Elder Scrolls: Skyrim

[AFnord]

I get what they were trying to do when they released it: Independent colonial governors to represent running an empire rather than micromanaging.

There was nothing more frustrating than playing a game where all your colonies went and did nothing remotely close to what you had asked them to within a few turns.

The game was non-existent. You kept hitting 'Next. Next. Next. Next.' and hoped the colonial governors did something useful.

The gameplay was terrible. The diplomacy was hideous. It slowed down to a crawl in any game that took place on anything other than the smallest map.

Even if you take the hideous technical problems, you still get a universe-building game where you essentially have no power and watch as the computer plays itself.

Actually, you had a lot of power. You did not have to let the colonial governors do the job for you, you could go in and micro everything if you wanted to do that. You had complete power over the dominant economic activity for each individual region on each planet, and the computer would not override these orders. You could also step in and undo whatever "harm" the AI governors had done to your planets if you wanted to (because the AI could do some utterly moronic things from time to time, like creating a recreation planet, where every region was built for recreation...). You could also set individual tax rates and resource alocatement on each individual planet. MOO3 was one of the potentially most micromanagement intense games that I have ever played, even beating such micromanagement "legends" such as Victoria: an empire under the sun.

Of course, microing everything got tedious, but you could give strong guidelines to the AI by "programming" it (there was a system in place for that). You wanted to micro important planets, and let the AI handle the unimportant ones.

[Arkley]

2 Hours till Steam unlocks

[Damocles8]

well some definate unlock slowdowns at 17% and 34%....anyone else getting this?

[Yodhrin]

So I've been playing it for a few hours now, and overall, I'm conflicted. On the one hand, it's sucking me in in a way Oblivion never managed, the story is decent enough that I actually give a crap. On the other hand, three things are bugging me.

First, there's a place you have to go as part of the main quest that's on top of a mountain, and I cannot find a ******* way up. I actually quit in frustration because the quest marker is useless in this case and, because the game uses the quest marker system, NPC's don't give detailed directions.

Second, while the new way of leveling up is very cool looking, and conceptually sounds like a good idea, in practice it's robbed the game of a lot of the RPG feel. Yes, the Oblivion system sucked, and yes, Morrowind's system could be confusing at times, but I'd have preferred if they'd just made the existing system a bit more accessible and dealt with the leveled enemies issues rather than throwing the baby out with the bathwater.

Finally, it still bloody crashes. Not as much as New Vegas, but enough that it's noticeable. Come on Bethesda, you seriously came up with what is supposedly an entirely new game engine and managed to keep one of the biggest flaws of the previous one? :/

Still, I'm enjoying myself enough that I'll give it a chance.

[kaimarion]

Me and my friend picked up a copy of Skyrim this morning .
Can't wait to play it!

Can very well see the shop not being as busy today seeing as a large group of our regulars will be sitting in playing Skyrim today.

[Deamon-forge]

hoping to go and get a copy from Asda soon.

[NixonAsADaemonPrince]

So far it is joint second place on Metacritic, with a score of 96. And the user reviews are the highest I could see. Not bad I'd say

[Latro_]

ok so i'v read up on the fluff correct me if wrong but the fluff seems pretty much like 'insert tolkienesk fantasy world'

*****some of these might spoil the older games ???****
oblivion is like the warp, with evil dudes with eyes on nirn, they smashed the empire up.
empire is pretty much the imperium/empire in wh except it was founded after human slaves revolted against the nasty elves.
Like most fantasy the elves did it first, colonised the main continent but now they are in decline. There are various types like most fantasy
*******************

Pretty much it?

[N810]

Actualy the Elves where second or third to settle some regions,
The fluff is probaly a little closer to Warhammer than Tolken,
well except that Dwarves are extict. Thhe Dedra are not exactly
Deamons of chaos, they are more indifferent usualy and can be
good or evil, ok but yea most are evil. Also the Kagit, Argonians,
bosimer, humans and high elves where slaves to the dark elves in Morowind.

