The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

[psybox]

I recommend waiting for a sale and get the Skyrim legendary edition. Even if you already have Skyrim, it's still probably the best deal you're going to get on the DLC.   Getting Dragon Age: Origins is also a good idea, It's a great game that I highly recommend.

[Rainshadow]

I'd say get Dragonborn but I wouldn't trust my judgement if I were you (I have an unhealthy obsession with that DLC)

  Okay, all I know about that DLC is that it includes riding dragons.  What else is there about it?

I recommend waiting for a sale and get the Skyrim legendary edition. Even if you already have Skyrim, it's still probably the best deal you're going to get on the DLC.   Getting Dragon Age: Origins is also a good idea, It's a great game that I highly recommend.

  You're telling this to the girl with patience issues.    Is the legendary edition the one that includes all the DLCs, or am I thinking of something else?

  Yeah, I keep wondering if I should get Origins, but my brother doesn't really want me to.  Something about how it's an old game, but I don't really care.  I'll play old games if they have good stories to them, and from what I've seen on YouTube, Origins has a really interesting plot.

[Dawnwing]

I'd say get Dragonborn but I wouldn't trust my judgement if I were you (I have an unhealthy obsession with that DLC)

 Okay, all I know about that DLC is that it includes riding dragons.  What else is there about it?

I recommend waiting for a sale and get the Skyrim legendary edition. Even if you already have Skyrim, it's still probably the best deal you're going to get on the DLC.   Getting Dragon Age: Origins is also a good idea, It's a great game that I highly recommend.

 You're telling this to the girl with patience issues.    Is the legendary edition the one that includes all the DLCs, or am I thinking of something else?

 Yeah, I keep wondering if I should get Origins, but my brother doesn't really want me to.  Something about how it's an old game, but I don't really care.  I'll play old games if they have good stories to them, and from what I've seen on YouTube, Origins has a really interesting plot.

The Legendary edition contains all three DLCs, yes.

Dragonborn focuses on a large island called Solstheim, which appeared in the "Bloodmoon" expansion for Morrowind: the landscape is kind of a combination of Skyrim and Morrowind.  It's about how the mysterious first Dragonborn, Miraak - who was trapped in Hermaeus Mora's plane of Oblivion (Apocrypha) for countless years - wants return to Tamriel and take over the world.  So yeah, the DLC features the island of Solstheim, the story takes you into small parts of Apocrypha a couple times, and there's a bunch of new quests, creatures, items/armor, spells and powers you can obtain, etc, and there's a lot of references to Morrowind too (half the soundtrack that you hear on Solstheim actually comes straight from the Morrowind soundtrack.)

[Lady Ashenwyte]

A question. Is The Elder Scrolls: Online worth it? I've seen Angry Joe's review and he didn't give it a good score.

[Dawnwing]

I think it is.  I've logged 260 hours altogether so far, although probably at least 20-30 of that was just for wiki-work.   

I've only created one character so far, who is level 43 (50 is the cap, plus there's up to 14 "veteran" levels), and I've completed maybe 3/4 of the explorable areas and quests for that alliance.  There's two other alliances to do yet, plus Cyrodiil and some veteran-level zones.  There's a lot to do, and they've got quite a bit more planned (although for the most part, after it changes to buy-to-play, this will be in the form of DLC that you'll have to pay for seperately, either by paying the optional sub fee, or just by paying for the DLC itself).  Zenimax's been real good about listening to fans, too, and making improvements based on feedback.

Comparing it to a regular-series game, the quests and characters aren't quite as in-depth, although there are plenty that are, and some of them are rather emotional or have made me go "oh this is so cool to watch".  I like being able to explore the areas that we've mainly heard about before, like the Summerset Isles and Valenwood; there's plenty of lore.  The game mechanics may take a bit of getting used to; they're like halfway between Elder Scrolls and MMO (there's a hotbar for skills like an MMO has, but you also attack by using the mouse like in a main-series ES game).  Having other players is pretty nice; it makes the cities feel more populated. Out in the wilderness you'll come across a player every now and then.  I've been adventuring with friends, and I've also had times where I asked the zone "Anyone wanna help defeat this boss?" and then after fighting it the people I grouped up with and me will end up running a dungeon together and sometimes even add each other to our friend lists.

