GOG.com

[Semiurge]

Come on, Todd. Full price (with a discount) for an 11 years old game

And the game gets updated again. Which means, most of existing mods will break. And apparently, the GOG version is separate from the Steam versions, requiring a specific SKSE version, meaning that other mods that also rely on game-specific versions are fucked. Bethesda always delivers.

The price alone would seem like a "DRM-free tax", and with the other differences it becmes even more obvious they want Steam to have the advantage over GOG. Smells like product differentiation. I refuse to believe the lack of Creation Club features explains these differences in the game engine.

 

[octavius]

Wow, Skyrim finally available DRM free again after so many years (IIRC the very first version released could be played DRM free for a short while before forced Steam update).

 

[Old One]

I've never played Skyrim.

 

[blessedCoffee]

Free for 72h: https://af.gog.com/game/master_of_magic_classic?as=1649904300

This is a game worth creating a fake e-mail (from one of those self-destruct e-mail services) for – last time I clicked on a freebie they asked me authorization to sign for newsletter BS – get it folks!

I bought it a few years ago, solid game.

 

[jimster]

Come on, Todd. Full price (with a discount) for an 11 years old game

And the game gets updated again. Which means, most of existing mods will break. And apparently, the GOG version is separate from the Steam versions, requiring a specific SKSE version, meaning that other mods that also rely on game-specific versions are fucked. Bethesda always delivers.

The price alone would seem like a "DRM-free tax", and with the other differences it becmes even more obvious they want Steam to have the advantage over GOG. Smells like product differentiation. I refuse to believe the lack of Creation Club features explains these differences in the game engine.

It says it works with the same mods; what's the big deal?

 

[Heroic Liberator]

I've never played Skyrim.

God Todd have mercy on your soul.

 

[Baron Dupek]

I've never played Skyrim.

I've played it shortly, can't see the appeal. It sounds cool on paper but playing it is myself - nah.
I rather play some mediocre, forgotten or even easterneuropean RPGs than this.

 

[racofer]

I've played it shortly, can't see the appeal.

The appeal is to slap 150 mods on it and expect it to become a good game. Unfortunately, in these 11 years since its release, none of the mods fixed the core issues with the game: lack of world building, lack of world reaction to player actions, lack of player choice, etc.

Modded Skyrim is a glorified open world free-roaming game, and that's it. It's not a sandbox, since you are extremely limited on what you can do that directly affects the game world. It's also not a RPG, since there is nothing the player does related to the story/plot/quests that have any consequence whatsoever; you can kill the fucking emperor and the world does not acknowledge that fact. At all. A larping simulator is probably the best way to describe Skyrim, since everything happens exclusively on the player's imagination.

Some claim Skyrim is all about the exploration, but the reality is that there is nothing to discover. Every cave, every dungeon, every ruin, have nothing in them other than enemies for you to slain and some fat chest at the end with 50 gold coins and a ruby. Discovering "interesting" NPCs is also a fallacy, as there are none. No NPC interacts with the player in any meaningful way. They have no backstories, no dialogue, no purpose on the game world other than give you quests, and zero interaction with the player regarding the events that unfold as you progress on the extremely linear story of the game and its side quests. The so called "lore" present in Skyrim only exists in books spread throughout the game, and most of those were copied from Morrowind and directly contradict the events on Skyrim itself, so talk about shooting yourself in the foot.

The game systems are also broken and not fun. You can become proficient at every skill by grinding alone, and only by grinding. But to what end? The entire game revolves around killing enemies and leveling up. There is next to no player skill involved in this game, so it's not like you become more proficient at the game either. The speech tree is useless, as there are no NPCs to interact with to make use of your speech abilities.

 

[Ryzer]

Skyrim is a tool that grants access to the real game: Enderal. Nothing else to say.

 

[KeighnMcDeath]

I've played it shortly, can't see the appeal.

The appeal is to slap 150 mods on it and expect it to become a good game. Unfortunately, in these 11 years since its release, none of the mods fixed the core issues with the game: lack of world building, lack of world reaction to player actions, lack of player choice, etc.

Modded Skyrim is a glorified open world free-roaming game, and that's it. It's not a sandbox, since you are extremely limited on what you can do that directly affects the game world. It's also not a RPG, since there is nothing the player does related to the story/plot/quests that have any consequence whatsoever; you can kill the fucking emperor and the world does not acknowledge that fact. At all. A larping simulator is probably the best way to describe Skyrim, since everything happens exclusively on the player's imagination.

