I think you may have missed my point. The whole "cup a tea" metaphor(or simile, I keep getting these mixed up) is all about Skyrim may not be your type of game, but it still is a good game.Arkhan wrote: I was fine with the first 3 ES games, and sorely disappointed in the last two... Oblivion and Skyrim would be my cup of tea just like the other 3, had they not been disappointing. Morrowind is one of my favorite games ever at this point.
Part of the design philosophy with Skyrim was to make the Player powerful, with the right combination players can dominate. Lots of games do this, I know of some OP materia combinations in Final Fantasy 7.Arkhan wrote: While dual wielding spells, you feel a bit like Rambo. At one point I ended up regenerating mana faster than I spent it, so I could just hold the buttons down and lay waste to everything around me while spinning in circles.
There is no unarmed skill in Skyrim :p.Arkhan wrote: Hell, you can even stand there and punch that guy at the start and max out your unarmed fighting. I was also able to kill a bear barehanded (hah) faster than with a sword. I don't know many people that can punch a bear out in 3 punches. There were a lot of little things like this that I picked up on as I played that made me really not like the setup. OH, and lets not leave out dropping pots on peoples heads so you can steal everything. It all just feels cheap. I feel that if they had put as much effort into catching and tweaking those things as they did with their overblown Gamestop theatric commercials, the game would have felt a lot cleaner. When a game is hyped as much as Skyrim was, and you find all kinds of nonsense like I've mentioned in the game... it sort of blows. I guarantee the modding community will fix the game up, just like they did with Oblivion.
I will also point out that if they spent time sifting out every glitch and exploit there wouldn't be 300 hours of content. Also, Bethesda has always had a bad track record regarding bugs, I know of some ridiculous glitches in Morrowind(not to mention Over Powered leveling exploits), Daggerfall even has unfinished content present in release(not to mention a wagon load of bugs, some gamebreaking).
I was speaking from a designer perspective. I have a very good understanding of game design.Arkhan wrote: and, I'd barely call the mechanics incredibly deep. They're pretty shallow, cut/dry, and can end up being min-maxed by middle schoolers.
The mechanics seen shallow and dry on the surface, but when you really look into it they are pretty deep.
Especially Stealth, there are better games, but for an open world RPG the Stealth is pretty impressive.
Grimrocks mechanics are relatively simple, but that is what makes them great.
I would put it at more of a Morrowind 9, Oblivion 8, Skyrim 9. Morrowind was my first ES title and I adored it. Oblivion was a bit dissapointing but still damn good, Skyrim returns a lot of Morrowind feel, adds some epic Dwemer ruins, but falls short in a few areas.Arkhan wrote: I blame Morrowind. The game was so fun, and had such an interesting mess of nonsense you could discover. It's like they peaked at Morrowind and have not been able to match it yet. Their next one should be better, I bet. It's like Morrowind was a 10, Oblivion was like, a 5. and Skyrim shot back up to around 7.5/8. So, bring on the next one!
They are just entering the big leagues, but most coverage was by the press, which basically is free marketing.Arkhan wrote: I dunno man, with all of the games they've put out recently, and all of the press, along with Skyrim being rated game of the year... I'd say they're a pretty much a big-time publisher now..
DON'T get me wrong, I would put Grimrock at a solid 9/9.5.
They capture the classic dungeon crawl experience in its entirety and actually improve on the atmosphere.
It actually has some pretty scary parts.