OT: Attention Fantasy RPG Fans

[Bullethead 12]

Logitech still make a Trackball, which you move by thumb. But it's not cheap.

 

Lots of people make trackballs, but today they've all got the ball mounted in the center, even Logitech's. Or at least it was so 2 months ago when I went shopping for one .

 

Can one fight with two swords?

 

Yup. As I understand things, in Skyrim the left mouse button works the left hand, the right button the right hand. You can carry weapons in both, spells in both, 1 of each, or shield and weapon. I suppose if you use a 2-handed weapon, only 1 button works.

 

This is a big change from previous games in the series. In those, you had to have a weapon, it was always in the right hand, and you used the mouse to swing your sword (or maybe I'm confusing that with Mount and Blade--it's been a while since I played Oblivion).

 

My main question about this new system is whether there are any built-in limits that force your character to be left- or right-handed. By that I mean, do you have to put your shield or dagger in the left hand and your main weapon in the right, or does the game not care? I ask because of ergonomics--the index finger is the fastest, the middle finger is the strongest. This is why in pretty much every game, you use your weapon with the index finger on the left button. If the game doesn't limit what the character's left hand can do, then all my characters will be left-handed swordsmen, which would be useful in several tactical ways. But if it does care, hopefully the game allows remapping the mouse buttons.

 

For 7 years I lived in Sleepy Hollow, NY right next to the "Old Dutch Church' and cemetery where this story took place. I used to take walks at night through the woods next to the cemetery until I freaked myself out then I would walk 'briskly' home.

 

That's cool . I had no idea any place in the story was real.

 

I live about 5 miles from The Myrtles plantation, which over the last few years has become famous as a haunted house. It's been on TV lately a few times with "Ghosthunters" and "Is It Real?", and naturally right now it's doing booming business as Halloween approaches. But it's not haunted at all. The stories were all made up by the current owners to increase business (and it worked). Even if the stories were true, though, all the supposed ghosts are relatives of mine so I doubt they'd bother me

 

Anyway, back to Skyrim....

 

I'm fascinated by the new character stat system. It breaks with RPG tradition going all the way back to paper D&D. No more character attributes like strength, intelligence, dexterity, etc. Instead, just a bunch of skills and the 3 basic combat units of hit points, magic points, and stamina points. At first, I thought, WTF? But the more I think about it, the more brilliant it seems. If your character can cast some powerful spell, for example, then he must be pretty damn smart, so why bother tracking intelligence separately? So I'm thinking I'll like this new system and will hope to see it in all future games.

 

Besides, the new system avoids one of the things that's been a bit weird for me even in fantasy settings. That is, having characters increase their bodily attributes during the game. Now sure, in real life, you can work out to build strength and stamina, but there's not a lot anybody can do to make themselves smarter or less clumsy. And even where real world stat increases are possible, there are still limits on them. And I've never bought the idea that your character was in some why special and different from the common herd, so could magically do this. Anyway, it seems to me that Skyrim assumes your body's got whatever it's got, but during the game you just get better at using it, as measured by increasing skills. So that's another attraction to me.

 

 

 

 

 

[UK_Widowmaker 571]

Have to add, that I havent been dissapointed in any Bethesda product yet. Love all the Fallout games too.

 

Unlike companies like EA and Ubisoft...they stick to one type of genre..and do it extremely well

Edited October 29, 2011 by UK_Widowmaker

[Bullethead 12]

Have to add, that I havent been dissapointed in any Bethesda product yet. Love all the Fallout games too.

 

Yup, Bethesda rocks. I have every reason to expect that Skyrim will be at least as good as Oblivion and Fallout, and probably better in a number of ways. However, I also expect that, as usual with such large and complex games, it will require a fairly hefty patch about 1 month in to fix a few broken quests, clipping issues, etc.

 

I just ordered my new P4-ready desktop yesterday. I won't have it until a few days after Skyrim ships. But I do plan on having the game sitting here waiting on it .

 

[Olham 164]

Lots of people make trackballs, but today they've all got the ball mounted in the center, even Logitech's.

