Skyrim PS3 DLC Finally Dated
It seems like Bethesda finally has their ducks in a row, as the long awaited DLC packs for Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim are finally gracing the Playstation 3.
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
Players: 1 Offline Player
Publisher: Bethesda Game Studios
Genres: Adventure, RPG
Publisher: Bethesda Game Studios
Genres: Adventure, RPG
Release Date: November 11, 2011
Developer: Bethesda Game Studios
MSRP: $59.99
Developer: Bethesda Game Studios
MSRP: $59.99
Set 200 years after the events of Oblivion the Nordic god Alduin, is coming to destroy the world - right in the middle of Tamriel's Civil War! The Elder Scrolls saga continues with Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim!
A Layman’s Look at Skyrim’s Tech
Posted By DrGonzo about 2 years, 3 months ago
Today, we translate all that tech talk into ‘Normal Speak’
While Oblivion had its critics, its hard not to agree that it was pretty visually impressive for its time. In a time where most games thought realism meant “everything is gray and brown and strangely shiny”, Oblivion strove for bright colors, and a cohesive world with a mostly genuine medieval look and feel. Everything was still strangely shiny, but like the old song says, two out of three aint’ bad. As impressive as Oblivion was however, its human nature to try and top what came before, and if what Bethesda has shown us so far is any indication, then Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim is going to make Oblivion look sick.
Right out of the gate, Bethesda is starting from scratch. Gone is the engine of Oblivion and Fallout 3, replaced with Bethesda’s new proprietary Creation Engine. This new framework is a literal game changer as far as how Skyrim will be presented, allowing Bethesda to focus more on the little details that are so important to mise en scene in a video game. According to Bethesda, one of the most important details they have been focusing is on how light and objects react to each other. This time around, the dynamic lighting system has been applied to every object and texture in the game, which hopefully will lead to a lot less “shiny face”
Yes, that’s great, but why does your face shine like polished silver?
Another major focus of Bethesda’s work is the in-game weather, and how it affects object in the world. Since Skyrim is set in the frozen north of Tamriel, there’s expected to be a lot of snowfall, and one of Bethesda’s worries is that the snow might look unnatural. To that end, a new precipitation system allows Bethesda to determine how much snow will collect on individual objects, based on size and shape. This means there will be no generic “snowy rock” texture.
Wind is also something that has seen some major work. In Oblivion objects had a generic “swaying” animation, which was the same for all objects of the same type. This time around, Bethesda is assigning each object its own weight which will determine how the object reacts to wind, so that each individual branch will sway in the wind in its own way, rather than a generic motion for the whole tree. All of this work on the weather system will go a long way to making a more realistic and believable world than Oblivion could even dream of, but the weather isn’t the only thing Bethesda has been working on.
One of the criticisms of Oblivion I shared with many critics was that the NPC AI was just too simple. If they weren’t just standing around saying the same thing over and over, they were just walking around or sleeping. Bethesda hopes to improve the NPC AI with some tweaks to its AI system. In Oblivion, NPC’s could only be assigned a half dozen tasks, and none of them were very diverse. Skyrim will have AI that is not only capable of many more individual tasks, but these tasks will be suited to the environment the NPC’s inhabit. If you’re visiting a forest town, expect to see some lumberjacks. Mining towns will have working miners and traders will be seen receiving and cataloging their shipments of goods. The result will mean a much more active town populace, with very few people loitering about in the town square, something Oblivion was never quite able to get away from.
How NPC’s react to you will also be more dynamic than in previous Elder Scrolls titles. Rather than having one scale for player reputation that affects the whole world, each NPC will react to the player based on how you interact with them. An NPC who you helped on his farm will be more likely to let you stay the night in his home than one that you smacked a few times with your mace. Also gone is the Wayne’s World style extreme closeups in conversation. Your perspective will not change while in conversation, allowing you to continue looking around as NPC’s speak with you. Non player characters will also continue their daily tasks while in conversation, as opposed to standing ramrod straight and staring at you. I admit these seem like small or even silly changes, but the end result will be a much more realistic world, and the people inhabiting it will be that much more believable.
