First I’d like to apologise for my absence. I’ve been busy with Replica stuff. Also, I was kidnapped by a game called Skyrim…

So a while ago I wrote an article discussing differences between multi-platform games on each console. Since then I have heard much about the prolonged issues on the Playstation 3 port of The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. As I got the Xbox 360 port I will be reviewing only based upon my own playing experience (how many bugs, glitches and frame-rate issues I came across). Now, onto the actual review…       (click read more)

In October (yes, October 2011) I received The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. At first I was a hesitant to say it was a good game. The combat could have been better and I kept getting ‘Over-encumbered’ and I was going through what felt like an endless sewer. I was a complete n00b to the Elder Scrolls at that point. But eventually I realised that I was wasting time picking up everything I saw as a lot of it is USELESS. After that revelation I escaped the sewer and found myself in a beautifully made environment with amazing graphics (I say amazing because the game was released way back in 2006, when most graphics were ever-so simple). So I enjoyed exploring the region of Cyrodil for a while and though this is meant to be a review of Skyrim, I would like to mention that I would give Oblivion a score of 75/100. It would have been higher but the combat was not good at all and there just wasn’t a quick enough pace, quests were a bit more difficult to find. But it was an enjoyable feat, nonetheless.

Then, on Christmas morn’ (after eating lots of chocolate, watching Limitless Blu-Ray, playing some Portal 2 AND beginning the campaign of AC: Revelations) I was delighted to find the game I had been waiting for; Skyrim. Well, Skyrim and the 700 page full-of-tiny-text beast of a book, the official gaming guide. I don’t use the companion guide much for help on quests but it is full of insider knowledge such as race advantages, which animals were safe to approach and what were the best strategies of looting dungeons. Anyway I slid the disc in and was thrown into an epic tale of the honourable Dovahkiin, on his quest to rid Skyrim of the returning dragons. The first huge change from Oblivion that I noticed was definitely the amazing improvement of combat, which I soon got used to. I noticed a larger inventory this time around too, so I did not have to worry about being over-encumbered too often. I played for a good few hours, uncovering secrets and commencing massacres of Draugrs, all the while feeling the weight of my gold pouch increasing significantly (and at a faster rate than it did in Oblivion). After a few main quests were complete and after I had garnered some rewards for side-quests I looked in the gaming guide to see what it had said about the missions I had done so far. It turned out that there were far more ways to get roped into quests than I realised. I had came across a dungeon by luck when other players could come across it from rumours of a golden claw, I had escaped having to meet my friend’s family (score!) and I was hugely impressed with the way it had all been implemented. The only thing in Skyrim that isn’t a huge leap from Oblivion seems to be the graphics. But that being said, they have been improved quite a bit. I also really like the better lighting and attention to detail from the sexy snowflakes to the awesome aurora in the night sky.

If there was a Skyrim flavoured beverage I would most certainly become an alcoholic as basically, this game is addictive. Some people didn’t like the levelling up system but I see it as more of an extra to an already great game (also you don’t have to sleep every time you need to level up!). One of my favourite improvements is the lock picking mini-game. Oblivion had a weird system that was difficult to make any sense of (it felt more like luck). But in Skyrim it feels far more realistic and actually seems to take some sort of skill. Everything is really easy to access too; I had been watching gameplay videos on YouTube beforehand and honestly thought that the menus looked like a hassle but when I actually sat down to play it myself I realised how well done they were. I was very conscious that at any moment I could come across a game-breaking bug or glitch but many hours in and nothing. Or almost nothing; a frostbite spider was in the air for a second or two, my horse went invisible for a moment and after I gave a woman a gift, it was still in my inventory, but all of those glitches were so small and one of them even benefitted me!

Skyrim is probably my favourite game of all time. A truly immersive experience that deserves an absurdly high score. I sit down for a ten minute session and wake from a trance 39 hours later after getting married, succumbing to vampirism, joining colleges and guilds among other things. I give it 101/100 (problem mathematicians?)! BUY THIS GAME.

Thanks for reading

~Sam