[Gaming] Elder Scrolls 5 - Dawnguard is HERE!

[AshburnerX]

Alright... I'm level 17, but I'm having some problems. My formerly awesome sauce bow shots are now crap, even with the sneak bonus AND a reenforced bow. Even at 50 Archery I'm not doing enough damage to take on more than a single guy at once, tops... which is BULL SHIT when I have all the archery feats I can get at the moment.

Seriously, this is my setup:

Superior Dwarven Bow (30+ Damage, with a Fire Enchant for another +5)
Orcish arrows (12 damage)
Iron Gauntlets of Archery (+15% to bow damage)
Ring of Archery (+25% to bow damage) (This DOES stack)
= 58-59 damage a shot

And I STILL need to fire off 4-5 arrows. They ether need to up bow damage or up the stagger rate, because you can't get the stagger perks until 60 and you NEED those if you specialize in bow. The crit perks help but not enough.

I dunno... it just feels like there is a balancing problem.

 

[Frank]

I'm playing on expert difficulty as a straight up combat mage (throwing down the destruction spells) and at level 13, I'm not having too many issues. The only time I get overwhelmed is usually when there's multiple enemy mages all using lightning on me. The magicka she disappears so quickly.

 

[Hailey Knight]

Man, you guys are eating through this. I played six or seven hours yesterday and I'm only halfway to level 8.

Level 7 saw my first giant kill. He was the only one in that valley who didn't have a mammoth posse to back him up, so I shot him and we did a dance around a plateau (and on it) until I shot him to death. He almost got me with a couple charges though, but sprinting saved my ass.

 

[Ravenpoe]

I have yet to encounter a single bug.

Are we sure this is the same Bethesda?

 

[Hailey Knight]

The game's frozen twice for me, and I saw a mammoth fall from the sky (which was hilarious). That's it.

But I'm on PS3; it sounds like PC-users are the ones experiencing glitches.

 

[Ravenpoe]

The game's frozen twice for me, and I saw a mammoth fall from the sky (which was hilarious). That's it.

But I'm on PS3; it sounds like PC-users are the ones experiencing glitches.

I'm on PC, and other than being annoyed at the console ui they've forced on it, I haven't had any bugs.

 

[Frank]

PC too, no bugs except for a dragon corpse falling from nowhere. But those bugs rule.

 

[Dave]

I had to pause the game to come tell this story.

I'm walking (okay, sneaking) from point A to point B. It's a long journey and I'm taking a side quest or two to explore a couple ruins. I cross this bridge and I see at the end that there's a fire and three guys are like dancing around it. Sine I've already had a couple of times when I meet regular folks on the road, I decided not to sneak in and kill them all.

Well, one of them saw me and came over to offer me a drink. "Poison!!" thought I. But no, he gave me a bottle of fine ale and then went back to the party. I stayed with them a few minutes and they started wandering off towards a nearby town. I went back into sneak mode and followed behind them. I looked away for a second to catch a Luna Moth and a couple lightning bugs and when I caught back up they were getting eaten by bears!!!

I put up a good fight in their honor, but I ended up running away. God speed, drunken revelers.

 

[Shegokigo]

Damnit guys, I'm playing WAY too many games right now to go get Skyrim.... plus I never pay full price for games.... plus I never play Bethseda games till the mod community really does it justice.... damnit guys....

I'm buying this on the way home and proceeding to take tons of screenshots, creating a thread called "Kigo the Orc Warrior Adventures" with screenshots and epic stories of my travels aren't I?

 

[Bowielee]

Do they hate Sword&Board Chars? Cant get the fugging favorite menu to work.keeps equiping my sword on the left hand. :/

I haven't had a problem. When you equip you weapon in the main hand, go into inventory and add it to favorites. If you added it as a favorite in your left hand, when you call up your favorites it will recall it at the hand you set it at, so just make sure it's not in your left hand when you set it to favorites.

 

[bhamv3]

I don't have the rig to play this game, so it'll be a while before I can play it. Until then, however, I've been listening to the music, and damn if the music isn't epic. I can't stop listening.

I mean, the main theme itself, which we heard in the trailer, makes me want to spring from my chair and declare war on a Nordic nation.

 

[Dave]

I may actually make a thread called, "Tales from Skyrim". Because I have another...

 

[Shegokigo]

Just sayin, story threads without pictures? Zzzzzz....

SIDE NOTE QUESTION:

To those playing Skyrim on PC, should I play it using my 5870 videocard or wait to play it when I get my GTX 580?

 

[Mathias]

Just sayin, story threads without pictures? Zzzzzz....

SIDE NOTE QUESTION:

To those playing Skyrim on PC, should I play it using my 5870 videocard or wait to play it when I get my GTX 580?

