Skyrim - The Best Minecraft Alternative

If you're a Minecraft fan and you haven't played Skyrim yet then you're really missing out! We bought Skyrim a couple of weeks ago and believe us when we say that it's going to destroy your social life!

We haven't got space to write everything we love about Skyrim because it's just such a massive game. We could talk about the heart warming music or the crystal clear graphics. What about the epic landscapes and open ended gameplay? Yep, they're all there!! It's funny, but Skyrim has so many similarities to Minecraft that it's like Skyrim was well timed for us Minecraft fans.

The games only been out since November 2011 and now is a good time to avoid all the early release bugs. We've been playing it on the Xbox and you do come across the odd screen freeze whilst autosave kicks in. You also get a black screen once in a while but hey, the pros definitely out weight the cons here.

How is Skyrim similar to Minecraft?

Skyrim has a lot of similarities to Minecraft. These include:

Weapons
Tools
Armour (Apparel)
Potions
Mobs (spiders, dragons)
Biomes (snow, forests, rivers, lakes)
Crafting (smithing)

Just like Minecraft, the game is open. There are goals and achievements but you're free to roam anywhere at any time. Collecting resources allows you to create new weapons or upgrade your existing ones. There are mobs scattered around the map which include passive mammoths and deer, to hostile bandits, wolves and dragons. Sound samiliar?

How is Skyrim better?

The big difference between Minecraft and Skyrim is the pure depth of the game and its professional finish. Fair play to Notch, he built Minecraft on his own which is something that Bethesda Game Studios did not. So, as a result Skyrim takes the Minecraft theme and offers so much more:

Superior AI (animals flee, enemies dogde)
Special Powers (shouts, abilities)
Spells (destruction, restoration..)
Interaction (speech, conversations)
Objectives and Goals
More mobs, lots more of them
Towns, cities and buildings
Trading
Quality Music

These are just some of the extra features that come with Skyrim. Believe us, there are plenty more where they came from!

Skyrim is available to buy on PC, Xbox and Playstation 3. It's around the $60 mark but you can get a cheaper copy from eBay or trade in stores.

So, if you still need more convincing then we suggest you have a quick look at the official Skyrim trailer below..