First Impressions

[Blocky]

Agree with almost everything! Except AI. Some of these mobs actually seem like they are trying to out think me. They will run and hide behind objects, take cover, heal, come back, chase you down, play cat and mouse. I don't remember Oblivion mobs doing anything like that.

[JimboUK]

My first impressions are mostly favorable. I had watched the opening scene to just where the character enters the keep but before his bindings are cut. Seeing all PC-ified was amazing. Getting out to the other side of the intro dungeon was pretty epic. And then things went from great to better. Yes, there is a huge UI problem. I also have the problem of disappearing textures and objects. I hope those are fixed in the next patch or maybe by mods. Other than that, I felt like I was dropped into a vast cinematic world with my Argonian Centurian. Just the fact that I am having a blast with an Argonian is something to be amazed by.

 

High Points:

• The environments. I simply fell right into this world. Looking back, I daresay it was even easier than Oblivion.
  
• Combat and spellcasting. It took a couple of tries, but the two mouse button combo works pretty well. The actual "feel" of combat is just incredible.
  
• Crafting. I had a lot of fun building up my heavy Imperial armor at first and then my Steel armor. Working upwards from there.
  
• Music. I am going to get the soundtrack (4 discs) and consider the $30 a bargain. I cannot even describe how the music makes this game come to life.
  

 

Low Points:

• Weird UI. The mouse seems to be slightly off when clicking options in the dialog and inventory menus. Have to get used to the tab key being the "open and close" menu key.
  
• Graphical glitches. I am pretty well immersed in the game to the point were a few glitches are that big of a deal. On the other hand, I would love to not have semi-transparent doors.
  

 

Nitpicks:

• Underwater Adventures. I realize that there is a whole bunch of stuff on the dirt side, but I created an Argonian for the purpose of checking around the ocean for underwater sites to explore. I did get to see a couple of pretty icebergs though.
  
• Early Dragon Appearances. Look, I realize the creators are all excited about this game, but I would really have like to not have dragons flapping around while I am still trying to figure out the Favorites menu. :)
  
• Crafting Dragon Armor requires a Smithing skill of 100. Yeah, so we can somewhat use this skill roughly about the time our characters retire.
  

 

Well anyway, while I had some low points, so far the game has been amazing. I will post further impressions later.

 

If you're using an ATI card the transparent doors may be a driver issue, I had exactly the same thing with New Vegas and Saints Row 2, I fixed it by setting the AA to performance in the CCC.

[Aratoo]

To people complaining about lack off hotkeys or the favorites menu in general: hotkeys are there but just not at all explained. To hotkey a spell/weapon it must be in your favorites menu, then highlight it in the favorites menu with your cursor and press the number key you want it to be. When using these for spells you can also simply press the hot key twice to equip it in each hand.

 

Hopes this helps people, combat got a lot more fluid for me when I figured this out.

[Nathandor]

I don't see why there's so many negative comments. It's a Bethesda game.... We already knew the graphics wouldn't be the "best" nor would the animations. And people complaining about controls, I hated the oblivion controls when it was released all it takes is getting used to... I've played an hour so far and I think it's great.

[Elof Valantor]

*Even on High settings (rather than Ultra) with anti-aliasing bumped down to 2x, the game simply doesn't run well on my computer in outdoor locations. I get frequent fps dips. My computer is pretty powerful (i7 920, gtx580, 6gb ddr3 ram), I was hoping it would handle the game maxed out at a steady 60 fps @ 1920/1080.

 

Something else is off there because I've got an i5 (at 4.2GHz) and GTX 260 (OC'd) and I'm running the game on High with 2xAA, 16xAF at 1920/1200 and it's mostly silky smooth. I have just got a new 500GB Sata3 HDD (and an SSD for Windows) though. Maybe you drive is a bit full? HDD are the real bottleneck these days. The more rubbish on them the slower they get...

[stars2heaven]

I am very impressed so far. The graphics aren't any where near as bad as some people claim. With the right ini settings the entire game looks stunning. Also, I like the UI. Yep, I said it. It's not hard to figure out how to use it and once you do it is far more efficient and usable than anythign Oblivion or Morowind had. Also, as another person said, there are hotkeys. Edited November 11, 2011 by stars2heaven

[sevalaricgirl]

I'm on PC, played 9 hrs and absolutely love the game. I was used to the interface within 15 minutes, casting spells quickly. I'm using a razer mouse on a Qosmio laptop. No lag. It CTD twice for no reason, no error, just closed the game. Thank goodness it has a very good autosave. I also think my dark elf looks really good as does my hubby. He likes how she looks, definitely not butt ugly. I'm running on ultra high settings.

[Odai]

Played on Xbox. On my 48 in TV the resolution is AMAZING. Only nitpicks... when in Whiterun and jumping up to look out the guard post, you cant SEE anything. And when dual weilding weapons there is a rubberbanding effect while in the still menu.

 

VERY impressed with the difficulty spikes. Easy breezy to OMG why wont you die. UI swarms and attack dynamics are impressive. Now they definitely have their dumb moments when they stand there and let you kill them, but there are the moments when a vampire master reanimates the whole army I just killed and changes out weapons based on proximity to my character.

 

Dragon fights, fun, scary, but with the entire army it was almost too easy.

 

Fun so far. :) But I have a lot of quests where I have found the item, but not the giver.

Edited November 11, 2011 by Odai