Normally, I would wander around and check out the world. I may not even talk to anyone before I kill someone or something. When I played Oblivion, I wandered into some random dungeon through what probably was a back door. I killed a bunch of guys I didn’t even know (they attacked me first, by the way), and ended up with some pretty cool equipment. Then I discovered there was a story.

With only three hours to play, I wanted to explore the story. If you have played Oblivion, wandering around the landscape is largely the same, except the graphics are pretty stunning…and oh, you can collect bugs along with the normal foraging for herbs and spices. However, it’s the story that sometimes gets lost in the mix of wandering around taking on side-quests in such a huge, open world.

It would seem that the first 45 minutes of the game is where you will be learning the ropes and building up your character a bit before you are turned loose into the open world. There is a story there, something about a dragon, but it was hard to catch on in such a limited time. I know there are dragons in the game, so nothing new there. After wandering around for a while running from wolves, seemingly weaponless, I bumped into some NPCs at a little cottage. Apparently I know one of the guys there, and he tells me to go to Riverwood to meet the Jarl.

So without a thought to check for a menu system (with a card in front of me that shows me what all the buttons do), I wandered around until I found Riverwood. In Riverwood, I bought a sword and found the Jarl; pretty easily actually. He tells me that one of his wizards is looking for a Dragon Stone, whatever that is. They need me to get it, and that’s good enough for me. So I set off on my way to retrieve the stone, which wasn’t far away. My sword didn’t auto-equip, so I opened the menu for the first time, and lo and behold, I already had a sword…and armor…and magick. So, I wasted my money, but at least I got to see how purchasing an item worked.

So, with my weapon in hand and donning my armor, I used the map to try to find the area the stone was hidden. It seemed I couldn’t find my way up there head on, so I wandered around the mountain where it seemed to be located. Along the way, I bumped into a giant. It killed me with one swing of his hammer, but he looked good doing it. My second attempt at finding the stone took me up a mountain trail. Soon I was in an amazing snow storm. I could see individual snowflakes! Truly stunning. Good thing I picked a Nord, because Nords have resistance to cold, and it was cold! Before I knew it, I arrived at my destination and facing off with some bandits. I dispatched them quickly and headed indoors.

Inside, I made my way through dungeon corridors. Bumping into some more bandits, I snuck up on one and laid an amazing shot on him. There was a cut-scene that showed me slicing the guy in half! Very cool stuff. I continued forward and at one turn, I saw a guy with his back to me. I tried to sneak up on him too, but as I did, he walked up to a lever on the floor and pulled it. Arrows shot out of the walls at him, killing him instantly. Poor sucker set off a trap! I figured out the puzzle that would keep me from getting pelted by the arrow trap and forged ahead. A deadly spider forced me to to use my magick.

The magick system is a little different from previous titles. For example, healing is not a one-shot casting. You cast it and you heal over time while casting it. You can heal more by continuing to hold down the magick button. After fishing around the menu a bit, I found that I not only had a healing spell, but a destructive spell too. I could cast fire, which should work great against a spider and his webs. Sadly, he killed me as I was setting to blast him away. On my second try, I realized that I was ready to level up! OK, so I missed that initially, but I was happy to get more powerful.

To level up, it asked me if I wanted more health, stamina or magick. After I chose stamina, I was taken to this screen with a circle of constellations, each one representing a perk I could upgrade. My flame magick was one of the choices, so I bumped that up a notch. My second try with the spider proved more fruitful, as I set the bad boy on fire and slashed at him with a sword I picked up off one of the bandits.

An NPC that was trapped by the spider forced me to make a moral decision. I won’t go into detail about that, but soon after, I was ambushed by some skeletal warriors. These weren’t random skeletal warriors, I had wandered into their crypt! Oops, sorry guys! Oh well, they didn’t accept my apology, and after several tries I finally destroyed them. One of them had a very nice axe that I procured. Another had a pretty sweet bow and some arrows. Soon, I was a walking armory and I leveled up again. I chose more stamina and more fire. Now I could cast fire with two hands if I wanted, and I did.

