• We’re currently investigating an issue related to the forum theme and styling that is impacting page layout and visual formatting. The problem has been identified, and we are actively working on a resolution. There is no impact to user data or functionality, this is strictly a front-end display issue. We’ll post an update once the fix has been deployed. Thanks for your patience while we get this sorted.

Help me make a decision: Skyrim, Bioshock Infinite or Fallout: New Vegas?

Page 2 - Seeking answers? Join the AnandTech community: where nearly half-a-million members share solutions and discuss the latest tech.
norseamd said:
35s7cv.jpg
Click to expand...

I think he's referring to the combat, which is widely thought of as horrible in all of them. As much as I want to love them (going back to Daggerfall). I love the scope, the lore and the exploration, but the combat makes me quit playing every time because it is so cumbersome.

Granted I think Skyrim has the best of any of them and made better by the mods.
 
ImpulsE69 said:
I think he's referring to the combat, which is widely thought of as horrible in all of them.
Click to expand...

Alright then. Compared to what? Have you tried playing with the Requiem mod? The fighting mechanics with that mod are probably some of the most amazing fighting mechanics I have seen yet in any game so far.
 
So you haven't played games in a few years. And you wanna see what your new videocard can do. And check out how modern games look. Right ?

I'd play BioShock then, if I were you. It's not a very complicated game. Especially not in the first hours. Later on you get more weapons and you can tweak your abilities a bit (like a mini-RPG). But overall the game is not overly complex. The path you take through the game is pretty much "on rails", so you can't get lost or confused. The graphics are nice. Not a lot of tweaking you can do, or need to do, to make it look better. There is a specific goal to the game, and a specific end. Perfect for when you return to gaming.

Skyrim is the better game. Ten times better. That *doesn't* mean BioShock isn't a good game. Skyrim is just in the all-time top 5 evar of all games. No doubt. But Skyrim is a larger game. No straight track, you can wander around for days. Skyrim looks good, but needs a lot of tweaks to make it look better than BioShock. You probably need to make a lot of gameplay choices in the first hours. You need to read more (quest texts, etc). You need full concentration for Skyrim. In BioShock, you just move forward, shoot anything that moves, and only pay attention to the story during the cut-scenes.

I haven't played New Vegas. I only played Fallout 3. FO3 requires even more tinkering than Skyrim to make it look extra good. The world is just as open. And you need to be focused, just like in Skyrim. BioShock is definitely the better game for you.

If you finish BioShock, and enjoyed it, and you're ready for more gaming, and you like fantasy settings, then I'd recommend you try Skyrim as your 2nd game.
 
Last edited:
Go for Bioshock Infinite. It's a pretty good game, and you won't feel overwhelmed with so much stuff like you would the Bethesda games. It's not a particularly LONG game, but that's fine by me. It's a good shooter with some decent visuals and an engaging enough story. You'll be able to finish it and feel content, and that you got through the whole game.

The other two are just so big you never feel done. It can be nice to have that much game to play, but IMO it's just too much and it all blurs together eventually. I've never finished a Bethesda game because I start to lose interest after 20 hours or so and don't really feel like there's anything new to discover at that point, so why keep playing.
 
Out of those the choice would be Skyrim. But I recommend Dark souls over any of those games. It can be had for very cheap and is just superior in most aspects.
 
Bioshock

If you like stealth at all add Dishonored to that list.

Skyrim while I played it and had some fun with it, the bugs just got tired.
 
Yes, I want something to see what my shiny new graphics card can do. One of my (younger, single) co-workers recommended BS:I so I purchased it on Steam today. If I make it through BS:I I'll check out Skyrim.
 
Of those I enjoyed Bioshock:Infinite the most. I played Skyrim for way longer due to the sheer amount of content it has, but I was still thinking about Bioshock long after I had put Skyrim behind me. It's one of the best told stories I've seen in a first person game.
 
Last edited:
None of those games you listed are state of the art graphically, BTW, although Skyrim was pretty spectacular when it came out, and still looks good with mods, I guess, but I havent tried any because I have a fairly low end system. If you want something to give your system a workout, try Crysis 3, Metro Last Light, or Dragon Age Inquisition. I like Metro LL a lot, and DA:I was a well done game that somehow never really drew me in like some RPGs.
 
