Please leave any and all comments for this review on Snackbar Games, not this blog post. Thanks!

Please leave any and all comments for this feature on Snackbar Games, not this blog post. Thanks!

Resistance 3, the latest in Insomniac’s pretty spectacular franchise, managed to surprise me even more than I thought it would. I loved the previous two games (although I know many people who thought the second was a huge misstep for the series) and expected no less than top quality from one of my favorite developers. And they delivered, bringing back the best elements from Resistance 1 and some of the coolest set-pieces from Resistance 2 to combine them into one fantastic package.

The guns are all terrific and Insomniac threw in Ratchet & Clank’s weapon leveling system  so they level up the more you use them. I love this because it provides you with a good reason to switch up your guns (and your tactics) pretty often. Sure, everyone will have favorite weapons, but there are guns I might never consider using if not for this unique dynamic. The return of health packs is also a nice addition, making sure you stay on your toes at all times. I’m not against regenerating health, but I think it is a trend that I would like to see less of in shooters.

Next up is The Lord of the Rings: The War in the North, a new action RPG from the team at Snowblind. These guys developed Baldur’s Gate: Dark Alliance and the Champions of Norrath games, so I had some high hopes that this would be a return to form for them. While I will say this game is pretty underrated, it still is far from great. If you’re going to play this, I would recommend playing in co-op. I played through the entire game solo and kind of regretted it. I still enjoyed the experience, but then I tried a little co-op with two of my friends and realized that I was missing on the best the game had to offer. This is still a decently fun solo game, but don’t bother buying it unless you have at least one friend who will run through it will you.

Oh Assassin’s Creed: Revelations, whatever shall I do with you? You provide a strong story that showcases the end of Altair’s life, as well as a nice closure on Ezio’s, but you fail to introduce anything great beyond that. There are no real “revelations” to speak of, although the ending does make me curious about where they’ll go with the next entry. Some of the missions in the game are the best the series has to offer and the hookblade is probably the coolest addition in the series from a traversal perspective, but what about everything else? It’s either superfluous or just plain dumb. The tower defense stuff: awful and meaningless. The ability to make bombs is kind of cool, but I rarely ever use bombs in the series, so it was nothing that really sucked me in.

Desmond’s Journey is a really interesting take on telling a story, but it can be a bit dull at times. The Altair levels are short, but they manage to do a lot with a little and probably are some of my favorite parts of the game. For the most part, it all felt like filler. Mostly good filler, but filler nonetheless. Remember my post on sequel fatigue? That’s finally starting to kick in with this series. I’m just hoping that this year’s game can deliver something really remarkable, or else they might lose a lot of people.

Now to talk about a sequel that turned out to be better than I ever thought it would be, Saints Row: The Third. The first game was a decent Grand Theft Auto clone that came out at the right time, managing to attract more attention that it would have after Grand Theft Auto IV. The sequel was a bit of a mess and seemed very conflicted on what it was trying to be. And then there’s The Third, which clearly knows exactly what it wants to be and runs with it. This series is no longer living in GTA’s shadow and is all the better for it.

This game hits all of the right notes, delivering an experience that tries to be as ridiculous as possible. I didn’t love it, but I thoroughly enjoyed it more than I thought I would. I wish the side content was a bit more interesting and I wish they had more story missions that weren’t just there to introduce the side content, but those are small problems I have with an otherwise really enjoyable experience. The best part about Saints Row: The Third? It’s legitimately hilarious. Sometimes the jokes fall flat, but it usually manages to entertain better than you might expect.

Nintendo’s attempt to bring the popular Itadaki Street franchise to North America, Fortune Street, is a great deal of fun. This is a series I wanted to try out for the longest time, so this was a must-buy for me. It delivers an experience not that different from Monopoly; I described it to my friends as Monopoly with stocks. I love Monopoly, I love the changes made here, and I think this game can be a blast with the right people. If you like board games (especially like Monopoly), I would recommend checking out Fortune Street.

