Skyrim impressions

[PrincessFrosty]

Interesting, I did not know that I can eat ingredients. What is this ingredient menu though? And what do you mean by spam potions?

Just open your items menu and select the sub menu "Ingredients", from there you can select to eat an ingredient just like you would consume food, it will list the known effects next to the selected ingredient so you know which to eat and which to leave.

When I say "spam potions" I just mean make loads of them very quickly, as you mix potions you randomly reveal other known effects for the ingredients which gives you more options.

 

[ObiDamnKenobi]

Every time I read something like this I'm reminded of friends of mine that turn their noses up at a particular guy/girl because they have one or two minor flaws, and then complain about about being single and unhappy that they aren't in a relationship.

well, but I'm not complaining about being single; I have tons of other games to play (that don't have retarded UIs that piss me off) and not enough time for even half of those. So no, I will skip skyrim until it's cheaper and the flaws are fixed (hopefully), and I don't see that I lose anything by doing so.

 

[LeninGHOLA]

I think some of the high reviews are influenced a bit by a 5 year wait and building anticipation. What I like to see, like in Batman AA -> Batman AC, is that they greatly improved on the game. Whereas, Morrowind -> Skyrim doesn't really feel like Bethesda has done anything but made an almost passable attempt at going for par.

 

[Korben Dallas]

Just open your items menu and select the sub menu "Ingredients", from there you can select to eat an ingredient just like you would consume food, it will list the known effects next to the selected ingredient so you know which to eat and which to leave.

When I say "spam potions" I just mean make loads of them very quickly, as you mix potions you randomly reveal other known effects for the ingredients which gives you more options.

Ohh, for some reason when you mentioned ingredients menu I was thinking there is some book that lists all the ingredients in game

Thanks for the tips!

 

[chockomonkey]

I think some of the high reviews are influenced a bit by a 5 year wait and building anticipation. What I like to see, like in Batman AA -> Batman AC, is that they greatly improved on the game. Whereas, Morrowind -> Skyrim doesn't really feel like Bethesda has done anything but made an almost passable attempt at going for par.

Shenanigains. Between the random dragon encounters, quests finding you, quests drawing you in, better dungeons, better graphics, crafting, companions... eh, yea they just shot for par

 

[LeninGHOLA]

Shenanigains. Between the random dragon encounters, quests finding you, quests drawing you in, better dungeons, better graphics, crafting, companions... eh, yea they just shot for par

You like it better than Morrowind? I can't say I do. Par being Morrowind, of course. It's definitely better than Oblivion, but this fucking UI is terrible. Also, why can a horse tank a dragon?

You'll see what I mean by Arkham City being a large improvement over Asylum when it comes out for PC. I got some time with it on a friends xbox.

 

[chockomonkey]

You like it better than Morrowind? I can't say I do. Par being Morrowind, of course. It's definitely better than Oblivion, but this fucking UI is terrible. Also, why can a horse tank a dragon?

You'll see what I mean by Arkham City being a large improvement over Asylum when it comes out for PC. I got some time with it on a friends xbox.

I haven't played any of the Batmans, and actually only played Morrowind for maybe 30-60 hours. In any case, i can say that i miss the varried environments from Morrowind, but that's about it.

Sure the game does quirky stuff, like you mentioning a horse tanking a dragon. I am hoping that more difficult dragon encounters is a mod which comes out soon, as that definitely needs to happen.

While they did improve the level scaling, there is still tweaking which needs to be done... i hope modders can help here.

And obviously yea, the UI is fucking awful--but i've been able to look past that (only because i know it will be DarNified soon enough!) as i feel this is the best game i have ever played. It has drawn me in like Morrowind never did.

 

[polonyc2]

Ohh, for some reason when you mentioned ingredients menu I was thinking there is some book that lists all the ingredients in game

Thanks for the tips!

there are books you can read in game which give you recipes for mixing certain ingredients

I also just ran into an NPC which mentioned that he is collecting ingredients so he can present his recipes to the author of that recipe book who just happens to be visiting Skyrim...I smell a future quest

 

[LeninGHOLA]

as i feel this is the best game i have ever played.

Wow. Well, I guess I'm jaded after playing so many RPG's over the years. I guess I'm glad it's reasonably better than Oblivion.

 

[SilverSliver]

I've been playing video games since Apple II days and this is the best game I have ever played, period. A lot of this also rests on the ability to extensively mod the game. I will be playing this for years.

