5. The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (2012)
The initial feeling I got playing through The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim - for the first few days, at least - was one of overwhelming awe. The world - vast, beautiful and spectacular - genuinely seemed to present me with the opportunity to do whatever I wanted: travel to far off regions, build-up my character's skills as I saw fit, and - without sounding too over the top - create my own story as I went. Whilst some of those aspects manifested themselves fairly (I commend the designers of the game world itself - it really is vast, spectacular and beautiful), a few weeks into playing Skyrim I begin to doubt the game. The detail and the sense of freedom I'd be promised weren't quite there: Skyrim wasn't as "interactive" as I'd first thought, after all. Still, the game (which was my first foray into an Elder Scrolls game, by the way) provided me with my definitive gaming experience over the course of 2012. I'll admit that I put well over 60 hours into it, and I certainly had a blast roaming the countryside, completing objectives on a whim, and facing off against the game's primary antagonists: the dragons. It's a shame, then, that there were so many off-putting aspects inherent to Skyrim that prevented it from becoming the classic game I genuinely thought it was when I started. The combat, for one, is weak - there's no sense that much effort went into the fight mechanics here. They're stale from the very first moment, and no amount of added "power" helps to make them more fun. Secondly - and I mentioned it in the paragraph above - the level of interactivity is something of a sham. Despite the fact that you're constantly changing character traits or joining up with armies, the population of Skyrim always treat you the same. Nobody runs in fear when they see you're the Dragonborne - they still act as though you're a measly peasant. Given the size of the world, I completely understand why the developer's went about the game in this regard, but surely a bit more effort could have gone into these aspects? After all, they would have made the game feel personal. Skyrim is worth your time, anyway - it's just not the 6th greatest Xbox 360 game ever made, Metacritic.