Dragons in Skyrim

Been "busy" week with two new games and little stress related stuff, which have taken all my time from blog. Last week was the time I learned to take easily over some webstores and specially those who provide digital downloads over physical discs. Was kinda hectic days on my orders and mistake crap.

Two new games should be obvious by now as I have been telling about them in previous entries. One from Bethesda, The Elder Scrolls V Skyrim and one from Volition, Saints Row The Third (review coming later)!

The Elder Scrolls V Skyrim

This very much waited title from Bethesda has finally come. There is no way possible to tell in words, how amazing game this is. Scenery is just breathtaking and you can see Bethesda did their job to improve every bit to make sure this open world experience would seem and feel very nice from beginning to the end for every pixel. Even the dungeons are now more exiting (and creepy) and have this very nice atmosphere - even if dungeon tunnels are little straightforward "roads". Monsters and other creatures are more detailed and they have larger set of attacks and move set than previous title, so they aren't just there standing to wait next attack, sometimes they do hit and run strikes (to gain health?).

Cinematic last strike.

Battles are much more intense now. You can almost feel like you're in the middle of the battle with swords or magic. In Skyrim, you can now wield two swords or axes in both hands if you will, or use magicka with both hands, to use different spell in each hand or make powerful attacks with both. This is new feature which gives player more options over battle. And now you can even bash enemies with shields as in Oblivion you didn't have that option. And sneaking HUD is improved very much that you can tell pretty well, when you are hidden or seen. They even added the same feature like in Fallout 3 and Fallout New Vegas, where the last strike would turn into "cinematic" last strike, where character does this strike in different manner (like the kills in Assassins Creed games). For thiefs and assassins, you can even sneak attack in the same manner (if enough skill), one "cinematic" strike to kill a foe. This adds little something for every battle you have againts anything.

And unlike in Oblivion, smithing, mining and of course crafting is possible in Skyrim. You can mine ores, make ingots from ore and smith armor with some leather strips which you make from leather you get from shops or get from killed animals. In other words, you don't have to wait and hope for enemies to have high level armor, you can make your own from scratch and them make enchantment to gain magickal attributes. Smithing has also this realistic side to it, you have to gather certain amount of certain items to make armors or weapons and same goes to improve them.

Alchemy at the table.

Alchemy is also improved and there is even one new feature in it: you don't know any attributes of the ingredience until you consume them or mix them successfully into a potion. And if you happen to know (made earlier in game) how to make health potion example, you have option to make them quickly without picking the right stuff separately.

And for non-playable characters, (NPCs) you can actually see and feel their expressions and they are more detailed than in Oblivion. But as some players would say, voice acting isn't the best one still. You can hear and remember the same voice from some local knight to be same as some random thug/bandit, but you have to understand that this is open world with huge amount of people. It takes so much time (and voice actors/actresses) to give every character their own voice and keep it for more than few lines at best. Though I don't know exactly how does the voice overs work, is it hard or little easier than expected? What ever the case is, for my opinion the voice acting sounds a little more devoted than previous title for the most part...even if some low male and high female voices are kind of lame with some characters, or on most chars.

Lydia got her lucky "freeze" shot for this bandit.

With large scale game there will always be bugs and glitches, minor or major, but they still exist. Some are harder to find, some easier and some happen accidentally even if you don't try anything or try too hard. On my personal experience there are glitches, as one of my screenshot here shows.

I haven't been generally a big fan of RPG games ever, but there is few games I liked so far (e.g. Dragon Age series). Skyrim is a good example, what open world game should be like. Even if you like more of shooter games and such, you may grow to like this.