Showing posts with label skyrim. Show all posts
Showing posts with label skyrim. Show all posts
Saturday, December 5, 2015
Tuesday, September 29, 2015
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.
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.
WHY IS HE REVIEWING A FOUR-YEAR-OLD GAME?
"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.
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!
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!
Tuesday, July 1, 2014
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.
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.
Saturday, September 29, 2012
The Stones of Barenziah
Alright, I joined the Thieves Guild, but only because I had five of those "Unusual Gem"s in my inventory, and I wanted to get rid of them.
Now I find that they're "Stones of Barenziah" or whatever, and that there's 25 of them, and I CAN'T TAKE THEM OUT OF MY INVENTORY UNTIL I FIND ALL 25.
Now I find that they're "Stones of Barenziah" or whatever, and that there's 25 of them, and I CAN'T TAKE THEM OUT OF MY INVENTORY UNTIL I FIND ALL 25.
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