 

[Alex A.]

I am addicted to this game... oh lord my eyes

 

[ob1]

While the horse may tank a dragon, he typically doesn't last long, well in my games. I think I have bought three horses total now, plus stolen about 6 to 8. They die too easy when left alone for me. That companion you got also only lasted about three minutes before she died... with there was a way to get her back or get someone better/competent.

 

[PrincessFrosty]

While the horse may tank a dragon, he typically doesn't last long, well in my games. I think I have bought three horses total now, plus stolen about 6 to 8. They die too easy when left alone for me. That companion you got also only lasted about three minutes before she died... with there was a way to get her back or get someone better/competent.

There's quite a lot of NPCs who you can take with you, some are just mercs who you need to pay but a bunch of the quest gives and other important NPCs will eventually offer their services once you've gained their favour.

There's a merc in White run you can pay to help out, or you might be able to make friends with an NPC in the tavern there who will also help you out, once you've proven yourself

 

[Tzzird]

There's quite a lot of NPCs who you can take with you, some are just mercs who you need to pay but a bunch of the quest gives and other important NPCs will eventually offer their services once you've gained their favour.

There's a merc in White run you can pay to help out, or you might be able to make friends with an NPC in the tavern there who will also help you out, once you've proven yourself

That's the one I used for a little bit before picking up the female housecarl (?) or whatever she was called.

Any way you can check your companion's stats?

 

[ValeTudo]

I have to agree with many of the posters, this game is drawing me in more and more. Sure the shadows are crap... textures aren't uber edge cutting... UI is not friendly at all...

But the gameplay for the first time in years, going back to the 70s now... really feels fun and just sucks me in. I find an unknown derelict tower in a field... explore, end up fighting bandits, clearing several fun rooms, unique traps, treasures, etc...

This gives me the 70s D&D feeling of gaming I'm surprised how much my impression has changed since Friday night.

I'm going to play the hell out of this for the next couple weeks or months, haha.

 

[-Sn1PeR-]

Anyone else feel like they play for hours on end and get up feeling like you haven't even scratched the surface? There is a lot out there.

 

[eggrock]

I'm happy that I can turn everything to ultra except AA (=2) and get playable framerates. Overall the world looks pretty good and gameplay is fun. Hopefully I don't get sick of it like I did with Oblivion, although that was 300 hours into the game.

 

[Korben Dallas]

Anyone else feel like they play for hours on end and get up feeling like you haven't even scratched the surface? There is a lot out there.

I went exploring last night starting 1AM, 4 hours later I looked at the map and I moved about two inches.

Dear Bethesda, please make world smaller next time. I don't have time for this nonsense.

 

[Shantarr.Dalrae]

wow u finished main quest in less than 40 hours? I thought this game was supposed to be super long?

The main quest can be knocked out in less than 20. The game contect however, is not even scratched at that point. There are dozens of quests (stories) that are just as compelling and well scripted.

 

[Shantarr.Dalrae]

Not surprised, they took the bad UI of oblivion (one of the most common complaints about the game for the PC) and made it worse, in fact they did almost exactly what they did in Dragons Age 2, the menu is so basic and so heavily orientated around a controller, it also feels lifeless and without any kind of theme that matches the game.

Navigating it takes some getting used to, often trying to use the mouse requires 2 clicks espcially on dialogue which just gets on my nerves eventually, and mixing between mouse and key movements is a pain, in the end i stuck to keys only as it was less buggy this way, mixing keys and mice movements just doesn't behave well at all.

Also the menus dont fucking loop top/bottom, rule 1 of long menus is to loop them so you can go upwards to skip to the end, makes me want to facedesk at the simply retarded mistakes made in such a high profile game. Consolization at its finest.

Seriously I'm starting to really dig the game but I'm not going to use that as a free pass for dumb things like this.

Be open, let it grow on you. It is far better than previous elder scrolls menus, when you learn it.

 

[LeninGHOLA]

Be open, let it grow on you. It is far better than previous elder scrolls menus, when you learn it.

Nah, in Morrowind, you could have all of your menus open on screen at once, definitely designed for PC. Oblivion UI, however, was total crap.

 

[Shantarr.Dalrae]

Nah, in Morrowind, you could have all of your menus open on screen at once, definitely designed for PC. Oblivion UI, however, was total crap.

Do you also question the word choice of Shakespeare or the color choices of Vincent van Gogh?

