Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

by Bethesda

• Skyrim reimagines the open-world fantasy epic, pushing the game play and technology of a virtual world to new heights
• Play any type of character you can imagine, and do whatever you want; the legendary freedom of choice, storytelling
• Skyrim's new game engine brings to life a complete virtual world with rolling clouds, rugged mountains, bustling cities, lush fields
• Choose from hundreds of weapons, spells, and abilities; the new character system allows you to play any way you want
• Requires internet connection and free steam account to activate

Product Details

• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B004HYIAPM
• Product Dimensions: 3.9 x 3.9 x 3.9 inches ; 3.5 ounces
• Media: DVD-ROM
• Release Date: November 11, 2011
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (769 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #375 in Video Games (See Top 100 in Video Games)
  • #6 in Video Games > PC Games > Games > Role-Playing

Product Description

Platform: PC | Edition: Standard

From the Manufacturer

The next chapter in the highly anticipated Elder Scrolls saga arrives from the makers of the 2006 and 2008 Games of the Year, Bethesda Game Studios. Skyrim reimagines and revolutionizes the open-world fantasy epic, bringing to life a complete virtual world open for you to explore any way you choose.
PUBLISHER: Bethesda Softworks DEVELOPER: Bethesda Game Studios RELEASE DATE: 11/11/11 PLATFORMS: Xbox 360™ / PLAYSTATION®3 / Games for Windows GENRE: Role-Playing	Story: The Empire of Tamriel is on the edge. The High King of Skyrim has been murdered. Alliances form as claims to the throne are made. In the midst of this conflict, a far more dangerous, ancient evil is awakened. Dragons, long lost to the passages of the Elder Scrolls, have returned to Tamriel. The future of Skyrim, even the Empire itself, hangs in the balance as they wait for the prophesized Dragonborn to come; a hero born with the power of The Voice, and the only one who can stand amongst the dragons.
	KEY FEATURES: Epic Fantasy Reborn. Skyrim reimagines the open-world fantasy epic, pushing the gameplay and technology of a virtual world to new heights. Live another life, in another world. Play any type of character you can imagine, and do whatever you want; the legendary freedom of choice, storytelling, and adventure of The Elder Scrolls is realized like never before. All New Graphics and Gameplay Engine. Skyrim's new game engine brings to life a complete virtual world with rolling clouds, rugged mountains, bustling cities, lush fields, and ancient dungeons. You Are What You Play. Choose from hundreds of weapons, spells, and abilities. The new character system allows you to play any way you want and define yourself through your actions. Dragons Return. Battle ancient dragons like you've never seen. As Dragonborn, learn their secrets and harness their power for yourself.
images and screenshots © 2011 ZeniMax Media Inc. All Rights Reserved.
About Bethesda Softworks About Bethesda Softworks: Bethesda Softworks, part of the ZeniMax Media Inc. family of companies, is a premier developer and worldwide publisher of interactive entertainment software. Titles from five of the world’s top development studios – Bethesda Game Studios, id Software, Arkane Studios, Tango Gameworks, and MachineGames – are featured under the Bethesda Softworks label and include such blockbuster franchises as DOOM®, QUAKE®, The Elder Scrolls®, Fallout®, Wolfenstein® and RAGE®. For more information on Bethesda Softworks’ products, visit www.bethsoft.com.

Product Description

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim is the next installment in the award-winning Elder Scrolls series. Skyrim is the follow up to the 2006 Game of the Year, The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion and the next game from Bethesda Game Studios, creators of the 2008 Game of the Year, Fallout 3.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

419 of 455 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Sleep is for the weak! November 11, 2011

By Chef Sean

Platform for Display:PC|Edition:Standard

Fun: 5.0 out of 5 stars   

So I'm wandering down a valley feeling pretty good about myself. I've just single-handedly wiped out a horde of monsters in a dungeon and walked off with a shiny pile of loot when I see an ugly giant sauntering along up ahead. Like any brave and noble adventurer I decide to behead him and loot his corpse. Big mistake! This guy is way more than I can handle. I've used most of my potions in the dungeon and this guy hits hard. My health is almost gone and my thoughts start to drift towards my last save when out of nowhere a dragon swoops in and scoops him up! My savior! I make a mad dash out of there and start healing with the shred of magicka I have left, hoping to make good my escape. Not so lucky I'm afraid, the dragon finishes off the giant and drops me like a sack of potatoes. Oh well, next time I'll know better, or will I?

