A not so average woman

Wandering the North

2012-02-11T14:04:00.001+01:00

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

2012-01-05T20:17:00.001+01:00

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

2011-12-31T11:59:00.000+01:00

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

2011-12-17T12:21:00.001+01:00

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!

2011-12-03T12:31:00.000+01:00

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!

A very new Anno

2011-12-03T12:29:00.000+01:00

What will I be doing this weekend? Instead of giving you the usual weekend update, I will do this post, for one thing. The reason for this is that I will be occupied with one thing for most of the weekend: “Anno 2070”.

I have been playing the Anno series by the German developers Related Design ever since the first one, “Anno 1602”. Through “Anno 1503,” “Anno 1701,” and “Anno 1404,” I have made my way through island worlds, founded cities, plotted trade routes and done little dances of joy upon spotting the first noblemen (and -women) in the streets.

Anno has always been about building up one big city on one island and colonizing others in order to obtain wares and resources your main island needs. Clever planning of the city, diplomatic abilities to deal with other settlements and a fleet of ships have been the main ingredients to success.

Now Related Design has taken a very big step, the step from the Middle Ages and Renaissance to the future. The new Anno is set in the not too distant future of Earth, in the year 2070. (If you wonder about the dates: all Anno date are made up of numbers that add up to 9 – check it out, if you want.) Gone is the contemplative Medieval world where the settlers walk around on simple dirt paths and carts pick up all the stuff from the woodcutters, breweries, and other sites. In the year 2070, after the climate change has turned continents into atolls, flying transports zoom from the warehouses to the production sites and cars hover over the stable streets.

Underneath the new times, however, Anno still is Anno. Good planning is still the key to success. To make things harder, however, the one fraction from the prequels (well one and a half in “Anno 1404”) has been split into three different ones. Tycoons, Ecos and Scientists live in the new island world and, in order to obtain buildings from the fractions, have to be part of a settlement. While the free game only allows for you to choose one fraction (Eco or Tycoon, you will always have Scientists around), during the campaign you will soon have all of them living in your cities.

Bad for me, though: the game doesn’t really run offline, even though theoretically it should. Trying to get the game to start offline, however, has proven very difficult, so I stay online, normally. At least the copy protection still isn’t as bad as with some other Ubisoft titles (like “The Settlers 7” or “Assassin’s Creed 2”).

Apart from this, however, I have nothing to complain about. The new Anno, as far as I have been able to play it so far, is as complex and interesting, as detailed and good-looking, as much an Anno as the ones before it.

A Blocky Harry Potter

2011-12-03T12:07:00.000+01:00

As you probably have realized, I am guilty of not posting my weekend update for last week. You won’t be seeing one for this week, either. Instead I will give you a few posts about what I am playing.

Last weekend it was “LEGO Harry Potter Years 5-7”. I have enjoyed all games of the LEGO adventures series I have played so far (which means all safe for LEGO Star Wars: Clone Wars). Some I have enjoyed more and some I have enjoyed less, however. The Harry Potter games I definitely have enjoyed more.

All LEGO adventure games have nice and very funny cutscenes, slapstick versions of what you see in the movies, normally. What goes for the others, goes for LEGO Harry Potter, too. As the game follows the movies rather than the novels, the second one has just as many levels as the first – since book 7 was split up into two movies.

The new game is just as great as the first one was. Between levels, you can explore Hogwarts or shop in Diagon Alley. There’s also the story and the free mode for each level – once you have finished the level in story mode, with the characters that you should control during the level, you can return to it in free mode. To find all secrets and enter all places in a level, you will need free mode, as you will need to take different characters with different abilities with you. This way, you earn golden stones for a special object, find new character coins (that allow you to buy the characters and use them in free mode) and earn more studs, the currency in all LEGO games that allows you to buy stuff in the first place.

Hogwarts alone is a place you can explore for hours, it’s full of secret places and objects to manipulate (and Weasley Wizarding Wheezes boxes – warning: only open with a Weasley character!). Add the levels you can replay various times, in order to find new stuff and earn more studs, and you will be occupied for a long time. After I had finished the complete story mode, I still had only solved 30.3% of the whole game!

The levels themselves are interesting, too. There’s new spells to learn for Harry and his friends, new abilities to discover in some characters and a lot of nice cutscenes. The story mode follows the story of the movies, including some memory scenes (such as Snape’s worst memory) and a very nice fairy tale part (the tale of the Deathly Hallows).

After the last new LEGO release (Pirates of the Caribbean), I had worried a bit about the series, as it seemed to have burned down to ‘same old’. This game, however, shows that there is still room for ‘more new’ instead. And will occupy my time for quite a while, between other games.

Minecraft Released

2011-11-22T12:30:00.003+01:00

You might have realized I have not written my usual Weekend Update post – which, as I very well know, is the only post I am still writing regularly here. The reason for this is simple: Minecraft was released on the 18th, which was last Friday. Therefore I only did one thing this weekend: Playing Minecraft.

I have been playing Minecraft for quite a while now, I think I bought the beta in spring. There have been a lot of changes over time, but there also have been quite some changes between the last open beta release, which was 1.8.1 (all 1.9 releases were closed and basically steering towards the release candidate), and the final release now.

I have spent this weekend crafting new objects, I have used the new Enchantment Table to make special weapons. I have wondered about the NPC villagers looking like they are all related to Squidward from Spongebob Squarepants. I have brewed potions, I have walked new places and I will continue to do so, as I have not found the End so far.

Some impressions from the final release:

You can now breed animals by giving two adults of the same kind wheat (if they are close together). Here two adult pigs with their little piglet.

They really do look like Squidward with those noses, don’t you think?

I’m building myself a wizards tower, to enchant and brew in style.

Inside my tower, the area for brewing potions.

