Okay, after 50 hours in-game play I have some definitive HATES for this game. I don't think I've ever encountered anything or anyone who inspired a love/hate relationship of this intensity. And yes, I know how sad it is that I'm saying this about a video game. I am going to draw lines between Oblivion and Skyrim a lot because I was playing Oblivion up until 2:30 in the morning the day of the game's release, and this particular game is one that now clocks in at 120 hours all accumulated inside two weeks before Skyrim's release. By the way, I am playing at the Novice level in Oblivion as well as in Skyrim. The difference between the two being that after 50 hours in Oblivion I was a damn near an unkillable God. As I rightly should be after 50 hours of gameplay DAMMIT. After 50 hours in Skyrim, I can't conjure up a Flames spell powerful enough to be of any use killing a friggin' rock Troll. I literally cannot use Destruction to save my life.
I should also point out that I don't play this game (or any other video game for that matter) and claim to be good at it. On intermediate difficulty it took me an hour and a half of reloads to beat my first random dragon encounter outside Riverwood. And only after I lured the dragon back to the town and used the town guards to help me kill it. I don't play video games to be awesome at them. I play 'em because its like reading an interactive fantasy novel. I DO NOT want to play a game that has me tearing my hair out in frustration because the programmers figure I should HAVE to be good at it in order to play it. Believe you me I have some choice words for the guy who figures I should be.
Last point before I begin the rant in earnest. This game does a good job of making the enemies more and more difficult to beat all the way through the game. This is a more realistic way to do it. I don't like games that allow me to be invincible too easily (Fable 3). But - I still loved Fable 3 because it made me see past that particular flaw. This game has some unforgivable flaws.
First - the lack of a tangible bartering/persuasion system when visiting shops.
It is TOO HARD to get yourself enough money to buy ANYTHING in this game. I am never given a dialogue option with any shop owners that allows me to say something to them that will make them like me more. And the Speechcraft perks don't make nearly enough difference in how much I'm paid for the items I haul back. Period. Money is too hard to obtain in this game. I know that's how it is in life too, however, I DON'T PLAY VIDEO GAMES TO BE THROWN INTO ANOTHER REALITY. I don't expect - hell, I don't WANT - some of the very important fiscal and physical realities in real life to carry over to a form entertainment. After 50 hours in Oblivion I was swimming in 75 - 80 THOUSAND gold pieces. Buying whatever I wanted, wherever I wanted was never a problem - given enough time and a dungeon I could reliably loot. Video games always have been and always should be believable but still totally surreal. There are things that should not follow us from reality to video game. Anyone who thinks otherwise had better get ready for the feeling of an arrow from my Bound Bow lodging itself between their eyeballs.
Second - A dynamic listing of items available to sell at stores.
Items for sale at any given store are not fixed. My biggest peeve is with the armour and weapons stores in Whiterun. They may suddenly have an awesomely enchanted piece of armour available. I see it. I look at how miserably low my coin purse is. I decide to go out and obtain enough plunder to pay for this item. Ten times out of Ten by the time I've accumulated the money, their inventory has changed because, what, they figure I didn't like what I was seeing? So they're giving me other options? Okay, there' some realism to that. If something doesn't sell, a merchant stops selling it. Fair. BUT the process of earning money in this game is so MADDENINGLY slow that most things I might want are literally one time offers and they gave us no way to permanently fix an item to a shopkeep's menu, kinda like putting something ON HOLD in real life. You guys want to do real life? Well, then, for crying out bloody loud, do it in a way that makes sense! Don't force me to go out and pillage, murder and plunder for unattainable enhancements. The way the shopkeep item generation works is absolute garbage. Whoever thought of it needs to be eviscerated, and as that isn't legally possible, at least fired.
Third - This actually probably belonged first on the list. The Dragon battles. Hitting a dragon with long ranged weapons is not possible. Period. Remember that I have already admitted that I svck at video games. I know that but I still expect to be able to play them. Three of the seven dragons I've absorbed souls from so far weren't killed by me. The Mages at the Mage's College killed the last one while I was running around in an incredibly irritating tizzy inside the college trying to figure out how to get onto the roof cause that's the only place the damn thing would land. By the time I get to the roof all the mages have filed out into the courtyard and killed the dragon already.
HEY! I'M THE DRAGONBORN!!! I'M THE ONE WHO'S SUPPOSED TO BE AS AWESOME AS TALOS HIMSELF!!! But no, these pee-on NPCs are the only ones who seem to be able to fight the dragon with any sort of efficacy. I have to run into a cave, heal up, and run back out again, hoping a bear hasn't killed the dragon in the mean time. Why do I have to run into a cave? Because potions are too expensive and I don't make money fast enough in this game. Oh and I used them all up against the damned Rock Troll that helped me kill a dragon before turning on me, so I had to run for my life while waiting for the Dragon to burn up. There is nothing like having to run for my life from a goddamned troll after beating a DRAGON, to make me feel utterly INADEQUATE. I AM DOVAKIIN! DRAGONBORN!!!.....See me run like a whipped little dog from a Rock Troll. ?.? What the hell... as epic as that Dragon fight music of yours might be, I don't feel all that epic when I can't defeat a dragon on my own. Even less so when I have to run from something else while waiting for the Dragon to burn up. Menus don't spoil the mood of the game, boys. That does. It really, REALLY, does.