Or at least it was so 2 months ago when I went shopping for one

LOGITECH have this wireless trackball - at least in AMAZON Germany.

 

http://www.amazon.de/Logitech-910-002090-M570-Trackball-schnurlos/dp/B0043A1F4S/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1319894758&sr=8-1

[Olham 164]

Anyone playing "RAGE" here?

[Hellshade 110]

5 Reasons Skyrim Will Change Gaming

 

1. You Are What You Do.

 

In real life, you become what you do most often. If you want to be a musician, then you need to practice hard at it and for a long time. Simply saying "I'm a musician" doesn't make you one. In Skyrim, things are much the same way. You are what you do. If you want to be a sword wielding badass who shoots gouts of flames out of the other hand, then you start with a crappy sword and a low level fire spell and you practice it on every badguy (or goodguy) that you happen to meet. You don't choose to be a "spellsword" from a menu selection of pre-determined classes and then only get better in what that narrow class definition allows. Skyrim brings the possibility that at any moment, we can begin to change who we are. If we choose to become a musician in real life and work at it every day, it doesn't preclude us from also becoming pilot someday. In Skyrim, if I suddenly wish to branch out from being a fireball slinging, sword swinging hero, I can begin to focus on other areas and add that to my skill set. For instance I could decide that since I have a sword in one hand and use a fire spell in my other hand, I don't have enough protection during combat. I could start wearing light or heavy armors to absorb the incoming blows or I could focus on increasing my skill in Conjuration magic so that I can summon an ally to my side to help take down enemies faster. It opens the possibility that I might not have the skills I need to successfully deal with every encounter I might have, but I have the option of teaching myself new tricks so that I can always come back later and kick ass using my new abilities. With Skyrim, the days of "I'm a mage so I can only learn, do and use certain things" are over. If I want to shoot lighting bolts from behind a shield while my undead minions charge my opponents, I can teach myself to do that. And if later on I want to learn how to sneak and shoot a bow so I can assassinate people and creatures from a distance without using up my magic, I can do that to. It's all about what I want to spend my time learning instead of being about one uninformed choice that I make at the start of the game that limits my potential. Skyrims "you are what you do" system means I have nearly unlimited options on how I react to the world around me. If I see an NPC sneak up on someone and assassinate them with a dagger, I can teach myself to do that, even though I'm currently a plate armor, battleaxe wielding warrior. I don't have to start a whole new character. Make no mistake: "You are what you do" is the next evolution in player advancement systems for RPGs.

 

2. Less is More.

 

Bruce Lee once famously said "Becoming a better fighter is about learning the basics and then stripping away all of the non-essentials." In other words, how do you reduce every movement to only exactly the minimum you need to do in order to accomplish your goal of winning. That way you save time and energy on your strikes and defenses. Skyrim has adopted this approach by making Less is More in at least two very important areas. The first area where Less is More is in the statistics system. Instead of having Strength, Intelligence, Wisdom, etc..Skyrim trims it down to only the essentials. Why even have an Intelligence score if the only purpose for it really is to raise the amount of Magicka (Mana) that your character has? It's redundant. Just raise the Magicka score directly and be done with it. It means less stats for the players to look at and more time spent actually in the game playing. What a concept. The second area where Less is More in Skyrim is in the User Interface. Bethesda (that's the company that makes the Elder Scrolls series of which Skyrim is the latest installment) has figured out a genius idea. What's the point of creating a beautiful world if it's going to be covered up by a huge, intrustive, immersion breaking interface? So now your health, stamina and magicka bars will only show up if they aren't full. In other words, at the start of a fresh fight or whenever you are just walking around, you won't have three huge red, green and blue colored lines on your screen at all times, distracting you from your view of the world. Until you get hit, your health bar is invisible. It only shows up when you actually need it...meaning when you've taken damage. If you don't see it, then you must be full health. The same with stamin and magicka. Until the resources start being depleted, there is no reason for them to be displayed on your screen, distracting you from the incredible world vistas before you. The User Interface improvements also extend to the inventory system, where you can store "Favorites" of items you switch between regularly without having to open your inventory every time to find and equipmen them and also to looting objects and corpses where if they don't have anything inside, it tells you they are 'empty' rather than making you waste your time searching them. The net result of all of this is more time spent in the game world and less time spent playing "the menu game". Less interface is More playtime. Awesome.

