Skyrim

[Drone]

Holy crap. 

This is a great game.

It has an annoying glitch or two...but the rest of the package is so fantastic,they are inconsequential.

[daddog]

What is it about?

Oh.. wait I think Jed played it at a friends. They loved it.

[Drone]

LOL dd..

Historically, I've never been one for dungeons and dragons games on the PC. I don't know what prompted me to pick this one up.. maybe it was the enthusiasm from the PC Gamer magazine, I don't know..  Maybe 'Skyrim' sounded cool.. aeronitical, maybe?

In any case, I am completely blown away by this thing..  The graphics are astounding.. the gameplay holds your attention.. and, heaven forbid, I've actually had to think things through on re-dos ( Saving often is VERY advisable ).  There have been a few cases where I thought I had expended every option I had with no hope of success.. then 'Well, let's try this, then..' .. and, voila', you get through. 

A couple things going on..   the storylines are elaborate.. and you get to feeling like you're playing out a story.. but the kicker is they offer plenty of story lines to follow.  Granted, I'm sure a lot of these role-playing games have similar, but, like I said, I don't normally play this type of game.   With the different races/species offered, as well as specializations/vocations.. I see where this game will keep you busy for a long time.

Just the level of detail and believability in the story for 'eye candy' books is impressive.  I guess it's getting good reviews.. except from the battle-hardened who accuse that it's like 'Oblivion'?   Whatever.. it's a new world to me .. and a pretty impressive one at that.

Gonna have to let it sit by the side while we slay some infidels later tonight, though..

 

[Ghosth]

Well like Fallout Skyrim has a HUGE map, if you can see it, you can go there. Quests are optional, can do them or not, your choice.

My main character after a week is up to lvl 25 (no cheats) Wood Elf with Archery as his primary, but working now on mage skills.
He's taken out about 2 dozen dragons thus far.

Like Fallout you can pretty much do and be whoever you want.
Only with magic, dragons, elves etc. Swords and bows and magic instead of guns.

I highly recommend it myself. I've been running it on lower vid settings due to my 4 year old system but I will be building a new one shortly so I can crank the graphics up and avoid the lag on loading new area's.

Skyrim is imo very suitable for younger players, very little bad language, sex, unnecessary gore, etc.

Like Fallout and Fallout New Vegas it is designed from the ground up to be modded, meaning you can play it for years and it never gets stale.

[outlaw]

the elder scrolls francihse is a long standing run has always been top notch i played the first 2 in the series but due to my addiction for MMO's they drew me into my sint in everquest.

[deSelys]

Hi everyone,

Like Drone, I'm not much into Heroic Fantasy (although I was a big fan of Tolkien, Moorcock and Leiber as a teenager).

The missus bought me Skyrim for the XBOX360 as a Christmas present, along with a big fat Skyrim reference book... How cool is that??!  

The gamespot review states that it will suck you in and that 'Skyrim performs the most spectacular of enchantments: the one that causes huge chunks of time to vanish before you know it. ' Well, ain't that the truth!

I was planning to play some kind of northern barbarian like Fafhrd from Leiber's sword and sorcery stories, then 10 min into the game I stumbled upon a spellbook and realized that spell-casting was too awesome to pass.

The first levels were a bit rough but I'm now a level 26 Archmage specialized in Destruction and Conjuration spells and it gets better every minute. I recently stopped carrying a sword and a bow as I realized that I never used those anymore.

Oh yeah, I also have some kind of lycanthropic tendencies  

As profanity is much more limited than in Fallout, I let my son play the game. He has a level 15 or 16 human-feline thief that is also really fun to play (he often asks me to help him finish the quests as his character needs to use lots of planning and stealth when facing strong enemies...)

Storytelling, game mechanics, visual arts and music are excellent.

A game you should not miss IMO

  

[Ghosth]

Best Mods for Skyrim list for those who don't get to play as much as I do.

http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/downloads/file.php?id=8502

Merchants from all across Skyrim can now profit from the Dovahkiin's adventures. With this mod the amount of gold that a merchant has depends on how much you trade with them. Buy or sell expensive items and the merchant may have extra gold when you next visit. Most shops will just recieve extra gold when they are profitable, but blacksmiths will sometimes receive extra ingots and alchemy stores can receive extra potions. Some merchants also receive rare items after their store has received high trade volume.


http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/downloads/file.php?id=9215
Ore does not deplete. character will continue mining until interrupted. (IE: E/Combat/Etc.)
In vanila you will get 2 ores from each vein then it depletes, some ore veins are quite limited in number, this lets you actually make a living in skyrim as a miner. (Very handy for starting a new alternate start character ie main quest disabled)

http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/downloads/file.php?id=1943
This mod will remove all perk prerequisites from most perks in the game. They still require that you have the appropriate skill level. Instead of throwing away your perk points on worthless perks just to get to that one useful perk, you can skip right to the perk you want, so long as you have enough skill. This can be a huge game changer mod, for example in smithing, it lets you skip the dwarven smithing perk and go straight to the Orcish. This has the effect of freeing up perks that can be used in other areas. Still need the skill level to get that perk however. IE Dragon smithing still takes skill of 100.

