Written by: Michael Rabalais

My Skyrim story starts with my inability to spend money wisely. I found Fallout 3 and New Vegas drab. Oblivion failed to grab my attention. Naturally, when I found myself paying $60 for Skyrim on day one, it seemed like another instance of my own piss-poor judgment. I had read A Song of Ice and Fire, and thought hanging out in the Arctic with dragons seemed like a pretty cool thing to do.

Luckily, I was right. Skyrim presents a more complete and interesting fiction than any game before it. Even better; Bethesda is confident enough in their writing and design to let it speak for itself. There’s subtlety to Skyrim. Few games can tackle racism, religious freedom, or political obligation intelligently – Skyrim pulls off all three and makes it look easy. Few games can boast 100+ hours of gameplay and make that time feel valuable – 50 hours into Skyrim and I’m dying to see more.

But there’s more to Skyrim than just design. There’s a fundamentally exciting mystery to it. The game has no multiplayer; sharing stories with friends has been just as fulfilling. There’s a satisfaction that comes with learning new skills and perfecting old ones. Taking out a dragon at level 5 is exciting because you’ve done it by the skin of your teeth. It’s just as exciting at level 30, because you’ve done it without breaking a sweat, and it’s all because of your own hard work.

As if that wasn’t enough, Skyrim has dragons on dragons on dragons on dragons. If that wasn’t enough to get your motor running, there isn’t any use trying to convince you otherwise, you madman.