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http://www.gamersmint.com/bethesda-consoles-to-be-the-lead-platform-for-skyrim-aim-to-make-it-really-accessible

The lead producer on Skyrim said: “We use the consoles as our lead SKU… So we develop towards the consoles and then porting to PC is usually not too bad actually .”

The above comments are likely to cause PC gamers a bit of grief, and the next thing on Craig Lafferty’s mind was unlikely to appease them.

“We wanted to take it and make it really accessible,” the producer said.“… We still have the complexity behind the scenes, but we wanted to make it so that you could pick up the controller and play and it was easy; the average person could get into it…We knew we wanted to make the user interface a little bit more open and available … get away from the stats and things like that.”

Hopefully this doesn’t mean we will be getting a dumbed down version of the RPG, but rather a slicker and more streamlined game. Simplifying RPG’s usually equates to commercial success, but also causes a split in your core audience, as we saw with Dragon Age 2. Bethesda will have to make sure they don’t alienate its established fan base in its quest to please the “average person”.

I dont really like the sound of that. I know consoles are easier to get into but I have always found the PC versions of Beth games way better

Such is the way of RPGs these days. Either square enix is laughing at your or you have westerners making simple hack n slash

Games will always be worse if the company puts the console first. Consoles have been ruining PC games for a while.

I don't understand the attraction of an RPG like DAII/DAO and The Elder Scrolls on the Xbox...its just so much better on the PC with modding and everything.

Oh yeah, I remember, its because Consoles are where all the money is at.

feth me.

Euuurgh... See, the Console Concentration is where the Compass came from, because of course a Console gamer wouldn't be able to open their maps and actually look for that semi-hidden cave entrance, oh no, they need to be shown where it is. And of course, a Minimap is right out. After all, you can't see a minimap when you're sitting twenty feet away from your screen.

Anvildude wrote:Euuurgh... See, the Console Concentration is where the Compass came from, because of course a Console gamer wouldn't be able to open their maps and actually look for that semi-hidden cave entrance, oh no, they need to be shown where it is. And of course, a Minimap is right out. After all, you can't see a minimap when you're sitting twenty feet away from your screen.

There was no compass in Morrowind, and that was on the Xbox too.

Well, yeah, but that was 1st generation Microsoft console, and the first time any Bethesda RPG was put on a console. Morrowind was basically a Console port of a Computer game. Then it was rather successful, they decided to design Oblivion primarily for the casual Console gamer, and made millions, if not billions off it, bursting into the market. Now they're making Skyrim, still focusing on the Console. Hopefully, however, they'll port it properly to Computer this time. The Oblivion menu system was incredibly annoying for me on Comp, with the scrolling menus and tabs system- fine and even optimized for when you're controlling your game with two joysticks and four triggers, but utterly unneccesary and cumbersome when you have a mouse. Here's hoping Skyrim's "iPhone-like" menu makes the transition better.

And Smithing had better not be a Quicktime event.

Console gamers are not necessarily casual. Nor does playing on a console mean that you need a compass.

You're fabricating out of irrational distaste.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

Anvildude wrote:...optimized for when you're controlling your game with two joysticks and four triggers, but utterly unneccesary and cumbersome when you have a mouse. ...

Wat?

Have you ever played Oblivion on a console?

The interface is awful, across the board.

Yes, I have played it on Console. Optimized doesn't necessarily mean it actually works well on it, though. Just a little better. Or rather, less worse.

Sorry if I'm coming off as a bit... trollish. I think you may have hit the nail on the head, regarding the whole 'distaste' thing (though it may or may not be irrational...)


And I'm not really trying to belittle Console gamers, either. Heck, most of my friends are Console gamers! I even started out really getting into vidjagames through the SNES and Xbox- in fact, that's where I first came across Morrowind and the Elder Scrolls series. But it's hard to argue that Console gaming is, by its very nature, inherently more casual than Computer gaming.

When gaming on a Computer, you need to make sure your system meets specifications, adjust the quality of the game for optimal (or even just plain basic) performance, install, patch, etc. And once you're playing, there's the option to look around for various mods, tweaks and console commands, or mod it yourself for a better gaming experience. Even if you don't mod, the possibility is still there, that knowledge that you could make the game, your experience with it, absolutely unique, with just a little work.

