The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (PC)

**beckyolt** · January 25, 2012, 06:35 AM

as well as the 'boob armor' on female armor which is counter-intuitive because it would guide blows towards the center of the chest towards vital areas

This. I'm tired of boob armor for every female character in every damn RPG.

After playing 32 hours of Skyrim I must say I agree with your score of 8. Not because of ugly textures or bugs - because I haven't experienced many bugs ( some where kinda annoying though ) and because I play in third person so , from afar, the textures seem pretty good. But because of gameplay and story.

The combat is downright awful, without any real strategy on it. And the story is simply bad and boring - not because it's cliché: Dragon Age Origins had an extremly clichéd plot yet was an amazing game - but because of bad, unconvincing characters ( with some rare exceptions like Jarl Baulgruff ) and lazy dialogue.

Several people had warned me and I see it's true, that ES games have terrible main storylines. What saves the game is the world really ,I'm having great fun exploring it .

**Påsan** · January 25, 2012, 11:18 AM

The main storyline is the best in any TES game ever. I had a blast going through it.

**Silent Assassin** · January 27, 2012, 03:10 PM

This game does't have the best storyline, as flaws but what game does not. The important thing to me is to be able to have fun (what the basic of a game should be) and to have my money's worth Costs vs hours played. An example would be Uncharted 3, even if it's a great game, gameplay and storywise the longevity is more then poor less the 7 hours to complete it, for me that ain't worth 60$, that is why I've rented it cost me 8$. Now for Skyrim I have put atleast 150 hours in it and I'm on my second playthrough and I'm still finding things I didn't the fisrt time I played.

Skyrim IMO is fun and is worth all the money I spent on this game.

**Godless Pickle** · February 01, 2012, 04:57 PM

Good review!
Although I agree with some of the flaws you mentioned, overall I highly recommend this game: its soooo addicting!

**Muizer** · February 03, 2012, 03:57 PM

Originally Posted by Silent Assassin

This game does't have the best storyline, as flaws but what game does not. The important thing to me is to be able to have fun (what the basic of a game should be) and to have my money's worth Costs vs hours played. An example would be Uncharted 3, even if it's a great game, gameplay and storywise the longevity is more then poor less the 7 hours to complete it, for me that ain't worth 60$, that is why I've rented it cost me 8$. Now for Skyrim I have put atleast 150 hours in it and I'm on my second playthrough and I'm still finding things I didn't the fisrt time I played.

Skyrim IMO is fun and is worth all the money I spent on this game.

Agreed. In terms of value for money it's a great game. Most of the flaws I see are in the "missed opportunities" category.

The quests could have more depth. There are probably too many "go retrieve object x in dangerous place y" type of quests. If you focus on quests alone it can get repetitive.

I think the developers had an ambivalent attitude towards added activities like smithing, wood chopping, cooking and such. Like lock-picking, they could enrich the game for some had they been more crucial. For others, however, it would be a nuisance if they cannot be ignored alltogether.They chose to cater to the latter group. Excellent modding potential though.....

Something that's bothered me from the start is the lack of context for your character. The game could do with an "origins" starting scenario tbh. I chose to play as a Khajit, but as it is, I rarely had the feeling the world responded to that fact in a significant way. The khajit traders outside Whiterun will tell you their kind aren't allowed into the cities........somehow I never noticed? I wonder what happens if you visit Windhelm as a dark elf. The people there hate elves. Does it have any effect?
Anyway, it's as if the fact that the NPCs don't care who/what I am has the effect I don't care about them either. I'm supposed to save the world, but the game does not make me feel there are many people there worth saving.

**beckyolt** · February 04, 2012, 04:33 PM

Something that's bothered me from the start is the lack of context for your character. The game could do with an "origins" starting scenario tbh. I chose to play as a Khajit, but as it is, I rarely had the feeling the world responded to that fact in a significant way. The khajit traders outside Whiterun will tell you their kind aren't allowed into the cities........somehow I never noticed? I wonder what happens if you visit Windhelm as a dark elf. The people there hate elves. Does it have any effect?

Probably no since lack of impact was one of the main criticisms to Skyrim.

**Banned** · February 06, 2012, 12:05 AM

Originally Posted by snuggans

Release lacking in polish

What exactly did you not find polished?

PC version is a glorified console port

How does that tell what's wrong with the game? A game can be a glorified console port and yet remain entertaining.

Mutitude of bugs and glitches which break immersion

I have played the game for hours and haven't found a single bug/glitch that's immersion-breaking as you state. A game as vast and undying as Skyrim is bound to have bugs. After all, we aren't talking about a typical MMORPG that receives the benefit of an open beta stage prior to its release.

Numerous technical issues only found in PC which do affect gameplay

Most of the technical issues are brought up by those individuals whose computers cannot even run the game on low settings.

Overly streamlined aspects such as UI, quest log

Not necessarily a negative feature. Like many others on the official forums, I have never been bothered by the quality of the user interface. Though it's true that it can be easily modded like almost any other aspect of the game, the original one is just fine. In a nutshell, it's just your opinion, which I can respect.

**snuggans** · February 06, 2012, 05:48 AM

Originally Posted by Banned

Most of the technical issues are brought up by those individuals whose computers cannot even run the game on low settings.

i5 2500k oc'd to 4.4ghz
2x GTX 560 Ti in SLI
8GB DDR3 1600 RAM

as for the rest of your questions, read the actual review instead of skimming through the bulleted negatives. those are only meant to concisely draw main points.

you also can't expect to be having the same experience i'm having 3 months later with several patches tacked on. again, the review is about the game as it was released.

