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The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim - Special Edition |OT| Winter is Here

HeeHo

Member
Thinking about using my $10 credit from Sony on this combined with the discount code and the sale.

However, I have never beaten Skyrim when I played it on 360. But I did put like 100+ hours into it. I did feel pretty burnt out on the game and I even liked it less than Oblivion in the end. It was just too damn easy if you went with enchanting and smithing right from the start.

I guess I'm just wondering if anyone who has played too much of it before is having a surprisingly good time with this?

I have a PS4Pro so I know my mods will be nerfed.
 
Found two new areas I'd never discovered before to the far south mountains bordering Cyrodil. Still finding new stuff hundreds of hours later.
 

Rex_DX

Gold Member
Thinking about using my $10 credit from Sony on this combined with the discount code and the sale.

However, I have never beaten Skyrim when I played it on 360. But I did put like 100+ hours into it. I did feel pretty burnt out on the game and I even liked it less than Oblivion in the end. It was just too damn easy if you went with enchanting and smithing right from the start.

I guess I'm just wondering if anyone who has played too much of it before is having a surprisingly good time with this?

I have a PS4Pro so I know my mods will be nerfed.

I put about 500 hours into the 360/PC version and despite that I'm still having a blast playing again. If you're on the fence, go for it man! especially with the $35 ish deal for Black Friday.
 

GhaleonEB

Member
I'm on PS4, and just playing vanilla since I can't find any mods that counterbalance my desire to get the achievements. But goddamn am I remembering why I loved this game so dearly. And coming into it with the expansions and updates baked in from the beginning, it's just stuffed to the gills. I'll be playing for months and still not do everything.

I play on Adept, which I find strikes a good balance between fair yet challenging. My ninja archer can one-shot lower tier grunts, yet still be killed immediately if caught out by a chieftain or captain (or dragon, for now). If I remember right I ended up bumping up to Master after I got up around level 30 or so back on 360, as I seemed to pull ahead of the curve once I got crafting into peak form.

More than anything I'm reminded how much I just love being in this world. Just walking or riding from place to place is more richly rewarding than any other game I've played. Coming out of a dungeon to some crazy view in a new time/weather combination has yet to stop being wonderful.

Cx2eFxcUUAAE-TY.jpg


Opening a door and finding a draugr Lord standing between me and a word of power just puts a huge grin my face.

CyFr-acVQAIqvNd.jpg


Anyone else spend as much time on their own little goals as on quests and such? I'm pouring more time into my house, roaming the wilderness and into staring to scour for the dragon priest masks than quests (which I'll get to...eventually). Just getting my first horse, after building stables by my house, was a moment of euphoria.


I spend as much time on high adventure:

CyKcJp5VIAAJlx7.jpg


...and meticulously organizing my book collection (which I'll read eventually, I swear):

CyFjxx0UcAAnDRa.jpg

CyFjxx0UcAAnDRa.jpg:
 

golem

Member
It's pretty amazing how this game has hooked me again as well. Didn't really get into the expansions the first go around so having all this extra content is a big bonus.

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This might be the first time in over 700 hours of Skyrim that I have a full set of heavy dragon armor. Thanks to Immersive Armors it even looks nice!
 

SlickVic

Member
I've been trying to do a 'no fast travel' playthrough this time just so I get the opportunity to explore all of this magnificent world. Definitely appreciating it as it seems I've seen parts of Skyrim this time that I managed to avoid in my original 150 hour playthrough. However, 20 hours in at this point and I'm revising those restrictions a bit. Playing through Dawnguard now and it does get a bit tedious having to trek back to the 'main base' area every time I finish a mission. So now I made an exception that whenever a mission needs me to head back to the castle, I go to the nearest town, take a carriage to Riften, then fast travel to the vampire hunter's base.

I'm sure some will consider these silly restrictions and I won't fault anyone for thinking that, but I'm still liking the idea of trekking my way through Skyrim to go to mission objectives. For me at least, it adds a bit to the immersion by getting that sense of distance from point A to B.
 

120v

Member
I've been trying to do a 'no fast travel' playthrough this time just so I get the opportunity to explore all of this magnificent world. Definitely appreciating it as it seems I've seen parts of Skyrim this time that I managed to avoid in my original 150 hour playthrough. However, 20 hours in at this point and I'm revising those restrictions a bit. Playing through Dawnguard now and it does get a bit tedious having to trek back to the 'main base' area every time I finish a mission. So now I made an exception that whenever a mission needs me to head back to the castle, I go to the nearest town, take a carriage to Riften, then fast travel to the vampire hunter's base.

