I have a lot to say! Can't wait to discuss this with everyone!
Yeah, me too. I'll be sending out the Roundtable agenda soon.
(Insert expansion or new game speculation here.)
Hell, maybe we'll just hear about another Diablo III update. Also, maybe they'll tell us when the new StarCraft II: Covert Ops pack is coming.
(Insert what you want to be announced here.)
It'd be nice to know when that new Covert Ops pack is coming. Otherwise, I don't know. More Diablo would be nice in any form.
You know, I know a guy that performs here regularly. Ben Stewart. Lead singer of Songhammer. Pretty awesome guy. I met him through a friend back when he was in his old band, Conspiracy of Thought.
Here is some information about how to watch Blizzcon for free(unless you have a virtual ticket and if you do let me know, wondering if it's worth it).
https://blizzcon.com/en-us/news/20352061/blizzcon-2016-where-to-watch-11-2-2016
Watching the opening ceremony now.
Unless others disagree, keep us posted, please. :)
A few take aways i'll post on later:
* They are remaking Diablo in Diablo III
* New Necromancer class in D3 in 2017
* New Gadgetzan Hearthstone Expansion coming soon
Sweet! Did they mention when that Diablo remake might become available?
I checked in on the Twitch channel and it was like watching ESPN, but for gaming. They were talking about tournaments going on today. So, I tuned out.
They mentioned the patch going live in the public test realm next week. So not too long it seems.
Whoa, it's a patch? So that means it's free for those of us who already on D3?! Pretty cool! I never played the first one, so I don't mind that they're remaking it. I've barely played the 2nd, so I wouldn't mind them doing that one, too.
I wonder what the Necromancer class is going to be like, but I bet it's going to be pretty cool, maybe similar to the Witch Doctor (which I really enjoyed).
I tuned back into the Twitch link provided in the link you gave us, but it's still like ESPN doing Overwatch tourney talking. Am I watching the right thing?
> Whoa, it's a patch? So that means it's free for those of us who already on D3?! Pretty cool! I never played the first one, so I don't mind that they're remaking it. I've barely played the 2nd, so I wouldn't mind them doing that one, too.
This is nice because the old game is somewhat long in the tooth and i've wanted to come back and play it myself so now is a good time.
> I wonder what the Necromancer class is going to be like, but I bet it's going to be pretty cool, maybe similar to the Witch Doctor (which I really enjoyed).
Yeah, it was my fav class in D2. Lots of Skeletons and various evil incarnations. I bet they will drop more information soon.
> I tuned back into the Twitch link provided in the link you gave us, but it's still like ESPN doing Overwatch tourney talking. Am I watching the right thing?
Yeah, the opening ceremony is over and it's now eSports for the rest of the day.
Some details...
Diablo news:
http://www.gamespot.com/articles/diablo-3s-necromancer-and-excellent-new-armory-fea/1100-6445142/?utm_source=gamefaqs&utm_medium=partner&utm_content=news_module&utm_campaign=homepage
http://www.gamespot.com/articles/diablo-3-adding-a-retro-diablo-1-style-mode/1100-6445132/?utm_source=gamefaqs&utm_medium=partner&utm_content=news_module&utm_campaign=homepage
Starcraft 2 news:
http://www.gamespot.com/articles/heres-all-the-starcraft-2-news-from-blizzcon-2016/1100-6445136/?utm_source=gamefaqs&utm_medium=partner&utm_content=news_module&utm_campaign=homepage
I'm stoked about the new Diablo stuff. The necromancer is great but the D1 remake? That's just cool and unexpected.
Actually the more I read about the D1 remake the less interesting it sounds. It's not a remake, just a filter over an already existing map it seems. :/
But this new armory is really amazing. People have been wanting a way to save builds for ages now.
Check out the new Necromancer video:
https://youtu.be/rt1bLufR-VA
:( I was hoping for something sooner.
The Darkening of Tristram is on PTR and it looks like it may go live in January: http://www.shacknews.com/article/97674/diablo-3-update-243-on-ptr-with-original-darkening-of-tristram-content
As for the Necromancer it's coming out "some time in 2017"
http://us.battle.net/d3/en/blog/20324407
Yeah, the Necromancer isn't soon, which I think is fine. The Necromancer was my favorite D2 class and if it came out tomorrow I wouldn't have time for it anyway. 2017? Sounds better to me. I think by then I wouldn't mind heading through the story again too.
