Skyrim early review

[shadows5631]

Well, I've played for about 5 hours now, so it's been just long enough to give a brief review without spooling things for others.

First, the controls.
Bit of the same, although the vertical axis is A LOT more sensitive than horizontal (console influence there) and so far I haven't found a way to change it. Not much of a con because you get used to it in about 20 minutes. Mouse movement is still responsive and actually feels like Portal 2 in a way. The menus mouse movement isn't that great though.

Graphics.
Very much improved over Oblivion and Fallout 3. You can definitively see the resemblance from Fallout with rock and sand textures being very similar. Shadows are a miss though. They're very jagged and almost feels like they dubbed them down to make it run smoothly for consoles.

Scenery.
As you would imagine, very cold and snowy. The sun does come out in some places and it makes the graphics stand out much more. Mountains are gigantic, so horses fall and die easily.

Sounds.
27 times better than in Oblivion. The first time I heard destruction spell sounds I almost teared up they were so good. Blade wielding and striking are pretty phenomenal too. Background noise is great, especially the waterfalls and weather. Footsteps are almost the same from Fallout however.

Animation.
Again with the destruction spell, it's pretty incredible. Ragdoll isn't as funny as Oblivion though, but it's much more realistic. Dragons flying around is pretty beastly, especially when it lands near your face unexpectedly.

Performance.
Well I have a GTX 275 and it runs smoothly on Ultra at 1920x1080, x16AF, x4AA. So, that makes me happy.

Not very buggy for me so far, but I could expect a small patch within the first few weeks.

Pros:
Storyline (as always)
Graphics
Animations
Sounds
Landscape design and detailed areas (every cave is diverse)
Never ending gameplay/quests
Dialog actually doesn't freeze the world
Skills and perks are much more thought out
FOV 80 works and saves, unlike Oblivion.

Cons:
Controls (could be better)
Shadows
The map (feels and looks weird)
Bartering has no confirmation, so if you click accidentally, you're screwed.

8.5/10 so far.

 

[acefisher1]

Thanks for the early review!

I'm having trouble deciding on going with a pure mage build, or going heavy armor 2h weapon. Is the casting strong enough on it's own to be playable and not a nightmare?

Also, how is crafting? I'm looking forward to alchemy especially.

Thanks again for taking the time to stop in and let us know how you're liking it!

 

[Wi1D_K4rD]

Spot on review. If I wasn't also super excited to help stress test SW: TOR in a few hours I would be playing this game non stop this weekend. Only reason i'm not playing now is I'm waiting to go to a Veteran's Day dinner.

What kind of character you running for this playthrough if you don't mind me asking? I'm playing through as a Dual=Axe Wielding Nord Warrior chick. She's pretty beastly so far lol.

 

[liquidrider]

Great review, and I am excited that it can run ultra under your current specs. I have the same Looks like I will have no life this weekend.

 

[Naku_vamp]

i agree with pretty much all that ivv got about 6 hours in teh sound is amazing I was uhigh up in a mountain and there were like weird wind noises i was looking around ot make sure it wasnt a monster or something, but i do wish the bartering was a little better and some of the menus could be better but you get used to them the over all game outweights its few cons

and I also have had almost no problems or glitches with this game (occasionally i will see where and item loaded and it glicthed through the table and fell to the floor which was very common for me in oblivon) and i had a random crash to desktop with no error message but that only happened once after 4 straight hours and since the game keeps like 3 auto save files i didnt lose any progress

 

[shadows5631]

I'm having trouble deciding on going with a pure mage build, or going heavy armor 2h weapon. Is the casting strong enough on it's own to be playable and not a nightmare?

Also, how is crafting? I'm looking forward to alchemy especially.

The spells themselves are definitively strong enough to dual wield, you just have to have the magicka to back it up. I tried crafting and it was pretty cool. I made my blade sword into a fine blade sword, and made some leather armor to sell. I haven't tried alchemy yet. After the story gets going I'll try it out.

What kind of character you running for this playthrough if you don't mind me asking?

Male Nord (I always play the homeland character the first go around), short sword and destruction wielding, with light armor (using speed to make up for the lack of blocking)

and I also have had almost no problems or glitches with this game (occasionally i will see where and item loaded and it glicthed through the table and fell to the floor which was very common for me in oblivon) and i had a random crash to desktop with no error message but that only happened once after 4 straight hours and since the game keeps like 3 auto save files i didnt lose any progress

I had the shadow glitch where it flickers, but only twice. And when I get on a horse, it takes a few seconds for it to appear. That's the only ones I've gotten so far. Oh I just figured out, you can hold ALT to sprint :mellow:

 

[Naku_vamp]

The spells themselves are definitively strong enough to dual wield, you just have to have the magicka to back it up. I tried crafting and it was pretty cool. I made my blade sword into a fine blade sword, and made some leather armor to sell. I haven't tried alchemy yet. After the story gets going I'll try it out.



Male Nord (I always play the homeland character the first go around), short sword and destruction wielding, with light armor (using speed to make up for the lack of blocking)




I had the shadow glitch where it flickers, but only twice. And when I get on a horse, it takes a few seconds for it to appear. That's the only ones I've gotten so far. Oh I just figured out, you can hold ALT to sprint :mellow:

I ussually just put caps lock on which is always run and use shift to walk if i need to be quite when im sneaking lol the same i did in oblivion

 

[shadows5631]

I ussually just put caps lock on which is always run and use shift to walk if i need to be quite when im sneaking lol the same i did in oblivion

I mean there's actually a button to sprint (faster than running).

