Game Report

By Natasha

What is my Game Report about?

My game report will be about The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim by Bethesda Game Studios

History of The Elder Scrolls Collection.

The Elder Scrolls was started by a game called Arena that was released in 1994 and was the 12th game developed by Bethesda Softworks. It was one of the first role-playing games of this type and definitely one of the largest for the time. In 2004, a downloadable version of the game was made available free of charge as part of the 10th anniversary of The Elder Scrolls series. The game is only available on PC. They released the second game of the series called Dagger Fall on 31 August 1996, Daggerfall is only available on PC. The next game in the series is a game called Morrowind it was released in North America for PC on the 1st of May 2002 and May 2nd in Europe. It was then released on Xbox on June 6 2002 in North America and November 22 in Europe.

History of The Elder Scrolls Collection.

The next in the series is a game called Oblivion which was released on Windows and Xbox 360 on March 20 2006 in North America, March 24 2006 in Europe and July 26 2007 in Japan. It was released on Play Station 3 a year later, March 20 2007 in North America, April 26 2007 in Australia, April 27 2007 in Europe and September 27 2007 in Japan. The next in the series is a game called Skyrim it was released on Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, November 11, 2011 worldwide and December 8, 2011 in Japan. They then released a Legendary Edition of this game which was released on June 4 2013 in North America and June 7 2013 in Europe. The next and last in the series is Elder Scrolls Online which is coming soon and will be released on June 4 1014 on PC and Mac only. There are six games in the series so far.

Age Rating

In the UK Skyrim has be rated as an age 15 game by BBFC (British Board of Film Classification) and an 18 by PEGI (The Pan-European Game Information.) M for mature in the US. The game was rated a 15 by BBFC because of the strong violence and the choice whether to join a group of cannibals in eating human flesh, although no detail of the activity itself is shown. BBFC is a company that puts the age rating on releases in the UK, as they are only a British Board they can only put an age rating on a releases that is in the UK. BBFC put age ratings on Films, DVDs/videos, Games and other works submitted for classification.

PEGI is another age rating company that rate on Films, DVDs/videos, Games and more. PEGIs age rating system was established to help European parents make informed decisions on buying computer games. It was launched in spring 2003 and replaced a number of national age rating systems with a single system now used throughout most of Europe, in 30 countries.

Age Rating.
The system is supported by the major console manufacturers, including Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo, as well as by publishers and developers of interactive games throughout Europe. The age rating system was developed by the Interactive Software Federation of Europe (ISFE). Skyrim was rated an 18 by PEGI because of extreme violence and violence towards defenseless people. Age ratings are systems used to ensure that entertainment content, such as films, videos, DVDs, and computer games, are clearly labelled by age according to the content they contain. Age ratings provide guidance to consumers (particularly parents) to help them decide whether or not to buy a particular product. The rating on a game confirms that it is suitable for players over a certain age. Accordingly, a PEGI 7 game is only suitable for those aged seven and above and an PEGI 18 game is only suitable for adults aged eighteen and above. The PEGI rating considers the age suitability of a game, not the level of difficulty.

Genre

A Role-Playing Game (RPG) is a game in which players take the roles of characters in a fictional setting. Players take responsibility for acting out these roles within a narrative, either through literal acting or through a process of structured decision-making or character development. Actions taken within many games succeed or fail according to a formal system of rules and guidelines. There are several forms of RPGs. The original form, sometimes called the tabletop RPG, is conducted through discussion, whereas in Live Action Role-Playing Games (LARP) players physically perform their characters' actions. In both of these forms, an arranger called a game master (GM) usually decides on the rules and setting to be used and acts as referee, while each of the other players plays the role of a single character.

Genre

Several varieties of RPG also exist in electronic media, such as multiplayer text-based MUDs and their graphics-based successors, massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPGs). Roleplaying games also include single-player offline role-playing video games in which players control a character or team who undertake quests, and may include capabilities that advance using statistical mechanics. These games often share settings and rules with tabletop RPGs, but emphasize character advancement more than collaborative storytelling.

Genre

Skyrim is a Role-playing, fantasy, adventure game set in the roman/medieval time period as are all of the Elder scrolls games. Skyrim is set in the 10th the 14th century, Skyrim is set 200 years after Oblivion. The time period of this game in a made up one that never took place in our history however there are parts of the game that would make you believe that it was a real time in history with things such as horse and carriage and fight with swords and axes and not using guns as we do today.

