Ramble: The Great Immersion Overhaul (Skyrim mod, PS4)

It’s been a while since I tried out mods on Skyrim, but one I already had, but hadn’t tried, was The Great Immersion Overhaul (TGIO). In common with many other PS4 mods, it’s probably lacking things available on Xbox and PC due to the platform’s restrictions. But is it worth having? What’s it like?

Quick Summary

TGIO alters a lot of things substantially. Almost all skills are 1 to start with (I think my Khajiit had two or three that were marginally higher). Races have their own particular pros and cons (Khajiit can use Silent Paws to be extra sneaky). The skill trees for the warrior and rogue sections have been completely rejigged. Combat is radically different, more damage is both received and given, and you can’t alter direction when you’re attacking, making it easier to dodge. The weight of items has been changed and carrying capacity nerfed so unless you fluke a lot of hauling-enchanted gear (I did) it’s really difficult deciding what to take. Similarly, the economy has been drastically altered, with higher prices for most goods and the limiting factor instead being the weight. Last but not least, fast travel is disabled.

It’s worth noting that the mod does not affect DLC. The only time this appeared to be a problem for me is when I had to steal X amount of stuff from Solstheim, but even though I was sure I achieved it (I nicked an emerald, amongst other things) it didn’t register as completed.

That’s a lot of stuff to consider. I should stress I’ve played for probably a few dozen hours at this point, with a thieving, bloodthirsty, stealthy chap called Murdercat. At the time of writing I’ve completed the first quest or two in the Dark Brotherhood and Thieves Guild lines, and just received the final part of the Fus Ro Dah shout. The weapons I’m using are the bow and the dagger.

Combat

Often with stealth builds I don’t have a companion. In TGIO, I do. Not only does this slightly ease the carry weight situation, companions are super valuable in combat, taking the pressure off when facing multiple opponents and pinning enemies down when you’re just facing one (especially handy for an archer/stealthy stabber build). On the downside, combat now rewards skill (I have the combat prowess of a drunk trapped in a cat flap). Because you can’t shift direction when attacking, side-stepping is eminently possible. The swifter dagger attack means you can get in, attack, and get out whilst Brainless McMuscleboy is still swinging his Compensatingforsomething Megahammer. I had a great run for about eight stabs against one guy then buggered it up at the end and had my head smashed in. It’s a good system, provided you have more martial instinct than a baked potato.

I didn’t play much with magic, but a few scrolls proved how useful conjuration in particular could be. A storm atronach’s ranged damage was very handy when I was in a tight spot.

Crime and Stealth

Murdercat, as you might guess, is not a law-abiding citizen. Indeed, his happiest moment was randomly stealing from a house in Whiterun and discovering Nazeem. Murdercat: “Nazeem was asleep when I arrived. When I left, he was dead.” Bounties are rejigged, with murder now carrying a fine of 10,000 gold. That’s a lot. But it does fit the crime.

Stealth has been reworked to operate more along line of sight. Also, if you alert someone a little so they start searching, they won’t just stop six seconds later. This adds to realism, especially when you’ve just shot them in the chest with an arrow (ahem). It’s very easy, and satisfying, to sneak up behind someone and slit their throat, although I had a little Twitter chat with the mod creator and he mentioned he was going to make that a bit more difficult (it probably is overpowered, but I like it).

Backstabbing bonuses come from the weapons trees, not from sneak, I believe. It’ll take a while to earn them (I have one for daggers and none for bows, after 20-30 hours, probably, of playing). However, because damage is generally increased, backstabbing is powerful. With Mehrunes’ Razor and Dark Brotherhood gauntlets, I’m able to one-shot a snow bear by backstabbing.

Crafting

Crafting in the vanilla game is easy. And overpowered. It’s much trickier with TGIO (tip: get yourself a blacksmith’s hammer. You should be able to buy one from Lucius in Riverwood). Weight of materials is one thing (ingots weigh about 5 each and leather 4), and you won’t be able to smith most things off the bat. If you want to power level, the easiest way is probably to make arrows. As I’m playing an archer (mostly) that dovetailed nicely.

Side note: the armour/weapons stats have been rejigged to make more sense (Orcish gear is pretty good now).

Alchemy ingredients weigh more. Some, like antlers, weigh a lot more. Potions are also worth less money so you can’t just spam potions and get your skill up superfast. One thing that’s a clear improvement on the vanilla version is that rarer ingredients give better results. When I was making poisons a couple of slightly rarer ingredients gave me a boost to either damage per second or longevity. Like smithing, alchemy takes a while to level.

I haven’t done much enchanting, excepting dismantling magical goods to learn the effects.

Crafting also includes cooking bonuses (the original set of recipes has been changed), though I haven’t experimented with this. Also for instruments and tailoring (although tailoring hasn’t been implemented at the time of writing).

Money, Economy, Travel, and Weight

I’ve bracketed these together because they’re all related to one another. The absence of fast travel and altered weight of goods (they make more sense, so antlers might weigh 6) are obviously connected, and the altered weight affects what you can sell. However, prices for most things are higher, and this enables and encourages more trading. For example, you might not have enough for some swanky armour, but if you’ve got some gemstones or old armour, you can likely flog that to make up the difference. Although I think the starting carry capacity is a bit rough (it’s perhaps 100), the system is well-balance and really does make trading more dynamic. Travel is aided by the cart system and by the ferries that link Windhelm, Solitude, and Dawnstar (especially good for the latter as it doesn’t have a cart). Another change which helps travel is the improvement in sprinting from stamina, which now lasts much longer than in the vanilla game (perhaps about five times as long). An important note, given all that, is that money remains weightless.

Bugs and Other Problems

I have had a couple of crashes whilst playing, but I also have crashes whilst playing the base game, so I don’t think that can be chalked up to the mod. The stealing problem in DLC-land outlined at the start is the only real problem I’ve encountered, and I just cancelled the quest (which can be done simply by telling Delvin). Not ideal but certainly not a game-breaker.

On compatibility, the mod’s description has links indicating load order (essentially, have the mod and four sub-mods, with the main mod itself at the bottom) and what kind of other mods work or clash with TGIO. Stuff that alter combat and economics are likely to clash. Weather and lighting mods are likely to be fine. The mod doesn’t work with survival mode, but another modder made one that apparently fixes that (I haven’t checked as I think having survival mode as well, with all the other restrictions, might be overdoing things).

All in all, I’ve had fun with this mod.

Thaddeus

The Three-Inch Fool part 1

One of the Shakespeare plays that ages the worst is The Taming of the Shrew, the central message of which is that the key to a happy marriage is for a husband to psychologically crush his wife until she’s mindlessly obedient to him.

It does, however, have some cracking jests, perhaps my favourite of which is “Away, you three-inch fool!”

I’ve used that as the basis for a daft character name in Skyrim, and edited some videos into short episodes (I’ve got more in progress). It’s vanilla gameplay footage plus the internal monologue [via text] of The Three-Inch Fool, a morally dubious Argonian with a fondness for cheese and murder.

Anyway, if you enjoy Sir Edric’s internal monologues and self-absorbed comedic style, you might like this. I have limited experience editing, so any insightful feedback is welcome (is the volume fine, captions up too long/not long enough etc).

Thaddeus

Skyrim PS4 mods – thoughts and recommendations

It’s been a little while since they came out, but mods for the PS4 edition of Skyrim are an interesting addition to an already immense game. However, as is known, there are limitations compared to not only the PC but the Xbox One (which has a clear advantage), namely total file size (only 1GB) and the total absence of new assets. There’s also a 100 mod limit.

So, given all that, are mods still worth bothering with if you’re on the PS4?

