Best Role-Playing Game
- Other Nominees
- Dark Souls
- Deus Ex: Human Revolution
- Disgaea 4: A Promise Unforgotten
- Pokémon Black and White
Skyrim represents Bethesda Game Studios' greatest achievement. It's a massive single-player world that ditches a lot of the series' quirky legacy elements to make for a much more enjoyable, sensible experience. In Skyrim you're free to do whatever you want: mine ore from the base of misty mountains, quest in the name of demonic entities, pick the pocket of every person you meet, or chase down dragons to steal their souls. It's a fully automated playground that reacts to your every action. You may not get to play as a god, but after dual-casting fireballs, screaming in the language of dragons and snatching powerful artifacts from the corpses of wicked creatures, you feel like you're pretty damn close.