I see myself playing a lot of Minecraft from now on.

Weekend Update

2011-11-13T11:10:00.000+01:00

And again I am a bit late this week, but it’s still weekend, right? So what am I doing this weekend?

DVD to watch: nothing special
Book to read: this and that, a bit of everything
Game to play: some casual games, some “The Sims 3”

Weekend! Yay!

Weekend Update

2011-11-06T09:46:00.002+01:00

Yes, I am late again, but this weekend I’m not doing anything special, so here’s my plan:

DVD to watch: watching some old DVDs again
Book to read: nothing special
Game to play: some casual games

As you see, I’m keeping myself occupied, but I’m not doing something worth listing.

Weekend Update

2011-10-31T10:39:00.000+01:00

Yes, I know I didn’t put out this update on a weekend, but I didn’t do much this weekend, anyway.

DVD to watch: “The Big Bang Theory” Season 3
Book to read: browsing various books this weekend
Game to play: a few demos from Steam

The weekend was nice, but I wasn’t exactly focused on something.

Weekend Update

2011-10-22T13:53:00.001+02:00

Another weekend has arrived and what will I do?

DVD to watch: nothing special planned
Book to read: “Illuminating Torchwood” by Andrew Ireland and others
Game to play: “The Sims 3”

New pets for “The Sims 3”!

Weekend Update

2011-10-16T11:00:00.000+02:00

Another weekend and once again I am late with my update. There’s not much to update this weekend, though:

DVD to watch: nothing special planned
Book to read: reading some free e-books (they’re short)
Game to play: “Costume Quest”, a nice, Halloween-themed RPG

Tomorrow I’ll be a year older … my, how time flies … nice weekend, though.

Weekend Update

2011-10-09T10:40:00.001+02:00

I know I am a day late again, but simple fact is I was doing other stuff. What?

DVD to watch: nothing special planned, but I’ll find something
Book to read: going over some Coffeehouse Mysteries again right now
Game to play: “Torchlight” again and some casual games

Autumn has come, time for reading and playing games at home while rain and storm rage outside.

Weekend Update

2011-10-02T10:19:00.001+02:00

Yes, I am late again, I know … I’m very sorry about it, too. This is what I will do on this nice, sunny, long weekend (Monday is a bank holiday here).

DVD to watch: nothing special planned, but that might change
Book to read: re-reading “You Can Write A Mystery” by Gillian Roberts
Game to play: “Blood Bowl: Legendary Edition” and probably some casual games

Long weekend, temperatures like in summertime … what a great time!

Weekend Update

2011-09-25T11:23:00.001+02:00

Late again, I know. In my defence, however, I’d like to point out that we have something of a late summer right now. So what have I be doing and what will I be doing this weekend:

DVD to watch: some German ones “Hannes und der Bürgermeister”
Book to read: “Secrets” by Vorabiza (a Harry Potter fan-fiction from Feedbooks)
Game to play: nothing special planned

Ah, weekend … warm, sunny and interesting.

Weekend Update

2011-09-17T13:07:00.000+02:00

Another weekend, another update. So, what am I going to do today?

DVD to watch: nothing special planned
Book to read: “Der Vierte König”, a German novel
Game to play: MineCraft

Plus I will be writing and probably playing other games as well.

Weekend Update

2011-09-11T10:14:00.001+02:00

I am a bit late again this week and I am not going to explain it. What do I do this weekend?

DVD to watch: nothing planned, will find something
Book to read: a German one: “Ein Drei-Tassen-Problem”
Game to play: working on “My Kingdom for the Princess 3” and “Picket Fences”

Ah, weekend …

Weekend Update

2011-09-04T11:11:00.001+02:00

Another weekend, half gone already, and another weekend update. I’m late this week, I know, but I was playing and forgetting about the update. Here we go:

DVD to watch: nothing planned, will see
Book to read: “Anno Dracula” by Kim Newman
Game to play: “Edna and Harvey: Harvey’s New Eyes”

I’m also playing a bit “The Sims 3” this weekend. Ah, weekend…

Weekend Update

2011-08-27T13:16:00.001+02:00

Another weekend, rain for a change (we had a very hot week) and a lot of time ahead. So, what am I going to do?

DVD to watch: probably some horror movie
Book to read: Tod auf dem Rhein (Death on the Rhine), a German Sherlock Holmes novel
Game to play: “Deus Ex: Human Revolution”

I might also spend some time with a casual game or two. Ah, weekend!

Weekend Update

2011-08-20T10:02:00.000+02:00

Well, another weekend, high temperatures here and another update, even early today. What am I going to do?

DVD to watch: “The Big Bang Theory” Season 1 and 2, as far as I get
Book to read: a German Sherlock Holmes novel (not by Arthur Conan Doyle)
Game to play: no plan but I have quite some options…

Well-chilled lemonade, something good to read, something good to watch … what do I need to leave my home for in this heat?

Weekend Update

2011-08-13T11:21:00.000+02:00

Well, who would have thought, I actually manage to do this weekend update on a Saturday. The world is about to end! No, not really… My plans for this weekend?

DVD to watch: “Gonger” 1 and 2 (German horror movies)
Book to read: will try to finish “The Mark of Zorro”
Game to play: some more “Farm Frenzy: Ancient Rome” I think

I will also try to finally finish my latest story and publish it sometime next week, so check my Writer’s Blog, if you’re interested…

Weekend Update

2011-08-07T11:33:00.001+02:00

Yes, I know I’m a little late this time, too, but I can’t give the same good excuse as last week. Yet, here is my weekend update.

DVD to watch: nothing special planned, maybe one or two episodes of “Lewis”
Book to read: rereading a book about right fundamentalists in Germany
Game to play: various casual games

I will also try to finish a story today, but I’m not sure whether I’ll make it.