Skyrim - Editorial @ Spawnfirst

Couchpotato

Part-Time News-bot
Joined
October 1, 2010
Messages
36,181
Location
Spudlandia
Spawnfirst has a posted a new article called Games You Love and Why You Shouldn’t, and this time they take a look at The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim.

Everyone is familiar with the mega-hit The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. Transcending popularity among only gamers, the game is a major mainstream hit. Skyrim made it cool to talk about elves and magic in public; too many times to count, I overheard people swapping stories and comparing dragon slaying strategies. The game consistently earned near perfect and perfect scores, giving it the adoration of gamers everywhere. However, I don’t fall into this category. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed playing Skyrim. But I did find some egregious errors that no one else seems to discuss. I’m sure I’m the odd man out here, but here are some reasons why Skyrim isn’t that great.
More information.
 
Joined
Oct 1, 2010
Messages
36,181
Location
Spudlandia
He must be a console gamer, otherwise he'd know there are mods to fix every one of his complaints.

Also he says no one seems to be discussing these "egregious errors". He should probably check that thing they call the INTERNET.
 
But I did find some egregious errors that no one else seems to discuss.
He should find me in RL. Either we'd become best friends or married. :)
 
Joined
Apr 12, 2009
Messages
23,459
He must be a console gamer, otherwise he'd know there are mods to fix every one of his complaints.

Also he says no one seems to be discussing these "egregious errors". He should probably check that thing they call the INTERNET.

You're so right, the 90's are calling about some new fangled thing the kids are into called the interweb... ;)
 
Joined
Aug 18, 2011
Messages
486
Location
Great Britannia
My only beef is with the title of the article.

No one said Skyrim was the high point of gaming forever. Perfect scores don't mean perfect games. It's not like the reviewers were calling for an end to the market, don't even try to improve on this, it is the last game anyone will ever need. It was just unparalleled by what came before it.

So why shouldn't we love it? It isn't hard enough? Well, screw DS. DS is too hard for most people. It isn't pretty enough? Show me a prettier game that has been released yet. Fighting dragons was underwhelming? Well, it actually has never been done much better in 3D, for what it's worth.

It was a great game that went places no games had gone before, and it did a lot of neat things that maybe only Bethesda themselves will be the first to outdo.

Some games do some things better than Skyrim, but Mass Effect and Dragon Age aren't the same type of RPG. Neither is Dark Souls. They don't do other things nearly as well, and these other games fall way short of the open world dream that Skyrim pushes gaming closer to.

But I, and everyone else, want more. I want games that are incommensurate with what has gone before, games that make the current state of the art look like pong.

Heck, my particular gripes about Skyrim are much longer than his. But it is silly to say don't love it, because it is widely recognized that Skyrim is the best game of its kind by a large margin, warts and all.
 
Last edited:
Joined
Feb 2, 2007
Messages
278
Some games do some things better than Skyrim, but Mass Effect and Dragon Age aren't the same type of RPG.
Both Mass Effect and Dragon age (current games):
- are not openworld
- are not hero+one brainless doorblocking and verbaly impaired sidekick
- are not buggy as hell
- are not 1st person view
- do not contain kids, family and decorations for houses
- do not contain endless respawns
- have enormous amount of overexpensive DLC
- are not all on Steam because Steam disallows scams

Yes some things are better than Skyrim in those games, but some things they do worse.
 
Joined
Apr 12, 2009
Messages
23,459
That's not really saying much when you consider how few games of its kind even exist. :)

That is really true. Which is why I would imagine people who even hate Skyrim for their reasons will be still be really interested by the next Bethesda title.

CD Projekt stirred up some interest for its first open world attempt, but everyone wonders how far will Bethesda get with their next title. Developers are chasing Bethesda in open-world games, and the next Fallout/Elder Scrolls game is almost universally expected to set a standard.
 
Joined
Feb 2, 2007
Messages
278
I was reading the article nodding a bit to myself until this happened:

"This, combined with the game not scaling with your character level, makes the world very unfriendly to wanton exploration, something the game should actively encourage."

Say what? Not only does it scale to your level, it also scales the loot to your level, which is (IMO) excactly why it discourages exploration, because you can't get an edge by doing so, nor will you ever bite off more than you can chew.

And the way he seems to think he's the only one who found faults in Skyrim, c'mon, I can name several Open World games I like better than Skyrim, and as far as I know there are probably only what, 10-15 games that actually are comparable open world experiences?

