mdale13 Posted October 31, 2011 Share Posted October 31, 2011 (edited) Lets get one thing straight, this thread is not meant to be trolling in any way. I am a big Elder Scrolls fan, and am looking forward to this game more than any other in recent years. But I cant help feeling a little underwhelmed when I see the game in action. Between all the demo footage that has been released and the recently leaked intro that I skimmed through, I find many of the animations and character models, as well as the voice acting to be sub-par for a AAA title such as this. Ill be picking up Uncharted 3 for my PS3 tomorrow, and comparing the level of presentation and polish from that game to Skyrim makes Skyrim look positively outdated. Now I realize that they are totally different games and genres, but its just an example to better illustrate my point. The Witcher 2 is probably a much better comparison. I know that they are very different sorts of RPG's but the level of polish on a game as vast as the Witcher 2 is the same degree of quality we should be able to enjoy in Skyrim. Many of the animations in Skyrim that have been shown thus far are rather jerky, dont blend well from one to the next and look a little unnatural. The voice-acting is mediocre at best based on what Ive heard. Many of the character models that have been shown (most of the non-humans, minus the lizard and cat-folks!) are still rather ugly and totally unrealistic compared to other AAA titles being released. Now I know a lot of people are simply glad to see that all of this stuff is improved from what it was in Oblivion. And yes, that is certainly true. But Oblivion is 6 years old. Its not a fair comparison. We should be able to hold Bethesda to higher standards than that. I think they get a little too much understanding simply because they are Bethesda. Coming from a game development/game art background and education, I have a good understanding of the challenges that face a developer when creating a game as vast as Skyrim. Therefore I am a little more forgiving when I play a game like Skyrim. However there appear to be many issue that are going to be too obvious to ignore, and I for one am disappointed in that respect. Will Skyrim be an epic adventure and offer countless hours of fun and replayability? Yes, of course, but I cant help but feel that we deserve more from a developer as prolific as Bethesda. Edited October 31, 2011 by mdale13 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hector530 Posted October 31, 2011 Share Posted October 31, 2011 the enter/return button USE IT Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CalibanX Posted October 31, 2011 Share Posted October 31, 2011 As far as the combat animations looking unpolished, almost all of the videos I've seen have mostly been in first person and I don't play melee combat in first person. For me, the melee combat needs to be seen in third person in order to really be appreciated. Imagine watching a kung fu movie from a first person perspective? It would be a confusing jumble of images. That's how I always see first person melee combat in video games, so I'll need to fully see those animations in third person before I'll be able to really judge them. However, one thing I really like about Bethesda is the degree to which the games can be modded by it's users. I have no doubt that there will be graphical aspects of the game that will be greatly improved as the torrent of mods come out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stormguy85 Posted October 31, 2011 Share Posted October 31, 2011 You are judging a game's graphics and sound quality from a low-quality bootleg video of someone recording themselves playing on the 360? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheeChosenOne Posted October 31, 2011 Share Posted October 31, 2011 Stop whining....... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chaosrex Posted October 31, 2011 Share Posted October 31, 2011 As you say its true that Witcher2 and Uncharted are more polished then Skyrim looks. BUT the aesthetics of those games are different from one another,be it Witcher or Uncharted or Skyrim. Also you mention the Witcher and Uncharted, nut even those as some jerky animations,weird AI behaviour and stuff,even if it is not as evident as some of the animations of Skyrim,they exist. Also what those games wants to achieve is largly different. The Witcher 2 give you a wide, complex story telling where each choices you make have consequences, but the counter part is that you are stuck in a Character thats not your own,in a pretty closed environements. Even if the said environement in the Witcher 2 are grandiose and really good looking,in the end its just corridors,invisible/visible walls, where you can't go off track. You have the main quest,side quests, but you can't decide to go in a complete different area of where you are now in the story line,most of the time you can't go back. Even if Witcher is a great RPG it is waay more restrictif in what you can accomplish. the Same goes for Uncharted, as good as this franchise is( and good i loved every single minute of playing the first 2 games), there is little to no comparaison between Uncharted, the Witcher 2 and Skyrim. As well as the comparaison between Witcher and Skyrim is close enough to be potent, Uncharted is an entirely different kind of game. It is more restrictif the the Witcher is and you don't have the freedom to do what you want unlike in Skyrim. The Strenght of TES games arn't in the technical aspect,even if it as