Gaming

but... but... but...
* just finished the Witcher game *

But... but... The last fistfight? Oh dang that was probably in murky waters... Things sort of happened before I could get that over with... And new armour - I got the tip on the smith before I got the last notes needed and pretty much the last 1,5 chapters were just chaos in the streets and honest folk (like innkeepers who keep your belongings safe or traders) were in hiding. I kept expecting to get another chance at finishing up a few things, but apparently not... And when was I supposed to sell those alp fangs to the dentist??? huh!?

You've finished?
I thought you were stuck having read your complaints about the right mouse button. Perhaps they kept that problem just to slow you down and make the game last longer.

Maybe you can sell the fangs in the sequel?


Meanwhile... early Morrowind is definitely easier when you know what you're doing. The first time around I spent ages trudging around with no weapons or money, having to walk everywhere because I couldn't afford to use the Silt Strider. But this time after only an hour of play I've already got my Sword Of White Woe and 6 grand in gold!
And I haven't had to try and kill a rat yet!

congratulations

The animated grass mod looks lovely... but it doesn't help you find those damn mushrooms. Or that dead tax collector! Oh, sorry. I mean "missing" tax collector. I'm not supposed to know he's dead yet.
*disables grass*
Oh, look. There he is over there. Dead!
*solves murder*
I've also had my own first death. A couple of guars got me while I was searching for that drug addict's body on the way back from Caldera. They seemed to be much quicker and more aggressive than I remember. And I couldn't find the body. I'll have to retrace my steps... but not yet. Before that I think I need to spend some of that gold on some training to get levelled up to... level two.

I got the key for Nerano Manor!
I couldn't complete that Thieves' Guild quest last time, partly because of the broken pickpocketing system (which is supposedly fixed by those mods) plus the fact that Camonna Tong are a bit dangerous and fight back in a devastating way. This time I tried a different method though, I just bribed the guy! My character seems to have a stronger, more influential personality than before. I chose to play as an Imperial Knight rather than the previous Nord Archer, mainly because of the better axe stat but there are apparently other benefits too.

But I'm still dying occasionally. The latest one was when I tried to take on those smuggler thugs in Seyda Neen. It also made me think that the AI seems to be a bit different in this modded version of the game. (I suspected it with the quick, aggressive guars.) I hacked the first thug to death easily enough but after an initial confrontation, the second guy ran off to get help! (That never happened to me before.) I tried to chase after him while flailing my sword (which is hard because of my continuing ineptitude with the WASD keys) and the third smuggler appeared in the distance and started chucking things at me. Accurately! I don''t know if they were knives or stars or whatever, but they hurt. They hurt until death!
In all my previous games on the XBox the enemies tended to run at you with swords. This ranged weapon stuff is tricky. They're evolving!

Maybe that's why I felt odd about the ending of Witcher? I didn't die once...

Maybe you're just too good, Charlotte.

Are you moving straight on to the sequel now?

nah, I'm trying to take a bit of a gaming break Though there were some additional adventures in the first Witcher I'm curious to try...

As much as I liked having the Sword Of White Woe early on in Morrowind I am now on the lookout for my next weapon. It was great for those initial one-on-one encounters when you had to quickly dispatch a rat, an angry mudcrab or a random murderer of a Tax Collector, but once you start taking on small groups, that particular sword's magic drains far too quick and takes an age to recharge.
Thinking back to my previous playthrough, my fave weapon for a time was the Dai-katana that I stole from a crate in the Caldera guard tower. So I obviously went back... and it wasn't there!? I'm not quite sure if this is down to my bad memory or if the crate's contents are randomly generated with each new game. Oh well.
I rummaged around a bit more in that tower and found a decent axe, just a basic one with no magic, but it will do and it helped to kill that woman who was chucking deadly stuff at me. I've also killed the poachers in the egg mine too but I still think I need some more axe training to get it closer to my Long Blade stats.

And in non-Morrowind game news... Tomb Raider games are very difficult on the keyboard. I grabbed a few the other week when Steam was selling them for mere coins and I just made a start on Underworld...
...and repeatedly died with alarming immediacy.

egg mine?