The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

I've read that a few times, and every time, my face involuntarily twists with disgust. If it wasn't 4chan, I'd legitimately believe it was just someone having a laugh, unfortunately, that's soft on the scale of depravity that graces those boards.

@Zicdeh:

No, you're totally right, I really didn't give Morrowind the time of day. I stumbled off the boat or whatever it was, wandered through some grimy an uninspiring canyons, ended up in a town that was also grey and brown and drab, talked to some sallow-skinned dark elf type folks, got yelled at a lot, spent half an hour wandering around getting attacked by cliff racers, felt no real attachment to my character or the surrounding environs, and opened my console to cheat my way to something interesting. Where I just found random mushroom forests with giant jellyfish that one-shotted me, tried to complete a quest with some mage in a tower who one-shotted me, etc.

It was just frustrating, and given I was irrationally predisposed to hating dark elves in general, I just couldn't get into it. I readily admit I probably explored about... 20% of the available land, and it all pretty much looked the same.

The "min max" comment was more towards dark elves in RPGs in general, not in Morrowind. (You're right that a Breton was probably that in most Elder Scrolls.)

As for what I meant by not experiencing content... it's actually more a level progression thing than a main storyline thing. Basically, the problem I tend to have with games like Oblivion and Fallout is that... let's say the world has something like 100 optional caves, dungeons, nooks, crannies, etc to explore. Unfortunately, because they need to tie killing things and doing side quests to a sane level progression (because most people just aren't as tenacious as me), I'll typically be max level and completely, sickeningly overpowered by the time I've completed maybe... 20% of that?

By that point, I don't feel there's really a point in poking my head into interesting little side dungeons I discover, or checking out that Oblivion portal, or accepting any more optional quests, because I know it'll just be a room full of level-adjusted daemon kings that I'll proceed to wipe the floor with for an item or amount of gold that would probably have been valuable 10 levels ago, but now is just a waste of time. So once I've seen maybe 20% of the content in the game, I just short-circuit the main plot, stomp the last boss, and roll credits having not even laid eyes on 80% of the available world.

I honestly have no idea how they could fix it. Someone like me wants you to have to complete every single side quest and every random little dungeon tucked away in a valley somewhere before you can be at complete and utter roflstomp level. But most folks just aren't as grindy/tenacious as me, and you couldn't expect to hold their interest that long. So they tend to let you max out super early, and expect people who want to see everything to just go re-roll and go a different way next time. For me though, once I'm done once, I'm done.

That is *** sick. I don't understand how simply because it's in a virtual reality it is any less disturbing. The way i see it is that those thoughts still occur.

Someone should put that *** down.

@Jaerik

Unfortunately I don't think the Elder Scrolls is a series for you, the entire premise is to be nonlinear for the most part, and yeah Oblivion has a really easy levelling curve. A lot of it is better experienced with more than one character. Understandable that not everyone will enjoy the games, there's plenty I know that don't.

First off, I totally feel you on the Overleveling. That's a big issue for me as well, I can usually "Get passed" it, but it's always nibbling at the back of my mind. Fallout 3 actually did a pretty good job of staying dangerous, but that was probably because of the Level cap of 20-30 more than anything, though there were a few "hax" items in the game that really ruined enemies ability to attack you. Dart gun immediately comes to mind, instantly crippling legs (Rendering Deathclaws harmless) no matter where you strike, with the first strike.


Second, Morrowind certainly didn't age well graphically, but the differences in the world are more than just cosmetic. Simply talking to the various regions and groups of people can paint a vivid picture beyond what mere graphics can. It's overcoming technical limitations with ingenuity really. The Southern regions of the Ascadian Isles are painted as lush agricultural lands by the rich Hlaalu nobles that have their manors and plantations dotting the Landscape, Redoran's council city of Ald Ruhn stands in defiance at the base of Red Mountain, the hardships of the blight coloring the towns disposition towards the rest of Vvardenfell, and the Telvanni Wizard Lords arcane towers which utterly lack stairs, indicative of their elitist and and reclusive attitude.

That's a level of detail that Oblivion pretty much ignored. You can see hints that greater things were on the horizon, but be it time, money or laziness, something got the better of the team and they didn't bother supplementing the technology with the details that sell the world as genuine.

I should also point out Jaerik, there was an interesting workaround in Overleveling in Oblivion. For your Major Skills, pick all Slow-leveling or Hard-Leveling skills like Mercantile, Speechcraft, Destruction and whatnot.

Of course, that won't work in Skyrim, since all skills contribute to leveling.

I played oblivion on quite a hard difficulty setting. About 80%, I think. And STILL I was overpowered at some parts of the game, yet this didn't bother me too much. I don't feel like it's imbalanced when I'm able to rush through a cave with a couple rats and skeletons in it, I feel like it's perfectly fine. I do need to feel like I still need to be careful. I had that feeling with oblivion for a long time when playing on the hard difficulty.

Even when I was overpowered the other elements of the game would compensate for that. The atmosphere, possibility of surprise, the sense of completion all contribute towards making it WORTH to raid that cave or go through that dungeon that you know might not wield much.

I feel like it's the same with MMO's in that sense. You will still go to lower level areas to farm those special items, or camp that monster for a title, or just to take a look.

You can't "put someone down" for thoughts. You know what's ironic? You're even sicker than the person that made that.

The mushroom towers in Morrowind were the best part, levetate up to the top then try to pick your way down without dieing or useing any magic stuff XD

You guys got wooooshed pretty bad on that dumb 4chan post.

I wouldn't call it wooshed, just making a big deal over nothing.

No, I get it, it's sort of poking fun at how intense "Hardcore" RPers get into those games.

So yeah, I get it, I ain't laughing, but I get it.

