I have one more thing to post about Fallout 3. It should have been done early last week. Alas, Skyrim.
Like millions before me, I have been sucked up entirely into the world of Skyrim and cannot break free of its unusually strong grip. It’s a miracle that my job and relationship aren’t suffering because of it. Just sleep. But that’s okay, I’d much rather play Skyrim than sleep. It’s amazing how the hours just slip away as you’re out slaying dragons and exploring the mountains.
That said, the whole “exploration is its own reward” thing I had going on with Fallout is definitely there in Skyrim, probably even more. There are like twice as many locations to find in Skyrim as there are in the Capital Wasteland, and it seems like a lot more of them are significant. For instance, there was one cabin with a bandit inside. Boring, right? No! In the cellar, I could hear wind coming from somewhere, and as luck would have it, I found a note that mentioned some hidden goods behind a bookcase. After a little searching, I found a button that moved the bookcase, and there was way more down there than a couple bottles of wine. There was a huge, snaking cavern full of bandits. At the end of that was a short ruins area that was full of booby-traps and led to a gigantic treasure trove, full of gold, gems, and rare ores.
Then one other time, I was exploring this cave full of Falmer (cave-people), and then I got to the bottom and a giant robot attacked me! Totally did not expect that!
The one sucky thing I’ve found is that characters who will join you really don’t mind dying permanently. Like this one guy, Faendal, who joined me almost right at the beginning of the game. He was cool, and was a pretty slick shot with a bow. He got the shit kicked out of him a few times, but never gave up. So when I found him laying on the ground after a battle with some particularly tough bandits and discovered that he wasn’t going to get up, I was sad. I also got a stray dog and some random dude killed by giants. Not my fault, really. They just didn’t understand that you don’t fuck with giants.
I suppose I wasn’t too fond of the character creator either. I wanted to play a lady wood elf. Am I so wrong? Well, Bethesda seems to think so, because I had to work very hard to make one that didn’t look manly or scary. I played with the face configurator for at least an hour before I finally managed to work out something I found acceptable. I didn’t need her to be the most beautiful character anyone’s ever seen or anything; I would have settled for cute. (Originally I wanted to make her resemble Stephanie, but there was no way in Hell that that was going to happen.)
In non-Skyrim news (enjoy this, it may be the last for a while), I downloaded the Final Fantasy XIII-2 demo last week. Being one of the three people who liked FFXIII, I’m very excited for it. The fact that it plays more like a regular JRPG (exploring, towns, sidequests, etc) but retains the bulk of XIII’s battle system makes me very happy indeed. I just wish Lightning were the main character again. Serah just seems so… cliche. I cannot relate to her at all. But the new Crystarium seems really cool! It’s kind of sad that I have this pre-ordered, but probably won’t play it for months. Stupid Skyrim, being so awesome and addictive. Skyrim Skyrim Skyrim.