 

3. Big World. Tiny Details.

 

Bethesda has always created huge open worlds in their Elder Scrolls and now Fallout series of games. Also, MMOs have been creating huge open worlds for a few decades now. But the problem has always been the larger the world, the harder it is to fill it all with intricate, unique details. For those who've ever played Worlds of Warcraft, it's a huge world to explore. But did you ever notice that every single Inn is the same exact model? It's a big world (and a fun one) but the "bigness" comes at the expense of being filled with more of the same. Skyrim has over 150 hand crafted dungeons when it ships and multiple mountains to explore. But what's exciting about that is it's filled with tons of tiny details that make every area you explore truly different. They have modeled every item in the world in full 3D so that you can pick it up, rotate it around and look at it from every angle. That includes the food and other mundane things, not just "cool" stuff like weapons and armor. Every plant and animal is finely detailed. Every NPC face changes expression depending on if you are flirting with them or they are pissed about about to club you with a huge mace. Check out the picture of the Orc wielding the two handed weapon at the begining of this thread. Doesn't he look pissed? And the details aren't all in the graphics. The AI has been crafted to provide details that add to the realism as well. Foxes and wolves will hunt small game. Every character has his own morality code that deeply influences their behavior. Even the monsters have little touches added that give them personality. In one preview video, I saw an undead warrior shaking it's axe in anger at the player as his fellow undead were being roasted alive by a flame spell. He didn't just charge blindly forward and attack. He paused a moment to vent out his hatred in gestures and, I presume, threats or curses. There's another scene where some three eyed yeti like creature meets a player on a small bridge. The creature jumps up and down beating it's chest as if pumping itself up for a fight and bellowing out a challenge to the player. Tiny details like that, adding what I call "attitude to the monsters" fills the big world with a more immersive experience. Big worlds have been done. This big and this detailed in every nook and cranny of the world? No, Skyrim is a game changer here in terms of what will be expected in the future.

 

4. The Boss Fights Come to You and then They Think about How to Kill You.

 

In traditional gaming, all the way back to the Atari days, you fought your way through the entire level and then at the end of each level was the boss fight. Then at the end of the game, the final boss fight and all of them were scripted or patterned. Even in one of the most popular games on the market today, World of Warcraft, it's the same formula. You fight your way through the dungeon and Boss mobs are at or near the end of each level. When you get to them, you and your guild basically engage in what I call synchronized swimming behaviors where everybody has to do exactly certain moves at specific times in order to beat the bosses pre-programmed - phase 1, phase 2, phase 3 - AI. Skyrim throws that very tired formula out the window with it's dragons. Todd Howard, Lead Creative Designer for Bethesda says dragons in Skyrim are huge boss fights that basically can show up at any time in the open world and attack you. In fact, if the Radient AI story system decides you haven't fought a dragon in awhile, it'll send one to find you. Even if you are in the middle of a town. You don't have to go looking for the boss, they come looking for you. What a unique and totally realistic concept for a game. Why should super powerful beings in a fantasy world coup themselves up inside one tiny room in one dungeon and wait for adventurers to come and find them? The best defense is a good offense. In Skyrim these creatures roam the world freely and if they find something that they don't like or that looks tasty (you qualify on both counts), they attack you no matter if you are prepared or not. And what about when they do find you? Do they run through a script where battling them is the same routine every time? Nope. Dragons have their own hand crafted AI where they will fight to the best of their abilities and react to the situation around them. In one preview scene, a dragon is walking on the ground towards the player, and then the players allied dragon (did you know later in the game you can learn to summon a dragon to your aid....yeah) swoops over it and lets out a scortching blast of flames. The one attacking the player stops, quickly turns it's head lets out a retalatory blast of fire onto your ally. It changed targets on the fly because it saw the other dragon as a real danger or, at the very least, pissed him off enough to make him want to do something about it. No more "phase 1, phase 2, phase 3" mindless bosses. Now the bosses roam the world freely, looking for you and then use their own intelligence to determine the best way to kill you. This includes staying airborn and engulfing you in their dragon breath until you can do enough damage to them to make them fall out of the sky and continue the fight on the ground. If you have very poor ranged fighting capabilities, they aren't going to help you kill them by landing and fighting toe to toe. That's your problem. They are in the fight to win. Eat your heart out Donkey Kong jr.

