Gaming

Strange goings-on in Morrowind.

Vas is on an island.
Great!
So to avoid getting killed by the inevitable fish I tried a water-walking potion...



...that didn't last long enough...



...death by fish ensued.
One reload later and I tried levitation instead...



...better, but I'm still gonna need some more waterwalking for the final dash!



Made it!
Ha, ha! Sorry you missed out on a meal, annoying fishies.




But now I'm here I can't find the person I'm supposed to meet. Instead I find this guy along with a topless woman showing her ample polygons...




Put some clothes on!

I think that in my panicky efforts to avoid being eaten by fish I may have taken one of those famous Morrowind wrong turns somewhere. I hope I don't have to go back through the water again.
(SPOILER: I bet I will. )

Once again I am awake at the wrong time...
GOG has a sale which includes Morrowind and Oblivion from the Elder Scrolls but they don't have Skyrim. Now, Morrowind sounds more boring than Skyrim and Oblivion had quite a few negative reviews...

...and come to think of it I haven't bought a birthday/christmas present for myself yet.

Oblivion is famous for its ugly potato faces.
But on the plus side it has Patrick Stewart doing a voice-over.
I do have it in my library but I'm still saving it for "after Morrowind."

Skyrim is only available on Steam, even if you buy a physical copy its usually just a Steam key in a box.
I think there's a winter sale there at the moment so the special edition will probably be half price.
In a similar gift-getting way, I might buy myself the Dragonborn DLC if I acquire enough coins.

The best presents are the ones you buy yourself.

Right then. I swam (yes, SWAM, because I used up all my water walking/levitation potions getting to the wrong place!) aaaall the way back to the mainland, killed what seemed like an entire ocean of fish on the way and then after reaching land fought off numerous cliff racers while aimlessly roaming around to try to find the person I was supposed to be meeting but... Where the hell are they???
Then I saw one of those fire people!
I've seen them and killed them in Skyrim but never before in Morrowind and I didn't see it for long cos it killed me pretty darn quick.

Reload back to the dead fish and the topless girl...

Hmmm, I wonder if that's the right island over there...



Quick frantic swim followed by a cliff racer attack as I was trying to get out of the water.
Then a two-on-one battle with MORE cliff racers and finally...



Yaaay! That's the "Buoyant Armiger" that I'm supposed to meet! (And I have no idea what a Buoyant Armiger is. )

There's only one thing to do after all that...

SAVE!!

uhm, it seems to be some sort of floaty noble...

Merry Christmas, everybody.

And as my 'present" to myself I have now successfully played a couple of minutes of The Witcher.
Well, I say "successfully" but I still don't understand the combat yet. I keep jumping at people instead of stabbing them.

OK, I get it now. It's a kind of pointy-click-rhythm combat rather than a Skyrim-style "click the button to swing the sword."
And I've just done an Aard thing!
But that's enough interactive Witchering today. I can now start watching the TV show without being completely ignorant.

PS. There are a lot of cut-scenes, aren't there? I wasn't expecting that.

to be honest I can't recall much. I do remember the rhythm clickity fights now you mention them, though...

Yep, you have to click on a baddie, then Geralt approaches them and starts swinging, and during this YOU MUST NOT CLICK AGAIN!!! (This was a hard lesson to learn. ) You click again when the pointer lights up and then Geralt starts some kind of combo move and once again you wait for the pointer to light up.
It's a rather strange and abstract method that constantly reminds you that you're just playing a game.


In other game-related news, I've only just noticed that Epic are giving away a different game EVERY DAY over Christmas. I'm a bit sad that I've missed out on Superhot. Then again, it probably wouldn't run for me.