**beckyolt** · February 06, 2012, 07:37 AM

you also can't expect to be having the same experience i'm having 3 months later with several patches tacked on. again, the review is about the game as it was released.

I'm not having any game-breaking bugs either. But then again, I bought the game like two weeks ago.

Originally Posted by Påsan

The main storyline is the best in any TES game ever. I had a blast going through it.

It's the best storyline in the TES games? Wow. Then Oblivion/Morrowind must have truly awful stories.

**Van Daan** · February 06, 2012, 07:44 AM

Well I'm not sure about Morrowind, but Oblivion's story, on reflection, was an extended fetch quest, and repetitive to its bones. You want to save the world? Okay fetch me a Daedra artifact. Now fetch me a breastplate. Now fetch me a rock. Now go into a massive gate and get me another rock. But before you do, you might want to go into other gates and get smaller rocks so that you can have more soldiers. And it ends with a frigging escort quest against an immortal demon and his 20 murderous friends. So yeah, Skyrim's story is a hell of a lot better than Oblivion.

**Banned** · February 06, 2012, 11:12 AM

Originally Posted by snuggans

as for the rest of your questions, read the actual review instead of skimming through the bulleted negatives. those are only meant to concisely draw main points.

you also can't expect to be having the same experience i'm having 3 months later with several patches tacked on. again, the review is about the game as it was released.

Dear me, do you really think people have nothing better to do than read four thousand five hundred words describing your experience with a game that many already consider one of the best of 2011? Write a much shorter review and you might gain more audience. And for your convenience, these are my primary questions to you, repeated for your sake:

What exactly did you not find polished?
How does that tell what's wrong with the game? A game can be a glorified console port and yet remain entertaining.

Or do you find it tedious, time consuming or difficult to answer a couple of questions after writing that massive review?

**snuggans** · February 06, 2012, 01:27 PM

Originally Posted by Van Daan

Well I'm not sure about Morrowind, but Oblivion's story, on reflection, was an extended fetch quest, and repetitive to its bones. You want to save the world? Okay fetch me a Daedra artifact. Now fetch me a breastplate. Now fetch me a rock. Now go into a massive gate and get me another rock. But before you do, you might want to go into other gates and get smaller rocks so that you can have more soldiers. And it ends with a frigging escort quest against an immortal demon and his 20 murderous friends. So yeah, Skyrim's story is a hell of a lot better than Oblivion.

although there are a few fetch quests within Skyrim's main story as well, you do have a point. was the quest to close the gates outside of each city optional or an obligation? that quest wasn't too creatively constructed as it was the same old
"i need men to defend Bruma."
>"we can spare some if you close the gate outside"

repeated for as many towns are there are in Cyrodiil. there should've been more variation there.
i felt the oblivion gates were a bit too intrusive for my tastes, especially when wanting to explore the wilderness. dragons seem like a better alternative and are much more dynamic.

**Maximus_96** · February 07, 2012, 08:47 PM

something i've noticed with Skyrim is how quickly you rise to the highest position in a guild such as the dark brotherhood or companions compared to Oblivion. In skyrim you do two or three quests and you're suddenly the leader of the organization while in oblivion in took hours upon hours to reach the top

**Furiam** · February 10, 2012, 01:48 PM

Originally Posted by Maximus_96

something i've noticed with Skyrim is how quickly you rise to the highest position in a guild such as the dark brotherhood or companions compared to Oblivion. In skyrim you do two or three quests and you're suddenly the leader of the organization while in oblivion in took hours upon hours to reach the top

Agreed. The process seemed far too simplified compared to Oblivion which made becoming the "top dog" less rewarding. Although, I will admit, the magic system was cool and combat was satisfying. I liked the addition of 'perks' mostly because it really did allow you to build a character anyway you wanted.

I don't know about anyone else but my first save, which has over 150 hours invested into it, started to get exceedingly buggy due to CTDs. It started in Whiterun (particularly exiting Jorvaskar) where it would just crash but it eventually got to the point where it would crash upon me performing any random action such as casting spells, looting a body, or going into a new area. I was determined to max out my character but the frequency of the crashes exceeded my patience. I haven't really touched the game since a month after its release and haven't patched it so that might resolve some of the issue.

**snuggans** · February 20, 2012, 03:26 AM

but i did like it! it's just far from perfect, especially at release. i'm pretty tired of the PC version of games being ports they put band-aids on months after release. people are so used to seeing 9's and 10's in review sites that they feel an 8 somehow means the game is mediocre when it actually isn't. i just hold the developers responsible when they incorrectly think the game is ready to be sold to us when it isn't, although i do recognize that publishers have a huge say in the matter when it comes to deadlines.

**beckyolt** · February 20, 2012, 07:09 AM

although i do recognize that publishers have a huge say in the matter when it comes to deadlines.

If only all developers followed Blizzard's "It's done when it's done"...

**beckyolt** · March 21, 2012, 10:43 PM

Ahh nothing like being flamed en masse after I posted my own Skyrim review in a games forum ( filled with rampant fanboyism, it really makes me see how good TWC is) and gave it an 8 too. Why do people refuse to see the weak points of a game?

And I picked it up when the bugs already had been fixed. If I had bought it on release I'd rate it a 6 or 7...

**Mhaedros** · March 22, 2012, 09:49 AM

I got it the first day, and I've only experienced one bug, and it was only three days ago. All my skills where screwed up. All the magical things, which I've never used, was suddenly at 75 each, while everything else was set at 15

**Hopit** · March 24, 2012, 10:50 AM

Originally Posted by Mhaedros

I got it the first day, and I've only experienced one bug, and it was only three days ago. All my skills where screwed up. All the magical things, which I've never used, was suddenly at 75 each, while everything else was set at 15

time to join the university then