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    Default Who's Excited For Skyrim?

    I just saw the E3 gameplay videos, and I am now convinced that come hell or high water, I WILL HAVE THAT GAME.
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    Default Re: Who's Excited For Skyrim?

    Excited, yes.

    Then again, the Oblivion trailers and videos were very good at the whole lying thing. But, still, I'm excited. Everything looks really good. Especially the giants with the mammoths. Exotic, like Morrowind.
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    Default Re: Who's Excited For Skyrim?

    Liked Morrowind, underwhelmed by Oblivion, so put me down as 'cautiously optimistic.'

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    Default Re: Who's Excited For Skyrim?

    Quote Originally Posted by Zen Monkey View Post
    Liked Morrowind, underwhelmed by Oblivion, so put me down as 'cautiously optimistic.'
    Basically double everything in this post and it'll be me.

    Loved Morrowind, badly disappointed by Oblivion, not buying Skyrim for at least 3 months after release to see the reactions.

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    Default Re: Who's Excited For Skyrim?

    I'm looking forward to this game - except for one thing. My rig is 5 years old and starting to fall apart and I can't afford to replace it.

    Ah well, means I won't get suckered in to wasting too much time with this. Or ME3. Or Diablo3. Or...

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    Default Re: Who's Excited For Skyrim?

    Loved Oblivion, and Fallout 3 was better in nearly every way, so hell yeah I'm excited.

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    Default Re: Who's Excited For Skyrim?

    Excited, but conflicted. I've already shelled out a fortune pre-ordering Dragon Age II and getting all other sorts of DLC for it and Mass Effect 2, followed by doing the same for Fallout New Vegas. I'm concerned that I just won't have the time or money for Skyrim, given Mass Effect 3 will be coming out on its heels.

    Plus, it's taken me a while to realize this, but I honestly prefer story-based games like those of BioWare and Obsidian as opposed to sandboxes which is Bethesda's strength. You tire yourself out trying to find every single quest and do it before you finish the main quest, and then after that you're just reduced to wandering around and trying on outfits, basically.
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    Default Re: Who's Excited For Skyrim?

    I liked Oblivion quite well. Fallout 3 was disappointing. Skyrim wise the big thing for me is whether they've substantially improved the melee combat over Oblivion. After Dark Messiah and Xeno Clash I really can't get excited about anything as kludgy as Oblivion's, and I'll inevitably play a swordsman.

    And yes I know they're adding dual wielding, it's not something I have the slightest interest in doing, so it isn't so much an improvement as completely irrelevant.
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    Default Re: Who's Excited For Skyrim?

    I've been a TESer since Arena, and while I was disappointed with Oblivion, it was still a good game, and while I don't agree with some of the changes made in Skyrim, I'll still be pre-ordering the Collectors Edition of Skyrim.

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    Default Re: Who's Excited For Skyrim?

    Not really. I mean, I suppose I still haven't really given the Elder Scrolls series a fair try, since all I've played is a brief couple of hours with a rented copy of Morrowind, but I wasn't really impressed with that, and if my experience with Fallout 3 and Prototype is any indication I'm finding that I really just don't like sandbox-style games in general.

    There's also the whole first-person viewpoint thing, which I don't like at all, especially for melee combat. The clunky way melee is made to work using that perspective just isn't enjoyable for me. Is Skyrim still using that? I suppose I could at least give it a try if it's going to be a third-person game, but I'd really be disinclined to bother if it's still first-person.

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    Default Re: Who's Excited For Skyrim?

    I always found the Elder Scrolls games exceedingly boring (especially Morrowind), but Fallout 3 did show me that Bethesda can actually develop a game that holds my interest for longer than the character creation process and isn't entirely sterile and soulless, so maybe I'll give Skyrim a passing glance a while after it's out. Still, RPG-wise it's not even near any spot on my list of priority titles to look out for.
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    Default Re: Who's Excited For Skyrim?

    Quote Originally Posted by Zevox View Post
    ...
    There's also the whole first-person viewpoint thing, which I don't like at all, especially for melee combat. The clunky way melee is made to work using that perspective just isn't enjoyable for me. Is Skyrim still using that? I suppose I could at least give it a try if it's going to be a third-person game, but I'd really be disinclined to bother if it's still first-person.
    ..
    TES games have always allowed for first and third person views, so i highly suspect Skyrim will do the same. (I prefer my games in Third Person, incidentally. Never understood the appeal of First Person in games where you and pretty much everyone else melees.)

