baronjohn said:
I disagree. It's similar graphically due to the failbryo engine they use. Yeah, they've tweaked it, and it does seem a little bit more impressive, but ultimately the graphics are aesthetically better due to better artwork.
baronjohn said:
Yeah, there, I said it. Skyrim fucking sucks. The story sucks, the quests suck, the gameplay sucks, the dialogues suck, the voice acting sucks, the rpg elements... are non-existent, but it sure looks nice.
I could probably agree with some of your statements, but in comparison to Oblivion, it's a huge incline in about every possible way. The story is FAR better (which doesn't say much). The quests are FedEx/Kill but let's face it, there's really no other way to design quests on a mass scale (even on a small scale that's the essential basis of quest design too). The RPGelements are a little bit better this time around. There are some clear choices (with probably superficial consequences) that make it better than OB on almost every level.
baronjohn said:
I was doing the mage quests, and I can't help but compare it to Morrowind. Remember how the mage guild was down to earth in Morrowind? Remember how they had a normal looking building in the city? Remember how they started you out on really mundane tasks aimed at familiarizing you with your environment? Remember how you advanced through the ranks, and the ranks actually had requirements that made you sure you were an actual mage? Remember how the high level missions were mostly political?
The mage guild was "down to earth?" Wtf does that even mean? Normal looking buildings, that matters to you? The ranks had no requirements in Morrowind, for the most part. After an hour or two of playing, you could attain the highest level. Mods introduced stricter requirements, maybe you are referring to those? The politics were superficial in Morrowind. They accomplished nothing. Same with Oblivion. Skyrim is, no doubt, probably the same.
baronjohn said:
Well, fuck all that. That's not MAJESTIC enough. I can see the bethpizda meeting now. "We want something that kids who don't have enough of an attention span to watch Harry Potter movies will enjoy."
I disagree. There are quite a few new books in this game, and they require a sustained amount of attention span to read them. Sifting through every book you stumble across, for example, would take hours of a players time. Yes, most people skip this experience, but the experience is still there. Plus, there seem to be quite a few dialog options this time around, more so than I can remember from Oblivion. And, they even come with (superficial) consequences, unlike Oblivion.
baronjohn said:
I'm not seeing the objective, critical Codex opinion here. I see lots of fluff. Like I said, we would probably agree on many of the short comings in Skyrim, but to say it's worse than Oblivion, well, I'd have to ask if we even played the same game.