Probably the largest improvement over Oblivion is the new Radiant Story system. While the main quests are still preset by Bethesda, side quests will now be determined by a number of new factors, mostly where you’ve already been and what you’ve done. For example, a kidnapped character may be held in a cave, awaiting rescue, but if the player has already explored the cave in question before the quest begins, the damsel in distress will instead be located in a new location the player has never seen before. This will help to curb repetition and backtracking. The Radiant Story system will also prevent losing out on a quest because of random NPC deaths. If a quest giving character dies, a friend or relative will step in and pick up where the first NPC left off. This is more than just a new character simply appearing out of thin air to fill a void. If the first NPC was killed by the player in a random act of murder, the new character will remember this, and may even hold a dangerous grudge. The Radiant Story system will also affect random encounters, both in and out of town. Did you drop an item that you didn’t need or want? Be ready for a polite NPC to run up to you asking “Did you drop this?”
There’s a lot more work that’s being done to make Skyrim an immersive and believable world, but so far this is what’s been released to the public. No doubt more details will be released as we get closer to Skyrim’s release date. Personally, I’m really looking forward to getting my hands on it. Bethesda has its critics, but its very hard to argue that they don’t put a lot of effort and work into their games, and in an industry where sequels get knocked out on an almost yearly basis, its refreshing to see a company that cares enough to put out the best product they can. I really want to get my hands on Skyrim, and November 11th cannot get here soon enough!
Its a whole new world to explore, and I can’t wait to get saddled up!
RAD episode 222: The Elder Scrolls V:Skyrim
Are you ready to face your destiny Dragonborn? Enter the world of Skyrim as Birdman dons his orcish armor and dwarfen warhammer with this review of the Elder Scrolls V:Skyrim!
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Review
Manacles, fur lined clothes, cold snowy nights, and you're certainly going to see stars. Now that we've discussed what it would be like to go out on a date with Johnny, his review for Skyrim is written, and of all things, right here on the site for you to read.
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Video Review - ZGR
Well, it's finally here! But was it worth the wait? Daniel from ZGR checks out Skyrim!
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Angry Review
The Greybeards train a new Dovahkiin, Angry Joe, in order to judge and review the newest Elder Scrolls Game, Skyrim. Does it live up to the incredible hype? Or fall from the sky in flames? Find out! 
Dragonborn Up on Xbox, Goes to PC/PS3 in 2013
New DLC released, in a crossover with Matt Damon! It’s “The Dragonbourne Supremacy!” – No Matt Damon included.
Bethesda Remains Uncertain When or If Dawnguard Will Be Released on PS3
The already grim outlook for PS3 Skyrim fans gets worse.
Skyrim Adds Mounted Combat
Bethesda’s been listening! For five LONG years, they’ve been listening! They finally decided to do something about it, too. Mounted combat is coming to Skyrim!
Rumor: Snow Elves, Crossbows, and Vampires Hinted as Possible DLC for Skyrim
Will the Falmer come back in their former glory, or are they truly a dead race like the Dwemer?
Skyrim PS3 DLC Finally Dated
It seems like Bethesda finally has their ducks in a row, as the long awaited DLC packs for Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim are finally gracing the Playstation 3.
Dragonborn Up on Xbox, Goes to PC/PS3 in 2013
New DLC released, in a crossover with Matt Damon! It’s “The Dragonbourne Supremacy!” – No Matt Damon included.
Bethesda Remains Uncertain When or If Dawnguard Will Be Released on PS3
The already grim outlook for PS3 Skyrim fans gets worse.
Skyrim Adds Mounted Combat
Bethesda’s been listening! For five LONG years, they’ve been listening! They finally decided to do something about it, too. Mounted combat is coming to Skyrim!
Rumor: Snow Elves, Crossbows, and Vampires Hinted as Possible DLC for Skyrim
Will the Falmer come back in their former glory, or are they truly a dead race like the Dwemer?
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Review
Posted By Johnny Maloney about 1 year, 6 months ago
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Review
As the bones of the dragon tumbled to the ground, the stranger sheathed his weapon and started to move towards the townsfolk. Amid cries of relief and shouts of joy, the mayor approached the stranger and exclaimed “Amazing! You truly are a gift from the divines to fight off so fearsome a beast with no help at all!” “That?” the stranger asked, motioning to the carcass with his thumb, “that’s nothing. I’ve killed at least fifteen of them this week. Goddamn dragons are like rats in this country. You want a real challenge, can you help me find twenty nirnroot? I’ve only got fifteen and I’ve been looking for them forever it seems.” Sadly, the townsfolk could be of no help to their new hero, and he ran off into the distance, into legend as ‘the man who would find twenty nirnroot.’