    Related: what i'm most excited about is that they finally got rid of the Gamebryo engine and with it the crappy animations. (They used the same wonky melee stance in Oblivion and FO3... and it looked terrible in both. >_> )

    So i'm cautiously optimistic about this. Dual wielding magic is quite a boon for me too, since i like playing casters. Having that be a viable option sounds nice.

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    Default Re: Who's Excited For Skyrim?

    Quote Originally Posted by Lord of the Helms View Post
    I always found the Elder Scrolls games exceedingly boring (especially Morrowind), but Fallout 3 did show me that Bethesda can actually develop a game that holds my interest for longer than the character creation process and isn't entirely sterile and soulless, so maybe I'll give Skyrim a passing glance a while after it's out. Still, RPG-wise it's not even near any spot on my list of priority titles to look out for.
    After spending years lurking on the bethsoft forums, I sometimes forget that not everyone likes TES games, and while I respect your opinion, to call them boring is bordering on ludicrous imho. There is always an excellent storyline, with hundreds of smaller storylines going on in the background of the main quest. There are literally hundreds(if not Thousands) of various quests to do, most of which aren't your typical "fetch quest" fare. Political Intrigue, assassinations, treasure hunting, and so much more, I'm not sure how anyone could EVER call TES games "Boring". I can understand saying the combat is clunky, or you just don't like Sandbox games, or you get lost in the game and don't understand how to continue the Main Quest at times, but boring? Never. Not to mention, TES games are perhaps the most moddable games IN EXISTENCE, with tens of thousands or MORE mods for Morrowind and Oblivion(and I'm not even sure it would be to much of an exaggeration to say they are in the 6 digits for amount of mods. There is so much replay value, it's insane.

    @Zevox: They have IMPROVED the third-person perspective of the game, especially compared to previous games, but it is, as it always has been, still primarily a 1st-person view. I do hope you give it a chance!

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    Default Re: Who's Excited For Skyrim?

    Quote Originally Posted by Zevox View Post
    Not really. I mean, I suppose I still haven't really given the Elder Scrolls series a fair try, since all I've played is a brief couple of hours with a rented copy of Morrowind, but I wasn't really impressed with that, and if my experience with Fallout 3 and Prototype is any indication I'm finding that I really just don't like sandbox-style games in general.

    There's also the whole first-person viewpoint thing, which I don't like at all, especially for melee combat. The clunky way melee is made to work using that perspective just isn't enjoyable for me. Is Skyrim still using that? I suppose I could at least give it a try if it's going to be a third-person game, but I'd really be disinclined to bother if it's still first-person.

    Zevox
    You'll be able to switch between first and third, just like Oblivion. Of course playing in third forces one to watch what Bethesda considers animation. From what I've seen of Skyrim, this looks just about as painful as Oblivion.

    Unless hell has frozen over however I don't think they'll be going back to the invi-dice of Morrowind for determining if an attack hit. Oblivion's combat might have been pretty clunky, but it did do actual hit detection. It was also a lot better than Fallout 3's, although I'd hardly call it great. For that I'd need full body awareness, better locational damage and faster weapon animations. Ideally we'd also get directional blocking to match the power attacks, but that's a pretty hardcore sort of thing and very unlikely to show up - even Dark Messiah didn't go that far.

    I've not played Prototype, but my experience is that TES games are rather different than the usual open world action game. The plethora of quests is the big one, but there's a lot more emphasis on making a somewhat believable world as well. A lot of the time in open world games I get the feeling there's no more content than a linear action game, but instead of loading screens I get walking animations and filler combat. Exploring is actually fun in Oblivion. Not Fallout 3 because the world is relentlessly boring, but liberated from the hideously dull FO setting again I've actually got hopes for Skyrim.
    Last edited by warty goblin; 2011-06-08 at 11:22 PM.
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    Quote Originally Posted by Domochevsky View Post
    TES games have always allowed for first and third person views, so i highly suspect Skyrim will do the same. (I prefer my games in Third Person, incidentally. Never understood the appeal of First Person in games where you and pretty much everyone else melees.)
    Yeah, that doesn't work for me. If the mechanics are still first and foremost based on the first-person perspective, being able to switch to a third-person perspective isn't as much improvement as I'd want. It certainly didn't help Fallout 3 one bit.