Next up is Ace Combat: Assault Horizon, which is completely underrated by both fans and critics. I consider myself a huge fan of this series and have been since the PS1 games, but the changes made with Assault Horizon are smart and change up a formula that was starting to get a little stale after Ace Combat 6. The helicopter missions weren’t the same caliber as the plane missions, but they were still fun and helped mix things up. But there are only two full helicopter missions in the game (and two from the gunner’s seat, which are super short), so they don’t detract too much from the overall package if you’re not a big fan of them.

The “Close Range Assault System” is something that a lot of fans either love or hate, but man, it works fantastically. I think it blends in right with the standard combat from the series. You can still take down planes the regular way plenty of times, there are just some instances when you’ll want to use the close range system and find it to be more beneficial to the situation. It still feels like Ace Combat and I find the fan reaction to the changes are just really silly. This made my list of honorable mentions in my top 10 for a reason.

Shadows of the Damned is a game that I wish I bought at launch. It makes me sad that this did so poorly considering how great it really is. Its humor is immature, but it’s immature in a smart way, if that makes sense. It distinguishes itself from trash like Duke Nukem Forever by having actual characters we care about. Johnson is one of the best new characters and Garcia Fucking Hotspur manages to hold his own in the same category as other awesome Suda characters like Travis Touchdown.

The shooting mechanics felt sluggish at first, but I adjusted to them pretty quickly. It also has a bit of a slow start. Once you get past the first major boss, things begin to improve. That is, until act four, where you run into the infamous “Big Boner” segment. Oh man, it’s TERRIBLE. SO BAD. A lot of act four really drags actually. Okay, so, the game is far from perfect, but damn if it isn’t a lot of fun (for the most part). It’s a strange game, isn’t it?

Child of Eden is like Rez but even better. That’s right, I said it. I love Rez to pieces and think it’s one of the best music game experiences someone can ever have and Child of Eden manages to be even better. Child of Eden’s soundtrack, overall, is much more consistently great than Rez’ was and the gameplay, which pretty similar, adds a few nice additions that keep it from feeling exactly the same. There isn’t much else I have to say about it except PLAY THIS GAME. PLAY IT.

Gemini Rue is everything I love about adventure games. Intriguing story, great characters, brilliant puzzles, and it doesn’t overstay its welcome. The look of the game is very reminiscent of those old school LucasArts adventure games that I grew up with, so I was on board the moment I saw the trailer for this. They also have shooting segments, which is not something you often see in point and click adventure titles, but it works pretty well and is surprisingly strategic. This is a real gem of a game that I think all adventure game fans should give a chance.

Now let’s talk about Dead Island. This is…certainly a game. What does it do well? The first person combat. When you play this game, be sure you turn on the analog melee system, meaning you control your attacks with the right analog stick. This is the best first person melee combat I’ve seen in a game since The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay. The island itself is generally a lot of fun to explore and there is plenty of content here to keep you busy. And then there’s the co-op, which seems like the way to play this game. I can’t imagine going through this 15-20 hour game by myself the entire time, it might get a bit tiring.

What doesn’t work? Everything else really. The melee combat carries this game above and beyond being just another mediocre action game, but there isn’t much more to compel you. The side quests themselves vary in quality, but most of them tend to be fairly uninteresting. The story quests are uninteresting too, come to think of it. If I had to sum it up, I would call it a lower quality Borderlands with zombies; there is plenty of fun to be had, but you might have to wade through a lot of shit to get through it.

Final game for this post is inFamous 2, a game that improves greatly upon the already amazing original game. The action feels a bit more fluid thanks to the addition of melee combat and some new powers that change things up a lot, including the fire or ice powers you get access to about halfway through the game. The choices you make are feel like the blur the lines between good and evil more than the first game did as well. Oh yeah, now you have a blast shard radar…THANK YOU SUCKER PUNCH!