Some claim Skyrim is all about the exploration, but the reality is that there is nothing to discover. Every cave, every dungeon, every ruin, have nothing in them other than enemies for you to slain and some fat chest at the end with 50 gold coins and a ruby. Discovering "interesting" NPCs is also a fallacy, as there are none. No NPC interacts with the player in any meaningful way. They have no backstories, no dialogue, no purpose on the game world other than give you quests, and zero interaction with the player regarding the events that unfold as you progress on the extremely linear story of the game and its side quests. The so called "lore" present in Skyrim only exists in books spread throughout the game, and most of those were copied from Morrowind and directly contradict the events on Skyrim itself, so talk about shooting yourself in the foot.

The game systems are also broken and not fun. You can become proficient at every skill by grinding alone, and only by grinding. But to what end? The entire game revolves around killing enemies and leveling up. There is next to no player skill involved in this game, so it's not like you become more proficient at the game either. The speech tree is useless, as there are no NPCs to interact with to make use of your speech abilities.

Isn't that more or less every Elder Scroll game? I really don't recall massive interaction in the others except maybe when you did the main quests and that is more or less sctipted. Is it EVEN WORSE?!

 

[Ravielsk]

Isn't that more or less every Elder Scroll game? I really don't recall massive interaction in the others except maybe when you did the main quests and that is more or less sctipted. Is it EVEN WORSE?!

Not really Daggerfall and Arena are both mechanically rich enough to keep you interested with those mechanics alone. The quests are not exactly 10/10 but the gameplay variety makes up for it. Morrowind is in a similar boat except it also has the advantage of the Vvardenfell. Oblivion can at least claim to have really well done quest lines but Skyrim is just bad on almost all levels. All the previous games had some qualities that make them good even without extensive mods but Skyrim genuinely needs like 150+ mod lists to even resemble a competent product.

The problem is that Skyrim is at most a 20 hour game stretched into a 200+ hour game. Because that is how long it takes for you to see everything the game has to offer. After the 20 hour mark its just (poorly) shuffling numbers around. I am 100% convinced most modders do not even play Skyrim or games for that matter because I cannot otherwise explain how they can spend sometimes years perfecting mods that amount to little more than minor tweaks that require other 10 mods to even become... well not "shit". Vampire overhauls are on their own barely spell packs, most spell mods are either worthless(too weak or have no actual use) or broken, enemy mods are entirely invalidated by the leveled lists, loot mods do not grasp the concept of scarcity and combat overhauls are boil down to making enemies roll around or deal bizarre amounts of damage. Only when you slap like 200 of them together do you start seeing something resembling an actual effect on the game but even that evaporates after the 20 hour mark.

 

[Butter]

Skyrim is like Daggerfall in that you spend the vast majority of time doing dungeons, but the dungeons are much worse. The mechanics are also much worse, and the story is worse. The overworld being pretty and varied, plus Soule's soundtrack, are the only things it has going for it.

 

[mastroego]

The right mods* turn it into an actual, gentleman's game.
If it was released with Requiem from the start people would have screamed "miracle!", instead, we were already fatigued by the undeniable repetitiveness of some (many) of its aspects, and for having played it - for all its faults - for tens or hundreds of hours.

But to say that it's a 20 hour game is simply a misrepresentation (of course we are talking about averages, some will hate it from the start, and some will love it despite everything).

I say you have to let it rest for a while, then finally try and play it properly modded*, and for heaven's sake DON'T try to do everything, if you do you're the one trying to break the illusion of a large, living world to have adventures in.

* Requiem + intelligent selection of other mods

 

[KeighnMcDeath]

So..... DEFINITETLY DO NOT PLAY VANILLA SKYRIM!! ???

 

[lukaszek]

* Requiem + intelligent selection of other mods

often see mentions of epidural, but its annoying to play it without requiem

 

[Ismaul]

It's a trap. Every Bethesda game is.

Modding support is also a trap like racofer showed; they get you to spend hours upon hours trying to fix the game to your liking until you realize it was all cosmetic bullshit and the core is still rotten.

I expect Starfield to be more of the same.

 

[racofer]

So..... DEFINITETLY DO NOT PLAY VANILLA SKYRIM!! ???

DEFINITETLY DO NOT PLAY SKYRIM!!

 

[mastroego]

It's a trap. Every Bethesda game is.

