TES V: Skyrim

[homerdog]

The stories in Mass Effect (Not ME2!) and Dragon Age were good. Just saying that there are definitely RPGs out there with good and engaging plotlines.

Bethesda RPGs tend to be lacking in story. By there very nature I think it would be hard for them to really engage you in a meaningful plot, since at any point you can put the main story on hold and go slaughter mudcrabs for three days

 

[joker454]

hm... Well, I did play DA: O for 160+ Hours. I'm the completionist type of RPG gamer.

If you liked DA:O then I'd say you'll like Elder Scrolls games, and if you are a completionist rpg gamer then you will really like Elder Scrolls games There is so much to do in those games, I burned 100+ hours on OBlivion but others have burned far more.

 

[John Reynolds]

Yeah I can't say that TES games tell riveting tales. For me it's about the open experience, although that does tend to end up feeling hollow and empty because it's just a game world populated by robotic automatons / quest dispensers. It's as good as any other virtual otherworldly sandbox experience though and I think that's the most interesting type of gaming.

Agreed. And my hopes for Skyrim are up because of all the previews suggesting there's more to do in the game world in terms of collecting and crafting. And there are more upgrade options for character builds with the Fallout-ish perks.

 

[Aeoniss]

I'm just hoping they'll have some level of dismemberment like in Fallout.. Which seems to be a given considering it's M rating and that the ESRB mention "decapitations" and "blood and gore" in their summary.

I'd be ok with just decapitations.

 

[swaaye]

If the combat is something like Dark Messiah, I will be very pleased.

 

[AlexV]

If you liked DA:O then I'd say you'll like Elder Scrolls games

Considering that the former is strongly story-driven and somewhat carries a soul, whereas the latter are hollow, mindless, personality deprived playgrounds, I think this association is quite a stretch, but that's just me.

 

[Davros]

I think morrowind had a soul,

 

[Daozang]

I think morrowind had a soul,

Morrowind had a soul. It was the best open world game I've ever played. It was so otherworldly, that even its technical shortcomings felt like part of it!
I've never played a game that made me travel to an alien world like Morrowind did.
The landscape alone was amazing.

I have so high hopes for Skyrim, I think that I'm going to be let down...
But the mods will make it the game I wanted it to be!

 

[Richard]

Morrowind was more atmospheric but I agree with Alex, the two are really different games altogether. DA:O is story-driven and PC-centric. The game is mostly linear with a few side-quests and being able to alternate between a few strands of the plot in some key moments.

TES III+ are mostly open-ended environments loaded with stuff to do + one longer, more epic, side-quest that happens to have dialogue VO by famous actors.

The heavy team-based gameplay of DA:O is radically different from TES unless you use some mods. The camera view-point, the mechanics, are all very different. The Witcher is closer to TES with more side-quests and larger environments but still has the story-driven "linear" progression of DA:O.

I enjoy both but DA:O (i.e. Black Isle D&D games) is my favourite type.

 

[John Reynolds]

360 review copies arrived Friday and early buzz from these lucky souls is very positive. Some grumblings over inconsistent voice acting accents (think Costner from the 1991 Robin Hood film), but one reviewer described it as "totally engrossing" with about 10 hours in. The good thing is there's enough lead to let reviewers finish the main storyline and comment on that. Not to mention cover all the various factions and a good dollop of the side quests.

 

[joker454]

Morrowind was more atmospheric but I agree with Alex, the two are really different games altogether. DA:O is story-driven and PC-centric. The game is mostly linear with a few side-quests and being able to alternate between a few strands of the plot in some key moments.

TES III+ are mostly open-ended environments loaded with stuff to do + one longer, more epic, side-quest that happens to have dialogue VO by famous actors.

That's kind of what I meant. TES games are kind of souped up versions of DA:O. You can play them similarly in that you can mostly stick to the main quest and do some side stuff here and there if you want. It's just that TES games have far more side stuff to do, but it's optional. Likewise the world is bigger in TES games. Hence I figure if you like DA:O then you will like TES games since you can play them in a similar way but they optionally have far more available to do if you want.

 

[John Reynolds]

Opening 20 minutes is up on Kotaku.

 

[AlNom]

If you liked DA:O then I'd say you'll like Elder Scrolls games, and if you are a completionist rpg gamer then you will really like Elder Scrolls games There is so much to do in those games, I burned 100+ hours on OBlivion but others have burned far more.

XD I was afraid of that. I have to balance my time! PC version should be stable, no?

 

[Grall]

I'm busy playing Morrowind again now. I'm level 43 now or maybe a bit more, and with glass armor and a daedric waki + tower shield there's nothing in the way of normal enemies that can stand against me. Especially since I'm loaded up on healing potions as well that I brewed with high alchemy skill and grandmaster alchemy equipment.