I went through the story multiple times too recently, so I don't plan on doing that again (at least for quite a while). One of the articles I posted mentioned a recommendation of creating a new character for The Darkening of Tristram. I'd like to jump back into the game, there's still a lot I haven't played around with, which is something I intend to do with a Necromancer. Right now, I'm ready for it.
I wouldn't buy it for full price but since I'm getting it for free, woo!
Saves should transfer so that's good: https://twitter.com/DCDeacon/status/743170497752371200
And both consoles are getting mods, PS4's are just more limited because Sony has crazy restrictions for add-on content like this. They can't include any new assets, just modification or re-use of existing ones.
Physics issues are just par for the course in Bethesda engine games, but this is a newer engine so some may be fixed.
I went pretty far in Skyrim and sort of stopped playing it.
Thinking this might get me back in it.
Is anyone planning to play the game differently than before? I first played as a Nord and sided with one major "faction," on the PS3. Then on Steam I played as an Imperial and sided with the other major "faction." In both games I played as a warrior with heavy armor and two-handed weapons, particularly war hammers. I'll probably repeat what I did on Steam, although I'm not sure which side I'll ally with.
@Travis thanks for the additional info! I did see something about the PS4's limited mod support. I haven't paid attention to console news much.
I have played Skyrim as various races and classes, but I can't honestly remember what most of them were. I know I went stealth archer once and that was my favorite way to play.
My Steam play-time on it is very low, but that's because I transferred my Xbox 360 save over to PC. Nearly all of my Skyrim time (and it's a lot) was on the 360.
I still have yet to play the last DLC. Generally by the time the last DLC is out I've mostly moved on and can't get back in the mood for it.
With all that I've seen about Khajiit lately (especially the stuff I've seen posted on FB and our No Man's Sky funny), I'm tempted to use that race. I've only played as a Nord (Skyrim) and Imperial (Oblivion and Skyrim). I think I tried out a Dark Elf on Morrowind, but I didn't play it long and I tried it out a few times, so I'm not exactly sure. I know there are races (like Khajiit) I haven't played before.
Make a punch cat. A Khajit will kick ass in melee. Follow this (hilarious) guide: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uhBiNx749Zw
Language warning on that video, but I love it.
Damn that's pretty awesome! But, I love my warhammers and two-handed swords.
I'm looking forward to buying this game for a 3rd time. Buying this version will mean I have spent $200 on Skyrim. Not counting DLC (of which I bought all on Day One).
I have edited this event's time and description showing the updated release date and time along with a link to the news on the Store page. I have also added the system requirements along with it's link on the Store page.
You edited the start time to later this month. I think you want the end time then right?
It starts on 10/27 at 8pm EST and ends at 8:30pm on the same day. If you look at the event the only part of the end you see is "8:30pm" although I did selected 10/27 at 8:30pm for the end time.
I get that, that's what I'm saying. I mean is that game release "events" here have historically started when the person creates the post, and ends shortly after release. As it stands, this is a 30 minute event. Take a look at the Civ event-- it's months long. The "event" is us discussing it before launch, typically.
But ultimately I guess it really doesn't matter since it's here for everyone to chat about til then anyway. Whether you start the event now or 5 minutes before it ends. Game releases don't lend themselves well to the timeframe portion of the event system since it's a countdown where people talk about it. There's no clear spot for the event to start. Something we play together has clear limits. Something like Blizzcon has a set start and end. Countdowns are always going until they stop.
Actually, I said "have historically started when..." but that's not true. There's no real clear precedent for either. Some are months long, some are a couple of days.
Yeah game event times are strange but even a 30 minute event works when we can discuss it all the way to the launch.
I finally just looked at the system specs for it. I have the recommended on everything and only just on the video card. So it should look pretty good!
Initial impressions: Wow it's pretty. And somehow loads faster. I have no idea how but it seems to perform better than normal Skyrim.
The models don't seem to be improved from normal Skyrim but the lighting, shaders, shadows, depth-of-field, that's all obviously the Fallout 4 engine. The colors seem to pop more.
The same crappy either/or thing with keyboard/mouse and joystick applies. You can't do both. So if you have a controller connected it can tell and you have to turn it off *with* the controller before you can use the KB/M. But that's just a Bethesda thing that probably won't change. Maybe with Elder Scrolls 9/Fallout 8.
