The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (PC)

[Lord Derfel]

Very nice review I agree with everything you said +rep.

Some of the bugs though not game breaking, do really ruin the immersion factor. When I stumbled on Bleak Falls Barrow I thought there was something wrong with my video card the snow animations there are just horrid.

The gameplay seems like it was dumbed down as well and feels like playing an action FPS on the console as opposed to an RPG game.

Sure mods and patches will be released that will enhance the gameplay but, it's a shame Bethesda didn't take their time to make something special for PC gamers even if it meant having to make us wait longer it would have been well worth it to have a solid PC version.

[Jaketh]

Theres already at least 4 different texture and UI mods out that are starting to remedy it now. Im going to be posting my own review later this evening

[Boustrophedon]

I'm saddened to see it's still possible to walk/jump onto steep cliffs...

Other than that loving it alot

[snuggans]

I actually feel sorry for you that your reservations about the occasional off-putting texture are getting in the way of you enjoying this game.

it's like you didn't read anything i posted, just sort of skimmed through everything, noticed that i talked about textures and attacked that because it seemed the most inconsequential. i already said if the textures was the only problem the game had, i'd be super satisfied, but obviously it's not the only problem. i'm just using textures as the poster-boy problem because it's the most obvious issue and because it's mind-blogging that it exists on a PC version.

look what happened to Rage, http://www.firingsquad.com/news/news...searchid=23760
here's a guy that gets it, although he makes a minor mistake in saying console games usually run at 60 fps, it's actually half of that.

[VOP2288]

^I actually read your entire review. If the issues regarding textures and such wasn't the biggest thing you took issue with then why exactly did you reserve 1/3 of your writing to it? You even just said now that you put a heavy emphasis on the issues with the graphics:

i'm just using textures as the poster-boy problem because it's the most obvious issue and because it's mind-blogging that it exists on a PC version.

In fact, I found quite a disparity between what you've written here and the score you ended up giving the game. The overall tone of your review is pretty negative since you spend most of it concentrating on the bad but then you wrap it all up with saying that the game's positives included nearly every single aspect of it. It's quite confusing actually. The numerous statements pertaining to your disappointment with Bethesda and the game itself doesn't help this either.

look what happened to Rage

Yeah look what happened with it. Wait, what happened with Rage? I was playing it on day one and the only issue I ever encountered was the slight texture pop that appeared if you looked left or right too quickly. That was resolved within 48 hours IIRC.


The fact remains snuggans that whether you meant it to be or not your review here is quite negative considering your score and really gives off the air of being overly nitpicking and really out of focus in terms of what makes up 99% of the game. Like I said before, I'm really sorry that such minor and inconsistent graphic issues really bother you so much but a majority of other people are not as worried about it as you are and are enjoying the hell out of this game for all the great things that it offers.

[snuggans]

if you care to re-read my review, when talking about the graphics, most of what i said about it was actually positive because they are improvements: effects, lighting, animations etc. the only negative thing was mainly textures and some LOD issues that are offset by generally well-done landscapes and fog.

the biggest chunk of negative can be found in the middle and describes technical issues, bugs and glitches. after that it moves on to good things again, music, voice acting, combat, etc. i don't see how my review is exceedingly negative but i do understand how somebody could focus on the bad parts because they disagree with them and conveniently forget all the good things i mentioned. if anything i'm more disappointed because while the game itself has potential even without mods, the shoddy release masks that for me and i expected Bethesda to do better. i'm pretty sure if i had bought the game months after its release, assuming the patches are well-done i would have written a different review with less negatives but with the same positives.

I'm really sorry that such minor and inconsistent graphic issues really bother you so much but a majority of other people are not as worried about it as you are and are enjoying the hell out of this game for all the great things that it offers.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Argumentum_ad_populum
that's great if others are enjoying it but it doesn't change my review and i don't appreciate you using that as a way to belittle my experience.
i could also point out some of the posts in this thread which are agreeing with me, i could share some experiences i've heard from my friends, including one where during a quest the voice files for Esbern were missing and my friend had to go and extract the voice files from somewhere to get it to work, but then there was another bug where Esbern is supposed to open a door for him but does not and he can't advance in the quest. none of it would make a difference to what i've experienced. why can't you accept that?

and for the billionth time, the texture issue is not the only culprit. please stop trying to make it sound like i'm focusing on the inconsequential.

