Okay, everyone who knows me knows that I have been a TES fan girl since Oblivion, this was also about the time I really started getting into gaming. Obviously this dates me (as not gaming for very long at all) but nonetheless I have been actively waiting for Skyrim since its working name was released in 2008.
I think shall start with an anecdote or three, I pretty much told my mother that when TES:V was released (2010 was the scheduled release) that I would not be attending school that day; attend school, I did not. I bought about $50-$60aud of chips, confectionery, (glo juice obviously) and energy drink, dashed into my game retailer and twitched nervously as I waited for my copy, that due to what is becoming a common occurrence in australia, the game was put on sale a day early. I was freaking out frantically texting and calling my boyfriend while trying to post updates to twitter and facebook. I put in the disc, while rambling incoherently on the phone, steam popped up, I typed in the serial... BOOM cannot install game has not been released, so I went a bit nutty.
I spent the next several hours reading the strategy guide and pacing. Midnight came along, so I set-up my install and gazed and my screen, watching Harry Partridge‘s Skyrim video. I was ready to play after a 20min wait and then... updates and patches, AN HOUR OF THEM.
By the time that was all done, I was a little bit annoyed, It was 0130 and I just wanted to play the fragging game. I found out later that this was even worse for my cousins in in our wild west, Perth who are 3hrs behind us, the game releases at midnight Australian eastern time though.
Okay, so here is the actual review, I just wanted to give that to show the excitement and irritation I entered the game with.
So I open the game, and started construction my character, that’s when alarm bells started ringing. It was hard to move the little sliders to alter my appearance and I wasn't really sure what menu contained what particular aspect of appearance. I just had to kind of go with it and hope everything worked out. Eventually I discovered that it was easier to use the keyboard for the creation process. I have to admit that I was slightly awed by the opening, but nowhere near as much as with oblivion, I have watched that cutscence at least a couple of dozen times and it still gives me shivers. Skyrim didn’t have that epic RPG vastness shown in its opening, no big shots of the evil that awaits or the world that we will spend hours grinding through, great for realism but RPGs suit having a little bit of a teaser, a little bit of prophesy.
I got through the creation and intro, still a little bit confused but generally okay. I meandered through the introduction, bla bla execution, bla bla dragons. I just wanted to get into some real gameplay!
so I got out into the real world an took a look around, my first though was how ugly it is, not in a poorly designed way, but in a snow, rocks, dirt, and cloud way. I pretty much accepted though that I wasn’t going to aesthetically like skyrim that much, as I was never a big fan of northern Cyrodiil (Cyrodiil is the country that oblivion was set in, the northern border shares the southern border of skyrim, it shares much of skyrim’s climate) so I opened my menu and looked for the map, easy to find with the 4 point compass style menu. I look at it, and was like “what?!” I was utterly confused, was it tilted, where were the edges of the map, what was going on here! I did notice a marked village though so I sauntered off in that direction. Also in regard to the map in a later quest; I don’t particularly have a knack with mountains, especially in games, but my job was to climb one, so I walked around part of it, and I could not find an way up. So I passed out on the lounge room floor with the strategy guide and a blankey (about 6am) and woke up at about midday. Eventually after looking in the strategy guide some more, I found that the path was on the other side of a mountain near a village, perhaps the dude who told me to climb the mountain said that, but I didn’t hear, or was too thick to understand, so now I had to work out a way to get there. I looked at my map, all I could see was cloud, and the hint of a river. I looked up the village on my strategy guide map, I squinted my eyes and managed to see a river and a road that seemed far far away, I looked at the “ye old” preorder map (it looks more like the oblivion map), and I had no idea where I was. so I gave up on that and I wandered down the river and eventually got to my destination. I understand the map now mostly. I realised though that map problem was a more obvious feature of what I now realise was me having no idea how the menu system worked, It felt like an arrogant, “if you don’t get this you suck” or a “this is our game, you should just work it out cause we don't have time to make a tutorial”
Okay, fine, I’m stupid, I get that but that’s no excuse for not having some form of tutorial when you make a menu system that is not like most other menus (I did read the booklet, that didn’t help me much) It made the first few, already sleep deprived hours of gameplay difficult and the world felt nowhere near as open as oblivion did (I was only confident in changing quests about 6hrs in)
and the booklet doesn't count, I read the booklet and it does not replace a proper tutorial.
