Dead Space 2 Let's Play S3

The second set went much better considering my skill. At the end of it I was seriously considering upping the difficulty. Sadly my skill as a gamer wavers and changes on a daily basis. And at the end of this set I realized I better not touch it for a while.

I still love Dead Space 2, but this being the fourth play though I'm starting to see it's cracks.

Fast Travel in Bethesda Games.

I recently stumbled upon a topic on a forum that broke into heavy arguments about the fast travel system in Oblivion, Fallout and Fallout New Vegas.

There were two fronts, the pro and the anti.

First to explain the whole system, 'Fast Travel' lets you open your map at any point in the game your not in a dungeon or encircled by enemies and you get to click on a settlement/city/landmark on your map, and you'll be instantly teleported to that location.

Now the anti-fast travelers, or the RPG puritans as I'd like to call them, make a strong case; once you travel you skip allot of content. You miss out on adventures, and you miss out on exploring the wonderful world created for you. It's too easy to 'abuse' the fast travel system.

The pro-fast travelers make some interesting points as well. Firstly, fast travel is an option, you can choose to ignore it, which is entirely viable. Secondly it's not fun to travel, especially after you already seen all that the game has to offer. And after I spent roughly a year in Oblivion I can definitively see that point.

Now the fast travel system is not a bad system. I feel it has just been wrongfully implemented in all the games.

Now say theoretically I was to create a travel system for Skyrim. I would play it out something along these lines.

Remove it from the map screen entirely.

Create a teleport spell, and make it have a cooldown. A long one, maybe an hour at the start, but have it retain the function of the fast travel system. So you cast the spell, a map overlay appears and you click on a location previously discovered. And as long as you are not surrounded by bad guys and you are not in a dungeon the spell will teleport you, and the cooldown will start running.

The reasoning behind it; It's too easy to abuse, but it can be such a drudgery to travel, cutting it entirely from the game would be a loss too great. Both sides make strong points, so consider this a compromise of sorts.

But wait there is more!

Skyrim introduces perks for the player to choose at every set levels. Make teleportation one of the skills your able to invest these points in. For those who have seen all that the game has to offer cutting the cooldown by half might be more interesting then taking a perk in a combat related skill. But why stop there? Add a perk that makes it usable in combat situations, a long cooldown get out of jail free card. And add a perk to make it usable in a dungeon.

If the spell tree doesn't allow this sort of implementation then use it in Dragon Shouts and make rare stones that allow you to upgrade that shout.

They could have implemented this in Fallout as well, keeping intact any sense of immersion the player has. Add it as a function to the PIP-Boy. Have the player encounter a piece of long lost pre-war technology that allows him or her to teleport to cities they have visited, but the ability drains the battery on the PIP-boy and it requires time to recharge. Add specialty vendors that allow you to upgrade this aspect of your PIP-boy for caps/money. Now you have a great money dump, and a form of travel that doesn't break the game or impedes on the players sense of immersion.

Let's Play: Dead Space 2 S2

Well the second set is up for viewing. I did manage to fix the audio levels a bit but I'm thinking it's still too quiet, so the next set will have it's audio raised.

It did go better, sadly I forgot how much space FRAPS takes when recording in full HD, and my hard drive got full before the end, hence the abrupt stop. Not much footage was lost however, only a bit of me using the shop, buying a pulse rifle and forgetting to purchase medkits. I have a feeling the next set is going to be harder because of that, but I'll see how it works out.

Let's Play: Dead Space 2 S1

My very first Let's Play. I spent allot of time thinking about what game to play, I wanted it to be completely blind, but there aren't any interesting games I could think of, or Steam offered that I didn't already owned/played through. I was torn between Dead Space 2 and Alice: The Madness Returns.

I still haven't finished Alice, so it was my first choice, but I had a ton of trouble recording, and since I lack a HD capture card for the Xbox, and I'd hate to release crap resolution footage, it's been postponed.

Production wise it went pretty horrible, and I'm not satisfied with the end result at all, but the start is there I suppose. For the next set I'll be lowering the game audio ever so slightly so my voice doesn't get drowned out. I also need to stop mumbling to myself, but I'm finding it a real challenge to commentate in English, given Dutch is my primary language. I think it's reflected more heavily in my speech then in my writing tho I imagine it's noticeable in both.

Dead Space 2 is probably one of my favorite games of all time, it's full of cheap scares and the plot is sorta not really there, but I like the games setting and Isaac as a character actually displays some growth during the game. 

The next set should be uploaded tomorrow-ish, unless my internet craps out again.

For those interested, all video's will be found on http://www.youtube.com/user/RealityOnHold1

Let's Play: Fear 3 with Mathews. Chapter 1, Part 2.

And here's part 2. Chapter 2 will be done soon, we still need to find a time were both able to record.

Let's Play: Fear 3 with Mathews. Chapter 1, Part 1.

Our first attempt at recording gameplay, well actually it's more like our 40th attempt but the first one that we made without microphone's going under or over the game sound. It was trickier then we assumed, we recorded it and commentated on it in one go with two microphone's on the same couch. The first half of the attempts were met with reverb, or one microphone overshadowing the volume of the other. Then there was one that went horribly out of sync at the end. This one does go out of sync ever so slightly at the end, but it did turn out decent enough to release.

Part two should be uploaded sometime soon™.

History: The Elder Scrolls Part One.

With Skyrim coming on 11-11-11, I thought this would be the perfect time to do a little history on the series. The publicity on this game will surely attract allot of new players to the series and not all of those will be familiar with the setting.

