My Favorite Games: Seventh Generation

These are the select few games that entertained me more than any others. Some of them had amazing replay value, that I played again and again for years. Others were shorter but so original and impressive as to make up for the lower value.

Notable Favorites

The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion (2006) – I remember seeing the first Oblivion screenshots in game magazines and thinking “Wow! This is next-gen!” The graphics were better than even PC games at the time. At the time I was still more of a console gamer, so a gaming PC was out of the question. I knew then Oblivion was a game I had to get, and that meant buying a next-gen console. The game itself was somewhat disappointing. While I loved exploring the world and seeing all the NPCs, the level scaling, randomly generated loot, and tiny voice cast really got to me. It may not have been a perfect game, but it defined what next-gen could be.

Portal 1 (2007) – You cannot talk about the seventh generation without talking about Portal. This game came out of nowhere. No one had heard of it, but just one little video was enough to turn heads. Without an expansive voice cast, fancy graphics, or orchestral score, this game easily became 2007’s most original game. It was just solid game design from start to finish. People will talk about Portal for years to come. There was so much fun to be had in throwing portals around to get through puzzles. There was a lot of freedom in the later levels. Different players had different solutions.

Mass Effect 1 (2007) – This game took some time to grow on me. I do not know what it was, but when I first played it I just could not get into it. A few months later I was obsessed with it. I ended up doing a full playthrough with all 6 classes. I really liked the direction they were going with the series, how each game got more epic. Mass Effect 1 did not have the best game mechanics, but it was a good start. It just needed some polishing to be an amazing game, and I was hopeful Bioware would deliver with Mass Effect 2.

Dragon Age: Origins (2009) – Although I liked the Mass Effect games more, Dragon Age: Origins was still an amazing RPG. It combined the classic Baldur’s Gate-style gameplay with an original world created by Bioware. It was a little too dark for my liking but overall a great experience. I only wish it was bigger. Compared to the Baldur’s Gate games, the maps felt small. I did not get the same sense of exploration as the older games. There seemed to be less NPCs to talk to. Also, the dungeons sometimes lasted too long, with the combat becoming repetitive and dull.

Mass Effect 2 (2010) – I think Mass Effect 2 excelled at the story and character development. Compared to Mass Effect 1, it was night and day. Mass Effect 2 felt like a Hollywood movie. It could have one Oscars if it was a movie. Unfortunately, I did not like the direction they took the game mechanics. Even though the mechanics in Mass Effect 1 were weak, at least there was something to dig into. Bioware pretty much did away with all the potential, the original mechanics had. It was no longer an RPG to me. It was now an interactive movie with shooting galleries in between the story. Still, the movie quality of the game was easily enough to outweigh the bad gameplay decisions.

Starcraft 2 (2010) – Out of all these games, I was probably the most hyped for Starcraft 2. For so long Blizzard had focused on World of Warcraft. I thought they would never go back to their old franchises. I enjoyed WoW immensely, but my interest was waning. Starcraft 2 came at the perfect time. Even better was that I got a beta invite on the very first day of the Closed Beta. I felt like a VIP. Only pro players or a members of the press got invites that early. Everyone wanted a beta key.

I had recently graduated from college and could not find work. Seeing all the tournaments going on, I thought maybe I could make a career out of it. I spent a massive amount of time with this game. When I was not playing it, I was watching pro matches to find ways to improve my play. Ultimately, pro gaming as career was not meant to be for me. I just was not good enough  to reach the top and suffered a lot of stress trying to play perfect every game. These days I only play Starcraft 2 occasionally, but I will always remember this game for the impact it had on my life.

Civilization 5 (2010) – This game started out as a dud. Well, I did play it for about a month after launch, but it just did not hold up compared to Civilization 4. The strategy was almost deterministic. There was an easy right answer for every decision in the game. Luckily, Firaxis got their act together and came out with two great expansion packs. Now there are actually “interesting decisions” as Sid Meier calls them. I still prefer how some things work in Civilization 4, but Civilization 5 is now my primary Civilization game. I play at least one game every month. There are always new starting conditions to try out. It never really gets old. It can become tedious but never old.

