Skyrim

[Preypacer]

I'm playing it on PC and, after about 30 minutes or so to get the basics of the interface down, I'm having no trouble at all with it. I'm kinda surprised at how many people are noting issues with the interface. There are short-cut keys for pretty much everything you need to do, and you can assign them besides that, such as assigning items in your Favorites list to 1-8, etc. I swap between weapons and/or spells pretty swiftly while in combat, etc.

Aside from that, I'm freaking loving it so far. The farther in I get, the more I see and do, the more I'm loving it. Mileage will vary I guess.

I tried it a bit more, and I've got some gripes, mostly about the interface, since it's a pretty straight xbox-to-PC port. The interface, I've mentioned. Horrible. Horrible horrible. Even with the first patch, the world map keeps on moving my cursor around to "help me", since I obviously have an inaccurate mouse.

Can't say I've had that issue at all. The map screen is pretty intuitive and easy to use in my experience. Again.. mileage may vary on that, of course. Though I typically move it around with the keys instead of the mouse, so maybe that's why.

On the other hand, without any kind of aim assistance, shooting with a bow is ridiculously hard when something is moving. No comparison with the difficulty of swinging a sword at all. The weapons seem to follow the same system from Morrowind (I skipped Oblivion), where you basically have a mace, a sword and an axe, and two-handed versions of those. Which gets a bit old.

I've always found unassisted range combat to be tougher than close-range melee... primarily because it's far easier to hit something that's 2 feet in front of you and probably hitting you as well, than something that is farther away and moving. That said, I really like the unassisted ranged combat... I have to either get in close enough without them seeing me and then get a shot or two off, which knocks a respectable amount of health off right off the bat, unless they're a lot tougher than me. Usually the first one will leave them momentarily "dazed" before they start coming at you, which leaves time, usually, for two good shots; which is sometimes enough to kill them so the fight is over before it's really begun.

If I don't get them in the first couple shots, then it's a matter of leading them with my bow and timing it to try and hit them, which I enjoy far more than assisted targeting. It puts me more in control of where my shots are going, instead of letting the game "help me" with them.

Of course, after a point, I don't even bother with the bow anymore and pull out the sword and shield to finish them off that way, which is a lot of fun, too, with the ability to block using the shield and, having your first Shout, being able to knock them back if you need a moment to gather yourself, heal yourself, etc.

The use of potions and such I find to be really useful, too. I've won a couple fights I'd have otherwise lost (but were still close) due to having them handy. I don't just mean health or mana potions, but ones that mitigate the effects of cold-based attacks temporarily, etc...

My one complaint would be that there could be more of a sense of "contact" when fighting. It feels a bit "airy" to me.

The animations get boring, particularly the walking and jumping of the character just DOES NOT compare with what you see in, say Assassin's Creed II (the fluid motion of that guy is just ridiculous). If I see another frog jump, I'm going to be ... hmm ... miffed.

Two different games, two different developers. I'm sure you could find things in Assassin's Creed that you feel aren't as well done as they could be, compared to other games, etc.

I'm okay with the run and walk animations. The jumps... eh... I can take them or leave them.

No minimap and nothing to help you find quest-givers. Not even a little glowy sign over their heads. This is annoying. The world-map and the local maps are NOT GOOD - which is something that needs emphasis on this forum, of all places. Particularly in towns, I never know where I am, who I'm supposed to find or where. It's fun for a bit, but after a while I'd like at least an option to just point me in the right direction. Also, the quest-givers move around ... so ... you complete the quest, go look for the jarl (local lord) and ... his wife is sitting on the throne and he's not there. There's no option to ASK anyone, "Where be yon jarl, good thrall?". No. The NPCs don't give a sh** where the jarl is. In the end, I find him in my room in the inn. That was a really weird one, no two ways about it.

I think you've been spoiled .

Thank GOD there's no !'s or other objects over their heads, in my opinion.

The TES games are about immersing you in a world, not guiding you along in a game. They're very much about the journey. The idea is to choose your own path, seek out your own adventures, talk to people, see what they have to say.. help them out, or don't help them out, etc. That's the core difference between the TES games and many others out there now. It's one of the few that hasn't resorted to all-out hand-holding and "color-by-numbers" style quest progress... I, for one love it that way.

As for finding the locations for quests ,etc... The game does give you those indications on the map, in myriad ways. You have to make sure you're tracking them, but it absolutely does. In fact, if there's a location you need to go to for an active quest, it will show an icon on your compass, it'll show as a slightly pulsing icon on the world map, it'll show on the local map where to go, there will be an icon on the door you need to enter/exit to get to the location, and there will be an icon over the NPC you need to talk to once you've located them. There's quite a lot of guidance in that regard. I located an NPC I need entirely on one occasion by following those, before I had a better grasp of where everything was.

As for NPCs moving around, I think that's awesome as well. I remember coming into town a couple times early morning, to see a NPC walking from their home to their business and getting their work day started. NPCs aren't just static quest dispensers standing around idle, waiting for you to come up and help them. They have lives of their own, responsibilities, problems, etc.

But I've only played it on two days, so ... it might get worse. :S

Well if you're going into it looking for things to make it seem worse... you'll probably find them.

[Lukc]

@Preypacer: don't get me wrong, a lot of things are really good, but there's a few bugs that really ... erm ... bug me

@Ramah: I think the NPCs look a bit better, yeah. There's still a few silly, lifeless things, but in general they're fine (though I play from a 3rd person pov mostly ... so ...)

As an aside, a simple way to level up: get a lot of leather, cut up strips at the tanner and start manufacturing ... leather bracers. 2 strips, 1 leather and you raise your smithing score. My goal right now is to get up to 100 smithing, to make me some dragon armor, since I've got so many bones and scales lying around the house, it's like a charnel house

PS - I also eventually found out how to put quest markers up on the map and compass.

PPS - And, I found out, eventually, how to put things into containers. That was a struggle! I really wish they had a nice simple mouse interface, like, say Fallout 3: New Vegas.

PPPS - And I recommend using the console to change the field of view a bit, to get a wider view in 1st person. The default just feels really constricted to me. I'm running it on fov 90 now.