I have had my PS3 on for the past 2 hours on Skyrim's main menu, listening to the main theme song over and over again while I am on MAP. I can't seem to be engaged enough to play it. I put hundreds of hours into the game, beat almost every quest, played all sorts of characters with many different builds, but now it's just...meh. When I played Oblivion, I put more hours into the game than I ever did on Skyrim, and even now I can pop the disc back in and play it, but it still isn't something I'll jump into for more than a few hours. With Morrowind I put even MORE hours than I did on Oblivion AND Skyrim. I explored every cave, fort, ancestral tomb, Daedric & Dwemer ruins, island, etc. etc. etc. and I still haven't found them all! The game just had so much immersion and had so much variety that even now, more than decade after it was release, I still find it very enjoyable. While I can understand Bethesda's aim to make its games more accessible to different kinds of gamers, they started losing the charm that they had when they made the games for a special kind of gamer. I don't know, I might be rumbling off here...I blame lack of sleep! Do you guys have the same feelings? It doesn't just have to do with Skyrim, but with any other game series that you have been playing for quite sometime.
I think Dragon Age 2 is a good example of this phenomenon but I don't feel it's so bad in Skyrim. In Skyrim they've hit a good balance.
Ah! Dragon Age 2 definitely has that feeling associated with it. It's not that it's a bad game, just doesn't have a high replay value. Yes, Skyrim is one of the best games to come out this year if not in the decade, but how rare are the kinds of games that you can play 5, 10, 20 + years from now and still enjoy. I have so many NES, Saga Genesis, N64, and O.G. Xbox games that I still play and immensely enjoy. This generation of games haven't had that charm for me. Maybe it has to do with me getting older and all?
I think it's been because a lot of games today appear to highly driven towards profit, yes I know that's why they make them but lately it's been shoved in the face of gamers. Day one DLC releases, obviously rushed games, was it Asura's Wrath that had the "real" ending as a DLC? It's all put me off a little about the next gen. The only DLC I'll get now will probably be content that is similar to Dawn Guard, stuff that adds some actual content to the game and experience.
For my money, that's just what happens when you finish a game. In Skyrim, once I'd built my dude up into an unstoppable fighting machine and finished all the main story quests, I just lost interest. I wish I hadn't, as I really enjoyed playing Skyrim, but for me, story is what keeps me coming back to a game and once the world is saved, I don't have a lot of motivation for endless "help Phil the peasant collect some mud from the mines of Blorf" quests.
Splinter ell definitely had that feeling. Then it turned into a Bourne rip-off. The new games are excellent, but they don't resemble previous games in the series. Somebody wrote about the original Splinter Cell: "You really do feel that if you farted you would give away your position."
Asura's Wrath is an excellent example! I haven't played Dawn Guard because it still hasn't been released on PS3, but from what I read it's not one of their best DLC to date. In Morrowind Bethesda released Blood Moon and Mournhold. Blood Moon introduced a HUGE new continent that could have been a stand alone game by itself. Mournhold introduced yet another new sizable area that complemented the game very well. It was something your read in the various scattered books ingame years ago and thought that "I wish I can play that!" and the surprise that you get when you do is priceless! That game made me a life-long fan of Bethesda and TES series. Epic story lines, unique weapons and armor, and new much more challenging enemies (anyone who played them can tell you the huge jump in difficulty, especially the werewolves!). Oblivion had the Knights of the Nine and the Shivering Isles. The Knights of the Nine was a satisfying DLC even with the lack of a new area. I would say that Dawn Guard is the spiritual successor of KotN in terms of content introduced to the game. Then Bethesda outdid themselves and releases the Shivering Isles. An excellent DLC with new area, very unique content, and a engaging story line that reeled TES fans right back in and brought back the charm of Morrowind into the game. I was disappointed when I heard about Dawn Guard because I had high hopes for the new DLC. There were rumors that Cyrodiil might be reintroduced and we'll get to explore the Imperial City again, and some gamers found the Vvarendfell continent in Skyrim already pre-rendered! I don't know, Bethesda is one of the top game studios out there, and I have high expectations for them to pull through. The original Splinter Cell was a classic! It even rivaled the Thief series in terms of stealth game play, but like you I have the same feeling about the newer games.
I was hugely deceived by Dawnguard. There is a bug in the main quest where a key NPC will attack you on sight and refuse to talk to you. Bethesda blamed the modding community AFAIK but I dont buy it.
I will often just walk around Skyrim and deal with whatever comes....it is still my GOAT game bar none In fact I spent so much time playing it "virtually" I often completely forget to do the quests
Dragon Age 3 will rule Personally, I'm also done with Skyrim. Eagerly awaiting Assassin's Creed III later this month.
Dangerous...Gonna give that one a wide berth. Wel...I'm gonna try to. Edit: Damn it. I just checked the website. I'm sold on the front page art work alone!
Took some time off to play ACIII, but I am now back to playing Skyrim again. I have PS3, and hear they will be releasing all the DL content for PS3 sometime very soon. Dragonborn is the latest, got good reviews in Game Informer.
Its a pretty big DLC and feels less of a "bolt on quest" than most....more like "Shivering Isles" and less like "Knights of the Nine"
Not played Dawnguard yet, probably should soon, especially after how much the ES:O trailer made me drool... The problem I had with Skyrim was that I leveled up my Conjuration quite quickly, and soon found I was an unstoppable killing machine with millions of minions doing everything for me... It kinda lost a lot of its enticement once it stopped being a challenge... I might make me a new character at some point... (if I can tear the gf off of Blo:Ops2 lol)