Anyone want to provide an explanation for the “we’re using a new engine” line that doesn’t indicate that Bethesda was blatantly deceiving its customers? This game has exactly the same problems (rendering glitches, performance issues, ALT-TAB crashes, etc.) as Oblivion, and provides only a meager improvement to visuals. It’s the SAME rendering engine, and to say differently is at best disingenuous and more likely a deliberate attempt to mitigate the apprehension PC gamers have after issues with previous Gamebryo-based games.
I’m still wildly excited to play the game, and graphics aren’t going to completely sour the experience, but I’m a bit tweaked that Bethesda has delivered the same clunky software that they did 5 years ago, but led me to believe that they had made substantial improvements. Not entirely a surprise, but very uncool nonetheless.
kerzain
3822
I haven’t really followed the whole new engine hype too closely, but I thought it was just an A.I./quest engine they were talking about.
I gave in and bought Skyrim off Steam last night, and I rarely pay full price for any game. This one is worth every penny. Played until 5am. Took the day off today and absolutely loving this game. This is everything I wanted Oblivion to be. So many delicious quests… :)
WarrenM
3824
Yeah, we had about 10 people call in Skyrim today. Great game!
Shadari
3825
Oh good lord, I wanted to hold off on this game for a while so my current WoW addiction can recede, but my resolve is rapidly waning.
Quoth Todd Howard (emphasis mine): “We needed to reinvent large parts of the game and its technology. We started with the graphics renderer, and how we would bring the scale of snow covered mountains, dynamic weather systems, and massive dragons to life along with the small details of how people lived; from the forks they used, to the fish they caught, and the meat they cooked. We then rewrote all the major graphics and gameplay systems including lighting, shadows, level of detail, animation, interface, scripting, dialogue, quest systems, melee, magic, and more. All of those changes made it into our internal editor as well. So much had changed that we decided to call the engine and editor by a new name, the Creation Engine and the Creation Kit.”
This doesn’t align very well with my experience thus far with an engine which has all of the same settings, limitations, and idiosyncrasies of the Oblivion version. Iterative tweaks to be sure, but a new engine, no way.
I have been telling people that it was not a different engine since PAX.
It seems within acceptable fib range in that he said “we changed A, B, C and D and goshdarn it it was so different we renamed the engine.” That to me is promising “like-new engine,” not literally “new engine.”
Now, if any of the individual promises in there were eyewash than that’s certainly grounds for criticism. Although if the game is as wtfawesome as everyone is making out it might prove a bit academic.
kerzain
3829
Well, I honestly don’t know the difference between mere art improvement vs engine tech improvements in this game, but on visual impressiveness this game annihilates Fallout 3 and Oblivion as far as I’m concerned. I am blissfully ignorant about all of this.
But, yes, some of the weird engine issues do persist though. In the first small town I arrived at, a wandering outdoor npc started floating over buildings, ended up in the river, got stuck under a bridge. Then, he started constantly asking me to buy him a drink (I was cutting wood nearby) while drowning in a torrent of freezing water. Try as I might, I haven’t see that happen again.
walTer
3830
Crap, you all suck— I AM gonna do the SWTOR beta test but looks like Sunday is Buy Skyrim on Steam day.
It will be good to be back.
flyinj
3831
They definitely did at least some work on the low level graphics pipeline, because FINALLY there is no microstutter.
Gaa, when will UPS finally show up with my copy?!?
If I buy a boxed copy it will still link to my steam account, right? There’s a key for that?
Yes, PC version requires Steam.
RichVR
3835
I just got an e-mail with a beta key for War of the Immortals. I enjoy beta testing, but Skyrim. Anybody want it?
Edit: Maybe that’s not a good idea. I don’t want to get a bad rep.
That was just radiant gameplay.
Created a female Breton mage with the help of my 8yo daughter (who insisted on a woman). Spent about 20 minutes tweaking her appearance, and together we came up with Sosanna for a name. Got through the beginning dungeon and I’m past Riverwood now looking for a golden dragon claw. Only about 3/4 toward 2nd level though.
KevinC
3838
EDIT: Nevermind, fixed issue.
KiloOhm
3839
I did the same. I said I was going to wait for the complete edition but I was weak. I have a lot of vacation time coming up anyway. :)
You know what’s awesome? They actually hit that target date.
