[PATV] Extra Credits s.3 ep.23 - Skyrim's Opening

Der Waffle Mous

They had the good sense to create a save right before the character creation menu, at least.

Traiden

n3waccnt wrote:

I didn't test this, but in the escaping the execution thing, was there any real danger? I mean the dragon never comes after the player does it? If he had you'd just die. If you stand around long enough, I don't what will happen, but I would more expect a flashing yellow arrow to point you toward the barracks than the dragon to have killed you. I got the feeling the whole thing was just meant to look exciting and dangerous, but it wasn't. So why make it look that way.

That was the good point of the video I thought. The forte of games like skyrim isn't the fast paced action "hook" of other games, so they should stick to what they're good at and make an intro which highlights the game's real strengths. Exploration, discovery, character growth...

You will be eaten if you dick around in the intro. That dragon will totally fly down and tear you a new one, and it really lends to the rush of the dragon attack and having to get to cover.

RoyceSraphim

I've only watched video on Xfinity of the intro and it sounds like a better intro would have been being caught up in that riad after stumbling out of an inn with a hangover and THEN waking up on the cart.

Gokerz

Traiden wrote:

You will be eaten if you dick around in the intro. That dragon will totally fly down and tear you a new one, and it really lends to the rush of the dragon attack and having to get to cover.

I let my gf play the intro once. She has no prior experience with computer games, so she was a bit overwhelmed by the controls and amount of info she had to process. So when she got into the tower right after the attempted execution she missed the prompt to jump to the other roof.
She stayed in the tower, because why wouldn't you? The dragon can't get you in there, no further attempt is made to get you to jump to that roof. Staying in the tower and waiting until the Dragon attack is over is completly sensible.
After that, feeling threatened by the dragon attack or rushed kind of went away.

The Skyrim intro has a pretty good scene with that dragon attack, but in the end that just a good distraction from how poorly made it is in most ways that matter for in introduction.
And I say this as someone who loves all the rest of the game and spend >100 hours on it.

PikaPuff

jackal wrote:

Right after the intro is the "oh look at this fuckin' open world" moment they referred to. For most people stopping at that point would cause the worst case of gaming blue balls ever.

I believe my brother was looking at the ground to follow the trail, running past the npc, looking for things to kill. Got off the trail and stared at some trees point blank for a while. Heard whispers of the far off NPC mention a dragon and staying back and heard dragon noises. Looked behind him and nothing there. Got back onto the main trail. Looked up and saw the tiny speck of a black dot of a dragon in the distance.

Then he jumped into a river and chased a fish. Got out and killed some hunter girl. Killed some town npcs and was killed. I finally got to try out the game and followed the trail, killed some guys in a bandit cave, got to town, continued to be bored from the boring intro, killed some town npcs and died.

Boring intro was boring. Getting out of the cave was boring (as we had to focus on the hud markers, the trail, the npc, and apparently the sky) because we weren't looking the correct way. Maybe if the game started right as you stepped out of the cave it would be better? But right after wards you walk down a gloomy forest path into a crappy town, and listen to some brothers talk about giving you a job.

I guess the game gets better later? BUt like the EC said, the intro showed nothing of that to us. The $2 redbox was a good test; we weren't going to risk $60 more when everything we played so far was not enjoyable.

PikaPuff

Slurmee wrote:

The cart ride just sucked. Everything after creating your character was good imo

Game froze shortly after the character creation. Well, once before and once after.

Gokerz wrote:

You will be eaten if you dick around in the intro. That dragon will totally fly down and tear you a new one, and it really lends to the rush of the dragon attack and having to get to cover.

? My brother ran around town for about 10 minutes and didn't get eaten by a dragon?

Traiden wrote:

I let my gf play the intro once. She has no prior experience with computer games, [...] So when she got into the tower right after the attempted execution she missed the prompt to jump to the other roof.
She stayed in the tower,

My brother broke all the in-game scripting. Ran upstairs way beofre the dragon busts through, so we were staring at a wall when it happened, we turn around there's a hole there. We missed the jump prompt, went downstairs, found the path blocked, I said to jump out the hole in the wall. We didn't know it was a roof jump and, after getting on the roof jumped to the ground back to the start. We then ran around for 10 minutes not knowing where to go next. The pointer was pointing to the house, and had several ways to get to the pointer, all blocked by invisible barriers. No dragon ate us this whole time. It was quite a boring intro.

Enc

PikaPuff wrote:

jackal wrote:

Right after the intro is the "oh look at this fuckin' open world" moment they referred to. For most people stopping at that point would cause the worst case of gaming blue balls ever.

I believe my brother was looking at the ground to follow the trail, running past the npc, looking for things to kill. Got off the trail and stared at some trees point blank for a while. Heard whispers of the far off NPC mention a dragon and staying back and heard dragon noises. Looked behind him and nothing there. Got back onto the main trail. Looked up and saw the tiny speck of a black dot of a dragon in the distance.

Then he jumped into a river and chased a fish. Got out and killed some hunter girl. Killed some town npcs and was killed. I finally got to try out the game and followed the trail, killed some guys in a bandit cave, got to town, continued to be bored from the boring intro, killed some town npcs and died.

Boring intro was boring. Getting out of the cave was boring (as we had to focus on the hud markers, the trail, the npc, and apparently the sky) because we weren't looking the correct way. Maybe if the game started right as you stepped out of the cave it would be better? But right after wards you walk down a gloomy forest path into a crappy town, and listen to some brothers talk about giving you a job.

I guess the game gets better later? BUt like the EC said, the intro showed nothing of that to us. The $2 redbox was a good test; we weren't going to risk $60 more when everything we played so far was not enjoyable.

Sounds to me like you wouldn't have liked the game regardless of the intro. That's pretty much what TES is about, walking about and finding bandits, dungeons, towns, etc. You set your own pace, so it's as boring or exciting as you make it.

That's really wonky on the breaking the scripting though. There were a ton of bugs like that in the first weeks of the game, it's a lot nicer now though (ish, it still crashes sometimes for no reason). Still buggy in places, but with a game this size I guess that goes with the territory.

Luptonium

I have a slight issue with this episode. It seemed to me with Skyrim's opening that it was all made to be as generic as possible until you get to your WOW moment, when they pull back the veil and show you how awesome the game your bought really is. That moment is of course the dragon. Plus I love the idea of making the gamer panic to make that early snap decision of who you run off with. Yeah having the character creator take effect seconds before you are about to be beheaded is kinda anticlimactic, but I can see what they were going for and I think they actually accomplished it.

PikaPuff

You make a decision of who to run off with? We just followed the markers. I remember reading "Follow X or Y" but I only saw one person, one marker, and one place to go. Like I said previously about scripting, my brother (after jumping through that roof) just ran past all the npcs to the quest marker and sort of waited there for the cave to be clickable.

The dragon dropping down and roaring then leaving wasn't very wow. Then it shoots fireballs from points unseen which isn't exciting at all, then we break the scripting and are already on the second floor when the head bursts in but whoops we were looking at brooms on the wall.

johnwolf

XP it seems you all missed the true motive despite you all saying EXACTLY what it dose. you KNOW there's and expancive world and you're binded with some other men in a cart. they're distant are so they don't escape from the cart. traped, and helpless you're sent off to die. secondly who's all there, if you're intristed in the backstory of the world, ulfric was the leader of the stormcloaks who are rebeling agenced the Empire. which means the war that was happing was coming to a close. after bending over the choping block you see a dragon and ulfric escapes refuling the war. and ALLL of that within the intro. now how LONG dose it take to get anywhere or anyTHING in the game. it takes a SHIZ long time (from 2 mins to 7mins no joke). now compair this to CoD's opening. It's fast, a LOTS going on...and it's short. kinda like the FPS. I think it perfictly sets the tone of the game and it's pace. I learned that the game can be slow at times and frightfuly fast at others ALL with in the intro. i also learned that there was a war, there are dragons and i'm finaly free of my death sentence also from the intro of the game. true it's not the most well thought out intro but i thought it fit it. hell they give you characters to sympithise AND hate at the intro. it totaly fits the game.

Nergy

I've just rewatched this episode. I didn't really pay much attention the first time. After the rewatch, parts of what they said didn't make sense:

Why would the character creator popping up before your execution spoil the fact you're going to survive the execution? Of course you're going to survive, what point would the game be conveying if you sat in a cart listening to two people talk and then have your head roll across the ground?.