Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

After 200+ hours of personal gameplay, Skyrim truly is the genre-defining game in which all future RPG's will be measured against. It is MASSIVE -- so large and all-encompassing that it would literally take months to complete 99% of it. With the expected staggered DLC to come out, Skyrim would then be potentially limitless in its replay value, becoming the first true open-ended gaming console experience. The world of Skyrim is breathtaking in its graphical interface, soaring musical score, and simplistic but effective dual-armed controls. There are some initial bugs, but nothing major that are not being patched as time goes by. The third major patch update (12/20/11) has eliminated most of them that I can tell. The release-day issues largely centering around the high-res textures of close-up objects (e.g. your character's hands look blurry or lack detail) are completely gone, as well as the moments of LAG (frame rate drops that cause a stuttering or jerkiness picture). Shadows, textures, and the amazing scenery and sky are now in full Bethesda Game Studio glory. WOW -- you have no idea until you experience it. Bethesda has done an outstanding job making this game the ultimate RPG ever. **BETHESDA WINS VGA GAME OF THE YEAR** Update 12/20/11: a few days ago, the Video Game Industry awarded it's highest achievement of the year to Skyrim as it's Video Game of the Year, along with several other awards, including Best Studio. Congrats, all!! As the 2012 gaming season unfurls the last of these console generation's banner games, Skyrim will no doubt be left on top. Bethesda lead the next-gen console gaming RPG world with Oblivion and closed it out with Skyrim. Now, three more years to wait for the new consoles. And yet Skyrim will be there to fill that gap for RPG fans. Yes, Skyrim is that big and expandable. And, yes, sadly, it will match up with any game that is set to release in the next 18 months (including Bioshock: Infinite). Skyrim is not simply the best overall reviewed and awarded Game of the Year, it is also the most personal. While Uncharted 3 and Batman: Arkham City of 2011 are both great games (with Portal 2 and Zelda's Skyward Sword also nominated this past 2011 year), Skyrim is a much more self-centered experience, offering an almost complete immersion into its fascinating and exciting world. No other video game this year (or in the last decade) has come close to its densely-packed and lushly-filled open-world environment. It's rare that a game with this much pre-hype has lived up to its own stratospheric expectations, and then go on to excel and exceed them. BUT SKYRIM IS THAT GAME! I am confident that you and I will be playing it still for months (if not years) to come. It should be noted that even though Skyrim is a stand-alone gaming experience, with no prior Elder Scrolls games knowledge necessary for enjoyment, it also righteously follows in its own legendary footsteps and lore of past games like Oblivion, expanding upon it in a way that veterans of the Elder Scrolls universe will not find disappointing. This is also NOT a FPS/3PS fast-paced warfare game: those people looking for COD / BF3 / HALO-type frenetic multiplayer experiences should stay away. This is not your type of game. YOU SHALL NOT PASS! Skyrim is intended to be explored over time, wondered at in awe, and is pure escapist entertainment. It is the closest thing to a living, breathing second-life that you will have in a video game reality, leaving you with plenty of goose bump and hair-raising moments in its wake. An incredible achievement: 9.9 / 10 . . .