I built a new PC last month and yesterday I bought Skyrim “Legendary Edition”.

I'm completely new to Skyrim and I usually only buy games after they have already been out for at least a year, so that the bugs will be fixed by the time I start playing them.

Here are my first impressions (after 3 hours of gameplay):


THE GOOD:

The music and the voice acting – absolutely AMAZING! They are one of the BEST I've ever heard, no doubt about it. The people involved have really put in some serious effort and I really appreciate it. Truly magnificent work! I hope more games were like this.

THE BAD:

The user interface – Oh my god... who designed this?! Seriously, what were they thinking? Saying that it's unbelievably bad is giving it too much credit. It makes the game almost unplayable! Using the mouse in the menus is incredibly clunky and there seems to be some kind of input lag that causes me to click on things that I didn't mean to click on. Only the keyboard is somewhat usable in the menus. The UI is completely broken and atrocious in terms of usability. Is it even possible to fix this?

THE UGLY:

The color scheme of the game – Is this some kind of a joke? Oblivion had beautiful and rich colors and it was an eye-candy, a pleasure to look at. Skyrim on the other hand looks like a piece of... crap. LITERALLY. Why does everything look so muddy and dull? It looks as if they started with Oblivion and took a huge diarrhea dump on it because this is how it looks like! How do I fix this (if it's even possible)?


I really sorry for the people doing the music and voice acting and how their work is put to shame by whoever designed the UI and made the game look lifeless and dull. I hope there's some way to fix those atrocities so that I can get back to playing the game. I don't know anything about modding or how to fix those bugs, so I'd appreciate any help you can provide. Thank you.

Oblivion was too colourful and cartoony. Skyrim looks 10x better.

Yes, the UI is completely broken - by far the worst UI I ever experienced in any game. Get "SkyUI" from the Nexus, it's not perfect because it is based on the vanilla UI, but it is far far better and makes the game actually playable. You should also get "Better Dialogue Controls".

The colors are a matter of taste. Oblivion was unrealistic colorful and Skyrim is unrealistic dull. However, most people seem to like the game more colorful, so you find lots of ENB mods on the Nexus that "fix" the color scheme. They are very demanding on your hardware, though.

This game has many flaws, but luckily you are on PC, and if you put a little effort into modding you will be rewarded with a fantastic gaming experience! Don't give up yet!

I disagree. If it is game that can take hundreds of hours to finish, then I don't want to look at a lifeless muddy-looking colorless dull scenery all the time. In my opinion, Oblivion looked much better in that regard.

Thank you. I'll look into those fixes. I'm just amazed that such obvious flaws are not patched even after more than a year since the game was released.

always fun to read people's first impressions of the User Hinderface. http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/3863//? is the popular method of fixing it. And seeing how it has nearly two million unique downloads, almost every PC player must be using it




It's the "realism" shader (grey tint). I just use http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/648/?, that unlike ENB has no performance impact, to reveal the "cartoony" (colors) hidden behind it.

And they aren't flaws, they're just how the game was designed And now you know why i'll never buy a BGS game for a console And i suspect those are only the two most obvious things that you'll be needing mods for

Don't forget the Unofficial Patches, they are very essential.

Yes, you'll save yourself from a lot of headaches by including them as soon as possible.

Another easy-to-install lighting mod that doesn't affect performance is http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/13531/?

Gopher covered it http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dRGKji2iaYo

Preach the word my good friend. No Elder Scrolls game should ever have the color palette that Oblivion did and hopefully they'll never revisit rainbow puke.

Regarding the UI, it is simply personal preference. I have absolutely zero problems with it on either console or PC. I gave the much lauded SkyUI a go and promptly uninstalled it half an hour later. Functionality improvements weren't worth the ugly UI to me.

Anyway;

*All the unofficial patches

*SkyUI if it floats your boat

*ENB if your PC can handle it. I would also recommend the same lighting mod kezardinjnr did.

Then, play for a while and get a feel for things before exploring gameplay tweaks.

I feel really sorry for the people who worked on the game, since this paragraph is one big insult. It isn't constructive criticism, it's being nasty. No one's work was put to shame by anyone. It's entirely personal preference - I find the colour scheme just right, I have no issues with it. I have no issues with Oblivion's either. I don't think it looks lifeless and dull at all.

The UI is another matter entirely - it was designed for console users (not command console users ), so it is clunky, but for PC players in particular (console players feel free to also condemn the UI - or praise it). PCs are different beasts and require one to follow different design conventions for certain features. Likely the people who worked on the UI would have done a much better job except for the guy at the top telling them no. I'm sorry, but that's how it works - they simply weren't allowed to ship the PC version with a separate UI. They're perfectly capable of making one, but the guy in charge is the one you want to rant at for not allowing it. Maybe the people who worked on the UI could have hit a happy medium, compromised in certain areas, but ultimately they did not for whatever reason.

Well I bought Skyrim to Xbox 360 first and then I bought the Legendary ver to PC. The UI works really good on the 360. The PC conversion is a bit svcky because a mouse is allot more sensitive and precise control device then a hand control to a console platform. Just plug in your hand control to the PC if you're too bothered with it. Personally I don't think its that bad but its a bit getting use to it. Just look for mods that are out there if you don't want to use a controller.

The color scheme of the game.... Skyrim is suppose to be a northern land that take it's influences from the Scandinavian (viking) lore. If you consider that the color scheme of the game is spot on for late summer/ early autumn. Trust me I'm from Sweden but if you don't google pictures of Norway, Finland, Island or Sweden during the autumn.

"What if Apple made a video game?"

But here's a helpful hint for the UI of your next game BGS: try to actually use it after you've designed and coded it


I've never noticed a grey tint over everything that dulls the colors. Well, except on rainy days in october.

Read the sticky threads in the mod section of these forums before you go adding mods to the game. Oh and make a backup of your game... it might save you the headache of reinstalling Skyrim if you install a mod that doesn't play nicely with others.

What about playing a little longer before judging?

Sure, Skyrim has glitches and bugs but ... I dont see how a game's choice of color scheme can be classified as a bug... they are actually 2 different art-styles.

Apparently, he joined just to have his fifteen minutes. We'd better not allow him this pleasure.

Yes, those are only the initially obvious faults. The worst ones may not show for quite a while

I'm a bit thrown off by the title. The color scheme and bad UI aren't "bugs". They're not the greatest thing created but they aren't bugs.

This is just a complaint thread / mod request. The former is welcomed with constructive criticism.The later should be asked in the mod forum. Or better yet just search the mod forum for one of the 100's of threads about "must have mods".

I, like 200,000 others, use SkyUI, Imaginator and an ENB to address these intentional settings and appearances.

http://oi43.tinypic.com/2qtbubp.jpg