Skyrim: Elder Scrolls 5

[Alexrd]

Does the retail version of this game require Steam?

[Astor]

Does the retail version of this game require Steam?

 

Yes, it does -that may be a blessing or a curse, depending on your point of view.

[Alexrd]

Yes, it does -that may be a blessing or a curse, depending on your point of view.

 

Definitely a curse. It's a deal breaker.

[DarthParametric]

lost over 30mins of progress once

By default it should be auto-saving every 15 minutes, plus whenever you enter/exit a level via a door, sleep, fast travel, etc. And you can adjust the auto-save interval to be more frequent if desired.

[ChAiNz.2da]

Absolutely loving the game despite its (many) glitches

 

UI is less than desirable, but no more clumsy than Oblivion's nested nightmare

I just favorite everything and auto-key 1-8 for my magic/weapon setups.

 

Was getting beaten down hard every second I turned a corner until I purchased a summon meat shield.. err, Flame Atronach. Definitely invest in this (or other conjuration) spell.. even for the melee classes. Makes encounters and combat much more manageable... hehe.

 

Smithing rocks, Alchemy limited in effect this round.. but the few you get can be awesome (and devastating). Mixed on the Enchanting mechanics. LOVE the idea on how you get the effects (disenchanting/breakdown).. not too thrilled on limiting what type of enchantment can go on what type of equipment. I'll be modding that for sure when the tools come around

 

Lots of fun stuff happening though.

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Got caught in a clever little water trap.

Had a random dragon encounter on my way up the 7,000 step quest (as if things weren't hard enough.. stupid ice trolls ).

"Seems" I had a smashing good time after "winning" a drinking contest.. waking up in an entirely different city and all

Found (2) kewl books. One for a blind man (all blank pages.. hehe). And a nifty little "Zork"-like goto-page-such-n-such adventure

 

If the game continues to add little surprises and bits like this... yeah, I'll be in this for months on end.

[mimartin]

So far I'm the polar opposite of ChAiNz, I haven’t been able to get into this game at all. I play, but get bored after only a few mins. I believe this all goes back to character creation and the hideous form wood elves have taken (I know they were ugly in Morrowind too, but not with better faces). Made an acceptable Nord, but it just isn’t Elder Scrolls to me without my little wood elf.

 

Like the look of the environment, like the fighting, hate the level up and menus. Haven’t gotten far, I find the game way to easy at times and then when I get cocky about it I stumble upon something my PC has no possible chance of killing. Was really looking forward to Skyrim, but all I’m doing now is dreaming about December or March. Just haven’t been able to get into the environment yet.

 

Off to Nexus to see if any mods have been released to fix the female wood elves.

[Achilles]

Was getting beaten down hard every second I turned a corner until I purchased a summon meat shield.. err, Flame Atronach. Definitely invest in this (or other conjuration) spell.. even for the melee classes. Makes encounters and combat much more manageable... hehe.

Or rent a hireling Also, rank has it's privileges, though I found having a helper isn't always helpful (can't run backwards through a hallway if your companions is running forward to jump on bad guy's sword).

 

Smithing rocks, Alchemy limited in effect this round.. but the few you get can be awesome (and devastating). Mixed on the Enchanting mechanics. LOVE the idea on how you get the effects (disenchanting/breakdown).. not too thrilled on limiting what type of enchantment can go on what type of equipment. I'll be modding that for sure when the tools come around

Haven't monkeyed with enchantment. Love smithing. Wish alchemy was more effective.

 

If the game continues to add little surprises and bits like this... yeah, I'll be in this for months on end.

Two words: Treasure maps

[DarthParametric]

So after 34 hours, my conclusion concerning the engine is that if this is not Gamebryo, then Gamebryo was unfairly criticised for the issues in Fallout 3/NV and Oblivion. Pretty much all the same issues are still present, so presumably whatever proprietary Gamebryo code they stripped out was not responsible. My particular favourite in this new incarnation is that they seem to have ramped up the wacky item physics to a point now where most buildings seem to be perpetually possessed by poltergeist (say that 3 times fast), with dishes and such flying about all over the place every time you enter.

 

It also seems to me that the new "feature" they announced, namely not zooming in on faces during conversations, was just a cop out to hide their dodgy textures and ropey animations. I'm not sure why it is, but if you ever wanted to make a game full of truly ugly people, then Bethesda would be your go-to studio. Not that we didn't know that already, but what's on show in Skyrim does seem to fly in the face of pre-release claims that characters would be a lot nicer looking this time around. I guess they are better than Oblivion, but that's not exactly a challenge.

 

Speaking of faces, am I the only one that thinks that it is bizarre to have a FaceGen character creator for the player character in a first-person game where you virtually never (outside of a few combat kill-cam moments) see said character's face? You'd think after they'd expended that much effort that they'd at least give you a few shots during conversations or something. They should just have a HandGen system, seeing as hands are pretty much the only thing of your character you ever see.

