I was watching “…why Skyrim?” by Razbuten on sloptube this aft and it’s so weird that it finally took Starfield for people to realise. Like Fallout 76 wasn’t enough, only now are negative things people were first saying about Skyrim in 2012 finally bleeding into mainstream consciousness. It’s so wild, like wow they ruined the magic system? The game has worse writing than a PS1 era Mega Man X game??? Skyrim is just shitty Game of Thrones?? Welcome to thirteen years ago!!
Bethesda hasn’t made a really good game since 2002, but it’ll probably be years before that realisation sinks in.
Okay it’s over everyone, the R*dditors have found the thread here.
Choice cuts:
The “Bethesda hasn’t made a really good game since 2002” gives it away as yet another case of sour grapes from a Morrowind stan.
People really do think I’m like, a Morrowind purist, but frankly it was too complex for me at the time, I played Oblivion and Fallout 3 way more. I like Morrowind the best other than NV but I do think F3 and Oblivion are decent games.
We can’t just casually enjoy or dislike or criticize something anymore. We have to make sweeping statements that leave zero room for nuance.
NUANCE! CONTEXT! CIVILITY!!! I guess “dogshit” was kinda spicy of me to use, but I really do not like Skyrim at all lol.
Mom says it’s -my- turn to post the controversial take about one of the best selling games of all time in order to garner engagement and make money
Tell me how to make money from hexbear posting right now! But anybody who thinks this is like a controversial take for clicks, 1) why “karmafarm” on fuckin hexbear, 2) no I actually do think this. I also think Sonic Adventure 2 and Symphony of the Night were catastrophic game design mistakes, fwiw.Update: oh man I am so not looking at r*ddit comments anymore. “Im not gonna stop enjoying it just cuz some youtuber said so” okay nice! Literally go for it!! R*dditors are fuckin built different.
Okay, we share the same spicy game takes it seems.
Sonic Adventure 2
I will not hear this disrespect for the game that came attached to Chao Garden.
Why do we have to do this thing every few years where we decide something people used to like is actually dogshit?
I hate when people say this. Your fave was dogshit from the start fucko, you were just so swept up in the hype that you ignored all criticisms.
Redditors are so cringe but it’s funny watching them flail around and fail at basic reading comprehension
Symphony of the Night were catastrophic game design mistakes
Seven out of 10 isn’t bad, goes downhill once the castle inverts.
Yeah I wrote an essay (scroll down) about why I hate it to death and it bores me!!
What the hell happened here?
Holy shit 270+ comments. Nice
God, dad could drive a silt strider
It’s amazing how Morrowind was just a breath of fresh air in terms of fantasy settings and writing
Then we get Oblivion, which tossed out everything interesting in lieu of casting Patrick Stewart (for five minutes) and Sean Bean, with even the high points being fairly cookie cutter nonsense that only seemed good because the rest of the game was so bland
Now Skyrim on the other hand, immediately went to Epic Dragon Viking Town, but stripped the game of even more depth and even made the dragons some of the easier enemies in the game
Like, what fucking game designer goes “Dragons should be far and away the most annoying enemy to fight”?
Then we get Oblivion, which tossed out everything interesting in lieu of casting Patrick Stewart (for five minutes) and Sean Bean, with even the high points being fairly cookie cutter nonsense that only seemed good because the rest of the game was so bland
Didn’t Skyrim get rid of the dynamic npc conversations? That was like a highlight of Oblivion which was a pretty bad game overall.
“Hello!”
“Oh it’s you.”
“Have you heard of the high elves?”
“I saw a mudcrab the other day, horrible creatures!”
“Good bye!”
“Bye.”
There’s a nip in the air, cold won’t be good for my crops
i would say they fixed them. like yeah Oblivion’s are iconic in that janky way, but skyrim crossed the pale into fairly convincing which helps for immersion, but is less funny
Yes they are utterly gone. Lots of NPCs do not even move anymore lol.
Major downgrade. The very limited dynamic stuff that npcs did was good and it felt a bit like Shenmue to me.
For real, just like going to someone’s house and they aren’t there, they’re at the alchemical shop or whatever slapped. It gave the faintest sense that the world continues to turn when you aren’t in frame.
