Skyrim Preview

Though my time has been short with Skyrim so far, there is no doubt in my mind that this title will go down in history as one of the greatest RPG’s of its’ time. I will do my best to keep this preview spoiler-free, and will warn you beforehand if it’s entirely unavoidable.

Once Skyrim starts and you get past the initial beauty seen on your “trip”, the game grabs you by the gonads and doesn’t let go for the next hour. Bethesda has always been known for making large, beautiful, immersing worlds. But one thing that they haven’t ever truly captured, and not from lack of trying, is that true cinematic feeling. Whether it be just a short event or an entire quest-chain. I can officially say now with certainty that Bethesda has finally grasped what it takes to truly give you that Lord of The Rings-esque feeling abut the events happening around you and to you.

The first thing that really captured my eye was the graphics. As I’ve always said whether it be women, or video games. We lust with our eyes before we love with our hearts, and Skyrim is a game to lust over without a doubt. Cranking the graphics settings to max has given me a breathtaking gaming experience, the modest rig I run (excluding the beast HD 6870) has had no problems maxing this game out on my LCD’s native resolution of 1360×768. The game actually runs a bit slower in town then out in the expansive wild which took me by surprise a bit, being as Oblivion ran great in the cities but was murder in the surrounding areas.

After getting past the initial beauty of the game and just the sheer size (seriously it’s a huge chunk of real estate) the biggest thing I noticed was the music. This has got to be one of the most beautiful game soundtracks I have ever heard. I love the mix of new scores with some classics sprinkled in for good measure, such as when I was running around Whiterun when all the sudden the music I heard pumping through my headphones was that of Morrowind, oh boy did that bring back memories.

Overall so far, the game looks, sounds, and is in almost all regards perfect. But it does have its’ flaws. I’ve noticed so far that the combat feels extremely loose on PC, (think more loose than Dead Island)  as well as some awkward animations but other than that a near-flawless experience so far.

Stay Tuned For The Full Review.