Skyrim

It had to happen at some stage, even with my Steam catalog bulging like a sack of potatoes about to explode forth with shards of gaming-based french-fry shrapnel each game crying out to me for attention...

It's been a year since I got it, and now - Now it is time for me to take a firmly lodged arrow to my knee and see what all the FUSS-RO-DAH is about...

What was I expecting?

being that I've logged about 4 human life-spans worth of time in Fallout 3 & New Vegas I had a feeling it's pretty much be more of the same, I was wrong, sure there is visual comparison, even the general gaming system feels samey.

But there is something more about Skyrim, I've lodges just over 100 hours in the game so far and only just feel like I'm starting to really get into it! the first 50 hours were hugely fun, exploring, finding things, dying... dying some more... learning how not to die... and then dying.

But each part of the experience has been just such enthralling and must-play-more style gaming, this is one of only a few titles which to date have made me literally be confused when I look up to see that it's 3am. Skyrim is part adventure... part temporal black hole, absorbing time from our reality and turning it into fun.

Any Bad Thoughts?

I'll confess, the very early game was unforgiving, aggravating, frustrating, but for each time I was killed by a random wolf I've now jumped into battle yelling dragon-speakanees wielding odd looking weapons gleefully enacting my virtual revenge on their furry little pixel-butts.

The sound is passable but really it's nothing super amazing, If I were to highlight the weak-spot of this game it would have to be the audio.

Wrap it up, like a Draugr mummy.

I'm now fully immersed in a world that is gargantuan, and have yet to find so much, least of all the fact that already I can see this game has great potential for replay-ability, use a different style, try different quest lines, so much to get done it really really is going to be hard to put this one down.

Oh, and the small fact that there are a wealth of brilliant fan-made mods for the game, allowing me to tweak the experience even more to my personal taste and ensuring that I get 110% of my game squeezed out.

The graphics are amazing, but start adding a few mods and I truly am blown away at just how awesome things look. A lot of time and effort has gone into this game, and it shows.

Gaming Review summary:

Graphics 4.5/5
Audio 4/5
Gameplay 4.5/5
Features 4/5

Weighted Score: 93%

EHR - MAH -GHERD!

This has to be one of the best gaming experiences I've written about to date (although there isn't many) .. This game .... Buy it!