    Quote Originally Posted by warty goblin View Post
    Unless hell has frozen over however I don't think they'll be going back to the invi-dice of Morrowind for determining if an attack hit. Oblivion's combat might have been pretty clunky, but it did do actual hit detection.
    That's not really what I'm talking about. I played too little of Morrowind to recall something like invisible dice being used (hell, I played to little to notice such a thing). I'm thinking more how Fallout 3 and most first-person shooters work it: if the enemy is in a set area in front of your field of vision when you swing, you hit; if they're not, you miss, and that's all there is to it. The actual animation of the attack doesn't matter, and it's impossible to tell what your reach is from the animation - that irritates me to no end. Further, you only have a single, basic attack you endlessly repeat - none of the special attacks, combos, or the like that you'd see in a proper action game or good action RPG.

    If that's how the Elder Scrolls works it - and from what little I recall, I think that's basically how Morrowind worked, albeit I guess with those invisible dice you mentioned playing some role in whether an attack hits - then I'm not interested. Not unless the magic system is many times better and more fun, and playing a straight mage is not difficult.

    Quote Originally Posted by warty goblin View Post
    I don't know what Prototype has to do with this though, it's developed and published by different companies, uses a different engine, and is a third person game about a tentacle dude wrecking New York.
    It's another sandbox-style game - hence why it was connected to me remarking that I don't think I like that style of game. Much like Fallout 3, it had a lot of space for me to move around and a few shallow, uninteresting things to do scattered around that space, but nothing that held my interest long. I wound up taking it back to the rental store early because I got bored with it very fast after finishing the main story, which wasn't particularly long.

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    Last edited by Zevox; 2011-06-08 at 11:38 PM.
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    Default Re: Who's Excited For Skyrim?

    Fragmentation Grenade'n yeah i'm exited. Most of the issues I noted in Oblivion were fixed and then some in Fallout 3 so that's certainly giving me high hopes.
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    Quote Originally Posted by Zevox View Post
    Yeah, that doesn't work for me. If the mechanics are still first and foremost based on the first-person perspective, being able to switch to a third-person perspective isn't as much improvement as I'd want. It certainly didn't help Fallout 3 one bit.


    That's not really what I'm talking about. I played too little of Morrowind to recall something like invisible dice being used (hell, I played to little to notice such a thing). I'm thinking more how Fallout 3 and most first-person shooters work it: if the enemy is in a set area in front of your field of vision when you swing, you hit; if they're not, you miss, and that's all there is to it. The actual animation of the attack doesn't matter, and it's impossible to tell what your reach is from the animation - that irritates me to no end. Further, you only have a single, basic attack you endlessly repeat - none of the special attacks, combos, or the like that you'd see in a proper action game or good action RPG.

    If that's how the Elder Scrolls works it - and from what little I recall, I think that's basically how Morrowind worked, albeit I guess with those invisible dice you mentioned playing some role in whether an attack hits - then I'm not interested. Not unless the magic system is many times better and more fun, and playing a straight mage is not difficult.


    It's another sandbox-style game - hence why it was connected to me remarking that I don't think I like that style of game. Much like Fallout 3, it had a lot of space for me to move around and a few shallow, uninteresting things to do scattered around that space, but nothing that held my interest long. I wound up taking it back to the rental store early because I got bored with it very fast after finishing the main story, which wasn't particularly long.

    Zevox
    As I said, Bethesda has SPECIFICALLY mentioned that they have made improvements to the third-person view, so who knows, perhaps it'll be enough to allow you to enjoy the game.

    Also: They've also specifically announced Coup De Grace attacks, unique for all weapons. Beyond that, I'm not sure how much combat has changed, the video on E3 wasn't enough to tell, and being as I'm on a 26.4k dial-up, I don't get to watch gameplay trailers they release over on Bethsoft forums.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Starwulf View Post
    After spending years lurking on the bethsoft forums, I sometimes forget that not everyone likes TES games, and while I respect your opinion, to call them boring is bordering on ludicrous imho. There is always an excellent storyline, with hundreds of smaller storylines going on in the background of the main quest. There are literally hundreds(if not Thousands) of various quests to do, most of which aren't your typical "fetch quest" fare. Political Intrigue, assassinations, treasure hunting, and so much more, I'm not sure how anyone could EVER call TES games "Boring". I can understand saying the combat is clunky, or you just don't like Sandbox games, or you get lost in the game and don't understand how to continue the Main Quest at times, but boring? Never. Not to mention, TES games are perhaps the most moddable games IN EXISTENCE, with tens of thousands or MORE mods for Morrowind and Oblivion(and I'm not even sure it would be to much of an exaggeration to say they are in the 6 digits for amount of mods. There is so much replay value, it's insane.
    When I say boring, I mostly mean "does not make me care about the world or its characters". I'm sure there are boatloads of quests (though the ones I remember from my couple of hours of Morrowind and Oblivion usually amounted to "kill X of Y and bring their loot to Z" or indeed the dreaded "deliver message from A to B"), but it does not interest me if the game does not get me invested in its characters or storyline or side storylines in the slightest and does not make me feel as if I am talking to people, but rather world-filling quest-giving devices. Yes, I know this is entirely and totally subjective, but the difference between Morrowind where I don't think I met anything I would consider a "Person" in several hours of gameplay vs. Fallout 3 where Dad, Amata, Butch and Moira were instantly engraved in my mind as memorable people that I cared about one way or another just in the first hour or two of gameplay was staggering and made me wonder how the same company could have made both.