| PROS | Excellently designed world, reworked magic & smithing, plot & acting, sheer volume of content |
| CONS | Clunky UI, draw distance/texture detail, sometimes wonky difficulty |
| WTF?! | Anybody else want to see a giants baseball league? Home run! |
I don’t think there’s been any game with so much at stake in the past five years as Skyrim. Whether or not Bethesda Game Studios could re-work enough of the problems in their last outing into the Elder Scrolls would influence not only their future as a company, but indeed the future of purely single player games altogether. That appears to be a non-issue at this point though, as at the time of the writing of this article, Skyrim has shipped 7 million launch units, with at least half sold within the first 48 hours of launch. It’s also toppled records on Steam, with a high of 280 000 people simultaneously playing the game at one point, peaking today at just over 200 000, which certainly is put in perspective when the next highest figure, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 topped out at almost 72 000.
That’s got to be one of the more creative ways to kill someone with a warhammer. I usually use the other end.
It’s certainly not surprising either, because as far as hand crafted, detailed, rich content (and an insane amount of content) goes, Skyrim doesn’t look like it’s going to be toppled anytime soon. At the end of my sixtieth hour, the ratio of unfinished quests to finished ones stood at 21:45, not counting any miscellaneous bits and bobs. What’s more is I count only two of the major cities that I feel like I explored exhaustively, putting seven more directly in my path, two of which I didn’t even visit at all. I rather objected to an interview Todd Howard did some time ago where he opined that games were certainly getting too expensive, but not Skyrim. His comments smacked of a “we’re special” attitude, but after digging into the latest Elder Scrolls offering, it’s increasingly easy to agree with him.
What an offering it is too, with more than just a few things reworked and tweaked to fix problems in the unfortunately flawed Oblivion. With every specialization much easier to dabble, tweak or focus in, the ability to play exactly the kind of character you want to create in Skyrim is seemingly without fault. Gone are the class based major/minor skill progression, with every single skill contributing to a greater level, and fallout-like perks unlocking based on your rating in a specific skill. As your overall level increases, you’ll find it requires more and more skill advancement to level up, but progress maintains a steady pace, and you never feel quite like you’ve plateaued. This new system is only complemented by the complete overhaul that smithing, enchanting, and alchemy have all received, putting a much higher value on what were notoriously secondary skills in previous Elder Scrolls titles. Magic in general is much more immediate and combat friendly as well, giving players the option to either dabble in it, or fully commit to it, with plenty of perks to increase your effectiveness.
Flowers? Chocolates? If you want to impress that special someone of a Nord lady, nothing says I love you, like Dwemer armor.
These adjustments to the Elder Scrolls formula do nothing but shine, especially against the backdrop of Skyrim. Gone are the vanilla forests and townships of Cyrodiil, replaced by a richly designed hostile and alien environment, dotted with foreign looking crypts and caves, or the strange returning architecture of dwemer ruins. The clothing and accoutrements of nordic life similarly present themselves as meticulously designed, and singularly local. The weapons and armor you’ll find yourself equipping accentuate the cultural differences from imperial life, and it becomes much easier to get wrapped up in the world. This is also largely due to the redesign of the character models, with many plot-important characters having distinct physical presences, no longer just different heads fixed onto the same body types.
I think I saw this place in an issue of ‘Better Homes & Inscrutable Deathtraps.’
The characters serve an excellent purpose as narrative aides as well, with certainly the best voice acting any Bethesda Game Studios product has ever seen. Many of the plot problems from their previous games appear to have been fully addressed as well, with decently written dialogue. While not giving anything of the story away, the very fact that you enter the story as the hero, rather than the hero’s lackey (I defy anyone to justify to me how the player character is the hero in Oblivion, rather than Martin) makes the general experience of Skyrim the most rewarding Bethesda game since Morrowind. I even found the beginning an entertaining nod to their somewhat tired ‘start-in-prison’ mechanic, with the main character going to prison in the beginning, rather than being released from it. I will say however, that catching up on what happened in the couple hundred years since the events in Oblivion was somewhat shocking; the fact that so much epic drama was only explained in brief dialogue snippets and books laying about felt like wasted potential.
