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.
Posted By Johnny Maloney about 1 year, 5 months ago
Just before Skyrim came out, people that didn’t know me that well often asked me, “What the hell is wrong with you?” People that did sometimes found it in themselves to ask me, “Johnny, which system should I buy Skyrim on?” as if they didn’t know how I’d respond. Normally I can understand people’s predisposal to play certain games on certain systems because of a deeper friend list for multiplayer, or if their computer is a little old and clunky, but for Skyrim my answer was clear and concise: “PC. You’ll want access to the mods.”
I’ve already talked a little about the large address aware patch, and linked to RPS’ good guide for ini tweaking, but even without The Elder Scrolls Creation Kit in the hands of the public (apparently due for release in January sometime) we’re seeing many people dig into Skyrim and fix bits and pieces of whatever may have irked them about the game. A quick look at the Skyrim Nexus shows an already impressive collection, changing everything from blood textures, distances, inventory management, trees, you name it.
In what seems like a now regular release (you remember the ENB inspired iCEnhancer mod for GTA IV? There was also an ENB mod for Deus Ex: Human Revolution that I never got a chance to try out that you can look at here.) phenomenon, a beta of an ENB post-processing mod has been released for Skyrim. The mod tweaks the color palettes and the HDR settings chiefly to add a little more color and light effects in the world. Have a look see:
Not to be left behind, however, Nvidia has a pretty good tweak guide with console commands, .ini alterations, and a whole slew of comparison screenshots set out to detail the effects of each particular change, both from the Bethesda configuration utility and from more creative workarounds. An especially good read for people who are new to modding, or even new to PC gaming altogether, it tends to explain all those initialisms you wind up poking around at. So if you’re not sure what the difference between MSAA or FXAA is, or what the hell SSAO is, or you just want to get your Skyrim looking a bit prettier, or to run better, now’s the chance for some learning at the GeForce site. I might almost be ready to start playing Skyrim again now, as I think my kidneys have manage to filter the overdose out of my blood finally.
Links: Nvidia Skyrim Tweak Guide, ENB Mods Homepage, Skyrim Nexus
Having been a gamer since 1986 when his father brought home an IBM PCjr with King's Quest and Crossfire included, it seemed destined that PC gaming and Johnny Maloney's life would run parallel forever. Despite his occasional affairs with movies, books, music and single malt scotch, he's never once left the side of his PC. In fact, on a full moon on a friday the thirteenth, if you sit in his old chairs... chills will run up your spine if you say "you fight like a dairy farmer," and you can sometimes hear ghostly whispers in the night respond "how appropriate, you fight like a cow…" -- Attempting to contact Johnny at Johnny@Blisteredthumbs.net may be successful.
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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.
New DLC released, in a crossover with Matt Damon! It’s “The Dragonbourne Supremacy!” – No Matt Damon included.
Ready for more Skyrim yet?
Unfortunately, it’s exclusive to one system for now.
The already grim outlook for PS3 Skyrim fans gets worse.
With wall-mounted mudcrabs!
It’s time to Fus Ro Dah some vampires.
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!
It is always darkest before the dawn…
Will the Falmer come back in their former glory, or are they truly a dead race like the Dwemer?
Posted By Robert G. about 3 months, 2 weeks ago
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.
Posted By Johnny Maloney about 5 months, 2 weeks ago
New DLC released, in a crossover with Matt Damon! It’s “The Dragonbourne Supremacy!” – No Matt Damon included.
Posted By Robert G. about 6 months ago
Ready for more Skyrim yet?
Posted By Austin Yorski about 6 months, 2 weeks ago
Unfortunately, it’s exclusive to one system for now.
Posted By Shaun K. about 8 months, 3 weeks ago
The already grim outlook for PS3 Skyrim fans gets worse.
Posted By Austin Yorski about 8 months, 3 weeks ago
With wall-mounted mudcrabs!
Posted By Robert G. about 11 months, 3 weeks ago
It’s time to Fus Ro Dah some vampires.
Posted By Johnny Maloney about 11 months, 4 weeks ago
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!
