The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim - Playstation 3 Legendary Edition

First, let me just say that I'm over 50 years of age. I say that because I know there's a lot of folks that grew up in my era with kids that sucked them into playing video games. My kids are now 24 and 28, and have been trying to get me to play Skyrim since it's release. I've been playing for about a month now.What it's LikeSkyrim (for those who haven't played this type of game) is a free-roaming open world game where you play in virtually any style you like. There are "main" quest lines that help the game progress, but you can easily spend hours doing little side quests, exploring, mining, gathering, hunting and simply immersing yourself in the world of Skyrim. If you played any of the Fallout games, the mechanics are very similar. The realism of the graphics and the first (or 3rd) person game play is quite compelling.ControlsI've been a PS3 gamer for almost 2 months now (hold your applause till the end please!). The controls were relatively simple for me to pick up. They made sense and only took a few beginner-mode quests to get the hang of it. There are multiple menus to navigate (like the Fallout series), but that's what comes with a very expansive and versatile experience like Skyrim. Your character moves with the left stick, while you adjust your view angle with the right. It's relatively simple once you get the hang of it. Pushing down on the right controller arm changes your perspective from first person (you see from your characters perspective) to 3rd person (you see from behind your character). Overall, controls are extremely similar to Fallout.Game PlayThis is a massive storyline that will keep you glued to the couch for longer than you should be. If you have things you need to get done, don't turn this game on. The game goes to great lengths to pull you into multiple story lines, rewarding you for each of the paths you follow. Your play style is completely up to you in Skyrim. You have an extremely versatile skill assignment tree that lets you buff your health, stamina, magic, crafting, potion, spell casting and many other areas of your character development. You can literally play this game in dozens of character configurations. I've been running through buffing my ranged and defensive skills, while letting my mercenary carry all my heavy stuff and tank for me. (oh yea. You get mercenaries to carry all your loot. . . also, did i mention loot?). You can easily craft a mage, a tank, a stealth back-stabbing rogue, an archer or any other character (or combination thereof). In short, the game play is extremely compelling and fun. It's both rewarding and well thought out.CraftingAs with other games (like World of Warcraft), the crafting requires materials. You can easily gather materials from mining, hunting and gathering. Unlike many titles, Skyrim doesn't make you pick a specific gathering skill. You can collect plants for potions, leather for clothes and armor, and minerals and ore for heavier armor and weapons. Skills are honed by creating items. The more you create in a school (potions, weapons, armor) the more you level up that school. Materials of all types are plentiful and crafting is a fun distraction that can easily be woven into your pursuit of questing initiatives.The WorldSkyrim is a vast world where you encounter many major cities, small towns, vast amounts of engaging NPCs (non-player characters) and a variety of critters, trolls, wildlife and of course Dragons. The free-roaming play style lets you engage the world as you'd like. Spending time on the specifics of the game that you find to your liking. Each town has multiple opportunities to quest, gain faction, establish your character reputation and to simply explore and enjoy. I can't honestly say how vast the world is because I've been playing it for weeks now, and still have a full quest log. There's much to do in the world of Skyrim.Good Guy or Bad Guy?Much like Fallout, you get to pick how your characters personality evolves. You can choose to steal, murder and pillage. Naturally these choices come with bounties and other consequences one would expect when they don't play nice. Or you can choose to be helpful, kind and honorable. Both fine choices and lead to varying alternatives throughout the game. This aspect alone lends itself to the replay value of Skyrim. Hone your persuasion skillls and experience different dialog and outcomes based on your ability to convince others.Werewolves and Vampires?Yep. You can turn into a werewolf and/or a vampire and play in that fashion if you'd like. You start as a live character, but can easily (and accidentally) get vampirism from the bite of a vampire. If you don't cure it, you develop an entirely new skill set, along with a peculiar taste for human blood. Yet another avenue that you can follow in Skyrim if it suits your play style. Don't want to be one, no sweat. There's a cure. It took me hours to figure it out and get cured, but the entire process was fun!A House, a wife and a couple of kids?Skyrim lets you buy houses in the major towns, provided you've got the cash and have met the prerequisites for these purchases. Buying a house is pretty much a necessity if you plan to continue to explore dungeons and reap the fat loot rewards. You'll need somewhere to store your stuff. Once you have a house, you can choose to marry (a wife or husband) and even adopt a few kids. Skyrim is an extremely engaging experience.A bit of a negative, but tolerableThe load times on this game (as others have reported) are somewhat lengthy. It could easily take 60 seconds or longer to engage in a save or a load, so keep that in mind when you play. I also (highly) recommend saving your progress often. I bought my first horse after a struggle to acquire the 1000 gold required to do so. Shortly thereafter, he was killed by a bear. Realizing I hadn't saved since mid-way through a dungeon, I had to repeat 