In a word: yes.

As well as nice little additions, some offer substantially changed weather effects, tweaks to gameplay, or even a full-blown overhaul (more on that later). The file size isn’t a problem because the absence of new assets (including scripts) means that you’re almost certain to never reach the limit.

So, are there any downsides to mods? Well, sometimes they conflict, although this will often be obvious. I’ve had a few more crashes (not loads, maybe one every 10 hours or so) when playing as The Red Panther. And the greyface bug is irksome (new NPCs can have freaky faces). But they add a lot to the game, so if you’ve sunk a lot of time into Skyrim and want something a little different, mods can really add to the experience.

Below is a list of mods I’ve particularly enjoyed. Do remember (I keep forgetting...) to like/rate mods that improve your game. These are all free, remember.

Darkness Falls, by Grumpy-Gazz

Since Dragon’s Dogma introduced totally black nights (save for your lantern’s limited light) I’ve really liked this approach. Nights are miles darker, practically impossible to see unless you’ve got a torch, magical light or are Khajiit. The only downside is this is incompatible with Dolomite Weathers (see below). It dovetails very nicely with the two mods bracketed together below.

Lanterns/Lampposts of Skyrim, by MannyGT and Micahghost (respectively)

The first of these mods adds little lanterns to settlements. In the newly darkened world, these really help make the villages and cities a spot of illuminated civilisation in the middle of the wilderness. The lampposts work much the same, providing lighting for the roads. Neither overdoes it, instead managing to get the balance of light just right. They work perfectly with Darkness Falls, and also fit the darker (although not as dark) nights of Dolomite Weathers.

Simple Survival, by Worlds

Now, I’ve only played with this a little bit because it’s not compatible with the Great Realism Overhaul, and when I made two new characters to see which I preferred I went for the latter. That said, this simple survival mod seemed to work very nicely. It adds a requirement to eat, drink and sleep regularly. Fail to do so and you take penalties, including your health, magic or stamina (or multiple) not regenerating. The mod’s author increased the frequency of finding salt to enable more cooking. I liked this a lot, and the only reason I didn’t stick with it is because I liked the other mod even more.

The Great Realism Overhaul, by Simtar123

This mod changes a colossal amount. The perks, especially those for warriors, have been reworked massively, and mostly for the better. One-handed, for example, has various multi-tiered perks to improve your skills with daggers, swords, axes or maces. Backstabbing perks are now located in one-handed, for daggers, and archery, for bows. Crafting replaces smithing and includes perks to improve cooking (curtailed options initially), create pottery as well as the armour/weapons you’d expect (tip: to improve rapidly, focus on arrows).

Combat is utterly reworked. On the recommended Legendary setting, damage both dealt and received is x2 normal, and you can’t shift mid-swing. So, enemies can be side-stepped and whacked, wolves are suddenly a bit dangerous (early on), and fighting multiple enemies is much harder. Correspondingly, a good follower is worth a lot, and summon spells are much more powerful. Stealth is also more valuable because of the enhanced damage, balanced out by enemies searching for you for much longer.

Carry weight has been utterly nerfed (100 initially) and fast travel is verboten, so this will put off some players, and I completely understand that. It’s particularly irksome when you kill a dragon (which is much harder than it was) only to find its valuable bones and scales weigh so much you can barely carry any of it. Travel by carriage is a lot more useful, but you can’t use it when you’re over-encumbered. Perks to make your armour (when worn) weigh less are also really helpful.

One discrepancy I found (I briefly played with a Breton mage to see how magic worked) is that my Khajiit, The Red Panther, had more or less the starting skill numbers I’d expect whereas my Breton, Laura de Mirgnac, had 1 for everything. Incidentally, the Breton starting spell (conjure familiar) is actually of some use.

It also has two supplementary mods for enemies and looting I recommend getting.

The Great Realism Overhaul really does change an awful lot. For me, it’s reinvigorated a game I’ve already (on the PS3) sunk hundreds of hours into.

All Armour Lootable and Wearable, by Bear

A great little mod that does what it says on the tin. If you get attacked by a Dark Brotherhood minion, why shouldn’t you be able to steal his snazzy masked cowl? Also good for getting a load of cash from selling looted stuff. Not compatible with the Great Realism Overhaul (but you wouldn’t be able to carry all the extra armour in any case).

Dolomite Weathers, by Megaloblast

An all-in-one weather mod (there are a few varieties, I just went for the original) which improves things a lot. In particular the higher intensity and sound effects of rain gave me goosebumps, it’s very good. Fog is denser, and the sky (clouds, aurora) just seems a lot better. I think that the distance you can see has been dramatically increased, although before this I was using the weather mods below so I can’t swear to it. Nights are darker, although not as black as Darkness Falls. The only downside is that the aforementioned mod is incompatible with Dolomite Weathers, but, generally, this is really good.

Supreme Storms, by MannyGT

A weather mod that turns rain showers into torrential downpours. It’s even more intense than the Dolomite version, and works very well (obviously incompatible with Dolomite, though).

Supreme and Volumetric Fog, by MannyGT

Similarly, dense fog for those who don’t want to go down the Dolomite route. Before I had the all-in-one mod, I used this, Supreme Storms and Darkness Falls, which all meshed nicely together.

Master the Summit, by SpaceGoats

We’ve all been there. Heading for Ivarstead. Discovering you’ve got to go all round the houses. Master the Summit adds bridges, steps and so forth to various places in Skyrim, making it easier to get around on foot. Especially useful for those going without fast travel, and fits in perfectly with the game.

Rich Merchants, by Jason069

Pretty simple. Stops merchants running out of money when you want to flog them stuff. Straightforward and very useful.

Smooth Human Female Faces, by FiNwolf

At the risk of sounding shallow, wrinkly foreheads don’t do it for me. This simple mod gives them (particularly Bretons) smooth foreheads so you can have a character who isn’t looking inexplicably old.

Phenderix Magic World DLC, by Phenderix

I’ve not played extensively as a mage, but had to include this mod. It includes several new locations (not visited them) and hundreds of new spells, some of which I’ve messed around with. There’s a vastly increased range of summons, and the destruction magic is improved with new spells too. New bosses, followers, loading screens and the mod bundles together a number of previously released, smaller mods. If you’re playing as a mage or part-time magic user, this is well worth a look.

Immersive Patrols, by Ameermohamedtt

Adds patrols from the various factions (Imperials, Stormcloaks, Thalmor etc) throughout the roads. These can, and will, encounter one another. They can also be very handy if a dragon shows up. I happened upon a fort that’s usually bandit-held (in the vanilla game) and instead found a massive Imperial-Stormcloak battle, which was pretty cool. It’s a nice touch that makes the world feel more alive.

Immersive and Levelled Items, by Gehirnmutant

There’s a problem with finding cool items early, which is that you get lumbered with a basic level of enchantment. However, this nifty mod means you can then level it up to improved versions, if you have the right material. So, if you get Chillrend early on, you’re not stuck with the n00blet level effect forever. Pretty simple, and a nice addition.

Late addition:

Fix: Restore Vanilla Settings, by DylanJames

After writing the above, I wanted to check to make sure I wasn’t over-egging the cake with certain things (particularly to see whether I was misremembering how far you can see the landscape without mods). So I started a new save, without mods. However, my character had far lower skills (1 for most) than she should’ve. Lakraz Ogre-Killer was not amused. I tried making another new save, but Gryzelda also had the same problem. Mostly, this didn’t change a lot, but I couldn’t actually sharpen the iron dagger in Riverwood because I lacked the skill (my smithing was only about 6 or 7).

Happily, the above mod fixed things, although I did have to make a new character.

