The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

Let's not waste any time, and get into the review I meant to do last week. Get your sword and shield, and put on your boots, Skyrim awaits!.. And it might pay to bring a coat and pants or something. Your privates will freeze off otherwise.

STORY
The game begins with your character on a prison carriage with a group of men headed for execution. It is revealed that civil war has broken out in Skyrim, between the empire and the Stormcloak Rebels (a group who wish for an independant Skyrim). Being mistaken for one of these rebels, your character is taken to the executioners block, but a chance dragon attack facilitates your escape.

Through the earlier quests in the game, we learn that your character is Dragonborn, a being with the ability to slay dragons and absorb thier souls. It is up to the player to fulfill their destiny, and stop the world from being destroyed.

As far as stories go, Skyrim is a fairly interesting one. It uses the old story telling gimmick of "Destiny" but ESV:S never forcesm players to follow its interesting, yet cliched story. Players have the freedom to go and make thier own stories, without ever having to do a proper quest, outside of the opening one.

PRESENTATION
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim is by no means the best looking game of this generation. It probably doesn't even stand up well against other games released this month. What it does do, however, is far surpass the technology used in Oblivion, the last Elder Scrolls game.

Thats not to say Skyrim looks bad, however. The environments are varied, and the weather effects make the land feel almost alive. Also there's a substantial amount of detail in the game, whether it be on flowers or in-game items such as swords or books. The occasional texture pop in ruins this slightly, but not too much.

The sound design is fantastic, with the Dohva chants being delivered with force, while very subtle orchestral music punctuates the more quiet times in Skyrim. Beastly noises deliver a suitable sense of danger when your character is initially weak, and voice acting has vastly improved since the last game.

On e last point of interest; Skyrim's menu system is one of the best and easiest to use that I've seen in some time. The map, Skill trees, Magic inventory and item inventory are all mapped to directional buttons after pressing B or Circle. Its a visually interesting and intuitive way of presenting the games options.

GAMEPLAY
Skyrim is, first and foremost, an RPG. As hardcore as they come. And Skyrim offers a multitude of choices and skills with which to personalize the way you play. Do you play as a sneaky khajit thief with a penchant for archery? Or maybe you make a Breton battlemage, wielding a blade in one hand and fiery destruction magic in the other? The choice is yours, and most choices are completely viable.

While an RPG at heart, Skyrim has solid action elements when it comes to combat. Strikes have a realistic weight behind them, whether you're dealing out the damage or blocking it with a shield. As far as first person combat goes, I've seen far worse in games that relied on it. Speaking of which, while playing in third person looked like a crap sandwich in Oblivion, its a perfectly viable choice here, especially if you want to see that new Daedric armour your character is sporting.

One feature that I really like is the levelling system. TES V never ties you to a class. You pick the skills you want to excel at, and you use them. Want to pick locks better? Pick more and more, til you get better. levelling up skills through repetition raises your level, and at each level you get a skill point to spend on a perk. It's a useful and logical way to make a strong, personalised character.

REPLAYABILITY
Skyrim is one of those games that you could play through many, many times with each playthrough being different. With the different starting races and play styles, coupled with the near infinite quests and dungeons, here you have a game that basically allows you to make your own story and adventure. Or follow the main path; player choice is truly paramount in this game.

OVERVIEW
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim is a fantasy RPG buff's wet dream. Player customization is truly impressive, both on the appearance and skillset sides, and the world has a lot of character to it. The amount of quests in Skyrim means that 100%ers are going to go absolutely mad, and theres a lot of sweet loot for those kinds of players too.

The game also looks and sounds impressive, and the gameplay is damn solid. If you're looking for a massive time sink, then Skyrim is the game for you.

Alright, Next week will be my last review for this year; with Assassin's Creed: Revelations on the way. After that I'll be back on January 1st with my yearly recap. See you next time!

Saint's Row: the Third

This week, I thought I was going to review The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, but it turns out that Skyrim is HUGE. And I also got sidetracked playing another fantastic game; Saint's Row: The Third. So here's a review of that instead!

