The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim

The third time's the charm. It took me three attempts in the five years Skyrim has been out to finally play through the entire game.

Attempt 1: I played some of the main quest and decided I should probably take on some guilds and side quests in order to better prepare for the rest of the main quest line. The result was playing through the College of Winterhold (Mage's Guild), Dark Brotherhood (Assassin's Guild), and Thieve's Guild quest lines before losing interest in the main quest line and taking a break from the game for a while.

Attempt 2: Again, I started the main quest line and quickly found more entertainment in some of the game's other content. This time I played through the Companions and College of Winterhold quest lines. I also took on more of an explorers play style. I set out to earn as many words of power as I could, get my hands on all the Daedric items that I could find, and even learn some of the legendary spells that could only be gained at levels 90 or above. Even after accomplishing all of this, I did not take the time to complete the main quest line. It would be more than a year before I tried again.

Attempt 3: A Steam Summer Sale influenced me to purchase Skyrim and all of its expansions at a fantastic price. I told myself that I would not play any of the expansions until I completed the main quest line. Fast forward a few weeks and I have played through Dragonborn, Dawnguard, and of course the original game's quest line.

All that's left to do now is explore the rest of Solstheim, build a house, and play through some side quests. Skyrim is a fantastic game, but Morrowind is still my favorite Elder Scrolls game. We'll see if the next installment of the series revisits the island of Vvardenfell.