This isn’t an exhaustive list by any means, but there’s a fair range of good mods that players both hardcore and casual might enjoy.

Thaddeus

PS4 Pro: Why It Has Already Failed

I have a bad habit.

Every console generation, I buy at the wrong time. Within a year, often within months, a better version of the console (a slimmer one, or one with a bigger hard drive) comes out. Like clockwork.

This time is a little different, though. Because both Sony and Xbox have more advanced consoles which are souped-up versions of the existing generation. I’m focusing on the PS4 Pro, both because it’s just been announced and because I have a PS4.

It is a stupid idea. A strategic blunder.

In basic terms, this either sells well and succeeds, or poorly and fails. If the latter, that’s obviously a failure. But even if it sells well, there’s a problem.

Sooner or later, the PS5 and Xbox RandomNumber will come out. But who, beyond the rather rich, is going to want to buy one? A few years after that, the PS5.5 and Xbox RandomNumberB will come out. You’ll then be left with an invidious choice: buy the slightly better console that has the same range of games but will cost extra for a second console purchase, or go without and stick with the peasant version.

So, I imagine many people will wait. Meanwhile, Sony and Microsoft aren’t getting the console sales they hoped for, because the public are wary of their dodgy generation-and-a-half ways. Game sales are down, console sales are down, and everyone makes less money.

Consoles aren’t like mobile telephones. You spend for convenience. If you want to incrementally improve your gaming experience and have the dosh to throw around, the PC is there for you. PCs are more powerful in every way, games can be played without worrying nearly so much about backwards compatibility. Yes, they’re fiddlier and costlier, but that’s the trade off.

Consoles = cheaper, more convenient

PCs = more expensive, better experience

I didn’t spend a couple of hundred pounds on a black box to spend even more on another black box a year later to play the same games.

Maybe I’m just more of a skinflint/poorer than other people, or just a bit old-fashioned (that latter point is almost certainly true), but the PS4 Pro seems stupid to me. Anyone wanting continual improvements can get that already. The whole point of consoles is that they’re easy. You splash out once every seven years or so, plug in and play.

Another problem with the PS4 Pro is that to get the most out of it, you need a 4K TV. And the VR. Which also means a camera. And probably a couple of Playstation Move peripherals.

I might be wrong (I’m into F1 and classical history so I’m well aware I’m not Captain Everyman) but it seems too expensive for most people whilst offering too little (the games are the same) just a few years after the initial PS4 launch. Far better to have that for a PS5 launch, and have a VR bundle for those who want that, no?

As an aside, the Xbox Scorpio, or whatever it’s called, is a good chance for Xbox to strike back against Playstation in the console war.

Late additional bit: fresh from an underwhelming presentation, Sony’s delighted PS4 owners a little bit more. Bethesda, who wanted Fallout 4 mods on PS4 in June (they came to Xbox One in May), have said they’re cancelled, and squarely blamed Sony for that. Mods are also not coming to the PS4 version of Skyrim.

If you’re a huge Bethesda fan, that’s a great disappointment. I do like Bethesda’s games (less taken with Fallout than Elder Scrolls), and find this to be unsurprising but bad news.

Fallout 4 and Skyrim mods - https://bethesda.net/#en/events/game/ps4-mod-update/2016/09/09/199

There are suggestions (following the news that a farming simulator game will have mods on the PS4) that some form of mods may yet happen for Fallout 4/Skyrim on the PS4, but that remains to be seen.

Thaddeus

E3 Ramble

This year’s E3 has been and gone and I thought I’d ramble about it. So I am.

Skyrim’s being remastered for the PS4 and Xbox One. Huzzah! It’s free for PC users who have the game+DLC on Steam already. Huzzah! It’s full-price for console users.

What?

The Last of Us Remastered, Tomb Raider, Valkyria Chronicles: Europa Edition were all £20, not the £50 Bethesda want for Skyrim. Hell, XCOM 2 is being released on consoles for £40.

Now, I really like Skyrim. I’ve put hundreds of hours into it, and I’ll probably get the new edition [after waiting for a price drop]. But I’ve bought it twice (original and Legendary Edition for the DLC on PS3). Asking £50 more is taking the piss, especially contrasted against the price tag of £0 for PC users. I can appreciate that a free giveaway for PC users will help ensure mods (which are to be available for console players) get developed for the new edition, but that does not justify the full-price tag.

XCOM 2 is something I’ve wanted to play for ages but, being a mere console peasant, haven’t been able to. I do have some concerns about potential bugs so I’m not sure I’ll get it right away, but I’m glad to see it migrate to consoles. Already planning some squad members (Benjamin Disraeli, nickname: Dizzy Rascal).

Those saddened by the cancellation of bowel-emptying nerve-shredder PT may be gladdened to know that Kojima’s making a new game. It also features Norman Reedus, who had been set for a role in PT, but nobody has any idea what Death Stranding is about.

God of War returns. Kratos has a beard and a child. If he ends up killing his son, I may contemplate purchasing it. I’ve got the three main entries in the series, but have no especial interest in seeing the world’s angriest man murder everyone, again. [Unless he does it to his offspring. Again]. This time he’s battling the Norse gods, presumably because he killed all the Greek ones last time. Anubis, you’re next.

There’s a new Spiderman game, cunningly called Spider-Man. I had Spiderman 2, I think it was called, for the PS2 and that was hugely enjoyable. The physics worked so well it was great fun just slinging webs and swinging around the city or swan-diving from buildings. If the new game lives up to that, it’ll sell by the bucketload.

Mass Effect Andromeda reminded everyone it still exists. Should be out in the first half of next year. Not sure I’ll get it. I really like the first three games (Femshep may be the best acted videogame character I’ve ever encountered), but I’m increasingly not a fan of Bioware/EA’s approach to DLC, within both the Dragon Age and Mass Effect series. Money and time are tight, patience is thin and DLC that should be in the main bloody game does not amuse.

Speaking of DLC, I may actually get it (not on-disc) for the first time with The Witcher 3’s two expansions. Undecided, as yet. They do look very good, though, and I like the way CD Projekt Red has been doing things. [On a related, nostalgic, note there’s a Lone Wolf game for downloading, currently discounted to under £8].

Another promising game for the future is Kingdom Come: Deliverance. It’s a first person RPG set in 15^th century Bohemia (central Europe), largely based on historical events. I think it’s out for PC next year, with planned PS4 and Xbox One releases after that.

Last but not least, Dishonored 2 is out late this year. I played the first game and enjoyed it a lot (I felt the world was very interesting and could’ve been developed a bit more). However, it was something I only played through a couple of times, and I prefer to sink in many, many hours. May give it a look once the price drops.

Thaddeus

No new DLC for Skyrim

As the title states, there shall be no more DLC for Skyrim. This is slightly surprising as there were quite a lot of rumours about a new, sizeable DLC entitled Redguard. However, Bethesda has said clearly they're leaving Skyrim (save for minor patches and the like) for pastures new. The likelihood is that they'll be working on Fallout 4.

There are 3 DLC options open for Skyrim: Dawnguard, Hearthfire (a mini-DLC) and Dragonborn, which is the largest (I think). Being against DLC generally, and having a dodgy/slow PS3 internet connection, I haven't downloaded them. However, I am hoping that the news that there won't be any more DLC means that we might get a Game of the Year Edition which has the original game plus all DLC included (total DLC cost is circa £30, so if we do get a GOTY edition then that'll probably be £20 and something of a saving).

Patch 1.9 was recently out for the PS3, and enables the Legendary/Suicidal difficulty setting. I've played a couple of hours as a sneaky Khajiit murderer and must say that it's pretty tough. Two examples of what I mean:

1) In the very first fight my one-handed skill increased twice, to 22, because it took so many hits to kill my foes.

