Wandering the North

Eh … long time no see. Well, I figured I am usually rereading stuff at the moment, normally playing either The Sims 3, MineCraft or a casual game during the weekend and normally decide ad hoc what to watch on DVD, so I have stopped doing weekend updates lately. That doesn’t mean I am not doing any stuff. For one thing, I have been sight-seeing in Skyrim (with a little fighting on the side).

I managed to get the game for a good price at a local electronic store and have been playing quite a bit of it … albeit replaying the first few quests quite a few times. Currently I play a Kajit (that’s a race of humanoid cats) and I have been looting everything I could get my hands on … because I want a house and a horse and I need a lot of gold (8,000) for it.

Skyrim is not my first fling with the Elder Scrolls series, I have played Oblivion for quite a while and I also played Morrowind. Yet I have to admit I like the setting for Skyrim best, so far. Morrowind is set in a very swampy place and I am not that much of a swamp fan. Oblivion looks very ‘high fantasy’ and that’s the setting of every second RPG around. Skyrim is the cold, far North of the fantasy world of the Elder Scrolls. Not a setting you get all that often.

The game starts out rather traditionally for an Elder Scrolls game: you start as a prisoner and get the chance to create your character during the prologue. This time, though, it’s not a prison cell – it’s you on your way to execution. I mean that, you know, your head is on the block when all in a sudden a dragon turns up. That’s one kind of deus ex machina you don’t see that often…

Within the next few minutes, you’re climbing a tower, jumping into a partially burning house, run across a village while the dragon sets fire to it and diminishes the soldiers and have to decide on a basic side to settle with: the storm coats or the imperial army. Last time I started out new, I chose the storm coats … why settle with an army that was about to execute me, even though I wasn’t even on the list?

It’s the same first dungeon, the inside of the fortress, you enter, but the enemies you fight depend on which side you are on, of course. Once outside, I was really, seriously amazed. The world looks good (even more so with the new high-definition textures pack you can get for free) and is full of life. Granted, quite some of that life, like the wolves, wants to take a chunk out of your body (or the inventory from your cold, dead hands), but you can basically get something from everything you bring down. If you can bring it down … I do not recommend trying to attack the giants that are ambling around the plains herding their mammoths. Butterflies are fluttering through the air, fishes are jumping out of the wild waters, foxes, rabbits, deer and goats are crossing the paths and running away from you. The world of Skyrim is alive.

Soon afterwards someone asks you to see the Jarl in Whiterun, about protection for a small town on the way. And once you are there, things really get moving. You will enter a tomb full of un-dead (and very annoying) warriors (got me at least 4,500 gold, that place) to search for a stone with strange runes on it. You will learn the first Word of Power there. Once you are back, you will go and fight your first dragon. Yes, there’s a lot of dragons in Skyrim … and you will fight them to devour their souls, because you are Dragonkin and your powers will be direly needed. Isn’t there always a catch like that?

Like every Elder Scrolls game, Skyrim does not really make you do things. You have a vast world to explore, can set your own goals, if you want to. The main quests are a red thread you can follow, but when you go on with it is absolutely up to you. You won’t miss something or completely lose the game, just because you decide to first enter every cave you see and make money, money, money with it. Fighting a lot of additional enemies, is good, of course, because you gain experience that way. But you also get it by trading or doing other stuff.

As every Elder Scrolls game, Skyrim does not make you choose, either. You don’t set a class, only a race and a gender (the rest of the settings at the beginning are merely cosmetics). Races have various good and bad points, both in game mechanics (such as a Norse’s ability to withstand cold better or a Kajit’s better sneaking ability) and in interactions (a Norse will have it easier, because that’s where they all live), but you are not forced to choose a class such as warrior, mage or thief. You train your abilities either by doing stuff (fight a lot with a one-handed weapon to get better with it or use a certain school of magic to improve it) or by finding someone to train you with it. You can craft, too, do alchemy, forge weapons and so on.

On the whole, Skyrim surely is a game you will get a lot of fun and gaming time out of. I know I do and I am still very much at the beginning. I am walking the North of the world of the Elder Scrolls and I am enjoying my stroll so far, that much is for sure.

Good Advice for Travellers

How to avoid ending up in one of those ‘Missing Persons’ shows:

Believe me, a cold after a night in the rain still is more healthy than sleeping in such a place … and never waking again.

Weekend Update

It’s the end of the month and the end of the year and I didn’t do a weekend update last week … well, it was Christmas and I had other stuff to do, didn’t get to read or play much or watch DVD anyway. This weekend is New Year (New Year’s Eve), but I might actually get to do some stuff.

• DVD to watch: “The Monster Squad”
• Book to read: still working on a German one, “Der Krähenturm” (The Crow Tower) by Kerstin Pflieger
• Game to play: I have fallen under the spell of “The Elder Scrolls: Sykrim”

Last weekend of the old year and first weekend of the new one. Ah, weekend!

Weekend Update

Well, I didn’t write a weekend update last week, but I did play around a bit with the Sims. This weekend, though, I plan on doing this:

• DVD to watch: some episodes from the 3rd season of “Criminal Minds”
• Book to read: “Dave Barry Hits Below the Beltway” by Dave Barry
• Game to play: “On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness” Episode 2

After yesterday’s storm, we have nice weather outside today – cold, though.

Challenges!

You might have realized there is a new banner on my blog (on all three, to be more precise). It will lead you to a forum called the Challengers Casual Games Club, where I am playing challenges myself.

The games we play there for fun usually are casual games, mostly TM games. Time Management games most of the time come with a scoreboard or at least a summary of how well you did at the end of each level, so they are suited to be used for a challenge.

And there are lots of challenges, too! There’s the monthly challenges, where you can play one game throughout a month, trying for the best possible overall score you can get. There’s the ongoing challenges which allow you to submit proof you have beaten a game whenever you get to playing it. And there’s the mini-challenges, in which you can play and replay a level of a game throughout a week for best possible result.

All challenges you take a part in give points. And the points will be added up at the end of the month for a final score that is posted on the leader board of the site. Admittedly my scores usually are nothing to write home about – I play for fun and I am not a very competitive person by nature. This, however, now earns me the right to give away the Wooden Spoon Award for each monthly challenge – an award, plus extra points, for the one who did show most potential for growth. That’s usually not the one in first place, but there’s always one around doing an amazing job. Well, there’s a lot of people doing amazingly well and improving their playing a lot. Including me, as it were.

If you are playing casual games (or want to start playing) and like a good challenge, take a look over there and find out more! Challenges will await you!