[VOP2288]

Snuggans, you don't get it do you?

When people read something, especially of a critical nature, certain phrases and statements are going to stand out more than others. It doesn't really matter if you throw in a short sentence praising something when you spent a couple sentences before and after it being negative.

For instance let's look at your opening lines:

Let me get this out of the way first since it's the first thing I want to yell out: the PC version of Skyrim is a flat-out console port. While looking at it from the perspective of a PC player and now a wary follower of Bethesda I feel very disappointed that they did not even try to mask this, let alone prevent it from happening.

Skyrim improves upon the series in certain areas and it should be commended for this, but it should also be called out for allowing other areas to deteriorate in quality.

Those statements right there start the whole thing off on a very negative footing. It doesn't matter that you said Skyrim improves on the series when you already associated the game with deteriorating quality and disappointment along with admitting that b/c of Skyrim you're now "wary" of Bethesda.

that's great if others are enjoying it but it doesn't change my review and i don't appreciate you using that as a way to belittle my experience.

I don't want you to change your review. I'm sorry if you took that as belittlement but in all sincerity I mean it - it's a shame that, as you have insinuated yourself, you can't enjoy Skyrim b/c of some graphical issues that really aren't all that gamebreaking, noticeable, or severely problematic.

i could also point out some of the posts in this thread which are agreeing with me

And I could show you an entire thread filled with people having a total blast with the game regardless of a slightly less detailed snow texture...

and for the billionth time, the texture issue is not the only culprit. please stop trying to make it sound like i'm focusing on the inconsequential.

You're the one who made it a central issue snuggans and you're the one who has continued to make it one. If such a thing is so inconsequential that you want to drop the subject when someone takes issue with it then why did you make it one of you're more prominent issues with the game?

[snuggans]

Snuggans, you don't get it do you?

When people read something, especially of a critical nature, certain phrases and statements are going to stand out more than others. It doesn't really matter if you throw in a short sentence praising something when you spent a couple sentences before and after it being negative.

For instance let's look at your opening lines:

Those statements right there start the whole thing off on a very negative footing. It doesn't matter that you said Skyrim improves on the series when you already associated the game with deteriorating quality and disappointment along with admitting that b/c of Skyrim you're now "wary" of Bethesda.

deteriorating in SOME areas, improving in others, not that the entire game is deteriorated or entirely improved. i wanted to get it clear from the beginning that overall i think it's a console port, but if the person only reads the first paragraph that's their problem. if i begin the review with a negative footing when it comes to the PC VERSION that's fine but i believe i delved further in and examined the good as well, rounding it off to an 8 at the end.

you can't enjoy Skyrim b/c of some graphical issues that really aren't all that gamebreaking, noticeable, or severely problematic.

for the trillionth time now, texture issue is not the only culprit. stop repeating this phrase. it's flat out wrong.

And I could show you an entire thread filled with people having a total blast with the game regardless of a slightly less detailed snow texture...

missed my point completely, i specifically said bringing in other's people experiences, whether positive or negative, would not make a difference here. other people are enjoying it, other people are experiencing issues which are reducing their enjoyment level, it doesn't matter because they don't affect MY experience. just saying that the tactic of saying the majority is on your side doesn't make your opinion any truer than mine. the only fact here is that the bugs, technical issues aren't a figment of my imagination. do they happen for some and not for others? sure there's a million different variables that could trigger them or inversely hide them but they do exist. your statement of 25 hours of playing without encountering a single bug does not change my experience of the game in any way.

