posted
its out, watch me not have time to play it for days.
There are some pretty hilarious bugs (never change bethesda) and it may take them some time to patch the game up to stability and non-choppiness.
Fortunately for the PC users there are some ~workarounds~
quote:Go to Start->Control Panel->Sound. In the Playback tab right click on Speakers or whatever has a green tick next to it, then click Properties. In the advanced tab on this new window select "24 bit, 44100Hz (Studio Quality)" in the drop down menu.
use that if you are experiencing problems / ctd
EDIT
also for if you HATE the mouse smoothing to make it 'gamepaddy'
quote:Steam > steamapps > common > skyrim > Skyrim Create a backup of the file (just in case) Scroll down to where it says '[Controls] and find bMouseAcceleration=1 Change to bMouseAcceleration=0 Save and try it out
posted
I read somewhere that there was supposed to be a release-day patch. Is that happening tomorrow?
Edit - also, steam says it hasn't unlocked yet. Is that not accurate, or is it just available elswhere?
Posts: 2907 | Registered: Nov 2005
| IP: Logged |
posted
I've heard a lot of conflicting reports about Steam releases. The consensus I've heard is that it is available for download, but not playing, right now via Steam. However, depending on your time zone you might be able to play it if you got it via Steam a couple of hours early.
The release-day patch rumors are accurate-according to Bethesda, I hear, it's a few minor things. Some of the reviews I've read have made mention of Oblivion-style NPCs talking to themselves or through walls and ceilings, some fly-into-the-sky weapon hits, etc. I don't know how avoidable the NPC stuff is in games this big, actually, but I reckon the patch is for stuff like that.
One thing that seems strange to me is the way people complain of no multiplayer in Elder Scrolls games. While I think good multiplayer would rock in that particular setting, it's been made pretty clear we shouldn't expect it. *shrug*
Posts: 17164 | Registered: Jun 2001
| IP: Logged |
posted
It does seem strange. It's just really not what Elder Scrolls is about. And man, if you think they're buggy now...
Posts: 2907 | Registered: Nov 2005
| IP: Logged |
posted
Guuuuh, I'm trying so hard to remain stoic and indifferent, but I am fangirling so hard for this game. (Sigh)
Posts: 3580 | Registered: Aug 2005
| IP: Logged |
posted
I only have one gift card, and have to choose between COD 3, Skyrim, and Legend of Zelda. So far Zelda is winning, but it's totally a whitewhine problem.
Posts: 14316 | Registered: Jul 2005
| IP: Logged |
posted
Hah. I'm so ashamed of myself. My new jobs are such that I can keep erratic schedules when I feel like it, and I'm actually a little tempted to hit a midnight release for the first time since I was a teenager. Hm no I take that back, I went once for the first WoW expansion, but I didn't actually get the game, I was just keeping a friend company.
At any rate, it's intensely silly that I'm even considering it. Dammit Bethesda, why can't you make a better game so I can at least be proud of playing it for eleven million hours?
Posts: 3580 | Registered: Aug 2005
| IP: Logged |
posted
Seriously, bugs and glitches aside, if the game just keeps making you want to play for hours on end, isn't that, in the end, kind of the entire point of a game? If you are thinking about it in your sleep and you want to keep playing, despite being annoyed at time by glitches and such, doesn't that mean the overall game is a success and worth the money? Is it fair to say a game sucks when you can't bring yourself to stop playing it?
Now, game-breaking glitches are another story. If I play Skyrim for 50 hours and then lose my game, that is unforgivable.
Posts: 684 | Registered: Aug 2001
| IP: Logged |
quote:Originally posted by Marlozhan: Seriously, bugs and glitches aside, if the game just keeps making you want to play for hours on end, isn't that, in the end, kind of the entire point of a game? If you are thinking about it in your sleep and you want to keep playing, despite being annoyed at time by glitches and such, doesn't that mean the overall game is a success and worth the money? Is it fair to say a game sucks when you can't bring yourself to stop playing it?
