There are No Consequences - True to a point, I wish Skyrim was a world where all the citizens judged me with scrutinizing gaze. And where if i did good deeds in a town people would be more friendly to me, or if i stole a lot or killed inocents then i could be banned from the town or possibly put to death (with a chance to escape of course). Make me feel like i had better keep my nose clean, or be really good at covering my tracks.

Leveling is Confused - I can see their point with the blacksmith. It is too easy to power level with non combat skills and become powerful early in the game, also level scaling doesnt help this at all.

Combat is Weak - I wouldnt say that combat itself is weak ( though damage location recognition would have been really nice) but stealth certainly needs some areas improved upon. Instead of dice rolling for all aspects i would have preferred a more direct stealth mechanic that relied slightly on dice rolls. Field of view, amount of light and the amount of noise your making should be the biggest factors of detection.

Players are Impotent - I would have to agree with some of these points as well.

overall i would have to agree with about 80% of the article. Im just hoping mods can give us what Skyrim was so very close to being.

The world is empty, There are only a handfull of areas and the plots are not that great, only the one with the Ghoul cult was any interest. And many of the ones in Skyrim have a slight plot, though it isn't told. There's a dungeon where a ghost is out to get vengence on a tyrant that betrayed him, The dungeons you do for the daedric artifacts have a nice story, And there are rewards, sometimes random loot but sometimes there's a word wall that gives a shout. Vault 11 is a cliche joke, there are so many dime store scifi stories about a revolution to agriculture that makes killer plant monsters.

Lol so he still thinks Skyrim is the best, but they continuously post articles bashing it?

Lol IGN...

I stopped really caring about IGN when Anthony Gallegos gave Minecraft a 9.5. I don't hate Minecraft it just shouldn't be reviewed on the same scale as other games.

As for the article I'm confused on what his basis is for most of his points.

There are no consequences:
You could only have consequences if you choose to create a morality system. You could argue that doing the thieves guild shouldn't allow you to join the companions guild as your reputation would proceed you, but that would require inter guild mechanics similar to Morrowind. Should your character have an affect on the world if you're the Thieves guild master? No, because people over state how much of an affect your the thieves guild has outside of riften. I don't want the guards in Solitude to remark on how afraid they're for wallets because the Thieves guild doesn't have a big influence outside of Riften. The same goes for the Companions guild, and the Mages guild.

I like isolation when it creates a more realistic world. It seems gamers are at this point where they want feedback for everything they do.

Combat is Weak:
Yes, Dark Souls is the perfect example of a game for combat. The combat is deep enough to provide variety, but not deep enough to break your back every time you try to play. That being said combat isn't a focus, nor has it ever been the focus of the TES series. Yes it has become a bigger mechanic since Morrowind, but it still isn't the sole spotlight. With Dark Souls the game pretty much revolves around the combat... but that's because the developers have a long history of doing combat games (go look them up).

I don't see why TES should emulate Dark Souls as I'd argue Dark Souls is the top dog when it comes to Action RPGs.

Players Are Impotent:
Players will always be impotent. Whether you're a jack of all trades, or a master swordsmen you'll always succeed and fail in different ways. This also isn't new to TES, or Skyrim. One could argue that Skyrim doesn't force you in a certain direction like past TES games, but isn't that hand holding in a way? Maybe not, but it still is all up the player where you go. My level 40 rogue is pretty powerful when it sneaking, and duel wielding daggers, but is woefully inadequate when using heavy armor, or firing a bow. Same goes for my level 40 jack of all trades.

Hmm well i never before turned the Voice volume off in any game i played but in Slyrim ive done it often (and not because of bad voice acting tho)(no complains about the acting undrstood)

end comment

Uh, that's not Vault 11. Vault 11 is the vault where the inhabitants had to sacrifice one person per year to stay alive not realizing, until there were only a few left, that it was a personality test that would have been passed had they only refused to sacrifice somebody. And please. Cliche? Skyrim follows every established fantasy trope out there. Not to mention your cliche NV quest has multiple outcomes that effect the world differently. As for loot in Skyrim, it's scaled so who cares? There's no risk reward factor at all so there's no incentive to explore. In NV there are unscaled loot all over. If you wanted to take the risk of investing a lot in repair early so you could potentially keep that high powered loot working you're risking not being able to make it to it because of the enemies in the way. It was doable though, but difficult. There is no equivalent in Skyrim.

I digress, though, form the main point. The article is sound. The world never changes. Nothing you do matters. Hence there is nothing to role play.

I agree with what he said about the no consequences and stuff. I can kill everyone I see while traveling and nothing will happen whatsoever.