[stoffe]

Does the retail version of this game require Steam?

 

It required Steam to install and activate, but not to play it once installed (you can just run the game EXE file directly without the Steam client running).

 

 

Absolutely loving the game despite its (many) glitches

 

UI is less than desirable, but no more clumsy than Oblivion's nested nightmare

I just favorite everything and auto-key 1-8 for my magic/weapon setups.

 

It's definitely worse if you're used to "non-standard" control schemes throughout your gaming history. When movement controls for games are in your muscle memory it's nearly impossible to relearn, so the inability to alter key bindings to your liking was very much game breaking. Fortunately it can be remedied with a key remapper utility, but something like that really shouldn't be necessary for a game to be playable.

 

I also find that there aren't enough quick keys to bind, so I have to navigate the magic/shouts/inventory menus a lot to swap things.

 

 

Speaking of faces, am I the only one that thinks that it is bizarre to have a FaceGen character creator for the player character in a first-person game where you virtually never (outside of a few combat kill-cam moments) see said character's face?

 

I'm playing Skyrim (and all the other TES games) in third person mode, feels more "RPG-ish" that way for some reason. Then you see what your character looks like a fair bit. It might explain why customization options are so limited though (seems like my every attempt to make a Nord female results in something looking like a pale Redguard zombie instead).

[DarthParametric]

Fortunately it can be remedied with a key remapper utility

Did you try that mod I linked to on the previous page?

[Alexrd]

It required Steam to install and activate, but not to play it once installed (you can just run the game EXE file directly without the Steam client running).

 

That's a bit better, but I still don't want my game to be dependant from a 3rd party software/server.

[ChAiNz.2da]

Or rent a hireling Also, rank has it's privileges, though I found having a helper isn't always helpful (can't run backwards through a hallway if your companions is running forward to jump on bad guy's sword).

yeah.. I'm just trigger shy with companions as Bethesda seems hell bent on having them jump in front of you mid-swing. My squishy butt would probably get pommeled by my own companion.. hehe. With the Atronach.. I can spam my magic (depending on element) since they are immune to its effects. I'm Mr. Sneaky McBowFlamethrower.

 

Fire spell = Flame Artonach

Cold spell = Frost Atronach

Shock spell = Storm Atronach

 

They tend to get a dragon's attention too. Gets them to land quicker whenever one decides to spawn so they're like conjured bait! hehe

 

I fear I might be missing out on companion quests though.. so sooner or later I'll probably have to make the dive (unless I find out there's no such quest lines).

 

Haven't monkeyed with enchantment. Love smithing. Wish alchemy was more effective.

Yeah..was really disappointed that my poisons no longer have element effects and such. Mostly use damage over time and the prevent magicka/stamina regen on the boss types and enchanted my bows with different effects (fire, frost, shock, soul trap, etc.). Great way to make some cash though. I got rich just off selling my fodder potions made during leveling my alchemy skill.

 

Enchanting is pretty kewl too (some aspects). You have to destroy magic weapons/armor to get their enchant effect, so it's a decision on selling/destroying valuable loot. But the stickler is only certain enchants work with certain body slot gear.. kinda sucks, kinda rocks. I'm torn, but nothing a mod won't fix eventually.

 

Two words: Treasure maps

Dude! Found my first one last night! hehehe.. loved it! Going to be hitting bandit camps more often now

[DarthParametric]

I fear I might be missing out on companion quests

Aside from the mercs you can hire at most inns, I think the quest/s you do that open up the dialogue option of having someone follow you as a companion are as much of a companion questline as there is.

[Achilles]

yeah.. I'm just trigger shy with companions as Bethesda seems hell bent on having them jump in front of you mid-swing.

The quest you have to option to complete while getting the Storm Call shout (aside: if you don't have this, get it now) includes a companion that you can't control. It took me 5 tries to get past the boss because miss ma'am kept jumping in front of my arrows.

 

More on Storm Call: as soon as I used it, I remembered seeing one of the devs show it in one of the pre-release marketing videos. The bad news is that you have to be outside when you use it and it literally takes 3 minutes to recharge (so you better not plan on needing any other shouts for a while). The good news is that it will ruin the whole day of anyone within your current zip code. I found myself pinned down by Altmer archers and mages and wasn't sure how I was going to get out alive. Then I remembered my new shout. I ducked in a corner by the door I'd just exited from, hollered, and watched as lightning killed off half a dozen bad guys over the course of 30 seconds. Pure awesome.

[Astor]

Enchanting is pretty kewl too (some aspects). You have to destroy magic weapons/armor to get their enchant effect, so it's a decision on selling/destroying valuable loot. But the stickler is only certain enchants work with certain body slot gear.. kinda sucks, kinda rocks. I'm torn, but nothing a mod won't fix eventually.

