7. Losing Yourself In An Elder Scrolls Game - The Elder Scrolls Series
Bethesda SoftworksThe Elder Scrolls series of games represent some of the best moments of gaming across modern video game history. Choosing a single moment would only serve to devolve into fisticuffs around the WhatCulture office and more than a single bruised ego when "Shadowmere" is branded onto a certain writer's forehead if he loves the damn horse so bloody much. Still. There we are. It is undeniable that losing yourself in these fantasy worlds is not only a high akin to the finest of opiates (which you should never try, and neither have we, it's simply a simile), it can be equally as addictive and lead to months of withdrawn isolation as we attempt to devour every exquisite moment of high fantasy perfection. There is a general feeling, a pervading sense of emotion that fills each world - from the now free Arena and Daggerfall, through to the polished perfection (-ish) of Oblivion, extending even as far as draugr filled Skyrim - that this constructed series of simple commands are alive. That there are lives in the balance here, that this is genuinely important. The Elder Scrolls manages what so very few games can. They represent the gamut of human emotion realistically. The moments of levity at a wedding, the grief of a funeral and the countless rages of a battlefield are all scarily real here. All you have to do is give in. Let go. Lose yourself in Tamriel. It is the single finest journey available for those of an RPG mindset, and a moment everyone should experience at least once.