So I've been buying Bethesday games since Morrowing (Oblivion, Fallout 3). One of the things that was extremely dissapointing in Oblivion was the lack of sense of wonder and excitement found in Morrowind...to say nothing of the drab voice acting and puffy faces. I did play it for a while, finished the main quest a couple of times, etc. A couple of my coworkers were talking about Skyrim and how great it was, talking about quest, characters, etc...I got a buying mood! I just had a few questions before I made the purchase.

How varied are the locations, from a scale of Morrowind to Oblivion (Very to Not, respectively)?

Is the Atronoch sign sitll overpowered?

Why, why, WHY was unarmed removed from the game? My favorite character in Morrowind was an unarmored Khajiit monk (robes, speed focused, no heavy armor, etc). From the looks of it, there is no possible way to achieve the same character build in Skyrim. Is this really true?

What kind of performance can I expect? Here are my specs:

Dell Studio XPS
Intel i7 920 2.67GHz
Windows 7 64-bit
4GB RAM
GeForce GTX 260 1.75GB Video Card

Is the leveling nightmare from Oblivion fixed? Is there scaled leveling at all?

Are there any other major differences in Skyrim from other ES games that should be known before purchase (beside no unarmed )

Thanks. If I buy the game, I'm sure I'll be around the forums alot.

The sense of wonder in Skyrim is astonishing and you'll like it if you love exploring. The main quest is good and you should like it. The guild quests are disappointing.

But the world of Skyrim is all about exploring, combat is good too.

The quests are mostly bland, the characters are forgetable, the random encounters are underwhelming (especially compared to FO3), the world is static, and the game's replayability is nowhere near as good as past Bethesda titles. You will probably play for 70+ hours (bad for a Bethesda game) before getting bored and realizing the game's unfortunate and many flaws. Poor RPG, good action-adventure.

I think you should let the OP decide for himself. You just told him your opinion.

Correct. As did you.

Amazing that people who don't like the game hardly at all still bother sticking around to gripe about it.

OP, Skyrim improves on Oblivion in every single way except that Oblivion's quest log was a little better. The graphics are far better, the design of everything is better, the UI looks far better (some people don't like using mouse-and-keyboard with the UI, but I prefer using a 360 controller plugged into a USB port on my computer anyway). Voice acting is far better, the characters look better, the main quest is far more interesting, and the world in general is just far more interesting. I highly suggest you get the game. You won't be disappointed, particularly on PC, where you can mod it if you like.

Yea, your right. I just didn't agree with your opinion.

Which is fine, I suppose. I just wanted to give OP an alternative opinion, one that fair and accurate and isn't full of undeserving praise.

What is really funny are the posts that go like this - "oh, I have played about 170 hours, and I can now say that I don't like this game..."

If you liked Fallout 3, you will love this game.

R

I think OP, you have a better PC than me and it runs fine on ultra settings.

Doesn't necessarily mean that those 170 hours were enoyable. Besides, if said person had only played for 20 hours, you would just say that that isn't enough time to fully enjoy the game or something.

How well does dual-wielding work?

Also. Atronoch?

I'm going over some character concepts in my head, and I keep coming back to wishing my khajiit monk was possible.

Although, I did have a good time in Oblivion with my bald breton "battle mage" that wielded a katana, and only wore robes and sandles...worked pretty well with the Atronoch sign.

I appreciate the honesty ( and the avatar!)

How do you feel it compares to Oblivion in other areas (FO3 is not a good comparison, as it's a completely different game, haha)

Undeserving praise? I was giving my opinion. Your obviously a complainer.

Fair and accurate? It was nothing but negativity. I'd say all of your criticism was undeserving. I find Oblivion to be far more boring than Skyrim. Still a decent game, just not on par with Morrowind or Skyrim.

Instead of sword+shield/torch/spell, its sword+sword. There are a few dual-wield perks and 1 dual-wield power attack and some duel-wield kill animations. Atronach is slower magicka regeneration, 100+ magicka IIRC, and a chance to absorb spells (including your own).

At what resolution are you running? I'm hooked up to a 42 inch plasma, so my base resolution is either 16x9 or 1920x1080, so that may impact performance?

Not complaining at all actually, just giving my opinion, just like you.

What did you want me to say? that Skyrim is a flawless game, a masterpiece deserving GOTY titles and multiple 10/10 awards? I simply gave my opinion of Skyrim, and it wasn't all negative. Oblivion was infinitely more interesting that Skyrim imo, if only because of the much better guilds + the many interesting quests .

Absorb your own spells? How does that work? Is it still 50% chance?

I think you are trolling but hiding it. IMO.

Skyrim? why... why yes I'd say that that would be a very smart purchase indeed.

I don't think you know what trolling is.


It's a bug, it may have been fixed in the recent patch

Dual wielding works very well, but you will be completely unable to block attacks. You can use two weapons, two spells, or one of each.
The increased Magicka reserve from the Atronach Stone (note that they are no longer birthsigns, so you will not start with one, and can change them provided you travel to the stone) is not quite as useful. There are several ways to increase your magicka reserves/regeneration rate and reduce casting costs.

LOL...

Unarmed Combat: YES!
The whole game is different Big one for you is Khajiit look Bad ass in this compared to the rest.