It felt like a new game in a long series that had menus that were always structured in that way, and that I should go back and play them or do some more research about the past games. It felt as if you had to be one of “them” to understand it. Okay, I am a bit slow, I can let it slide but this really took away from how I expected the first few hours to pan out. I planned to play non stop for at least 24hrs,
I do have some massive praise for the game as well.The dungeons, I hated oblivion dungeons, they felt claustrophobic and I always got lost, walking around in circles, skyrim dungeons are more straight forward and vast and it makes it easier to focus on your objectives and combat, but they are also not so simple that its impossible to get lost, I have to check the map every now and then, but its not a constant concern.
Also the combat is awesome, oblivion really messed up the leveled combat, you could predict the leveling up of enemies and the game was either too easy or too hard. The advances in skyrim are perfect, I’m almost level 10 after about 12 hrs of gameplay, and I have encountered 3 or 4 frost trolls, every time I have either died or run away, I’m just no match, maybe as I build my perks (think borderlands, and if you don't know what I mean, and don't mind me rambling on, chk this) and skills I will be able to beat it, but I cant just level up and beat him on raw power as a level 10 and I doubt as even a level 20 or 30.
Also the magic is amazing, I was always put off from being a battlemage because casting was slow, drained lots of magika and was weak, and looked terrible. The lower level magic that I’m using is pretty weak but its fast, pretty and satisfying. It hold the promise of leveling up to become something awesome, and when it is a bit of a fail you can always equip a one handed weapon to supplement it.
The menu system when you do finally work out how the frag it works, is pretty good, I love how the little meaningless quests are filed into there own out of the way category, although I must say whoever picked the font, you couldn’t have picked something less related if you tried, you could at least weathered it a bit. It’s one of the cleanest sans serif fonts I have seen. nice to read but so strange in a “ye old” style game. also the disappearance of the character preview. sure I can exit the menu, toggle to third person and look at myself. But in oblivion I could drop things and kick them around to see the details. and yet you (and I'm happy you did) implement a better way at of looking at items.
It seems that fashion has been abandoned, if anyone in the production spent 10 minutes on the tesnexus (one of the largest mod bases for oblivion and morrowind) one would observe that some of the most downloaded and famous mods improve magic, midas magic; combat, deadly reflex; overall character presentation, beautiful people. and those were all accounted for in skyrim, but not the NUMEROUS better armour mods, everything from the original, albeit revealing, hentai magic collection, to all the modifications of the current armour to make it look better. Some of the most requested items on skyrim forums were cloaks and better looking clothing/armour, and the same is the case with weapons. It seems, both from observing npcs, and shops, that the clothing is uglier than ever. War is no excuse for this, people always want the prettiest and most powerful items, no matter the cost. I hope there is going to be a dlc improving this, the shivering isle expansion for oblivion has some of the best clothing and weapons. I bet many people haven't been vocal about this yet, because clothing is one of the things that you worry about once you have finished the game and settled down, you something you then take pleasure from. It takes away from the role playing for some character types, if the prettiest thing you can wear is your underwear.
Also some of the little things that have been added to evoke a sense of reality, such as being able to cut wood. Seemed a little hurried and as if they were added last minute, They seem to lack purpose.
There are some things I liked about oblivion better. In oblivion you can jump off just about everything, sure you would die, but it gave you the freedom to do as you pleased. Also I miss not carrying items to perform alchemy. Alchemy was one of my core skills in oblivion, I mastered it on more than one occasion (gained the maximum skill) and it is nowhere near as accessible as it was and that is a bit sad.
Overall: this is without a doubt the best elder scrolls game I have played, It lives up to the hype and it was worth ever cent and compared to the gameplay hours I expect to gain, it did not cost many cents. I think I will echo what other reviews are saying and go with 9-9.5 out of 10.
Showing posts with label game. Show all posts
Showing posts with label game. Show all posts
Friday, October 28, 2011
Gaming Season
Gamers everywhere are preparing for a long couple of months, with a large quantity of major sequels coming out within a month of each other, in many cases within the space of a few days. Obviously the main game for me will be skyrim, and it seems that each gamer has a game of preference this gaming season. With modern warfare 3 (the new call of duty game)due out in 13 days (8 nov)
accompanied with yet again another frenzy of official drinks, I have seen the mountain dew promotion, (not in Australia). also I think I saw v or monster with mw3 emblazoned on it a couple of weeks ago at the supermarket.
battlefield 3 has been in public beta for a while now, and officially came out three days ago on the 25th. It is classed as the more realistic version of call of duty, although the gameplay is slower than cod games, it has a very strong following. Cod is like twilight for boys, easy to digest and strangely addictive and satisfying. Both cod and battlefield are games that I really need to get around to trying, i'm sick of the look of joy on a guys face when I say I'm a gamer, and then the disappointment when I admit to not playing cod although has been on my todo list for ages and bf3 too.