2) I very nearly got killed by three wolves on the road. Wolves, by Talos!

Anyway, it'd be nice to get a full version of Skyrim. Not sure if I'll buy it (I decided against Dragon's Dogma's bigger version, Dark Arisen, which comes out on the 26th of this month).

Thaddeus

Dragon's Dogma Vs Skyrim

I've recently been playing a new game of Dragon's Dogma, which is one of the most surprisingly good games of recent years.

 

But how does it stack up against the 800lb gorilla of RPGs that is Skyrim?

Gameplay

Dragon's Dogma:

The menu's are reasonable but could be a little slicker. Conversations are pretty basic, but there are a few significant choices to make.

However, the game's greatest asset is it's bloody fantastic combat. Not only is it a challenge, the difficulty is just about spot on. So, you will die, but not every fifteen seconds. Enemies could be slightly more varied but there are a decent number of larger monsters which are a joy, especially at lower levels, to fight. Even better, there are nine classes (three to start with) and the fighter, strider and mage fight in very different ways. Importantly, they're well-balanced and fun, and, during the course of a game, a player's job can be switched easily.

Character creation offers a single race, but otherwise has average or extensive options (height, weight and stance being especially distinctive from the 'make your face' approach of other character creators).

The single save slot and auto-save feature, however, is a pain in the arse, and I really hope they sort that out for Dragon's Dogma 2: Rhetoric Returns [ok, I made the subtitle up].

Skyrim:

I love the race options, and whilst it's nice being able to vary muscularity a height/fat slider would've gone down nicely.

There's no class system as such, enabling a character the opportunity to specialise or become a jack-of-all-trades from the start. However, fighting in a melee style is pretty simplistic, the spells are far less impressive than Dragon's Dogma and fighting as an archer is a bit clunkier. The absence of a customised main pawn/sidekick also weighs against Skyrim.

Menus are pretty user-friendly, although they do lack a fantasy feel, and there are often a good range of choices in conversation. However, when it comes to serious choices to change the outcome of the central quest line or that of a guild there are almost none.

Unlike Dragon's Dogma, Skyrim has a sensible saving system allowing for tons of saves.

Conclusion:

Dragon's Dogma's brilliant combat makes its gameplay the better by a clear distance.

Graphics

Dragon's Dogma:

The quality of graphics for characters and items are perfectly reasonable, without being fantastic. Spells (and their effects, such as immolating a cyclops' arm) look either pretty good or very good. The gradual change of lighting effects for the day/night cycle look very nice. Landscapes look reasonably good without being fantastic. Gran Soren, the main city, isn't bad graphically but the city does look bloody boring.

The large range of clothing/armour available fits well together and doesn't lead to items meshing poorly.

Skyrim:

Character faces look good (and have nice dirt/tattoo options), enemies are nice and realistic in appearance and the province of Skyrim looks amazingly good. Even better is the knowledge that just about everywhere visible can be visited. Snowy climes, icy seas, dense woodland, open tundra, misty bogs, all look great. The cities are at worst functional (Falkreath) and at best distinctive visually (Solitude). The spells are a significant improvement on Oblivion and I love the fact that every single object can be looked at in the menu. Reading the books can be quite entertaining, actually.

Conclusion:

In almost every area Skyrim matches or, more often, surpasses Dragon's Dogma.

Sound

Dragon's Dogma:

Bit of a mixed bag, to be honest. Lots of the voice-acting is hampered by a poor attempt at ye olde English (for a top notch effort at this play the fantastic Vagrant Story), and the quality of voice actors is highly variable.

Creeping rats and shrieking bats sound better, and the spells (always a high point) often sound pretty good. The music (that shocking J-rock opening track aside) is pretty good.

 

Skyrim:

The voice-acting is significantly better than Oblivion, and I love the Nordic voice actors (especially the lady who voices Mjoll the Lioness). The scripts are generally good (or at least make sense and don't use the word 'aught' three times a sentence) too.

The sound effects for magical effects, most especially the lightning spells, are very good, and the music soundtrack is excellent. The main theme in particular is fantastic.

Conclusion:

Skyrim wins, courtesy of better voice-acting and an outstanding score.

Story

Dragon's Dogma:

Whilst not very original, there's nothing wrong with Dragon's Dogma's storyline. A mighty dragon destined to destroy the world has emerged, and you play the man or woman who must slay it.

Skyrim:

Whilst not very original, there's nothing wrong with Skyrim's storyline. A mighty dragon destined to destroy the world has emerged, and you play the man or woman who must slay it.

Conclusion:

Erm… I'd give it to Skyrim. Although superficially the storylines are basically identical, Skyrim has a far better defined world, more lore, a greater sense of why the dragon's about and killing things. Late on, Dragon's Dogma does actually explain quite a lot, but overall the experience of Skyrim's story is better than its rival.

Longevity/Replay value

Dragon's Dogma:

The world is pretty big, and effectively made larger by the difficulty of fast travel. There are also many classes (on my first playthrough I mastered 3/9 of them) and the player creates both their own character and main sidekick, increasing the possible variables.

There are only a few serious choices to make, but they do seem to make a very significant difference to the end of the game.

On the downside, the central story is linear and once completed the game ends (or a New Game Plus begins), and there's really only one way to do a given side quest.

Skyrim:

The world is bloody enormous (in fact, it's probably as big as a world can get before its size becomes a liability rather than an asset), but can shrink quickly courtesy of carriages to cities and very easy fast travel.

The main storyline is entirely linear, and the guilds are almost entirely linear also. There is, however, greater variance regarding racial choice for the player-character, and because of the way perks and levelling works characters can be wildly different (it takes some time to become a journeyman or master mage, for example).

Conclusion:

Whilst I love the combat in Dragon's Dogma, my own experience suggests that the enormity of Skyrim makes it far more replayable. A first time playthrough also takes significantly longer.

Bugs and other problems

Dragon's Dogma:

One save slot and auto-saving is bloody stupid. I think even Sonic 3 had three save slots. That's the only serious gripe that springs to mind.

 

Skyrim:

Originally it froze all the damned time. Now, it freezes but relatively rarely. It's still a pain, though.

Occasionally weird things occur (mammoths falling from the sky, a giant trapped in the road outside Whiterun etc) but they tend not to be too serious. I did once, however, get a Companions quest to find something, and it wasn't there. Thankfully, my ridiculously frequent saving meant I could go back to a minutely earlier save and continue from there.

Conclusion:

Dragon's Dogma will give you less buggy woe than Skyrim.

 

Verdict

This is quite difficult. Dragon's Dogma has a great combat system, but in every other area (save freezing) Skyrim is better. If an immersive world, whether regarding lore, graphics, sound or a definite sense of place, is a must-have for you then Skyrim must be considered the better. If all of that stuff is superficial to you and you just want to dive in and enjoy killing things, go for Dragon's Dogma.

As for me? Er…. I'd probably, just, go for Skyrim. I love good voice-acting, lore and a game I play for hundreds of hours. Dragon's Dogma is a great game and I'm delighted it's getting a sequel, but if I had to pick one, it'd probably be Skyrim.

Thaddeus

Skyrim DLC: Hearthfire

There's a new piece of Skyrim DLC shortly forthcoming. Unfortunately, like Dawnguard, it will be out at least 30 days later for the PC and PS3 than for the Xbox 360.

   

Hearthfire's a dinky but cool-sounding nugget of DLC, which allows a player to buy a plot of land and then design his own house. It appears that there'll be a wide range of options for customising your pad (adding wings, hiring a bard, personal cart-driver, cultivating land etc etc).

