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Revisiting Skyrim

Started by Barry Admin, November 24, 2017, 05:42:38 PM

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Shay Chaise

Glad to hear it. I've been playing it a fair bit docked despite having it on XB1X and it's so great, just a wonderful place to be. That music, the snowy peaks, rays of sunshine, the stilted conversations. It's a beautiful singular thing, lightning in a bottle, despite all its flaws.

Ferris

Will have to play this now. Cranking the PlayStation up as we speak

Eight Taiwanese Teenagers

I am still not into this, having spent most of the past two weeks playing Rocket League to the detriment of everything else including my social life and physical and mental health. Will try to give it a couple of hours this evening.

Ferris

My PS3 carked it sometime in the last few years, so I've bought a copy on the PS4 and am downloading now. Will be up to my eyeballs in Nords in 47 minutes.

Zetetic

It's hard to remember quite how bad the Hearthfire gubbins is. Spurious material types inflation, hideously illegible (yet utterly shallow) mechanics and illogical choices forced on you.


Eis Nein


Ferris

Stayed up til 2am playing this, still haven't made it to High Hrothgar yet. This game is fucking choice.

Cerys

That's why it's easily my favourite game of all time.  You can play your character however the hell you want.

Beagle 2

I know there were grumbles about a game as "old" as this being such a supposed system seller for the Switch, but a few hours into this and I'm staggered I'm playing this on a handheld. It's just gorgeous and already the world I've felt most a part of outside of a GTA game.

I know, late review and all that, but I'm really blown away. Mario is Mario, y'know, but this is really something.

Cerys

#39
Having decided to stop being a wimp about gameplay difficulty, I am currently on a playthrough on Legendary.  Playing a pacifist again, so no kills.  I'm lurking in the Western Watchtower at the moment waiting for Mirmulnir to die - and since the only person still alive and fighting him is Irileth, this is taking some time.  Hence me being on here posting about it while the game runs.  He's been swooping around for almost an hour now.

Hang on - he's regaining health!  The cunt!  He was down to one-third, and then when I looked again he was over half full!  Irileth is about as much use as a soggy crisp packet.  I wonder if I can lure him towards someone a bit more deadly.

Or alternatively I could hop on a cart down to Riften and join the Thieves' Guild.  What could go wrong?

St_Eddie

Oblivion is the better game.

...There, I've said it.

Shay Chaise

Oblivion is great but having started it again on the One X via backwards compatibility, even with some totally unexpected and very pleasant graphical updates, it feels very empty indeed.

Shoulders?-Stomach!

Nah, no fucking way Oblivion is better.

Morrowind is more fun as it invites you into a depth of options and detail and has that carryover feel from the 90s.

Skyrim is a better experience, being in the world and wandering around is a joy in itself. Not as deep in gameplay but more immersive than the others.


Mister Six

Quote from: Shay Chaise on December 17, 2017, 09:29:04 AM
Oblivion is great but having started it again on the One X via backwards compatibility, even with some totally unexpected and very pleasant graphical updates, it feels very empty indeed.

Aye, I tried replaying it the other month and it's so odd to come out of the initial cave and find yourself in a big, blank expanse of grass with a few trees dotted about, compared to the lush forests of Skyrim.

Also, it was funny to be reminded of stuff like the super-detailed physics engine that allows you to fuck around with buckets on chains, and that - despite being much-lauded at the time - was utilised less frequently in Skyrim because it served no gameplay purpose whatsoever.

Quote from: Cerys on December 11, 2017, 12:08:16 AM
That's why it's easily my favourite game of all time.  You can play your character however the hell you want.

I do wish it would push back a bit more often though. It's annoying that you can be the head wizard, leader of a band of thieves, king of the werewolf warriors AND a master assassin all at the same time. They should've made you choose between clans, pit them against each other or something. Made the world feel very flimsy and lacking in immersion to me - I really had to concentrate on foregoing certain quests because they wouldn't make sense for my 'character,' such as it was.

Also it annoys me how powerful you end up becoming at the end of each of the faction quests. Why would some newbie be allowed to run the wizarding college? That's like Harry Potter running Hogwarts by the middle of book two. They should've continued by having you caught up in political in-fighting, dealing with bitter lecturers who feel like they've been passed up for promotion unfairly, and are now plotting to take you down.

Shay Chaise

I've played probably four hundred hours of Skyrim and I have absolutely no idea what any of the story is about at all. Having started it again on Switch, I have actually paid attention to the dialogue and I went to see the fella's sister in Riften (?) and understood why I ended up with a house in Whiterun from the Jarl. I'm not joking, by the way.

