Skyrim - Review Roundup # 3

The ENVIRONMENTAL scope of this game is spectacular and some of the key locations are breathtaking (climbing up the "steps").

I loved the Wither 2 but the "contained" levels were ..... frustrating? Skyrim reminds me a lot of the great "vistas" in Risen.
Has anyone found a dark dungeon yet? This is probably my only complaint (no need for torches & scary darkness)
 
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Really early to be talking about this but I would like Summerset Isle. I thought they were setting that up in Oblivion with all the talk about rebellions and such in Summerset. Ends up they were setting up the whole splitting from the empire thing. It would be really neat to have the next game there with the empire invading again trying to reunite the provinces.

Also it should look fairly alien, like Morrowind did.

Thats true, good potential there. And Morrowind was amazing, I doubt they can top it unless we get a look at the Dwemer in some installment.
 
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The ENVIRONMENTAL scope of this game is spectacular and some of the key locations are breathtaking (climbing up the "steps").

I loved the Wither 2 but the "contained" levels were ….. frustrating? Skyrim reminds me a lot of the great "vistas" in Risen.
Has anyone found a dark dungeon yet? This is probably my only complaint (no need for torches & scary darkness)

There is one area high in the southern mountains that blew my mind -- epic chills.
 
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Thats true, good potential there. And Morrowind was amazing, I doubt they can top it unless we get a look at the Dwemer in some installment.

Since the Dwemer disappeared overnight without explanation they should have them just pop right back into the world. That would let them add a race to the game, plus they could make the main story about finding out WTF happened.
 
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Not for me.
The qualifying factor is how addictive a game is and since picking this up I haven't done anything else or so my wife keeps telling me.
Nothing else this year has managed that same level of addiction as quickly as Skyrim has.

Yep. Same here. Most engaging. And I think it is the world design more than anything else.
 
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Man, this really sucks. I was completely ready to skip Skyrim. Screw it, I thought, I'll pick up the GOTY edition in another year or two. It's just gonna be more of Oblivion, and if I got bored way before finishing that one, what makes me think I'll enjoy more of the same?

But no, I saw last week that I had my first completely free weekend day in months coming up last Sunday. Ah, what the hell, I'll be a lemming and jump on in. My mood while driving over to get the game was so funny…sort of a "Gawdammit, here I go again" vibe, like I was returning to an abusive relationship or something. Opening the game and installing it wasn't accompanied by smiles, but rather lots of dreadful sighs. At one point, I remember thinking, what the hell am I doing?

So that was the mood I was in when I started playing at 8am Sunday morning. About 17 hours later, at 3am Monday morning, I went to bed happy. I had obtained my first shout, killed my first dragon, was given the title…

Thane of Whiterun

…and now I'm at work and can't wait to get back to the game so I can get to the 2 or 3 sidequest areas around Whiterun that were burning a hole in my journal (I probably would have done them first, but when evening rolled around I forced myself to at least get a taste of the main questline).

Bethesda has finally copied with pride, and that's a good thing. The NPC behavior in towns is vintage Gothic. The quests and quest chains feel very much like F:NV. The harsh environment, complete with public beheadings, gives me a definite Witcher feel. The two dungeons I've cleared (besides the tutorial) can be put up against the best dungeon-crawlers out there. All of the crafting systems are useful and enjoyable. And the rate of advancement feels just right, as I'm only level 8 after a full day-and-a-half (and I can already feel myself slowing down), and I'm just short of having enough gold to purchase my first house (which I hope to rectify in my next dungeon excursion).

Yes, there are faults and some things that I wish were done differently (the stubborn refusal to allow us complete control over what our companion equips is particularly frustrating to me), but those don't even factor on my radar when I think about playing this damn game again.

So yeah, like I said, this sucks. I do NOT have the time or energy to get sucked into a TES game and all the tasty distractions that are thrown up in my way as I try to actually make progress in the game (on my way back from getting my first dragon shout, I had to pass by a cave and a very intriguing-looking sunken tower near the bank of a large river, and it was all I could do to press on to town, only because it was approaching 2am on a worknight). And no matter how hard I try, my quest log continues to grow larger, not smaller.