It reminds me a little of Tenchu 2, which I played quite some years ago. In it, you could design your own levels. It was actually pretty fantastic, and as user-friendly as Lego, so hopefully this DLC will be just as enjoyable and easy.

However, I'm still not sold on DLC. This is a cool little feature, but I fail to see why it couldn't be included in the main game. Secondly, Dawnguard is still not out for the PS3. The delay is prolonged, and one wonders whether Hearthfire will be out for the console at the same time as the PC version.

Thaddeus

Preview: Dawnguard (Skyrim DLC)

Bethesda have decided that the DLC for Skyrim is going to be come in a small number of hefty chunks, as opposed to lots of little ones.

Personally, I prefer this approach (as much as I like anything about DLC). The first DLC/expansion is entitled Dawnguard. Spoilers abound below.

Dawnguard will initially be released for the Xbox360, with the PS3/PC versions coming a bit later. It introduces the Volkihar vampires and the Dawnguard, a group of vampire hunters who appear to have nothing to do with the Vigil or Meridia, despite earlier speculation about the name.

These two factions will offer the player a choice. Join the Dawnguard and you get a new fort to live in and crossbows, join the Volkihar and you get a castle to live in and the ability to transform into a vampire lord. The two factions will battle to defeat one another, though how involved this will be is uncertain. The Civil War in Skyrim took quite a while (unlike some other questlines, such as the Companions, which were pretty brief).

There will also be access to a new plane of Oblivion: the Soul Cairn, which is filled with the undead.

Players will also have access to new dragon shouts as well as new skill trees (for vampires and werewolves respectively). There will be about a dozen new enemy types, although it sounds like they'll be mostly modified versions of existing foes.

I really like the sound of the Dawnguard and Volkihar, but I'm also pretty annoyed with the introduction of two new skill trees. That's core gameplay, and should've been included with the game proper. Extra spells, shouts, armour, weapons and so on are welcome additions but the perk trees are not something that should be used as add-ons, I think.

The DLC itself looks like it'll be pretty cool, but I won't be buying it myself. I'm going to wait and see how much the Game of the Year (GOTY) edition is, and how good the extra DLC looks and consider buying the GOTY edition if it looks a reasonable deal.

For more information on Dawnguard specifically and the Elder Scrolls/Skyrim more generally, it's well worth visiting the excellent Unofficial Elder Scrolls Pages here: http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Main_Page

Thaddeus

Skyrim covers

There have been quite a few Skyrim covers and related tracks on Youtube, from the Pianoborn and metal covers to the rap of Dan Bull and the silliness of Harry Partridge.

However, one of the best I’ve heard is a new(ish) one by Malukah (http://www.malukah.com/). She’s also done a cover of one of the bard’s songs, which is also excellent.

She does have a blog, although most of it’s in Spanish. Sounds like she’ll be releasing a few more tracks, and they’re also available as free downloads.

Thaddeus

Review: Skyrim

Review: Skyrim

This is a bit delayed because of an unfortunate issue, namely that the PS3 version reportedly suffers game-breaking lag beyond a certain point. I went for a broad and shallow approach (I have a number of characters with varying play-styles but no one high levelled character) so can’t definitively confirm or deny this. I was going to wait until I had such a character before writing this, but decided it’d be simpler to just give a score with and without the bug (on the basis that it may be patched or not universal, and that it may not apply across platforms).

At the time of playing I’ve played with characters of most races, completed or gotten very far along multiple quest lines (a few guilds and the main quest) and clocked probably 45-50 hours, maybe more.

Character Creation

Much improved on Oblivion, although the humans (Redguard excepted) do all look pretty similar. The scars and war paint options are nice, and the weight slider is very welcome.

The beast races are the best done and most improved, I feel. The Argonians can have a range of skin colours, but also benefit the most from the options to change various face colours (neck, chin, lower cheek etc). Khajiit also look fantastic, and the only race I might have a slight downer on would probably be the Dunmer, who really were beaten with the ugly stick a little too hard.

In the First Impressions post I said character creation was mostly cosmetic, and whilst that’s partly true I underestimated the importance of different skill levels. This is disproportionately important from one skill to another (for example, increasing the skill level with one-handed weapons is a piece of cake, but something like smithcraft takes more time and effort).

Levelling

My biggest problem with Oblivion was the awful levelling system, which made it quite easy to become progressively weaker the higher your level. Skyrim resolved this by axing attributes (Strength, Willpower etc) altogether, and instead make levelling contingent upon increasing skills.

At each level gained you increase Health/Magic/Stamina by 10 points and get a perk (eg increasing the damage done with a one-handed weapon, cutting the cost of Destruction spells etc).

This system is simple, very similar to Fallout and, thankfully, works very well. There are many perks that are either good or great and few fillers. In addition, there are often extra branches to the perk tree (each one takes the form of a constellation, with each perk a star) so if you’re a two-handed weapon sort of chap who only ever uses warhammers you can specifically increase the damage that warhammers do.

Many perks require a given skill level, which makes sense. Skills can be increased through use, reading a skill book (tip: these typically have a value of 50-70 and usually have a hint in the title as to what they improve) or getting training.

The system works very well, I’m pleased to say.

Gameplay (particularly balance of play-styles and combat)

I took a broad and shallow approach to testing this out, so I’ve got half a dozen or so characters, mostly low level, with two at 20+. My higher level characters were a pure warrior (Asgerd Njalsdottir) and a stealthy archer with some warrior skills (Shadowfang).

The pure warrior worked pretty well, but the game was easier (arguably too easy) with Shadowfang. He was able to kill people from a distance, often with a single shot, then kill the other foes who came to investigate what had happened. The use of certain warrior skills (smithing, one-handed and block) also meant he was pretty good in a toe-to-toe fight. I am glad, however, that the archery skill has been slightly beefed up and remains useful throughout, unlike in Oblivion where it became a bit rubbish at later levels. Also, you cannot run backwards (only walk), constantly firing arrows. A strong archer will be able to kill or halve the health of a feeble or average opponent with one arrow, but stronger enemies will be able to close the gap.

I did try a pure magic character, whom I fitted with stereotypical gear (ie enchanted clothes rather than armour). This was the trickiest of all options, as the damage potential was high (both in terms of receiving and delivering). I think the magic skills would work best with a hybrid character. There’s also a big leap between Novice and Apprentice level magic, as I discovered when some vile bugger put an icicle through my character’s head.

On the whole, combat is quite easy, but there will be times when you realise quite suddenly you’re out of your depth. I was climbing a mountain with Asgerd when a certain enemy appeared and kicked her arse. I tried a few more times but it was too tough so I left to level a bit, then came back and introduced its face to her sword.

The crafting skills are pretty damned good, especially smithing. This can seriously improve your gear and you can make your own. Firewood can be acquired with use of a chopping block and woodcutter’s axe, ore by mining with a pickaxe and smiths generally have a range of ore and ingots for sale.

Locks are perhaps a little too easy to pick, but the mini-game (basically the same as Fallout 3) is much more enjoyable than that of Oblivion.

Dragon shouts are excellent. I haven’t found too many, but a few, and most are either ones that are often useful or at least make sense (so, not many fillers here either). Some dragon battles are a bit easy (being a Nord gives a 50% frost resistance, so against a frost dragon this is rather handy) but others, particularly named dragons, can be more challenging.

The World

The world is fantastic. It’s massive (it does feel larger, to me, than Oblivion) and the changing landscape adds to the sense of scale. The mountains are often enormous and the game has a number of different climates (snowier in the north and east, forests in other areas, mountains, tundra etc). It is darker in both tone and colour than Oblivion, which fits well, although can make the world a shade gloomier.