Now, game-breaking glitches are another story. If I play Skyrim for 50 hours and then lose my game, that is unforgivable.
quote:Originally posted by Marlozhan: Seriously, bugs and glitches aside, if the game just keeps making you want to play for hours on end, isn't that, in the end, kind of the entire point of a game? If you are thinking about it in your sleep and you want to keep playing, despite being annoyed at time by glitches and such, doesn't that mean the overall game is a success and worth the money? Is it fair to say a game sucks when you can't bring yourself to stop playing it?
Now, game-breaking glitches are another story. If I play Skyrim for 50 hours and then lose my game, that is unforgivable.
If you want a summary of my WHOLE opinion on Oblivion, not just specifically why I use it as a poster child of How Not To Design Core Game Mechanics, it's that it is ultimately not a bad game, just one that was stifled greatly despite ultimately being worth playing.
The odds of Skyrim not being worth playing is excruciatingly slim. Given that it's likely done away with the dumbfoundingly poor legacy elements of Elder Scrolls which they wanted to keep as late as Oblivion, you could daringly hope that it is actually great.
Posts: 15421 | Registered: Aug 2005
| IP: Logged |
posted
Holy s*#t the world is *big*. Even primed to expect it to be be enormous, I'm still surprised.
Posts: 17164 | Registered: Jun 2001
| IP: Logged |
posted
So I bought the game last night (midnight release) and have been playing it all day today. Here are my thoughts so far.
The graphics are leagues ahead of Oblivion and Fallout. The new engine is fantastic and really brings the world to life. The details are great.
The voice acting has been vastly improved. No longer are there only a handful of voices for hundreds of people. There's a lot of variety.
The music is beautiful in almost every moment.
The quests are interesting. Some are your typical "go here, do this", but there's variety. And there are more sidequests than Oblivion. Much more.
3rd-Person view is much better. So is riding a horse. I actually went out and bought a horse this time around, something I've never done before because riding them felt pointless in Oblivion.
The world feels alive. There are so many things going on that you can wander off into whatever corner you want in the world and you'll find something dynamic happening. Oblivion promised this, but it never really felt natural or full enough. This game actually manages to pull it off, at least so far.
The dragon stuff is all great. Taking down your first dragon, looting him, and absorbing your first soul is an amazing feeling. By far one of the best parts in the game!
My only complaint is that there's no hotkey for the map. I don't know why they took that away for the Xbox version, but Oblivion had it so that all you had to do was press one button and the map came up. From what I can tell, that doesn't exist anymore. It's a bit of a pain because it means an extra few seconds whenever you need to get your bearings, but I suppose it could be worse.
Anyway, this is definitely the best game in the series and superior to every other game this studio has ever put out. At least, that's my opinion.
Posts: 1324 | Registered: Feb 2011
| IP: Logged |
posted
Okay, I am quite surprised. I decided to load up Oblivion on my laptop, just for fun, assuming it wouldn't run it well. Imagine my surprise when I find out it runs all of the settings maxed better than my desktop runs Oblivion with the video settings around 75%.
My desktop has a dedicated 7800gs video card. My laptop has an integrated video card. How can I run the settings maxed, with HDR, and the game is fairly smooth (i.e. 25-35 fps)?
Yet, if I play LOTR online, it runs much smoother on my desktop than on my laptop. Go figure.
Laptop: Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo CPU T6600 @ 2.20GHz 4gb Ram Windows 7 ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4500/5100 Series, 2.2gb
Looking at the minimum requirements for Skyrim, my laptop seems to meet them, but I still doubt it would actually play it decently. My brother in law may be giving me his old PS3 because he is going to get a new one, so I would probably get Skyrim for that, but now I am wondering if my laptop could pull it off so I can have access to mods.
posted
On another note, do those of you that have Skyrim for the PC think the UI is as atrocious as the Elder Scrolls forums keep saying it is?
Posts: 684 | Registered: Aug 2001
| IP: Logged |
quote:Originally posted by Marlozhan: On another note, do those of you that have Skyrim for the PC think the UI is as atrocious as the Elder Scrolls forums keep saying it is?
Depends on whether you play with M+K or with a controller.
Its really not that bad even with M+K.
