[Arcane Hayter]

Any advice on getting fus roh dah'd to death?
I just finished the game at level 61 and everywhere I go I run into those Draugr Death Overlords that fus roh dah my ass until I'm dead. Sucked the fun out of the game for me...

[ThirdEngine]

I started a new character a few days ago and made it to 39 last night. Rolling a Breton mage and already have 100 in Conjuration and Alteration. I'm playing on Master and man, Paralyze is such an OP spell. Anything that gets past my Dremora lords just get stun-locked to death. I'm only gonna use it in panic situations from now on. Difficulty feels perfect though. If I don't have Ebonyflesh on I get one-shotted by anything non-magic related. I just started the quest to get Dragonhide last night. That spell is just too good to pass up.

[-Yeti]

Any advice on getting fus roh dah'd to death? I just finished the game at level 61 and everywhere I go I run into those Draugr Death Overlords that fus roh dah my ass until I'm dead. Sucked the fun out of the game for me...

I don't know if your Conjuration level is high or not, but what worked for me is to just summon Atronachs and let them do the work for me.

If not, get the Sanguine Rose which summons some type of Dremora and let it do it's thing. That thing is a beast.

So after losing my save games just after christmas I now have a new Xbox HDD so going to get back into this. I'm out of the loop, but has the 360 install graphic problems been fixed?

Yeah, it's been fixed. Install away!

[TP17]

So after losing my save games just after christmas I now have a new Xbox HDD so going to get back into this. I'm out of the loop, but has the 360 install graphic problems been fixed?

Having previously been an archer/thief/assassin type character only completing the thieves guild before I am this time planning a sword and shield Orc Nord, but using conjuration; both summons and bound weapons.

[DeathJr]

Has anyone else encountered the Civil War glitch, where if you side with the Stormcloaks and in the final battle for Solitude you're unable to complete the final battle?

I can get into Solitude, battle my way through to Castle Dour but the glitch makes both General Tullius and Legate Rikke essential characters aka they can't be killed. :(

Here's an explanation to the glitch:

http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Skyrim_talk...e_for_Solitude

I have the exact same glitch. Solitude has disappeared from the map, and no matter how much I try, I can't seem to finish the quest. Tried reloading my past saves, they all have the same issue.

Any advice guys? I've completed everything else...this is the only thing left to do.

[Thagomizer]

If not, get the Sanguine Rose which summons some type of Dremora and let it do it's thing. That thing is a beast. !

This is what I do for Dragur with the Disarm shout; plop down a Dremora, run to the other end of the room, and just let the summon handle it. I really can't be arsed to search out a bow in a dark-ass dungeon after a disarm.

[PalaceBrother]

Has anyone else encountered the Civil War glitch, where if you side with the Stormcloaks and in the final battle for Solitude you're unable to complete the final battle? I can get into Solitude, battle my way through to Castle Dour but the glitch makes both General Tullius and Legate Rikke essential characters aka they can't be killed. :( Here's an explanation to the glitch: http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Skyrim_talk...e_for_Solitude I have the exact same glitch. Solitude has disappeared from the map, and no matter how much I try, I can't seem to finish the quest. Tried reloading my past saves, they all have the same issue. Any advice guys? I've completed everything else...this is the only thing left to do.

Are you on 360? Have you tried deleting all of the updates and uninstalling the game? Backup your old saves and then try running from the disc (installing necessary updates) and loading your save. It sounds like something in your installation has retained the state of the world....it wouldn't have written to your older save files.

[DeathJr]

Are you on 360? Have you tried deleting all of the updates and uninstalling the game? Backup your old saves and then try running from the disc (installing necessary updates) and loading your save. It sounds like something in your installation has retained the state of the world....it wouldn't have written to your older save files.

PS3. Already tried deleting saved data and update. No luck..

This seems to be a common glitch that Bethesda has not addressed till now.

[PalaceBrother]

PS3. Already tried deleting saved data and update. No luck.. This seems to be a common glitch that Bethesda has not addressed till now.

Ouch. Sorry to hear it. I'm still suspicious that the changes to your in-game world have written back to all of your old save files though. That sounds crazy.

