Skyrim has endless replay value

And for poor gamers who don't just go out and buy new games when they're released, replay value is key.

WHY IS HE REVIEWING A FOUR-YEAR-OLD GAME?

Because, for some reason, "Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim" (released Nov. 2011) continues to be relevant, especially for Fallout fans. Bethesda owns both franchises, and owns them well. The similarities between the two are apparent—Skyrim is, loosely, a better-designed Fallout 3, set in medieval times. If Skyrim is this good, imagine what the future will hold. To have improvements on games already this good is unprecedented, and it's an exciting time to be a gamer, and a follower of Bethesda Game Studios.

"Skyrim" is more a world than a series of levels, disconnected game areas, and characters. It's an open world in which you can go anywhere, at any time, emphasizing player freedom and an absence of linearity in a big way. With the sheer size, variety of gameplay options, DLC content available, and myriad quests large and small, Skyrim is, as far as I know, the closest thing to an endless game that exists.

The biggest downsides, to me, are the load times, and the monotony of commerce. The quests can seem monotonous too, with lots of go-fetch versions. But that's really all I can think of for now. The upsides more than outweigh the downsides. And the load times are more a fault of the technology than the game makers—I'll take it to get at that large world on a PS3 console.

My wife and I both have multiple ongoing characters, with different stats, skills and attributes. She hasn't had much time to game lately with Lucy being in school again, but she's onto her 3rd character, which inspired me to start anew as an alchemist and conjurer.

I haven't played everything, but I do have life-long gaming experience. Just last week, I was in my childhood home, peering into the bottom cabinet of an entertainment center containing the Nintendo Entertainment System, various controllers, and games I played as a kid. It all started when I was less than 10 years old. The point of all this is to say that Skyrim is mind-blowing to me when I compare it to my introduction to gaming. For others, maybe not so much. And that's fine. For me, it really works.

Bethesda puts into a game what you want in a game in this day and age: the ability to customize your character, male or female, marry who you want, male or female, any race, and yet have some game characters make racist and sexist remarks, and to have others talk about it. You have both social progression, and a mirror up to what really exists, emphasizing how hard it is to get over that stuff socially. It's a really smart way to go—having a medieval game with more lax sex laws and social customs than our world today.

I don't know what I can say about this game that hasn't been said before. Read this incredibly thorough review by Charles Onyett for IGN.

Coming soon: screenshots and short bios of my four main Skyrim characters. I'm proud of them all, and they all deserve their individual posts. which...is just me... patting myself on the back... Stay tuned!

Stay game!

And someone tell me how I'm going to afford a PS4 by #Nov10!

Fallout 4 trailer analysis: in-game artwork

I just commented the following on a YouTube video by TheNthApple. Thought I'd re-post here.

So at 1:58 in your video here, we see a Power Armor-wearing person rising up from a view inside the Vertibird. And this short piece of the trailer has always interested me—it displays several new art forms which will inhabit this new addition to the Fallout universe.

This... delicious-looking addition.

First you've got the Red Rocket (hilarious name in and of itself, with GTA-like levels of in-game history, e.g. 'Pay-n-Spray,' 'Burger Shot') sign, in a circular logo, screen right, with the word "GASOLINE" above it, and two other words I can't make out. An up

Second, you've got a poster on the lower left with the acronym "GNN," which may be Galaxy News Network, which may be how we experience Three Dog in-game—which MAY indicate that Fallout 4 takes place not too long after FO3, if he's still alive. However—Institute. Cyborgs. They could have prolonged his life somehow. He might be a robot Three Dog.

Third, you've got this awesome, sheik billboard with a "FALLON'S" logo in red, and a (to find this, I literally Googled, 'famous 80s artwork' and it was the first entry) Patrick Nagel-esque woman's face in black and white with a black slash going thru the whole thing. Very hip, very cool.

I hope Fallon's are goddam butchers or torturers or something. Going thru a clothing department store on a Fallout game would be suuuuper cool. Getting outfits?

