My latest confirmation I feel is rather thick on Bethesda's part.

Combat changes?: No body part damage.

Umm... why the hell not? We had it in Fallout 3, so Bethesda already had the engine code for this. Would have been a great way to spice up the combat by letting us attack vulnerable limbs to cripple opponents and swing fights in our favor. But no... yet another missed opportunity. And for a game putting such a heavy emphasis on deep combat, this is a big one.

For one thing, it would have really helped keep the combat from becoming too mindlessly hacky-slashy, but everything I've seen so far is shaping up to be Skyrim: brain not required. Guess it is asking too much for combat to have some form of depth other than "swing sword until opponent keels over and dies." And no, an occasional kill animation here and there does NOT count, as they are completely cinematic and have no bearing on the gameplay. Besides, animations can only get you so far, as it makes the game less of what the PLAYER can do and more what the DEVELOPER can do to rely on them. That is pretty backwards logic for a TES game.

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Okay, I'm getting sick of all this stripping down Bethesda is doing with Skyrim. I am going to go all the way and call them lazy for everything they have axed so they don't have to fix it.

The latest is equipment condition.

Stripping out armor condition means that craftsmanship for armor essentially no longer matters, nor does crafting skill for those who wish to make it. Sure, less skilled craftsmen might not make the most effective suit of elven armor, but what does that matter to the player since the suit will last forever even if a complete novice made it? Instead, all that differentiates armor now is looks and damage reduction. We have this gigantic crafting skill, but we never need to repair our armor anymore and therefore we lose a critical use of the skill (which would be a great way to help aspiring craftsmen get some experience)?

And the argument of "to reduce clicky work with repairing" does not work, because Bethesda could easily just put in an auto-repair function that calculates total repairs performed and resource costs with minimal button pressing. But no, yet again, they take the easy way out. Instead of properly streamlining the system, they strip it instead.

Lazy, lazy, lazy, lazy.

Oh, and we still need to recharge our weapons, but no longer need to keep our gear repaired? Non-sequiter much? Did Bethesda think this one through at all?

It's all about trying to make the game appeal to as many people as possible. The vast majority of gamers nowadays are instant-gratification, zero-challenge, realism-only-if-it's-not-too-hard types. These are the people Skyrim is being designed to appeal to. The people who demand a huge open world, and at the same time demand a way to completely skip it whenever they want at no cost to them. It is shameful how much of this non-sequiter logic has found its way into the game at this point. I don't know how much more hand-holding I can take.

We no longer need to repair our gear, the game does it for us.
We no longer need to create our character, the game does it for us.
We no longer need to rest to heal, the game does it for us.
We no longer need to explore to find our quest objectives, the game does it for us.

Everything in that list is a hand-holding implementation designed to do nothing more than increase the appeal to the game-without-brain crowd, and are prime candidates for being modded out completely.

So are you still buying it? I know for a fact that I'm not.

Mods won't be able to fix everything. If there isn't a condition system for armor and there aren't any vendors set to repair everything then modding it in will be a PITA.

There has been a lot of rather fearful speculation over the PS3 version of Skyrim on the other boards lately. A lot of it cropped up recently when Pete Hines announced there would be no demo of the PS3 version of the game.

The main concern is that the game will turn out to be a complete mess, like Fallout 3 was (inferior visuals, frequent lock-ups, bad framerates, etc.). Unfortunately, I have to fear for them, as well, as Bethesda has released absolutely nothing on the PS3 version of the game. All of the hype is for the 360 version, with a bit of PC thrown in for good measure... but the PS3 just sits in the corner completely ignored. And it's making a lot of people unhappy.

FYI: Oblivion's PS3 port was outsourced, but even it suffered from exclusive bugs (namely the Vampire Cure bug). Fallout 3 was Bethesda's first in-house PS3 port. This is mostly hearsay, but from what has been said, it has become rather clear to me that Bethesda didn't really care about the PS3 version of Fallout 3. I'm hoping the same does not happen for Skyrim, but once again, Bethesda has decided that no data will be shared about the PS3 version of the game, so it's looking a bit grim right now.

