Poll: So... did Skyrim meet your personal expectations?

[infinity_turtles]

So should I get this game? I feel like starting another Skyrim thread will get me hung from a tree

Question: Did you like Oblivion? This game is very similar to Oblivion. Imagine a streamlined version of Oblivion with more polished combat, better graphics, better voice acting, and a new setting. Does that appeal to you?

Outsider quetion: I enjoyed Oblivion a lot, but the main thing I disliked about it was that most of the quests were bland and uninteresting. There were a few stand outs, sure, espescially in the guilds, but more than half felt like filler. Does Skyrim address this issue?

Somewhat. They're certainly better then Oblivion, I'd say consistently Shivering Isles or Fallout 3 quality.

 

[madster11]

I bought it on PS3, and it exceeded my expectations.

It's basically Oblivion with 90% of the things that were wrong with it fixed.
The graphics are awesome, and i can only imagine them on a high powered gaming PC.
My only issue with it is the controls, which is the PS3s fault, and the menu, which is probably the only good thing about playing Skyrim on a console.

I'm planning to scrape some money together in a few weeks/months and build up a gaming PC to run Skyrim once a few updates and some early mods are released.

 

[infinity_turtles]

4. The weight limit seems awefully low, but I guess that's what cheats are for

Upping stamina increases your weight limit.

 

[Samurai Silhouette]

It's a very dumbbed down, casual, mainstream version of what I expected. I was utterly excited for the game to point of no return. So far my opinion is "meh".

 

[Flailing Escapist]

I'm only 2 hours in but it is probably the best game I have ever played. From good 3rd person gameplay to dual wielding to just the atmosphere, it is amazing.

Granted my expectations were not set too (if you don't consider Oblivion to be "high"). I tried not to see too much of the game/gameplay before I started but Oblivion WAS my favorite game until right now.

Skyrim blows me away. Oh my god

 

[Tiger Sora]

My problems with the game is that the text is to small on menus. So I have to get up from my chair to look at them if I don't know what they are. (Mostly just for quests). My other one is some miscellaneous quests don't show up on the map where to go. Which has often just sent me back to doing the main quest.

Other than these problems though I've been pretty taken away. Not the feeling I got when I first played WoW, or Knights and Merchants. But close. Also I die alot. It's tough being a rogue.

Also for anyone going into Dwarven ruins, watch the **** out. Theres some crazy stuff in there.

For the Stormcloaks!

 

[I Max95]

absolutly blown away
ive played it for two days now, every chance i can get, poured over ten hours into it so far. and i must say, it is quickly becoming my favorite game of all time

it deserves all the praise it got and is currently getting.

 

[OManoghue]

I just fought my first two random encounter wilderness dragons, and it's insane. I'm loving it.

 

[DRes82]

Protected Riverwood from a frost dragon...brought it down on the street, crowd gathered around to look at the carcass and cheered for me. Best moment in a game ever...except for the final assault on the arch demon in DA:0 possibly.

Now if someone would just tell me how to fix this damned memory leak so that i don't have to restart the game every 30 minutes.

I wish I could help you with the memory leak but I have no idea what you're talking about, and luckily I've had no such problem yet.

And was the riverwood dragon a scripted dragon or just a randomly spawning one? I haven't done much of the main quest yet, but that little village is like home to me, I'd hate to see anything happen to it.

No, it was a random dragon. So no spoilers =) I just ended up bringing it down and finishing it off in the main street, and all the villagers gathered around it and cheered and all. Was pretty great.

As for the memory leak...its whenever i change areas...ie you see a loading screen, my frame-rate drops precipitously. A restart corrects it, but it is annoying. Its GPU related, i'd imagine. I'll keep checking nvidia for driver updates.

 

[ThisJustin]

At the risk of sounding over dramatic, This is the best game I've ever played! Like anything it's not perfect, but nothing will ever be. I've been a fan since Arena. I really liked Oblivion, but Skyrim blew my shirt off. Not as big a step as Morrowind, though it's better realized. IMO. A lot of people are saying GOTY, and compared to the other really good games (Portal 2, Deus Ex:HR, et al.) I don't even see a competition. I'm saying GOAT!

 

[DRes82]

The graphics are awesome, and i can only imagine them on a high powered gaming PC.

Actually, you can't imagine it. The graphics on ultra settings are breathtaking. Its like you're there. The 150 dollar surround sound headset and 32" monitor definitely help, but Skyrim on ultra settings is a work of art.

 

[isometry]

I was expecting an upgraded oblivion, enhanced with features from fallout 3, but instead Bethesda greatly exceeded my expectations due to the improved combat, skills system, great visuals. It's a game of the year experience without a doubt, and the quantity of content is staggering.

 

[ZZoMBiE13]

Skyrim is like Oblivion, but with a main quest I actually care about seeing though.

I think the Dragons add something really special. The Elder Scrolls games (and Bethesda games in general) have always been entertaining, but the extra danger of random dragon encounters, and the powers that come with the title of Dragonborn, it has just all come together in a really special way for me. I've been enjoying it just as much as I enjoyed Fallout 3. And I'm one of the ones who really dug Fallout 3.

