Borderlands 2: A Bazillion Reasons

I highly recommend Skyrim to any serious RPG enthusiast; huge wide open world, hundreds of npcs and quests, thousands of ways to customize your character. In depth character skill trees, player housing, a slew of potential followers. Dragons!

The pc version is unfortunately not very stable which prevented me from adding 200+ (not kidding) more hours than I wanted; my version kept crashing to desktop at a high frequency rate. If this is happening to you, i'd recommend the thing that 'seemed' to fix it *now I cross my fingers this doesn't jinx me*:
Sound settings:
Control Panel>Sound>Playback>Properties>Advanced: Set the default format to: 16bit 44hz

Beautiful Vistas! 

Without much more ado, more Borderlands cosplay to get us more excited for tomorrow's release!

Bandit, Hunter & Siren

Wide Angle lens possibly used.

Waiting to Play

Lets have an actual entry than what I like to do when I have nothing else to say: post big pictures. Lol.

Haven't been playing much of anything other than Diablo 3 for the first time in 2 weeks and the new Duels of the Planeswalkers 2013 (Dotp 2013). Some random thoughts:

- absolutely hate Diablo 3 requirement to be online all the time. Sure it cuts down on cheaters, but my slow internet connection is the reason why I've played only once (and maybe only for an hour) in the past 2 weeks. I want to get Guild Wars 2 but am thinking carefully on whether I should waste my time on it and be permanently upset due to lag.

- its still nice to play Diablo 3 vs Skyrim, b/c you can still just pickup and go; you don't need to remember what you last did and whether you like the way the character is built/equipped.

- while the cards in MTG 2013 core set are much more interesting in recent memory than any other core set, the Dotp 2013 is really annoying. 

- Dotp 2013; bug infested (your own creatures committing kamikaze attacks when its NOT your turn)


- Dotp 2013; timers going unnaturally fast, meaning you miss out on getting to do what you want.


- Dotp 2013; cheap pc player; enuf said


- Dotp 2013; Planechase mode is interesting which has a global big card and a dice that makes it more luck based than skill (double edged sword). Its still pretty cool.


- possibly the only good thing about Dotp is that after everything is resolved (ie. Damage), your opponent won't decide to (basically mulligan and) cast a spell which totally changes the outcome.  


- I really want a Dotp game where you get a finite set of cards and make your own deck. I know there is the online game which can allow you to do that, but i'd prefer a contained 'offline' game.

Lorthos currently occupies my desktop wallpaper as my new Kraken deck is quite the juggernaut... atleast in testing. Go here for all the MTG wallpapers!

A different take on the Elder Scroll MMO announcement

Despite the fact that everyone is having their take on the announcement of the new Elder Scrolls MMO and I possibly play more Skyrim than anyone else, I don't have much opinion on the matter.


I fully enjoy Skyrim, even with all it's flaws. I enjoy mmo's for the social aspect of it. At this stage in my life tho, I kind of enjoy single player experiences that simulate the mmo experience b/c it makes you want to play instead of insisting that you play.



What do i mean by that?


If you are taken away from Skyrim due to other games or other responsibilities in RL, thats ok; the game and your progress will still be waiting for you with no penalties. An mmo almost forces you to play constantly/as much as possible. How? Well, there is always the rush to get to max level. Our greed makes us want to get the best gear, the coolest mounts and be the strongest. Our ambition makes us want to always win (whether it is via scenarios, or world pvp). If you're not playing constantly, you're not doing any of this and will lag behind those that do. Some developers find ways to make it balanced, but its a truism that those that put more time and effort into the game, will generally be stronger than people that don't.


In my youth, my only real hobby was playing video games and in hindsight those countless hours have been wasted. I truly could have accomplished something or made myself better. I see those that play so many hours and feel a bit of pity that they cannot see it themselves. This fact, helps reign in my own desires to play countless hours and do something a bit more constructive instead.

So while i'm intrigued of a new mmo to a favorite series of mine, I give a shrug knowing that eventually I may stop playing mmos for the blackhole which is addiction and dependence. Life is the real mmo, with real results and rewards.

The Endless Journey of Skyrim

One of the greatest parts of Skyrim that makes it my GOY is that even 150+ hrs into the game, there are still new areas that i'm discovering. The world is so vast and differs a bit every time you play it. Everything is so interactive in that, when I look at the real world it makes me want to check out that flora bc "maybe I can use it to create a potion."


