The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim -- 11/11/11! -- It's out!

[papaspurs]

Reviews hitting, getting 10/10s all over the shop:

http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/11/10/the-elder-scrolls-v-skyrim-review

http://www.destructoid.com/review-the-elder-scrolls-v-skyrim-215507.phtml

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2011-11-10-the-elder-scrolls-5-skyrim-review

http://www.joystiq.com/2011/11/10/skyrim-review/

the final line from the guardian's skyrim review…

So, with that in mind, may your boss believe you when you phone in claiming you have the plague, may your significant other be tolerant and understanding, and may your friends know you well enough not to make enquiries with the police if they don't hear from you in over a month.

and Destructoid's opening….

Preparing for a new Elder Scrolls game is like preparing to die. One must ensure they get all their worldly affairs in order, speak with the people who mean everything to them, and have a final meal. After all, once that disc goes in, the user may as well have departed from our mortal world.
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim is a game that will murder you, for the time it steals from your life could rightfully be considered criminal. It is a game that will literally never end while simultaneously bringing you closer to your own end.

This is all before the dragons show up.

I'm so excited, I put almost 200 hours into Oblivion and was pretty much invulnerable by the end (70/100% magic/weapons reflection/resistance)

SSD arrived and my new AMD 6970 arrives today, Skyrim tomorrow.

Head may explode.

 

[CAMAROBOY69]

My plan is to pick it up Friday morning from the rental store. But I keep hearing that it has been released early so I think I will call at noon today and see if they have it in.
If I enjoy the rental and there are not too many bugs or issues, then I will eventually buy it for sure. Especially if it is anywhere near as fun as Fallout 3.

 

[F1 fan]

I sunk a serious amount of time into skyrim yesterday. Some spoiler text at the bottom of my post, but until then, there is nothing spoilerific.

I'm playing on PS3. I haven't noticed the aforementioned freezing and slowdown. Every now and then, the framerate drops around 1 or 2 fps for a few seconds, but I can live with that. The install data was a little shy of 5 gb, and I had previously heard that the mandatory install is 5.5gb. I wonder if the game is installing the rest bit by bit ala Gran Turismo 5.

One bug I noticed after several hours was disappearing textures. To solve that, I simply saved and restarted my system. It hasn't appeared since.

The whole game seems to be a fairly big leap from Oblivion. Graphically, the character models and animations are far better, but the game world itself is only a little more beautiful than Cyrodill. Other than the aforementioned problem with textures disappearing, the only bug I noticed was during a puzzle. Essentially, the puzzle was a simple task of rotating symbols until they were in the right order. In my case, the option to rotate the first one only appeared while rotating the second. It took a little while to get everything in place, but it certainly wasn't game breaking. The actual controls are far less "clunky" than oblivion.

Now for the spoilers.

Spoiler

So far, I am a level 8 nord named Linus. I have fought (and killed) three dragons, one of whom was part of a quest. Two of which were at random. I have my first companion, whose name is Faendal. The dungeons are much bigger and feel and look very different. They are much better than those in Oblivion.

So far, side quests have been plentiful. Everywhere I go, I seem to find something else to do. So far, I have done a few main story quests, but since then I have done my own thing. I even joined the bards guild. One observation, is that the main story seems more interesting than in previous games. I actually really want to start the next main story quest, as it sounds very interesting.

The story is slightly reminiscent of New Vegas, in that there is a war going on and I have a feeling that sooner or later, I will have to pick a side. So far, I have learned one "shout", have killed an assassin who had been sent by the dark brotherhood and have saved the live of one man who was attacked by a wolf.

On the subject of Wolves, the first time I encountered one, I heard it cry before I even knew it was there. It was a frightening encounter to say the least. The most frightening encounter, had to be with the Giant Spider.

 

[CAMAROBOY69]

I didnt read the spoiler text but the texture problem is multiplatform and there is some MASSIVE confusion about it having to do with the install.