Any chance you can take a save to a friend's place to see?

[Tomat]

My buddy practically gave me his copy of Skyrim today because he was afraid his bro broke my old ass copy of ME (which he didn't). Bro of the year all years?

Anyways, anything I should know before I start this up? Playing on the 360 for the record.

[1stStrike]

My buddy practically gave me his copy of Skyrim today because he was afraid his bro broke my old ass copy of ME (which he didn't). Bro of the year all years? Anyways, anything I should know before I start this up? Playing on the 360 for the record.

Prepare to give up about 100 hours of your life, at a minimum.

Also, once you're done with the intro, try not to get overwhelmed at all the shit you'll discover along the way.

I recommend doing the main questline for a little while and then hitting up some sidequests. The main story will unlock some important stuff for you in the beginning, and it'll set you up nicely to continue with the mountain of sidequests.

Then again, you can play skyrim however the hell you want, so feel free to completely ignore the main quest line too :P

[GhaleonEB]

My buddy practically gave me his copy of Skyrim today because he was afraid his bro broke my old ass copy of ME (which he didn't). Bro of the year all years? Anyways, anything I should know before I start this up? Playing on the 360 for the record.

Don't fast travel everywhere off the bat. Take some time to wander, explore, do stuff that looks fun or interesting.

From the pause menu go over to where you save from and check the Help screens. They describe the many game systems at a pretty good level of detail. If you find yourself wondering how X works, check there.

[DeathJr]

Ouch. Sorry to hear it. I'm still suspicious that the changes to your in-game world have written back to all of your old save files though. That sounds crazy. Any chance you can take a save to a friend's place to see?

I'm level 72. The earliest save that I have is from level 40 where I had not even taken sides with either faction....so I'll try from there and hope it works. Will be siding with the empire this time....don't want any more glitchy stormcloaks.

[PalaceBrother]

I'm level 72. The earliest save that I have is from level 40 where I had not even taken sides with either faction....so I'll try from there and hope it works. Will be siding with the empire this time....don't want any more glitchy stormcloaks.

Is your choice of sides a known issue with this bug? I haven't started the quest and want to avoid it (obviously) if possible.

I wish you could enchant jumping like you could in Morrowind. So many of the accessibility glitches could be overcome by jumping over walls.

[DeathJr]

Not sure, though it's possible since initially I started the recruitment quest for both sides, but ultimately sided with the stormcloaks...which resulted in automatically failing the imperial quest. Maybe that's why it glitched.

[OG Kush]

stormcloaks or the other faction? which is one is better?

[GhaleonEB]

stormcloaks or the other faction? which is one is better?

Imperials.

Both are assholes. The Stormcloaks are racist assholes.

[Fancy Corndog]

Can someone spoiler tag the end result of completing both factions?

As far as I know, completing the Imperials means:

Some Imperial guy becomes Jarl of Whiterun (idk who?)
You kill Ulfric Stormcloak

End result: General Tullius and the Imperials let everyone know that they will continue to defeat any rebellions.


The Stormcloaks, I have no idea.



I would rather know what I'm going to cause to happen before I decide on a side. I'm trying to adhere to the lore with my current character, but the decision is a tough one. Immediately, I want to side with the Imperials because a strong Empire is the best chance against the Elves. On the other hand, Imperial supporters seem to be more assholish and it seems like the right thing to do for my Nord would be joining the Stormcloaks.

Then again, the Dragonborn's relationship with the Blades (and historically Dragonborns are emperors, right?). Makes the Imperials make more sense again.

And finally, the biggest wrench in all of this for me is that the game seems to nudge you towards the Stormcloaks. This, coupled with the Imperials ending makes me think that fighting for the Empire will, eventually, not keep it from falling. Lore wise, if the Stormcloak quests lead Skyrim to break from the Empire (I don't know what happens, I'd like to know) then I think joining the Imperials may be pointless. In The Elder Scrolls VI, x amount of years will have passed and there will be a new situation...but both of the character's choices have to be accounted for. It seems like the Imperials ending will be very easy to push aside (and therefore dissolve the Empire in the future). If the Stormcloaks quests make Skyrim break from the Empire, it would be a big leap for a game set in the future to say that somehow the Empire was able to come back from that. It couldn't be the case that the Stormcloaks had the final say in the matter since one possibility is that Ulfric was killed by the Dragonborn, but it would have to be the case that the Empire lost Skyrim at least once.