Whereas on a Console, you bought the Console, took it out of the box, and plugged it in. You bought the game, took it out of the box, and put it in the Console. You start playing. Any downloadables are things you need to buy, that have been officially created or sanctioned by the parent company, and so are the same things a million other people are buying and using. There's no modding, no hacking, nothing that makes playing this game on this console any different than playing it on your friend's console, or the one in the school's game room. It's inherently more casual, because it's inherently less customizable.

Similarly, I say that a minimap, and actually searching the main map is more a hallmark of Computer gamers not because I think Console gamers are lazy or have less time involved, but because Map Searching just doesn't work on Consoles the way it does on Computers. First off, on a Console, you're going to be sitting much, much farther away from your screen. Yes, it may be a larger screen, and yes, it may be high definition, but it's still going to be farther away, and thus smaller and fuzzier than the screen a Computer gamer will be looking at. In this case, a Compass function is practically required if you want the gamer to be able to find anything at all. But also, it's because a Computer gamer will have close at hand a resource for finding their way out of those difficult situations where they're trying for hours to find that one rock in the middle of the lava field, while Console gamers... Well, let's just say that I know every nook and cranny of the Ascadian Isles region after trying to find Llevas Andrano's skull.

Anvildude wrote:
And I'm not really trying to belittle Console gamers, either. Heck, most of my friends are Console gamers!

I should apologize as well, I've just been through a series "PC snob" arguments and while I agree that its a more versatile platform, there are things that I believe consoles simply do better. And, most importantly, I say this as a primary PC gamer.

dogma wrote:

Anvildude wrote:Euuurgh... See, the Console Concentration is where the Compass came from, because of course a Console gamer wouldn't be able to open their maps and actually look for that semi-hidden cave entrance, oh no, they need to be shown where it is. And of course, a Minimap is right out. After all, you can't see a minimap when you're sitting twenty feet away from your screen.

There was no compass in Morrowind, and that was on the Xbox too.

Agreed. Infact that was part of the reason I loved it so much. You had to use your journal for discriptions of where to go, and a pisspoor map to help with it. I LOVED that concept. You cant blame console gamers for the fact they are making games retardedly simple these days. It just like GW making the rules pretty much a 4+ punch fest, its for younger people so they get more money. Young kids dont have the patience or will to actually figure out where the hidden cave of secret secrets is, they want a giant neon green arrow showing them where to go.

I hate it too, but you just have to deal with it.

Dude that dragon battle preview was the single most badass thing i have ever seen

And speaking of the Dragon Battle, and the Compass, it looks as though you may actually be able to turn the compass off if you want to, in Skyrim! That'd be nice...

Well at least it would be likely the dev tools would be released on the pc so we could always Mod in "Extreme Game" modes such as no minimap

But I'm a sucker for Fast Travel

Well with ME3 being pushing back to next year, this has jumped from Mmm not sure, to a likely purchase.

With my WoW sub being stopped for the time being I am looking for more games elsewhere once again. Part of the reason I got DoW 2, and I'm loving that as well.

Will be getting this on my 360 mind, like with Oblivion and Morrowwind/Xbox before it, I just like being able to lie down on my sofa, totally relax and cause some carnage.

I never understood how you could NOT use fast travel...

Even in Oblivion when I got the fastest horse possible, Shadowmere, the snorefest that is the main quest requires so much running around that I couldn't just run to places, lol.

And, that goes for most big quests, really.

I think I'm going to enjoy the atmosphere. Morrowind was fun because it felt so alien but at the same time could draw you in. That's why oblivion wasn't, in my opinion, as good.

From gameplay, it looks like it's going to be the perfect combination of fantasy and mid-evil.

Karon wrote:I never understood how you could NOT use fast travel...

Even in Oblivion when I got the fastest horse possible, Shadowmere, the snorefest that is the main quest requires so much running around that I couldn't just run to places, lol.

And, that goes for most big quests, really.

I HATE fast travel. Personally I think it ruins RPGs. Morrowind had the right idea, some type of travel service to an area near where you need to go. I cant stand clicking on a map and magically being there. It just kills the immersion

KingCracker wrote:

Karon wrote:I never understood how you could NOT use fast travel...

Even in Oblivion when I got the fastest horse possible, Shadowmere, the snorefest that is the main quest requires so much running around that I couldn't just run to places, lol.

And, that goes for most big quests, really.

I HATE fast travel. Personally I think it ruins RPGs. Morrowind had the right idea, some type of travel service to an area near where you need to go. I cant stand clicking on a map and magically being there. It just kills the immersion

So...did you just ride a horse/run everywhere in Oblivion? That sounds rough.