Also some random behaviours like Ma’iq the Liar shooting off in search of caliper tongs was very funny. They coulda built on this!!
He always said, “You can’t trust that Almsivi Intervention! Why walk when you can ride!”
i like oblivion and fallout 3 for the nostalgia factor but yeah, they basically all stink
Fallout 3 is a cool knockoff STALKER fwiw, and I was an Oblivion enjoyer too. They’re still decent games to me, but their core story quests are both atrocious and I miss like, spears or swappable pauldrons or actual dialogue from Morrowind :/
watching martin put on the amulet and win the fight at the end of oblivion always felt incredibly anticlimactic to me. you’re telling me that i’m a great hero who essentially played sidekick to the real hero? ok todd
You mean you didn’t like watching Sean Bean die to stop Mehrunes Dagon without actually contributing anything?
the entire time that was happening, i was stewing. i mean, how are you gonna be named Sean Bean and have both names pronounced a different way
I always called him See-an Bee-an and it drives my partner nuts
Team Seen Been or team Shawn Bawn? That is the real “if a giraffe could wear a tie…” question
Seen been is obviously funnier to say
I like Skyrim (as well as older Elder Scrolls games) but I’m also basic enough to enjoy most Ubisoft open world games so my opinion should probably legit be discarded
Depends which, some Ubisoft open worlds were okay…
Yeah, don’t get me wrong there are some open world games that even I don’t consider worth playing but I enjoy vegging out and liberating portions of a map sometimes, what can I say
Not at all proud of my 70 hours in Far Cry 3, which I accrued resetting the map a couple times while playing the game mindlessly and listening to podcasts
I don’t do that shit anymore though, feels bad.but I enjoy vegging out and liberating portions of a map sometimes
I totally feel that. Its such a soothing experience. Completely mind off - climb viewpoints, go to incons on map, grab collectibles - it’s all i want sometimes.
Hell yeah
I’m baffled that Assassins Creed 4: Black Flag was made, and Ubisoft didn’t just pivot to make better and better pirate games. Or us all as a society generally.
Like I should be sailing my customized privateer interceptor around the Caribbean with my crew of lesbian love interests, while maxing out a pistols build that lets me shoot 6 times at the start of combat from 6 pistols hanging off my character.
Skull and Bones was meant to be that, but joke company lmao. I guess they worried it was too far out from core series appeal?
Also
There’s still AssCreed Rogue, even if the cool piratey bits fell off
I like Skyrim the same way I like a plate full of chicken nuggets smeared in ketchup
It’s not great but walking around a town at night while Streets of Whiterun plays is comfy
Skyrim’s soundtrack is still decent, mostly because it is the same composer as Morrowind n Oblivion =)
It was cheating when they re-used the Morrowind and Soltheism themes in the Dragonborn expansion.
who’s also tragically a sex pest
but given Marty ODonnell it doesnt shock me when composers are bad people
I have dumped so many hours into Morrowind recently
- what class u play?
Not them, but my recent playthrough I had a warrior monk.
Major classes: Alteration. Mysticism. Long Blade. Blunt Weapon. Block
Minor: Speechcraft. Enchanting. Armorer. Light Armor. Heavy Armor.
Sign: Astronach (it’s such a good defense and I wasn’t casting a lot of combat spells).
Basically, fought with swords and mace/hammers as they are some of the best uniques. Using alteration and mysticism for the useful effects (Water walk, levitation, mark, recall etc).
Wore a mix of heavy and light armour (as boots of blinding speed and curiass of the savior’s hide are light, with fists of randagulf, helm of oryn bearclaw being heavy).
I played an Imperialised Dunmer. Imperial name, initially did the Imperial Cult and Mages Guild, but as the plot progressed connected with her roots and became the Nevarine, joined House Telvanni etc.
Playing melee with supplementary magic seems best, pure mage can be a nightmare honestly. Rad multiclass, very cool.
Yeah, magic is very useful for exploring but not that effective in combat.
My one advice is you should have at least two combat skills. Because you will max out one very quickly and it will slow down levelling. I found blunt and long blade worked well because of the great weapons available. But one big downside I noticed is they both levelled strength, so I had to pay trainers to level non minor/major skills to compensate.