I'm playing my 'proper' main character right now, and I just want to know what the Dragonborn should really do. ><

If someone can either spoiler tag or PM me with any details about the results of each side, or opinions about the correct decision within the lore, it'd be appreciated. The enjoyment of my character comes from sticking to the game's lore in a proper manner.

[GhaleonEB]

Can someone spoiler tag the end result of completing both factions? As far as I know, completing the Imperials means: Some Imperial guy becomes Jarl of Whiterun (idk who?) You kill Ulfric Stormcloak End result: General Tullius and the Imperials let everyone know that they will continue to defeat any rebellions. The Stormcloaks, I have no idea.

The story lines are very similar for both sides.

You do all the same missions, just relocated. Take Whiterun, rather than defend it. Clear some forts. Free prisoners from one fort, then take it. Bribe a Jarl, then use the information to find a broken down wagon, kill guys. Find an Imperial courier. Take Solitude, kill Tallius and his female sidekick, Ufric claims to be High King. Ufric and Stone-Fist let everyone know to keep clearing out Imperials.

Disappointing to say the least.

[OG Kush]

Which one offers the better missions and better loot though?

[Volimar]

Which one offers the better missions and better loot though?

It's practically identical...

The only thing I can really see lootwise is that General Tulius has better armor than Ulfric, so looting the body after he's dead gets you better loot, I guess...

Otherwise it's all personal preference.

[1stStrike]

Which one offers the better missions and better loot though?

Think of the mission as one car, painted either red or blue. No matter which color you choose, you're still driving the same car. There's really that little difference between them.

[OG Kush]

Ah ok cool thanks guys.

[Overdoziz]

I just finished that quest where you are in the mind of some guy. They could've done so much with that but it ended up being really disappointing.

[teiresias]

I'm sort of just starting out this game (I'm currently a Level 10 character using mainly destrution magic with some restoration and conjuration thrown in). However, I'm finding myself getting like halfway through a couple of dungeons and just not having the firepower (ie. Magika) to survive fights with tougher enemies. I'm just not dealing enough damage, and I'm running out of Magika.

In particular I've gotten about halfway through the two following dungeons: The Dwemer dungeon with the Synod expedition where I'm looking for the Staff of Magnus. After I couldn't really deal with the enemies past a certain point I decided to leave and do some other stuff, so I started the Shrine of Azura quest line and am in the Illitia (sp?) Deep looking for the Azura Sould Gem or whatever it's called, but the full-on Necromancers and Necromages absolutely kick my butt.

Does anyone have any suggestions for stuff to do to build up my Magika reserves and basically how to go about this? I prefer to do dungeon delving rather than delivering parsels, but I do have plenty of quests that are those kinds of things too, that I could do to pass the time while I try to get my levels and skills up I suppose. Do dungeon enemies scale as badly as they did in Oblivion? I never thought about that.

[1stStrike]

I'm sort of just starting out this game (I'm currently a Level 10 character using mainly destrution magic with some restoration and conjuration thrown in). However, I'm finding myself getting like halfway through a couple of dungeons and just not having the firepower (ie. Magika) to survive fights with tougher enemies. I'm just not dealing enough damage, and I'm running out of Magika. In particular I've gotten about halfway through the two following dungeons: The Dwemer dungeon with the Synod expedition where I'm looking for the Staff of Magnus. After I couldn't really deal with the enemies past a certain point I decided to leave and do some other stuff, so I started the Shrine of Azura quest line and am in the Illitia (sp?) Deep looking for the Azura Sould Gem or whatever it's called, but the full-on Necromancers and Necromages absolutely kick my butt. Does anyone have any suggestions for stuff to do to build up my Magika reserves and basically how to go about this? I prefer to do dungeon delving rather than delivering parsels, but I do have plenty of quests that are those kinds of things too, that I could do to pass the time while I try to get my levels and skills up I suppose. Do dungeon enemies scale as badly as they did in Oblivion? I never thought about that.