I'm sure some will consider these silly restrictions and I won't fault anyone for thinking that, but I'm still liking the idea of trekking my way through Skyrim to go to mission objectives. For me at least, it adds a bit to the immersion by getting that sense of distance from point A to B.

not silly to me... that's how i always played. most of my enjoyment is in discovering all the little nooks and crannies. for example i was doing a shortcut by leaping through mountain crevices and out on some boulder in the middle of nowhere was a vigilant of stendarr's corpse with a bunch of loot. could be some bug but just stuff like that always blows my mind
 

SlickVic

Member
not silly to me... that's how i always played. most of my enjoyment is in discovering all the little nooks and crannies. for example i was doing a shortcut by leaping through mountain crevices and out on some boulder in the middle of nowhere was a vigilant of stendarr's corpse with a bunch of loot. could be some bug but just stuff like that always blows my mind

That's pretty cool to stumble onto that. Haven't had that happen to me yet, but the other day I was going back to Castle Dawnguard from Castle Volkihar and decided to make my way up to Solitude to hop a carriage to Riften. On the way to Solitude I made a realization that I had never really seen the northwestern tip of the Skyrim map. I was going up there around sunrise and it actually made for a nice view seeing the sun creep up through the mountains while I was walking through the paths up there. There were some 'holier-than-thou' Thalmor mucking about, but otherwise a very blissful morning walk through the mountains. It's things like this that really make me appreciate the worlds Bethesda is able to create in these games.
 

Vamphuntr

Member
Dawnguard is tedious as hell.

I'm playing the DLCs for the first time and this is basically what I was telling myself today about Dawnguard. It's filled with large open and mostly empty areas with only fetch quests and collect-a-t-on in each one. The plot was really interesting on the vampire side but kinds of ended in a disappointing manner.
 

Humdinger

Gold Member
I'm on PS4, and just playing vanilla since I can't find any mods that counterbalance my desire to get the achievements. But goddamn am I remembering why I loved this game so dearly. And coming into it with the expansions and updates baked in from the beginning, it's just stuffed to the gills. I'll be playing for months and still not do everything.
[....]

Nice post.
 

JohnnyFootball

GerAlt-Right. Ciriously.
Don't care about mods, just how much better does it look on Pro than X1? Playing on 1080p.

I was pleasantly surprised, but it does indeed look better.

I can't say it looks "you must go out and get a PS4 Pro" better, but it does indeed look pretty fantastic at 4K.

Despite what people may say, the framerate at 4K is largely pretty stable. I only noticed a few drops when I first played the game on PS4 Pro after previously playing on the vanilla PS4.
 
why the fuck.

I just got the special edition. I downloaded mods for it. Did Loot, did SEEdit. Game was working fine.

Now all of a sudden I exit an area, I take a couple of steps and all of a sudden the game just fucking dies on me, no pop up message, nothing. It just hard crashes into the desktop and I'm left wondering why the fuck.

Anyone else experiencing this on PC? If it's a mod, why the hell did it only start happening now after like 2-3 hours of gameplay
 

Humdinger

Gold Member
Don't care about mods, just how much better does it look on Pro than X1? Playing on 1080p.

Posted above:

I rented both versions and IQ wise the PS4 Pro hands down, even with a 1080p set. There is a slight blur in the distance on the Xbox One and PS4 version, on the Pro things in the far distance are clearer. For example in the first town you come into, there is a fence that looks like it is made of sticks and on the Pro from a distance it is defined and not blurry, but on the PS4/Xbox One it is fuzzy/blurry.

I've seen screens, and the PS4 Pro version did look sharper than the Xbox version. I don't have links, unfortunately.

I'm playing 1080p on Pro. Looks good.
 

ckohler

Member
What do you guys think is the best home? Before you answer, I consider convienance to be paramount so it should have the following:

  • Close access to a Carriage
  • Close access to shops
  • Close access to an Enchanting table
For example, Breezehome in Whiterun is close to a few shops but the closest enchanters table is way up in the castle and you have to actually leave the city to get to the Carriage. Honeyside has fast access to a Carriage (special door that bypasses the city gate) and several shops. Even the nearest Enchanting table is close. Too bad it's in Riften because Riften sucks as a location. :/

As a pure page, I wouldn't mind setting up in the Arch Mage's quarters at some point but that's far away from any good shops (I think) and worse, there is no Carriage in Winterhold.

