Gaming

Spent a bit of time in Vivec last night doing the Informant quest in Morrowind. I've said before that I don't like Vivec and if I have to go there I usually just skulk around the Foreign Quarter, but for this one I had to go into the depths of St Olms and all the way south to the Temple canton. That last one is quite impressive with the big statues and that weird floating rock thing in the sky. I don't know if I'm supposed to know what that is yet, no-one talks about it. Part of me just wants to google but another part thinks it'll be better to find out in-game. Maybe it'll be something to do with Lord Vivec himself.
After that I had a wander about in Skyrim. I'm not playing that "properly" yet, I'm just messing around and enjoying the graphics. Skyrim really looks like a real world whereas Morrowind feels like a real world. Playing both of them now makes me want to mix the two of them together which is kind of appropriate timing because the other day those modders released a new trailer for their "Skywind" rebuild....



Mmmm, lovely. Also they announced that it'll only be released for the Special Edition... which is the one I didn't buy.

I did one of those Charlotte-style late-night gaming sessions last night. *yawn*

I tried out the first quest in Skyrim, retreiving a golden thing from some thieves. I thought it'd be a quick one like those early Morrowind quests where you just have to pick flowers or something. You know, just bash the thief and loot the body, something like that. However it turned into an epic two and a half hour adventure through a raging blizzard battling one bandit then two, three, TEN! Onward into and through a deep cave/temple with more bandits then a massive spider then an army of undead Nords, some little Tomb Raider style puzzles, more undead, three boss(ish) battles and a weird wall with some glowing magic word of power.
It was all very exciting.
But didn't get me much sleep.

The minstrels in Assassin's Creed are absolutely infuriating. There I am trying to sneak away after a deadly mission, avoiding the guards and blending in.... Then some guy with a lute accosts me and makes me the centre of attention by singing his song right in my face. IN MY FACE!!! And they get right in the way to stop you walking (you know, Morrowind style. ) I haven't stabbed one yet but I will. I will!
And.... there are loads of pickpockets now too who run around (far too quickly!) and snaffle my coins if I'm not careful. Don't they know who I am?!

Assassins Creed sounds almost realistic Dang those other people always getting in your way.

Skyrim is such a time-sink!
I think I've been playing for about 8-10 hours (nearly double the time I took to complete Limbo and Portal) and I haven't really done anything aside from that one quest. It's just fun to... walk around! Chop a bit of wood. See all the locals go to the inn on an evening. Roll my eyes as two guys bicker over the resident pretty girl. Go outside and watch the wildlife, chase after the rabbits (or are they hares? ) Get startled by one of those nimble little foxes that jump out of the bushes. Etc. Etc.
I was a teensy bit frustrated that you can't pet the dogs!
I have found a mod that lets you feed the animals by cooking some dog treats but I'm not quite ready to try modding yet.

I have ventured into the prefs/ini files though. That weird shadow flickering was getting on my nerves but after much research and fiddling I've now fixed it to my own tastes.
So back to adventuring!
Or just watching wildlife.

You aren't supposed to play Skyrim, you are supposed to spend a month modding it, then never touch it again.

I managed not to buy assassins creed the other day... Figured I have enough and certainly play enough games as it is... *goes back to reorganising her Tribez villages* (it's been so long, they changed some graphics, added a bunch of new resources that I dunno how to get and made it possible to join "clans" with other players - I took one quick look at that, closed it down and was rewarded with a beaming "I knew you'd like that" from an NPC)

And just because I said the above (about playing enough) I downloaded a free game called Torchlight from Epic yesterday. That is, it's temporarily free. Haven't played it yet, though.

I already had Torchlight, but I did grab it yesterday as well for the sake of convenience (otherwise I have to hunt for the original disc). If you find yourself enjoying it you should also check out Path of Exile which is another Diablo clone that is free to play.

Thanks for the tip. We'll see how many months before I stop playing Tribez again...