 

5. A Sandbox World with Endless Sand.

 

It's true Bethesda has released construction sets with their other open world games. However Skyrim takes this to a new level because the sandbox world you get to mod is already so complete, most of what's going to be added is new content. Bethesda has created a huge world filled with tiny details and players can use the toolset to create new races, weapons, magic items, NPCs, buildings, castles, dungeons, quests and even whole new continents. Not to mention the DLC and possible official expansions that will likely come. Oblivion has, literally, tens of thousands of mods than have been developed for it over the past 6 years. I think that will likely be a drop in the bucket compared to what enthusiastic modders are going to make for Skyrim. If you love the world of Skyrim, mods will make sure you never run out of things to do and if there's anything that you don't like, there will probably be a mod to change it. Skyrim will be the sandox world with endless amounts of sand. When looking at replayability, every game will have to be judged against Skyrim as the new standard.

 

Hellshade

Edited October 29, 2011 by Hellshade

[Bullethead 12]

LOGITECH have this wireless trackball - at least in AMAZON Germany.

 

http://www.amazon.de...19894758&sr=8-1

 

Thanks, but it's wireless, which doesn't work for me.

 

Also, I think this model has been discontinued.

[UK_Widowmaker 571]

Anyone playing "RAGE" here?

 

I have been playing it, yes... my personal score 2/10

 

Hey Hellshade!...you don't work for Bethesda do you?

[Von Paulus 8]

Hellshade, with all the due respect, but I really doubt that Skyrim will change anything in terms of gaming and will set a new standard.

I've my pre order of the game. However I'm not hyped at all. And to be honest didn't read much about the game just for not end up being hyped.

I just don't believe that a game that is release in a multiplatform (consoles) will set anything new at all. I don't believe that in the current world affairs anything fresh will come from the computer gaming industry, from a AAA title. It can be good to play, but that's it.

 

After the release of Apocalypse Now Redux (I prefer the original editing, by the way), I read an interview with Copolla. The interviewer asked him if a movie like "Apocalypse Now" could be done nowadays. Copolla answered no, because the time of the epics is over. And while we all know how Copolla thinks about himself, it's no less true. The Copolla of our days is James Cameron, that's what the movie industry promote. That's what the shareholders want. That's what we get.

With the computer/video gaming industry, what we get is just that kind of stuff.

However there are from time to time a few exceptions. Maybe I'm wrong and Skyrim turns out to be a new "Apocalypse Now" instead of a new "Avatar".

Edited October 29, 2011 by Von Paulus

[Hasse Wind 46]

You make some excellent points, Von Paulus. Hype is hype, and the marketing people are there to make it sound like everything is better than ever before. Only rarely does it happen in reality. There are exceptions, of course.

 

I think I'll wait a year or so before giving Skyrim a try. Then I'll benefit from the testing done by all of the early adopters, and the game will cost much less. Or maybe I'll wait for the GOTY edition. I have my hands full with flight sims in any case, so I can wait.