You're the one who made it a central issue snuggans and you're the one who has continued to make it one. If such a thing is so inconsequential that you want to drop the subject when someone takes issue with it then why did you make it one of you're more prominent issues with the game?

i made it central because it's the easiest issue to demonstrate and it's the issue that one wouldn't normally see in a PC version, i've already explained this several times. just because it's the poster-boy issue does not mean that it's the (a) only issue and (b) the biggest issue. just because i dedicate 1 more paragraph to it than other issues does not mean it affects me the greatest. i'm just being more detailed and specific to an issue that allows it, the other issues can be summed up in shorter length.
i'm also not trying to drop the subject, i'm trying to get you to stop putting words in my mouth when you say that i can't enjoy this game because of some texture issues. no. i could enjoy this game a lot more if it wasn't a console port, and the texture issues is only one of the characteristics of this console port.

what's happening here is that you can't accept that someone found a game only good when you think it's really excellent, so you're trying to either dismiss it by deliberately misreading what i'm saying ("i cant enjoy it solely because some textures are fugly") or try to bring in the opinions of others into the matter to try and reassure yourself that your opinion is the correct one.

[Imperator of Rome]

VOP, just give it up. I reinterated earlier, that I remember lesser known games getting slammed for lesser flaws. I think 80% is a good score for the game considering the flaws it had due to lack of attention to porting. Seriously, 80% is pretty damn good.

[beckyolt]

VOP, just give it up. I reinterated earlier, that I remember lesser known games getting slammed for lesser flaws. I think 80% is a good score for the game considering the flaws it had due to lack of attention to porting. Seriously, 80% is pretty damn good.

agreed... It's his bloody review, he can give the score he wants to...

[snuggans]

see this is what i'm talking about, and i'll try to explain without any spoilers

i'm doing this quest, it comes to a part where a priest wants me to clean up the mess in the temple, so i do. i pick up everything from the ground, it's not a terribly large room so it's easy to examine and see that there's nothing left to clean. every other item in there is red for me, which means if i pick it up i'll be stealing. and yet the NPC fails to recognize that i cleaned it up, she just keeps repeating "clean up the mess you've made" and i can't advance the quest normally or fulfill her request.

then there's another quest which is bugged to all hell, for some reason it teleports me to another area naked and when i check my weapons i see that the charges i had on their enchants are now depleted and i had just filled them up. the worst part is that there are no autosaves from just before that part so i have to revert back to an older save and lose an hour or two of progress. i just exited the game because its things like these that make me want to stop playing.

[VOP2288]

@beckyolt and Imperator

I don't disagree with the score at all and I don't want snuggans to change his review.

@snuggans

I think we got way off track. Look, I'm not trying to say that your opinion isn't valid nor are your concerns based on nothing. Skyrim does have some issues pertaining to its graphics, animations, and such things like character dialogue. However, like I stated before, the game boasts so many improvements and deep new material that such things like the occasionally lower resolution texture or an animation that doesn't properly line up is forgivable if not totally ignored by most people who are so wrapped up in the game. It also seems to be a little silly to bring up the issues pertaining to bugs, glitches, and crashes when it's more than well known that such things will not happen all the time, every time and they're not present on every single copy of the game.

Furthermore it really is a little silly to put so much emphasis on these issues since, essentially, these are the type that can be rectified in no time either with a patch from Bethesda themselves or by means of someone releasing a mod. It's one thing to try and fix something like an animation lining up compared to the kind of task it would be to try and patch a shoddy-at-the-core combat system or a severely unbalanced and nonsensical level/experience system.

I just think that saying you're disappointed with the game, are wary of Bethesda, and that the game itself is nothing more than a crappy console port is a little overkill if we're being objective here. That might be how you personally feel but I believe such an extreme and critical view of Skyrim is NOT shared by most of the people playing it.

i'm doing this quest, it comes to a part where a priest wants me to clean up the mess in the temple, so i do. i pick up everything from the ground, it's not a terribly large room so it's easy to examine and see that there's nothing left to clean. every other item in there is red for me, which means if i pick it up i'll be stealing. and yet the NPC fails to recognize that i cleaned it up, she just keeps repeating "clean up the mess you've made" and i can't advance the quest normally or fulfill her request.

I thought it was bugged too but you just have to really look for awhile. There should be a giants toe, a repair list, and some ale lying about. IIRC the third item was the hard one to find.