his importance and i agree with that. Whereas Witcher 2 and Uncharted are strict in what you can and cannot do, Skyrim give you the freedom to virtualy do whatever the heck you wanna do! You are free to go anywhere,to do anything,to look how you will look, and to play how you will play. So when making a world where nearly anything is in the gradp of your hand, and that you can attain a degree of freedom never seen before,well of course their will be some things that might be overlooked or jerky or not as smooth as in a DMC or GoW game in terms of animations. But from what i saw,the animations,while beeing a bit stern are realistic enough,you don't have the old syndrom of the NPC appearing out of nowhere or teleporting from the cart to the ground,like you see in the Intro, where the man who drive the cart with you on it,CLIMBS off the cart liek a normal personne would do. Also when the guards make the man go on his knees to get head chopped and then give a little kick to toss the body aside. I dunno those animations looked pretty damn realistic and smooth to me. Whereas even in Witcher 2 their is animations that seems a little bit fake,because they are made with motion capture, but still seems like the character as something in the butt. So to end this post i just will say that what you will be doing in Skyrim is waaaay more different then what you did in the Witcher 2 and what you will do in Uncharted 3 or any other game. So to me the "jerky" animations arn't a real problem,not when you have the potential that Skyrim as. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CalibanX Posted October 31, 2011 Share Posted October 31, 2011 I don't think his criticisms are "whining". Every one has their own opinion and there's nothing wrong with constructive criticism. When I first played Oblivion I was totally blown away by it, but when I discovered all of the mods out there, I quickly began to see the myriad ways in which the game could be improved. I'm sure Skyrim will be something similar. And I'm very excited about it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mdale13 Posted October 31, 2011 Author Share Posted October 31, 2011 (edited) You are judging a game's graphics and sound quality from a low-quality bootleg video of someone recording themselves playing on the 360? The fidelity of the video has nothing to do with how the animations look or how unconvincing some of the voice-acting is. And the fact that it is on a 360 has nothing to do with it either. It seems they simply are not at the level that we should expect them to be. Im not trying to whine, I am trying to openly voice my disappointments with the game. I realize no game is perfect, but I cant help but feeling like some of these technical shortcomings of Skyrim could have been avoided. Its the same stuff that plagued Oblivion and Fallout, only slightly dialed back this time around. @chaosrex I do realize that the Witcher 2 and Uncharted are very different games, they were only examples. The truth is, the only games that can really be compared to Skyrim in terms of depth and freedom are other Bethesda games. I just wish that Bethesda had the knowledge or desire to elevate their games closer to the sort of polish demonstrated in an Uncharted or a Witcher 2 quality of game. I often get a sense of things being merely 'good-enough' when I look at many aspects of a Bethesda game. I don't think his criticisms are "whining". Every one has their own opinion and there's nothing wrong with constructive criticism. When I first played Oblivion I was totally blown away by it, but when I discovered all of the mods out there, I quickly began to see the myriad ways in which the game could be improved. I'm sure Skyrim will be something similar. And I'm very excited about it. I agree, and thank you for understanding what I am trying to say. Like I said, I love the Elder Scrolls more than any other videogame series (or fantasy series for that matter) but I feel like with as far as Bethesda has come in the last 10 years as a company, developing such a rich, detailed world with no lack of interesting quests to follow or unique artifacts to discover, they could put a little more effort into how their games actually look and perform. There is no doubt in my, or anyone elses mind that they have nailed the ethos of their worlds, but their technical execution always seems to be an afterthought. Edited October 31, 2011 by mdale13 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hector530 Posted October 31, 2011 Share Posted October 31, 2011 (edited) I still don't see the bad animations that everyone is talking about in skyrim. Also skyrim is only the best only 360 games it's a such a shame consoles have to limit the pc ports Edited October 31, 2011 by hector530 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CalibanX Posted October 31, 2011 Share Posted October 31, 2011 (edited) Perhaps the "good-enough" aspects are that way due to the various technical & financial constraints that limit those aspects because they all occur within a kind of virtual reality environment where so many other objects have to also exist together? Or to put it another way, perhaps some of the less than awesome animations are the cost of having to also detail such a huge, open, interactive world? I don't really know how much RAM is taxed by having lots of very fluid animations on screen at the same time. Edited October 31, 2011 by CalibanX Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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