Short blade levels speed. Spear levels endurance. Marksman levels endurance. Pairing one of those with one of Long Blade, Axe or Blunt which all level strength is also a good idea.
Marksman, Short Blade and Long Blade. Good Samurai Build.
Spear is also a misunderstood skill. It’s not meant to be the same as the other melee skills, a primary thing to fight with, it’s a long-range skill for hitting enemies before they can hit you or from spots where they can’t reach you and you’re cheesing them.
I did a dark elf spellsword, long blade and destruction/conjuration as majors… life sux yea
This game’s stat and skill system is really complex, I had forgotten that weapon skills level an associated attribute. Short blade doing speed must be for stealthy types…
Spear is for comedy purposes tho =)
Yeah, attributes being tied to skills was interesting. I think it should come back for another game, but in a less punishing way.
Now we dont have attributes tho
thanks Todd
I played as a Khajiit thief - no magic other than Alchemy, only focused on sneak, speechcraft, mercantile, short blade, and marksman. In combat, hiding in the shadows and delivering critical hits before enemies could hit me, or mostly sneaking around them. In town, charming everyone while having one hand in their pocket, and gaining information with a silver tongue.
The most fun part of the playthrough for me was getting a full set of exquisite clothes strictly through theft, so that by the end she was a totally decked out bad bitch with all the most expensive accoutrements and every thread of it was stolen. Life goals honestly.
I had so much fun that I’m starting a new save as a pure mage, only magic skills and blunt for a magician’s staff. I’m about mid-level in the Mages’ Guild and House Telvanni and it’s been fun to see how underhanded even the “above-board” factions are in the game.
Todd doesn’t want you to play like this because it’s too fun!!! Lmao!! Awesome playthrough.
I found pure mage hard for reasons of magicka regen…
yes I’m playing Atronach and it has been tricky, a lot of micromanagement of spellcasting. But even basic spells are so powerful that it’s a nice balancing mechanic to me. My character is also super weak physically so if I don’t hit the right order of restore fatigue >> paralyze >> destroy I get wrecked haha.
Game changer was enchanting a ring with Summon Ancestral Ghost, so it costs no magicka to cast, and if you hit the ghost it shoots fireballs at you which you mostly absorb to regain magicka. So that’s a good battery while out in the wild, until I can get back to a temple for Almsivi Restoration.
So many mechanics to navigate, so fun!!
I torrented this shit in 2011 and I shut it off 5 minutes in because it just felt like lord of the rings
A lot of people like lord of the rings
it’s okay once, kinda boring 4938 times
Lord of the Rings is way less stupid
I played about an hour of it and I knew it wasn’t for me. Still gotta try out Morrowind.
i can somewhat agree. skyrim wasn’t a great game, but i had a lot of fun playing it. that being said, 95% of the time i spent playing it was with intense modding. without mods i dont think it has much replay value, or even play value. but mods can make the magic system better, make combat more challenging, make skill trees more complex, etc.
but the plot sucks, the lore is lackluster compared to every other TES game, they took out p much all RPG mechanics, combat is mind-numbing, characters are flat (i want a mage with dementia to tell me she wants a bow that smells like yams only to say never mind when i bring it to her). it is objectively a worse game compared to morrowind by a long shot, but morrowind was a masterpiece. skyrim is fun and if you have 100 mods can even be a good game
mods can make the magic system better, make combat more challenging, make skill trees more complex, etc.
And then you play like, some content mod right? The world and questline and all the sidequests suck so badly.
yep, you basically have to make it a completely different game for it to be good lol
The longevity and nostalgia for Skyrim largely comes out of the extensive modding community that developed around it. That blinds people to the reasons the vanilla game needed such modding.
Game is good because I make it basically a different game
Unironically yeah. Let’s say there are two games that are in all other ways equal, with multiple ways to softlock them. One is left unpatched forever, the other has a large userbase that puts out community fixes. The latter is a better experience. I’d also argue that most of Skryim’s competitors are actually worse.
And before you say “ah but Morrowind is a better game!”, if you were going to play it, would you run it vanilla or using OpenMW?
Yes, as we can see with New Vegas, it helps to have bug fixes and little tune ups. But many mods for Skyrim tear out the magic system entirely, or like replace all the game’s content I guess. Core game Skyrim is nongood in a way that Oblivion even, isn’t.
