Why Skyrim Is The Best Bang For Your Black Friday Buck

If you already have the basics covered (TV, computer, etc), then any money you spend on Black Friday is probably going to go towards entertainment. And right now, there’s no better entertainment value than Skyrim.

Dragons are pretty, but boy do they get maaaad when you tell them!

The amount of content you get in Skyrim is estimated between 300 and 500 hours. All for $60 bucks on PC, Xbox 360, or PlayStation 3. That’s pennies an hour for some of the most fun I’ve ever had in a video game. And what do I mean by fun? How about finding a cabin in the woods where an unassuming old lady turns out to be a witch and battles you to the death? How about winning a fistfight against a badass chick, which earns you her respect so she’ll follow you to the ends of the earth? How about being a vampire? Werewolf? Drug dealer? Assassin? Thief? Necromancer? Dragon-slayer? What about being all of those things at the same time?

Yeah. Skyrim’s got that.

So pretty.... I wonder what I can steal in THIS town...

The best part of Skyrim (and Bethesda games in general), however, is the wealth of content that’s there for you to discover. Bethesda doesn’t hold your hand and walk you around to see every cool thing in the game. It’s all there for you to discover on your own. Where most video games have an Easter egg here and there, Bethesda games are the equivalent of a Peeps factory. They are Easter, capische?

If you’re worried about missing out on all this bonus content, I’ll give you a few tips:

• Talk to EVERYONE.
• Read EVERYTHING.
• If you’re in a house/shop/fortress/cave and you see a suspicious door/trap door, do NOT leave without exploring what’s behind it.
• Go places you think you shouldn’t go. Constantly.

Do any of these things and you’ll be rewarded with rich content that’s funny, mysterious, informative, or all three.

Bethesda also does a great job of layering every new game with what players liked about their last one. I haven’t seen many reviewers make the comparisons between Skyrim and Fallout 3, but they are numerous. From the slow-mo finishing move animations to a companion traveling with you to the way new location names burn their way onto your screen and map (which is over three times larger than Fallout 3, by the way), there is a lot of stuff carried over. But this means that if you didn’t like the combat of Oblivion or Fallout 3, you probably won’t like it here. The AI is indeed improved, but I still find myself running backwards and shooting fireballs at my pursuing enemies (which I do in a lot of games, come to think of it).

You can't tell, but I'm about to run backwards.

The best carryover is the way leveling up adjusts to your playing style. You don’t put points into archery and then use a bow and arrow because you just did that; you use a bow and arrow because you like to keep your distance in battles, and the more you use the bow, the better you get at it. It’s a simple switch, but it’s at the core of every Bethesda game.

If you’re the kind of person who’s planning to head to Best Buy around 2 AM for the best deals, do yourself a favor and don’t. Get some sleep, enjoy your family, and go pick up Skyrim on Monday. At 12 cents an hour for some of the best gaming you’ll ever have, it’s already a steal.