Dragons, and Magic, and Bandits! Oh my!

Game of the Day

Skyrim

ESRB Rating: [RP-M] (Assuming) Violence, Blood, Drug and Alcohol Use, Mild Sexual Content, Mild Language

Easily my favorite franchise in existence, Elder Scrolls revived in 2011 (11/11/11 to be exact) with the installation of Skyrim. Developed by Bethesda Game Studios and published by Bethesda Softworks, Skyrim brings the ancient and forgotten dragons of the world back to life through strange magics that you, one of the few and extremely unique of history, the Dragonborn are capable of stopping with very special powers - Shouts. Shouts are the ancient power of dragons that only few have the ability to learn, and even fewer innately possess. You're a member of the latter. These shouts don't come freely though, and you must slay the risen dragons and channel the essence of their soul in order to fuel your ability to enhance existing shouts you've learned, or ignite the shouts you have yet to learn. This is the most unique content to the Elder Scrolls system. It's like using magic without using your magicka (magic power) - if you're a warrior-type character, you won't have to be bothered with spending time upgrading your magic abilities.

As this is an Elder Scrolls game, you have access (during character creation) to the races popular throughout the series: Argonians, Breton, Dark Elf (Dunmer), High Elf (Altmer), Imperial, Khajiit, Nord, Orc (Orsimer), Redguard, and Wood Elf (Bosmer). However, unlike previous installments like the popular Oblivion and less-popular Morrowind, races and sexes don't have distinct skills scores - it made it more unique and made you think a little more (unless you're like me and have the ambition to make anything work). A few of the skills have been removed (such as Athletics and Acrobatic), and some have been meshed together (into one-handed and two-handed weapons). Leveling up seems to be a little more strategic as well. You receive one skill point per level, and a point for an attribute (Magicka, Health, and Stamina) which increase by 10 points per attribute point. Each skill section has a skill tree which unlocks more possibilities of enhancements as that skill is leveled:

As you can see in the picture above, this doesn't inhibit your ability to learn any skill of your choosing - this was a little upsetting to me. In previous installments of the series, you were to choose Major and Minor skills that leveled at different rates, provided different ratios of contribution to leveling up, and made you think more about your character. This is not the case in Skyrim. If you want your awesome heavy armor set but still want to sneak and want to use that kick-ass greataxe you picked up earlier, there's nothing stopping you! Level those trees (Heavy Armor, Sneaking, and Two-Handed Weapons), and you're an armor-clad assassination machine! How? Who cares! You're a Dragonborn! (That's how I assume some people would have seen the game when they made it.) Sneaking is an amazing skill to invest in - it grants extra damage! Heavy Armor reduces physical damage taken significantly. Two-Handed Weapons allows your maximum output of damage, but One-Handed Weapons will increase dagger damage in conjunction with Sneaking backstab bonuses. Archery is awesome damage at a distance, and will receive a bonus from the Sneaking skill tree. Restoration allows you to heal yourself. That's really the only set of skills you truly need - at least that's how I see it.

I enjoy mods*, and so I like to download them to enhance my gameplay (not to be god-like). The previously mentioned dislikes about skill trees is removed from my game now, because a mod I have allows you to choose major skills as before, applies race and sex bonuses, and forces you to focus on your idea for a character to play. I should move on to the rest of the game: great graphics, great story, and wonderful music. This game is amazing, though I miss the spell-creation from past games. Spells are gained through spellbooks that can be bought or found through trading, looting, and exploring. Some mods will integrate new spells through combining items found in the game to grant a spellbook, or other methods. Speaking of spell creation, you can smith new items with the help of a new skill tree: Smithing (how convenient).

(Smithing at a Forge)

Of course, Alchemy and Enchanting skill trees still exist, but with a new look:

(Alchemy)

(Enchanting)

A new slo-mo killcam is pretty awesome as well. Sometimes, when dealing enough damage to finish your enemy with an arrow, a melee weapon, or a spell, the camera will change to a third-person view (even if you're in third-person) to close in on the actions made, the enemy slain, or even your own character being felled.

(Me Zapping a Rabbit In Slo-Mo Killcam - Poor Little Thing)

Some enemies will scale with your level, and others remain the same. This way there are still some enemies that will prove quite a challenge to your skills, but some will still be kind of normal to give you a sense of power-gain. I think this is fantastic, because I wouldn't expect a pack of wolves to be difficult for a high-leveled character, but a group of bandits still may prove difficult. Still, there are various degrees of weapon and armor materials that grant better damage, may be heavier, and so forth - enchanting provides more bonuses on occasion.

(Small Portion of the World Map)

Throughout your adventures, you will uncover landmarks of various kinds that will allow you to travel quickly from one point to another, but also indicate whether or not it's a cave, city, camp, or ruin of sorts. This is great, because if you stumble upon a high-leveled dungeon, you can always come back later when you're better able to handle the enemies and challenges within:

(Puzzle in a Dungeon)

Puzzles reside in the world, within and without dungeons, and can sometimes end in fatal results if incorrect. Some are easier than others, you have to know where and how to look for the answers. You also have to know that there are traps in some areas, and they may result in your death - if used wisely, even the death of your enemies. There are smart ways to play the game, utilizing your surroundings. Traps are one, but oil and lanterns are another. There may be colorful liquids on the ground - this is oil and can be ignited with fire spells or hanging lanterns that can be shot and dropped causing an explosion. Beware, you're not immune to these methods of battle, and you're not the only one who can use them.

