The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

By EL1TE
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Grand Master

Smigit

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Dont get me wrong i really loved the main storyline and all the sidequests were for the most part interesting and they didnt feel tacked on for the sake of adding extra content.................but..................... while it looked pretty for a game of its time the world was empty, there was no incentive to go exploring the cookie cutter/copy and paste dungeons they were all the same and you rarely fought anything interesting or found any rare or interesting artefacts or items and dont get me started on the Oblivion gates where you didnt have to fight anything just run to the end ignoring all the enemies and pick up the sigils.

Actually IMHO the biggest issue for me with Oblivion was that it did all just feel very thrown together here and there for the hell of it, side quests included (and I found the main quest kind of boring). There was an awful lot to do in the game but to me it felt more like a giant sandbox than an actual role playing game. Sure, you play a role but it never felt like much I did had any consequence outside of each side quests own story arc. You could be a complete evil dick in one quest and then help an old granny next door save her kitten in a tree and there would be no link between all of this.

Personally, and I know some will disagree, I prefered Fallout 3's smaller scope but better integrated quests...where if you were a dick there was a feeling that there was some consequence at some points, be it the different endings or destroying an entire town (thus preventing you doing other quests later on).

For the next game I'd like a sense of purpose and a more engaging main quest. The fact so many people never finished the main portion I think reflects somewhat on the fact that people sort of preferred the side quests and never felt any attachment to the real issue in the world. And don't get me wrong, I didn't hate Oblivion, played it two or three times, I just find titles like Mass Effect, DA:O and to a lesser extent FO3 more engaging and would happily sacrifice a few side quests if it resulted in a more complex conversation tree.

  • 2 weeks later...
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LingeringSoul

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Posted

I can't remember what Fallout 3's level scaling was like, but perhaps that's a good thing. You never notice level scaling unless it's done badly. In Oblivion, I noticed it constantly.

Screenshots look great, by the way. Art style definitely has Oblivion written all over it, but that's a good thing in my book.

Mentor

Tharp Daddy

Posted
Posted

I can't remember what Fallout 3's level scaling was like, but perhaps that's a good thing. You never notice level scaling unless it's done badly. In Oblivion, I noticed it constantly.

Screenshots look great, by the way. Art style definitely has Oblivion written all over it, but that's a good thing in my book.

In Fallout 3 it always felt like it was perfect for your level, i never seemed to absolutely destroy or get destroyed by the content (until i hit max level, then **** blew up by just looking at it).

Grand Master

dnast

Posted
Posted

Not to **** on any parades, but graphics-wise these "screenshots" don't seem much if any better than ESIV, IMO. I'm not making a judgement on the game's looks itself, though, since these are only magazine scans.

Man, the shot with the waterfalls, though...can't wait to be there!

Grand Master

Nagisan

Posted
Posted

In Fallout 3 it always felt like it was perfect for your level, i never seemed to absolutely destroy or get destroyed by the content (until i hit max level, then **** blew up by just looking at it).

Except for the first time I bumped into a super mutant, I agree. I was only level 6 or 7, wandering around. A super mutant apparently came up from somewhere behind me when I was standing on top a car. He attacked me (I still hadn't noticed him by this point) and hit the car, causing the car to just explode. Which launched me off the car and out of my chair (nearly, at least). I had 3 crippled limbs and low health.......at that point I still wasn't sure what happened until I saw him coming at me again. I was able to take him down but still, scared the hell out of me and nearly killed me......that's when I decided to go the stealth route and sneak around, that way things couldn't surprise me again like that.

Those screens look like Oblivion but better... I hope the animations are better.

It's hard to tell, we need some actual screenshots, not scans from a magazine, to tell the quality of the game. Honestly it looks no different than Oblivion from those scans IMO.

Grand Master

Corris Veteran

Posted
  • Veteran
Posted

I would imagine the game doesn't look much better from those screenshots of you played them on PC, but they look much better than the console versions of TES4 assuming the console version of TES5 will be similar.

People may be remember the graphics in Oblivion looking better then they did, because they don't look great.

Hopefully the levelling/difficulty is somewhere between FO3/NV, I should be able to come across more powerful enemies and not be killed in 1-2 hits like on NV even on very easy at a high level, but it should still be a good challenge.

Mentor

EL1TE

Posted
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Posted

Updated scans and added:

Details:

* Third person view has been improved

* 5 massive cities, more variation in caves and underground stuff.

* There is an option for no HUD.

* On Conversations: Conversations aren?t done in a zoomed in static shot anymore.Start a conversation with some and they will act like someone would in real life, looking at you occasionally and walking around a bit and also continue doing a task if they were doing one while talking.

* On Weapon smithing: Go to a forge and carve a new weapon out of red hot metal.

* Dual-wielding: you have two hands now in combat and you can wield anything to both hands. You may assign a dagger on left hand and use a mace with right hand. The choice as they say is yours.

* Duel: You may duel any NPC on the streets western style.

* Inheritance: When you kill a shopkeeper, his/her family member will inherit the shop and will be angry about you, but stil give you missions.

* Level-scaling: It is coming back

* 18 skills: supposedly even less skills to play with?

* No mysticism

* Perks: Rumored to be in Skyrim. I may have understood it wrong.

* Boosts: Pick stamina, health, magic boosts on level up.

