zerpentor

having the same problem... still working in it too

After a brief stint in jail I found myself strangely repentant and figured I'd stop by the Orphanage next door to see if there was anything I could help with. When I entered, the loving Grelod was giving a morning pep-talk to the unlucky orphan children of Skyrim. I could just feel the waves of love and affection roll over me as the loving caretaker set the poor children's minds at ease. If you haven't done so already, make the journey to Riften and help out the wonderful Grelod :)

Completely irrelevant. Game production and movie production is very similar nowadays. They use the same fundamental principals to insure at least some degree of structure and quality. The only difference between a movie and a modern RPG game is that the game allows you to interact with it and change things. This difference is also irrelevant to my point, which is this: Dropping you in the game without any explanation to why, where or who diminished the game. Just because TES games have always done this does not make it ok. If that's ok, then why improve anything at all and bar every improvement to the series.

I'm not seeing it, because seat belts and airbags are obvious technological improvements for cars while the lack of backstory in a TES game is a design choice. Agreed. It would be safe to assume the general population that has played TES games would agree that starting an RPG at a clean start and to be free to do your choices is not a setback, nor outdated. I agree that it is a design choice. A poor choice in my oppinion, since it removes the characters motivation. I disagree about it not being outdated. Just because it hasn't been a part of previous TES games is not a valid reason for it not to be, at the very least, an option now. It would have been soooo easy to include and still make all the "free thinkers of the TES community" happy aswell. Just add a skippable tutorial part where the game basics are explained as well as your past (or atleast some hints at it).

Wait, what?? What you're saying is basicly the same as saying you don't mind watching a movie without seeing the first 20 minutes. Imagine, if you will, That Fellowship of The Ring started when Frodo and Co. were leaving Rivendel after having decided to take the Ring to Mordor. No explanation is given, they don't talk about who they are or their motivation for undertaking this suicidal quest. I am fairly certain that movie-goers around the world would have been furious and would not have been satisfied with "Let your imagination go wild and make up your own back story for the shireling and his friends" Another example of why giving backstory is the comic hero Batman. He is what he is because his parents were murdered in front of him. Without this knowledge of him, it is MUCH harder to sympathize with his overzealousness and without it, he would just be another vigilante. Finally... What this game is lacking completely is, in theatrical terms, setting the stage. Ask any movie director or stage performer whether setting the stage is a VITAL part or not and I think you will find their answers very similar.

Just to recap some of the replies here: "Just plug in your controller and stop complaining" No. I find console controllers to be a huge step backwards when it comes to communication my commands to the game. Keyboard and Mouse just gives you much more freedom... and speed. There is a reason why FPS games for consoles have aiming assistance and less enemies than their PC counterparts. More often than not, the controller makes the games harder than it has to be. "It's a TES game, none of them has character backstory!" So? Old classic cars didn't have seat belts, air bags or anti locking brakes either. The cars were still great, but they are just not up to today's standards. See what I'm getting at? If not, let me know and i'll toss more analogies at you. :) "1 hour is not enough to judge the game" From a technical stand point, yes it is. It doesn't take 20 hours of play to determine that the interface works against you and not for you. Neither does it take that long to evaluate the graphics. I am not saying it's an ugly game (I switched off FXAA and it looked slightly better, but the water in the distance is still abysmal), I am just saying that it's been 5 years since Oblivion, rigs are vastly superior than they were back then and that increase machine power should be reflected in the game. The answer to why it's simple a pretty game on the PC and not jaw droppingly gorgeous is obvious: The game must also run on the consoles, which still labor with aging tech, despite improvements to game coding. Despite this I had expected more graphics settings.

Ok. My friend encouraged me to write something somewhere, to "warn" like-minded individuals, so here I am. I usually don't write on forums, so bear with me if my lingo is... off. :) So I've been playing for a bit over an hour now, which is long enough for the first dungeon crawl and a bit of exploring and here is my experience so far. (If you are fanboy, then stop reading now as this will likely become unpleasant for you) If you are like me however, an avid fan of RPGs that loathes ports from consoles to PC, then read on. Let me first state that although I loved Oblivion as a game, I absolutely hated the consolish interface. Much to my delight modders saved me from it, albeit years later... in Fall Out 3 + NV Bethesda/Obsidian had improved the interface immensely and so naturally I expected more improvements for Skyrim. Unfortunately I have been sorely disappointed... Oh yes, console users will have no problems with it I'm sure since it's built for them, but the interface's transition to PC is not pretty. Here are the major problems with it: Mouse support is sporadic at best, some menus/menu items it works for, others not. There are no mouseover effect on menu items when hovering over them with the mouse, so you won't know if the item is selected, if the menu is bugged or if this is simply one of the unsupported menus. In the character creation you can scroll in the menu with the wheel, the sliders must be manipulated with the keyboard if you are to remain sane. Choosing race is the first option in the creation, but I feel choosing sex should be first (small detail I know). Here is my big beef with the character creator: If you use your mouse to turn your character's head, you loose the ability to manipulate the bodypart settings with the mouse.To get it to work again, you must choose a different creation tab and switch back again, before you can use the mouse again. The mouse isn't integrated with the talent tree menu, which is a shame since it would have been very handy there. (if you haven't played the game yet, you will understand once you do) There are no hotkeys... what the hell? this is not new news, but still, having to "favorite" all your useful weapons/spells in order for combat not to slow to a complete halt is slightly annoying (and by slightly i mean very) The Game: Yes, its prettier than Oblivion, but not by much.. atleast not without messing with the Ini files a lot. No, it's not my rig that is the problem. If I stand on a mountain top I am immediately aware of the crude, ugly geometry and texturing in the distance(Ultra settings), which they actually pulled off better in Oblivion. The characters are much prettier than Oblivion though and can't wait for BOG or Dim99 to roll out their body mods :) Lastly, I am sorely disappointed that introduction to the world is missing completely and the game assumes you know the lore. Furthermore, Having played for over an hour now, I still have NO idea about who I am in the game, which is pretty lame. Basicly, the only thing I know is, that my I am male, I am an Imperial and that I was caught crossing the border from Cyrodil (was this illegal I wonder? Did I commit some other heinous crime? Why was I crossing the border? What did I do in life before I was rudely tossed into the fray?) All of this could have been solved with a minimal amount of effort on the devs. part, but it would have contributed immensely to the immersion.. Atleast in Fall Out 3 you got to play your past (still think that is the best intro/character development to date) and in New Vegas, you knew you were a courier and that some jerk had shot you in the brain box and buried you. In NV all it took was a short intro and a conversation with the first person you meet.... For me, Skyrim does not live up to the hype at all. I might come back after having played 20 hours having seen the light, but all I can say at the moment is, that Skyrim might be a great game, but the interface and lack of introduction is killing the fun for me.