I'll preface this by saying that it takes an EXTRAORDINARY amount of willpower to not watch the 20 minute intro that was leaked (the actual beginning of the game including character gen and the title screen, not the Todd Howard demo from way back). I don't want to watch it, to get that feeling of stepping out into the world on my own for the first time to have the full impact. I am NOT posting any spoilers here unless you count comments on the graphics and UI to be so.
That being said, I have been watching some streams from the full version that was indeed leaked a couple days back and let me say, it looks good.
First off, graphics are going to be hard to judge because its the console version streamed over the internet with already diluted quality, and then screenshotted and reuploaded once again to share.
However, the snow buildup is indeed in, and it looks surprisingly decent. Exploring does seem to be flavorful, with various unique structures to be found. The combat is pretty much like oblivion, it looks weightier though. A major concern is that I did catch a glimpse of a killcam ala New Vegas in there, it feels out of place.
A couple major complaints I do have, have to do with the interface. Seeing as my vanilla experience will be on the xbox, I haven't formed an opinion on it's plausibility on the PC. that being said, we haven't seen the PC version yet and maybe Bethesda has finally picked up a trick or two from DarN.
The biggest thing I notice is a sort of dichotomy created with the setting and the interface. It feels too modern for the setting. I know this is personal taste, but I think it may damper immersion a wee bit.
Another biggie would be the compass. No, I am not a Morrowind die-hard who hates the idea of it, I like it in oblivion in fact. No, what kills me is the fact that they added red dots to it to show, you guessed it, enemies! This seemingly magic compass is a huge turnoff. In fact this may be my biggest complaint, but I didn't want to seem petty by making it my number one.
Something I am a little worried about is whether or not you can look at your character in your inventory when you are trying on new armor. I haven't seen anyone looking at their actual armor/weapon inventories in a stream, for some odd reason. Not that I play dress-up or anything, but if I have a slightly better armor stat-wise, I will not switch to it if I like the looks of the worse one. Switching to third person outside of your inventory and fumbling with the camera to look at yourself from all angles would be frustrating, because it's nigh impossible to do so with relative ease.
I will make a note here and say that the bugginess seems to be minimal, I only saw a guy get stuck once in the terrain, but he was asking for it by trying to fit into a space about a foot wide between some stairs and a wall. I haven't heard of any save-raping bugs like New Vegas had initially either.
I am on the fence about the virtually copy-pasted lockpicking from Fallout 3/NV. It doesn't seem to fit in my opinion, but then the lockpicking in Oblivion was actually good in my opinion too, so take that for what it's worth. I guess I liked the dexterity and reaction time needed for the tumbler game rather than the guessing and fine tweaking of Fallout.
Also, everyone who streams this infuriates me by not looting or at least looking on every corpse and in every container. Or even giving a room a quick glance to look for chests!
All in all, I am solid in my preorder and I cannot wait till 11/11/11, I just hope that I can at the very least turn off enemy detection on my compass. If not, I'll live and just not use it unless I cannot find a mudcrab who is chasing me ever so slowly and ruining my fast travel or rest attempts.
Anyone else see streams, the leaked gameplay, or just have thoughts on the game in general? Preferably new information, of course.
NO SPOILERS PLEASE, unless you mark it appropriately and encase it in spoiler tags.
MASSIVE EDIT:
I totally for got the best part of the combat! The leveling that they advertised does seem to be in! Players are actually dying in fights where they take on too many higher-level people with relative ease and another guy tried to take on a giant at level 5 and got completely one-shotted. So don't fret about there not being a challenge to be had in there.
New Info:
Fears confirmed about the inventory not showing your character. Kind of a disappointment but oh well. I just got to see someone actually using magic and it really has sold me on the game.
Plus I saw enchanting. The asshole kind of skipped the tutorial, but from what I gather you need to sacrifice certain other enchanted weapons to learn their spells, then you may enchant with that effect. Don't hold me to it, because the dude skipped the tutorial on it. Ugh.
I wish that soul gems just determined the strength of the enchantment and they just did away with charges. Its just such a hassle. So charges are indeed still in on enchanted items.
