SKYRIM HYPE THREAD: UNDEAD CHICKEN SOUP FOR THE DRAGON'S SOUL

Is it only me or does Whiterun feel like "Minas Tirith meets The Golden Hall" ? :D
Anyways, the world is way too awesome, been only to one dungeon, but it was a FUN one, unlike most of the dungeons in Oblivion, they really took the fans reactions to heart.

I wonder how well my character will work, a female dark elf, wielding a sword in one hand and some spells in the other, clad in heavy armor. I love what they did to spells btw, no spell crafting kinda limits them, but at least the spells seem to be more diverse (keep holding to cast a continuous stream of fire, kinda like inferno in Diablo 2, hell yes).

And so far, I haven't encountered any bugs or major issues with the game, which is quite a surprise, given this IS a Bethesda game. Only one or two minor framerate issues so far (on PS3 that is), and one minor graphical glitch that went away almost immediately. Quite a pleasant surprise.

Needless to say, I will be spending quite some time with this game I reckon :)

I'm playing on Master difficulty because the game seemed way too easy when I watched videos where other people recorded their playthroughs.

Sometimes I die when I face three Draugirs at once, or restless Draugirs for example can be really troublesome (read = die over 5 times), but in return it's really rewarding and my pulse is jumping all over the place, plus I'm automatically leaning backwards when they come close, heh.

I'm personally going with dual wield combined with some restoration, destruction and alteration spells.

I'm impressed by the setting. Roktarr the Orc just caught salmon with his bare hands! I was looking around this vast lake filled valley, and saw this huge mountain in the background that I just knew holds some monster this game is going to be Oblivion,all over again... Except with kill shots in battle.

This game is completely amazing. I am almost speechless.

Lysander the Breton necromancer is between Level 8 and Level 9, has Conjuration 40, the Necromancy perk, and the Sign of the Ritual (the once-per-day power associated with which, the one time I tried to use it, didn't seem to work or do anything, which I'm hoping is a one-time fluke) so I'm fairly confident in saying "Class: Necromancer" even in this new classless system.

I've just joined the College of Winterhold after the long journey on foot from Whiterun to Winterhold after slaying the dragon at Whiterun after plundering Bleak Falls Barrow after the intro. He's not really that interested in this whole "Dragonborn" thing at the moment because it's basically just a lot of Nords shouting to him; Breton/Dunmer intrigue at the College seems way more fascinating.

I've already found two potential places I'd love to "stay" if this game allows you to hole up and store your stuff in random cleared dungeons a la Morrowind, without erasing your loot. One is Embershard (or w/e) Mine, the other is Valtheim Towers. Both are gorgeous and conveniently outfitted.

So far the game has been tough. I've stuck to Adept difficulty, but I'm thinking about switching to Expert. I'm having no trouble with Draugr (even Restless and Overlords) or bandits or random wandering wildlife, but I've had some extremely tough fights with Frostbite Spiders, they hit really really really hard and poison you really thoroughly and I'm a squishy wizard wearing goddamn robes, not real armor. I'm not really specializing in destruction, but loading up both barrels with either Flames or Frostbite and blasting away at an enemy weak to one or the other with both hands is AMAZINGLY satisfying.

Toughest fight I've had yet is outside this fort south of Mournhold. Very very jacked Apprentice Necromancer and Conjurer Adept and their undead/Daedric allies. I really felt like I was just way too low level for it, but by burning nearly all of my expendable resources I was able to perservere. Not a wise long term strategic choice, but highly satisfying. I had missed the feeling of "Whoa I Shouldn't Fucking Be Here" from Morrowind.

Other than that, chain-zombification is pretty much my fighting style. It can be hard to get your undead goons in between you and the not-yet-dead goons, but when it pays off it's really satisfying.

Even playing someone who sucks at melee weapons, melee weapons seem REALLY effective in this.

The game is pretty refreshingly hard, and gold seems hard to come by, and very easy come, easy go. That'll change as I get my bearings and start having any idea at all how the game's meant to be played. That's part of the reason why I haven't really had a go at an organized "wild mass guessing" of the alchemy system yet. I still don't reliably know how to make even the most basic potions and I've wasted a ton of ingredients on failpotions.

The writing in this game seems much, much better than in Oblivion, at just about every tier. I'm way psyched for the college of winterhold questline, especially if it ties into Morrowind as much as is being hinted at. I went with the Stormcloaks because they were the ones not about to ARBITRARILY BEHEAD ME FOR NO REASON. Seriously, fuck you empire. "This one's here by mistake. He's not on the list. What should we do with him?"

"Get him to the block."

Fuckkkkkk you.

THERE IS SO MUCH STUFF TO EAT THAT IT IS PATENTLY RIDICULOUS. Is it weird that I just have my character eat/drink "when he is hungry" rather than using it to actually regain Health and/or Stamina, or does everyone do that?

the main theme literally gives me a boner

Haha, yeah, the main theme is just too awesome, using the Morrowind theme "Call of Magic" as a base (kinda), which just further shows how they tried to make the game more like Morrowind than Oblivion (which I APPROVE).

By the way, two questions:
1) Do monsters in dungeons ever respawn after the dungeon is "cleared"?
2) The "finishing moves" occur at random, or do they have some kind of pattern?

Gonna press Play now and get lost in the world of Skyrim. brb.

Man, I've been having so much trouble pulling myself AWAY from this game since I got home from work yesterday! I got home at 4:00 PM and played until 1:00 AM. I have not done that with a game since my teenage years so I'm really blown away.

In my eyes, Bethesda has made up for Oblivion with this game. I was a HUGE Morrowind lover who was very let down by Oblivion (surely played Morrowind for 1000+ hours but Oblivion for probably 20-30). Skyrim feels like Oblivion, but there's a distinct Morrowind influence in there too which really pleases me.

I don't know what it is exactly since technically the game is more like Oblivion than Morrowind, and I'm loving Skyrim immensely. Seriously think it might give Morrowind a run for its money as my favourite TES game.