FYI here is a easy way to raise your smithing. Hunt, buy, all the leather you can, go to forge, make it into leather bracers. will take 1 leather and 2 strips. If you have the next mod you'd then be able to go to a tanning station, convert those bracers back into leather, make more leather strips, and make (and improve them at worktable) again. Racking up the smithing skill points.

http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/downloads/file.php?id=874
This mod is extremely powerful, lets you melt down pots & kettles for iron, lets you turn firewood into charcoal, and combine that with iron ingot to make steel ingot, etc. However it is possible to turn enchanted leather armor that you are wearing and turn it back into just plain leather, so it has to be use with some care. Tip, there are 3 types of leather armor for starting levels, fur, hide, and leather. Pick one (I use leather) then I melt down fur and hide armor/boots/bracers/helmets into leather for crafting, I don't ever melt down what I'm wearing.

----Melting Down Armor back into raw materials----
----Crafting Leather out of Leather Armor----
----Melting Down Weapons back into raw materials----
----Fletching Arrows from Firewood, Feathers, and Ingots----- (yes can make your own arrows)
----Tear up MISC Items and Wooden Bows into Crafting Materials----
----Smelt Down Gold/Silver Rings & Amulets----
----Smelt Down Stolen Jewelry to safely make off with the gems----
This mod is huge in its impact, really lets you take items of very low value, melt them down, combine with others to make items that sell for more. For example, after cleaning out bleak falls barrow you can easily have a stack of enemy armor including fur shoes, bracers, helmets, and armor. Recracft the shoes, bracers, helmets into leather, use the leather to improve the fur armor which is the only one of the 4 that sells for any significant amount. Use the leather left over to improve your armor or make new.

Same for weapons, etc.

http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/downloads/file.php?id=9904
There are loads of player houses out there, I've spent 2 months playing every day looking for the exact right home.
This is the only one that comes close. Inside you have loads of storage very nicely designed space. Outside you have a complete crafting area, arcane enchanter, smelter.
The only thing it doesn't have is a wood cutting area, but you can do that at riverwood or whiterun.
The miniquest to get the key can be very tough for a new character, so don't be afraid to just walk up to the door, open console, mouseclick on the door once, type "unlock" and take over the place.  There is much to explore here so I will let it go at that. This mod rocks!

http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/downloads/file.php?id=8510
One of my fav mods for Fallout added icons (let you fast travel to that location once discovered) to a lot of spots that didn't have them. For Skyrim this mod does much the same thing.  "This mod adds map markers to locations of shrines all across Skyrim."

http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/downloads/file.php?id=7800
This mod changes the values and weights of hides, pelts and husks. This can help motivate people to hunt more or help out those who like to hunt but don't get much from it. I like to hunt in Skyrim but I never really got money for it because I use my level up perks for things other than speech.

So a cave bear hide now weights a bit less, will make more leather, or sell for more at a merchant. So you can "live" by hunting if you choose. Probably not needed if your running a lvl 25 or higher character, but great for starting out from scratch.


There are several arrow smithing mods out there, face it there needs to be. I think I could count on the fingers of one hand the times I've found a merchant with more than 20 elven or better quality arrows (not to mention they are PRICEY to buy)
This mod might be overpowered, I'll leave it to you to decide.
http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/downloads/file.php?id=10001
So you think that you're a hot shot blacksmith because you can make Daedric, Ebony, and Glass weapons an armor that puts Eorland Grey-Mane to shame... but what's that? You can't sharpen an arrow, much less make one for yourself?

This mod lets you start with basic steel arrows, craft them with just steel ingot and firewood, then "improve" them to do double the damage.

I'm not building daedric arrows yet with my current character, but Draugr Nord Hero arrows improve up to 48 damage. Combine that with a decent bow and its possible to have a lvl 10 or lower character shooting a bow that does 100 damage per shot.

Overpowered, possibly.

[Drone]

Holy cow!!!

Maybe my life will slow down, enough, in the next couple of weeks to try some of those..

Thanks for the links!!