Posted By Robert G. about 1 year ago
It is always darkest before the dawn…
Posted By Robert G. about 1 year ago
Will the Falmer come back in their former glory, or are they truly a dead race like the Dwemer?
Posted By Johnny Maloney about 1 year, 6 months ago
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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.
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.
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.
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.
wow. 225 trolls. That’s sad.
I really got to wonder about our community. Really, 62% of you found it overall dissapointing?
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.
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.)
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.
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.
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.
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).
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.
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.
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.
Heh, take your time. Just wait till Chistmastime, then you can catch Nehrimism.
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.
————
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 -_-
————————————-
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 $$.
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.
I’m currently sitting at 88 hours played for Skyrim.
Oh god. Someone help me.
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*
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.
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.
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.
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”
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.
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).
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.
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 ^_^
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
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.
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.
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.
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
It’s a phenomenal game, agreed. Thanks Mike, I just hope people don’t see it as me being “hard on the game.”
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)
*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
Thank you. It’s been a while since DToid got a positive comment from the community on this site.
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
Fraser’s Home Alone for Christmas! Instead of setting up an elaborate series of traps and awaiting the wet bandits inevitable attack, he’s Skyrimming himself through the holidays!
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!
Well, it’s finally here! But was it worth the wait? Daniel from ZGR checks out 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!
Talking Dogs? Werewolves? Interior Decorating with Joe? With Skyrim its all possible! Angry Joe shows you how engaging Skyrims dynamic quests are and still has time to decorate his new house!
FUS RO DAH! A fantastic new world awaits… so let’s KILL SOME VILLAGERS! Our first foray into Skyrim is one of frighteningly powerful, unrelenting, sociopathic delinquency! You can do anything to these people and they BARELY fight back! It’s AWESOME!
There is one particular reason why SKYRIM is gonna be the game of the year !
Angry Joe lands an interview with his #1 Most Anticipated Game of 2011, Skyrim! Watch as Joe geeks out while asking about dynamic questing, crafting, exploration, and dragon riding? Check out the interview after the jump!
Will the Falmer come back in their former glory, or are they truly a dead race like the Dwemer?
Skyrim is a damn good game and deserves praise for the type of game it is, a free-roaming RPG that allows players to fulfill their inner desires of what a fantastical hero can be. But it’s not that good, I am sorry to say. The biggest problems I have with Skyrim can be summed up into five general grievances.
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!
Angry Joe lands an interview with his #1 Most Anticipated Game of 2011, Skyrim! Watch as Joe geeks out while asking about dynamic questing, crafting, exploration, and dragon riding? Check out the interview after the jump!
While Oblivion had its critics, its hard not to agree that it was pretty visually
Music Mondays revisits the band that brought us tunes from Scott Pilgrim vs. the World and Bit.Trip Runner.
I built an 1100 dollar custom gaming rig 6 months ago and the only thing i ever touch my consoles for are blu-rays and freaking halo. I will NEVER go back to console gaming after building such a magnificent monster.
Computer gaming for life, once you turn PC you never go back.
Intel i5 2500k (overclocked to 4.3ghz)
8GB corsair ram
1tb 7200rpm seagate HDD (thank god i bought this before the flooding in Taiwan)
Nvidia 560ti twin frozr fermi edition
600W modular power supply
MSI motherboard with clickable UI bios menu
Custom Antec housing with matching blue led fans and thermaltake custom blue led cpu cooler and dual sound modded 12” blue cold cathodes.
Huh, what? What was that? I can’t hear you over all these console games I’m playing.
But to the article, one of your first sentences hit a nerve with me.
“…but for Skyrim my answer was clear and concise: “PC. You’ll want access to the mods.”
I like to play Elder Scrolls game vanilla. No mods, no DLC, no anything. Just the game you put on the disk is the one I’m going to play.
If you say Skrim is good because of the mods then it’s not a good game.
A good game would stand on its own and keep you enthralled by itself it doesn’t make you go out and search for a mod to make textures smoother or make fire look smokey.
I tried mods on morrowind, didn’t do anything for me. (made the game buggier though)
Now I know the common retort is that mods don’t make a game good they just make a good game better. I don’t agree, but I can see why you would think that.