Just the other day, I passed by the hot springs area south of Windhelm. Countless times I had defeated a group of giants and mammoths that had destroyed a caravan of khajits. I'd follow the path south east towards Riften.. but I thought, "hey, there is a bit of a hill over there to the left which I haven't taken.. maybe something interesting is behind it." To my surprise, I found 2 hunters with horses had made camp behind there. Something new every time.

There is so much one can do and many ways to accomplish it. For example, a player may just want to be a blacksmith. The player can either buy, gather, or loot crafting materials. If they didn't want to fight monsters, they could travel the world of Skyrim for the many mines and harvest them from the nodes. Or if they're a bit sneaky, they can go to various shops (blacksmith shops in particular) and steal from the shopkeeper. For those that are rich and don't like grinding skill, the player can even go to a blacksmith trainer and buy the skill.


There is not just one way to be effective in the game. Many players like to get the best gear to be able to defeat their enemies, and enemies do tend to scale to their level. Although some enemies do scale in skyrim, others are preset, such as dragons, liches and bandits. Bandits will normally always be in hide/leather armors and easy to dispatch at any level, while liches are formidable for even the strongest player. Although strong, a weak character can find ways to defeat stronger foes; whether it be by getting companions to soak damage, distract or increase dps. They can summon creatures to their aid, consume potions for buffs, or be more strategic in their combat (kiting).


There are fluff things one can do in the game as well and thats ok. Very few games have the ability to interact with items and change their position. Did you defeat your enemies one on top of each other, making it hard to loot? Simple, just move them off each other. One can own in-game housing to store excess loot and decorate. Instead of The Sims-like placement of decorations (via sticking to walls or the floor), the player is able to place items however they like. Think Jenga, but with in-game items.

The Second-to-Last Straw

I give up! You win. I'll never play console-ports again.

Last night I came to the (sad) conclusion that whenever it comes to pc games that you'll (see: me) always encounter weird problems that you'll rarely have if you just bought it for a console instead. Sure, it'll play better, have better graphics and integration.. but the convenience of knowing it will work is starting to become a big factor.


Take Skyrim for example; when I first blogged about it, I was trying to decide whether I should get it for the pc or 360. I had at the end chosen the 360 because I knew that there would be no problems at all. I did have the very rare crash which had me very paranoid causing me to save every 5 minutes. In my defense though, you can do alot in 5 minutes. 


Then you try it on the pc with the first obstacle of installation; it was like jumping through hoops and it took forever (7hours), unlike the 5ish minutes of installing it to the harddrive of the 360. Almost like day and night, playing the game with a mouse/keyboard configuration was much more convenient and accurate. Hot keys for weapons, spells and potions made combat much easier. Then came the familiar gray screen of death; sometimes coming after a meer 30 minutes of gameplay.. othertimes after 2 hours. I saved even more frequently but gave up last night. Trying to go to safe mode crashed my pc. Deleting registries and reinstalling drivers didn't work.


So I then tried to play some Mass Effect 3, because it worked without ever a glitch, right? WRONG.
Somewhere between the new dlc and all the deletion of registries, updating my drivers, I lost the PhysX driver.. which I prevented the game from loading. I found and reinstalled it from the internet but no luck. Maybe re-incarnation is real and I was a bad bad hacker in my last life and in this life i'm meant to suffer with unending pc issues.


I'll probably try to get a new video card (got mine second-hand from my cousin)and see whether that fixes everything. But it makes me realize how much effort I put into gaming and how it could be better invested into other areas like personal fitness or photography. I've decided (at this point) that from now on, if there is a game that is both on the pc and consoles, ill get the console version. 


Maybe board games... they don't crash.

Happy Friday

You made it; its finally Friday.

Kickback and Relax!

Notice how the shadows don't mimic the person..

Hope everyone has a good weekend!

The Adventure Continues!

I must have passed this spot countless times on the 360 and never noticed this huuuge mudcrab corpse. Crazy!

Love this game!

Reflection

What does Easter mean to you?


I've seen alot of zombie Jesus cracks, free long weekends, bunnies, chocolate, and excuses to get drunk. Its an important weekend for believers and also one where we have to ignore alot of tasteless humor.