I hated the boss battles though. They all followed the videogame logic of “let’s just make this enemy bigger than the last” and all of them are terrible because of that. The enemies in general offer a challenge, but I loved the bosses from the first game; they were different and allowed for more strategy than just “THROW CARS AT THIS BIG THING.” I also think the city itself is less interesting than the first game, but that’s just me. Overall, a fantastic sequel that improves in the right places.

And that will do it for part one! The second part will be out sometime within the next month (once I actually finish catching up on 201′s games).

I’ll be talking about these games to answer one question: Why is this game important to me? Each post could range from a mere two paragraphs to a few pages, depending entirely on the game and the answer to that particular question. But that’s not a bad thing! If I can sum up why a game is significant to me in less time, isn’t that just as good (or in some cases, better) than talking at length about a game’s importance? It all depends on the game.

The games will range from NES to Xbox 360 and there will be no real pattern to them. I’ll have a list and write about a game I feel like talking about that day. There’s no real schedule, but the goal is to do one post at least once a week. I was going to try and do once a day, but I realize that doing that would only wear me out. I want to write more, but do so without too much pressure. Sometimes I’ll even break my once a week rule, but only in the most dire of circumstances.

This project is also entirely selfish. Yes, I’m publishing these posts for all to read and comment on, but this is all for myself. I’m doing this as a way to, well, write more. I want to write more and I want to write more about games I love, but not specifically about my absolute favorites. But I welcome any and all comments for these posts, because discussions about games are fun, aren’t they?

The first post will be up on February 1st and from there I will try to maintain a semi-regular schedule with them. Like I said, I’m trying not to be too strict about it, but also trying to make sure I don’t lose interest fast (which may happen). Do I have an end goal? Perhaps 100 different games for now. If I actually reach that goal then I will decide if I want to stop or keep going. Trust me, there are plenty of great games I could write about and many reasons why they are worth writing about.

Worst of 2011: Before I get into the very best of the year, I want to talk about what I consider the worst game I’ve played all year. Even as I write this, I’m still trying to decide between two different games. The first candidate, Thor: God of Thunder, is dreadful. It’s the worst example of how to do a movie-licensed game poorly and continues Sega’s track record of shoveling crap out based on the popular Marvel films. That being said, it didn’t cause me as much agony as another game.

The Baconing is probably my absolute least favorite game of 2011. It might not be as bad as Thor: God of Thunder was, but it was the game I got absolutely no joy out of, despite it coming from a team that I once believed had potential. It’s dreadfully boring, poorly written (despite a few funny jokes), has awful combat, a terribly-designed and monotonous quest system, and it just isn’t very pleasant to look at. The first DeathSpank game seemed pretty decent, but as soon as I saw there was a sequel coming out a mere two months after its release, I knew there might be trouble. I’m just glad that Ron Gilbert got out while he had the chance.

Speaking of which, Hothead Games hasn’t had a good year, have they? From The Baconing to another disappointment, Swarm, they really haven’t produced much of note since the last Penny Arcade Adventures game. Swarm was a great concept wrapped in some terrible design choices and, well, you know my thoughts on The Baconing by now. It’s a shame, because I had real high hopes for the team at Hothead. Here’s hoping they still manage to create something decent soon, or at least abandon the insufferable DeathSpank series as soon as humanly possible.

Anyway, that’s enough about bad games, let’s talk about good ones! Here are my ten favorite games of 2011 with some honorable mentions thrown into the mix.

Honorable mentions:

- Ace Combat: Assault Horizon

- Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception

- Resistance 3

- Child of Eden

- Crysis 2

Top 10:

10) L.A. Noire

Rockstar and Team Bondi have crafted something pretty incredible with L.A. Noire. The facial motion-capture technology is amazing and the story is pretty great, but what is most fascinating about L.A. Noire is how it turns your typical point-and-click adventure title into a blockbuster hit. This game is far from perfect, but it’s one where I’m able to look at the package and a whole and say, “Yeah, that turned out pretty great, didn’t it?”