STORY
Saint's Row: The Third follows the story of Saint's Row 2 (Duh), where we find the heroes from the previous installment as worldwide celbrities, with a brand that spans clothing, movies and energy drinks.
After robbing a bank owned by Steelport's "The Syndicate", the gang begin to question whether they've lost thier edge or not; while they fight for control against the 3 gangs that make up the Syndicate, for control of thier new stomping ground.

The game is surprisingly well written, with interesting characters and over the top, crazy story events. You could be having a mid air shootout, then flying a tank then driving a car with a tiger in the passenger seat, all in the same hour.
The only problem I've seen with the SR3 story is that it occasionally skips entirely past certain plot points. Also, you may find that it moves very quickly, with big moments being completely rushed over.

PRESENTATION
After only a few minutes of playing Saints Row: The Third, I could easily tell that there had been significant graphical improvements over Saint's Row 2. Animations look alot more fluid, and the entire world looks more detailed. The only downside to this is that the world seems a whole lot smaller than Stillwater in the previous games.

The voice acting in the game is generally pretty good, however characters that we kn ow and love, Shaundi in particular, don't look, feel or sound the same. It feels very alien. Daniel Dae Kim reprises his role as Johnny Gat, while Hulk Hogan and Sasha Grey have cameos as main characters; all of whom play their roles very well.

The game as a whole feels much more cinematic, with huge set pieces and self contained missions. Helping this are the scripted soundtrack moments where licensed tracks play in sync suitable story moments. They're some of the best uses of licensed music I've seen since Red Dead Redemption (beating Gears 3 if only due to it happening more than once). The radio stations also have a wide range of music, from Latino, to Rap, to Heavy Metal; and everything in between.

GAMEPLAY
The gameplay in Saints Row: The Third is more solid than ever, with vehicle and shooting gameplay being refined to a near artform. There's a wide variety of cars and other vehicles to choose from, all of which handle as well as one could imagine, as well as looking visually distinct.

There's also a wide variety of weaponry, ranging from Rifles and Handguns, to Rocket Launchers and giant purple dildo clubs. What elevates the weaponry over what SR2 achieved, is the large amount of customization options available to players.

Speaking of customization, the character creator has kept it's status as one of the best character creators in the industry. There are an uncanny amount of facial feature sliders, as well as thousands of different clothing combinations for you to really make your own Saint. The customization also carries over to your gang, weapons (as mentioned above) and cars.

The over the top-ness of this game is most certainly a selling point, if only because you'll be hard pressed to find a point in which you're actually bored. And if you find yourself with very few story missions to do, then theres a whole bunch of over the top diversions to accomplish.

The addition of the Awesome Button spices certain mundane tasks (melee attacks, carjacking) up, but the awesome animations tend to get a bit overused by the end.

REPLAYABILITY
Saint's Row: The Third is one of those games that will always be fun to play, no matter how far through the story your are, no matter how many actual missions you have to do. However, on top of this already versatile game is a new Whored Mode, which pits you and a mate up against wave upon wave of enemies, with increasingly crazy stipulations.

Add to that the large amount of collectibles and side missions, and you'll be set for quite some time.

OVERVIEW
With the immense customization options available as well as a crazy open world to cause havoc in, Saint's Row the Third is the gaming definition of Freedom. On top of the craziness, the gameplay and story are both surprisingly solid. This is a game that doesn't take itself seriously, but can quite easily stand up to the mega blockbusters of this gaming season.

Next week is most definitely Skyrim. Or maybe Assassin's Creed: Revelations. See you next time!

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3

About 4 years ago, Infinity Ward developed what would become one of the best first person shooters of the decade. Snap back to today, and alot has changed. The line-up at Infinity Ward has been changed, and development for their latest game has been shared between them and Sledgehammer games, with Raven Software assisting. The FPS market has been flooded with greyish brown, gritty war games, so does Modern Warfare 3 have what it takes to hit that same high mark as 4 years earlier? Read on to find out!

STORY
Modern Warfare 3 begins right after the cliffhanger ending of MW2; so SPOILER WARNING!
The world is in turmoil after the Russian/American war in MW2 escalates into a full blown world war. Vladimir Makarov is still at large after beginning the conflict, and is using his resources to launch a series of terrorist attacks, while Soap and Price begin gathering funds to launch a counter attack to clear their names as public enemies.