I'll be playing Skyrim for years most likely. Although its still going to lose some attention on Tuesday because of Saints Row, but this one I'll be coming back to over and over.

 

[King of the Sandbox]

Threads like these make me lol at all the "Oblivion 2.0" and "Skyrim looks ugly" troll threads from the past couple weeks.

I'm here at work, jonesing so bad to play, 7am can't get here fast enough.

 

[svenjl]

Pretty much on target. Basically a moderately improved Oblivion with better graphics. I'm having quite a bit of fun with it.

For a game of this scope, the improvements are almost by default spread more thinly on the ground, so to speak. There is so much territory to over and so many things to do that I think it takes time to appreciate what a significant improvement Skyrim is over Oblivion (obviously imo). Go back to Oblivion and you'll see how much better the visuals and animations are in Skyrim. The voice acting is (so far) uniformaly good, and in many cases perfect. I have found quests, exploration and characters to be far more interesting too. I feel like Bethesfa have successfully crammed in heaps of action without it feeling forced. And on 360 I have honestly not experienced any persistent or annoying glitches, let alone game breakers. I'm already mildly obsessed with this game, but by virtue of being married with young kids I am being forced to maintain a tenuous link with reality. Oh well...

 

[idarkphoenixi]

Can it ever? I'm overall pretty damn impressed by Skyrim but I still get a little bored of the lame A.I and exploitation of the game. Elder Scrolls always had this problem ever since Morrowind and that's partly why we love it but it can still wear a little thin.

I'm playing as a stealth guy and he is massively op already, I havnt even done much of the main questline. x30 damage with a knife attack and they can almost never see me even when I'm crouching right in front of them. I have much more sneak to level up as well. This kind of power makes me feel like I'm beating the game way too easily.

 

[distortedreality]

Threads like these make me lol at all the "Oblivion 2.0" and "Skyrim looks ugly" troll threads from the past couple weeks

I think the problem with the different opinions being thrown around regarding the graphics is that people have been talking about two different things - art direction and graphics on a technical level. Personally, I think the art direction is great, but technically the graphics are somewhat lacking. The world looks great from afar, but looking at anything close up shows muddy, low res textures, and the shadows aren't great either.

It took me back at first, especially when looking at a blocky horses arse in the opening sequence, but it doesn't really hinder the gameplay at all, so I'm just living with it (this includes running everywhere because I don't want to look at another horse lol).

This is all on ultra on PC, running incredibly smoothly, just not as great looking as I expected after watching the trailers, but as I said, the art direction is brilliant, and that helps to take the emphasis off of the low res textures.

 

[King of the Sandbox]

Threads like these make me lol at all the "Oblivion 2.0" and "Skyrim looks ugly" troll threads from the past couple weeks

I think the problem with the different opinions being thrown around regarding the graphics is that people have been talking about two different things - art direction and graphics on a technical level. Personally, I think the art direction is great, but technically the graphics are somewhat lacking. The world looks great from afar, but looking at anything close up shows muddy, low res textures, and the shadows aren't great either.

It took me back at first, especially when looking at a blocky horses arse in the opening sequence, but it doesn't really hinder the gameplay at all, so I'm just living with it (this includes running everywhere because I don't want to look at another horse lol).

This is all on ultra on PC, running incredibly smoothly, just not as great looking as I expected after watching the trailers, but as I said, the art direction is brilliant, and that helps to take the emphasis off of the low res textures.

Agreed. But honestly, like you said, the art direction is brilliant and the world design itself is amazing, and these let me gloss over textures that are lackluster. When there's so much to see, focusing on one aspect just isn't possible to me. With all this, and the amazing gameplay, anyone who hates the game based on a few muddy textures alone is, imo, the worst kind of graphics whore or a troll.

 

[distortedreality]

Threads like these make me lol at all the "Oblivion 2.0" and "Skyrim looks ugly" troll threads from the past couple weeks

I think the problem with the different opinions being thrown around regarding the graphics is that people have been talking about two different things - art direction and graphics on a technical level. Personally, I think the art direction is great, but technically the graphics are somewhat lacking. The world looks great from afar, but looking at anything close up shows muddy, low res textures, and the shadows aren't great either.

It took me back at first, especially when looking at a blocky horses arse in the opening sequence, but it doesn't really hinder the gameplay at all, so I'm just living with it (this includes running everywhere because I don't want to look at another horse lol).

This is all on ultra on PC, running incredibly smoothly, just not as great looking as I expected after watching the trailers, but as I said, the art direction is brilliant, and that helps to take the emphasis off of the low res textures.

Agreed. But honestly, like you said, the art direction is brilliant and the world design itself is amazing, and these let me gloss over textures that are lackluster. When there's so much to see, focusing on one aspect just isn't possible to me. With all this, and the amazing gameplay, anyone who hates the game based on a few muddy textures alone is, imo, the worst kind of graphics whore or a troll.

Yeah, it stopped being an issue for me after an hour or two or gameplay, although I still cringe everytime I see a horse in the distance lol.

The only other thing that can get a little dicky is some of the animations, but on the whole they're good enough that it doesn't bother me too much.