Level 5...
Relmiste - Fri, 11/11/2011 - 05:33
After spending hours downloading a 'pre-release' steam copy, a steam emulator (Phoenix), and extracting the game I've managed to find time to play it. I'm all caught up on school, so here it is at 4:30am and I'm loving Skyrim so far. Anyone else already playing? What skill traits are you going with? My first character is a high elf magicka destruction apprentice. I've been having fun with the alchemy, transmuting and other trades as well. Only level 5 so far, but I've been really taking my time to explore each area. It's the power gamer in me.
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I'm holding off
I normally only buy shit now on Steam that is at least 20% off in one of their sales, if not more. I have plenty to play that I can hold off on buying games for a year or two. :) That said I'm tempted to buy Skyrim early. I've been playing Elder Scrolls games religiously since Daggerfall, so the draw is there to reenter that world.
If I do buy it however, it won't be this weekend. I have Star Wars to play this weekend, and that's what I shall be playing. If I buy Skyrim it'll be just extra temptations to mess with my head.
All of which is why I didn't
All of which is why I didn't 'buy' Skyrim. Is it ironic that I'm a Computer Science majoring pirate? Nah. Pirating may hurt their sales, but it certainly heals my walet when I try a game and it's complete crap. You could say I like to try before I buy.
More games need demos
I think it'd be smart to offer more 1st level demos or like 1 hour free play demos, particularly through Steam. Let them play the 1st hour and then after that they need to pay to unlock it. There are a number of games that I didn't buy because I wasn't sure of, but an hour playing might ahve swayed me. Then something like Skyrim... I mean I would demo it but I'd also definitely buy it. I'm sure tehre are piracy worries, but damn I mean pirates are going to get it no matter what. Just offer this shit conveniently at a good price point and people WILL buy them.
Just look at Steam and Amazon Kindle. It makes it really easy to buy games and books at reasonable prices, with different sales and specials, etc. Meanwhile videos there isn't really the same thing yet, but you have stuff liek Spotify and Netflix which gives you access for a monthly fee to tons of shit.
If you have easy access to stuff for reasonable prices, then you will reduce piracy. Ask for 80 bucks for a mediocre game that you can finish in 3 hours... It's gonna get pirated. Obviously not every game can have a metascore about 90 or even 80, but make a quality game and offere it at a reasonable price, and even people who CAN priate it will buy the damn game. Or most of them will.
I'm the same. The only
I'm the same. The only reason I picked up Steam was because a friend gifted me HL2 and the only reason why I started buying over it was when I noticed the sales. I only buy anything when its on sale. And I still have games I haven't even loaded. I guess its a getting older kind of thing where I'm not concerned with playing the latest and greatest ASAP.
Yup Exactly.
Hell I still have Bioshock on there. Never played it when it came out. Loaded it up, played 5 minutes, thought "this is cool" and still haven't gotten back to it. I don't think there is anything I haven't at least loaded and checked out, but like something like Alpha Protocol. It was $1.99 and a friend of mine told me of the sale and said "go buy it, it's a good game, not perfect but worth it for 2 bucks." so I bought it and haven't played it yet. It's loaded though. :P
But yeah like.. Modern Warfare 3. I enjoy the Call of Duty series. I was way into the first ones and did alot of multiplayer on them. Now I mostly just play them for the stories and missions which are fun. However the latest one I have is MW2. I ddin't get Black Ops yet which was last year, and not MW3. CAuse they're 60 bucks. If I was going to want to play Multiplayer I'd buy it now because there would be players to play. But given I just want to playt hrough the stories, missions, etc I can wait. I bet Black Ops is on sale for the winter Steam sale for a significant amount off. Getting below 30 bcusk at least, if not even below 20. I'll pick that up then. I can wait another year for MW3.
Etc. As you say, I'm not concenred about playing the latest and greatest. Hell I Like the Total War series. The latest one out is Shogun that game out this year. I'm currently playign Rome Total War. That came out in 2004. I'm fine with that.
I used to like the Call of
I used to like the Call of Duty games. Until i went to war. I have like call of duty 2 or3 at the house on my x box and i tried to play it the other day (let my wow sub go waiting for swtor) but the explosions really got to me and when the controller would shake id almost have a heart attack so i had to quit.
I'm the opposite from a friend of mine. He doesnt like things with gunfire in them cause he was in the invasion party for Iraq. I was in after that when we had a lot of trouble with IED's so i can play shoot em games but the ones with mortars/grenades and such really get to me.
