Skyrim - Review Roundup # 3

Originally Posted by rune_74
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?

I can only assume you quoted me because you thought I was referring to you, but I wasn't. I was referring to some of the posts I've seen on the net that looked like sales pitches.

As far as there being a lot of people thinking it's not good because it's from Bethesda, maybe that's true on some forums, but I don't see it here. Quite the opposite in fact.

Originally Posted by vurt
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.

I always take Metacritic with a grain of salt. According to them, Oblivion is also still one of the highest rated games ever.

Originally Posted by rune_74
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?

"rpgcodex" says no such thing. There's a thread with that title, but you will see that the opinion of posters is very mixed. Most people there at least say it's better than Oblivion.

I have no opinion in this regard, as I haven't played Skyrim yet.

Originally Posted by JDR13
I always take Metacritic with a grain of salt. According to them, Oblivion is also still one of the highest rated games ever.

Oblivion got scores in the 9-9.5 range when it was released, i remember it quite well . Its no differerent on other review collectings sites, such as Gamerankings, Oblivion is still on place 14 or something there.

Originally Posted by JDR13
I always take Metacritic with a grain of salt. According to them, Oblivion is also still one of the highest rated games ever.

Reviews are definately skewed because of the 6-10 scale they actually use, not the 1-10. If you go into them with that frame of mind though they can tell you things, mostly how mainstream and polished a game is.

I think Oblivion got the scores it did because of the moment it came out in. Brand new 360s with nothing to play, not a lot of that genre on consoles, forest technology that was stunning at the time, LOTR was big because of the movies, simple and accessible to introduce console gamers to that genre, etc. etc. It really stumbled upon the exact right moment.

That's exactly my point, which is why I don't put much stock into the "scores" provided by that site.

When you see that Skyrim has a '95', it's like "oh…cool", but then you look at Oblivion and see that it has a '94'.

Originally Posted by JDR13
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.

I know he wasn't talking about me. I was just making a general statement because it seemed odd to me to say people were being paid to promote it here. We're not the most popular of Beth sites. If anything RPGWatch has a more Gothic fanboy base than Beth.

I tried to stay away from the Skyrim threads so I don't really know what you guys are talking about. The few I did visit were the "leaked" footage threads because I already had made up my mind that I was probably going to be disappointed. After seeing the leaked footage I changed my mind. Glad I did.

Yea, I didn't like Daggerfall. It did some interesting things, but the whole world felt…….odd, wooden. Worse than the other RPGs out there. I don't really like "making my own game" up while I adventure. Don't see the point. For some games it's ok like Sims Medieval, but even then you have tons of quests and objectives to strive for. I don't like making my own objectives.

It's been a very very long time since I played, but I believe the two main issues I had was the weird dungeons and then when I finally got to a castle there wasn't anything there. I mean they had the king and the other people in the court, but I don't think there were any quests for me. Nothing…..Shortly after that I quit.

Originally Posted by skavenhorde
Yea, I didn't like Daggerfall. It did some interesting things, but the whole world felt…….odd, wooden.

I would have expected you wouldn't hate it at least due to its roguelike-ish vibe
(really felt like a AAA roguelike at times to me, but I can understand getting tired
with it after 50 hours or so. I never managed to finish it myself)

Haven't gone back and tried it again after I fell in love with the RL genre. Maybe I'll appreciate it more this time around. After Skyrim of course.

One thing I seem to recall is that it took forever and a day to walk anywhere. Is this true or am I thinking of something else? If it's true then it won't matter how much of a RL feeling it has, that will bore me to tears.

Originally Posted by vurt
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.

You see I am referring to user reviews as noted in my post, not official magazine/website reviews. On metacritic the user review score is 8.5 - considered "generally favorable" but not an exceptional score by any means.

On Amazon, the game was receiving 3.5 stars for the PC version until quite recently, when it went to 4 stars on account of several 5 star reviews posted one after another.

Originally Posted by skavenhorde
One thing I seem to recall is that it took forever and a day to walk anywhere. Is this true or am I thinking of something else? If it's true then it won't matter how much of a RL feeling it has, that will bore me to tears.

There was fast-travel iirc. I remember not using it too much though because "it was cheap and it broke immersion" (well, still think that tbh ), or because I loved the horse riding (it was quite a novelty for me back then )

Ah, were did all that free time go

Originally Posted by Thrasher
Another example of where getting rid of stuff for the console kiddies is considered modern innovahsun!

Was that really necessary?

Originally Posted by Thrasher
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.

And you don't know about loving it??

Originally Posted by skavenhorde
Haven't gone back and tried it again after I fell in love with the RL genre. Maybe I'll appreciate it more this time around. After Skyrim of course.

One thing I seem to recall is that it took forever and a day to walk anywhere. Is this true or am I thinking of something else? If it's true then it won't matter how much of a RL feeling it has, that will bore me to tears.

While you can travel anywhere in real time (unlike Arena, where that was impossible) there is really no good reason to do so (except if you have a disease that will kill you during fast travel). You normally fast travel from location to location via the map.

Originally Posted by JDR13
That's exactly my point, which is why I don't put much stock into the "scores" provided by that site.

When you see that Skyrim has a '95', it's like "oh…cool", but then you look at Oblivion and see that it has a '94'.

I've never claimed the review scores themselves should be taken seriosly, it's not what the topic was about, he said it got a lot of mixed reviews, which again, it hasnt (prove me wrong please). You've turned it into a completely different topic about how review scores shouldnt be trusted.

Originally Posted by vurt
I've never claimed the review scores themselves should be taken seriosly, it's not what the topic was about, he said it got a lot of mixed reviews, which again, it hasnt (prove me wrong please). You've turned it into a completely different topic about how review scores shouldnt be trusted.

Excuse me, I wasn't aware that you were in control of what topics we're allowed to discuss here.

You said the review scores were "some of the best in history" and used Metacritic as an example. I simply said I take Metacritic with a grain of salt, since you mentioned the site.

Maybe in the future you'll learn to stop reading every comment as some kind of challenge to your own.

Metacritic may be good for comparing rankings of game, but an absolute number on one review is nearly meaningless.

EDIT: Also, I have seen no "mixed reviews" either. All the reviews I've seen are irrationally exuberant.

If this goes on, then Skyrim might become one of the few non-buget titles in gaming I have bought.
Or in other words : Full price.

Since I normally almost only buy cheaper budget releases of games, it is quite an achievement if a game appeals to me so that I plan to buy it as a full-priced game.

(And to make it clear : I don't pirate.)

Originally Posted by Thrasher
EDIT: Also, I have seen no "mixed reviews" either. All the reviews I've seen are irrationally exuberant.

Yeah, I read those 0/10 user reviews sometimes for comedy value. You'd think Bethesda killed their dog, lol.

"User reviews", ah well I thought we were talking about the so-called "professional" reviews. Turns out both can be bought and paid for…

Originally Posted by Alrik Fassbauer
If this goes on, then Skyrim might become one of the few non-buget titles in gaming I have bought.
Or in other words : Full price.

It's worth it man. Best game of this kind since Gothic 2 and Morrowind.