Anticipating Skyrim

I think I'm so hyped about Skyrim coming out, that nothing else is able to hold my attention. As most of you know, I'm a diehard Bethesda fanboi, but this has been the first time that I haven't been able to get my mind off an anticipated game by playing through my library. I've tried most of my favorites (MM3, MM7, Amberstar, etc) along with several newer games (TW2, Dredmor, Avadon, etc). I even tried some facebook games to see if they could mesmerize me for a bit. I enjoyed one called Garden of Time quite a bit, but it's got limitations built into it where you need a bunch of friends, and I'm not very social

Has anyone else had one game grab their anticipation like this? I know Risen was immensely popular here for a while….

Originally Posted by crpgnut
Has anyone else had one game grab their anticipation like this?

Gothic 3 comes to mind. That was one of the most hyped games around here that I can remember. Of course it helps when there's so many Gothic fanboys in one forum.

It goes without saying that it didn't quite live up to expectations.

I played it the furthest of any gothic though. That's probably a bad sign for the purists though. I couldn't get into the first two at all and I tried multiple times. I haven't tried the Risen game yet, but I will one day. If it hits a ridiculous sale somewhere I'll pick it up and try it.

Originally Posted by crpgnut
I played it the furthest of any gothic though. That's probably a bad sign for the purists though. I couldn't get into the first two at all and I tried multiple times.

Gothic 3 is probably my favorite Gothic, even though it is the worst in terms of execution (and no, I'm not counting Arcania as one of the Gothics ). I thought the town liberation aspect was really unique and gave a real "warlike" feel and believability to the main conflict of the game, and it felt like your actions really had an impact on the game world. The execution was botched a bit, and the combat inexplicably took a huge step backwards compared to its predecessors, but I loved the design and concepts of Gothic 3. It was definitely the most ambitious and creative of Pirhanna Bytes' catalog so far, and I always have a soft spot for ambitious, creative efforts.

Morrowind, Unreal Tournament, Gothic II, Hexen II, Command & Conquer: Red Alert, Doom 3, Gothic III. Those were games I really, really, REALLY wanted from the day they were announced, and those were the games I followed closely until they went gold. Nowadays I usually stumble upon the games I really like ("Huh? Nice-looking game in the bargain bin. Two years old? Never heard of it. Might be interesting. - Oh, cool, now THAT was a great game!") mainly because I hardly follow the gaming news at all. Doom3, Gothic III and the last C&C disappointed me so much back then that I just don't expect much of new games. Thief 4 and Skyrim hold my interest as I'm a rabid fan of the franchise, Risen might be nice if it's as good as the first one, and I'm kinda waiting for Mass Effect 3, but that's pretty much it.

I do not expect to ever relive the sensation of awe and bewilderment as when I played Gothic II to the end for the first time.

This game simply cannot exceed my expectations.

Yeah, when I was younger - this happened a lot.

Incidentally, I think THE most anticipated game of my life was Daggerfall.

I spent, almost literally, an entire summer just dreaming about that game. Back then, it was all about newsgroups and physical magazines - and I used to spend hours just reading the same articles or previews over and over, or just looking at screenshots or boring my friends to death with talk of this game.

I ordered the special edition (with a huge paper-bound manual/guide thingy) overseas - and I lit candles and what not when I finally sat down to play the game.

I think it took me a full week to accept how broken that game really was, and how empty so many of their promises were. Wow, that was painful

Most games these days don't actually break their promises - thankfully. Sadly, they don't really promise much worthy of attention - so it's not a big gain.

Only Fallout 3 and Fallout New Vegas, and they pale compared to how much I want Skyrim. I remember downloading all the videos for Fallout 3 and watching them over and over, and how the five months between seeing the first sceens of Vegas and it's actual release were an eternity. Oddly, the wait for Skyrim seems to be going quite quickly but I have much more going on in my life now.

I read a post on the Beth forums about what you would do if Skyrim got cancelled and you never got to play it (lets say the US collapses and descends into anarchy and chaos), or what you would do if you played it but just didn't like and it couldn't get into it. I'll tell you what I would do. Have you seen that movie Let Me In about a boy who befriends a girl who turns out to be a vampire? There's a scene where Father gets in a car wreck and realises he's going to be caught. So to make it harder for police to trace him back to the girl he takes a bottle of acid and dumps it over his own face. Well I'd do that. I'd dump a bottle of acid over my face!

