[Martin]

Surprised there wasn't one of these, yet. Anyway, I bought this game on Saturday and have been playing it non-stop since then. It's been a really long time since any game gripped me like this. I've logged around 20 hours on it already. Spent all of last night ignoring my woman because of it. It's awesome! The sheer amount and variety of things to do is simply astonishing. While I didn't like Oblivion quite as much as Morrowind, they've really outdone themselves with this one. The sense of character in the locales is right up there with Morrowind, but the variety/complexity/etc of the whole game is better than anything they've done before. The most random shit happens all the time, which is why I love it. Earlier I found a dead giant, sans mammoth, just outside of Whiterun. I know I didn't kill him.

My Dovahkiin is a Dark Elf (because they come from Morrowind, and I fucking bummed that game!). He's a right thieving cunt, who skulks around in people's gardens at night, picking the locks on their back doors, robbing them blind while they sleep. He favours a good bow over any sword, uses a lot of magic, and relies on enchanted robes rather than heavy armour. I'm currently trying to level-up my enchanting and smithing skills so I can make my own baddass weaponry and apparel. Certainly wouldn't mind crafting a nice glass bow with some horrifically-monstrous enchantment. Nowhere near that yet, but I'm getting there! I'm a member of the Thieves Guild (naturally), and literally have just woken up in a strange place by some Dark Brotherhood member called Astrid. I've been commanded to kill one of three people tied up in the room. I guess I get to join the Brotherhood if I do. If I don't, I don't know what happens. I pretty much want to be in the Brotherhood, anyway. Oh, and I've killed five or six dragons, now! 20-odd hours in, and the game feels like it's just getting started. I would have finished most other games twice by now.

I just love how Skyrim is monumentally-huge, brimming with an insane variety/amount of things to do/see, and how if you're bored you can just head off in any direction you want and do anything you like. The graphics are great (considering the size/scope), the music is beautiful, and for the first time in Bethesda history we have NPC animations that aren't completely wooden. They're no Alyx Vance, but they're a great improvement on previous games of this ilk. They've brought the whole "instensely-huge game" thing that they're renowned for, but this time they've raised the quality bar of the individual components across the whole game. In short - I fucking love Skyrim.

What are your thoughts/experiences with playing this game? Try to keep spoilers to a minimum (my post would be longer if I hadn't).

[Stabs]

The game is masterpiece the attention to detail in the world is in a league of its own, the quests are great to, with boss and traps and little puzzles, some physics based, you just loose yourself for a couple of hours in some tombs trying to uncover its secrets, i havnt done heaps of quests, ive just been roaming and finding my own adventures

I like the new leveling system to, its more balanced now, not as cruel as morrowind and not as kind as oblivion, its alot more fairer too on the enchanting system in regards to leveling up and how to balance that out, i made a ton of god characters with oblivion and morrowind, in this you actually need to really level up your enchanting skill before you could even consider making something that powerful, you level goes up a descent ammount when you create a enchated item, so you find yourself using petty souls and crap items just to practice your enchanting.

As for me iam playing pure mage, unarmored, no weapons with my backup charcter on the hardest difficulty and its really challenging at times, and you do have to use everything at your disposal sometimes, I ran into a dweemer centurion and had to juggle between keeping an atronoch always summoned to keep the centurion busy so you have time to heal your companion with the little bit of mana you had, and then somehow find the mana to summon another atronoch when he had knocked down your companion again, all whilst avoiding pretty much any attack directed against me, i put everything into magicka and its 1 hit KO for me from anything slightly powerful.

Here some pics of my high elf char, Darth Calibrate, one shot has this bug where his head is gone, but it still looks cool.

[Martin]

That's a fucking cool mask! Where'd you get it? I have a badass necromancer robe that makes my magicka recharge 75% faster. Sounds like you might need it. I didn't make it (nowhere near good enough at enchanting yet). I took it from a dead mage in a cavern. It's pretty handy. You can roll with restoration in one hand, destruction/whatever in the other, and pretty much never have to worry about running out of juice. Well, not strictly true. But it definitely helps! I killed all three of those hostages rather than trying to pick one. I was all "So guys, one of you is the contract. Rather than be unfair, I'm just gonna kill all of you". That's what I imagined my elf saying, anyway!

[Stabs]

You can get that mask and the robes from the mage guild missions at the college, you will need the firebolt spell to gain access to the college tho, bit lame how easy they made it to get into, it regens magicka 100% i think the robes do that to + fortify destruction magic, trying to level the shit outta my enchantment skill so i can have a mana boost + extra mana on all my items, sucks how i will need lvl 100 enchanting skill to do that tho, I hope there is some badass daedric robes.

[The Commander]

This game is priced to much on steam, I can buy it cheaper retail.

