[2Wycked]

With summer coming on, for some reason I like to play video games more (I tend to read much more in the winter). Hand-in-hand with this, I also enjoy longer games in the summer months -- the sort of game that can take a couple months to wrap up.

Skryim fits the bill perfectly. It certainly isn't a game you can just play for a half hour, but it is one that you can play a couple hours a night and keep chugging for a couple months. Also, its a great game to blitz on lazy Saturday or Sunday mornings.

The game was initially released on 11/11/11 and lived up to all the hype. The open-ended world and game play was and is absolutely spectacular. Outside of GTA 5, I don't think there is a game that comes close to matching this sort of open-ended gameplay and world.

I've played through twice, once with a Stealth Archer:



And once with a female Assassin (my favorite character, backstabbing with dual-wielded knives was boss as fuck):



Anyways, some pictures for your viewing pleasure:











Funny shit is afoot in Faerun:

Feel free to share any stories, pictures or video clips about the game! Since I'm going to fire up a new character, suggestions on a character type would be cool.

[Cr33pin]

You can be a badass unarmed warrior for your next play through... look at that shit

[Esus]

Skyrim is cool but I prefered Oblivion, I liked the capital and the fight in the arena.

As for character I go for black elf most of the time as they are the most polyvalent so you don't need to focus much on one set of skills.

[Yatagan]

Skyrimjob's a fun game, especially on the PC with all the mods and increased resolution.

Here's my female altmer/high elf that i made to look menacing and badass.





And post-vampirism and head of castle volkihar.

[GoldHawkStar]

Only played through it once when it came out. Never really got into it. It was my first Elder Scrolls game, and I didn't really do side quests and experiment with more classes (or whatever they're called). Honestly, my bad experience with Skyrim is probably my own fault for being so vanilla and boring about everything I did in the game. Maybe it's worth getting back into.

[Fortis]

I used to Be a skyrim player like you until I took an arrow to the knee.

[SirTimothy]

Playing through it right now as a wizard character. It's fun what you can do when you reach 100 w/perks on enchanting.

[Cr33pin]

I have never beat this game, despite having started numerous characters. I think my favorite character is a Orc with heavy armor and a two handed weapon, just got into battle and wreck shop. Pretty straight forward no switching weapons or pausing the action to pick spells... just Hulk smash everything you see. I usually just get side tracked with side missions and then end up playing some new game that comes out and never going back and finishing the story.

Oblivion was one of my favorite games of the Xbox360 life span. Skyrim is good and has potential.. I just need to sit down and play it long enough to not have video game ADHD and play something else.

I also bought all the DLC for the game when it was on sale but haven't played any of it... is it any good?

[Lucky]

Fucking loved this game when it came out. Played constantly. I'm definitely more of a casual gamer so I played a swordsman.

[Patriarch]

I skipped an entire week of class at college when this game came out...

[player]

Skyrim's one of the few games I've played since I left school. It's absolutely incredible.



It does a fantastic job of simulating many of the masculine desires that are sorely lacking in the West for many men: freedom, the call to adventure, having a higher purpose, developing into a hero, fighting against evil, becoming high status and respected.

Meanwhile to provide more instant gratification it reduces the actual effort required to become a high status hero and minimizes the negative consequences; you don't actually suffer the injuries or death that would result if Skyrim was real life.

Once an enterprising man combines the adventure and purpose of a game like Skyrim with virtual reality and pornographic rewards, the sexless betas are going to totally check out of real life in favor of escaping to the fantasy (if they haven't already).

[Wadsworth]

Personally, I find games like Dragon Age: Origins, Baldur's Gate, Pillars of Eternity, Icewind Dale, Neverwinter Nights et. al. infinitely more appealing. Skyrim is a pretty impressive feat of game design though.

[freshcream]

Never found the time or energy to finish this game. Came into it very late.


Anyone excited for Witcher 3?

[KC4]

Hell yeah I am ^^ can't wait for that game. the witcher Is what I like the next elder scrolls too be . More mature, more gruesome not afraid of going the extra mile . The choices in skyrim never really seemed like they did any impact at all.

[Old Fritz]

I'm still on my first playthrough. I'm personally excited about Fallout 4 though.

[Coldfire]

Currently playing as a pure magic user.

[Fortis]

I always play as an orc assassin with maxed out sneaking. I love being an arrow in the night one-shotting dragons, werewolves, and mere men.



SPOILERS





My favorite part of the game is where you go to kill the king and he's like, "hey bro, so, do me a favor. Do me a solid and kill that dude who paid you to kill me. Why not, dawg?" I love the way the king is so calm about it.