A little deeper into the dungeon I faced off with a skeletal mage. He was sucking my life force away, so I sent a fireball at him. I must say that the fireball spell kicks butt! It was simple and small ball of flame that flew to its target and exposed. Awesome. I pressed forward until I found the stone I was looking for. I went up to it and it said that I learned some strange word and it seemed like I had completed my task. After another no-so-surprising ambush, I pushed on.

It seemed I was now moving upwards towards the surface. After a few more battles, all of them pretty fun and tense, I found a large door with a puzzle. The puzzle was fairly easy and I had solved it as a Bethesda representative tapped me on the shoulder and asked if I needed help, and that there was a clue in my inventory. He realized I had just solved the puzzle and let me continue on my journey.

Soon I was on the surface again, and I quick-traveled back to Riverwood. After finding the Jarl again, and receiving some praise in the process, I was asked to defend the west tower from a dragon. Apparently my character has some limited experience in this sort of thing. Well, this sounded pretty intriguing, so I went off in search of the west tower. I didn’t actually have to search at all, as I was led there by a humble little unit of soldiers that seemed ready to fight a dragon.

Good thing they were ready, because as soon as we found the tower, we were attacked. The dragon was big, beautiful, and powerful. However, with my new bow and arrow that I had snagged from the newly re-dead skeleton in the dungeon, I plucked at it from above as my companions sniped and stabbed it from below. Soon it was slain and I leveled up again. After snagging some body parts from the dragon, the representative returned and said that I should just wander around some more as my time was running out.

So I did, and that concluded my three hours of play. Now to back-track a touch, I wanted to talk about the character creation process. As it turns out, you do not pick a class. This is not a bad thing, as you are going to shape your character by the way you play anyway. You can pick your race, and if you have played Oblivion, you will notice that there is nothing new here except how detailed each of the races are now. It’s hard to believe that this is the same system that released Oblivion. You will get to tweak your character’s facial features a bunch, so you can basically make your character look just about anyway you want. It’s slick, easy, a beautiful.

Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim is every bit a sequel to Oblivion as it is a spiritual successor to Fallout 3. The combination is astounding and if my very limited time with the game is any indication, this is going to be one hell of a game.  The two greatest games this year are fixing to come out in November and they both have Sky in the title. Can you guess the other title? I thought so.

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim is due out on November 11, 2011 for the Xbox 360, PS3, and PC.

Our demo began about 45 minutes into the game, akin to leaving the sewers in The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion or Vault 101 in Fallout 3.  You are able to create and customize your character during this time but we were able to create our character right at the beginning of our demo.  Not much has changed in the character creation – you can choose your race, gender, and name – and from there, you can customize the look of your character as you could in previous games.  There are ten races to choose from – all the same races from Oblivion – and they look a lot more realistic than before.  One of the biggest differences in the character creation is that you will not have to choose a character class as you did in Oblivion.  In Skyrim, you can choose to mold and shape your character depending on how you want to play your game.  As you level up, you can focus on skills that you want to build up and ignore the ones you don’t. The choice is ultimately up to you.  I didn’t spend too much time on creating my character as I only had three hours to play the demo and I wanted to try and experience as much of the game as I possibly could during that timeframe.  I chose to be a female Nord (I played a Nord in Oblivion as well) and I started from there.

As soon as I entered the world of Skyrim, I was just completely sucked in.  I paused for a moment to just take a look around at my surroundings.  The graphics are amazing and the detail in the world makes it pop with life.  I immediately began collecting herbs and flowers – you can even collect bugs – as I knew I wanted to try out the alchemy system as soon as possible.    I had no active quests yet so I went to the world map and found the town of Riverwood nearby and set my destination marker.  I made my way, on foot, to the town and got there relatively unscathed.  I ran into a small pack of wolves and realized I didn’t have any weapons (I actually did, I just assumed that I didn’t have any).  I tried to fight them off with my fists but quickly took off running.  The town was pretty close by so I was safe from any danger at that point.

