Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

[Acacius Blade]

http://www.bethsoft.com/eng/news/pre...se_121310.html

Joygasm! I wonder what the new region will be like. I imagine a colour palette more akin to Morrowind than Cyrodil - greys and browns and earthy red rather than the lush green plains of the capital of Tamriel. A new engine as well - I hope it's as big a step forward as the Oblivion engine was when it first came out.

According to the link above, there's be cover stories and previews etc in gaming mags worldwide throughout February. I can't wait! I want screenshots now!!!!

[Dasquian Belargic]

I love these games

[Crusader]

I am so looking forward to this.

[Dasquian Belargic]

[Peter McCoy]

Some in-game footage! Yay!

[Crusader]

Hehe I think I know where I will spend my Xmas holidays...Skyrim.

[Dasquian Belargic]

:3 Elder Scrolls I love you

[Nathanial K'cansce]

Want and want now.

[Peter McCoy]

There's some awesome info about the game on my favourite website:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skyrim

The fact that it's a snow-covered mountain wilderness gives Skyrim the potential to be my favourite RPG ever created. My absolute favourite area of World of Warcraft is Dun Morogh and my favourite race is the dwarves, so the chance to play in a gloriously-realised HD-realm of frosty crags, blizzards and bearded, coarse-tongued Nords lugging huge hammers and axes around while wearing bearskin cloaks and roaring at the top of their lungs is a dream come true.

The footage in the video is beautiful. That glimpse of the player sneaking through the trees, hunting the deer (it looked like a deer) in the low red light of either morning or evening was just breath-taking; the dim sunlight glinting through the branches, very subdued. I loved it! And the wilderness looks friggin' cold! Even more so than in Oblivion around the snowy areas such as Bruma.

I like that the five main cities will be much larger than those found in Oblivion. Just looking at the overhead maps of some of the cities in Oblivion, it's very apparent at how small the settlements are. Especially when you consider that these small settlements somehow support a big huge castle and cathedral within their immense walls that are themselves a bit on the large side for such a small number of people. It's not something that even occured to me when playing Oblivion but in light of the info about Skyrim it throws such details into perspective.

I love the whole thing going on with the dragons. The trailer narration by Max von Sydow makes you (the Dragonborn or Dovakiin in the dragon language) sound like a real badass! The ability to gain dragonshouts by slaying the beasts makes me think of Bioshock's Big Daddy dynamic - defeating them in order to access the Little Sisters in order to increase your power. Not that I think Skyrim is stealing ideas from Bioshock, it's just a similarity that jumped out at me.

The levelling system in Morrowind and Oblivion can be tricky to master. It's easy to level, but awkward to level up effectively. I hope this is something they have addressed. Wikipedia says:

Eighteen skills are present in Skyrim, and the class system from Oblivion has been removed. Perks are skill-specific abilities, organized in a system of branching groups called "skill trees". Each rise in level allows for another perk to be picked. There are 280 perks, which are balanced between approximately 50 levels; although the theoretical maximum level depends on the character's skill choices.

I like the idea of having to practice a skill in order to develop it. Want to be awesome with a shield? Go out and keep blocking enemy attacks until you get better. Want to run faster? Easy - just run everywhere and it'll happen. But the higher the skill, the more 'uses' were required for that skill to increase to the point where it's so tedious! And there was the levelling problem where you could essentially over-level if you weren't careful, as well as inefficient levelling where you'd waste skill increases that made it annoying for me since I like to design a perfect character in such games.

I'll give you an example - in Oblivion each time you gained a character level, your health increased by 10% of your endurance. The most stamina you could start with is:

50 (Orc, Nord [male only] or Redguard)
+ 10 (Lady or Warrior birthsign)
+ 5 if one of your custom class attributes is Endurance (or you pick Acrobat, Pilgrim, Scout, Sorcerer, Spellsword or Warrior as your class)

= 65. Therefore your maximum starting health is 130. In order to end up with the maximum health, you have to increase your endurance by the full 5-points each level up until your endurance reaches 100. So by Character Level 8 your Endurance is maxed at 100 and your health would be either 184 or 190 depending on whether health gain is 10% of your endurance before or after your 'level' is applied. From then on you gain 10 health per level and you'll be able to level up as long as one of your attributes aren't maxed out and you're able to level up 10 skills. There's a way to level indefinitely by going to jail, which causes you to lose skill levels - allowing you to re-level those skills to work towards another character level.

As you can see, health alone involves a lot of (potential) thinking, particularly for someone as anal as myself when it comes to games; I save every few seconds and reload if even the slightest mishap occurs. A good example is when you go through a door in Doom 3 and an imp jumps down from the pipes and leaps at you. I reloaded numerous times just so I could anticipate the attack and take it out with a single shotgun slug to the face. I felt kick-ass but it took five minutes for it to happen, lol!

I'll be playing through it again starting this weekend so I may just use the console commands to fix anything that happens as a result of levelling that I don't like so I enjoy the experience more. Last time I think I was half way to being able to afford the most expensive house in the game.

[Droo]

Twenty minute demo which, despite my current hang-ups with the fantasy genre, has me utterly sold on this game. It looks incredible!

Part 1:



Part 2:



Part 3:

[Yog]

Just watched those videos posted by Droo. Impressive. Most impressive.