Ferris

I'll say it - I like that I can be the head honcho of every guild/clan/after-school club. You still have to choose stormcloak v imperial and there are a few other choices you have to make along the way that exclude other options.

For the record, my wife started a game after getting bored of watching me play, and followed the imperial out of helgen. I don't know how many thousands of hours I've put into this game, but I've never done that. Never even seen it as an option. Suddenly she's in Riverwood and her play through is way more interesting. The blacksmith is in on it all!!

I've never been so ashamed that I've made the same choice at the beginning every time I've played. So ashamed. Don't look at me.

St_Eddie

Quote from: Shoulders?-Stomach! on December 17, 2017, 09:44:13 AM
Nah, no fucking way Oblivion is better.

Morrowind is more fun as it invites you into a depth of options and detail and has that carryover feel from the 90s.

Skyrim is a better experience, being in the world and wandering around is a joy in itself. Not as deep in gameplay but more immersive than the others.

I won't comment on Morrowind, as I've never played it* but your feelings towards the immersion of Skyrim in opposition to Oblivion is exactly the opposite of how I feel.  Skyrim is such a frosty and cold environment by design and I feel frosty and cold when playing it.  It's all so monotone.  Arguably that's a good thing, given that it's supposed to be a harsh and cold area of the world but it just made me feel depressed and detached from the experience.  Whereas, Oblivion has a warm, colourful and inviting setting, which I found to be an absolute joy to explore.  Oblivion also easily has the more inventive and engaging quests, overall.

It's all personal preference of course but it's the same reason that I was more drawn into Fallout: New Vegas and Fallout 4, over Fallout 3**.  My brain is simply hardwired to have a strong allure towards the bright and colourful.  It's no coincidence that I count the likes of Okami and Outrun 2 among my favourite games of all time.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

* Technically, that's not true, as I owned and played the shitty XBox port of Morrowind back in the day, for all of, oh, 10 minutes.  I honestly can't remember why but I pawned it shortly afterwards.  I probably was desperate for weed money, knowing what a hopeless stoner I was back then.  Now I'm just plain hopeless.

** Having said that, I'd take the original two Fallout games over any of the latter day 3D entries but that's rather besides the point and would only get me started on my deep love for pixel art.  Pixel art and incredible soundtracks.

Quote from: Mister Six on December 17, 2017, 10:16:08 AM
...it annoys me how powerful you end up becoming at the end of each of the faction quests. Why would some newbie be allowed to run the wizarding college? That's like Harry Potter running Hogwarts by the middle of book two. They should've continued by having you caught up in political in-fighting, dealing with bitter lecturers who feel like they've been passed up for promotion unfairly, and are now plotting to take you down.

This.  So much this.

Dog Botherer

Recently acquired a PS4 and a copy of this, will be diving right in as soon as I've finished the last of the BOTW DLC. Any tips/catastrophic fuck ups to avoid for a first time player? Never played Morrowind or Oblivion either so I haven't a fucking notion about the story.

Ferris

Quote from: Dog Botherer on December 18, 2017, 04:43:22 PM
Recently acquired a PS4 and a copy of this, will be diving right in as soon as I've finished the last of the BOTW DLC. Any tips/catastrophic fuck ups to avoid for a first time player? Never played Morrowind or Oblivion either so I haven't a fucking notion about the story.

It works fine as a stand-alone game. Bows are good, crafting is more important than you'd think, and be sure to kill the chicken in Riverwood.

Other than that, enjoy. It's superb.

Zetetic

#49
The idea of 'immersion' is interesting.

Skyrim is remarkably good at making you feel that you're in a place - better perhaps than anything else as a wandering through a different world as a different person - right up until the point where you attempt much in the way of interaction with the world with anything other than violence and theft.

Even then you're weirdly constrained at exactly the points where you'd most want to exercise power - you can't do anything about Ulfric except through a dubious and tedious questline, can't do anything about the Thalmor, and can't really do anything about Riften.

QuoteI do wish it would push back a bit more often though.
Mmm. You can play your character however you want so long as it's broadly the same as any other possible character and you don't expect it to have any impact on the world around you.

Kryton

There's a mod for the PC called 'alternative start' and it cuts out the whole beginning part and allows you into the game a lot quicker by allowing you to quickly setup a character and then landing you somewhere interesting in the world. My last play through I started on a ship on the coast on an incredibly stormy night (I use weather mods too!) and it painted a perfect picture for me, a character with a background I could create for myself, rather than being forced to directly link to the plot.

