Skyrim - The Elder Scrolls V

[salty mud]

Mine still hasn't been delivered! I'll be very angry indeed if I can't play today, as it means I won't be able to play properly until Monday.

I think it's a case of the game being poorly optimised, really.

 

[DaemonDD]

Is there a chance that the optimisation can be fixed with patches, or am I required to empty my wallet in the near future?

 

[salty mud]

They usually attempt to make games run better, but it usually ends up having minimal effect.

 

[Akka]

Sceneries are absolutely gorgeous, but the interface is just an incredibly shameful straight-up console port. It's downright UNBELIEVABLE. I don't think I've ever seen such an horrid atrocity. Witcher 2 was hit hard by the dumbed-down interface consolisation, but this is just a wreck.

As for making it run, it's rather fluid, but I advise unchecking AA and using FXAA instead. Or even no AA at all if you're playing in a high enough resolution.

 

[GoodSarmatian]

Sceneries are absolutely gorgeous, but the interface is just an incredibly shameful straight-up console port. It's downright UNBELIEVABLE. I don't think I've ever seen such an horrid atrocity. Witcher 2 was hit hard by the dumbed-down interface consolisation, but this is just a wreck.

I already expected it to be bad, but is it really worse than Oblivion or Fallout 3 ?

 

[Akka]

I already expected it to be bad, but is it really worse than Oblivion or Fallout 3 ?

It's not even in the same league. Oblivion's interface was consolized but not unmanageable, and I actually liked the themed interface from Fallout 3.
But this is just mind-boggling atrocity. Just... menu, with horribly clunky controls and absolutely zero immersion - grey windows-like lists, not even a preview nor even shortkey for stuff - yes, you NEED to go through these menus to switch weapons, and you don't even have a preview of your character when you change gear. HUGE big bland letter everwhere - not even the themed font like in Oblivion. Confirmation boxes for lots of things.

Unbelievable is just the word. It's just the caricatural console interface slapped onto the PC version without even an attempt at adaptation - mouse didn't even work in menus before the day-1 patch.

 

[salty mud]

There aren't hotkeys like in Oblivion?

Also, INSTALLING NOW!

 

[DaemonDD]

They replaced the hotkeys with the favorite-system. I don't know what I prefer personally, but I actually don't mind the UI much so far. I can understand what Akka means though; it is pretty bland and unmanageable.

 

[salty mud]

Here's some images, it's all I have time to play now but I can tell it will be good.

Spoiler :

 

[Winner]

Screw graphics. What's important is whether the quests will finally become challenging and interesting. Oblivion was laughably easy in that department.

 

[Rub'Rum]

I can't stop playing. Will report later. Awesome game. UI is a little odd. I'd say Morrowind's UI was better, but I must say that personally I like the new UI better than Oblivion's, despite the fact that it DOES look more console-ey, it still works better for me than Oblivion's (and I'd go as far to say; better than Fallout's). Game runs fine on the old PC I just replaced and is now set up on the TV for my girlfriend (it has Quad core duo (Q6600 something processor) with an ATI HD 5700, I will admit because I changed that card only 2 years ago), my shiny new computer of course delivers massively

Salmonon, wide-eyed Khajit forest ranger

Spoiler :

 

[Leonel]

Skooma...

 

[Wolfbeckett]

The Favorites system in lieu of hotkeys is actually pretty good once you get the hang of it, but by and large, yes, Akka is dead on with the UI. It's AWFUL. Far and away the worst part of the game so far.

 

[Synobun]

How is the performance of the game? Are the requirements comparable to that of War In The North or is it even more intensive?

 

[illram]

I've got an i5-2400 with a 6850 and it runs on high, and just eyeballing it I am usually maintaining probably 60fps. Although I left Vsync on, I don't notice the FPS radically dropping to 30 or whatever my multiple is very often. (You don't need FRAPS to tell you when your frames are shifting with vsync on, it is very noticeable.)

Short explanation of that: With vsync on, any benchmark will be sort of useless as vsync locks in your framerates to multiples of your refresh rate, but I can hardly notice any issue which means most of the time my frames are above the cap. (Vsync is fantastically explained here.)

And I do hate the fact that I can't see my character in the equip screens. That was much better in Oblivion, part of the fun was seeing what that new shiny helmet looked like equipped! Since I am using my Xbox controller on my PC though I am not noticing any of these other issues.... come to the dark side, PC users!

 

[Synobun]

I've got an i5-2400 with a 6850 and it runs on high, and just eyeballing it I am usually maintaining probably 60fps. Although I left Vsync on, I don't notice the FPS radically dropping to 30 or whatever my multiple is very often. (You don't need FRAPS to tell you when your frames are shifting with vsync on, it is very noticeable.)

Should run like a charm on my computer then. Keyword should. My computer is an evil thing.

 

[illram]

Yeah I was pleasantly surprised that it defaulted to everything maxed out on High. (Not ultra, but I knew that was not going to happen.) Another victory for $700 gaming builds!

 

[Synobun]

Yeah I was pleasantly surprised that it defaulted to everything maxed out on High. (Not ultra, but I knew that was not going to happen.)

The main reason I was curious about performance is because I'm running an AMD Phenom II X4 965 processor and a Radeon 5900HD, but I've noticed that my computer's performance in some of the newer games is completely awful (have to run a lot of them on low settings). I hope whenever I get Skyrim that my computer will not disappoint me.

 

[Maniacal]

http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2011/11/11/wot-i-think-skyrim-addendum-1/#more-81782

More RPS Wot I think on Skyrim

Summaries:

Combat
Duel-wielding system is the only major improvement, but a good one.

Interface
Clear and clean, but still has consolized-large font sizes, favourite system for items is great, navigation is clearly designed for a gamepad and is awkward with a mouse & keyboard.

Sound issues
Related to a couple of the solutions I posted earlier, a number of people including the RPS guy have had the game conflict with Windows sound quality settings.

Fast travel
You need to discover a place before you can fast travel there, but there are also coaches to major cities.

Dragons
Except for the into they are entirely optional.

===

Seems pretty awesome so far, with some of the major issues being bugs which will hopefully get patched or poor design choices that will hopefully get modded. As I feared (and expected) the combat wasn't really improved, but I guess it is too much to expect a multi-million dollar development studio designing a console game to come up with a melee system as good as what Turkish couple made in their home.

 

[Wolfbeckett]

And I do hate the fact that I can't see my character in the equip screens. That was much better in Oblivion, part of the fun was seeing what that new shiny helmet looked like equipped! Since I am using my Xbox controller on my PC though I am not noticing any of these other issues.... come to the dark side, PC users!

Yeah... a first person game with a controller instead of a mouse and keyboard. Think I'm gonna pass on that one chief . What I'll do instead is deal and get over it until a decent UI mod is released, then all my problems will be solved.