Yes and no.
In *Warbands *especially, there’s a lot to do outside of battles (climbing the social ladder, managing your NPC friends and your budding army, building up your character, running quests and errands to build up cash and equipment, tournaments…) but it’s no *Skyrim *in terms of plot, scripted sequences, world building, exploration, wandering around taking in the sights and so on. It’s more freeform, procedural and open-ended gameplay with few real goals, if any.
Still, the lancing peasants right in the face part is really well done (mechanically if not graphically - the game is on the ugly side I’m afraid) and a near bottomless source of fun in and of itself IMO. Do check it out if you have the time.
The multiplayer is also pretty cool, if less satisfying in the sense that you’re not duking it out *for *anything. I had the same problem with Total War MP games: yes, having a big army and sending it at the other guy’s army is fun… but without the part where you’ve been building up that army for the last 20 turns and you’re having that battle to conquer Satsuma or free Jerusalem, it’s not enough for me.
Level 62, still can’t believe I’m finding new undiscovered locations if I speed-travel to an area that isn’t already peppered with white icons. While trying to get the last few shouts that I don’t already have, I ran into yet another bug where the 3rd installment of the Fire Breath shout doesn’t unlock. Apparently a permanent bug. Grr.
Getting all of the masks was not nearly as climactic and fulfilling as I thought it was going to be.
If you have Skyrim on the 360 you have the pleasure of the first DLC - Dawnguard is out later today for 1600 MS points, which is fairly pricey as DLCs go. Here’s a link with what we know. Apparently one of the biggest problems facing 360 owners is their dwindling HD space and the size of the DLC.
I’ll be enjoying it on my 1.5TB HD…sadly in months time, damn exclusivity agreement. Of most interest to me is the 3 new Shouts;
Gives me something to spend all those dragon souls on.
I’ve been seeing pretty solid thumbs-up for the DLC in other places. So far most are seeming to think it is a worthy addition (worthy even if you don’t do the vampire thing which, I gather, is a primary focus).
I was wondering about the 360 early release. What exclusivity agreement? Why would Bethesda do that? Did Microsoft write them a fat check for the privilege?
Sucks to have to wait a month but no biggie. PC owners get the Steam Workshop and all the goodies that provides for Skyrim.
I like to imagine that Microsoft sent people to Maryland (Bethesda and more likely ZeniMax) with wheelbarrows full of money.
It’s not new though; they did the same agreement with Fallout: New Vegas DLC and I believe Fallout 3. PS3 people have to wait too. And for Skyrim they jacked up the PC price $10 so that it matches console. ($50 to $60). I beat it and stopped playing in favor of other games but I’ll probably come back.
I haven’t read much about the expansion yet. It reminds me of Bloodmoon. You come to fight [del]werewolves[/del] vampires, and can keep on fighting or join them in a separate storyline, with a meeting of the plots in the end.
Dunno, but they did the same thing for Fallout 3’s first DLC. At any rate, by all reports the rest of the DLC, like Fallout 3’s, will be release simultaneously so it doesn’t matter hugely in the long run.
I played for about 90 minutes last night, which was plenty of time to get into the Dawnguard world and reach “decision time” on whether to become a vampire or not. After a save (of course) I chose to accept the invitation and became a vampire.
I’m not impressed with vampirism. The bat-flying-ability is not at all what I thought it was going to be (you seemingly can only move a short distance), and the two stances/modes just adds to the cumbersomeness. Combat as a vampire seems really weak compared to what I can normally do. Add to that the pain you feel in sunlight, plus the need to frequently feed on sleeping humans, and…well, I don’t see the attraction, other than the novelty of it. A lot of extra work, with (to me) no useful extra abilities.
Nothing I said in the spoilered section should be taken as a comment on the story line quality.
Since I’m usually a thread-killer, I’ll follow up with a link to a good, concise article on what some of the DLC’s goodies are and how to get them, without being spoilers:
I have tried to not kill any animals except the real baddies (wolves, saber cats, trolls, etc), not even the evil enchanted Elk (just bashed 'em away with my bow) and lately I’ve left food, flowers and even jewels when I find a dead animal and it finally happened!..I was running pell-mell super far down the wrong path and A BUNNY STOPPED AND LEAD ME IN THE RIGHT DIRECTION!! I’ve had the foxes do that, and the goats lead you to the action, but never before has a bunny not run away.
I’m so happy!!!
And this is on Xbox mind you, with no hint of console controls. Level 15, Wood Elf with barely any skills besides sneak, whose been helping citizens and specifically NOT chasing poor frightened animals.
Now only do I tend to go out of my way to kill bunnies (there’s something delightfully over the top about hunting bunnies with fireballs), but I often have that lady from the A Taste of Death sidequest as a follower. She likes to spam necromancy, and I’ve found myself being followed around by zombie bunnies and chickens fairly often.
I don’t know if it’s a personal choice or if you are role playing, but if the latter, lore-wise Bosmer are not the nature hippies like in other medieval fantasies. They protect the forests at any cost, but that doesn’t necessarily extend to the animals within. They are usually carnivorous and often cannibalistic. Also, I’m not quite sure if they are supposed to protect all forests or just Valenwood in particular.
I found a fairly humorous, blog I guess, about a unique way to play Skyrim. Meet Olaf, the hard working, but non-questing, non-fighting citizen of Skyrim. Olaf’s goal, through hard work, earn 25k … but again no magic, no quests, no fighting monsters…
Man I haven’t even watched the Youtube stuff yet, guess I know what I’m doing later … glad you both enjoyed, I thought it was a interesting take on the game.