astrodoggy

you will be lost if you don't play games... other than that it's great... and its a meaty podcast, so good for long drives

Very well put indeed. I enjoyed both Mass Effects immensily.. but I am enjoying Skyrim on another level. I will say, though it was barely on my radar until now... it's turning out to be one of my favorites of the entire generation.

High Fantasy is not my thing, LONG games are not my thing, and the last time I've read a "book" inside a game was Myst (I was 12). I have been surprised at myself lately. For some as yet undefined reason, I am sucking up the world, lore, and length of Bethesda's new Elder Scrolls title, Skyrim (maybe you've heard of it). Simply put, Skyrim is retraining me as a gamer.

I am trying to define what Skyrim has that other games (Dragon Age for instance) don't, and I think it basically comes down to unpredictability. Bethesda has struck an incredible balance between cohesion and surprise with the lore in Skyrim. One of my major qualms with most High Fantasy is that, in trying to be true to a world, they often seem to be wound too tight, and inevitably become unable to surprise the consumer. Skyrim has (in my mere 11 hrs of gameplay) surprised me many times. Almost every quest/dungeon/location resolves itself in a completely unpredictable way. Magnifying this stellar balance is the fact that, for almost every scrap collected, room explored, book read, and person conversed with, you're character is rewarded.

It's a lovely game that rewards you for making your own decisions and satisfying your curiosity, rather than making you fit into a certain path. If there's a bad way to play Skyrim, it is to quest tirelessly through the main story... I am enjoying NOT doing that immensely.

Graphical fidelity is not a major factor in whether or not I play a game. HOWEVER, a game whose graphical style is cleary inspired or especially effective for said games theme is really attractive to me, AND by the same token is unattractive if its not...

The interface overall is much improved over fallout and such, but you REALLY need to play this game with a controller... I fumbled with the character creation for like 5 minutes before plugging my PS3 controller in. My main complaint is no weapon loadouts or presets... that would be nice.

I've played like 4 hours(with PS3 controller && motionjoy), and it was smooth as butter. Controller is a must.

i guess i need to play bastion now, is it fun??

Well said Deusx GTA IV was clearly a departure, for some this is a point of contention... for others (me) this is a welcomed change. Regardless, you have to admit that GTA IV had incredible depth and polish for an open-world game.

A game like Vanquish which had a shit ton of loot and RPG levels and anime style cutscenes... I would die.

I would definitely make the case that GTA IV is groundbreaking... and in the same way that GTA III was. GTA III was not the first open-world game, nor the most violent, but it added a huge ammount of depth, scope, and high-poduction valus to an existing genre. I really believe GTA IV did the same thing.