Posts: 1574 | Registered: May 2008
| IP: Logged |
You can change these in the game's key bindings. But the problem is in the interface when assigning magic spells to left hand and right hand, the default keys for doing this are M1 and M2, which are by default the hands you will cast them with; but if you remap those, then M1 and M2 won't assign spells to your hands - and neither will the new keys. Also, the displayed actions to take show the default keys to press, even when they've been reassigned.
I went to the forums to find out if there is a solution (there isn't as far as I can tell), to find that multitudes of left-handed players are up in arms because you cannot remap keys to the number-pad.
Some other things are that there is a customizable favorites menu bound to the f key, but if you reassign the f key, it breaks the favorites menu. Also, the ESC key apparently is assignable (which is odd) which has been causing people problems.
edit: Also, it's odd that 'Opening a container' is assigned to a different key than 'Closing a container'. 'Opening' is bound to the same key as 'take everything inside', so it's too easy to accidentally take a bunch of crap you don't want.
Posts: 1080 | Registered: Apr 2006
| IP: Logged |
posted
It's probably a total coincidence but I am absolutely going to chalk up the slow posting day here to being Skyrim's fault.
Posts: 3580 | Registered: Aug 2005
| IP: Logged |
posted
My daughters (ages 15 and 18) have a request in for this game for Christmas. However, they are squabbling over PC vs. Xbox. I'm pretty sure the one computer that "possibly" can play it would have a hard time, but they are less than satisfied with Xbox play as compared to PC play.
We may end up getting the Xbox version for Christmas and the PC version later down the road when we have a newer computer that can run it. And then they'll fight over who gets to play on that PC. Because they are siblings.
Posts: 2034 | Registered: Apr 2004
| IP: Logged |
posted
Holy cow, that PA comic about the difference between dragons and giants and their mammoths is *very* true.
Posts: 17164 | Registered: Jun 2001
| IP: Logged |
posted
I haven't even messed with food yet. I've collected quite a lot of the basic stuff, though, and stored it in my house, so I figure I'll go crazy one time with the cooking and see what pops.
Posts: 17164 | Registered: Jun 2001
| IP: Logged |
posted
I wish my windows install still worked. Still waiting to see what the verdict is for playing it under wine.
Posts: 2437 | Registered: Apr 2005
| IP: Logged |
quote:Originally posted by BlackBlade: I rented it from Red Box. It's hard getting an archer/thief off the ground in that game.
I noticed the same thing. Especially during the first dragon fight, when my sneak skill was useless, the guards that were with me did most of the work. I just have to assume that things will get better later and refrain from fireballing everything to death.
Posts: 1591 | Registered: Jul 2005
| IP: Logged |
quote:Originally posted by BlackBlade: I rented it from Red Box. It's hard getting an archer/thief off the ground in that game.
I noticed the same thing. Especially during the first dragon fight, when my sneak skill was useless, the guards that were with me did most of the work. I just have to assume that things will get better later and refrain from fireballing everything to death.
I climbed to the top of the tower and the stupid thing stayed grounded and attacked the guards. It was impossible to miss with my arrows.
Posts: 14316 | Registered: Jul 2005
| IP: Logged |
I think that's a bug. I've read that sometimes the physics of the world breaks at high framerates, and some people have been using a third party framerate limiter to fix it.
But that video is hilarious.
Posts: 1080 | Registered: Apr 2006
| IP: Logged |
posted
Yeah, giants sending you into space is definitely a bug.
Anyway, as expected, I have become completely detached from the main storyline and sort of wandered off to do other things. I own a house, a horse, and I'm a member of the Theives guild (which I think I'm almost done with). I've also joined a rebellion, killed about three or four dragons, and learned three separate shouts.
I am building a battle mage. I prefer to use one handed weapons and wield magic with the other hand, but depending on the enemy I still use a shield, occasionally. I've also been working on my Thieving skills (my favorite part of the game), but it takes some effort.
Right now I'm at level 18, which doesn't seem that high to me when you look at all the skills you can get. I wonder if the level cap goes up beyond 50 or what, because at the rate I'm leveling, 50 seems like nothing.
How are the rest of you coming along?
