201 replies to this topic

[Sir Deimos]

The chick from Whiterun that they made follow me around? I'd marry her. xD She murders everything.

[Selena]

Which is an admirable quality in a wife.

Marrying means that you get a few tiny bonuses. Your spouse (who can be of either gender) will stay at your house. Upon request, they will give you tasty eatums. They will also give you a tiny bit of money from time to time. But that's it. I married Mjoll the Lioness just to see how it all worked. Might not have really minded, but if you marry her in particular, her whiny manslave comes as part of a package deal. Oh heeeeell no.

Moral of the story: Just keep mistresses at your beck and call.

Also bought my first house today. In Markoth. Also own the Dark Brotherhood Sanctuary now.

[SteveT]

I haven't had as much time to play as I'd like, but I got my first random dragon fight today.

It got bored and flew off.

[Selena]

That's what she said?


Also: You can meet your character from Oblivion. In a way.

[J-Roc]

Getting married - not worth it. Reloaded previous save. >___>

QFT.

WTF is Skyrim?

[Elvenlord]

Getting married - not worth it. Reloaded previous save. >___>

QFT.

WTF is Skyrim? I LOVE SKYRIM

Fixed.

[Sir Deimos]

Getting married - not worth it. Reloaded previous save. >___>

QFT.

WTF is Skyrim? I'm so damn funny.

Fixed.

My "fixed" is more "a look into the authors head".

[Sir Turtlelot]

I found this to be pretty funny.

[Selena]

Last night I fought some mages and got an ice spear lodged through my torso.

Stuff like that is supposed to fade away over time, or disappear on the next major loading screen.

Still there.

After many hours.

Giant ice javelin awkwardly stuck through my body til the end of time. This is simply unfortunate. Supposedly the glitch will "go away" after a while according to google. Still waiting. Maybe if I get into a fight with more mages and get hit with more ice...

[SteveT]

No, no. You should get into a fight with fire mages. That'll melt it.

I was wandering the countryside and saw a dragon swoop out of the sky and attack a giant. The giant won, then noticed me. I was so close to stealing the dragon's soul and escaping, but of course the giant caught up with me and no such luck.

[Dizzy]

It's everything I hoped it would be. <3


Having a hard time peeling myself away from it. I even played through my phone alarm.

[Selena]

Rejoice! For the ice javelin has been dislodged from my body!


It has been replaced with an arrow embedded in my butt.

[Twinrova]

It has been replaced with an arrow embedded in my butt.

Kinky.

[Selena]

I just can't stop getting penetrated in this game.

[Twinrova]

Pix or it didn't happen.





Also: Beat my first dragon this weekend while Ben was asleep. Then used my dragon scream thingy at some important dude and got chased/killed out of the city and now everyone hates me. :B

But I don't care I get to use ice/fire magics at the same time. I am gonna pretend I'm Twinrova until I'm 60.

Edited by Twinrova, 20 November 2011 - 10:08 PM.

[Selena]

I learned how to breathe fire. Woohoo!


In the meantime, thisis interesting. In the game, they didn't just make Skyrim. They made the entire continent of Tamriel. Even the parts you can't see from Skyrim. Using no-clip mode, you can go outside of Skyrim's borders to visit the other lands.

After you go out a certain ways, it's just lifeless earth - no people, no trees. But it's all just... there. Why the entire continent? Some think there will be DLC taking place outside of Skyrim. Other people think it's for the modding community to play with. You certainly don't need to make an entire continent of land if you can't even see 90% of it from the region the game takes place in.

[Ninja]

Maybe it'll have something to do with the Thalmor? They made it pretty clear all through the game that the treaty with them is tenuous at best. I bet they'll have a DLC where you get to try to sort that war out. That would take at least a few more bits of continent to pull off.

[Quistis]

I started playing this today (finally got a chance while hubby was help cooking dinner). I have no idea what the hell I'm doing, but it's fun!

[SteveT]

But it's all just... there. Why the entire continent? Some think there will be DLC taking place outside of Skyrim. Other people think it's for the modding community to play with. You certainly don't need to make an entire continent of land if you can't even see 90% of it from the region the game takes place in.

My baseless speculations:

1. It could just be a boiler-plate model of the whole continent that they designed for reference purposes.
2. They wanted to make sure there was no chance in hell that you'd look over the horizon and see empty space.

[Ninja]

2. They wanted to make sure there was no chance in hell that you'd look over the horizon and see empty space.

Like when the giants are helping found the Skyrim space program by hitting your character into the atmosphere?

[Chikara Nadir]

But it's all just... there. Why the entire continent? Some think there will be DLC taking place outside of Skyrim. Other people think it's for the modding community to play with. You certainly don't need to make an entire continent of land if you can't even see 90% of it from the region the game takes place in.

My baseless speculations:

1. It could just be a boiler-plate model of the whole continent that they designed for reference purposes.
2. They wanted to make sure there was no chance in hell that you'd look over the horizon and see empty space.

