Skyrim

[Menelvir]

I'm taking a brief respite from it, for no particular reason. I enjoy the game immensely.

I don't really find it substantively different from Oblivion in terms of its core gameplay, but the changes that were made are for the better, and I like the setting better on the whole. It does strike me somewhat as taking some of the best of Morrowind and Oblivion and mixing them to get a tasteful blend.

At the time I stopped, I had reached the late level 40s (have killed about the same number of dragons), primary skill is archery.

My biggest complaint was actually that my character was/is levelling too quickly. I like to savor, and often for me this means advancing at a snail's pace.

Offhand, I can't think of another game that touches it in terms of immersivity, and the ones that get closest would probably be something on the order of a driving or flying sim.

I found myself going back to explore Oblivion on several distinct occasions -- my feeling is that Skyrim will be even more rewarding in terms of going back to revisit it later.

[Zanchief]

One small beef, of you don't have a range attacks, dragons are boring. They aren't really hard right now since I can just let my elementals/follower kill them, but I purposely avoided archery and destruction college so I'm left with no options when they flies away. It seems archery is very over powered in Skyrim, even though my follower sucks when she has her bow. I try to steal all her arrows so she uses her sword, but she always seems to find more.

In Oblivion archery builds were poop. They went the other way completely.

[brinstar]

My biggest complaint was actually that my character was/is levelling too quickly. I like to savor, and often for me this means advancing at a snail's pace.

i actually agree

i felt this was an even bigger problem in fallout3

[Zanchief]

Yea Fallout 3 had big time issues with exp and difficulty ramping.

Enemies are largely the same at the beginning that they are at the end.

Don't mind it as much in Skyrim since the benefits from a lvl are pretty small.

[Harrison]

Lol

[Jay]

One small beef, of you don't have a range attacks, dragons are boring. They aren't really hard right now since I can just let my elementals/follower kill them, but I purposely avoided archery and destruction college so I'm left with no options when they flies away. It seems archery is very over powered in Skyrim, even though my follower sucks when she has her bow. I try to steal all her arrows so she uses her sword, but she always seems to find more.

In Oblivion archery builds were poop. They went the other way completely.

In Oblivion I used a sneaking archery build also and it raped.

[Griever]

Anything with sneak rapes. The next time I play I'm going to purposefully avoid sneaking just to make the game more challenging.

[Lyion]

Sneak is basically easy mode.

I'm back to playing this some now that I'm slowing down on SWTOR after the holidays.

[Zanchief]

One small beef, of you don't have a range attacks, dragons are boring. They aren't really hard right now since I can just let my elementals/follower kill them, but I purposely avoided archery and destruction college so I'm left with no options when they flies away. It seems archery is very over powered in Skyrim, even though my follower sucks when she has her bow. I try to steal all her arrows so she uses her sword, but she always seems to find more.

In Oblivion archery builds were poop. They went the other way completely.

In Oblivion I used a sneaking archery build also and it raped.

I did too and it's terrible. You do about 10% dmg to rats with a sneak attack with a bow and the rest of the time you have to try and melee or run away and kite. Archery builds are terrible in Oblivion. One of the reasons I don't care for the game. It only has a few really viable builds.

[Jay]

One small beef, of you don't have a range attacks, dragons are boring. They aren't really hard right now since I can just let my elementals/follower kill them, but I purposely avoided archery and destruction college so I'm left with no options when they flies away. It seems archery is very over powered in Skyrim, even though my follower sucks when she has her bow. I try to steal all her arrows so she uses her sword, but she always seems to find more.

In Oblivion archery builds were poop. They went the other way completely.

In Oblivion I used a sneaking archery build also and it raped.

I did too and it's terrible. You do about 10% dmg to rats with a sneak attack with a bow and the rest of the time you have to try and melee or run away and kite. Archery builds are terrible in Oblivion. One of the reasons I don't care for the game. It only has a few really viable builds.

Sneak attack + archery in Oblivion = 1 shot for most trash mobs. I was 2 shotting guards. And no, this isn't me remembering falsely. It's the reason I went sneaking/archery in Skyrim.

[Drem]

oblivion is fuckin awful. i've tried to force myself to enjoy it for 4 years and it never happens

skyrim is good but not amazing. lvl 41 right now with my main dude, numerous lvl 20s. you don't level up fast in master. i just play a lot. but i would also never play a bethesda game not on the highest difficulty. i also don't fast travel. running everywhere makes it a much better experience

archery is overpowered when you get the perks to up its damage and slow down time. nothing else even comes close. but archery has little application to a tight dungeon scenario with 10+ mobs. you have to be good at everything or you'll eventually get owned

and that's my main gripe with this game. specialising is a waste of time, because eventually you run into something that owns you because you can't, say, shoot a bow when you need to. or bust out a huge weapon and own 3 mobs at the same time with sideways power attacks. you have to do everything. and in fact, the way the game's built, to reach max level you have to max every skill. i guess it's like real life, as in the more time you invest the better you are at generally anything. but i'm not sure i like games that are as aimless as the real world

