Skyrim: Yeah, it's good, but...

[King of the Sandbox]

Also (because it took me a while to figure out), you can zoom the camera as well, so you can get the full body shot in there. Now, if only someone would make a mod that let you move the camera while having an attack readied...

Hold down the "Change POV" button.

Gracias! That'd been bugging me for a while now. ^_^

 

[M920CAIN]

I find one thing to be true for Skyrim: Story can be easily broken if you don't keep in mind that you have the power to roleplay it. I guess imagination has to come in to fill in the gaps. Also for the combat system I try my best to dodge attacks, shield butt, jump, etc to avoid using potions or anything mystical, I like my warrior to be a warrior , but it would be nice if skyrim had a few buttons that you could set up like the quick buttons in Mass Effect 2. Using only Q for favorites thus stopping the game and scrolling through stuff can break the action sometimes. Hopefully some mods or patches will add the ability to map buttons for potions and weapons.

 

[Fasckira]

You guys are winrars in my book. This game is my own personal D&D simulator. I do the exact same things. In fact, I've been updating my Facebook status like a journal written by my character, putting the adventures I've run into in a more creative form, reminiscent of what I do as I actually play.

Skyrim is a toolset, a campaign, an awesome set of DM core rules that let you go out and craft your own tale, indeed.

This guy and those he quoted have got it. To me, its a roleplaying adventure, imagination to an extent is required and you shouldn't need to be spoon fed every detail. Part of the enjoyment is building up a background to your character and exploring the game's world with that mindset.

 

[Hazy]

Skyrim could have been so much less of a disappointment...If Todd Howard were wearing a muzzle...

Alas, I'm relatively pleased with it so far.

Now we just need a patch. C'mon Bethesda, any day now.

 

[spartan231490]

Disagree with every one of your points, especially the hint that skyrim isn't a great game, because it is. It's the greatest game of the console generation, if not the decade.

Also these guys know where it's at:

I completely agree with you. There is a lack of depth depth within the game. When you're making a game on this scale thats inevitable. However, what Skyrim does have is potential for your own experiences. Stuff that was unique to your playthrough.

Think back to the most memorable moments in the game. Chances are it wasn't some big setpeice or pivotal story moment. More likely it was that time you scraped through a fight with 2 HP and no more health potions. The time when you ran away from a dragon only to walk straight into a giant. The time the game glitched out and the bear you were fighting began flying.

Skyrim's freedom (and mild instability) is what makes it such a great game. It lets you have your own experience with it and for that it is brilliant.

Internet high-five for you.

This is what I've been saying. I think most of the dissatisfaction comes from people who aren't used to using their own imagination, and expect to be led everywhere, straight through on rails, without, y'know ROLE-PLAYING.

This ain't Uncharted or Mass Effect... it's Skyrim, a giant sandbox... and some people are in that sandbox, angry at the sand for not telling them what to to, or holding their interest. And it makes me a sad panda. But not too sad, once I jack back into my medieval fantasy matrix. ^_^

 

[Genibus]

I played Skyrim for 24 hours in one sitting yesterday, so it's needless to say that I like the game. That being said, I think Bethesda made a lot of mistakes. Morrowind and Oblivion did a lot of things better.

I really don't like the sprinting. The athletics skill and speed attribute of the previous games were so much better. By the time I got to level 50 in Oblivion, my character was fast enough to make riding a horse pointless. In Skyrim, I have to sprint until my stamina drains, jog for a little while, and then sprint some more. Travelling is now a chore. I'd buy a horse, but I don't know if Lydia could ride one as well.

One thing that actually pisses me off is how the console version doesn't have hot-keys. I'm forced to use that favourite system, which takes just as long to go through as my inventory in Oblivion. If the interface in Skyrim hadn't been redesigned into a mess, the favourite system would be redundant. It bothers me to the point where I commit to one weapon at a time.

Another thing that bugs me a little is how the weapons and armour never break. That makes it feel like Bethesda simplified the game for people who are not RPG fans.