They are design choices, ones that fit the game. To dislike them is human, to damn them is ignorant.

 

[LeninGHOLA]

Do you also question the word choice of Shakespear or the color choices of the painting "Starry Night"?

They are design choices, ones that fit the game. To dislike them is human, to damn them is ignorant.

I expected some apologists, but I think you've reached critical level in absurdity.

 

[petertew]

Do you also question the word choice of Shakespeare or the color choices of Vincent van Gogh?

They are design choices, ones that fit the game. To dislike them is human, to damn them is ignorant.

Did you just enroll in Humanities and English 101 courses?

 

[chockomonkey]

Be open, let it grow on you. It is far better than previous elder scrolls menus, when you learn it.

I disagree. These menus completely lack any stats. They allow you to see the statistics of ONE item at a time, in the game series renowned for how many fucking items end up in your inventory.

This is not a design choice--it's fucking absurd.

 

[Shantarr.Dalrae]

I expected some apologists, but I think you've reached critical level in absurdity.

It's the level some reach in the arguement against it. Admittedly, you have not but time and time again we see "I will not buy the game because [FPS, FOV, Ect]" complaint.

It's absurd.

The UI was a design choice, it's functional and intuitive. It is unfortunate that so many take issue with a working feature.

I apologize if I have offended or over embellished the topic.

 

[LeninGHOLA]

Let's see, my Destruction skill is 40 and my Sneak skill is ... *scroll scroll scroll* 50! That's about as intuitive as flying a helicopter with your dick.

 

[Astral Abyss]

Know when we'll see non-consolized controls on games again? Never. It's just a not-so-subtle clue that the consoles won the war and the rest of us PC enthusiasts are a dieing breed.

You might as well make the best of it you can or hope someone takes pity on us and somehow mods it.

 

[eggrock]

The UI can use improvement in simple things, eg switching from the items to magic menu in one keypress, instead of closing the item menu, then opening the magic (or skill)l menu.

The skill menu is kind of clunky but I'm in it so little I'll give it a pass; at least it looks cool.

Chest menu is fucking braindead, the worst part of the whole game (as far as the UI goes.) Instead of clicking an item to send it to the chest, you have to hit a completely unintuitive key. I've eaten several tasty ingredients thinking I was dropping them to the alchemy chest. Dumb, dumb, dumb.

Someone fixed it up a bit with a mod that removes the numpad bindings. Thank god, but what a pain in the ass. First fucking around with ahk which kind of worked, then waiting for Skyrim Nexus to come back up, searching for a mod, installing etc.. I really shouldn't need to do that, but at least it's an option.

But hey, I can set everything but AA to ultra and get playable rates on this old PC. It's not all bad!

 

[Shantarr.Dalrae]

Let's see, my Destruction skill is 40 and my Sneak skill is ... *scroll scroll scroll* 50! That's about as intuitive as flying a helicopter with your dick.

Hmm. I hit Tab, click with my mouse on "Level up" and see it all in front of me. How is that not intuitive?

I digress though, battling -opinions- causes more ill feelings than good.

 

[Shantarr.Dalrae]

I disagree. These menus completely lack any stats. They allow you to see the statistics of ONE item at a time, in the game series renowned for how many fucking items end up in your inventory.

This is not a design choice--it's fucking absurd.

There is a built in mechanic for this, a hollow triangle shows you the best item based on your stats.

There could be a compare feature, but with how the menu operates, it's unnecessary for me.

Again, opinion.

To place such a negative overtone on it is unwarranted and may give off the wrong impression for so many that could enjoy this excellent game.

 

[LeninGHOLA]

Hmm. I hit Tab, click with my mouse on "Level up" and see it all in front of me. How is that not intuitive?

I digress though, battling -opinions- causes more ill feelings than good.

I like the method of pressing C or S for Character Stats. I like a well laid out inventory, spell list, etc. The UI, as it stands, works fine with a controller. Having a mouse allows us to display and use more information on a single screen. Context menus are a plus when implemented properly, too.

 

[chockomonkey]

Hmm. I hit Tab, click with my mouse on "Level up" and see it all in front of me. How is that not intuitive?

I digress though, battling -opinions- causes more ill feelings than good.

Maybe intuitive is not the right word then? He's talking about how you only see 5 on a screen at a time. I'm constantly spinning those damn constellations looking for the one i actually want.

