Skyrim: the first western game to receive a 40/40 Famitsu review

[compl3x]

Bethesda's gargantuan open world fantasy epic Skyrim is the first western game to receive a 40/40 review score in long-running Japanese video game magazine Famitsu.

Famitsu asks four journalists to review video games, each submitting their own score out of 10. Skyrim, according to Andriasang, received four 10/10 scores, and thus hit the magical 40/40.

It launches in Japan on 8th December for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360.

Weekly Famitsu was established in 1986 and enjoys a circulation of 500,000.

Skyrim is the 17th video game to receive a perfect Famitsu score. It joins an illustrious list that includes The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, Soulcalibur and Vagrant Story.

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2011-11-29-skyrim-the-first-western-game-to-receive-a-40-40-famitsu-review

[alphaomegainfinity]

I believe this is only the beginning. Expect Skyrim to dominate everywhere.

[spaceelf]

Well hey with the Japanese involved we should be seeing some bloody weird mods! hahah

[Dwarden]

interesting how game with so many bugs and problems on renamed old engine gets 40/40 ... shows that lack of competition generates absurd reviewers not seeing problems and issues and praising 100% games which would 10y got only 85% max

[ManMountain]

I'm enjoying Batman Arkham City a lot more than Skyrim.

[S00N3R FR3AK]

Yeah I really enjoyed this game but it is far from perfect. Had to restart my PS3 way to many times or reload saves for me to give this a perfect score.

[Tekkerson]

What Dwarden said plus I just don't find the game appealing. But that's just me. To each their own, that's why you should never rely on online reviews and take them with a grain of salt.

[Wolfbane]

interesting how game with so many bugs and problems on renamed old engine gets 40/40 ... shows that lack of competition generates absurd reviewers not seeing problems and issues and praising 100% games which would 10y got only 85% max

Maybe they rated the game based on content and gameplay rather than a few bugs?

[Reacon]

Maybe they rated the game based on content and gameplay rather than a few bugs?

Seriously. Beyond bugs and engine discrepancies, I the game has been absolutely flawless for me.

[Wolfbane]

Seriously. Beyond bugs and engine discrepancies, I the game has been absolutely flawless for me.

That's what I said/meant.

[Konstanov]

The game engine is absolutely terrible and the game becomes unplayable eventually if you own it on PS3, that seems more than just a minor bug.

[123456789A]

The game engine is absolutely terrible and the game becomes unplayable eventually if you own it on PS3, that seems more than just a minor bug.

What's wrong with it on PS3? I have the Xbox 360.

[compl3x]

Well hey with the Japanese involved we should be seeing some bloody weird mods! hahah

Tenticle Rape Mode.

[Minifig]

interesting how game with so many bugs and problems on renamed old engine gets 40/40 ... shows that lack of competition generates absurd reviewers not seeing problems and issues and praising 100% games which would 10y got only 85% max

You do know Skyrim has an entirely new engine?

Oblivion used the following the Gamebryo engine, for it's graphics, Havok for it's physics and SpeedTree for it's foliage. However, Skyrim uses the Creation Engine for everything.. they're entirely separate.

Also; this is only the start of things. Skyrim will be GOTY everywhere.

The game engine is absolutely terrible and the game becomes unplayable eventually if you own it on PS3, that seems more than just a minor bug.

That's been fixed now.. as well.

[c3ntury]

interesting how game with so many bugs and problems on renamed old engine gets 40/40 ... shows that lack of competition generates absurd reviewers not seeing problems and issues and praising 100% games which would 10y got only 85% max

Surely you're trolling?

Bethesda always releases games which tend to cover a large expanse, as fans, we've become adjusted to the fact that as with all things, the final products may have a few bugs. But hey, they're fixing them day by day.

To put the game itself in perspective. I've played it for 26 hours so far without evening *touching* the main quest, or even a fraction of the sidequests for that matter.

[Paul Ferson Veteran]

What's wrong with it on PS3? I have the Xbox 360.

If your save is larger than 5.5MB on the PS3 version the game becomes incredibly choppy ad virtually unplayable, or so I've heard. I thought the patch for the problem released yesterday though.

I'm not surprised that Skyrim has got a 40/40 Famitsu review; I'm really pleased that it has. It's a fantastic game and even with the issues I have experienced on the 360 version I am more than willing to overlook them because of the sheer quality of the game itself. Skyrim is a game you can put hundreds of hours into and then still come out of it with only a small amount of everything available finished. I love that feeling when I'm playing a game.

