» Sun May 13, 2012 8:10 am I got the game and installed , all went smooth , but when I started the game it asked to let the game determine the specs ... it chose high and not ultra , but since I wanted to see how looked on ultra I took all at max , result ... game starts and GPU overheats and crashes .... well I restart and pick the sugested settings , all goes Ok , the controls are rough , the movement erratics , the mouse experience is not smooth and all the animations are like robot moves ....
Well I get a hdmi cable I link the pc to the TV and I link a controller for xbox ..... the resolution went from my 27" PC monitors ( Dual ) 2500 x somethingelse to 1920 x 1080 full HD of my 40 " tv I retry the ultra settings and wow , the controls are on another planet all is smooth , movement and camera is really tought "only" for the xbox controller , the mouse feels like delays and erraticism that makes it playable but unsatisfiying .....
so far I didn't play much but I can already say some Pros and cons :
Pro :
1 the character creation system is graphically beyong anything that we where used to , finally it is Awesome .... makes huge possibilities of combinations ....
2 The texture resolution , and graphics are much better than in past
altough nothing special or above the average of any other game out there ....
3 very fast loading times
4 water effects and shaders are very nice , not top of the notch but among the best I have yet seen in games m the idea of shaped water to get the movement and speed is something Iworked already but coudln't implement in oblivion because missed shaders for the water so I am glad that now this feature is implemented , so combination of water particles and mesh shape make with the shader a good lookign water , pity that the water is not yet 3d and 3d animated as in other games , some of the best water so far is in Uncharted 3 and is on a consolle ... then the cryengine etc... but Skyrim water is totally respectable and gets my approval ... befoure I Couln't appreciate couse I had a bug that prevented me to see it , after reinstalling the nvidia card drivers I coudl appreciate ....
5 All dungeons feel solid and all different wich is a nice thing
6 Dragons look pretty cool but somehow they miss some realistic behaviour in movement and interaction with environment , especially when they are killed the skeleton remains there like a fake puppet instead of adapting to the terrain conformation but I guess is something that doesn't influence much the game ...
7 The craftic system is pretty nice , and also the alchemy has a lot of ingredients so far ...
8 the atmosphere is superbe , reminds me of Conan the Barbarian , Frank Farzetta fantasy comics and Larry Elmore imagery and has a dark look of typical dark fantasy .... altoguh the "Viking" theme is less felt than was in Solstheim ...
9 Voice acting and localized translation is very good especially the Italian Doubling
10 the quests feel more realistic and better designed than Oblivion ....
11 the perk system is a good and welcome introduction to the skills deepening but it lacks characterization ,it is too much % and math than actual perks and abilities...
2 The texture resolution , and graphics are much better than in past
altough nothing special or above the average of any other game out there ....
3 very fast loading times
4 water effects and shaders are very nice , not top of the notch but among the best I have yet seen in games m the idea of shaped water to get the movement and speed is something Iworked already but coudln't implement in oblivion because missed shaders for the water so I am glad that now this feature is implemented , so combination of water particles and mesh shape make with the shader a good lookign water , pity that the water is not yet 3d and 3d animated as in other games , some of the best water so far is in Uncharted 3 and is on a consolle ... then the cryengine etc... but Skyrim water is totally respectable and gets my approval ... befoure I Couln't appreciate couse I had a bug that prevented me to see it , after reinstalling the nvidia card drivers I coudl appreciate ....
5 All dungeons feel solid and all different wich is a nice thing
6 Dragons look pretty cool but somehow they miss some realistic behaviour in movement and interaction with environment , especially when they are killed the skeleton remains there like a fake puppet instead of adapting to the terrain conformation but I guess is something that doesn't influence much the game ...
7 The craftic system is pretty nice , and also the alchemy has a lot of ingredients so far ...
8 the atmosphere is superbe , reminds me of Conan the Barbarian , Frank Farzetta fantasy comics and Larry Elmore imagery and has a dark look of typical dark fantasy .... altoguh the "Viking" theme is less felt than was in Solstheim ...
9 Voice acting and localized translation is very good especially the Italian Doubling
10 the quests feel more realistic and better designed than Oblivion ....
11 the perk system is a good and welcome introduction to the skills deepening but it lacks characterization ,it is too much % and math than actual perks and abilities...