Dialogue is improved upon, with people speaking whilst doing things (sharpening a sword on a grindstone, say) and the world continues to move around you. It’s also very similar to Fallout 3, with options that sometimes appear including Intimidate, Bribe, Persuade and Brawl (a bare knuckle fight that doesn’t give you a bounty).

Most of my characters are law-abiding, but Shadowfang’s a murderous bastard and so occasionally got a bounty. It’s rather immersion-breaking to slaughter someone in broad daylight, get caught and then get asked to, er, pay the fine. If you choose to go to jail then you lose the progress you’ve made towards improving one or more skills but the skill level does not decline.

There seem to be more varied points of interest on the map than before. There are often lumber mills, farms, caverns, mines, watchtowers, crypts and Dwemer ruins. On the whole, dungeons tend to be larger and more distinctive than in Oblivion. There are some puzzles, which tend not to be too hard.

There are 9 cities, 5 of which are major and walled and 4 of which are minor. You can buy houses in the major cities, although this does involve jumping through hoops (some of which are not at all obvious), which is more tedious than engaging. The cities themselves are reasonably large and there’s plenty of opportunity for heroic questing/villainous theft.

I’ve not joined every faction, but have done at least a few missions for most of them. The main quest is better than Oblivion’s, and the other factions I’ve joined have had interesting questlines, although the Dark Brother (so far anyway) isn’t quite as brilliant as it was in Oblivion. The civil war’s particularly interesting, as it’s possible to see both sides of the conflict as reasonable.

Exploration is, perhaps obviously, enjoyable, but also more difficult than in Oblivion. Occasionally you’ll come across a creature that will just slaughter you (my first sabre cat took me to pieces) and traversing mountains is more difficult. You can sometimes go up steep slopes but often there are sheer rock cliffs that cannot be climbed. I haven’t come across any “You cannot go any further” messages, as I think the boundaries are marked with mountain ranges, which fits well with the province and is more natural than a message telling you to stop. An exception’s probably made for the far north, but I haven’t tried swimming to the North Pole to find out.

There are many occasions when you either must have or can choose to have a companion (generally I went without) which can be a great help. You can give your companion(s) superior equipment so they last better in the fights, or load them up like a donkey to free up your own inventory.

Graphics

Generally improved from the last instalment, and the faces and water effects are the biggest changes for the better. Dragons look damned good, except for the rare occasions when they talk to you (and I mean talk, not shout) when their size means their snout is practically thrust into your face and all you can see is the end of their snout, which looks a bit rubbish.

Dogs and other creatures also look good, and inventory includes not only every item but also graphical representations of every magic spell and power (a power is either an innate passive advantage a race has, or an activated once-a-day ability, or something of either type that has been acquired through questing, or a temporary bonus).

The draw distance is better than Oblivion. (Draw distance means how far you can see more detailed versions of things like mountains and trees, and see smaller things like grass and little plants at all). However, sometimes I did see rather long-distance crude tree shapes when I should’ve been close enough for the better version. This wasn’t much of an issue for me, though. Looking around at soaring peaks, winding rivers and varied landscapes was excellent throughout.

The spells look a lot nicer, both single-hand and double-handed, and the effects upon enemies, such as burning, is a bit better. Third person is a lot better, but I think the game’s better in the first person (horses, weirdly, can only be ridden in third person).

A word on armour: it’s a lot more varied than in Oblivion, often with multiple varieties of a single material such as steel or leather. It also looks better and some (I can’t say without significant spoilers, alas) looks bloody fantastic.

Sound

I liked Oblivion’s soundtrack, but didn’t love it. However, Skyrim’s is absolutely fantastic, featuring the best game music I’ve heard for a long time. Everyone knows the main theme, which is great and sounds even better when fighting a dragon in-game, but there are also a number of other tracks that add to the experience when doing everyday things like climbing mountains or exploring caves.

Voice-acting is improved upon and there are, thankfully, many more voice actors. Most of them do a good job, and the proper Nordic accents add a lot to the atmosphere, (only for it to be destroyed by a character with a blatant and strong American accent… oh well). There are few duff characters, though, and having played through the early bits a few times I’ve decided the wizard in Whiterun is one of them.

Sound effects are a little better, although this isn’t an area where great improvement can be made.

Bugs and other issues

First of all, bugs and the like I personally encountered:

Freezes –

Infrequent, as I only have four in total to date. Annoying but not game-breaking.

Lag –

Not a reference to the super-lag mentioned above, but your standard slowing. Happens now and then, more so at higher levels or at certain points (the entrance to Whiterun being a prime example). Irksome, not too bad.

Mini-menu lag –

Occasionally it takes a second or two for menus (including the favourites mini-menu) to respond. Happens reasonably often, and it’s a bit tedious.

Arrow of Doom! –

When Shadowfang first acquired some great armour I’d sometimes flit into third person. It was then I noticed he had a bloody arrow sticking out of his head. Dropping arrows didn’t remove it, but thanks to Juhmel on the official Bethesda forum I found the answer: put all your arrows on a corpse and then retrieve what you want. The arrow disappears.

I have not, as yet, experienced the game-breaking lag bug. Apparently it kicks in around when you have save files of 8 or 9MB, and mine are 7.5MB or so. This would be a pretty horrendous bug.

Conclusion

Skyrim is an epic and engaging game featuring a wide range of potential playing styles in terms of combat, morality and race, all of which is backed by a fantastic soundtrack. There are occasional letdowns when it comes to voice-acting, but it’s a league better than Oblivion.

However, the game is a victim of the 11/11/11 release date, and if it’s the case that game-breaking lag begins at around 8MB saves (which I’d guess is level 25 to 30) then that’s a huge problem as it cuts down enormously on the scope of a playthrough.

Based on my own experience, I’d give it 9/10 (would’ve been 9.5 but for the freeze bug and other small issues).

If the game-breaking lag comes in I’d slash that to 6/10. [Reason for not being lower is that it still gives 30 odd hours or more per character. It’s not any higher because the cut-off means you can never have a really high level character or experience the top end armours, dungeons and so forth].

There’s a second patch out shortly, so maybe that’ll address the super-lag. If not, it’s a terrible shame.

Thaddeus

Skyrim: First Impressions

This is a preliminary review based upon a few days’ play. I will give a proper, full review later, but there are certain elements of a game that can easily be reviewed very quickly, and it’ll be a while before I can do a proper review due to the size of the game. The version I’ve got is the PS3 (mine is an old, fat 40GB one). Install size is, contrary to reports, 4.3GB.

My initial character was a lady Nord (my favourite race in Oblivion, so it’s nice to be in their home province) named Asgerd Njalsdottir. I focused upon a primarily warrior approach with a sword and shield. When I write the proper review (which will also cover factions, wider ranging exploration, how the game feels at higher levels and so on) I will also have some experience with a stealthy character and a mage.

Character Creation

Mostly an improvement, although given Oblivion’s character creator was amongst its weakest points this doesn’t mean much. They’ve shifted to a more Dragon Age type system where you get to choose various eye, nose, mouth etc presets and then fiddle with them.

Pleasingly, the spray-on beards have gone. Particularly nice are the options for scars and war paint. However, it’s not all for the better as gone are the RGB options for hair (you get a number of preset colours now), hair length changes (must admit this doesn’t bother me much) and skin colour, where you also have just a few preset options. I’ve not fiddled extensively with all the races, but I’ve got to say that the Argonians and Khajiit have very nice ‘skin’ tones, with the cats able to look like Siberian or Bengal tigers or very dark, almost like black panthers. It’s also great to be able to choose weight/muscle.

