I’m so bloody excited for this game, so I decided to round up some of the stellar reviews from some of my favourite gaming sites.

1UP.com:

I’ve dabbled in Elder Scrolls games before, but they always seemed to be the wrong combination of intimidatingly huge and mechanically clunky (not to mention kind of ugly). Skyrim is the chapter that’s finally pulled me in, and suddenly I find myself smitten with the series. Not just the games, but the lore, and the insane level of thought that’s been invested in the world of Tamriel. I have every intention of seeing this game to its end, even if that demands months of my life. It’s not a perfect creation by any means, but I can happily overlook the flaws for a little more time with my wonderful, deadly Lady. Now if you’ll excuse me, she and I have about 40 open quest lines to resolve, and there are only so many hours in the day for picking off bandits with well-aimed arrows from the dark.

Destructoid:

Skyrim can do epic, that’s a given. It is, however, the little things that make The Elder Scrolls V what it is. The game is stuffed to its brim with tiny flourishes that seem so insignificant yet make the world of difference between a game that feels like a game, and a game that feels like it’s alive. Swimming in a river to catch some fish, dropping an unwanted item on the floor and having an NPC “helpfully” return it to you, gaining a trusty follower who comments on your actions and surrounding locations — these are the things that really place Skyrim a cut above the rest. Long after gamers have stopped recounting grand scrimmages against tribes of giants, talk will persist of that time an elf tried to sell a player some drugs outside of town, or the bandits that attempted to scare the hero away rather than blindly attack. To talk of such tiny details in a game where storm clouds can be summoned at will sounds silly, but without these minor touches, the overall ambitious scale would mean much less.

[…]

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim is every single reason to love a Western role-playing game, condensed into a single comprehensive experience with nothing lost in the conversion process. It is a game that will drown those who step into its absorbing, overwhelmingly detailed world, a game that will bury you and refuse to let go. Yet your submergence will be agreeable, your burial ecstatic, and the hands placed around your throat welcomed like those of a lover’s. To play Skyrim is to enter into a relationship, one that provides feelings of empowerment, yet demands total submission.

Submit you will, for The Elder Scrolls V is the new zenith of role-playing games and it commands you to look up.

Game|Life:

I have to agree. Plenty of games have set out to create open, lively worlds that feel just as human as the one we inhabit. Perhaps none has come as close as Skyrim.

The Escapist:

An absolutely first-rate roleplaying game that combines an abundance of content with an abundance of quality. The outdated design elements are unfortunate but not so distracting that it ruins the depth of the story, the openness of the setting, or the visceral joys of combat.

Anyone else getting (or already have) Skyrim?

I’m probably the only person in the world who cares about this, but it was too cool not to blog about. So over the top and cheezy, but also seems shockingly faithful to the original videogames. I’m a huge sucker for the Gyakuten Saiban/Phoenix Wright series, so you can be damn sure that I’ll hunt down a fan-subbed edition of this film once it’s been released.

From 4gamer:

Like, what the fuck, Square Enix?

This was the best of the bunch:

The best. It’s especially egregious when Level 5, the developers responsible for several previous Dragon Quest games, is making a game that looks like this:

I mean, sure, you could use the Wii’s lack of horsepower as an excuse when put next to Ni No Kuni, which was developed for the Playstation 3… but even the damn Nintendo DS version of Ni No Kuni has more heart and complexity to its environments, despite the low resolution and ancient hardware. See:

Try harder, Square Enix. It’s early (though the game’s been in development for several years), it’s an MMO (kinda) and Dragon Quest has never been graphical powerhouse… but this is just embarrassing. I want to be excited for this game, I’ve been hard at work trying since it was first revealed… but I’m finding it exceptionally difficult to imagine this being any less of a trainwreck than Final Fantasy XIV, which Square Enix are tearing down and rebuilding from scratch because it was so bad.

This is the Game of Thrones game that actually looks… decent-to-good. Unlike the RPG.

“A Game of Thrones – Genesis” is the video game adaptation of George R.R. Martin’s best-seller series of novels A Song of Ice and Fire. In this strategy game developed by Cyanide Studio, your political prowess will be as important as your strategic and military skills!

Thanks to a well-developed single player campaign written under supervision of the author, “A Game of Thrones – Genesis” immerses you into the heart of the battles and intrigues between the Houses that shaped the Kingdom of Westeros.

From Nymeria’s arrival in the Kingdom of Dorne to the awakening of the “Others” beyond the Wall, you’ll live the origins of the A Song of Ice and Fire saga through more than 1000 years of history. From year -750 to year 299, you will take part in Westeros’ founding events and largest battles, such as Aegon the Conqueror’s invasion of the continent or the War of the Usurper.

“A Game of Thrones – Genesis” is also a great multiplayer game. Up to 8 players confront each others to claim the Iron Throne in intense games where alliances, betrayals, cheap shots, and pitched battles take place!

It’s an interesting approach, setting the game in the past to allow gamers to witness some of Westeros’ most iconic moments, but you have to wonder how involved George R.R. Martin was in the whole process. Are the developers just making shit up and filling in the blanks, or was Martin providing them with actual canon, revealing parts of the series that have been clouded for readers. Likely the former.

The notion of peace and war is very important in A Game of Thrones and, in part, fixes your strategy and how you will gain control of territories.

At the start of each game, harmony usually reigns. However, every action taken by the players has an effect, be it positive or negative, on the apparent peace. Every killing, assassination, imprisonment and other treachery actions will lead toward War. To the contrary, sending messages of peace to enemy castles (if the envoy manages to reach his destination alive!), freeing captured enemy units, and other actions, will maintain peace. Depending on your strategy and plans, you may want to maintain peace, or to precipitate war.

PEACE
Setting alliances with townships, castles and other control points is only possible during peace, by sending either an envoy to agree on a wealthy, open alliance, or a spy to build up a less profitable, but secret alliance. You may also marry your Great Lord in a town or castle to set an unbreakable blood alliance. Be wary though, if your Great Lord is assassinated and did not have any heir… the game is lost!

WAR
When war breaks out, there is no turning back. The lords in their towns and castles become Loyal, and show their true allegiance if a secret alliance was in place. The more alliances you have when War comes, the better. Spies and envoys may not set alliances any longer, so the only way to capture towns and castles is to lay siege to them.

Sounds like a solid mix of a Warcraft 3-style RTS (hero-based, real-time, tactical combat with units) and a Civilization-style strategy game (building up your kingdom/army, alliances, assasination, marriage), which is certainly something to look forward to.

The game even looks fairly decent:

More screenshots can be found HERE and more info can be found on the newly launched website, and the game can now be pre-ordered on Steam and (I assume) other digital download platforms.

What do you think? Excited. Couldn’t care less? Want the RPG instead?