Modding support is also a trap like racofer showed; they get you to spend hours upon hours trying to fix the game to your liking until you realize it was all cosmetic bullshit and the core is still rotten.

Come on we've been over this for years.
Just check the Skyrim thread.
It's not rotten with Requiem, though it certainly can be argued that it's something else from the original, erm, vision.
Some things will never be "fixed", granted, but there's an experience to be had with Requiem that many players enjoy.

 

[Baron Dupek]

New titels
https://af.gog.com/en/game/dawn_of_magic_2?as=1649904300
RPG from the slav side, only sequel? Not the first time they release latest games before first one... and no idea about quality
https://af.gog.com/en/game/borderzone?as=1649904300
remember that one from GamersGate site, they had a lot of hidden titles
but also better ones...
https://af.gog.com/game/meat_puppet?as=1649904300
some cyberpunko game looking like reskinned Crusader No
https://af.gog.com/en/game/el_matador?as=1649904300
decent action game with bullet time, quite hard from what I remember...

There might be more new games but the modern garbage desing won't let me see all of the new titles, no matter the setup.

Still no Gruntz, Claw or Get Medieval in sight...

 

[racofer]

https://af.gog.com/en/news/release_b_middleearth_shadow_of_war_b?as=1649904300

 

[KeighnMcDeath]

I just saw this... any good?

 

[racofer]

I just saw this... any good?

I never played it back when it released because it was riddled with in-game purchases and other bullshit. I heard it was patched out years later, and I expect the GOG version to be the whole package.

But don't forget this is 2022 GOG, so better check what other people say beforehand.

By the way, those with Amazon Prime will also get it this month:

 

[rusty_shackleford]

iirc by the time I played it the in-game purchase stuff was all backpedaled and removed due to backlash

 

[racofer]

I've never played Skyrim.

I've played it shortly, can't see the appeal. It sounds cool on paper but playing it is myself - nah.
I rather play some mediocre, forgotten or even easterneuropean RPGs than this.

Isn't that more or less every Elder Scroll game? I really don't recall massive interaction in the others except maybe when you did the main quests and that is more or less sctipted. Is it EVEN WORSE?!

Not really Daggerfall and Arena are both mechanically rich enough to keep you interested with those mechanics alone. The quests are not exactly 10/10 but the gameplay variety makes up for it. Morrowind is in a similar boat except it also has the advantage of the Vvardenfell. Oblivion can at least claim to have really well done quest lines but Skyrim is just bad on almost all levels. All the previous games had some qualities that make them good even without extensive mods but Skyrim genuinely needs like 150+ mod lists to even resemble a competent product.

The problem is that Skyrim is at most a 20 hour game stretched into a 200+ hour game. Because that is how long it takes for you to see everything the game has to offer. After the 20 hour mark its just (poorly) shuffling numbers around. I am 100% convinced most modders do not even play Skyrim or games for that matter because I cannot otherwise explain how they can spend sometimes years perfecting mods that amount to little more than minor tweaks that require other 10 mods to even become... well not "shit". Vampire overhauls are on their own barely spell packs, most spell mods are either worthless(too weak or have no actual use) or broken, enemy mods are entirely invalidated by the leveled lists, loot mods do not grasp the concept of scarcity and combat overhauls are boil down to making enemies roll around or deal bizarre amounts of damage. Only when you slap like 200 of them together do you start seeing something resembling an actual effect on the game but even that evaporates after the 20 hour mark.

Skyrim is like Daggerfall in that you spend the vast majority of time doing dungeons, but the dungeons are much worse. The mechanics are also much worse, and the story is worse. The overworld being pretty and varied, plus Soule's soundtrack, are the only things it has going for it.

Skyrim is a tool that grants access to the real game: Enderal. Nothing else to say.

So..... DEFINITETLY DO NOT PLAY VANILLA SKYRIM!! ???

It's a trap. Every Bethesda game is.

Modding support is also a trap like racofer showed; they get you to spend hours upon hours trying to fix the game to your liking until you realize it was all cosmetic bullshit and the core is still rotten.

I expect Starfield to be more of the same.

This second video is long, but it's worth checking the chapters about Art Direction, Exploration, Combat, and Writing.

 

[A horse of course]

some cyberpunko game looking like reskinned Crusader No

Here's Ed123's review of that game (if anyone is interested):

Sucks that they don't have any wallpapers or the OST, at least people can rip the music and stuff from the game more easily now.