How is the PC version worse than the 360PS3 version? : V - Skyrim

» Fri May 11, 2012 8:08 pm

I thought I was the only one! The size of the favorites box could stand to scale up depending on your resolution, the game assumes you're intending on clicking something at all time (i.e., if my mouse is in the upper-left most corner of the screen while I'm talking to someone and a dialog option occurs, the first one is assumed to be selected.

Whoever decided the contents of chests should be in some arbitrary order that I still can't figure out (is it the order that you put the things in there)? No! Bad! No supper for you!

The miscellaneous quests are just borked. I've repeatedly selected a miscellaneous quest, only to not have it put a marker on my map. Then I view the overworld map (which is only useful for looking pretty), and there's no marker anywhere. So you have to go select the quest and then open it up on the map to figure out where you're supposed to go. I don't know if that's a consistent bug, but I've seen it happen several times for various quests.

If I'm putting something from storage to inventory or vice versa, I don't want to use it. Not ever. I'm tired of eating harmful ingredients that I don't have a lot of. I've got Potions of Murderous Killing to make!

All that having been said: this game is fantastic fun, and I'm enjoying the hell out of it. That doesn't mean that I can't see the flaws for what they are and hope for a mod (DarNified UI, anyone) that resolves them.

For the miscellaneous quest marker to appear requires both the miscellaneous top level option, and the the specific quest to be toggled as active. Once both are toggled on, the marker always appears for me. What your are probably doing is toggling on just the individual quest, but not the top level. It should logically auto toggle the top level option automatically when any of the underlying quests are toggled on, but it doesn't.

» Fri May 11, 2012 4:25 pm

Not true, it doesn't work to well on console either. The nested menus are a pain in the [censored] on a controller, I now only have two quick select buttons I used to have eight.

Wait, are you saying you can hotkey two items to the d-pad itself, outside of using the favorites menu? If so, how do you do that? I was actually thinking that would have been a good idea, so if it's so, that is pretty good. Would still have liked the option to switch between hotkeys and the favorites menu though. I figure they did this because they had to factor in shouts, but I still hit just above the 8 slots that would take up the d-pad anyway.

» Fri May 11, 2012 7:00 pm

The UI is a bit clumsy, especially for turning with the mouse. I have had a lot of crashes on my PC, as well. 2 blue screens, numerous crash to desktops.

» Fri May 11, 2012 7:17 am

I love the UI on the console.. my only beef is the quest management is tied to the pause screen and not in the O screen on the ps3... and having a dedicated wait button is a pain... the D pad should have been configured better then all 4 directions the same... Map should have been select that makes sense.. having to move though 2 menus to get to the map is silly.... as the map goes its not to bad... much more difficult to navigate in the 3d world though... i end up using the paper map more than the 3d one...

» Fri May 11, 2012 7:33 pm

Im playing on 1920x1080 full settings with an avarage framerate of 40. The game works flawless except for a small bug in the menu's every now and then. I love skyrim the way it is and they really don't have to change anything if it's up to me. I honestly can't imagine the console versions working more fluently then how I'm experiencing skyrim at the moment.

» Fri May 11, 2012 10:32 am

It's not the interface. The interface is fine, and actually works really well with a 360 usb controller.

The problems are graphical glitches like:

framerate drops,
blocky shadows,
pop-in,
offcenter light sources,
Daggerfall-like textures
low draw distance
CTDs

These are all quality control issues and indicate that the game was not optomized or well tested for PCs. It's especially apparent when it doesn't run any better on NASA built computers. That is why people are complaining it's a port.

Try playing the game a mage with 30+ spells to manage on the fly. You cant even prioritize things in the list, it's all done alphabetically. It's a nice idea for some classes/play styles but it heavily penalises others. No key binds is just lazy. That said the game is epic on almost all other levels.

» Fri May 11, 2012 6:47 pm

I've been seeing countless topics on how bad the PC version is since the game came out, but not many actual reasons, so I was just curious, if anyone can explain.

The PC version isn't worse than either console version, it's better; but the point is it's not optimised for PC in things like the UI. The current UI, while no worse than Oblivion's, is made for consoles, and doesn't work all that well on PC.
Very few games are ever worse on the PC, the issue is usually that the amount by which they are better is not enough. It's not an elitist thing, it's simply that which the market has come to expect, and has always had.

» Fri May 11, 2012 3:47 pm

People are saying the PC UI is horrible because it was built for console and only works well on console. That's mainly the only complaint though. Granted it's a very legit complaint. Take Dragon Age for example. It's PC version was so much different than console in both gameplay and UI so a proper change for the PC has been known to happen. It's not unreasonable that the problem should be fixed so the PC owners can enjoy the game. This is coming from a console player.

The UI isn't that bad, it is mainly the looks of it that bother me; it's all black and white and very generic looking along with not having any detail to the lore of the game, like Oblivion had. From what I have read, it seems that maybe the console version doesn't work as well, at least from one aspect, they cannot assign as many hot keys as the PC version can. On comparing Dragon Age, DA was specifically made for PC first, then ported to console. Sadly, DA may be the last great RPG where player agency was very important in the game. So far, I am seeing a little in Skyrim and hope that gets better. But, I am only just scratching the surface of the game, so time will tell.. Daggerfall was the last of the TES games where choices had huge consequences and actually allowed for multiple endings to the story.

» Fri May 11, 2012 2:58 pm

It's not the interface. The interface is fine, and actually works really well with a 360 usb controller.

The problems are graphical glitches like:

framerate drops,
blocky shadows,
pop-in,
offcenter light sources,
Daggerfall-like textures
low draw distance
CTDs

These are all quality control issues and indicate that the game was not optomized or well tested for PCs. It's especially apparent when it doesn't run any better on NASA built computers. That is why people are complaining it's a port.

Well, it is a port, just like Oblivion was a port and Morrowind was a port. I have no issues with framerate drops, and pop-in very far and few between when they happen. The blocky shadows don't look that bad, but at least they're dynamic, the draw distance is just fine by me. When comparing the texture to Daggerfall, you may as well include Fallout 3, Oblivion, etc too. Oblivion in draw distance, even maxed on my PC, looks awful compared to Skyrim. But like Oblivion and Fallout, if you get close to objects, especially the rocks, they look awful, so it seems not much has changed there. But then again, none of these games have/had hi-res add-on included in the games themselves, outside of what the modding community creates. I do think Beth should start doing that with the PC versions.