So, my wife bought me Skyrim last night and I got to play it for the first time. For those of you who are unaware of what Skyrim actually is, it takes place in an open world developed by Bethesda Studios – this particular game – it takes place in a region known as Skyrim.

Now Skyrim isn't like your traditional "role playing" game. Bethesda has essentially pioneered the market of open world sandbox games. With this game, they really have stepped up, and shown that sandbox games don't always have to be shallow.

The reason they call these games "sandbox" RPGs is because you are basically dropped in the middle of a huge world, where you can literally go anywhere and do anything you want. Sure you are given a primary objective, and there is an overall storyline, but you can simply say… I feel like traveling into the mountains today and set off. On your adventure you will cross creatures, villains, victims and strife – where people will either cut your throat or ask for your help from cut-throats.

What really appeals to me in Skyrim is the crafting system. Traditionally, Bethesda had an awkward time with this. In the process of making the system vast, they made it too complex to even enjoy. However, in this one, they developed a specialization "perk" system for unlocking craftables and allow for hours of gameplay dedicated to discovering the best techniques for armor, weapon, spell and even potion crafting. There are even specialized locations and forges that will give unique attributes to what is crafted, too cool!

After playing the game for three hours last night and realizing I really hadn't done anything but walked around and admired the beautiful landscape and harvested crafting materials (a nice way of saying picked flowers) I realized this game is going to consume a large amount of my time. 

But let's not stop at crafting, the combat system is borderline brilliant. With the right button on the XBox 360 controller dedicated to your right hand, and the left button dedicated to your left – you feel like you are part of your combat training. But Bethesda decided to make combat more cinematic this time by adding "cut scene criticals" where if you land a killing blow during a fight, it shows this really impressive combat cut-scene to finish the guy off. Don't like sword and shield? Well you can always go… magic, staff, dagger, hammer, axe, pick-axe, mace… or even… shovel… yeah you heard that right – you can use ANYTHING in this game.

Speaking of landscape, the dungeon and ruin design in this game is amazing! You literally feel like you're in a place filled with history and awe, the architecture and carvings on the wall reflect the history of the race that once lived there. You feel like you're touching a piece of history… that amazingly… never actually existed.

There are hundreds of hours of gameplay jam packed into this game – and any RPGer should own it. Now of course if you don't like the whole sandbox thing and you are looking for a more linear RPG experience – I always recommend the Mass Effect or Dragon Age series. If you are feeling like you want a flavor of something different, get the latest Prince of Persia or a great under-rated game known as Enslaved.

Wow I'm glad I'm not the only one… I spent about three hours last night organizing my house and making sure all of the ingredients, food supplies, smithing and crafting materials are properly separated for easy access for when I decide to pursue those particular hobbies.

As for armor, guess who refuses to buy armor from the store? This guy! In fact, my armor must be hand crafted by myself using materials I have discovered. It must also be enchanted using appropriate soul stones by stones I gathered myself with enchantments recovered through my own dungeon diving experiences.

Oh, as for quest lines, many times I don't even go on quests, I will just explore and travel to a location to admire the environment. Perhaps I'll be in the mood to trudge up the dangers of the side of a mountain, or others, go hunting in the woods with my bow to gather meat and hide for crafting.

I used to do mage more than anything else, but I've fallen in love with the sword and shield build over the past few games I've been playing, because I finally think these games have done a good job making them immersive. I wish I could move items around my house on the 360 version but cannot find out how to do so and don't even know if it is possible. I will be googling it after this post.

The beauty of the Skyrim leveling system is you are not stuck to any particular format, you can literally be a hobbyist in certain areas and a professional in others. If dedicated, you can be a professional in many – it really depends on your experience in all of them.

Great great great game, sounds like you are playing it the way it was intended to be played. Always a plus.