This is the kind of random activity you'll see all over the world of Skyrim. Exciting, unscripted events unfold everywhere you turn. You can run to the same spot from the same save and it will be different every time. The world is vast and it is very much alive.

This is an Elder Scrolls game through and through. All our favorite activities are back, from brewing potions to smithing armor. Some of the familiar aspects have been streamlined however. Gone are attributes (STR, AGL etc.) and to be honest I didn't miss them. Agonizing over character creation is a thing of the past, you pick your race (each has their own bonus) and off you go. You develop your character by playing the way you want, not by conforming to a specific class. Want to be a sneaky thief who happens to wield a two-handed battle axe? Do it! Want to be a heavy armor wearing, club wielding brute who can also chuck fireballs with the finest mages in the land? Yup, that's doable too!... You get good at what you like doing the most and you'll never have to worry much about an incorrect spec. It all works! The new two-hand system is great as well. You can cast spells with one hand while swinging a weapon with the other! Or you can combine spells with both hands, the level of customization in terms of gameplay is staggering.

One of the biggest departures of past titles is the overall feel of the game. Where Morrowind and Oblivion, while being serious, had a somewhat whimsical feel to them, Skyrim is dark and gritty. Random dragon attacks, poverty and the strife of civil war grip the land with an iron fist and misery and paranoia infest it's citizens. Skyrim is not a happy place. After you witness the opening scene you will realize: this is a game for grown ups.

The graphics are great, not cutting edge (can you console companies please upgrade so developers can make games geared towards equipment that's younger than six years old please?!) but the world, animations and spell effects all look really good. I can max the game out on my mid-range system so you won't need a supercomputer to enjoy it to it's fullest. The audio on the other hand is absolutely stunning.

My complaints are minor but I do have a few. The menus suffer from a bad case of consolitis, they are obviously designed to be used with a controller. Mouse and keyboard users will find they have to scroll through long lists of spells and items unnecessarily, it's really quite cumbersome. Not a big deal really, just a minor annoyance when you know how much easier it could be. There's a bug here and there, collision detection issues and things like that but you kinda have to expect those things in a game as massive as this. I've yet to encounter anything game breaking though. The game requires Steam activation which I don't care for at all. I'm not down on those who do, I understand it's appeal, it's just not for me (yet I'm required to use it! -1 star).

This game will suck you in and keep you there! If you have some vacation or sick time you'll start to entertain the idea of cashing them in for more playing time. Your family will miss you and your caffeine tolerance will get a big boost after a few days in the world of Skyrim. You don't just play in that world, you live in it. Read more ›

58 of 64 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Excellent, despite Bethesda's standard poor writing. April 6, 2012

By A. Whitehead TOP 1000 REVIEWER

Platform for Display:PC|Edition:Standard

Fun: 4.0 out of 5 stars   

Skyrim is the fifth game in The Elder Scrolls series, following on from Arena, Daggerfall, Morrowind and Oblivion. As usual with this series, the game contains only minor continuity references to the previous titles and can be enjoyed on its own. As normal, you get to create a character, choosing their stats, background, gender and race, before being unleashed into the wilds of the Imperial Province of Skyrim. You can follow the main storyline, pursue side-quests or simply strike off into the wilderness to kill some wolves. If you're really into role-playing you can even go off and split some logs or pursue a career as a blacksmith. The game is an immense toybox and it's up to you how you play it.

