All Hail Nvidia for 3D
The biggest advantage for snagging Skyrim on PC over the other platforms is the ability to play the game in 3D. Skyrim is different than a lot of the other 3D games out there though, in that there is not a lot things jumping off the screen at you. Instead, there is a level of depth to the game that is almost indescribable.
As I traversed the land with my 7.1 surround sound headset on and wearing Nvidia’s 3D Vision 2 glasses, it was hard to not get completely lost in fantasy. Simple things such as walking up to a wagon took on a whole new feel. Instead of just seeing the wagon and being able to tell that it was sitting on the dusty road, the wagon seemed to be sitting right in front of me and you could see the road behind it, beside it, below it and even through the spokes of the wheels.
Vegetation took on a whole new life as I looked up into a tree. Each branch seemed so intricately placed one behind another. Bushes didn’t look like the texture wrapped orbs that we are used to seeing in games, but had such a depth that it seemed like I was actually picking berries and flowers from them. The tall grasses of a field made me feel like I was actually walking through them one blade at a time on a peaceful stroll.
Everything seemed so real that even mounting up on a horse could give you a small sense of vertigo feeling like you would really fall a few feet to the ground if something went wrong. So while you don’t get things flying off your screen at your face, playing Skyrim in 3D is just one more reason forget that you live in the real world.
Imperfections
Now I can’t say that the game is flawless. In fact, Skyrim may have more bugs than any game on earth. Most of the glitches are visual but there are game changers as well. Getting your Speechcraft to 100% by talking to the same guy over and over was a joke. In the end though, none of the game changing glitches were game breaking. What you noticed more were the graphical errors.
It was nothing to see a character with a sword hilt impaled through his wrist. If there were a way to type what you want your character to say, then I know at least a dozen times I would have told the guy trying to kill me, “Why don’t you put that thing away and let’s get you to a physician because it looks really painful?” There were also a few levitation issues. One time a lady descended a flight of stairs and towered over me. I just knew the lady must have been 9 ft tall, but in reality, she never made it to the bottom step and was levitating a few feet off the floor.
Overall
I was not just a little pissed off that Skyrim snagged
so many GOTY awards away from Arkham City; I was livid. However, in the end it probably deserves it. With Batman you get a fun world to explore for a couple dozen hours, and with Skyrim you get a game that could take over your life. If you only had money to buy one game this year, then Elder Scrolls V would be the wisest choice. Our hats go off to Bethesda for a job well done and maybe, just maybe, we can get bored with Skyrim before the next title in the series.
This review is based on a retail copy of the PC version, purchased at retail.
