Being asked to write a "where to go" feature about The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim on the strength of Penny Arcade Expo revelations and what the internet's pinched out in the meantime. That's like holding up a dictionary to a toddler, flicking through the pages, and telling it to get on with its first novel. The best you'll get out of the tiny idiot is a disarming blank chuckle. Babies are like that. They'll try to charm you, despite being completely rubbish at everything. Anyway, here's my attempt at being a list-based tourist information bureau.
Managed all nine? Here are 19 more things to do in Skyrim. For the final verdict, read our Skyrim review.
1. Explore Embershard Mine
On the winding path that leads from the Mystical Cave of Character Selection to the peaceful town of Riverwood, comes your first and earliest opportunity to step off the path and have a little explore. Off to the right is Embershard Mine, one of the hundreds* of dungeons scattered across Skyrim. For a basic, common-or-garden dungeon, it seems pretty nicely designed, with a lever-operated bridge, the corpse of a man who kept a really wordy diary, a chest containing a random enchanted weapon, and a number of easily subdued bandits. The dungeon's said to be easy, which should be a relief - my enduring memory of Morrowind is getting my arse lopped off and handed to me by a skeleton, in the very first cave I wandered into.
*There are at least 150 dungeons, Bethesda's Pete Hines has revealed. He hasn't given the actual number, but seems to imply that if we knew it, we would weep with gratitude.
2. Break up some lovers in Riverwood
In Riverwood, Faendal and Sven are both in love with the same girl. Sven is the local Bard, and Faendal is an elven bowman. Faendal hates Sven's light-heartedness, and Sven thinks Faendal is a dick. Whichever you speak to first will give you a lying letter to give to the girl - a letter that's pretending to be from the other one. God knows what it says - probably "hey I'm an idiot and your boobs are smelly see ya" - but you can choose whether to pass on the rude letter, or tell the truth. Come down on Sven's side, and you'll get some coin. Faendal, on the other hand, will offer to follow you around, shooting things. He can also teach you archery skills, for cash.
3. Get that Golden Claw
Every press event we've been to features the same mission - retrieving the stolen Golden Claw, realising it's a key, and using it to get your first power word in the language of the dragons. The surprising thing is, how close that mission is to the beginning of the game. Just walk into Lucan Valerius' general story in Riverwood, and he'll be telling his daughter that she's not to go off on any more adventures, and oh look an adventuring sort, maybe he can help.
Do this mission for him, and you'll notice a lot of the cheaper stuff in his shop is no longer marked with the red "Steal" text. That's because he likes you now, and doesn't mind you manhandling his apples.
4. Fanny about in Barrow Hills
One of the most eye-catching things you see when you come out of your birthing cave is the archways punctuating the mountain on the other side of the valley. This is Bleak Fells Temple, and it's just a short walk through Barrow Hills Bluff. You'll need to go here on your way to fetch the claw from the previous point, but it's worth a look around. Check out the top of the Watchtower for another chest. Rummage around the temple for the first part in a serial of books called Thief.
23 comments so far...
StreakyMcMeeky on 8 Sep '11 said:
How I wish I could go into hibernation and wake up on 11/11/11
STE MO on 8 Sep '11 said:
Same here. It seems a long way a way. 2 whole months.
Can I ask how did you fit all that in in 3 hours? My first 3 hours spent playing Oblivion were
how bid is this game and 
it looks so pretty. Not really getting much done in.
OXM ETboy on 8 Sep '11 said:
Log is a dedicated professional. He was on a caffeine drip the whole time.
Apparitions on 8 Sep '11 said:
I'm not a massive RPG fan but even I'm absolutely stoked for Skyrim after reading all the previews etc. It just looks so massive and will probably keep me playing it for ages, which is great considering that I've run out of games that I'm not bored with now and need one that will last me a long time. A question: Can someone who doesn't play many RPG's still play this and not be put off by the difficulty (basically, with Oblivion could a noob play it and not be frustrated by the difficulty? I assume the answer for this for Skyrim wouldn't be too different to people's answers for this question for Oblivion)? Thanks
,
ltpaine44 on 8 Sep '11 said:
Definitely. I mean, going on Bethesda's previous games, the difficulty can be toned down completely - whether that's good or not is debatable. But yeah, it's a very easy series to get lost in.
