Skyrim - seriously?

Alright, now I know we're heading into territory which is very much a matter of opinion but the music in fallout 3 was AWESOME. (The background / ambient sounds were also exceptionally good imo.)

characters: c'mon who was as funny as Mr. Burke, Tennpenny, Colin Moriarty, or even Moira in Skyrim?

combat: c'mon --> once again, no comparison. Did you get to blow people's heads of with shotguns in Skyrim? no. Did you get to watch a rocket speed towards your enemy from the vantage point of the actual rocket? of course not. All you have in Skyrim are a bunch of incredibly slow and awkward meelee weapons and some lame-ass magical crap like fireballs.

Furthermore, issuing damage to an enemy in Skyrim just wasn't satisfying - as I'm sure many would attest.

voice acting / accents / face models In Skyrim there seemed like there were only a very few voice actors. And it got pretty obvious. In fallout 3 I recall heaps and heaps of different and colourfull characters. + the females were more attractive.

story: Okay, again its probably a matter of opinion but Skyrim's story just seemed so boring and old fashioned. I just didn't care for it at all.

opinions, yes. i've been a huge Fallout fan ever since the first Fallout, but i must say i enjoyed these two games pretty much equally.

chracters; i don't even remember those characters. can't recall any funny characters in either one, sorry.

combat; i'm leaning a bit towards Fallout 3 because of VATS, but other than that the engine is not really great for guns imo. it lacks the feel, but then again, it's not a shooter, but RPG. i liked the melee combat in Skyrim. it was not supposed to be like a goddamn Ninja Gaiden. not saying it was perfect either.

voice acting etc; see characters. i don't recall either one being clearly better.

story; like i said. dull in both, but i don't care. they weren't about the story for me in the firstplace. skyrims story truly was old-fashion "knights and dragons" BS, Fallouts story wasn't anything special either. it's the atmosphere that hooks me into the gameworld, and they both did good job on that.

i'm repeating myself here, so i guess this is going nowhere :P i just don't understand how someone can't enjoy Skyrim if they enjoy Fallout 3. i guess if medieval theme is not your thing, then it just ain't your thing.

I think I know what you may be getting at.

There aren't really any choices in ME2 - just the illusion of choice. I'm sure if I tried multiple pathways I would have seen that.

But what I like about the game was the characters and also just getting to boss people around and help you out in battle.

@ thereal25

DISCLAIMER: Sorry about the Long Text but I haven't done this in a while and I really wanted to savour it.

Well Yeah, but I can forgive that. My problem with the System, specifically in Mass Effect 2, is the "Stat/Skill Check" system.

Okay, Time for a history lesson. A long long time a go, Back in the era known as the Ancient Role Playing Age. Nerds use to play RPGs on Tabletop, not Computers. And they needed a method of determining failure or success when issuing a command to their Avatar. So they came up with Statistics and Attrributes. So you wana shoot an arrow through an apple of somebody's Head.....blindfolded ? Well thats an S-Rank Task and your character needs atleast 80 In the Archer Skill and 80 points in the Accuracy Attribute and Voila ! APPLE SHOT ! ! !

Fast Foward to Mass Effect 2 and the Skill Checks take a turn for the Worst. See in Mass Effect, certain Scenarios have Speciall Colour Coded, dialog option, either in Red for Renegade or Blue for Paragon. Theres a Hidden feature that checks if you have enough Renegade/Paragon Points to have Access to Unlock these Special Options.

But Unlike in The 1st Mass Effect, where you can Assign general purpose Skill Points into the Paragon/Renegade Skills also known as Charm/Intimidate respectively, In the Sequel, You can't use the Skill Points you earn from Leveling up to improve your Paragon/Renegade stats to meet the Hidden Stat Checks which are extremely high by the way. No no no no no no, you earn those points by getting involved in as many conversations as you can and making choices, slowly you'l gain the Stats you need to meet the skill check requirements.... BUT! Paragone and Renegade are two seperate skills and any decision you make will only boost one of them. The game also has no where near enough Scenarios to make trying to boost both Skills a good idea.

So heres what will happen on your 1st playthrough. You will play the game normaly making the choices how you want, sometimes you'l wana solve things the renegade way and other times the Paragon way, and at some point in the game, you'l begin to notice to gey options in your dialogue wheel more often and at some point you won't get any more special colour coded dialogue options, and you won't know why... These are the choices you want to have access to because they only come up in important scenarios like Squad Disputes on the Normand SR2, so why is the game denying them to you ?

Well its because you diluted your overall effectiveness by not specialising in either Renegade or Paragon.

If you want to have access to those special Dialog then you need to COMMIT to either being renegade or paragon. And Just like that, The Entire concept of choice, in Mass Effect 2...... Is Dead. No more Choices, now you're just dialog grinding, picking only the options that yield the most amount of points for the personality you need to commit to so you can finaly have enough to get Morinth on your team (bet ya didn't know that the 1st time did ya ?).

Choice in Mass Effect 2 is an even bigger Illusion than most people realise.