the only thing this game does better than previous bethesda games is not scaling mob levels. things that used to fuck me up are generally trivial now. frost trolls and snow bears and sabercats etc are all a bunch of pussies, even on master, at lvl 40. and at the same time, you couldn't kill a bandit til lvl 7+ on master. it makes it more interesting

the game overall is just a mess tho. every time you talk to someone you get a new quest. i don't like having 40 active quests

it has a lot of neat shit, but i can't force myself to specialise because i know it's a fool's errand based on the simple fact that you have to max every skill to get max level. you realise you just need to be able to sneak sometimes, cast sometimes, etc.... it's built for the jack of all trades. you will not enjoy the game if you specialise

and on that note, i still love the game, and it's deep as the ocean as far as lore and books go, but the gameplay itself still becomes repetitive. and i still get the feeling these guys don't test nearly enough before they release games. granted four hours of 100 testers a day still doesn't equal the first hour of worldwide play after millions of people bought the game. but still......

the other thing i hate is that bethesda keeps taking features away from games. from morrowind to oblivion you lost: medium armor, spears, throwing weapons, levitate, etc. from oblivion to skyrim we lose: athletics, acrobatics, mysticism, blah blah blah. i don't know who they think they're helping but it seriously pisses me the fuck off when a successful game removes anything for the sequel. smash bros. brawl and marvel vs. capcom 3 are great examples of how to make fucking awful sequels that alienate anyone that enjoyed the absolutely classic games the came before them

i don't know who suggests this shit in the bethesda offices but i still have morrowind loaded and still enjoy that game more than oblivion and skyrim combined

[Drem]

and where the fuck is water walking

[brinstar]

okay after reading everywhere about how insanely hard giants are, i finally worked up the courage to fight one. took like 15 seconds, ezpz.

of course maybe that is really an indictment on the OP-ness (heh say that out loud) of range builds, but w/e. not as horrible as i'd heard.

[Zanchief]

Don't melee them and they aren't hard.

[brinstar]

touch my OP-ness

[Griever]

and where the fuck is water walking

Water walking in this game would be pointless. Almost every body of water is 3 feet deep.

[Drem]

haven't you seen all the ship wrecks along the northern shore? there's a lot of water actually. it's just not inland

at least they brought back slaughterfish. then decided to not let us attack underwater..... really don't get how these guys progress their games. take tons of shit away, add cool shit. it's weird because i hate all the changes but i still keep playing. the additions sort of make up for the losses i guess

[Tossica]

Meh. So far, not having a whole lot of fun. It's entertaining but kinda boring at the same time. Maybe I just haven't got to the fun part yet.

[Zanchief]

Can you think of another game with a fantasy setting that came out last year that's better, Toss?

[Tossica]

So far, I had a lot more fun with Dungeon Siege III not to mention the "other" game.

[Drem]

it's just different dude, i wouldn't even compare skyrim to dark souls. especially not to dungeon siege III

it's just a game about collecting shit. if you don't like looting and organizing and haggling epic piles of shit then you probably won't like the game. there's some "fun" parts along the main quest but all in all it's just like their other games. lots of fetch quests and exploring and you basically just play it for the nice atmosphere and talk with your friends about the random shit you encounter. it's also got a big focus on the lore, so if you don't care about the elder scrolls and don't read all the books and pay attention to the names and whatnot, i don't think it'd be even half as enjoyable

knowing you tho, you need to play the game on master and never fast travel. i did it like that and i still play it on and off and still love it. it's hard on master. unless you're an archer. then the game's ezmode no matter what

[Tossica]

I'm only a few hours in but for the most part, yeah, I don't "care" much about the story or lore. I enjoy exploring but chasing wolves through the woods is pretty zzzzzzz. It's well produced for sure and it seems like there's a shit ton of content but I never feel like I'm in any real danger, don't care if I die, etc so it's just not as immersed as I could be. If they had introduced a more precise combat system and made it so there's some real risk to exploring, fucking up, etc. I'd enjoy it more.

[Zanchief]

It's starting to get a bit tedious. If you max Smithing and Enchanting the game gets really easy. I'm just doing shit and grinding smoe skills I don't often use like Destruction and Pickpocket for lvls/Perks. I'm lvl 63 now. Game isn't hard at all, but I still find myself dicking around and not getting to the main quest. I should just rush through the main quest and get it over with. I still find things I enjoy every evening, but yea, it can be a bit of a grind.

Fallout 3 was much better.

[Tossica]

I played the shit out of Oblivion but never finished it. Same with Fallout 3. I get almost instantly bored in sandbox type games. End up just wandering around avoiding the main quest and never really getting anything done.

[Zanchief]

I think the thing that separates Fallout 3 from Bathesda's other games is it's really funny. Skyrim is just so serious and when it does try to be funny it's a complete failure. It made the flavour that much more enjoyable. It made the quests funner, and I found myself always talking about the shit I did, where as Skyrim everyone has pretty much the same experience.

I hated Oblivion because it was just a prettier version of Morrowind but didn't address any of the problems. Skyrim at least did that.