8/10
RAD episode 222: The Elder Scrolls V:Skyrim
Are you ready to face your destiny Dragonborn? Enter the world of Skyrim as Birdman dons his orcish armor and dwarfen warhammer with this review of the Elder Scrolls V:Skyrim! The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Review
Manacles, fur lined clothes, cold snowy nights, and you're certainly going to see stars. Now that we've discussed what it would be like to go out on a date with Johnny, his review for Skyrim is written, and of all things, right here on the site for you to read. The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Video Review - ZGR
Well, it's finally here! But was it worth the wait? Daniel from ZGR checks out Skyrim! The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Angry Review
The Greybeards train a new Dovahkiin, Angry Joe, in order to judge and review the newest Elder Scrolls Game, Skyrim. Does it live up to the incredible hype? Or fall from the sky in flames? Find out!-
December 05, 2011 at 02:41am
After the 1.2 patch for Skyrim my PS3 version is unplayable and before the patch it was almost unplayable. That plus the PS3 version has problems that may never get fixed. Skyrim looses my vote for GotY. Epic fail Bugthesda. If the next patch doesnt fix alot of things then im getting my money back and never buying another Bethesda game ever. I’d give Skyrim a 4/10.
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January 18, 2012 at 09:26am
Bugthesda is right. How can they even sell this broken shit on the PS3? I’ve never played a game that made me so angry and I loved these guys after spending countless hours on Fallout. I’m used to playing bad ports on PS3s but unplayble buggy mess of a game is new and 60$ for this is just BS.
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November 27, 2011 at 04:33pm
I really got to wonder about our community. Really, 62% of you found it overall dissapointing?
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November 29, 2011 at 12:51pm
I think I can answer this: I never got into Oblivion and Morrowind or even Fallout, (I do have friends who played them hours on end thought) because I am not often a fan of RPGs plus watching someone play these games is boring. Then I heard that Skyrim fixed the pacing of the game so I caved into the hype and bought the game. So far, if I didn’t have other matters to attend to I would be playing this game hours straight. The game is great…but there are flaws.
1) While NPCs are full of life, they still don’t draw me into the game. Why is this a problem? Look at Mass Effect 2. When you talk to NPCs in that game, you are engaging in full conversations complete with cutscenes and real-life movement unlike Skyrim which still has the NPCs standing still with one emotion. For example, after committing crimes, guards just stand there in battle stance. We are in new age of gaming, we expect developed characters.
2) The user interface IS clunky, plus they took out armor previews.
3) The game has Bethesda bugs, but those can be patched
4) Traveling, while a staple, does piss me off.Overall, I find that while there are many changes to the game, looking at it from a broader perspective one could see that the game has not changed that much from Oblivion. Do I dislike this game…FUCK NO THIS GAME IS AMAZING AND I’M GOING TO LOSE MY SOCIAL LIFE BECAUSE OF IT! Does it deserve it’s praise…to some extent yes, Angry Joe I think did overrate it though. Would I call it GOTY…You can but I’m not because other games there were games this year that I felt had a greater overhaul than Skyrim. Skyward Sword, while many argue that game hasn’t changed don’t realize that they are playing a more immersive Zelda game with it’s controls. Uncharted 3, where my biggest fault with is was Uncharted 2 set in the desert, I still found to be more cinematic even though I was still playing the game. Finally, L.A. Noire out of all them was probably the best experience I had with a game all year being that it excelled in technology and overall gameplay.
I hope this gives you a better understanding. If you love Skyrim, then more power to you. I love it too, but I’m not a crazed fanboy like everyone else especially Angry Joe.
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December 03, 2011 at 09:22pm
Probably the same crowd that thought MW3 was a good game (I know I’m a broken record on that game and it ain’t something to bring up here, I still go insane every time I see or hear its name just when i try to forget about it.)
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November 19, 2011 at 01:34am
The biggest graphical bug I have found, exists only on my boyfriend’s save file, where the first dragon he killed, which we both saw burst into flame, randomly appears throughout town, fused into buildings and cabbage gardens, twitching and breaking into pieces at random. The latest sighting of this dragon involved it fused into someone’s barn roof, its head on sideways, and its tail sticking towards the sky. This does not affect gameplay at all. It is just incredibly bizarre and often hilarious.
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November 20, 2011 at 03:23am
I have a very similar situation with a dragon I killed in Solitude. It’s skeleton keeps appearing in different places throughout the city all the time anywhere between the bard’s college and the main gate. Sometimes its not there at all only to show up in an extra bizarre position another time.