Karon wrote:

KingCracker wrote:

Karon wrote:I never understood how you could NOT use fast travel...

Even in Oblivion when I got the fastest horse possible, Shadowmere, the snorefest that is the main quest requires so much running around that I couldn't just run to places, lol.

And, that goes for most big quests, really.

I HATE fast travel. Personally I think it ruins RPGs. Morrowind had the right idea, some type of travel service to an area near where you need to go. I cant stand clicking on a map and magically being there. It just kills the immersion

So...did you just ride a horse/run everywhere in Oblivion? That sounds rough.

You have to for a lot of the game since you can't fast travel to a place until you have been there...

Yea thats why vanilla oblivion was a bit meh since all major cities were bookmarked so you could easily get within reach of a lot of the map very fast. Fresh maps like fallout or shivering isles made you appreciate all the land around you

KingCracker wrote:

Karon wrote:I never understood how you could NOT use fast travel...

Even in Oblivion when I got the fastest horse possible, Shadowmere, the snorefest that is the main quest requires so much running around that I couldn't just run to places, lol.

And, that goes for most big quests, really.

I HATE fast travel. Personally I think it ruins RPGs. Morrowind had the right idea, some type of travel service to an area near where you need to go. I cant stand clicking on a map and magically being there. It just kills the immersion

Well, unless it's something your character can actually do. Like Mark and Recall.

The Propylons were pretty cool, too.

purplefood wrote:

Karon wrote:

KingCracker wrote:

Karon wrote:I never understood how you could NOT use fast travel...

Even in Oblivion when I got the fastest horse possible, Shadowmere, the snorefest that is the main quest requires so much running around that I couldn't just run to places, lol.

And, that goes for most big quests, really.

I HATE fast travel. Personally I think it ruins RPGs. Morrowind had the right idea, some type of travel service to an area near where you need to go. I cant stand clicking on a map and magically being there. It just kills the immersion

So...did you just ride a horse/run everywhere in Oblivion? That sounds rough.

You have to for a lot of the game since you can't fast travel to a place until you have been there...

All the major cities are able to be fast traveled to at the start of the game.

Oh, Mavericks win, Heat lost, get some.

Anvildude wrote:

KingCracker wrote:

Karon wrote:I never understood how you could NOT use fast travel...

Even in Oblivion when I got the fastest horse possible, Shadowmere, the snorefest that is the main quest requires so much running around that I couldn't just run to places, lol.

And, that goes for most big quests, really.

I HATE fast travel. Personally I think it ruins RPGs. Morrowind had the right idea, some type of travel service to an area near where you need to go. I cant stand clicking on a map and magically being there. It just kills the immersion

Well, unless it's something your character can actually do. Like Mark and Recall.

The Propylons were pretty cool, too.

MAn did I miss the mark/recall spells. I used those almost as much as I killed things, specially on my thief characters. It was great piling everything up in the middle of a room, taking it all, being burdened by a few hundred pounds and then magically teleporting into my house

Has there been talk of a Special/Collector's edition for Skyrim yet?

Wondering what bonues you might get, as after spending a few days looking into this game, I am quickly becoming very, very interested in its release.

Thatd be neat, some type of download or something. As long as its cool ingame stuff and not some crap like "oh cool, I have a GOLD printed map instead of your normal non gold printed map

Aye same, part of the reason I got the ME3 Collectors, is you get a character and mission download, which will cost other folks without a CE on launch day I suspect. Plus extra costumes and weapons.
The Soundtrack and art book are nice, but its the in game stuff that forced my purchase.

So, yeah hoping Skyrim has some neat stuff for in game.

What type of characters do you guys think will be possible in skyrim?

I am going for a less magic oriented tank-like class, hopefully using a sword and shield. I like how bows are higher powered now too. Anyone know if bows have ammo?

What do you guys expect to run?

I plan to run a silver tounged thife in this game that has daggars on throwing knifes or some such.

I plan on running a sneaky assassin to start with.

I will most likely run a thief type character who can use bows and swords effectivly, 1 sneak shot to the head and if that doesnt kill them then out comes the sword and sheild or dual swords lol. Magic will most likely take a back seat, as it usually does for me. Only healing spells are used in my games lol.

I just hope the enemies don't take a billion hits to die this time around.