9) Gears of War 3

The game isn’t all that fresh, but that doesn’t mean Gears of War 3 is a slouch. All of the improvements to the campaign and multiplayer are much appreciated and the experience of cutting an enemy in half with your chainsaw is just as satisfying as ever. If anything, this game proves that Epic still knows how to make a compelling multiplayer experience as well as a surprisingly deep campaign that might lead you to become more emotionally invested with these characters than you ever expected to be.

8) Deus Ex: Human Revolution

Deus Ex: Human Revolution is the new Deus Ex game people have been craving for the past ten years and it delivers on almost every front, which is no small feat. Deus Ex expertly crafts together an intriguing plot with a fun, exciting gameplay experience that leaves you wanting more. The level of choice involved in this game is astounding, something that you so rarely see in games these days. It’s a hard balance to create a game with a good story containing so many different possibilities, but Deus Ex: Human Revolution pulls it off spectacularly.

7) Rayman Origins

Platformers, especially 2D platformers, have been coming back strong these past few years and I couldn’t be happier about that. Rayman Origins is a game that capitalizes on the strengths of the genre while still delivering one of the best platforming experiences I’ve played in quite a while. I’ve always been a big Rayman fan, but this is the best, most tightly designed, and most delightful experience the series has to offer. You’ll be hard-pressed to find a better platformer than Rayman Origins this year.

6) The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

Bethesda has made their masterpiece, their magnum opus. I would say it’s easy to dismiss Skyrim as “just another Elder Scrolls game” or even “just another Bethesda game,” but this time it’s really not. Skyrim is much more than that, really. It’s the game Bethesda, as a developer, has been building up to for many, many years now. This is the game they wanted to create from the beginning. This is a huge, densely populated world with many amazing characters, stories, and locations to discover in what could be the most addictive game release since World of Warcraft. Is it perfect? No, but it doesn’t need to be.

5) Bastion

This has been another strong year for downloadable games, but very few have reached the levels that Bastion has for me. It’s gorgeous, full of outstanding music, and is damn fun to play. The narration is very well implemented, which was enough to make me want to replay the game a total of three times since its launch. It’s just one of those games that only comes around once in a while, but when it does, you are left with one of the best experiences of that year.

4) The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword

If you went back in time and told me “The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword is just another Zelda game,” I would honestly be perfectly okay with this. The series is one of my absolute favorites, and to have just another one of those is always a delight. And yet, here we are, with one of the best games in the entire series. Skyward Sword has some filler, sure, but the overall package is just so damn good that I feel like those small quibbles I have with it are meaningless in the end. Is Skyward Sword my favorite Zelda? No, but it’s very close. This game exceeds the hype, folks.

3) Batman: Arkham City

Batman. Seriously, Batman. Batman is the coolest superhero around, and with Arkham Asylum, he broke the mold and proved that not all superhero games are bad. Arkham City ups the ante by giving Batman an even bigger playground with more excellent villains and exciting stories. The freeflow combat is as satisfying as ever, and traveling around an open city hasn’t been this fun since Spider-Man 2. There was a moment when I thought “This might just be the best game I’ve played all year,” and in some respects I still feel that way, but it just misses the mark by a hair. Regardless, this is a game that deserves all of the praise it has received.

2) To the Moon

If there was a category for “biggest surprise,” this game would win easily. I had my list pretty much finalized until I played To the Moon, an indie adventure game that has a lot of heart. I never expected to be so emotionally impacted by a small game like this, but it really is one of the best stories I’ve seen in a game in a long time, one I think will stay with me for a long time. If you’ve never heard of this little title, check out my full review and even Freebird Games’ website to find out more; it’s a real gem.