1. Use familiars. They help a lot.
2. Start using bound weapons (bound sword, bound axe, bound bow) and summon one when you start run out of magic (or use one in the beginning of the battle and support that with magic from your other hand).
3. Do the mage guild questline. By the end of that you'll have a fabulous robe that will give you +150% magic regen. You can also craft/enchant armor to bolster your magic regen, as well.

[teiresias]

1. Use familiars. They help a lot. 2. Start using bound weapons (bound sword, bound axe, bound bow) and summon one when you start run out of magic (or use one in the beginning of the battle and support that with magic from your other hand). 3. Do the mage guild questline. By the end of that you'll have a fabulous robe that will give you +150% magic regen. You can also craft/enchant armor to bolster your magic regen, as well.

I'll try the first two, but the third point is what lead me to one of the dungeons I'm having trouble with (I'm assuming going to the college of Winterhold is doing the Mage Guild questline and that the Mage Guild isn't a separate thing).

[Seanspeed]

I'll try the first two, but the third point is what lead me to one of the dungeons I'm having trouble with (I'm assuming going to the college of Winterhold is doing the Mage Guild questline and that the Mage Guild isn't a separate thing).

If its physical enemies that you're having trouble with mainly, you can use the Apprentice Guardian Stone that gives you 100% Magicka Regeneration BUT makes you twice as vulnerable to magic attacks yourself. Location if you need it:

[Songbird]

Have any Skyrim players here had success (or even just fun) with a stealth oriented mage? I've been tempted to start a new character centered around the magic schools and the Quiet Casting perk. With those I would lay rune traps, armour-skin myself plus conjure atronachs and bound blades. Am I right in guessing that the one handed and backstab perks would help me here? The concept of an self-reliant character for most situations is very interesting.

Either that or heavy armour, archery, unarmed (claws, fists of steel) with the crafting and speech skills. The hardest part is deciding on a character sometimes!

[1stStrike]

Have any Skyrim players here had success (or even just fun) with a stealth oriented mage? I've been tempted to start a new character centered around the magic schools and the Quiet Casting perk. With those I would lay rune traps, armour-skin myself plus conjure atronachs and bound blades. Am I right in guessing that the one handed and backstab perks would help me here? The concept of an self-reliant character for most situations is very interesting. Either that or heavy armour, archery, unarmed (claws, fists of steel) with the crafting and speech skills. The hardest part is deciding on a character sometimes!

I ended up putting some points on the stealth side of things with my mage. If you want to go the stealth route, I recommend doing the thieves guild quest line followed by the dark brotherhood quest line. You'll have a lot of great (and great looking) gear that will help out a lot with the stealth side of things.

Basically, I kept the shoes on that muffled my movement, wore my robes, ring and circlet, and changed between the gloves that gave +20% to bow damage and the gloves that doubled backstab damage as necessary.

Mix in some poisons, and you can sneak around and either backstab bitches with a nice dagger, or just summon a bound bow and poison it up. I found going stealth added a nice bit of diversity to my mage and helped avoid a lot of sticky situations.

But, in the event of a full battle, I could still whip out dual lightning bolt or fireball and unleash death and destruction.

Speaking of which, I need to pick up Skyrim again. Way too distracted by other games now, though...

[DeathJr]

Imperials didn't glitch! Yay!

Finally done with Skyrim 100%.

...and 400 hours later, the Dovahkiin finally rests. Phew!

[Volimar]

I just finished that quest where you are in the mind of some guy. They could've done so much with that but it ended up being really disappointing.

Honestly it reminded me of Dragon Age....

[nHDR]

Beat this last night after buying the game at launch. Initially I thought it might be just as good as Morrowind. Definitely not, though its still quite good. The combat is solid and they made a few changes that really added to the immersion.

However, it still doesn't have the depth of Morrowind. I found the Companion and Mages quests to be decent, nothing amazing. Still have to do the Thief's and Brotherhood. Starting a second character. :)

One thing that really disappointed me: fighting Alduin is no different than any other dragon. He just looks bigger.