 

I'm a little disappointed with it myself, or at least annoyed at the lack of any 'light' enchantment - although that could be because I haven't found anything that does it yet.

 

That was usually one of the first things I enchanted in Oblivion, a simple ring with a light spell to save me carrying a torch - not that I'm afraid of the dark, or anything, but I always thought any adventurer, be it warrior or mage would want something to illuminate their way while leaving the hands free for sword/shield/magic when they're in a dank cave or dungeon.

[DarthParametric]

I don't believe there is any light enchantment. Looks like it's another victim of streamlining. A more grievous issue with enchantment to my mind though is the lack of stacking.

 

Speaking of rings, it annoys me that you can only wear one. You should be allowed to wear two at least - one on each hand.

[ChAiNz.2da]

I'm a little disappointed with it myself, or at least annoyed at the lack of any 'light' enchantment - although that could be because I haven't found anything that does it yet.

Yeah, there's a few spell effects I miss that were part of my Morrowind/Oblivion staples. So far though I haven't encountered any caves that were dark enough for me to require one. I find myself mostly putting the darn things out so I can sneaky-sneak and ruin some bandit's day... hehe

 

I don't believe there is any light enchantment. Looks like it's another victim of streamlining. A more grievous issue with enchantment to my mind though is the lack of stacking.

 

Speaking of rings, it annoys me that you can only wear one. You should be allowed to wear two at least - one on each hand.

Yeah, I bought the (2) mage light spells.. the hover one and the sticky one, since I couldn't find any enchanted item. But have yet to find an opportunity to actually need it. Still a whelp in the adventuring though.. so hopefully I'm bound to stumble on something. Maybe one day I can actually find something with a @#$! waterbreathing enchantment. I STILL haven't found anything. My alchemy potions last quite awhile now, but I'd much rather carry around a .5lb item than 2.5lbs of pots and hunting for ingredients

 

The ring wearing though.. yeah, that miffed me. Started enchanting early on in the game (dirt poor and stat starved). I didn't find this gem out till AFTER spending all my cash on (2) filled grand souls and crafting resistance rings, only to find out I could wear only one of them

 

Needless to say.. I'm glad to don't delete save games

[Achilles]

Maybe one day I can actually find something with a @#$! waterbreathing enchantment.

I can confirm that there is at least one item that adds waterbreathing. It also ups your carrying capacity and improves your prices with merchants.

[Darth Payne]

Really?

 

What is this item called, and where can i get it?

 

Btw, does anyone know what the maximum level for Skyrim is? (where you can no longer get any more perks to level up your abilities)

[mimartin]

Btw, does anyone know what the maximum level for Skyrim is? (where you can no longer get any more perks to level up your abilities)

Last I read, the level cap is 50, but sure that will change with DLC...of course this is coming from the level 4 guy.

[Darth Payne]

Good to know, this will let me plan ahead a little better.

 

Well, i guess i'll find out soon enough as my current character (a female Imperial) is at level 30 at the moment.

 

Edit: Btw, there is a couple of way for you to level up that are pretty easy. One is really expensive, the other is time consuming.

 

One way is to use money to max out your smithing skill by making iron daggers(the dragon armor is pretty cool), the other is to let a bandit archer shoot at you all he/she wants while you use magic/potions to heal youself.

[Alkonium]

Last I read, the level cap is 50, but sure that will change with DLC...of course this is coming from the level 4 guy.

 

Technically, the "soft" level cap that the game is designed around is 50, but the hard level cap, which would be reached by maxing out all of your skills is approximately 81.

[Darth Payne]

Well, i guess i'll find out one way or the other when i reach level 50 in a couple of hours.

 

At the moment i'm near Valtheim Towers letting a bandit shoot at me to max out the Light and Heavy armor sets.

 

Btw, does anyone know what the item that Achilles mentions is?

[DarthParametric]

Lol that sounds pretty lame. Surely there are more efficient ways to cheat/exploit? I'm assuming you must be playing the 360/PS3 version, otherwise you'd just use the console to add skill points.

 

I bought the (2) mage light spells.. the hover one and the sticky one, since I couldn't find any enchanted item. But have yet to find an opportunity to actually need it.

There are a few places that should be dark enough to warrant a light spell, unless you have your monitor brightness cranked way up.

[Darth Payne]

Lol that sounds pretty lame. Surely there are more efficient ways to cheat/exploit? I'm assuming you must be playing the 360/PS3 version, otherwise you'd just use the console to add skill points.

 

There are a few places that should be dark enough to warrant a light spell, unless you have your monitor brightness cranked way up.

 

Yep, i'm on the 360.

 

I've had enough computer trouble this year that i decided to get the Collectors Edition for the console instead.