I've been gaming on computers since the mid 1980's .
I , like thousands of other pc gamers was very anxious for TES Skyrim .
I dont dislike Skyrim but there are alot of minor issues , and a few major issues but I think its a solid game .

I think for the available pc rpg options Skyrim is one of the best currently and potentially ever but I cant get past the thought that given the chance I would have bought and put 150+ hours into another game had a good enough title been available to play instead .

Over the past year I have done alot of research into Demon Souls and more recently Dark Souls . The videos and reviews are like a drug .
The difficulty and combat highlights show what may be one of the best console rpg's in console history . I dont play on consoles at all but I beleive that Dark Souls 'is' coming to pc following the 50000+ [and growing daily ] signatures on the petition .

Question for you old fart pc types like myself .... now that you have played Skyrim and have a working knowledge of the pros and cons do you wish you could have bought [hypothetically] Dark Souls , or any other comparable rpg title ?


I keep playing Skyrim , but sadly in its current version without balance patching I would have to say I would have no issues loading another game . Strange to say this ..but even though Skyrim could be one of the best rpg of all time ..and it is beautiful I feel its losing its appeal too early .

~M~

Unfortunately Skyrim, well formerly the elder scrolls series, is the only game in town for single player non party based fantasy setting RPG where you can play your character and also the game itself in whatever way you choose to mix and match your attributes/skills/class/playstyle. So if the series continues further away from the RPG(even if it keeps the open sand box feel that Skyrim delivers on) I'll probably just stick to party based RPGs...

Nope. Dunno what Dark Souls is so I can't really regret not buying it. As for any other comparable RPG titles I'm not sure there are any. But yeah, I'm happy with Skyrim. Don't really get caught up on the nitpicking like some folks.

Skyrim is a fun game and it has a very bright future when the CK comes out. Right now, I'm accepting Skyrim with warts and all just like I did with Morrowind.

I disagree. I play the game for the free roaming, open world experience, where I can develop my character as I please, go where I like, do the quests that I want and join the guilds that I agree with. That to me is role playing. I don't care if people complain about lack of branching dialogue and attributes. or that Skyrim isn't a traditional RPG. It's a game where I can role play my character, build my character, live in the hand crafted world, be a part of it. That's role playing, not some numbers on a stats page.

I expect Diablo 3 will be an even greater RPG.

my thoughts exactly

It has a huge future with me, but until the ck is released its -imo- just a so so game

the balance of this game is way off, can't believe some of the things beth let go, especially after what, six years

just wait for mods to patch it up i guess

but if they had announced there would be no CK with skyrim I would not even bother buying it

The balance really does stink, and its always important in RPGs (contrary to what some say here). But still its better than other RPGs released recently.

The current crop of difficulty/balance mods are decent, but I really need the CK.

They're different kinds of games. I'm glad we get to enjoy both.

Dark souls is an amazing game, personally i dont think its even comparable to any of the elder scrolls games. Its a lot tougher yes, but doesnt give me that sense of escapism that I get the from the elder scrolls. Being a fellow old timer (i assume based on your 80's gaming) You'll have a blast with dark souls, hit a difficulty wall and stop playing.
I do not regret either purchase and plan to buy the next installment of both series. I recommend the same to you.

I don't really know anything about Dark Souls, so I can't really have an opinion about it. That said, while I am very disappointed with some of Bethesda's decisions regarding the PC version (and in general), there is simply nothing comperable to a TES game on the market.

To me, Skyrim completely fills this niche in the computer game market. I've been playing since the days of arcades back when games were a quarter,Space Invaders and the Atari 2600, and since the mid-eighties for PC games. I've played text adventures like Adventure, Zork and Zyll, the old Ancient Art of War and Ancient Art of War at Sea, Lode Runner, Ultima V, Empire, the whole Civilization series, Populous, Death Track, the original Flight Simulator, F-15 Strike Eagle, Master of Magic, the whole Master of Orion series, and so on and so forth. I've played the whole Doom series, Heretic, Hexen, a zillion hours of every installment in the Halo series, and more recently the Mass Effect and Arkham Asylum/City series. I've played RTSes from the first three Warcraft games to Starcraft to Total Annihilation, Total Annihilation: Kingdoms and most recently the Supreme Commander series.

And yet I cannot imagine another RPG competing with Skyrim. As fun as Ultima V was back in the day, first and third-person movement through a landscape beats top-down maps hands-down, and single-character beats the hell out of party-based stuff.

The ES series has been first and foremost a first person fantasy RPG since it's inception with a heavy emphasis in the role play aspect. The ES FP sword and magic aspect gave to me an adrenaline rush like no other and that is the real reason I took to this series. I became character, the avatar is me. Might and Magic VII for Blood and Honor 1999was the last RPG game that I felt came close to competing with TES in giving me that first person feeling. I remember playing Daggerfall and MMVII and wanting to combine the two into one. I'd play Daggerfall and think "why doesn't DF look like MMVII?" and then turn around play MMVII and thinking where's the personal customization and options of DF. I missed the tension I always got when exploring DF. I've played other RPG adventures such as Baldur's Gate, Diablo NeverWinter, Dungeon Siege, The Witcher, DragonAge Origins and others. Great games all but the experience isn't the same as the TES games. That is why seeing the subsequent TES games lose so much of the RPG options and customization bothers me so much. There is no other competing PC First Person Fantasy RPG left. Soon there may be none.