    Mods are of course nice if the base game interests me. Fallout 3 certainly had a great mod community and tons of cool stuff. However, "most moddable" and "most replay-value due to community content" is a title that I will hand to the first Neverwinter Nights over anything else ever in a heartbeat (even Half-Life 1, for which I also played tons of excellent mods including several completely new campaigns), not just for the amount (which is staggering) and the ease of use (I could mod plenty of gameplay stats with just a text editor myself with zero coding experience) but also the ridiculous quality of the content.
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    Oblivion is one of my favorite games ever, but I've been trying very hard to not get excited about Skyrim. Watching the gameplay videos made that a whole lot harder.

    About the only thing I've seen so far that I have a somewhat negative reaction to is that due to how hand assignments work, you probably won't be able to cast while you have your hands otherwise occupied, like you could in Oblivion. It's not a huge issue for me I guess, though I thought it made playing a battlemage-type character pretty viable. The other major reason I like the mechanic is actually a reaction to playing D&D and having/fearing/hearing about DMs who get way too pedantic about how exactly you do things. I always liked to imagine that the existence of such a mechanic would make such a DM's head explode. Sort of like, "Hey, look at that. I'm holding a sword in one hand and a shield in the other, but I wanted to lop a fireball at that zombie over there, so I just did it, and the universe didn't explode--who could have seen that coming?" Again though, probably not a major problem.

    Something I haven't been clear on: would the new hand assignment system allow you to play a left-handed character? It's not a deal-breaker, but if possible, I might at least try it out, because I am left-handed, and it might be novel to see what I would expect to see being represented where I would expect to see it.
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    Quote Originally Posted by Starwulf View Post
    As I said, Bethesda has SPECIFICALLY mentioned that they have made improvements to the third-person view, so who knows, perhaps it'll be enough to allow you to enjoy the game.
    That would require a lot of improvements. I don't just mean making the animation for my character smoother when I'm in third-person, I mean making me feel like I'm playing a third-person game, not a first-person game that can switch to a third-person view. And that would be just the start point.

    Quote Originally Posted by Starwulf View Post
    Also: They've also specifically announced Coup De Grace attacks, unique for all weapons.
    Given the name I'd assume those to just be finishing moves which you can likely only use on weak or weakened opponents. Doesn't sound like something that would add much to the game for me.

    Quote Originally Posted by Starwulf View Post
    Beyond that, I'm not sure how much combat has changed, the video on E3 wasn't enough to tell, and being as I'm on a 26.4k dial-up, I don't get to watch gameplay trailers they release over on Bethsoft forums.
    Looking up a couple of gameplay videos on youtube, although it isn't easy to say for sure since no one was using third-person view, the melee combat looked like what I described. Pretty sure I saw a couple of those coup de grace attacks, and yeah, they seem to be what I guessed above. Magic looked a bit more interesting, but still didn't wow me or anything.

    Honestly, for the kind of fights I was seeing in those videos, Capcom's Dragon's Dogma looks like the kind of game I'd turn to instead of this. Nice big monsters to fight with much more interesting looking combat, and it's designed from the start for a third-person perspective.

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    Last edited by Zevox; 2011-06-09 at 12:34 AM.
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    Quote Originally Posted by Starwulf View Post
    I've been a TESer since Arena, and while I was disappointed with Oblivion, it was still a good game, and while I don't agree with some of the changes made in Skyrim, I'll still be pre-ordering the Collectors Edition of Skyrim.
    I loved Morrowind, didn't enjoy Oblibbions nearly as much but still recognized it as a good game. Fallout 3 was boring as hell and not a game I enjoyed much (though there were cool parts).

    Frankly the discussions and previews of Skyrim scare the crap out of me. They seem to be stomping on established lore re: dragons and are making the Oblibbions mistake again by starting off with a Bang!

    Morrowind's plot was perfect. You basically start off just running some errands for some guy and doing stuff and BAM! Wait, now I'm talking to a god about killing another god by stabbing the heart of a third god? Just yesterday I was killing rats in some chick's attic! It had wonderful pacing in building you from some backwoods nobody to the savior of a province.