The stuff he said about the guilds is true too, I can be apart of the evil DB guild and then join the Companions with no questions asked. So it was rushed in this sense.

But what he said about combat I find untrue, combat is great IMO.

The leveling isn't broken either, it's better than in Oblivion.

I thought it was 'Bats an Eyelid'

Is it truly that hard to grasp the concept of someone liking something and putting effort into criticism exactly because they feel it's worth it? Or is it really all about either praising or hating Skyrim for you? Must be depressing to live in such a narrow black-white world.

It's a very valid problem. You keep hearing this "use your imagination" argument which is beyond ridiculous. When you are forced to "pretend" things are happening that are not or constantly have to ignore NPCs actions or lack thereof, you are not role playing. You can't pretend the world changes when it doesn't. You can't pretend the dialog leaves you no way to respond to anybody. You can't pretend your bloody thirsty barbarian that just slayed half a town is not suddenly forgiven by everybody just by paying a pittance. You can't pretend you ranger type character doesn't keep getting called a thief simply because his/her sneak is high and guards are somehow clairvoyant.

I don't get the no consequences line of thinking.

If you pull it off- i.e. you steal or kill without anyone catching you, why should there be any consequences? There's no Columbo in Skyrim running around trying to solve murders, no CSI lab dusting for prints when the local merchant complains of a break in. In a world such as Skyrim is set in, unless there is an actual witness, or the perpetrator leaves behindd some evidence that can be easily linked back them, it's almost inconceivable that anyone will ever be able to connect them to the crime.

On the other hand, if you are caught, perhaps the penalties are too low. 1000 gold fine for murder does seem a bit tame. To be honest, I would expect nothing less than capital punishment for murder in such a world. Of course, that would just mean you have absolutely no reason to surrender, or else that you must reload a previous save if you get caught, so it's probably not very practical. Still, the penalties could be stiffer.

Oh yeah? I'm 80 hours in so far, and my interest in the game has only increased, not decreased. Speak for yourself my man.

I agree. However the leveling system in kinda weird. certain skills in skyrim while cool, are difficult to use. For instance leveling speech doesn't open more dialogue options so leveling up feels really useless since past that all it does is help you make money, which hard to do at all. There really isn't much to spend your money on in skyrim to begin with. Also lock picking is a fail tree too.

No, it's just that IGN is adament at constantly posting articles that bash Skyrim, often in completely unfair and narrow-minded ways (I think one recent article was titles something like "Skyrim is the worst game ever made" or something), so I found the fact that at the end he pretty much says "Skyrim is still the super best" quite humorous.

He does, just like everybody else, but you know what? I agree with him, man...

I was like you too, keep playing and you'll see.

It would be nice if people would remember the fact you walked in town and chopped off the head of the first person to say something rude to you though. Then guards continue to see your ruthless no remorse murderer character and say "Let me guess some way stole your sweet roll" -chop another head off- still no real reaction.

All those things are true. The game is shallow, you have no impact on the world and the leveling is still moronic. But by all means, let's attack anyone who doesn't think Skyrim is the new messiah.

This, but the graphics were not enough for me to stay at it. I gave the game about 20 hours to give it a chance, biggest waste of time ever imo.
Sorry Skyrim lovers, i just don't see it.

I see nothing wrong with that article, it's all true. I have even brought up every single item discussed in the article myself right here on these boards. I think it's spot on. I love Skyrim, but it definitely has its flaws, and they're pretty accurately outlined in the article. In fact, I could bring up quite a few more.

For once, I can say that I don't believe that IGN is completely full of [censored]. I don't have a big issue with leveling or the combat, but just about everything else was spot on. Story/writing? That's subpar even by Bethesda's already low standards. Consequences? I didn't know there were any in Skyrim.

Skyrim seems to me, to be a game that was full of so much potential, only to fall short of what could've been the best TES to date...but (IMO) that title still belongs to Morrowind.

They actually raise some good points that are indeed real problems with the game

A lack of consequences being a big one.

I thoguht it got more right then wrong in there actually. Alot of it was dead right too.

The biggest problem with this game is just when i start caring about a NPC like Karliah the quest is over and that's it . The quests are to short and there really isn't a single NPC you can become emotionally involved in the whole game IT'S A PROBLEM . I just finished the thieves guild quest line and it was enjoyable but way to short . There are some serious problems with this game as far as characters and story. They created some good characters but the relationship with them is always to shallow and lacks depth. They needed less side quests and longer more involved guild quests imo. I haven't finished the main quest or the dark brotherhood but i already know i't's probably not going to get better than the thieves guild quest so i'm haveing post TGQ depression.

Thats a whole nother can of worms, and I agree.