I think closed cities..or holds I should say are alot more realistic. Mainly because closed gates keep unwanted visitors out. It's not that big a deal. Mod it out if it's really that bad.

I've had plenty of time to mull things over about the changes being made to Skyrim, and really, closed cities has dropped down to very low on my "must be addressed" list. The only reason Bethesda is really doing that is because the consoles simply can't handle those cities being open, and I can understand working under severe hardware constraints.

I've made a lot of revisions on my stances for some of the changes being made, such as the new leveling system. I never really cared for the previous major/minor branches, and in fact completely obliterated the leveling system for both Morrowind and Oblivion in favor of something more in line with what Skyrim is doing (save for the 'got no class' approach). Every skill has a bearing on your level, major skills (specialized in Skyrim's case) increase your level faster, and the player never deals with attributes at any stage (the mod handles them automatically). I'm still not happy that Attributes got cut (mostly due to the 'missed opportunity' factor), but I do see why they were. The only key difference is that Skyrim is injecting a more level-based approach to the scheme, whereas the mods I refer to actually try to stop your level from really mattering that much (aside from scaling encounters and loot).

So, the new leveling system, after a more thorough analysis, gets my stamp of approval. I like.

As a wise man once said...Mothepussbucket...*Sigh*...

I've got the day off work for Skyrim...(Yes I'm that sad)...This had better be worth it...

Oh, we're PS3 here at Chez Badgere...

Oooh, *Shouts to wife* we're changing the house name dear!!...

You people are mad at 5 closed in city's?
You should be happy that the rest are open....

Since when did spreadsheets of your character help you get immersed in the game? Jeez, I thought this was a chill forum. Guess its just like the official eh?

Not everyone is, but there are some. The only think I'm unhappy about is Steamworks, but I'll deal with it.

You seem to be taking the premise of this thread out of context. Most of what you see here is MATURE gripes about the game (some of my own I have since changed stance on, like your aforementioned closed cities).

Just re-reading the whole topic...Very heavy stuff... ...

Just a couple of things though...



I've never used a Breton. Indeed my most powerful mage is my Argonian bizzarely enough.



Why?...Just curious, I have no idea who they are...



Presumably that means PSN for me then?...I don't think the PS3 can connect to the outside world for stuff like that...Or is that going to mean I can't do the DLCs then?...



Oh, that would be me then...I'm not above going into a dungeon and if it's undead, I'll drop the difficulty level...Why not?...It's there to do...Like Fast Travel, Encumberance spells and Enchanting your armour so you can carry a small city...

That's why I'm more pissed about them combining Cuirasses and Greaves...Not 'cause of anything else, but that it stops me getting that one more enchantment...

I've really enjoyed Oblivion...I can see the flaws, sure...But I can just imagine my way past all of them...My characters have power-leveled to the point where they can't be killed...Practically...Does this stop me enjoying it?...Noooo!!...Because I did it deliberately!!...Hell, I'm pissed off you can't make their armour 100%...I don't want to be killed when I'm playing something to enjoy myself!!...Aaand I can see many shouties headed my way...But when I play a game, it is up to me how it should be done at that point...If it is too hard and I don't enjoy it, I will turn it off...Very mature me...

This is why I stopped playing New Vegas...Once the update prior to Old World Blues came along, it just got annoyingly hard and boring fighting Caesar's assassins all the time...*Yawn*...Not fun anymore see?...

Oh, my characters may be Demi-Gods, but they're all distinct it has to be said...And several of them have much the same major skill-set...

Console online services cannot be compared to PC online services like Steam or Origin. With console services, you don't need to deal with them if you don't want to. You can just put the disc in the slot and boot it up. Updates are optional, too (you can't play online without updating, but the simple fact that you don't have to if you don't want to makes a huge difference, especially for single-player games), and you are not forced to activate and validate your game purchase online. To put it simply, you are forced to have an internet connection to play the PC version, but not for the console version.

That is not fair. Period. PC gamers are being singled out as criminals through all the hoops and DRM we need to jump through now to play our legally-purchased games. Some don't mind, but I resent that.