The weirdest cases were it being completely underground, but its head sticking up through the floor in front of the Radiant Raiment’s door and another when it was just stuck to the side of one of the guard towers tail toward the sky. -
November 19, 2011 at 01:27am
There are plenty of bugs, but they are usually fairly harmless. My biggest issue, as far as bugs go, is the inconsistency of the audio. I only have the 360 version, so this could be an exclusive case, but when you turn away from a speaking character, their voice will sound echoey and far away. Even though, realistically, they are still right beside you. This doesn’t always happen, however… It is more common in the first 5 hours of gameplay. I would not be bothered by it, but I am slightly hard-of-hearing, and when the characters’ voices start warping back and forth or echoing, it is a nightmare for me to understand what they are saying. Thank God for the thorough subtitles.
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November 19, 2011 at 07:52am
I rather think that’s a sound mastering choice, honestly. I found the game to be quite quiet on my PC in general, but if I was standing too far away from characters that were talking without the dialogue window being open, I found their voice dropped off quite quick if you weren’t standing RIGHT in front of their projected sound. I didn’t mention it, because I found it could be easily adjusted by either moving closer to the dialogue, or turning the volume up, but I did find the master volume level rather curiously low.
As far as the bugs go, most of the complaints I’ve seen have been unusually small in number, and quite harmless in comparison to their previous titles. I was really quite impressed with how playable the game was (after the day one patch, of course).
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November 19, 2011 at 11:31pm
It might just be the version as well. As long as I try to stand facing them directly, it’s not a problem. I just have trouble hearing lower sounds, so when the male characters would start mumbling, I had no idea what was being said. And the problem seems to go away after a while, much like how a lot of minor bugs seem to right themselves. Except the dragon, he’s still having seizures in people’s cabbage patches.
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November 18, 2011 at 03:50pm
Johnny, now that you’ve finished Skyrim, it’s time to return to the chair and play Nehrim: Fate’s Edge for the next five days straight.
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November 19, 2011 at 09:04am
I can’t, man! I need a break! I did all that Elder Scrolls modding article stuff, and then force fed myself skyrim for practically a week straight… I did download Nehrim though, and after I get a little bit of break time with Arkham City (PC version drops on the 22nd), Saints Row 3, all while keeping L.A. Noire cases on the side that I can knock one off every now and again, I’ll make the choice to go back into Skyrim, or hit Nehrim up.
I still have to thank you for pointing me at it though, it’s exactly the kind of mod I like to use as an example of why I’m a PC gamer. Rest assured, I will be letting you know what I think after I finally dig into it.
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November 18, 2011 at 03:22pm
Good review and respectable score.
I want to say 10/10.
I can’t. It has a few small but crippling bugs in the game that will need a patch asap. That being said, it’s forgivable given the sheer scale of this game.
Right now I’d say my biggest two complaints are incomplete quests that can’t be finished because you ‘found’ the quest item early and that on the PC version, when you read a book or note and go back, you have to exit and reload your inventory to be able to properly scroll through and make specific selections again. That one wouldn’t be so bad if I didn’t enjoy reading most things.
That being said – 9.999999999…No, not really… 9/10.
If I had to rate it off the experience alone? It’d be perfect…Not gonna lie. Good lord this game is freaking addictive. 80 hours and CLIMBING!! Not even a fraction of the game done with SO much more to go.
Is this game perfect? Hell no. It’s got its own problems that keep it from getting there but ask yourself this? Is there a single perfect game out there on a scale like this? Is there a single game with literally hundreds of hours of game-play content (not counting completion and ‘trophy bs that pads out so many SHORT 5-10 hour games) that is even remotely as satisfying as Skyrim or enjoyable? No, there isn’t. Or at least, none that I know of.
Given the scale of this game, I can wholeheartedly forgive it all. And even better? I play on PC so I know that patch is coming, one way or another. God I love Bethesda.
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As far as difficulty goes I’ve found very few troubles on master mode. Stealth Archery? Yeah…I rock that. I wish I’d recorded downing that Blood Dragon (granted, the weakest of the dragons) in three shots…ON MASTER MODE!! And I haven’t even finished maxing enchanting yet for the dbl bonus. Just made Archery boosts for all applicable pieces and good lord…the dmg! Right now at level 39 my glass bow does over 220 base damage. Throw in sneak attacks and critical hits?I’ve gone through enter fortress gates Prince of Persia style fast drawing the bow and notching the arrow only to zoom for slow, fire, release zoom, rinse, repeat. The results with my sickening damage output is pretty much everything save bosses and a few select NPCs essentially being one shot before they even come close.
