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Post by Lady Ruliya on Nov 17, 2013 13:19:38 GMT
So I've been meaning to put this up for a while. It's a sister thread to my Ruliya plays one, where I can review the games I play on there. Also, I don't really do a standard review as laid out in most online review places. To illustrate it my first post will be a Skyrim Review I did back at the beginning of August when I'd finished the Dragonborn DLC. I've been planning to put this up since I finished Batman Origins, but seeing as I'm still writing that out I haven't put it up yet ;P Yea, I'm as slow at writing reviews as I am with any other writing I do ;P shocking xD
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Post by Lady Ruliya on Nov 17, 2013 13:23:47 GMT
Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
Genre: Action/Role Playing Format: PC Developer/Publisher: Bethesda Release Date: November 11, 2011
So I’m going to start with a game I’ve picked up again recently, Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. I first noticed the Elder Scrolls series back with III: Morrowind, but never really got a chance to play it, so when IV: Oblivion came out I had a bash, and decidedly didn’t like it all too much. I usually play a warrior, so I had heavy armour and a Broadsword. The fighting seemed a little slow, and the graphics weren’t bad, but I just didn’t like it.
So when Skyrim came out in November of 2011, I wasn’t all that interested. Fast forward about ten months and I’d heard quite a lot about the game, and how amazing it was. Epic landscapes, with long, grand quest lines that ensured many, many tens of hours of fun. Feeling a little uneasy I borrowed a copy of the game off my brother and got to playing.
My first character was a beautiful Nord lass. She was tall, strong, and striking in her looks. I went my usual warrior path, with heavy armour and greatswords. So I played the game and found it to be everything I’d heard about it. Sweeping Vistas, great quests and intuitive game play. Whilst this was fun and lasted about twenty hours? I got into a problem. The game would crash every time I entered Solitude. Which, as you can imagine was a big problem, as Solitude is a pretty big part of a lot of quests. I was heartbroken; my Nord Warrior was lost to me. Fortunately, we were in December, the end of December, during the Steam sales. So I said to myself, “Rach, wait and see how much Skyrim goes down to, and buy it” as it was still about £34.99 at the time, a little too pricey for me.
Skyrim’s time came round and it was half price, at £17.49. Much better. So I bought it and began my Skyrim adventure anew! This time I chose a High Elf, as I’m very fond of Elves. Turns out High Elves are very good at magic, one thing I didn’t find too amazing in Skyrim, though I hear it is pretty good.
My High Elf was christened Layttia and I began. I decided to go through the Empire this time, as my Nord was off with the Rebellion defending her homeland. I have to say the War quest line was pretty intense. From the political intrigue of dealing with the various Jarls, the large sweeping battles to take certain cities, to the summit at High Hrothgar. I felt involved and a part of it.
This time I dual wielded one-handers and had a bow as a secondary weapon. The bow can quickly become overpowered once you level up your Archery skills. A 3x bonus damage when hidden can quickly kill almost any mob you encounter, although, they won’t encounter you.
The main Dragonborn quest line was equally fantastic and just as epic. From fighting my first Dragon, to learning about Thu’ums in High Hrothgar and beyond out into the world; and once you’re out into that expansive world you will very easily get lost in it. Many, many times did I go across the map from one area to another to do one quest, end up with ten new quests once I got there and spending the next several hours doing all them before remembering the reason I went there in the first place.
There are many wondrous things to occupy your time in Skyrim, from all the Barrows to Giant lairs and bandit dens to the massive underground Dwarven ruins. I have explored so much, and am still finding new things to explore.
The landscape was absolutely stunningly beautiful, and so diverse. One moment I’d be scaling a mountain, climbing over rock and through snow, as it snowed, sometimes heavily upon me, to wide open fields, with little trees, and maybe a stream, to large wooded areas. This game has areas for everyone, even dark, damp caves to explore.
Each race in Skyrim is well represented, but I found it a little annoying that you couldn’t find out too much information about each race unless you delved through books, of which there are countless. Who knows how many novels worth of story and lore is set in these thousands of books you can find spread all over the world.
I still haven’t really played as a Werewolf yet, not have I started the Dark Brotherhood quest line. A reason I’ve been holding off playing the Dawnguard DLC. I have played the Hearthfire DLC however, and found out really fun to build my houses. Of course by the time I got to it, I had so many mats that I could build the exterior and lots of the interior before having to go fetch more, of which there is usually a quarry and clay pit beside the house, so it was mainly just tracking down Iron and people who sold straw. There’s a wonderful old Orc at the Solitude Saw Mill that was happy to sell me plenty of wood. While I could set myself up at a Saw Mill somewhere else and get the wood for free, it only cost 200 Septims (the in game currency) to buy 20 logs, and honestly, I was so rich by this point I could probably have bought half of Skyrim has I wanted.
The Dragonborn DLC was also really good, I enjoyed the main quest line, and found the realm of Apocrypha to be rather creepy, which I figured was half the point, and so it went well to adding to the atmosphere. While the final boss, like the one in the main game wasn’t all that difficult to defeat, they still at least held a enough of a challenge to be fun.
