The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Special Edition

Journey back to the land of Skyrim

About 2 months ago I published a piece about my 7 favorite games, and Skyrim holds a high position on that list. So now Bethesda has given me Skyrim on my PlayStation 4 with upgraded visuals, textures, volumetric lighting, and the exact same trophy list? It's like a portal has been opened and I've been sent back to November 11th, 2011 and I am having an absolute blast with it. Not to mention that mods are now available on consoles! The character models are still unattractive and quite muddy, but the wide open environments that breathe life into Skyrim combined with the new lighting make for a nostalgic experience even if there is no "new" content other than the original DLC packs.

I never wrote a review on Skyrim when it came out in 2011, because CDRGames didn't start until spring of 2013. Because Skyrim has been out for five years, this review is going to be more of a short retrospective love letter and critique with my commentary on how the Special Edition enhances the original. I am also not going to assign this a score out of ten like I would do for a normal review. If you want to know my opinion, I encourage you to read what I have written here.

When Skyrim: Special Edition first booted up, what struck me the most were the outdoor environments. Thanks to the new lightning, textures, and God Rays(no idea why they are called that) the plains, mountains, and forests of Skyrim look fantastic. And let's face it, Skyrim was never a crowning technical achievement. Bethesda Game Studios have struggled the past few years when it comes to cutting edge technology. Everything they release is outdated graphically within a year. And honestly, a facelift is exactly what Skyrim needed to draw me back in. I love this game and it has a place on my fav 7 Favorite Games list that I wrote about last time, but this summer when I popped Skyrim into my PS3(which still has major performance issues that were never fixed, I played it on Xbox originally) it looked terrible. The game just hasn't aged well. All this to say, thank you Bethesda for making this game looks ten times better than it did originally.

Riften as the sun is setting

 While outdoor environments and lighting certainly look better, unfortunately character models did not seem to get the same treatment. Many of the faces you meet in Skyrim are still quite muddy looking and really lacking that attention to detail that I found nice in Fallout 4.

Skyrim is all about open world exploration and questing, and while I still think many of Skyrim's big quests pale in comparison to Oblivion's, the open world has always been my favorite part. There is a lot of diversity in Skyrim's environments even though it is a harsh northern country in Tamriel. Skyrim offers massive mountains to climb, low plains and valleys to run across, wooded forests to scour, and deep dark dungeons to delve. I love wandering through the northern areas of Skyrim's map where the snow is falling heavily and the aurora shines across the night sky with the moon beaming down on my character. This is something that Skyrim excels at, immersion. With a phenomenal soundtrack scored by Jeremy Soule the world draws you in and demands to be explored. It wants you to uncover its secrets. The main questline is not very interesting to me, but I always complete it, its the faction quests that get to have all the fun. Will you join the Thieves Guild? Hone your skills as a mage at the College of Winterhold? Or take a trip down the path of shadow and become an assassin of the Dark Brotherhood? Do it all! There are no limitations here. The Dark Brotherhood questline is great and full of twists and turns, but the Thieves Guild is by far my favorite faction questline in Skyrim. The writers did a really awesome job of working in the Daedric lore of Tamriel into the Thieves Guild quests which made them extremely fun and engaging by the end.

At the time of writing this, I have 39 hours on my play clock. There are many more quests to complete and I haven't even finished the main story yet. Skyrim is one of those games where you sit down to play at noon, and then you look up and realize its 7pm and time has just slipped by. To me, it is an incredible feeling when a game can achieve that power. That means it is doing something right. And Skyrim: Special Edition has met my expectations of what I wanted out of this remaster. If you have never played it before then please go pick it up and start playing, you really owe it to yourself to experience one of the best Western RPGs to date. If you have journeyed through Skyrim before, I encourage you to pick it up again and remember how beautiful it is. This is a wonderful game, and that is simply my opinion, but it will always hold a special place in my heart.

My poor attempt to recreate Geralt of Rivia

Dragonslaying! Typical Monday

Ignore the trophy pop. Look at my Glass Swords!

#7FavGames

A few weeks ago there was a trending hashtag on twitter that had people tweeting #7FavGames and then(obviously) a list of their 7 favorite games. As a lover of video games and the industry I found it incredibly fun to read what other people were putting on their list. So I decided to write up my own right here on CDRGames. Disclaimer: These are in no particular order. These are not what I deem to be the 7 "best" games, rather just my favorites!

Dark Souls

I would be a fool if I didn't put Dark Souls on this list, so why not start with what is arguably the most difficult and punishing video game experience I've ever had. I first picked it up back in the fall of 2012 after hearing about how brutal it was. From the tutorial level I immediately realized that maybe I was in over my head. After dying multiple times to the first boss I finally made it to Firelink Shrine, and from there I was completely and utterly lost. I stopped playing, and it wasn't until a year and a half later that I picked it up again and gave it another shot. And that was one of the best decisions I've made when it comes to games. The world of Lordran fascinated me. The enemies, NPCs, and bosses blew me away. And I died, a lot. And it was worth it every time. Dark Souls is hard, there's no doubt about that, but it is fair in how it beats you. Almost every death is your own fault. And through that Dark Souls actually taught me a valuable life lesson: No matter how many times you fall(or in this case get knocked off a ledge by an arrow from a Silver Knight) you just have to get back up, learn from the mistakes you've made, and kick whatever it is that's stopping you in the teeth. My favorite memory from Dark Souls was spring break junior year of high school when my best friend Cole and I stayed up till 6:30am fighting our way through Anor Londo and the Depths. Crushing Ornstein and Smough is something I'll never forget.

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt 

The Witcher 3 was easily one of my most anticipated games of 2015. The things CDProjektRed were promising about this expansive open world didn't really seem to be realistic at the time. But the Polish studio knocked it out of the park on this one. Although I didn't write a review for Witcher 3 I would give it a 10/10. In fact it is hard to put into words just how much I love this game. The world is real and immersive, the characters are fleshed out, side quests have emotional impact, and the main narrative throughout the game kept me on the hook for all 120 hours of my first play through. I love Geralt, and his quest to find Ciri brought me so many emotional highs and lows. The first Act can be a bit slow, but once you finish Act 2 the story doesn't pull any punches and it is a fantastic ride. The gameplay loop of finding new gear and upgrading Geralt is simple and fun. The gameplay is surprisingly deep if you choose to play it that way or it can be a simple hack-n-slash when it comes to combat. The two expansion pack DLCs, Hearts of Stone & Blood and Wine are phenomenal in their own right. I love this game. I love everything from the story, gameplay, characters, quests, right down to the incredible soundtrack. The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt is the new standard when it comes to Western RPGs. 

Halo 2

Many of the games on this list are on here because of pure sentimental value, that is why I consider them my favorites. Halo 2 is no exception to that. I spent countless hours playing the campaign over and over again on co-op with my friend Reese. Those are memories that I am going to cherish forever. Halo 2 is held in high regard by the industry for the advancements it made in online multiplayer. Yet I never played Halo 2 online. I played the campaign and I played local multiplayer. And it is still in my top favorites. The story was epic and even though many say it has a bad ending because of a cliffhanger, I found that moment extremely epic in my 9 year old mind. When Chief says, "Sir, finishing this fight" and the game ends I can still picture myself in awe. For me, Halo 2 was the ultimate couch co-op experience, something that the industry seems to be shying away from these days. Halo 3 might be a better game with a more cohesive story and epic conclusion, but Halo 2 reigns King to me. 

Mass Effect 2

Mass Effect 2 is the best of the trilogy. Third-person action-adventure SPACE OPERA. Shepard is brought back to life by a pro-human organization, and must build a team to go on a suicide mission. That suicide mission is the looming threat of the whole game. Odds are your team won't survive. Lucky for me, every team member made it out alive on my play through. I cannot recommend this trilogy enough. I played through them summer going into my junior year and spent about 30 hours on each game. That 90 hour experience is easily one of my favorite gaming experiences ever and with Mass Effect 2 being the best one it obviously deserves a place on this list. The characters Shepard brings together each have their own fleshed out stories and backgrounds, the music is epic and reminiscent of the 80s, and the third-person shooting and combat is fine in its own right. I freaking love this game. The scale of the story and being able to import each game into the next one is awesome so that this is YOUR unique story with Commander Shepard. The Reapers are coming, and it is up to Shepard and your team to stop them. 

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

November 11th, 2011. 11/11/11. That date is forever burned in my memory as the day Skyrim was going to be released. Bethesda never let you forget it either. Skyrim was the next follow up in the Elder Scrolls series following TES IV: Oblivion, my favorite game of all time. Needless to say I couldn't wait to play Skyrim. I poured over every screenshot, every trailer, and every word of the long preview GameInformer wrote in the weeks leading up to Skyrim's release. I have never in my life been more hyped for a game. And Skyrim did not disappoint me. I will never forget that day. My mom picked me up from school early with the game sitting in the front seat of the car and I was so happy and it was so cool of her to do that for me. We went straight home and I popped that bad boy into my Xbox 360 and time just melted away. I played it for 12 hours straight. In total I've put over 400 hours into Skyrim. I loved every second of it. The main story and side quests might not have been as great as its predecessor but it was still amazing. With two great DLC expansions the good times just kept on coming. One of my favorite moments in gaming is in the Dawnguard DLC when you reach the Forgotten Vale. Don't want to spoil anything so I'll just leave at that. If you haven't played Skyrim, reevaluate your life. 

The Last of Us

Honestly I don't even really know what I can say about The Last of Us. It's the best game of the PS3/360 generation? Obviously. This game is a masterpiece in every sense of the word. Joel and Ellie's story of journeying across a wrecked post-apocalyptic United States is heart wrenching and harrowing, terrifying and beautiful at the same time. I honestly can't even put into words how amazing this game is. Just play it and experience it for yourself if you haven't. 

The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion

Talk about a game that has sentimental value written all over it. Oblivion is my favorite game of all time. It was my first real Western Role-Playing Game. In the summer of 2008 I borrowed it from my next door neighbor Tyler, and quite honestly it changed my life. I believe this is when I realized how much I love video games. Oblivion captivated me. There was a giant open world where I could do anything and be anyone. After the tutorial section I went to the Imperial City and got started in the Arena. It was a quick way to earn gold, until I realized I could just break into stores and homes and rob people blind and sell my stolen items to a fence from the Thieves Guild. The game obviously has it's graphical limitations. And by today's standards it may not look great, but I will always cherish and love this game. My favorite gaming memory is when my brother and I started playing Oblivion at 3:00 in the afternoon, and we played straight till 6:00 in the morning. It was so fun. And that was a special moment for me because it was me doing something I love with someone I love. I told that story at my brother's wedding. Keller knows how much that meant to me. He and I haven't had a moment playing a game like that since. Oblivion earns its place on this list for bringing me some of the best memories I have. 

Batman: The Telltale Series Episode 1 Review

Realm of Shadows

Telltale is known for bringing beloved franchises to life through deep story and point and click adventure style gameplay. So when they debuted a teaser trailer for their new Batman series at the Video Game Awards last November I was all in. Look, if you know anything about me then you will know that Batman is my favorite fictional character in the entire world. So take this review with a grain of salt if you need to. The "too long, didn't read" version of this review: the first episode is awesome and sets up a wonderful story full of politics, corruption, and the dynamic between both Batman, Bruce Wayne, his allies, and his enemies. I'll try to stay away from spoilers!

Telltale's games are all about the choices you make and how those choices will impact the overall direction of the story. The most interesting aspect to Telltale's Batman is that you spend as much time in the Batsuit at night as you do playing Bruce Wayne during the day. And the consequences of your actions as Batman have an affect on how the city views you and how Bruce must deal with the fallout. Brutally interrogate a mercenary by breaking his arm? Lt. Jim Gordon will not appreciate that and will choose to look poorly on Batman's actions. This game truly feels like role-playing as Batman. Will you be the Caped Crusader who inspires hope in the people of Gotham? Or will you play as The Dark Knight who instills fear in Gotham's underworld criminals? The dialogue options you choose, and the actions you take will reflect how everyone else views Batman/Bruce Wayne. Overall it is an extremely neat approach to playing a complex and layered character such as Batman. 

Telltale's combat mechanics have never been something to praise; however, the opening combat scene felt much tighter and more fluid than the ones they had in their Game of Thrones series. The comic book style cinematic art presented throughout the whole game actually lends itself really well to these moments. I can almost picture them lifting these scenes straight off the pages of a Batman comic. They are full of your typical Telltale quick time events, and you better be fast on the buttons because I noticed there wasn't much room for making mistakes here. There are a couple of other action scenes throughout the rest of the two hour episode and the final one had me planning Batman's tactics for each thug he was about to take out, and then playing through the combat with the choices I made for taking them down. This was the most true to form Batman moment for me in the entire episode. Systematically bringing down each mobster one by one was a thrill that culminated with a final fight between Batman and the big bad guy at the end of the scene. All in all, I think Telltale has made strong improvements to the way they approach combat in these games. The only downside was I could still feel the occasional frame rate drop during these high intensity moments and that can be the difference between dodging a punch and landing one of your own. 

The voice acting cast for Batman: The Telltale series is phenomenal. Troy Baker takes the cowl as Batman and Bruce, Travis Willingham plays Harvey Dent, Laura Bailey picks up the role of Catwoman, and "El Goddamn Dorado" himself Richard McGonagle is mobster Carmine Falcone. Each actor brings something different to the table and makes the role their own. Baker does a wonderful job transitioning between aloof playboy Bruce Wayne, and the tortured Batman we all love. 

My take:

I really do not want to say much more about this first episode. I encourage you to pick it up and play it for yourself. I really loved it. It's a new and different way to play a Batman game, and Telltale traditionally has wonderful stories and I can tell this is no exception to that. Be the Batman that you want to be. The game is out today, August 2nd, so go buy it and let me know what you think in the comments below!

Batman: The Telltale Series Episode 1 "Realm of Shadows"
8.0

+Role-playing Batman

+Stellar voice cast

+Comic book style art

-Frame rate dips can be jarring