Skyrim (multiple image warning)

[Lessinath]

I know some of you were wondering about this game, so I'll put up a short little "here's what I think of this game" and a few images. This is abit incoherant because I'm sleepy.

First, some of the good.

The first really good thing you'll notice is the graphics are nice. No, really.





The next thing you're going to notice is how huge the world is. You can't really describe it - but those images should give you some idea.

There are so many things to do you could spend 100+ hours playing the game without a single mod added and still not have completed everything. Intrestingly, most of this time would NOT be spent traveling as once you've found a location you can fast travel to it. Fast traveling is instant in real-time, but the in-game clock moves forwards based on how far you've traveled. You cannot fast travel in combat, so no slipping away after that dragon ambushes you!

I'll take this time to point out every part of a dragon is dangerous. It can bite you or shoot breath at you with its head, claw you with its wings, and smash you with its tail. Sometimes it can do all of these at the same time, because they have a neck like 10 feet long that can use to turn and bite you when you're standing next to its wing.

This dragon is almost dead, but he still scared the hell out of me when he came dropping down 20 feet away and blasted me with frost a minute before this.



Unfortunately you're also going to notice a few problems.

There are a few pathfinding bugs with large creatures, like giants. Some of the scripted events are relatively clunky, and unless you mod in better character models you'll notice faces appear fairly blocky. There are some physics bugs, such as horses (under some conditions) being able to ride up near vertical slopes.

There are also a few quests that just plain don't work, or don't work all the time due to bugs - which can leave you scratching your head searching for a solution unless the problem is really obvious.

Some of these bugs are amusing, such as extra damage on a killing blow being converted to inertia. This has the notable effect of sending things flying pretty much into low orbit after a giant kills them. The effect cannot be adiquately described and must be seen, but there are youtube videos of it. This bug was intentionally left in, because it's just so damn funny.

(Trying to get an image of something half-way to low orbit with a giant aggroed on you is about as easy as catching an image of a lightning bolt, so an image of just a giant will have to suffice.)



It is also worth pointing out that if you are playing as a stealth character your followers will often get in the way more often than not by running in and aggroing the room before you can do your thing.

Another thing of note in the game is the constantly changing weather. It really improves immersion, although it's quite a scare when a creature comes charging out of the fog at you.



Not seen: Vigerous rotation in this patch of cloud.

It's also a bit of a problem when you get multiple monsters after you, if you play on the higher difficulty settings.



Not seen: Being eaten.



So, my thoughts?

Overall, I'd rate the game a 9.5/10. Even taking into account the bugs, it is still an amazing game. As a bonus, it has a lot of replay value.

If you like your game completely linear with the next step to take completely obvious, this game is most certainly not for you.

If you like for your game to allow you to pretty much do whatever you want, this game is for you.

If you have something against dragons, magic, elves, or any of that standard fantasy stuff this game is also not for you because they are very prominant in the game.

If you want a game where you can expect to never die and beat every encounter on your first try, you can just turn this game to the "novice" difficulty setting, although giants can still send you into low orbit if you're not careful.

Also, there is a mod that adds the space core from Portal 2 into this game.