Skyrim: The Elder Scrolls V is out today. It's hard not to know that, given the "11.11.11" billboards and posters that have clad the underground and every outdoor surface. We can't wait to waste a month playing a game includes a cat in a helmet who holds a fireball.
Here's what the reviewers had to say about it:
Guardian gives it five stars and says: "...may your boss believe you when you phone in claiming you have the plague, may your significant other be tolerant and understanding, and may your friends know you well enough not to make enquiries with the police if they don't hear from you in over a month."
Wired writes: "The game's greatest accomplishment is that it is a paradise of escapism, a lavish love letter to immersion. Diving into Skyrim's world feels both thrilling and comforting, like riding a rollercoaster or swimming in the ocean. There is very little padding. There are very few scripted quests that aren't worth experiencing."
Official Xbox Magazine – "Skyrim demands and offers a deeply satisfying and varied approach to combat - but the menu system is ill-equipped to intuitively deliver it. Luckily, the favourites menu is semi-intelligent. If you switch from shield-mace to double-fireball, then choose mace again, it'll remember the shield combo and flip you back automatically. It'd just be a lot more pleasant and flexible, however, if there was a less opaque system to remember your three or four favourite loadouts. The saving grace, of course, is that combat is paused while you root around in your menus."
Joystiq gives it five stars and says "This is the deepest, lovliest world ever created for a single player to explore, and one that no one should deny themselves. This is a game about following Emerson's advice, leaving the trail and finding that the most powerful force on Earth or Tamriel isn't fire or sword, but the ever-insistent desire to know what lies beyond."
PlayStation Universe says: "Quite possibly the best open-world RPG of this generation, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim is an enormous and addictive game that is breathtaking in presentation and scale"
Videogamer writes: "Skyrim is easily one of the strongest and best examples of the Western RPG, and it further establishes Bethesda's reputation as one of the most talented and creative forces in the gaming industry. Moreover, it offers players a world so vast they could easily become lost in it, and so beautiful they may never wish to return from it."
Watch more reviews and gameplay videos: