The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

^
I feel like 10/10 would sound biased.
But honestly this game is so close to being perfect that I feel obligated to give a near perfect score.

Let me put it this way; there are very few games that I buy(and aren't multiplayer to boot) and get a feeling of "Wow, this really was worth the full retail price!".

This game feels COMPLETELY worth it. No doubt.

Completely agree, it's VERY rare that I buy a singleplayer game and feel like I got my money's worth after beating it. But I can honestly say I feel like I've already gotten more than my money's worth($150 at that) and I'm only level 22.

^
Well said.

/closes laptop and heads out to buy Skyrim

One of us.
Etc etc.

Sorry for posting late; stuck at work.
Anyways, shields are indeed classified between being either light or heavy armor. You'll see it in a small caption near the name. But since it seems block perks are independent of armor perks, there should be no issues in using a heavy shield while using light armor. If there would be any penalty, it'd just be the weight/speed of lugging it around.

More stamina use for bash maybe?

With a "heavy" shield that is.

i give it an 8.5/10

its an absolutely amazing game, and i havent been able to stop thinking about it since i got it, but its a bit buggy atm, and there are a few things that bother me (some pretty terrible AI for some npcs, especially ones that arent followers, not much change in interaction for some characters when their relationship changed with you (i talk to my husband, and i can only ask if he has my share of money, ask him the option he had when we werent married, and tell him we're moving somewhere else)).

***There are some stat spoilers in here. Don't read if you are crazy about that kind of thing. ***

Obviously I'm not using magic cost at 0%, because I think that is cheesy, but here is the point I'm trying to make.

Getting 100 smithing is not hard at all. It's a little grindy, but if you've played FFXI it's like getting a craft in FFXI to 30. You just spam iron daggers until you hit 100.

100 enchanting is a little more difficult, but the same premise. Just use the daggers, buy up all the soul gems you can find and get 100 enchanting.

Then just get the double enchanting perk and the +100% bonus to enchanting items.

Now just make your favorite armor or choice, upgrade it to legendary and put two enchantments of your choice on them. Now you have better gear than you could ever find in the game.

And that is the problem.

Now some pieces that enchantments are better, like the Archmages robes. It has +50 magicka, -15% spell cost and +100% magic regen. But, the problem is that is has armor 0. With no potions, you can make a piece of dragonscale that has 84 defense, +60 magicka +68% magic regen OR -25% magic cost of the school of your choice.

Now if you count in potions that can make your smithing or enchanting better, especially if you use the exploit that lets you make weapons that do 2k damage, then it gets really overpowered.

My whole point is that with smithing and enchanting at 100 with the appropriate perks, there is no item in the game that is better than them.

There are items that are close, and some with even one better stat, but being able to pick two enchantments of your choosing and then have those enchantments be pretty much as strong as the ones you can find, breaks the whole system.

The way I wish they would have handled it was that the gear you could make from smithing and enchanting wasn't as good as quest gear, but if you had 100 smithing/enchanting you could upgrade the stats on quest gear to make it better.

Dragons are kind of weak, but on master they can one shot you very easily.

If you get up close, they can eat you or bash you with their tail.

From long distance they can one shot you with or kill you really fast with ice/fire breath.

What I do is summon stuff and let the dragon aggro something else then shoot it with magic/bows so it doesn't kill me, lol.

Yeah, I agree with an 8.5 score. Although, if they'd fix the bugs I think it deserves a 9.0, easily.

yea, i feel that way too

I'm not sure what I'd rate it as.. I definitely enjoyed Uncharted 2 more, but that's one of my favorite games ever, and I wouldn't give that a 10..

So I'd have to put it at somewhere between 7.5 and 9.

Anyone playing as an Archer type? Was thinking of giving archer/thief a try on a harder difficulty.

On my assassin I end up using my bow against most bosses and dragons anyway, and everything that forces you to use a companion really screws over your stealth for 1hit backstabs (but how I love the slit throat animation..) So many of the boss fights are direct confrontation so you can't get in a backstab and the shadow warrior perk doesn't work against mobs that don't have a slit throat animation. (I've only gotten a registered backstab on dragons once with shadow warrior active, and maybe 2 or 3 times on other mobs since they tun with you when you move.)

how do you trigger these animations? havent seen my chara do any of these in a while

i just bought skyrim and my console this morning before class. just got home. scared to start it up lol what should i do

First I would suggest speaking to your family/friends/loved ones, it may be awhile before you get to again(if ever).

I will take both of these pieces of advice and use them thoroughly lol

Play this on the highest volume while you're installing it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=b_5QhJeTqfg

Yeah... I just got it too...

Except rather than killing all the things, I pick up all the things.

Didn't take long for my character to get weighed down from all the ***he was carrying. I was seriously concerned when I couldn't figure out why I was moving so slowly.

i started to do the dwemer ruins under markarth, and i didnt even get through the first door before making my inv from dwemer scraps, lol...

http://www.zedge.net/ringtones/0-1-1-skyrim/?sug-search=0&searchphr=skyrim&searchcat=ringtones

Thank me later

Sneaky type is the best type in these games imo :D But if you are doing that, you should play on master difficulty, otherwise you are gonna go around 1-shotting everyone in the game, including bandit leaders and chiefs. Makes the game a lot less interesting when everyone dies in 1 shot

The day I decided to start on Master difficulty, was the day I 2-shot a blood dragon on Expert with a bow

The slit throat animation works on pretty much any humanoid who is standing. Sneak up behind them and click your attack, don't power charge it. If they are sitting down or sleeping then you just hit them normally.

There's a frontal kill / finisher that you can trigger by sneaking out infront of someone and hitting them, and there is a side swipe finisher you can trigger by side stepping and knifing them in the side.

With shadow warrior on humanoids it's a bit tricky to proc. You have to be standing at first, crouch infront of them and walk into them and attack at the same time. this will activate your slit throat and you'll appear in a dark cloud behind the person and kill them.

There isn't a special animation on beasts, those blind elves that live in the ruins, giants or dragons that you can sneak up and proc; but there is a killing blow animation that you can randomly get. I once jumped on a dragons head and stabbed him repeatedly and it died.

Well atleast you can move while over encumbered now, I mean in the previous titles (not too sure about oblivion) you had to stay on the same spot whilst going through your Deep pockets to decide which armour/weapons you deemed Less worthy above other items.

Ofcourse some items were unbelievably heavy, like the Heavy Daedric armour (I think, it was that or another variation) was rediculous heavy lol

Whilst on that subject anyone know how to acquire Daedric gear / find Daedra in general? I havnt seen or heard anything about it, did they include such things in Skyrim?

ran into this and made me lol