I'm rockin' a 460 GTX and it's fine on ultra

 

[Hailey Knight]

I don't have the rig to play this game, so it'll be a while before I can play it. Until then, however, I've been listening to the music, and damn if the music isn't epic. I can't stop listening.

I mean, the main theme itself, which we heard in the trailer, makes me want to spring from my chair and declare war on a Nordic nation.

The music is gorgeous. I was worried after the Fallout games of playing this without a radio in-game, but the music is beautiful, even the percussion stuff, and so often it comes into play at the right time, such as when you're just coming across a sprawling valley, or just killed the shit out of a skeleton, or even leveling up.

This game has a majestic quality to it. I can't recall seeing that in a game since Shadow of the Colossus.

 

[Adam]

Just sayin, story threads without pictures? Zzzzzz....

SIDE NOTE QUESTION:

To those playing Skyrim on PC, should I play it using my 5870 videocard or wait to play it when I get my GTX 580?

Running it on an HD 5670 and it's gorgeous.

 

[Mathias]

I just want to say this is easily one of the greatest games I've ever played.

 

[AshburnerX]

So last night I wandered into an almost fully abandoned lumber camp. I was looking around when suddenly FIRE comes out of nowhere. I look around and then see a dragon has roosted onto a roof of one of the houses. For a moment nothing happens... then I draw my bow. The very MOMENT I do, the game started playing a slightly altered Nerevar Rising (the barbarian chant from the title).

I don't know if the game was programmed to do that, but WOW.

 

[Ravenpoe]

Just sayin, story threads without pictures? Zzzzzz....

SIDE NOTE QUESTION:

To those playing Skyrim on PC, should I play it using my 5870 videocard or wait to play it when I get my GTX 580?

It seems to scale really well, so you could play it now, and then enjoy a bit more oomph with the new card. The game is beautiful no matter what. I spent five minutes just admiring a bunch of termites crawling through an old stump

 

[doomdragon6]

I haven't gotten to play very much. I'm only level 1.

Question though:

I played the intro once and followed Advar (or whatever his name is) and ended up in a training den type area, where I could pick up a sword and a chest had some armor. Then we went through a cave that had spiders and a bear in it, among other things.

I decided to re-roll and this time I took my time with the intro, watching the dragon, realizing it was coming after me, etc, watching it eat people, then mosied my way on to the building I was supposed to go in. But I think I went in a different building, because it wasn't Advar this time, it was the Stormcloak that is talking to you on the way to the chopping block. It's a different room too, like a guard tower-esque place.

Is this race-based, or did I just stumble into the "wrong" room and get a different beginning thanks to it?

 

[Frank]

No, there's a part where both the stormcrow and the imperial guy both beckon you to follow them, it's hard to hear over the dragonsplosions but both end up in the same place. Go with stormcloak, fight imperials and vice versa.

 

[Hailey Knight]

I'm having a really hard time choosing a side in the whole Imperial vs Stormcloaks thing. Both sides have their good points and bad points, and both have their reasons. I prefer that narrative-wise to a plain good vs evil choice, but considering my Redguard, I feel like she might want to avoid getting involved, much like Whiterun's Jarl. And by the same stroke, the more you play, the harder and harder it is not to get involved.

 

[AshburnerX]

Honestly, I don't see how it's much of a choice. If the Stormcloaks win, they leave the Empire and then Skyrim gets annexed by the Elves the moment they start worshiping Talos again. If the Empire wins, they have a united front to hold back the Elves if it gets ugly, while Black Marsh decides if it would rather be enslaved by Elves again or not.

Also, I suspect the next game will be in Black Marsh.

 

[Terrik]

I'm playing a grizzled old Orc S/S warrior, armorer and all around honorable badass. I thought about going the raging orc barbarian route but I guess I'm shooting more for Thrall than Grom Hellscream, so I'm going to support the empire this time through.

I have had a couple bugs where I'll simply get crashed to the desktop for absolutely no reason, but other than that, nope.

The game detected high settings for my computer, and it looks and runs great. I've always..kinda got bored with Elder scroll games before, but I'm having a really good time with this one. Skyrim is a beautiful place.

 

[Hailey Knight]

Honestly, I don't see how it's much of a choice. If the Stormcloaks win, they leave the Empire and then Skyrim gets annexed by the Elves the moment they start worshiping Talos again. If the Empire wins, they have a united front to hold back the Elves if it gets ugly, while Black Marsh decides if it would rather be enslaved by Elves again or not.

Also, I suspect the next game will be in Black Marsh.

