I wanted to take a step back and get away from marketing and promotion for just a minute. Speaking of which, I am not a fan of marketing or self-promotion at all, but it's a necessary evil I suppose. Anyway, I wanted to talk about the remastered version of Skyrim for PS4. I picked it up a few weeks ago and it only took about 10 minutes and I was hooked. I had a copy of Skyrim for the PC back in the day and played the living snot out of it, so I wasn't sure what was going to happen when I started this version. One, I didn't know since I logged so many hours back in the day if I would be bored trying to play it again. Two, I'd never played Skyrim on a console before, so I didn't know how it was going to go. Needless to say, neither one of those concerns turned out to be a big deal because I jumped in with both feet.

I've played both the Fallout franchise as well as the Elder Scrolls franchise and while I love both of them, I like the Elder Scrolls a bit better. I think it hearkens back to my days of paper and pencil RPGs and feeds some deep desire for sword and sorcery, which is exactly how I play my characters in the Elder Scrolls world: one-handed weapon in my right hand, destruction spell (usually fireball) in my left hand. The play is smooth on the controller and looks great on the PS4 (I'm betting the new PS4 4k upgrade makes it look even better).  Another nice bonus, is that the remastered edition comes with all the DLC which I never played. It was almost immediately apparent when I was getting attacked left and right by master vampires (damn bloodsuckers). 

What I like most about the Elder Scrolls, as well as Fallout, is how open the game really is. I could ignore the main quest line and just go be-bopping around doing my own thing for hours upon hours and be content. There's enough content packed into these games to last months and I generally find myself getting side-tracked with my own quests and goals that have nothing to do with the official quest tracks. I've played every Elder Scrolls game out there with the exception of Arena and Battlespire. I remember playing Daggerfall on my old 486 computer and being amazed at how immersive it was (not to mention getting lost in the massive dungeons...I'm glad they scaled those back a bit or started designing them a little better). 

Anyway, long story short, Skyrim is awesome. That is all.

I recently completed a small indie game on my PS4 by the name of The Vanishing of Ethan Carter. It released in 2014 and was dubbed a horror/adventure game. I took my time with it, exploring everything I could and I think it only took me about four or five hours to complete. It's an open world game; however, the world it places you in is fairly small. What I liked about it, was that it didn't hold your hand. You play a private detective name Paul Prospero and your goal is to find Ethan Carter. You start the game at the edge of town near some rail road tracks. There's no HUD, no prompts from the game, nothing. You simply have to explore and figure it out on your own. The game itself is fairly simple with only a couple of mechanics to wrap your head around. You'll investigate objects and areas and the game does a pretty good job at letting you know what you need to do in order to advance the plot without flat-out smacking you over the head with it.

Okay, now into the spoilers...the twist at the end of the game caught me by surprise. Basically, you are one of Ethan's stories. Bam, it caught me off guard like the ending of Sixth Sense the first time I watched it. Turns out, none of that really happened. Seems like Ethan lived a troubled life and liked to write stories to escape reality. His family comes looking for him in an abandoned house he likes to hang out in, and accidentally starts a fire. He gets trapped in the basement and is dying of smoke inhalation. You were one of his stories and got trapped in his "world." All in all, I enjoyed this game and it's worth playing, even if you just read the ending here. There's a lot more than I can pack in to a small blog post. Check it out. I'd like to know your thoughts on the game if you've played it. Leave me your review in the comments section.

Now, on to the spoilers...stop now if you haven't played the game. Or don't. You have free will.

The story is very intriguing; the main arc has you tracking down Ethan by reliving memories or snapshots in time, an ability the protagonist seems to have. Apparently Ethan found a hidden room in an old house and accidentally woke up an ancient being known only as the Sleeper. The Sleeper's influence corrupts Ethan's family and they all try to kill him in order to keep the Sleeper from fully waking up. A side arc in the story revolves around Ethan's stories coming to life around you in a kind of Twilight Zone the Movie sort of way.

While the game is short, the story is worth it and the graphics are stunning. Overall, I'd give this game 3 1/2 spirit memories out of five. If you find it on sale or want to enjoy a visually fulfilling game, get it and play it.