1) Portal 2

Valve, you’ve done it again, this time creating what I consider to be your best game yet. Portal 2 does everything right, from the opening to the end credits, providing what I consider to be one of the best games I have ever played. The puzzles are still fantastic, the new mechanics are ingenious, and it’s all wrapped in an expertly crafted and well-written story that goes in some surprising directions. I can’t sing this game’s praises highly enough, so for now placing it at the top of my favorite games of the year list will have to do.

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And that does it for my favorite games of 2011. Here’s to 2012, another year of great possibilities!

Please leave any and all comments for this review on Snackbar Games, not this blog post. Thanks!

First up, let’s mention three honorable mentions that just barely missed this list. I could just make this a top eight list, but I like keeping things narrow. These are still worth a brief mention though, so here they are (with some sample tracks):

Child of Eden – Like Rez before it, Child of Eden was built around its soundtrack. This game IS the music, and Child of Eden has plenty of great musical moments that really stick with you. I actually consider it a step above Rez’ score, but only barely.

L.A. Noire – Bringing back the 1940s with some style, L.A. Noire manages to make a composition that is unlike anything you typically hear in games, which is enough to make it stand out. But not only is it crafted straight from that era, fitting in with the game’s atmosphere almost perfectly, it really stands out on its own as well. With this and last year’s Red Dead Redemption, I’m beginning to think that Rockstar’s knack for original scores is continuing to improve with each passing year.

Portal 2 – Portal 2′s soundtrack is great, but it really never stood out to me outside of the game itself. That is, except one song in particular. This one song is quite frankly one of the best I’ve heard in any game in a long time, and for that it belongs as an honorable mention on this list. I’m talking about Cara Mia Addio, the “turret opera” song that happens right at the end of Portal 2. Combine this itself with just how amazing the game’s final moments actually are and you have one song that stands out among a crowded field.

And now for the actual top five! Here are what I consider to be the five best game soundtracks of 2011.

5) Deus Ex: Human Revolution

Composer: Michael McCann

Michael McCann’s electrically-charged score for Deus Ex: Human Revolution is very reminiscent of the score from the original Deus Ex, which is part of the reason why I love it so much. But it does a lot to stand on its own as well, making it the better soundtrack of the two. From the main theme that lays the groundwork for the rest of the soundtrack to some of the quieter, more somber tracks, Human Revolution’s score embraces this carefully crafted world. Through the music, you are immersed into this futuristic world. It’s a score that never misses a beat, and the game benefits greatly from it.

4) The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword

Composer: Mahito Yokota

The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword is the first soundtrack in the series that really branched out on its own and didn’t rely too heavily on those memorable songs that were established 25 years ago. That may be a negative thing for some, but the entire score still has that Zelda feel. There were times when I would go around flying just to hear the music, which is a testament to how strong it really is. Some of the old standbys are there, sure, but they are arranged in such a wonderful way. I’ve always loved the music in the series, but this is the first time I really felt that the folks behind it really understood how to create something new out of something old. While Wind Waker still might be my favorite soundtrack in the series, Skyward Sword is a very close second.

3) Rayman Origins

Composer: Christophe Héral

Like the game itself, Rayman Origins’ score is whimsical and full of plenty of crazy moments. It’s hard to talk about this soundtrack without discussing each individual track simply because it’s all over the place. Some moments it’s slow, calm, relaxing, and others it’s serenading you with the Rayman equivalent of a mariachi band. It’s ridiculous, but in the best ways possible. With each new level, you never knew what to expect, but it was always something fun, catchy, and original; there is never a dull moment.

2) Bastion

Composer: Darren Korb

It seems like Darren Korb’s score for Bastion is the one that has gained the most recognition this year, and deservedly so. I was pretty much ready to call this my favorite soundtrack of the year until a couple of weeks ago. Korb’s composition is, in short, absolutely breathtaking. All of the songs hit their mark, and every emotional moment delivers a real impact because of the right song coming on at the right moment. If you’re reading this now, you’ve probably already experienced Bastion and everything it has to offer, so there’s little I can say here. Just know that it managed to exceed all of my expectations better than I could have imagined.