This is a game with literally thousands of random-as-hell novels, such as one describing the types of CATS in Skyrim. Of which, including the Khajiit, probably total to like...three. But that doesn't stop there from being an entire book wherein the author whines about being forced to study them.

I have the impression at this point that whenever the art and creative design team was waiting for the programmers to complete something, they got bored and decided to be stupid. In turn, whenever the programmers were waiting for the art design or the alpha/beta testers to do their job, they were programming something else new and ridiculous. There is a LOT of silliness throughout that game, and it's not worth the time to try and explain why. XD

As for those dragons. Lol, dragons. So I haven't gotten to start my own file yet, but I've been having fun watching Fish play. Last night his Khajiit was at about level seven (a friend bought him the game as a thank you gift on Wednesday for driving him to the airport so the guy wouldn't have to pay about the same $60 in gas and parking fees for lodging his car there over the long weekend).

Had to go find a new town (Riften), annnnd got attacked by a bear on the way there. Definitely not strong enough yet to make a very big dent in the bear, so back to the last save. Okay, go back the same route, try to make sure the bear doesn't see you. Wait, what's that noise? Sounds bigger than a bear. OH THAT'S A DRAGON BREATHING FIRE. AND THE BEAR. Well, he died again quick. Try again, THERE'S THAT SAME DRAGON AGAIN. Change the time of day, instead of mid-day it's now middle of the night. No bear. So far, so good. A couple of wolves, those are easy enough to get past. Oh, now there's an ICE breathing dragon.

Give up, say to hell with that character, start a new one as an Orc.

Fly through the first few missions, go to Whiterun, help Fish to exploit the glitch that allows you to get a new house, fully upgraded, for freeeee.

[Sir Deimos]

A friend of mine was having an arduous battle with a bear on the side of a mountain. Just as he was about to land the killing blow, the corpse of another bear fell into screen, collided with the living bear (which killed it), and sent both bodies careening into the landscape below.

[Ninja]

My favorite glitch was the time I was fighting a dragon, and it started raining deer. Had about 10 of them just fall from the sky and litter the landscape around us. Was the most bizarre backdrop to a fight I've ever had.

[Chikara Nadir]

It sounds like you've been fortunate to not fast travel and have the corpse of the dragon FOLLOW you and FALL ON TOP OF YOU when you arrive in your new destination. Haven't seen it in person, but I know it's fairly common (Lena's had it occur, for instance).

[SteveT]

I ran into a less harmless one as part of the College at Winterhold questline.

You end up in a Dwemer ruin and have to blast a particular object with fire/frost magic to solve a puzzle. If you leave the area before solving the puzzle, the item in question stops responded to stimulus and the quest (and presumably the whole questline) is unwinnable. Fortunately, I got frustrated at why, despite following a guy's instructions, nothing was happening, looked up the quest online, and learned about the bug. Doubly fortunate is that the game cycles between four autosaves.

[Khallos]

Damn my crappy ass computer... Well if there's ever been a better time to get a new one, I guess its now.

[TJ]

Just got into a drinking contest and woke up on the other side of the continent in a temple where I had apparently been drunkenly fondling the statue of a god and generally making mayhem. Gawd, I love this game.

Unfortunately, now I have to walk back to where I was to finish what I was doing. And I'll never actually make it there, with all the distractions along the way. D:


....

[Selena]

Oh, god, I started that one too. Was heading into Riften to turn in a few quests, found that guy, figured "okay, sure, what's the worst that could happe--- WHY AM I IN MARKARTH."

Also, I'm about to start the "final battle." Woo!

[Selena]

Double post of glory. Now that I've gotten through the main quest, and a lot of the big faction questlines, it now seems like a good time to do a general review of the game! Short version: It's better than Oblivion by far. Won't give away any major spoilers unless otherwise marked, so no worries.




The Technical/Artistic Bits:
--------------------------------

+ Streamlined leveling! Everything is simplified and straight-forward. It's intuitive. There are a lot of instances where developers, in an effort to streamline things, just make everything feel dumbed down instead. I don't think Skyrim had that problem. It just trimmed the fat and kept all the good stuff, so to speak. Only "complaint" about that is that, while I generally liked buying skills, it sometimes feels limiting or wasteful. Like having to buy a skill you won't ever use in order to leapfrog to the skill you actually want that just happens to be "further up" in the constellation.

+ Improved fighting mechanics. Combat's a lot better than it was in Oblivion. Slower, more realistic backpedaling instead of zipping around like you're on skooma all the time. Camera shake. Animated one-hit flourish kills. Decapitation! Spells are now a lot more fun to use. Never really used magic much in Oblivion, but I occasionally will in Skyrim because it's a lot faster and more amusing. The magic system may be "nicked" from BioShock, but it's worth it for the improvement. Shield-bashing is also good fun and a welcome addition.

+ I liked the improvements made to "Followers." It can provide mage-types with a nice melee bodyguard, and it's great that you can now outfit your followers with custom gear and give them specific commands. Even if the interface is lacking compared to other games that make full use of team-based action.