Oh, and here's what I'm also looking forward to—enhanced character modification! Picking up outfits, designing faces, etc. Can I make a Nuka Girl pinup character w/o mods now??? CAN HER LACEY, THIN CLOTHES HAVE A HIGH ARMOR RATING?!?!

With the voiced main character—I think it'll help with player immersion. I've got a feeling Bethesda's going to do this right. Aaaand I think they've been working on this a long time, and it's like Zelda for Nintendo now—with a game this important—and this one is legendary—what a great time to be alive indeed, TheNthApple!—you don't want to cut any corners. Obsidian's lack of attention to the bugs will be a thing of the past—I guarantee it.

Could you imagine Bethesda being sloppy with this one? Do you think they actually want to make money, or lose money?

With the Fallout 4 reveal trailer, Bethesda gives fans exactly what they need—emotional release

Okay, the Fallout 4 trailer. Here it is:

I saw it the morning it was released and just about hit the ceiling with joy. The Ink Spots—good move. Everything I needed to see, to feel. Finally.

Finally.

I can't describe to you the release and emotional high I felt and still feel about this. The new, amazing Fallout title is finally here. I can finally step back into the Wasteland, and this promises to be the biggest and most advanced trip there yet, in a new and immersive depiction of Boston.

I just watched these guys at IGN talk about it and Vince was critiquing parts of the trailer.

When I heard this, I thought, “SACRILEGE! BURN HIM!”

I’ve been waiting for Fallout 4 ever since New Vegas became boring again, for the third time. You know what’s really the worst part of those games? The load times. The between-building load times. I really envy PC players that have decreased load times between environments, because I play on the PS3. Oh, and the freezing gameplay? Don’t get me started.

But anyway, so yeah, I’ve logged way too many hours into Fallout 3 and Fallout: New Vegas. They were game-changing, next-level games for the time, stretching the limits of the systems on which they were played, and most importantly, were incredibly immersive. Also, the story is always interesting: you’re in a post-apocalyptic United States, 50 to 200 years, depending on the game, after the bombs fell. Now, what’s different is that the Fallout world’s history splits off from ours sometime in the 1920s or 40s. Science goes in a different direction, we keep the jingoistic patriotism, looks, and music styles of that time period until 2077, when the bombs fell. I believe New Vegas takes place in 2277.

LINK TO FALLOUT WIKI PAGE ABOUT THIS SHITE

My brother showed me Fallout 3 one day, and I had no idea what it was going to be like. Immediately, I’m hooked. You make your own character? I’m in a vault? What the fu—bright light—Wasteland? I Can Go Anywhere? WTF IS THAT THING? Then I played New Vegas. Then I downloaded Fallout and couldn’t get my head around the controls on a MacBookAir without a keyboard or mouse, and I’ve got two kids man, they’re young. I don’t have all the time in the world.

So I never played any of the Fallout games between 1 and 3, and I’m not gonna, really, because motherfucking #Fallout4. #motherfuckingfallout4

Bethesda was so tight-lipped about it the whole time! They let nothing slip! They gave Three Dog (srsly read Erik Todd Dellums's Twitter feed right now) a license to say some cryptic bullshit, and Kotaku found a script, and some guy said Bethesda were scouting the Boston area, and then #Survivor2299 broke my fucking heart, and then Ron Perlman said after the fact on Twitter that it was the hardest secret he’s ever had to keep—it’s all been such a whirlwind!

So that’s why I thought ‘sacrilege, burn him, and there was much rejoicing, yaaay,’ so there, I explained myself. I’m deeply involved in these games. Now, to critique their review of the teaser.

Yes, nine paragraphs in, I give you:

THE REVIEW OF THE REVIEW OF THE FALLOUT 4 TEASER TRAILER THAT ISN’T CALLED A REVIEW BUT THE VEIL IS THIN

Firstly, I think Destin Legarie (@DestinLegarie) and Vince Ingenito (@Vincogneato) represent both standpoints of the diverse universe that is Fallout fans and how they feel about this whole thing, and thusly are good hosts for the review.

Vince sticks to his guns, representing the less-pleased portion of the Fallout fanbase, but by the end of the video he’s got to admit that he’s excited, and that even if his fears—of the game being nothing more than revamped existing Fallout tropes without innovation—come true, that wouldn’t be a bad thing.