Skyrim hands down for me.
You seem to be more of a shooter guy, so maybe you should look in another direction.
Daggerfall was awesome for me mainly because of the dark kind of atmosphere. Trapped in large area dungeons.
Morrowind was awesome for me because mostly of the interaction. Objects, items, npcs etc.
Skyrim is probably the world I would want to live in hehe. Get some mods.
Then I am for the most part an rpg guy.
Vegas was unfinished in many ways I think. Still a good deal of fun.
 
I'd probably just go with Bioshock Infinite, pretty good game. I still prefer the original, but Infinite is still good. It is of course very linear, story-driven, with virtually no "exploration" (doesn't need to offer any, since it is so heavily scripted, in the veins of Half-Life for example).

Skyrim is already pretty good by default (without any mods, or anything added to it) but to make it truly shine you'll spend way too much time tinkering with mods left and right, textures, etc. You might even get "lost" into modding and will never be able to finish it since you'll always look around for new ones, start new games to try different mods combinations, or always having to check for new mod versions. I've given to that for years with Oblivion and Fallout 3 (and Skyrim although to a lesser extent since I already started to get burnt with Skyrim modding after two months). It's almost a "risk". You'd have to force yourself to either 1) simply play the game vanilla, by default, from start to finish or 2) look around for the recommended "essential" mods (then again, you'll become curious and you WILL look around for more, believe me, that's when the potential addiction-to-Skyrim-with-mods issues start). In the end I think it might just end up being a chore. If you do have something like a year+ to dedicate to it then okay... go for it, but you've been warned.

As for New Vegas... well it's a decent game (without mods) but Bioshock Infinite is so superior that I just can't recommend Vegas over it. And anyway to me (and I know many will disagree, but I don't care) both Skyrim and Vegas feel way too dated by now (and yeah Infinite runs on UE3 but the art direction is superb, story is pretty cool, it's an "intelligent" game as I like to call those, it makes up for the fact that it runs on a very aging engine that's been milked to death in the gaming industry since the arrival of the PS3 and the 360 up to this day).

Yep, go with Bioshock Infinite in my opinion.
 
Skyrim is one of those games that I've played for far too many hours, but I'm still finding new stuff in it. It's one of my top ten favourite games of all times. It has fewer RPG elements than past games in the Elder Scrolls series, but it's more accessible to newcomers IMO. Does away with Oblivion's convoluted leveling system and gear repair. The two things that annoyed me most about that game. Skyrim is definitely worth checking out. Wait for when Steam has a big sale though because you'll be able to pick it up plus all the DLC for cheap. The three expansion packs add quite a bit of content to the game, which is how DLC should be.

Bioshock Infinite is also one of my all time favourites. It's a bit polarizing but I prefer it to the first two. Shooting mechanics feel better and I prefer the design and art style. It's a bit more linear but still a solid shooter. The ending is still one of the most mind bending moments in gaming.

I just started playing New Vegas again. Added some beauty mods. Just not sucking me in though like it did the first time I played it. It's definitely starting to feel dated. I got a mod that makes the health system more like Skyrim (recovers over time), so I can focus more on exploration. Though after dealing with Skyrim's massive open world, New Vegas seems a lot smaller than it did.

All three are still very good games. I'd probably start with Bioshock Infinite then pick up the other two during a Steam sale.
 
One of the nice things with ES and Fallout is the level of mod-ablility. Don't like something in the game, there's a good chance it's already been modded. For example, they removed gear repair but there's a good that basically reintroduces it.
 
That really depends on what you enjoy most.

I put a buttload of hours and mods into Skyrim. I enjoyed it immensely, but the story is really uninspired.

Bioshock Infinite? I loved every minute of it. Artistic direction at its height. The kind of game, where, if you're into that aesthetic, you will enjoy it immensely. I certainly did, and I would recommend it highly. The only thing that annoyed me was the far too Disney-esque rendition of Elizabeth. Really, girls aren't like that, and it got annoying. That aside, it was worth every minute.

I can't pick just one. They are polar opposites, but they are both great.

And then there's Dishonored...a poster mentioned a little earlier. Definitely worth the time, and highly underrated.
 
Stringjam said:
I put a buttload of hours and mods into Skyrim. I enjoyed it immensely, but the story is really uninspired.
Click to expand...

I guess we're all in agreement here that the hundreds of hours people poured into Skyrim are mostly not for the story. I mean the main story is maybe 40-50 hours at most. It's the rest of the world, the openness, and the fact that we could basically do what we want in it that's appealing (for people who are into it). I spent more than 100 hours in Skyrim and never actually finished the story 🙂

And then there's Dishonored...a poster mentioned a little earlier. Definitely worth the time, and highly underrated.
Click to expand...