CunningSmile on 9 Sep '11 said:
Might change for Skyrim but most of Bethesdas previous games have used a percentage difficulty rather then easy-medium-hard. Meant that an accident prone idiot like myself could adjust the difficulty on the fly by as little as 1% just because a single fight was too hard (I didn't do it often!) so you shouldn't have too many problems. They also tend to have fairly easy to follow tutorials to explain the RPG elements but even if you don't normally, read the instruction manual. A lot of small features can make a big difference to your experience but can get lost in the information overload of such a huge game.
Also seriously consider getting the players guide if you want to see everything. You wouldn't visit a new country without a guide book would you?
comabob on 9 Sep '11 said:
i would recommend NOT getting a guide as it defeats the main draw of the game - exploration and discovery of "i wonder whats in here?"
The games bethesda makes can be toned down to be incredibly easy - they like to ease people into their games to get as many players as possible...
My wife plays oblivion to this day - that and Cityville are all she plays...
KernowDevil23 on 9 Sep '11 said:
I really struggle with games like this. I had Oblivion on both the 360 and PS3 at various points of time but I could never quite get in to it. Don't get me wrong, I can appreciate the games for the amazing pieces of art/entertainment that they are but they just don't seem to float my boat!
comabob on 9 Sep '11 said:
I struggled for YEARS to playthrough oblivion - i owned it 3 times and got bored of it before finishing each time
I was always a huge Fallout 1 and 2 fan and my love for the franchise helps me rate fallout3 imo 1 of best 3 games on 360
after 300hrs of fallout3 i was gagging for some more open world rpg and finally finished oblivion. Im more keen for Skryim as a new game/new engine-highly polished-open world rpg from the makers of Fallout 3, than a sequel to oblivion.
Besides with all my gripes, love/hate with oblivion - 4 years, 3 copies and probably accumulated 400hours + of restarts, new character types and the amount of times i actually enjoyed and remember particular quests (turpentine vs painted trolls springs to mind and spring heeled jack) - i mean when u think about it;
How many games or franchises have that kind of effect? longevity? replay value?
KernowDevil23 on 9 Sep '11 said:
I think therein lies the problem for me. It's probably a really stupid thing to say but I find games that contain hundreds of hours of gameplay quite daunting, 20-30 hours is probably a maximum for me, say something like AC:2 or Deus EX?
I just can't seem to let myself get drawn in to such demanding (time wise) games. I have very limited time to play games usually so quick fixes seem to be where I'm at!
CunningSmile on 9 Sep '11 said:
I can see your point which is why most Bethesda games I only play through once. I tend to start, play for thirty odd hours (usually long enough to work my way through a Guild and have a nose around a few tourist spots) and then stop. 6 months later I pick up the same play through and do another 30 odd hours. The games are so big that each chunk of play can feel like a new game or DLC with new quests, new people to meet and new areas to get to know.
PS3UberTool on 9 Sep '11 said:
This is going to be a total life stealer... weeks and weeks of exploration.
A friend spent over 400 hours on Oblivion and still hadn't visited the monastery to start the main quest.
Cdr JamesCool on 9 Sep '11 said:
This game is gonna take up so much time, and on top of that I start university this year, AND on top of that Saints Row 3 is coming out which another game which is gonna take up so much of my time, so much to do yet so little time..
foghorn on 10 Sep '11 said:
Please release it early go on suprise us.
Grummy on 10 Sep '11 said:
Don't be put off by the fact that this is technically an RPG. Bethesda's games tend to transcend the RPG genre. Old school RPG's are very obvious in their genre, real nerdfests that I have no problem admitting that I love, but a game like Oblivion, Fallout 3 and now Skyrim, they're designed to be user friendly. All it asks in return is that you pay attention to what it tells you and not get lost in the larger game world. A lot of new players fall at this hurdle. Rather than following the opening missions which act as tutorials they just think 'f**k me, I can climb this mountain, let's go!' then get killed by something they weren't prepared for, sulk, put the game away and never touch it again. Not the way to go. You have plenty of time to explore at your leisure once you are used to the game.
