Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim announced

AtomicPlayboy · 2011-11-17T22:31:33.000Z

KevinC:

So here’s a question I’ve been asking myself. Given the staggering sales of Skyrim already and the industry’s propensity for clones, why is basically no one else trying to do this sort of game? Is it just the difficult and cost involved in doing it or what?

I’d say Risen, Two Worlds II, and Divinity II were all similar, and they all sold well enough to merit sequels / expansions. The RPG genre is pregnant with open world experiences of late, which leaves me wishing for more hours in the day to explore them all.

Murbella · 2011-11-17T22:51:44.000Z

KevinC:

So here’s a question I’ve been asking myself. Given the staggering sales of Skyrim already and the industry’s propensity for clones, why is basically no one else trying to do this sort of game? Is it just the difficult and cost involved in doing it or what?

Ultima 7 was one of the most formative games for me when I was younger and the Elder Scrolls series (and especially Skyrim) is the only game out there that scratches that itch I’ve had for close to two decades. Bioware games, while you may argue are good in their own right, just aren’t the same open-world games that the Elder Scrolls series is.

What are you talking about, there are a shit ton of open world rpgs out there. The most common rpg sub genre is open world…

If the percentage of rpgs that are open world were any higher, there would be no story based rpgs at all. The industry noticed that open world games were popular like 5+ years ago and has been pumping them out ever since.

Not all of them are fantasy though of course, but enough are if you want a similar setting to the elder scrolls.

McKnight · 2011-11-17T22:54:06.000Z

BleedTheFreak:

I’ll have to take your word on that, I’m not following that image at all.

He used the tfc 1 to pause the game after he shot and free camera over to the arrows landing spot for the screenshot.

KevinC · 2011-11-17T23:26:03.000Z

Murbella:

What are you talking about, there are a shit ton of open world rpgs out there. The most common rpg sub genre is open world…

If the percentage of rpgs that are open world were any higher, there would be no story based rpgs at all. The industry noticed that open world games were popular like 5+ years ago and has been pumping them out ever since.

Not all of them are fantasy though of course, but enough are if you want a similar setting to the elder scrolls.

Cool, so what are these non-Bethesda open world epics?

Sarkus · 2011-11-17T23:35:57.000Z

KevinC:

Cool, so what are these non-Bethesda open world epics?

The Gothic series and Risen come to mind.

Tracy_Baker · 2011-11-17T23:38:50.000Z

After 42 hours in and seemingly barely scratching the surface, I’ve loved nearly every minute of this thing. My only wish is that there were more enemies mow down, and that they were placed better. As a stealthy archer it’s way too easy to snipe from the fringes of a room and take down bosses before they even know you’re there. If they had some sentries in the hallways that would make noise and blow my cover things would be much, much tougher. But mainly I just want to shoot more stuff because it’s such unadulterated fun.

I can’t believe how great they made archery. I hate games where you have to unload a quiver full of arrows into each enemy before they fall over. Here you just thunk the living crap out of stuff and it goes down hard. Some crazy Nord bandit wearing a giant horned helmet rushed towards me in a snowstorm tonight and I shot up from a crouched position to hit him. The arrow slammed into his chin, catapulting him up and backwards, and he thudded to earth in a dead heap. So satisfying. I can’t wait to crack skulls with a melee dude.

The dungeons are superb. In Oblivion they sort of melted together into a single memory, but these are all so distinct and integrated with their surroundings that each is like a mini-RPG. Again, I wish they were populated with more monsters, but it’s so nice to have an RPG with dungeons that have a Tomb Raider vibe.

I rarely pay full price for games but am so glad I ignored that policy on this purchase. The devs deserve every penny for turning out one of the best games I’ve ever played.

TurinTur · 2011-11-17T23:43:50.000Z

Steven Dickson:

That was my first thought as well. The horizontal offset could be due to windage.

Please tell me you are joking.

Even in games much more of the simulation type there is no windage.

But maybe it’s a random dispersion cone, bigger in long distances.

TurinTur · 2011-11-17T23:52:23.000Z

KevinC:

Cool, so what are these non-Bethesda open world epics?

Gothic, Risen, Two Worlds, and Arcania. Maybe also Divinity 2?

Pogo · 2011-11-18T00:09:57.000Z

TurinTur:

But maybe it’s a random dispersion cone, bigger in long distances.

Not sure if serious, but no. In that screenshot you can see that all those arrows fell at the exact same spot.

TurinTur · 2011-11-18T00:33:47.000Z

Pogo:

Not sure if serious, but no. In that screenshot you can see that all those arrows fell at the exact same spot.

I was serious, but I didn’t notice there were several arrows on the ground, i thought it was one.

gmonkey · 2011-11-18T02:58:01.000Z

Here’s something interesting. A large percentage of Tamriel’s terrain is in Skyrim.

Arkon262 · 2011-11-18T04:27:33.000Z

TurinTur:

Gothic, Risen, Two Worlds, and Arcania. Maybe also Divinity 2?

Sorry but despite Risen being a good game, it is not a true open world RPG, and it is downright tiny compared to something like Skyrim. The others are open world, but not nearly as well done/epic as Skyrim.

gmonkey · 2011-11-18T04:30:16.000Z

I’ll be amazed if Skyrim does open world better than Risen.

Razgon · 2011-11-18T04:35:57.000Z

gmonkey:

I’ll be amazed if Skyrim does open world better than Risen.

Then, Amazed you are!

Scotch_Lufkin · 2011-11-18T04:39:18.000Z

So is gmonkey trolling? Thats my first thought after seeing his last few contributions to this thread…

Also mcknight and pogo, thanks for clarifying that screenshot, thats interesting…

gmonkey · 2011-11-18T04:48:41.000Z

BleedTheFreak:

So is gmonkey trolling? Thats my first thought after seeing his last few contributions to this thread…

Also mcknight and pogo, thanks for clarifying that screenshot, thats interesting…

I’m trying not to. Oblivion really, really soured me on Elder Scrolls, but my interest in open world RPGs still leaves me curious about Skyrim.

peterb · 2011-11-18T05:36:12.000Z

I absolutely understand that feeling about Oblivion, and I would not blame anyone at all for wanting to wait a while to play the game - e.g., to pick it up on a Steam sale. I remember people raving about Oblivion in the same way people are raving about Skyrim in these threads. It’s true.

However, and all I can go on here is my personal experience, they really got a few critical things right this time that made all the difference. I swore I wouldn’t buy Skyrim for a year or so because of my Oblivion experience, but I caved, and I am glad I did. There is a lot more actual game here than there was in Oblivion. In my opinion.

Sebmojo · 2011-11-18T05:44:31.000Z

gmonkey:

I’m trying not to. Oblivion really, really soured me on Elder Scrolls, but my interest in open world RPGs still leaves me curious about Skyrim.

Skyrim gets a lot of things right that Oblivion didn’t. Absolutely worth it.

Scotch_Lufkin · 2011-11-18T06:35:40.000Z

gmonkey:

I’m trying not to. Oblivion really, really soured me on Elder Scrolls, but my interest in open world RPGs still leaves me curious about Skyrim.

Get it - it’s easily worth $60, the amount of content is incredible. Even if you find the gameplay lacking (you probably won’t) the quests and stories (and even the books) are worth investing in.

Alistair · 2011-11-18T06:42:52.000Z

It obviously worth it but if you’ve resisted the hype thus far, a little longer for patching and essential tweaks and mods will only help. And being out of step with the hype train might be good because you’ll spend less time in threads like this and more playing :)