[What are you playing now?]

Tempted to play Skyrim, but never played a TES game, never like jumping into the middle of a series for some reason. But apparently the games aren't linked so it shouldn't be an issue, so maybe. Right now though, I have to punch through the list of half completed games I have - DD, HoMM 3, Arcanum, Ground Control.

 

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.

[Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim]

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

[Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim]

i have to say, skyrim seems to be the most stable release from bethesda in .... forever? morrowind, oblivion, and fallout 3 all crashed about once every 3-4 hours, while skyrim so far has only crashed once in about 40 hours. thats pretty cool.

 

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

[Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim]

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.

[Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim]

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.

[Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim]

It's pretty weird I think as many of the dragons take way less damage for me than some of the tougher critters and/or dungeon bosses.

 

That said, I also spread my skills a lot to things like Speech, Lockpicking and Pickpocketing. Which unfortunately are completely useless in the game. Hopefully there'll be some good mods redoing the level system a bit. I'm really liking the base idea of it with the perks and all, but... yeah. Some of it is just beyond useless.

 

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

[Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim]

Just a thought, has anybody received any perks as quest rewards yet?

 

I thought they were a nice feature in Fallout.

[Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim]

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

[Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim]

The Dwemer shouldn't even be in Skyrim, IIRC. The only place outside Morrowind they were located, was Hammerfell, i.e. literally the place where Volendrung, the hammer of the Rourken clan, fell.

 

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 presence in Skyrim makes even less sense considering the hatred of the ancient Nords for elvenkind.

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 thought the followers were unkillable?

 

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.

 

 

Does anyone else feel like there is a screen missing. Why can't I see what my total armor and attack rating is, my resistance to magic, the modified damage of my spells. I don't know what blessing to pick at the temples because I don't know what they do. what disease am I carrying around right now ?

 

 

To complicated for the console market ?

 

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.

[Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim]

I've got Assassin's Creed coming on Tuesday. I don't have time for all of this!

 

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.

[Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim]

Ever wonder how an idiot would play Skyrim?

[Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim]

Man, I just played for like 5 straight hours (this never happens). As far as I'm concerned oblivion never happened. Bethy gets a clean slate for me.

 

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?"

[Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim]

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.

[Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim]

Some Orc gave me a sword to give to her daughter "somewhere out there"... for quests like this I almost wish I had quest markers enabled.

 

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.

[Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim]

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.

[Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim]

/Edit: Oh well, I just heard that you must talk to the dude when he is at the Kings place and not outside. The dialogue option doesn't show up then...

 

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.

[Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim]

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

[Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim]

Installed my first mod

[Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim]

I just did one of the most atmospheric quests so far over in Solitude, a den of necromancers were attempting to resurrect a long dead queen (not Freddie Mercury), the sheer atmosphere of the dungeon and magic effects really struck me, I had to use every health potion I had for the climax, reloaded several times, loved it

 

The best Dragon fight I've had so far was outside Riften when I first arrived, it was night and the weather was abysmal, there was a decent sense of danger as the dragon circled, appearing out of the fog now and then to attack, me and the town guard eventually took it down with arrows.

 

I just read an interesting article about the PC issues with Skyrim, he's blowing his lid a bit but the points are totally fair.

[Pictures of your games]

Rabbit stuck running in the water.

 

I saw a fox swimming deep underwater, moving as fast as a shark

[Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim]

I just got a chuckle over in the modding forums, some people know the ropes so well from previous games that a few mods have already been made without the Creation Kit, including one that slows levelling for those interested, also the god awful UI is Flash based, DarN is currently working on it.

 

Bethesda should just hire him and have him be the lead for UI design on PC platform for all their future games.

 

Agreed.

[Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim]

In contrast, it seems lockpick skill increases even when you fail, so I wasted 10 locks on an expert and got it to level up... hmm.

 

The lockpicking/security is the first thing I'll be modding, just like Fallout 3 I can crack expert locks within seconds

 

*edit*

 

I just got a chuckle over in the modding forums, some people know the ropes so well from previous games that a few mods have already been made without the Creation Kit, including one that slows levelling for those interested, also the god awful UI is Flash based, DarN is currently working on it.

[Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim]

I've hardly started any questlines at all, it always feels like I have way more stuff to do first, I've only been to Whiterun and Solitude so far, I can't believe some people are completing the MQ already

[Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim]

I don't get the story so far.

 

It's all well that the Empire made peace with the Thalmor, yet they allow them to roam free all over the place and root out the worship of Talos? Never mind it was Talos (Tiber Septim) who founded the damn Empire in the first place.

 

I wonder if my High Elf will somehow be able to join these Thalmor.

 

I don't think the Septim dynasty has anything to do with the Empire anymore after their last heir became a dragon statue, so it doesn't seem weird to me that they may find that advantageous for historical revisionist reasons. I may be overestimating Beth's current writers tho', so I'll wait for my copy and see for myself.

 

There are a few books around that explain the situation, I can't remember all the details but basically the Empire was almost completely wiped out, the Thalmor captured or disrupted most of their holdings and pushed them right back to White Gold Tower, which they then sacked.

 

The remaining Imperial armies made a last desperate attempt to retake the tower and with a stroke of luck/brilliance they utterly decimated the Thalmor's invasion force, killing their top general.

 

This caused the Thalmor to re-think their immediate plans for conquest and they offered terms for peace, which happened to include their original demand before the war started, the outlawing of Talos worship.

 

From what I can tell the Empire is seriously screwed and has no choice right now.

 

*edit*

 

I just remembered this thread over at Bethesda, the posts mention The Talos Cult going out of fashion and being forced to worship from basement dwellings even back in Morrowind days, a good retcon probably.

[Pictures of your games]

Might as well add to the Skyrim flood

 

Talos in Whiterun, I love how the priest is quoting The Many Headed Talos.

 

I haven't used the Skyforge yet but it just looks epic.

 

I hunted down some bandits here after they fooled me into doing a pretty terrible thing, they got theirs.

 

A nice short ruin occupied by a sadistic necromancer.

 

Dunno what's in here but it's a lovely scene.

 

Best sky boxes evar.

 

Y'know, even though he almost cut my head off I like his grim determination.