Portal 2 (2011) – It is impossible to mention the first game without mentioning the second game. Portal 2 pretty much improved the game in every way. Now that Valve knew the concept worked, they put some real money into it. The production value was there with great voice acting, improved graphics, and amazing sound. It was a real treat to explore more of the Aperture Science labs, especially learning about its history. This is one of those few games that anyone can have fun with and understand, whether they are a hardcore gamer or a non-gamer.

The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim (2012) – Skyrim was the game Oblivion should have been. Bethesda Game Studios pretty much fixed all the major problems that Oblivion had. The level scaling was much improved. The loot system still had randomized elements, but there were many hand crafted unique items to find. They also greatly increased the size of the voice cast. There was definitely some repetition after playing the game hundreds of hours but no where near as bad as Oblivion. Skyrim was the first Elder Scrolls game that I discovered and explored every location on the map. I also got all the DLCs, which I felt were far better than Oblivion’s DLCs.

Game of the Generation: Fallout 3 (2008)

Fallout 3 is a strange game. I do not think is has the best gameplay. I do not think its story is that great. I am not even sure the virtual world is that great, but there is something about it that I just love. I think it is just how different it was from any other game I had played before. I had never played a post-apocalyptic game before Fallout 3. There were other games that did this, including Fallout 3’s own predecessors and Wasteland, but none of them caught my attention like Fallout 3.

The first hour or so you are in what feels like a clean-room environment, a hospital really. Everything is neat and orderly. All the people are clean. It is a perfect little world. In the back of your mind, it feels like something is wrong, but you cannot pinpoint it. Slowly as you play and get to explore it becomes clear: there is no freedom here. There are a set of rules that everyone must follow. A man appears at first like a benevolent father taking care of his children, but then you start to see he is more of a dictator. He even has guards to enforce his rules. Finally, you get to rebel and escape to freedom.

I will always remember the stark transition from the tutorial section to the game proper. the blinding white light as your eyes adjust to seeing sunlight for the first time, the vast open expanse before you to explore. At first I felt happy to have escaped. I had my freedom. As I started to see the destruction and lawlessness outside, I started to wonder if maybe the dictator, the leader of the vault, was right. Maybe he did know best, and I should have stayed there. There was no going back there now though. I just had to adjust.

Like the early segments of the game when you are a baby, this game literally made me a baby. To a baby pretty much everything is fresh and new. They are new in the world. They have not experienced much. This is how I felt when playing the game. Sure, there were game mechanics I have seen in other games, but the whole setting, theme, even the retro music was totally new to me in a game. All I can hope is that the next generation will bring a game that feels this fresh to me.

Notes

• Other than Fallout 3, the list is in no particular order.
• Even though PC games do not go through generations, I still consider PC releases during this time as part of the seventh generation of video games.
• I must have played the game for it to make the list. (Getting good reviews is not enough.)

Skyrim Sells 10 Million

Todd Howard yesterday during his Dice 2012 Keynote Speech mentioned The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim has now sold 10 million. In an earlier post comparing Skyrim and Oblivion first month sales, I found that Skyrim sold roughly 7 million in the first month while Oblivion only sold 2 million in the first month. Oblivion’s sale were slowing down by this point, but Skyrim appears to be still going strong.

Three million additional sales in three months is still very good. Many new games hope they can just get 1 million sales in the first month let alone months after release that Skyrim is pushing. Part of this has to be all the Game of the Year awards Skyrim received, but I think another part of it is all the sales lately. I have seen four Skyrim sales already, two at $30 (Amazon, Gamersgate) and two at $40 (Steam Christmas, Steam Midweek).