2 hours of play to once again buy my horse. Save early and save often. Oh, and if you "lose" your horse (misplace him or he runs off), don't worry. Just fast travel to the next town. He'll be waiting by the stable if you didn't kill him.Replay ValueI see this title being on my replay list for quite some time. The storyline is engaging, the NPCs are fun and well thought out. The voice acting is great and the side quests will keep you busy for days. The ability to shape your character in any way you'd like, coupled with the depth of the story and the massive amounts of quests makes this title repayable. I will spin other characters to try other play styles and wander through the world of Skyrim many more times. Oh, and the music is great.TL;DR (too long, didn't read)Skyrim is fun, engaging and epic from an adventure standpoint. Character customization is virtually limiteless, and only bound by the selections you make. You pick your playstyle, you pick your talents, you pick your journeys and the storyline will help you find a destination. This title is a keeper. I hope you all enjoy it as much as I do. I should have bought it years ago when my kids told me "Dad. .you gotta play Skyrim!"dom

As a game by itself, Skyrim is an epic Action RPG with one of the most richly details words on videogame history. But the key point of the Legendary Edition for the Playstation 3 is that PS3 users finally have access to all of the Downloadable Content that was only released for the X-Box360 Consuls. This are the Dawnguard, Hearthfire and Dragonborn editions. All three are loaded into the game by 1, so you can add as much as you want when you want. Also, the latest "Patches" are also installed automatically (programming upgrades that fixed many of the bugs found in the original game) so things run a lot smoother.Specific Information: Dawnguard is a new storyline about the reformation of a famous clan of Vampire Hunters and their struggle against a growing Vampire invasion and attempted conquest of the world. You can join either side and change the shape of the game. This gets you a host of new weapons (featuring the Crossbow) armor and Followers, including Armored Trolls, war Huskys and Hell Hounds as well as the chance to become an even more powerful form of vampire. (Even having access to perks for being a Vampire or Werewolf) Hearthfire is literally very close to home. You have the ability to Build your own properties literally from the ground up. The original game included locations you could purchase to live in, either by progressing in the Civil War Storyline or becoming a Thane in the five major Holds of Skyrim. Hearthfire allows you to buy and develop different plots of land form 3 of the four holds you could formerly not but property from (Only Winterhold has nothing to offer you but you still have a bed at the Mage's College). These new properties can be build upon using new materials designed just for building, you can mine for Clay and Quarried Stone and buy logs from Saw Mills, to build humble dwellings for 1 or giant halls each with three wings, an entranceway and a dug out cellar. If you have the materials; you can customize you mansions with a large selection of decorations, containers, furniture, crafting stations (The cellar can be turned into a Full Blackmith station, with Forge, Grindstone, Workbench, Tanning Rack and a Smelter). You can also hire Stewards to buy animals, hire a bard for your property, a horse, carriage and do other various tasks. Hearthfire also adds the ability to adopt children. You can adopt the kids from Honorhall Orphanage after assassinating Grelod the "Kind" or you can adopt some of the various orphans found wandering the streets of certain cities. Finally Dragonborn adds another impressive quest surrounding a Cult that worships another as the Dragonborn and believe your some sort of fluke and do everything in their power to exterminate you in preparation for the true coming of the Nordic Legend. Even travel back to the cursed island outside of Morrowind. All in all, if you have Skyrim for the Ps3 and yearn for all the bonuses the X-Box had, this is your chance to get them.If you never played Skyrim before, please start right here with all the above extras plus all the amazing content in the original: Seek your true destiny as the Dragonborn, a legendary figure who can take the souls of vanquished Dragons and use their powers. Delve into the darkness of the assassin group, the Dark Brotherhood and try to survive their life or death contract killings and the power struggle between the followers of the Brootherhood's ancient ways and those following the power hungry Astrid, bent on ruling it with an iron fist rather then bothering with tradition. Join up with the Thieve's Guild and make coin the less-then honest way while uncovering a conspiracy that proves there is no honor among thieves. Enroll in the Mage's College of Winterhold and perfect your magical abilities and rid the school of a corrupt interloper. Or become one of the Companions, the greatest brotherhood of warriors throughout Tamriel and fight for honor glory and your Shield Brothers and Sisters. Choose to obey or refute the dark gods of the realm of Oblivion, earning the respect or ire of the Daedric Princes. And of course, save the world from the ongrowing threat of the most awesome forces to ever threaten the world of Tamriel; The Eater of Worlds, Alduin the Dragon lord. If your not already a fan of the game or the series, this is the perfect place to start, while longtime veterans would probably regret not getting the full experience. However, it IS very pricey for the DLC but most die hard Elder Scrolls Lovers will probably feel it's worth it, especially because you can't just download the updates from the internet. And those who have no ability to connect their PS3 to the internet (there seems to be a lot of people like that, including me) this physical disc is the only way to access these extras.