I was EOD and all that stuff
I was EOD and all that stuff used to get to me. I was with the first party that liberated Kuwait back in '91, now I don't have that many flashbacks thankfully. I went to the VA and went through all of the PSD crap and all the drugs they gave me, none of that helped really it was basically just time that got me over it. Oddly enough playing the Call of Duty games online I always have the least damage taken and the longest life, normally don't get smoked by anyone too often either. I think all of that military training is still there telling me to keep my head down lol. I know the movie the Hurt Locker was pretty intense and that one gave me some flashbacks, I still won't watch Blackhawk Down though.
In general...
I don't like dishing out $60 for a game unless I know I'm getting a lot for my money. Skyrim was one of those latter cases for me. I know I'm going to put 60+ hours into this game, so it's worth it.
yeah
If I'm going to make an exception it's for a game like this. Honestly I have yet to buy anything at full price on Steam, but this one is tempting me.
13 hours in...
I'm level 14, and I'm going to start the werewolf chain when I get home tonight. My character's a Kahjiit ranger (light armor, archery, stealth, dual-wielding blades). Found an axe with Soul Drain on it a couple levels ago, so now I've got frost damage enchants on my weapons and am starting to own everything in my path.
Already bought the Breezehome in Whiterun and started decorating it. Btw, do you know how to rotate an object you've picked up? I want to decorate the place with my spoils, but I can't turn things around without bashing them into other objects.
I sat and waited for it to be
I sat and waited for it to be released right after the raid, and started playing the moment it was available. I've put 28 hours into it so far, and have only just touched the surface. I'm playing an argonian sneakthief/assassin archer who uses illusion magic. I'm currently level 17 or 18, I can't remember.
So it's fun?
You like?
Oh heck yeah, I like. :D
Oh heck yeah, I like. :D
!
I have one, simple question. Is Skyrim better than Morrowind? 'cos I played that when it came out, and thought it was terrible in comparison to Daggerfall, which is odd considering the years of technological advancement between the two.
I still think Daggerfall is amazing. It's a game world twice the size of Great Britain. Like.. it actually has weight to its size. Someone calculated out it would take several months to walk from one end of the world to the other in real time. Morrowind in comparison has around 0.01% the total geographical area, with about the same ratio of actual exploration and character evolution options as far as I could tell. Granted I didn't play much, but.. it disappointed me. I haven't played Oblivion, but from what I understand, it's similar to Fallout 3 with swords and magic rather than guns. It's the sharp downgrade in perspective that bothered me - 750000 NPCs in Daggerfall, 1000 in Morrowind and Oblivion. 15000 unique towns, cities, villages, dungeons, etc in Daggerfall, not nearly as many in the others. Is Skyrim capable of overshadowing that glaring difference in scope and scaling?
That's a hard question.
That's a hard question. Generally people who didn't like Morrowind liked Oblivion and vice versa. Oblivion was, in many ways, a bit of a 180 to Morrowind. I'm one of those who disliked Morrowind, but loved Oblivion.
Skyrim is very similar to Oblivion in every way, but quite a bit larger.
Not even approaching Daggerall levels of larger, but... Let's just say that you could kill snakes with the strategy guide.
Big snakes.
Like I said in a previous post, I'm 28 hours in and have just scratched the surface. It's the largest game I've played since BG.
Back in the day, you could greate giant worlds with lots of "stuff" and a fair amount of content. (think Daggerfall or Elite). the technology wasn't there for super graphics or details, so it was a lot of imagination fill-in. The stuff back then was a few pixels and a couple lines of code each, while the stuff today is thousands of pixels and probably has as much code as an entre game from 1990. These days, since everyone expects super realistic graphics and all this high tech, most devs can't fill them with the amount of stuff.
That said, developers like Bethesda, who make expansive games try to find a balance, and do it quite well. For the technology, Skyrim is absolutely enormous. Is it as "big" as Daggerfall?
yes and no.
Hm.
Well, when my computer gets fixed I'll take a look at Oblivion and Skyrim then, I guess. Morrowind just disappointed me so much that I kinda gave up on the series as a whole, but perhaps that's too harsh of me.
Did they fix the leveling
Did they fix the leveling system or is it the same as Oblivion? The oblivion system drove me nuts because at the start of every level I decided which primary stats I wanted to level next, then tried to only use abilities that used those stats. I live 'use to improve' leveling systems (The old quest for glory games come to mind) I just didn't like the system for leveling your primary attributes. If you weren't mindufl of it constantly you were wasting points.
