Oh, come on, Bethesda!, Closed cities AGAIN? Options

[Thomas Kaira]

May I ask exactly why? Oblivion could take open cities in perfect stride. The only reason the cities got closed at all was because BethSoft panicked about the console support.

Granted, they did have an excuse then, as they only received the Xbox 360 to do actual testing over the last three months of dev. time, but here... not so much. The current excuse is that the consoles can't handle what they are doing. Trouble is, the industry always manages to surprise us with exactly what those consoles CAN handle.

So long as the NPC count in the cities goes up by at least twice what we got in Oblivion, I will be understanding and shall complain no more. If not... well... then I will KNOW you are just being lazy. I want to see progress in making these games the best they can be, I don't want Skyrim to simply be Oblivion HD.

Source

In other news:

- Alchemy is becoming a stealth skill. (Approve! Approve!)

- There will be no minigames involved with the crafting skills (Thank you!)

- Giants, Draugr, and other creatures will receive a bit of culture from the AI engine (Looking forward to this.)

This post has been edited by Thomas Kaira: May 3 2011, 07:07 PM

[SubRosa]

I started playing Mass Effect 1 about a week ago, and noticed that it does not have attributes either. You just have your character's class, and then the skills you increase. You even start with one of every type of weapon in the game. I mention it because this appears to be the same direction Skyrim is taking.

My impressions on how this effects the gameplay is that my character feels less distinct then the ones I have for Oblivion or Fallout. After all, the skinny Asari scientist is just as strong as the hulking Krogan thug, and the Krogan is just as smart as she is. There appears to be no real difference between the races at all, except for how they look. It is more like I am playing a generic 'toon' in a game then a real person. I hate using that term, but it really does fit under the circumstances.

Without attributes, I wonder what sort of actual nitty gritty differences there will be between the races in Skyrim? I suppose just once-a-day powers like the Redguards and Nords have, which I never use anyway. Plus the few permanent bonuses like the Breton magicka boost. I imagine that where 75% of people seem to play Bretons in Oblivion, it will climb to 95% in Skyrim if that is the case...

OTOH Skyrim will supposedly have Fallout style perks to hopefully round out the characters. But when you look at those perks, at least half of them are just adding a few points to two of your skills. Nothing really defining there. Most others give you something like a bonus to hit in vats, or let you do more damage. Only a few, like Child At Heart or Animal Friend, seem to really say something about who and what your character is. So it seems unlikely to me that the perks in Skyrim will really make characters feel unique.

On the subject of the ME1 elevators, before the first ride was over I was wishing for a load screen instead. I have sat in thousands of boring elevators rides IRL. I don't play games because I cannot wait to experience more of that special kind of ennui. I vastly prefer a loading screen with a status bar that shows me how long I have to wait. If it is going to be long, then I know I can get up and get a glass of water. If not, then at least I know I am not going to be sitting waiting forever.