Skyrim: Review

It has been quiet on this blog for a while and that may have something to do with Batman: Arkham City (PC), Saints Row the Third and Skyrim. If not, then congratulations: you have found a rock to hide under that will keep even an atomic apocalypse at bay.
I think Skyrim alone has my agenda booked for a few years and I wish I was joking but I'm not.

It's hard if not impossible to review the game without comparing the game to its predecessor, Oblivion. And in many aspects the game feels and plays much like Oblivion 2.0 than a truly new game.

This doesn't need to be a negative comment however. Many stupid flaws like bandits pimped out in daedric armor has been removed, and turned into a more realistic way. This mostly due to a revamped levelling system. The game thankfully throws away number-crunching and instead opts for perks in the form of a stellar talent tree of sorts.
The graphics and animations are a much improvement, and gone are the outdated and dreadful faces from Oblivion. That is not to say that Skyrim is a next-gen game however. Graphically it's a very pretty game especially in its depiction of the wild northern wastelands. Unfortunately animation-wise melee still feels artifical and clunky. The game's incorporation of finishing blow cinematics helps that somewhat, especially on larger foes such as dragons but often it's not very seamless when it comes to normal foes.



Unfortunately what Skyrim does not succeed in improving from Oblivion, is its stupid AI and pathfinding. NPC's either have an IQ similar to that of Skyrim's temperature. or they were all dropped on their heads as an infant and then promptly used as some kind of Nordic basketball substitute. This is even worse if you manage to have a henchman. If you play as an archer they will invariably run in front of you to a point where an arrow magnet would drop to its knees for in worship. Half the time they will run away to fight some thing (god knows what) half the map away. At some point I noticed my companion Lydia had been absent the last few hours I played. Probably chasing some vampiric butterflies or a similarly retarded aberration of the mind.
To be honest your henchmen are so stupid that they only have one practical use: As a glorified mule to carry *my* dungeon swag.

And then of course there's the crashes, errors and the often-hilarious infamous Bethesda glitches. As mentioned before at some point I lost Lydia, and later I decided to have a go at marriage. I obtained the quest to attend my own wedding ceremony. Piece of cake I thought, and I set the waiting timer to 24 hours.
I was greeted by two men spawning at the door, with in their midst a naked woman's corpse: Lydia



"Honey, I can explain" I muttered to myself  as I saw the dooming "You have failed the quest" dance in front of my eyes.
Luckily I was able to drag her corpse to a side-room, including a priest telling me "To stop that" during my blasphemous act, and try the wedding a second succesful time.


And then there's the character that got an arrow stuck in its head which was more relentless to remove than a  hobo from an atm machine:

The game's biggest flaw though is its User Interface. A UI is supposed to be practical and intuitive.  Those are exactly the values that Skyrim's UI is lacking. On the contrary it's clumsy and unresponsive. It's so bad that it becomes impossible at times to click on the right item in your inventory.
Another failure is how the game introduces "Favorites". They are like a custom skill bar except you need to press "Q" and then move your cursor to the right magic skill or item. This also pauses the game.
So, why not use a skill bar in the first place with an integrated hotkey ability?

Beats me.

Overall though Skyrim is a lovely and addictive game. Where Bethesda truly outshone itself in however is the complexity of Skyrim's open world. Skyrim is a northern landscape encompassing glaciers, vast white mountains and tundras. It's an immersive world that at this point can't be equalled by any other game. It's definately the best installment so far in the Elder Scrolls saga.
It's a game where you are encouraged to explore and investigate and be rewarded for that by finding new dungeons, a great amount to detail to Skyrim's beauty and the ability to create your own story.

Skyrim is a game where each gameplay is vast and unique. It's a game that even with its many flaws, and at times even thanks to its flaws, is a game of beauty, unrivalled in its genre.

Eurogamer Expo day 1: 22 September 2011

Eurogamer expo is the UK's biggest and bestest gamer convention. Last year was a huge hit and this year -keeping in mind with the amount of blockbuster games to be released- was bound to repeat that.
It's also the biggest event not to need signposts, since all you have to do really is just follow the nerds. Heck, you can already spot them in the tube going there. The tube btw, which is London's closest point to the depths of the Nine Hells itself. Mind the Gap? Mind the Chasm more like...

Still, I went with one single goal, to amass as much swag as humanly possible. And during the process I found out there's literally no limit to the weight I am willing to carry when it comes down to gaming swag.

Battlefield 3

The Battlefield 3 conference was presented by Karl Magnus Troedson, the VP of Dice itself who took us a brief look through some trailers and a live-played single-player demo.
We were also promised exclusive footage  but that turned out a bigger dissapointment than waiting 15 years for Duke Nukem Forever. Seriously, since when is rehashed trailer footage with some music exclusive?
The presentation was mostly about showcasing their new engine Frostbite 2, and the 5 pillars its built on. You can see it here for yourself, but don't ask me why they list SOUND as a pillar, and then only use a musical piece in the video...
Troedson began the session by putting the bar high, calling Battlefield 3 "All out war" and calling it the best "Battlefield game yet". I'll have to admit that from going by the footage of the live-played single-player demo, the game looked bloody slick. Graphics and animations were of a high-standard, and when the guns were shot you could actually hear it ricocheting off the walls in the room. Impressive as well to see the actual recoil of the weapons in action.

