My mate was there, I'll write up what he sent to me:
So, just got back from Eurogamer expo. I'll be going again tomorrow with sone bros, but thought I may as well write down my initial experiences with Skyrim.
I played twice, queuing for a pretty long time both times. Watching people okay from the queue was pretty entertaining though. At least the first time. Also allowed me to gather some info from watching people play/ loading screen factoids. I'll do a summary of info that's new (to me at least) at the end of this post.
Anyways, to my first playthrough:
I had a "plan" I'd set out here, which was to get to Winterhold and join the mages guild.
Straight after exiting the starter cave (nothing in there) I headed to Riverwood as most people seem to have, toasting a bunny on the way with the flamethrower ("flames") spell. I had a quick look around the town and found no sign of a horse and cart (skyrims equivalent of stilt striders) to get me to Winterhold. I headed out of town and towards Whiterun, heading over some rough terrain to skip around a mountain (the one the 20 min demo goes up) and came to some open grassy planes.
There were three dudes fighting a giant, and I helped out with the fire spell. When I accidentally hit one he told me to "be careful with that fire" which I though was pretty sweet. I had a chat with one of the ladies and the npcs are a lot more emotive with their body in conversation.
I carried on towards whiterun and found the horse and cart outside. I asked the man where I could go, selected Winterhold and he told me to get in the back. Rather than ten being teleported there straight away, I had to actually go round to the back of the cart and climb in, which again I though was a neat touch.
This is where play through one got kinda sucky. When I arrived it was basically a blizzard, so I couldn't see very far. After staggering around for a bit, I found some stairs up to the college of Winterhold, and headed along a bridge towards the entrance. Along the bridge I was stopped by an npc, kind of. I could hear a woman's voice speaking to be very quietly, but my view just zoomed into the floor.
Carrying on regardless, I navigated through a conversation tree about joining the college until she gave me a task. I had to cast "magelight" on some panel on the floor. I had three options here. Use persuasion to tell here something like "let's be honest, we both know I'll pass this test" tell her I don't know the spell, or just say "ok"
I didn't know the spell so I told her as much and she said I could buy it from her for 33 gold, or find a "court wizard" to sell me it. I bought it off her, then jumped off the bridge to see if she was under it or something. After looking around I went back UP the stairs and there she was. I cast the spell on the panel, but had to wait for her to slowly walk from where she was to next to the panel where she was presumably supposed to be. She then said I was a member and led me inside.
Here I was meant to talk to some lady, but when I did she started to give me "the tour" which seemed like a waste of my quickly running out time. I spoke to the other mages to see who would sell me spells. One of then sold several commutation spells, but I didn't have the money for any.
Realising I was running out of time, I ran out of town to find something to fight. I found a wold and shit it with the light spell I bought. It didn't do a lot and then I was told my time was up. I'll write up my second play through later tonight. Here are a few little factoids I gathered from my first.
-frost spells also damage stamina
-health regens out of combat
-from what I saw, quests seem a lot more "natural" in how the progress, rather than "hi, wanna join the mages guild? Ok cool, you're a member. No go kill this baddie"
-elves look a LOT more "alien" than in previous games, especially oblivion.
-there are definitely hard baddies at low levels. Saw a guy tryna bow and arrow a mammoth and it was NOT happening
- there's conjuration spell called "summon familiar" but I don't know what it does
-some spells need to have the trigger held down to charge up before the can be cast
More later and hopefully tomorrow.
Ok so here's a summary of my second go on Skyrim...
Seeing as the Mage plan didn't go so great last time, I decided to make a dual wielding Orc warrior in heavy plate. After a long ass wait, this plan was quickly foiled. Whoever had played on my console perviously had saved over the save they were using to set the game up, and you can't start a new game in the demo for obvious reasons.
As such, I ended up playing a dark elf character who had apparently been murdering random people and was hated by guards I guess.
I headed towards the group of imperials (who seem kind of like baddies in Skyrim?) escorting a prisoner. I didn't have the option to help or ignore because the imperials just bum rushed me while the prisoner escaped. I was dual wielding swords, in light armour, and took them out pretty quickly.
I then chased after the Nord, who was still running, and once I caught up, clicked him and selected to set him free. As well as the option the leave him, I could also set him free and share equipment. He then said something about some faction (I forget the name) of Nords who are anti-empire.
Although he was still running away, when I came across a couple of wolves he turned around and gave me a hand before bolting again.
Shortly afterwards I actually came across a camp belonging to this faction, but couldn't be bothered chatting so I moved on.
I then came across an Orc female outside a lumber milk informing me she had something to give me a pick me up. Upon inquiring she was apparently selling skooma. I could say something like "isn't that illegal?" inquire further or attempt to intimidate her into giving me he goods. I tried that and failed. She attacked, I murdered her.
After a few more wildlife encounters o came across a camp of giants. I went to approach one of them, but he started to growl, so I decided to back off.
I then came across a man and what was presumably his wife travelling with a body guard. I talked to him and he told me he was travelling to a wedding with gifts. I tried to intimidate him into giving me his gifts, but I failed the speech check and he called his guard. I dropped the guard after a lengthy fight (daggers don't work great against a shield) then ran the guy down. He took more hits than I expected, and after dropping behind I eventually had to finish him off with an arrow through the back.
I tried dropping his wife too but she was too far away and I missed with my bow. She came upon a town and the guards came after me so I bolted across a rover and up a hill. I entered a cave, which don't have doors anymore as you just walk in and hit a loading screen. The cave was full of spiders. I killed a few and picked up venom from their corpses, which I assume I could apply to my weapons as a poison.
However, I didn't get to try as I was then kicked off! So, second play through still wasn't perfect, but totally an improvement on the first!
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