Master of Magic and Hexen, two of my all time favorites.
Thanks for reminding me.

^This^

Skyrim, like Morrowind and Oblivion before it, is more like a long-term investment. It will ripen with time. There will be mods to improve the game much and to make it match with everyone's personal play-style and taste.

That is why I accept Skyrim in it's current state, and that is why I'm still having a good time with it. I know Skyrim could have been sooo much better, but I also know it will be better.

About Demon Souls / Dark Souls:
First off: if a game has a PC version I will play the PC version, perhaps except sports games, platform games, fighting games, racing games. I played Demon Souls / Dark Souls. Off the few games I own on console that don't fit in the afore mentioned genres I think it was one of the most enjoyable experiences I had in a long time. I loved the exceedingly high difficulty level that made you have to think and not just rush in, which is rare these days, especially on the consoles. But for me it did lack re-playability. Once I ran through the game twice and understood it's mechanics I was pretty much done with it. If Elder Scrolls offers anything beyond immersion (which they do rather well imho) then it's re-playability, especially if you factor in mods.

No. There is no comparable RPG title.

Dark Souls is a game that fooled people into thinking it was hard because halo style rush in and kill everything in 5 seconds combat did not work.Take enemies 1 at a time when you can study the way they attacked and have patience was all that was needed.I only played the game for about maybe 6 hours in total but that approach worked.Seems a good chunk of the younger generation can not grasp that concept.

I agree with the CK/Mods comments . Going forward 6 months Im sure Skyrim will exceed its current state .
I didnt want folks to think I was disillusioned by the problems in the current game , I understand the growth tes takes once the mods start to fly . My dissapointment stems from the fact that because this game is the current pinnacle in rpg gaming we shouldnt have to rely on mods or the player base to improve upon it . The oppurtunity was there for Bethesda and they were not inclined to perfect the product . Someone will undoubtedly say all games are released to early and every game has its problems . My take on that is shame on us consumers , and shame on the development companies . This is really a decades long issue and I guess its always going to be a sad state of affairs that we will deal with .

I do enjoy Skyrim, and will continue to play , but for it to be so close to what it could have been but falling short of the mark style of rpg game programming ; its just starting to get old ......game after game ........year after year , or maybe its just me getting too old !

I appreciate the opinions on Dark Souls as well folks... although I am going to buy the pc port when it finally makes it Ive learned a bit more about its game mechanics and my expectations have reduced .

~M~

I'm not too happy with Skyrim's balance, but I'm more than happy enough with other aspects (particularly exploration and environment) that I'm glad I played it. Plus there are already mods out that address the balance issues. If Dark Souls were on PC, and allowed modding, I might consider it, but at the moment Skyrim is probably the best modding platform I could conceive of.

It only one thing that Skyrim has that Dark/Demon Souls that don't have.


You can play Skyrim on a pc while the other two don't. I not going to get a console for only one or two games.

If those two games are out on pc I would of got those two and Skyrim.

Look what happened to Morrowind and Oblivion. You can get those games on pc and look what the community done with those games past 10-6 years and how they modded those games and still playing them.

I bet that in 10 years time, the community will be still modding this game and playing it.

Dark/Demon Souls are for consoles only eg PS3 and Xbox 360, how many will be playing those two games in 10 years time?

I don't look at short term I look at long term.

Look at those games at GOG.com. Most of them are pc games.

I like this game. So what it has flaws. I enjoy this game what it is.

The problems I have with Skyrim are not with the balance, which of course could use some work. The main issues I have with it are beyond repair with this TES game...

Writing: Poor even by Bethesda's already low standards.
Companions: Shallow and poorly thought out,...again, poor by their already low standards.
Quests: Shallow, unimaginative and unremarkable.

To be fair, Things like Enchanting, Smithing, Alchemy etc. I am fairly pleased with. Dwemer ruins were also nice to see, however, I'm not so sure I'm crazy about what's been done with the Falmer. Seems like Beth has taken them and turned them into Skyrim's version of Cyrodill's Goblins.

Overall, I do enjoy the game as an action/adventure game with lots of great explorarion, but I can't shake this feeling that as a TES game it is sorely lacking. Sometimes exploration isn't enough and one desires more to their game than that.

Yeah, they were great. I replayed Master of Magic again just about six months ago, and it's still great. It's one of those old games where I can still enjoy it even disregarding the nostalgia aspect, and even though the graphics aren't up to modern standards.

Been RPG'ing since the early 70's, been playing computerised games since they first really hit the market in the late 70's. Put 547 hours into Skyrim, paced the development of my character, and I'm still finding new stuff in-game. I haven't seen any 'balance' issues for a single player game in Skyrim, and the 'challenge' issues only kick in when you have developed your character into the legendary hero he becomes...if you do that early through power-levelling or grinding, then live with it; If you choose to take a more balanced approach to your character development, then you won't see character/opposition issues until later in your game.

This is the developer's game...it doesn't have to be like previous titles in the series, it doesn't have to have things that other games do, it doesn't have to limit players ability to make themselves uber powerful (and it shouldn't, as it's not a linear one-way game). Mods will come out that will allow players to tweak the game how they want...in fact, the Creation Kit is being provided for this purpose. Can't ask for much more than that.