Thoughts?
 

Hawk269

Member
Don't care about mods, just how much better does it look on Pro than X1? Playing on 1080p.


Read my notes above about it. In short, the PRO version looks a lot better. Distant textures don't have a blur to them like the regular PS4/Xbox One version. It looks a lot cleaner on the PRO.
 

golem

Member
Playing through Dawnguard now and it does get a bit tedious having to trek back to the 'main base' area every time I finish a mission. So now I made an exception that whenever a mission needs me to head back to the castle, I go to the nearest town, take a carriage to Riften, then fast travel to the vampire hunter's base.

Theres a mod to add carriages that actually take you on a ride to the destination. Sounds a bit buggy but still you might find it an interesting addition

http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/4364/?
 

leng jai

Member
I'm playing the DLCs for the first time and this is basically what I was telling myself today about Dawnguard. It's filled with large open and mostly empty areas with only fetch quests and collect-a-t-on in each one. The plot was really interesting on the vampire side but kinds of ended in a disappointing manner.

The amount of fetch quests is absurd and somehow it keeps snowballing. Hopefully the other expansion is better than this.
 

Hawk269

Member
Thanks man. Which one did you decide on?

PS4 Pro version. I think it looks the best, but I did encounter some slow down in frame rate when fighting the first dragon you come across in the story. I also noticed a little chug here and there but nothing that would take away too much. I am still interested in the Xbox One version due to all the great mods it has, but unless I can find a mod that helps out distant textures, I will stick with the Pro version. Not dissing the Xbox One or standard PS4 version, I just think the AA solution they are using causes a little bit of blur on distant objects and the IQ suffers a little compared to the Pro version.
 

golem

Member
I've got this coming with my PS4 bundle sometime next week.

Any tips for someone who has never played the game before?

Don't worry about your quest log ballooning like crazy. It will happen and learn to ignore/put off stuff you don't want to do. Also save often. It can still be buggy
 

black070

Member
Ridiculous how addictive this game is - I've got so many new releases purchased and in the backlog in favour of this. It looks glorious in native 4K on the Pro.
 
What do you guys think is the best home? Before you answer, I consider convienance to be paramount so it should have the following:

  • Close access to a Carriage
  • Close access to shops
  • Close access to an Enchanting table
For example, Breezehome in Whiterun is close to a few shops but the closest enchanters table is way up in the castle and you have to actually leave the city to get to the Carriage. Honeyside has fast access to a Carriage (special door that bypasses the city gate) and several shops. Even the nearest Enchanting table is close. Too bad it's in Riften because Riften sucks as a location. :/

As a pure page, I wouldn't mind setting up in the Arch Mage's quarters at some point but that's far away from any good shops (I think) and worse, there is no Carriage in Winterhold.

Thoughts?

Probably Windhelm. You have the market with an Enchanting table, shops and a smith. And a carriage in front of the town.
 

Humdinger

Gold Member
I've got this coming with my PS4 bundle sometime next week.

Any tips for someone who has never played the game before?

Search online for some beginner articles; they'll have some good tips.

My suggestion is to think about what sort of character you'd like to play as -- specifically, 1) what race and 2) in broad terms, what sort of offense you'd like to use (2-h, sword and board, magic, bow). Those will be your earliest decisions in the game. You can always change the second one, but it is best to go in with some idea of what you'd like to try first.

Second suggestion is to follow the first series of quests to the point where you get to Riverwood. After that, it's pretty much up to you what you want to do. I'd suggest doing the Golden Claw quest, which you can pick up in town. That's a pretty good way to start. After that, you're on your own.

The game depends heavily on your willingness to wander around, explore, figure out the systems (most of them are pretty simple, really), and make your own choices. Don't be led around by the nose by whatever quest marker the game happens to give you. Hit the trail, see what you find. This is one of the best open world exploration games around.

Combat will feel a little weak at first, particularly if you are coming off playing games like Dark Souls or Witcher 3. It is not the game's strongest quality (though I enjoy it, especially after leveling up).
 
Which trophy is it? Just making sure I don't miss one out.

Forget the name of it, but some mild story spoilers
its for one of the civil war missions that involves capturing a fort. During the main storyline there's a part where you join in on some civil war negotiations and decisions here can eliminate that particular mission from ever popping up. If you're worried about it, you can just complete the civil war storyline before doing the main story.
 

JohnnyFootball

GerAlt-Right. Ciriously.
Read my notes above about it. In short, the PRO version looks a lot better. Distant textures don't have a blur to them like the regular PS4/Xbox One version. It looks a lot cleaner on the PRO.

