First impressions

Remove all ads!

Are very positive. I was afraid that they would have dumbed down the system too much but the streamline actually seems to be just that and making things much easier to handle without removing depth. My biggest positive surprise is that destruction magic seems much more viable than it was in Morrowind and Oblivion. The all present talent trees are in the game but there are quite a lot of them and unlike the previous ES games you actually have to choose. No more grinding all skills to be superpowerful which I loved to do but it was also quite boring and you tended to end up with way too powerful characters. Must say that I had my doubts about this game but after the first few hours of playing most of them are put to rest, for now at least.

 

I agree. The old levelling system was a mess and it needed an overhaul, imho. I'm very satisfied with the way they've done it so far.

 

I like it so far, but I have only logged about an hour [I've been busy with the kids} But I get to play as soon as Mrs. Chandos gets home and takes over, although I still have to work early tomorrow morning...see you guys next year.

 

I broke down and bought it today, too.

God I'm weak.

Patching now.

 

Killed my first dragon (well 2nd, but first one I had to go toe-to-toe with alone). Those things can sure take a beating. It's pretty tedious work just to get them to land when you, like my character, have invested nada in Archery or Destruction magic .

A word of warning, make sure you have plenty of healing potions and elemental resistance potions with you. Their breath weapon can take you down pretty quickly, and depending on the environment you're very vulnerable while they're airborne.

 

Taken down a few more dragons, still haven't really started on the main quest. Destruction magic and a companion made them cake. Impressions still very favourable. Vastly better than DA2 and also much more fun than DAO. Does anyone know if the game is fully levelled or not? I can't tell. My mage blasts everything to smithereens which should point towards it being levelled but anything that actually gets close enough to hit me chops me to pieces in seconds.

 

Loving the game so far. The level-up system seems abit dumbed down though, I must admit. The rest is just brilliant. Deffinatly the best rpg I have played in many, many years.

 

So you guys have no trouble with the UI or Inventory?

 

I do. It was clearly made with consoles in mind. I'd love to be able to hotkey spells and different weapons. It's just that I pretty much expected this and it's hard to get disappointed when you get what you expect .

 

I have seen worse and you can pretty much hotkey a little bit with the favourite list. I am not much of a hotkeyer myself but I filled up my quick list fast enough.

 

I am playing it on my xbox360. I have gotten fed up with having to upgrade my computer for video games. I don`t play too much anymore anyway, so playing on a console is perfectly ok for my needs. I notieced that the AI for companions could be alot better. My companion keeps getting stuck alot, or ends up lagging far behind when I am running about from A to B.

 

My impression:

LOVING this game. I'm enjoying my play experience much more than I did Oblivion. Which is odd, since the core gameplay feels almost exactly the same. The big difference for me is the leveling system, and how much more sense it makes now. You can definitely feel the influence of the leveling system from Fallout 3 here. The combat definitely takes a few cues from Fallout 3, too - there's a cool bullet-timeish effect when you score a critical hit in melee (and it looks pretty dope).

I'm playing an Imperial spellsword-type. My big emphasis so far has been Destruction magic and One Handed fighting (swords mainly). I love that they did away with the blunt vs. blade crap. I roast enemies with flames from a distance and then finish them off when they get in range of my sword. It's great for taking enemies one on one, but can be more challenging for handling groups, since I can't block attacks, only dodge. But so far I'm on level 13 and seem to be doing pretty well. I also love that enemies don't level with you. Enemies are what they are and if you can't beat them now, you come back later when you're stronger. Much more realistic.

The world feels more realistic this time around, too. The cities are not as arbitrarily diverse. The towns in Nord areas are almost entirely populated by Nords. The Redguards I've seen so far have identified themselves (and are treated) as foreigners. The only Kajjiits I've seen have stayed in a small group outside a city and are gypsy-types. The only high elves I've seen are dicks. I have yet to encounter a wood elf or single aregonion. This feels SO much more realistic, and it's a nice touch.

SEMI-SPOILERS

I've already bought my house in Whiterun and decked it out with all the upgrades. This is DEFINITELY the first purchase anyone should make. As soon as you get 5k gold, buy that sucker. It's essential to be able to have a place to stash all your ingredients, crafting materials, food stuffs and extra equipment you can't bear parting with.

Also, I've already killed 5 dragons. I've found that magic is really the only way to bring them down in a reasonable amount of time. I suppose if you maxed out archery you could just pick them off over time, but I haven't seen a sensible way to engage them in melee. It's for this reason that I don't see a straight combat build really working out, since killing dragons is essential to the game. But I could be wrong.

So in short, this game is sucking up far more of my free time than is responsible for me at the moment, but it's the most enjoyable RPG gaming experience I've had in a long time.

EDIT: In response to the above - I'm playing on a PC and I'm not really noticing/not bothered by a supposed console-centric interface design. I find it works just fine, though, not being able to quick-key between sword-and-spell and bow is a bit inconvenient. Maybe they'll address this in a patch. But I'm used to it now and it's not a biggy to me.

 

Need to buy that house, currently I am stashing my stuff in my room at the mage's college. Always a problem in the ES games as to where you can put your excess stuff. I really like that as a caster you are strongly suggested to wear robes as the bonuses for casting are so strong even in the early game. Playing an armoured caster must be a pain with you going oom very quickly and regenerating extremely slowly.

Do dragons even have a melee attack? I wonder cause I nuke them down and once when I was oom I thought I could wack it a bit with my sword and it just stood there and took it. Except for the fire breath I haven't taken any damage from a dragon.

 

In my next playthrough, I will be a straight-up caster, I think. Maybe a caster-thief combo.

 

They do have a melee bite attack.

 

God damn it! I need a new CPU. I knew it would be either this or D3 that made me do it, and evidently it will be Skyrim.

OTOH, I COULD buy a console for the fraction of the price of a new CPU. If I had a third hand, I would balance this thought with my 4-year old who would probably love to play with me, and having some quality father-son time for 3+ hours per night, which would force me to make a saving throw vs. Death Gaze at -4 from my wife every night... she already hates the marathon-gaming sessions we have with Lego Batman. (Which, I must admit, is actually a pretty tough game to figure out. The age on the game is 7+, but I don't realistically see how a 7 year-old would figure out some of this stuff. Hell, this 37-year old had to find an online walkthrough to get through one part.)

 

Teach her to play as well. Biggest risk is that then you would not get to play at all, ever.

 

Not. Going. To. Happen.

It's not her fault really. She's just not a gamer, which isn't unusual given our age group. Boys in the 80s played video games. Girls pretty much didn't. My wife (who is 36) is just a little bit too old to be in the era of female gamers. My youngest brother is in his mid-20s, and nearly all of the girls he dates are into games, and the percentage of them is such that it can't be just random chance that all the girls he dates either really like games or are much more tolerant of playing games than any of the girls I dated.

I don't know what happened in that period of 10-12 years, but it makes a big difference evidently.

 

I hear you, Aldeth. I would recommend a PS3. Telling your wife "it comes with Netflix capability and is one of the best BluRay players available" gives you a permanent +2 to save vs. guilt gaze.

 

Sold out everywhere... 3-6 weeks next batch
:sadface: