[QuickTidal]

 Aptorius, on 13 November 2011 - 07:07 PM, said:

THose of you who've played the game, are all the dragon encounters like this? I actually expected the dragons to be a lot tougher... and maybe bigger?

The early game frost dragons are certainly like this...though it should be noted the reviewers have some decent, enchanted weaponry and good spells, elven shield ect. so they make shorter work of the dragon than normal. Still, they are not made as impossible to beat either. Just don't expect to take him out with a steel sword alone. It's a solid enough challenge that might end up with you dying or at least having to use a few potions to stay alive. And there is one huge badass black dragon that you can't fight yet who I am sure wil present a future challenge.

[Silencer]

Dragons are pushovers, and relatively disappointing thereby. The only dragon to give me pause was the unique Skeleton Dragon (spoilerz as to where and why) and that kicked my ass in zero seconds flat, so I snuck past him to continue on the relevant quest. All others (save perhaps Alduin, whom I have yet to have the pleasure of beating to a pulp) are relatively easy to take down.

@Tapper - it's probably because I'm multiclassing, so my off-hand is *always* a spell of some kind. Thus, no blocking capabilities. I'd use a ward instead, if I had the foresight of being able to predict my next encounter, but DAMN those things drain magicka fast.

These days I can make myself almost untouchable by having a healing spell in my left and a drain health enchanted weapon in my right. The dual health incomes more than make up for the DPS of most enemies, save the uniques, giants, and non-level-scaled baddies. Frost Trolls are like a cakewalk to me.

I've never been "critically hit" like what you do to NPCs. No animations or unique shots, just...*bam* normal attack fucks my remaining health in one shot. Now, whether that's what is meant to happen or not, it is fucking annoying! I get the presence of critical strikes, that's fine...but they should LOOK critical, and would they PLEASE stop happening at the 50 points of health left mark, because keeping my health constantly above that (in the past, anyway) is just a waste of resources when I'm perfectly capable of finishing the fight in the next two seconds and letting health regen naturally?


Oh yeah...did I mention that vampirism is simultaneously awesome and a pain in the ass? XD



DB and College questlines: DONE. Moving onto Main Quest now. The DB questline was pretty good...felt really short though. College questline...eh, could have been better. I'm thinking the lack of "You are X Rank" in each guild is annoying me. Because there's no sense of progression outside of the storyline, which in both cases see you make some miraculous-seeming jumps in position. Feels too much like "chosen one" syndrome. Ah well.

Loving it. @DM - If you loved Morrowind, this game will not be too much of a change or disappointment for you like Oblivion was. That being said, if you haven't played Oblivion, it might seem worse for that, seeing as I'm looking at this as "got closer to Morrowind than Oblivion" rather than "how does this directly compare to Morrowind?".
Magic is pretty good. Flamethrower hand for first spell? Epic win. But the magic choices on the whole do seem very limited to me. Not as much variety as there *could* have been, if you know what I mean. Though if you can run this on PC, mods will fix that shortly, I'd imagine.

[POOPOO MCBUMFACE]

Definitely a better game than Oblivion, I'm pleasantly surprised - it is pretty much just a better Oblivion, and sure, it's not deserving of the insane praise it's getting, but it's more than good enough to sink a while into.

Just finished the fighter's guild. That was... short. Off to join the mages and hopefully get some decent spells, having been warned about how head-bashingly stupid their questline is (the poor Psijics...). Playing on Expert, was on master but the utterly silly HP bloat on some enemies like dragons just got... too much, along with the frankly stupid random KOs Silencer mentioned that my character seems hapless to avoid. I just keep getting killed for no apparent fucking reason. In the reign of the Immersion God, I guess having a transparent, sensical RPG system that allows the player to actually have half a clue what's going on is too much to ask. Playing a battlemage build, augmenting his dual-wielding weapons with summons, bound items, alteration and some good old fashioned nuking. I had my reservations about the magic system, but it's a lot more enjoyable than I expected.