Weird, Alt+F4 doesn't exit. I always quicksave then alt+F4
Do you think they put it on the Fo4 engine or just updated the Skyrim engine a bit? Seems like a ton of work to upgrade engines unless they are super compatible.
I was going to ask you, Travis, what you thought of it since I saw that you were playing it. I'm planning to get it downloaded and installed tonight so the download doesn't interfere with my YouTube watching. I might check it out in the morning, but the Ark Halloween event is supposed to happen in about 12 hours.
> Weird, Alt+F4 doesn't exit. I always quicksave then alt+F4
It's F5 now.
@jon -- they said in early interviews about Fallout 4 that the first thing they did to start making Fallout 4 was to bring Skyrim to next gen. Back then it was just to get a handle on the new tech, they hadn't planned on releasing it.
But this new Skyrim has identical mod download functionality as Fallout 4, and if you've looked at the lighting effects enough in Fallout 4 you can kinda start to spot them.
But also, I don't think it's a NEW new engine. The Fallout 4 engine is just a new iteration of the Skyrim engine, since they ported Skyrim and its engine to next-gen and then built Fallout 4 on it. Same as Oblivion -> Fallout 3 I guess. Iterative changes.
@greg-- I think you misread that comment a little. ALT + F4 exits Windows programs by default, unless the developer has overridden it. I know F5 quicksaves, Alt + F4 exits Fallout 4. It does not exit Skyrim SE. My habit is to hit F5 to save, wait a couple seconds, then hit Alt + F4 to exit.
It's possible they are overriding that because people were quicksaving then not letting enough time pass before Alt + F4ing and corrupting saves.
Yeah, I forgot about that Windows shortcut because I almost never use it. I did, however, notice that one of my favorite Windows shortcuts Alt-Tab doesn't work in the game. :( Also, the sound seems low, even with the in-game settings maxed.
Alt+Tab too? Huh. I know there are some games that break when you Alt+Tab.
Oh, it looks like there's a patch for Alt+Tab. Maybe it fixes Alt+F4 too.
I haven't seen a patch yet and I've restarted Steam, though I haven't tried playing the game since my last comment.
I realized why I decided to be an Imperial, because their special ability is a charm, which I think is greatly helpful. Although I haven't really tried most of the races, so I can't quite speak for their abilities other than they didn't look as significant to me. Granted, if I played them I'd probably find more value in them.
Well don't take my word for the Alt+Tab patch. I just saw someone on Steam say that alt+tab was working now.
This is another game that Geforce Experience just balks at on my system. The game itself autodetected Ultra quality, and it runs flawlessly with everything maxed, even maxing things *past* Ultra. But Geforce Experience wants me to turn everything down to low or medium.
The game detected my hardware and set my settings to "Ultra," it looks like all the settings are at their max. I just checked Geforce Experience and it says the game is optimized. This is the first time I checked the GE settings for the Special Edition of Skyrim.
However, I did load the game back up, went to options, and clicked "reset" since I thought it changed my settings to "Ultra High" instead of just "Ultra." I obviously misread it the first time. Then, I went back into Geforce Experience and it said the game wasn't optimized. The "Grass Fade" setting was at 7 and GE said optimal was 7000, so I clicked "optimize."
I saw that you were playing Skyrim earlier and it didn't seem like the Special Edition. I'm tempted to jump in between the versions and see if I notice any difference. I think that when I played before, I was using a high quality mod or something similar.
If you did indeed pop into the original game earlier, did you notice the difference?
Also, Alt-Tab works...kind of...it seems you have to hold the Alt key and it works, sometimes. Windows-D works, taking you to your desktop. I'm also monitoring my GPU temp and with the fan on auto it looks like about just less than 1900rpm (a little over half) and 52c. Normally when I play Ark, I max out that and my PCIE fans and my GPU gets into the low 80s, which is still ok for my card.
That's exactly what I was doing-- using the same save file and checking the differences as I went to different locations.
It's still really weird to me that SE performs better with better effects. They obviously aren't going to re-make all those textures so the real differences are in lighting and shadows. The God Rays, just like in Fallout 4, are killer on the video card apparently but mine is handling them like a champ.
My GPU fan isn't even noticeably speeding up. The 960 runs so cool, it's amazing how far they've come with keeping the chips cool.
