To know a game you need to play it properly, unlike an FPS in which you can finish in barely 5 hours, Skyrim needs more time to see everything it has to offer to, finally, be able to judge it as what it really is: a beautiful but bland game.

I personally don't understand why you wouldn't stop playing a game that you don't like. If you don't like it twenty hours in, but then decide to keep playing to see if it gets better, it doesn't change the fact that you didn't like the first twenty hours of the game. Then even if it does get better you still have twenty hours to slog through if you want to play it again.

Actually, in my experience, Skyrim - like Fallout 3 - was at its best early on and got gradually worse the fruther I played (hence I've not finished it yet -- gathering courage to, since I have the game). With this in mind, I can (at least somewhat) understand people having many hours in it yet still say it was disappointing or even bad.

Brb while I go fetch my big 'ole bag of "I told ya so"'s.


That's because at level 5, you've yet to recognize the flaws. You just see the world map and think "holy HELL this is huge," and it's not until you climb a few mountains and explore a few dungeons that you realize there's really nothing worth seeing.
Also, the ending of the main quest is worth seeing. Not because it's good, but because of how incredibly bad it is. I had a friend who asked me to spoil the ending for him, I did, and he was laughing at how bad it was. Still a die-hard Elder Scrolls fan, he bought the game anyways, played it nonstop a good week, got to the ending, completed it, then called me saying "wow you weren't joking," explaining how he was just kind of in shock at how bad the ending was.

Yes.

I know, I've been mouthing off about how bland the game is once the initial "wow" passes since release. And it has been like this with all recent Bethesda games. I gave it a shot and it didn't pay off (also played it about a week - a bit here, a bit there, and never got even near the ending - and then I just "forgot" launch it again as it all just dried out).

And yeah, I remember your explanation of the ending (although, I didn't feel it was something that wasn't to be expected).

You would almost think the ending was a parody of bad endings when you experience it for the first time. I mean it has all the qualities of a halfway decent parody:


It kind of has all of those "what not to do with a game's ending" qualities stuffed into it. Although to give Skyrim's some credit, it's not http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=NYA795MBg0s#t=192s

This for me too. ostly because you haven't experianced the questing and dialuge so all you see is the pretty environment.

I'm convinced that the true plot of Skyrim is a heart-warming story about how the humble bartender Orgnar worked hard and stayed loyal to the business, only to one day be rewarded for his efforts by being presented with his very own inn in the town of Riverwood.

Srsly, Orgnar only ever speaks like 7 or 8 words and he has more personality and backstory than half the population.

Yea, NPC+BGS=FAIL

There's almost no connection to any NPC found in Skyrim, making the whole experience seem bland.

Joe is still rocken the wastes.

I still play Skyrim. :]

Tomorrow il start a new file on skyrim, if that same feeling of "ugh, really you need a horn?" is still there, it's goin on the bottom of the pile till dlc hits.

I expect to still be roaming The Mojave and enjoying FNV, even after FO4 is out....
My hopes for FO4, are not high. It is probably going to be [CENSORD] (like Skyrim)!*
Surprise me B or vindicate me...
Either way, win-win for me!


*'They''ll add - 'Dwarfs/devolved humanoids', to FO4
And take away most 'Chems'....
(I'm being facetious)

Orgnar IS the story, like I said.

When you first meet him, he's a poor guy with potatoes in his ears. When you talk to him and watch him, you can tell he's less than happy with his situation and his boss. Then we reach the climix of the story, when the Dovahkiin distracts his boss long enough so that her only choice is to put Orgnar in charge of the inn for a while. There, THAT'S the defining moment in the story where Orgnar proves himself as being capable of taking over, tending to the customers without flaw. Over time his boss learns to trust him more and more until one day, she's left with little choice but to hand over ownership to her SUPERIOR innkeeper Orgnar.

That's the true plot of Skyrim. 4/5 stars, imo. Better than that crap sidestory about the Dovahkiin that makes no [censored] sense.

Wait, Skyrim has a plot? It must have been so bad that I blocked it out.

In all seriousness Skyrim's plot wasn't THAT bad, ending aside, it was at least an improvement over Oblivion's cookie cutter storyline. It was also less predictable because they didn't cast Sean Bean as the main character this time around.

I do agree plot isn't the issue with skyrim, it's how Bethesda decided to put it together that svcks.
Being a "dragonborn" would have been interesting, if you weren't constantly being annoyed with fetch quests that are part of the main quest line.
Seriously, all these A-holes just witnessed me slay an almighty dragon while in bad ass Daedric armor and YOU think I wanna deliver a [censored]n note to your gay son who lives in the next town over??
WTF is that?

Skyrim is a fail as an RPG, what I did succeed in was attracting a huge fan base that would have never ever picked up skyrim if it was based around the more traditional RPG. It's a good action adventure with SOME stats and very limited choices. I even read last night on a skyrim thread that said, "Skyrim is awesome, it's just like MW3 with swords"

Of course this person is flat out wrong, but it goes to show you what kind of gamer made Skyrim GOTY.
Cause it sure as [censored] wasn't me.

Skyrim svcks skyrim svcks skyrim svcks.
It leaves little hope that fallout 4 will come to surpass NV, or even F3. In all likeliness F4 will have a HUGEish map full of meaningless fetch quests and very little RPG elements.

Common theme for quests in Fallout 4: "hey, you look like a man who can handle yourself. I left my battle armor in a vault a few years ago after I got shot in the knee with a laser pistol, wanna get it for me?"