Was initially pretty impressed with the dragon combat. The first one shrugged off anything I threw at it, had to lower the difficulty to get anywhere against it. Wandered up north and took on a stationary dragon at a ruined fort, and he utterly kicked my ass. He then stopped to wrestle a bear, which got the better of him somewhat, leaving him softened up for me. He was still OHKOing me, though, and I ended up crouching behind some boulders wearing all my mage gear (normally use light armour) just so my magic would regenerate quickly enough for me to stand a chance. The sheer pants-wetting terror when he stuck his head around the side of the boulder looking for me was great. The only reason I prevailed at all was thanks to the storm atronach scroll I picked up somewhere.

As for the atmosphere and environment... pretty great. The atmosphere suffers by the almost childish insistence on making everything EPIC and MAJESTIC and playing fucking choirs all the time - I left it alone at the title screen for two goddamn minutes and it starts chanting everywhere, I thought I had it behaving and everything - without any real contrasting mundanity, but I still find myself wanting to see what's over the next hill, what lurks in that dungeon just off the trail. More than could ever be said for Oblivion. It's obvious that they got MK back on lore, as well, and finding new books to discover what's happened over the decades is always a treat. The dungeons are a mixed bag... they seemed impressive at first, and I like that they all have some story and variety to them, but more often than not they seem to boil down to very linear corridors with draugr killing as filler. At least Oblivion's had branching occasionally. That said, there have been some damn good ones, and I like the increased usage of traps and puzzles.

This post has been edited by POOPOO MCBUMFACE: 14 November 2011 - 01:41 AM

[QuickTidal]

Wow, you guys are exceptionally hard on such an utterly stunning game.

LOL

I'm finding it endless fun. Sure the Companion's questline was shortish, but it was still fun to do.

If an enemy is easier to beat I'm not bothered.

Overall i play games for fun, and the sheer scope of how long this game can keep you questing, seems like regardless of how short some of the side/misc quests are, you'll still probably clock a few hundred hours to max the game out.

Ease up, Gamer guys!

Oh and I'd be PISSED if the music wasn't all EPIC. Sorry, I play this game to FEEL epic. Even if that's just killing a fox and reanimating his body to do my bidding, or getting hammered in Whiterun with the town drunk.

This post has been edited by QuickTidal: 14 November 2011 - 03:51 AM

[Illuyankas]

ARGH I HAVE NOW KILLED TWO NPCS BY ACCIDENT BECAUSE THEY PUSHED BETWEEN ME WHILE MID 64 DAMAGE SKYFORGE STEEL BATTLEAXE (SUPERIOR) STANDING 25% DAMAGE BUFFED POWER SWING AND THE RANDOM DRAGONS THAT DECIDED TO SWOOP DOWN AND INTERRUPT OUR CONVERSATIONS TO MELEE IT THEMSELVES

EITHER THAT OR THEY WERE BOTH VALIANTLY TRYING TO SAVE THE DRAGON FROM ME, TRAITORS

Also the first one I accidentally killed gave me a 20% shout cooldown reducing amulet, which is very tasty. I recommend everyone still considering it gets at least to the Greybeards and does the short little quests in High Hrothmar whenever they can, one of the loud things you get from it is very useful indeed. Plus I think I've found word one of a instant death shout.

(I killed my mammoth for the tusk for that fetch quest at level 7, if you didn't do the same or earlier you're a pansy)

(also fuck Kvenel)

This post has been edited by Illuyankas: 14 November 2011 - 06:43 AM

[Obdigore]

Double Fisting Fireballs > Melee Characters.

[Illuyankas]

Shit, didn't I click attack once and you died?

[Beezulbubba]

Spoiler

[Gothos]

Difficulty-wise I think the game's fairly well balanced on Adept. Granted, I do feel a tad overpowered sometimes when I'm doing The Backstab (now it's ebony sword 24dmg x12 + mehrune's razor 13dmg x30), that is finely fixed whenever I am forced to fight several enemies head on and I can't get a backstab in.

Also, something I've noticed - Forsworn and the elven religious nut guys (Thalmor?) seem awfuly good at detecting stealth. I've had a tremendously hard time sneaking by them even in deep darkness, with 100 Sneak, +30% sneaking from amulet and +15% sneaking from armor piece. I've had to resort to invisibility potions (not high enough in Illusion to be able to cast that gorram Invisibility spell yet).
Dragons are also rather problematic, but I've got my Nightingale Bow for those, and perhaps I'll even run in with sword/dagger to finish the job.

Spoiler for the DB questline:

Spoiler

Anyone else feel rather bad about killing the Emperor? Once you meet him he turns out to be a decent-ish guy really, the way he talks to you and the way he faces his death. Completely unlike the tyrant I expected from what was happening in Skyrim in general. Also, did you grant him his last wish? I did.
Also - did you let Cicero live? I killed him in the Dawnstar Sanctuary, now I'm wondering what would change if I let him live...

[Obdigore]

 Illuyankas, on 14 November 2011 - 07:13 AM, said:

Shit, didn't I click attack once and you died?

Didn't I blow your body up before you even knew I was there, looted all your gear, and walked away?

I think I did!

[Trull's son]

Going Mage on adept difficulty seems too easy by far, especially early game. At expert it seems to balance out; balanced, except when you're fighting a lych of course (they seem difficult no matter what).

[Illuyankas]

 Obdigore, on 14 November 2011 - 07:50 AM, said:

 Illuyankas, on 14 November 2011 - 07:13 AM, said:

Shit, didn't I click attack once and you died?

Didn't I blow your body up before you even knew I was there, looted all your gear, and walked away?

I think I did!

No, that was the guy who lacked my MANLY MUSCLES and near-infinite pool of health. I was the Nord made of meats called Big McLargehuge, you must remember him, he's the one who sprinted through the barrage of spells and damage to get to the guy in the dress (that's you) and casually murder him in a swing, and then died when he fucked up pressing either I or Q and the cumulative degen effects beat his finger to his inventory and potions. NEARLY ENOUGH MEATS NOW

[Obdigore]

 Illuyankas, on 14 November 2011 - 08:02 AM, said:

 Obdigore, on 14 November 2011 - 07:50 AM, said:

 Illuyankas, on 14 November 2011 - 07:13 AM, said:

Shit, didn't I click attack once and you died?

Didn't I blow your body up before you even knew I was there, looted all your gear, and walked away?

I think I did!

No, that was the guy who lacked my MANLY MUSCLES and near-infinite pool of health. I was the Nord made of meats called Big McLargehuge, you must remember him, he's the one who sprinted through the barrage of spells and damage to get to the guy in the dress (that's you) and casually murder him in a swing, and then died when he fucked up pressing either I or Q and the cumulative degen effects beat his finger to his inventory and potions. NEARLY ENOUGH MEATS NOW

You must be mistaken. Surely you realized that after the double fist fireball and half your health was gone, then the mighty Tattersail High Elf went ahead and used her dragon shout to SLOW TIME, MOTHERFUCKER and fire another double fist fireball into your face, lighting what is left of your corpse on fire. She then used the animate weak corpse spell to bring you back to life as a zombie, just so she could have the pleasure of killing you again.

This post has been edited by Obdigore: 14 November 2011 - 08:08 AM

[Illuyankas]

I'm not sure how much of that I made out over the sound of you masturbating onto a picture of Gandalf but I'm pretty sure you're underestimating the volume of meat I possess. Because, you see, I am excessively meaty. Meaty enough to be just right if I was a steak once I axed you the question 'how many body parts are you going to be left in after I release this mouse button?' and waded out of the fireballs.

...meaty.