Also, Beelshaman, you were asking about any reviews out.

Australian gaming magazine Atomic has released their exclusive review, scoring the game a 95% (out of 100%) praising every facet of the game.

Breakdown

Gameplay-97% *Something for everyone, and almost too much.*
Graphics-92% *Beautiful Environments make you forget this is running on 6year old hardware*
Sound-95% *Sounds so real, you'll flinch, phenomenal soundtrack*
Overall-95%

Recommendation: If you don't have vacation time stockpiled, prepare to lose your job.

It's also probably worth noting that the dude who reviewed it, actually hated Morrowind and Oblivion. He also incorrectly listed the developer as ID Software.

I didn't want to read it for fear of spoilers but I'm kind of skeptical since he apparently hated Morrowind and Oblivion but loved Fallout 3.

I'm on the reverse end, loved Oblivion but was disappointed with Fallout 3.

I wish the first review was from a more legit company.

My wife and I payed off my collectors edition PC version the other day at gamestop, and they told us that it was in the back already but that they weren't allowed to give it to us yet.

I kinda wanted to just drop to the ground and scream like a little kid when you tell them they can't have something :<

Just picked up oblivion again today.going to see how far I get before the 11th. Didn't 1st time tho disk was stolen basically the day after I got knights of the nine -,-

Picked up a new video card last weekend, but when I got it home I found it too big to fit on my motherboard (I'd have to unplug all my SATA cables to put it in >.>) but at least I'll have my laptop to play it on until I replace the card.

This week is going to be the hardest....

Skyrim is now 20% lamer.

Four more agonizing nights. Fortunately, I get MW3 at midnight to take my mind off of it until launch.

I ran a test to see if I could run this on my laptop and turns out I can. On minimum settings. While I will be getting Skyrim when it launches, I will finish Oblivion first. It won't feel right playing a sequel without finishing the game that came before it. Even though its not a direct sequel and all but you know what I mean.

Let's hope that Skyrim is as good as we all hope it will be.

4 days till dragondom

I strongly disagree, I think Oblivion is far the inferior of Fallout 3 in every perspective. My guess is you just have a predisposition towards fantasy over Fallout's quirky setting, because anything Oblivion does, Fallout 3 did much better from all technical and artistic perspectives.

I'm gonna have to agree with San. Fallout 3 didn't work for me, but mainly because it was a bit too depressing for me. New Vegas was a bit more upbeat though and I enjoyed it very much.

My problem with Fallout 3 was that I came in expecting Oblivion.

And at first I was all "AWWW YEAHHHH" but then it quickly lost its appeal.

My biggest gripe with it was that the world wasn't truly open like Oblivions was. To get from A to B you had to go through C and D. And to get back to A you took the same path through D and then C. There was always rubble and ***blocking the path that you could obviously jump over but weren't allowed to.

It was just a buzzkill.

I found New Vegas a lot harder to connect with. It was just way too goofy in parts. Still, I played the living ***out of New Vegas, a lot more than Fallout 3, but that's because mechanically, New Vegas is much more refined and interesting.

If I could mod in New Vegas's enhanced content, into Fallout 3's setting, I'd probably ***my pants in joy. Unfortunately, even attempting that is highly illegal.

It's odd that people find Fallout 3 "depressing" though, In my eyes, it's one of the most "realistically hopeful" settings I've ever seen. Humanity, beaten down by it's own hubris still survives, and in a lot of cases, thrives, even in the dead husk of our nation's capital.

Hell, New Vegas is more depressing than Fallout 3, because here you have two societies simply repeating the mistakes of the past, the NCR damning itself to a self-interest oligarchy that places too high value on self promotion that burned the world in Nuclear Fire once already, and Caesar's Legion, a militaristic nation-state who has found the only way to secure long-term stability is to dehumanize your own people. If you can't tell, I'm a Mr. House supporter.


A lot of people say that, I just don't understand why. To me, the ruins of DC and the metro system were the strongest pieces of level-design Bethesda has ever done. Just look at the entirety of DC as one huge dungeon, you don't complain about dungeons not being "Open", do you?

I still recognize Fallout 3 as a great game, one of the best this gen, but it just wasn't for me.

I'm the kind of guy that just walked around Cyrodiil for hours looking for plants. I played L.A. Noire recently and it took me probably twice as long because I like to stare at everything.

Since I was expecting to do that with F3 and couldn't, I guess I was a bit let down. But even so I still recognize its merits.

I don't get it, what isn't there to stare at? Virtually every location in Fallout 3 has a contextual story designed into it, something that Oblivion has less than 1% of 1% of the time. (0.01%)

I'm not trying to make you like a game you obviously don't like, but your reasons just aren't adding up is all.

Well for one I was getting shot at all the time, or attacked by antlions or whatever. Even with the difficulty slider turned almost all the way down I still had to concentrate more on the action than exploration. And that's not the game's fault, that's the fault of my expectations.

To be fair...I only played 5-10 hours of it, been thinking about picking it up again one day since its only like ten bucks.

You might want to look into Two Worlds II if you haven't already then.. Should be right up your alley.

That game any good? I was recently thinking about picking that up, looks fun, and was somehow under my radar for a while.

Never had that issue myself, but I play Sneak-based characters in Fallout 3/New Vegas, so I am very slow, and very careful (Always hardest difficulty too). It gives me time to take in the game while I ambush people and nick their sweet gear.


Two Worlds (I and II) Is what happens when an Oblivion Mod team thinks they can make a better game simply by adding every piece of content they can think of.

On paper, a great idea, in practice though, there's a critical threshold where you simply don't have the time, money or skill to do even a faction of what you want well. Personally, I think Two Worlds one and two are abortions that should be purged from our collective memory.