Author Archives: Justin Fox

In the mail today.

Official game trailer.

Thanks Ubisoft! Super keen to give this a spin!

Released 5 years ago, now remastered, it’s amazing how Skyrim holds up to the other 2 brand new games below.

Dishonored 2, this story/action/adventure style of gameplay is more new to me than the other 2 games.

BF1’s first person shooter all the way, definitely gameplay I’m more familiar with.

I’ve spent a fair few hours on the games above since I’ve been back from LA but I’ve failed to get the bug with either of them. Out of the 3 I’ve spent more hours in Skyrim where I’ve followed the main quest and finished the main storyline. I felt I needed to at least give it that much, but I don’t have the urge to keep on exploring Skyrim’s huge open world mainly because I’m just not that into the world of Skyrim (LOTR/dragons/magic etc).

Having said that I’m actually not into the worlds of any of these games and that probably plays a huge factor here. Dishonored 2 has a gothic/magic/dark mystery adventure style gameplay that’s visually spectacular (the animation sequences where you’re actually murdering someone are pretty intense), but it also left me with the feeling of not really playing the game, like I was steering more than truly being immersed in the world and free to roam and discover.

Then there’s BF1. Yup EA know how to make a game with a really polished feel. Clean menus, clean type. I threw myself into a few campaign modes and hated being in the tank, and then in a plane. I then loaded up some multiplayer and found it super frustrating as I was being one-shotted for hours at a time. I went back to campaign play but stayed out of vehicles (I played Gallipoli) and saw what all the fuss was about. The Gallipoli campaign was fantastic, great character development considering how short the cut scenes were, great music, great combat too.

I’m quite sure I’m done with Skyrim, and I’m really not keen to keep on playing Dishonored 2 despite it being the prettiest world out of the 3 games above and also having the most interesting gameplay. If anything I’ll most likely just play a little BF1 multiplayer from time to time, but one thing’s for sure; playing all 3 of these games has really left me yearning for the release of Fallout 5! The boxes I now need ticking are: rpg, shooter, looter, open world, character development & storyline (yeah not that much to ask!).

I managed to play a little bit of Skyrim just before I left for LA. Sydney to LA is a 14hr flight so I figured that I had plenty of time to catch up on movies. Once we were in the air I was hunting down a movie to watch that was in the theme of Skyrim, that failed, then I came across Game of Thrones (Season 6) and booya! I hadn’t ever watched an episode of GoT so I just dove right in and ended up watching every single episode straight in one sitting (as you do).

Loved the music, worlds, architecture, characters, death, gore and special effects; all of which set my frame of mind up nicely to come back home and play Skyrim.

Whilst I was away I got a message from my friend Amanda Sierras (who’s a DJ/Model I met through Breanna Espina/Zen/shooting). She needed a place to stay for a couple of weeks before she jets off on an Asia tour. I figured playing games on the couch would be a pretty geeky/bad guest thing to do but hey I just had a 14hr flight back home, I was buggered as fuck and needed some down time, she’d totally understand right?! I loaded Skyrim up and Amanda instantly lit up and showed me her fingers, which had games from her childhood tattooed on them.

She asked what I was playing. I said “Skyrim!” and she replied “I know Skyrim! What are you? A mage, or warrior?”. Gahhh! This girl is amaze!!!

Yup, that’s the Lucas Arts logo tattooed on Amanda’s finger (and yup we had enough of the Trump debate and played Skyrim instead!).

Trump was winning. “Stuff politics, let’s play Skyrim instead!”.

There’s SO much undulation in this world. You can climb up and over mountains if you choose to.

Apparently these Sweet Rolls are a bit of a thing in the game. I’m lucky I haven’t gotten to to know the game for long enough to know this, otherwise missing this event where Bourke Street Bakery lovingly re-created the Skyrim Sweet Roll would have been devastating.

Exploration, finding a companion and looting. So many instant similarities to Fallout 4, except you can’t really modify your home (let alone create settlements like you can in Fallout).

Lydia’s an awesome companion in battle, but as a character, she’s nowhere near as deep or developed as most main companions in Fallout 4 (which I felt I had genuine connects with).

The world sure is beautiful at times.

Entering a cave is often like entering a new world.

Puzzles like this kill me. I ended up having to youtube this one unfortunately.

But it got me my first Elder Scroll.

My character ended up being more of a combat character, lots into one-handed skill, spells with the other and shouts on top.

I’m glad I’ve gotten to play a game which SO many people out there have been raving on about for years. I’ve now got Battlefield 1 to play, and the post man just dropped off a copy of Dishonored 2 earlier today. It looks like I’m more up to date on games than I’d originally thought!

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim – Special Edition is out now on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC.