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neptiofpovar
Guest
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Ok here are my first impressions of the game after about an hour of playing.
System:
P4 2.2Ghz, 1GB RAM, GeForce4 128MB RAM, SB Audigy
Game Settings:
Everything Set to MAX
The first words coming to my mind after the first few minutes of playing were words like, 'clean, organized, streamlined, efficient, polished' and so on and so forth.
Every aspect of the game, so far, seems fully fleshed out and organized.
My next major impression is how much feedback provides you as you play the game. This was probably my single biggest beef with Daggerfall.
I don't want to spoil anything for anyone, so I'll use just one simple example to illustrate what I mean. You face a door, and a popup window appears telling you the name of the establishment.
There is feedback such as to the extent that I almost can't even believe it. The ingame journal, map, spell menu, inventory menu, and so on are no exception to this.
The grahpics... well as you all have probably already read a zillion times, the graphics are fantastic. I still can't get over how water looks. Just amazing. |
Thu May 02, 2002 1:58 am |
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Carcusrex
Guest
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more more more...  |
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Thu May 02, 2002 2:19 am |
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iplaygames2
Master of The Realms
Joined: 06 Sep 2001
Posts: 745
Location: Chicago, IL, USA |
Holy crapola...
That's a nice system you got there pal.. 
_________________
Member of the "Fantastic ONE"
(hell, everyone else is a member of something..)
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Thu May 02, 2002 3:06 am |
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HanshaSuro
Village Dweller
Joined: 01 May 2002
Posts: 22
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Nice system! Now, have pity on us and give us more impressions! Please...? 
_________________
-HanshaSuro
"I read somewhere that in the last census, 1.6 percent of the population was not counted. How can they know that?"
-George Carlin |
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Thu May 02, 2002 3:09 am |
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HaVoK
Eager Tradesman
Joined: 30 Apr 2002
Posts: 31
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And Possibly a Screenshot of you shooting someone with a bow? (or just a screenshot)
PS (I doubt hell answer us hes probably playing) |
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Thu May 02, 2002 3:15 am |
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neptiofpovar
Guest
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| Gameplay Spoilers to follow... |
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Ok my wife marched in the room demanding I pay attention to her so my first Morrowind session (about 3 hours total) has to come to a close for the night. But before I go, I'll jot down a few free-form observations for you all... note that these observations are all made from the starting town of the game...
THE GOOD
Load times are fast. Both loading from a saved game file and loading interior/exterior maps.
The first book I found was 14 pages in length (not real pages but in-game book pages). Took me about 3 o 4 real time minutes to read. I earned 2 points in unarmored skill reading it!
NPCs get real nasty when you steal stuff in front of them. They have hillarious taunts when they start attacking you for stealing their stuff.
There is a very cool lighthouse in the starting town.
Spell effects are amazing, to say the least. I cast a shielding spell on my character, switched to 3rd person view, and low and behold my character is encased within a shimmering sphere... very neat...
You use the tab key to switch from first person and 3rd person views. But if you hold the tab key down and swing your mouse left or right, you can swing in circles around your character... halleluya you can finally see the front of your character in 3rd person view!!! I guess this is the vanity mode they've mentioned in the past...
My first couple of fights have been tough. A mudcrab of all things is a close fight. Another monster, a fish of some sort, kills me outright... no swimming for now...
If you run out of endurance in the middle of a fight, you start to fall down from exhuastion... this is done very smoothly and very realistically.. a very good implementation from what I can tell...
So far, interior and exterior maps flow logically. For example, say you enter an 'L' shaped house using a door on the short line end of the 'L.' Then, inside the house, you walk down the shaft of the short line of the 'L,' make a 90 degree turn and walk the length of the long line of the 'L' and exit a door, you will be in the spot you would expect to be in on the exterior map. Very nice I hope this stays consistent.
So far I haven't noticed any popping. I do have the clipping plane set to maximum. I don't know if moving the clipping plane would start making things pop into view... haven't tested it yet.
The sun gets in your eyes a lot and sunrise and sunset. Realistic but kinda annoying. But also very cool at the same time.
At one point, a guard seemingly went berzerk and ran past me very fast and into the water about chest deep. I pursued him into the water to see what he was so upset about. Apparently one of those mean fish that always kill me at this point if I try to fight them got this particular guard upset so the guard killed it. I looted the fish. That was a good laugh.
Stacking is back with a vengence in this game. Everything that should stack does stack in your inventory.
While I was meandering about in town, a line of text appeared that read, 'There is someone watching me, I can tell.' Not sure if I overheared an NPC or if my own character was telling me that he can tell someone is watching him... curious...
I noticed that as dusk settles in the city guards start walking around with torches, very cool.
On my system, I have shadow effects set to max and they are very nice, and flicker appropriately with flickering light sources.
Day to night transition is in fact as smooth as all the previews have suggested.
Variety of NPCs, faces, and clothing have all been unique so far, including spoken dialogue.
Now for the coolest thing of the night... ** Big Gameplay Spoiler **
One of the first quests you can get is an NPC asks you to find so-and-so's secret hiding place. He suggests that you wait until nightfall, and watch the townfolk from atop the lighthouse so that you can spot so-and-so sneaking to his secret stash area. So I did just that. I waited until nighttime. Then I went to the top of the lighthouse. About 20 seconds or so later, here comes so-and-so, in sneaking around the area (and yes, by his posturing and the way he is walking, you can tell he is sneaking). So I watch him as we sneaks about and finally walks to one spot and pauses, and then walks away. I climb down from the lighthouse and go to that location. Low and behold it's his secret hiding place, quest completed! Very cool. For kicks, I loaded a save game from BEFORE I recieved this quest to see what would happen if I went to that secret stash before getting the quest. I went there, and while the stash area was in tact, it was empty. I think this speaks well of the quest system. Anyway, this little quest is a great hint at the complexity of the quest system and has me drooling!
THE NOT SO GOOD
When you fight a monster, I can see no visible way to know how close the monster is to death.
I've gotten stuck on the world geometry in two different places. One time next to the pier where the ship that drops you off docks. The other time at the top of the lighthouse. In both instances, I managed to wiggle myself free after a minute or so.
While water looks incredible, underwater looks fairly drab and uninteresting. |
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Thu May 02, 2002 4:00 am |
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Warmaster-Horus
Most Exalted Highlord
Joined: 28 Apr 2002
Posts: 421
Location: Eye of Terror, Washington |
What is swimming like? and how drab is it, do they just make it look like the surface but with a washed out blue/gray color i.e daggerfall?
_________________
Ater deus praevalo
=Leader of the Horus Heresy=
=Champion of Khorne=
BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOD SKULLS FOR THE THRONE |
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Thu May 02, 2002 4:07 am |
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HanshaSuro
Village Dweller
Joined: 01 May 2002
Posts: 22
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neptiofpovar, thanks! Too bad that your wife tore you away from your computer. I'm supposed to be working side by side with my girlfriend, but I'm spending more time pouring over the boards than writing a short story in Japanese. Hopefully she's lenient with me come tomorrow.
God, tomorrow... I was so eager to lap up any bit of information about the game I couldn't have cared less if there was a bigger spoiler in there. Thanks for the warning nonetheless. ::wonders if he'll be able to sleep a wink tonight::
_________________
-HanshaSuro
"I read somewhere that in the last census, 1.6 percent of the population was not counted. How can they know that?"
-George Carlin |
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Thu May 02, 2002 4:09 am |
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neptiofpovar
Guest
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| My wife just doesnt get videogames grrr... |
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About the water...
With graphical options set to max, the surface of water is just amazing. But when you go underneath the water, it is equally unamazing as the surface of the water is amazing.
This isn't neccessarily bad. It's just something that really sticks out when one moment you are looking at a fantastically rendered water surface, and then the next moment you are underwater and it looks, well, kinda ho-hum... but it could just be the area that I'm in... there have already been hints of an 'underwater city.'
By ho-hum, I just mean that compared to dry land, there are little to no underwater features. But again, just remember, this is just one observation in just one water local in the game.
Ok, now I really have to get off this 'damn computer' (that's what my wife calls it).
