Skyrim - Two months later.

[ComradeJim270]

Perhaps I need some.

Also, Skyrim is awesome fun and the Escapist is full of hipsters. This thread is final proof of that last statement.

Yes, because nobody could possibly dislike Skyrim, and the perfectly reasonable and rational criticisms people have of it are not earnestly agreed with by anybody. We're all just trolls and "hipsters" here... every single one of us.

That was sarcasm, in case you're so arrogant that you mistook it for agreement.

If you think "the Escapist" is full of hipsters you haven't been paying much attention to the many, many "Skyrim is going to be awesome" threads and posts prior to its release and the "Skyrim is awesome" threads and posts afterwards. Or perhaps you are simply too full of yourself to believe that there other people could earnestly dislike a popular game that you like. Either way, if you look around these forums, you'll find that people who don't like Skyrim seem to be a minority, but are not a new phenomenon here. I'm also pretty sure that I'm not the only one who has been criticizing it almost since its release (I would have been doing so sooner, but it took several days for someone to talk me into buying it), and I doubt I'm the only one who has been criticizing it for months before then (if you want a look at all the negative comments I've made towards Skyrim and its developers, just have a look at my profile and look through my posts... you'll find quite a few).

What I see here isn't hipsters, it's people shaking off all that hype and realizing that Skyrim is tremendously overrated... and people who knew that two months ago, and possibly, like me, expected it thirteen months ago.

Don't expect people to respect your opinions if you will not respect theirs.

 

[repeating integers]

Perhaps I need some.

Also, Skyrim is awesome fun and the Escapist is full of hipsters. This thread is final proof of that last statement.

Yes, because nobody could possibly dislike Skyrim, and the perfectly reasonable and rational criticisms people have of it are not earnestly agreed with by anybody. We're all just trolls and "hipsters" here... every single one of us.

That was sarcasm, in case you're so arrogant that you mistook it for agreement.

If you think "the Escapist" is full of hipsters you haven't been paying much attention to the many, many "Skyrim is going to be awesome" threads and posts prior to its release and the "Skyrim is awesome" threads and posts afterwards. Or perhaps you are simply too full of yourself to believe that there other people could earnestly dislike a popular game that you like. Either way, if you look around these forums, you'll find that people who don't like Skyrim seem to be a minority, but are not a new phenomenon here. I'm also pretty sure that I'm not the only one who has been criticizing it almost since its release (I would have been doing so sooner, but it took several days for someone to talk me into buying it), and I doubt I'm the only one who has been criticizing it for months before then (if you want a look at all the negative comments I've made towards Skyrim and its developers, just have a look at my profile and look through my posts... you'll find quite a few).

What I see here isn't hipsters, it's people shaking off all that hype and realizing that Skyrim is tremendously overrated... and people who knew that two months ago, and possibly, like me, expected it thirteen months ago.

Don't expect people to respect your opinions if you will not respect theirs.

Funny, this post reminds me of me about a year ago, when I has about 500-1000 posts.

I can't take the opinions of people who vocally dislike Skyrim seriously, because I've seen this exact phenomenon happen on the forums so many times. A big, popular (it's always popular, never indie) game is released and mostly well-received, and there's a bit of talk about how awesome it is, before the backlash inevitably begins and a smaller bunch of people shout loudly about how they dislike this game and always predicted it would be terrible, and how they're seeing their prophecy fulfilled and are convinced all the poor, misled peasants will come round to their view and realize their folly eventually.

And when the fans eventually stop talking about Skyrim, these people will crow on for a goodly while. Hell, look at the "Half-Life 2 sucks" threads which are still being created, some 8 years after the actual game's release.

Blargh. The internet has made me a cynical fucker before my time. I apologize for my ill-thought-out remark in that post. I'll go do something nice and happy now.

 

[RuralGamer]

I finished the main quest last night; I've now done all the major quests and reached level 54; I made a few character choices I later regretted (i.e. wasting perks in lock-picking) and have had a few quests glitch uncompleteable, but other than that, everything's been good. For me, its been on and off for a month and I've thoroughly enjoyed it.