Except him totally missing the level scaling and actually wanting more of it I can agree on alot of what he writes.
 
Joined
Dec 20, 2010
Messages
3,216
Location
Sweden
… 10-15 games that actually are comparable open world experiences?
This is kind of a side note, but I was thinking the same thing. Since there are so few, could we name them? Maybe keep it within the last 5 years or so.

-Two Worlds series
-The last Divinity game (with dragon knights)
-Risen series
-Dark Souls series

That's about all I can come up with without doing some research. Anybody have others to add?
 
Joined
Feb 2, 2007
Messages
278
On a semi related but obscure note, I absolutely 100% detest article titles like these.
Governments FEAR this one simple trick. Why do Doctors HATE this woman. 5 Reasons why you are miserable and don't think you are. Games You Love and Why You Shouldn’t.

Makes me want to puke on them and flush them! Marketing at its most pathetic.
 
Last edited:
Joined
Aug 13, 2013
Messages
2,871
I hate Skyrim because it's popular and me and my site are not. Wah!

I guess Couch had to post this article too, since he posted the nice one about Todd. One for pro-Skyrim crowd, the popular and well-loved folks; and one for the anti-Skyrim crowd, the rest :p
 
Joined
Oct 18, 2006
Messages
8,821
Say what? Not only does it scale to your level, it also scales the loot to your level, which is (IMO) excactly why it discourages exploration, because you can't get an edge by doing so, nor will you ever bite off more than you can chew.
I don't think the typical outdoor enemies scale at all. They get harder as you gain altitude. Dragons scale up. Indoor areas scale, too.
 
Joined
Aug 3, 2008
Messages
8,238
Location
Kansas City
I disagree that any of those games are very similar to Skyrim.

Then what is? I guess Fallout 3 and F-NV, but they use pretty much the same tools and engine.

Two Worlds has the most open world for a non-Bethesda game I could think of. That one Divinity game has an open world structure for about half the game. The first Risen has a decent-sized open world (never played the second). I included Dark Souls because you do have some choice where to go, though it is pretty linear much of the way, either by structure or difficulty. It doesn't play anything like it, I was just struggling to find games that had some of the same open world spirit.
 
Joined
Feb 2, 2007
Messages
278
This is kind of a side note, but I was thinking the same thing. Since there are so few, could we name them? Maybe keep it within the last 5 years or so.

-Two Worlds series
-The last Divinity game (with dragon knights)
-Risen series
-Dark Souls series

That's about all I can come up with without doing some research. Anybody have others to add?

Dragon's Dogma.
 
Joined
Apr 18, 2011
Messages
3,263
Location
The land of rape and honey
Then what is? I guess Fallout 3 and F-NV, but they use pretty much the same tools and engine.

Two Worlds has the most open world for a non-Bethesda game I could think of. That one Divinity game has an open world structure for about half the game. The first Risen has a decent-sized open world (never played the second). I included Dark Souls because you do have some choice where to go, though it is pretty linear much of the way, either by structure or difficulty. It doesn't play anything like it, I was just struggling to find games that had some of the same open world spirit.

They're similar in that they're open-world, yes, but I don't know if I would call them "comparable experiences". Those are 3rd-person action-RPGs that play a lot differently than TES. If being open-world is the only criteria, you could even include games like Far Cry or Grand Theft Auto.
 
Joined
Oct 21, 2006
Messages
39,136
Location
Florida, US
I don't think the typical outdoor enemies scale at all. They get harder as you gain altitude. Dragons scale up. Indoor areas scale, too.

Everything scales, although this time around alot of enemies hit caps earlier. The Dragons are the worst though, they scale up to level 78 I believe. I suppose there are good mods out there now that change the level and loot scaling though, so I might just give Skyrim another try later this year if I don't have anything better to do.
 
Joined
Dec 20, 2010
Messages
3,216
Location
Sweden
I explored a lot of places in Morrowind when I was low level and died a lot. I guess lot of people hated this so they added level scaling in Oblivion and Skyrim?
 
Joined
Oct 8, 2009
Messages
4,425
Location
UK
I explored a lot of places in Morrowind when I was low level and died a lot. I guess lot of people hated this so they added level scaling in Oblivion and Skyrim?

Morrowind has level scaling and Skyrim's version is quite similar to it. Oblivion's version was just lazy implementation.
 
Joined
Oct 13, 2007
Messages
7,313
Back
Top Bottom