-Some say the world textures are better if installed but characters and weapons look worse
-Some say if you dont install the game it is the opposite.The world looks worse but the character and character weapons look better.
-I have also heard several talk about the framerate problem. Quite common in Bethesda/Obsidian games.
-Skyrim looks better and runs better on the 360.

Lots of mixed confusion about this texture problem. But its clearly a problem. And like with ALL Bethesda and Obsidian games, it will need a patch to resolve the issue. So for those saying they NEVER have problems with these games, is a lie. In fact Skyrim already had a day 1 patch to fix issues.

 

[F1 fan]

Actually, the texture problem I encountered was nothing to do with the one reported. The problem I had was that the particular dungeon I was in kept turning into a blue corridor. Even once I left the dungeon, the same thing happened in the game world. After turning the system off, the problem disappeared.

And by the way, the install was mandatory on the ps3.

 

[CAMAROBOY69]

Yup what I have been hearing is that there are more issues with the PS3 for sure. I will be renting the 360 version.

 

[UnionStrike]

@F1 Fan, have you gotten the day one update yet? Since you have it early I didn't think bethesda pushed out the day one patch which will probably smooth out the experience a bit.

 

[F1 fan]

@F1 Fan, have you gotten the day one update yet? Since you have it early I didn't think bethesda pushed out the day one patch which will probably smooth out the experience a bit.

I don't have internet at home, so it will probably be months before I manage to get any updates for it at all. The overall experience is great. I've come to expect bugs from Bethesda, but so far, a mostly bug free experience.

 

[UnionStrike]

Ah, well how are you on GTplanet? Browsing Gtplanet from work or somewhere else?

 

[F1 fan]

Ah, well how are you on GTplanet? Browsing Gtplanet from work or somewhere else?

I had internet at home when I lived in Toronto. Since returning to the uk two months ago, I haven't signed up to an isp, but I go to libraries a lot.

 

[Coxis]

Remember to use the spoiler tag!

Spoiler

This contains spoilers!

[Spoiler]This contains spoilers![/spoiler]

 

[CAMAROBOY69]

I don't have internet at home, so it will probably be months before I manage to get any updates for it at all. The overall experience is great. I've come to expect bugs from Bethesda, but so far, a mostly bug free experience.

Ahh yes that explains why you are having more issues than normal. There was a day 1 patch and you dont have the patch.

 

[F1 fan]

Remember to use the spoiler tag!

If you're referring to me, I have been. The only time I didn't use spoilers, was to describe non spoilerific things that everyone knows about and to describe bugs. My apologies if that ruined anything

Spoiler

there are a few bugs

 

[CAMAROBOY69]

I dont think he was talking to you. If he was then I missed what spoiler he was talking about. Maybe it was just an in general spoiler heads up for everyone.

 

[NLxAROSA]

Preloading the PC version as we speak. Still six hours until unlock here, so I can't play it until tomorrow afternoon (is now 19:00 here), download should be done by then. Download is slow, which is to be expected, since it's really busy with download at the moment.

 

[Omnis]

I'm ready to go with the PC version. I'll get a taste tonight but this weekend it's gonna be book-hitting time instead of Skyrim time.

 

[Coxis]

If you're referring to me, I have been. The only time I didn't use spoilers, was to describe non spoilerific things that everyone knows about and to describe bugs. My apologies if that ruined anything

Spoiler

there are a few bugs

Oh, not at all it was just a general comment aimed at everyone. I, for instance can't get my hands on it until 5 or 6 days after its release date due to a bad case of third-worldism. Would want to be able to read this thread and not have the story spoiled.

 

[dhandeh]

Anyone with the ps3 version having any New Vegas locking up/freezing? This is the only thing stopping me from getting it.

 

[Legendary]

Sorry, didn't realise mentioning I died was spoiling the game...

 

[Bigbazz]

Sorry, didn't realise mentioning I died was spoiling the game...