 

[Narh]

Male Nord (I always play the homeland character the first go around), short sword and destruction wielding, with light armor (using speed to make up for the lack of blocking)

Did that for My Character as well.

I've got 12 hours so far. Spent lots of time messing with the smithing and dragon hunting. Now, Im lvl 15 with Dragon bone armor and weapons

But only 3 (full) shouts.

 

[Spitfire'd]

Thanks for the early review!

I'm having trouble deciding on going with a pure mage build, or going heavy armor 2h weapon. Is the casting strong enough on it's own to be playable and not a nightmare?

Also, how is crafting? I'm looking forward to alchemy especially.

Thanks again for taking the time to stop in and let us know how you're liking it!

Destruction Magic feels way more effective in this game then in past games. Same with Archery. I never liked archery in the past games, it actually feels effective now.

 

[acefisher1]

So I started, and decided to do an Argonian battle mage. It's alright. I'm probably going to start over and do a purely mage based character though. I really prefer the magic in the game to the combat, which still feels pretty clunky.

I'm going to focus on using summoning and conjuration with destruction to back it up once they're being tanked by zombies or my conjured weapons. I've also noticed that with alchemy you can craft potions so easily and quickly you don't need to spend too much time worrying about health with the pause-heal ability this game gives you.

As for having the magicka to use full spell-casting, i've found that using the mage robes and simple potions which are beyond abundant even without alchemy, it's no problem. You can have upwards of 300% magic regen at all times without worry.

So far, the game is incredible, and I really think i'll be playing this game for years to come. I can see myself spending hours just on crafting sets of armor alone. Thanks for the tips and reviews to everyone that's posted in here thus far too by the way!

 

[MRgilmoresJACKET]

Question on hardware. I have crossfired 6950's and my fps is actually better when i disable the crossfire and use only one card. I've heard a lot of talk that the crossfire is conflicting with this game. Anyone have any news on a quick fix or if amd might be releasing new drivers to fix this issue? Any help would be appreciated, I'm just tired of enabling and disabling the crossfire every time I open and close the game.

 

[Stormrider^]

Question on hardware. I have crossfired 6950's and my fps is actually better when i disable the crossfire and use only one card. I've heard a lot of talk that the crossfire is conflicting with this game. Anyone have any news on a quick fix or if amd might be releasing new drivers to fix this issue? Any help would be appreciated, I'm just tired of enabling and disabling the crossfire every time I open and close the game.

Haven't heard anything from AMD and there is no quick fix other than just disabling it.
Might be that Bethesda is working on it.

 

[Spitfire'd]

So I started, and decided to do an Argonian battle mage. It's alright. I'm probably going to start over and do a purely mage based character though. I really prefer the magic in the game to the combat, which still feels pretty clunky.

I'm going to focus on using summoning and conjuration with destruction to back it up once they're being tanked by zombies or my conjured weapons. I've also noticed that with alchemy you can craft potions so easily and quickly you don't need to spend too much time worrying about health with the pause-heal ability this game gives you.

High Elves are great for a mage build, I would recommend them!

 

[acefisher1]

High Elves are great for a mage build, I would recommend them!

Yep! I went ahead and went High Elf. I was unsure at first because I generally don't like their looks, but I actually ended up with one I liked.

I'm completely impressed with this game so far.

 

[ghettosmurf]

Question on hardware. I have crossfired 6950's and my fps is actually better when i disable the crossfire and use only one card. I've heard a lot of talk that the crossfire is conflicting with this game. Anyone have any news on a quick fix or if amd might be releasing new drivers to fix this issue? Any help would be appreciated, I'm just tired of enabling and disabling the crossfire every time I open and close the game.

AMD has not released the new CAP(Catalyst Application Profile) or updated performance drivers for Skyrim yet, so it's highly advised you disable crossfire for now. HardOCP did a test using exactly those cards and it was ugly business in Crossfire, but my 6850 does decently at high settings.

I always keep an eye on this guy for the latest updates about AMD drivers.

 

[a pet rock]

1) In-game options - gameplay - disable xbox controller
2) Edit .ini file, turn off mouse acceleration.
3) My shadows look awesome, there are some .ini edits that might help your issue.

Hands down, best game I've played in years. TES never disappoints me.

 

[shadows5631]

1) In-game options - gameplay - disable xbox controller
2) Edit .ini file, turn off mouse acceleration.
3) My shadows look awesome, there are some .ini edits that might help your issue.

Hands down, best game I've played in years. TES never disappoints me.

Did all that yesterday and it definitely helped. I Also turned the water detail up and forced vsync off. I wish it still had the hard drive cache and multi threaded commands.

The shadows were only looking weird from characters casting them. The environment shadows look good though.

 

[labowsky]

the dragons flying is absolutely horrid, only con of the game other than bugs.

 

[shadows5631]

Thought this was interesting. Today it was 287,000 players on at one time. That's over 3 times as much as MW3 which was second at 86.