I also completed
The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword, but if you want to see my thoughts on it I direct you to the Skyward Sword topic in the main Nintendo thread (spoiler alert: I didn't like it).
The first real game I want to talk about, though, is
Teh Eldar Scrollz 5: Skirim for the PS3. Hmm...something seems to be a little buggy about that title. No matter. I'll fix it 2 months down the line with a post-"post" edit when I actually give a damn.
Sadly, I put more effort into that cheap joke than Bethesda put into this port.
I can't stress
enough just how
abysmal the PS3 version of this game is, and how little Bethesda obviously cared about it. I've run into at least 8-10 quests that are permanently broken, massive framerate drops, frequent crashes (many spawning corrupted save data, which if I hadn't stopped playing would have permanently damaged my PS3), and just overall
weirdness all around. It's sad because I did genuinely like this game when it worked, though I have to admit that the overall experience is kind of monotonous. There's plenty to do and things to see, but none of it is altogether exceptional. Even the epic "random" (yeah right...I fought so many "random" dragons in Winterhold that I swear it must be the Dragon Capital of Skyrim) dragon fights lose their edge when you've done 4-5 of them in the space of 3-4 hours just going about your business.
It's a tradition of mine to always finish a game before I talk about it, so I can have an educated opinion when talking about the full game. Well, this time I got most of the way through the main quest (I was at the point where you need to make "Dragonsreach" live up to its name) before I just stopped out of sheer irritation with the general lack of effort and polish in this version of the game. However, I did put in well over 120 hours into the game, so as far as I'm concerned it's perfectly fair since Bethesda couldn't be bothered to release a complete game. As usual, Bethesda overreaches and creates a massive world full of somewhat-above-average content that they aren't talented enough to
do without major issues. Overall, even setting aside the massive technical issues I don't see how this could be a consensus "Game of the Year" title. It's very addictive, but the overall experience is merely above-average.
And no, I'm not going to pick the game up on PC or 360. I'm not repeating 120+ hours of content just because Bethesda can't ever be bothered to produce a quality $60 product on PS3.
The other game I want to cover is
Trine 2, a game I
did complete. Overall, it's more Trine with much prettier visuals (seriously, this may be the most gorgeous game I've played this year) and fewer gameplay options, and there's really little else to it. The only really new gameplay element added is using the environment to water plants that create platforms and bridges, and that gets old pretty fast.
As I mentioned, the game is actually nerfed somewhat from the original Trine, with some of the more interesting abilities of the original game removed (mostly involving the Wizard). For instance, the Wizard can no longer "surf" across chasms by levitating a platform supporting a box the Wizard is standing on. The Wizard can also no longer create a floating object in the environment that the Thief can grapple from. The former's removal is especially baffling because it doesn't really change the game all that much. Instead of "surfing" across chasms, you can now just stroll past many puzzles by creating a platform in mid-air, and then jumping on and off it to cross gaps as it falls. So the game is still as broken in that regard as before, just less interesting. Also unlike the first Trine, there is no inventory now (which makes very little sense, since that was one of the more fun aspects of the first game).
Aside from those changes, the gameplay is essentially unchanged from the first Trine, and so the game got a little monotonous for me towards the latter half of the game. It even repeats mistakes of the original game, such as having 3-4 pretty much
identical generic boss encounters. On an interesting note, I had the Platinum for this game (#46!) around halfway through the game, because they are based around fairly simple gameplay tricks that Trine 1 players should be well-familiar with rather than progression. I mention this because without rewards for acquiring the XP bottles (and with the player's ability to respec their characters at any time), there's really no reason to play through these levels again once completed. That significantly diminishes the drive to explore the levels and find all their secrets.
Overall, Trine 2 is a good game that's probably a
great game for players new to the franchise. For returning Trine players, though, it's pretty same-y. But man is Trine 2 visually astounding, every level
flooded with color and detail.