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    Quote Originally Posted by ZombyWoof View Post
    Morrowind's plot was perfect. You basically start off just running some errands for some guy and doing stuff and [...]
    Right, about that: speaking as someone who never got past that part, can I just say how boring and confusing that was? I never could figure out exactly what I was supposed to do to advance the story. I got as far as giving a package to some guy in a town I had to hike a long distance to before getting lost on the next errand I got sent on and quickly wound up just wandering around aimlessly. Yeah, that combined with the not-doing-anything-to-impress-me combat was what left me unimpressed with what little I played of that game.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Zevox View Post
    Right, about that: speaking as someone who never got past that part, can I just say how boring and confusing that was? I never could figure out exactly what I was supposed to do to advance the story. I got as far as giving a package to some guy in a town I had to hike a long distance to before getting lost on the next errand I got sent on and quickly wound up just wandering around aimlessly. Yeah, that combined with the not-doing-anything-to-impress-me combat was what left me unimpressed with what little I played of that game.

    Zevox
    Please please please don't take this the wrong way, as you're not the first person I've seen state something like this, but if you had trouble figuring out how to advance through the early parts of the games concerning the main quest, then I would probably advise against Skyrim. Almost all TES games are like that, Oblivion was a bit easier on you with the Green Arrow of easy button pointing you exactly to your goal all the time, but even then it was easy for players unfamiliar to the franchise to get lost in the huge open World. It just means that you are likely not meant for Open World Sandbox style games.

    Some players can easily adapt to that kind of game and have little difficulty figuring out how to not get lost(or, they actually ENJOY getting lost in the world. I fall into both categories myself. I can figure out where to go, but I often prefer to wander aimlessly for dozens of hours at a time, getting lost in the intricate details of the world, enjoying the massive amount of lore that is at your fingertips), while other players struggle with the total freedom and massive amount of area to explore, and it's just not enjoyable for them.

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    Default Re: Who's Excited For Skyrim?

    Cautiously optimistic, I'd say. Looking at Bethesda's Track record:

    Morrowind: Fantastic.
    -Tribunal: still good, but not awesome.
    -Bloodmoon: awesome again.

    Oblivion: nice dungeoncrawls, fun for a while, but ultimately forgettable.
    -Shivering Isles: seemed good, but I never got through it.

    Fallout 3: a bit like Oblivion, really. Combat's pretty fun, as are the dungeons, but the story and campaign aren't all that exciting.

    Shivering Isles, apparently, was promised to take some clues from Morrowind in the story department, and they got some of the authors and developers of that game (and Bloodmoon, especially) back. That's good. Dragon combat looks absolutely awesome. Also good. The quest system seems interesting. Then I hear things like "we took out Mysticism" and "Suddenly, Dragons!", and I become wary again.
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    Quote Originally Posted by Zevox View Post
    Right, about that: speaking as someone who never got past that part, can I just say how boring and confusing that was? I never could figure out exactly what I was supposed to do to advance the story. I got as far as giving a package to some guy in a town I had to hike a long distance to before getting lost on the next errand I got sent on and quickly wound up just wandering around aimlessly. Yeah, that combined with the not-doing-anything-to-impress-me combat was what left me unimpressed with what little I played of that game.

    Zevox
    Cool. TES games are clearly not your cup of tea. I'm sorry you felt it was boring and confusing, but hey, I hate Yu-Gi-Oh and all fighting games. I don't jump into those franchises and demand that they conform to my tastes... nor do I expect the makers of fighting games to stop using combos that require to-the-frame precision and memorizing a handful of button combos.

    So you can play games you like, like maybe Halo or Final Fantasy which are strictly linear and they hold your hand on what you're supposed to be doing next, and I'll play games I like, say, The Elder Scrolls, where I get to choose what I want to do next.

    Quote Originally Posted by Eldan View Post
    Then I hear things like "we took out Mysticism" and "Suddenly, Dragons!", and I become wary again.
    The mysticism thing actually bothers me. I love the fluff behind the school of Mysticism, which is basically, "...and then there's this whole bunch of magic that just seems to work, ya know?" It was the Quantum Mechanics of TES

    I am also very upset that this is the second retconning of the term "dragonborn." No, seriously, to see my complaint about this, check the spoiler (NOTE: This will only make a lick of sense if you're a loredog like me)

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    The plot of Oblivion is really *bleeping* stupid and tramples across established lore, which is why I try to pretend it was mostly just dumb. The Cyrodillic Empire only really existed from the 2nd era on, and the current bloodline (the Septim bloodline) isn't even unbroken since that point... not to mention the hundred or so years the Akiviri ran things in the Empire.

