So... I actually haven't ever played an Elder Scrolls game before, but after reading about all the hype for Skyrim here, I decided to try it out.

Holy fucking shit, this game is amazing. It's what i've always wanted to play in an RPG. There's no massive grindfest of monsters, and the leveling system is really interesting in terms of how you actually gain exp.

I'm playing an Imperial Mage, I had absolutely no idea about classes and races etc when I started, all I knew is that I wanted to blast things with lightning and fire. And by god am I doing that!

I have to say, the best thing about this game for me, is just how fascinating all of the quests are, side quests and main quests. One of the things i've hated the most in a lot of RPGs, is the side quests are usually incredibly boring, but right now I don't think i've really done anything in regards to the main story, i've only been to two towns really, and I'm deep into this mage college quest line that's just fascinating.

There's no massive running around all over the place for ages, for no apparent reason. Travel is done really well, the whole fast travel thing is really really convenient.

Basically, i started playing earlier today, meant to only play a few hours, see what it was like ,then suddenly it was 1am and I realized I had to sleep. Best game i've played in a long long LONG time.

Gonna have to play oblivion after this.

If I had one wish, it's that i had a good enough computer to run this game on ultra graphics settings. It's so pretty on medium. Oh and a bigger monitor than my 15' laptop.

Rant over pretty much, I could of gone on about so much more shit as well. TLDR - game is amazing.

 

Ellisande said what I wanted to say, only better. The only thing bugging me in this game is how the aim works. I don't know if it's my computer, but I'm at nearly 75% sensivity so I can get some freedom of movement. Also, is there anything other way to play mage and be useful other than destruction? So far I'm only spamming dual fire+light on the enemies.

 

You say that like it's a bad thing

 

I'm finding good success with Illusion + Destruction on my mage, just dual flame thrower single targets down and hit Fury if there's more than one target so they kill each other and you just have to clean up the pieces.

 

So I intended to play as a thief, but seeing as I couldn't find any thieves guilds in the couple cities I went to (I found it eventually), my Argonian ended up as a smooth-talking magician. At level 11 I've killed three dragons with magic alone and though I've mostly been doing sidequests, I own a house in Whiterun, and have about 15k septims in the bank. Magic is fucking awesome. I've been using dual flame since it seems to be the cheapest and most effective. Magic just makes everything better. I like that it lets me do whatever I want, like doing companion missions with my woefully low blade skills not giving a fuck because of stoneflesh. Seriously looking forward to becoming a werewolf, just so that when melee enemies underestimate the squishy lizard mage, I rip their throat out with some wolf claws.

So, I got in around 10-12 hours today. I feel like I've barely scratched the surface of what the game has to offer. I haven't progressed to the Throat of the World yet, and I've only barely been inducted into the Companions and the Mage's College. I'm estimating at least 80 hours, on this playthrough alone.

Does anyone else feel like the default is super easy? I've never been killed by an enemy (though I did have a few embarrassing falls) and I can barely hold all my gold. Debating on whether to put it on hard or extra hard.

 

I nearly mounted the postman when he delivered this I was so excited.

Magic is so much better than in Oblivion it's unreal and the world feels so much more alive. For instance, a wolf completely ignored me to chase an elk. The little touches as well are awesome - a guardsman in Falkreath mocked me by saying:

An Iron Sword? What are you trying to kill, butterflies?

This game is going to ruin my academic future.

 

God, this game. So much fun, so much epic, so many "OH FUCK" moments. Got a great The Traveller's Log to add to the Skyrim: Share Your Story thread now. It involves a werewolf hunt of epic proportions. (Also, all of you, if you have a cool/funny/just plain Skyrim-y moment or story, post it! It's fun to share like that.)

 

That's what I thought, then I tried it and found out it takes you half a fucking hour to turn into the wolf.

 

There have been one or two fights where I had to drop the difficulty. The one that immediately springs to mind was against the boss of a cave (Some underground bugman with a chitin shield and axe) and a Dwarven Centurion. I died, no shit 15 times before I dropped the difficulty down to nil.

 

Doing the thieves guild questline with a heavy armoured Nord. Not my best plan, but it somehow manages to work.

Also, smithing ftw. I've made so much money off of just that it's ridiculous. It also increases really easily, even at 50+, so if you're looking for a way to make money and level up really fast go kill some deer and make armour out of them.

 

I'm going the Nord Berserker Werewolf route. Light Armour with a battleaxe with a couple of spells for backup (healing mostly). Also, FORCE LIGHTNING! My next character is totally going to be Darth Sidious.

 

Someone screwed up his settings, the result is really something else:



Multiple Screens

Relevant Reddit Thread

Looks actually quite interesting.

 

Looks like TF2 meets Elder Scrolls.

 

Went against the 1st dragon on adept difficult(I'm, guessing that's the normal one) and killed it easily. Then I decided to man up and start playing on expert and the damn thing is wiping the floor with my smoltering corpse.


I'm loving this.

 

Please disregard my previous post...alot of pages back, the game set me up on high right off the bat and other than the occasional 10 second pause it's running goddamn GREAT.

This game is fucking awesome, this is one of those games where your excited just to run around and do shit rather than be like 'Well, I guess it's a god knows how long hike just to find this one dude.'. Fuck that, it's a adventure now. I was walking down a mountain and I ran into Justicars and after talking to each of them they called me a heretic and tried to kill me to which I responded with dual wielding frost and lighting spells. I have to say, elven gear and those robes are cool as Hell. Hope it didn't cause problems later...

This is the kind of game we've been looking for, one that makes you excited to play every damn minute of it. This is the game where I feel like a kid again and I counted the days to where it was going to come out and once I got it I didn't come out of my room for 2-3 days except for food and maybe a shower. Now if you'll excuse me DLP, I have to slay the shit out of whatever gets in my way.

(Also, that one chick following me Lydaira(?) died fighting an Ice Troll. Are there more ways to get companions?)

 

Vista 32-bit only does 3 gigs as well. Didn't know that about 7 though; I've only had the 64-bit version.

 

@Crimson13: If you hang around they generally self revive in my experience, try checking back at the jarls house and see if she's around.

 

Healing Hands + Courage all the way - your companions never die and never flee. That first companion they give you tanked four dragons for me while I poisoned the shit out of their scaly asses.

You can find some mercenaries around every once and a while, I ran into a dunmer assassin companion once, but I still needed a tank.

 

Lydia, and there are more. I know there's at least one mercenary in Whiterun that you can hire.

 

I've just started playing this, too. Only 2 things I don't like: The UI, and the sound is just fricken lame ass. And it's not my speakers, either. Loving the game otherwise though. I'm not very far in the game yet.