I hate to sound sentimental about a videogame, but I am.

One year ago, I was home alone on New Years eve with a wad of christmas dough burning a hole in my pocket. Bored, I decided to go buy a game, but I wasn't sure what. I had played all the big titles of the past year, except for gears 3. But on the way to gamestop, I changed my mind about gears, because I didn't want another shooter. In the local Gamestop, I thought of games I had seem hyped a lot. And I remembered the forum I frequent, Bungie's Flood forum, had been going crazy about some Skyrim game. I hadn't payed attention, but the name was ingrained in my mind. All I knew was it had snow and magic and was the cause of a fuss over arrows in knees or something and people laughing maniacally whenever someone said "foos row da". But, it was an RPG, and Door loves him a good RPG. So I bought the game. Looking at the back of the box, I wasn't all to excited. It looked like the usual fantasy RPGs, with the notable difference that it didn't look goofy, there were no well-endowed half/naked women with swords (at least on the box) and it had a realistic, gritty style, traits that by themselves pleased me. At this point, mind you, I knew nothing about gameplay or customization. I expected the usual linear game, not bad but not great, just something to keep me occupied.

I was wayyyyyyyyyy off.

Starting the game at 7 that evening, I was svcked in by the absolute freedom of the game. It was huge, beautiful, and best of all nobody was telling me where to go or what to do. No stupid class selection to lock me into a playstyle, no cheesy Armored Bikinis or ridiculous looking weapons. Magic felt like I was casting actual varied spells at things, not A for attack spell B for block spell Y for heal spell X for fast attack spell. Etc. Different and nice and coated in lore. I lost track of time and played until the wee hours, completely missing midnight and the changing year.

Since then I've been svcked into TES lore and games.

I don't know why I felt the need to post this, just wanted to share a story about stumbling onto a great game just acting on whimsy.

Yep, Skyrim is really great game.

I had the exact feeling when I first played Morrowind, you'll remember Skyrim as your first TES game and it will always be your favourite of the series even after TES6 and even TES7 (if it ever comes into fruition).

I also felt the same way with Morrowind and have eagerly looked forward to TES games ever since. Easily my favorite gaming series ever.

Thanks Bethesda!

Glad you found it and that you've enjoyed it so much over the past year.

I was suppose to play the new on-line Star Wars game, don't even remember the name of it now, with a friend but couldn't get my on-line account setup. So canceled the order for the game & let my friend know about it. And took a second look at Skyrim, started playing it the first week it was out. Been loving it ever since. I even brought a copy for my friend as an early Christmas present that year.

Here's to another great year of playing Skyrim with many more to follow !!! cheers

The Elder Scrolls games have been my virtual second home for over ten years. No other game series comes close to allowing me the freedom to make the characters I want to make and allowing those characters to live their lives the way they want to live them. There is nothing like the Elder Scrolls games anywhere. Thank you, Bethesda.