[Sanis Prent]

I really didn't want to like Skyrim. I hated the combat in Morrowind and never got far enough into Oblivion to care, but being a metal-as-fuck Viking who can shout storms into existence to slay my enemies then gets to murder dragons.

Ugh, at least I can take small solace in knowing I'll have plenty of other games I have to beat first so maybe I'll buy it cheap.

[Peter McCoy]

This game will cost me quite a bit since I plan to upgrade in time for it.

Birthday cash will help in this endeavour. I have enough money for my new motherboard and RAM, I just need the CPU money. If I really need to I can use my credit card I suppose.

[Dasquian Belargic]

It's probably good that I'll be out of the country when this is released, that way I can resist the urge to impulse buy it on Steam!

[Peter McCoy]

This ain't no impulse buy for me. For me, this is the game of the year!

[Yog]

Regardless of how good it might be, why would you buy ANY game on release, unless it is highly multiplayer oriented? You know it is going to end up at a steam sale for 50% cut within a year, and 75% a few months after that again..

[Peter McCoy]

Simple.

Because I want to play it there and then.

I could wait and buy it cheaper 6 months later, but I don't want to wait 6 months.

[Droo]

Plus if everyone had that mentality with every new release, I wonder how it would impact the gaming industry, what with all their products selling at only half price or less. And it's also kinda the equivalent of asking "Why go to see a film once in the cinema when you can wait and buy the DVD for more or less the same price of a ticket and watch it as much as you want?"

[Yog]

Simple.

Because I want to play it there and then.

I could wait and buy it cheaper 6 months later, but I don't want to wait 6 months.

Yes, but why is it so important to play it NOW? Are you worried you would not enjoy playing it as much if you waited? You could play some other games you wanted to play during those 6 months. Or would you suggest that you already played through all the games in existence that you'd like to try?

(I have yet to meet a human being to even have the time for that. The other type of human is probably someone who does not like games very much.)

Now maybe your argument is, Elder Scrolls V is going to be so superior to all other games out there, and you want to play it as soon as possible. But how can that be true? There are literally hundreds of AAA 90%+ reviewed games out there in all kinds of genres, probably at a fraction of the price of a newly released title. Surely you cannot have had the time to play them all?

Buying a game is not like buying milk and fruit at the grocery store. While the food will turn sour or rotten in relatively short period of time, a video game is digital and does not deteriorate from the date it was new. It is the opposite in fact, because bugs are fixed, updates released, new DLC and expansions are typically released some time after the release. Granted, new games set higher standards in graphics, and even some evolutionary industry changes in gameplay mechanics happen from time to time, but the difference in 12 months is not really noticeable.

Now if it were a multiplayer game, and you want to play with your friends, it would make more sense to buy a game at release (because that is when most are playing it). It would also make sense if you are rich (because buying games at $5 or $50 does not make a difference in your budget). Or maybe it is bit like a smoker and the cigarette, he must have that cigarette NOW?

Every time I see someone say 1. "oh no, this game has been delayed!" or 2. "This game looks awesome! I am going to buy this on release!", I say to myself:

1. "That is really good news! That means they have quality control and it will end up a better product" and..

2. "Man, I can't wait for it to hit budget. That will be real good value!"

Plus if everyone had that mentality with every new release, I wonder how it would impact the gaming industry, what with all their products selling at only half price or less.

It would probably affect the gaming industry positively, actually. It would raise volumes of sales. I am not the only one who increased their spending on games by several hundred percent after the invention of steam sales. I play more games AND spend more money on games than I did a few years ago with this new business model (but I get more entertainment value for the money at the same time). Everyone wins, the gaming industry, the gamers, the only loser is the pirates. Which brings me to the next point.

When you have $5-$10 digital version, automatically installing updates, easily accessible in one library along with the rest of your collection, a neat UI integrated with your friends list, and installing at the click of a mouse button, suddenly piracy is not as attractive any longer.

And it's also kinda the equivalent of asking "Why go to see a film once in the cinema when you can wait and buy the DVD for more or less the same price of a ticket and watch it as much as you want?"

But watching a new film at the cinema theater is a very different experience than watching it on DVD. There is the experience of watching an anticipated movie with a big crowd, there is the $100,000 surround system, projector and a big silver screen with high resolution image etc.

I am not trying to spawn a debate btw, or derail, I am just fascinated how many people think this way, and why they are even thinking it. It is their money after all, so it is none of my business.

[Droo]

Simple.

Because I want to play it there and then.

I could wait and buy it cheaper 6 months later, but I don't want to wait 6 months.

Yes, but why is it so important to play it NOW? Are you worried you would not enjoy playing it as much if you waited? You could play some other games you wanted to play during those 6 months. Or would you suggest that you already played through all the games in existence that you'd like to try?

This all seems rather moot. Are you asking him to justify his decision to immediately buy the game with a well-constructed argument? Shall we apply this frugal line of questioning to our every leisurely expense? I know times are hard and we're in the thick of economic turmoil but surely we can allow ourselves to splash out now and then without restricting ourselves at every turn with a rather grey and miserable accountant's mentality. If he wants to play it right away, he wants to play it right away, because he's clearly enthusiastic about it.