Your history with The Elders Scrolls
Thought it would be neat to start a thread where people can discuss what factions they have joined, guilds they have conquered and an all around history of their experience with these epic games over the years.
I first played Morrowind in 2004 along side my friend. He decided to go with House Telvanni on his first play though so I went with House Redoran just so we could nerd out and compare how the stories unfold. I have since gone back and played all the factions, but I still think the first play with Redoran was the best. I also joined The Dark Brotherhood and The East Empire Company with the Bloodmoon expansion. I have gone back and replayed all of the factions you can, but I don't think I ever became a vampire or werewolf. Might have to go back and do that.
Fast forward to 2006 when we fist started seeing gameplay videos and screen shots for Oblivion. I was so excited I couldn't stand for weeks. Upon release I must have played for 2 days non stop. I joined every guild and completed every faction quest with my Redguard archer thief assassin mage and logged close to 250 hours of game play on the xbox 360 version of the game.
Now here it is, 2011, 5 years after Oblivion and we are playing Skyrim. I chose to play a Wood Elf (or Bosmer if you want me to be PC about it) and got to questing. So far I'm only level 13 but I have finished the main quest and chose to fight on the side of the Imperial in the war. Now I have to complete all the guilds and wait to see what they do as far as DLC and expansion packs go.
So that's my story. Lets here yours.
I first played Morrowind in 2004 along side my friend. He decided to go with House Telvanni on his first play though so I went with House Redoran just so we could nerd out and compare how the stories unfold. I have since gone back and played all the factions, but I still think the first play with Redoran was the best. I also joined The Dark Brotherhood and The East Empire Company with the Bloodmoon expansion. I have gone back and replayed all of the factions you can, but I don't think I ever became a vampire or werewolf. Might have to go back and do that.
Fast forward to 2006 when we fist started seeing gameplay videos and screen shots for Oblivion. I was so excited I couldn't stand for weeks. Upon release I must have played for 2 days non stop. I joined every guild and completed every faction quest with my Redguard archer thief assassin mage and logged close to 250 hours of game play on the xbox 360 version of the game.
Now here it is, 2011, 5 years after Oblivion and we are playing Skyrim. I chose to play a Wood Elf (or Bosmer if you want me to be PC about it) and got to questing. So far I'm only level 13 but I have finished the main quest and chose to fight on the side of the Imperial in the war. Now I have to complete all the guilds and wait to see what they do as far as DLC and expansion packs go.
So that's my story. Lets here yours.
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Course I tend to wonder off for 5 hours at a time...
Skyrim is my first Elder Scrolls
Also picked up a dwarven dagger that, after smithing to exquisite, is 20 or 22 damage, I think. x15 for sneaky backstabs.
I only logged about 210 hours in Oblivion, but I had a ton of fun in the Thieves Guild and the Dark Brotherhood. Looking forward to seeing them again; just got to Windhelm last night after getting sidetracked for a few hours. Gonna hunt them down tonight.
In the hundreds of hours I played that game, I never made it past even the first step in any quest line. Occasionally, someone would ask me to kill the rat/bear/tiger which had somehow made it into their basement, but that was the extent of my actual questing. Mostly, I just went from city to city, breaking into every house and store and stealing all the things from all the people everywhere.
Occasionally, I would go into a dungeon and kill some monsters, but that's where most of the bugs were (it was impossible to make it through even one dungeon without getting permanently stuck on a wall, or sink through a floor). I'm not sure how anyone ever actually played the game as intended with all the bugs, but I still had lots of fun with it.
Then I had a short play through of Oblivion (Around 24 hours) of gametime where I just dicked off and got my character killed by killing Townsmen and getting owned by gaurds.
Skyrim is probably the first game that I have played "correctly" (Not just killing everyone I meet) and so far it is really really awesome.
Dagerfall I took more seriously but still it was a hugely buggy game - even by standards back then. I think also that's probably when Sega came out and you could bring the arcade home. My computer didn't see much play back then. There was also a lesser known game set in the same world called Battlespire which was basically just a hack'n slasher. It was ok but not deep and not much of anything really.
Enter Morrowind and at least a hundred hours of play. The game was great. I never really finished the story traditionally. I just happened to wonder into the big boss and kill them on one of my trips. Once I got Godlike in that game I totally lost interest in any quests and just systematically started killing off everything. I can't remember if I succeeded but I know every major town was a ghost town. The Isle expansion for that game increased the challenge marginally. But it didn't take long to surpass it also and then the boredom came.
Oblivion was the first Elderscrolls game where I actually stuck to the story joined the guilds and legitimately finished the game, the main quest anyway. Again 100+ hrs logged there.
Enter Skyrim. While I do miss some of the spell/enchanting freedom of past titles I understand why they were removed. They were fun, but ultimately game breaking and for me distracted from the actual story being told. Skyrim I've hit level 15 and in the main story I've retreived the Dragonstone and defeated the 1st Dragon for Whiterun. I've done a couple random quests and joined with the Companions.
I've just spend most of my time exploring, harvesting and generally been blown away by the scenery. The difficulty level scales well with providing a good mix of easier fights so you can feel badass and tough as hell fights to remind you that you aren't the biggest kid on the block. I've just recently had my first solo Dragon Fight and it was epic.
The combat/movement engine as a whole could certainly stand improvements. But what I do appreciate in this game over say Dark Souls is that the fights aren't so scripted feeling. Dark Souls is challenging and fun and in terms of combat Skyrim could learn some lessons. But my largest complaint in Dark Souls is that generally there is one way to defeat the bosses and you need to figure it out. Skyrim gives more of a sense of freedom on how you can take on encounters. It gives you more choice and when it comes to an RPG choice is key.
I have the same bow, but I'm getting 2x for sneak and no over draw. I do have a helm, bracers and boots that each give me 20% more damage in archery so I get 120% increase in damage with bows due to the gear and skill points i have allocated. I one shot most low to mid level mobs. It's sick.
I plan on doing something exactly like that for my third play through. I'm a thief for my first and it is a lulzy good time, but I am interested in how challenging not doing anything wrong will be.
In morrowind it was pretty bland. In oblivion it was boring as hell to level and easily "trained" which made everything stuipdly easy. In Skyrim, the whole system has changed. No more damage self for destruction points then healing for restoration points...
I enjoy the changes but I'm not used to everything I fight being equal to me. 90% of things I can kill before they even get a shot off but the other 10% is horrid. Damn you lighning magic users!!!