    So why didn't Mehrunes Dagon take over Tamriel back when the Septims weren't around? If the "emperor" and his "amulet of kings" crap is all that's stoping the invasion, that is. Which means that the "amulet of kings" is either crap or a retconning in the deepest sense.

    In fact, "Dragonborn" was originally a term that was ONLY applied to Tiber Septim, the FIRST EMPEROR. It was done to try and make him seem divine, and was a propaganda technique to attach him to Akatosh, one of the (originally 8, now 9 since the Empire wanted Tiber Septim (AKA Talos) to be even MORE divine).

    Retcon #1: "Dragonborn" now applies to all of Septim's children.

    Retcon #2: (implied) The Septim line was unbroken child-to-child.

    See, there were times when the Septims disappeared and the next emperor would be some Dunmer claiming lineage, and then some other Nord claiming lineage, and then at other times a potentate from Akivir who managed to seize power. I guess none of that happened because if it had we'd be neck-deep in Daedra because IT IS ONLY BY THE GRACE OF THE SEPTIM LINE THAT THE DAEDRA HAVE NOT KILLED US ALL.

    Oh but now "Dragonborne" means "someone who's born to kill dragons and can eat their souls to gain superpowers in a new type of magic." I mean holy crap really?!

    Retcon #3: "Dragonborn" now applies to anyone who is destined to kill dragons in a superspecialawesome way.

    Retcon #4: Magic is no longer "magicka," the energy flowing from Aetherius to Mundus and harnessed according to the 6 schools that have been well-defined. Now there's this other random way of spellcasting called "draconic shouting."

    Retcon #5: Oh did we mention Mysticism is no longer a school?

    Retcon #6: Remember how there were two races of dragons, one of them being an ancient Akiviri species that was wiped out by the Taesci who constantly conquered Tamriel? Remember how the other race of dragons were peaceful creatures who were remarkably intelligent but just died out after a time? LOLJK

    What's infuriating about #s 4 and 5 is that the simplest solution to both is to make draconic shouting schooled as mysticism. Reason? "It does weird stuff and directly interacts with the souls and magicka of the dragons you've killed." I mean really, it's that simple.

    I mean you have already created enough lore and cannon about your magic system that it makes sense and it is really cool. It's pretty much SCIENTIFIC the way these people talk about it, and it is exactly what I would expect from a magic system. Thanks for trashing one of the coolest parts about the TES universe broski!


    The only reason I'm tentatively excited about the game is I might be able to ignore the main quest like I did in Oblibbions and just do other stuff instead. If I'm really, really lucky the awesome-as-heck-sounding "Civil war in Skyrim between loyalists and separatists" subplot will be fully fleshed out.

    Like really... here are two available plot options for Skyrim:

    1) DRAGONS are invading and trying to kill everything and ZOMG STOP THEM!

    2) Skyrim is split between three factions. One faction believes the best future for Skyrim is separate from the Empire as an independent nation. This faction also favors extremely aggressive and xenophobic policies against everyone who isn't a Nord or Cyrodillic. One faction believes that Skyrim should continue to pay homage to the Empire and remain a member, but a result of this is paying much higher taxes and a definite cost as Skyrim's sons are sent to die on foreign lands... and in addition the Empire has been lax and unable to protect Skyrim's borders from Dunmer aggression. One last faction believes that the true heir to the throne is {Insert Nordic Dude Here}. Of course if {Insert Nordic Dude Here} becomes emperor, we'll be looking at extraordinarily harsh attitudes against any of the Elvish nations... probably even a multipronged and very costly war against the Dunmer and the Altmer (note: this would be two different wars waged at the same time).

    Like... I can't even extract intrigue from the "DRAGONS!" plot. There's no negotiating with them, there's no way for a Speechcraft build to be viable at all...

    Heck, one of the coolest parts of Fallout 3 (though it was shamelessly ripped from the other Fallouts iirc) is that if you were focused in social skills you never needed to fire a shot.
    Last edited by ZombyWoof; 2011-06-09 at 04:24 AM.

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    Default Re: Who's Excited For Skyrim?

    The more I think about it the more I realise that I don't actually like TES at all, I just really really like Morrowind.

