If you don’t know by now, my favorite video game of all time right now is The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim for the PC, Xbox360, and Playstation 3. I personally play Skyrim on the Xbox360 as I don’t own a Playstation3 and don’t care for playing video games on the computer. I am such a fan of the Elder Scrolls video games because of their attention to detail and attempts to create realistic, thriving, natural worlds.
Skyrim is an open-world role-playingfantasy game, which hits many of my favorite things about video games. I love role-playing video games, fantasy games, and games with lots of exploration and open worlds. Skyrim is a massive open world that allows its players to explore to their heart’s content and do whatever they please. While there are plots to delve into and goals to complete, the speed is left completely to the player and all barriers are down, allowing the player to go anywhere at any time and do anything. So many times I find myself simply exploring the countryside and scaling mountains just to enjoy the scenery and see what’s out there.
One of my favorite things about Skyrim is the vast amount of wildlife found roaming the open lands and the realism involved with them. The Elder Scrolls team tries to create believable worlds within their video games, so they spend the time to create a working ecosystem complete with prey and predators. When exploring the lands, you’ll come across deer grazing in the woods, elk venturing the tundra, and bears hunting them down. The animals live their own lives and make sense in the space around them. Not only can you see these animals and simply spend time with them or follow them around, you can also chase and hunt them down, ride them, fight alongside them, battle them, skin their fur, eat their meat, wear their hides, collect their claws, cook them in a stew, and mash their teeth into a powder to use in potions, and that’s only the beginning of what you can do!
The Elder Scrolls series always aims to create living, breathing, believable worlds filled with lore and history, so they allow the player to do almost anything they can imagine. This wide array of possibilities really helps bring the world of Skyrim to life and helps add believability to the animals and wildlife. The animals are not just computer models running about, but can actually help or hinder the player in his adventures. All of this realistic interaction really helps make Skyrim an enjoyable experience full of life and realism.
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As I’ve mentioned, my favorite video game of all time right now is The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim for the PC, Xbox360, and Playstation 3. Skyrim is an open-world role-playingfantasy game, which hits many of my favorite things about video games. One of my favorite things about the game is the vast amount of wildlife found roaming the open lands.
The Elder Scrolls series always aims to create living, breathing, believable worlds filled with lore and history, so they create expansive open worlds and fill these worlds with animals and creatures that make sense living there. There are fish in the waters, deer in the woods, and even dogs in the homes of the citizens. I love exploring the lands of Skyrim and seeing all of the wildlife just makes the world even better.
What’s even better about these animals and wildlife is that they can truly enhance the Skyrim experience. Not only do they offer enemies to fight, but they can also be hunted for food, skinned for leather or parts of their bodies, such as their claws and teeth, and be used in alchemy to brew potions and poisons. All of this realistic interaction really helps make Skyrim an enjoyable experience full of life and realism.
Silverside Perch
River Betty
Cyrodilic Spadetail
Histcarp
Abecean Longfin
There are several fish in the land of Skyrim. Many are small and look exactly alike, besides their coloring and are very common. These fish can be found in lakes and rivers and cannot be eaten. They can, however, be used in alchemical potions and poisons. Silverside Perches are obviously silver. River Bettys are a light purple-pink color, while Cyrodilic Spadetails are more of a rich pink-red color. Despite their names, River Bettys are not more common in rivers than any other body of water and Cyrodilic Spadetails cannot be found in the land of Cyrodil, but can only be found in Skyrim. River Bettys are very poisonous and make great ingredients for deadly poisons. Histcarps are a bright yellow-orange color, and, lastly, Abecan Longfish are a soft blue color, matching the waters they swim in.
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My favorite video game of all time right now is The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim for the PC, Xbox360, and Playstation 3. Skyrim is an open-world role-playingfantasy game, which hits many of my favorite things about video games.
Open-World: I love when games are open-world because there’s more freedom to them. You can go where you want and do what you like. You’re not constricted to platform jumping or limited to levels. The whole world is open for you to explore. This makes the world, itself, a character for you to explore, discover, and get to know. Open-world games have much more replay value and are much easier for me to get lost in and spend hours with. They are my absolute favorite.
Role-Playing: Now role-playing is like an open-world, but for your character. Role-playing allows you to customize your character how you want and often allows you to level up and progress through the game how you want. You can make decisions, choose options, and sometimes even change the gameplay or your character’s fate. Role-playing adds that bit of customization and also allows for more re-playability.
Fantasy: One of my favorite genres is fantasy because I love mythical beasts, medieval times, and a little bit of magic. My favorite part of fantasy is the bestiary, and Skyrim has the best fantastical creatures: dragons. Not only does Skyrim have dragons, but it also has mammoths, sabre-toothed tigers, werewolves, horkers (fantasy walruses,) and other strange creatures. Skyrim is set in the right style for me.
Now, as I mentioned, the open-world aspect of Skyrim is probably my absolute favorite thing about the game. I can spend hours just exploring the landscape and viewing the wildlife. What makes Skyrim so special is the land, itself. Skyrim, the home of the nords, is a masterpiece and is a joy to roam.
