i SHOULD NOT be able to run up to a giant and just start wailing on his leg and kill him. i could get a couple of hits in but then he should simply step on me or swing his club around and send me flying to my death. i hope they make giants like the did with the cyclops in dark messiah where you had to use contextual environmental items or areas to kill them or shoot arrows and spells at a critical part like the eyes or their "wooly mammoth trunks" and when they get distracted go for some neck or eye attack or something. i imagine fighting a giant the normal way with melee weapons would be akin to a 5 year old picking fight with me. they are WAAAAY bigger, WAAAAAY stronger, and WAAAAAAY tougher than you character dragon born or not.

Dragon shout > cyclops

Let Dark Messiah be Dark Messiah.

Let Skyrim be Skyrim.

[and make much more than giants like Dark Messiah too. but going back to topic...]

Indeed. I think giants have been historically nerfed so that players 1/10 it's size (not height) are able to kill them. Any giant has a 99.9% chance to crush you like antibacterial soap if you go melee against them, no matter how many girls your equipment gets you back in town. So they game has to show that you need some wit and skill to bring down those huge beings.

Why is it that I keep seeing comparisons to Dark Messiah? I've always gotten the gist that it's TOTALLY different in style than The Elder Scrolls.

Dark Messiah isn't even in the same ball park (it's linear, the only good thing about the game is the combat, which gets old, etc). People just like how interactive the combat was (even if Mirror's Edge is a much better example). Regardless, Skyrim is going to improve on the flaws of Oblivion, which it should.

Well, technically speaking, if you've got a nimble enough character, you could probably sever what passes as the Giant's Popliteal Artery (Major artery past the knee) with a stabbing weapon, causing him to eventually bleed out. Or sever his Achille's tendon, making his calf muscle make an impression of one of those old roll-up window blinds and severely affecting his stability. Especially if you manage to get both. And then you could go for the neck, eyes, heart, etc.

It all depends, however, on how the game handles collision detection and if it can handle such script-heavy fights.

As much as I've enjoyed DM, I completely agree.

its different in that its a linear game but its first person combat is fantastic and its magic is significantly better than oblivions. it also gives you a variety of ways of killing enemies using the environment. if you havent played it you must. its dirt cheap on steam now.

a couple of notes though. play on hard so that you cant abuse the kick system which is easily done on normal and easy mode. i would also highly suggest using a couple of mods for increasing arrow damage and also increasing the damage of souldrinker and the dragon weapons since they are very weak weapons. dont use charm if you can avoid it cause its overpowered but other than those things its almost perfect.

Honestly, I'm expecting fights to be much more interactive and brutal than Oblivion. However, I'm not expecting for them to be a complete revolution over what we have already seen from TES. The level of detail you are describing isn't something I would expect to see for years to come. That sounds more like a possible feature for next generation.

their will be giants, I hope we get some cool action fights with them,

and yes beating them on the leg will be lame so I think they will make it like dark messiah, as in you try to weaken the giant until you get a good swing at its eyes or neck, that's for melee, ranged combat is easier in such a fight.

4 words: Shadow of the Colossus.

still, I don't expect Skyrim to give us that much epicness against giants. I hope I'm proven wrong lol

No way dood they should make the Giants like Shadow of the Colossus.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9UeSKbcZuaM&feature=related

I somehow doubt the giants are that...giant. lol

I do not argue with Dark Messiah being a totally different game, but anything as large as a giant, or a mammoth or a dragon, should be a real challenge, so challenge-wise:

Dragons >> Giants >> Mammoths >> Smaller opponents.

They should require a lot more than hacking at their feet to defeat and there should always the danger of getting a taste of a giant club and getting totally floored.

So you should be versatile and think beforehand when you begin to tackle with those monstrosities.

While I'm not asking for Dark Messiah to be melded into Elder Scrolls, I would say that it would be nice if combat was fleshed out enough that ALL players of all combat preferences had a chance to do battle that was a bit more versatile than sword and shield.

Being a thief, my first instinct would be to nail the giant's eyes as fast as possible with arrows so that I can either make tracks (what can I say? I embrace my cowardice.) or go after the backs of the ankles to take him down if it's absolutely necessary.

But it would be nice to use some non-linear combat, like destructible environments and odd maneuvers to your advantage. There were times where I would have payed money for the ability to collapse a cruddy looking building on someone and light it on fire. Or using rope arrows to make impromptu trip wires. Break a bottle of pitch onto the back of someone's clothes and hit them with my puny fireball and watch the human inferno that follows.

the achille's tendon thing I've actually seen IRL, one of the sickest things I think I'll ever see. I got a call to domestic disturbance and there was a guy who had the tendon slashed with a kitchen knife.... it gives me shivers just thinking about it.

I would think the best way to take down something taht big would be slashing those until he fell, then doing one of the "context sensitive" kills when he goes down. But I honestly don't care if a million slashes takes it down.

Not in Stonekeep. :chaos:

In the mines there is an Ettin asleep in a room with some wine barrels. If he sees you, he wakes up his other head and they attack you ~you die.

I'd like situations where you use the environment to advantage, but... I'd like for non-melee methods to also be effective (spells, artifacts, and ranged weapons).

:lmao: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b8qXTCPvH5s

I was just thinking about this myself. I do hope it takes more than a few cuts to the legs.

For example, if you use a bow and arrows, then aiming for the eyes(or head in general) should weaken the giants. Or maybe spam him with magic etc.