V The Elder Scrolls

[Roderick]

You do make a great point about the mods, Orvidos, but I've never really been drawn to them. I made due in Morrowind and Oblivion without mods and the games lasted quite long without

I know by far the preferable way to play TES games is on the PC. However, I don't know if my current PC will have the chops for Skyrim. Another huge thing is that the rig is located on the office where I work, so if I chose the PC version I wouldn't be able to leisurely play it in the evening... which is when I'd want to.

Gameplay-wise, Oblivion was already developed with consoles in mind. Skyrim will have become even more platform-agnostic.

[Orv]

Fair enough. I sincerely hope they do some sort of tweaking or modification between the console and PC version, but it's sort of a latent hope. The same sort of hope I had as a child that I would get a Porsche for christmas. Ah well.

[Erkki]

According to RPS, there is hope that Skyrim will be more like Morrowind. Actually, a middle ground between Morrowind and Oblivion, but that's something already.

[Roderick]

Sweet ********* pineal gland! That is fantastic news! I want to be a stranger in a strange land again, call me outlander, dammit :tup:

On another note, I bought Oblivion GOTY secondhand for the Xbox 360, just to see how an Elder Scrolls would play on a console. So far, I'm loving the experience. There are a few downsides: less accuracy with pointing your bow and arrow, none of the advanced options (calling down the code menu or even things like playing around with physics objects and corpses) and less visual fidelity (though still impressive and beautiful).

It is, however, an amazingly tactile experience, feeling much less cumbersome than on the PC. Racing around towns and dungeons is great. On top of that, the console version is super stable. In 24 hours of play it crashed only once: a far, far cry from PC versions of any Elder Scrolls game.

This has given me at least the comfort that playing Skyrim on the console might not be a wholly foolish enterpise. I'll wait for some reports on how it plays first though: after all it took Bethesda the GOTY release to get the console version quite right. I hear the original release was slow, buggy and ugly.

[EDIT] I can't believe "pine*apple" is still censored :'D

[Wubbles]

even things like playing around with physics objects and corpses

Press and hold the left bumper while the cursor is pointed at a physcis object.

[Roderick]

NO WAY.

[Ben X]

[EDIT] I can't believe "pine*apple" is still censored :'D

Yeah, why is that?

[elmuerte]

pineapple!!

[MrHoatzin]

It has something to do with tasty *****. I don't really remember it. IT IS TRADITION, what more do you need to know?

EDIT: OMG, ***** is still censored too!

[ThunderPeel2001]

pineapple!!

Cheat!

[Roderick]

Can we please get back to gushing over Skyrim? Thank you.

I played Oblivion yesterday and it started snowing. After a moment of supreme beauty and goosebumps (proving that games are art, Mr. Ebert!!), I noticed the snow moved along as I walked through the forest. It became so painfully clear there was just a particle generator slotted to my vector in the world, it made me chuckle.

Apparently Skyrim has dynamic snow that falls and sticks to surfaces. It seems like an indulgent special effect, but for a game where the mountainous setting is so important to the experience, this can potentially be a huge thing.

[thl]

Can we please get back to gushing over Skyrim? Thank you.

I played Oblivion yesterday and it started snowing. After a moment of supreme beauty and goosebumps (proving that games are art, Mr. Ebert!!), I noticed the snow moved along as I walked through the forest. It became so painfully clear there was just a particle generator slotted to my vector in the world, it made me chuckle.

Apparently Skyrim has dynamic snow that falls and sticks to surfaces. It seems like an indulgent special effect, but for a game where the mountainous setting is so important to the experience, this can potentially be a huge thing.

snow sticking to things seems awesome to me. that's always been kind of an irksome thing for me whenever i see snow in games. it seems like a cheap screen effect but if the snow actuallly manifests in the world and not just in front of your face, that will rock!

[DanJW]

Snow physics is the new light bloom!

[MrHoatzin]

pineapple!!

I am looking forward to long waiting times when entering buildings and walking around. The snow is gonna be so worth it.

[DanJW]

I am looking forward to long waiting times when entering buildings and walking around. The snow is gonna be so worth it.

Heh. In fairness Bethesda are pretty good at putting fine graphics control into their games, so you will almost certainly be able to turn the snow off.

edit: on PC at least.

Edited March 15, 2011 by DanJW

[Roderick]

You know, if you're a snow hater.

[elmuerte]

snow is stupid, unless you can make snowballs

[Erkki]

Snow physics is the new light bloom!

Bah. I'm not impressed until we see snow chemistry simulation and each snowflake is globally unique

[Orv]

Bah. I'm not impressed until we see snow chemistry simulation and each snowflake is globally unique

Kill you.

That said, woooooooooooooo Skyrim might not be a generic, overly green pile of fail!

Might. Hope.

[Roderick]

It has occurred to me these last few days that Morrowind is a game that would not be made nowadays. It would be way too off course for any mainstream production. Just the fact that it takes place on an island swept by dust storms, inhabited almost exclusively by darkskinned elves instead of white humans, is enough for it never to be greenlit, or honestly deemed too risky.

It makes me all the more grateful that it does exist, because it's perhaps the weirdest, most outlandish thing ever, this inscrutibly arcane, bottomless, super hard to get into, uninviting but insanely rewarding, crits you with walls of text and little spoken dialogue, deeply politically and culturally laden game.

[mikemariano]

Wait, there was weather in Oblivion? Maybe I should play that game.

I'm playing Fallout 3 right now and I'm upset by the lack of weather. It never rains or snows.

Plus the sun always rises and sets at the same time. It's December 22, 2277 in Washington, DC according to my Pip-Boy and I just enjoyed a 5:45am sunrise with Fawkes. Can nuclear war really get rid of the winter solstice?

PS: It's almost Christmas! The game doesn't do any holiday themed stuff, does it?

[ThunderPeel2001]

Plus the sun always rises and sets at the same time. It's December 22, 2277 in Washington, DC according to my Pip-Boy and I just enjoyed a 5:45am sunrise with Fawkes. Can nuclear war really get rid of the winter solstice?

PS: It's almost Christmas! The game doesn't do any holiday themed stuff, does it?

I never saw any.

[Orv]

There is weather in Oblivion, yeah. Not a lot of it, or of great quality, but it's there. There are a few spectacular mods that make weather a real treat, though.

Here's hoping for nice, STALKER:COP-like lighting storms, for Skyrim.

[Roderick]

Ironically, Morrowind did a lot more stuff with weather if memory serves. I clearly recall walking around in a rainstorm, or getting lost in various dustbowls.

A good Skyrim thunderstorm would be the rad.

[Wubbles]

Mastered intro to Skyrim theme on piano!