Overall that’s the same for the entire game, its fun and challenging with a fantastic storyline that will keep you gripped. It has many side quests to keep you hanging in for hours on end, and the day/night cycle really adds to the experience. I for example am coming up to 5 days played, that’s 120 hours I’ve been inside Skyrim, and I’m still finding plenty to do and keep me occupied ^^
Like I said, I won’t be writing traditional reviews, so there will be no number scoring here. What I will say is, if you haven’t played this game yet (Where have you been?) then it is most definitely worth picking up, and with the Legendary Edition just coming out, which features all three pieces of DLC, there is no finer time to start your Skyrim adventure! Or to continue where you left off ;P
Note: I played this game on the PC with various mods, including some graphic enhancing ones, so your experience may vary.
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Post by Knukails on Nov 17, 2013 13:54:58 GMT
Ohhh, its a more personalized review....Cool.
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Post by KennyC on Nov 17, 2013 14:00:12 GMT
A quick note to anyone, its probably a good idea not to read anything until you earn a place in College of Magic, so you can just set up an entire evening of reading a lot of the lore in the big library.
Nice review, hope to see more. Its a rather fresh approach to reviewing.
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Post by Lady Ruliya on Dec 27, 2013 12:26:21 GMT
So, this has been floundering, but no problem!
TOP 5 GAMES OF 2013!
#5:
GRAN TURISMO 6 - PS3 - Dec 6th.
Yes, a racing game. A racing game I've been waiting for, for fucking ever xD The game plays a lot like GT5, but with improved tire physics and other physics making the cars feel more real to drive. The graphics are absolutely stunning, even the Standard Models have been spruced up and look a lot better.
They've added in new tracks, they've brought back some old tracks, such as Aprocot Hill Raceway, which was my favourite from 4, so I'm immensely happy ^^ Still no R11, but oh well. They're supposed to be adding tracks and cars with DLC packs. This is kind of annoying as I hate to see GT go down the M$ Forza Micro Transaction route, but I guess it's a sign of the times.
It's not arcadey like NFS or RR, which is why I prefer it. Plus, driving some of the greatest cars in the world is something I'll never be able to do in reality, so this is the next best thing!
If you're a fan of Racing games and don't have a PS, I feel sorry for you, but the Forza series is a solid racing series, if you like second best xD
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Post by Lady Ruliya on Dec 28, 2013 11:30:46 GMT
#4
Saints Row IV - PS3 - August 20th
Having only recently jumped into SR 2 earlier this year, playing it fully co-op with a friend, I hadn't long to wait to complete the series. I got The Third a few months later, but piled through that solo, and boy, what a fucking game that was! The humour was brilliant, the free to roam and full mayhem and killing bullshit was spectacular, what this type of game should be. The story was still serious in parts, but really made up for it in the comedy sections.
So ofc, naturally I pre-ordered IV straight out of the gate, I wasn't missing the "final" part of this series! And I was not disappointed! The humour was just as funny, the mayhem just as much fun, even better with Super Powers and a freaking black hole gun! xD I blew through this game within a week and I was not unhappy with the length. About 35 hours or so all told, and every single part of it was fun. Even the credits shined xD
I'm waiting a bit, but will eventually get the DLC pieces and play through them. This is just a great game to relax in, if you just wanna run around and have fun!
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Post by Knukails on Dec 28, 2013 21:44:49 GMT
SR IV was good. Nice choice.
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Post by MugiwaraBlair on Dec 28, 2013 21:58:17 GMT
Hell yeah !!
Btw what do you have it on ?
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Post by Knukails on Dec 28, 2013 21:59:55 GMT
Hell yeah !! Btw what do you have it on ? It says PS3
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Post by MugiwaraBlair on Dec 28, 2013 23:39:27 GMT
Oh true ^^
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Post by Lady Ruliya on Dec 29, 2013 0:28:09 GMT
We played it roughly at the same time sweetie xD when it came out! I haz trophies, plats and everything
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Post by Lady Ruliya on Dec 29, 2013 14:08:58 GMT
#3
Batman: Arkham Origins - PS3 - Oct 25th
Now, I've heard that Origins got bad reviews because it was a lot like City and didn't add much gameplay wise. Well, I played this game before the others xD Well technically I played Asylum in 2010, and only got about halfway through. But essentially. So I went into this with high expectations because I loved what I played of Asylum, and boy was I not disappointed! The combat flowed much better, the gadgets were fun, free roam was pretty awesome, and the cast of villains, though "b-villains" if you go by some reviewers, was good in my eyes. There's only so much of the A star roster you can take before you get bored. I mean, I know everyone loves the Joker, but the main villain in all of them? Meh.
But you get to see the Jokers meteoric rise to power! It's a great back story of him and the Bat. I found the story really fun, and the Riddler Challenges were just the right side of challenging to continue to be fun, unlike City, where some of them were ridiculous.
I've always liked Batman, and this game does not disappoint if you're a fan ^^
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Post by MugiwaraBlair on Dec 29, 2013 19:53:29 GMT
Shoooo!!
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Post by Lady Ruliya on Dec 29, 2013 19:57:18 GMT
You'd probably love Joker in this game xD Well, in all 3 of them xD
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Post by MugiwaraBlair on Dec 29, 2013 20:17:13 GMT
Ya but you're against him, it'd be like Killzone.
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