I also don't like the whole 'enemies level up when you do' system. It makes leveling up feel pointless. The whole idea is if something is too hard I can go somewhere else, level some more, and come back. If everything stays at my level anyways why level up? (I heard of more than one person who played through Oblivion and didn't sleep at all so they'd stay at level 1 the whole time.)
The levelling system in
The levelling system in Skyrim is based on the one in Fallout 3, not Oblivion.
You level up as you use your skills (which level up on their own). I'm not sure how enemy levels work, exactly. But I do know that there are areas that you probably don't want to go, and things you don't want to attack because they will fuck. you. up.
Especially giants. Just don't.
Giants...
Yup, learned that the hard/fun way by getting launched high enough in the air to see the curvature of the planet.
Are you playing this on your
Are you playing this on your PC or on a console Tart?
Someone told me it was great on the PS3 but not so good on the computer and I couldn't get a straight answer as to why that was. I am thinking of grabbing it but wanted to see what your thoughts were.
I'm playing it on the PC and
I'm playing it on the PC and see no problems, save for the occasional weird glitch that is common in these types of games. It looks great, plays great, and is a lot less buggy than Oblivion was.
Nice!
Thanks Tart...I'm off to the store to go and get it!
Picked it up last night...
Very awesome game! Thanks Tart! Now to get out of the starting area (got back late from xmas shopping).
23 hours in...
Just moved on to Riften from Whiterun and realized that no... Whiterun is not going to be the only massive hub city in the game.
Holy craaaaaaap... There are seven or eight "capital" cities in this game. If each of them has 10-20 hours of content, not including all the towns, caves, tombs, etc you just find by exploring the world, or even including the main storyline... Hot damn this game is massive!
crap
I don't know if I'm going to be able to hold out and not buy this sooner rather than later. GAH.
Is there are overarching quest storyline that's pretty epic, or is a bit more open?
good thing you weren't on mumble last night.
they were talking up some stuff that sounded really cool.
DOO EET
Come to the darkside. We have cookies and lockpicks.
Avoiding spoilers
It seems to be very open world, you can go wherever you like (provided you're strong enough to survive), and progress along the main storyline(s) at your leisure.
I say storyline(s) because there appear to be two, which may be connected. Dunno yet.
The first story is revealed in the opening cut scene, so this shouldn't spoil anything. Skyrim has been plunged into civil war. Ulfric Stormcloak, brother to the king and leader of the Stormcloak Rebellion, murdered the king and is leading an insurrection against the Empire. He seeks to establish Skyrim as an independant nation of Nords with himself as the ruler. Political intrigue ensues and you, a stranger in a strange land, have to determine your loyalties.
The second story was all over the promos for the game. You are dragon-born, a hero capable of mastering powerful dragon magic. This plotline is full of mystery as you have to learn what being dragon-born means, and what destiny has in store for you
60 hours in...
Just completed the dragon-born storyline at level 32. It got rough at the end, especially because I couldn't go back to town and resupply myself. Definitely should have packed more healing potions.
So much still to do... I haven't joined the Empire or the Stormcloaks yet (though I'm heavily leaning towards Empire for this playthrough). There are more dragon words to find, dragons to hunt, skills to unlock, dungeons to explore and treasures to discover.
But I think I've earned a little break. And just in time to finish my grad school applications! -.-;;
!
Well. I gave it a shot, and to be utterly honest I'm not at all impressed. I played through on the easiest setting, and got my face stomped in by pretty much everything. The only way I even got into the first plot dungeon, with the Dragonstone thing, was by using the console to turn on god mode because the two giants camped outside were one-shotting me anytime I got near them, and ran faster than I did so I couldn't make enough distance to use the bow I was trying to specialize in. The Shimmermist cave sidequest was just as bad, I got all the way to the end but the boss in it is impossible to kill at the level you're meant to be trying it at.
The completely unbalanced monsters combined with the horrific PC controls alone are enough to have me give up on it, but what really broke the immersion for me was just how identical to Fallout 3 the game is. It looks a bit nicer, and they actually managed to fix some of the glitches, but there are far too many similarities and shared annoyances to ignore, and constantly reminded me that it was basically a reskinned Fallout re-release. I much prefer Dragon Age: Origins over this, that game actually managed to capture some impression of importance outside of the horribly cliche "chosen one" plotline.
