Skyrim first impressions and Android failure

I’ve had Skyrim for nearly a week now, and I am shamed to admit that I haven’t even managed to get more than 10 hours into it I don’t think. Regardless of most of my coursework being finished for this term of uni, life in general has been getting in the way. I have spent this weekend doing my Christmas shopping and generally just mooching about with the family (enjoying some yummy meals out too). While it has been nice to do all of the above, I really wish I could have engrossed myself in Skyrim just a little bit more. I’ll post my initial thoughts though.

I had to choose an Elf as my race. I’m not a Dark Elf, as pictured above, but a High Elf. I wanted to really go for the magic this time around. If I can’t use guns, then I don’t really want to be swinging my sword around and getting hacked to shreds. I’ve never really enjoyed being a magic user, but the idea of it in Skyrim just seemed right. I think it helped that I knew I could dual wield spells. I knew that in one hand I could have burning flame, and in the other soothing restoration. Pretty much I just wanted to burn things down.

I have noticed in my short play through so far that Skyrim has many paralells with a lot of my favourite games. Obviously I love Bethesda anyway, but Oblivion was lacking in oomph for me; it was dull and dreary. Skyrim has elements of Fable, World of Warcraft, Bioshock and even Red Dead Redemption. The last two have probably confused you a bit so allow me to explain. The Bioshock element comes form the visual aspect. It’s the magic hands on screen, they just remind me of plasmid infused limbs. It’s the way your character holds them. The RDR element comes from the wide open spaces and the horses. The horses are very expensive so I find myself stealing them and then paying a small fine every time I accidentally stumble into a guard. It is also the collecting of herbs and various flowers that remind me of RDR.

I am enjoying the free roaming aspect. I can go wherever I want, whenever I want and speak to whoever I want. It would be nice to have a little more guidance every now and then, but I’m not complaining. I’ve currently gone to see the mages and be trained further in the ways of magic. I’m struggling a little bit so I’ve gone off on a bit of a wander to get my skills up a little before I carry on. I like the fact that I can do this, and I also like the fact that there are so many companions dotted around so soon in the game. They actually help as well (When they’re not dying in a crumpled heap on the floor because I’ve taken them somewhere scary…).

So all in all I am enjoying my jaunt through Skyrim at the moment. I can’t wait to get myself on the property ladder and start buying things because I am intrigued to see exactly how much like Fable this has the potential to be. I know I can invest in things, and for some sick reason this excites me.

In other news, my phone broke and I spent yesterday fixing it. All my Kairosoft data completely wiped. I won’t lie, I think a few tears may have slipped out. Thankfully the man came swooping into my rescue with his tech knowledge and fixed it! I now have the latest Android build (Gingerbread) and it is so much prettier than Froyo. I suppose the only good thing that’s come out of this is that I have en excuse to play all my Kairosoft games again. Value for money? I think so.

Gamer girl goes squee!

People either listen to me when I rant, or I have an uncanny ability to make things happen with my ramblings. I like to think it’s the latter so I can feel like I have magical like a mage from Final Fantasy.

Remember my previous blog post and my rant about not having Tiny Tower on Android? Well, the man in his infinitely awesome geekiness provided me with much happiness on Sunday night with the announcement that Tiny Tower had in fact made its way to Android. It was only right to have a bit of a spasm, make my way to the Android market place and download it as quickly as I possibly could. I didn’t think it was possible for me to make the noises of glee that I did, but the man can vouch for that as he was on the phone to me at the time.

He may look bored, but really he loves building endless towers.

After having just under 24 hours with Tiny Towers I can say I am in love. I have 7 floors, 10 bitizens and I’m trying not to get too addicted before Friday otherwise I will simply lose my soul to it and not do any uni work. It is truly awesome though, my favourite type of Sim game where I have to restock, sell things, restock, add more people etc. Yeah, you’ve got to wait around a lot and it will take a while to get going, but that’s not the point! Take all my battery power Tiny Tower, it’s yours for the taking.

On a different note though, I think I’ve decided I’m going to buy Skyrim on Friday as a reward to myself. Asking family about it and reading stuff about it online it does look really good. There appear to be a lot more Fallout mechanics in it than Oblivion, so I’m pretty much sold on that angle. I just want something to really immerse myself in, and I don’t really think there’s anything else out right now that will do it for me quite like Bethesda do. Plus I just wanna kill some dragons like a badass mofo.

I will end you.

A new Dragon Age game would be nice, so I can muck about with the character mechanics in that, but that’s gonna be a long time coming from EA I think.