(Lanterns Above Oil)

Through magic, strength, and wits, you can overcome almost any obstacle. It's how you choose to play that varies the outcome of each encounter of each element in the game. From trading to crafting, Skyrim allows you to be very unique, and fan-made mods grant even more unique gameplay - from beginning the game in different ways to dampening your capacity to be the tankiest, sneakiest mage to gaining new types of followers to being a Jedi or a Sith:

(Sith/Jedi Mod)

This game is a fantastic purchase, computer or not, especially if you enjoy the role-playing scene (I mean come on... Dragons!)

I have yet to regret acquiring this game, and have yet to lack the drive to replay this game over and over and over in different, unique ways - through trying mods, going straight through the story, and even ignoring the main story in its entirety. Fun to be had at all levels!

Hours of playtime on my account: 345 hours (~ 14.5 days)

* = Mods available for free and only on the PC version through Nexus Mods and the Steam client.

First Impression: Sci-Fi MMO-Shooter

Game of the Day

Firefall

ESRB Rating: (I would assume) [T] Violence, [M] Online Interactions Vary 

Here we have an aesthetically pleasing MMO Shooter. It looks wonderful: cartoony, yet realistic. I really dig MMOs and sci-fi themes, and this is both! I was excited to give it a try because of those reasons alone.

Firefall is created by Red 5 Studios, a recently-surfaced gaming company that has only provided this game so far. They did an excellent job on it, but it could use a few fixings. Overall, this game has every aspect of an MMO you could ask for: transportation methods, classes, abilities, leveling up, and marketplaces. You also get rewarded on playtime per session (with items, materials, and consumable items like grenades) - the intervals increase as each reward is received.

Character creation (in the picture above) allows you to choose from one of five classes (called "battleframes" in the game): 

Assault: A generalized and well-rounded battleframe when it comes to offense and defense.

Dreadnaught: A more defensive battleframe still capable of opening a can-o'-kickbutt.

Recon: A medium to long-range battleframe with some support abilities.

Biotech: A battleframe highly capable of healing and support their allies, and chemical warfare.

Engineer: A battlefield support specialist. Can construct turrets and energy barriers, and can resupply.

What makes this game unique is that you can switch between these battleframes as you wish as long as you're at a Battleframe Garage where you can paint your armor, reconstruct your character (hair, sex, voice, skin, etc. which can also be done on the fly), assign skill points, and the likes. This is the first game I played that allowed its players to do this, and it's a major plus. Although you're confined to only one character, the battleframe switching, no matter how cool it may seem, is just like making several characters. I suppose it just cuts down on the clutter of data from the many accounts made for this game.

The default view for this game is 3rd-person but can be switched with a simple click of the mouse wheel. Really, this game looks great either way. Some weapons allow better aiming when in first-person, and others will automatically zoom into first-person when the right-click precision aiming is enabled. The screen layout is simple enough: the mini-map is in the bottom right; your abilities, health, jetpack (yes, a jetpack. No, it's not a suitable form of travel) energy, ammo, and experience gain are centered at the bottom; the chat box is on the bottom-left; the top-left corner provides your name, level of battleframe, battleframe icon, and playtime reward availability as well as VIP options; the top-right corner provides messages from your contacts during missions or between missions; the right side of the screen provides the name of your mission and the next objective goal.

**Something I found very interesting about this game is that every mission message you receive from your contact(s) is voiced-over, and that's hard to find in a lot of MMOs. Kudos to you, Red 5 Studios.

The controls are smooth, and gameplay takes a slightly fast-paced role as you're busy taking on enemies from (sometimes) multiple sides. The use of the jetpack can help escape sticky situations, though the energy depletes quickly - wouldn't want you flying around for eternity and cheating your way around the maps now. But that's okay, because you're given a sci-fi motorcycle! What's cooler than that? Uh... probably some other things, but getting it as early as 1st level in any game is rare if existent outside of this game at all (I've yet to encounter this. Thanks again, Red 5 Studios!) Also, there's an interesting glider option available from some high-elevations in the game. You can travel a good distance before you'll eventually land (or crash into something). It's something new and very fun, but not too exciting - my favorite part is that I can shoot while in the glider mode and rain death from above on the weak enemies below... I'm such a simpleton.

(Vroom Vroom!)

(Glider "tutorial")

As with any MMO, there is a crafting system that I have yet to really figure out within the first three hours of playing this game. It seems as though I would have to grind for materials for quite some time in order to craft anything remotely useful. there are obvious payment options available. It's almost thrown in your face any time you press your Escape key to log out or check your settings, or, or, or. Do you need to pay? Not really, though I'm sure there are those who do to get their gameplay boosted through items and experience. Of course you're given a few armor color options for free, but a lot of the nicer ones require payment of some sort and don't seem worth the money to me. I didn't explore the payment market, though I'm sure there are many things to be viewed:

Another basic feature, as with any MMO, is a quest system. Similar to a few other games I've played (like the Borderlands series and the previously-posted Warframe), there is a sort of mission board that you can pick and choose as you see fit. Most of the missions I've witnessed are kill this, retrieve this, escort that, defend that. Not too much else going on there. While that may get tiresome and/or repetitive, the story for each mission tends to be exciting - even more so because of the voiceovers used for your contacts and employers. I can see that this game would be fun to play with a few friends. It would be easy to make some on this game, because as I've seen there is a very generous community within the walls of this game.

I don't see myself playing this game too much, but I will definitely check in once in a while to spend some time checking out the wonderful scenery - I know I said that graphics aren't my main focus in my previous posts, but this game has some very fascinating concepts behind it that make it pop more uniquely than most games I have yet to play. We'll see how far I can make it into this game before I call shenanigans (if I have to - hopefully I won't).