[Arkley]

I'm scared to play it... I know how much time I am going to lose :P

[Wyrmwood]

My copy arrived this morning. I hoped it'd arrive at the same time as my new PS3, but alas; it was not to be. Consequently, I'm just looking at the map - it feels like Christmas has come early... Except, Santa Claus thought it'd be funny to play a joke on me.

[Nicho]

Played it for about an hour before getting called in yo work. Awesome so far. I am going to spend alto of time at the blacksmiths i think lol.

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[TheConverter15]

Can anyone confirm wether there are Werewolves in this edition? Seems to fit the theme of the Nords

[N810]

Yes there are I just found out yesterday.
(and Vampires)

[Eumerin]

ok so i'v read up on the fluff correct me if wrong but the fluff seems pretty much like 'insert tolkienesk fantasy world'

*****some of these might spoil the older games ???****
oblivion is like the warp, with evil dudes with eyes on nirn, they smashed the empire up.

Sort of. Oblivion is where the daedra live. Generally when you "run into" a daedra wandering around Tamriel, it's usually hostile. In their home realms, it's not always that way and is likely to depend on how the attitude of the local Daedra Lord. As for the Daedra Lords, some are just plain out and out hostile, like Mehrunes Dagon in the previous game. Others can be more beneficial. But even the ones that seem helpful are usually only acting in an enlightened self-interest. There's a reason why the official religion of the Empire was the worship of the Divines, and not the Daedra Lords.

empire is pretty much the imperium/empire in wh except it was founded after human slaves revolted against the nasty elves.

The Empire was a political body that united the entire continent under one government. It was ruled from the capitol located at the center of the continent. Unfortunately, from what I understand, it fell shortly after the end of the previous game, meaning that by the time Skyrim starts, it's been gone for about 200 years.

Like most fantasy the elves did it first, colonised the main continent but now they are in decline. There are various types like most fantasy

One thing to keep in mind is that you should abandon pre-conceived notions of fantasy stereo-types in Tamriel. Yes there are humans. Yes there are elves. Yes there were dwarves. But there are also cat people and lizard people, and the lizard people were citizens of the Empire and not monsters to be slaughtered in the swamp. There are Dark Elves (Dunmer), but they don't live underground, and they're not cruel, vicious and nasty. Doesn't stop them from keeping slaves, though (and iirc, their home province was the only region of the Empire in which slavery was legal). And they're still not exactly nice. They just don't usually engage in the wanton depravity that other dark elves enjoy.

Oh yeah - and the dwarves appear to have been another type of elf, albeit one that wiped itself out in a very real and literal instant well before the humans learned of them (the method used to achieve this rather spectacular feat is related to the main plot of Morrowind).

So it's best if you leave any pre-conceived notions regarding the races at the door. If the previous games are anything to go by, there will be plenty of books in the game to let you know all about the fluff.

[Hrokka `Eadsplitter]

So, been playing a quite fair bit - have to say that I have yet to run in with a dragon!
Random encounters are brilliantly enough in the game, as well as an actual speech skill.
The whole atmosphere does feel a bit more gritty than earlier games, the good graphics enhance that as well.
The leveling system is so far a wee bit to easy for me - level 7 after 5h play - Sneak is madly simple to increase!
And as expected the best improvement is this:
You can have...
A MOHAWK!!!!
Cheers!

[Nocculum]

All you need to know is that playing Khajiit usually precludes you from using the best item in the game...which is always an item of footwear, which they, for obvious feline reasons, cannot ever wear...

(A fact I still loathe about the Boots of Blinding Speed...why can't I be a ninja cat, WHY?)

[Nicho]

Can anyone confirm wether there are Werewolves in this edition? Seems to fit the theme of the Nords

None according to bethesda :-(

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[TheConverter15]

Hmm, I will probably sell my battlefield 3 to get this game Well worth it though Bit sad if there are no werewolves, but just being a dragonborn will have to do

[N810]

I said it was spoiled that you could become a wherewolf, just like bloodmoon.