If you add on a few of the survival mods (frostbite?) - they add things like campfires and the ability to set up tents, and having to wear long cloaks and furs to keep out the cold, the game suddenly becomes quite immersive.

As with all the Elder scrolls games, personally I prefer to wander in my own direction, rather than being pushed on by main quests. More often than not the side quests are better. However I love the ability to forge  my own mini-stories (the time my horse killed an ogre in Oblivion) or the time I accidentally set off a fireball in a busy Inn...


The fondest memories of the series for me, was Morrowind. Although I doubt I could ever return with its clunky interface and crap dice-roll combat, I do miss the ability to float across the map and hoard your treasure in unreachable towers. I also miss the mystery of the series. Skyrim was very hand-holdy in that regard, but I guess it was aiming for a broader market, whereas Morrowind seemed to be seeped in hidden lore and the quest lines were far less obvious and sometimes involved a bit of detective work and genuine exploration and engagement with NPC's.






Zetetic

#51
^ Frostfall, I think.

I'm not quite sure it succeeds in 'keeping tedium to a minimum' but it's a good addition for a certain kind of role-playing. It's a neat combination with something like Imp's More Complex Needs as it allows you to get warmth bonuses from certain foods (and temporary bonuses from alcohol).

Shay Chaise

Just need to get rid of the new post edit glitch.

I have thought about giving the heat and food stuff a go but assume I'd get a bit wicked off if I went for a wander and got hungry. It's the essence of busy work. And yet, I'm tempted now just thinking about it. What on Earth makes it satisfying? I both can and can't imagine.

Shoulders?-Stomach!

QuoteSkyrim is remarkably good at making you feel that you're in a place

Yes. Moments like admiring the sky during a forest walk at night. You can almost breathe the air you're apparently standing in. It captures the stillness, very brave for a game to feel loose enough to allow you to be still with the stars and the hills, have apparently no interest in jolting you from that. That's the open world people are keen on immersing themselves in. Private moments and ad hoc fun. The on rails stuff is a mixed bag, partly satisfying but even completing it feels like taking yourself over a threshold in the game where you can't return to your normal self. Which is an interesting thought for a game to make you think.

Cerys

I get a lot out of that very aspect of it because my days of frolicking on mountainsides are long gone.  Just the ability to explore the wilds is a big thing for me.  Getting mugged by a sabre cat as I'm doing so - well, it's a price I'm willing to pay.

Shay Chaise

It's none of my business but have you ever thought about taking the train thing up Snowdon? Don't need to answer me, just a suggestion in case you didn't know they had a train. I don't know whether that's realistic from a practical or geographical point of view, anyway, but it came to mind. The greener bits of Skyrim always remind me of Snowdonia!

Cerys

I'll probably get round to it at some point.  I've never climbed Snowdon - I made it to the top of Ben Nevis in about 1990, and I've climbed a few of the smaller mountains in Snowdonia, but for some reason I never got around to Snowdon.

Shay Chaise

Nice one. There's a good half dozen paths with varying degrees of, err, degrees but the train is great. Takes you right to the top and fantastic views, especially on the very rare occasion that it's not misty!

St_Eddie

#58
Quote from: Dog Botherer on December 18, 2017, 04:43:22 PM
Never played Morrowind or Oblivion either so I haven't a fucking notion about the story.

The "story" in the Elder Scrolls games is completely irrelevant and surplus to requirements.  It's all wizards, magic and who-could-honestly-give-a-flying-dragon.  These games are all about crafting your own story.  For example, I role-play as a man, whom duly fills his finely crafted boots with diuretic shit, in-between bouts of severe depression but then again, I never did have much of an imagination.

Lemming

I think that Daggerfall and Morrowind (in particular) have a fantastic story, but it's relayed almost entirely through the in-game books as opposed to the games themselves. The main story quests (and literally all the side quests) are pretty dull, with only Morrowind's "you-might-be-a-reincarnation-of-Nerevar-but-you-might-just-be-a-political-tool-of-the-Empire" stuff being the only interesting point.

The in-game books portray a pretty incredibly detailed and at times psychedelic and surreal fantasy world, filled with all kinds of bizarre belief systems, racism, crazy religions, political intrigue and mystery, especially the Daedra. It's just a shame that it never comes across in any of the actual games.