Skyrim

[Ruldra]

Looks like buckets are an indispensable tool in a thief's arsenal: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rt5aUdijAN8
Also watch out for giants: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sTgUm8VEWiU

[Blackbird]

*sigh* This is why modern gaming fails. You can build the most stunningly realistic game world ever, visually, but all of that effort to create suspension of disbelief is shattered the instant the player interacts with the game. The graphics get better, but the AI is still as dumb as bricks, the same it's ever been. Simply exploiting the geometry renders most enemies helpless. All of that stock in the "epic, immersive storyline" is ruined when a player puts a bucket on an NPC's head and it doesn't even know what to do about it. It's certainly hilarious and makes for a fine comedy, but I cannot take their storyline seriously when the NPCs constantly breach immersion and belief in the setting.

[Udderdude]

I still think I get more entertainment value from watching stupid videos of these elder scrolls games on youtube than I would ever get from trying to play them.

[CMoon]

Played about 5 hours or so until my eyes hurt. Best aspect of the game seems to be pacing. I never just finish a quest--the moment I finish one, two more pop up. There's also very satisfying progression. No more trying to keep your level as low as possible. Instead, there's a sense you are always progressing.

Incidentally, the dungeons are long. Seems most dungeons take a couple hours to get through.

[BIL]

Dear god, I'm dying laughing at that second video.

[drauch]

Is that a Samus Aran tattoo?

Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind I believe.

Obi is correct

[CMoon]

Wow, to have both this and Dark Souls come out so close to each other! How am I supposed to get anything else done in my life? Pretty much can't start Skyrim without burning 2-5 hours. The world feels much more realistic to me than Oblivion (graphics wise), and you can't seem to walk 10 feet without running into a quest. I'm level 13 and still haven't made it to the Greybeards--not that I'm avoiding them, but something always comes up. Found two dungeons I haven't even bothered exploring yet because I want to make it to the Greybeards before doing tons of other crazy shit.

[sjewkestheloon]

I have pretty much abandoned the main quest at the same point as you cmoon. I joined the companions and I am having a ball alternating those quests with random raids and a little tomfoolery here and there.

[Necronopticous]

I have pretty much abandoned the main quest at the same point as you cmoon. I joined the companions and I am having a ball alternating those quests with random raids and a little tomfoolery here and there.

I want to continue the companions quests but I don't want to...you know... Is it possible to continue without doing that?

[maxlords]

I've been through two sidequests already in the first couple of hours and haven't even gotten to the main town to join the resistance yet. This game is like fucking crack! Love it! I hope the main story is better than Oblivion, and I'm not in love with the way the menus are set up, but even so, it's immersive as fuck (assuming you ignore the exploits as I do).

Absolutely brilliant. I will be losing a LOT of hours to this one...

[CMoon]

Got to the Greybeards--totally and completely epic. I realized it isn't the dragons that set this game apart for me, it's the scale of the mountains. As an avid hiker, going to the peak looked pretty real to me, short of how easy it was to trudge through the snow. The fact that you can see out to the ocean and some islands out there gives it just the right feel (I can often do the same thing on some local hikes.)

Heh, there's way too many jokes about what that thing is that you might have to do as a member of the companions to take your question seriously.

[Khan]

Just gonna start playing the pc version in a few moments I was hoping to use my wired 360 joypad but apparently it slows things down by 15-20fps using the joypad shame really since i got rsi atm so coulda done with using the pad -_-;

[CMoon]

Obviously Skyrim is about playing the way you want to play it, but wanted to point out how incredibly useful Enchanting is. It's accessible right away and doesn't cost money like it did in Oblivion. It's more limited though (game breaking weapons aren't available upfront), but you could still do things like duel wield, and put weakness to X on one weapon, and X on the other. Alternatively put soul trap on one weapon. I tend to avoid this though because of the constant need for gems. Instead, there's constant effects on armor. There's already talk that you can make magic cost nothing (hopefully that will be patched), but I put magic regen on three different pieces of gear, and the bar definitely recovers faster. Hopefully I'll find some better effects for armor soon (like invisibility).

So I'm posting this because I was very bad about selling enchanted equip that didn't fit my playstyle (heavy weapons and armor). All that stuff should be disenchanted to keep the effects.

[sjewkestheloon]

I have pretty much abandoned the main quest at the same point as you cmoon. I joined the companions and I am having a ball alternating those quests with random raids and a little tomfoolery here and there.

I want to continue the companions quests but I don't want to...you know... Is it possible to continue without doing that?

Touch your peni... oh sorry, nevermind.

Looks like you are further than I am with them as, although I know what you refer to I haven't come to the point where that becomes a possibility.

As for enchantments, they are crazy powerful! I found a Heavy Armour +15 enchantment on a piece of Steel Armour and it really made a difference.

[Vyxx]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yBqKG8HF3zQ

last one is awesome

[Udderdude]

Those giants really don't fuck around.

[shmuppyLove]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yBqKG8HF3zQ

last one is awesome

PHYSICS IS SRS BIZNESS

Fallout 3 had lots of similar glitches, and it's certainly nothing new for TES games in general.