[Mxrz]

Started recently. I wanted to keep the game as difficult as possible. So I've turned the difficulty up a notch (not to the highest), and I'm given myself a few handicaps about not exploiting the ai/mechanics, and only using self-crafted armors and weapons.

I'm getting my ass kicked a lot. I'm also loving it. Some fights seem near impossible, but I've been scraping through by using practically every item, potion, spell, scroll, etc. that I've come across. In past TES, I've mostly just hoarded stuff or sold it. So this is a really nice change.

Went with Elven smithing, but Quicksilver ore seems rare as heck. Might go ahead and grab Dwarven since I plan to do them all eventually. Just want a better weapon for now.

[Fancy Corndog]

Started recently. I wanted to keep the game as difficult as possible. So I've turned the difficulty up a notch (not to the highest), and I'm given myself a few handicaps about not exploiting the ai/mechanics, and only using self-crafted armors and weapons. I'm getting my ass kicked a lot. I'm also loving it. Some fights seem near impossible, but I've been scraping through by using practically every item, potion, spell, scroll, etc. that I've come across. In past TES, I've mostly just hoarded stuff or sold it. So this is a really nice change. Went with Elven smithing, but Quicksilver ore seems rare as heck. Might go ahead and grab Dwarven since I plan to do them all eventually. Just want a better weapon for now.

Apparently you can mine Quicksilver in the mine at Dawnstar. I was looking into it myself last night, but haven't had a chance to go.

[OG Kush]

The art style in this game is just so beautiful. Fricking love it. The music as well. Sure there are some ugly textures and glitches/bugs etc but I don't really know what else people expected from such a huge game. If the art style was shit it would loook ugly as hell. Bethesda really outdid themselves on the art.

[PatMcAtee]

Wasn't able to play for a while. Never patched the game, followed the lag stuff for a while.

I have the Xbox version. Now that all is said in done, is the game worth patching or will the patches still eff the game up? Just pointing me to the relevant info would be fine as well.

Thank you.

[Antagon]

Just started over with the PS3 version. At least performance seems decent now, going for a melee / bow character instead of a mage this time. I'm awful at aiming, so decent melee fighting is a big plus for me.

Also made it a point to only pick up stuff that I need so I don't need to hoard a lot of crap to shops and back and I'm going to be a stormcloak. Previous characters I tended to be nice to everyone but this time I'm not going to be having thoughts about robbing and killing Empire alleged NPCS.

[Mxrz]

Does this game have stun-lock or something of the sorts? I have noticed in a few cases where I can't do a normal attack despite having plenty of stamina, and hammering on the attack button. Sometimes it'll go on for 2-3 seconds.

I'm doing A Night to Remember and I'm in the dungeon with all the mages. That one super mage can nearly 1 shot me with his fireball. My best attempt yet was rushing him, and paralyzing him with poisons. I nearly had him, but was unable to attack and finish him off before my last poison wore off. Grr.

[GhaleonEB]

Does this game have stun-lock or something of the sorts? I have noticed in a few cases where I can't do a normal attack despite having plenty of stamina, and hammering on the attack button. Sometimes it'll go on for 2-3 seconds. I'm doing A Night to Remember and I'm in the dungeon with all the mages. That one super mage can nearly 1 shot me with his fireball. My best attempt yet was rushing him, and paralyzing him with poisons. I nearly had him, but was unable to attack and finish him off before my last poison wore off. Grr.

You can be staggered in the same way you stagger opponents. If your screeen is shaking or moving about, you won't be able to attack until its settled.

[Ricker]

What the hell is going near the end...huge spoiler obviously.

I have the voice to call Ovachin at the Fort,after a few tries I got him to get trapped in those huge chains and it says I have to talk to him and liberate him so he can fly me to Alduin's place,I went to the guard upstairs to have him hit the switch for the chain but after that the fight starts again and it's an endless loop now,I bring his health all the way down but he doesn't die and after about 10 seconds,we all have to fight him again and again and again...what am I missing here??

[GruntOfAction]

What the hell is going near the end...huge spoiler obviously. I have the voice to call Ovachin at the Fort,after a few tries I got him to get trapped in those huge chains and it says I have to talk to him and liberate him so he can fly me to Alduin's place,I went to the guard upstairs to have him hit the switch for the chain but after that the fight starts again and it's an endless loop now,I bring his health all the way down but he doesn't die and after about 10 seconds,we all have to fight him again and again and again...what am I missing here??