Why did Bethesda add regenerating health? I didn't like it in Call of Duty, so there is no way I'd like it in the Elder Scrolls. It's another thing that makes it feel like they're catering the mainstream audience.

Something that I'm quite upset about is that I can't make my own spells. All of the destruction spells I used in Oblivion were custom made, and I'd always include soul-trap. I had Azura's star on a hot-key, and I'd recharge my Warhammer after almost every battle. I had my warhammer enchanted with a similar spell, so I captured thousands of souls(mostly mudcrabs). I actually managed to soul-trap Umaril, and I was a little disappointed that Bethesda didn't script anything in case the player did that.

The last one I want to mention is that I'm not a fan of the duel-wielding. I thought it was perfect in Oblivion when I could have a spell ready along with my warhammer. The way it is now is almost worse than Morrowind. At least then I could switch between weapons and magic with a single button press.

Because repairing armor and weapons with a huge stack of blacksmithing hammers after a few fights is really what RPGS are all about?

Regenerating health is mainstream because this is a hardcore game. K.

Sprinting is so dumb because raising an arbitrary skill that should be a basic function of humanoids is more RPG like and adds to the overall gameplay by being able to run faster than a horse.

These all sound valid and worth considering.

 

[Shadow-Phoenix]

Disagree with every one of your points, especially the hint that skyrim isn't a great game, because it is. It's the greatest game of the console generation, if not the decade.

That's what i like to call having an opinion as i would like to disagree that Skyrim is not the greatest game of the console generation or the decade and i believe he can hint all he wants that Skyrim isn't a great game because everyone is allowed an opinion and mine happens to reside with his.

 

[Frostbite3789]

You guys are winrars in my book. This game is my own personal D&D simulator. I do the exact same things. In fact, I've been updating my Facebook status like a journal written by my character, putting the adventures I've run into in a more creative form, reminiscent of what I do as I actually play.

Skyrim is a toolset, a campaign, an awesome set of DM core rules that let you go out and craft your own tale, indeed.

And yet if I recall correctly you were against co-op in Skyrim?

What you described right there sounds ideal setup for it. Hell, remove the main quest line and just let us go on a romp in Skyrim, creating our own adventures.

And I remember some people saying "OMG I NO WANT PLAY WITH RANDOMS1!!!111!!"

Well...don't. If you can't find people in the gaming community, at sites like this to play with, just don't play the co-op. It's pretty damn simple, but nobody wants to see the simple solution I guess.

Some people would argue "It would take up development resources" well do it as DLC/xpack. Or bring in another team to work on that aspect. It's not like they're going to cut the money going to a TES game.

 

[Zhukov]

Disagree with every one of your points, especially the hint that skyrim isn't a great game, because it is. It's the greatest game of the console generation, if not the decade.

Well, I guess there had to be one.

 

[Sight Unseen]

Well that's inevitably the problem with huge open world games. The more features you add, the less depth those features can have, unless you have a HUGE budget. That said, the dungeons in Skyrim have all been pretty unique and almost every one has at least one really cool moment in it (BTW, that dungeon for the Greybeard fetch quest was absolutely jaw-dropping for me, so its worth a look at least) just find and explore a Dwemer ruin and tell me that all the dungeons are the same. There's a lot more variety here than other games of this type, and a TON more variety than Oblivion had.

Even the towns to me all have a unique feel to them, and I can even look past a bit of the shallow characters and fill in the details myself a bit.\

OT: the UI could use some work, and although the motives behind the sidequests seem a lot more varied and interesting, the sidequests still almost always resort to: "go to dungeon X halfway across the world and find item y/kill person z" which gets a bit wearing, even though the landscapes and dungeons are still wowing me on a regular basis.

 

[Frostbite3789]

Disagree with every one of your points, especially the hint that skyrim isn't a great game, because it is. It's the greatest game of the console generation, if not the decade.

Well, I guess there had to be one.

I mean, he might as well have said, "I disagree with your opinion and submit my own opinion that shows I disagree with you. But I present my opinion as fact."

