Hey guys, so I'm new to this game - I didn't even know it was in development until 2 days ago when I saw a demo of the gameplay on a livestream from E3 - it looked great!

I usually don't play sandbox-style RPG's but this one looks interesting and Fallout 3 was good enough(Weak storyline though until Enclave showed up) so if I like games such as Dragon Age: Origins, Fallout 3, Mass Effect 1&2, Knights of the Old Republic, Baldur's Gate, Diablo, The Witcher 2 - only RPG's pretty much - will this game work for me? Will I enjoy it?

I love exploring - but I'm worried this game will have a map the size of Europe but still be empty, as in there's nothing to do except run around. Like, If I decide to climb up a huge, snowy mountain(like the one in the demo shown at E3), will there actually be anything up there? Dungeons, quests, secrets, dragons? Or will it just be like Fallout 3 pretty much where there wasn't much to do really, you just walked around and occassionally stumbled across a Vault or Hideout?

I'm also interested in the lore and story - Is it heavily featured? Is it at the same level of BioWare's storylines or will it be something that's just mashed together like F3?

Also, will there be any kind of hints as to where all these dungeons are? I don't want to miss like half the content because the cave is hidden behind a tree, so it would be nice if there was some sort of way to confirm that you've done this and that etc.

Lots of questions, hope you can answer some of them :whistling:

The lore is easily beyond that of a Bioware game - it's rich and deep and worth reading up on.

Theres going to be lots to do; 500 points of interest on the map and 150 of those are dungeons; some being short 10-20 minute dungeons and some being 1-2 hour long dungeon crawls. As for missing them, they show up on your compass when you're nearing one.

There's also jobs you can partake in such as woodcutting and blacksmithing.

The main quest line is 20-30 hours long with a tonne of stuff added in extra (estimated to 300 hours, sounds far fetched but on my main Oblivion save I have around 150 hours and something similar for Morrowind aswell)

All I can suggest is grab Morrowind and Oblivion for a rough Idea.

Things are usually fairly straight forward to find, Oblivion wasn't chocked with content, but it wasn't barren.
The lore is extensive, but you have to research it in game via books ect.

You'd be surprised by how much stuff is actually in the game, in previous Elder Scrolls games, the maps pretty much have a tomb, land-mark, or dungeon on every inch of the map. I definitely think you'll like the game, it looks like you love regular RPGs, sandboxes are just the next step ahead. If you want to know of lore, I recommend going to uesp.net, I could give you a huge history lesson, but I hate teaching.

I also recommend purchasing Morrowind and Oblivion, read the books in the games and finish them, you'll learn a lot.

You mainly only play RPGs and somehow you have managed to never hear of The Elder Scrolls before...? :blink:
Where have you been for the last decade or two? :facepalm:

The world will be huge but also filled with hundreds of locations, dungeons, places of interest, etc.

This game will be on a much, MUCH larger, grander scale and scope then anything like ME. The lore in those games might as well be nonexistent compared to TES.
If you like actual open world RPG's and not closed world like ME then you will enjoy this game for hundreds of hours. Guaranteed.

Exploration is kind of the whole deal of TES, You won't find everything for first playthrough but
thats the great thing about Skyrim. As for the world being empty its much more lively than fallout.
There are Caves,Forts,Ruins,Tombs,and Dungeons to explore. There will be over 150 in Skyrim ranging from
15 minutes to 2 hours to complete. And thats not including the Main Quests,Side Quests, and Guilds. Enjoy.

TES games differ from a lot of the RPGs you listed.

The emphasis is very much an player freedom and creating a world you can explore and live in rather than storyline.

Games like Mass Effect are really linear - you have a semi-set character, play through the storyline for around 30 hrs, then you're done. In Elder Scrolls games, you have complete control over who your character is. There's a storyline, but you don't even have to touch it if you don't want to and can simply go off and explore, visit dungeons, do side-quests, etc. There's easily hundreds of hours of content in the game outside of the main storyline.

The series has a very rich lore behind it, which you can experience by reading books in game, talking to NPCs, etc. Not just through the storyline.

You should really try Oblivion before Skyrim. It's really cheap, and it'll give you a good idea whether this kind of RPG is right for you.

Welcome, have a fishy stick.

http://images.uesp.net/c/c4/Fishystick.jpg

I agree with those saying you should try out Oblivion or Morrowind to get a feel for the game. I can′t say I agree with your opinion of disliking exploration and it is a big part of TES, or at least it was. There was less of an incentive to explore in the latest game Oblivion but there are chances that they will bring back more of it in Skyrim. There will be alternatives if you dislike exploring in Skyrim though and of course people will have massive amounts of information online.

I think you will like enjoy TES games based on your likes although it is different than most of the games you describe. I enjoyed every game on your list that I played, but TES is more of a man against the world 1 on 1 type of game. There aren't many "battles" where you are fighting lots of enemies at the same time. It happens occasionally but not as often as it does in BioWare games. I like the TES series more than BioWare series but they are both fun to me and worth the price.