Lets be a bit more respectful.


Anyways; while cruising on Kotaku, I watched this amazing Skyrim music vid



I looked at Lindsey's Zelda vid as well and then kept watching her list; very talented and violinist and dancer atleast.

Mass Effect 3: DLC Coming Soon

After 7 hours of installing.. playing Skyrim on my pc is totally worth it.


So Mass Effect 3 is doing a rather good job at keeping players playing their game by providing weekly incentives to play multiplayer, whether it be by providing extra experience, chances to buy special gear packs. Very mmo-ish. Love it. They need to do this more with non-mmo games.
So while alot of people hated the ending (it wasn't 'that bad' people) and the day one DLC, they are making it up with a free dlc next week.

Ooo interesting races to play.. and Krogan Vanguard? Yes please!

Think Day 1 DLC is evil though?
A senior producer at Gearbox (Borderlands), doesn't think so.
I guessss thats one way to put it.

I may not like day 1 dlc, but with screenshots like this... it'll ensure I get Borderlands 2 on day 1 ;)

Skyrim Shirt

In the mood to play some Skyrim..

Its coming

I don't like the idea of Valentine's Day for the fact that its become very commercial. Yes its good to pamper someone on a special day, but it should help remind us that every day is important.

Anyways.. its coming. More Skyrim related V-day cards at Kotaku.

Skyrim: Exponential Power

Money at the beginning of Skyrim is a bit hard to come by, even if you used my Halted-Stream transmute trick. I think the most important thing is to get a base of operations that is in town and not part of an actual guild. Sure the Assassin's Guild or the Mage Guild has alot of amenities, a house in town will generally have a blacksmith or vendors in convenient proximity.

Purchase-able houses are only found in the major towns, so Whiterun, Riften, Windhelm, Solitude and Morkath. Get that house. Once you get that house, furnish it a bit so that you get a few more containers. Open them, empty them, and use one for:
- craftable mats including ore, ingots, hides, leathers, grand/greater soul gems
- another one for ingredients
- useable weapons
- stuff you want to enchant
- stuff you need to sell (but don't have the time)

Making money in Skyrim, is all about inventory management. Even with a follower, its a bit hard to just loot everything. And then there are 3 ways to loot:
1. Loot everything
- fast in the sense that you'll fill up faster, but slower in that you'll be taking much more time completing quests
2. Loot things with the most face value
- steel chest pieces.. have a weight of 30 but sells for only 275... so about 9 gold per weight
3. Loot things with the best weight to value ratio
- a scroll of fireball has a weight of 0.5 but sells for over 200, so like a 400 gold per weight 

There are a few ways to increase your effectiveness when making money:
- put point into stamina which will increase carry weight by 5
- use the Steed Stone which increases your carry weight by 100
- get 50 skill in Pickpocketing, which has a perk that increases carry weight by 50
- get 50 skill in Speech to get the perk which allows you to sell any item to any merchant
- enchant your gear/get gear that increases carry weight

Talking about Enchanting, I reached 100 in Enchanting on Sunday and with the perk that allows 2 enchantments at one time, my power level jumped! I was able to not only provide enough resistances to take the risky Apprentice Stone (100% increased magicka regen, 100% more damage FROM spells), I decreased the costs of Destruction spells to the point that I could cast 5 times as many spells.

Having troubles with Giants? Double enchant your follower and prep your maniacal laughter when you watch them cut a Giant down in 5 seconds.

How do you increase your Enchanting?
First: Ensure you have selected the Mage Stone. For faster results, sleep in a bed for a Rested bonus.
Whenever you're at a general trader npc, buy all their petty and lesser soul gems.
Once you have about 30 soul gems, go to either the rivers of Whiterun area or Winterhold sea area. The Whiterun rivers have mudcrabs which are easy targets, while the sea area of Winterhold(or even Dawnstar) has Horkers (think: Walrus).
Keep capturing souls until you get the message that you're out and then go an enchant any of your miscellaneous trash gear.

If I ever DO get the PC version, i'll be increasing my Enchanting and Speech asap. 

Whats your Title?

Got your attention? Good.

