Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

quarryman

Sofiztikated wrote: »

The quests are getting a bit annoying. Go here, read that, go the other side of the poxy map to some place I haven't discovered yet, get something, go back again.

True that. I started playing over the weekend again and picked up where I left off on the main quest. It's quite obvious the game is built around using the fast travel. I needed to go talk to couple of characters to progress a mission who were at completely other ends of the map. It was really jarring to the gameplay to sit through load screen after load screen as I traveled across the map, then another load screen for the city*, then another for the building they were in, then maybe another to upstairs etc.

I wish they had focused more on quests that were confined to one area, rather than fed ex stuff across the entire map. The main quest is rife with this kind of thing - maybe they felt it would make things more "epic" to require the player the travel so much. Also, the main quest sucks ass in general.

*The Open Cities mod helps a lot here though.

Skerries

Yeah I went back at the weekend as well and am just going to finish the main quest which I never got around to
I'm a 2 handed Nord level 45 with 140 hours done

Gbear

I'm not going to complain from a value for money standpoint - I got a good 120 hours and only bought the game for €7.50.

It just never felt like I was going to complete every element of it though.
I didn't do finish either the imperial or stormcloak storyline, the thieves guild, the dark brotherhood (except wiping it out), the companions storyline, dawnguard or a load of other side quests.
I did finish the main one.

I might reroll with a mage a few months down the line but I mostly find the game tedious at this stage. I never really cared about any of the quests much. Not even the main one. It was only about doing them for the sake of the box being ticked in the quest screen.

Shiminay

I'd be the same as you Gbear - I have definitely gotten value for money, but never finished the game. I did the Storm Cloaks mission, Companions and a stack of the Daedra missions. I tried roll playing it to a certain extent (cause power-playing and gaming the system is no fun), I played as a big bastarding Nord with a 2 handed battle axe and took great pleasure in chopping mo-fos in half with it. It made no sense to be a part of a thieves guild as by the time I got there, I was in full Obsidian Plate (Enchanted up to the max) and had a grim reaper style scythe (also enchanted and enhanced at the black smith's) that I looted from some manner of beast I found thanks to Monster Mod.

However, after 120ish hours sunk into the game I realised that I wasn't playing an action fantasy hack 'n' slash RPG, I was playing The Sims: Elder Scrolls That's not intended as some sort of slight, but Skyrim was more like a fully realised fantasy sandbox in which you could live and if you so choose, do missions to advance a certain storyline. Morrowind felt a lot more focused. I didn't play Oblivion - I heard too many awful things about all missions level matching.

I do see myself playing it again though. Playing this on anything other than PC is doing yourself a massive injustice because the mods turn this from an enjoyable experience into an unforgettable one. Would *love* to see a co-op mod come out.

Canis Lupus

I just got my hands on a copy of Skyrim. What mods do people recommend to use from the start?

Canis Lupus

Canis Lupus wrote: »

I just got my hands on a copy of Skyrim. What mods do people recommend to use from the start?

To be honest its what ever you feel like doing. I hate Magic and any of that crap. I like to stick with swords. Bow and arrow is fun also.

Pushtrak

^ He's talking about game mods, not play styles.

Canis Lupus

Yeah, is that list slightly earlier in the thread a good pick?

Pushtrak

I'm a lowly console gamer, so can't really speak to their quality, I'm afraid :P

Sephiroth_dude

Is the dlc worth getting?

EGriff

Sephiroth_dude wrote: »

Is the dlc worth getting?

I'm thinking the same myself but its still too expensive, €20 each for dragonborn and dawnguard.

Even on cheaper sites like gamefly they are both €16-€17. I already bought two copies of the game (granted the PC version was only a fiver).

hypermuse

Skyrim is the kinda game you think you've finished but then get so wrapped up in again if you start it up again!

I wanna get the DLC's but they are too expensive, gonna wait till they cost next to nothing!

Mickeroo

Just wait for the legendary edition to drop in price after it comes out.

mewso

Mickeroo wrote: »

Also, slightly OT but it is a bethesda game.....is Fallout: New Vegas a big improvement over Fallout 3? I enjoyed Fallout but it never really grabbed me to the extent Skyrim did, never really felt compelled to explore the world and just mostly did the main quest and whatever smaller quests I stumbled on on the way.

If you want choice and consequence then NV is the one to go for. Some of the original Fallout devs worked on New Vegas and while I enjoyed both Fallout 3 and New Vegas about equally I am starting to appreciate New Vegas the more I consider the Bethesda model. They make good games but they are less and less rpgs and more and more shooters with some extras in a very well crafted and interesting world. That goes for Skyrim too. I've said it before it's hard to criticise Skyrim when I've put more than 150 hours into it but all I will say is it's not really an rpg. If it was more rpg like - restrictions on what you can specialise in, more consequences and so on it would be closer to my perfect game. There is a point in their last few games where it all starts to feel very shallow but as I said by the time you get to that point you have had a fantastic time.