Think before you post in future! Ruining it for all of us, how was we supposed to know it was possible to die?

 

[Omnis]

Hey guys. I'm planning to make a plainclothes Breton or Redguard that's a beast in Alteration. The reason being that one of the Alteration perks lets you have up to 4x effect on protective spells when you're not wearing any armor. That means if you cast Ebonyflesh, you get 400 armor for a minute. That effectively makes you a juggernaut lol. The thing with Bretons is they have the Magic resistance, so that would be some good natural defense. Redguards are of course great in offense, though. Shoot holes in my plan now.

I'm probably going to go Breton if I can't make a white Redguard that doesn't look like a sufferer of vitiligo.

 

[Omnis]

Have you guys seen this yet? Might be spoilers.



I loled. SKYRIM IN 18 MINUTES.

 

[trangurismo]

^ Yep. I've just seen it a few minutes ago. It can be also useful for thieves apparently.

 

[Omnis]

That's awesome lmao.

Anyway, Skyrim, why you so crashy? My game has crashed to the desktop like 3 times now.

 

[NLxAROSA]

Anyway, Skyrim, why you so crashy?

Bethesda game at launch date, that's why.

EDIT: Tom's Hardware has done some benchmarking.

 

[Bigbazz]

So I got a day off today to play this game, just did the start sequence and I'l say this. On the PC.

Graphics : Initially I had poor performance (HD6970) even tho it auto set me to Ultra settings, and I also had some input lag issues with my mouse. I turned off the in game settings for AA and AF then turned them on in the CCC instead, this completely fixed my FPS issues. Fixing the mouse was a combination of the graphics + turning off mouse acceleration in the settings ini.

The game looks a lot like Oblivion with the high res texture pack and other graphical mods, though the game has improved model quality, better lighting and much better particle effects (not sure Oblivion had any), the water looks much better (awesome infact) and generally the world looks a lot better with the fade of things in the distance. Ultimately though it doesn't look a lot different to Oblivion, like somebody went in and fixed all its graphical issues and added better lighting. The models on some of the monsters and of the people are amazing compared to Oblivion.

Combat System : Feels more fluid, not had a massive chance to try it all yet but I can already sense a big improvement and I like it more.

This game feels like a console port, and I'm sure it probably is but so far I'm loving it, can't wait to get some good time in, and try out some mods when they appear! I've not had any crashing issues (yet).

 

[Jay]

Picked up Skyrim (PC) today and loving it, done about 4 hours and haven't got anywhere yet, just checking this out. No real problems for me except when I use the fire spell on enemies I get weird black boxes but not on other objects. Might be my videocard as it is getting a little on (ATI 4870X2 2x1gb) but my system can still handle everything on Ultra.

I do agree above, it does feel a little like a console port mostly for me with the awkward menus not so suited for a mouse.

^ Yep. I've just seen it a few minutes ago. It can be also useful for thieves apparently.

 

[Bram Turismo]

Getting this game next week. Already said goodbye to all my friends.

I'll be getting this for the PS3. I would have gotten it for PC but since it's an Elder Scrolls game, and my PC is a laptop, I'm getting it for PS3 so that there's no chance I need to turn down any graphics and spoil the beauty of the game.

 

[doblocruiser]

I have the PS3 version and to be honest it definitely looks better than the 360 version.

3 hours in the game and it's absolutely amazing!!! Beautifull scenery, it makes you just stop and look arround.

 

[spunwicked]

I have the PS3 version and to be honest it definitely looks better than the 360 version.

3 hours in the game and it's absolutely amazing!!! Beautifull scenery, it makes you just stop and look arround.

Awesome mate

I literally picked up the PS3 version on my way to work (a bad idea in hindsight - now I just want to go home and get my game on, work is the last thing I want to be doing!).

I was going to pick it up on PC, and spent the majority of last night comparing Oblivion on the PC to the PS3. Good to hear it runs well. Any frame rate issues up to yet?