Actually, I take that back. That kind of writing is too hard for Bethesdas team of "professional" writers. It will probably sound more like "hey dude, I gotta boom boom gun thingy, you can have it if you help me learn my A B Cs'"
There isn't much hope left for F4 after Bethesda realized they can make a killing by "dumbing down" their plots and gameplay to appeal to a bunch of ADD ridden MW3 junkies who's mommies pays for whatever they want.

GTA V will have a more interesting story, I guarantee it.

Or there could be a twist where he isn't rewarded or his efforts, but rather exploited by the evil Delphine, where Orgnar works and works his whole life only to die making less money than when he started. That could be the bad ending where (if the writers were smart) there would be a choice for the Dovahkiin to convince Delphine to stay at the inn instead of living in that stupid temple.

The most interesting conversation in the game was the one you have with the Dark Brotherhood's sanctuary door imo. There were some funny lines, some deeper lines, and some creepy lines. I laughed, I cried, and I was terrified all in one conversation. That's more than I can say about any other dialogue in Skyrim.

So what's your secret that keeps you going?

Awww look at all the Skyrim bashin... LOL.

I was 430 hrs in on my Redguard Thief before the game started freezing up on me.

I could spend a couple of hours just reading books in my house in whiterun before I ever got around to hitting the road.

Coming from a longtime TES fan, New Vegas is the much better game imo.

The lack of choice is, honestly, infuriating. As Longknife pointed out, once the initial WOW is gone, you see that Skyrim is...

...A mile wide, but an inch deep. There's a lot of stuff to do. Really there is, but none of it really matters. It doesn't hook me, nothing in Skyrim does. It's the best hack and slash game I've ever played, really it is. A hack and slash game with a decent character creation, a beautiful world, and a "meh" story. I couldn't give a damn about the land of Skyrim, because it doesn't make me care.

I was super hyped before release, and believe me I'll never make that mistake again. I honestly even hate typing this out, because I had high hopes for Skyrim, its just so [censored] EMPTY in terms of story and dialouge. And that's what makes a good RPG right? Without it, you have a hack and slash game. And believe me Skyrim has great combat. Thats all it does, combat. "Go here, kill this, pick up the thingymajig, and bring it back so I can give you another quest to kill something and get another thingymajig."

I really like Skyrim, I do, but it's the first TES game that I'm honestly not going to have more than 2 characters. A Dunmer thief, and a High elf Mage. I can experience all of the "story" in like 30 hours. Compared to the 4 or so full playthroughs I've gotten out of New Vegas, and I plan on starting another one once I suffer through all of Skyrim. Skyrim is beautiful, I'll give it that. The World design is exceptional, the combat is great, but the things that really define an RPG, like story, character development, ect, are gone.

Hell, New Vegas set a freaking new standard for me. Off the top of my head, Boone, Veronica, Mr.House, Legate Lanius, Arcade Gannon, Raul, Lilly, and Caesar. Just a few characters with enough backstory to make them memorable. Skyrim? Can't think of one. Skyrim has memorable dungeons (Black Reach, Labrynithian) but that's it. Hell, even in Oblivion the only character that was really awesome was Lucien Lachance. (Actually, they should just make the guy who wrote the DB storyline in OB the main writer, that questline rose above the crowd)

I rambled, I'm sorry. Skyrim was just so disappointing that I had to get this off of my chest. Thanks fellow forumites! Long live New Vegas!

Edit: Saying all of this makes me want to write a story mod for Skyrim. Zero gameplay changes, just backstories and more options for followers and characters. Probably some quest changes for more options too. That's what really svcks, Skyrim had so much freaking potential. Well, it's sold like freaking hotcakes, so hopefully Zenimax will use some of that cash to hire some freaking writers!!!

I dont know how you figure Skyrim is lacking in story.

TES has never been big on characterization.... It's always been more about your relationship with the world than other npc's.

Fallout N.V. is a great game... unparralled in many ways in my eyes.

In other ways Skyrim beats it all to hell.

You're right, it's not like TES really been about character interaction (as in with other characers). But damn, Morrowind was good. It had good writing, it wasn't the best, but at least it "felt" good. Fallout 3 also had good writing, again not great, but good. I just hoped that Skyrim writing would be...at least ok. It's not even that.

Skyrim beats NV in many ways, just not in the ways that matter to me personally. That's less a fault of Bethesda and more of my own expectations, but nevertheless Skyrim is still lacking in a lot of areas. The world building is some of the best I've ever seen, but that's the only thing that hasn't quickly aged for me.

Well for me it's basically like this, I enjoy playing different games for different reasons.
When I play an RPG I want action and consequence, I want options, I want dialogue and I want great writing.
But when I play an action/adventure game I just want some dumb fun.
Like in Borderlands, I basically just ran around shooting Jason Voorhees and looted weapons, it's not the most intelligent gameplay but it's fun.
So Skyrim? I just play it for what it is, not as an RPG, I don't consider it an RPG at all.
I play it as a dumb fun game, dungeon crawling, combat, dikeing around, that's what Skyrim is all about to me.
It's plot? I don't really care about that.
It's characters? I don't really care about that.
It's combat heavy design? I don't really care about that.

I just roll out with a character and kill stuff for loot.
Very basic, very simple and very enjoyable.

Everyones entitled to their opinion...

I find the story compelling... the whole relationship between the Empire,the Storm Cloaks and the Thalamor... the rise of the Altmeri Dominion and the subsequent war with the empire. The position of Hammerfell on the treaty...

And dont forget... Skyrim isnt over....