[Hellshade 110]

It's easy to get caught up in the hype machine, especially of a AAA title. And very often they are over-hyped and over rated. But if you're going to basically say "the best of gaming is behind us because the world we live in won't allow for great new classics" then I guess you are entitled to that opinion and I respect it, but I also respectfully disagree. Todd Howard and crew at Bethesda make the games they do for the same reason OBD is working on OFF P4. Because they love what they do. My personal belief is that as long as you have a team of people who are passionate about whatever they are into, there will still be new things introduced that change the way everyone looks at that field in terms of what is possible. I fully expect P4 to set new standards in terms of what is possible in a flight sim. Maybe it won't get the press that it deserves because they aren't a big company, but to me that doesn't matter. What matters is do they love what they do so much that they find ways to bring new and improved features that raises the expectations of those who play it for everything that follows. When another new WWI flight sim comes out after P4, if I play it...I'm probably going to be asking myself how well it stacks up to P4 in terms of features. If I am, it must mean P4 set new standards and has changed my expectations of what I want in a game (sorry Olham, flight sim). I think Skyrim will do that for alot of other games for these reasons:

 

Boss Monsters that seek you out anywhere in the open world and then fight with their own custom AI that reacts to the situation around is new. I don't know of any other game that does that. To me, that's a new standard.

 

Changing what you are capable of doing by adding new skills without sacrificing old ones - at any time - is something new. It's not about "respeccing". It's about adding entirely different skills while retaining what you already have. I've never see a completely open ended system where you don't choose a class or skills. You just do what you want and get better. No restrictions. To me, that is a new standard.

 

Reducing the UI to virtually nothing and only displaying information when it's relevant or you ask for it is also something new as far as I know. At least for a deep single RPG. Hell, even action RPGs like Diablo keep health and mana on screen at all times. You could say they took that idea from flight sims and I'd agree with that. But nobody has ever applied that idea before in a single player RPG, so it sets a new standard for that genre. Getting the UI out of the way of a huge, open world so you can stay more immersed in it is something that sure looks like a new standard to me. Again, maybe someone else has done it in a deep single player RPG, but I haven't seen or heard about it. Reducing stats to only what's absolutely needed and getting rid of D&D style stat tree to focus on on what really matter looks new to me too.

 

Big worlds. There's a few. This heavily detailed? I haven't seen it. To me that's raising the bar of not just volume of space to explore but quality of content that fills every step of it.

 

I could be wrong about all of it. It could suck big time. I'll eat crow if I'm wrong. Hell, I thought IL Cliffs of Dover was going to be awesome and look what a terrible mess the launch for that was. I still havent' bough it! But I haven't read a pre-viewer yet who isn't blown away by all the details in Skyrim and how it plays. Maybe the multi-platform thing will be bad, but as long as a company loves what they do, I believe they have a good shot at creating a new classic. I think if I couldn't believe that, I'd just stop gaming or go back to my old C-64.

 

IGN got advanced copies of Skyrim for the 360 yesterday and will release a full review on 11.10.11. Not that their word is "gold" about anything but it'll be interesting to see what they have to say about it. In the meantime, they say they will have a lot more tid bits being released as they play.

 

As an interesting side note: I read an interview where Todd Howard said Bethesda was contacted by the author of Game of Thrones series of books, asking them to make the official game for it. While everyone there at bethesda said they really enjoy the books alot, in the end they decided to pass because they felt more passionate about the games they were already working on. No doubt they passed up a nice chunk of cash there considering how popular the books are. That's the passion I look for in a game company that keeps them on my radar when it comes to changing what's possible in a virtual world. Nothing will ever be perfect, but if playing it means I can't go back to Oblivion because the features in Skyrim are so superior....well..that says something. And lets face it, not every sequel in a trilogy is able to move the bar higher. Just ask Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. Newer definately doesn't guarantee it to be better.