Steam: 89.99 USD = 117.733 NZD
Retail: 99 NZD = 75.6824 USD

Even more stupid is Batman Arkham City
Steam: 99.95 USD = 130.660 NZD
Retail: 89 NZD = 68.0766 USD

I might buy this retail next time I go in to town, but not any time soon.

[Ronin]

Game is great, my head is melted from playing the hell out of it, the funniest thing that happened was I was getting attacked outside a fort by a gang of mages who thought they were great when a dragon randomly flew past and scorched them all before landing and kicking the shit out of the rest who were trying to fight it, I just came in and mopped up then. Jumping off 300 foot waterfalls and surviving is cool too.

[Martin]

I got infected with vampirism! I'm gonna see how being a vampire suits my game. It sucked in Morrowind because everyone just automatically hated your guts. I'm a sneaky night time theif, so maybe feeding on people while they sleep would be cool!

The Commander, on 15 November 2011 - 10:45 PM, said:

This game is priced to much on steam, I can buy it cheaper retail.

Consider BitTorrent. That's how one of my friends got the game (before launch!). His 'copy' is even linked to Steam and receives patches. I had to buy mine (PS3 = no piracy). Still, it's such a fucking huge game that I do not regret the purchase at all. If you're going to spend wedge on a computer game, it might as well be one that's going to keep you occupied for a year. It might actually be a good idea to buy a physical copy for your PC. I only have it on PS3, and let me tell you, even my one comes with a ridiculously-cool imitation papyrus map.

[Ronin]

Nobody is posting in this thread because anyone who would be is playing Skyrim.

[Martin]

Haha, yup! So I married Mjoll the Lioness, and this fucking guy kept coming to my house. He'd follow her everywhere. I kind of got jealous, so I waited at his house in Riften and murdered him when he got home. I would have murdered my wife as well, but she pulls down a god wage for me at the shop and makes me nice food.

[Kyphros]

Martin, on 22 November 2011 - 12:49 PM, said:

Haha, yup! So I married Mjoll the Lioness,

Martin said:

He's a right thieving cunt

Heh, yeah. Marrying a robber to someone who tries to dismantle the Thieves Guild, that's pretty ironic.

[Martin]

Yup! I was just at a council held by the Greybeards, and without wanting to spoil anything - I also made a decision at that council which resulted in Maven Black-Briar being made Jarl of Riften. That's sure to piss my wife off!

[Stabs]

i wonder how long till someone makes a gay marriage mod where Greybeards will protest your wedding aswell with "azura hates fags" signs too.

[Mr.Deviance]

Is this game comparable with Oblivion?
I like Oblivion the most out of the entire series because of it's ambient and it's great mods that can update it in so many ways both visually and gameplay wise.
I didn't play the previous elder scrolls games, simply because I didn't know anything about them back in that time, as I was busy with other games.
Now when I look back at them, they look like something I would not like to spend hundreds of hours in.
Oblivion was the first elder scrolls game for me so I will consider Skyrim as the second one if I will like it.

[Ronin]

Mr.Deviance, on 22 November 2011 - 04:13 PM, said:

Is this game comparable with Oblivion?
I like Oblivion the most out of the entire series because of it's ambient and it's great mods that can update it in so many ways both visually and gameplay wise.
I didn't play the previous elder scrolls games, simply because I didn't know anything about them back in that time, as I was busy with other games.
Now when I look back at them, they look like something I would not like to spend hundreds of hours in.
Oblivion was the first elder scrolls game for me so I will consider Skyrim as the second one if I will like it.

Its better than Oblivion in every way rockin game, the random encounters that happen in it are excellent and even the glitches are great. There are some texture issues but overall its not enough to distract from whats a steller game with even minor missions being better than most games main storyline. Although it lacks some of the small things that you could do in Morrowind it makes up for it in every other way. You can still make a mountain out of bodies in a town center.

Its great playing a game with so much thought and effort put into it.

[Jeff]

What kinds of stuff can you do once you complete the main story? Aside from optional side quests that is.

[Mr.Deviance]

Jeff, on 22 November 2011 - 06:58 PM, said:

What kinds of stuff can you do once you complete the main story? Aside from optional side quests that is.

You can probably make a Predator mod and start hunting with heat vision on, like some dudes made in Oblivion lol...
Check this out. The recording has shitty perspective but I assure you the predator looks the right size and shape if you install the mod
If you get bored watching his armors and cloaks, skip to 4:00 but you should watch the entire video it's cool for predator fans.

[The Commander]

I am interested in getting this game "retail as it's cheaper" but then I keep reading some reviews and opinions of people saying that "The Witcher 2" looks and plays better than this.

Can anyone confirm this?
Looking at some screenshots and videos I would have to agree that The Witcher "looks" better.

[Jeff]

Skyrim looks pretty good. At least for me.

I didn't get that epic feel though. Maybe I'm more of a sci-fi RPG guy.

[Martin]

That Predator mod looks well funny!

