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Digital Foundry - Skyrim on Switch Hands-on Look

Rellik

Member
Although you can do every guild on one character, it does feel better to decide your "role" and then do the appropriate stuff only. So going with bows and stealth? Make sure you do the Thief's Guild stuff. (And maybe Dark Brotherhood, if you are into that..)

You'll make a crap load of money through the Thieves Guild as well. And if you fully upgrade it, you'll have access to a bunch of stores.

It's a little boring to fully upgrade though.
 

BDGAME

Member
OP. You should also mention when they say this is only comparable to and based on last gen, doesn't come close to current gen.

So what we're basically getting is a last gen port that's a little improved on a portable machine. And this should be good enough.

On TV though, not worth it. But we're all here for it's portability.

You are so wrong.
The switch version is more like the enhanced version of this generation than the vanilla game of last gen.

Look:

I know the quality is shit... Here is a small comp.

X360
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Switch
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X360
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Switch
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.
 

TrutaS

Member
These Xbox360 vs Switch comparison make me happy, specially considering the performance. This is a resource intense game, and to make it run to well on such a tiny device is very impressive.
 

Lonely1

Unconfirmed Member
Well, looking at the evidence in this thread, it does seem based on SE rather than vanilla. It's been a while so, on the floor, it was hard to say (since the SE also looks dated). Wasnt there some dynamic depth of field on SE though? That's not in the Switch version from what I could see.

Well, it is reasonable (and to be expected) that not everything would make it through.
 

FinalAres

Member
So essentially it's a version that graphically sits between the original and the SE but with excellent performance.

I'm interested.
 

ozfunghi

Member
IIRC Snake Pass also removed the DoF field from the PS4/XBOX ONE version.

There is definitely some DOF in Snake Pass on Switch. Maybe the other versions have more, or in other situations, but i know i've seen the effect on the Switch version in certain cases.

So essentially it's a version that graphically sits between the original and the SE but with excellent performance.

An upgrade on its own.
 

patientx

Member
Thats what i want too.

After playing splatoon a bit and getting used to using motion controls when I returned to play minecraft I was really really frustrated that I couldn't use them on the game. Just controlling the camera with the joycons adds a lot to the fps/tps view.
 

Effect

Member
I really hope we get some Docked gameplay footage soon.

I think CoD and GTA V will likely happen next year - if not they wont happen at all.

I think GTA V more so then CoD with the direction CoD is going in. I still think Destiny would be a far better fit. Especially if they can somehow include a local co-op (multiple Switches in a room) aspect that reports back to the main servers once an Internet connection is established and then issues rewards. The cooperative gameplay options offered in Destiny I think is more appealing to a bigger range of people.
 

VariantX

Member
They really don't want us to see that direct feed for some reason. Its not like its going to look ugly, its Skyrim after all. The expectations are a bit different for an old game running on a portable than a dedicated console.
 
Docked gameplay. Thanks to GameXplain

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A-K2_GcpsKw

Looks great, thanks!

Someone seriously needs to ask them about mod support though.

I think this is indication there are no mods in the game. Right at the beginning when they start the game up, there should be a section titled 'Mods' right under add-ons. Its not there. Unless it changes before release.

I've only played on PC, what are the "add-ons" if not mods?
 

Kilrogg

paid requisite penance
They really don't want us to see that direct feed for some reason. Its not like its going to look ugly, its Skyrim after all. The expectations are a bit different for an old game running on a portable than a dedicated console.

Nintendo routinely does this with Switch demos: if undocked, you have to show the player's hands. If you're playing docked, you gotta show the screen. It was the same with ARMS for and Splatoon 2 for instance.
 

kingkaiser

Member
Damn, it looks really good in docked mode.

Colour me impressed if it turns out to be 1080/30 while docked with most of the PS4/One enhancements.
 
The DLCs are included in this version, do they list them separately like that in the other Special Editions?

Yes. In case for whatever reason you want to disable them. On Ps4 and X1 there is a header for Mods right under the Add-ons section. So...dont look good at this moment.

Ill still buy it to support it. And i like the game. But this is a bummer.
 
Damn, it looks really good in docked mode.

Colour me impressed if it turns out to be 1080/30 while docked with most of the PS4/One enhancements.

I think it will be, mainly because I don't think the SE really pushed the PS4 or XB1 very hard. It's a game that was made for consoles with 512MB of RAM after all.

Yes. In case for whatever reason you want to disable them. On Ps4 and X1 there is a header for Mods right under the Add-ons section. So...dont look good at this moment.

Ill still buy it to support it. And i like the game. But this is a bummer.

Ah I see. Yeah that would be a real shame, hopefully it's just something they're not ready to talk about yet for whatever reason. I'm still holding out hope.
 

Zarovitch

Member
Yes. In case for whatever reason you want to disable them. On Ps4 and X1 there is a header for Mods right under the Add-ons section. So...dont look good at this moment.

Ill still buy it to support it. And i like the game. But this is a bummer.