Those who've played Bethesda RPGs before, particularly the recent era beginning with Oblivion and continuing through the SF Fallout 3 and New Vegas games, will find much here that is familiar. The ageing Gamebryo Engine has been given an overhaul and renamed the Creation Engine, but it's the same old technology propelling the title along (particularly noticeable with the still-clunky movement and jumping). The upgrades are impressive, with much-improved graphics (particularly in the departments of wind and snow effects) and character animation. The stiff, robotic figures of the previous Bethesda games are thankfully gone and people are now less off-putting to interact with. Bethesda have also provided a full voice cast for the game, which is a relief after Oblivion's tiny pool of voice actors resulted in some serious immersion-breaking moments. In Skyrim this is limited to a few of the various city guards, who have the same voice and even the same dialogue (the oft-repeated, "Arrow to the knee," complaint) no matter where they are, which is more amusing than problematic....

The game has also had a major overhaul to its rules system. Oblivion's level-scaling mechanic (where the whole world levels up with you) has been chucked, thankfully, and the skill system has now been made sane (in Oblivion it was a valid tactic to choose a mage class and then increase your opposing sword skills, so you wouldn't level up and make the entire world tougher). Bethesda have chucked out the class system altogether, so now you can tailor your character precisely. If you want to play a magic-fuelled archer of death, you can do that, as well as a rapid-casting pyromaniac or a sword-slinging barbarian who's also handy with a lockpick. The result is a 'streamlined' system which is actually just that, streamlined and made more logical without sacrificing depth or complexity. The perk system, where you gain impressive skills and powers in return for levelling up skills, also works well in the game.

Combat is mostly unchanged from Oblivion, particularly in the sword-swinging side of things. Whilst combat remains chunky and satisfyingly physical, it's still a button-mashing affair, disappointing in an RPG. Some sort of fantasy implementation of the VATS system from the Fallout games could have been a really good idea, but Bethesda chose not to do that. However, Skyrim permits dual-wielding, or dual-spellcasting, or using one hand to cast a spell and another to use a sword, which adds a greater tactical nuance to the game. There are also now animated sequences for impressive creature deaths, which is nice but only of cosmetic value. More interesting are Shouts, super-powered spells that you have access to as a Dragonborn. These can blow people off the side of mountains, fill a subterranean corridor with fire or carry you through the air in a mini-whirlwind. They're pretty cool and tie in directly with the game's other big change: dragons!

At first glance the dragons of Skyrim merely replace the Oblivion Gates of Oblivion: a hazard that can show up at any time in the wilderness and cause mayhem, often when you're simply trying to get from Point A to Point B hassle-free. However, the dragons are (normally) visible from miles away, so it's much easier to avoid them. Dealing with the Gates was also a major pain, as you had to fight your way through a mini-dungeon and steal an orb for each Gate to shut them down. With the dragons you just have to kill them, which is surprisingly straightforward (dragons can be dealt with relatively easily from about Level 8 or 9 onwards, maybe even lower if you trick the dragon into attacking a settlement or bunch of tough monsters, like giants). Every time you kill a dragon you open a slot for a new Shout power, which is filled by visiting major dungeons and searching them for magical symbols. It's an elegant process which ties the game's primary enemies, the myriad tons of dungeons in the game and a cool new magic system together into an impressive whole.

The game has the standard Bethesda set-up of having a major storyline quest, a number of important subquests and a bajillion side-quests. The major storyline is relatively entertaining (Skyrim's dragons are pretty cool and getting to talk to them and then kill them is enjoyable), certainly moreso than Oblivion's, but Bethesda's biggest problem of poor writing remains in place. Dialogue is po-faced and characterisation of the major NPCs is limited at best. Some of the major subquests, such as the Guild storylines, are also a lot of fun. The side-quests are variable, running from straightforward fetch quests to quite major episodes in themselves taking hours to complete. Many of the quests involve dungeons, and compared to Oblivion's small caves the dungeons in Skyrim are stunning, often spanning multiple levels and varying art styles (Skyrim contains lots of fortresses belonging to the long-vanished but technologically advanced Dwemer, so there's a brilliant genre cross-slide into steampunk in the game as well). They're impressive but also disappointingly linear with the game often holding you by the hand as you make your way through them lest you get lost, despite the fact that getting lost is half the fun of a good dungeon-delve.