I wouldn't pay him an ounce of attention.

 

[JasonBurnout16]

What very nearly kills it for me is the utter lack of focus. The huge amount of content means that the game has to spread itself out to a truly painful degree. None of the characters are the least bit fleshed out and the locations all flash by in minutes. Nothing has any depth or weight to it. In short, there's nothing to get invested in, with the possible exception of decorating your in-game house.quote]

This - very much this!

Although i found that the huge amount of content hasn't lead to the game being spread out to a painful degree but shoving too much down your throat at one time. At the moment adding up every quest and objective I have comes to 50+ things to do. And 28 of those are missions (Not the misc ones!)

Although I am still playing the game, I have completed the Greybeards first fetch mission and have just left it at that.

 

[Xanadu84]

It is overwhelmingly beloved and enjoyed, so right there you have to be a pretentious idiot to call it bad. If a game makes a lot people happy, then thats pretty much all it has to do to be, "A success". However, my playing of it makes me think that maybe, I should have waited until a price drop. I suppose that given what its trying to do, it is impressive, but im thinking that its just not my kind of game.

The biggest thing is that for me, Open World usually translates to "Unfocused, sloppy storytelling" Yeah, it increases the investment you have in the story by giving you more agency, but it generally undermines the story at large, and the game needs to balance these factors. It splits the focus, and makes very little seem important. Hypothetically this could be okay if the combat was exciting, but the combat feels more like a matter of making sure you have the right numbers when that bad guy rolls up to you. If it were open world with a strong linear progression that ties everything together tightly, that could work too, but Skyrim encourages dicking around. That the story is standard fantasy fare (Not cliched fantasy fare, mind you: It does its own things and tries to expand on the formula, but it is still standard fantasy at the core [Oooh, something it has in common with Modern Warfare 3{Might need to run for my life now}]) doesn't make it stand out too well either.

A common praise is that the world is terrifically detailed, with a rich and full history behind it. But personally, I don't really care about that history, because it feels too much like there was a great fantasy novel that got chopped to bits, and got sprinkled throughout the game. The setting doesn't feel integrated with the game.

Also, am I the only one who feels like getting better at a skill by useing it just encourages a sense of endless grind? Is anyone else plotting there treks through the woods based on what minor path changes will let you burn a rabbit to increase your destruction? Because I feel obligated to do that, in spite of it not being very fun.

And lastly, I am terrified of the prospect of taking out a stopwatch and figuring out how much time I spend fighting dragons, listening to plot points or generally doing stuff, versus holding down W like a pacifist, noob Pyro in TF2 taking an endless stroll through the mountains.

So overall, I'm going to keep playing Skyrim. It's not bad, and maybe what it wants to do will click with me, and ill start liking it. But I think that for my personal taste, the game needs either better combat, or a tighter, less meandering focus.

Of course, I should also thank Skyrim. I know its is a good game because people like it, but it doesn't resonate with me quite so well. But know I can have a slightly more objective understanding now of what makes for a good game system, less cluttered by my personal tastes. Its very much a learning experience.

 

[Delsana]

The lack of any real guidance (not the same thing as being on rails) is something that has thrown off a lot of people from liking the game from my experience. Even I found the extremely extremely extremely slow start to be a serious issue. The long loading times does it no justice either.

The repetition, bugs, and issues, can't just constantly be excused because "it's Bethesda".

---

In any case, come join the Dark Side of the force and try out TOR this thanksgiving weekend.

 

[MrBenSampson]

snip

Because repairing armor and weapons with a huge stack of blacksmithing hammers after a few fights is really what RPGS are all about?

Regenerating health is mainstream because this is a hardcore game. K.

Sprinting is so dumb because raising an arbitrary skill that should be a basic function of humanoids is more RPG like and adds to the overall gameplay by being able to run faster than a horse.

These all sound valid and worth considering.

I was thinking more along the lines of returning to town after a battle to have my equipment repaired, and my wounds bound. It helped me with the immersion. As for the athletics skill, it made sense for the player to become faster while he/she became more powerful.