Now if only I didn’t have so much trouble with those damn cave bears -_-
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On a side note:If you don’t want an OP tip – Ignore the next line –
Enchanting is god-mode for money making by the way. Banishment weapons turn an absurd amount of profit. Just make Iron Daggers of Banishment with a petty soul gem and they go from about 25 value to 1400-1600. My advice is invest in speechcraft for investment bonus because you’re gonna need it if you enchant for the $$.
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November 18, 2011 at 03:19pm
And here I am finally putting some time in playing Dragon Age II. That’s a great game, too, isn’t it? It’s not as large as Skyrim, but it’s got its unique perks. I swear, once you start f*cking an elf, your acrobatic stat goes up.
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November 18, 2011 at 02:14pm
I’m currently sitting at 88 hours played for Skyrim.
Oh god. Someone help me.
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November 18, 2011 at 03:32pm
You don’t want help. You don’t need help.
Don’t fight it James! Search your feelings! You know this to be everything your heart desires.
JOIN THE DARK SIDE! MWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA *cough*
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November 18, 2011 at 01:50pm
I’m certainly enjoying the hell out of the game and I didn’t even like Oblivion all that much. For some reason, Oblivion never clicked for me and Skyrim fine tuned or removed alot of things I didn’t care for, making it a much better game overall. I’m like 35 hours into the game and I’ve only done like an hour and a half of main quest line lol
My only complaints would be how terrible the companion AI is. It’s possibly worst than what I saw in New Vegas. They really didn’t try to improve companions at all as it looks like they used everything from the previous engine for the game. Also some of the animations are pretty stiff looking, but really, they don’t detract from the game too much, which is easily a 9 for me, cause I had no problems with the UI, which was much better than previous games.
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November 18, 2011 at 07:20am
I believe one of its biggest accomplishments is creating a cohesive and organic world the likes of which have never been seen before. People will react to you and your endeavours, whether short-term or long-term. With dragons being able to attack at any time, there’s no shortage of interesting moments to be found. The Radiant AI also makes things really immersive. In this game, moments which would be scripted in any other game can happen at the drop of a hat. It’s quite an accomplishment.
I’d give it a 10 if not for the god awful menus. You have no idea how frustrating it is for the directional controls to lock up for a second when opening up your favourites menu. Patch that and the perfect score is yours, Bethy.
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November 19, 2011 at 07:53am
That is weird. Several of my friends and I love the menus and the way they are handled. We all have the XBOX 360 version since our computers cant handle this game. And i have played for around 12 hours. Skyrim could be one of my favorite games of the year.
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November 18, 2011 at 04:55am
As others pointed out: seriously man, learn your keyboard shortcuts. Especially since you were playing on the frikin PC where you can Keybind every favorites (or just use Q for favorites menu). Likewise each menu has it’s own shortcut(I,P,M,/).
As to dragon fights fo rme now 48 hours in it’s gotten to the point of: “come down here you where I can at least shoot you, you coward”
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November 18, 2011 at 05:21am
I do know about the shortcut keys, but that’s a workaround for the PC only. When dealing with the UI, it still requires you to exit screens, reopen other ones, and other problems.
If you’ve leveled up, and you accidentally run into the skill menu you’re *forced* to upgrade your health, stamina or magicka without being able to go into your active powers menu to check and see how each stat is specifically augmented. If you could switch between the menu screens on the fly, and see how your magicka is bolstered, that would help.
The point is that in order to navigate between the pause menus, you’re still required to move in and out of screens instead of having it all there in front of you, because god forbid I want to check my skills and inventory without having to move in and out of pause/unpause or screen submenus. -
November 18, 2011 at 09:18am
Unless Console versions don’t support key bindings (witch would be the problem of console options), as far as i know consoled do support keyboards (I do know PS3 does, not sure about xbox360).
“instead of having it all there in front of you” it it was all in the same menu you’d have 30ish menus in there, and it would be incredibly unvieldy (and would be just as bad or worse).
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November 19, 2011 at 09:08am
I don’t mean having EVERYTHING open at the same time, but the opportunity to switch between them from the inventory screen without having to do a go-between, being able to look at your health and magicka numbers without having to go into the skills screen.