[Miuku.]

You do know Skyrim has an entirely new engine?

That must be the reason it has exactly the same bugs and engine issues as the one used in Fallout 3 for example. Dwarden is right on the money, it's nothing more than a renamed Gamebryo and it shows.

Also 40/40 for a game that has an utterly hideous UI and the worst skill selection system I've seen in any game so far? I guess Bethesda has been busy with their marketing budget.

[Hardcore Til I Die]

interesting how game with so many bugs and problems on renamed old engine gets 40/40 ... shows that lack of competition generates absurd reviewers not seeing problems and issues and praising 100% games which would 10y got only 85% max

For a MASSIVE game with over 300 hours of gameplay, I don't call the odd (and I mean odd) crash or texture problem completely unacceptable.

In my 50+ hours of play the game has crashed about 3 times and I haven't actually noticed any texture problems...

No other complaints about it.

[Draken]

interesting how game with so many bugs and problems on renamed old engine gets 40/40 ... shows that lack of competition generates absurd reviewers not seeing problems and issues and praising 100% games which would 10y got only 85% max

whoaa .. so... may be they better use the Real Virtuality 4 engine? ;)

It is a AAA, top 10, GOTY, 5 star game, whether you like it or not

[Minifig]

That must be the reason it has exactly the same bugs and engine issues as the one used in Fallout 3 for example. Dwarden is right on the money, it's nothing more than a renamed Gamebryo and it shows.

Also 40/40 for a game that has an utterly hideous UI and the worst skill selection system I've seen in any game so far? I guess Bethesda has been busy with their marketing budget.

I want to see you make a game of this scale and have it have no bugs, especially on a new engine.

[etempest]

interesting how game with so many bugs and problems on renamed old engine gets 40/40 ... shows that lack of competition generates absurd reviewers not seeing problems and issues and praising 100% games which would 10y got only 85% max

Bethsoft Elderscrolls games have a history of being bug ridden (Elderscrolls - Daggerfall - Save game corruption bug comes to mind as one example - that had to release a standalone exe the scans and fixes the bug to detect it... provided it didn't already happen then you were out of luck) but amazing that you over look the small stuff. Once modding started (officially with morrowind, hacked unofficially with Daggerfall) the community made them amazing.

[S00N3R FR3AK]

For a MASSIVE game with over 300 hours of gameplay, I don't call the odd (and I mean odd) crash or texture problem completely unacceptable.

In my 50+ hours of play the game has crashed about 3 times and I haven't actually noticed any texture problems...

No other complaints about it.

300 hours? I think the main story is like 10-15 with each guild being no more then 20 tops. The civil war another 20, maybe like 150 hours but not 300. With most of that being just directed quest because I feel like only the civil war has a well written story and dialogue.

[compl3x]

For a MASSIVE game with over 300 hours of gameplay, I don't call the odd (and I mean odd) crash or texture problem completely unacceptable.

In my 50+ hours of play the game has crashed about 3 times and I haven't actually noticed any texture problems...

Well even the patch they've released seems to have caused more problems than it has solved.

Frankly, I don't think any game truly deserves a perfect score. There are good games. There are great games. There are phenomenal games. But there isn't any that are perfect in every conceivable way.

[Dwarden]

You do know Skyrim has an entirely new engine?

Oblivion used the following the Gamebryo engine, for it's graphics, Havok for it's physics and SpeedTree for it's foliage. However, Skyrim uses the Creation Engine for everything.. they're entirely separate.

let me guess, you don't know the Creation Engine is just renamed Gamebryo right ? :) the source code base is same ...

also the trees are quite bad ... even SpeedTree evolved since the old Oblivion times ... but to be honest Skyrim trees fail to represent even the trees they trying to fake

such a fail to take proper resources and remodel them right

[Hardcore Til I Die]

300 hours? I think the main story is like 10-15 with each guild being no more then 20 tops. The civil war another 20, maybe like 150 hours but not 300. With most of that being just directed quest because I feel like only the civil war has a well written story and dialogue.

The Bethesda devs said it was "300 hours until we stopped counting" when asked how many hours of gameplay there is in the game. I presume that means exploring every dungeon, maxing out your level, every quest etc.