Besides the aforementioned broken quest logs, I can only criticise a few things;
1) A few quests with travelling people, who teleport whenever you go through a loading screen, making them virtually impossible to reach without a degree of luck; the one in the Dark Brotherhood questline requiring you to find and kill the target and then plant the evidence was terrible.
2) Enemies who can dodge arrows, even if they can't detect you; it happens very rarely, but an enemy will abruptly move two meters to the side to make an arrow go completely off.
3) Enchanting and Smithing can make the game a bit too easy (I think that may be an under-exaggeration).
4) Dragons are relatively too common and die too easily; I find higher-level Draugr considerably harder prospects, especially when you encounter a Draugr Death Overlord and two Draugr Deathlords at the same time...
5) The whole civil war mechanics can make for some really broken dialogue and loading screen info.
6) Disappointingly, quite a few spells didn't make it into Skyrimm, specifically additional carry weight; and why do only Khajiits get Nighteye!?!?!?!.
7) Merchants still don't have enough money.

Ultimately I think its a better game than Oblivion and I really, really like Oblivion.

 

[ComradeJim270]

I can't take the opinions of people who vocally dislike Skyrim seriously, because I've seen this exact phenomenon happen on the forums so many times. A big, popular (it's always popular, never indie) game is released and mostly well-received, and there's a bit of talk about how awesome it is, before the backlash inevitably begins and a smaller bunch of people shout loudly about how they dislike this game and always predicted it would be terrible, and how they're seeing their prophecy fulfilled and are convinced all the poor, misled peasants will come round to their view and realize their folly eventually.

Yes, that does happen. I'm sure plenty of people are just trying to be cool by saying negative things about Skyrim, but lots of people have also given very good reasons for disliking it... and people don't come up with things like that to be cool... it's too much effort when they could just say "Skyrim is boring", get their free Hipster Points (TM) and be done with it. If you can't take people seriously when they disagree with your tastes and can defend that disagreement, that suggests you have a problem, not them. It's closed-minded and immature and I sincerely hope you remedy that. You will be better for it.

I will admit to being a bit like the people you described in the latter part of that paragraph (it could be something of a caricature of me in some ways). But I don't really feel that way. I feel more like the kid pointing out that the emperor has no clothes (the emperor being, in this case, Bethesda Softworks and the games they develop). You could dig through all my posts from the last four years and you'd find that I've done this consistently for that entire time. Sometimes I explain why, other times I don't feel the need to as I've done it before.

I do like it when people also comment on the emperor's state of undress. Whether they do it to concur with me matters little, though it's always nice to know that others share one's tastes (that holds true offline as well, and for more than just games). Either way there's a slim chance it may persuade the emperor to at least put on a damn bathrobe.

And when the fans eventually stop talking about Skyrim, these people will crow on for a goodly while. Hell, look at the "Half-Life 2 sucks" threads which are still being created, some 8 years after the actual game's release.

I'm pretty sure the Half-Life 2 threads are just people who can't view the game in context and thus can't understand why people love it (which is understandable) or trolls. Few of them seem to be comparing the game to its contemporaries.

The fans will not stop talking about Skyrim, they will just do so less frequently. The "backlash" will stop then, but people who sincerely dislike the game will continue to make this known when the matter comes up. I still criticize Fallout 3 and Oblivion when it's relevant to a conversation.

Blargh. The internet has made me a cynical fucker before my time. I apologize for my ill-thought-out remark in that post. I'll go do something nice and happy now.

Apology accepted... and given, if you feel you need one. If it helps you to understand, Oblivion, Fallout 3 and Skyrim (and some other games, to a much lesser degree) have made me cynical... about games. Since Oblivion came out, I never buy into hype, I never expect a game to be great, and I expect developers to regularly make bone-headed decisions at the expense of my ability to enjoy their games. So... cynicism? I can relate on some level.

 

[AlternatePFG]

I played a ton of Skyrim around when it came out, but I've had my fill of the game and I'm done with it, at least until the modding tools are released and some really good mods come out of it.

I still don't think it was an amazing game. Certainly it was fun, I'm not going to deny that I enjoyed it quite a lot at the time that I played it. It's just that after awhile, the game felt increasingly hollow to me and everything started to feel all samey.

 

[Skin]

Valid arguments be damned!

Doesn't this make you the hipster? This is not like CoD 25 where everyone immediately jumped on Metacritic and gave it the lowest rating possible. It is a slow realization that the fun they had was based on hype and an expectation. Quite a few people here have said that they were waiting for the fun to start, and it never did...

 

[ComradeJim270]

Valid arguments be damned!

Doesn't this make you the hipster? This is not like CoD 25 where everyone immediately jumped on Metacritic and gave it the lowest rating possible. It is a slow realization that the fun they had was based on hype and an expectation. Quite a few people here have said that they were waiting for the fun to start, and it never did...

Thank you! That's pretty much what I wanted to say but I'm terrible at being concise (unless I choose to be dreadfully rude at the same time).

 

[King of Asgaard]

I've created four characters, clocked in over 150 hours between them. Still playing with the fourth.
My biggest complaint with Skyrim is not the repetitive quests, dodgy character models or inbalanced combat, but the story, particularly the characters.
Now Bethesda are no great writers by any means as seen with their previous story lines.
But they have produced likeable characters in the past, like Moira Brown and Stenislaus Braun, so why is it that only three characters were memorable in Skyrim? (Paarthurnax, General Tullius and Jarl Balgruuf of Whiterun)
The Blades were total dicks, especially considering that one quest (you know what I mean).
Ulfric Stormcloak was supposed to be this inspiring leader who fathered the whole rebellion, but who acts like a spoiled child when things don't go his way. (i.e Give me what I want or go fuck yourself)
The Greybeards are stubborn old bastards who have nothing to do.
The nail that seals the coffin, though, was the fact that most half-way decent characters are killed off during the big quest lines.
Also, the final mission was anticlimactic.

Dragons were all right, though.
Wow, that was quite a mouthful.

What's wrong with making unlikable characters? That was one of the most interesting things about the game for me, especially in the Imperial/Stormcloak questlines. Things like Ulfric's immaturity not being noticed is... pretty damn realistic, giving off the impression he's just an idolised figurehead.

I'm not here to argue that it has great characterisation overall, but you can't fault it for the reasons you gave. Even so, Belethor, Aela, Vilkas, Eorlund, the Gods, and a lot of the College characters were really likable - and I haven't even started the Thieves Guild/Dark Brotherhood.

Pray tell how Belethor, Aela, Vilkas and Eorlund are the least bit likeable when they get zero characterization.
Which College characters are you thinking about? Because I can honestly say that the one I came close to liking the most was Brelyna Maryon and only because of her five minute long quest.
As I said, any character important and/or cool in a quest line (Thieves' Guild, Dark Brotherhood) will most likely not make it to the credits.
I will give the Daedric princes credit, though; most were pretty cool (especially Dagon) and well voice-acted but there's just not enough of them. You only get one quest and then you never hear from them again.

 

[Wolfhowl the shadow lurker]

like with morrwind and obilvion i keep going back to it every now and again i think its everythings they said it would have been and its my game of 2011

 

[OneOfTheMichael's]

Actually I'm playing dead island and WoW which I haven't played for a long time now.
Still skyrim for the achievements and its fun but I think I've done most of it now.

 

[SeeIn2D]

I got my main character up to level 70 give or take a few as I just decided to get all skills to level 100 and just optimize my character. It can get boring but thats from the perspective of someone who basically went around killing things and finding skills books pretty much exclusively for 85% of the time I was playing the game. But now as I'm making a new character (who I WON'T be doing that with) I'm having more fun by actually playing through the questlines.

 

[Launcelot111]

I'm still on my first character, a lv 47 nord who one hits just about everything with bound bow sneak attacks. I like the world much more than skyrim. There are very few good sized settlements, which is disappointing, but the game conveys that Skyrim is a cold, desolate, and generally unfriendly place well in my book. Markarth and Blackreach in particular rival Morrowind's best places in my book, and the new enemies are more interesting than the fantasy filler in Oblivion (goblins, trolls, and minotaurs? how creative!). I feel Bethesda was more successful in dungeon design as well. There are still only 4 or 5 templates of dungeon, but the added details or quests or puzzles make dungeon diving more interesting. The biggest issue for me is that I have never once equipped any item I've found in a dungeon since I got smithing/enchanting to a respectable level.