Said troll, by the way, FOLLOWS me from one third of way past those towers in the pass east of Whiterun ALL the way to Darkwater Crossing where I, again, have to use the guards to kill it instead of being able to do it myself. Because the damage my spell-cast weapons do doesn't level up with me. Apparently. Haven't actually verified that myself. Just heard it somewhere. So, if the damage of my spells do doesn't level up with me doesn't that mean the game is getting HARDER as I level up, not easier? Allow me to enlighten you nitwits - the point of leveling up is to become an unbeatable juggernaut. Strip me of that ability and there will be no point to playing your game for 120 hours. Period.
Fourth - And now we can't make our own spells? What the HECK are you people thinking?
My best friend's husband - his pride and damned joy was his Pimp Slap Mach 4.0 - like 200 points of Frost, Fire and Shock Damage in 50 feet for 4 seconds. That might not be entirely right , but you get my point. Why have you bastards basically castrated our magical abilities when - apparently - magic is even more freely practiced now than it was in Oblivion??? I have to put this in there - my favourite spell of my own creation is the Hunter's Blessing - Feather 100 points for 90, strength boost 10 points for 90, Shield 15% for 90. The PERFECT looters spell. Period. Add Pack Mule to that and if that carrying capacity could have been translated as pounds, well, friends, I was carrying around nigh on a TON, after looting a dungeon - a WHOLE dungeon. And now - as I've already pointed out - looting in this game is piss-useless as everything I want disappears before I can buy it anyway.
Most importantly though - you have crippled our carrying capacity. And so far as I've seen no spell exists to correct that. The only things that do are pieces of armour that are enchanted and are never around long enough for me to buy them. RAGE! Just freaking RAGE. Or as my favourite character from A Knight's Tale said, "Pain. Lots of Pain." And that will be the case if ever get my hands on one of ya.
Fifth - I have to destroy the R-A-R-E enchanted items I find just to learn how to enchant another bought piece of armour that's hard enough to obtain - as I have said twice already - with soul gems that cost just as much as an already-enchanted piece of armour at the Blacksmiths. Why would I even bother with enchanting if it costs me twice or three times as much as having the blacksmith do it for me and wait for it to appear in their inventory by the grace of your stupid shop inventory system. Do you people EVER sit down and construct logical, full sentences to describe the series of events behind the finances and weapon strengths? Sure may be you do on the minute level. But how often does one of you bone-heads bother with the mid-level picture? The fine details are awesome - visually speaking - and the Big Picture has been painted masterfully. It's the two or three levels in between that you guys seem to have dropped the ball on.
Oh, and I know this qualifies as a bug, but STOP DROPPING DEAD ENEMIES ON ME WHEN I LOAD FROM A SAVE AFTER DYING IN COMBAT!!! (That happens to me a lot) It seems anything near that has recently died just before me loads with me in a location likely far from where I was killed, beacause your random encounters are way too hard. Their spells never miss and I can't aim while strafing. I'm a sniper, and I am not good at tracking at target on screen that will not hold freaking still for more than two seconds. Back to dead things dropping on me. I die after having killed three of five mages at a Fort. I reload from my last save which was before a fight with a troll, a dragon and a giant. Now I have do to these things all over again when I scarcely made it through those fights to begin with. And in fact I probably had to redo those fights a few times (yeah, like try reloading for an hour straight) before I figured it out.
Another thing, why the hell don't we autosave our game when we level up? It's the most important thing to preserve in the game and because one of you geniuses figured we shouldn't have to rest to level up you can lose two levels at a time from a single confrontation. What the hell...? Then you have to go looking for that confrontation again and pray you can still find it.
Back to dropping dead things on me. This may be one glitch I actually appreciate. It's kind of nice to have a couple dead mages come rolling down the road at you and, not even having had to beat them this time around, you can loot their bodies for their stuff. Nice. It's just kind of disconcerting when you drop a dead dragon on me with its skin still on. Makes me wonder how the hell I've loaded in the middle of an attack I didn't even save at and gives me one hell of a heart attack, considering how stupidly easily and quickly dragons can kill me - even on Novice. I've hit the thing at least five times before I realize its dead. Not to mention it is usually empty.
Oh, and are dragon skeletons supposed to get up, grow skin, and fly away with a dragon rider on their back? I gotta hand it to you, that's a pretty awesome glitch.
Still, I've seen more glitches in Skyrim in the last few days, than I've seen in the six years I've been playing Oblivion. What the heck happened to you people? And where's the guy who figured the systems I've described above were a good idea? He needs to be lynched to within an inch of his life. Maybe less.
Oh, and do you know what the Magic system reminds me of to a painful degree? The one in Fable 3. The stores in Fable 3 had stuff generated according to what you did in the game too.
Congratulations gents. You've successfully and fully (cross the t's, dot every last i) carried off Fable 4. This is what a Fable Game should be if Peter Molyneux would pull his head out of his rear end.
Now get your sorry butts back to the drawing boards and spend the next (at least) eight years making the next game worthy of the Elder Scrolls title AND its predecessors.
This is one game that really does seem to have forgotten the faces of its forefathers.
...End of Rant
...Logging Off
» Mon Jun 04, 2012 10:33 am 