* Enchanting: This skill makes a return.

* ?Radiant storytelling? or Level Scaling 2.0: ?The game eventually logs a huge storehouse of knowledge about how you?ve played, and subsequently tailors content to your capabilities and experiences. Entering a city, a young woman might approach you and beg you to save her daughter from kidnappers. The game will look at the nearby dungeons you?ve explored, automatically set the mission in a place you?ve never visited, and designate opponents that are appropriately matched to your strengths and weaknesses.?

* Fast-Travel: As you probably expect, you can instantly travel to previous locations with a tap of the button

* Sprinting: You can now sprint about!

* Town visiting: You may do more in towns, like tailor weapons, cooking, farming or mining. Not much details about this or how detailed they are as jobs.

* Dynamic Shadows

* Improved Faces/Improved Models Example: Faces have been dramatically overhauled. Characters now exhibit more emotion show of distinctions between different races and just plain looks better.

* Radiant AI

* Updated Engine Snow falls dynamically (not as a basic texture on the ground)

* Trees and branches move independently with the wind

* Water flows

* Randomly generated quests

* Beards

* You can?t run backwards as fast as you do forward.

* 10 races to choose from (Holy crap thats a lot of races)

* Confirmed creatures: zombies, skeletons, trolls, giants, ice wraiths, giant spiders, dragons, wolves, horses Elk, mammoth, saber-toothed cats

* Presumably open cities (as dragons can attack)

* Hud-free first-person view and improved third-person perspective

* Very unique landscapes! Also unique dungeons! In other words, lots of uniqueness!

* Character creation improved, body features customizable

* 2-handed weapons and duel wielding confirmed.

* Finishing moves, unique to each weapon and enemy you fight.

* Dialog will pop up when you approach an enemy

* Cooking/farming/mining/woodcutting/blacksmithing

* Perk picking at every level-up

* 5 Magic Schools Destruction Alteration Conjuration Restoration Illusion.

Grand Master

treemonster

Posted
Posted

I would imagine the game doesn't look much better from those screenshots of you played them on PC, but they look much better than the console versions of TES4 assuming the console version of TES5 will be similar.

People may be remember the graphics in Oblivion looking better then they did, because they don't look great.

Hopefully the levelling/difficulty is somewhere between FO3/NV, I should be able to come across more powerful enemies and not be killed in 1-2 hits like on NV even on very easy at a high level, but it should still be a good challenge.

aside from a few touches, you can't really say it looks better or worse than oblivion based on those screens. they're two low rez and bad scans and so on, aside from the dubious nature of magazine "in game" screenshots.

Updated scans and added:

sounds intersting for the most part. some of it is obvious hype, some of it(10 races) is in every tes game.

Grand Master

Nagisan

Posted
Posted

* On Conversations: Conversations aren’t done in a zoomed in static shot anymore.Start a conversation with some and they will act like someone would in real life, looking at you occasionally and walking around a bit and also continue doing a task if they were doing one while talking.

* On Weapon smithing: Go to a forge and carve a new weapon out of red hot metal.

* “Radiant storytelling” or Level Scaling 2.0: “The game eventually logs a huge storehouse of knowledge about how you’ve played, and subsequently tailors content to your capabilities and experiences. Entering a city, a young woman might approach you and beg you to save her daughter from kidnappers. The game will look at the nearby dungeons you’ve explored, automatically set the mission in a place you’ve never visited, and designate opponents that are appropriately matched to your strengths and weaknesses.”

* Improved Faces/Improved Models Example: Faces have been dramatically overhauled. Characters now exhibit more emotion show of distinctions between different races and just plain looks better.

* Updated Engine Snow falls dynamically (not as a basic texture on the ground)

* Trees and branches move independently with the wind

* Water flows

* Randomly generated quests

Best bits of info out of that (IMO).

Finally no more conversations where you just stare at the NPCs blank emotionless face. Awesome that they are going to have the NPCs continue doing what they are doing while talking. It hides some of the facial animation, but its much more realistic (unless you are talking about something serious, how often do other people completely stop what they are doing and sit there staring straight at you while talking?).

Weapon smithing is interesting.....the way I interpret that detail, is you will be able to shape the overall look of the weapon (the shape of the blade of a sword for example), but I doubt that is the case. Would be awesome if it is though, as I collect bladed weapons somewhat (have a few swords, knifes, and other small handheld bladed weapons), it would be sweet to be able to shape them as a weapon for my character without having to manually model it.

Dynamic questing? Nice. What if someone explores every nearby area though? Would it pick one at random or create a new one or pick one farther away? Either way, nice way to get people to explore more areas (instead of having a couple major nearby caves that all the quests use or work around).

Face improvements? Bout time, the faces were always butt ugly in Oblivion, Fallout 3 did a little better but they were still pretty bad.

Dynamic snow will be neat, will certainly look better than textured snow. Flexible trees and water that actually flows will be cool too. Though honestly the water bit isn't really needed unless there are ways to divert the water (will a body in a stream cause the water to swell and possible change course? Can I pile up bodies to block a stream?)

If the game turns out as dynamic and realistic (realistic in terms of graphics/physics and what not) as it sounds, it's going to be the best release of 2011 (as long as it isn't delayed, which is pretty unlikely). That's assuming they pull off what was mentioned.....how often to developers manage that...

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