[Kyphros]

What I hope too is that someone ports the Oblivion data into Skyrim, so we can visit Oblivion in Skyrim. Technically it's possible, even though it's hard, but I've seen a mod adding Elsweyr in Oblivion. So, why not Oblivion in Skyrim? Wouldn't that be awesome?

[Martin]

Actually, your wish may be way more plausible than you think. According to this heroic PC gamer, both the Cyrodiil and (OMFG!!) Morrowind landmasses are in fact there beyond the boundaries of Skyrim. It's almost just the topography (low-res textures, with one or two shabby structures). However, one can reasonably assume from this that these areas aren't just there pointlessly. The most logical conclusion (I think..) that one could come to is that Bethesda created these areas as preliminary groundwork for future DLC. If I'm right, you won't have to play some shitty mod. Looks like Cyrodiil and Morrowind are officially coming to Elder Scrolls V! Morrowind is one of my all-time faves. That game blew me away back in the day. Can't wait to become the Nerevarine again!

[Stabs]

Very intresting it may be future DLC, although thats alot of work, personally i thought they may do a psjiic isle / or another shivering isle variant.

[Martin]

Well, it's not a lot of work if they've A] Already built the land, and B] Are not going to be including a full game's worth of quests and what have you.

[Mr.Deviance]

Martin, on 23 November 2011 - 02:55 PM, said:

Actually, your wish may be way more plausible than you think. According to this heroic PC gamer, both the Cyrodiil and (OMFG!!) Morrowind landmasses are in fact there beyond the boundaries of Skyrim. It's almost just the topography (low-res textures, with one or two shabby structures). However, one can reasonably assume from this that these areas aren't just there pointlessly. The most logical conclusion (I think..) that one could come to is that Bethesda created these areas as preliminary groundwork for future DLC. If I'm right, you won't have to play some shitty mod. Looks like Cyrodiil and Morrowind are officially coming to Elder Scrolls V! Morrowind is one of my all-time faves. That game blew me away back in the day. Can't wait to become the Nerevarine again!

That would be the shit man! If that would happen I would be blown away since I never did play the previous games. As I said before, I only played Oblivion and I loved it.
If they release entire games as dlc I would be amazed.
But let's be real, we all know that shit is not going to happen.

[Martin]

Well, we'll find out. If not, then Bethesda did a significant amount of work for nothing. At the very least, this gives PC modders a halfway decent chance at actually bringing Cyrodiil and Morrowind to ES V.. because they're already there. I'd rather Bethesda finished these areas as DLC, and believe that they will.

[Kyphros]

Martin, on 23 November 2011 - 02:55 PM, said:

Actually, your wish may be way more plausible than you think. According to this heroic PC gamer, both the Cyrodiil and (OMFG!!) Morrowind landmasses are in fact there beyond the boundaries of Skyrim. It's almost just the topography (low-res textures, with one or two shabby structures). However, one can reasonably assume from this that these areas aren't just there pointlessly. The most logical conclusion (I think..) that one could come to is that Bethesda created these areas as preliminary groundwork for future DLC. If I'm right, you won't have to play some shitty mod. Looks like Cyrodiil and Morrowind are officially coming to Elder Scrolls V! Morrowind is one of my all-time faves. That game blew me away back in the day. Can't wait to become the Nerevarine again!

Mind=blown.

If this happens, it'll be the first game for which i'll be happy to give money in order to have DLCs.

[Mr.Deviance]

Bethesda, Howard says, will follow the maxim of its previous game Fallout 3: Less is more.

“Very quick DLC might sell well, but that’s not our priority,” he said Monday in a phone interview with Wired.com.

“We’re not going to be doing a lot of it. Our high-level thinking is that there’ll be not as many [pieces of DLC], but they’ll be bigger and more substantial,” he said. “The goal overall is not necessarily to put out more content, but to make the game better.”

So they want to make fewer DLC's that are more substantial than usual DLC's
This theory goes hand in hand with the idea of making those extra provinces.
However, I am still skeptical and I don't want to hope for something that might never exist.

[Stabs]

well i guess if morrowind is ruined now by the volcano with a couple of fringe encampments for quests beginnings and cyro is just the same bland forest surrounding a circular city it could be quite possible with little effort compared to shivering isles, and that was more than your average DLC

[Ronin]

I played both Morrowind and Oblivion, I dont want to go back for a full dlc I'd rather somewhere new like the Shivering Isles did, best dlc I ever bought. Maybe there are other Deadra realms that could be interesting to explore, I want to go to hell again.

[Jeff]

Managed to make some pretty sweet weapons. It's been refined over the last couple days. Basically, you enchant four pieces of gear with a particular enchant, then you make a potion while wearing the enchanted gear to get a more powerful potion. Then craft your gear using the enhanced potion. You won't fully get the effect unless you have maxed alchemy, smithing, or enchanting.

Turn a 40 damage weapon into a 500 damage one-handed killing machine.