Posts: 1324 | Registered: Feb 2011
| IP: Logged |
posted
I'm in my mid 20s, but the last few came fast and furious due to some serious skill training, and some related nefariousness. I stopped myself when I realized how off the rails that could be, and as it turned out I had a *hell* of a nasty few quests because I was a bit lopsided.
As for leveling, I've heard the max is 80-81, but it gets substantially harder after 50.
I've killed perhaps six dragons? And gotten a total of six shouts, I think-but two of them were main quest freebies. Only one fight was out in the boonies-the rest happened as I stumbled upon a dragon attacking something, and once, the hardest fight, when I exited the College of Winterhold on the second floor to find a dragon banking around the tower I was standing on, strafing me with ice. That was the toughest one yet, and the most surprising!
I've done relatively few quests-most of them have been of the 'get a bounty, find location, kill chief/giant' variety. The reward is a pittance-100 gold-but it breaks open big chunks of map, and sometimes I stumble on Word Walls.
I completed Azura's quest, which was pretty rad. I've got a house, but never got a horse-though their encumbrance travel bonus is a draw.
Posts: 17164 | Registered: Jun 2001
| IP: Logged |
posted
I'm just about level 8, finished Hircines quest this morning, got the Saviors Hide.
Have not fought a single dragon, just been exploring. My destruction skill is getting into the 40s but I haven't really leveled much else.
Posts: 1574 | Registered: May 2008
| IP: Logged |
posted
So for those of you playing the game, how does Skyrim measure up to your expectations so far? I think all of us knew there would be bugs, but are they better, the same, or worse than expected? Is it as fun as expected? How does it compare to Oblivion in terms of enjoyment?
Posts: 684 | Registered: Aug 2001
| IP: Logged |
quote:Originally posted by Jeff C.: Anyway, as expected, I have become completely detached from the main storyline and sort of wandered off to do other things.
You know, I've spent about 400 hours playing the TES games (including an entire semester of my Junior year in high school playing Daggerfall, not including Oblivion which I never bothered playing), and I've yet to ever beat the main story in any of them. The closest I game was in Morrowind.
It says a lot about a game that you can chose to completely ignore the main quest and still have an insane amount of fun playing.
Gabe from PA talks about being paralyzed by freedom... I find it sad that as a culture we're now so used to games that drag us along on a single track, that when a an RPG comes out that actually lets you role play, people feel lost.
I'm the exact opposite, I find the freedom incredibly exhilarating. Not that I'll have the time, or the computer, to play Skyrim until next year, but I'm already excited to see other people enjoying it. Posts: 2222 | Registered: Dec 2008
| IP: Logged |
posted
I don't think the whole Paralyzed By Freedom thing is really an issue with american gamers. If history of open-world gaming is any indication, we love it.
Japanese gamers may have quite a bit more trouble with it because their gaming culture is more repressed and closed off (I'm .. it sounds ridiculous but I'm not kidding, there's a whole line of study related to gaming attitudes and the decline of japanese studios and gameplay preferences) but hell just give them a Skyrim and the problem solves itself.
Posts: 15421 | Registered: Aug 2005
| IP: Logged |
posted
It's a mindset, I think. For completionists like myself, who feel the need to do every quest and level every skill to the max, open-world games are hard to get into. Fortunately, I've been able to step back into the mindset I'm in when I larp (shut up, it's actually more fun than I thought it would be), and Skyrim has been an amazing experience so far. I haven't run into a single bug yet, and I haven't used a single cheat code, even though it's resulted in me dying quite a few times.
Posts: 1591 | Registered: Jul 2005
| IP: Logged |
posted
I'm level 8 right now. I haven't really gone beyond Whiterun, but I think I'm going to start heading to Winterhold to enter the college of magic. I'm focusing so far on building a mage specializing in destruction and perhaps alteration and/or conjuration, and on archery.
I haven't experienced too many bugs, I love the game so far, but I find this kind of open-ended freedom appealing. I haven't spent a whole lot of time on the main quest so far, I tend towards doing about 5-10 side quests per every main quest.
Posts: 1080 | Registered: Apr 2006
| IP: Logged |
Printer-friendly view of this topic
![[Wall Bash]](graemlins/wallbash.gif)
![[Smile]](smile.gif)
