WDeranged

I finally started the MQ proper, went to High Hrothgar which was cool but the epic view is somewhat spoiled by the engine limitations, I loved the introduction of the Blades though, Seeing was also very cool, I'd seen those mounds dotted around and it was fun to have my suspicions confirmed. I only just found out you can sell stolen goods to the Khajiit traders, which makes complete sense but for some reason I never thought about it. So far I'm thinking this is a better game than Morrowind, the lore and story are almost as good but I doubt I'll be pondering over hidden meanings for very long after, the Nords are far more blunt than the Dunmer, which is appropriate. One thing I do miss is water walking, seems like a strange thing to remove, they also cut underwater combat now that I think about it...

Apparently for some reason the heightmaps are in Skyrim, curious.

Ditto, I actually got a lot of fun out of Oblivion but there were about 100 dungeons I never saw, because who gives a **** about empty, samey dungeons?

Something cool I noticed today, after joining up with the Stormcloaks I wandered through a Legion camp I had previously visited, expecting the usual derpery I assumed they would still be friendly, I was very wrong and they ran me down like a dog As for the release hype wearing off I dare say the rot will set in as the game starts to crash and bug out, when I'm forced into get down to the bones of the system and fix issues the magic *always* goes away. *edit* Yeah the UI is an insult.

Nice, I'm glad that unique items are being placed in the world again, Fallout 3 did that very well, I haven't found a single one yet but I've only done about ten dungeons and most of them were quest related. This game is too big.

How is everyone finding the economy and weapon balance? So far it seems like a huge step up from the traditional Elderscrolls cluster****, I'm not exactly wealthy at level 20 and I'm still using the Elven Axe I had at level 10 but the damage has scaled up nicely with my skills and buffs. By this time in Oblivion or Morrowind I'd have been looking for new gear and installing mods that stop me becoming a billionaire, I much prefer this system. Also last night I walked from Dawnstar to Winterhold, the frozen landscapes in the far north are just gorgeous. You might be right, I'm going off pre-release info from a long time ago with that one.

You stop getting perks at 50 but you can keep levelling past it, not sure how far but pretty far.

Yeah I noticed that, I assumed it was just because I was low level but I reached 20 and it's still happening

You'd have no trouble at all getting into it, they've done a good job balancing the dialogue so newcomers can get the basics but plot veterans can dig deeper and pore over the details, it's a really damn impressive comeback for Bethesda.

After resisting the urge to play all night I decided to just have "an hour or two" and here I am five hours later and it's 6am, I stumbled into the Forsworn questline in Markarth and really enjoyed it, I sided with the Forsworn, I'm not entirely sure there was a choice but I wanted to help them either way. One thing I'm left wondering is whether I'll get attacked at Forsworn camps now I'm one o the boys, experience Oblivion and Fallout 3 would lead me to believe that it won't make much difference but they've massively upped their game so it's possible. The horseride from Markarth back to Whiterun is gorgeous by the way, I also found an Orc settlement

So far it's probably the most stable Bethesda game I've played, I do get a repeatable crash in the Ratway under Riften, pretty annoying but other than that I've only had a few random CTD's while out and about in the world. *edit* The real test will be after all the patches, DLC and mods

Death Cam Duration Options I'm looking forward to trying this one, I enjoy finding really high places and throwing myself off but the default death cam is only 5 seconds.

I just stumbled on two Daedric quests as well, did Sheogorath's and I was a bit let down after the interesting set up, his character was fine but I wanted to ask him more questions, the actual quest was also lame On the bright side Wabbajack is always fun to piss around with, Sanguine's quest was good fun too, I really liked the introduction. *edit* Oh, I also experienced a few crashes tonight, around five or six, most of them were in the Ratways under Riften, as soon as I left the The Ragged Flagon, I should be used to it by now though, Bethesda games always get more unstable the deeper you get.

I'm failing lots of speech checks in quests so it's not totally useless, no argument about Lockpicking and Pickpocketing though.

Just a thought, has anybody received any perks as quest rewards yet? I thought they were a nice feature in Fallout.

It's a shame they didn't put much thought into killable quest characters but it's never been their thing, even in Morrowind, though at least there you could kill them and get a message saying you'd broken the game, persist in a doomed world etc, I liked that

According to this article: In the Late Middle Merethic Era, the Velothi Mountains were settled by the Dwemer, who created cities beneath the mountain range. Presumably these cities followed the fate of their counterparts in Morrowind and Hammerfell and now lie deserted, but no further information on the cities exists. The Dwemer, and all the elves, predate the Nords on Tamriel. Yeah, I've read that the Dwemer had a few settlements in the mountains bordering Skyrim, when I found my first random Dwemer ruin on the Morrowind border I grinned. I think they can only be killed if you accidentally hit them when they are low on health. As far as I can tell, followers that you recruit can be killed whereas quest companions are immortal. All the active effects from spells and diseases etc are listed under the Magic section, why they couldn't have onscreen indicators is beyond me.

Yeah I feel the same and I haven't done half the stuff you have, most of the games I've not completed are probably going to stay that way for a good long while, and Arkham City is out soon.

Ever wonder how an idiot would play Skyrim?

I did about eight hours tonight, checked out Windhelm and was mightily impressed with the atmosphere, especially with the Morrowind connection, I keep wondering how Bethesda managed to create so much cool stuff. "Oblivion, why would anyone want that?"

I'm level 15 and I'm mostly just an unskilled meathead who's good with a greatsword, got my destruction up a bit though, I really like using the two handed flamethrower combo along with a fire shout I've visited Riverwood, Whiterun, Solitude, Markarth and most recently Riften, which I've really enjoyed so far, I've got more quests than I can handle and I'm turning down loads more because I think my mind would implode under the weight, so far the Radiant Story system is working pretty well and I like how it gets you visiting new places.

I've decided to re-enable them as I noticed you can just disable it in the journal, quests still update as you progress through them and it doesn't re-enable unless you start a new questline.

Yeah, the world is reacting rather well so far, people commenting on things I've done, troops turning up in Riverwood, the tree in Whiterun has sprouted again etc. I can't argue about the often Oblivion like graphics though, I've seen some abysmal LOD in the mid ground. On the whole I've seen some staggeringly lovely scenes.

Yeah I noticed that, I think it's because he's essentially a vendor, just like the shop owners can't sell anything outside work hours, I also bought the Whiterun house though, it's very cozy once you buy all the upgrades, as a side note I found out a house in Solitude is 25000 Has anyone noticed if you can get faster horses? I've stolen a couple but they seem roughly the same. *edit* Ahh, apparently they all have the same stats, that's a shame Oh, I found out something useful last night, I can't believe I didn't notice as I was having to reach over to the Enter key all the time, the E key does the same job, makes things so much easiler.

So I made the mistake of having a quick look at Markarth before passing out, so an hour later I leave the city with a load of new quests and decide to ride horseback all the way to Whiterun, I'm really tired now but the scenery was worth it One thing that stuck me as cool was that I didn't pick up a single map marker while sticking to the road, there were loads of things popping up on my compass but none so close as to be discovered, it seems Bethesda really have learnt their lesson from Oblivion's endless, pointless claustrophobia. This is precisely why sandboxes are the best games ever