No, this does not bode well for my productivity at work or at home. Curse you, Bethesda…
 
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Damn you all. I was going to wait for the GOTY on this one...but if even people on this site love it then well...MUST HAVE NOW.
 
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Since the Dwemer disappeared overnight without explanation they should have them just pop right back into the world. That would let them add a race to the game, plus they could make the main story about finding out WTF happened.

Iirc, the disappearance of the Dwemer is explained in Morrowind, if you dig deep enough.
 
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I don't know about loving it, but it's a fun world to explore so far. And more quests than I can keep track of or remember. It really needs a better journal. A 5 word title is NOT enough to describe a quest. Another example of where getting rid of stuff for the console kiddies is considered modern innovahsun!

Re the Dwemer: I think the game posited a couple possible reasons. One of them was confirmed with hard (or powdery) evidence, I believe. Given that, there's no chance for their return...
 
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It really needs a better journal. A 5 word title is NOT enough to describe a quest.

This is annoying me too, it forces you to just blindly follow the quest marker instead of being able to read the quest description and work out where to go from there.

The books on the other hand are surprisingly well written; I've read quite a few of them now which is rare for me, I'm usually more interested in kicking monster bottoms.
 
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Surprisingly this game is getting many mixed reviews and also being outright panned on some user review sites such as Amazon, metacritic and game spot. Of course, there are also the typical "this game is perfect!" or "best rpg ever!" reviews there as well. I would take all the gushing reviews on here with a bit of caution, there may be some fan-boyism at work.
 
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Without a doubt there are some VERY predictable Bethesda fanbois/paid for propagandists here. Skyrim is NOT the best thing since sliced bread. But I have to say its the most engaging game I've played all year. Hours fly by unaccounted for, and I am missing sleep over it.
 
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Iirc, the disappearance of the Dwemer is explained in Morrowind, if you dig deep enough.

There were actually several theories there, if I recall correctly. Like most TES lore though I am pretty sure none of them are confirmed as "the truth."
 
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Surprisingly this game is getting many mixed reviews and also being outright panned on some user review sites such as Amazon, metacritic and game spot. Of course, there are also the typical "this game is perfect!" or "best rpg ever!" reviews there as well. I would take all the gushing reviews on here with a bit of caution, there may be some fan-boyism at work.

Where is this getting mixed reviews? By anonomys posters on amazon? Or reviewers? When I go into work and a lot of people are talking about it, saying a lot of good things, you know they did something right.
 
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Without a doubt there are some VERY predictable Bethesda fanbois/paid for propagandists here. Skyrim is NOT the best thing since sliced bread. But I have to say its the most engaging game I've played all year. Hours fly by uaccounted for, and I am missing sleep over it.

Well, I am not a Bethesda Fanboy/paid for propagandists and I love this game. BTW, who the hell is the paid for propagandist? Being a little paranoid don't you think?

In any case, I hated Daggerfall and Oblivion with a passion. Daggerfall because it was so boring and Oblivion because it was dumbing down almost everything in TES to make it more playable for the masses. I even hated the fact they took my spears away, but this one. This is different. The NPCs are interesting. The world is FULL of things to do, the leveling up system has slowed way the heck down and the magic system is a lot of fun.

Next best thing to slice bread? I don't know or care if it is. All I know is that Skyrim is interesting, fun and I'll be playing it for a long time and then again with mods after I've completed it.

I hated Bethesda, but now……not so sure. First they helped create New Vegas and now Skyrim. There may be hope for them yet.
 
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He's probably referring to the people who were trying to convince everyone how awesome Skyrim was weeks before it was even released. He's not the only one who noticed it.

You seriously thought Daggerfall was boring? It certainly had its share of problems, but I wouldn't say it was boring.
 
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Surprisingly this game is getting many mixed reviews

Not it doesnt. On Metacritic it's one of the higest rated games ever, it's right under Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn, so the review scores are some of the best in gaming history.
 
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He's probably referring to the people who were trying to convince everyone how awesome Skyrim was weeks before it was even released. He's not the only one who noticed it.

You seriously thought Daggerfall was boring? It certainly had its share of problems, but I wouldn't say it was boring.

The conspiracies:) I had a feeling it would be awesome, and it is. There are a lot on here who are convinced it is not good because it is bethesda...rpgcodex says it is worse then oblivion...I am wondering just what game they played?
 
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