Morrowind's weaknesses is largely in its UI, which is very underdeveloped. The quest journal is not good at all (better than in the launch version of the game, but still confusing and terrible, and at times also bugged), the alchemy interface is terrible, having to sort through dozens of alchemy ingredients for the desired effects is a giant PITA, the way the game handles switching between weapons, shields, torches, lockpicks and so on is also annoying and underdeveloped, and the spellbook - which is just one long list of weirdly named spells - is also bad.

But the game itself is really rather fun I must say. It stands up pretty well, if one ignores the interface badness.

 

[Frank]

I have been playing Final Fantasy Tactics for about a week. It was the first time I played it. And what an exceptional game it is! Yay!

It kicked off all the other "tactical role-playing games", and is still a class all by itself. And while there isn't much you can do to influence the plot, it has all the other things you would want in abundance: a superb levelling system (very fast, with lots of options to choose from, but very balanced at the same time, you start out weak and can "abuse" the game to become super-powerful), a very interesting story, a large replayability and a huge customization.

It's the game Diablo III and StarCraft II hope to equal, with better graphics. And it helps FFT doesn't run on a PC, while SD and Diablo I and II only do.


But, what does that have to do with an open-world sandbox like the Elder Scrolls games?

While the ES games offer (hopefully) interesting views and places, and you can decide to do what whenever you feel like it, that's about all that is left in Oblivion.

While there is a different market for set-piece battles (StarCraft, Diablo, Fallout (Tactics), chess, etc), most everything else has tried to do that in first-person perspective. And most of them (including all the FPS Final Fantasy games) failed miserably at it.

So, what I would like best, would be a cross between Final Fantasy Tactics and Morrowind.

 

[Albuquerque]

Has anyone seen mention of whether Steam clients will be allowed to pre-load the game before the launch date / time? Or are three million people gonna download it all at once on November 11th at 12:01am of whatever timezone they launch in?

 

[Silent_Buddha]

Wasn't FFT just basically an advance of the system that XCOM - UFO Defense already invented back in 1993? I think the only real innovations was a deeper character leveling system and a slightly deeper story. But on the other hand it lost item research and had significantly smaller levels.

Totally different from D3 (action RPG, although it's not much of an RPG anymore IMO), SC2 (RTS), TES: Skyrim (open world RPG). FFT was bascially just a squad level turn based strategy game with some RPG elements. Fantastic game not comparable in any way to any of the other games you've mentioned.

If Skyrim ditches almost everything that Oblivion introduced I may revisit the TES series. But Oblivion and Fallout 3 basically ruined any hope I had of Bethesda ever releasing another good game. Especially Oblivion. I couldn't be arsed to play that boring no gameplay game after the 2nd hour. And by the time mods came out to fix it, I couldn't be arsed to install it again.

I still can't believe they destroyed my beloved TES series with that huge stinking pile of poo that was Oblivion.

Regards,
SB

 

[Albuquerque]

Oooh got my question answered, W00T!

http://www.gamezone.com/news/players-will-be-able-to-preload-skyrim-on-steam

 

[I.S.T.]

I have been playing Final Fantasy Tactics for about a week. It was the first time I played it. And what an exceptional game it is! Yay!

It kicked off all the other "tactical role-playing games", and is still a class all by itself. And while there isn't much you can do to influence the plot, it has all the other things you would want in abundance: a superb levelling system (very fast, with lots of options to choose from, but very balanced at the same time, you start out weak and can "abuse" the game to become super-powerful), a very interesting story, a large replayability and a huge customization.

It's the game Diablo III and StarCraft II hope to equal, with better graphics. And it helps FFT doesn't run on a PC, while SD and Diablo I and II only do.


But, what does that have to do with an open-world sandbox like the Elder Scrolls games?

While the ES games offer (hopefully) interesting views and places, and you can decide to do what whenever you feel like it, that's about all that is left in Oblivion.

While there is a different market for set-piece battles (StarCraft, Diablo, Fallout (Tactics), chess, etc), most everything else has tried to do that in first-person perspective. And most of them (including all the FPS Final Fantasy games) failed miserably at it.

So, what I would like best, would be a cross between Final Fantasy Tactics and Morrowind.

Strategy RPGs like FFT have been around long before FFT. See Shining Force, Fire Emblem(An NES game, no less!), Ogre Battle/Tactics Ogre(Tactics Ogre is also very similar to FFT as much of the TO team designed and worked on FFT), etc.

 

[swaaye]

So, Bethesda is calling the engine new. From the screens, I get the feeling that they are actually using Gamebryo but since Gamebryo-the-company sort of imploded a couple of years ago that they brought the engine in-house (bought it perhaps). Comments?