I apologize for the length of time it took me to get back to this, I’ve been unwell for December, and it’s made life rather difficult (I’ll spare you the details).
I wasn’t suggesting that mods are necessary to enjoy the Elder Scrolls games. Historically speaking, if you’re willing to call the last two Elder Scrolls games ‘history,’ the mod scene has been a really rich trench of all sorts of adjustments, ranging from smoother face textures to full conversion campaigns that rival the content amount of the original game.
Bethesda has traditionally supported the mod community as a means of keeping their game a vital and worthwhile purchase, when flash-in-the-pan gamers tire of their initial exposure and move on to more easily gratifying fare.
I’m not suggesting that Skyrim is ONLY good because somebody’s going to mod it, merely suggesting that your modding options with Skyrim will make a potentially enriching experience available to you, and if not – the vanilla game still exists.
You can’t say that you have that option for consoles.
personally i wound not fuck around with the colour pallet of anything sens that kind ruins the creators view of the world but that is just me.
and honestly a 300-400 dollar machine can run skyrim at way better grafix than a xbox360. and you can still plug in a 360 controller and play on your big screen tv. (this works with basecally every crossplatfrom game) and with windows 8 coming out witch also has the new metro ui the reson for having a 360 is just getting smaller for a gamer
EDIT: all that is missing is a windows 8 xbox install that turns the pc into a mesh of xbox and pc
Eh, that mod does make things somewhat prettier, but I personally find it a bit hard on the eyes. I’m also eyebrow-raisingly curious how indoor environments word look with this, especially with tombs and dark caverns. This is pure speculation on my part, but I’m a bit concerned that it would turn glowing mushrooms from “quirky” to full-blown “freakish”…
I admit, I’m not likely to install the ENBSeries mod for a prolonged playthrough myself. There’s a bleakness to Skyrim that I appreciate, given Tamriel’s current position. I find it dramatically appropriate. I just want my UGRIDS!
wow, look at the rating for the game, too many trolls!
I know, right? Is it because of snobbery, some sort of elitism, or downright trolling, I wonder.
I think it was actually in response to an article we published here on the site. Robert wrote an article containing five of his major gripes with Skyrim. Until the publishing of that article, it was enjoying an overwhelmingly positive score. I think that maybe people mistook it for an article approval, rather than a game approval.
I could be wrong, though, and it might just be a whole lot of backlash from the more-broken-than-before patches and continued problems on the PS3. I don’t pretend to know the inner workings of our readership…
belive us we are not trolling, nor is it an article approval thing. It is because people opened their eyes and saw the truth. For anyone who have played bethesda games since or before Morrowind, Skyrim is a thumbs down. For anyone who started bethesda games either with oblivion or Fallout 3, Skyrim i a thumbs up.
Some where expecting a revolution like Morrowind and we where disappointed, some where expecting the most polished Bethesda game to-date, and they where happy.
It might not be as diversive as Morrowind, but it’s a huuuge improvement over Oblivion and returns so many of the game mechanics from MW. If you are a fan of the old TES games, you will like Skyrim, even if there are still minor things they could improve upon.
Luckily, the sales for Skyrim seem to do just fine, so hopefully Bethesda will stay on this course with future TES-Games.
I’m with Mivey on this one, though it wasn’t as great a game as Morrowind (still my favourite TES game ever, especially with the mods I ran for the a la mod article I wrote), that doesn’t actually make it a BAD game.
I do deeply disagree with the perfect scores, and the off the cuff game of the year assessments… I find myself aligned with many of Roberts criticisms in his article. I’m not suggesting *EVERYBODY IS TROLLING* because that would be ridiculous to assume, that everybody mistakenly decides a game is terrible. It’s simply that the sales figures against our previously overwhelmingly positive figures would turn so suddenly sour.
You are right though. Morrowind. Down with Vivec!
That ENBSeries mod could work out really well. One big gripe I’ve had with the game is with exposure. At times while exploring my screen will go white or black in first-person mode as if my character is trying to adjust to the light.
I’m ok with that if I’m just searching around, but when someone attacks me and I basically become blind it just ends up leaving me annoyed.