The Elder Scrolls series takes place in the world of Nim, specifically on the continent called Tamriel, which consists of nine provinces.

Tamriel

Ten races share this continent with each other. They are; Bretons, Orsimer, Redguard, Nords, Dunmer, Argonians, Khajit, Bosmer, Altmer and the Imperials.

In the previous Elder Scroll games these races have all been playable, as such it can be assumed they are all once again playable in Skyrim.

A quick rundown on the races.

Altmer - High Elves.

Tall fair skinned elves hailing from the Summerset Isle, these elves call themselves the Altmer after the first elves that came to Tamriel. A proud gold skinned people that consider themselves as the most civilized of the races on Tamriel, and with some justice. The common language of Tamriel is based on their language, and science and arts have always been a part of Altmer tradition. High Elves are intelligent, deft and strong willed making them exceptional magic users.

Argonian.

Coming from Black Marsh, which, as the name suggests is very march-like. Humanoid repitles, extremely agile and speedy, in the previous games they were able to breath underwater, they also received boons on cunning. Making them excellent rogues and thieves, as well as alchemists and merchants, and even though many do take this path, they have the potential to make for great mages. Argonians are by their very nature reserved and are slow to trust. However, once they have considered someone a friend they make for extremely loyal companions. They have a strong rivalry going with the Khajit though, and in the previous games rolling a Khajit will have you start with a low disposition towards Argonians and vice versa.

Bosmer - Wood Elves.

Living in the forest province of Valenwood. They are the Legolassas and Legolillies of the Elder Scrolls, good with bows, very agile etc. They are related to the Dunmer and Altmer, though are considered lesser by both. The Bosmer live in perfect harmony with the forest and nature. In the games this related to special perks towards animals and alchemy. They can make great melee and magic characters but they excel at archery.

Breton.

Bretons come from High Rock, they are tall dark and handsome, very cultural, intelligent people resulting from crossbreeding Altmeri and humans, though they are technically still considered humans. Bretons are often eccentric and flamboyant. They have a very strong affinity with magic, especially restorative magic and are highly resistant to magic themselves.

Dunmer - Dark Elves.

Dark Elves make their home in Morrowind, the location of the third Elder Scrolls game, and are heavily featured in the game. Dunmer have a dark blue skin and red eyes, they are quick, strong, inteligent and highly versatile warriors. Opposite of the Altmer who almost flaunt their superiority, the Dunmer keep to themselves, they are reserved and generally appear to be in a dark mood.

Imperial - Humans.

Yeah humans basicly, they come from Cyrodiil, where Oblivion took place. Diplomatic and natural born leaders, most of the true seats of power on Tamriel are occupied by Imperials.

Khajit.

Khajit are the residential cat people in the Elder Scrolls, as to be expected they are quick and ferocious, agile and tough. Related to an anchient race of cat people that lived in Tamriel long before the first humans and elves arrived. Notably in Oblivion they had the very handy benefit of being able to see in the dark.

Nord - Humans.

Yes, moar humans, cause we love ourselves in fantasy games. These are the Vikings of the Elder Scrolls minus the whole pillaging part. They come from Skyrim and it's to be expected that the game is going to be fillid with them. They are tall and blonde. Hardy people famous for their resistance to the cold that is prevalent in Skyrim and they make for highly durable warriors.

Orsim - Orcs.

Ugly and green. As expected of Orcs in fantasy they aren't too bright, but they make up for that with sheer strength and brutallity. Fond of heavy weaponry and disdainful of magic and sneakiness. They share their homeland with the Bretons of High Rock. Although people think they are related to goblins, they are actually closer related to Aldmer (first generation of High Elves) after they got back stabbed by Boethiah the Daeadric Prince (sort of like a god) of ... backstabbing and deceit. Who'd have thunk right?

Redguard - Humans.

Two is not enough kinds of humans. The Redguards come from Hammerfell, they excell at close combat and melee, making for skillful warriors. Most of the Redguard absolutely despise magic in the lore, considering it to be for weak and cowardly.



All races fit into one of three categories. Mer (Elves), Human and the Beast Races. Humans make up the bulk, elves are usually, in their provinces higher classed then the humans, and at the bottom of the pit are the beast races. The beast races, Khajit and Argonians are oft used as slaves and beasts of burden, they generally have the toughest times in Tamriel.

There are ofcourse more races on the surface of Nirn but these are the playable ones (without mods) and the most common ones in the games. There is one honorable mention I have to make when touching the subject tho.


The Daedra.


The focal point of Oblivion were these creatures. They are considered Divine and take on a wide variety of forms, from beautiful angel like creatures to giant beasts and demons.

Daedra are governed by Daedric Princes that are much like the gods of ancient Greece in how they represent a certain aspect of life on Nirn. Per example; Hircine the Daedric Prince of Hunting or Shegorath, Prince of Insanity (more on him later).

Daedra come from the planes of Oblivion, a separate dimension tied to Nirn and unlike the impression the game gave they are actually incredibly diverse and exotic.

As opposed to this brown and fiery plane of boredom.

The planes of Oblivion range from hell to heaven, literally. There are those that look like the inside of a volcano and those that rest high in the sky on islands a midst the clouds. It all depends on which Daedric Prince rules the plane in question. The one we came to know and hate furiously in Oblivion was the plane of Mehrunes Dagon, the Daedric Prince of Hell, war and really really mean things basicly.




That's it for this post, which took longer then expected because Blogger doesn't like me trying to format something in a neat and tidy fashion, next time we'll have a look at some notable people and factions in the Elder Scrolls series.