Damn. Sorry I've been away from this so much, I've had a lot of classes and finals to deal with lately.
Anyway, one thing I have to talk about is Elder Scrolls: Skyrim.
Anyway, one thing I have to talk about is Elder Scrolls: Skyrim.
Personally, I tend to chalk myself up to the “First-Person Shooter” or “Tactical Shooting” style of video gaming.
Countless Bond villains and their cronies, zombies, aliens, terrorists, corporate agents from the future, and conventional armed forces have all been felled in the world of virtual reality under my very itchy index fingers.
So when I first heard about Elder Scrolls: Oblivion…needless to say I laughed my ass off. My friends were playing one of those silly RPG’s! They would end up becoming obese, sensitive to light, and total wall flowers as they spent the rest of their lives outside of school in their mother’s basements. Pshh…so it got a 9.3 out of 10 on IGN.com, big whoop! I was a tactical guy who trusted that my M4 carbine and its 4x scope could dispatch my enemies quickly and more efficiently then a “level 32 mage class Wood Elf” ever could.
Google Images=Hilarious
Somehow, and don’t ask me because I don’t remember, I ended up playing that damn game.
This is what happened next. (Source)
In you case you didn't pick up on that, I got hooked. I don’t know what it is that I like about Elder Scrolls so much…I’m a Sci-Fi fan, but I never took myself as the fantasy kind of guy. The storyline however was compelling, for the main and side quests alike, and the graphics were great (for the time)---the attention to detail being stunning.
So when I heard about Skyrim, and saw the trailers…I didn’t have the same mindless shoot ‘em grunt attitude about the game. I bought Skyrim right before Thanksgiving….and I am absolutely addicted. It has been said that during times of economic repression, fantasy movies, tv shows, and video games sky rocket in sales and popularity. I can see why. It is so easy to sit down and forget about all of the negative-stressors in your life when playing Skryim. Your memories of brutal weeks of stacks and stacks of essay drafts quickly fade away within minutes of gameplay. You are one Ranger-riffic badass, and you have a whole world…even a culture to discover.
For me, the biggest difference in terms of my gameplay style between Oblivion and Skyrim is the combat.
First of all…I didn’t exactly play Oblivion to its final extent. Yeah..I played the game and fell in love with it, but I definitely cheated my way around combat. The best thing about PC-gaming is you can access all sorts of back doors in a lot of games simply by pressing the “~” button. Go ahead! Consult a cheat website and type in what you want unlocked, killed, or put in your inventory! Fanboys of RPG’s...I apologize if my comments have forced you to rip out patches of your hair and scream “by the nine divines” at the top of your lungs.
You cheating asshole!!!!!!!!!!! (Source)
Yeah…all the daedric missions, all the Gladiator battles, even the entire cave and ruin explorations….completed with a simple click, typing of “kill” and hitting the enter. Now hold on a second here…this is only when that “I hit this guy 30 times with a freaking broadsword and he isn’t dead yet” got tedious. The rest of the time I was running around in “God” mode.
AGGHHH!!!!!!!!! You're even more of an asshole than I thought!!!!!!!!!!
Anyway, that should provide all of you with an ample enough background into my excitement for Skyrim. There was an automatic and distinct difference however. I actually planned to play the game with no cheating. I bought the 360 version, and I have to say….it is so much more satisfying to play the game out like it’s meant to be played rather than cheat you’re way through it.
I won't hand out any spoilers, so no worries there; in the first place, I'm nowhere close to completing the main quest simply because I've gotten caught up in exploring, doing side quests and focusing on the needs of my own character.
But basic premise wise, you're about to be executed for crossing the border (because you got accidently captured among some rebels) when a big-ass dragon shows up out of nowhere and RTFUs all over the place. Needless to say, you find out along the way that you are a "Dragonborn". Basically meaning you're Highlander x1000, and when you kill dragons you take their soul..which in turn allows you to speak, or shout, the dragon language. Each shout basically works as a spell, but is totally more badass than some wimpy mage bullshit.
When you think Highlander...you don't think BOBD.
If my half-ass attempt at explaining this didn't do anything for you, just watch IGN.com's walk-through below.
In essence, you're the Skyrim equivalent to the US Army Rangers.
Anyway, I just have to say that this is a must buy. If you're in college it might be best to not bring it back to school with you. I logged a ridiculous amount of hours on Thanksgiving Break alone...and I know I wouldn't be able to focus back at school if it was here.
There's a ridiculous amount of awesomeness to be found in Skyrim. Forget the Main and side quests, you could spend days making your own potions, creating your own armor, or enchanting your weapons. Hell you could spend weeks just reading every damn book in the game back to front. There's a whole culture to be found in Skyrim.
Some aspects of the game are more enjoyable if you're a long standing Elder Scrolls game player, but for the most part I've found things easy to follow so far and the controls are user-friendly to new gamers.
Something new gamers may get stuck on is the puzzles you'll often find in dungeons. For the most part these are simple enough, and you'll get the hang of most of them, but I admit so far I had to look at IGN's walk-through to get through one of them. The answer was to up my screen brightness in order to find the symbols I needed in order to get to my objective.
I'd love to say 10,000 more things about this game because it really is just that freaking awesome..but I'm going to leave it here and recommend strongly that you buy this game yourself and create your own memories of the game.
P.S. I have finally played MW3, so expect that there will be an upcoming MW3 vs. BF3 post.
--FIN--