What kind of mod we will miss?
 

VariantX

Member
What kind of mod we will miss?

There are mods that add whole questlines and characters and such. Though I don't think you can add any assets to the game like you can on PC, which would allow for revamping the game itself with graphical upgrades and QoL improvements and such to allow the game to continue to evolve along with tech.
 
Ah I see. Yeah that would be a real shame, hopefully it's just something they're not ready to talk about yet for whatever reason. I'm still holding out hope.


Yeah im crossing fingers it will be added sometime before release. I wouldnt be surprised though if it isnt cause of that new mods program Bethesda said they were gonna roll out during E3. Not sure exactly when that takes effect.
 
I'll probably play the shit out of this. I tried to get into pc Skyrim but all of the mods I wanted refused to work properly and playing vanilla again in a desktop didn't appeal to me. Playing mobile while I have background TV though? Yes please.
 
Unofficial Skyrim Legendary Edition Patch, that fixes so much in Skyrim, I'd personally say Skyrim is broken and unplayable without at least this mod.

Disagree. Changes tons of things that are extremely debatable "fixes" for no reason at all other than huge leaps of logic as to developer intent. Just a couple that I remember being annoying:

I can think of one example that I've encountered that seemed pretty subjective. In vanilla there is a clear progression of dragons, normal -> blood -> frost -> elder -> ancient. Each dragon occurs twice with two different breath attacks, except the frost dragon which obviously uses frost breath for both of its LeveledActor entries. This distribution allows the player to encounter every visibly distinct species with equal likelihood, assuming the player/cell/spawn is of sufficient level.
But after USLEEP, the second copy of Frost dragon has been replaced by a weakened version of the Elder dragon. As a result, you are 3 times more likely to encounter an Elder dragon than a Frost dragon. It's made even worse by the fact that Beth used the same mesh for the Ancient dragon, presumably as a last minute addition. So you are 5 times more likely to encounter that mesh than the Frost mesh. USLEEP's reasoning seems to be that players care more about which breath a dragon is using than its appearance/name. Whether or not that's true seems like a matter of opinion. AFAIK there is no associated bug being fixed by this change. The other possible explanation is that this was intended to restore the rank 3 fire dragon that had been cut from the game, but that would mean this should be part of Cutting Room Floor rather than USLEEP. Especially since the dragon doesn't have it's own model.

The patch changes stuff not necessary broken, for example Aval Atheron, he's a shady merchant that sells any kind of goods in Windhelm, the patch make him a food vendor just because he have a food stall. Some people don't like this kind of changes.
 
A couple vanilla Skyrim tips that can be gamechangers:

- If you are interested in min/maxing, Altmer are kinda sorta the best player race in the game. While all races have different benefits and bonuses, Altmer have an additional hidden one: the way the game is coded, the player's size impacts movement speed and attack damage, and Altmer are the tallest race with a height multiplier of 1.08. They move 8% faster and hit 8% harder than almost everyone else (Nords are 3% and Orcs are 4.5%). If you spend 100 hours of your playthrough walking, playing as an Altmer saves you 8 hours. And their racial bonus is great as it is anyway, it's like starting with 5 levels already invested in magicka.

- Dragons are both a boon and a curse in Skyrim. Souls are great to have for unlocking shouts and their bones are great for crafting, but it gets very annoying being harassed by them constantly when you're just going about your business. Talking to some townsperson and he stops to run off and attack a surprise dragon, which might kill him, etc. You could hold off on starting the main quest and keep dragons from ever spawning, but that means you get none of the benefits above either. So what's the solution? Well there is one specific quest, part of the main quest called A Blade in the Dark, which pauses random dragon encounters for as long as you are on that quest. Also, it doesn't stop dragons from showing up in their nests at word walls, so you're still able to farm them whenever you like, but you won't have to worry about getting ganked every time you fast travel to the Mage's Guild anymore.

- If you don't want NPCs to be at risk of getting killed by vampires every time you enter a major town, you may want to turn off the Dawnguard add-on until you are prepared to play through it.
 
I honestly didn't expect that. I mean the PS4 and X1 versions of the SE are already 1080p but Switch isn't nearly as powerful.

I really doubt the Skyrim SE pushes the PS4 or XB1 at all. I wouldn't be surprised if it's basically running at the same settings, though I expect some settings to be reduced a bit.
 
I really doubt the Skyrim SE pushes the PS4 or XB1 at all. I wouldn't be surprised if it's basically running at the same settings, though I expect some settings to be reduced a bit.

Given what has been said in this thread, it doesn't seem to have the DoF seen in the PS4/XB1 versions.

There do seem to be some cutbacks. It'd be impressive if it was to achieve 1080p docked. Less dense foliage and missing effects like DoF would still be an impressive achievement for what is in essence mobile tech.

I mean really. I've been saying this a lot since I held one, but Switch is an incredible little piece of kit. Insanely powerful for the form factor, and staying shockingly close to parity with PS4/XB1 releases.
 
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