as well so you're going to see it all over the place, even in the 1st person.

[tgr]

I'm thinking they're probably also betting on people using 3rd person more than 1st person, while the neckbeards that desire such can stick to their 1st person fighting style.

[Paelos]

I'm thinking they're probably also betting on people using 3rd person more than 1st person, while the neckbeards that desire such can stick to their 1st person fighting style.

I don't think first personal fighting is necessarily a neckbeard thing. For many it's an immersion issue in a game centered around the world.

[MournelitheCalix]

Considering how shit the character animations were in their previous games, I can understand why they chose to actually put some effort into it this time around. It has long been the weakest part of their games, art-wise.

I have always thought the weakest part of their games is the lack of a story.  Oblivion's story could have been written by a fifth grade school kid.

Just a side note, has anyone seen anything about a toolset being released with Skyrim?

[Xuri]

Well I did say "art-wise" :P I've never paid too much attention to their stories, to be honest - I just like these games for the sandbox/open-world/superb immersiveness.

[MournelitheCalix]

Well I did say "art-wise" :P I've never paid too much attention to their stories, to be honest - I just like these games for the sandbox/open-world/superb immersiveness.

Wasn't criticizing nor was I trying to minimize your comment, just sayin... for me the biggest problem with their games is the story line is garbage.  Its really funny to hear them tout 300 hours, when I can't actually imagine a game holding my interest for 50 if the story is crap.  The game art wise though looks beautiful to me.

I really want to know about that toolset though, I hope there is more information to come out about it.

[Malakili]

Well I did say "art-wise" :P I've never paid too much attention to their stories, to be honest - I just like these games for the sandbox/open-world/superb immersiveness.

Wasn't criticizing nor was I trying to minimize your comment, just sayin... for me the biggest problem with their games is the story line is garbage.  Its really funny to hear them tout 300 hours, when I can't actually imagine a game holding my interest for 50 if the story is crap.  The game art wise though looks beautiful to me.

I really want to know about that toolset though, I hope there is more information to come out about it.

Are you talking story or just general lore.  I think their lore has generally been just fine.  The story line within the games is hit or miss but I almost never complete those quests anyway.  Like Xuri said - the sandbox/open world parts of the game are what keep it worth playing in the long term.  Hell, they could take the main story line out of the game altogether and I'd still buy it.

[Sky]

Its really funny to hear them tout 300 hours

Howard kinda eased around that during the gameplay demo. He slid past a bunch of questions.

The dragon stuff did look pretty cool as long as it doesn't get too obnoxious (cliff racey). But Oblivion's trailers looked nice, too, and I thought that game was pretty bad. Still need to try and go back and play it with mods to fix the inept development.

[Ingmar]

Well I did say "art-wise" :P I've never paid too much attention to their stories, to be honest - I just like these games for the sandbox/open-world/superb immersiveness.

Wasn't criticizing nor was I trying to minimize your comment, just sayin... for me the biggest problem with their games is the story line is garbage.  Its really funny to hear them tout 300 hours, when I can't actually imagine a game holding my interest for 50 if the story is crap.  The game art wise though looks beautiful to me.

I really want to know about that toolset though, I hope there is more information to come out about it.

For me the problem is the actual gameplay itself is garbage (offer not valid for FO3). I like the wandering around and looking at stuff etc., but the combat in particular has always left me incredibly annoyed.

[MournelitheCalix]

Are you talking story or just general lore. 

Story for sure.



Ingmar:
Yeah I agree that combat has been weak as well.  I remember the first time I went through the game being incredibly frustrated by it.  I thought when I booted it up from a year ago that it had improved from the begining but your right it still was lacking.

[Paelos]

I thought Oblivion's combat was fine. Morrowind's missing thing made me lose my mind when I went back and played it.

WHIF!
WHIF!
WHIF!
WHIF!
<you hit for 2>
WHIF!WHIF!WHIF!
<you were slain by an elf>

[disKret]

According to Craig Lafferty - lead platforms for Skyrim are consoles. PC version will be a port.

[Bunk]

Not that suprising, Oblivion was rather obviously built focused on the 360, just based on the UI alone.

Not exactly going to deter me, I'll be buying it on PC for the modding community alone. Looking forward to possibly playing in 3rd person without the animations making me want to cry. Though I have noticed a lack of footage of townsfolk yet, so I'm wondering if we are in for another kingdom of butterfaces.

Only thing that makes me sad about Skyrim so far is finding out that Saints Row 3 is launching within a week of it.

[Hawkbit]

I've bought Oblivion at least three times across PC and PS3.  Finally bought it on a Steam sale so I can prevent losing the discs...  I fully plan to buy Skyrim on PS3 at launch and PC a few months later when the mod teams are in full effect.  Unless the game is dogvomit, which I suspect it won't be.

[Paelos]

Designing for a console doesn't bother me unless you make combat like Fable.

[MuffinMan]

I would agree but the unmodded Oblivion UI was foul.

[Rasix]

Managed to beat the game with it.  I've played with worse. 

[Sir T]

Yeah. I had to get a mod for the UI this latest play round as I could not stand it. If only I could find one that allows you t0 use 100 or so of the keys on your keyboard. If anyone knows one could they post it?

I have to disagree with the negative comments on Oblivion's combat. I play with Oscurs Oblivion Overhaul which makes the game a lot harder, and frankly the Hand to hand combat becomes very tactical in a way. You have to be blocking and moving around, and on the tougher enemies slashing like a madman simply does not work as they will be blocking you and you will be doing almost no damage. You have to figure out when you can risk power attacks, slash when they drop their guard and use magic a lot. Hell playing a Jedi style illusion mage is a lot of fun and you can zip in semi cloaked and command a some of them to attack on another and watch as they all kill themselves. Great fun when you pull it off perfectly. You really have to watch what you are doing. I'm certainly enjoying it on this playthrough.