As in the previous Elder Scrolls games, you can interact with just about everything and you can take what you want.  Of course, be careful not to take what’s not yours or you could get yourself into a spot of trouble with the law.  Lock picking is a lot more like it is in Fallout 3, which is not the first time you will make the comparison between the two games.  Even though I picked a few locks and got threatened by the home owners, I refrained from stealing any items.  I did however, take almost everything else that I could get my grubby little hands on.  Upon finding an alchemy set, I tried out my potion making skills.  Each item has four properties which will be discovered as you alchemize things.  I created a few potions via trail and error – I also failed at making some potions as well.

Talking to the NPCs in the area will get you more familiar with the world and what is going on in it.  Some will offer you quests so it is beneficial to talk to pretty much everyone.  I was in search of weapons and armor (since I was too lame to realize that I actually had some already) so I found the blacksmith and immediately started talking to him.  He offered a few small tasks that basically introduce you to the blacksmithing processes in the game.  At a Blacksmith, you are able to forge your own weapons, armor, and jewelry (providing you have the right materials and the appropriate skill level) as well as improve your items.  As you go on, you will level up in smithing which will allow you to craft and improve more items as you achieve more experience.  After that, I roamed around some more – picking locks and talking to more people until I took on a quest that led me to another town called Whiterun.

Fully equipped with armor and weapons that I crafted and improved, I headed to the town of Whiterun.  On my way, I continued to collect more items for alchemy but now I was on the lookout for things to kill.  It wasn’t long until I was found by a small pack of wolves so I fought them off rather skillfully.  New to combat in Skyrim are finishing moves similar to those in Fallout 3.  I’m not sure what triggers these offhand as it didn’t happen every time I killed something (or someone) but nonetheless, they looked awesome.  Combat is relatively simple and you can pretty much customize the way your character will fight.  Use a shield and sword, use a two-handed weapon, dual wield swords, use a spell in one hand with a sword in the other, and once you gain the skill (or perk as they are called), you can even dual wield spells.  The combinations are almost endless.  Ranged combat seems to have gotten better as well.  I remember not really using the bows and arrows in Oblivion as often as it felt very clunky to me.  However, this is not the case in Skyrim.  I was able to kill a few enemies using ranged weapons and just in the few hours of playing, it will be something that you will need to learn to use effectively.  You can still choose to play the game in first-person or third- person with the click of a button and the game will allow you to customize your controls.  You can even hot-key your weapons for faster access.  During combat, I kept pressing down on the left thumbstick, which puts your character into stealth mode.   This is where the ability to customize the controls will come in most handy.

In Whiterun, I followed a side questline that led me to a group called the Companions and after completing a few quests, I was allowed to join their group.  Joining groups is a great help to your character as members of the group will offer to train you for a small price allowing you to level up certain skills a little faster than by traditionally leveling up.

The leveling up system has gotten quite an overhaul.  Since you no longer choose a character class, you are able to level up according to your play style.  You can choose your perks based on what kinds of weapons and armor you use down to the spells or schools of magic you want to use.  You will eventually cap out at level 50 but in Skyrim, you will level up faster in the beginning and slower as you gain higher levels.  Bethesda has been doing a lot to balance out the game so that while enemies will level up with you, facing a pack of rats at level 32 won’t mean certain death as it may have felt in previous games.  During the three hour demo, I managed to almost hit level 7 so you can see how fast your character will level up in a short amount of time.

The talent tree-styled level system is represented by a series of constellations.  Each proficiency within a perk is a star within the constellation shaded by ability for quicker identification.  They all require a certain amount of points to open up so you will want to explore the options in the tree if you want to plan out your character’s path.  I wanted to get the ability to dual cast (cast a spell from each hand at the same time) a destruction spell but I had to take the Destruction perk first, then take on the spell – Burning Touch.  I had to use that spell enough to level up my skill in Destruction Spells and then I would be able to take on the dual casting skill.

My three hour demo pretty much ended there and it left me hungry for more.  I didn’t touch on the main quest at all but I was able to do a little dungeon crawling in my Companion quests.  If you are at all familiar with the Elder Scrolls series, you will see that a lot of care has gone into the making of this game.  Bethesda took a lot of elements from Fallout 3 and Oblivion to create what is going to be a fantastic game that will keep you quite busy throughout this holiday season and for quite sometime after that.

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim will be out on November 11, 2011 for the Xbox 360, PS3, and PC.

