Question about skyrim to the real fans of Bethesda

[wolfpak360]

I played all the elder scrolls games and fallout 3 and new Vegas and Skyrim is a major step up. If u liked fallout, u will love skyrim. Ps3 version had some serious issue before they patched it. I have 250 hrs into this game. My character is so powerful but I still find challenging fights and huge caves and dungeons to explore. I say believe the hype. It starts a little slow but before u know it u will be finding it hard to put down. Such an incredible experience for me. I continue to get excited every time I turn it on to see what kind of day it will be. It is huge, seems never ending. I love it and have been gaming for over 20 yrs amd play all the best titles. Decide for yourself. I will say this, if you are a true hard core gamer then this is your dream come true. Awesome game!

[Charlinho]

Firstly, THANKYOU to everybody who posted a reply here. What impresses me most is the high standard of the discussion in general and certain members who give some very extensive,

enjoyable plus interesting reading with plenty of food for thought.

 

I hope that someone at Bethesda with some say by chance reads them. If they don't use this site for feedback...then...eem...yeah...

 

Also interesting, I find, is that 99% of the things said were credible despite being totally opposite in opinion. Considering that, together with the quality of the points made, rather than

drawing a conclusion about Skyrim for myself, I might sooner be inclined to give Bethesda credit for creating worlds where almost everyone, to a large degree,

can find what he or she is looking for. Of course, a lot of the points made are pure facts, indisputable and as far as they’re concerned it’s why I was lucky to have started my first Bethesda game after

most of the patches and fixes were out. As long as these things are eventually fixed I won’t want to use a Fatman or Midas Comet on them. But I will remember if it was they or a modder

who fixed them.

At one stage someone made the point of why I should want to ask the “real fans of Bethesda” another what I meant by “real gamers”.

The latter is simple to answer, real gamers i.e. who play, as opposed to reviews in magazines and commercial sites that have, to put it mildly, certain obligations and rules to abide with

when it comes to evaluating the supplier side of their income.

 

The “real fans of Bethesda” is a slightly more complex issue, but to put it in a nutshell, if you wanted to buy a good bottle of wine you would prefer to consult a wine connoisseur

to an expert on beer. I said to myself, “well..at least 200 hrs should be enough, I hope there are a couple around to read this thread” I am totally taken aback to discover that 200 hrs.

is nothing for most, seriously, I thought I was one of the very few lunatics around. None of my friends, family or personal contacts are into gaming AT ALL. Live like that

for years on end and you start thinking you might be a freak. Then, inevitably, as the hours and hours with Bethesda accumulated, I started wondering what it was about the whole

concept of their games that kept and still keeps me going. I’ve played A LOT of games, totally different genres, but once completed, that’s it, no return. Half-Life 2 or Crysis 2,

Mafia2, great games, great atmosphere, play once through, goodbye.

The only exceptions are games like Anno, Settlers and Flight Simulator but even they don’t compare to Bethesda when it comes to time spent.

No question that it’s the mods that finally do it. If it weren’t for them (and a lot of them are really amazing) the vanilla worlds would become monotonous and I would have left them long

ago. But a lot of mods are in essence tools to do crazy and fun stuff with. That, combined with the construction set is, to me, a fantastic duo. Then I’m also extremely grateful to the

developers of the tools to make them function. I’ve probably spent as much time getting everything to work together as playing, but no matter how tiresome it was I never even

dreamt of giving up, which, come to think of it, is also pretty incredible.

 

However, apart from wanting to know what Bethesda gamers think of Skyrim in comparison to its predecessors there is that undefinable grey zone of hope and apprehension of

WANTING to hear very specific comments about aspects of the game, as I’ve experienced, that are being increasingly neglected and underestimated with every new edition that comes

out. One, and now comes the point where some might not agree, is individuality and variation in npc dialog. Above all amongst themselves.

It dawned on me after completing the main quests of New Vegas. NOBODY SAYS ANYTHING ANYMORE. Even companions stand around like dumbos looking into the void without animations

and worse still, WORDS. It’s something that pisses me off (I’m getting angry and losing it). Compared to that, hearing 30 times a day that you encountered a mud-crab is like paradise.

"More calmly", in Oblivion npcs are chatterboxes that are always busy and in New Vegas static deaf-mutes, Fallout 3 is in-between. The magazine reviews focus on quest gameplay and above all graphics.

I love great graphics but they can’t hold me. It’s what’s in my imagination that holds me, what I visualize, more than what I actually see.

A lot of people refused to buy a tv-set when they first came out, calling them a bastardization of radio entertainment. They had a point to make, I believe. Sure, you advertise a game emphasizing

it’s fantastic dialogues and nobody buys it. But dialogue is the salt that makes a taste perfect and gets you to visualize, the more visualization, the more imagination involved, the longer

it contributes to a game’s lifespan and atmosphere. A really, really impressive scenario is from the modder of the latest part of Mothership Zeta Crew.

The conference. “WOW” I thought. “This is the real McCoy!!” A really great voiced scenario. And only then the visual aspect made everything perfect. My hair stood on end.

There are a lot of other things to say about the great potential in Bethesda’s games but the general question is “where are they heading?”

