Thread: What Game Are You Playing?

Been playing Fallout: New Vegas, Oblivion (in anticipation for Skyrim next week), Silent Hill 2, Siren, and a little bit of Army of Two.

Skyrim.

Pong

Originally Posted by Leyline

Skyrim.

Mini-review:

Most improved aspects: the magika/spell effects are just beautiful! The interiors (especially the caves) are far more lush and detailed, some of them are actually breathtaking. The main quest is much more intriguing than any ES game so far, and the prospect of gaining those incredibly powerful shouts are a fine goal to keep a player motivated (in OBLIVION the main quest bored me so much that I generally just wandered off and went dungeon crawling). The character progression is much simpler and easier to keep track of, and the character models more distinctive and individual.

Least improved aspects: the interface is still quite clunky (my brother has been calling it 'the crapterface' since MORROWIND) and will probably play better with a gamepad rather than mouse and keyboard.

All in all -- fantastic!

I'm a pretty half-assed gamer, so I'm still working my way through Twilight Princess (which I've almost beaten three times and then stopped playing for so long I forgot what I was doing). In the interim, I'm getting thrashed in Dark Souls, which I can only play in short spurts before I get frustrated and quit.

I've sunk 18 hours into Skyrim. It took a lot longer for that 'click' moment to finally register than it did in Oblivion, mostly because of the music -- it's the only thing I'm disappointed with so far. It's a much more thoughtful soundtrack this time around, but it hasn't quite reached the levels of Oblivion's masterful score. Maybe that's nostalgia talking. It's much, much simpler overall and crops up only to compliment the visuals, rather than making a statement from start to finish. It's a lot more like Fallout 3 in many ways.

The fact the camera doesn't zoom in when you're having a chat removed a fair chunk out of the immersion for me at first, too. I always felt like they were talking to me in Oblivion; it made me feel special. With Skyrim, when you first start conversing with NPCs it's very odd . . . disjointed even, but as I started to accept it for what it was, it made more and more sense.

That feeling of detachment is starting to fade, though. The voice-acting has more than made up for it. The menu is an absolute joy, nothing to moan about there. The towns I've visited all look pretty samey, but the people are nice and varied so . . . swings and roundabouts. As soon as something annoys me, something else comes along and makes me smile. I think it has more to do with me getting to grips with the little changes they've made, not something wrong with the game.

Still, it's a 10/10 so far. Best sequel I've ever played.

I guess if you're a fantasy-lover, you'll adore the likes of Oblivion and Skyrim. I played the former for four hours the other day, to the point where I escaped from prison and started discovering things around the massive map. It just didn't appeal. Being a thriller/action junkie, I like to solve my gaming/writing problems with a 12-gauge shotgun and/or some other forum of gun. I'm not so fussed on magic and swords. I guess that's what makes Fallout: New Vegas one of my favourite games of all time. It's basically Resident Evil on drugs.

That doesn't take anything away from the Elder Scrolls games. They're beautifully presented and just oozing atmosphere, but give me a .357 over a Samurai sword any day of the week. That being said, I've never found time for any of the COD games. I just wish games publishers would realise that restricted games are a thing of the '90s and early '00s. No reason you can't have a brilliant story in an open-ended environment. The consoles are powerful enough now to have entire cities programmed into one game. After playing the likes of GTA, RDR, and Fallout, playing a linear game feels so contrived.

That's just me.

Once it comes out, Super Mario 3D Land! Can't wait

Originally Posted by Sam W

I guess if you're a fantasy-lover, you'll adore the likes of Oblivion and Skyrim. I played the former for four hours the other day, to the point where I escaped from prison and started discovering things around the massive map. It just didn't appeal. Being a thriller/action junkie, I like to solve my gaming/writing problems with a 12-gauge shotgun and/or some other forum of gun. I'm not so fussed on magic and swords.

I advise you to make a stealth based character with a bow, concentrating on sneak and marksman. In a sense, Oblivion becomes something similar to the Tom Clancy Splinter Cell franchise in a non linear, open world paradigm. There's something ridiculously fun in nailing a bandit from 300 yards from concealment, slamming him with 3x critical damage, and having his pals running around foolishly unable to find you as you pick them off one by one.