EGriff

That's true, by the time I finished the main game I had maxed out archery, smithing, one handed weapons and destruction magic. Plus I was very high in lockpicking and stealth.

It was very easy by that point but I still enjoyed every second of it.

zl1whqvjs75cdy

Re; The DLC. Get dragonborn, I wouldn't bother with dawnguard. I loved dragonborn, was much less impressed with dawnguard.

quarryman

Canis Lupus wrote: »

I just got my hands on a copy of Skyrim. What mods do people recommend to use from the start?

Don't install any mods (well maybe a few graphical ones) until you've played the vanilla game for a while.

Figure out what bugs you about the vanilla game and see if there is a mod to fix it.

I can never understand people wanting to rush into throwing mods at games when they haven't played it without em first.

Pushtrak

It's sorta understandable when every thread about Elder Scrolls says things like the games are good, but the mods make them great or something similar.

Adyx

quarryman wrote: »

Don't install any mods (well maybe a few graphical ones) until you've played the vanilla game for a while.

Figure out what bugs you about the vanilla game and see if there is a mod to fix it.

I can never understand people wanting to rush into throwing mods at games when they haven't played it without em first.

I agree with what you're saying but if you're on a PC you should be using SkyUI. I could never go back to the original now.

quarryman

Adyx wrote: »

I agree with what you're saying but if you're on a PC you should be using SkyUI. I could never go back to the original now.

True. Sky UI is a no brainer.

But I find installing gameplay mods should be saved until you've put some time into the vanilla game. Once you've played it through, go back and nuts on 2nd playthrough.

MadYaker

Id recommend SkyUI and a few graphics mods if your PC can handle it, but thats all I used for my first play through. The vanilla graphics are a bit dissapointing really.

Shiminay

The "install before you start" list is quite small I'd suggest.

SkyUI is a given, as are the Texture and Sound improvements. World map improvements are probably a very good idea too.

There are some "Needless Frustrations" in the game that you can apply a mod to fix - perfect examples would be not being able to fletch your own arrows or not being able to get your horse to carry some loot.

After that, I'd do as quarryman suggested, play it for 5 or 6 hours - enough to get a good feel for the game world and the combat and then you'll have a more accurate idea of what you'd personally like to tweak. The great thing is the variety of mods available generally means you can change the way the game feels and or plays.

Edit:

Just to add, this is a list of the top recommended mods on NexusMod for Skyrim - they're the most recommended for a reason SkyUI is top of that list.

Canis Lupus

quarryman wrote: »

Don't install any mods (well maybe a few graphical ones) until you've played the vanilla game for a while.

Figure out what bugs you about the vanilla game and see if there is a mod to fix it.

I can never understand people wanting to rush into throwing mods at games when they haven't played it without em first.

Well it depends on the mod, graphical and usability generally tend to be high on my list of things to look at with RPG games like this.

CrazyRabbit

The only mod you really need at the beginning is the Unofficial Patch. It fixes tons of bugs that Bethseda couldn't be bothered to fix.

Baked.noodle

Unofficial Skyrim mod "Falskaar."

This is Falskaar, an ambitious mod which has its own backstory, its own voice actors, its own land mass and its own short campaign story (with side-missions as well).

EGriff

Looks good. I played moonpath to elsweyr recently and that was pretty good, obviously not up to the quality of the main game but not too far off.

Kiith

PcGamer just released their top 50 mods. Some fantastic one's in there that i've never come across.

http://www.pcgamer.com/2012/10/28/the-25-best-skyrim-mods-2/

Cookie_Monster

Kiith wrote: »

PcGamer just released their top 50 mods. Some fantastic one's in there that i've never come across.

http://www.pcgamer.com/2012/10/28/the-25-best-skyrim-mods-2/

Damn you PC gamers, Damn you!!!!

/kicks xbox

Kiith

It's a shame they've never managed to have a way of getting some of the more polished mods on consoles. Surely something like the Steam Workshop would work? I guess the inevitable crashes that come with some of the mods just wouldn't work for consoles.

It really does make the game so much better then the console version though.

Overheal

Kiith wrote: »

It's a shame they've never managed to have a way of getting some of the more polished mods on consoles. Surely something like the Steam Workshop would work? I guess the inevitable crashes that come with some of the mods just wouldn't work for consoles.

It really does make the game so much better then the console version though.

http://www.destructoid.com/fez-patch-won-t-be-fixed-because-it-costs-too-much-231618.phtml

In the case of Fez, the costs of patching the game was considered too expensive as to be prohibitive.

http://www.shacknews.com/article/54351/valve-bringing-team-fortress-2

In the case of Teamfortress 2, Microsoft was going to force them to charge players for the updates that were free in the PC version (with the game now being totally free). 3 years post-launch, Valve finally conceded defeat on releasing a worthwhile update that they were comfortable having to charge money for, and the update never emerged. The PS3 version of the game received 1 patch to my knowledge. The 360 version got 4. The PC version is at over 380 and counting.

Consoles don't have a great track record to start with.