GamesonNet: I think we've all got to the point where we expect Bethesda's massive open-world RPG's to have these sorts of wacky bugs.
Replaying Skyrim after 13 years is a reminder of the progress made in western RPGs over the last decade, but also what's been lost.
RPGs are often huge, sprawling endeavours. With limited playtime, we have to choose wisely, so here's the best western RPGs available today.
"I started playing games yesterday" the List... Meh!
How about a few RPGs that deserve some love instead?
1 - Alpha Protocol - Now on GOG
2 - else Heart.Break()
3 - Shadowrun Trilogy
4 - Wasteland 2
5 - UnderRail
6 - Tyranny
7 - Torment: Tides of Numenera
And for a bonus game that flew under the radar:
8 - Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden
Not only glorious jank, but the idea that the story can completely change depending on what you do, or say, or side with, makes it one of the most forward thinking games ever. The amount of story permutation is the equivalent of a Hitman level but in Story Form. And it wasn't just that the story changed, no, it was that you met completely new characters, or missed them, depending on your choices. Made Mass Effect feel static in comparison.
Alpha Protocol was absolutely glorious, indeed. And it was, and still is, more Next Gen than most anything out there these days. In this regard at least.
Pity.
A new Partner Spotlight Sale is now live on the Switch eShop, including Skyrim, lowest price ever for Bomb Rush Cyberfunk, and more.
Nice review, properly touches upon the important points as to why Skyrim is amazing and highlights its flaws in good humour. Pretty much mentions all my thoughts.
Firstly, the dungeons in Skyrim are fantastic! And the world is extremely interesting too (I prefered the Morrowind world but not by much, mostly in style - so I guess that can't really count because they have a style that they have put themselves in a position to stick to).
This: "“Hello strange foreigner! I’ve only just met you, but would you mind maybe killing a bunch of people for me? Thanks heaps!”". Pretty much highlights why I prefer Morrowind over Oblivion and Skyrim. Morrowind properly puts you in your place - you are just a nobody (almost everybody is racist towards you :D) and you have to work hard to make people not hate you. Which is how it would be in the world that they are presenting to the player; hence: RPG. Also there are about 20x as many faction quests and the progression is staggered so you can't just spam your way through one faction and then move onto another lol. You also actually have various options locked out or enabled depending on what type of character you choose to play - essentially turning it into multiple 200+ hour games in one. (you need at least 3 playthroughs to do everything, and about 50% of what you do each time is unique to that playthrough) also it had levitate! lol
This: "I'm liking the game enough that I'm already planning my next character." and this: "the system – in which only the skills that you use level-up, giving you access to perks – is robust enough to support a massive variety of unique builds." are very relevant to me. I can think of so many character builds that would be great and completely change the way I deal with various combat situations. Like making an enchantment focussed mage or a poison dagger assassin :P
I wish skyrim would have a bit more text content though, there are no journal entries (which were sometimes very helpful and provided interesting extra info and thoughts that may not have been obvious) and a lot of the perks are barely described, what is "more damage"? Gimmi numbers! lol
Skyrim wasn't as polished as Morrowind or Oblivion was. Like guards slagging you off for being the noob in the companions even though you are the damn leader lol, they didn't add in more approaching comments to suite the different conditions! Those things were probably picked up during QA but deemed not worth spending precious time on near the end of development, but it shows in the end product. Along with the various texture seams and incorrectly mapped textures. Also, why are there ways to get light sources if there is nowhere dark enough to need them? And I havn't contracted 1 disease yet, which makes playing an Argonian pretty pointless on some levels :P
I reckon if they could've worked on it for another 6 months (they couldn't have) it would be a notably better game, but overall it is a fantastic experience and should not be skipped by any RPG fan. GOTY in my opinion.
great score for a great game, nice