All of the pictures within the post are in-game footage of the world you can explore, meaning that none of these photos are artwork or were touched-up in any way. These photos are straight out of the game, what you could see by simply venturing Skyrim.
Not only does Skyrim offer a beautiful landscape, it also offers a variety of landscapes. There are many natural features in Skyrim making it interesting to explore as the land changes from hold to hold.
Mountains
Of course, the most common features in Skyrim are the mountains. Skyrim is the northern province of Tamriel, home to the rugged and hardy nords. Nords are strong people who are used to cold, rugged, snowy climates, so it makes sense that most of Skyrim is frigid, rocky, and white. Skyrim is incredibly mountainous, offering thousands of stunning views. At just about any moment, one can climb upon a hill or cliff and look out upon the beauty that is Skyrim.
Cliffs
Not as mighty as majestic as mountains, cliffs are still incredibly common in Skyrim. These steep angles can create a challenge when battling animals, creatures, and monsters, or when trying to traverse the land. They can create quite the beautiful view, though.
Valleys
Wherever there are mountains and cliffs, there are bound to be valleys. Most of the valleys within Skyrim have rivers and streams flowing through them, adding even more to the beauty of the landscape. Surrounded by the tall, towering mountains, one feels even smaller in the already vast land of Skyrim and can even spot dragons flying overhead at times.
Tundra
Skyrim is incredibly well-known for being a cold climate filled with snow and ice. These lands can be rugged and challenging to travel through as snowstorms rage on continuously. These storms can blind travelers as they struggle to follow the few paths.
Plains
As valleys open up, you’ll come across the wide, open plains of Central Skyrim. Home to herds of mammoths and elk, the plains stretch for as far as one can see, a blanket of wavering yellow foliage. In the center of the plains is the magnificent city of Whiterun, a neutral area during the time of Skyrim’s civil war and home to the great castle, Dragonsreach. While I don’t enjoy the plains as much as some of the other areas, they’re still a sight to see.
Birch Forests
Forests are scattered all throughout Skyrim, but there are different forests to see. Along the Southern border of Skyrim around the shady city of Riften, the land glows with an Autumn feeling as warm colors invade the eyes. Birch trees with canopies of gold and copper fill the land and shed their leaves upon the forest floor. This area is home to lots of deer and bear, giving them plenty of shade, food, and shelter.
Pine Forests
Along the Northern reaches of Skyrim reign the pine forests filled with ancient, looming pine trees. These forests can be found all across Skyrim, sometimes dry, sometimes snowy, and sometimes completely snow-covered. I would say that the pine forest is the second most common feature in Skyrim, after the mountains. They are pretty standard and home to a wide variety of wildlife.
Rivers
Spread all throughout Skyrim are rivers. I love following the rivers to see where they lead. There are often paths alongside rivers, but occasionally there are smaller, more hidden rivers within the forest. One of my favorite rivers flows through the Hold of Whiterun and is the main staple of the town of Riverwood. Nestled on this river, Riverwood relies on its waters to run its watermill to help with their wood-cutting business.
Waterfalls
One of the most majestic sights in Skyrim are the many waterfalls. These waters can be quaint, like the tiny waterfall just outside of Riverwood, or can be massive such as the large collection of waterfalls to the east of the Throat of the World. I enjoy listening to their soothing sounds and taking in the view from atop these impressive sights. It can also be enjoyable to chill at the bottom of the falls.
Lakes
Also hidden throughout Skyrim, usually in forests, are many lakes and ponds. Water is not uncommon in Skyrim as there are several lakes, streams, and rivers. There are two very large lakes in Skyrim, one centrally located, and another in the Southeast. The lakes in Skyrim are home to a wide variety of fish including salmon, histcarp, and even slaughterfish, a kind of carnivorous fish that resembles an alligator and feeds upon human flesh like a piranha.
Swamps
As you draw closer to the Northern coasts of Skyrim, you begin to enter swamp territory filled with marshy ponds and puddles. Often filled with fog and dimly-lit, the swamps are probably my least-favorite natural feature in Skyrim. The swamps surround the city of Morthal and stop right up on the edge of the capitol of Solitude. Many creepy things can be found in Skyrim’s swamps, so I usually like to travel elsewhere.
Coves
One of my favorite cities in Skyrim is Solitude, a large city sitting on a cliff overlooking a large cove. This cove is home to a trading business that relies on ships to carry goods from hold to hold. Sunsets are particularly beautiful when setting over this body of water.
Oceans
Because Skyrim has other regions surrounding its Eastern, Western, and Southern borders, you can only find the ocean on the Northern shores of Skyrim. Filled with glacial masses of land and icebergs, I imagine the waters are extremely frigid. Stretching out until the water meets with the sky, the oceans contain mystery and wonder beneath their deep, blue depths. They’re usually very still, not splashing or creating waves. There was at one time, however, when a massive storm of waves overcame the coastal city of Winterhold and dragged most of it to the ocean floor. Once the most powerful city in Skyrim, Winterhold is now the smallest and most fragile within the region, all because of the powerful ocean.