It doesn’t necessarily have to be a set-back if they focus on consoles more. I have to admit that the game-play graphics I saw on youtube gave me that impression

and got me wondering if that didn’t come at the expense of something else, which is then usually audio or dialogue, plus individuality of npc faces

(another big difference between Oblivion and Fallout). It's npc diversity and complexity in combination with dialogue that I'm personally most keen on. Npc interaction. A world that stays alive.

After the storyline it's mainly that, amongst other things, that'll keep me hooked to the game. That is when I start playing proper. I''ve gotten to know the world, was kicked around, acheived something, made friends and enemies,

moved on from a nobody to a somebody, feel at home and important, and now I'm going to turn the tables, do only what I want to do - in full control.

This is where I think non-multiplayer has it's advantages. You can decide how much control you delegate to the game or assume for yourself. And you are also the master of time.

The more complex the npcs are the more fun it is.For the developers these are of course things that require a lot more work, hence money. But if it's an issue with crossroad-status then there’s trouble ahead.

My conclusion regarding that, if my suspicion is right and Skyrim even more silent, and it's successor even more, is that today's fans will finally stop being fans and modders will lose inspiration, they’re only human.

But I don’t want to conclude on the (possible) downsides. The upsides far outweigh and I haven’t grown tired of re-visiting Cyrodil, the Capital Wasteland or the Mohave and can’t imagine that I ever

will - even if it’s just to say hello to old friends, companions and super-mutants.

[trob1000]

Skyrim is a decent game if not stripped down. The writing sucks, the side quests aren't worth playing. The side quests aren't anything like the guild quests from Oblivion, actually, the guilds are gone in skyrim. The game engine is less broken than Oblivion, but most of that development came in Fallout 3. Skyrim's story isn't as good as Oblivion's or Fallout 3 and all the "epicness" is the better graphics. It is still worth a play, for all of its writing faults, it is still better than New Vegas. The map is really big, worth exploring, and the story is more immersive than New Vegas. The game is simplified in a bad way compared to Oblivion, can't make spells or staffs. Can't fight underwater, even unarmed. No touched based attack spells. The civil war portion of the quest could have been better and involved espionage. In short, Skyrim doesn't live up to the hype, but it doesn't fall flat on its face. It works, is good entertainment, and is immersive enough for me to over look the crap writing in the main quest. My comparison to other Bethesda games except Oblivion:

 

Fallout New Vegas VS Skyrim winner Skyrim

Skyrim VS Fallout 3 winner Fallout 3

 

Still worth the money though.

[Brandy1123]

I think most people's complaints aren't really in the stability of the game engine. What I think is the root casue of most disgruntled players (by that I mean people who purchased their game) would be what we recieved. On 11-11-11 we were given a DX 9 game. It was written exclusively for a game console the was 9+ years old. There is no doubt about the game's immensity, depth and content. The fact that we CAN mod our game to our hearts treasued content it wonderful. The problem is, we as PC users were not given a current technological masterpiece. We have struggled with menu's, input devices, drivers, bloated code and a game that should never have been released in its present state, as a PC game. We also need to be connected to an intrusive launch platform to run your purchased game (even to run the game offline you have to go online to do it, and you still need their services running afterwords). To run the Creation Kit, your system MUST be connected to STEAMypile and you are forced to take their updates regardless of your intended wants. If you elect to launch or download the CK, you ability to decide about updates become obsolete.

 

I have a lot of game troubleshooting behind me, mod load order evaluation, and mod tester. I have over 1500 hours in game and still do not consider myself an expert. I just have a lot of in game experience. IMHO if it weren't for the NEXUS modders, this game would have been dead by last February.

 

I played TES -IV Oblivion for a similar number of hours under similar circumstances. I have not loaded it since 2 weeks prior to Skyrim's release. I Also played Morrowind, but not near the time or indepth game play. Bethesda has lead the pack for a bigger, more expansive and freedom filled worlds. I think they missed the mark on this ported and dumbed down version we recieved.

[Enatiomorph]

Feature wise, compared to previous games, it is a total joke. No attributes, no spell creation, no acrobatics, athletics or degradation, cut skills left and right. Neutered spell list, neutered alchemy and enchanting, neutered H2H, etc. the list goes on. And the sad part is all these things were in Ob... Oblivion!

 

The saddest part is mods wont even fix some of this stuff.

Edited August 24, 2012 by Enatiomorph

[trob1000]

The alchemy system was worse in Oblivion. You can't experiment to make new potions and find new uses for ingredients. In Oblivion you had to wait and level the alchemy before you found new uses for things. In Skyrim, my alchemy was more useful at level 20 than my alchemy skill was at level 80 in Oblivion. I do agree with the limited variety of spell and the inability to make your own. There were different ingredients in Skyrim, but you have to have some realism when dealing with the climate. Edited August 24, 2012 by trob1000

[Enatiomorph]

Alchemy in previous games had more effects, more options and more variables. Alchemy in Skyrim is a joke.

[trob1000]

I'd rather have a useful joke than have to wait until I've finished the game to make alchemy useful. The random guessing slows people down and lets face, most people use alchemy for health, magicka and stamina restoration. Restoration was the most useful aspect of alchemy and it was easier to level up restoration than to have potions that could be made for free.

[Enatiomorph]

Skyrim is the same random guessing. Just less of everything.

[Stemin]

Define a "real fan" and then explain to me what makes you so qualified to define it. :rolleyes: