I went to my local Gamestop and waited from nine until midnight to finally get Skyrim...I was one of the first 20 out of over 200 to get it at that single outlet.
I dropped my friends off and rushed home, chugged the 32-oz Monster I left in my fridge, and tumbled down the stairs to my gaming rig. The blue light was already glowing in the darkness, and my internet was ready. I inserted the disk, my entirety quivering in anticipation. The installation screen came up...
And said I had to wait nine hours for it to download.
I was beyond furious.
After staring at the progress bar until about 1:45 in the morning, my eyes stopped glowing blood crimson and instead faded to a calmer red. I googled "why the hell isn't skyrim letting me install it pc" and quickly found hundreds of others with problems similar to my own: the Steam servers were glitching, and forced those who purchased the physical copy of Skyrim to download it even though all the data was sitting, raw and ready on the disk. I quickly found the local god in the thread, who posted an easy solution to this problem. Within minutes, I had fixed the issue, installed the game, and began playing.
I have to say: it was well worth all the wait, and all the trouble.
The instant I began my new game, I was blown away by both audial and graphical quality (see screenshots!), when compared to the previous Elder Scrolls installments. On my decent PC rig, people actually looked like people, outlines were smooth, and textures were gorgeous. Varied voice acting was actually present in Skyrim (unlike Morrowind or Oblivion) - over a hundred different actors contributed - and it, coupled with the wonderful visuals I was getting, allowed me to completely immerse myself until 4 in the morning, when I passed out in my chair at my desk.
Within those two hours, however, I discovered many things about this new Elder Scrolls game. I won't spoil the introductory sequence (it's AWESOME), but something I do want to cover in depth is the character creator.
Races in Skyrim Compared to Those in Oblivion
As is plainly visible, characters have changed drastically in many ways. Differences between each race have become more distinct: size and frame tendencies vary more obviously, and all characters are rougher in appearance (fitting, for the land of Skyrim is not a forgiving place). Argonians, Khajit, and Orcs have undergone a complete overhaul, and don't look nearly as silly as they did in Oblivion (Orcs can actually be considered intimidating now!). Also, during race selection, a general overview of each race is provided, along with their origins. There are just as many customization sliders to play around with as in Oblivion (which means there are quite a few), so individual players' characters will never look exactly the same.
After playing around with my Breton's appearance for about twenty minutes, I continued on with the tutorial. I finished it rather quickly, and left well-equipped, which satisfied me immensely (especially when I compared this beginning to Oblivion's, which left you empty-handed and alone in the world q_q ). I took my first steps into the world of Skyrim, and boy, did I love it.
To be continued in the next Elder Scrolls Explorer.
Have fun, good gaming, and remember: don't feed the trolls.
-Toast
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