The parts of the campaign that focus on Soap and Price kind of require you to have at least played MW2, if not CoD4: MW. If you're looking to just pick up and play, the whole World War 3 premise may be confusing for you. If you've experienced, and enjoyed the Modern Warfare campaigns before, however, then MW3 is more of the same over the top, summer blockbuster action you might expect.

The story may be out there, and have a fair few plotholes, but it could never be called boring.

PRESENTATION
While the graphics may not be as slick, or the lighting effects not as amazing as *other* games in the FPS market right now, Modern Warfare 3 runs at a smooth 60 frames per second, all the time, without exception. I've seen very few games run so well, despite the amount of craziness going on in a typical firefight in MW3.

The guns and explosions sound powerful, and really draw you into the experience. The soundtrack is suitably fast paced and loud; helping to raise the adrenaline levels. Voice actors for Soap and Price return, and while the supporting cast does great work with what they're given, no one, aside from Kevin McKidd and Billy Murray redally shine.
Timothy Olyphant excels surprisingly well as Delta squadmate Grinch, but doesn't have many lines with which to show this off.

GAMEPLAY
The strong CoD gameplay that we all know and love is most definitely back, just as we all remember it. The campaign remains as fast paced as ever, and if anything, the set pieces are even more spectacular than ever before. You'll be boarding submarines in the New York harbour, fighting down Wall Street, fighting through african slums and flying through the London underground into oncoming trains on the back of Ute's.

The core gameplay hasn't changed all that much, but the enemy AI seems more ferocious than ever. There's also some very cool new weapon attachments, including hybrid scopes and short range scopes for assault rifles and sniper rifles respectively. These attachments really open up another level of tactical playing.

MULTIPLAYER GAMEPLAY
Since the single player campaign has remained largely untouched in terms of gameplay, I figured I would talk about the multiplayer side of things for a while. The Perks and weapon unlocks return from previous games but with some changes. The CoD points from Black Ops have disappeared, and Pro perks require less annoying challenges to complete. The unlocking process seems more simple and less annoying than last time.

Weapons now level up independantly from players, and with each level comes new attachments, weapon specific perks and skins. This all helps with the personalization of the multiplayer, but the lack of customizable emblems, and gun tags makes it feel less personal than the last CoD game.

REPLAYABILITY
When you look at the single player campaign of CoD, you're getting 8 hours of gameplay, max. However, add in the copious amounts of multiplayer there to enjoy as well as the return of the Co-op "Special Ops" missions; which now includes a survival mode.

The survival mode, might I add, is a surprisingly large amount of fun, and a good way to learn the multiplayer maps.

OVERVIEW
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 is exactly what CoD fans have been waiting for. It's fast paced, over the top and contains solid gameplay; all the while never being *too* serious, being more of an A-Team sort of movie feeling game as opposed to a Black Hawk Down.

The multiplayer is as addictive as ever, and while it isn't as team based as other games on the market, it's certainly more pure fun. On top of that are the fun, if extremely challenging Spec Ops levels. If you're a fan of the series, you'll love MW3 as much as any other CoD game.

Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception

Y'know how I said I normally reserve my picks for game of the year till the last Sunday of a year? Well, seems I should have followed my rule this year, as Uncharted 3 shows us it's never to late in the year to deliver an action packed, but also emotionally stirring story to our consoles. So, this week, no proclaimations of GotY, just a review of a truly amazing game, made by a group of talented people.

STORY
Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception puts players in the shoes of proffessional explorer/treasure hunter/thief, Nathan Drake, as he and his mentor, Victor Sullivan, follow the clues left by T.E. Lawrence (Lawrence of Arabia) and Sir Francis Drake, to find Iram of the pillars; a legendary lost city, also known as the Atlantis of the Sands.

Also searching for this lost civilisation, is Katherine Marlowe, an older woman who had a hand in Sully and Drake's initial partnership, who's search for Iram of the Pillars is much more sinister than anyone knows.

