EDIT:
-So, it seems to be confirmed that at least the D-pad instant hotkeys are still in, which can be used in real time. Cheers! Thanks Inglar!

I dunno, maybe it'll work out after all once I actually play the game, but I just feel that when I bring up the Favorites Menu, time shouldn't stop in game at all, I want combat to work out fluidly and naturally without having to constantly pause the game to change spells and what not. I want a sense of challenge, so to speak, and I don't want to just have to pause the game every few seconds for my average combat scenario.

Is anyone else disappointed in this? Am I one in the minority? Am I missing something here?

Here's the IGN article that talks about it. http://m.ign.com/articles/1162158

Modifications=problem solved

The biggest reason that I almost never use potions in Oblivion is because I hate to pause the game in the middle of combat. I can play with either turn-based or real-time combat, but my opinion is that if it's going to be real-time, it should be real-time. If it's not going to be, don't bother.

Aye, but I be a console gamer.

You press a button to switch, it only pauses if you hold it to actually look at your choices.

They could just have hot keys that they had before. Then there would be no need to pause the game.

From my understanding, this is not going to be like Oblivion where you hit a direction on your d-pad (or whatever it's called, I'm not a console player) and it switches. You're going to hit a button and it will bring up a list, arranged alphabetically, that you'll have to cycle through to get the "favorite" that you want. So I'm not sure that pausing the game to do so is a bad thing.

I would imagine it would play like Mass Effect 2, bringing up a radial dial when you used biotic powers or switched weapons.

Why didn't you just hotkey them?

We do have other things to hotkey you know

I just hotkey my potions in Oblivion. :shrug:

No, I dont mind at all.
It will give me time to think, select the right poison or spell and then attack.
It sounds like a combination of strategy and real time and that makes me happy.
Besides, how else am I going to compete with the lightspeed reflexes that NPC's have when it comes to selecting spells or attack styles?

@Mitheledh

Yeah, I think the Favorites Menu is great and all, I just wish it wouldn't pause the game.

You could have hotkeyed your potions,I do it,no pause,press button,bang,potion effect...

But I'm okay with it,I think,lets me consider my next move and possible outcome...

it's a very console centric change, and most likely a required mod for pc oblivion play will be a new UI mod...

/sadface.

I have been playing Sacred 2 on the 360. It has no pause. If Skyrim has no pause I will use a catapult on the Bethesda building.

Well I think the dpad will still be used for hotkeys plus we'll have the favorites menu.

Instantaneously switching weapons on the fly (like the hot keys of Oblivion) was an immersion-breaker of sorts in my opinion. BGS is just allowing this so the player isn't ferociously, fumbling through his/her inventory to switch weapons while the enemy is bashing his/her brain in.

To be honest, I kind of like having a pause moment to strategize with what tool/weapon I will use next (very RPG-esque). I think the pausing mechanic worked very well in ME2, and I think it will have the same positive impact in Skyrim.

The console won't have hotkeys. The PC version will, though.

@TheFriendlyBear - It's also old news.

just use your imagination that youre going into your pocket and grabbing a potion

why would I be disappointd
its always been like that

I'm sorry, but I vote gameplay > Immersion on this one. I never thought to myself "Gee, my character sure does switch weapons fast."

Because you can only hotkey a specific item and the hotkey only holds as long as you have those items in your inventory. That means, for instance, I could hotkey Potions of Healing and get access to them at any time, and that's it. Any other potion requires another hotkey.

It's most notable with poisons, and that was more what I was thinking about (I almost edited my original to clarify that, but didn't - probably should have). To be most useful, poisons are specific - ones that include silence for spellcasters, ones that include fire damage for things weak to it, ones that include shock damage for things weak to that, and so on. There aren't enough hotkeys to hotkey all of them, so the alternative is to pause the game, rummage through the menu, choose the appropriate poison, apply it, unpause the game. I dislike that, so I don't use poisons.

And now, by the looks of it, we're not even going to have the option, however restricted, of using hotkeys.

Until someone mods it in at least.....



That's not the issue. I have no problem imagining that. It's trying to imagine that this Minotaur with a war hammer is going to just stand there and twiddle his hooves while I do it.

What's the dpad for?