1) To the Moon

Composers: Kan Gao & Laura Shigihara

If you know me well enough (or just follow me on Twitter) you probably saw this coming. I could spend hours talking about just why everything about To the Moon succeeds as well as it does, but I won’t. Right now I’m here to focus on the music specifically. The best music can make every situation in a game that much stronger. A game without its score is a game without its soul, and no game is a better example of this than To the Moon. The first track that will grab your attention is the simplistic but incredibly memorable song “For River,” which is referenced and played many times through the course of this four hour journey. It proves that, above all else, a single song can really change your outlook on a scene, a character, or a game’s story overall.

On top of that, a lot of the best track’s from this game’s soundtrack all feel very reminiscent of a 16-bit RPG. I got some Final Fantasy VI, Illusion of Gaia, and Chrono Trigger vibes from a lot of these songs. It could just be my mind playing tricks on me, but I guarantee that some of these tracks would fit right into any of those games and not feel out of place in the slightest. Not only does Kan Gao’s amazing score harken back to those bygone days, it also creates something truly original in the process. This is one soundtrack that I will be listening to this time next year as well.

And that does it for my favorite game soundtracks of 2011. Thanks for reading (and listening)! Hopefully this post inspires some of you guys to play these games if you haven’t already *cough*TO THE MOON*cough*. I have two more 2011 reflection posts to go, including my top ten games of the year, so look forward to those over the course of the next week.

Don’t get me wrong, I still think they have value in certain games, but I often find that the games that tried to make more complex cases for that specific control scheme often ended up failing spectacularly. Some of my favorite Wii games don’t even rely too heavily on motion controls, or don’t even require them. This is why I was both very excited and slightly concerned for Skyward Sword. MotionPlus seemed cool (I actually found myself enjoying Red Steel 2 a lot more than I thought I would, but even that got old after a while), but I wasn’t entirely on board.

However, the idea of a new console Zelda game was one that I really couldn’t miss. The thought of using motion controls again didn’t worry me, as the more I heard about Skyward Sword the more excited I became. It was soon apparent that, while the controls are front and center, the experience around those controls is what mattered most.

Let’s get the basics out of the way first: Skyward Sword makes a very strong case for motion controls and, for the most part, they work pretty well. I think five or ten years down the line I will always think of this game as the one that convinced me that you can make motion controls work, and work well. And unlike with Twilight Princess, a lot of this game was designed around this control scheme that there really is no other way to play it. Those who are not fond of motion controls might find it less than stellar because of this, but I think that you’ll be hard pressed to find a better use of them in any game.

As I said above, it’s the experience that Nintendo crafts around these controls that really matters. For the most part, Skyward Sword delivers another fantastic Zelda adventure, even if it doesn’t hold up entirely throughout the 35+ hour experience. There is a lot to talk about, so let’s get right to it!

The world of Skyward Sword is gorgeous and full of life, even if it is relatively small when compared to something like Wind Waker. Skyloft, the game’s central city, has plenty of great characters to interact with, most of them providing you with an interesting side quest or just some amusing dialogue. The game’s central characters are the strongest in the series since Majora’s Mask, with this version of Zelda in particular standing out in particular. It’s just a very charming game with a villain that is both weird and terrifying.

The best parts of Skyward Sword, as is usually the case with most Zelda games, are the dungeons. These are some of the strongest in the series history, with a few in particular becoming some of my favorite areas in the entire game. Without getting into specifics, I’ll just say the desert sections of the game are the ones I’ll remember the most fondly due to the inclusion of the timeshift crystals. The series has always played around with time, but not like this, with the timeshift crystals adding a pretty interesting mechanic that never overstayed its welcome.