While Rage has some RPG elements, it’s not really an RPG.  You don’t gain experience points, you don’t level up, and you don’t choose your stats.  In fact, you are not involved in the creation or nurturing of your character at all.  While you don’t earn experience points, you do earn money and money is still important in a post-apocalyptic world.  Money affords you guns, ammo, and other supplies and upgrades that will make your character stronger and more prepared for battle.  You can pick up objects as well as loot bodies to get supplies, ammo, or junk to sell at shops.

The gameplay is made up of a series of fetch quests that all somehow link to your main storyline.  There are optional side quests like jobs from the Job Boards but for the most part, you will want to do most if not all of the quests in the game.  Quests will get you money, rare items, and upgrades that will be helpful.

Driving plays a big role in the game as well.  You will earn vehicles through quests and these dune buggies will get you from one place to another and you get to engage in some fun vehicular combat.  You can also participate in races to earn more money as well as racing flags which you can use to buy upgrades for your vehicles.

The shooter aspect of the game is respectable.  It felt a little loose at first but as I progressed in the game I got used to it and quite a bit better at sniping as well as some of the more fast and furious shooting of the mutants that are similar to the wretches in the Gears of War games (wiley little bastards).  The weapons are pretty standard – pistol, shotgun, sniper rifle, assault rifle, rocket launcher, and crossbow.  Where things get interesting is in the ammo choices.  Most weapons have alternative ammo types that may be stronger against certain types of enemies.  One of my favorites are the Dynamite Bolts for the crossbow.  Nothing like sticking an enemy with one of those, counting to 3, and bang – blood and guts everywhere!  The special ammo can be picked up, looted, bought, as well as engineered.  There is a small list of items that can be engineered once you have the schematic.  Schematics can be purchased from merchants and are most often the reward for completing certain quests.  There are some really cool things you can make like the sentry bot, which is a robot that walks around and attacks enemies; the RC Bomb car – remote controlled cars that will detonate at a push of a button.

The world, dubbed The Wasteland (pretty typical name in the post-apocalypse, eh?), is a barren desert wasteland. Settlements of the various friendly and hostile factions are spread throughout.  Once you add weaponry to your dune buggy, you are able go out and explore the Wasteland where you will encounter motorized bandits that you will have to engage in vehicular combat or drive really fast to escape them.  Most of your time in the Wasteland is spent traveling from one settlement to the next but a lot can be discovered by just taking the scenic route.  Driving is the only situation where you get a map in your HUD.  If you have a mission highlighted, a dotted line represents your  pathway to it.  Sadly, there is no overworld map that you can refer to in the menus nor is there any kind of fast travel mechanic.  While the Wasteland looks big, it isn’t large enough to warrant fast travel, but it would be nice to be able to see a map so you can get an idea of what direction you may need to head in.  But if you drive around a little, you will get a pretty good sense for where things are and they did a pretty good job of giving you some landmarks to help get your bearings especially for a directionally challenged person like myself.

Graphically speaking, Rage and the Wasteland looks simply amazing.  The sky, the land, down to the dirt swirling through the air all look incredible.  The game suggesst that you install it to the hard drive for better performance as it does sometimes take the game a second or two to load a texture and the load times are quite long.  However, it will take 22 GB of space.  This is a good time to note that the PS3 version of the game will ship on one Blu-Ray disc whereas the Xbox 360 and PC version will be spread over three discs.  You have the option to install one disc at a time but I decided not to and the game ran fine.

Some of the cooler effects were the water drops that streaked across the TV screen if you walked under or into a stream of water.  Much like the effect on Samus Aran’s helmut in Metroid Prime although, I’m almost positive that my character is not wearing a helmet with a visor so the effect is either the water streaking across your eyes or was just put in because it looks damn cool.  Either way, I’m cool with it.  I was only disappointed when the effect did not replicate when you walked under streams of pouring blood.  (Yah, the walls bleed real blood in some parts!).

The NPC characters looked great as well.  I was pleased to see a little less of the cookie cutter NPCS and see some more individual NPCs.  It seems like more attention to the little details were taken when designing some of the main characters – from Janus, who wears glasses that are made up of two different pairs held together by tape and Captain Marshall, who has one robot leg.  These details really give the characters some life and make them a little bit more memorable.  On the flipside, other characters are spread out through the world with names and no way to interact with them.  Some will stare blankly at you while others might spill their spiel about something, possibly offering up some small tidbit of useful information.