 

[scorptatious]

Hmm. Not sure if I agree with all your points.

I found combat to be kind of fun in Skyrim. I especially like how the perk system works. The way it's designed makes it so that you can pretty much create whatever kind of playstyle you want.

I also like how much more diverse magic is than Oblivion as well. As someone who likes melee combat as well as offensive magic. It's great to see spells that compliment the former play style like the cloak and rune spells.

As for the lack of focus? Well, in a way, I guess it does seem kind of weird to put off a part of the main quest for extended periods of time while you go off to do something else. But it's a sandbox game, so I guess that's to be expected.

As for the main quest? I haven't finished it yet, but so far, it's certainly much better than Oblivion's main quest.

I guess if there's one thing I don't like about the game, it's the dumb companion a.i.

"Hey guys! I need help fighting this Ice Dragon! What's that? You're dealing with a slaughterfish? FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU..."

 

[Wayneguard]

Skyrim: Yeah, it's good, but...




















level scaled loot... (and the lack of any unique enchanted items in dungeons) [sub]fuck you level scaling[/sub]

 

[Sight Unseen]

The lack of any real guidance (not the same thing as being on rails) is something that has thrown off a lot of people from liking the game from my experience. Even I found the extremely extremely extremely slow start to be a serious issue. The long loading times does it no justice either.

The repetition, bugs, and issues, can't just constantly be excused because "it's Bethesda".

In my opinion, the bugs can be forgiven based on the fact that this game is HUGE, and there is no way that you could possibly make a game this big not have any bugs, or hire enough QA testers to see every possible bug in the game. Also, the bugs I've seen have been fairly minor, funny bugs that don't break anything in the game and don't diminish the experience. As long as the games bugs aren't game breaking, and Bethesda actively tries to remove them, I can't be mad at them for the game having bugs.

I agree with you that the common issues with the games should be worked on though and shouldn't be given a free pass "because it's Bethesda"

 

[Exius Xavarus]

My biggest, most irritating problem with Skyrim, is the lack of reward for actually exploring. "We're making it harder to fast-travel so you'll see the world!"

....Too bad it's utterly pointless to do anything BUT.

Sure the landscapes are pretty, but I want to play the game, not run around and look at the art for an hour while I try to find a bandit to kill. There is absolutely no reason whatsoever to actually explore Skyrim. I LOVE underwater bits, and I was ecstatic to have a Necklace of Waterbreathing so I can go on all sorts of underwater ventures. It's too bad that literally the only thing I've found in all of Skyrim thus far is a pair of ships under the water right next to Ysgramor's Tomb. That is literally all I've found except a few treasure chests with like, 15 gold and a garnet. I once thought I found an underwater dungeon just south of the exit to Bleak Falls Barrow, but nope. It was simply an elaborate treasure chest display, which, again, only had like 15 gold, if that.

I am so upset that there is literally no reason for Waterbreathing. Argonians are most useless because, while the inherent waterbreathing is nice, there's no actual need to even have it. So I feel like the entire point of being an Argonian is totally null.

But back to the point, other than mapping a few dungeons and forts and caves and Daedric/Dragon Shrines, there is absolutely no point in exploring the outer regions. I explored that area north of Ysgramor's Tomb and there was absolutely NOTHING except two Horkers around. Which, needless to say, was a massive letdown. On top of the fact there was absolutely nothing under the water. Not. A. Damn. Thing. Bethesda may have a massive world for Skyrim, but it's so empty, to me. I don't have a reason to explore. I have no reason to do anything BUT fast-travel to anywhere i haven't already been.

Edit: My other, REALLY immersion-breaking gripe with Skyrim, is how everyone always has a poker face. Everyone. All the time. Whether they're sad, angry, happy, indifferent. No one in Skyrim has any real facial expressions at all. This was most bothersome when I met Sheogorath. He's awesome and reminds me of the Joker, which makes him even more awesome. But his poker face does not match his attitude in any possible way, and that really killed it for me.