BTW, Skyrim is pretty much Fallout 3/New Vegas with swords and magic -- they've even adopted the perk system and the character progression is far simpler and intuitive. But, when I play those games, I concentrate almost entirely on melee and unarmed. Once again, there's something completely satisfying about slipping into VATS and stomping a gun toting bruiser with a sledgehammer or an impossibly devastating upper-cut -- especially if, like me, you play a skinny little chick. It just cracks me up!

Originally Posted by Bruno Spatola

I've sunk 18 hours into Skyrim. It took a lot longer for that 'click' moment to finally register than it did in Oblivion, mostly because of the music -- it's the only thing I'm disappointed with so far. It's a much more thoughtful soundtrack this time around, but it hasn't quite reached the levels of Oblivion's masterful score. Maybe that's nostalgia talking. It's much, much simpler overall and crops up only to compliment the visuals, rather than making a statement from start to finish. It's a lot more like Fallout 3 in many ways.

Don't understand that at all. Oblivion's soundtrack was only 58 minutes and got, IMO, pretty repetitive after you'd hit the 40 hour or so mark. Skyrim features 4 CD's worth of music. Both are by Jeremy Soule (who I've considered a genius since his brilliant work on Neverwinter Nights). I think Skyrim's score will stand the long-game test far better.

The fact the camera doesn't zoom in when you're having a chat removed a fair chunk out of the immersion for me at first, too. I always felt like they were talking to me in Oblivion; it made me feel special. With Skyrim, when you first start conversing with NPCs it's very odd . . . disjointed even, but as I started to accept it for what it was, it made more and more sense.

Once again, I feel the opposite. I think the fact that NPC's continue to go about their business as you converse makes the game far more realistic and immersive. The zoom in to close up thing was never a fave of mine.

That feeling of detachment is starting to fade, though. The voice-acting has more than made up for it. The menu is an absolute joy, nothing to moan about there. The towns I've visited all look pretty samey, but the people are nice and varied so . . . swings and roundabouts. As soon as something annoys me, something else comes along and makes me smile. I think it has more to do with me getting to grips with the little changes they've made, not something wrong with the game.

OK, that's just crazy talk. The interface is the absolute worst thing about the game. It's ridiculous: rather than a fully mouse driven menu system, it's some weird keyboard/mouse combo that I find really annoying. Are you playing with a gamepad by any chance? That might make a difference.

And did you expect it to be the same as Oblivion? I've been playing these games since Arena and the only constant with them -- other than the backstory and the layout of Tamriel and its races -- is that they change significantly with each installment. Daggerfall had a completely different character leveling system, and different form of travel (and turned the Kahjit from vaguely Arabic nomads to cat people, and Argonians from humanoids to reptiles!) Morrowind altered the character system just as much and significantly shrank the world. Oblivion simplified the inventory and materials and completely changed the Daedra. Skyrim is just keeping with the tradition.

Still, glad you're enjoying it, my friend!

Originally Posted by Leyline

Don't understand that at all. Oblivion's soundtrack was only 58 minutes and got, IMO, pretty repetitive after you'd hit the 40 hour or so mark. Skyrim features 4 CD's worth of music.

I wasn't really thinking about length at all, but now you mention it, I've only heard about . . . nine different songs in the 31 hours I've been playing. I thought the four-disc set was the entire Elder Scrolls music collection or something. I don't get how what I've heard could span several CDs, which gives me hope that I've barely heard ten percent of it.

Originally Posted by Leyline

I think Skyrim's score will stand the long-game test far better.

Like I said, it's a much more thoughtful soundtrack. I thought it was clear I was saying Skyrim's is actually better overall (for the game) because it caters to the experience more, but Oblivion's is more personal to me. I'm waiting for something to reach out and touch my heart like Auriel's Ascension/Wings of Kynareth/Peace of Akatosh did, and it just hasn't happened . . . yet . . . for me. I really can't help that. Favourite: Oblivion, best: Skyrim.

Originally Posted by Leyline

Once again, I feel the opposite. I think the fact that NPC's continue to go about their business as you converse makes the game far more realistic and immersive. The zoom in to close up thing was never a fave of mine.