[God-Emperor of Mankind]

Good review and agree with it. Better then Oblivion in many ways but sad that they have taken a step back in some areas like the UI which is just horrible.
Main issue there is that it doesn't make sense. Sometimes the mouse works and sometimes it doesn't. I click on a dialogue option and it selects the wrong option. I try to access a category in the shops and it leaves the shop rather then showing me the items because the game all of the sudden decided that this is the time I use the keyboard. And sometimes it's the opposite, I leave the shop because the game decided I should use my mouse rather then the keyboard.

The graphical issues and crashes I can live with, the game boots up fast and loads fast so no biggie but this UI there is simply no excuse.

[snuggans]

[the_mango55]

I still don't understand how you can write a review of a game like Skyrim after 2 days...

[snuggans]

considering there are some reviewers out there who review MMO's after playing it for only a few hours i think i'm the least offender here. the thing is that if i had held out for a review for more days/weeks i would have encountered even more bugs and technical issues that i did not have in mind when writing the review 3 days ago. in contrast i felt i delved deep enough into most things to realize that they weren't going to dramatically change if i had waited more days. the combat would have roughly stayed the same despite unlearned perks. i'll be honest though, i do have some minor regrets when it came to what i wrote: i did not bother mentioning that Bethesda allows you to smith, tan hides, be an apothecary or even cook, etc which are things i knew had existed back when i wrote the review but i completely forgot about them and they are most definitely improvements over Oblivion.

[VOP2288]

considering there are some reviewers out there who review MMO's after playing it for only a few hours i think i'm the least offender here.

Keep in mind though that professional reviewers, whether we're talking about something like Skyrim or an MMO, will have virtually unrestricted access to it for anywhere from a couple weeks to a couple days ahead of release. Obviously the typical gamer does not have this benefit lol.

i'll be honest though, i do have some minor regrets when it came to what i wrote: i did not bother mentioning that Bethesda allows you to smith, tan hides, be an apothecary or even cook, etc which are things i knew had existed back when i wrote the review but i completely forgot about them and they are most definitely improvements over Oblivion.

Like I stated in the sticky for this section please feel free to update and re-write your submissions. The more refined you can make your review the better informed readers will be. Also, just to let you know I'm highly considering giving your review my seal of approval to be featured in the newest Silver Shield (so if you read this Bolk before I get to you take note). That being said if there are any updates, changes, and edits you'd like to do to your work please either do so here in the topic or feel free to send me an updated copy.

[Silent Assassin]

Lol this vid is funny But honestly I have seen only one of the bugs shown opn that video, I'm playing the PS3 version. Still there will always be players unstatisfied which is normal but people should know that it's a Bethesda game, we all know it as bugs on released but IMO Skyrim as less bugs then Oblivion when it was released.

[Astaroth]

I've read this review and played the game (on the PC) and I think the negative aspects were given too much emphasis here. I mean, no offense, but reading your review (even including the positive aspects), the reader might wonder why you gave the game 80% rather than say 60.

I do agree that the UI isn't exactly great and that there are some bugs and problems with the graphics, but I got the impression that the main criticism was aimed at Skyrim being a console port. To put it differently: parts of the review appear more like criticism of Bethesda's methods/business goals than of major flaws in Skyrim.

[snuggans]

I've read this review and played the game (on the PC) and I think the negative aspects were given too much emphasis here. I mean, no offense, but reading your review (even including the positive aspects), the reader might wonder why you gave the game 80% rather than say 60.

I do agree that the UI isn't exactly great and that there are some bugs and problems with the graphics, but I got the impression that the main criticism was aimed at Skyrim being a console port. To put it differently: parts of the review appear more like criticism of Bethesda's methods/business goals than of major flaws in Skyrim.

i've been working on an edit since yesterday because i mulled over the fact that i did end up posting my first rough draft instead of polishing it , kind of like what Bethesda did with this game. the general tone will remain the same. however, what methods/business goals do you mean? how is mouse input lag a business goal? unless you mean their lack of care for the PC version is one of their business goals, i don't know how you extracted that from the review. if you can't establish a huge connection between skyrim being a console port and the way the game plays on the PC then there's nothing else i can say. the difference here is what may be a major flaw to me is not a major flaw to you. bet you ten bucks you're yet another person who didn't experience half the issues i listed, so i must be taking pot shots at Bethesda's business goals.