Wasn’t Skyrim a revamped version of previous Elder Scrolls? Wasn’t Grand Theft Auto V just a revamped verion of GTAIV? Aaah, but here’s the rub—when you compare Fallout 3 to every game in the Fallout series before it, you get a completely different game style. So it’s not fair to say that Fallout 3 is simply a revamped version of what came before, because the previous games were a top-down, almost simulation-style game, whereas with Fallout 3, which I believe was Bethesda’s first shot at a Fallout title, they changed the entire thing to a first- and third-person shooter, set in an open-world /sandbox-style environment. They kept the look, feel, and characters of the previous games, stayed fearsomely devoted to the storyline, and gave it a completely new feel. Somehow, the results were magical. Game-changing.

Fallout 3 changed people’s perceptions of gaming and what a game could be. When Bethesda handed the reigns to Obsidian to create Fallout: New Vegas, it was very cool, probably cooler than Obsidian or Bethesda imagined it would be, but it wasn’t enough. Fallout fans wanted more. Their hungers were not completely sated, although both of those games kept us all waaaaay too busy for waaaaay too long. It’s a testament to their greatness.

It’s not unfair for fans to expect game-changing-ness with Fallout 4, but I don’t think it’s going to happen as obviously as with the transition between Fallout 2 & 3. I think where the innovation is going to be this time will be in the area of load times and transitions between game environments, thereby decreasing annoyance and disconnect from game world immersion. I predict that glitches will be less frequent, that getting stuck in some crack in the game world will be a thing of the past, and that game flow will be increased. I also expect the realism, believability, and overall game immersion to increase with the enhanced graphical capabilities between previous- and next-gen consoles, and with probably something about how NPC sprites move their mouths when they talk. Maybe they’ll hire a greater number voice actors, too.

Oh, and I also expect greater options and ease of character creation and outfitting, and of in-game mechanics. There were flying ships in the trailer. Seems like The Institute and more scientific progress is going to accompany this game, meaning perhaps we’ll be able to pilot vehicles. Power Armor is obviously here to stay—perhaps we’ll be able to customize it? Fast travel and environment exploration will also be streamlined. They might get rid of some features, like finding food and using campfires, for example, or hopefully streamline those, too. There’s got to be lots of detail in these games—little items, pieces of the world, boxes of cereal and old machine parts lying around. You know.

Also, I think they’re going to take you back to the Pre-War period more than they have in previous titles. You had a holographic reproduction with “Operation: Anchorage,” you had a flashback in the spooky building near Tenpenny Tower in Fallout 3, and the nightmare Pre-War illusion that is Tranquility Lane, and New Vegas’ barely-preserved, un-bombed Vegas Strip, but there was never a time where you could take your character walking thru the Pre-War world of the Fallout universe. What made it cool, I think, was the mystery—the clues you would find, on old computer terminals or notes lying around. You had to put the picture together yourself, and Bethesda and Obsidian did great jobs at telling stories thru visuals, or pieces left over, skeletons in funny positions, and then just weird shit, like teddy bears and garden gnomes set up playing cards, and Monty Python references.

But yeah, so the trailer—pretty obvious stuff, I’ll give you that. It’s like, we’ve still got Deathclaws, Centuars, Ghouls, Power Armor, I hope Super Mutants, a dog companion, and the usual tropes. What they did not do was not try to give you specifics—they gave you a broad, emotional landscape. And you know what? It was exactly what Fallout fans needed.

“Here, guys. You've waited long enough,” Bethesda seemed to say. “You wanted this? Oh, you're getting it. This is us delivering. The wait is over, you've been patient, and we thank you, because this shit took us a looooong time.”

And goddam if the reveal trailer above didn’t and still isn't wringing tears out of me right now. We fans have been waiting so long, and staying so dedicated, that at this point it’s more than just a waning hope. We all knew. We knew! Even though they said nothing official, we knew. We knew all the noise we were making wasn’t falling on deaf ears. It’s a way of life. It’s #falloutlyfe.