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Grasping her ears with her dirty hands, Nadia watched the dark brown plates covering the dragon’s vulnerable throat quiver as the sound waves passed. The obstreperous boom pierced through her head, causing her to scream aloud with clenched eyes as she spun from a loss of balance. After the beast had completed its roar, it turned its long neck to stare directly into the girl’s frightened face. His bright blue eyes glowed in contrast from the golden scales that covered his body and seemed to reveal no feeling of warmth. His face bore a twisted snarl, revealing a few of his carnivorous teeth as he continued to give a cold stare to the child, intently scrutinizing her. Two, dark brown ram-like horns twisted around the creatures head, pointing forward near the dragon’s cheeks, matching the plates that covered his throat and stomach. His four, short, powerful legs held up his monstorous body with pride as he spread his leathery wings behind his back to appear intimidating. The dark veins flowed through the thin, brown membrane of his wings like rivers on a map as he flexed them as far as they could stretch. The gray claws that potruded from the wings’ tips gleamed in the fire’s light along with the five claws that were unsheathed about the creature’s hands.
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“Dad,” I started with an embarrassed tone in my voice as I approached him in the living room. The TV was sputtering out current events of missing people and politics in the background, my dad intently watching.
“What’s up?” he asked, slightly turning his head.
“It’s a full moon tomorrow…” I started, always embarassed to remind him.
“Oh…yeah…” He paused for a bit. “What are you going to do this time?”
“I think I’m going to go far out again. Out into the farmland, you know, where no one is.”
“Oh, okay…” He replied with a sigh, always upset that I had to leave the house because of my “problem,” but he understood. I didn’t want to hurt anybody, escpecially not my family. The best thing for me to do was to leave and become isolated until the moon had passed.
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Should I go? The question drifted within my mind, invading all of my other thoughts. I couldn’t stop thinking about it each moment of my day, and it had been keeping me awake at night. I yawned and stretched out my arms, leaning my back over the worn cushioning of the backrest of my quaint computer chair. I had already been tired, yet homework insisted that it take more from me.
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“Finally, I’m almost home…” I thought to myself as I glanced out the window to my left on the school bus, brushing my long brown hair out of my face. I saw the base’s surrounding chain link fence passing by bit by bit as the bus continued down the highway slowing to turn left onto the air base. Squeezed against the window in the seat with the wheel, my knees were raised with my backpack resting in my lap taking over my face. The person next to me was turned into the alley of the bus, paying no attention to me, as usual. It was another usual and boring day. I gave a heavy sigh before returning my glance to the window next to my face on my right and crossing my arms over the top of my backpack to rest my head on the warm black fabric of my hoodie’s sleeves with a frown and a yawn. With the bus turning off the highway, I was given a clear view to the highway stretching on, the same question entering my mind. I’d never been past this turn…what was out there?
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Reminicing over his life as he stared Death in the face, Sacariss let the excruciating pain sweep over his scaled body, releasing the immense amount of pride that had swelled within him. He quietly accepted his fate, knowing that he was coming to his end. He knew that he must rely his trust upon Nadia and the others. He knew that he was no longer going to be there to lead them. He had used all of his strength, but he was unable to defeat Antracius. Sacariss was still the younger brother. He was not as strong as Antracius, just as no one else was. This was the end…this was his end. Antracius had won…
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From the profound depths of my mind, I knew that my end was coming. I came to realize that I would not continue on; I would not go forth. My life was ending in this bleak, tenebrous world, a world that I had never seen. Suddenly, I found myself beginning to dream.
Once more, the mythical beast entered my mind, smiling with joy. The dragon lightly sprinkled the world with her peaceful laugh. So soft and so gentle, it relieved the stress from my body. I felt completely placid watching the beast twirl and soar through the clouds. There were no worries lurking in the shadows of my mind and the pain departed from my body along with the shrill, wet feeling. This was the way I was to leave the world. This was the way I was to go…
There was silence before the sounds began to return to me. I could smell the thick smoke of a fire and heard the flickering crackles that emitted from it as it spread its warmth over me. There was a sturdy rock wall that supported my back. I seemed to have returned to the cave from before and felt relieved to know that I was alive and safe, but, where was I?
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There was a strong wind that struck my face with a shocking sting. Snow continued to blow wildly about, freezing my bare skin and I realized that I was once again a human, now lying in the frozen powder without any protection. The shirt that I had previously been wearing was once more too large to properly fit me and sagged from my small-framed body. The mere shorts that I had worn to prevent from tearing jeans now left my legs vulnerable to the cold, forcing me to sit up and curl into a small ball to keep my body temperature up. What a perfect night for a full moon.
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After shaking the emotional thoughts from my mind, I heard a thud from the car. My head instantly glanced to the loud noise and found Mr. Gifford rubbing the back of his neck with a groan as he picked himself up from the roof of his overturned car. “What are you doing here?” he asked Isaac with a surprised look upon his face.
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I found myself darting through the wheat covered fields of North Dakota upon my four, long legs with the long, shaggy fur that sprouted from my skin blowing in the wind as I traveled. It felt a little odd to be running with my head about a foot from the ground and my unusually lengthy forearms curving below my body past my back feet as I sprinted. I was no longer a human, or at least in a human form. I was now an animal, and I could not control my thoughts, or my actions…
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