Because stats have been thrown overboard, and encumbrance and speed are equal across the races, the racial option is largely cosmetic.

User Interface (menus, conversations, first/third person)

The menu’s pretty user-friendly, although the removal of the ability to see your own character in-menu as you equip or remove items is a step backwards. This can be gotten around by going to the third person and then fiddling (the menu is transparent, so you can see what stuff looks like on your character).

I would’ve preferred a menu that wasn’t quite so generic, however. It’s functional and pretty intuitive, but Oblivion’s was instantly recognisable as a fantasy/historical game menu.

Conversations work in a similar way to Fallout 3, with options to try and intimidate or persuade people, or just beat the crap out of them until your fists make them see reason.

I did play with the third person briefly, and it’s clearly a lot better than Oblivion. Personally, I prefer first person, because I think it fits the game better, but the alternative is now a reasonable option.

Levelling system

The worst thing about Oblivion was the damned levelling system. From what I’ve gathered in a day or two of playing, Skyrim’s is much, much better. Levelling depends upon skill increases, which occur when you use a particular skill or get it trained by an expert, or when you read a skill book. Higher skill increases lead to faster levelling, I think, so a narrow character (like Asgerd) levels more rapidly (she’s level 10 right now).

It’s quite hard to choose between different perks even with an archetype warrior (my only non-Combat skill is lockpicking, which is identical, basically, to Fallout 3). Some have multiple levels (usually 3 or 5) and most require a certain skill level to be acquired. There also appear to be very few ‘dud’ perks. The first time I levelled I didn’t take a perk, because I pressed the ‘back’ button and it closed the menu rather than returning to the constellation list. The use of constellations, incidentally, is simple but excellent and dovetails nicely with the destiny theme of the Dovahkiin.

Combat and crafting

I was surprised by how different melee combat felt compared to Oblivion. As I wrote in an earlier piece on Skyrim, it’s essentially unchanged (except that you can dual-wield now, if you want to). However, you can only really tell the difference when you play the game. Everything’s a little slower, and at first it feels clumsy, but later it becomes more enjoyable because it’s rougher round the edges and more realistic because of it.

There’s been much talk of the finishing moves (which come in first and third person regardless of which you use for playing). Occasionally they can be irksome (like when you’ve got six more people to kill) but sometimes they’re a very satisfying end to the fight, particularly when it’s been close and difficult. There’s nothing better than a miniature scene of you ramming your sword through someone’s torso and reminding them who the Dovahkiin is. On the whole, I think they’re a decent addition.

Being a good Nord, Asgerd’s very into ye olde smithing. It’s the Combat crafting skill and can be used to both improve weapons and armour and create your own, as well as making bits and pieces that can be useful (leather and leather strips, for example). The system’s easy to learn and enjoyable, and really can improve your gear. At level 7 or 8 I improved the damage of my weapon from 11 to 15 using the grindstone, and used some components I had to make a shield that was 5 points of defence better than the one I had equipped.

I haven’t fiddled with alchemy or enchanting yet, but imagine that they’re also not too hard to learn and of great use (my second character will be a Khajiit rogue, so I’ll learn about alchemy then).

Graphics

Better than Oblivion, basically. The biggest difference isn’t with the landscape and plants, better though they are, but with faces and water. Faces are now more varied, especially between races (admittedly, Imperial and Bretons are bloody hard to tell apart) and realistic. The water was a pleasant surprise, and looks great (with the slight exception of rapids, which look not quite so good).

Level/landscape design is greatly improved. Even within the first hour or so it’s clear that the game has more varied regions, with lots of mountainous areas, flat tundra and so on. It’s also worth pausing occasionally and just looking around at the jagged mountains piercing the clouds. Regarding dungeons, they’re distinctive and (on average) larger than those of the predecessor game.

The world is much more alive and active than Oblivion. There are wild goats, deer, rabbits, foxes, fish, chickens and probably more. Wolves are back, as are rather vicious sabre-toothed cats.

Sound

The music is very good, as might be expected and sound effects have been improved upon. Voice-acting’s harder to assess without many hours of gameplay, but I’d say it’s a bit better than Oblivion. What jars is that, initially, there’s a nice effort to go for a Nordic accent by many characters, and then someone appears with a blatant American accent. It’s like The Hunt For Red October where everybody has a Russian accent except for Comrade Connery. However, generally, voice-acting is better than Oblivion. A special mention is deserved by the wizard in Whiterun whose voice actor sounded like he really couldn’t be bothered. I’d like to think the character’s meant to be disinterested (it would fit, as he’s haughty and a pratt) but even the very nice Asgerd wanted to murder the bugger.

Bugs, quibbles and other things that fit nowhere else

After six hours, I had a freeze. Obviously, this was not to my liking, but, at the time of writing, I haven’t had another (touch wood). Occasionally the frame rate could be a little better and there’s sometimes a little tearing, but these two points aren’t major negatives (for me, anyway). I’ve briefly read about others’ experiences and it seems that the freezing has been more common for others, so it might be that the fat 40GB model is luckier (I’ve also turned off auto-saving, as this irritated me and I’m a compulsive saver anyway, and it seemed to work for Dragon Age 2). Incidentally, the first auto-save lasts longer than most and may make you think it’s frozen. It hasn’t (unless it has, obviously. Ahem).

Encumbrance is much much much better. All characters have 300 to start with which is plenty for quite a long time, and increases by 5 every time you improve your stamina at levelling up. Furthermore, weapons and armour seem to weigh a bit less and the absence of degradation means you don’t need spare shields or sword, or repair hammers.

Early conclusion

The freeze pissed me off, but if it’s a rare occurrence or a one-off I can live with it. The game’s enormous, combat feels more dangerous and exciting, there’s a huge range of possibilities and I like it a lot. On the downside is the freeze, some lacklustre voice-acting and, er, I think that’s it.

If the freeze is rare or a one-off I think the game will end up being 9/10.

Thaddeus

Preview: Skyrim

In three weeks probably the biggest fantasy game of the year will be released; The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim is the successor to the tremendously popular Oblivion and will be available for consoles and PCs.

I’d intended to leave the preview until a week beforehand, however, I’m thinking of going on a hiatus from following the game to stop myself seeing any more spoilers and, as there’s tons of info and clearly high interest, I thought I’d post it now. For those concerned about spoilers, I’m going to make the bulk of this preview very low on them. I’ll put the small section with significant spoilers at the end, and clearly flag it up beforehand so that the game’s not ruined for anyone.

So, with that clear, let’s begin.

Character creation and customisation

As before, the same 10 races and 2 genders are available for the player’s character. The races are Altmer, Dunmer, Bosmer, Orc, Khajiit, Argonian, Imperial, Nord, Breton and Redguard. The character creator seems to have been greatly improved both in terms of options and in terms of the characters looking more realistic than in Oblivion. Particularly pleasing is the ability to alter the character’s body, with a skinny to brawny slider.

Stats have been abolished, so there’s no Strength or Agility and so on. Health, Magic and Stamina remain, and the number of skill groups have been slightly cut from 21 to 18, and also rejigged somewhat. Encumbrance will be less of an issue (it sounds like there’s a more generous amount of weight you can carry compared to the previous game) and if you go over the limit you can still move but at a greatly reduced speed, which is a change for the better.

The levelling system of Oblivion (one of my few major dislikes of the game) has been abandoned and a new, improved system utilised. It’s highly similar to Fallout 3, with perks given at each level increase, sometimes capped by character or skill level. Skills level up as you use them.

Third person has been made a lot better (admittedly, that’s not all that hard given Oblivion’s clunky third person), with smoother animations (different for the genders), and with some unique animations for the beast races.

