Let me just say that this game is amazing. I haven't been addicted to a game like this for a long time. In both Morrowind and Oblivion I quit before the end, being too powerful + not interested in the story. It felt a bit soulless, that is until now. One reason is the addition of the political conflict between Ulfric an the Empire; it's a dilemma I've never experienced in an ES game. Another reason is the followers.

They are such an important addition to me, so that I don't feel like I'm wandering the world alone, one of the main reasons I quit previous ES titles. But would it have been that much more work to give these poor creatures more of a backstory and an involvement in this story? Most of them feel like throwaway robots, merely there to carry your stuff and distract enemies. The housecarls aren't all that different to summoned atronachs except they can talk without really saying much, and carry inventory. I think it would have added a dimension to the game if the followers had personalities and were somehow involved in the conflict. In other words, instead of 10+ potential followers (many of whom have seemingly the same skills), create 4 or 5 and write stories for each. Or create 4 significant followers with depth, and put in 6 more like the housecarls for people who don't care.


Apologies if this has been done to death, this is my first visit and post on the forum. This is not Bethesda vs. Bioware, I can say I'm easily as addicted to this game as anything they've put out recently. 80 hours in and I still am having a hard time following the main story because this world is so beautiful and interesting to explore. I just wanted to point out one thing that would have improved this game for me. :vaultboy:

Anything could be more. But imagine how hard it was to make it in that amount of time. Really, how could they imagine more?

There always could be more...

If you want more, either wait for DLC's, or get a PC and mods.

Erm, I think I'd settle just for followers being like in New Vegas. Bioware might be overkill. :vaultboy:

This game is awe-inspiring. I'm always in awe of the scope of ES games, but it doesn't always come together as well as it should.

I wouldn't bother creating an account and putting in my 2 cents if this game wasn't so special.

Exactly. Anyways, the full potential of games and all three majors systems won't been seen until Bill Gates is long gone and there are no competitions.

Okay, I admit I'd love Bioware level companions..

Just not like DA: 2's version of Anders. <_<

I dont really think that companions in skyrim should be too in depth, I would meet so many that I just wouldnt care about their life story, New Vegas's DLC kinda developed the characters too much and after a while I just did not care the slightest

Couldn't have put it better, soulless. Empty. These big, majestic worlds, but full of nothing of interest. All the little details that make a game great, ignored in favor of making the world as big as possible. So far, it's same old same old in Skyrim for me, same as Oblivion, it's empty and there's not much of interest happening. For whatever reason I loved Fallout 3 and the problems seemed to be less, there was always so much suspense and intrigue, challenge, the stats seemed to mean more, there was more purpose. The main storyline was much more focused (try to find your father and go from there). The side quests were long but full of intrigue as I said, and as opposed to skyrim where you spend hours just to find something useless, in Fallout you always were always finding these sordid mysteries and cannibals and it was very interesting. Additionally you got to do quests with the brotherhood of steel and stuff where you had a lot of allies also shooting, and it created these set pieces that felt like you were in a bigger conflict, which has been sorely lacking from Skyrim so far. Also because you played the game with guns not spells or weapons, you had to worry about ammo. Finding loot became so much more important and enthralling because it benefitted you so much. Without finding ammo and health, your guns would be useless and you would die. In skyrim, your mana replenishes itself so you dont need to find anything to perform your spells, and your melee weapons, once you find the weapon youre good to go. So neither the spells nor weapons require loot. Even finding health, you can fricken heal yourself.

Neither your weapons, spells, or health require the loot.

So what is good then? It takes the importance 90% out of it.

Lots of problems like that making Skyrim not half the game fallout was for me, at least so far. Fallout at times was also empty character wise, I mean it was, but that was the one issue. Everything else came together to create maybe the most enthralling game on xbox. Skyrim is still empty, even more so, and it doesnt have the other elements coming together.

It seems either due to limitations with our current game development technology and the limit of project size due to labor costs the big RPG game studios focus on one of two things. Big open detailed world or deep characters and relationships.

I always figured it this way:

Bethesda = Big open detailed worlds
Bioware = Deep characters and relationships

There may be some exceptions here and there but for the most part that is what I see. I figure we will keep seeing this until we have more innovation in content generation that appears close to hand crafted, someone creates a fairly believable AI that can dynamically role play characters and generate plots, or... massive labor cost reductions due to globalization.