Bioware tried to fix it with the Reputation system. Here: blog.bioware.com/2012/03/01/reputation-in-mass-effect-3/

But it presents a few Illusions of its own.

The problem with choice in RPGs is they tried to paint you choices in a certain colour and measure your progress. Which just isn't a good idea. I never Played Fallout 3 long enough to properly analyse its dialog structure.

Exactly right. So many times I wanted to do something or say something cool and it was denied.

I also remember right at the end Miranda was pissed at me for something and was ignoring me. I wanted to change that but the amount points required was massive.

I wondered what the point of that was. Were they trying to get me to keep doing side missions after finishing the game - just so I could get Miranda back?

As for Morinth I can't recall if I got her or not.

@Lulu_Lulu:

I concur completely. mass effect 2 is one of the most rigid action games in rpg-misnomer history. there is very little real choice and the game, like, most bioware titles is simplistic and linear.

as for the story of skyrim i'd like to ask this from those who find it blah: give me a list of games that have a dragonborn-like story. so, imo, you can argue about how the writers write, but, to say that the story itself is not unique is another.

otherwise, you'll be complaining until the end of time.

Whats really messed up up is I continued to play it 6 more times after I figured it out. I really do Like it ! I shouldve gotten the Trilogy Edition. I never Played Mass Effect 3 with my Characters from ME1 and ME2

I love threads like this. Because literally every complaint I've seen in this thread, I've modded away.

@ribstaylor1:

lol, stop rubbing my nose in it NOW! however, when I return to pc and rebuy all my favorite rpg's I will still list my compaints, since, it's always a worthy and beneficial subject and I love it too much;)

@Lulu_Lulu: Haven't all Bioware games done this same good/evil skill tree since KOTOR? I agree that it blows. It felt revolutionary the first time I encountered it, but after playing a game like The Witcher, where you make choices that actually make a difference in the game world, and they aren't purely good or evil, it's pretty hard to go back to the Bioware/Infamous way of doing things.

@ PurpleMan5000

I never played those games. Mass Effect was the very 1st game I experienced this thing.

Its good to know you can make Genuine Choices in The Witcher.

Holy Crap, Sherlock Holmes is gona have Choices now, complete with Multiple Branching plots and Endings !

Potential underated Gem confirmed ? !

@PurpleMan5000:

yep, ever since kotor, the novelty wore off just about instantly for me. (It's one of the biggest reasons why I like kotor2 much more and can't even get off taris when I try to replay the first.)

the simpleton dialogue, stories and supposedly "mature" content of bioware games is one of the most overstated untruths I can think of. and, the linear gameplay equally so.

Yea, if you've played any bioware game before, Mass Effect will just feel like a rehash of characters, themes and plot devices. The story also felt like a bad Babylon 5 ripoff at times.

Consider yourself a lucky man. Here's a taste

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=05akmWwvzBQ

@thereal25: sorry bout the long tx. if it's a good story ur looking for, there's plenty of books in skyrim that can provide that lol.

I actually don't mind the combat I think it's a lot deeper than fallout3. You have melee combat with normal and strong attacks, hold LS in each direction as u swing and does a different attack, I like to hold LS back and hit as a enemy charges towards me. You also get the cool decapitation animations and other finishers. I like to sneak attack from a distance with a bow and arrow it's so cool to get that one hit kill. Magic is good to I like the sommon flame thingy, reanimate corpse, fire rune, flame thrower hand etc doubling up the spell to two hands amplifies the power and or duration. The fact you can have magic in one hand sword in other is cool. Then you have the shouts need I say more. The combat isn't as good as dark souls I love the melee combat in that, but it's satisfying I reckon.

I love the music in skyrim it's beautiful and fits in with the world superbly.

Character facial animation, voice acting is not the best bit that's a small price to pay for such a vast game.

Skyrim is an Amazing game I enjoy it much more than Gta5 and I cued up to get gta, The leveling system is the best I've seen for a while and is quite realistic the more you do something the better you get at it just like real life.

Skyrim is a beautiful game soo much to do, it really makes u feel like a true adventurer, and u get more than your monies worth.

lol yeah... and TC insisted that Fallout 3 had so much better characters and voice acting than Skyrim, and even mentioned Moira as one... hehe.

i mean, Skyrim wasn't a top dog on that apartment either, but c'mon...

Skyrim is mostly about the setting. I found it to be fully that Fallout 3. Fallout 3 is not bad but there are much better setting, RPG and shooters out there.

I like to Role play in the game play. This mean things like stats, gear and abilities is a huge part of how much I can role play in the game. I do not care about how much interaction the story have.

In Mass Effect 1, I played two soldiers with the same background and make the same moral picks. I was able to play them very different during the game play.

In ME2, there only two choices you can make. One is huge (you class) and the second is not that big (extra weapon). As a RPG I hate it. It could have the greats branching story ever and I would still hate it as a RPG.

That the same problem with Fallout 3 and Skyrim you can just play different because you want to.

Thanks, you've inspired me to maybe give it another chance. After all, I did buy the legendary edition and I have a high end pc to run it on so I'd like to get my monies worth - even if it just turns out to be like 6/10 ish.

