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Jan. 4th, 2012 11:44 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
girlofpreyHello. I have mostly been playing computer games. Since last I posted. I picked up Saints Row 2 for the PS3 just before Christmas, and I wasn't totally sure I'd enjoy it, but I really am, so at the moment the (possibly excessive) 4 hours a day I am allowing myself for computer games is being split between that and Skyrim. I'M BEING SO GOOD.
The thing I like about Skyrim is that even at the times when playing it isn't quite brilliant, it's always interesting. Yesterday's adventures involved spending about 2 hours getting through the bottom half of a dungeon, and then having to restore a save from before I went down into it, because you couldn't go back the way you came, and I assumed there was a way back up at the bottom, but there was either something I couldn't do or it was behind a lock I couldn't pick. I didn't mind exactly, because I still enjoyed it, but it was a bit annoying to have done all that and not gotten anywhere because of it. And then I killed a dragon on my own for the first time, but I only managed it because of a weapon I took that belonged to an evil undead guy, so I'm really hoping I don't get cursed or somehow punished for that. If anyone is playing Skyrim and knows what I'm talking about and knows the answer to that, please don't tell me. I really don't want to be spoiled for the game unless I'm really stuck.
Today in Skyrim I discovered the city of Markarth. BEAUTIFUL, AMAZING MARKARTH. I discovered it by accident, when a quest I was doing suddenly transported me there. I love it so much. But I shortly afterwards realised that, being beautiful, it was probably also evil. I think it was after I passed "Nepo's House", which made me think of nepotism, which made me think 'Oh'. Beauty often = danger in fantasy games. And indeed I learned that it was evil shortly after that. In the space of about half an hour, a guy went crazy in the marketplace and killed a woman right in front of me, and I learned that there was a quarter named "The Warren" where the labourers and mineworkers tended to live, which doesn't suggest that they have amazing living conditions. It turns out the air is supposedly filled with smoke from all the silver smelting workshops, and the town is basically run by the rich family that owns the mines more than it is by the town guard. I was asked by a random priest to accompany him into an abandoned house, which turned out to be possessed by a daedra (demon, basically) lord, whereupon the priest turned on me and I had to kill him. And it turns out that there's some sort of dispute between the Nords who live in the city and the "natives" who were turfed out by them. And some guy asked me to rob the local temple, because they have some gold statue he wants to sell. So yeah. Quite evil. It is VERY beautiful though.
The main thing that is annoying me about Skyrim is that in order to make it seem realistic, characters will have conversations in front of you about stuff, often leading into a quest, without you having to interact with them in any way. They only have them once, too. But people who are walking by your character, if they pass close enough to them, will stop and start talking to them, especially guards, who tend to patrol the streets. And the amount of times I have been standing around listening to a conversation that suddenly started, and which is probably important, only to a have someone come up behind me and start loudly talking to the back of my head, OH MY GOD I WANT TO KILL THEM. But I don't. But it's annoying.
The other nice thing that's happened in Skyrim is that, as of today basically, I finally have enough money to buy a house. So I can put down all the stuff I want to keep but aren't always using, rather than having to lug it around with me or leave it on a floor somewhere. Except that now I can't decide if I'd rather live in Whiterun, or in beautiful but evil Markarth. DECISIONS, DECISIONS.
Saints Row 2 is good as well. There is a lot of video game logic that makes me laugh, like the fact that your character starts out coming out of a 5 year coma, and yet immediately starts punching people out in fights and sprinting around, having apparently suffered no muscle atrophy at all. Also, my character is female, and I made an effort to give her wicked hair and nice makeup. And it was really very nice of the prison staff to keep that up while I was in a coma, and they apparently hated me. But they did, anyway. The main problem I have with the game is learning how to use the vehicles, which are quite tricky. But I'm better with cars after only a week playing it. And the only thing I really want to say about it is that it's quite nice that they've made an effort to be inclusive, and let you play as any character you want, including female. But it's still a bit weird that the only thing my character and her male friend/second-in-command can agree on is that their secret gang hideout should have stripper poles. Stripper poles seems to be all anyone wants in Saints Row. Also, today my character was upset because a local "massage parlour" was closing, when she'd been coming there since she was 15! I don't entirely mind though, because I just assume my character is a bit gay. Which is nice. And they do let women be a part of the gangs and stuff, and in charge of things, rather than just be prostitutes and utilize stripper poles. It's just a little bit jarring, is all. Or very inclusive, I suppose, depending on how you look at it.
