Skyrim
Mr Beech
Florida, USAPosts: 1,749MI6 Agent
This game (The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim) is seriously amazing. I have done about two percent of the game in 20 hours. It is like living in a Middle Earth/New Zealand/Scotland/Denmark fusion with a great bit of fantasy played off of viking architecture. Very awesome and highly recommended if you like the long RPG stuff and a bit of interactive Lord of the Rings type fantasy. I have no doubts that I will have put over 100 hours in to this by the end of the story, and that isn't even the end for the character as their are tons TONS of locations. I have about 80 random locations discovered so far and that makes up around 1/7th of the random places, but most of them actually have some sort of action or questing in them which I have skipped for time's sake until later.
Play this. It will amaze you with the scale and beauty of standing on a hill in some plains and watching the sun cast oranges onto the city on the horizon. And there's nine cities in varied terrain. So there are quite a few breathtakers.
Play this. It will amaze you with the scale and beauty of standing on a hill in some plains and watching the sun cast oranges onto the city on the horizon. And there's nine cities in varied terrain. So there are quite a few breathtakers.
Comments
I've never really 'got' RPGs. I understand what they do etc, but I've never clicked with any of them. I have bought Oblivion twice, for less than £10 and played Morrowind on my PC. Being a whore for an open world, I have never delved deeper than running around exploring the game-world. In Oblivion for example, which I have probably sunk 50+ hours in to, I have only ever escaped from the caverns and then just hoofed it all round the map looking at stuff, I have never done any levelling up, questing etc.
Up until a few weeks back, I was aware of Skyrim but had absolutely no interest whatsoever beyond picking it up when I found it for less than a tenner; I don't know what made me look it up, but I watched a trailer on Youtube and instantly I wanted to explore the world. So much in fact tht I decided it was a day-one purchase and I pre-ordered it.
Now £40 is a lot of money just to wander around aimlessly, so I resolved to actually play the game properly and do all the levelling up, questing etc. I even bought the guide with the game to help me.
I have stuck to my resolve and I am now absolutely in love with the game, I'm a sucker for a hokey fantasy story so I've been pulled in by that as well as all the exploration and other stuff. Now I m still a comlete noob when it comes to RPGs but I'm slowly learning the ropes and tropes of the genre and my experience in Skyrim is much richer for it.
I am not that far in yet but I can confidently say that I will sink hundreds of hours in to this game building up my character. I have started with a Nord called Jaqen H'ghar, who is turning in to a fierce warrior. I've just picked up my first Housecarl, Lydia, who I've grown quite attached to
I think it's fair to say I 'get it' now!
Skyrim largely follows the same model; I put it in my 360 last night to make sure the game worked and 4 hours later I was well into the main quest while also having sampled a few simpler sidequests. The game is absolutely beautiful to look at and its the kind of game where you can just lose yourself, wander around, take on random quests and completely ignore the main quest if you like. Your fireball spell (which you have right from the start) is also a ton of fun as it basically turns you into a human flamethrower.
Its going to be tough putting it aside until I finish Goldeneye Reloaded. And I'm still only halfway thru Uncharted 3. And Batman: Arkham City is waiting patiently on the shelf. And Assassin's Creed: Revelation and Halo: Anniversary come out tomorrow.
Egad!
Oblivion is a tough one to go back to because it looks really clunky and dated by today's standards. It is a pretty rich game, but be aware, it isn't the slick pony that I fell in love with when it released. Skyrim on the other hand is incredible and the scenery is so beautiful and cinematic. They are not connected stories, so you don't need to play Oblivion. They only happen to be on the same continent, but different regions, and Skyrim is 200 years afterwards. If you can stand Oblivion's age, than you will love it, and then it will make Skyrim seem like such a beast of fantasy.
I stumbled upon this woman's cabin the other day. I was talking to her and she said she had moved out onto the mountain because her family had been murdered two years before. Since it is a game with quests, I was not surprised when the game let me offer to help track down and kill the murderers.
She already did it.
That surprised me enough, that this woman was telling me this just to give some character, no catch or game gimmick to start a mission. Not to mention the fact that she was all alone with a gorgeous view from her little snow covered cabin on the mountain. What surprised me yet again was that she, unlike what you come to expect of trainers in the game (a character where you pay them and in return get upped skills, called training, but really it is a quickie menu option), this woman offers to practice archery with you at her personal target setup. No paying her, no quick menu deal, just wants to share some practice tips with you. It was just something so out of the ordinary. And the great part is, there are tons of unique things like this. I found a house on a lake later on the looked wonderful and when I went inside, there was a bear and some human remains. Grim, but just another great addition to the rich world.
Skyrim is a lot to take on, but it is way better than Oblivion.
Think you might have sold it to me!!!!
However first I need to make my way thru Uncharted 3 and Goldeneye!!!
Just my two cents but, as is the case with so many games nowadays, I think Bethesda got just a little too caught up in the technology and got a little too ambitious with the story.
This is all opinions of course, but generally, people regard Oblivion and its main quest low compared to Morrowind and now Skyrim. This is largely due to a narrow cast of voice actors and the relatively short amount of time you can go through the main quest in. I have to say that, like many Elder Scrolls fans, I agree that the Main Quest is not the appeal of Oblivion. It was a rather simple telling of the story and it was not bad, but it just wasn't as deep or expansive as the Skyrim main quest. The main quest is never really meant to be the main appeal of Elder Scrolls games as they are so massive and full of quests and lore to tackle anyways.
I have to assume you didn't play Morrowind considering that you feel that Bethesda went too big with Skyrim. There were few factions in Oblivion and none of them interacted in any way. As I understand in Skyrim, there are several, but as far as confusion about losing track of which ones are allied comes down to just one set of opposing factions that can lead into a conflict quest line against whichever you chose not to join. I think it is simple enough, but it is certainly not as simple as Oblivion, which Elder Scrolls veterans consider to be the most oversimplified game in the series. Morrowind contained many factions and multiple conflicts to be aware of.
As for struggling to find motivation to do the main quest, that would be a personal issue. Some will love it, some won't. I can't say I have any complaints with it and I find the voice cast of equally bankable stars (Max von Sydow, Christopher Plummer, Michael Hogan) to be even more enticing since they, unlike Oblivion characters, have a great surrounding of imagery to accompany their voices.
By no means is Oblivion less than incredible, but years and its new younger brother Skyrim have made it an aging beast.
Both have earned fame in gaming history, but I feel that Skyrim has improved on Oblivion in most ways.