Another great thing in Rage is the musical score.  The composers did a great job of setting the mood and tone with the score.  The music seems linked to areas so each place sort of has its own theme music in a sense.  The music really does heighten your anxiety as I found myself feeling quite tense throughout some of the levels.  The sound effects are also a bit eerie and unnerving at times but serve as early warnings of nearby enemies as well as setting the mood.

There are a variety of multiplayer modes available.  Sadly, there is no co-op mode in the single player campaign.  This saddened me a little but I recalled my co-op (split-screen local co-op) experience with Borderlands and how poorly designed it was and I was happy that it was not included.  What you can do co-operatively is the game mode Wasteland Legends, where you fight through unique challenges for high scores on the Leaderboards with a friend online or locally.  The other game modes is Road Rage, a series of modes of vehicular combat.

Overall, I throughly enjoyed Rage and was always looking forward to playing it.  Nothing was ever too difficult but there were a few challenges that took a few tries.  The game has a Normal, Hard, and Nightmare difficulty so replay value is high.  It may take a few tries to get 100% completion although I’m fairly certain it may be attainable in one playthrough.  If you even remotely enjoyed Fallout 3 or Borderlands, you are gonna want to pick this game up and get your Rage on.

Rage is rated M for Mature and is available today, Tuesday, October 4, 2011 for the Xbox 360, PS3, and PC.

A review copy of the game was provided but did not affect the outcome of this review.  This review is based on the Xbox 360 version of the game.

The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion 5th Anniversary Edition includes:

• The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion: With the empire ready to crumble, the gates of Oblivion open and demons march upon the land. You must find the lost heir to the throne and unravel the sinister plot that threatens to destroy all of Tamriel.
• Knights of the Nine: A fallen King has been unchained from the darkness of Oblivion to seek vengeance upon the Gods who banished him. Only a champion pure of heart can vanquish the evil that has been released.
•  Shivering Isles: Enter the torn realm of Sheogorath – a world where Mania and Dementia reign. Do you have the strength to survive his trials, to tame a realm fraught with paranoia and despair, and wear the mantle of a God?

The North American 5th Anniversary Edition also includes:

• Collector’s Steelbook: A beautiful collectible metal case masterfully embossed with Daedric symbols.
• Making of Oblivion: A behind-the-scenes documentary on the making of Oblivion.
• Oblivion Game Map: A full-color map of Cyrodiil and the Shivering Isles.
• Save on Skyrim: Contains a $10 mail-in rebate offer for the purchase of The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim and a Skyrim strategy guide.

You get all this for a suggested retail price of $29.99 on the PC, Xbox 360, and the PS3.

This edition will retail for $29.99 and is the complete collection of the game including the Knights of Nine and Shivering Isles expansions.

The Elder Scrolls IV™: Oblivion® 5^th Anniversary Edition includes:

The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion: With the empire ready to crumble, the gates of Oblivion open and demons march upon the land. You must find the lost heir to the throne and unravel the sinister plot that threatens to destroy all of Tamriel.

Knights of the Nine: A fallen King has been unchained from the darkness of Oblivion to seek vengeance upon the Gods who banished him. Only a champion pure of heart can vanquish the evil that has been released.

Shivering Isles: Enter the torn realm of Sheogorath – a world where Mania and Dementia reign. Do you have the strength to survive his trials, to tame a realm fraught with paranoia and despair, and wear the mantle of a God?

The North American 5^th Anniversary Edition also includes:

Collector’s Steelbook: A beautiful collectible metal case masterfully embossed with Daedric symbols.

Making of Oblivion: A behind-the-scenes documentary on the making of Oblivion.

Oblivion Game Map: A full-color map of Cyrodiil and the Shivering Isles.

Save on Skyrim: Contains a $10 mail-in rebate offer for the purchase of The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim and a Skyrim strategy guide.

Remember, honk if you want to see Blake Griffin in RAGE!