Cons :
1 Animations seem detached from reality , the NPCs move and act like scripted robots , sometimes they look somewherelse while talking to you or keeep doing something concerning you when you are already very far away .... there are delays between the animations sequences and the overall look ( altoguh the anmations per se are better than Older games ) of the animations connected to the woprld seem off like people sliding on a surface , instead than actually pressing the feets on the ground ... same goes for dragons , altough in the videos they looked to act and move smoothly between an anim loop and the other I can still get the frame jumps but much less than for the loop animation change for NPCs ...
2 The vanity camera is not available when moving walking or with weapon extracted , on horse is too far from player and cannot be further approached ... wich is really annoying for the people that like me like to watch at themselves all the time when walking fighting or even just standing with a sword out ... instead the vanity camera seems available only when you are still and anyway after a certain distance goes to 1st person mode ....
3 BIG BIG disappointment is the one single blob piece of armours , I very much preferred the possibility to run barechested around in my fur slips ..... and I guess this will be my first mod .... and I didn't notice any larger number of npcs in game as was supposed to be the reason behind that merging ...
4 some items are just part of the scenery now and you cannot pick up anything anymore like forks or candles , you cannot open any crate as befoure but just some marked as containers , wich is also not really good for imersion ...
5 Too much simplification in this game ....
Now apart the merged in one piece armours that at least I could find some that are just under parts but anyway ... they :
removed:
a Classes
b skills attributes
c reduced a lot of the detailings of the interiors and simplified the potions to simplier color = attribute thing
d The journal is minimalistic and doesn't keep any track of the spoken things , what have been told you or what you ahve to do ... just an arrow go there and complete quest ...
e Less detailing in the overall aspects of the environments from less density of vegetation to lesss detailing of the interiors
6 No torches !!!
7 fighting system is pretty basic hack and hit I do not want anything like a arcade game and I thank that they didn't touch the system to create a crap like dragonage 2 but I would have liked a more hit and response play and some more variations in attacks even at low level like decide to attack from a side , the other or whatever ...
8 the AI of enemies is so basic they can chase you all time around a rock while you shoot them fire or other stuff..
9 The landscape is pretty varied considering is all in the north but I fell that this time the cultures aren't so much different one from the other , ok are all Nords but even in Cyrodill each city felt different , but anyway is not a big deal as the size of the map that is pretty small compared to other openworld games, the feeling of beeing in a fishtank is a bit reduced by the fact that you have to go around a lot of obstacles to reach a place but it is still present especially when you climb up on high points and you can see the whole area ... the sea color seen from high looks bad lieka bright azure instead of the deep blue that is when you are close distance ...
10 The Distance far view isn't very well done the Sea looks turquoise for some reason and has nothing to do with the upclose look of it that is dark blue , the terrain textures on very far look very much undetailed and blurred giving a look of a morrowind era landscape ...
11 The horse Just rushes in every enemy that encounter and for some weird reason at least at the difficulty I am playing it never dies , it's like a Tank ...
12 the level of difficulties I wonder hoe they are scaled like becasue the Dragons result of an acceptable difficulty but when I had to face one in a village , every village was seeming to be too overpowered comparing to me , the dragon shoot them fire ice or whatever and they never died , I always instead got energy depleted at the first or second shoot , I am supposed to be the hero protecting the villains not hiding in a shack while waiting the villagers kill ethe dragon then come out to pretend I did it ... this seems pretty ridiculous and I think it needs to be fixed , if I rise the level of difficulty , peasants and such shoudl't not be upscaled compared to the enemies and dragons especially ...
13 A detailed journal is missing, there woudl be the need for a dialogues recording so to not loose any detail and also a way to sign on map and or quest journal some annotations ...
14 the 3d map and interface look surely cool but cold and detached from the overall atmosphere of the game , I think a more rustic parchment paper drag out of a bag from the character then zoomed up in game that shows a sort of fog undetailed areas for the undiscovered zones would have been better ... also a cartographer perk would be nice to have to for example increase the view distance of the map , discover some secret locations , or even just detail more the map with more detailed drawing indicating flora fauna and alchemy findings of the area instead than just mountains and woods according to the actual perk .....
15 Many spells where simplified and removed, and most of the perks are now just % increments in the power of the same thing , there is not much "variation" , its like pick this perk and you get 20 % more damage pick this other perk and you get 25% less weight... I honestly expected more "fantasy" and more deepness from this system the fells and looks really limited and simplified , too much like if the game was tought for kids but then released for advlts ... this is not really making sense as advlts can manage more "complicate" and "detailed" system ....