Just goes to show how few restrictions they place on the game world

[Leader Bee]

Going for a two handed battleaxe lizardman right now, got me an ancient nord battleaxe of frost or whatever bu tdidnt realise it needs charging with crystals, hopefully i can find something better cause it's pretty ugly. Oh, and 2 handing doesnt really block much damage, if any

[CMoon]

Yeah, I've never liked the whole charging weapons with crystals thing--consequently, I tend to go for enchanted armor over weapons. Oblivion had a really obscure item you could get that allowed you to create a crystal that could be charged over and over. If there's something like that here, you might be in business, but in general I found them a real challenge to maintain.

Man, still can't believe how great a job they did with this game as far as having every thing lead to something else. I swear I'll just be leaving a dungeon and see a little trail off to the side. Now where does that go? Of course, off to another temple/dungeon/fort/etc. There's always something in this game. Sure, there are big open spaces, but it seems great about always pulling you into something else.

[sjewkestheloon]

After spending some time with the game and the leveling system I can honestly say that I prefer the possibilities offered by this game over any of the other Elder Scrolls games. I like role playing in my RPGs and I have always found the fact that you can pretty much be a god in everything in older ES games to be annoying. The way that the perks are set up in Skyrim, and the fact that you only have 50 for each character, means that you realistically can only choose 4 or 5 skills to focus on. Sure, as a level 50 focused on all melee abilities you can then uturn and level destruction to 100 but you won't have any of the (seemingly essential) damage boosting perks, fast charge, ability boosts, etc etc.

Now you can dabble in extra skills but never become as effective as your chosen path.

Well that seems to be the case so far at least and I hope that it holds up. Thoughts?

Edit: and I have just read that they changed the 50 perk limit to 80 or 81 which is actually the level cap, contrary to what they said pre release. Guess you can be more godly than I thought then.

[LtC]

Been having a blast with the game, they fixed up pretty much all the problems I had with oblivion. I'm really happy the game works so smooth even on high settings considering my PC isn't all that good by today's standards.

I've been playing a sneak build with some conjuration and destruction spells and I joined the Dark brotherhood. At level 17 I have 70+ sneak allowing me to get 30x sneak attacks with a dagger which is sweet. I've also lots of perks and equipment that make me really hard to notice when sneaking so it's pretty fun taking entire dungeons and missions without being seen once.

[Necronopticous]

I've been playing a sneak build with some conjuration and destruction spells and I joined the Dark brotherhood. At level 17 I have 70+ sneak allowing me to get 30x sneak attacks with a dagger which is sweet. I've also lots of perks and equipment that make me really hard to notice when sneaking so it's pretty fun taking entire dungeons and missions without being seen once.

I'm also going the stealthy route, but I've been sticking pretty much exclusively with bow & arrow. Last night I made a new set of armor with helm, bracers, ring, and amulet enchanted with +33% archery damage so my damage is pretty out of control now.

[maxlords]

I wish I had a video of it, but I walked up to two Giants with my weapons drawn at level 5 and they came after me and hit me so fucking hard that I literally sailed straight up in the air....and kept going.....and going....and going. Well...my corpse did....I could see for MILES into the background! Was still going up when the game finally registered my death and reloaded my last save! Totally unrepeatable too

[Strider77]

What are most of you guys playing it on besides PC?

Just curious to see how the PS3 and 360 versions stack up against each other.

[gct]

Totally unrepeatable too

Sounds like you spent quite a while trying.

This sounds like a neat game, but first-person perspective makes me feel ill. Is there a 3rd-person or overhead view?

[maxlords]

Nah, it's just that stuff like that is so random that it's unrepeatable. I wouldn't bother to try repeating it to get it on video. I guess I'm a poor denizen of the digital community

I'm playing it on the 360, same place I played Oblivion. Apparently installed to the 360 it's SLIGHTLY better than the PS3. I can't even imagine playing it on the PC for some reason. And I do game a lot on my PC...

[Strider77]

I heard the opposite... something about texture loading issues when installed on the 360. I'm really interested in the game and I'm almost sold. My hesitation though is based on the fact:

I always get interested when reading about these open world games that allow alot of freedom. Then I get them and after awhile the wow factor goes away once I get over screwing around and actually start the real game. Trying to get to the meat of the game I find out that most the effort was put into the sandbox but none of the events that take place in it. Most the time I find the quests kinda souless or copy paste affairs. Deus Ex I really enjoyed though... didn't feel that way at all.

Not trying to rag on the game at all... I'm hoping that I'll feel different about it. Like I said I loved Deus Ex, but I didn't like Fallout.

[ebarrett]

Deus Ex I really enjoyed though... didn't feel that way at all.

Deus Ex wasn't open world at all, it just let you approach situations in different ways, and had some minor story branching here and there depending on who you killed/let die and who you let live/saved.

edit: just noticed that what I just wrote makes it look like I didn't enjoy Deus Ex, which is not the case, it's one of the best games I've ever played. I did play and enjoy Morrowind and some other "open world" games too, though.

[Strider77]

It's the closet thing I have played to an open world game that I really enjoyed is all. I really disliked Fallout due to all the K-mart quality character models and.... well I just didn't get sucked into it at all.

[Leader Bee]

Was still going up when the game finally registered my death and reloaded my last save! Totally unrepeatable too

Happens every single time a giant hits me...