I have heard of Oblivion but I never really knew there was a huge series behind it :tongue:

Pick it up and give it a crack, its probably the easiest TES game to get a hang of. Morrowinds combat isn't the greatest.

Seriously, go out and buy it and give it a fair try.

You may absolutely love it and find it to be one of the best games you've ever played, or you may dislike it and realise that kind of RPG isn't for you.

Just don't wait for Skyrim expecting it to be anything remotely like Dragon Age, Mass Effect or the Witcher... because thankfully, it's not.

Cool, thanks for all the answers - I'll pick up Oblivion when I have the time, thanks for the extra information too

Do yourself a favour and get Morrowind and Oblivion.

Only reason I suggested Oblivion over Morrowind, is due to the easy nature of playing. Morrowind can be a bit of a culture shock to newbies these days.

Have you looked http://www.gameinformer.com/p/esv.aspx? Lots of the early information we were given.

Agreed. As awesome as Morrowind is, I would always recommend Oblivion first to anyone completely new to the series. Not just because Oblivion is a little easier to get into, but because a lot of people would be put off by Morrowind's vanilla graphics. While there are mods that do a wonderful job at overhauling the game's visuals, someone completely new to the series isn't going to want to go to the hassle of installing them.

I'll second that, even though I think morrowind is the best in the series.

If you play on a 360, Morrowind is backwards compatible, make sure to buy the GOTY version that encludes the 2 expansion packs. (PC versions will still always best, cause of the mods)

How could you POSSIBLY not know of the Oblivion series?

Oh, wait, no, I don't work for IGN.

TES games have always been ambitious, and as such they are flawed. But, even with these flaws, they out-do every RPG I think of on the market, at least at the time of their release. There was no better RPG than Morrowind when it came out, nor Oblivion when it was released (although some would argue Morrowind is superior). Arena and Daggerfall? I was a wee urchin when these came out, so I wouldn't know. Aside from the fact Daggerfall is twice the size of the UK, albeit mostly randomly generated.

I suggest you do what the people who posted before me suggest, and get Oblivion, and perhaps Morrowind. Additionally, check on here and bethblog.com over the next few days so you can check the fan interview when it's released.

Sadly, however, it will most likely contain questions from IGN as well, so expect to learn that we can't 'partay wiv draguns'.

Mass Effect 1 and 2 are possibly (other than TES) my faviouratest RPG's ever... but there is just SO MUCH MORE to do in one province of this world than Mass Effects whole galaxy (ironic, eh?)... but dont get me wrong i love ME to THE CORE... but Skyrim will far outweigh any game i have ever played.. in my opinion... yes i think you should give it a shot WORSHIP IT!

I think Oblivion is full of content. 337 hours later and I could still keep playing.

Here's a great site that has the lore from the books in the game.
http://www.imperial-library.info/content/elder-scrolls-iv-oblivion

More lore is here.
http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/1112211-how-to-become-a-lore-buff/

You're going to love it...don't rush...just look around and do whatever you feel like doing.

:tes:

Yea! It might be something for you! I would say the same if it were the opposite
TES is beautifull you do not get a game like this every year

:banghead: I Can't do this!!! The whole thing is that you will miss a dungeon if you don't look everywhere. And don't compare the Elder scrolls to Fallout. Fallout is a destroyed world, TES is the oposite. Go buy, Morrowind or Oblivion. You should buy Oblivion tough cause thats the closest to Skyrim.

If you thought there wasnt much to do in fallout3 then no its probably not for you, as fallout3 was rich in action and things to do for those who like a TES type world, but a lot of a sandbox world is searching/exploring for those things, it does not lead you by the nose from objective to objective, it is up to you and that is the joy of this type of game, choices/exploring/doing things because you can, not because you are supposed to all the time, you dont play this type of game with a tell me whats next attitude or expectation, you play this type of game because you want to see whats over there off the linear pathway, get off the road and just start beating the bushes and picking flowers, or picking fights with any1 you come across if thats what you want, your game play and over all game experience is up to you !

I agree with pretty much everything waller04 said. If you thought Fallout 3 was just okay, you will probably feel the same way about Skyrim. Open world games aren't for everyone. The ES series games aren't really like any of those games that you said you liked.

These games are all about exploring, but you will run up that mountain and not find anything. It may be that there is just nothing there, or that you didn't look in the right spot. If you play on the PC, there maybe a cheat code to turn on all the map markers for you, so you could see if there was something behind that tree. One of the weak points of their games, in my opinion, is that you tend not to get quests from exploring. Most quests will be gotten from obvious locations like cities and towns. I guess they figure that if they are going to be putting in all that time to make the quest, they want as many people to enjoy it as possible. If they were to start a quest in some off the beaten path location, most people would never encounter it.

On the lore, you should like drawing your own conclusions. If you are looking for a simple straight forward narrative, you won't find it. The lore is written like history in the real world; it is written from the perspective of the person writing it. You may find accounts of events from two different sides and have to come to your own conclusions as to what really happened. Just like in the Lord of the Rings, some peoples will refer to the same things/events using different names.