The game scores big on atmosphere, as well. Trekking through an alpine forest with the snow streaming down and something growling nearby in the fog is suitably disconcerting, especially when the cloud breaks, revealing the northern lights in all their glory (and an ice troll charging at you). The environment is depicted superbly throughout, aided by an excellent musical soundtrack.

Where Skyrim falls down is the typical Bethesda problem of providing an immense world packed with things to do, but no real emotional reason to do them. The world is stunning, but populated by thinly-drawn characters who lack motivation or depth (though this is still better than Oblivion's world of disconcerting mannequins), and provide you with no real reason to help them beyond financial rewards or greater power. You can spend almost the whole game with a companion, but beyond swapping items with them, you can't talk to them about anything of interest, leaving them as little more than an an extra inventory and sword-arm. The 'civilised' parts of the game are among the most disappointing due to the lack of good writing and the resulting lack of emotional investment in the people you meet. The game even fails to have major NPCs recognise changes in the game's storyline: after completing the main quest with all its world-altering conclusion, it's astonishing how few people take notice of the fact.

However, the game is at its best when you are stuck on the side of a mountain exchanging spells with a dragon, or exploring a vast subterranean city whilst battling ancient steam-powered robots from before the dawn of recorded time. Or to put it another way, it's at its best when it puts you in charge of it and deciding what you want to do with it rather than following the developers' choices. On that level, Bethesda succeed more completely than with any of their previous games to date.

Skyrim (****) is rich in atmosphere and represents a significant improvement over Oblivion on almost every level. However, Bethesda's poor writing, dialogue and characterisation continues to hold The Elder Scrolls series back from fulfilling its true potential. The game is engrossing and interesting whilst it's you against the wilderness, but becomes flat and dull when you enter more civilised area. Still, it's a stunning technical achievement with some fabulous artwork and design. The game is available now on the PC (UK, USA), X-Box 360 (UK, USA) and PlayStation 3 (UK, USA). The PC version has some highly impressive mods for it, not to mention comprehensive content-creation tools, to the point where the PC version of the game gets an extra half star from me. Read more ›

212 of 267 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars UNDER A PERFECT SKY, ONE CAN FIGHT FOREVER (*) November 11, 2011

By NeuroSplicer TOP 500 REVIEWER

Platform for Display:PC|Edition:Standard

Fun: 5.0 out of 5 stars   

The ELDER SCROLLS series has given us a number of masterpieces over the years. Morrowind will always remain etched on my brain whereas Oblivion has offered a vast world I found myself immersed into for hours at no end. Following up on footsteps of such giants is never easy. And yet the 5th installment of the series, SKYRIM, still managed to impress and ensnare me.

INFINITE. INFINITE IN ALL DIRECTIONS.
For SKYRIM, Bethesda will only take up 6GB on your HDD and with that the game designers created a literally endless world, with extremely long drawing distances, high mountains, passing clouds, dark forests, foliage moving to the wind and water trickling in streams. Everything you see in the horizon is actually accessible. Now, compare that to the ...21GB Rage takes up for a much, much more small and visually limited world to realize what was accomplished with SKYRIM. The world is absolutely huge - and it feels real.
The graphics are gorgeous, almost realistic. Sure, I could do with somewhat more detailed textures when it comes to clothing (they look much better in the inventory than when worn) as well as a more bold color palette (besides grasses, there are also colorful wildflowers, Bethesda); however, the imaginative design of the items and equipment, the natural movements of the characters and the way light and shadows play with each other all the time more than make up for these shortcomings. The game is as beautiful as it is deep and endless.