Target Audience

In marketing and advertising, a target audience, is a specific group of people within the target market at which a product or the marketing message of a product is aimed at. For example, if a company sells new diet programs for men with heart disease problems the communication may be aimed at the spouse who takes care of the nutrition plan of her husband and child. A target audience can be formed of people of a certain age group, gender, marital status, etc., e.g. teenagers, females, single people, etc. A combination of factors, e.g. men aged 2030 is a common target audience. Other groups, although not the main focus, may also be interested. Discovering the appropriate target market and determining the target audience is one of the most important activities in marketing management. The biggest mistake it's possible to make in targeting is trying to reach everybody and ending up appealing to no-one.

Target Audience

Skyrim is an excellent RPG if youre looking for quantity over quality. The game does not shine with impacting story as much as other more focused RPG's because of the freedom it offers. That doesn't stop it from being a great experience to most and memorable at that. The main quest takes a couple of hours but there is 300 hours of side content to go through beside it. Which is the greatest amount of content any game I have seen has to offer. The mods only add more content on top of that and give it insane amount of continuity. The Skyrim community has put alot of dedication and work into adding tons of value to this game with adding mods on Skyrim for the PC. Skyrims target audience is aimed at Men and women, aged 16-24. It has some themes that would be better suited to young adults and up as it has strong violence and gore etc.

Graphics

Skyrim is powered by Bethesda's own Creation Engine, a new engine created prior to Skyrim's release. Its been close to two years since Skyrim came out. When Skyrim was released the team said, "Yeah, it looks pretty, but just wait until the modders get to it." The PC version has proven itself to be by far the best version of the game, and thats due in no small part to its extensive modding community, with mods that expand Skyrim far beyond its initial scope and capabilities. Skyrim has been improved by the community as they have added better graphics such as snow looking more realistic, the water flowing down with reflections of the trees and sky in it, adding shadows to the character and enchanting lighting, textures and FX to the game. There are also mods that add other things to the game, for example NPCs, new homes, new horses, weapons and armour. These mods can only be used on the PC version of this game which is what makes the mod better than the Xbox or PlayStation version. It is recommended to play Skyrim with this hardware: Direct X 9.0c compliant video card with 512 MB of RAM.

Graphics

Bethesda always has graphics a head of their time but Skyrim really pushed the limit with a whole new colour pallet differing from prior release Fallout 3 which primarily used grey, brown and dark brown. Not a detail has been spared, from decayed monument from an ancient time to rats and filth littering the sewers running beneath the vast cities imbedded into skyrims rich landscape. These state of the art graphics are not in vain, every cave, valley and swamp all have stories behind them only taking the story further and immersing you more than youve ever imagined. All of this is possible and still looks beautiful due to some revolutionary graphics and a dedicated community.

Sound

Skyrim features a fully orchestrated, original score, similar to Oblivion. The soundtrack has strong similarities with previous games in the series, including the main theme. The Skyrim theme has been released and its lyrics are written in the language of the dragons. There are a lot of tracks in Skyrim for different things for example in battle, the start-up menu, when danger is near and more. The sound track to Skyrim is 4 discs with 18 tracks on discs 1 and 3, 16 tracks on disc 2 and 1 track on disc 4. The first song on Skyrims soundtrack is called Dragonborn and is sang in the Dragon language which is constant thought the game, this song is the theme tune on the title screen when you first turn on the game and the lyrics you hear are:

Sound

Dovahkiin, Dovahkiin, naal ok zin los vahriin, Wah dein vokul mahfaeraak ahst vaal! Ahrk fin norok paal graan fod nust hon zindro zaan, Dovahkiin, fah hin kogaan mu draal! which means Dragonborn, Dragonborn, by his honour is sworn, to keep evil forever at bay! And the fiercest foes rout when they hear triumph's shout, Dragonborn, for your blessing we pray! in English. The game has made up their own langue for the Dialogue in the game, when the dragons speak they will talk English to start with then say something in the Dragon Language and repeat what they said in English.

There are NPC that will talk to you while you walk around and get quests from them. There is a vampire from the Dawngaurd DLC that you can have follow you and she will complain about being in the sun in the day and talk to you about her past. Most of the NPCs that you talk to will do this but most wont complain as they arent vampires.