I think I'll need to check out a couple of internet guides or youtube walkthroughs to understand the game a bit better.

One question though: Do you recommend stealing things and being evil in this game?

Leave it for people who don't know what dark humor is to judge a game's writing.

The beauty of the game is u can be who u want to be and do what u want to do.

@thereal25:

what?! you've got the pc version?! :) then, all you have to do is mod out and in the necessary components that'll improve the game for you.

for me, that means more customization and immersive gameplay, like, no HUD, no god-like gps, realistic use of map, no regenerating health, realistic encumbrance, degradation, no potion spamming, potions over time, eat/sleep schedule based on character (with penalties), armor/weather penalties, realistic looting/economy, no swimming in most armor, adjusting the speed of the time, DiD characters vs perma-character, etc.

now, granted, I care about gameplay altering mods/rules, but, i'm sure you can take care of those other aspects you care about, as well.

having said that, I've only played vanilla tes on xbox consoles and, due to its freedom, I am still able to implement my own self-imposed rules and restrictions to improve the game. I get excited about what i'll be able to do when I rebuy all the games for the pc, lol....

as for evil or good? let me suggest that you pick a character type, give them a quick bit of personality and basic history with some specific traits and then make in-game decision based on what your P.C. would do.

Hmm, I agree that it's heavily over-rated.. but it's still an awesome adventure, my biggest complaint? The combat.. it's so lack luster in an otherwise excellent game ^^

Yes, I can see how open-minded you are into learning what people sees in this game when you start your argument with words like "Boooooring" "NOOOOOT" and "Garbage".

Most obvious attention seeking post of the week, congratulations.

You can hate everything about Skyrim, but the music will always be some of the best so far created for a game.

i have no problem at all if you choose duke nukem forever over skyrim.. you truely deserve it..

:) Wow, your choice of mods sounds more like a nightmare than fun, but each to they're own. Having said that, you've no doubt mastered the game - so maybe something like that would be appropriate for you.

For me, I just need to wrap my mind around the vanilla version first. I spent some time today reading the manual - and YES this is one complicated-ass game!!!

@

Interesting. I have to wonder what actually drives you to play games... maybe its just the intellectual challenge of it.

I suppose I can relate a bit. Like when I played Sins of a Solar Empire - a game with virtually ZERO personality but it was still kind of fun for the sheer challenge.

to piyush181: Given your spelling of the word truly, it doesn't surprise me that you've played Duke Nukem Forever!

Then don't play it?

I don't like Crysis but you don't see me making a topic just to announce that I don't and why, Simply because it's my opinion on a game series that isn't my cup of tea.

Well put. Also, mods don't necessarily have to be about fixing. I spent a lot of time playing the Requiem overhaul for Skyrim, a major overhaul that reworked all of the game's mechanics for an experience that I loved, but most people would hate. Mods offer a chance for a much more specialized and niche experience that Bethesda could never create.

I actually thought the game was ok on 360 though. Not great, but it was fun to explore.

Right, I see what you mean. Fallout 3 is probably the most free feeling game that I've played.

The truth is that anybody who knocks on Skyrim will always be in the cold minority.

Most who played it enjoyed it immensely and praised it for what it was ( beautiful RPG, great setting, immersing world) and didn't knock on it for what it wasn't (bug-free, less of a cookie cutter)

Its just that it bugs me when I buy a game, expecting it to be great because of all the great reviews and it just isn't.

So I wanted to shine a light on exactly where the disparity is arising from.

But having said that, I apologise if my earlier comments on Skyrim were a bit harsh - as maybe the key here is simply to study the manual and learn the complicated mechanics of the game better.

...

With most games you can just jump in - maybe play a quick tutorial mission and that's it. But with Skyrim that obviously isn't the case.

So what I plan on doing is STUDYING Skyrim for a few hours and then playing again.

You never know, I might end up liking it and getting my money's worth.

if this game wasn't a huge success with a huge fanbase, you wouldn't be making this topic. But since it's so popular, you want to be cool and hate on it. Move on with your life.

This.
Its not because it didn't appeal to you, that the game sucks.
We do, however, understand that the game is not perfect and that it has its flaws.
I personally enjoyed Fallout 3 way more than Skyrim, but its because of my personal taste, it doesn't mean that Skyrim sucks completely.
I did find that they poorly designed the combat/weapons/sorcery in general, but i still had a blast playing it... i really felt i was inside the game all the time.

Original Poster: I can understand some of your discontent towards certain aspects of the game. They are your opinions and you are obviously entitled to them. Like some have mentioned, you talking about this game will make some want to see for themselves. In a lot of ways you are helping the franchise itself. I spent hours playing this game. I even let my children watch me play because of the story. I am curious to what type of genre you usually play and what type of music you listen to? Like previously mentioned; you are entitled to your opinion...its not going to change my mind about this game. I still give it 10/10 and only wish my PlayStation 3 didn't crash out because I would still be playing it! Happy gaming!

I do think it is overated...I belive Fallout 3 and New Vegas are much better games and are actually fun to play.