There seems to be a correlation between fitness and the hardcore gamer. It feels like we spend so much time gaming, that we ignore many other areas of life. Whether it be social or physical, the time we put into our games could be spread out into other activities. I'll be the first to pleading guilty of letting my games *cough-Skyrim-cough* take priority and conveniently forget everything else. Why today, I was busy listening to the rebel leaders talk about the importance of Whiterun instead of hearing the timer go off to let me know that my baked potatoes were done. Every night I make it a point to stop playing at 11 to get a good nights rest and wake up early before work to study or workout; instead I end up playing past 2 and waking up with enough time to run out the door.

I love my younger brother; he's incredibly smart and talented. Able to master anything he puts his mind to, he's unstoppable (like his older brother) when motivated. But right now, he'd rather spend 10+ hours a day just playing games *cough-Skyrim-WoW-cough*. It has been over 4 months since his contract at his last job ended and although that 'economy is tough,' it isn't impossible to get a job. Although people tend to pooh-pooh on job agencies, my friend's contract job ran out last Friday and got a new job (with Kobo, no less) in less than a week!

Everything takes effort. Anything worthwhile requires sacrifice. We're not talking about sacrificing a follower so that you survive a quest. We're talking about diverting our time and resources into something else.

So here comes the reason for the good-looking woman above; exercise is important for all of us. Its hard and requires dedication but isn't impossible. Exercising on a consistent basis doesn't mean we give up our hardcore gamer title (I prefer my gamer-photographer title instead). We don't need to become muscleheads, and abandon gaming (I probably won't ever), we just need to add some variety to what is the spice of life.

Anyways; if you're interested in exercising but don't know where to start, head over to Bodyrock.tv which has a pretty good website. Alot of videos that show you techniques, both beginner and advanced. It doesn't hurt that the people in the videos are easy on the eyes ;)

Challenge Accepted!

I enjoy challenging games. Not necessarily 'hard' games, but ones that provide a challenge.

Per Nerfnow's comic, that is the reason why I don't like WoW; they did a great job catering to those that have never played an mmo before and want to jump in, feel like they can get great loot, but they made it too easy. I see my brother, who granted is able to play any game and master it, but come on, there are people that have so many mounts that there is an actual book to select the one they feel like using. In the 'good ol days' you had your mount and that was it. It elevated you from the crowd; you tamed a dragon and brought it into town, now that was impressive. 

I enjoy in Skyrim how creatures level up as you do, so you can't just expect to use certain loopholes in the game to level up and then overpower bandits by your sheer level difference. While you're lvl 25 plus in elven armor.. your bandits may be wearing orcish or even ebony gear now.. much stronger than yours. Even worse if you're leveling non-combat abilities (pure thief), you will be in a world of hurt when needing to fight.


Did you know, you can't just run up point-blank into a dragon and blast spells/shoot arrows at it? It clearly has a defined mind to take a chomp out of you. Maybe the weaker Blood Dragons won't do that, but when you're higher levels, the game plays better and those ancient dragons will eat you and you'll be reloading that fight again.


An efficient and safe way to level your destruction skill:
- summon a flame/frost atronach
- blast away
If you take too long, your atronach will turn hostile on you, but I haven't seen it retaliate. This is a much safer way to level your skill (although, very boring) versus fighting strong monsters or alot of weaker monsters.


A safe way to level your restoration skill:
- do the College of Winterhold quest where you learn the spell Equillibrium (alteration spell)
- the spell is similar to a warlock's spell that switches health for mana
- cast it until you have near full mana and nearly depleted health (don't kill yourself!)
- then cast a healing spell
- you'll be gaining both restoration and alteration skill 
Once again, a boring way to level skill, but if you're set on leveling particular skills and not wasting contributions to your overall level, it has to be done.

Skyrim Lullaby

I've made the right decision: instead of playing Skyrim at the dead of night (and probably ending up accidentally playing til 5...oops!), i've decided just to do this entry instead and provide fantastic fan vids of the music from Skyrim.

TOR and Mirrored Classes

I don't have any real SW:TOR beta experiences or blogs b/c I didn't apply nor got into it and could only talk about what I saw briefly from watching my younger brother play. That being said, I have been reading your blogs and something I read was unsettling: Mirrored Classes.

Something I detest is classes that are shared against enemy factions. Especially when there are only 4 classes in TOR. Yes, there are specializations, but aren't they mirrored too? Once again, haven't done much research and haven't really read it on any blogs, but i'm quite sure its just another name for another class. If you have mirrored/shared classes, make sure you have 7+ classes. It was a bit odd to see my brother in Flashpoints/instances that consisted of just one class.