The story is well written, with very human characters who are very easy to like. Victor Sullivan in particular feels like that hilarious, rough around the edges uncle that everyone loves. Conversely, the villains are all suitably dispicable, and you'll find yourselves rooting for the heroes til the very end.

Uncharted 3 seems to focus more on the relationships between these loveable characters, and it just makes them even more memorable. The actual adventure at hand benefits greatly from the new knowledge that we get regarding Drake and Sully's relationship.

PRESENTATION
Uncharted 3 is without a doubt the best looking game I've seen this year. Character animations are all very lifelike; Nathan runs his hand along the temple walls as he walks near them, or stumbles wearily down the sand dunes of the Rub' al Khali desert. Little touches like these make the game feel very cinematic.

The lighting effects and other environmental effects, such as water and sand, all look very cool. As Drake walks across sand, his foot leaves a realistic imprint, and the sand falls down slopes in the dunes as you might expect it to in real life. The water effects from the previous titles remain, and it's cool to see Drake's clothing get wet only where it touched water.

The voice acting is top notch, with Nolan North, Richard McGonagle and Emily Rose reprising thier roles as Nathan Drake, Sully and Elena Fisher respectively. Rosalind Ayres and Robin Atkin Downes (Capelli- Resistance 3) do brilliantly as the bad guys, Katherine Marlowe and Talbot as well.

GAMEPLAY
The gameplay of Uncharted remains mostly unchanged, but you know what they say, why change a good thing? And let's face it, Uncharted 2 is one of the best games to hit this current console generation. What Uncharted 3 brings to the table are the same solid mechanics, just fine tuned a little.

The biggest improvement in the gameplay department concern the melee combat of Uncharted. In U2, the melee combat, while good, was often neglected do to it's near uselessness in armed combat. In Uncharted 3, however, I found myself ignoring the guns in favour of fisticuffs when things got a little too close for comfort. This may be due to the more intuitive reversal/strike system, or the new special moves available. Pulling a grenade pin from an enemy's grenade strap and kicking them away while they panic and fumble for the active explosive is really satisfying, as is using a wrench on a nearby table to whack a guy over the skull.

The gunplay is still very solid, with a more vertical feeling in some sections; with Drake literally fighting up walls while climbing them. The variety of guns available is interesting, and they all feel pretty different to each other, making your choice of firearm somewhat more meaningful.

The platforming is also as solid as ever, but I often found myself looking at the beautiful scenery instead of moving, which would occasionally lead to a death. No matter, however, as the checkpoints are often very reasonably spaced together.

The only real complaint I have about Uncharted 3's gameplay is the return of the stealth sections. While it's entirely possible to just open fire on a pack of goons and bypass the whole annoying thing, I personally like to play games the way the're meant to be played. So if I see a stealth section, I expect it to be reasonable to do it without being spotted. Uncharted 3's foes, however, possess some kind of foresight and super hearing, so that when one of them so much as catches a glance of Drake's dirty jeans, everyone in the area is alerted to his presence. This is just a small complaint however, and as I said, the gunning down approach is just as viable as the stealthy approach.

REPLAYABILITY
Uncharted 3 has a fantastic single player campaign that I plan on going through again and again, if only to re-live the epic moments in Drake's globe trotting adventure. However, on top of the near-perfect single player, theres a vastly improved multiplayer feature to partake in as well.

With a vast amount of class customization available, and I can see myself playing for a while.

OVERVIEW
Uncharted 3 is the reason why I love gaming. It's the whole package; great visuals, solid gameplay, well written and delivered story. The story delivers so many epic moments, with such amazing visuals, that you could be excused for thinking that it was a high budget hollywood blockbuster. Except with better writing.

So here we have a game that's nearly perfect, following up from one of the best games of this generation. I personally believe that Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception nailed it, and surpassed U2: Among Thieves. If you thought differently, let me know, I'm always looking for some intriguing feedback from these things.


So next week, I'll hopefully be reviewing Modern Warfare 3. I say hopefully, because my PS3 is going in for much needed repairs, and thats the system I pre ordered for. Might get it on 360 too. We'll see. See you next time!