So anyway. These are the computer games I have been playing, and my experiences with them. Hurrah.
The thing I like about Skyrim is that even at the times when playing it isn't quite brilliant, it's always interesting. Yesterday's adventures involved spending about 2 hours getting through the bottom half of a dungeon, and then having to restore a save from before I went down into it, because you couldn't go back the way you came, and I assumed there was a way back up at the bottom, but there was either something I couldn't do or it was behind a lock I couldn't pick. I didn't mind exactly, because I still enjoyed it, but it was a bit annoying to have done all that and not gotten anywhere because of it. And then I killed a dragon on my own for the first time, but I only managed it because of a weapon I took that belonged to an evil undead guy, so I'm really hoping I don't get cursed or somehow punished for that. If anyone is playing Skyrim and knows what I'm talking about and knows the answer to that, please don't tell me. I really don't want to be spoiled for the game unless I'm really stuck.
Today in Skyrim I discovered the city of Markarth. BEAUTIFUL, AMAZING MARKARTH. I discovered it by accident, when a quest I was doing suddenly transported me there. I love it so much. But I shortly afterwards realised that, being beautiful, it was probably also evil. I think it was after I passed "Nepo's House", which made me think of nepotism, which made me think 'Oh'. Beauty often = danger in fantasy games. And indeed I learned that it was evil shortly after that. In the space of about half an hour, a guy went crazy in the marketplace and killed a woman right in front of me, and I learned that there was a quarter named "The Warren" where the labourers and mineworkers tended to live, which doesn't suggest that they have amazing living conditions. It turns out the air is supposedly filled with smoke from all the silver smelting workshops, and the town is basically run by the rich family that owns the mines more than it is by the town guard. I was asked by a random priest to accompany him into an abandoned house, which turned out to be possessed by a daedra (demon, basically) lord, whereupon the priest turned on me and I had to kill him. And it turns out that there's some sort of dispute between the Nords who live in the city and the "natives" who were turfed out by them. And some guy asked me to rob the local temple, because they have some gold statue he wants to sell. So yeah. Quite evil. It is VERY beautiful though.
The main thing that is annoying me about Skyrim is that in order to make it seem realistic, characters will have conversations in front of you about stuff, often leading into a quest, without you having to interact with them in any way. They only have them once, too. But people who are walking by your character, if they pass close enough to them, will stop and start talking to them, especially guards, who tend to patrol the streets. And the amount of times I have been standing around listening to a conversation that suddenly started, and which is probably important, only to a have someone come up behind me and start loudly talking to the back of my head, OH MY GOD I WANT TO KILL THEM. But I don't. But it's annoying.
The other nice thing that's happened in Skyrim is that, as of today basically, I finally have enough money to buy a house. So I can put down all the stuff I want to keep but aren't always using, rather than having to lug it around with me or leave it on a floor somewhere. Except that now I can't decide if I'd rather live in Whiterun, or in beautiful but evil Markarth. DECISIONS, DECISIONS.
Saints Row 2 is good as well. There is a lot of video game logic that makes me laugh, like the fact that your character starts out coming out of a 5 year coma, and yet immediately starts punching people out in fights and sprinting around, having apparently suffered no muscle atrophy at all. Also, my character is female, and I made an effort to give her wicked hair and nice makeup. And it was really very nice of the prison staff to keep that up while I was in a coma, and they apparently hated me. But they did, anyway. The main problem I have with the game is learning how to use the vehicles, which are quite tricky. But I'm better with cars after only a week playing it. And the only thing I really want to say about it is that it's quite nice that they've made an effort to be inclusive, and let you play as any character you want, including female. But it's still a bit weird that the only thing my character and her male friend/second-in-command can agree on is that their secret gang hideout should have stripper poles. Stripper poles seems to be all anyone wants in Saints Row. Also, today my character was upset because a local "massage parlour" was closing, when she'd been coming there since she was 15! I don't entirely mind though, because I just assume my character is a bit gay. Which is nice. And they do let women be a part of the gangs and stuff, and in charge of things, rather than just be prostitutes and utilize stripper poles. It's just a little bit jarring, is all. Or very inclusive, I suppose, depending on how you look at it.
So anyway. These are the computer games I have been playing, and my experiences with them. Hurrah.