Pheh. “Fallout 4’s Reveal Trailer May Play it Too Safe.” Pheh, I say. We got the big, 'Here it is.' Now it's time to wait—half a year. We can do this. And we only have until June 14 until #BE3

Thank you, Bethesda. I can’t wait to see you give us more details on June 14!

THANK YOU BETHESDA!!! THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!!!

Bethesda's Todd Howard interviewed last May, talks Fallout 4 IMO

Here is an interview with Bethesda's Todd Howard from Germany. He was there to accept a Lifetime Achievement Award from LARA.



Published June 6, it's a very current and encompassing perspective on where Bethesda now stands, in terms of history, sales, development, and the its future games.

If nothing else, Todd Howard is enthusiastic. I just love this guy. He's weathering this storm of Fallout 4 anticipation like a champ.

On receiving the LARA award: "We're going along and making our games, and something like this comes along, which is ... you know, it's wonderful, you kinda take a step back. But it's not just me, I think it's the whole studio. I kinda represent everybody. It's a privilege of mine to be in charge of a group like that.

I've spent more time with Elder Scrolls than I have anything in my life. 20 years. So they become part of you in a way that is very different [than for the gamers]. And Fallout as well, I've worked on for a very long time. And we're not ready to say, okay, Lifetime Achievement ...."

Interviewer: "You're not ready to call it quits."

TH: "Absolutely not, no. Our best stuff is ahead of us, no doubt. No doubt."

God, this guy is good. You can tell he's interview-trained and -experienced. Lets nothing slip.

So that gives me hope for the next Fallout title. I, like the rest of the fan base, cannot wait. But the best part of the interview is yet to come.

Howard gives a really cool synopsis of Bethesda's history, specifically regarding the making of Fallout 3, their first Fallout game, at 12:10. He recalls how warmly he felt the reception from fans and how rewarding it was, specifically because Bethesda didn't create the game, but "rebooted and added our own flavor to it," Howard said.

Around 2000, Zenimax acquired Bethesda, giving them "a new lease on life," Howard said, because the company had been falling on hard times since 1996. "We went into Morrowind ... there were six of us at the time, we were that small."

Then Howard and the interviewer talk publishing a little bit.

"And since Skyrim, we do it ourselves everywhere."

On 'killing your babies': "We do it often."

Then there's great talk about consoles and PC versions of his games. It begins with the interviewer's question at 19:16, largely having to do with how Howard views the PC from many standpoints.

On Skyrim: "The PC is the best place to play that game."

He says processing power is good because it stimulates graphics, but the real thing that's cool in the new console generation is increased memory.

Asked for an example (20:40) of how this would affect gameplay (and this is where I believe the conversation begins hinting specifically at Fallout 4, mainly based on how Howard begins his answer), Howard uses the example of load time between opening and closing doors between the outside world and taverns or buildings. With increased memory, those things could be loaded when you come close to them, even if they're not on-screen.

This is a really exciting thing to me as a player too. Load time is my least favorite thing about Skyrim and Fallout 3, and it would add a much more realistic feel if this could be eliminated from gameplay.

The reason we have this current surge and emergence of open-world games, IMO, is that it feels much more realistic than any game genre that's come before, and it's still brand new in the entire context of gaming. It's a baby. It's got so much room to grow.

Now, here's the FO4 stuff, it's gotta be, there's no way it's not, it's gotta be!

20:30. This is what the Fallout fans should be excited about. Here's why: though they don't say the word 'Fallout' at any time during the asking of this question or through to the end of the interview, they talk about 'fake announcements.' What was the fake announcement? Survivor 2299, of course.

I totally get why Howard, and the whole Bethesda community, is waiting to say anything. They don't want to 'dribble it out,' Howard says, they want to say, "Boom, here it is," because he remembers how cool that feeling was for him when it happened with other games.

I want that feeling! So you wait, Todd Howard. You wait, Bethesda. You work. Take your time. I want a game that is ready to go, not another New Vegas fiasco. 

Video game prejudices and Cracked.com kicking ass

Cracked.com have blown my mind with a couple true-to-home truth bombs concerning prejudice in video games.