    I'll probably end up playing it and having a bit of fun, but I doubt I'll enjoy it any more than Oblivion (which, if asked for my opinion, I hardly give a kindly review of)
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    Quote Originally Posted by ZombyWoof View Post
    Cool. TES games are clearly not your cup of tea. I'm sorry you felt it was boring and confusing, but hey, I hate Yu-Gi-Oh and all fighting games. I don't jump into those franchises and demand that they conform to my tastes... nor do I expect the makers of fighting games to stop using combos that require to-the-frame precision and memorizing a handful of button combos.

    So you can play games you like, like maybe Halo or Final Fantasy which are strictly linear and they hold your hand on what you're supposed to be doing next, and I'll play games I like, say, The Elder Scrolls, where I get to choose what I want to do next.
    You don't have to choose, though. Even Bethesda themselves made a game (Fallout 3) where they manage a proper introduction that gets the storyline going in an interesting way and lets you meet intriguing and somewhat lively people that matter in one way or another. Gothic dumps you in a large open world with almost nothing, but still leads you along well enough and gives you a motivation and path to follow. You still have plenty to explore in both worlds, they're very open and you can try to go any place you like at your leisure, and a misstep will kill you brutally (especially in Gothic 1 and 2). If Skyrim manages this, too (as I said, Fallout 3 got my hopes up somewhat as it was really well done in this respect), it should make for an interesting game for me. Not up to par with Risen 2, of course, but worth a try.
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    Default Re: Who's Excited For Skyrim?

    ZombyWoof: actually, the dragon shouting seems pretty clearly derived from Thu'um, "The Voice". Which was mentioned at least as far back as Morrowind as the power of the Greybeards at the Throat of the World. Which seem to make an appearance in this game, from what the developers said.
    Thu'um was also a power of canonical (as opposed to heretical) Tiber Septim. He was, after all, a Nord. His Voice was apparently strong enough to shatter fortress walls. He later lost it when his voice was cut, but he even established an Imperial Voice School.

    So, there's precedent. I see Dragonshouts more as a fluff expansion than anything new.
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    Default Re: Who's Excited For Skyrim?

    Warty, did you try Fallout: New Vegas? It's a much more entertaining game.

    Personally, I can't wait for Skyrim, it's looking like an entertaining game on par with Oblivion. And that's a positive, since I haven't played Morrowind yet.
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    The little bit of Daggerfall I played I didn't enjoy, but I very consciously didn't enjoy that because of hardware limitations. It's kind of the reason I have yet to play through the Fallout games and why I didn't like Chronotrigger... and why I could never go back and play Silent Hill. They just look so ugly and clunky.

    If someone remade Daggerfall with an updated engine I would almost certainly love it for all the reasons I really loved Morrowind and enjoyed Oblibbions.

    I also will constantly say about Oblibbions what I say about Lord of the Rings:

    See, LotR were probably good movies. But compared to the books they were utter rubbish to me. I can't judge LotR: The Movies separate from LotR: The Books, and it really, really hurt my enjoyment of the movies. That being said every single time I think of a complaint about LotR: The Movies I end up with "But this is how it happened in the books!" "But this scene missed the entire POINT of the similar scene in the books!"

    Oblibbions was almost certainly a very good game. I enjoyed it a lot. But for reference I have easily logged over a thousand hours of gameplay in Morrowind and have purchased it on three separate occasions. I have taken the time to acquire 90% of the books in that game and read almost all of them. I can still fire up my XBox version, my old save in which I'm filthy stinking rich, and have a blast just roaming around looking at things... and usually do until the game crashes like a freight train.

    So when I say that Oblibbions drove me straight bonkers, I mean it. Honestly the worst part of Oblibbions for me was the main quest. It seemed to stray so far from what Elder Scrolls was: a non-linear romp through a highly imaginative worlds of grey morals. Who was the clear "good guy" in Morrowind's quest? The Emperor who was using you to quell what he thought was a religious civil war in the province of Morrowind so he could exert further control? The "god-king" Vivec who was persecuting anyone who mentioned the fact that he betrayed and murdered his best friend Nerevar hundreds of years ago? Or is it the "redeemer" Dagoth-Ur, who's goal is to free the Dunmer people of their yoke and rid them of Imperial oppression... by spreading plague after plague across the land, corrupting their very bodies, and seizing their consciousness? Or is it Azura, who is using you as an instrument of her revenge, killing the last remaining members of the Chimmer who laughed in her face two thousand+ years before?

    But then there was the leveling system. In Morrowind, if you tried exploring a Daedric ruin at level 1, you'd promptly meet a Daedric Lord and then meet the business end of his Daedric Weapon and finally you would be reacquainted with the "Which save would you like to load?" screen. Of course when you went back to that ruin at level 10, that Daedric Lord who so promptly handed you your entrails is just a challenging fight. When you go back at level 20 the Daedric Lord is just a speed bump, and you find yourself picking up the cursed gems so you can get the daedric weapon the guy is spawning with as well as his heart for {insert potion here}.

