Believe it or not, at the start of 2011, I wasn't massively excited for
Skyrim. There were simply too many awesome games coming out, and it seemed like an age ago that I played through
Oblivion (I remember at the time I would've given my right testicle for an Elder Scrolls five). Still, that game was one of my favourite games of
all time and so as 11/11/11 approached this year... I got
Skyrim fever.
For me the main thing that makes Elder Scrolls games so magical is the living world they create.
Skyrim pulled me once again deep into the world of Tamriel, and all the time I'd spent with
Oblivion came flooding back; only this time with many, many, improvements! The land of Skyrim looks gorgeous, from the snowy mountain peaks down to the frosty tundra and bubbling, steaming swamps, this is a land that you want to explore every inch of. Every inch is also meticulously hand-crafted and filled with secrets and side-quests, so much so that the game is overwhelming in the best possible way. In my (at the time of this post) 90-ish hours playing the game, a vast bulk of that has been spent doing everything
except the main story lines. It is insanely difficult to walk from one place to another without something distracting you and about two or three hours later (after an epic adventure up a mountain or delving deep underground) you think to yourself "what the hell was I actually meant to be doing!? Oh yeah..." and off you go back on track.
It doesn't help matters that leveling your character and unlocking the associated 'perks' is insanely addictive and you feel like an absolute bad-ass when throwing fireballs from your hands at a Dragon as the epic main theme song blares out of your speakers!! The music in general is superb as Jeremy Soule has outdone himself once again, this time with a full orchestra backing him up. I've currently stopped playing, because I'm trying to get through a massive backlog of games, but soon I will be revisiting the land of
Skyrim, as there is still a lot of stuff to see and do: quests to complete, secrets to find, trophies to earn. The Elder Scrolls games occupy their own lofty pedestal towering above most other video games, and most gaming websites are deservedly awarding this their GOTY.
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