Ahoy,
Until now, I have not played any Elder Scroll games, and am just now learning about Elder Scrolls Online. (Thank you for posting that video in the other post. It's got me excited).
In the other post, it was suggested that we play Skyrim to get a feel for how Elder Scrolls Online will play. I took that suggestion and just now installed Skyrim on my PC. As an Elder Scrolls newbie, I wanted to share my first impressions.
GRAPHICS
First, I want to say the graphics are A-mazing. Don't get me wrong, games don't have to have top-notch graphics to be a success. But the graphics in Skyrim are impressive.
INTERFACE
Next, I wanted to comment on the interface. One of my pet peeves are games where the interface interferes with the gameplay. In the few minutes I played, I loved how there was no interface that got in the way of the viewing area. For a short while, I did not even know an interface even existed, until I accidentally hit "M" instead of spacebar (jump). Then I saw there was a Map.
CONTROLS
I also wanted to talk about the controls. The game starts out by using the WASD keys for movement. Personally, I don't like using WASD to move. All my keyboards have up/down/left/right arrow keys. I want to use those (or use my mouse for movement). But alas, the mouse is reserved for combat (attack/block). I do not know if its possible to re-assign keys due to the next paragraph.
MOTION SICKNESS
Unfortunately, I tend to get motion sickness in some games (mostly first person shooter (FPS) games). I'd like to point out that I never got motion sickness playing a PC game, until now. (I've been fine with all other games - Everquest, DAOC, WAR, RIFT, GW1, GW2.).
When I tried Skryim, I played for about 30 minutes. The first 20-25 minutes were great. The last 5 minutes or so was a struggle, due to motion sickness.
I am left to wonder if WASD is in some strange way connected to my motion sickness. All WASD FPS games I have tried have left me feeling ill.
After I recover, I am going back into Skyrim to see if i can change the controls away from WASD. Am hoping I can set up the movement/controls to something similar like GW2, which I think is rather nice.
FINAL THOUGHTS
I WANT to like ESO when it comes out. For anyone out there reading this who has played Skyrim, please feel free to comment about your experience.
UPDATE 1:
I'm finding it difficult to change the way the game looks/feels. At the game launch, I can change it to windowed mode (which helped out with the motion sickness). However, in windowed mode, you cannot move or resize the window. (insert frowny icon here>. Also, when going to window mode, I now have 2 cursors - windows cursor, and the fancy game cursor. Also the sound is now muffled. I was able to fix the sound issue by going into the control panel, and selecting "Loudness Equalization" under Sound.
I also do not care for having to play the game via Steam. I miss the old days when you could install the game directly on your computer. Games just worked as you would expect them - right out of the box. Having to create a Steam account, and log into Steam and adjust my sound and other settings is a fuss.
Please forgive me for ranting. Like I said, I WANT to like this game. I will continue playing Skyrim and offer more insights/updates after continued game play. I'm sure it will get better! It HAS to get better? Right?
UPDATE 2:
I also wanted to comment on the optional expansions. When I purchased Skyrim, I also purchased the Dawnguard and HearthFires expansions. These were offered as inexpensive digital downloads through Steam. For those of you who are getting into Skyrim for a test drive before Elder Scrolls Online comes out later this year, I would recommend that you do not buy the expansions right away. It seems most of the expansion content is not available until you reach lvl 10 or higher. After 3 hours of playing, i'm still level 1. (Of course, I tend to level slowly, as I like to explore every nook and cranny). I believe one of the expansions lets you become a vampire, but you cannot create a vampire during character creation.
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» Edited on: 2013-01-05 14:14:05
» Edited on: 2013-01-05 15:32:37