I find it weird that Skyrim is thought to have “competitors”, like no other games really do the sandbox western RPG thing. Bethesda games are still basically unique.
if you were going to play it, would you run it vanilla or using OpenMW?
are you takin the piss, I play on original Xbox. It has the best controller support. OpenMW is cool but none of its additions are necessary. Vanilla is also fine. Wat u doin?FWIW I do mostly agree with you re: Skyrim, was just pointing out that a dedicated modding community does make a game better. It doesn’t necessarily make it good!
Re: competitors, it’s mostly other Bethesda games (which I agree have been going downhill since at least Oblivion though I haven’t really dug my teeth into Morrowind), but I’d also throw in stuff like Kingdoms of Amalur, Two Worlds (which IIRC pitched itself as a competitor to Oblivion), or some of the Gothic games.
I’m shocked and impressed that you have an original Xbox in 2024 tbh. How’s it look at higher resolution? Or are you using a CRT?
Yea true, and I mean if good viddy game content is made in skyrim like Enderal then rad, ig.
Kingdoms of Amalur
I think Two Worlds is closer to like Gothic or something, but yeah I guess they’re in the same category ish. Quality of Bethesda games is a linear trip downward.Hell yeah I put UnleashedX on that thing
I have the Advanced AV pack and it looks pretty bad on an HDTV, better on a CRT but spending the money for the component HDAV pack or an HDMI device would be good. Also looks decent on a CRT.People have this tendency to think Morrowind is a mechanically bad game in need of fixing, but I happen to greatly respect Morrowind as it is. Some of the changes they make in OpenMW I don’t even like. Morrowind is bugged up the ass in ways and could do with patching in some respects, but mostly
I mean, yes. Being easy to mod and having lots of mods available and community support does add value to the base game on platforms where modding is possible. Not every game is easy to mod or has community documentation on how to do so.
Tell me about it, I’ve always wanted modding for Jet Set Radio Future to be real. Skyrim is, I find, more like an engine or platform than a game though, like it has a core game but it’s not any good, so mod it.
And a few games have even started as skyrim mods! Like The Forgotten City.
Now that is based.
i’ve played hundreds of hours modded and unmodded. whiterun is a safe place for me. well, and windhelm a bit. i love the vibe of the world (maybe because i grew up in a very cold place) and i can turn my brain off when i’m exploring caves (since they’re all very similar, or i’ve already done them). i even like the easy-ass cave puzzles since i don’t play the game to think.
to me, skyrim is like modded minecraft, it’s chill and familiar and i can just wander around and listen to the soundtrack (also i just learned about the 42 minute Skyrim Atmospheres track on the OST and now I measure my activites in “number of Skyrim Atmospheres”)
but i have trouble with the combat. i think most recently i had fun with a 2h weapon. i hate the magic and while i used to be able to stealth archer everything when i was young nowadays its super frustrating because the stealth system gets more “realistic” and less fun if you do any kind of modding of the combat system, and actually clearing a room as a stealth archer even in vanilla can be an exercise in quicksave/reload (maybe i’m just bad idk)
tbh, the most fun I had was on the switch when i bought it again (damnit todd), and i’m not sure modding was really worth it. i got starfield for free with a cpu i bought and didn’t make it past the elevator because the game ran so badly on my computer. i did watch a semi-playthrough of it and it didn’t seem like something i’d like. i kept trying to get into no man’s sky and i bounced on it for some reason, and i think it would be the same for starfield.
idk, it just clicks for me every couple of years and i get obsessed with it. when i was young my dad surprised me with a copy of oblivion one day randomly and i played the crap out of it but hated the level scaling etc. skyrim improved on that in some ways - the level scaling feels less punishing in skyrim. i also couldn’t figure out how to level up in oblivion (i was 12 or something), so skyrim was an improvement there.
oblivion was still better than ultima 9 though for me (though i still have a cloth map for that), ask me how i lost multiple days to the tutorial tower in that game…
i also couldn’t figure out how to level up in oblivion (i was 12 or something), so skyrim was an improvement there.
Same. I just ran around and did quests forever, then got a quest where i finally had to sleep to advance it and then i leveled up like 20 times and all the enemies were in daedric when i maybe had some mithril.