Edited October 29, 2011 by Hellshade

[Von Paulus 8]

It's easy to get caught up in the hype machine, especially of a AAA title. And very often they are over-hyped and over rated. But if you're going to basically say "the best of gaming is behind us because the world we live in won't allow for great new classics" then I guess you are entitled to that opinion and I respect it, but I also respectfully disagree. Todd Howard and crew at Bethesda make the games they do for the same reason OBD is working on OFF P4. Because they love what they do. My personal belief is that as long as you have a team of people who are passionate about whatever they are into, there will still be new things introduced that change the way everyone looks at that field in terms of what is possible. I fully expect P4 to set new standards in terms of what is possible in a flight sim. Maybe it won't get the press that it deserves because they aren't a big company, but to me that doesn't matter. What matters is do they love what they do so much that they find ways to bring new and improved features that raises the expectations of those who play it for everything that follows. When another new WWI flight sim comes out after P4, if I play it...I'm probably going to be asking myself how well it stacks up to P4 in terms of features. If I am, it must mean P4 set new standards and has changed my expectations of what I want in a game (sorry Olham, flight sim).

 

I don't believe they are free to do what they really want. They praise too much their heads. That's the main difference with OBD. It's not a question of being creative or loving doing what they do. It's what are they risking, that counts. I don't doubt for a second, that P4 will be great, because they love what they do do, they are creative and don't need in last instance to answer for their failure (if indeed there was one). So it's mostly love with OBD. Besides OBD just answers to OBD, that's not the case of Tom and the others.

 

Boss Monsters that seek you out anywhere in the open world and then fight with their own custom AI that reacts to the situation around is new. I don't know of any other game that does that. To me, that's a new standard.

ArmA does it in a way.But that's not the point. The point is will how far is this will be well implemented? I'm always hearing about the AI, but I do count the times that a good AI is implemented.

 

 

Changing what you are capable of doing by adding new skills without sacrificing old ones - at any time - is something new. It's not about "respeccing". It's about adding entirely different skills while retaining what you already have. I've never see a completely open ended system where you don't choose a class or skills. You just do what you want and get better. No restrictions. To me, that is a new standard.

 

Reducing the UI to virtually nothing and only displaying information when it's relevant or you ask for it is also something new as far as I know. At least for a deep single RPG. Hell, even action RPGs like Diablo keep health and mana on screen at all times. You could say they took that idea from flight sims and I'd agree with that. But nobody has ever applied that idea before in a single player RPG, so it sets a new standard for that genre. Getting the UI out of the way of a huge, open world so you can stay more immersed in it is something that sure looks like a new standard to me. Again, maybe someone else has done it in a deep single player RPG, but I haven't seen or heard about it. Reducing stats to only what's absolutely needed and getting rid of D&D style stat tree to focus on on what really matter looks new to me too.

 

It's better to not argue about UI interface and about missing stats. For you it's an advantage, I don't see it that way.

I hate dumb down systems. I hate awesome buttons. Usually will end up having less choices and everything seems more streamed.

 

IGN got advanced copies of Skyrim for the 360 yesterday and will release a full review on 11.10.11. Not that their word is "gold" about anything but it'll be interesting to see what they have to say about it. In the meantime, they say they will have a lot more tid bits being released as they play.

 

I stop read at the word IGN.

 

Hellshade, just like you, I hope to be wrong. I honestly hope this turns into a new standard in the gaming industry and you'll end up being 100% right. I'd love that this would be called one day as a classic title.

Edited October 29, 2011 by Von Paulus

[Hellshade 110]

What gaming sites do you read VP? I'm always looking for good quality sites. IGN isn't what they used to be.

 

I think you make all fair points, except the part that they are not free to do what they want. Yes, they have bosses to answer to, unlike OBD. But when you can pass on a franchise as hot as "Game of Thrones" which is a hit book series and HBO series, they must have a lot of faith in you...because that was a lot of cash to pass up. I think Todd Howard and crew get to choose to do what they love. At least I hope so.

 

I won't mind eating crow if I'm wrong. I just don't know where I'll get my fantasy RPG fix from if that turns out to be the case. Right now it's Lord of the Rings Online but I'm pretty MMOed out. The repetition doesn't really do it for me anymore.

 

Hellshade

Edited October 29, 2011 by Hellshade

[Von Paulus 8]

What gaming sites do you read VP? I'm always looking for good quality sites. IGN isn't what they used to be.