Rewards

Skyrim doesnt have a lot of rewards but the rewards that you do get in the game give you different abilities and resistances when youre in a battle. You can only get rewards from completing certain quests which will give you either weapons, armour, rings or necklaces which then give you abilities such as 10% resistance to fire or will make you become a werewolf. For example completing The Brotherhood Guild will give you a spell to summon a horse called Shadowmere completing the Thieves Guild will make you become the leader of the guild and will give you small rewards while doing each quest within the guild.

Rewards

Once you have completed a quest you will either get rewarded with Weapons, Armour, Rings, Necklaces or money. You will mostly get rewarded with money which is called Gold in Skyrim but not always, it is also easier to level up in the game when you complete quests, and the highest level you can reach is 81. Levelling up gives you a reward of being able to kill animals and people easier and upgrade a perk in a skill. There are 18 sills in the game which are put into 3 categories, The Mage, The Warrior and The Thief. Although there are 81 levels in the game there are around 200 perks so you have to choose which of the 3 categories you want to be, each skill will start with a level of 15 and they will upgrade as you chose perks for that skill. Depending on what race you chose certain skills unique to that race will start a little bit over 15. There are also achievements for completing the quests and levelling up. There are a total of 75 achievements in the game including achievements from all 3 DLCs.

Settings

The Difficulty option allows you to choose how challenging the game, generally in combat, is. Throughout the Elder Scrolls, There have been a multitude of ways to change the difficulty and multiple difficulties to choose from. The Difficulty in Skyrim can be changed by opening the pause menu and accessing "Settings" under the "System" Tab. Difficulties in Skyrim change the damage multiplier causing direct changes to skills that rely on them. There are six difficulties, ranging from Novice to Legendary, from less to more difficult, respectively. The difference between each difficulty is this shown below:
Difficulty
Novice Apprentice Adept Expert Master Legendary

Player Damage Dealt

2x 1.5x 1x 0.75 0.5x 0.25x

Player Damage Taken

0.05x 0.75x 1x 1.5x 2x 3x

Settings

If you want to level a certain skill the difficulties can be very beneficial. Two examples are weapon levelling and armour levelling. For example if you begin the game and go to Helgen Keep, set the difficulty to legendary, and start hacking away at Ralof, (crouched while wielding an Iron Dagger) you will soon realise that his extra health will keep you from having to wait on him to recover. However on the contrary, if you set the setting to Novice and go to a dungeon, put on the set of armour you wish to level (I.E. Light or Heavy) and grab a mob and make them slash away at YOU. You might soon realize how much of a difference the difficulty will play when farming. Using a higher difficulty results in unbalanced skill developing. As the Dragonborn needs more hits to kill an enemy he/she would generally have higher weapon skills, but many enemies can kill the Dragonborn in a couple of hits, so the Dragonborn would have to evade their attacks, and armour skills remain undeveloped.

My Opinion

In my opinion Skyrim is the best game of The Elder Scrolls series of games. It has reference to other games of the series such as the races and The Sea of Ghost, the Imperial City and the History. In Skyrim you are from Hammerfell which is a city in Oblivion. Skyrim is set 200 years after Oblivion and both places are connected by The Sea of Ghost. Skyrim has a better gameplay than the others because if you dont want to start off by finishing the story quests you can do side quests then come back later and finish the story if you want to be a higher level to make it easier you can where as in the other games you had to finish the story quests then you could do the side quests. I like in Skyrim that you are a Dragonborn who is known throughout Skyrim which everyone thought was legend until the dragons started coming back to life which then you have to go and fight. The story of Skyrim is ingesting and it can keep you enter entertained for a while. When I first got Skyrim I played it for a few months and didnt get bored. I like RPGs because you dont really have to follow a story and you can wonder off and do what you want which is one of the things I like to do in games. There are some bad bits in the game as there are in every game. These are Skyrim is a big place and sometimes you can be wondering around for 30 minutes and nothing happens because you are in the middle of nowhere where there isnt much to do, when the game auto saves half way through a fight and you die you will respawn where you were with the same health so its hard to get out of that. This is a review on the game I thought was helpful and pointed out some of the good and bad points in the game. http://steamcommunity.com//id/astralchaos/recommended/72850/

My Opinion

There are some bad bits in the game as there are in every game. These are Skyrim is a big place and sometimes you can be wondering around for 30 minutes and nothing happens because you are in the middle of nowhere where there isnt much to do, when the game auto saves half way through a fight and you die you will respawn where you were with the same health so its hard to get out of that. This is a review on the game I thought was helpful and pointed out some of the good and bad points in the game. http://steamcommunity.com//id/astralchaos/recommended/72850 /