When you bring him down you have to talk to him to convince him. If you just tell the guard to let the thing go without speaking to him it just loops. :0

[DeathJr]

What the hell is going near the end...huge spoiler obviously. I have the voice to call Ovachin at the Fort,after a few tries I got him to get trapped in those huge chains and it says I have to talk to him and liberate him so he can fly me to Alduin's place,I went to the guard upstairs to have him hit the switch for the chain but after that the fight starts again and it's an endless loop now,I bring his health all the way down but he doesn't die and after about 10 seconds,we all have to fight him again and again and again...what am I missing here??

Talk to Odahviing after you defeat him, make sure he follows you into the trap and gets caught first.

[Fancy Corndog]

So I'm loving the depth of this game. I'm pretty sure the game figured out that I was shooting at some wild animals on my way to a cave to grab some dude's family sword (I was doing it to try and fill some soul gems), because when I got back to Whiterun one of the guards said something along the lines of, "Looking for some game eh? You should go to suchandsuch *map updated* right down the road."

That's incredible to me for some reason...

Not to mention I got a spectacular view of Whiterun when I came out of the other end of the aforementioned cave towards the top of a mountain. Loving this game.



I do have to share this though. I found a book on Skyrim's cats that is hilariously poorly written:

... The snowy version of the sabrecat has spotted white fur which I believe it uses more for stalking more than its cousin in the plains. The tooth of the cat is rumored to be useful in potions that restore the imbibers stamina as well as a potion that will temporarily give a more keen eye for smithing. An skillful hunter can usually salvage the pelts and teeth of their kill, but report that the meat is tasteless and not fit to eat.

[Foffy]

I'm not sure if this is the place to talk about this, but I'm someone who's perhaps lived under a rock for the past 17 or so years: I've never played an Elder Scrolls game. The closest I've ever gotten is King's Field, a first person dungeon-crawling RPG which has some similar mechanics to older Elder Scrolls games (stats level up on use, but this is limited to magic and strength, the beginning of the games is the hardest part of the whole game, like with what some say with Arena).

As a fan of those games (and their modern successors the Souls games) would this series be up my alley? One of the things I worry about is the massive scope of the games, as if I'll miss something helpful. At the same time, I am curious about the difficulty: the King's Field games are just as punishing as the Souls games. Is there a way to make the difficulty rewarding like in the aforementioned games? Also, I'm assuming with the series there's a chronology of sorts to follow. Should I start at Arena or try my luck with Skyrim?

Sorry if I seem like a fool asking such odd questions, or that my gaming tastes have ignored this series for far too long.

[GhaleonEB]

I'm not sure if this is the place to talk about this, but I'm someone who's perhaps lived under a rock for the past 17 or so years: I've never played an Elder Scrolls game. The closest I've ever gotten is King's Field, a first person dungeon-crawling RPG which has some similar mechanics to older Elder Scrolls games (stats level up on use, but this is limited to magic and strength, the beginning of the games is the hardest part of the whole game, like with what some say with Arena). As a fan of those games (and their modern successors the Souls games) would this series be up my alley? One of the things I worry about is the massive scope of the games, as if I'll miss something helpful. At the same time, I am curious about the difficulty: the King's Field games are just as punishing as the Souls games. Is there a way to make the difficulty rewarding like in the aforementioned games? Also, I'm assuming with the series there's a chronology of sorts to follow. Should I start at Arena or try my luck with Skyrim? Sorry if I seem like a fool asking such odd questions, or that my gaming tastes have ignored this series for far too long.

The games are self-contained and designed to be accessible to new players. (Some long-time ES fans argue, too accessible.) There's a lot of lore in the game that will help explain the history of the world, if you want to seek it out, but it's seldom thrust upon you. The quests you do fill in all the relevant details.

The game has five combat difficulties, which you can adjust on the fly. I suggest starting with Expert (4/5 on the difficulty scale), as it is challenging without feeling cheap. Master (5/5) is quite rewarding but has a very brutal curve early on. If that's what you want though, it's there.