I stop reading gaming sites or magazines for some time. At least I don't take what they write as serious as was a decade ago. Most of this sites and magazines live from publicity, so in an indirect way they are sponsored by AAA. That goes well with the current trend of affairs.

So I only read forums and user opinions.

If you want a good RPGforum, and you're above all a RPG addict (), I'll advise rpgwatch. You'll like it.

http://www.rpgwatch.com/

For a joke, you can go to rpgcodex, but that's too heavy. That's a flame forum, but the guys over there are "sui genereis" or at least they like to behave like that. They are old time rpg fans. Usually hate all the games since Ultima I. Ok, I'm exaggerating, but not much. I'm sure it's not your place.

Ahh, and you'll also like gamebanshee: http://gamebanshee.com/

 

In rpgwatch and gamebanshee, at least, you'll find some fine talk about rpgs.

[UK_Widowmaker 571]

I'm sure it will be a super game...but, as per usual...it will be the clever modders who will turn it into a classic I suspect!

[Hellshade 110]

I'm sure it will be a super game...but, as per usual...it will be the clever modders who will turn it into a classic I suspect!

 

 

They already did. Bethesda looked at some of the more popular mods of Oblivion and incorporated the ones they liked into Skyrim. Archery, for instance, takes longer to draw the bowstring back but also does a lot more damage so no need to fire off 20 arrows to kill one monster. I hear arrows are a bit more rare now too. Daggers can now be used with a sneak attack for 10x damage, making them useful for thief / assassin types.

[Bullethead 12]

Hellshade, with all the due respect, but I really doubt that Skyrim will change anything in terms of gaming and will set a new standard.

 

Unless Skyrim is a total disaster rushed out the door 1/2 finished, it's unavoidably going to set the new standard for FRPGs. After all, SOMETHING has to be the standard by which all other FRPGs are judged. Oblivion has had that honor for the last few years but it's obviously dated now so the industry needs a new standard. There are other quite excellent new FRPGs out there now, but none of them will sell anywhere near as many copies. Because Skyrim will sell so many copies, nearly every potential customer of FRPGs will have seen it, so it's the logical choice to compare other games to. Thus, game companies for the next few years will copy Skyrim's good points and try to improve on its bad points, and you'll see comparisons in reviews like "It's like Skyrim only without X but with Y in addition."

 

But this really doesn't matter because Bethesda games with their open worlds are apples and oranges to almost all other RPGs. Of the "5 reasons Skyrim will change gaming", 3 of them have been standard Bethesda RPG features since forever and in all that time, hardly anybody else has followed suit. The only ones that spring to mind are the "X" series of space games (a new one of which is due out soon) and, to a lesser extent because there's no magic, the "Mount and Blade" series, both indies that have devoted, but relatively small, followings. For the most part, everybody else has kept on doing more or less script-driven RPGs. This hasn't stopped these others from being successul in their own right, either. For instance, I love "The Witcher" games, but in them you have no major choices--you're stuck playing this 1 specific guy who has to follow some specific main quests. So you can only compare them to Skyrim in terms of graphics and interface because they're trying to do completely different things.

[Macklroy 2]

I already have my preorder in for this one (skyrim). I was only introduced to oblivion a couple years ago and was instantly hooked. I can't wait for the improvements and new adventure in the new release.

I do believe that they are looking to set the new benchmark for a RPG, and i believe they just may do that. But to say that they are revolutionizing the genre is over stepping. I just recently reintroduced an old

clasic rpg to my computer's hard drive and I found 3 out of 5 of this list to be present in the game (released in 1992). Although this title (darklands) holds more true to the traditional pen/paper d&d rules, where

as Skyrim is more action oriented. I dont think todays youth would have the patience for the RPG's of 15-20yrs years ago.

 

1. You Are What You Do.

2. Less is More.

3. Big World. Tiny Details.

4. The Boss Fights Come to You and then They Think about How to Kill You.

5. A Sandbox World with Endless Sand.

 

2 - I am interested in how the new atribute system works, sometimes they do, sometimes they dont.

4 - Dragons, oh yes, i am excited for this!!!

