The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (X360)

“Beautiful open-world, a shit ton of quests, epic campaign, and you get to fight dragons. It's a huge improvement from previous Elder Scrolls games.”

“Beautiful open-world, a shit ton of quests, epic campaign, and you get to fight dragons. It's a huge improvement from previous Elder Scrolls games.”

“Great game for fantasy and open world fans alike. I will mention that if given a choice the PC version adds much more possibilities thanks to the modding community. ”

“Great game for fantasy and open world fans alike. I will mention that if given a choice the PC version adds much more possibilities thanks to the modding community. ”

“By Far, My Favorite Game In the RPG/Sandbox/Open World genre. Have Played through main storyline Multiple Times. Enjoying It Each Time. Had the Most Fun Playinjg A Nord Blacksmith. Would Definitely Purchase this and Get all DLC For IT.”

“By Far, My Favorite Game In the RPG/Sandbox/Open World genre. Have Played through main storyline Multiple Times. Enjoying It Each Time. Had the Most Fun Playinjg A Nord Blacksmith. Would Definitely Purchase this and Get all DLC For IT.”

“Unfuckingbelievable. This is what I always wanted my computer RPGs to be when I was a kid, playing Wizardry: Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord (on a B&W Mac Plus!) or later, The Bards Tale, or Dungeon Master, or Might & Magic (not...”

“Unfuckingbelievable.

This is what I always wanted my computer RPGs to be when I was a kid, playing Wizardry: Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord (on a B&W Mac Plus!) or later, The Bards Tale, or Dungeon Master, or Might & Magic (not Heroes of Might & Magic; before that.)

I literally bought an Xbox 360 just so I could play this game.”

“I love RPGs! From Dark souls to Fallout, it's very difficult for me to turn down an opportunity for a 20 minute session. So what's the biggest RPG around? We all know: Skyrim! However for some unexplained, alien reason... I just don't like Skyrim....”

“I love RPGs! From Dark souls to Fallout, it's very difficult for me to turn down an opportunity for a 20 minute session. So what's the biggest RPG around? We all know: Skyrim! However for some unexplained, alien reason... I just don't like Skyrim. Before I am crucified, I would like to get my version of the story out there.

Story- Ever heard of William Wallace? Well this game feels like it's story was ripped straight from those old fashioned history text books about William Wallace.The Empire wants to take over and tame the nordic homeland: Skyrim. However Jarl Ulfric Stormcloak, one of the nine Jarls to be found in Skyrim, has other plans; He wants Skyrim to be bound to nordic traditions and culture by keeping the Empire from bringing new cultures into Skyrim, and so he takes it upon himself to lead a rebellion called: The Stormcloaks. However at the start of the game you have to choose which side you want to join, which isn't exactly fair for the Empire as the first scene of the game is an imperial group trying to cut your head off and insult you in any way possible. As much as Bethesda wanted to make the one side as likable as the other, they failed to realise the most important rule of social fiction- First impressions tell the audience a lot. So naturally as the player, joining with Empire will feel downright wrong as there is no real chemistry between the player and the fictional faction. Therefore it only feels right to play as a Stormcloak, however again another issue arises: If you don't choose to be a Nord, you are treated very poorly within the Stormcloak army. This is a reason why Bethesda should have given the player more of a show of both factions properly before forcing such a heavy decision upon the player. Now it is impossibe to think Skyrim without Dragons, and to Bethesda's credit, the Dragons work pretty well. The first dragon I fought was part of a quest which dissapointed me because this made me think that Dragons were going to be the RPG equivelant to boss-battles. Despite this though I was very surprised when I was strolling in town one day and a Dragon swooped down and tore me to pieces, so don't be alarmed: Dragons can be found whilst free roaming and are on a completely unpredictable cycle. There is a more personal story to the Dragons and the link to your character, but for the sake of time and risk of spoilers I will not be covering this in my review.

Gameplay- This area of Skyrim is my main worry: Exploring and combat, these two features are said to be Skyrim's backbone but I have serious complaints about difficulty, features and worst of all: Repetition. The land of Skyrim is vast with a wide scope, but most of the time you will be looking down to see snow and looking around you to see mountains.... Covered in more snow. There is a few varying environments, most of which have a more woodland or stream-side-village feel but most of your time is spent wandering from one snowy mountain range to a snowy plain, maybe a small wood, then back into the snowy mountain range. Repeat, repeat, repeat. Combat suffers the same problems, most of the time will be spent tapping the attack button untill your opponent falls over. Much like the environments there is some variation in power attacks, but there is no point because they're far too slow and consume an infuriating amount of stamina. Spells too suffer this problem, when you level up your magical skills you can rest assured that your ultimate fire spell, frost spell, demon summon or any other over-powered spell can take you through any enemy with the click of a button. You may be thinking; 'Just turn the difficulty up!' Well I can tell you I have.... And I wish i hadn't. Any difficuty between very easy and medium is far to simple and hold-your-hand-in-patronising-small-child fashion, and anything above medium is just unfair. I like Dark souls and Demon souls because they are hard, but never are they unfair. Finally features put into the game from other games like Bethesda's Fallout franchise are a little out of place sure enough the 'executions' shown in the trailers looked pretty spectacular and gory, however in-game it is very difficult to even get an 'execution' to work, and when they do work they make you feel 10 times more awesome.... Up untill your victim falls rather patheticaly to the floor with over-kill ragdoll physics. So in this instance Skyrim was far too hyped up, and not enough thought was put into brand new features.

Graphics- At this point you will find yourself wondering why I even gave Skyrim 1 star, let alone 3. Well it's quite simple really: Bethesda cared for this game. Every little detail in the environment and... Well, everything in this game was hand drawn by artists and the results are fantastic at least. Even though those hordes of snowy plains and mountains look the same, they all look amazing and even more so when switched up to ultra garphics settings on an upgraded Alienware X51, 'Ahem'. But besid”