16 no spellcrafting
17 leveling system is pretty much simplified as well , you can rise levels without even going around adventuring by simply selling one arrow at time to a vendor and this would increase the speechcraft and level ... wich seems quite ridiculous...
18 no sight of the "fabled" AI and radiant ai , I have actually tried to do what was told in many interviews like making friendship with someone , but apart that there are not many options with most of the npcs apart when you ahve some quests , I could have "good relations" even with a woman that I just beat her up with my own fists to force hem to pay a debt and ? after I did it she says I am so happpy to see you please take a look at my stuff...
19 removal of attributes and removal ofr many skills , the best woul'd have been combine the attributes and skills of its predecessors like morrowind with the new perk tree system...
20 very poor detailing with a lot of recycled and repeated around objects
http://img703.imageshack.us/img703/4021/detailsv.jpg
notice how no forks no blankets no dish variations etc etc...
21 what's with the soul gems spam ? seem you can find them almoust anywhere even if then the skyrim population seem not using magic at all and quite adversed to it ....
2 The vanity camera is not available when moving walking or with weapon extracted , on horse is too far from player and cannot be further approached ... wich is really annoying for the people that like me like to watch at themselves all the time when walking fighting or even just standing with a sword out ... instead the vanity camera seems available only when you are still and anyway after a certain distance goes to 1st person mode ....
3 BIG BIG disappointment is the one single blob piece of armours , I very much preferred the possibility to run barechested around in my fur slips ..... and I guess this will be my first mod .... and I didn't notice any larger number of npcs in game as was supposed to be the reason behind that merging ...
4 some items are just part of the scenery now and you cannot pick up anything anymore like forks or candles , you cannot open any crate as befoure but just some marked as containers , wich is also not really good for imersion ...
5 Too much simplification in this game ....
Now apart the merged in one piece armours that at least I could find some that are just under parts but anyway ... they :
removed:
a Classes
b skills attributes
c reduced a lot of the detailings of the interiors and simplified the potions to simplier color = attribute thing
d The journal is minimalistic and doesn't keep any track of the spoken things , what have been told you or what you ahve to do ... just an arrow go there and complete quest ...
e Less detailing in the overall aspects of the environments from less density of vegetation to lesss detailing of the interiors
6 No torches !!!
7 fighting system is pretty basic hack and hit I do not want anything like a arcade game and I thank that they didn't touch the system to create a crap like dragonage 2 but I would have liked a more hit and response play and some more variations in attacks even at low level like decide to attack from a side , the other or whatever ...
8 the AI of enemies is so basic they can chase you all time around a rock while you shoot them fire or other stuff..
9 The landscape is pretty varied considering is all in the north but I fell that this time the cultures aren't so much different one from the other , ok are all Nords but even in Cyrodill each city felt different , but anyway is not a big deal as the size of the map that is pretty small compared to other openworld games, the feeling of beeing in a fishtank is a bit reduced by the fact that you have to go around a lot of obstacles to reach a place but it is still present especially when you climb up on high points and you can see the whole area ... the sea color seen from high looks bad lieka bright azure instead of the deep blue that is when you are close distance ...
10 The Distance far view isn't very well done the Sea looks turquoise for some reason and has nothing to do with the upclose look of it that is dark blue , the terrain textures on very far look very much undetailed and blurred giving a look of a morrowind era landscape ...
11 The horse Just rushes in every enemy that encounter and for some weird reason at least at the difficulty I am playing it never dies , it's like a Tank ...
12 the level of difficulties I wonder hoe they are scaled like becasue the Dragons result of an acceptable difficulty but when I had to face one in a village , every village was seeming to be too overpowered comparing to me , the dragon shoot them fire ice or whatever and they never died , I always instead got energy depleted at the first or second shoot , I am supposed to be the hero protecting the villains not hiding in a shack while waiting the villagers kill ethe dragon then come out to pretend I did it ... this seems pretty ridiculous and I think it needs to be fixed , if I rise the level of difficulty , peasants and such shoudl't not be upscaled compared to the enemies and dragons especially ...
13 A detailed journal is missing, there woudl be the need for a dialogues recording so to not loose any detail and also a way to sign on map and or quest journal some annotations ...
