Forums » Elder Scrolls

The first time you played Skyrim

    • 209 posts
    July 23, 2014 7:17 AM EDT
    In less than 4 months time, Skyrim will have been out for 3 years. I've been reminiscing alot recently about the first time I played it on 11/11/11.

    I booked the day off work, its a regular occurence whenever a game I'm massively excited about comes out, this one is different though. I had been waiting for the next ES installment since the day I completed Shivering Isles.

    I made my way to the local supermarket (Asda) at 8am, looked on the shelf... no Skyrim, hastily I made my way to the electronics desk and was greeted by an old lady, no taller than 5'. "Excuse me, theres a game released today, you don't have it on your shelf though?" "Give me a chance ! I'm busy you know" was the reply I got, rather rude I thought but I was so relieved that the game was here that I wasn't bothered. On the way out I picked up a Cosmo magazine for my girlfriend so I can devote my day to Skyrim.

    I made my way home, made a cup of tea, planted myself in bed and booted up Skyrim (Xbox 360 version at the time). I gave my girlfriend the magazine, which she read for all of 6 minutes then decided to watch me (i paid £4 for that!).

    It was magically, I can't imagine any series other than Elder Scrolls replicating it, possibly the next Fallout game, but I doubt it. The scenary left me astounded and the sound track was unbelievable, I spent around 10 hours on the game that day. My first Dwemer ruin, my first dragon fights, everything.

    I think we all take Skyrim for granted these days, just think back to the first time you played it and share your thoughts.

    TL;DR Skyrim is great, enjoy it like its the first time you played it. It nearly made me cry.
    • 209 posts
    July 23, 2014 7:31 AM EDT
    Do you still hold the belief the series went downhill inbetween Arena and Skyrim ? Its strange for me to think of people looking at the release of Skyrim from outside the TES hype bubble, I've been involved in it since Morrowind.
    • 773 posts
    July 23, 2014 7:34 AM EDT

    Well it was on 11.11.11 

    I'd broken with my usual pattern and pre-ordered the game rather than just buy it from a shop. So I had that annoying experience of going to the supermarket to buy food and actually see Skyrim on the shelves, but not be able to buy it because Amazon were going to deliver my copy!

    The level of frustration increased when I got home, logged onto The Skyrim Blog and the world and his wife were already slaying dragons and clearing out Dwemer ruins! It was soooooo annoying! 

    I think it was about lunchtime when the postie finally showed up with my copy, and I was able to install it on my PC and get started. I'll be honest, it was quite an emotional moment when the screen cleared and I saw the cart ride into Helgen for the first time on my own machine. After 7 months of working on the Skyrim Blog it was a slightly teary moment to actually be able to play the game

    I'll stop now before I start blubbing 

    • 1483 posts
    July 23, 2014 7:38 AM EDT
    I was weary of Skyrim after disliking Oblivion. After the launch I waited for reviews, watched gameplay vids, read player comments for a few months and only then got it. I didn't expect much, to be honest, just a game to pass time before Mass Effect 3 release. I had quite relaxed time schedule at the time with new stage of my studies and so I played it extensively. There were days I only took breaks to eat and sleep! My stealthy Bosmer archer was joining all the guilds, completing all quests. I was playing on Master right from the start so probably had it harder than many others. I remember pleasant surprise when I saw Chaurus - the game constantly delivered new types of enemies for me to kill :)
    • 209 posts
    July 23, 2014 7:41 AM EDT
    I understand the enotional aspect of it, maybe not completely because although I'd spent the best part of a year feeding off scraps of information, I didn't find the blog until december 2011, so I hadn't spent the time leading up to release, bouncing off each others hype !

    There something different about booting up a game for the first time, and watching a movie.
    • 209 posts
    July 23, 2014 7:43 AM EDT
    The fact that Oblivion is still playable now after Skyrim, gives you hints as to how incredible it was at the time, was it 05 or 06? I can't remember and can't search because my phone is so slow.
    • 209 posts
    July 23, 2014 7:56 AM EDT
    Atleast thats been rectified haha!

    Yeah the main storyline in Oblivion felt like it had much higher stakes!
    • 856 posts
    July 23, 2014 8:45 AM EDT

    I had pre-ordered the game from a local store. They had a special mid-night opening, so I was installing it by 1 am, and started playing in the early hours. I was lurking around the blog until the game was ready.