There are a few settings in-game that you can change that aren't in the launcher, that's what I was talking about boosting past ultra.
Looking forward to either or both of you reviewing it. I decided to pass on getting this for now but am looking to in the future.
It's kinda hard to review. I mean it's just Skyrim with a shiny coat of paint. But I'll definitely write up some thoughts.
What will be interesting to see is whether they treat this like a game release and fix bugs and stuff that have been around since the original release, or add new things to it. A patch released long after the game's release added horse combat, for instance.
@Travis that's great that that's what you were doing.
I agree it is strange that SE performs better with better effects. That doesn't make face value sense, but I guess maybe it's better optimized "under the hood." The game also gave me "Ultra" quality settings after detecting my system, with the 690, the first time I played it (on Steam that is) and it ran fine, though I didn't monitor my temps.
I also agree that "it's amazing how far they've come with keeping the chips cool." I know when I ran Ark with the 690 it reached the 80s mark and performance suffered, however even though my 980 Ti gets there, performance doesn't suffer.
@Jon I'm looking more at Travis to tell us his thoughts on it. I'm still busy with Ark, so I'm not sure when I might actually sit through the full game again, but we'll see. Also, why didn't you get it? Do you not own all the DLC? If you do, it's free.
I also agree with Travis's statement about "it's just Skyrim with a shiny coat of paint." I'm also hoping to see some bugs fixed, which might be what I notice and actually look for more than the fresh "coat of paint." Physics in the game on PC and PS3 were a bit wonky. I also remember at least one quest that I ran into an issue with. Even though I'm hoping the things I noticed were resolved, I thought they just gave it a visual upgrade and left everything else alone.
One thing I read about why things might run better is the benefit of the Fallout 4 engine. Because of the new needs in Fallout 4, Skyrim can handle way more going on at once.
I just have base Skyrim on steam so I didnt get the HD version. Reason I didn't pick up the DLC is that I have a couple other games I'm playing right now and if I was going to play a larger open world game I'd finish up Fallout 4, which I've been wanting to do lately.
That said the rest of the DLC was like $28 bucks so I imagine I can pick up the new version at that price when I'm looking to play it again.
Skyrim is a really special Elder Scrolls game so it's nice they upgraded it this way so it can be enjoyed for long into the future.
@Travis Sweet! I haven't really read anything about it yet. I noticed some things in the game's Steam News section that I was going to check out, but I think I got distracted.
@Jon That's understandable. I skipped out on Hearthfire on the PS3 because I didn't really think it added anything to the game I really wanted or needed. I already owned multiple properties in the game. I did, however, get it all for PC and I enjoyed it.
I agree with your statement about Skyrim being a really special ES game. However, when I read or heard about the rumor that there was going to be a remastered ES game, I was hoping it would have been Morrowind or Oblivion. I only tried playing Morrowind a few years ago after I had played Skyrim (on the PS3 at least). It was kind of difficult and no where near as beautiful. I later (again after playing Skyrim) got Oblivion (on the PS3) and I fell in love with it. In fact, it's difficult to say if I like Skyrim or Oblivion better. I read some reasoning behind giving Skyrim the face lift and it was understandable (popularity and ease of doing it). Still, it'd be great if they could give those older ES games a bit of the same treatment. I saw some videos about them working on the next game in the series, but it seems their waiting on technology to catch up to what they want to do.
Paying $28 for the DLC and thus getting SE doesn't sound like a bad deal.
Since you mentioned Fallout 4, I still haven't tried Nuka World.
Ok I just read this article (link below) that's included in the game's News section on Steam. The only mod I used was the high-res texture pack from Bethesda, mentioned in the article. If anyone has more articles to share, feel free! Also, if you want to keep talking about it and perhaps with more ease, I can extend the event, just let me know.
https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2016/10/28/skyrim-special-edition-pc-changes/
Yeah, I was hoping for Morrowind or Oblivion as well but their reasoning makes sense. With Skyrim, it's just a matter of porting the game. With the others they'd have to re-create the textures and everything, and it would be nearly the same time investment as a new game, at least for some departments.
Plus honestly, some of the charm of Oblivion is those faces, right? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bja-UQTsgQw
Anyone play with Skyrim mods? If so, let us know which.