You will not be able to alter your appearance in-game.

User Interface (UI)

I have slightly mixed views about the new UI. From what I’ve seen it does appear to be much more user friendly than Oblivion’s, and I love the fact that every single item can now be viewed in three-dimensions. However, it seems slightly odd that you cannot now see your character in the menu screen, so presumably we’ll have to look at some clothing/armour, equip it, quit the menu, see how it looks in third person and then keep or get rid of it.

The map is three-dimensional and looks either like a super SatNav or a dragon’s eye view of Skyrim. It’s my understanding that just about everything in the HUD can be turned on or off and the opacity varied (so, you can get rid of quest markers, roam around without a compass and so on). Whilst I doubt I’ll change too much I do like the option to choose.

Combat

Ah, combat. I’ll split this into mini-sections for each archetype (warrior, mage, rogue).

Warrior:

The least changed of the approaches, in my view. Blunt and Blade skills are now replaced with One-handed Weapons and Two-handed Weapons, which I think makes more sense. You can also equip two one-handed weapons for dual-wielding combat, or mix and match with a one-handed weapon and shield/torch/staff [NB bows are two-handed, and have a separate skill-set]. However, I don’t think you can block whilst dual-wielding which seems, er, abnormal and a little bit stupid. Swings are generally slower and seem to have more impact, and I believe it’s possible to wound multiple enemies with a single swing. Shields can be used in a more offensive way than in Oblivion.

Mage:

This has been hugely changed from Oblivion. Spells are now equipped, like weapons, to each hand. So, the keys are for the left and right hands, and you’ll swing a sword or unleash a flamethrower according to what you have equipped. It’s also possible to equip the same spell in both hands and (if you have a certain perk, which is needed for some but not all spells) you’ll perform a super-powered version of that spell. Spells can be put in one-hand and weapons in the other, giving your character a battlemage feel and this seems to be a pretty strong play style from the limited viewing available.

Rogue:

Archery also seems to have been improved a lot for Skyrim. Arrows are now scarcer, but do more damage, and I read that the old Oblivion trick of walking backwards and firing arrows at the enemy charging you does not work any longer. The new rogue skills look quite good, and daggers get a hefty bonus when it comes to backstabbing unwary enemies.

There are also dragon shouts (like ultra-powered spells) which take a great deal of effort to learn and are equipped, I think, in a special slot which is also used for certain special racial abilities (rather than the left or right hand). Learning a dragon shout requires slaying of the aforementioned creatures as well as knowledge of dragon words from walls scattered throughout the game.

Crafting and manual labour

There are three major crafting areas, which have their own skill-sets, and a number of minor ones. The major crafts are alchemy, smithing, and enchanting.

Alchemy in Oblivion was an easy way to raise money and/or bump up a certain stat. In Skyrim it will also enable you to brew potions and poisons and use an even wider range of ingredients to do so. However, you can only do this at an alchemical laboratory, not whilst meandering around the countryside.

Smithing is new and sort of replaces the degradation of weapons and armour which now does not occur (some people like this absence, others don’t, personally I’m ambivalent). Anyway, a smith is able to enhance weapons or armour, or create them. The perks available improve the quality of creations or enables the player to use more exotic materials to make their weapons and armour.

Enchanting can be used to add magical bonuses to armour, weapons and clothing. As in Oblivion, enchantment requires the use of soul gems. You can pay others to do it for you, and, as with the above skills, it can only be done at a location specifically set aside for enchantment. I look forward to transforming a lump of gold into a nugget of purest green.

Minor crafts don’t need any sort of skill and involve doing basic work for money (or other advantages). Woodcutting is self-explanatory, mining likewise (you can, I would guess, keep the stuff you mine for use in the smithy) and cooking is perhaps the most interesting. You can find foodstuffs and improve them by just cooking an ingredient or combining them (into stew, for example) which then gives an almost potion-like bonus. Cooking requires a special cook-fire, which are scattered throughout Skyrim, and sounds like a small but nifty idea.

Sounds (voice-acting and music)

The number of voice-actors has been increased to more than 70, which is excellent news both for everyone who got irritated by recognising voices all over Oblivion and for the poor voice-actors who must have worked their socks off for bloody months. Ahem.

Most people will have heard Max Von Sydow (he speaks during the first trailer), who plays Esbern, one of the last Blades. Numerous actors from previous games return (happily including the chap who voiced Lucian Lachance) and are joined by Christopher Plummer, Joan Allen and others.

The music has been composed by Jeremy Soule, who also provided the scores for Morrowind and Oblivion. Most of the music is new, although one or two tracks from those earlier games have been heard during preview videos.

Here’s a fantastic piano version of the main theme which I found a little while ago:

World

In geographical size (square miles) it’s basically the same as Oblivion. However, the mountainous nature of Skyrim means that it will appear larger than Cyrodiil. In addition, there will be more points of interest. It’s unclear just how many dungeons there are, however, they have been designed on a far more individual and less identikit manner compared to the predecessor game. Dungeons will typically last from 15 minutes to 2 hours.

There are a smaller number of big cities than in Cyrodiil, but the cities are larger than their Oblivion counterparts. There are also more middle-sized towns and a greater number of villages and hamlets.

Children are included, which I think a mistake. It’s meant to be more immersive, but (unlike the vast majority of adult NPCs) they can’t be killed. That’s understandable, as I’m sure the creators would not be thrilled with child massacres in their game, but, that being so, why include kids at all? Bah.

Anyway, almost all adults can be killed (if you kill a shopkeeper sometimes they’ll be replaced by a relative). Because Skyrim is breaking up, not unlike a crumbly chocolate chip muffin, there’s no one justice system, but nine separate holds. So, you could commit rampant murder in one hold and then run off to another and be free as a bird. Early entertaining bugs, such as chickens reporting crimes to the guards, have hopefully been fixed. Incidentally, if you commit a crime and then murder the witnesses the bounty on your head will disappear.

A few adults cannot be killed by other NPCs but can by yourself, and a few cannot be killed at all.

As with Fallout 3 and Oblivion, you can have a companion (including at least one animal companion) follow you around and helping you out. In addition, you can get married (same-sex marriage is possible), although there are no frisky videos, and your husband/wife can act as a companion.

Buyable houses are back, though there isn’t tons of detail beyond the ability to buy furnishings for them (presumably including a chest or two for storing tons of items).

Factions make a return, with one each for warriors, mages and rogues (Companions, College of Winterhold and the Thieves Guild). There are also some juicy new factions, including the Legion and the Stormcloaks (rebels). Perhaps the best faction news is that the Dark Brotherhood make a very welcome return. There may also be a few other minor factions, and sometimes the faction quest line will continue even after you become the leader.

Unlike Fallout 3, the game will continue once the main quest is completed.

Right, that’s the low spoiler section over with. If you keep reading you’ll find out more information regarding stuff I consider to be pretty big spoilers.

The return of vampires has been confirmed. However, werewolves will not be in the main game, although there is talk of it possibly being made available through DLC.

There are only 10 playable races but there are some additional non-playable ones in the game. Giants are well-known, but there are also thought to be Falmer (snow elves) who look pretty ugly and the machine-like relics of the Dwemer (dwarves, essentially) in some of their ruins. It’s highly unlikely we’ll see an actual Dwemer as they all disappeared (then again, that’s what was supposed to have happened to the Falmer).

In recently released videos a new dragon shout was officially announced, which sounds like it may be the coolest of them all. Late in the game, it’s possible to become allied to a specific dragon. After this, when outdoors, you can call and the dragon will fly to you from wherever in Skyrim he is and help you out.

Thaddeus