Difficulty:

Just Right

Time Spent:

10 to 20 Hours

The Bottom Line:

"Rocks"

I'm amazed someone could give this anything below a 5. These people rating Skyrim at a 2.5 or a 3 are just ridiculous. Reminds me of Gamespot reviews, where they'll give a game a 7, but the only thing they list in their "cons" is something like "could use more cowbell." 3 points simply because the lack of cowbell. I can understand not liking it, it's not a game for everybody (just most), but if you claim to have loved Oblivion and give this a 2.5....just doesn't make sense. I have 275+ hours logged into Oblivion and about 150 with Morrowind and let me tell ya....Skyrim lives up to its heritage.

At this point, I'll gladly justify my -.5, and it's MOSTLY because of bugs. Game wouldn't even start after I installed it, would crash as soon as the main menu appeared. Sure enough, because it's Skyrim, forums were already ablaze with this issue at 1:15am, and someone already found a fix (had to change the audio properties of whatever sound device you're using, random but works).

Also the FPS/display coding seems really screwy. I have a pretty decent rig, started it on Ultra High default, was running about 17ish FPS, dropped it to High, was running about 19 FPS, dropped it to medium, was running about 20 FPS, and at that point knew something was wrong. Turned it back to high, made it through the intro part, and even though the fps held steady at 20-27, it ran just as smooth as any 30+ fps game I play with very occasional dips. Very odd.

I also admit I don't think I like the tutorial segment of Skyrim as much as Oblivion or Morrowind. Epic as hell, no doubt about that, probably moreso than both of those combined but it just didn't feel quite as....genuine. Might be because of my expectations/used to the immersiveness of Elder Scrolls, but once the action starts, it just seems to go by super quick. Beautiful graphics and awesome scripted events (and voice acting), but I dunno...Again, this is a preliminary review, I am absolutely going to replay this eventually a few times...

Anyways I'll leave it at that because I want to go play Skyrim right now. Make of this what you will but please don't listen to the reviews of anything under a 5. They are simply out to play devil's advocate, are blind and deaf, or unrealistic in expectations (most likely). Seriously though, AWESOME game.