I have also personally seem multiple dungeons now and I must say, while some textures are reused, it appears that there is a LOT more variety, so I'll call the handcrafted claim tentatively true.
That being said, I have been watching some streams from the full version that was indeed leaked a couple days back and let me say, it looks good.
First off, graphics are going to be hard to judge because its the console version streamed over the internet with already diluted quality, and then screenshotted and reuploaded once again to share.
However, the snow buildup is indeed in, and it looks surprisingly decent. Exploring does seem to be flavorful, with various unique structures to be found. The combat is pretty much like oblivion, it looks weightier though. A major concern is that I did catch a glimpse of a killcam ala New Vegas in there, it feels out of place.
A couple major complaints I do have, have to do with the interface. Seeing as my vanilla experience will be on the xbox, I haven't formed an opinion on it's plausibility on the PC. that being said, we haven't seen the PC version yet and maybe Bethesda has finally picked up a trick or two from DarN.
The biggest thing I notice is a sort of dichotomy created with the setting and the interface. It feels too modern for the setting. I know this is personal taste, but I think it may damper immersion a wee bit.
Another biggie would be the compass. No, I am not a Morrowind die-hard who hates the idea of it, I like it in oblivion in fact. No, what kills me is the fact that they added red dots to it to show, you guessed it, enemies! This seemingly magic compass is a huge turnoff. In fact this may be my biggest complaint, but I didn't want to seem petty by making it my number one.
Something I am a little worried about is whether or not you can look at your character in your inventory when you are trying on new armor. I haven't seen anyone looking at their actual armor/weapon inventories in a stream, for some odd reason. Not that I play dress-up or anything, but if I have a slightly better armor stat-wise, I will not switch to it if I like the looks of the worse one. Switching to third person outside of your inventory and fumbling with the camera to look at yourself from all angles would be frustrating, because it's nigh impossible to do so with relative ease.
I will make a note here and say that the bugginess seems to be minimal, I only saw a guy get stuck once in the terrain, but he was asking for it by trying to fit into a space about a foot wide between some stairs and a wall. I haven't heard of any save-raping bugs like New Vegas had initially either.
I am on the fence about the virtually copy-pasted lockpicking from Fallout 3/NV. It doesn't seem to fit in my opinion, but then the lockpicking in Oblivion was actually good in my opinion too, so take that for what it's worth. I guess I liked the dexterity and reaction time needed for the tumbler game rather than the guessing and fine tweaking of Fallout.
Also, everyone who streams this infuriates me by not looting or at least looking on every corpse and in every container. Or even giving a room a quick glance to look for chests!
All in all, I am solid in my preorder and I cannot wait till 11/11/11, I just hope that I can at the very least turn off enemy detection on my compass. If not, I'll live and just not use it unless I cannot find a mudcrab who is chasing me ever so slowly and ruining my fast travel or rest attempts.
Anyone else see streams, the leaked gameplay, or just have thoughts on the game in general? Preferably new information, of course.
NO SPOILERS PLEASE, unless you mark it appropriately and encase it in spoiler tags.
MASSIVE EDIT:
I totally for got the best part of the combat! The leveling that they advertised does seem to be in! Players are actually dying in fights where they take on too many higher-level people with relative ease and another guy tried to take on a giant at level 5 and got completely one-shotted. So don't fret about there not being a challenge to be had in there.
New Info:
Fears confirmed about the inventory not showing your character. Kind of a disappointment but oh well. I just got to see someone actually using magic and it really has sold me on the game.
Plus I saw enchanting. The asshole kind of skipped the tutorial, but from what I gather you need to sacrifice certain other enchanted weapons to learn their spells, then you may enchant with that effect. Don't hold me to it, because the dude skipped the tutorial on it. Ugh.
I wish that soul gems just determined the strength of the enchantment and they just did away with charges. Its just such a hassle. So charges are indeed still in on enchanted items.
I have also personally seem multiple dungeons now and I must say, while some textures are reused, it appears that there is a LOT more variety, so I'll call the handcrafted claim tentatively true.
), there are also the generic fireballs.