My world will never be the same.

Fallout: New Vegas: The Divide

Ulysses. He's the courier for The Courier to look up to. The Courier's elder.

Okay, here's what I know about him so far--he knows everything, he knows me, he sees through me, he wants to kill me, he doesn't want to kill me, he'll let the world kill me, and everything he says has to do with walking and roads and history, and he sounds like he's a chain-smoking death metal vocalist who's permanently pissed.

This pussy stays hidden and talks through an eyebot, which he despises.
When I find him I'm gonna punch him.

Oh, by the way--I'm finally playing Lonesome Road, the fourth and final DLC Bethesda launched for the title. This is the third time I've been to The Divide. The first time, my save file had gotten too large--the whole game beaten, plus the first three DLCs beaten and fully explored.

On Hardcore Mode. It was awesome.

The first time I ventured into The Divide ...

Fallout: New Vegas Lag Woes

That's not my reflection, lusting after my game character. Creep alert!

Ever since my brother introduced me to Fallout 3 two years ago, I've been obsessed. Still haven't played 1 or 2, but I almost I feel that I know the characters.

Last week, I finally downloaded the fourth and final DLC for Fallout: New Vegas, Lonesome Road. It's been out for a good while, but with school and two kids, time to play video games, and spending money, is at a premium.

I was disappointed almost as soon as I wandered past the Canyon Wreckage and onto the lonesome road, when the game continued to lag and freeze on me. The lagging, the freezing, the not being able to aim, walk, access the Pip-Boy, pick shit up, open doors...

I did some research. Found a page containing a sort of interview/chat between gamers and an Obsidian programmer. He said that the bigger your save file gets, the more the game lags. After it reaches 10 mb, it starts getting serious. No memory cache-clearing or save file restoration thing will work, because it's INHERENT IN THE GAME ENGINE. The more shit you discover, the more the game has to load in all that data, and the less the game can concentrate on being smooth.

And I can't find the gosh darn article from last night, but I did find this, an article from 1up.com, which basically summarizes the problem I'm attempting to describe in the first few grafs.

All images by me. With my camera. All right?

So basically, the only thing you can do to stop the lag is start the game over, not do so much shit, and go back in.

So that's what I did. I'm fucking waiting to do Lonesome Road until my brand new character reaches level 25 or thereabouts. Fucking aggravating. It'll be my third time playing through the game. I thought I was almost done with my second.

Oh well. Some may say I should have done my research before even buying New Vegas at all. But nothing could have kept me from that baby. All I'm saying is Bethesda/Obsidian had better use a different game engine to make Fallout 4.

Yes my character's name beats yours any day of the week.

I hear Skyrim is lagging the fuck out too? Damn, that's a shame, especially because I'm going to have to buy it even before I play it. Damn you, Bethesda/Obsidian. You make such beautiful, vast, sweetly-made games, that LAG SO GODDAM MUCH.

You bring us to heaven and then you make it shitty! YOU MAKE OUR DREAMS AND THEN CAUSE THEM TO SHIT ON US!

I'm sorry, I'm nitpicking, and making a big deal out of one thing. But it is a big thing. It made the $10 I spent on LR a purchase to be gained over time, not immediately, in my particular case. From a certain point of view, it makes my money worthless. And that's not a smart move to pull.

I mean, some warning could have accompanied the games. Something like, "When save files reach <10MB they lag, be careful." Simple and easy. Right? You could have put it in the instruction manual.

Ol' Aphro and J-Graham sneakin' the streets of Zion

This problem, for mostly PS3 users, makes what could be the sweetest game experience a lot of us gamers have ever had, which is indeed a compliment and testament to your sweet game-making skillz, B/O, become a frustrating waste of time, money and resources.

Take the necessary months. Fix the problems. Re-release the games. ... wait, you'd be wasting money that way. Find a way to do it cheaply! You have to make it happen, B/O! And take back our old copies in trade. That's an order.

How can I order y'all around. You rule my face. Thank you for the good games. I'm not gonna stop playing them, after all.