Skyrim reviews are in: you might never leave home again

Matthew DeCarlo

Posts: 5,271   +104

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim is only a few hours away and being one of the year's most anticipated titles, it's no surprise that the wire is buzzing with launch info. There's so much news, in fact, that we'd be doing you an injustice by focusing on any given topic. Instead, we've compiled a list of noteworthy happenings around the Web that should help keep your eyes off the clock if you've already preordered or help you make a final decision if you're still on the fence.

Podcasts and Videos
Gone are Oblivion's awkwardly rigid character movements. The fourth installment of the Skyrim team diaries podcast was posted this week, offering a look at the development of the game's animation engine. "It was really tough trying to imagine how you kill a dragon. It's pretty much a dinosaur," said  Jangjoon Cha. "How do you kill a dinosaur with, essentially, a toothpick?" The podcast is accompanied by a video clip that showcases various combat animations.

Skyrim Animations Demo 


(more official videos herecomical community videos here)

Developer Interviews
Wired and Joystiq have published two separate, yet equally intriguing interviews with Bethesda. The former reveals that Skyrim can produce an infinite number of quests based on your game status, while the latter covers a smattering of topics, including the challenges that studios face when creating a PC game. "From a technical standpoint, yes, the PC is a headache. It just is. A million different possibilities of hardware, drivers, etc." said VP of Marketing Pete Hines.

Review Roundup
It seems the embargo date on reviews has lifted with more than a dozen sites sharing their perspective on the game. The consensus? It's everything you've been dreaming about and more. Or as Videogamer puts it: "if you have any long term commitments like say, a job or friends or a significant other, we suggest you ring them to make your excuses now..." Here are some review links: GiantBomb, PC Gamer, Joystiq, Game Informer, RPGamer, Eurogamer, Shacknews, Wired.

assorted skyrim geforce

Preorder Deals & GeForce Beta
If you haven't preordered yet, there's still time to save a few bucks through Direct2Drive, which is offering Skyrim for $53.95. We haven't found any other preorder deals (share them if you have), but it's worth noting that if you purchase the game through non-digital channels, you'll get a free map. If you've already pulled the trigger, you might want to install the GeForce 285.79 Beta (32/64-bit), which has a SLI profile for Skyrim and an "excellent" 3D Vision compatibility rating.

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I loved Arena, Daggerfall and Morrowind but Oblivion kinda put me off the Elder Scroll Saga so i might pass this one up or just wait for a sale.
 
Gotta love when u ask marketing guys about Technical challenges, when they not even technical to begin with.

And pc headaches? Dx9 is a standard, doesn't matter what plethora u have, but just specify minimum CPU and gpu and game will play fine regardless. Sheesh.

http://www.linkedin.com/pub/pete-hines/1/713/698
 
Amazon has a $10 promotional credit good towards the purchase of items shipped and sold by Amazon.com
 
I'm ticked - I pre-ordered Skyrim from Amazon with game-day release delivery guarantee. Only one small problem...tomorrow is Veteran's Day and no mail delivery. Oh well, as a veteran I'll just have to take in all the love on Friday and get my game on Saturday. :)
 
Guess I have to stop messing around and finish New Vegas then.

I wonder how many of these reviews are bought...
 
Tom, usually Amazon uses UPS or Fedex, neither of which are closed tomorrow. I am a bit worried though, as I haven't received a shipping notice from Amazon yet!
 
TomSEA said:
I'm ticked - I pre-ordered Skyrim from Amazon with game-day release delivery guarantee. Only one small problem...tomorrow is Veteran's Day and no mail delivery. Oh well, as a veteran I'll just have to take in all the love on Friday and get my game on Saturday. :)

I think you are confusing the USPS, with UPS/FedEx. As far as I know, both companies recognize Veteran's Day, but don't actually observe them. So you might indeed get Skyrim tomorrow. :)
 
I wonder how many of these reviews are bought...

Probably not many outright bought (although it isn't like there is a controlling interest preventing this..), but any review done in time for launch is pretty sus.

Launch reviews = good traffic, so sites want them. PR wants them too, but ideally only if they're positive. If a PR company finds a particular outlet is not overly friendly with launch reviews, then they may start to see less and less of them. It's an eco system designed to produce good publicity. While I'm sure there are plenty of launch reviews that aren't entirely positive, the outlets that do them have to have a good enough relationship with PR to do so, so put two and two together - they'll always approach them from a positive standpoint. You can read it in the tone of most launch reviews that aren't A+ or 9/10 etc - excuse making over criticisms.
 
So the first 3 were amazing, and the fourth one was just okay, and that's your reason for not buying number 5. Good reasoning there buddy.
 
Guest said:
I wonder how many of these reviews are bought...

Probably not many outright bought (although it isn't like there is a controlling interest preventing this..), but any review done in time for launch is pretty sus.

Launch reviews = good traffic, so sites want them. PR wants them too, but ideally only if they're positive. If a PR company finds a particular outlet is not overly friendly with launch reviews, then they may start to see less and less of them. It's an eco system designed to produce good publicity. While I'm sure there are plenty of launch reviews that aren't entirely positive, the outlets that do them have to have a good enough relationship with PR to do so, so put two and two together - they'll always approach them from a positive standpoint. You can read it in the tone of most launch reviews that aren't A+ or 9/10 etc - excuse making over criticisms.
Considering a LOT of the 100% reviews have a negative mentioned in the blurb on Metacritic is a testament to these reviewers inability to properly and accurately deliver their ratings.

Hmph…
 
You guys are right - I got my shipment notice from UPS and in fact, will be delivered by UPS. Woot!
 
No one has said really that much about the hand to hand combat. I understand it still exists but the skill has been removed and no one can give a good answer on what new category governs it if any or how its damage is influenced by level or health ect. ect .
 
time to tank up my sneak again.. (that was the first attribute I maxed out in the last game) I guess you could say, I'm a sneaky snake
 
Game is looking way better than I anticipated, might have to go pick it up later today :) . I am reading about some binding/mouse issues with the UI though, but doesn't appear to be that bad. Hopefully they will patch it asap.
 
I think ill give this genre another go, thought it was like wow single player last time I checked it out. Go kill 5 wolfs and report back! Bleh!
 
Im probably going to get burned at the stake for daring to insult this game, But after playing for several hours today dissapointment is an understatement.

After fighting a troll across a small shallow river, i discovered he was scared of the 1 foot deep water and providing i stood in it i could happily shoot arrows at his head while he stood on the bank, scared in case he got his toes wet.

First epic dragon fight!!! Dragon flew about for a bit, eventually he landed and sat nice and still till i put enough arrows in him till he was dead..

Horses it seems gallop at the same speed as a human, And being presented with a hill causes them to gallop on there SIDE up the hills..

Control interface is truly truly awful, consoles have a lot to answer for...

General collision detection, Can jump on to some rocks, but cant jump while on it? Running in 3rd person sees my chars legs dissapear in to the scenery, Cant jump over 2 foot high fences.. ect ect

Dissapointing dx9.c graphics.

I could list probably another 50 things, Parts are so bad its almost funny ( exept i paid for it)

Nostalgia and sentimentality aside, this game sucks.
 
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