[coverdoc]

Like stated above, i got into this game really hard, but I could never find the time to actually finish. I'd find myself more times than not putting in some war mods and fighting ice dragons out in the open field. Great times.

-CD

[MikeS]

(04-18-2015 09:46 AM)freshcream Wrote:  

Never found the time or energy to finish this game. Came into it very late.


Anyone excited for Witcher 3?

Yep. I just bought a PS4 a few weeks ago since my laptop wasn't up to the task of running most of the types of games I still enjoy. And most certainly not something as visually demanding as Witcher 3.

My appetite in games has changed over the years though. I still thoroughly enjoy racing games (playing Driveclub now and might get Project Cars next month, if it plays okay on a regular controller). Almost a bit like meditation for me, brain cutting out all the noise and focusing entirely on car and track.

I've also bought Battlefield 4, but I get slaughtered by much better - and usually no doubt much younger - players online, and I'm not going to commit the time needed to become a good player. Still fun on occasion though.

GTA 5 holds most of my attention at the moment, but these days I tend to not bother so much with all the typical side missions in open world games and mostly just do the main storyline. Amazingly detailed world in GTA 5 though, only complaint is that car and pedestrian density should have been higher (looks like that's still the case even in the newly released PC version).

Bought Shadow of Morder on sale yesterday but so far not enjoying it very much despite the praise it's been getting. Visually bland open world and just combat, combat and more combat can't really hold my attention these days.

Dragon Age Inquisition is impressive but I'm feeling some problems getting as excited for large scale RPGs as I used to 5, 10 and 15 years ago (all time favourites were Planescape Torment and the Mass Effect trilogy - despite some letdowns in the last two chapters of ME).
Been playing the first 15 hours of Pillars of Eternity a few weeks ago too on my laptop, but it's not quite hooking me, despite being wonderfully old school and with excellent writing.
Same issue with Skyrim when I played that for maybe 40-50 hours total some years back (first on PS3, then a more powerful PC I don't have anymore).

I'm certain I'll end up buying Witcher 3 next month, but regardless of how great it turns out to be, I'm a little skeptical about whether it will hold my attention for long.

[Aphex]

(04-17-2015 03:54 PM)Cr33pin Wrote:  

You can be a badass unarmed warrior for your next play through... look at that shit

Best fucking game video I've ever seen in my entire life. Badass king of fucking Sweden.

[2Wycked]

Not that I need any more distractions in my life, but do ya'll think this mod is any good?

Quote:

It’s hard to believe that The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim was released nearly four and a half years ago. That’s an eternity in the realm of PC gaming but the fact that people are still playing it is a true testament to the power and dedication of the modding community.

Anyone needing proof of said dedication need look no further than Holds The City Overhaul. As the name suggests, this 4GB mod overhauls the cities within the game – an area its author feels is a weakness of Skyrim compared to older Elder Scrolls titles.

Falkreath, Winterhold and Dawnstar have been rebuilt from scratch with their own unique designs, creator Galandil notes. The mod also adds a bundle of new settlements including Amber Guard and Black Moor. The author purposefully placed most of the new settlements far out of the way (and hidden from view) as to not ruin the expansive wilderness theme of the core game.

If that weren’t enough, Galandil and another community member also added a variety of new books that further detail the land and history of Skyrim.
Galandil insists that Holds is not a botanical garden mod, nor is it a beautification mod. Holds aims to stay as lore-friendly as possible and at the same time expand on the backgrounds and stories for its locations.

Perhaps more impressive than the mod itself is the amount of time it took to build it. Galandil started work on the project in November 2012 and has devoted an average of two hours a day ever since.

As of writing, the Holds mod has been downloaded more than 66,000 times and has 880 endorsements on Nexus Mods.

On a related note, are mods for Skyrim any good? I have had some mixed experiences in the past with user-created mods -- anybody remember the Hot Coffee mod for GTA: San Andreas? . I have played some good mods for Baldur's Gate and tweaked games for Quest for Glory. But I also have played some shitty ones for other games.

Regardless, new dungeons, caves and quests would be boss.

[RIslander]

With that said, Witcher 3 was badass. Also got the Triss Merigold bang.

[fokker]

I've only just started playing Skyrim and really enjoy it. I like to set people on fire and electrocute them as well as use swords and bows. Bethesda improved the spellcasting system quite a bit since Oblivion.

My current character is an Imperial male.

[Felix88]

Morrowind is still the best Elder Scroll, Skyrim is better the dumbed down Oblivion but still suffered from copy-paste dungeon, lackluster writing and consolization, sadly.