The Glade 4.0

Drizzt is directly responsible for me to never dual wield when playing a ranger. Being forced to dual wield and realizing that archery was nothing more than a pull-toy in the original Everquest, prompted me to rage and vent my frustrations in my very first post on a little message board called the Ranger's Glade. Yep, my first post ever here (under my ranger's name) was a rage-vent at EQ and the ranger class.

That's when I decided to play a race/class combo that I had no pre-existing expectations with, whatsoever. Thus, Numbuk the shaman was born.

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Les Zombis et les Loups-Garous!

Drizz't never bothered me directly, nor do I mind the "Rangers = dual wield" meme he started. What bothered me, in on and offline gaming was the number of "I wanna play a super-badass dark elf that dual wields!" and thinking that substituting longswords for scimitars was clever. I did wish archery had been stronger in the original EQ, but EQ2 remedied that.

Still, I'm glad to see it implemented. I like my Rangers to use Greatswords, but dual-wielding is a great feature to have for a lot of combinations.

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"Hysterical children shrieking about right-wing anything need to go sit in the corner and be quiet while the adults are talking."

Only a week away! Getting excited...

New video card: Check
New SSD Hard Drive specifically for this game: Check
More RAM: Check
Means of blocking out all light from the window in my computer room: Check
Vacation days requested for the 11th and 14th: Check

Yep, I'm ready.

And I am not even remotely joking.

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Les Zombis et les Loups-Garous!

Why does this game have to come out the same week that I'm closing on my house and moving off of Fort Meade?

Gah, and I can't even order my new computer yet. Well, I probably could but... money, and I kind of want to see if Sandy Bridge E comes out before or shortly after Christmas.

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"Hysterical children shrieking about right-wing anything need to go sit in the corner and be quiet while the adults are talking."

I'll probably be able to run Skyrim playably at maximum graphics settings (minus Anti-aliasing which I don't ever use) on my 2 year old gaming laptop.

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Well Ali Baba had them forty thieves, Scheherezade had a thousand tales
But master you in luck 'cause up your sleeves you got a brand of magic never fails...
...Mister Aladdin, sir, What will your pleasure be?
Let me take your order, Jot it down -You ain't never had a friend like me
█ ♣ █

Unfortunately mine is closer to 3 years old and is not, strictly speaking, a gaming laptop. Graphics, in particular are quite weak.

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"Hysterical children shrieking about right-wing anything need to go sit in the corner and be quiet while the adults are talking."

**** Drizzt and the hack that invented him.

Oh yeah, so Far, how many are lined up for Sky Rim-Jobs?

When I finally get SkyRim(Job), I'll be playing it on maxed out settings on my 360.

Beth needs to take a clue from From Software, and make their combat more interesting. I guess we'll find out if they've made improvements.

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"...the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being. And who is willing to destroy a piece of his own heart?" -Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

I see what you did there.

The Drizzt hate always seemed a little overblown to me. I was far more negatively impacted by the hack writer that created Legolas than I ever was by Drizzt.

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Buckle your pants or they might fall down.

So you disagree with the original definition of a thing that had no definition before.

It's your contention that elves were undefined prior to Tolkien?

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Of course! Tolkien predates all Norse mythology, didn't you know? And it also obviously came waaaaaay before anyone ever heard of the Tuatha Dé Danann!

No one still has. Except neeeeeerds.

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"...the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being. And who is willing to destroy a piece of his own heart?" -Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

Perhaps it was because dark elves could not be rangers, but I never saw a dark elf ranger named "Drizzeeto" or some other hackneyed attempt to work around the name filter. Legolas and his brothers Legolus, Lagalus, and Lllllllllllllllllegolas is responsible for me hearing lines such as, "Holy crap! I didn't know humans could be rangers."

At level 65.

While standing in Surefall Glade.

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Buckle your pants or they might fall down.

http://gamingbolt.com/skyrim-the-visual-evolution-of-the-elder-scrolls-in-the-last-five-years?pid=2652

Comparison shots of skyrim and oblivion. Some of the races look much nicer.

Now here's a question that is actually back on topic: What is the appeal to these games that gets people salivating so profusely over them?

My last experience with actually playing an Elder Scrolls game was Daggerfall. I found combat to be rather clunky and unwieldy. There was very little direction as to what I was supposed to be doing to advance the plot. The open world seemed appealing at first, but it started to become monotonous after a while. A buddy of mine has played through Morowind and Oblivion, and they basically looked like Daggerfall with better graphics. I'm looking at this thread thinking I've already played this game fifteen years ago.

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Buckle your pants or they might fall down.

I can sum that up in a single word, one that has been lacking in the last 13 years of any non-text-based multiplayer RPG I've ever played:

Immersion.

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Les Zombis et les Loups-Garous!

This. I really feel like I am my character in another world with ES games. I've spent days just reading the in-game books about the history of the world, their religions, cultures, races, history, flaura and fauna. I am amazed at how deep they went with the backstory.

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The fact that we didn't find any of these problems?

You found it how you found it. All I can say is I didn't think combat was at all clunky or unweildy, and while I agree it wasn't always clear how to advance the plot (IMO Daggerfall was much worse than the other 3 in that regard), but I like the open world and did not find is monotonous, especially in Morrowwind and Oblivion.

I'm also rather skeptical of an opinion of the later two games based on a buddy having played through them, but hey, what appeals to you appeals to you. Numbuk sums it up as immersion, which I agree with, but I also have found a lot of the "problems" of the game to stem in a large part from simply not appealing to certain tastes, and in some cases, overconcern with having an "ideal" character.

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"Hysterical children shrieking about right-wing anything need to go sit in the corner and be quiet while the adults are talking."

Considering one of the main points of most of these games is how special you are in the world, I'd say feeling that your character is "ideal" has a huge impact. Especially toward your immersion.

Correct me if I'm wrong but Daggerfall created its immense size (play area ~ the size of England) by having all the areas the same--each town was identical to the last one. That would certainly lead to a sense of repetitiveness.

They weren't identical, TheRiov. They were procedurally generated from identical components. So, while technically different, they had a very "samey" feel.

In addition, it was very easy to miss time-sensitive things that moved the plot along.

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"Aaaah! Emotions are weird!" - Amdee
"... Mirrorshades prevent the forces of normalcy from realizing that one is crazed and possibly dangerous. They are the symbol of the sun-staring visionary, the biker, the rocker, the policeman, and similar outlaws." - Bruce Sterling, preface to Mirrorshades

It really doesn't. By "ideal" I mainly mean getting 2 x5 ability multipliers every level up, or close to it.

Even if you're not getting anywhere near that, you'll still be plenty special compared to most everyone else in the world. The PC is really quite powerful. Certain monsters are quite tough but if they weren't it wouldn't be very challenging. If you were maxing everything out, they might be pretty trivial too.

The only thing that's consistently difficult is multiple opponents but really.. that ought to make you feel pretty special, if your enemies have to gang up to challenge you.

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"Hysterical children shrieking about right-wing anything need to go sit in the corner and be quiet while the adults are talking."