Troedson was hammering on innovation a lot, but ... As fancy and new the game looks, it's like with a car. Apart from the new engine, gameplay-wise there's litte new under the hood.


Btw, Mr. Troedson? Please don't compare a game ever again to the filmclassic Heat, .. ever .. again ...


Guild Wars 2

Of all the games on show I'd have to say Guild Wars 2 was defintitely one of the ones I *had* to try out. And there seems a pretty fanboyish following as well. There were multiple people who were trying the demo out for the second and even third time, and there was someone with probably the ugliest Charr teddy-bear I've seen
Yep, Guild Wars 2 booth definitely had its fair share of freaks ... me included.

Before you ask, nope we did not get to see the last class, it's still as of yet unannounced. I have already bought the biggest bucket I could find to harvest the tears of nerds that will be shed when it is revealed the last class is not mesmer. (it probably is though)

I played the Norn starting area with an engineer. A class where you could spec into goggles but those didn't seem active at the demo yet. The class itself seemed to much like a ranger with a blunderbuss, but as I only got to level 4 it's hard to fully judge a class at that stage.
The Norn area itself was of a nordic beauty, at first with thick blankets of fog, and then later in a greener area where you could see little currents of wind sweeping through the trees.
My neighbour was playing a high level Asura  guardian and I got to witness high-paced combat, and even a dragon boss who was of an absolute gargantuan size. There were bigger ones even I was told. Crikey.

Gone are also the days of dualclassing and putting your skill points in your class skills, it looked like you could dump your points only in class attributes as is usually the case in RPG's.

From what I played it was a beautiful and fun game, but do not expect a complete revolution of the genre. Because what I saw, I've already seen in many other games.

Skyrim


Last game I played was Skyrim, Bethesda's latest addition to The Elder Scrolls saga. Although the area was absolutely gorgeous, the distance was set at minimal resolution, which just contrasted a highly detailed surroundings, with a blurry horizon. That and some clunky animations made me see it more as Oblivion 2.0 than anything else. Of course it's an immense landslide of difference with Oblivion, a game whose graphcis have dated exceptionally badly. It was played on a console though, so hopefully on a PC we will be able to crank up the details and graphics.
Don't get me wrong, the landscape was wild and of a sublime beauty. In fact there were swooping rivers with waterfalls, and you can even feel it's harder going against the stream. On top of that, I was capable of catching a salmon while wading in it. I was told you will be able to cook them as well for buffs. Neat.

I got to try out the new dualwielding system. It worked great, especially the  conventional melee dualwielding, but also a literally "spells and sword" fighting style. Not completely seamless, but still quite smooth. Of course at that stage in the game it was impossible to try out multiple spell combinations, but if executed correctly this could bring a nice new dimension to the spellcasting gameplay, and fighting in general.
Also worth pointing out is that you'll get to a larger city, with an excellent nordic medieval architecture, including sculpted woodwork.
There was a giant nearby that even makes the screen shake from his walking.

Either not implemented yet, or discarded, but the persuasion-wheel mini-game was gone. There is only a Persuasion line available.

Interviews

I had the great opportunity to speaking directly with OnLive and the lead dev of Bossa Studios but those merit different articles.


Thanks for reading!

Games are too expensive?

Recently came upon this interesting CVG article

I'm not sure whether it's pure arrogance or some sort of twisted irony that a developer here complains about other games being too expensive except for his own (hah).
And on a sidenote here mr. Howard, how are your thoughts on 130£ collector's editions exactly? *cough*

Still, there's a deeper issue behind that and that's the fact if maybe the game market isn't becoming a bit too saturated with the current price system. There is a cartload of AAA titles to be expected this autumn and I can easily imagine gamers making a tough decision on which ones to buy, and which ones to forego. Especially seeing as how new games are easily between 30-60£, depending on platform and retailer.

Is this a developer anticipating lower sales? Perhaps a bit although I can't see Skyrim's sales anywhere except sky-high.
In essence Tod Howard  is right, some triple A titles are demanding the same money, but for a lot less content than in the past. I'd like to present to you exhibit number A: Dragon Age 2, which has already become the red-headed stepchild of the franchise. Clairvoyantly even before DA3 has to come out.
And as we have seen, those AAA-games are not necessarily a product that is slick and span and QA-assured. Exhibit number B your honour: Brink A game that managed to have more bugs on release than the usual infested restaurant from Gordon Ramsey's show. Oh, and gameplay that turned us in the vocal replica of aformentioned chef.

And as stated in the article, this is where some new indie titles have crept into our heart by offering us almost unlimited play from a sandbox-type gameplay for as little as often 5-15£.

And if you don't mind, I think I'll send the rest of my evening playing Terraria now :)



Written by Brecht Debels