ALL SCHOOLS OF FIGHTING ARE WELCOME
Each hand has its own menu.... You can go with sword and shield or spell and weapon, dual weapons or dual spells (yes, spells can be combined - and the spell effects are very impressive, especially the frost and thermal ones!). Ana always keep in mind: some Words have power beyond any comprehension.
The camera is very accommodating and both First-Person and Third-Person views are available. It will take some time before you settle into your own fighting style but once that is done the game mechanics will feel like second nature to you. Yes, the finishing moves reminded me of Fallout 3 however, it would not be fair to claim that SKYRIM is the mere cross between FALLOUT 3 and OBLIVION.
SKYRIM was much anticipated and its gameplay does not disappoint in any way.

USE OR LOSE IT
This is true to all living things and it also true in SKYRIM. In the beginning of the game you only get to choose what your hero looks like. How you then play the game will determine what class and what abilities your hero will acquire.
The skills you use the most are the ones you are actually getting better at. You can also increase your skills by skill training and reading a skill book. Leveling up heals your hero (health and magicka) and you can unlock a skill perk and increase one attribute reserve (health, stamina or magicka) by 10 points. Both the enemies you encounter and the loot you find level up with you, however there are areas designed to be almost impossible to lower level heroes. A word of advice: until you are powerful enough, avoid going up into the mountains. I had to learn this the hard way!
There are Achievement you earn but this is what I found beautiful: as you progress the game creates constellations corresponding to your skills and perks and, so, you can see your character make its mark, well, in the sky of SKYRIM.

KEEP YOUR EARS OPEN. IT PAYS
I usually do not pay attention to the sounds of a game. The less I notice them, the more natural they usually are. In SKYRIM both the ambient and action sounds are so well made that they stand out at first. After a while you take them form granted and blend into the background - yet they keep adding greatly to the total immersion. Draw a sword, deflect an arrow with your shield or walk in a narrow corridor and you will see what I mean.
Moreover, the background music, whenever cued, is also epic and majestic, like a medieval liturgy choir chanting about your deeds. One name should describe its impact: Jeremy Soule.
The towns are alive with people going about their daily chores; however, I have to admit that I found The Witcher II to be much better in this aspect. Nevertheless, paying attention to what NPCs have to say has its own rewards. Not only can you get lore and valuable information and even quests but you can even gain skill improvements out of this. Care has been taken to create a great number of NPC phrases in order to avoid having to endure the same phrase repeated over and over. Well, although not very pronounced, after some hours of gameplay this has not been avoided entirely. A minor annoyance. I can understand how town talk is much harder to run through the Creation Engine than items and quests.

THERE IS STEAM COMING OUT OF YOUR ARMOR
Recently we have all seen how bad a Digital Distribution system can be ([coughs!] ORIGIN!) so STEAM may seem pretty benign to some by now. Nevertheless, let's not loose perspective. This is still an OnLine DRM scheme. I usually deduct a full star from any game that withholds ownership of our games by tying it to a unique online account. So far I had made a single exception, with Shogun II. I decided SKYRIM to be the second.
I still have to warn the gamers who are careful what DRM schemes they will allow to their computers since the game does require STEAM to run (yes, even the retail version). An informed decision can now be made. However, I could not bring myself to give this masterpiece anything less than a perfect score.

SKYRIM is a game that will draw you in its world, enchant you with its beauty, mesmerize you with its endless horizons, offer you a huge number of ever branching quests and, yet, leave you wanting for more. Each time you play it is unique and the paths not taken will keep bringing you back again and again. Even if they are uphill and narrow.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!

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(*) Divorce and ended relationships not included. May induce expulsion to couch for an indefinite period of time. Real gamers do not use skooma. Read more ›