Topic: The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

@Snaplocket In fairness, problems one has with a game are always one opinion. Some people think the weapons breaking in BotW is a legit problem with the game, but that's just their opinion. Just as it's my opinion that the weapon breaking mechanic was a bit of fridge brilliance on Nintendo's part as it forces the player to try out a variety of weapons and always consider what the best tool for a job is.

It's all opinion. Try not to get too offended.

Remember, at the end of the day, nobody's lack of enjoyment of a game can take away your enjoyment of it.

@Ralizah It absolutely is from a mechanical perspective, and overall the combat in BoTW was better, I just don't really think it's miles above the combat in Skyrim due to the lack of enemy variety, not to mention the weaker stealth system in BoTW and the lack of the ability to do things like poison your weapons or use the various spells that you can use in Skyrim. The magic isn't just limited to stuff like fireballs. You can do things like (minor spoilers, wouldn't recommend reading if you haven't played Skyrim yet) Turn the enemies against each other, bring them back from the dead to fight for you, make them run in fear, summon monsters to fight for you, turn invisible or muffle your footsteps to aid in stealth kills, etc etc.

Again, BoTW absolutely has better combat in terms of mechanics, I just don't think the combat in Skyrim is as bad as people make it out to be.

I honestly didn't mean that in a disrespectful way. I was basically just using it similar to something like "I don't know about you guys, but blah blah blah". I can be a bit blunt in that I have long since grown tired of having to tip-toe around other people's opinions to avoid offending them by saying things like "IMO" and whatnot. I'm sorry to have rubbed anyone the wrong way.

Hey, let's bring this thread back to a place of positivity: we all have our preferences, but at the end of the day, most of would probably agree that both games are great and absolutely worth playing. They just offer different experiences that will resonate better with some people than others!

@KirbyTheVampire Fair enough. There are definitely more things you can do overall in combat in Skyrim. I just didn't like the feel of it, or particularly mind the reduced enemy variety in BotW (it's the objection that has always resonated with me the least, but I get that it's a big thing for some people).

BOTW thread = Skyrim thread.

My copy didn’t arrive today and I’m not sure if they deliver during the weekend. So I’ll have to wait for a bit.

I got enough to play though.

Edit: let me correct that. My brother just walked in with my copy while I pushed the send button. Lol.

BotW vs Skyrim is apparently the gamer's equivalent of Batman vs Superman.

Question for everyone who has played the Switch version of Skyrim: how do the aiming motion controls work? Are there simple gyro controls like in BotW where you can just move your controller/handheld around to aim, or do you have to unhook the joycon and do some stupid motion that makes it hard to motion aim in handheld mode?

@DarthNocturnal Biggest omission for me was a recipe book. I have no idea why they didn't add something like that.

@Ralizah I'd always assumed there is a recipe book somewhere buy that I've just not found it yet. So... thanks for the spoiler, it saves me looking now

So what's the general animation like? I'm a sucka for well animated characters. Again, because it's a PC game from a few years back, I'm imagining clunky.

@gcunit Character animations are never great in Bethesda games. The best way to describe them is... stiff.

Watch this for a few seconds. Should give you a good idea of what to expect.

Keep in mind: this is from vanilla Skyrim. No idea if the animations have improved in re-releases. Although the recently released Fallout 4 tells me that they probably haven't.

Here is a guy shooting arrows at a giant. Should give you an idea of how broader character movement looks.

@DarthNocturnal They made some hype about improved combat, yadda, yadda, yadda. The THAC0 era is done for both D&D and it's cousin in TES, but it's super obvious combat is still based on some measure of spreadsheeting rather than being a pure action system. Which is fine...that's part of what the system is.

@Roamer To be fair, the vibe of Morrowind is you're enduring events in a completely civilized world. BotW is more or less a post-apocalyptic survival sim after civilization had been all but exterminated and the natural world was showing signs of growing back after the nightmare, so the world being empty is the point they were going for. Oddly Skyrim is brown and BotW is colorful, yet BotW is the apocalyptic one....

@gcunit Keep in mind this was from 2011 and very much in the post-LotR era of fantasy storytelling. IMO it nails the REAL world created by Tolkein better than that bizarre Shadow of Mordor series.

(Ok I wrote this HOURS ago and somehow never sent it. Apologies if I'm rehashing other people's posts by now!)

And Bethesda animation is just a limitation of the Gamebryo Engine. They can mod it with some id wizadry into Creation or whatever they want it to be now, but it's still Gamebryo underneath. They're locked into that architecture because they put so much work into the whole underpinnings of TES back in the day. And the engine was ALWAYS an unoptimized bloated mess. They took matters into their own hands finally and are retrofitting it into their own engine, but it's hard to escape the limitations it starts with. Even for the tech wizards at id.

@Ralizah Except that Batman is way better in every conceivable way. Therefore Batman is more like the The Witcher 3, and BOTW and Skyrim are more like The Flash and Green Lantern

Oh no...character creation.

Well there goes my day.

@Spanjard HA I was just about to say the same thing! Spent about 30 mins mucking about with my Nord. I daren't look at the other races! I accidentally smacked a guard and he chased me half the way to Whiterun! I had to reload my save to get rid of him lol.

@NEStalgia it’s nothing to do with it being post-apocalyptic. BoTW is just bland to me and the vivid green doesn’t make it less so! It might be open but I don’t feel any world. It’s silly to compare it with Skyrim and Witcher 3 as it has been. It’s not in the same league. I’m finding it more enjoyable than I did initially but I still think it’s ridiculously overrated.

There’s no detail, no depth to BoTW.

@Octane I can't speak to that. I'll try out the game once I get my PC backlog whittled down a bit. Should only take 5 years or so.

@Ralizah

I was expecting the game to be good as I remember it on PC but I did not expect it to be THIS GOOD on the Switch!

And that comes from a player that never liked to play FPS games with controller. Well that changed.

No more console prejudice from now on!

AllPlatformsLivesMatter movement!!!

@Roamer I'd say it's the other way around. There's ONLY small details in botw and no overarching big stuff.

But the main reason is maybe silly to compare w3/Skyrim to botw is because they are entirely different genres. One is an action game with open wilderness survival elements and physics puzzles, and the other two are RPGs. The comparisons about open exploration are valid, but the comparisons aren't supposed to be direct like a lot of fans make it. it's like comparing overwatch and uncharted. Yes both are shooters, but they're entirely different genres.

@Octane Then Oblivion is The Shadow and wins by a mile

@Roamer
It's fine to think it's overrated but you have to respect the fact that the majority of people don't think that, so comparing them is perfectly valid. Because for most it's just as good if not better.

I think it was the better game, easily. But I would never say those games shouldn't be compared to Zelda, because I understand the majority of people hold them in high regard.