I don't really know much about the world's politics since I never played Morrowind and only two or three hours of Oblivion. I'm just looking at it from a straightforward in-Skyrim political point of view.

 

[Frank]

I had something COMPLETELY baffling happen to me just now. I was attacked by a gang of thugs. They had this contract on them.

This is Mila Valentia.

A little girl in Whiterun who's mother runs a shitty little fruit stand.
I've barely spoken to these people. WHO IS THIS LITTLE GIRL? WHY SHE WANNA KILL ME? I've never stolen anything from her.
Added at: 17:46

I don't really know much about the world's politics since I never played Morrowind and only two or three hours of Oblivion. I'm just looking at it from a straightforward in-Skyrim political point of view.

Those politics are meaningless as this game seems to take place 200 years after Oblivion.

 

[Jay]

Haha Frank, you fruit snatcher you!

Explanations :

Spoiler

I got the same thing, only the game gave me the Inn guy in Riverwood, then afterwards....

Spoiler

another attack and the letter it said it came from a homeless guy in another city. It's random names it seems and awesome.

Made for some pretty epic battles, 3 vs 3.

My story

It was an epic battle.

Suddenly, a trio of thugs attacked me and Lydia out of the bushes. I squared up against the big thug and the others jumped on Lydia. The big thug carried a huge steel axe, while his fellow companions carried two daggers and an imperial bow. I quickly equipped my reliable steel shield and fine elven sword and Lydia held her twin steel swords in her hands.

As the big thug and I traded blows, his huge axe hitting my reinforced steel shield more times than not while I chipped away at his health with low shots to his legs... as the cuts grew his attempts became more desperate with wild swings, his breath heavy and misting the air around him as the snow fell around us. Alas his attempts lacked accuracy which opened him up and he went down begging for his life which.... my elven sword denied that possibility.

Suddenly, the music picks up, as if on queue, I turned around to see Lydia down to one knee, peppered by arrow shots from the archer while she faced a second foe, who expertly held his ground. This foe, his sword in the air was about to perform a deathblow on my new housecarl. As per instinct, I shouted, which struck his harm and he staggered. I bull rushed in with a thunderous running swing that stuns him and puts him down to one knee, a cinematic comes as I stab him violently from the back, my sword piercing him from behind.

I turned around to find the third thug but he's already dead, I ponder how and I see the bloody hoofs of Odius... my jaw dropped as my loyal stead kicked this assailant repeatedly until he expired.

I get to one knee and search their bodies... I find a note on the big thug...

Who is this Mila? And why does she want me dead?

 

[Hailey Knight]

I had something COMPLETELY baffling happen to me just now. I was attacked by a gang of thugs. They had this contract on them.

This is Mila Valentia.

A little girl in Whiterun who's mother runs a shitty little fruit stand.
I've barely spoken to these people. WHO IS THIS LITTLE GIRL? WHY SHE WANNA KILL ME? I've never stolen anything from her.

The same little bitch has been following me around, reminding me again and again about what she does and who were family is.

 

[Ravenpoe]

If I were a kid in Skyrim, I'd be an awesome criminal mastermind too. Because all the kids are INVINCIBLE!

 

[bhamv3]

Which, like Fallout 3, will likely be modded very quickly.

 

[AshburnerX]

OK... for some reason the fragment of Wuuthrad isn't spawning in the chest during the quest Retrieval. Is this happening to anyone else?

 

[Far]

OK... for some reason the fragment of Wuuthrad isn't spawning in the chest during the quest Retrieval. Is this happening to anyone else?

Spoiler

If I recall correctly it's on the center of the table, in front of the wall with the shout word on it.

 

[AshburnerX]

Spoiler

If I recall correctly it's on the center of the table, in front of the wall with the shout word on it.

No, that's the first fragment. I'm talking about the second one. It's simple smash and grab in a cave... the arrow points to the chest, the wiki says it's supposed to be there, but when I open the chest it's not there. I don't get any instructions beyond that... no pop up to say "Oops, it's not here. Look somewhere else." and it's not anywhere on anything.

 

[Frank]

Krosis. Chain fireballs that do about 80% of my health. First one's barely hit the ground before he's deadeyeing the second one and the third and the fourth.

Fuck.

 

[Far]

Ah my mistake.

Anyway here are a few screens, nothing too impressive.

Spoiler: I honestly don't know that this needs to be put behind a tag since it happens within the first 5 minutes of the game but anyway.

Nice waterfall in a cavern. Water, especially fast moving water just floors me in this game. From the tiny steams to the larger bodies they look exquisite. Screenscaps don't do it justice.

Random dungeon.

Nice aurora while up in the mountains.

And my character, Raltz, as he currently is at lvl 9, nearly 10.