The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

[137th Gebirg]

I've been thinking about getting this one, as I've heard good things, but I know there are four others that have come before it. Would it be advisable to start with those first or would picking up this one not detract from the overall story-arc in this universe?

 

[Skywalker]

All of the Elder Scrolls games are designed to be standalone stories set in different locations on the same continent. IIRC, each game is set a good amount of time after the previous one, though I don't know how much time has passed between Oblivion and Skyrim.

 

[Arrqh]

I only played Oblivion and not any of the older games... but the main story wasn't exactly a main focus there anyway. Or even worthwhile

 

[PsychoPere]

For anyone who may be interested, the latest episode of Official Xbox Magazine's podcast has an interview with Bethesda's Todd Howard.

 

[backstept]

I've been thinking about getting this one, as I've heard good things, but I know there are four others that have come before it. Would it be advisable to start with those first or would picking up this one not detract from the overall story-arc in this universe?

no previous games necessary, though having played the other games will give you a greater sense of the world . . . little details in the books(there are hundreds of books in-game) etc tie it all together

All of the Elder Scrolls games are designed to be standalone stories set in different locations on the same continent. IIRC, each game is set a good amount of time after the previous one, though I don't know how much time has passed between Oblivion and Skyrim.

Skyrim is about 200 years after Oblivion, and Oblivion was just a few years after Morrowind

 

[137th Gebirg]

Thanks very much for the info! I'll probably try out the others later on then.

 

[Newton]

I just started playing this about four hours ago and I thought I would take a Trek BBS break. It took me a good half hour to create my character and another couple of hours to get through the extended tutorial portion. I have finally been set free in the world and am free to do whatever I want.

The game is pretty graphics intensive and my graphics card is making so much noise that it sounds like it's about to take off . The game looks simply stunning on the Ultra graphics settings. I recommend that everyone should log onto Steam and get the game right now!!

 

[Capt. Vulcan]

Ugh, I'm hating the game so far. I was worried when I'd heard of how they stripped out stats, but come on give me at least a decent menu and inventory system. The mouse cursor doesn't even work consistently for cripes sakes. Is it too much to ask for a menu that responds to mouse clicks in a friggin PC game? There seems to be no way to figure out if a weapon is a two hander till you equip it. Sadness. On top of that all graphical weirdness from fallout is still there. After trying the massive pile of mediocrity that is Rage and the generic single player campaign in battlefield 3 I thought for sure Skyrim would be the one game to deliver.

For me the open and dense world were only one of the selling points of the franchise. Not having a fully customizable character to roam this open world with kills half the fun for me. It's like getting all the tracks in gran turismo fully realized, only they hand you a pre-tuned fararri and let you pick the tires. It kind of misses the point for me. In fact the only reason I ever chose to look past the series' ugly problems was because you had so many options. Now that I don't I'm forced to pay attention to horribly stiff npc's stuttering around the landscape babbling on and inanely spouting stupid lines. It's like walking around a first generation MMO that got a face lift. I actually laughed out loud at how stupid some of the dialog has been so far.

Urg, I just hate it extra because I had such high expectations for this game.

 

[Newton]

^^I totally agree with your gripes about the mouse control in the menus, and the menu system itself; it is terrible. I suspect that consoles have a lot to do with that mess. And the 3D character models, although improved from previous Bethesda efforts, are still below par.

As you mention though, the open world and the freedom of choice is what draws me to this game, and other Bethesda efforts. I would rather play Skyrim than another crappy game where I am railroaded into a particular storyline that ends after ten hours of gameplay.

High five for agreeing about stuff.
Once again, Bethesda has got a lot of things wrong but I must credit them with at least trying to break the gaming monotony that is so widespread in the industry.

 

[Capt. Vulcan]

Yeah like I said most of my frustration comes from having such high hopes for the game. I'm going to at least play till I get some kind of character identity with the perks then decide if I'm going to just rush to the end game, or wander like I did in all the previous games.

 

[137th Gebirg]

Is it possible that the interface problems come from the fact that the game may have been originally designed for console use and was ported over to PC without thinking it through? Star Trek Legacy REALLY had problems with that. Hell, I even found an XBox controller picture in the PC version of the game. No Blue "B" buttons on my keyboard that I'm aware of. I think I gave up on PC games after that.

 

[Robert Maxwell]

Is it possible that the interface problems come from the fact that the game may have been originally designed for console use and was ported over to PC without thinking it through? Star Trek Legacy REALLY had problems with that. Hell, I even found an XBox controller picture in the PC version of the game. No Blue "B" buttons on my keyboard that I'm aware of. I think I gave up on PC games after that.

It's not just "possible," that's exactly what it is. Oblivion had a fair amount of "consolitis" and apparently Skyrim is even worse. Game devs just don't have the time and resources to devote to PC ports anymore, when consoles are where the real money is made. Unless a game is tailor-made for PC, you should pretty much expect it to have a console-oriented interface.

 

[clint g]

I guess that, like with oblivion, pc gamers will have to wait for the mod community to fix some issues

 

[LitmusDragon]

I liked Oblivion fairly well but missed the social aspect of World of Warcraft when I was playing it, so had just ended up going back to that game.

My biggest complaint with Obv was how the world seemed to lack character, a point which was addressed in Skyrim, according to some review I read. I'll probably check it out eventually.

 

[OdoWanKenobi]

Made myself a female Nord battlemage. Main strategy right now is lighting things on fire and then wailing on them while they burn. It's actually a lot of fun, and feels far more intuitive than Oblivion's combat.

 

[BillJ]

Feels exactly like Oblivion, sloppy combat and all.

 

[Haggis and tatties]

I am quite enjoying it.....game looks stunning and it loves the xbox controller.

This is what happens when you just dump your rubbish out the back window.

Who lives, in a house.....like this?

 

[Winterwind]

Put in several hours on the game yesterday. Visually, it's nice. The companion AI is an utter joke though. They're nowhere near you half the time when combat starts. The other half, they run into your line of fire, take an arrow, turn and shoot at you then go sulk in a corner and when combat is finished, you have to re-recruit them. And the world is pretty bloody empty. I spent over an hour real time walking around the entire perimeter of a mountain, trying to find a path up to the Graybeards location and had only one random encounter. Never found a way to the Graybeard location and that was more than enough for one night.

 

[Distorted Humor]

Skyrim

My review of the first bits of Skyrim

 

[Reverend]

Re: Skyrim

How does it compare to Oblivion? I ask because despite hearing great things and picking up the GOTY edition on Steam, I could never really get into it.