assassins creed: revelations (4) is due out on the 15th of nov. I must say its the only game on this list I have no desire to play, or even observe someone playing. I played one of the ac games on ds. I thoroughly enjoyed it, albeit the purists stated the obvious fact, that it is nothing like the pc/xbox versions. So I managed to swindle a copy of ac2, after being advised that the first game was rubbish and it was not worth my time, but the second was. I stuck with it for about half an hour perhaps an hour before getting stuck in the prequel/tut/whatever stage. Th controls were a mystery to me, and my preferred genre of game has always been fps, and above that, rpgfps (borderlands, fallout, oblivion). I have a dislike of third person games as a general rule (exceptions being just cause, I admit I did not put many hours in and harry potter and the chamber of secrets.)could not stand neverwinter nights, or playing morrowind or oblivion in third person during combat. ac2 did not make the grade, after getting stuck on the controls, the lack of control I had in the story of game and just it not really dragging me in meant that I never really went to the effort of playing it further. But I do not doubt its a great game, but everyone has personal taste obviously, be it in books, movies, TV or games.
have to admit one of the best trailers I have seen this year... perhaps ever
Okay best til last, skyrim. For those who do not know oblivion is one of the first games I played ever (thank you phleabytes and I guess bdm22 as well... a little) and skyrim is its much anticipated sequel. I'm not gonna lie, this game makes me do strange things, and even just the thought of it causes this strange response that includes nostalgia and a fair amount of this
and, my skyrim strategy notebook... um that may or may not have my name on the front in the dragon language... and I may or may not have spent 2 days spray painting it...
there are 13 strangely foreboding days (what if the game is terrible, cant I keep this feeling of excitement forever?) until the game comes out, it is a friday, also remembrance day and a strange metaphysical whatever according to this
I could go on for oblivion and skyrim for ages, and I may, but in a later post just before I get off the net and start playing the game
accompanied with yet again another frenzy of official drinks, I have seen the mountain dew promotion, (not in Australia). also I think I saw v or monster with mw3 emblazoned on it a couple of weeks ago at the supermarket.
battlefield 3 has been in public beta for a while now, and officially came out three days ago on the 25th. It is classed as the more realistic version of call of duty, although the gameplay is slower than cod games, it has a very strong following. Cod is like twilight for boys, easy to digest and strangely addictive and satisfying. Both cod and battlefield are games that I really need to get around to trying, i'm sick of the look of joy on a guys face when I say I'm a gamer, and then the disappointment when I admit to not playing cod although has been on my todo list for ages and bf3 too.
assassins creed: revelations (4) is due out on the 15th of nov. I must say its the only game on this list I have no desire to play, or even observe someone playing. I played one of the ac games on ds. I thoroughly enjoyed it, albeit the purists stated the obvious fact, that it is nothing like the pc/xbox versions. So I managed to swindle a copy of ac2, after being advised that the first game was rubbish and it was not worth my time, but the second was. I stuck with it for about half an hour perhaps an hour before getting stuck in the prequel/tut/whatever stage. Th controls were a mystery to me, and my preferred genre of game has always been fps, and above that, rpgfps (borderlands, fallout, oblivion). I have a dislike of third person games as a general rule (exceptions being just cause, I admit I did not put many hours in and harry potter and the chamber of secrets.)could not stand neverwinter nights, or playing morrowind or oblivion in third person during combat. ac2 did not make the grade, after getting stuck on the controls, the lack of control I had in the story of game and just it not really dragging me in meant that I never really went to the effort of playing it further. But I do not doubt its a great game, but everyone has personal taste obviously, be it in books, movies, TV or games.
have to admit one of the best trailers I have seen this year... perhaps ever
Okay best til last, skyrim. For those who do not know oblivion is one of the first games I played ever (thank you phleabytes and I guess bdm22 as well... a little) and skyrim is its much anticipated sequel. I'm not gonna lie, this game makes me do strange things, and even just the thought of it causes this strange response that includes nostalgia and a fair amount of this
and, my skyrim strategy notebook... um that may or may not have my name on the front in the dragon language... and I may or may not have spent 2 days spray painting it...
there are 13 strangely foreboding days (what if the game is terrible, cant I keep this feeling of excitement forever?) until the game comes out, it is a friday, also remembrance day and a strange metaphysical whatever according to this
I could go on for oblivion and skyrim for ages, and I may, but in a later post just before I get off the net and start playing the game
Monday, May 23, 2011
GameFAQs - Answers - Some stuff could be done better
I love gameFAQs.com It is a brilliant site that is my first point of call when I am having any sort of problem with a retail game. but I think that there are some areas that could be better managed and re-organised to give the highest level of support to its users.