I did enjoy the fact that although there was class mirroring in WAR, Mythic did it right. The racial pairings had different class mechanics, so technically 10-12 different classes. Even then, the talents were unique (thinking about Pounce).. the pets were unique..the armors were different. You knew your opponent was a Black Orc, or a High Elf Swordmaster. Similar but not exactly the same.

Before I nitpick about Skyrim, lets just put it out there: Its a great game. I would seriously argue it is a GOTY. If I had it for PC, I would be able to tell you how many insane hours i've logged in just two weeks, but i'm guessing about.. 50+ easily.

That being said: I don't like how there is a high amount of invincible npcs in the game.

There should be some way to determine whether a character in Skyrim is killable or not. I'm already pretty paranoid (due to initial 360 data corruption issues) and save often, and this has saved me lots of fines and prison time, as i've found out the hard way that some seemingly innocent npcs are unkillable. It feels like a good 25% of them have this VIP status which takes away from seamlessness of the environment.

Skyrim Success

Follow these simple tidbits for good results in Skyrim:

Archery
- spend a bit of money at the blacksmith/fletcher and buy arrows; making sure you have around 150+ on any adventure
- level it as soon as possible, being able to slow down time to get that headshot while zoomed in will make ranged combat viable and easy
- raise your level easily by attacking mammoths and giants and using the terrain (rivers, rocks, buidings) to your advantage


Money
- Halted Stream Camp; for the Transmute spell which converts any iron ore to silver and silver to gold; FYI, it doesn't convert ingots only ORE
- alchemy is a cash cow; just spend your time gathering materials, when my skill gets high enough, I even buy out all the ingredients from the vendors b/c I know ill end up with more high value pots
- don't loot everything; Iron has a poor value:weight ratio while steel has a better ratio; gloves, daggers and helmets generally have a better ratio as well. Unless you are CONSTANTLY going back and forth to every single town and vendor, you're better off looting high value but low carry weight items
- join the Thieves Guild to be able to steal and then sell frequently to the fence who can have anywhere from 250-500 more gold than normal vendors


Raising Alteration, Restoration, Illusion
- cast an armor (alteration)spell and letting wolves (something weak) attack you, casting a heal spell when health gets low, and possibly casting a fear spell to make them run away
- buy iron ore cheaply from vendors and casting Transmute for skill and profit
- once you get Invisibility, casting that with Muffle will EASILY get you to 100 Illusion 
- if your goal (which we know it is) is to get 75 Illusion for Invisibility, the easiest (but cheap) way to level is to get a follower and then cast Courage over and over


Blacksmithing
- do alot of hunting, turn those pelts/hides into leather and make a billion hide bracers; its the cheapest item and it gives a big chunk of skill increases, the only drawback is that it sells for very little
- coupled with Transmuting your iron ore to gold ore, you can then turn the gold ore into simple gold necklaces which is an easy way to increase your skill and money


Enchanting
- same thing with blacksmithing; save your greater soul gems and use your petty and lesser soul gems and just enchant everything to increase your skill
- many dungeons will have a few soul gems as it is a bit expensive to buy from vendors (both empty and filled gems)
- join the College of Winterhold (mage guild) and steal from them as there are alot of gems here

A Skyrim Thanksgiving - Spoiler Warning

I dislike dungeons in Skyrim... so unnaturally dark.. everyone must be Khajits in the world as they must have the Nighteyes racial ability. Oh but wait, its all Nords.. The guards have the right idea and patrol at night with torches.


Happy American Thanksgiving everyone! Although in Canada, i'm off b/c our department mostly does financing in the US, so if they're off, we're off! Yay!

Some things i've noticed in Skyrim these days *spoilers*:

It seems like all guild leaders are corrupt and will be the traitor.. convenient for you to take their place. I guess everyone wants to be the GM for the Dark Brotherhood, or Thieves Guild, but sometimes its nice to know there is leadership in place and you don't have to worry about day-to-day humdrums.

Invisibility + Muffle = Almost always invisibility.
I say 'almost' because animals can still smell you and will take a bite out of your invisible form. Try to stay atleast 3 meters away from them. I haven't tried crouching while invisible and muffled... but i don't think that is the point of the two spells.