This is why someone like Kernow can't settle into playing a game like this, it's not because he can't understand it, but because, with his limited time, he needs something he can get straight into the meat of immediately, not spend the length of an average game just learning.
These games DO feel daunting if you don't have the time or inclination to settle down and really play them, but if you do, and have the little bit of patience required at the start to learn how the game works, then you are really in for a treat.
A perfect example of this, Oblivion, Comabob, he doesn't even like the game very much, and yet still has put in hundreds of hours into it over the years because it has so much to offer. There aren't many games where, overall, you don't like the experience, but still keep going back because there are parts of it that you DO enjoy.
KernowDevil23 on 10 Sep '11 said:
Couldn't have put it better myself Grumster!
Cdr JamesCool on 10 Sep '11 said:
I had a friend like that. He hated Oblivion because he didn't know what he was doing, went off exploring and got killed by something he shouldn't really of encountered at lv 1. Although the problem with Oblivion was that it left you outside of the Imperial City without any specific path to follow which isn't good for new players. Skyrim fixes this I think.
Alderney_Scouser on 11 Sep '11 said:
Between this, Ace Combat, MW3, BF 3, Crysis and Trials Evolution I get the feeling my social life is getting put on hold indefinately!!
CHIEFRAPTOR on 11 Sep '11 said:
Cannot wait for this!
I spent so much time on oblivion and before i'd even started the main quest i was a level 10 dark brotherhood vampire argonian, i played the whole main quest through at level 11 because if i slept to level up then i would become more vampiric and burnt in the sun, so i never ever slept.
I also went on an insane crime spree which ended up with me spending over 500 days in jail, there is just so much to do in Elder Scrolls games that pretty much everyone can find something they enjoy doing
Ninja Squirrel on 12 Sep '11 said:
Fanny about will be the first thing I do I did it in Oblivion and only completed the main quest when I was tooled right up and head of every guild etc.
I can't wait for a new place to bumble around in and explore Skyrim will be glued in my Xbox for months.
GHOSTY05 on 12 Sep '11 said:
Same here, first thing im going to do is wander around and admire the graphics, the trees, the physics and explore the area.
Then i'm going to go to the nearest town, buy stuff, work if i can and earn some money, and start leveling myself in weapon fixing etc.
Then maybe explore some of the 125+ dungeons
Not going to go to far until i have some good weapons and experience as i can see those dragons ripping you to pieces if you go to far!
SidTheSloth on 14 Sep '11 said:
Im really excited about skyrim but, simple truth is im not sure i have any right to be when i just couldn't get into either oblivion or fallout 3? Im something of an RPG nerd playing pretty much any that you could care to mention, and i can even remember the excitement the day in Game when i saw oblivion on the shelf having never heard of it. 30 minutes later i was zooming through the character creation and out into the world... to frustration and disappointment!
I have gripes with both games but the big one i found in both is that the main quest just wasn't/isn't compelling enough so i kinda got to the point where i was asking why i was bothering, i'd spent so long out doing random stuff (which admittedly is pretty enjoyable) that i just lost the point of the game... I like the fact you can go anywhere, do anything, but just once, occasionally, if someone in the game asked why on earth i was busy killing pigeons with my crossbow when the world was facing imminent death it might invoke a sense of focus and make me get on with it. Anyone who played majoras mask will know that while you could mess around with all sorts of things, the big moon in the sky getting closer was more than a subtle hint to put the fishing rod down and go whack some beasts...!
Still, for two games i 'hardly played' i must have spent about 100 hours combined so maybe i like them more than i thought (just had a flashback, think it was the levelling system in oblivion that eventually stopped me playing, think fallout was because my character was like a god at level 18, with only deathclaws posing something like a challenge)
Lastly, ill add that anyone who's done oblivion to death and wants to kill a few eeks waiting for skyrim would do worse than pick up divinity 2: DKS. If you can forgive it a few flaws i was pleasantly suprised...
CaseyFae on 8 Oct '11 said:
Could there be a possible 3rd outcome for the mini-quest listed 2nd on this list?
Could you not take each potential suitors letter then give them simultaneously to the woman in question and have her reward you for opening her eyes to the idiocy of the boys in her home town?