Hey guys,

So, I've played a lot of Skyrim on both PC and Xbox360, probably totalling 150 hours all up (for me, that's quite a lot of time), but I haven't played it in a few months. Every time I try, it just feels like, "I've seen this before", like I'm retreading the same old ground. I seem to always be going through Bleak Falls Barrow, Brittleshin pass, romping across the same empty plains, and it all feels so...stale.

I want to get 'back into' the game again, preferably on 360. I have Legendary edition, and the Legendary game guide too, and the book makes everything look so fresh and fun, but what am I missing? Why do I have this 'meh' feeling?

I love TES, don't get me wrong, and I want to have that 'wow, this game is awesome' feeling again - any suggestions? Should I try role-playing a character more? Should I avoid certain plotlines that are making me turn off?

Thanks guys!

I think you should go back on PC. You'll enjoy yourself more.

150 hours isn't really all that long. i'm getting close to 1500 hours and i still occasionally find something i haven't noticed before. i don't think you would have seen all there is to see or do in the game just yet.

maybe try a different build, that's the reason i start a new character, the game world is always going to be the same, but sometimes it's fun to see how different your experience can be. maybe have an "opposite" day when you build a character using skills you normally wouldn't touch with a bargepole. it can be hit or miss but sometimes you can create characters that work in really surprising ways.

Empty plains? There's dungeons and points of interest everywhere.

Hey, I do like the sound of Opposite Day....maybe I could make a build that uses Hand-to-Hand, Alteration and Alchemy.

Wait, that actually sounds interesting. By Talos, you're a genius!

Oh, I was referring to Whiterun plains. Unless I missing anything major, going from Whiterun to Rorikstead is kinda straightforward, maybe a few Sabre tooth dens and I think one or two rockruns...

150 hours is like 20 minutes around here.

True, but I've never really sunk as many hours as some people into games - I lack dedication! (I feel terrible about it)

definitely start roleplaying. I had played 2 characters up to aroud level 50-60 (but never got around to beating the MQ) before and ended up where you are... Then put the game down for about a year. When i finally picked it up i thought "I just want to see what the mainquest has to offer." I dedicated a character to doing exclusively the MQ (i think i did like 3-5 side quests). after beating it i didn't want the game to get stale, and I started reading around on these forums and read about Role playing and thought "sure, i'll give that a try".

honestly roleplaying (when done right) gives every character you play a "new" feeling.

you really have to limit your self though, you can't play the game off of your own knowledge, no matter how tempting it seems to just ignore something or make a bee-line straight for something else. You simply have to go on your characters knowledge (through his back-story and the ingame dialogue) and his/hers personality.

i say go ahead and role play a character, it worked for me

here's a thread i made on randomly generating an RP character

http://www.gamesas.com/topic/1474473-random-rp-character-generator/?hl=%2Brp+%2Bgenerator#entry23035351

use it if you want.

then after you have the basics of a character (randomly or imagined), write up a backstory leading up to him/her crossing the border and being caught (for reference)

then create your character and try to play the game from a spectators point of view, your character acts as he would, not the way you would.

Wait for TES6 whenever that one arrives. You will never have this brand new feeling with Skyrim ever again. Well, unless you avoid the game for 20 years and forgotten most of it and then replay it.

Try a different playstyle. I've managed to get the "something new" feeling with four directly consecutive characters - the first was just built from what I encountered (2h/sneak), the second was a Sneak-Archer who only carried a dagger for melee, the third was a roleplay, the fourth was a sword-and-board using my newly-developed relative skill.

OK, I'm decided on RP-ing to get new life - I feel like when I start the game with no purpose in mind, that's when I sort of meander away. I'm used to games telling me who I am and what to do, and Skyrim is giving me too much freedom. So I need to give myself iron-clad purposes.

So with that, I get a Male Breton who specializes in Light Armor, Smithing, Pickpocket and Conjuration, with Chaotic Good morality and Empire alliance, along with Greyboard alliance (if I choose to go down MQ route).

I feel excited about this...here's hoping it will revitalize my game!

Thanks for everyone's help and input!

i cant stress how important it is to write up a back story to your character as well.

also, don't feel obligated to go down the civil war quest either, only if your character ends up there should you have to make a decision.

share his background, I'm interested to see how you're gonna spin it.

and was he 1h, 2h, or destruction?

good luck man.

Okay, here goes - I haven't started the build yet, will probably do it tomorrow, but I'm already pretty excited.

Jociel the Breton

Combat style: Archery

Specialty: Light Armor, Pickpocket, Smithing, Conjuration

Morality: Chaotic Good

Bio: Jociel was born to a Breton mother and Nordic father - when he was a young boy, his father died on a 'business trip' to Riften. The Guards found his body floating out to sea, a knife still in his back. When he was a young boy, he used to sneak out into the wilds around his home in Markarth, trying to hunt local game with a hand-me-down bow from his father. He was a decent shot, and soon found that the lighter clothing allowed him to move unhindered, quieter. When he slipped and cut his armor in half on one trip through the mountains, he returned to the city and sought out a way to repair his tired old armor - and in the process, met a young Orcish apprentice who was all too glad to share in her craft. Wearing lighter armor, and being accustomed to moving quietly to hunt game, led to another discovery - that rabbits weren't the only thing you could sneak up upon. With no father, and a mother who was drowning her sorrow in mead, Jociel fell to crime, stealing whatever he couldn't afford to buy - nothing much at first, but soon he realized that he could determine what a person was wearing, just by looking at them.

