Probably because the gamepad most people will use is the 360 pad with its notoriously shitty unreliable d-pad… I haven’t started playing yet, how is the d-pad used in the game? If they only use two or at most four directions my guess is probably correct. :)
I’ve put in over 30 hours and still don’t fully understand how it behaves, but pressing up on the D-pad brings up a small list that shows all the items or spells you have "favorited’ so you can choose them a bit faster than going to your inventory screen. You can assign things to equip when you press left or right on the pad, but something goes wonky there, because it doesn’t work the way common sense would have me expect it to.
The favorites list isn’t too bad though, I don’t find it to break things up too much, if at all anymore.
That’s good info everyone, thanks for the opinions. I imagine I will have to try this game at some point, it’s just getting too much universal praise. As to why I can handle SF but not fantasy, I don’t know. Just how I’m wired. Show me a game with a bald space marine shooting an alien to pieces and I’m interested. But show me a game with an elf fighting a dragon and I yawn.
It’s Fallout with swords and magic.
No, really, I think Oblivion was so successful because it had such broad appeal. The only difference here is that Skyrim is actually good. No, it’s damn great.
peterb
4745
“EVERYONE IN THE WORLD IS LYNDA CARTER! AIIIIIIEEEEEEE.”
Now, only Azura (and one other person) is Lynda Carter: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1814884/fullcredits#cast
peterb
4746
I think this is way better than the earlier games, and you don’t need the background - it’s hugely playable, hugely fun, and anyone who asked me whether they should go play Morrowind or Oblivion first I’d absolutely say “Fuck, no, save yourself - just play Skyrim.”
That being said, I think if I had an active dislike for fantasy, I’d avoid it. Even though it’s a great game, if you hate the genre I can’t imagine this game changing your mind.
JeffL
4747
While I wish you could do more than two, I have my 360 dpad set up so that hitting the right side arms my bow, and left arms my sword and shield. You do that by pushing up, going to the bow, then holding down right (same for left for what you want to arm there.)
For me, I just want a one button quicksave on the 360. This is my first time playing one of these on a console, and I’m actually loving it, but the one button quicksave is what I miss the most.
I still think Morrowind is worth going back to. Oblivion…not so much. But you definitely don’t have to have played the previous Elder Scrolls games to jump in. The events of the other games play a role in the history of the setting in Skyrim, but everything you might want to know is dealt with in history books in game and they’re kind of old news by the time of Skyrim anyway. It takes place 200 years after Oblivion, and in a different part of the world. They’re not so much concerned with a crisis that happened centuries ago as with recent conflicts with an elven nation, the recent (and ongoing) civil war, and oh yeah these dragons that haven’t been seen for a long, long time but just turned up again. All of which are things series veterans are going to be finding out fresh just like you will.
JeffL
4749
For the person asking about the fantasy aspects: I am not a fantasy fan. I would MUCH rather play a game set in the old west, or Rome, or a Fallout type future. I can’t tell you anything about orcs and elfs and trolls.
But I love Skyrim. The fantasy part is well integrated, the elfs etc. are treated in many ways as immigrants, with all of the attending prejudice, etc. that goes with being different and an alien in a foreign land. The giants, trolls, etc. are just part of the world. Hard to articulate, but it all just feels more “real” than many fantasy based games.
Skyrim is a world filled with intrigue, betrayal, conspiracies, a civil war, relationships, problems at a world level but also problems at the “trivial” personal level. This whole world is yours to explore and participate in in whatever way you choose. You can decide to be a mercenary, amoral person who is out for him/herself, only doing what benefits yourself, and respond to all that is going on around you in that way, and the game will allow you to do that. You can choose to be a crusader for justice, out to wander the world and right the wrongs at all levels, and the game will allow you to do that. Or you can choose any other personality you’d like to try. The world is so vast and full your options on how you play are pretty unlimited. My first play through is an archer who is very stealthy, and who is very “human.” I have no problem at all stealing rich people blind, and if anyone is an ass I’ll find their house, break in, and take everything I can. I may even take things I don’t want and just drop them in the middle of the town for others to have, just to clean out their home. At the same time, I won’t steal a poor family’s 3 gold pieces and their food and clothing.
Bottom line: you have a world in which you can play in a wide variety of styles and the fantasy aspect is treated in a way that I don’t think you need to be a fantasy fan at all to enjoy the game.
I’d still recommend Morrowind to the more hardcore RPG players. Warts aside, that game was special to me. And the biggest compliment I can give Skyrim is that it gives me Morrowind vibes.
Ahh…so usurprisingly the problem is me.
JeffL
4752
heh, well, it took me a while to figure it out. The “manual” is unimpressive (though I did find it in there.) But I just found out I need to do something with dragon souls to use them that I didn’t know before - not sure exactly how I was supposed to know that.
OMG. I thought Arngeir was Christopher Plummer, but then I heard Esbern and thought, naw, it’s been Max von Sydow all along. And they got him to do both old men?
I guess when they were at the Sydow or Plummer meeting they just went “Screw it, we’ll get both.”
It seems like one - or maybe two? female voice actors do a lot of voices: are Aela and Lydia the same for example? Those one or two voices seem to come up fairly often. Maybe it’s Claudia Christian’s voice I’m thinking of, she’s credited as “Additional” besides Legate Rikke.
Pogo
4754
Have people realized that hitting a spell twice puts it into your main hand, so if you want to switch to another spell set after you dual casted something in your right hand that you no longer want, just dual cast the spell in you’re right hand then press the final spell to setup your new dual cast.
Also, on PC, it helped me to switch LMB and RMB to coincide with the hand you want to use. LMB to swing right hand is retarded.
rei
4755
Goddammit, still no soundtrack. This is just being handled wrong. No release on iTunes or Amazon. The physical discs still haven’t shipped yet.
Have to troll Youtube for my fix.
KevinC
4756
Gah, this has been driving me nuts. Ever since that “patch”, my stability has gone to shit. I haven’t done anything with mucking about my ini files or anything either. I used to go with only having maybe a crash a day, now it’s every 30 minutes to an hour. Extremely frustrating.
kerzain
4757
Yea, the crashing can be frustrating. I’m averaging 1 every 90min-2hrs or so. Along with fixes to the interface (mouse commands are unpredictable at times), the crashing is top of my wishlist fixlist.
Gendal
4758
Oh good, so it’s not only me; misery loves company and all that.
This is very handy if one has say
- Healing
- Shield
- Sword.
When I need to heal I hit 1 twice, switching the first then the second hand to healing; dw heal, then hit 2 for shield and 3 for sword and back in action. Can actually be done on the fly in combat for a change.
Pogo
4760
Yeah I’m not sure people recognize this combo. If you treat it as shuffling spells from left to right through your hands, you can be a dual wield mage and sword-n-board build with no need to go through Favorites every time.
The real pain in the ass is dual wielding weapon builds.