14 the 3d map and interface look surely cool but cold and detached from the overall atmosphere of the game , I think a more rustic parchment paper drag out of a bag from the character then zoomed up in game that shows a sort of fog undetailed areas for the undiscovered zones would have been better ... also a cartographer perk would be nice to have to for example increase the view distance of the map , discover some secret locations , or even just detail more the map with more detailed drawing indicating flora fauna and alchemy findings of the area instead than just mountains and woods according to the actual perk .....
15 Many spells where simplified and removed, and most of the perks are now just % increments in the power of the same thing , there is not much "variation" , its like pick this perk and you get 20 % more damage pick this other perk and you get 25% less weight... I honestly expected more "fantasy" and more deepness from this system the fells and looks really limited and simplified , too much like if the game was tought for kids but then released for advlts ... this is not really making sense as advlts can manage more "complicate" and "detailed" system ....
16 no spellcrafting
17 leveling system is pretty much simplified as well , you can rise levels without even going around adventuring by simply selling one arrow at time to a vendor and this would increase the speechcraft and level ... wich seems quite ridiculous...
18 no sight of the "fabled" AI and radiant ai , I have actually tried to do what was told in many interviews like making friendship with someone , but apart that there are not many options with most of the npcs apart when you ahve some quests , I could have "good relations" even with a woman that I just beat her up with my own fists to force hem to pay a debt and ? after I did it she says I am so happpy to see you please take a look at my stuff...
19 removal of attributes and removal ofr many skills , the best woul'd have been combine the attributes and skills of its predecessors like morrowind with the new perk tree system...
20 very poor detailing with a lot of recycled and repeated around objects
http://img703.imageshack.us/img703/4021/detailsv.jpg
notice how no forks no blankets no dish variations etc etc...
21 what's with the soul gems spam ? seem you can find them almoust anywhere even if then the skyrim population seem not using magic at all and quite adversed to it ....
Missing Features:
1 Weather system that affects the actual clothing system forcing the player to wear warmer induments in colder climatic zones.
2 an overcoat or over cloth to wear above your armours , tunics or clothes that can be used also for protection from cold , cape or anything else ... the one single suit style ala fallout doesn't help much for imersion
3 no snow accumulation that was so much publicized , I waited for hours in front of stone rocks and landscapes during snowstorms but nothing accumulated at all , also a nice feature would have been if snow accumulated on you too ... at least during heavy storms
4 more horses for the masses , it seems you are the only one able to go on horse? No one else is using a horse and the followers do not have one making them forced to run after you ....
5 Horsback fighting
2 an overcoat or over cloth to wear above your armours , tunics or clothes that can be used also for protection from cold , cape or anything else ... the one single suit style ala fallout doesn't help much for imersion
3 no snow accumulation that was so much publicized , I waited for hours in front of stone rocks and landscapes during snowstorms but nothing accumulated at all , also a nice feature would have been if snow accumulated on you too ... at least during heavy storms
4 more horses for the masses , it seems you are the only one able to go on horse? No one else is using a horse and the followers do not have one making them forced to run after you ....
5 Horsback fighting
Undecided on :
Combat actually it looks very much like the old one engine , ( wich is probably the same ) you can slide on terrain , change direction in air when jumping and reach parts of the area unreacheable by enemies and use the same tactics of Oblivion shooting from a higher rock for example , but I actually do not think that the missing of "heavyness" is that much perceived in the game during combat , I have read reviews where they wrote the combat is missing impact etc , yes this is true is not totally Havoked and the use of the third party middleware like euphoria wold make the game animations and combat perfect but I think it is acceptable for the game and not that bad ... the final moves look more like the fallout ending shots , cinematic mini animation ... nice , could be done bettter but nice ...
Conclusions : Still very early but ... so far I am liking it , it still feels like a bethesda elder scrolls game , but with a much more consolle oriented gameplay and simplification and also wich is weird the game is marked mature andis aimed for more advlt players as features gore and splatter scenes , but it was dumbed down for simplicity may be to attract more kiddy people that would be disoriented with a more complex setup like every crate openable , more statistics , more choices topicklike classes etc....
Ok summing it up I think I can make a final verdict altough I did not yet finish the game :
The game is simply great but in its pursue of the best imersion experience for any player chose the oversimplification way wich ruins in effects the imersion and the rpg experience ....