+ I like the Shouts, though sometimes the long recharge time on the most useful ones can be a bit bothersome. Still, good fun to Shout someone off a cliffside to plummet to their death. There were a lot of shouts I never really used, though. I only ever used Whirlwind Rush to bypass the swinging blades of doom traps in dungeons, for example.

+ Graphics are gorgeous, not that I really pay much attention to that sort of thing. Characters can actually be halfway attractive now, unlike the clunkier models in Oblivion. And the environments are breathtaking. Color palate is a little drab compared to Oblivion, and especially compared to Shivering Isles, but it suits the rugged land of Skyrim. Although there are some places where they still show off amazing color work.

+ Music induces states of euphoria. Especially in the "last level" of the main quest. God, that was breathtaking.



Story and Factions:
-------------------------

+ It's a bunch of vikings fighting dragons, so you can't really go too wrong with that. The whole setting and situation makes everything feel a lot more aggressive and gritty. There's less of a "strictly good" and "strictly evil" dichotomy going on. More of a moral gray zone that's fun to play around in, especially given the setting. And it was nice to see/hear about the inevitable fallout that would occur after the events in Oblivion.

+ An actual complaint now. The faction questlines took the biggest hit in quality for me. The questlines are all shorter and, because of that, they always feel forced. "You just joined our faction! I don't trust you, whelp!" You then complete 1-2 missions, get invited to join the faction's inner circle, and everyone starts kissing your ass as they treat you - the new rookie - as their greatest savior ever. There's less build up, and, as a result, less impact. Questlines could have stood to be a lot longer.

+ I still haven't picked either the Imperials or Stormcloaks because they're both total dicks. I like moral gray zone, but they're not even in gray zone. They're both leaning into evil/bad-idea zone. Would have preferred conquering Skyrim myself, to forge a brand new empire and become the next Tiber Septim.

On the Imperial side, Elisif is a weak puppet that will follow whatever her superiors tell her to do, so she won't make for a good High Queen. Tullius is only there because he was stationed there - doesn't actually give two shits about Skyrim. And he hates Nords to boot. The Empire in general is a pathetic sham of its former self. Why would I want to trust the people that LOST the last great war? And if you complete the Dark Brotherhood questline, you have even more reason not to have faith in them. Whoops.

On the Stormcloak side, Ulfric is a selfish bastard who really is just after power, and they're all unashamed racists. And, of course, breaking away from the Empire means that men are weaker in the face of all those angry elves.

+ The whole marriage system could have been better - or at least the potential spouses could have had more dialogue and character. Romance in this game makes Mass Effect look like Pride and Prejudice.

+ Overall, though, it's a lot better than Oblivion. Though a crazed expansion like Shivering Isles would not go unwelcome, because there's far less insanity in this game. And I like crazy.



Spoilerific tidbits:

Spoiler

+ Dark Brotherhood, how far you've fallen! But I guess that's what happens when you kill off the whole chain of command in Oblivion. Knew I shouldn't have trusted that damn elf chick to run things while I was off being the God of Madness. Less camaraderie in the Brotherhood in this game. Less of that murderous home-y feeling.

+ Thieves Guild... was okay. I wear the Nightingale Armor all the time, so that was worth it. But also suffered from too short a questline. Nocturnal benefited from breast enlargement, though.

+ Mages are still mages I freely admit I only joined for free spell tomes and whatnot. Pfft, mages.

+ Companions are better than the Fighter's Guild, and I suppose the werewolf thing can be fun, though I think at this stage I fight better in my natural form.

+ Would have been nice to fight Alduin on my own. The ghost companions just felt like unnecessary aid, and they took away from the impact of some big grudge match against a dragon.

+ An expansion concerning the Thalmor and the Aldmeri Dominion would be good too, since there's an uncomfortable build up going on there.

+ Was nice to run into Sheogorath. Or, rather, your character from Oblivion in the guise of the "iconic" Sheogorath. I wonder if my Nord woman enjoys masquerading as a Scottish man. I'm glad she's immortal, in any case. Shivering Isles never made it clear if your character was just going to serve for the rest of their mortal years, or if they had actually become a deity.

+ Sovngarde, though, is heavenly and beautiful. <3



*PURRRR*

And! Post your characters!

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[arunma]

I'm making a point to play and finish Zelda first before even looking at Skyrim. There's no way I can possibly divide up my time between those two games, and since Skyrim is substantially longer, I'll go for Skyward Sword. Fear not, it shall be devoured in time.

As it stands, I still have Sonic Generations and the Riddler Challenges in Arkham City to finish up in a week, and possibly transfer (I mean, "Transfar") my Peacewalker save to the PS3 to finally play that game. So nergh. <.<

Yeah, that's sort of where I'm at too. I'm pretty crazy about having good computer hardware; my laptop has an Intel i7 and ATI Radeon 5870, so I think I shouldn't have a problem with Skyrim. I'd totally love to walk across the street to Target and pick up a copy right now. But I haven't played Zelda SS yet. And to do so I need to go out and buy a used Wii. And that requires me to get off my lazy ass.

...what to do?