[Tapper]

Got my first daedric weapon - the Mace of Golag Bol or whatever his name is - he's your typical unpleasant Daedric prince but why care what happens to your immortal soul if pawning it away makes you hit people for gazillions of damage and other unpleasant effects as well as binding them into soulstones? You won't hear me complain about it, anyway.

Other than that, I went on a smithing binge. Am close to being able to construct ebony stuff (materials are going to be a bit of a pain for that one, and Daedric after that is going to be equally unpleasant) but I now have enough high quality spare stuff to arm my own private army in matching kits. Bring on the extra companions, please.

[Traveller]

Loving all the little details - pine needles falling from trees, snow dust blowing from rocks, a hawk swoopoing overhead which I only noticed because it's shadow crossed my path and made me look up. (And, while I watched it, it landed in a nest up a cliff).
Blowing cobwebs, hearing a woodpecker in the forest - and I think the best suprise detail was when I went to look over some misty rapids, and there were actual salmon jumping up the river! Goddamn it but it looks good.

Stumbling onto a couple of Mammoths and a Giant in the dawn was sweet too - when they started shambling about, they look very real, and very heavy.

Only gripe so far.. my game has frozen TWICE. Already. I've only cleared a couple fo bandit camps and dungeons, but once after killing a necromancer of some kind the game froze, so I had to reload and do it again. Then it froze again while I was fighting him a second time. I don't want to have to start saving every five minutes in case the game breaks.

(Also.. Graymane, rebelling against the Empire? Sounds familiar..)

This post has been edited by Traveller: 14 November 2011 - 10:12 AM

[Gothos]

... I need to get a DX11 card for this. Thanks Traveller.

[POOPOO MCBUMFACE]

 QuickTidal, on 14 November 2011 - 03:50 AM, said:

Oh and I'd be PISSED if the music wasn't all EPIC. Sorry, I play this game to FEEL epic. Even if that's just killing a fox and reanimating his body to do my bidding, or getting hammered in Whiterun with the town drunk.

Maybe it's just me, but I feel the EPIC and MAJESTIC becomes mundane in itself if that's all there is. Like if Malazan was nothing but extreme Ascendant battles for a few hundred pages; sure, they're almost always a high point, but would they be as effective without the marine POVs and the buildup? Would Fiddler nuking a Dhenrabi be as awesome if he pulled out two modified machine-gun crossbows that feed into a pocket warren of infinite cussers, roared "TIME TO BRING IN THE CATCH" and was attacked by a hundred at once while firing them non-stop? Actually, yes. That was a bad example. But you see my point. I get a bit tired of people screaming that I'm a badass legendary hero of legend everywhere I go when I don't feel like I've earned it in any way.

It's a minor niggle in the grand scheme of things, certainly. I just feel that it goes a long way to diminishing the game's great atmosphere; for me, the most memorable part of open-world RPGs is when I finally feel like I've worked up the resources, power and experience to venture out and really make a name for myself, really become a world-changing figure. In Skyrim, I was the mighty hero everyone needs right from the start.

Still really enjoying the game, though, don't get me wrong.

[Illuyankas]

It's not a Bethesda game if you aren't unceremoniously dumped to desktop occasionally. Also the salmon jumping was one of the first things I saw in game and it was pretty sweet, not gonna lie. And yeah, the mixed reactions of people to Human Revolution's Adam Jensen was one of the nicest parts of that game (that and punching them out) as it avoided that whole issue right off.

Oh, and you aren't a lean mean killing machine until you can cut someone's head off with a warhammer.

e: OH WHAT YOU CAN SPIN THE LOADING SCENE STATUES WHAT IS THIS

This post has been edited by Illuyankas: 14 November 2011 - 11:36 AM

[QuickTidal]

I keep stealing accidentally and getting in shit. Especially with NPC's behind counters in shops...when I go to talk to them they invariably have all this shit around them and if I tap over them a little over-zealously I end up pocketing something by accident.