Halted Steam Camp. Insta money. Find as many iron ore mines as you can and spend your time Transmuting all of it into silver, then into gold. Using Smithing, you can then easily turn them into gold jewelry for very high profit.

Near the end of the Dark Brotherhood questline, you get the most powerful horse in the game. Shadowmere. Black sheen. Red eyes. Regenerates when damaged and is an aggressive horse. Still afraid it will die though. And how are you supposed to pick reagents on a horse? You can't! Its like free money on the ground with some of the best weight to value ratios.

Make sure you don't keep any valuables in the Dark Brotherhood and make sure you pick anything you want up b/c at the end... it burns down and nothing is recoverable.

I find that backstabs doesn't always work. It for whatever reason only does normal damage. Be careful!

Also, there are alot of npcs that are apparently critical to the game and cannot be assassinated.. sad.

Besides the Shout that causes dragons to land, there has got to be a better way to bring them down. When you have melee weapons drawn, they will just land on houses. I find when you draw a bow (don't need to shoot them), only then will they drop to the ground.

Skyrim - Ultimate Thief

I love it when web comics draw about games that i'm so passionate about... unfortunately unless it is an mmo, it is only for a few weeks until the next big game.

So per the comic in the previous entry, I've played ALOT of Skyrim. I've reached the point that i'm no longer addicted and need to play every day and am unable to stop. Its all more about testing things out, in particular the Invisibility spells, sneak attacks and how it works. As I wait to get it for the PC (b/c everything is better on the PC), i've developed a build I intend on using. Similar to D&D, I find if you plan ahead of time, you can make a very powerful character, and though you may not gimp them, not having a plan can result in a weaker character. Below is what i've partially tested (I have all the skills, just didn't do it in the right order that I intend) to be the Ultimate Thief build in Skyrim:

Objective: To be invisible most of the time & for devastating backstabs


Race:
Khajit


Primary skills:
Illusion - to be invisible and navigate easily via Muffle & Invisibility Spell
One Hand - to increase dagger damage
Sneak - for assassin blade perk for 15x backstab damage
Enchanting - decreased illusion spell cost, increased dagger dps and increased money


Secondary skills:
Lockpicking
Speech - to sell
Alchemy - poisons, pots and money source
blacksmith - to make better daggers and improve gear


Perk choices (starting racial value - skill - needed end value - perk):
15 illusion 75 - expert illusion
25 Sneak 50 - assassin's blade
20 one handed 80 - armsman rank 5
20 alchemy 80 - alchemist rank 5, poisoner
15 enchanting 100 - enchanter rank 5, 2 effects


Shout: Ice Form/ Throw voice


Enchantment slots
Head - Illusion
Chest - illusion
Hands - one handed
Feet - one handed
Ring - Illusion
Amulet - Illusion


First steps:
Join Dark Brotherhood - gloves that provide double (so at the end 30 TIMES) damage!!!
Join Thieves Guild - to sell stolen items, and put money towards Soul Gems, bribe guards
join Mage Guild - to get access to many alchemy and enchanting things (must steal)
Do Daedric Quest for Azura - rechargeable black soul gem for enchanting
Join Bard College - for quest reward perk for 15% faster Speech gain

Skyrim - Easy Money

Think leveling your Illusion skill to 75 to be able to cast Invisibility is impossible?
The solution is a rather simple one:
Get a humanoid follower and cast Courage over and over. My level 9 mage has 50+ Illusion already.
Don't feel like being so cheap?

You technically could find one/two wolves in the wilderness and take turns casting Fear on them.

I found the location to the best way to make money in Skyrim:
Halted Stream Camp.
Almost (a bit west) directly north of the city of Whiterun; the actual location given to you as the second bounty quest by the Innkeeper at the Bannered Mare in Whiterun.
After defeating some bandits (and it's leader), inside the mine there is a spell tome of Transmutation. This amazing spell converts one piece of unrefined iron ore to one piece of unrefined silver. And then cast it again, and it will convert the silver to GOLD. Best thing is, the mine is filled with iron ore deposits.. when I left the mine, I had 34 pieces of iron ore in my backpack!
Don't mind/want to level your Smithing?
Smith that gold into gold jewelry for even more profit.
Every single character from now on will be going directly to that mine.