The combat is much better to me, because I never leveled well in Oblivion and by the end it took a solid minute of slashing to kill a daedroth outside of the time spent being slapped around the room. I feel like I have actually improved when I effortlessly slash through a group of skeletons, and I do feel like end game enemies do pack a decent punch, especially the elder dragons (I don't have dragonrend yet). I also liked how at the start, sabre cats and spriggans and giants are (outside of ai exploiting) very tough and how you do work your way up the totem pole. I don't use shouts too often, but they're a nice touch when I think to use them. The smaller list of spell effects is disappointing, but I do like how they made the whole spellcasting process a little more detailed and involved. Overall, combat is solid. It's still not a prime selling point yet, but it's without question the best of the series.

If I had one gameplay complaint, it's that for all the improvements, so many quests are just glorified fetch quests. They added the miscellaneous section, so now every other person has free reign to ask you to fetch some ingredient or some amulet they somehow lost at the end of a massive cavern. The guild quests are fairly unengaging. I just finished with the mages, and the whole questline was four fetch quests strung together with minor events. Daedric quests are of course the best of the bunch, but I still liked Oblivion's daedric quests more. After some of the more interesting ones in the Fallouts, I'd sort of hoped that Bethesda could move a little beyond so much fetching.

I may have been lucky so far, but this is the first game I've ever played where glitches really have gotten in the way of my enjoyment. I got the PS3 lag thing full force, though the patch has helped. Dragons act weird all the time. Paarthurnax took off and started flying backwards mid conversation once, and another dragon corpse follows me around the world and pops up every half hour to check in. Quests break constantly and leave me to find workarounds. Walls forget to load. I haven't had too much freezing, but this is in my experience Bethesda's glitchiest outing by miles.

Long story short, I like this game, but I am not at all surprised by anyone who feels unengaged and walks away

 

[Epona]

The lack of attributes really ruined Skyrim. Character development is dependent on those attributes for me. I am not playing to complete fetch quests. I am not playing to get married. I don't care about the main quest (has anyone noticed that main quests revolving around politics usually suck). I am playing to build my character and perks just don't cut it.

I WANT to see my movement speed increase as the game goes on because I am building up my athletics. I want to survive longer falls as I build my acrobatics. I want to go from barely defeating enemies to one-shotting them from building up my strength. I want to have more control over my weight limit. I know the three attributes that remain cover some of this but you have less control and you can really feel it.

Further, dragons were nothing special, just a gimmick but then I knew that from the time they announced the game. Dragons are nothing new in video games, nothing to get excited over and I think many people see that now too.

I will eventually go back to the game and hope I like it better when my mood changes but I really don't think it's my mood. I bought New Vegas when Steam had it on sale last month and I loved that game while at the same time finding Skyrim to be lacking.

I remember Todd Howard talking about how they were excited to go back to using GREEN again after Fallout 3, where the fuck is it then? I guess that dull green qualifies but it's not what I had in mind.

I don't think Skyrim will have as long a tail as the two previous TES games.

 

[SillyBear]

The majority of the quests were woeful and left barely any decision.

The environment was great.

The mechanics were okay.

 

[XIGBARx13]

I haven't played Skyrim in a few weeks, I'm just waiting for patch 1.4 to be released and then I'll pick up where I left off. I think I was nearing the end of the Thieves Guild questline last time I played. But the first thing I'm gonna do is FINALLY complete Blood On the Ice in Windhelm. Hjerim has been taunting me for two whole months...

 

[Grimfolse]

I finished just about everything interesting to me. 160 hours, level 53, all questlines completed, got the Platinum trophy. I'm done with it, until we get some big DLC like Shivering Isles or I get a computer that can run the PC version so I can futz around with mods. That, or when the urge inevitably strikes again to play in a year or so.