I thought the Keynote Speech was very good overall. Todd Howard is down the earth, not one of those executives that knows nothing about how people actually play their games. GameSpot has a nice recording of it if you want to see it.

5 Rules to Make The Elder Scrolls Games More Realistic

One of the things I like to do with Elder Scrolls games is impose my own set of rules. There are some aspects that I feel are just too “gamey” and pull me out of the game. Over the years playing Elder Scrolls games since Morrowind, I created a list of five rules that improve the game experience to me. I do not have Skyrim yet but will definitely be following these rules when I get it.

1. Play the Game Blind

Do not read strategies on how to complete quests or get the best reward. You can only use in-game information to make decisions. If you have already completed a quest before, you can use your experience of course to finish the quest. Just no “cheating” if you have forgotten what to do in a quest. The goal here is to just not spoil your experience. It makes the game feel a lot more mysterious and at the same time interesting when you do not know what is coming next. Even if you finished the quest in an earlier playthrough you might not remember every detail. It is more fun to surprise yourself.

2. Limit Your Saving & Loading

Saving is allowed at any time in case crashes or major bugs occur. We all know how buggy Elder Scrolls games are. Even fully patched and unofficially patched, the game can crash, even more so if you use mods. Loading is only acceptable at the beginning of a game session or when major bugs/crashes occur. Major bugs are ones which would prevent you from playing the game as it is meant to be played. Example: If an essential main quest character got stuck in the environment closing off the entire main quest, reloading would be allowed. (this has actually happened to me.)

3. Always Accept the Consequences of Your Actions

This goes hand in hand with the last two rules. Maybe you played badly and lost a character you really liked. You have to accept that you did not do enough and let them die. Or maybe you thought helping X faction, would have Y effect, but it turns out X faction is secretly evil or nefarious. You could then quit working for that faction, abandoning them in disgust, or continue knowing your character has permanently changed. These “mistakes” become part of your character’s history and make the game more memorable.

4. No Fast Travel

This was added for Oblivion as Morrowind never had this feature. Fast travel is nice for getting you through quests faster. If you just want to see the big picture, fast travel is great. However, you miss out on seeing so many interesting places in the world when using it. I think the point to playing Elder Scrolls games is exploring the world, and fast travel hurts that. You can be more lenient with this if you do not want to complete stop using it. You could only allow it to travel to major cities or only from NPCs that offer it at a cost (Morrowind and I hear Skyrim too). Fast travel in Oblivion can be completed turned off in Oblivion with a mod or in Skyrim with ini edit, or you can just not use it when playing the game.

5. No Quest Markers

This is also only for Oblivion and Skyrim. The reasons here are similar to the no fast travel reasons. You want to see more of the world, not just make a beeline to the end of the quest. Most people do not like to follow this rule. It greatly increases the time to complete quests. I do not know about Skyrim, but most Oblivion quests had little or no direction in the dialogue or quest log. You were expected to use the quest markers. You could spend hours trying to find the place you are supposed to go, all because the quest does not actually describe where to go. I personally play through the first time with quest markers on. Then, on subsequent characters I try to do without quest markers relying on my memory and some wandering. A mod is required turn them off in Oblivion or an ini tweak in Skyrim.

6. (Optional) Hardcore Mode

This is when your character is not allowed to die. You create a save file at the beginning of the game. If your character dies at all, through your own fault or otherwise, you start over from beginning with that save file. The idea here is complete realism. If Skyrim was real, your character could not reload when they died. They would be dead forever. I call this playing the game hardcore, in line with Diablo 2 which coined the term. You can make some role-play exceptions if you want. For instance, if you died near a church or temple, you could say your character was revived by the nearby priests and allow a reload.

I created the first three rules when playing Morrowind to avoid spoilers. I found I started to look up more and more online rather than trying to figure things out myself. Morrowind was a difficult game if you did not look anything up, but I wanted it to be that way. I did not want to just rush through all quests or go straight for the best items. I wanted to learn, explore, and discover new things as I played. With Oblivion I added two more rules due to the new fast travel and quest markers features. I played through once without those rules but felt like I never saw much of the world. When I get Skyrim I will be following these rules myself.