Night all. |
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Thu May 02, 2002 4:14 am |
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Trollbiter
Guest
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The horrible truth is as any diver can tell you - unless you've got a big light source with you it sounds like its exactly like it is under the water - drab and dull from a color point of view. |
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Thu May 02, 2002 6:00 am |
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Incindium
Captain of the Guard
Joined: 17 Oct 2001
Posts: 187
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Ok here are my intial impressions... Wow is this game detailed!.. I just left the first town and I've been playing the game for 5 hours... I'm gonna have to make a point of not checking everything out cause it just takes to damn long! Playing a thief character Is really great even this early... You can sneak and steal things that a near npc's if you are carefull(and lucky) I got a torch pickpocketing a guard which was cool. Combat is pretty cool although my fingers are still used to Jedi Knight so I keep hitting the wrong button. Moving a direction and holding the first mouse determines your attack type. Holding it down longer does more damage. Each weapon has different stats for the three types of attacks.
Computer Specs.
Athlon Tbird @ 1518Mhz GF3 Oc'd @ 244/542 512 Ram Win2k
Ok as far as performance goes it is pretty good. I had been playing at 1024x768 with 2x AA and everything maxed. Everything was fine until nightfall when the torches were brought out and the resulting slowdown from all the shadows. So I turned the shadows down to about half. I was having some weird flicker of white specks on the screen occasionally and i finally figured out it was from having AA on. So I'm gonna continue playing the game this time without AA and I might crank up the detail a notch since I'll have it off.
Load times are noticeable but are totally bearable as they are rather quick.
I've managed to up my merchantile, acrobatics, and short blade skills so far...
The inventory menus are resizeable which is good but I cant seem to find the info on how much gold I have unless I'm talking to a shopkeeper. I probably just need to read the manual since I haven't looked at it yet except to see how to pickpocket.
Picking ingediants from the landscape is cool even if this char isn't a alchemist. I haven't tried eating the componants yet to see what they do to you.
Hmm I just realized that nother thing I haven't done yet is cast a spell... I've been focusing on other things...
Did i mention how much there is to do in this game?
Laters I gotta get back to playing. |
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Thu May 02, 2002 6:43 am |
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Rendelius
Critical Error
Joined: 06 Jul 2001
Posts: 16
Location: Austria |
in you inventory, the last entry is a gold coin with a number on it - this is how much gold you have
_________________
Rendelius
former Senior Editor RPGDot
now at http://www.theastronomers.com |
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Thu May 02, 2002 7:07 am |
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Snoekie
Baron of the Court
Joined: 09 Jul 2001
Posts: 335
Location: Amsterdam, The Netherlands |
Great first impressions guys! I won't get the game untill next week at the earliest (Gamestop hasn't even shipped it yet...) so I'm really enjoying these first-hand experiences
I got a question about combat though: when you get too tired and fall down from fatigue, how do you regain your stamina/fatigue?
Just by sitting down and taking a beating or are there other ways?
Some sort of stamina potion perhaps?
Thanks and keep on playing |
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Thu May 02, 2002 8:01 am |
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Rendelius
Critical Error
Joined: 06 Jul 2001
Posts: 16
Location: Austria |
normally, when you fall down from fatigue, the opponent would beat the crap out of you - until you die. However, you have three options: Cast a spell on you (if you get lucky and aren't interrupted - not a good option, though), drink a potion (very good option) or have a short snack (doesn't give you a lot of stamina back, but better than nothing).
There are so many things that go into the euqation of getting tired. Heavy armor will make your fatigue grow faster. Hits will not only drai health, but add fatigue as well. Unarmored opponents will just punch you, so you will fall down without being hurt to much.
The beauty of Morrowind is that the system behind the actions is rock solid and cleverly laid out. Things are as you would expect them to be from your everyday experience.
_________________
Rendelius
former Senior Editor RPGDot
now at http://www.theastronomers.com |
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Thu May 02, 2002 8:45 am |
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Snoekie
Baron of the Court
Joined: 09 Jul 2001
Posts: 335
Location: Amsterdam, The Netherlands |
Thanks Rend
Oh boy, these last moments (days) of waiting are getting tough, hehe.
I can't wait to try combat myself.
And most of all I'm glad to hear that this edition of the elderscrolls does NOT have lots of bugs but plays rocksolid!
Keep your impressions comming guys, we morrowind-less folks need something to tie us over till we get it ourselves |
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Thu May 02, 2002 9:35 am |
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