When the guards finally caught him - at just fifteen - they threatened to haul him off to the Mines as punishment, but his mother lied to the guard, protecting him. The guards accepted her excuses - but only as admission that she herself had stolen the goods. She was hauled down the mines, and that was the last Jociel ever saw of her.

Furious with the world, Jociel struck out on his own, leaving Markarth behind and crossing the border into High Rock, where he lived in the wilds, hunting animals for food, and hunting men for possessions. He wondered if the rumors of the Thieve's Guild were true, and whether the old whispers that his father had been a thief were also true. Only Talos knew.

One cold night, Jociel was freezing half-to-death, unable to make fire on account of the blizzard, and saw a light in the distance. When he approached, he met a fellow Breton, a gaunt-looking woman of elderly age, bent over a stone slab, a rotten skeleton laying motionless before her. Herbs and flowers, and a sacrificial knife, were on the slab, and she was slowly incanting from a tome. Lights flashed around the skeleton, and before his eyes, Jociel saw the skeleton rise to life, bones held together by pure magic.

The Conjurer might well have killed him then and there - but the old woman still had some mothering instinct left her, and seeing the young man, worn out from travel, she took pity on him - and taught him the only thing that might save his life out in the wilds. "Bows and knives can kill many a man," she had said, "But why should you get up close and personal, when the dead can serve you?"

Jociel tapped into his own Breton heritage and found that magic came easier to him than he'd thought - from all the times out the wild, he'd grown accustomed to animals, and found that summoning wolves - his ever faithful hunting foes - came easiest of all.

In the year 4E 201, Jociel made a fateful trip across the border from High Rock into Cyrodiil, skirting along the edges of the Jerall mountains. He could never say for sure what made him turn his back on Bruma, sitting so peacefully down in the valley, and wander back into Skyrim - perhaps the Gods had guided him. At least, he thought that until he ran into the Imperial checkpoint.

Now Jociel stands before an Imperial Captain, the headsman awaiting his next meal. Everything has led him to this point: he feels magic coursing through his bones, can feel the tightness of catgut string on his fingers, feels the familiar weight of the leather armor around his chest, and the heat of the furnance against his skin. But he doesn't have any of those things available to him.

Right now, his fate is in the hands of the Gods.

Is that a roar in the distance?

What you need, my friend is "Alternate start - Live Another Life" mod. It does wonders.

Go back to PC and download the good immersion mods. (only a few of them are good)
Roleplay.
Play as a Nord.

I second this Mod, Helgen can become an annoyance for replays. In a few Years You may be able to join the 5000 Hours Club

I got that feeling when I switched to PC.

Yeah, I've tried a few immersion mods before, but I haven't downloaded Skyrim yet to my new PC, and I've kinda been wanting to play Skyrim 'naturally', and on Xbox on my TV....I'll try RP-ing it tomorrow with my Breton character, and see if that changes things.

I think actually playing with Dragonborn/Dawnguard DLC might spice things up for me a bit, I've never actually played more than about an hour into either of them.

Lol, by the time I've finally hit 5000, TESVI will be out!

awesome back story.

one of my favorite roleplays is a breton, except he's a spineless coward... a true milk drinker... well, he prefers mead. he's a serious alcoholic and only finds himself going on a small adventure when his life is endanger or if he's broke and needs the coin to get drunk, not to mention he usually cant muster up the courage to fight anyone or do anything brave (like go out on these quests) without a belly full of mead or a head full of skooma. He ends up going from town-to-town when people start wanting him hurt (hired thugs) or killed (assassin).

he wears: no headpiece

chest = clothes (not robes or armor)

arms = leather braces

legs = hide boots of sneaking

he also has an orcish dagger, and knows extremely limited healing spells

he may find out he's a little better at this "questing" thing than he thinks, he also seems like he might one day be a good candidate for the bards college

Definately roleplay. Make a character background and only do quests that pertain to your character. For instance a warrior that specializes in two handed and no magic really has no reason to do the college quests.
You should definately check out the skyrim blog for some killer character ideas.

It's gone, and you will never ever get it back.

It went for me ages ago. I got it back 2 weeks after GTA 5 came out.

Unless you've already discovered all the dungeons, there should be new stuff to find.

Just try to start in a different location, e.g i used to start in whiterun all the time because the location was so central, but on my newest character i decided to "start" in riften and make my homebase there. So i wouldnt be running back to boring old whiterun all the time. Also, mods.

And while its true that you can probably recognize the dungeons, a different playstyle kinda works. I played my mage character for quite long during the start of this year, and cleared many dungeons. Having a stealth character now makes me take a different approach to the dungeon, even if i recognize it.

And yesss~~~~ roleplaying I did that on my new character as well. Helps make your experience feel unique.

Side note though, im always tempted to go to riverwood virtually every game. And bleak falls barrow almost every game as well. Ugh. If i dont explore those places, something in me would be screaming "YOU DIDNT DO THE BEGINNER'S QUESTS!!!!!!" And i'll feel like i skipped an important part of the game, even if bleak falls barrow is dreadfully boring after playing through it the umpteenth time.

Feel free to "cheat" if you want to as well. I made my current character have 25 carry weight each level, because im a hoarder. And i was really sick of running back to my house every 2-3 dungeons. I love dungeoning in skyrim, all the dungeons feel unique. And completing 2-3 of them to not be able to loot anymore is sickening.

Thats darned nice. You can probably get a much newer experience now

Don't play for about a year. You will have that "new" feeling back again.