It doesn't have as much to do as other MMOs, so usually I tell people that if you're more of an MMO person then this isn't for you, but if you're more of an Elder Scrolls person it's worth a try, especially after the payment model changes in March.

[Gonff the Mousethief]

Revive.

Does anyone here have The Elderr Scrolls: Anthology? I recently got it. I came with every Elder Scrolls game and every add on such as Dragonborne. It also came with a large map for every game. A great deal, and I got it for only 30$! Just thought I'd throw that out there...

[Delthion]

I have a question, the gore on Skyrim isn't a problem, but I've read a few reviews that the books that you read to gain skills and the like are sometimes filled with...less upright themes. And the language, how bad is that?

[Lady Ashenwyte]

I have a question, the gore on Skyrim isn't a problem, but I've read a few reviews that the books that you read to gain skills and the like are sometimes filled with...less upright themes. And the language, how bad is that?

You just have to read about 1 or 2 pages to gain the themes, so don't worry. There isn't that much bad language, but mostly damn and the like.

Are there any mods that reskin draugr?

[Delthion]

You mean the skills?

[Lady Ashenwyte]

You mean the skills?

Yeah, the skill books. All the spell books are empty, and you just need to click 'em.

[SoranMBane]

I have a question, the gore on Skyrim isn't a problem, but I've read a few reviews that the books that you read to gain skills and the like are sometimes filled with...less upright themes. And the language, how bad is that?

As someone who's played way too much Skyrim (and thus read a good number of the in-game books), I think I can be of some help here. First, as far as the language goes, it's pretty much what Lord_Ashenwyte said; the in-game books don't use language any harsher than the rest of the game, which only ever uses the more moderate swears. Second, assuming that by "less upright themes" you're talking about explicit scenes and the like, I can confirm that a few of the books can get a bit bawdy. If that sort of thing makes you uncomfortable, here are some books I can think of that you may want to watch out for:

-The Lusty Argonian Maid
-The Thief of Virtue
-The Real Barenziah series
-Halgerd's Tale
-Racial Phylogeny: It's in a purely academic context (this one isn't a story book; it's more like a textbook), but this book does still discuss some adult topics.

The only ones on that list that are actual skill books are Racial Phylogeny (which increases Restoration) and Halgerd's Tale (increases Heavy Armor), but luckily you don't have to actually read a skill book to use it; you just have to open the book once for like a second and you'll get your skill increase. The rest on that list can be safely ignored if you want; they're just there for in-universe entertainment and lore.

[Rainshadow]

-The Real Barenziah series

  The Real Barenziah is explicit?  Huh, maybe it's a good thing I haven't gotten around to reading that series. 

  Random:  Riding dragons is pretty cool.  I especially enjoy riding a dragon and then getting it to kill another dragon for you.    The only problem is, I haven't killed Miraak yet (too low of a level at the moment (and I absolutely hate Apocrypha)), so sometimes the game glitches out or something and I don't get to take a slain dragon's soul.  Instead, Miraak shows up and just stands there, staring at me.  It's weird.  And annoying.

  Also, the Dawnguard DLC is starting to get on my nerves with all of the vampires popping up in the holds.  I've lost so many good merchants to those stupid randomly spawning creatures!  I lost the blacksmith and angry merchant lady in Riften, as well as a couple random food stand merchants in Solitude.  Still haven't been able to get a vampire to kill Nazeem yet, though.  Gonna hafta visit Whiterun more often...

[SoranMBane]

The Real Barenziah is explicit?  Huh, maybe it's a good thing I haven't gotten around to reading that series. 

It get's a bit steamy at points, yeah. One book even apparently had a very explicit scene at one point, but the version we find in Skyrim has been edited by in-universe censors to remove that scene (like, it literally just replaces the whole scene with a short notice reading "[This passage has been censored by order of the Temple.]" It's actually kind of amusing). The context is still pretty clear, though.

[Delthion]

Is there any way to avoid the things mentioned in your list, or are some of them just so barely explicit that it isn't worth avoiding them?

[Jetthebinturong]

Well you don't have to read the books. For the skill ones you just have to flick through the pages for a few seconds, the spell books have no text and the others are just there for lore. Of course for someone like me, obtaining and reading every book in the game is a high priority but it's not for everyone.