These rules make the game feel more realistic, more immersive, and get me to see the world more. All this translates into more fun. What we all want more of from our games.

Do you have any more rules to make Elder Scrolls games feel more realistic? More immersive? More fun? Please comment below.

Why Skyrim Sold Better Than Oblivion

Recent reports peg Skyrim with 7 million copies shipped (3.5 million sold) in the first two days. That’s not nearly as good as Modern Warfare 3’s 12.3 million shipped (6.5 million sold) in one week or even Battlefield 3’s 10 million shipped in five days (5 million sold), but Skyrim’s numbers are way better than you would think.

Let’s compare Skyrim’s sales to Starcraft 2’s sales. Starcraft 2 sold 1.5 million copies in the first two days. By the end of the month (30 days) it had sold 3 million. So from two days to one month, Starcraft 2 sales roughly doubled to 3 million. If we assume Skyrim, another immensely popular title, also doubles it’s sales by the end of the month, Skyrim will sell 7 million copies by the end of the first month.

Now we can compare it with Oblivion more easily. Looking at this old Gamespot report shows that Oblivion sold 1.7 million copies in 21 days. We can make another assumption here that within 30 days it sold another 300,000 copies to put Oblivion at 2 million copies in one month. Doing the math here, we can see Skyrim is likely to sell 3.5 times as many copies as Oblivion did, but what about the growth in the game industry? Could there just be 3.5 times as many gamers now and the popularity is roughly the same?

The video game sales reports have the answer. I found the Entertainment Software Association to have a lot of good information on this. According to their Video Games in the 21st Century (PDF) report, 2006 annual video game retail sales, the same year Oblivion was released, were $7.4 billion. They don’t have any data for 2011 annual sales yet. The year is not even over yet, but they do have 2010 sales. Their Sales and Genre webpage puts the numbers at $15.9 billion retail sales for 2010. So the game industry has grown by 2.06 times from 2006 to 2010.

If you’ve been paying attention to the game sales reports this year, the sales have been down overall compared to 2010. In fact the NPD Group, the game sales tracking firm, expects 2011 game sales to be from 1% to -2% growth for the year. That means the 2011 figures should end up very close to the 2010 figures, and we can use the 2006 to 2010 growth as a good estimate for 2006 to 2011.

So in reality, Skyrim sales have actually increased quite a bit relative to the growth of the industry. Skyrim is more popular than Oblivion, and the reason for that is a combination of good luck and good timing. Think about it. The highly anticipated RPGs this year (not counting MMOs) were Dragon Age 2, The Witcher 2, Skyrim, Mass Effect 3, Diablo 3, and to a lesser extent Torchlight 2.

Mass Effect 3, Diablo 3, and Torchlight 2 were all delayed to 2012. All three of those were originally planned for Fall release, the same time as Skyrim. Bethesda Softworks got very lucky with that. Then, there was only Dragon Age 2 and The Witcher 2 as competition for 2011. Dragon Age 2 was a generally considered a disappointment. The Witcher 2 was well received by both reviewers and fans. but released back in May, outside of any real competition with Skyrim. Up to Skyrim’s release, hungry RPG gamers only really had The Witcher 2. There was a lot of pent up demand for a new RPG to dig into. Skyrim released at the perfect time.

Skyrim sold much more than Oblivion, even taking into consideration the growth of the game industry (the increase in gamers). The year started with six high profile RPGs expected to release in 2011. Three of them were delayed into 2012. That left only Dragon Age 2, a disappointment that gamers avoided, and The Witcher 2, released a full six months before Skyrim. Through good luck and good timing, Skyrim did much better than Oblivion. Bethesda Softworks will be have to work mighty hard to top Skyrim when they eventually make The Elder Scrolls 6.