    I allowed the into to play fully before 'starting a new game'. I was in absorption mode, taking it all in. The cart, then character creation (that took me at least half an hour). I wanted to run (and shoulder an archer) when the horse thief made his break, I figured there wasn't enough archers to get us all, but I had to stand there. Then the dragon, and the running, and the 'wtf' that dragon is talking . What is he saying? - Wow, I have no clue, he's talking dragon! It was absolutely awesome. 

    I have no idea how long I played that first go (hours) before I took my first quick break and then after a quick blog visit, went straight back to the game. I played all through the weekend and into the next week fairly non-stop (eating and sleeping very little). My wonderful wife  was quite understanding and did all the house work, ran errands, cooked meals - anything that had to be done in real life. I came back to reality for brief periods after a few days (and a couple of dead or retired characters). After the second weekend, I limited myself to just 4 or 5 hours a day, slowly weaning myself down to just an hour or two of the next couple of weeks.

    What a blast!  Now, I'm anticipating the next BGS game (which I think will be announced in the fall with and a release early next year - dreaming? perhaps )

    • 122 posts
    July 23, 2014 8:56 AM EDT

    Not gonna lie, my first copy of Skyrim was a torrent . Got it at late 2013's, if I recall correctly. It was an experience that changed me forever. Helgen Keep for the first time was truly exhilirating, I got lost in Whiterun, I fell off the Western Watchtower. Ahh, memories.

    • 209 posts
    July 23, 2014 9:07 AM EDT
    Thats a little disappointing ! I hope you have purchased it since ?
    • 122 posts
    July 23, 2014 9:10 AM EDT

    Saving up for the legendary edition on Steam!

    • 708 posts
    July 23, 2014 9:17 AM EDT

    The 14th of November still holds a special place in my heart - unlike most of my friends, I decided to be a responsible human being when Skyrim came out and not get it until I had a clear schedule.

    On the evening of the 10th I remember my friends posting on Facebook that they had recieved calls from their local game stores about how their pre-order was ready to pick up. That was when I opted for a communication blackout until my final exam of year 12 (and my secondary education!) on Monday to avoid spoilers and the like.

    Come Monday I was super ready for my exam and did very well, just ending up scraping in an A for the subject (Maths C, the most difficult maths you can study in school - it was a 3 hour exam). Many of my friends didn't do quite as well as I did and I popped in to EB on my way home and picked up my copy of the collector's edition.

    I pretty much played as much as I could for the rest of the week, as well as the week after, when most school leavers from the state I'm from will go to a tourist city called the Gold Coast and get drunk underage and party for a week. At the end of those 2 weeks (over 100 hours of gameplay) I was 'done' so to speak with my first character. Probably some of the best times I've had gaming.

    TL;DR Skyrim was a pretty nice reward for 12 years of education

    • 209 posts
    July 23, 2014 9:21 AM EDT
    Skyrim beats boozing, I went home early frim my friends birthday party on release weekend so I could play it some more.

    Grats for showing self restraint in not buying it on release day ! I dont think I could do that.
    • 92 posts
    July 23, 2014 9:25 AM EDT

    Against my better judgment, I didn't pre-order the game. I was really kicking myself over that decision. About noon on release day, I walked into GameStop not really expecting them to have any copies left in stock. Much to my surprise, a pre-ordered copy was not picked up by some deadline (I don't know what deadline the clerk was talking about since it was only noon on release day). So, the clerk sold it to me--map included. Score!

    I had three immediate reactions while playing:

    When the screen cleared on the opening carriage scene, my jaw dropped. The scenery was so beautiful. The initial dialog immediately sucked me in to the story (this is extremely important to me).

    When I was position for the headsman, I knew something was going to prevent my death. When Alduin landed on the tower and did his Meteor Shower shout, I let out a very loud, "Holy Sh@t, this is awesome!"

    When I left the Helgen dungeon, and I stepped out into the open world, my jaw dropped a second time. To this day, I roll a hunter/ranger character every so often just so I can spend more time in the wilderness.

