We had like, PlayStation 1 and all that for my brothers growing up, but I never played any of the games. She played a lot more games, but I never played really anything at all. “It was like, ‘here, you need to see this, ‘cause it’s so good.’ And she pretty much just forced me to start a profile and start playing. “One of my friends from high school just had the game on,” Matt said. Matt said his friend Jamie Brandon was the first to turn him on to it. Everyone was talking about it at school, but I didn’t get it until a year after that.” “Back when everyone else started playing it. “It had to be during junior or sophomore year of high school,” he said. He’s just an average guy who fell in love with “Skyrim.” Matt represents one of the many million mainstream purchasers of “Skyrim” - the guy who doesn’t read the trade sites, or listen to any gaming podcasts. He would never self-label as a gamer, and he never seems interested in the many games I buy that he could easily play for free. In fact, he plays it all the time - and he’s been devouring the remaster since Bethesda sent me a copy. I’ve known Matt for four years and lived with him for three, and I can safely say that “Skyrim” is the only video game I’ve ever seen him play more than once. Instead, I want you to consider the opinion of my roommate, LSA Senior Matt Kotrba. My critical opinion of the game doesn’t matter at this point. By any measure, “Skyrim” is a masterpiece.īut you know that already.

There’s a truly absurd amount of content to engage with. The overarching story is competent, but the sense of exploration and world building are masterful. It’s an extraordinarily ambitious open-world role-playing game. But what’s the point of me regurgitating praise for a game that’s already been lavished by every major gaming and non-gaming publication on the planet? You heard the opinions of the games press back in 2011, and I agree with them. I was going to review “Skyrim Special Edition” just like any other release.

Last week, the game’s publisher re-released the game on current-gen consoles with a graphical update, and bundled the base game with all of its DLC. At an unheard-of 96 on Metacritic, it’s one of the most acclaimed video games ever. My non-gamer girlfriend says, when people ask, that she “doesn’t play, but played ‘Skyrim’ for a little bit once.” To say it’s broken into the mainstream would be a massive understatement - it’s one of the top 20 best-selling games of all time, at over 20 million units sold.Īnd it’s not just a commercial success. It’s one of those names, like “Mario” or “Zelda,” that everybody seems to know. “Skyrim” is a video game of profound influence.

Growing up in skyrim special edition