It succeeds in a lot of areas I HATED the Oblivion UI for, but that doesn’t make it good… it doesn’t even make it better. It just makes it different. There could have been a way to somehow hybridize the systems, and let me go back and forth between my map (which was pretty, but also pretty useless), my journal, and my skills screen without having to deal with all these middle-men uber-menus.
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November 18, 2011 at 03:35pm
I don’t quite understand the argument about multiple windows to see stats, etc. while leveling up but maybe that’s because the level up really only effects the three basic stats? Well, I guess it was just never an issue for me but to each there own.
You are right about the interface through, to a certain extent. It is a tad glitchy but I’ve yet to be frustrated by navigation on it. Like they said, hot keys. You can immediate jump to any interface quick and simple with the keyboard and I haven’t had any of those problems so far.
Still, a solid review. Thx ^_^
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November 18, 2011 at 04:35am
i don’t find the ui that clunky sens you can just press i for inventory etc so once you get into the game it is not that big of a hassle it is atlest better than oblivions
and don’t get me started on killing dragons i had 3 dragons in a row pop into existans that i needed to kill that was kinda frustraiting
and as i said in angryjoes skyrim vid fuck the voice actor who thougt sounding like arnold schwarzenegger was a good idea
also condensing some of the skills of needed but it kinda nerfs beaing a ranger sens you would acrobatics your way untill you could run around full speed with a bow drawn, now this is a lvl 60 archery perk witch kinda sucks, meaning as an archer you are kinda of a sitting duck untill you get it, and it just feels odd getting speech for buying and selling stuff
p.s i saw skyrim top at around 380k ppl playing it at the same time :3
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November 18, 2011 at 04:31am
Hmm, what version of the game did you review? The PC version which I have, allows you to access the inventory, spells, skills, and others with just one button key. Plus exit menus with one press. I’ve pretty much never seen that submenu.
Hmm, sounds like you were playing the PC version, did you never check the control options?
I’m not accusing you of being wrong, just curious.
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November 18, 2011 at 05:17am
Oh, I did know that the hotkeys for the menu were there. That doesn’t excuse the overall design of the UI though. It also only accounts for shortcuts in the PC version specifically, not necessarily the console.
What’s more is (and I didn’t complain about this in the review, as it’s more a PC only problem) I found that the menus would conflict between keyboard and mouse input, with a keyboard highlighted dialogue or menu option being activated by a mouse click that was hovering over a completely different choice. Shortcut keys or not, the UI was pretty badly designed. -
November 18, 2011 at 04:20am
I’m about 7 hours in and I’m loving it.
I’d probably give it a perfect 10 already.One thing that surprised me though, but in a good way, the magic is tons of fun!
Magic was so damn boring in Morrowind and Oblivion, that I pretty much never used it at all.
Now I’m finding myself using it a ton more, while I’m usually a warrior thief in these types of games, guess I’ll be adding mage to that as well. And since the game removed classes, I can do that.I think I might end up with a man of many skills, but master of none.
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November 18, 2011 at 04:10am
I’m 80 hours+ hours in and still having a blast with it
This is easily my game of the year and I came in with ZERO expectations and even told the publisher “Impress me” and that they did.Good review man
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November 18, 2011 at 05:23am
It’s a phenomenal game, agreed. Thanks Mike, I just hope people don’t see it as me being “hard on the game.”
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November 18, 2011 at 06:51am
yes sens 8/10 is such a low score -_- 8 = a great game witch skyrim is the only thing that makes skyrim maybe worth a 9 is how much time you can spend in it without doing the same thing (sens the ammout of content should play a part in the score atlest in my mind)
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November 18, 2011 at 08:23am
*Ties Harith down in a chair, staples his eyelids open and makes him watch:* http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/jimquisition/4966-Hate-Out-Of-Ten
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November 18, 2011 at 08:42am
Thank you. It’s been a while since DToid got a positive comment from the community on this site.
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November 18, 2011 at 08:52am
renegadered seen it and i do agree with jim sterling that ppl expect 9/10 or 10/10, but the reason i think this has happend is that ppl who has reviewed for a long time use the same ruler they did as when they started but generally games improve in quality and controlls so you really need to change what an avarge game is over the years or you start handing out way to high scores
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Also I am hoping that this time we get real-time dynamic shadows for every object for PC version. This was supposed to be in Oblivion already and techdemo videos even showed them, but was ultimately removed cuz it killed FPS to slow crawl even on very high end PCs of that time. Now computers are multiple times faster than back then.
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