    • 708 posts
    July 23, 2014 9:26 AM EDT

    Now that I think about it the only things I've bought on release date were Dragonborn and the Deadliest Warrior expansion for Chivalry:Medieval Warfare. Self restraint does get me marks but sometimes makes new games less fun - it took me awhile to coerce one of my friends to play Borderlands 2 with me and all of them had tossed aside Battlefield 4 when I got it a couple of weeks after release :/

    • 108 posts
    July 23, 2014 10:13 AM EDT

    It was a dull and dreary day, but you could hear dragons roaring in the distance. And my mouth tasted like iron.

    • 1217 posts
    July 23, 2014 10:36 AM EDT

    I was fairly committed to hating Skyrim when it came out. It was competing with ME3, Mass Effect still being my favorite franchise ever, and there was a strong anti-Skyrim sentiment on the Bioware forums where we were anticipating the ME3 release. On top of that, I'd got Oblivion from a friend some time before, at least a year I think, and positively hated it within the first few minutes. The hack and slash just didn't seem to suit me.

    I remained distasteful of a Skyrim for a long time, until I mostly forgot about it. Last holiday season, my roommate rented it from Redbox, and I thought, "Eh, what the hell?" and popped it in. Been a while since I've been as absorbed with a game as I am with Skyrim right now.

    • 249 posts
    July 23, 2014 11:11 AM EDT
    Like most others, I pre-ordered Skyrim in anticipation. Unlike everyone else, I didn't own a console or decent gaming computer. I had planned on getting a 360 anyway but my girlfriend insisted that I didn't do it! I figured out that she had bought me one for Christmas - she's terrible at lying and keeping secrets. How sweet, right? Unfortunately I had to wait until Christmas to open the 360 and finally play the game I'd been waiting nearly a year for! Lucky for me, Christmas vacation was in full effect so I played for a week straight :D Haven't bought another 360 game since (thanks to TSB).
    • 1217 posts
    July 23, 2014 11:12 AM EDT

    So Skyrim is your only 360 game?

    • 856 posts
    July 23, 2014 11:27 AM EDT

    Thread is now purged at the request of Shimazu. My apologies, it was largely my fault for the derailment.

  • Jen
    • 88 posts
    July 23, 2014 2:12 PM EDT

    I pre-ordered from Amazon, so I got it at about 2 in the afternoon. I usually pre-order games where I have some control over my characters. I played for a few hours, but I really didn't develop a love for Skyrim for awhile. Not until I got away from the main quest, and started to give my first character quirks and real motivations. Until then, it was a beautiful game, but a hollow experience. Skyrim really benefits from having a distinct role-playing idea in your mind, I think. Now I play almost everyday, because of the freedom it allows. I still have a problem with some of the weak writing, but it allows you some creativity in how you approach your characters, and I definitely love it for that now.

    • 249 posts
    July 23, 2014 2:13 PM EDT
    Yep! :)
    • 209 posts
    July 25, 2014 1:41 PM EDT
    Haha ! You heard by word of mouth, Skyrim was good enough that you heard of it in 18 days !
  • Tom
    • 624 posts
    July 25, 2014 2:47 PM EDT

    Mid-summer of 2012, my aunt was taking my cousin to Gamestop to trade in games and I tagged along thinking what the hell. I was bored and had some cash, so I thought I'd get a new game (I average one a year across all platforms). I was looking around, found Skyrim and talked with the salesman for about ten minutes about the game and what it entailed, and buying it pre-owned, I paid like fifty bucks instead of sixty.

    Went back home, everyone else left, so I started things off and played for a bit. I got stuck at Bleakfalls Barrow at the Dragonclaw Puzzle. I never played an Elder Scrolls game before and didn't understand the controls that well, but there were only 27 possible combinations so I just went through them all. I fell asleep, actually halfway through (was up for over 24 hours) woke up in the dark saved my game and went to bed.

    So... I was bored and had the cash.

    • 700 posts
    July 25, 2014 4:48 PM EDT

    I tried playing Oblivion a year prior to Skyrim's release and stopped playing after two hours.  I liked the concept but I thought the execution was poor.  I saw the ads for Skyrim and did some research to see what was being improved.  I was so impressed and confident in Skyrim that I asked for it as a gift for Christmas.  On my third day of owning it, I played for forty hours straight.  I ran out of water on hour 35 and only had hot cheetos to eat.