Drowning in sprite animation

It’s been a long and hectic week, but it’s also disappeared far too quickly. First I had a four year old’s birthday party to deal with, then I came down with a stomach bug the night before the man in my life was coming to stay. So since Tuesday I have barely eaten a thing and have lost over half a stone. I would like to say I’ve fitted in some hardcore gaming during this time, but the only gaming I have managed to fit in has been Kairosoft related. That isn’t a bad thing of course, but it’s just reminded me exactly how addicted I am to games like this.

I’ve got a love hate relationship going on with Kairosoft at the moment. I love them for producing awesome Sim style games on my mobile phone, but I hate them for not giving me all of them! I am but a lowly Android user (I have no issues with this, I like my phone and have no desire to buy an iPhone any time soon), and I seem to be being punished for this by Kairosoft. I have been deprived of Mega Mall Story, Oh! Edo Towns and Pocket Academy. Grand Prix story was meant to be an Android exclusive but now iPhone have this as well. I don’t care that they have an Android exclusive, I just want the other games as well!

Thankfully the man has an iPhone and was kind enough to buy Pocket Academy and Mega Mall Story before he came up to satisfy my rage and urge to play childish simulation games for hours on end. Mega Mall Story is incredibly fun, but brings me to yet another game that Android users are suffering without; Tiny Tower. Noticing a theme here? Yeah, I like sprite animation with never ending monotony. I like stocking shops with goods, I like trying to please people and get bonuses on things that are ultimately pointless in life. It keeps me happy. I can waste my entire life on these games and have no remorse.

Maybe it’s a good thing that Kairosoft are depriving me of all these things right now. I don’t think I’d have enough time for anything else. I’ve been playing World Cruise story for about 4 hours today, and for a game that’s cost me £2.99, you can’t go wrong.

Catching up and procrastination

After having a very long, blissful five hour session on Deus Ex last night, I thought I might need to crack on with my essays for uni. What better way to procrastinate, than to update my blog! Need to get the creative juices flowing, that’s my excuse

Anyway, I’ve mentioned that I had Deus Ex before, and I managed to get stuck on it last night. It’s been so long since I actually managed to engross myself in a game for that long though, I had almost forgotten the joy that playing a game brings me. It took me about an hour and so many attempts to get past this one section in the game, but it was worth it in the end for the progress that I made. I am really enjoying it, and I do have to say a well done to Square Enix. It is by no means going to be one of my games of the year, but it is enjoyable for what it is, and the fact that I can wander about freely and interact with whoever I want is awesome. The futuristic, dystopian looking world is also rather awesome to me, so it pleases me on a visual level too.

Check out them guns

I do get the feeling it’s a little bit like Mass Effect at times, especially when it comes down to wandering in and out of strip clubs with quirky banners and bright flashing lights, but there’s also something a lot more down to earth about it, despite it being about human augmentation and having slight sci fi elements to it. Thankfully there are no aliens in it…yet. Because then it would just be a Mass Effect rip off, without the team work.

Once I have finished this though, and my assignments for university I am hoping to get hold of Skyrim if I am told it will be of interest to me. Yes, I know, Oblivion was amazing, blah blah blah. I didn’t like Oblivion, it just seemed sluggish and took too long to get going. This is why I liked Fallout (and perhaps due to the guns in it as well…), it just got on with it, and it seemed to work better for me. From what I’ve seen and heard about Skyrim so far though, it looks to be far superior to Oblivion form my point of view. Throwing you straight into the action and letting me wander wherever the hell I please sounds like bliss.

There's just something so awesome about a dragon...

Staying on similar lines though, I quite fancy Skyward Sword. Reading an article about it in a games mag recently got my adrenaline pumping. I remember that being a good day, and me being filled with geeky glee for the remainder of it. The only problem is, I don’t like the Wii, nor do I have the console up here with me. The Wii is about 140 miles away from where I currently am, and I would still much rather play a Zelda game with a real controller. Yeah, it’s fun to swing the Wii-mote around and pretend you’re Link every now and then (Hell, you can even dress up as him if you’d like, just to complete the look) but it soon gets boring and I’d much rather just button bash and roll everywhere without having to do some spazz-tastic hand motion.

Still too cartoony, but looks incredible

Those are the three games on my radar at the moment. If I think of any more than that I may begin to get depressed as I simply don’t have time to play them. I wish I could have just done a Video Game Journalism course instead, it would make keeping up with my hobby so much easier!