Giants camped outside? Giants
Giants camped outside? Giants are friendly, or alteast neutral to you, as long as you don't mess with their mammoths. (PS. Don't mess with their mammoths)
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Soon as I walked near one while trying to get to the dungeon, it charged at me and killed me. It did it again when I reloaded the save, so I dunno what the hell is going on if it's not supposed to do that.
Did you try to rick-roll
Did you try to rick-roll them? Or make them listen to 'Friday'? Giants hate that shit.
We're talking about Tranq now
his reputation gets around.
Even among giants.
Um...
There are no giants outside Bleak Falls Barrow. There are a couple groups of bandits, but no giants. I suspect there's a serious problem with your copy of the game if you had giants spawn there.
Playing the game on the medium difficulty setting, I've been able to complete that first dungeon twice with no problems. From what I've seen the game is well-balanced. Challenging at times, but if there's only been one encounter in the entire game that killed me so hard I gave up and decided to come back when I was higher level.
Giants
There's a giant camp, Sccunda's Kiss, not far from Bleak Falls Barrow. I'm guessing that's what you ran into. They won't bother you unless you get too close to them and don't leave (or if you bother them.) So you probably just got too close for their comfort.
I'm not sure why it seems so difficult though. I've been playing the game on Adpet settings, which I normally wouldn't do (I usually push the slider all the way to Novice or Easy) and I've only had a few encounters where Adept was too tough and I needed to make things a bit easier. Bleak Falls Barrow was actually the first dungeon I did, before I even had the quest to do it, and I cleared it with no problems.
What kind of class are you playing?
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I tried a wood elf archer first, but that failed miserably. I'd expect a fully charged sneak attack arrow to the head would do a fair amount of damage, but no, not really, so that character tended to just get destroyed in melee combat because it wasn't able to put things down fast enough as they were running towards it. That's the one I had issues with Shimmermist Cave on. Then I started an orc warrior, with the intention of focusing on one-handed axes and a shield, but having both attacks and blocking run off the same stamina bar means that style doesn't work very well, so I eventually switched to shield + fire magic, but since I wasn't wearing mage robes, the magic in general wasn't very good. Of course, by the time I got into and cleared the barrow, I had already toggled invincibility in the console. I got up to the Thalmor Embassy party, but after that just decided not to bother anymore.
I do primarily destruction in
I do primarily destruction in heavy armor, I just enchant my armor to support my magic. I don't focus 'all or nothing' on specific things though. If I can I'll open with a bow sneak attack, then switch to magic, if my mana runs out I beat them with whatever 1h I have, chug down potions as needed.
+1
+1 for Destruction Mage in Heavy Armor with max Sneak. I also leveled enchanting first to dual enchant, as you mentioned. Blacksmithing was next for the full set of Daedric armor. Mmm. Chunkin' flame spears while wearing platemail and not making a sound while doing it... Gotta love fantasy games. :D
rofl
sounds like me too. but I'm a baby version. No special armor or dual enchants yet. I always forget to hit things up with soul drain before I kill them.
I just don't see the point of
I just don't see the point of light armor. They both have 'remove the weight of what you're wearing' and once you get that the only defrence is how much armor they provide. If heavy cut the weight in half instead of removing it, then maybe, but as it is? Why even bother with light to begin with?
It just frustrates me that most of the places I clear out is full of humanoids, and you can't souldrain humanoids. Still, it can be profitiable to buy filled petty and common gems to add stealth or stamina drain on gear before selling it.
You can
If you have black soul gems! :D
Kinect integration
For those of you playing on the PC, this guy looks like he has a pretty awesome mod, except for the longbow controls. One of these days i might actualy play this game.
http://www.maximumpc.com/article/gaming/dovahkiinect_modder_adds_surpris...
Dovahkiinect: Modder Adds Surprisingly Impressive Motion Control to Skyrim
The notion of shoehorning Microsoft's already notoriously, er, prolific motion control contraption into Skyrim -- of all things -- may seem like the worst idea since, well, ever, but an intrepid modder's proof-of-concept video has us reconsidering our stance. Sure, our faithful keyboard-and-mouse combo could probably KO a dragon (and definitely aim a bow) with more finesse, but this setup looks sort of, dare we say it, fun? Unfortunately, the demonstrator doesn't “Fus Ro Dah” any hapless bandits into the sun, but he does briefly break out Ice Form. And come on, we can't be the only ones who occasionally shout -- in real life -- when busting our foes' eardrums (and, you know, faces). Unless, of course we are, in which case... Hey, look! A video!