I decided to check out the physics issue I noticed before. This is particularly noticeable in the first house that you visit. At the table where two characters sit and talk with you, you will see the food and plates jump around like crazy, at least that's how they behaved on the PS3 and the original version of the game. In SE, during my one time experience in that scene, at least one vegetable moved a little bit back and forth, but it wasn't crazy like before. I could do more testing by trying it out again on the old version.
Looks like they are going to fix some issues. http://kotaku.com/bethesda-says-its-going-to-fix-skyrim-special-editions-1788365568
I read a similar article last night. I'm glad they're working on fixing it, I noticed the volume is too low.
@Greg "I noticed the volume is too low."
The audio in general is overall worse quality now, not just too low. It seems (as the article Jon posted states) they compressed the hell out of the sound files. It isn't very noticeable if you haven't gone back and forth between them but it's definitely not the quality of the original. It's just weird that the PC version is the one struck by this, since it's the one where disk space matters the least.
Doesn't look like the console port is going well:
http://kotaku.com/skyrim-special-edition-is-too-janky-1788491838
FWIW the PC port is also janky according to some reports. It seems a lot of the bugs on console are similar to bugs on PC when the framerate is uncapped.
Thought this was funny: http://i.imgur.com/IIVGGCo.jpg
Everyone wanted to bash that kids face :D
Skyrim SE patch in beta, along with some details.
http://www.gamespot.com/articles/skyrim-remaster-patch-fixes-audio-downgrade-and-mo/1100-6445093/
Patch live, check out description below taken from Steam:
Skyrim Special Edition 1.1 Update Live on Steam
posted by gstaffBethesda @ 04:07PM on November 07, 2016
Skyrim Special Edition 1.1 Update (All Platforms Unless Otherwise Noted)
Fixes
General performance and optimization improvements
Fixed rare issue with NPCs not appearing in proper locations
Fixed an issue with interface elements not appearing correctly on certain
displays (Xbox One and PS4)
Fixed issue with saves erroneously being marked as Modded, even though no mods are active
Updated some sound files to not use compression
So, I mentioned that I thought SE was too quiet. I did some testing after the patch and it seems as though SE and the original are both more quiet than I'm used to. Ark, on the other hand is much louder. Perhaps it has something to do with my sound settings within Windows, or perhaps it's just how the games are. In both games, I have the sound settings maxed.
Other than that, I didn't notice any other issues with sound quality. Travis, obviously did, but I know he has musical aptitude that I lack and I imagine such people have a better ear for sound differences. Still, I'm glad they released a patch. I'm not yet ready to dive back into the game, but I intend to do so, it's now on my short list of games to play.
Patch 1.2 in beta now, which includes a fix for the Alt-Tab shortcut:
http://www.gamespot.com/articles/new-skyrim-special-edition-patch-arrives-on-pc/1100-6445293/
FYI I fixed my sound volume issue by enabling Loudness Equalization under Enhancements in Speakers/Headphones Properties. It didn't sound loud enough until I enabled that.
Oh and can someone explain to me why Run is Shift, but it makes me walk slow? Also, Alt-Tab is working perfectly.
Run doesn't mean the same as sprint. Run is on, shift makes you un-run. It's weird terminology that I've always hated in Bethesda games.
Sprint is alt I think and uses your stamina.
Yeah, I have auto-run on and Shift by default makes you walk slower. I decided to switch Shift with Alt, so now, like any other game, I run with Shift.
Yeah I think shift was sprint in Fallout 4. It threw me off when going back to Skyrim.
Oops, I thought the Imperial special ability (Voice of the Emperor, I think) was to charm, but it's calm, there's a big difference. Still, it helped me out in one mission when I had to get into the Dwemer Museum and all the guards were after me and I had a 1k+ bounty on my head. Once I got outside and surrounded, I used the Voice and was then able to Fast Travel out of there. I went back to pay my bounty, but after I stored my stolen goods so I wouldn't lose them. I stole my Ebony Warhammer, so I definitely didn't want to lose it.
@Travis, thanks for the Quicksave (F5) tip, it's real handy, I'm not sure I used it before.
It's cool playing Skyrim again. I'm not sure I notice the Special Edition visual bonuses, but perhaps. It does look really good, but it did before although I was using the High Resolution Texture Pack DLC. I'm getting tempted to play Oblivion again, but I was thinking about that before I started playing Skyrim SE.
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