[Bullethead 12]

2 - I am interested in how the new atribute system works, sometimes they do, sometimes they dont.

4 - Dragons, oh yes, i am excited for this!!!

 

Yeah, I think the new character stat system might just be great. It's mostly internal mechanics, not really gameplay, but it makes more sense the more I think about it, so it might catch on.

 

Wandering bosses used to be a staple of early RPGs. Hell, even Evercrack had them at least early on when I was playing it. But somewhere along the line, somebody thought it was too hard on new players so they disappeared. Now personally, I always thought it added some zest to the game that your new character could be minding his own business killing giant rats just on the outskirts of town, far from all the dangerous places of evil legend, and suddenly the Big Baddie himself might stroll by and casually flatten you while on his way to the grocery store. The worst that can happen is, you lose everything since your last save, which if you're smart will only be the last couple of minutes. Big whoop. But folks whined.....

[Rickitycrate 10]

Bullethead, Hellshade and all I understand your enthusiasm for SKYRIM and I am right there with you. Since I will be playing on a PS3 I am very interested in the bits I've read/heard about the possibility of some of the user created mods being made availible for console downloads.

 

11/11/11 approaches.

Edited October 30, 2011 by Rickitycrate

[Hasse Wind 46]

Yeah, I think the new character stat system might just be great. It's mostly internal mechanics, not really gameplay, but it makes more sense the more I think about it, so it might catch on.

 

Wandering bosses used to be a staple of early RPGs. Hell, even Evercrack had them at least early on when I was playing it. But somewhere along the line, somebody thought it was too hard on new players so they disappeared. Now personally, I always thought it added some zest to the game that your new character could be minding his own business killing giant rats just on the outskirts of town, far from all the dangerous places of evil legend, and suddenly the Big Baddie himself might stroll by and casually flatten you while on his way to the grocery store. The worst that can happen is, you lose everything since your last save, which if you're smart will only be the last couple of minutes. Big whoop. But folks whined.....

 

Games, and computer role-playing games in particular, seem to be getting easier every year. I guess people really are afraid of challenges, or don't want to feel any frustration at all when playing. I can understand it, but it can't be denied that something of the old magic has been lost with level scaling and things like that. And if everything is too easy, where's the feeling of achieving something? Fortunately there are still crazy (I mean this in a positive way) indie developers and modders for the big titles. Oblivion for example is quite mediocre without mods, and it has one of the worst level scaling systems ever designed. I expect Skyrim will have its fair share of problems, but the good thing is, they can be fixed by modders, at least for the most part. If you have the PC version, that is.

[Von Paulus 8]

Games, and computer role-playing games in particular, seem to be getting easier every year. I guess people really are afraid of challenges, or don't want to feel any frustration at all when playing. I can understand it, but it can't be denied that something of the old magic has been lost with level scaling and things like that. And if everything is too easy, where's the feeling of achieving something?

Exactly.

We're now on the opposite side from where we were in the beginning of computer gaming. In the 80's (to be more precise until 2000), we the players, had to adapt to the game (gameplay, UI, etc). Now it's the game who adapts to the player. The problem is that it adapts to the wrong type of player, the casual one.

We're in a way promoting the dumbness. After all, that's where the money is.

[Hellshade 110]

We're in a way promoting the dumbness. After all, that's where the money is.

 

You mean there's something deeper than Facebook games and Angry Birds?

 

Hellshade

[Von Paulus 8]

You mean there's something deeper than Facebook games and Angry Birds?

 

Hellshade

Eheheh.

 

I wouldn't laugh, if I were you Hellshade...

Imagine if they target Elder Scrolls audience for these little guys:

[Hellshade 110]

Alot of new scenes in the second half of this preview. Definately big world with stunning details.

 

http://www.g4tv.com/videos/55960/the-elder-scrolls-5-skyrim-video-preview/?quality=hd

 

Found out the Strat Guide is 300 pages. Collectors hard cover Strat Guide is like 592. Insane.

 

Hellshade

Edited November 1, 2011 by Hellshade