So the Game is very good for
Graphically gorgeous , awesome new character creation ....
the art direction this time is superbe , the Voice acting , great , the quests very very good and realistic , also every dungeon is clearly well done and unique altough less detailed than expected , the perk introduction is a good thing and so it is the crafting , dual wielding , dual casting , finally dynamic shadows have been implemented and other things mostly related to imersion , atmosphere , music saundtrack all those aspect help the game feel solid and coherent with the setting giving the player sense of awe that was more present in morrowind than oblivion .... So the top point of this game is reached throught the atmosphere and dark fantasy look ....
The Game is not so Good for :
The overly done simplifications , elimination of attributes that brings to reduced interest in character creation in terms of rpg detail m and forces the player to have no jump or speed faculties for example very much needed for vampire , speed and jumps for werewolves... they feel tuned down in that ....
The elimination of many skills also is not that good , because they added a lot more complexity and realism to the game ... puting all weapons into one single category like 1 or two hand is just too much .. it ruins the realism , imersion and rpg experience ... weapons shoudl be divided into categories ... this is not only for combat but also magic and thievery .... other aspects seem to have been rushed like forgetting to put torches on sale , give horses also to the inhabitants of the region also merging the armours ala fallout style was a bad choice , altoguh they look gorgeous and its nice to have variations and improvements over the same type of armour , , splitting at least upper and lower parts and some other combinations in the crafting would have added a lot more fun like detailing armours with differnt deco , materials , pieces or parts of them etc... animations look good now but look detached from the environment and I guess this is something engine related ... probably a middleware like euphoria would make better animation blending ..... finally some of the scenery and items are now unpickable , this also ruins the imersion that makes you feel the world as realistic as you can only pick up "usefull" stuff and no more the junk .... also some items are just static ... more physic interaction with the items and the environment it would have helped to make the world feel more alive and persistant , also the fabled snow accumulation and radiant AI of NPCs feels really not present at least I haven't been able to trigger the reproduction of those features...
So from a score of 1 to 10 I give a 8 score to the game .... for me Morrowind reached 9 and Oblivion 7 no game gets the 10 couse they can always improve ...
So the Game is very good for
Graphically gorgeous , awesome new character creation ....
the art direction this time is superbe , the Voice acting , great , the quests very very good and realistic , also every dungeon is clearly well done and unique altough less detailed than expected , the perk introduction is a good thing and so it is the crafting , dual wielding , dual casting , finally dynamic shadows have been implemented and other things mostly related to imersion , atmosphere , music saundtrack all those aspect help the game feel solid and coherent with the setting giving the player sense of awe that was more present in morrowind than oblivion .... So the top point of this game is reached throught the atmosphere and dark fantasy look ....
The Game is not so Good for :
The overly done simplifications , elimination of attributes that brings to reduced interest in character creation in terms of rpg detail m and forces the player to have no jump or speed faculties for example very much needed for vampire , speed and jumps for werewolves... they feel tuned down in that ....
The elimination of many skills also is not that good , because they added a lot more complexity and realism to the game ... puting all weapons into one single category like 1 or two hand is just too much .. it ruins the realism , imersion and rpg experience ... weapons shoudl be divided into categories ... this is not only for combat but also magic and thievery .... other aspects seem to have been rushed like forgetting to put torches on sale , give horses also to the inhabitants of the region also merging the armours ala fallout style was a bad choice , altoguh they look gorgeous and its nice to have variations and improvements over the same type of armour , , splitting at least upper and lower parts and some other combinations in the crafting would have added a lot more fun like detailing armours with differnt deco , materials , pieces or parts of them etc... animations look good now but look detached from the environment and I guess this is something engine related ... probably a middleware like euphoria would make better animation blending ..... finally some of the scenery and items are now unpickable , this also ruins the imersion that makes you feel the world as realistic as you can only pick up "usefull" stuff and no more the junk .... also some items are just static ... more physic interaction with the items and the environment it would have helped to make the world feel more alive and persistant , also the fabled snow accumulation and radiant AI of NPCs feels really not present at least I haven't been able to trigger the reproduction of those features...
So from a score of 1 to 10 I give a 8 score to the game .... for me Morrowind reached 9 and Oblivion 7 no game gets the 10 couse they can always improve ...
I don't mind this, if anyone the game feels more fluid and still like a good RPG. The game reminds me more of Morrowind in way than it does Oblivion.
I think its silly that they attack things with you.