Agreed. Places like the College of Winterhold look pretty breathtaking.

I really don't think anyone who plays this game on PS4 Pro will be disappointed.

Having said that it would have been cool if they would have allowed you to switch between an unlocked framerate at 1080p.
 

JohnnyFootball

GerAlt-Right. Ciriously.
Can you get all the trophies in one play-through?

Yes, but depending on how you do the Civil War and main story questlines you can block off a trophy.

Not true. The Daedric Artifacts trophy can be easily missed and they often require you to do bad things, which can go against the nature of someone who is only interested in being a good guy. If you're deadset on getting all trophies, you may want to have a look at the specific quests which are Daedra.

You are correct about the Civil War trophy, but it shouldn't be too much of a big deal to backtrack unless you're a moron who makes only one save.

In regards to Civil war, basically what will happen is that when you have the negotiation, if you end up giving Markarth to the Stormcloaks, and you decide to fight for them you will end up with both Forts that make the second Civil War trophy missable. I actually made that mistake on my 360 playthrough. I just went back and did a few quests as the Legion and I was good to go.

Another quest that is missable, but won't affect a platinum trophy is the Werewolf perk trophy, in that you can only be turned into a werewolf twice.

I will also mention that Lost to the Ages quest from Dawnguard was glitched for me and required me to go back to a very early level 10 save, which made that quest hard even on Novice.
 

GhaleonEB

Member
I've got this coming with my PS4 bundle sometime next week.

Any tips for someone who has never played the game before?

Others have this covered, but I'll note two things.

First, the game has a pretty great Help screen in the options, which describes every system in the game. None are very complex, and there are tutorials the first time you do something (like smithing), but it's still a good resource that's a little buried in the UI. But give it a perusal now and then to make sure you understand the systems and are making use of them.

The other is I'd strongly encourage you to spend the first part of the time walking around, rather than fast traveling. Skyrim is a very densely packed game world that has a lot of fun emergent elements, and exploration is a huge part of the game. It's a great game world to soak in and explore. Don't rush it by racing point to point. You'll get a feel for when and how you want to use fast travel later on, but in the early goings at least, hoof it. Often times the best stuff is on the journey, not the destination.

Hahaha

Aren't the books available online or in on app for all tablets so one could read them in his downtime? I could've sworn I've heard something like that.
Yeah, they're online. But I just like collecting all the series myself.
 

TheZink

Member
Anyone else have problems with fast travel? It just goes to the loading screen and never starts the game back up.


Edit: now it just won't load at all. Really irritating.
 

Dunlop

Member
Anyone played this on the Pro with a 1080P TV?

thought I read it was actually worse than the base PS4

trying to find confirmation before the sale ends lol
 
I've been trying to do a 'no fast travel' playthrough this time just so I get the opportunity to explore all of this magnificent world. Definitely appreciating it as it seems I've seen parts of Skyrim this time that I managed to avoid in my original 150 hour playthrough. However, 20 hours in at this point and I'm revising those restrictions a bit. Playing through Dawnguard now and it does get a bit tedious having to trek back to the 'main base' area every time I finish a mission. So now I made an exception that whenever a mission needs me to head back to the castle, I go to the nearest town, take a carriage to Riften, then fast travel to the vampire hunter's base.

I'm sure some will consider these silly restrictions and I won't fault anyone for thinking that, but I'm still liking the idea of trekking my way through Skyrim to go to mission objectives. For me at least, it adds a bit to the immersion by getting that sense of distance from point A to B.

I'm doing a no fast travel, no waiting playthrough (I had no quest markers too but it got too tedious switching them off every time).

Without being too spoilery can you say why you've bailed because if Dawnguard?

Do you have to travel the exact same bit of terrain every time?

Thanks on advance.

Edit :Forgot to mention I use carriages and I don't use mods.
 
Playing this on Xbox with mods for the first time.. Wow. Forgot how easy it is to lose a whole day (and night) to playing.. I looked down and it was 2am!
 

Santiako

Member
I'm doing a no fast travel, no waiting playthrough (I had no quest markers too but it got too tedious switching them off every time).

Without being too spoilery can you say why you've bailed because if Dawnguard?

Do you have to travel the exact same bit of terrain every time?

Thanks on advance.

Edit :Forgot to mention I use carriages and I don't use mods.

You have to report back to castle Dawnguard after every single quest and there's no carriage to get to it afaik.
 
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