So firstly, GameFAQs Answers section is filled with "Unanswered" Questions, questions that have had quite acceptable answers posted, but the person who asked the question has not told GameFAQs that any of them have been acceptable, I personally have left questions "unanswered" for several months. As only one notification email is sent out to me and after that nothing is said, but the reason I think that most of the "Unanswered" Questions are left as such leads onto...
My second point, Is that it is do hard to access your questions profile page, the only way that I have found to be able to do it is to ask or answer a question and then click on my username (hyperlink)If you could get into that more easily then maybe it would be easier for users to track questions, meaning you don't get games with 500 unanswered questions!
Okay rant over
So firstly, GameFAQs Answers section is filled with "Unanswered" Questions, questions that have had quite acceptable answers posted, but the person who asked the question has not told GameFAQs that any of them have been acceptable, I personally have left questions "unanswered" for several months. As only one notification email is sent out to me and after that nothing is said, but the reason I think that most of the "Unanswered" Questions are left as such leads onto...
My second point, Is that it is do hard to access your questions profile page, the only way that I have found to be able to do it is to ask or answer a question and then click on my username (hyperlink)If you could get into that more easily then maybe it would be easier for users to track questions, meaning you don't get games with 500 unanswered questions!
Okay rant over
Sunday, April 17, 2011
Release Times
Term is going to be back in a bit over a week and I have homework to do that I have put off for the last week, so I have been thinking I need a plan for when I am going to be releaseing videos and writing blog posts (twitter will still be as often as possible) So this is my rough plan for when my stuff will come out on the net. It may be changed slightly if I get too busy or the days are not working for people.
Monday - Fallout NV walk through video
Tuesday - Blog post
Friday - Misc. Video (could be a real life video, game walk through, game tips and tricks, unboxing or nothing)
Sunday - Every second Sunday I am going to try an release a "who is this person? - H0110wPeTaL" but only if I can get enough interviewers and if it doesn't get too boring (for me, as I am not getting enough views to gain what public interest is, compared to my other videos)
Hopefully I can prepare all of this in advance so even if I am having a busy week I can still do all this. But I will post an update if I can't.
Monday - Fallout NV walk through video
Tuesday - Blog post
Friday - Misc. Video (could be a real life video, game walk through, game tips and tricks, unboxing or nothing)
Sunday - Every second Sunday I am going to try an release a "who is this person? - H0110wPeTaL" but only if I can get enough interviewers and if it doesn't get too boring (for me, as I am not getting enough views to gain what public interest is, compared to my other videos)
Hopefully I can prepare all of this in advance so even if I am having a busy week I can still do all this. But I will post an update if I can't.
Saturday, July 3, 2010
What type of gamer is H0110wPeTaL
The Dead-Eye
Take this quiz
She wants to shoot things. Zombies, Nazis, targets, aliens ... makes no difference to her, so long as she gets to fire a weapon.
Thursday, June 17, 2010
Sunday, April 25, 2010
r u 1337 (elite)
or just a 1337 loser.
Are you a true gamer.
are you a member of club nintendo. (Sorry guys i'm not... I got my invite but I never botherd joining)
do you laugh at most video game trivia questions like:
What's a NES?
What does COD mean in a video game context?
r u a 1337 ga/\/\3r b|xh?
are you 1337 or an adict... 'cause adicts scare me a bit
'cause I am looking for you.
Anyone who loves mmorpgs, cod, ol' skool nintendo.
I would love you send me an email (h0110wPeTaL@gmail.com)
Contributers for articles
some "nifty scripters" to make my webpage better
or convince me i need you for some other reason
This is for volunteers only
Thnx
Are you a true gamer.
are you a member of club nintendo. (Sorry guys i'm not... I got my invite but I never botherd joining)
do you laugh at most video game trivia questions like:
What's a NES?
What does COD mean in a video game context?
r u a 1337 ga/\/\3r b|xh?
are you 1337 or an adict... 'cause adicts scare me a bit
'cause I am looking for you.
Anyone who loves mmorpgs, cod, ol' skool nintendo.
I would love you send me an email (h0110wPeTaL@gmail.com)
Contributers for articles
some "nifty scripters" to make my webpage better
or convince me i need you for some other reason
This is for volunteers only
Thnx
Monday, March 22, 2010
Notice a similarity
Now to announce my amazing love of games especialy those made by Bethsoft (Bethesda Softworks)So now for my first challange. Are these screencaps of the same game or differant ones (For bonus points name the game(s)) I will answer when I can be botherd. Along with A review of at least one game.
p.s. poetry coming soon
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)