Going back to the motion controls,  each fight feels just a tad more strategic because of them. There are less enemies to fight, but the controls added a bit of freshness to what boils down to otherwise similar encounters. The boss battles in particular are really well done, with only one or two fights standing out as pretty poor in comparison. I absolutely loved the final boss; it was intense and felt like a real final boss, not some throwaway fight. I think this series has always done final boss encounters right and makes them feel like a necessary part of the series.

The biggest downside to Skyward Sword is how it tends to drag near the end. After you finish up six of the seven dungeons in the game, you are sent on another small quest to the three major locations in the game once again. It wasn’t a huge deal breaker for me as these sections do go by relatively quickly, but they did feel like filler, which can always take someone out of the experience. One part that bugged me the most was the stealth section, which felt more out of place than anything else in the game. This series can do stealth fairly well (I think that Wind Waker proves this), but it was completely unnecessary and never added anything but frustration to the experience.

Small quibbles aside, Skyward Sword has quickly become one of my favorite games in the franchise, proving once again that Nintendo can still create a compelling adventure while still relying on old tricks. Some of those old tricks are getting a bit too old in this day and age, but there is still something so magical about the experience as a whole that I really can’t help but overlook it. I would even be willing to play another Zelda game with motion controls again, assuming it is as finely crafted as this.

I loved this game and think it provides an experience that very few games this year rivals, even if it feels a little bloated at times. Even if you’re a bit sick of the series, Skyward Sword is well worth your time.

I’ll put this out there now: Skyrim is probably Bethesda’s masterpiece. Is it perfect? No, not at all. But it feels like the culmination of everything Bethesda has been trying to do since the original Elder Scrolls. Sure, Bethesda could top themselves with their next big project (which everyone assumes is Fallout 4), but Skyrim is different. Every previous Bethesda game felt great, but like they were unable to achieve what they truly wanted to do with an open world fantasy RPG.

Here I’m going to focus less on what makes Skyrim great and more on why I have always loved the world of the Elder Scrolls. I’ve been into the series since Daggerfall, although I wasn’t completely hooked until I played Morrowind for the first time. I find Morrowind almost impossible to play today, but I might have put more time into a single file in that game than any other game I’ve played in my life. There was no turning back at that point.

The thing that I love most about the Elder Scrolls series? The lore. Growing up, I was hopelessly addicted to Tolkien’s works. The Hobbit is my favorite book of all time and I just love the fiction of Middle Earth. To me, Tamriel is spiritual successor to Middle Earth. Everything about it feels very Tolkien-esque, and not just because it is fantasy. I loved reading the books and I loved hearing all of the characters inane babbling, even if it felt unnecessary. Some critics feel Skyrim’s lore is almost too dense, too heavy-handed even, but I really can’t say I agree. That is part of the reason why I love the series, even if I know it may not appeal to everyone.

At a meager 40 hours (at the time of this writing), Skyrim may not have taken over my life as much as the previous games did, but I still feel utterly drawn into this world and the lore that Bethesda has so expertly crafted. Sure, part of the reason why I haven’t spent more time exploring Skyrim is due to the several other game releases at around the same time. The main reason? I feel I get more fulfillment out of ten hours of Skyrim than I did with 50 hours of Oblivion or Morrowind. There is still a ton to do, but the content that is there accomplishes more with less. I will still continue to explore and enjoy Skyrim, but I feel that I have had my fill for now.

It really comes down to that. Skyrim is full of great characters and an intriguing world that will really never get old to me, as well as gameplay systems that are much improved over the previous installments. And despite the staggering amount of content, it managed to pull off a lot more with a lot less, which is always impressive.

As the series continues to grow in popularity, I hope we see more developers continue to realize that yes, people still love ambitious, open world RPGs full of hundreds of hours of content. Skyrim might not be perfect, but it establishes a bright future for both the series and the genre as a whole.

Please leave any and all comments for this feature on Snackbar Games, not this blog post. Thanks!