    In Oblibbions when you go into the Kvatch gate at level 1, you're met with a hoard of "scamp runts," the cripples of the Daedric army. These are challenging fights because you're so low level and they're perfectly suited to fighting you. When you go in at level 10, you run into Clanfear. Either you've got good defenses and this is just a really long and boring fight, or they hit you in the face for MASSIVE DAMAGE and you die very quickly... but either way it's just as challenging as it was before. When you go in at level 20, there are XIVIALI there who are just a really, really, really long and boring fight and pose absolutely no risk to you because while it has damage and HP increased on par with yours, you acquired 110% reflect damage as a constant effect on yourself.

    The first really gave you the feeling of advancing through the world. This world is static and you're in it, and you're dynamic. You are growing. The second gives you the feeling that, well, you're never growing. Heck, I used to specifically not level my character because going into dungeons and one-shotting dudes was FUN. Sneaking around, critical with my bow, watching the guy flop over a railing... that was a lot of fun.

    Compare to level 20 when it was "sneak around, critical with my bow, plant 10 more arrows in his chest, draw out the short sword, mash "attack" for thirty seconds."

    Yeah. I seem to have gotten a lot more powerful, eh? </sarcasm>

    That being said roaming around the countryside and finding places was still awesome... though I never did experience any of the cool radiant AI stuff people said was going on. Also properly modded (Oscuro's and a few choice others) Oblivion can beat the pants off of vanilla Morrowind... but that's like saying I can soup up a VDub Beetle to outpreform your off-the-shelf corvette.

    Quote Originally Posted by Lord of the Helms View Post
    You don't have to choose, though. Even Bethesda themselves made a game (Fallout 3) where they manage a proper introduction that gets the storyline going in an interesting way and lets you meet intriguing and somewhat lively people that matter in one way or another. Gothic dumps you in a large open world with almost nothing, but still leads you along well enough and gives you a motivation and path to follow. You still have plenty to explore in both worlds, they're very open and you can try to go any place you like at your leisure, and a misstep will kill you brutally (especially in Gothic 1 and 2). If Skyrim manages this, too (as I said, Fallout 3 got my hopes up somewhat as it was really well done in this respect), it should make for an interesting game for me. Not up to par with Risen 2, of course, but worth a try.
    But Morrowind wasn't difficult to understand what to do. The guy gives you clear orders: "You need to go establish a cover. Join a guild. Or maybe do freelance work. Come back when you've gained some experience." I.E. go do a sidequest or two, gain a level or two, then come back and I'll have a job for you to do.

    Then he gives you a series of jobs gathering information which usually involves hunting down items for people.

    Then he gives you a series of jobs that are more important, and more important, and more important, until suddenly an ancient god is speaking to you in your dreams and you're busting people out of a political prison called the "Ministry of Truth."


    Quote Originally Posted by Triaxx View Post
    Warty, did you try Fallout: New Vegas? It's a much more entertaining game.
    F:NV reminds me of why I love Obsidian so much. Their writing staff is superb. The dialogues, the quest lines... I mean there are some minor quibbles (Caesar's Legion is way too "evil") but until you've heard No-Bark on the radio saying, " "As a local crackpot told a toy bear near one of our microphones," "They're ghouls. Religious ghouls in rockets looking for a land to call their own! Don't you laugh at me! I know a spell that'll show your true form! Cave-rat taught it to me."" you haven't really experienced life.

    Or Fantastic. Just... Fantastic.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Eldan View Post
    ZombyWoof: actually, the dragon shouting seems pretty clearly derived from Thu'um, "The Voice". Which was mentioned at least as far back as Morrowind as the power of the Greybeards at the Throat of the World. Which seem to make an appearance in this game, from what the developers said.
    Thu'um was also a power of canonical (as opposed to heretical) Tiber Septim. He was, after all, a Nord. His Voice was apparently strong enough to shatter fortress walls. He later lost it when his voice was cut, but he even established an Imperial Voice School.

    So, there's precedent. I see Dragonshouts more as a fluff expansion than anything new.
    I really do not think that the Greybeards acquired this power by killing dragons without anyone else mentioning dragons at all. And the fluff of the Greybeards is a lot closer to them just being spellcasters who like to yell a lot than people with hitherto unexplained magical powers.
    Last edited by ZombyWoof; 2011-06-09 at 05:35 AM.

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