General Games Discussion

[covered_in_sponges]

Just get a picture of anything, and I will be more than satisfied.

Also, have you run into any clanfears, daedroths, or other daedra?

[GiantMegaDoucheX]

Me in DB armor

I ran into a flame atronoch earlier; But no daedra yet.

[covered_in_sponges]

Dude, so awesome.

[distorted_reasoning]

hows the new engine?

what noticible improvements do you see with it over the gamebryo engine?

[GiantMegaDoucheX]

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distorted_reasoning wrote:

hows the new engine?

what noticible improvements do you see with it over the gamebryo engine?

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Well, the game looks a lot better...especially the character models...which look superb. Far better than they did in Oblivion, imo.

That said there are some not-so-good textures on the xbox 360 version. I haven't played the PC version.

The engine is solid; But it's still a Bethesda game. Expect bugs.

That said; I've been playing this non-stop for quite some time now and I have yet to see the game freeze up or crash...which is a good sign.

The game definitely isn't reinventing the series; But it's true to the series. It feels as big, if not bigger, than Oblivion...but the real kicker here is that none of the dungeons I've visited appear "randomized"...each and every location is unique in some manner.

I'm currently balls deep into this game just like I was with Oblivion. After a while, though, I stopped caring much for Oblivion because all the locales were beginning to feel the same. In Fallout 3, Bethesda did a good job of making each location feel unique and I feel that, in this regard, Skyrim has a bit more in common with Fallout than it does Oblivion. Each location has some sort of quest attached, or simple logic puzzle, or storyline element, or story, etc...and the ones that really don't are kept relatively small.

[HonorableCloud]

Here's a sweet 3 hour video.

[DragonBeardX05]

You know what excites me the most about this game- the fact that I can wear a hat that resembles the helm Conan wore in Conan the Barbarian!  Swurg.

[GiantMegaDoucheX]

I've been fooling around with a mage character. The magic system in this game is much improved. Spells are varied, fun, and magic based combat is exciting whether you choose to dual wield spells or not.

One cool thing is the new wards system. Essentially they're magical shields you channel that are specialized for defense against other spells. They make caster vs. caster fights feel epic.

[HardcoreHunter]

I just went and paid off the rest of my pre-order.  Now I can just go in and get the game ^_^....Chances are that I will be the only one at the midnight release are probably high >.>

[DoseOfLaughter]

I actually doubt it.

[HardcoreHunter]

No one ever go's to midnight releases in my town. I think the most that I have ever seen at one was around 5 people. However there have been towns near me that get lines that are almost like black Friday in size.

[DoseOfLaughter]

You'd be surprised, really....most people only go to the major midnight releases here....like, Elder Scroll, WoW, Modern Warfare...HUGE crowd....but, something like Arkham City got barely ten people.

[HardcoreHunter]

I think it's just cause we have so many game places that will do it in the area that it just doesn't get crowded. I mean in a 3 mile area there are 2 game stops, Best Buy, Target, and a Wal-Mart. All that will be selling the games when they come out.

It really depends on the area I guess as I have yet to seen a large crowed.  I will probably head over around 11:30 either way. Even if it is a large line all the years of Black Friday have taught me patience, and it's not like the game will be gone as I have it pre-ordered. They will probably let everyone who has theirs paid in full to the front of the line anyway. I have been in a few lines at places that have done that.

[EvilsergE]

How's the third person view in this game?

[Goldar]

When ES:IV came out there were about oh.....maybe 20 people waiting for the midnight release, about the same for Fallout 3, maybe a little more. I have a feeling though that Skyrim will have around 40 people at the midnight release. I live in a city of about 15,000 people.

[GiantMegaDoucheX]

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EvilsergE wrote:
How's the third person view in this game?

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Improved. But I still like first person.

The animations in third person are smoother and it's feesible to play the game that way.

Werewolf form can only be used in third person...and Im guessing there might be a few powers like this in the game that make you go third person. It works well for what it is...but I like first person because it's easier to see stuff lying around and you get more of a cooler view from there.

[GiantMegaDoucheX]

Spoiler

SPOILER

I met up again with a certain scottish sounding daedric lord. Hilarity ensued.

 Also I found a special sword which I'm only going to call "The sacred sword of f*cking sh*t up" that explodes undead upon killing them. Awesome.

[GiantMegaDoucheX]

Crafting:

Crafting is done a bit differently in Skyrim. It's got a kind of Fallout vibe from it...

The best profession, in my opinion, is alchemy. It's very similar to the last games...but the perks in the alchemy tree make your potions better than ones you just pick up. As always it lets you poison your weapons aside from letting you craft potions to stay alive. My only complaint is that I'm ALWAYS low on materials for restore health potions.

Enchanting is useful as well. Theres a perk in the enchanting tree that recharges your magical weapons by killing creatures rather than using soul gems. You can disenchant magical items you find for recipes, and then re-enchant those stats onto similar slot pieces of any kind.

Blacksmithing I have hardly used. It lets you craft any set you have the mats for, and improve your current armor. I don't know how good this is, though, because you find armor that's just as good lying around. I havent invested much in the talent tree, so I can't improve magical items. But for maximizing your armor and weapons you might want to check it out....I chose to stick with alchemy and enchanting.

[EvilsergE]

How does it play in third person? Same controls and everything?
How does the blocking work?

[GiantMegaDoucheX]

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EvilsergE wrote:
How does it play in third person? Same controls and everything?
How does the blocking work?

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Same controls. As for blocking I think it's the same as in oblivion, too. You need to keep an eye on your stamina moreso here though, it feels like.

[HardcoreHunter]

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Goldar wrote:
When ES:IV came out there were about oh.....maybe 20 people waiting for the midnight release, about the same for Fallout 3, maybe a little more. I have a feeling though that Skyrim will have around 40 people at the midnight release. I live in a city of about 15,000 people.

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My town is around 30k and still haven't seen any crowed at a midnight release.

[GiantMegaDoucheX]

Me in Thief armor

[EvilsergE]

Well, I'm trying to find out if it's perfectly playable in third person?

[HardcoreHunter]

I saw that you said on the last page that there is a limit to how many times you can cast a shout.  I hope it's more than once a day seeing as the demo that they showed had the character using a shout more than once. I hope it's more than once cause I never use any of the once a day abilities as they are fairly unreliable.

[GiantMegaDoucheX]

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HardcoreHunter wrote:

I saw that you said on the last page that there is a limit to how many times you can cast a shout.  I hope it's more than once a day seeing as the demo that they showed had the character using a shout more than once. I hope it's more than once cause I never use any of the once a day abilities as they are fairly unreliable.

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Shouts have their own cooldowns. They dont use mana, but are each on a timer. Basic ones like frost breath are around 20 seconds...but bigger shouts like Storm call have a much longer cooldown. I havent timed it exactly but I think that particular shout can only be used once a day.

As far as I can tell they all share the same cooldown, as well. So you can't swap between all of them and just belt them out one after another.

There are also buffs from items and blessings that reduce the time in between shouts.