Skyrim is a great place to get lost in (though it's designed so that you don't get literally lost). If you want to settle in and focus on a set of quests, you can. If you want to go wandering and find stuff, you can. It's up to you.

I jumped into Oblivion having not played the first three games, and was fine. Skyrim is even more accessible, so you should not have issues. I suspect you'd love it, based on your expressed interests.

[Foffy]

The games are self-contained and designed to be accessible to new players. (Some long-time ES fans argue, too accessible.) There's a lot of lore in the game that will help explain the history of the world, if you want to seek it out, but it's seldom thrust upon you. The quests you do fill in all the relevant details. The game has five combat difficulties, which you can adjust on the fly. I suggest starting with Expert (4/5 on the difficulty scale), as it is challenging without feeling cheap. Master (5/5) is quite rewarding but has a very brutal curve early on. If that's what you want though, it's there. Skyrim is a great place to get lost in (though it's designed so that you don't get literally lost). If you want to settle in and focus on a set of quests, you can. If you want to go wandering and find stuff, you can. It's up to you. I jumped into Oblivion having not played the first three games, and was fine. Skyrim is even more accessible, so you should not have issues. I suspect you'd love it, based on your expressed interests.

For difficulty, how many of the games have selectable difficulties? And how hard is the hardest difficulty compared to Dark Souls (if you played it)? Outside of the five main games, aren't there two spin-offs? I'm one of those nerds that if I give one game a try, I aim to try other games in that franchise. That's how and why I played King's Field in the first place: I fell in love with Demon's Souls, which was considered to be a spiritual successor to that series.

[Himself]

I'm about 35 hours into my first playthrough and have a question. Are you folks sticking to doing quests that "fit" the personality of your character or just sort of hopping around and trying whatever is interesting? I'm playing my character as a sort of do-gooder/benevolent hero and avoiding all quests that sound like they involve unjust killing/law breaking/whatever. But I feel like some quests have almost forced me into breaking character which, of course, may or may not be my own fault even though I've made a conscientious decision to be consistent with my actions. These few quests that I ended up doing stuff I didn't want to (In My Time of Need, House of Horrors) feel like I've broken character to the point of...having my character broken.

So what has been your level of success in keeping a consistent role for your character while playing? Do I just need to be more careful or does the game not necessarily let you play your character precisely how you would like to?

[Seanspeed]

For difficulty, how many of the games have selectable difficulties? And how hard is the hardest difficulty compared to Dark Souls (if you played it)?

Seriously, put down any comparisons to the Souls games right now. They are very different(even with how they handle difficulty) and if you go in expecting anything like that, you will be disappointed.

The difficulty can change throughout the game based on your character and what equipment you get and the level scaling and whatnot. Its never set-in-stone, which is why being able to change the difficulty on the fly is a very useful thing to have in this game. I've gone from 'Normal' to 'Adept' to 'Expert' to 'Adept' again to 'Master' then back to 'Expert' and now back to 'Adept' again as I've played.

[Volimar]

I'm about 35 hours into my first playthrough and have a question. Are you folks sticking to doing quests that "fit" the personality of your character or just sort of hopping around and trying whatever is interesting? I'm playing my character as a sort of do-gooder/benevolent hero and avoiding all quests that sound like they involve unjust killing/law breaking/whatever. But I feel like some quests have almost forced me into breaking character which, of course, may or may not be my own fault even though I've made a conscientious decision to be consistent with my actions. These few quests that I ended up doing stuff I didn't want to (In My Time of Need, House of Horrors) feel like I've broken character to the point of...having my character broken. So what has been your level of success in keeping a consistent role for your character while playing? Do I just need to be more careful or does the game not necessarily let you play your character precisely how you would like to?

I have a paladin type character that I've really enjoyed. I found it quite rewarding for example when the Dark Brotherhood tried to initiate me. I also have plenty of quests that i have no intention of finishing on him because of what it tries to make you do. Just remember, even if it's a big quest or main quest trying to get you to do something you don't want your character doing, you can just not do it. There's nothing wrong with just not finishing those quests.