One of these days I'm going to fire Dishonered back up. I started the first hour or so and then distracted by other games and never went back.
 
cronos said:
I guess we're all in agreement here that the hundreds of hours people poured into Skyrim are mostly not for the story. I mean the main story is maybe 40-50 hours at most. It's the rest of the world, the openness, and the fact that we could basically do what we want in it that's appealing (for people who are into it). I spent more than 100 hours in Skyrim and never actually finished the story 🙂
Click to expand...

That was one of the things I loved about skyrim. I barely got into the main story at all before I got sidetracked by something. Eventually playing through the main quest morphed into just exploring everything that popped up on my compass. I was probably 40-50 hours in and had uncovered 70% of the map before I even got my first shout. Of course my character was so overpowered by then that I breezed through the main story. With all the DLCs I probably got 150 hours of play out of Skyrim though.

For all that I'll ultimately get more play time out of Bioshock though. It has become a habit to play through all the Bioshocks every year or so. I doubt I ever pick up Skyrim again.
 
I just finished the main quest in Skyrim last night with a shade over 200 hours into it. I was actually quite sad to see it all coming to an end. I have joined both the Thieves guild and DB, and played far enough into both factions to feel like there isn't a lot left to do, unfortunately. The meaty side quests were by far my favorite ones to do - the unusual gems was a real patience tester, but I completed every one that I had available to me.

Yea, I could go for the DLC, but the vampire based one doesn't appeal to me at all. I also varied my characters abilities too much, as I started as a 1 handed melee guy with destruction training, then once I hit level 30 went exclusively to an archer. My arrows pretty much one shot everything short of a dragon (including giants) so I guess I could re-play the game all over again.
 
SlitheryDee said:
That was one of the things I loved about skyrim. I barely got into the main story at all before I got sidetracked by something. Eventually playing through the main quest morphed into just exploring everything that popped up on my compass. I was probably 40-50 hours in and had uncovered 70% of the map before I even got my first shout. Of course my character was so overpowered by then that I breezed through the main story. With all the DLCs I probably got 150 hours of play out of Skyrim though.

For all that I'll ultimately get more play time out of Bioshock though. It has become a habit to play through all the Bioshocks every year or so. I doubt I ever pick up Skyrim again.
Click to expand...

Yea, this was an odd thing about skyrim. I loved the game, like I said, one of my top five of all time. But i went back to do a second playthrough and could not really get into it. Maybe that was simply because i spent so much time on the first playthrough and the skills selection is so flexible that by the end of my first playthrough my character was pretty proficient in melee, stealth, archery, and some magic. Just did not seem much new to do.
 
Gryz said:
So you haven't played games in a few years. And you wanna see what your new videocard can do. And check out how modern games look. Right ?

I'd play BioShock then, if I were you. It's not a very complicated game. Especially not in the first hours. Later on you get more weapons and you can tweak your abilities a bit (like a mini-RPG). But overall the game is not overly complex. The path you take through the game is pretty much "on rails", so you can't get lost or confused. The graphics are nice. Not a lot of tweaking you can do, or need to do, to make it look better. There is a specific goal to the game, and a specific end. Perfect for when you return to gaming.

Skyrim is the better game. Ten times better. That *doesn't* mean BioShock isn't a good game. Skyrim is just in the all-time top 5 evar of all games. No doubt. But Skyrim is a larger game. No straight track, you can wander around for days. Skyrim looks good, but needs a lot of tweaks to make it look better than BioShock. You probably need to make a lot of gameplay choices in the first hours. You need to read more (quest texts, etc). You need full concentration for Skyrim. In BioShock, you just move forward, shoot anything that moves, and only pay attention to the story during the cut-scenes.

I haven't played New Vegas. I only played Fallout 3. FO3 requires even more tinkering than Skyrim to make it look extra good. The world is just as open. And you need to be focused, just like in Skyrim. BioShock is definitely the better game for you.

If you finish BioShock, and enjoyed it, and you're ready for more gaming, and you like fantasy settings, then I'd recommend you try Skyrim as your 2nd game.
Click to expand...

Bioshock is the best of the games you listed. You shouldn't need a mod or addon to make the game better imho, just different. Bioshock plays great out of the box and has a great story with plenty of play time. Skyrim was just too.... blah?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

TRENDING THREADS

Back
Top