As I said, when I accepted the new way conversations are handled it made more and more sense -- I wouldn't say that was the opposite of what you said. I like the fact life still goes on around you instead of being in a bizarre bubble where the laws of the universe somehow don't apply, it's just the distance you are from the characters that threw me off. I enjoyed seeing their eyes and everythin' up close in ESIV, but that's obviously subjective. When you've played a game for an actual month of your real life it's hard not to be at least slightly perturbed by changes in its new brother, no matter how small. It's like my (theoretical) daughter getting a tattoo or something: at first I gasp in horror, then later on I actually think it's kinda cool. Awful analogy but still. . . . .

Originally Posted by Leyline

OK, that's just crazy talk. The interface is the absolute worst thing about the game. It's ridiculous: rather than a fully mouse driven menu system, it's some weird keyboard/mouse combo that I find really annoying. Are you playing with a gamepad by any chance? That might make a difference.

Well I am a complete nutter, so it's actually just regular talk, hehe. I'm with the 360 version here and I've had no problems at all. I love the menu, it's just bang, bang, found it, bang, but we're different people on different machines. The way you've described it on your end sounds like a total pain in the rear . . . end.

Originally Posted by Leyline

And did you expect it to be the same as Oblivion? I've been playing these games since Arena and the only constant with them -- other than the backstory and the layout of Tamriel and its races -- is that they change significantly with each installment. Daggerfall had a completely different character leveling system, and different form of travel (and turned the Kahjit from vaguely Arabic nomads to cat people, and Argonians from humanoids to reptiles!) Morrowind altered the character system just as much and significantly shrank the world. Oblivion simplified the inventory and materials and completely changed the Daedra. Skyrim is just keeping with the tradition.

You sound almost angry at me for thinking differently to you, lol. I've only been an ES player since Morrowind, being 19 and all, but I'm not moaning about Skyrim being different to Oblivion. I welcomed the changes, some just took longer to appreciate than others, which is fine, surely?

If those feelings I had before cropped up during an eight hour game it would've been a problem, but this is THE ELDER SCROLLS, which means there's so much content and love in every inch of the world that I grow to love every single thing about it until my eyes and brain feel like they've been through a mincer.

Originally Posted by Leyline

Still, glad you're enjoying it, my friend!

Ditto. Game of the year. DOVAHKIIN!

LOL...of course I'm not angry at you, Bruno. I was just teasin'.

I'm a ways into Skyrim and lovin it so far. Worlds better than Oblivion. I just did the wizard college quest line where (SPOILERS AHEAD) you literally progress from Harry Potter with your own dorm, to middle of the road mage, to headmaster (arch-mage) all in the space of about eight missions. END SPOILERS. And that was a very fun, well written bunch of quests.

And I agree with Bruno about the soundtrack. Haven't heard any real stunners so far; it's all pretty background. There were five or six in Oblivion, Dusk on the Market, All's Well, in a league of their own. They could have been ripped straight out of a movie with a really good soundtrack.

The visuals are simply breathtaking, considering the steam install was six gigs. Terrific art design. And I love having the 3D models for every item to flip around and examine, which they kinda ripped off the Resident Evils. One thing I find hilarious is I've already gotten more solid gameplay out of Skyrim than I have with many recent full market releases. The damned mage questline is bigger and better than everything Rage, and this is like 1% of the game's total content. Needless to say, she's gonna be a timesink.

You people don't realize how lucky you are to have Skyrim already.

Current Play Time: 40:01:01

Level: 30

Main Quests Completed: 4 (lol?)

Miscellaneous Quests Completed: 52

Guild Quests Completed (I won't name them): 5

Locations Discovered: 135

D_ _ _ _ _ _ Defeated: 7

Barely even touched it! can't wait to see what lies ahead. My eyes are ridiculously bloodshot at the moment *sigh*. And so it begins. . . .

The dungeons and forts are surprisingly addictive and, visually, stunning. I hardly touched them in Oblivion -- the most boring places I've ever encountered in a game, except when you're fulfilling the Dark Brotherhood's sadistic requests -- but in Skyrim, I have to clear 'em all, I just have to! It'd be utterly maddening if it weren't so fun.

If they do another Fallout with this amount of love I'll sweat a lung, and if they return to Morrowind or give us a glimpse of Summerset Isle in the following ES on the next gen of consoles, I'll actually put myself in a temporary coma, or ask loved ones to repeatedly punch me in the face 'til it's out.

My ultimate fantasy is for them to have another pop at a game set in Tamriel, though. That would look amazing with the current engine. One can dream.