Well, maybe not acid but something that would really sting if it got in my eyes. Like vodka.

Yeah, vodka! I'd dump vodka all over my face!

Hardcore man! Long live Skyrim!

Forum entries on the forums of the German gaming magazine called "Gamestar", translated by me :

On the animation series "My little pony : Friendship is magic" :

"Ah, that's where the Skyrim video is from ? Or are thre two series of this sort ?"
"No, that was it."
"Then this series has already earned its right to exist. Thanks."

Me : "WTF ???"

Originally Posted by crpgnut
Has anyone else had one game grab their anticipation like this?

Never

Oh so many times and I will likely never learn to fully restraint myself. Its part of my character to get excited of new things. Still I don't shed many tears when the harsh reality hits on my face and dev promises are once again revealed untrue

Some games I've anticipated…

Gothic 2. I do remember crystal clear how much I wanted to play it. I also recall that PB had serious problems finding a decent publisher outside Germany so most of the english speaking gothic fanbase rightfully dreaded if the game was ever going to be released outside Germany. Poor piranha bytes have had so many publisher problems: first Atari then Jowood. I'm glad that those days are ancient history, atleast for now.

Quake 1. I remember reading from a game mag about the quake's brand new multiplayer options. I had no internet connection back then, so only chance I had playing it was in my mind Soon after our family got fast !56k modem! internet connection and so began my quake days.

And few others like Risen, Deus Ex:Invicible war, Gothic 3, Morrowind, Oblivion, Jedi knight 2, Witcher, Dragon Age Orgins, Max payne, Fallout 3…

At the moment I'm waiting for Skyrim, Risen 2 and Deus Ex: human revolution.

I'm looking forward to it also.

I recently replaced my old tube TV with a nice 50 in plasma so the graphics on the xbox are looking a tad bit nicer. :-p Skyrim should look awesome.

I've been thinking seriously about upgrading my video card. If I do that, I'll have to yank out the 350 w power supply and put something more robust in there.

Skyrim is now on my "buy on day 1" list. However I am bit annoyed by the price. I am used to paying about £25 for new PC games but they want £35….

Hmm, first hello from a lurker.
To show my age the first such game for me was Zork II. Had to special order it from the US (to Australia), organise bank transfers, then shipping, customs clearance etc etc.
After that in no order: Alpha Centauri, Dragon Age, Civ II, TW2, …
Now? Skyrim and KoA:Reckoning (both pre-ordered hoping they won't turn out like DA2)

Originally Posted by Dez
Gothic 2. I do remember crystal clear how much I wanted to play it. I also recall that PB had serious problems finding a decent publisher outside Germany so most of the english speaking gothic fanbase rightfully dreaded if the game was ever going to be released outside Germany. Poor piranha bytes have had so many publisher problems: first Atari then Jowood. I'm glad that those days are ancient history, at least for now .

Gothic 2 was the first game I ever imported from another country, and NotR was the second.

I still have my German copy of NotR, and despite owning at least two copies of the English version, I've only played it with the English subtitles from the fan-made translation patch.

I'm going to try it out. I'm interested in the changes to combat, particularly how magic works. I also wonder how a 1 sword, 1 magic hand character would fare. I'm not expecting it to be much better than Oblivion though. I had to go to the Wikipedia entry for Oblivion to remember the main quest. Forgot almost all of it. I think I just played through the Brotherhood quests and the Main quest of that game and then never played it again. Completely forgettable. Meanwhile, Morrowind was still fresh in my mind. So weird.

Hmmmm, I cannot remember what the main quest line in Oblivion was about either and I only played it a year or so ago. That is a bad sign.

Not really; at least in my opinion. Bethesda games are not totally focused on "solving" the game. You can't beat the game. You can complete the main quest, but it's not really the point. Their games aren't like The Witcher 2, Planescape: Torment, etc. It isn't all about reading/playing through the book til you reach the epilogue. Instead, it's more like a diary. You do whatever motivates you on a particular day, week, month and then can do something totally different the next time. Much of the "writing" in the journal comes from player imagination. Bethesda just gives you a place where your journeys happen.

Originally Posted by Toff
Hmmmm, I cannot remember what the main quest line in Oblivion was about either and I only played it a year or so ago. That is a bad sign.

hehe. I think we tend to block out bad memories and/or irrelevant, uninteresting things.