Sure Tab + Level up is intuitive, but having to scroll through constellations constantly is not efficient.

There is a built in mechanic for this, a hollow triangle shows you the best item based on your stats.

There could be a compare feature, but with how the menu operates, it's unnecessary for me.

Again, opinion.

To place such a negative overtone on it is unwarranted and may give off the wrong impression for so many that could enjoy this excellent game.

I recognized that feature, and it does help from time to time, but i still find myself cycling through my entire inventory, one at a time, eyes fixed on the stats area of the screen---searching for those few items which weight a shit-load which i need to get out of my inventory.

Sorting is probably not intuitive for Console gamers though... so here we see the loss of efficiency again.

edit: and oh, with its inefficient UI, Skyrim is still the best damn game i've ever played.

 

[Shantarr.Dalrae]

I like the method of pressing C or S for Character Stats. I like a well laid out inventory, spell list, etc. The UI, as it stands, works fine with a controller. Having a mouse allows us to display and use more information on a single screen. Context menus are a plus when implemented properly, too.

While I do not agree with the bolded text, I do understand your message.

I, too, see the merit in these things as I have been playing RPG's for a long... long time. Most of these older RPG's all have the menu system that you speak of. This new menu is a shocking change to the ordinary "what works" model and I can see why many oppose it. While it works for me, even with a key board an mouse, some people may still want their "regular hamburger" and that is fine but why crucifix something new?

At least their are mods, I suppose.

 

[Shantarr.Dalrae]

Maybe intuitive is not the right word then?

*snip*

edit: and oh, with its inefficient UI, Skyrim is still the best damn game i've ever played.

I like your point.

It is a balance of just how much is presented to the player without them feeling overwhelmed, though. The gameplay screen is extremely minimalistic and lines upon lines of information would be an amazingly stark contrast to this.

Though we are accustomed to it, as RPG players and PC gamers, so perhaps they did present too little at a time.

Again, at least we have mods. It's just unfortunate the level of hate it gets.

 

[LeninGHOLA]

While I do not agree with the bolded text, I do understand your message.

I, too, see the merit in these things as I have been playing RPG's for a long... long time. Most of these older RPG's all have the menu system that you speak of. This new menu is a shocking change to the ordinary "what works" model and I can see why many oppose it. While it works for me, even with a key board an mouse, some people may still want their "regular hamburger" and that is fine but why crucifix something new?

At least their are mods, I suppose.

No, I want to be able to navigate the menus more efficiently, I don't want a plain hamburger. No matter your affinity to this new system, the older systems I am talking about will net you the same results in half the time. Enjoying them from an aesthetic standpoint is not what I am debating here.

 

[Tantrix]

a) your companion taking the long way round to catch up with you even if you go down a very small cliff

That ain't nothin...I was seriously pissed at that until I ran into an NPC who was bugged since the very second it appeared in the game. I had to play out the rest of the main storyline with the bug as well, it practically ruined the rest of the game for me. I read up on several fixes which I tried, but none worked for me and I just felt like playing, so oh well...I guess I'll wait until it's patched then play through again from one of my earlier saves (which hopefully will work).

 

[chockomonkey]

No, I want to be able to navigate the menus more efficiently, I don't want a plain hamburger. No matter your affinity to this new system, the older systems I am talking about will net you the same results in half the time. Enjoying them from an aesthetic standpoint is not what I am debating here.

Yea... this: http://img3.imageshack.us/img3/5679/skyriminterface.jpg

From the top of that, the 3 reasons why Skyrim's UI is less than efficient:

1. Not making good use of screen real estate
2. Requiring too many user actions to reach information
3. Putting crucial information below the fold

Really though, that picture has way too many good points to list. Many i hadn't even thought of, like where the lists start. *shakes head*

 

[eggrock]

like where the lists start. *shakes head*

Major annoyance. Bethesda did not put much thought into ease of use.

 

[Sovern]

What boggles my mind is how Bethseda can introduce all of these cool new game mechanics and tons of unique areas a long with the huge world that Skyrim is yet they cant even design a UI system that is at the least average. Hell, they could have just copied the Morrowind UI system and most people would be happy.

So far from playing I'd have to say that the game is too easy, I'm playing as 2 handed melee and I can take out most enemy's in 2-3 hits and I'm pretty sure that there's level scaling in Skyrim. So I guess that the best aspect of this game will be hardcore role playing and adventuring since difficult/rewarding combat is out of the question.