Bethesda Thursdays
Skyrim
The patch, which was in beta just last week, brings numerous bug and quest fixes, including one fix concerning unuseable Wabbajacks. Whatever those are.
Most interesting of all, as far as I’m concerned, is that the patch also introduces a new feature to the PC version of the Skyrin launcher: support for the Skyrim Workshop.
It has been rumoured for a while now, and more than one gaming news outlet has been declaring its imminence in the last week. Now, though, you can see it in action:
Integrated with Steam Workshop!
May I just state, for the record, that I believe the My Little Pony craze has now reached its apex? Or maybe its nadir…it’s largely a question of perspective as to whether you regard this as the high point of crazy or the depths of insanity:
What the heck? Seriously!
Skyrim’s three most ridiculous quests.
WhatCulture! attempts to describe them.
How to kill a Skyrim dragon with a single arrow.
Remember when dragons in games used to be fearsome things? Remember when stepping into Destard seemed like the stupidest thing in the world to be doing, no matter how damn badly Sandy wanted you to get that bloody egg for him?
Why is it worth drawing attention to this one? Because it is coming more than two months after the game’s release, and has been delayed in that manner precisely because the reviewer wanted to take in as much of the game as he could.
Remember when Grand Theft Auto 3 released and you thought that you could do anything your heart desired? Looking back now, you will see that GTA was just child?s play. In Elder Scrolls V, you are truly only limited by your imagination. If you can dream it, you can do it. Even something so mundane as staring at the night sky.
I have spent many hours just sneaking around town stealing items for no reason other than to quench the thirst of kleptomania. On more than one occasion this caused me to be pursued by a shop keep or homeowner. One such instance had an invincible shop keep chasing me for about 45 minutes. Sure, I could have let him kill me or went to jail, but as I said, you can do anything and I wanted to enjoy the chase.
He gives the game a 9/10 rating, objectively quite good. And yet, you almost get the impression that he does so just ever so slightly against his will:
I was not just a little pissed off that Skyrim snagged so many GOTY awards away from Arkham City; I was livid. However, in the end it probably deserves it. With Batman you get a fun world to explore for a couple dozen hours, and with Skyrim you get a game that could take over your life. If you only had money to buy one game this year, then Elder Scrolls V would be the wisest choice. Our hats go off to Bethesda for a job well done and maybe, just maybe, we can get bored with Skyrim before the next title in the series.
Christopher Livingston, at PC Gamer, has posted the eigth installment of his “stroll” through Skyrim, in which he attempts to play the game as though he were just one more NPC in its massive world.
He seems to want to marry his character off.
If I had put together such a nice article and no one commented I’d nail gun someone to an 8×4 plywood panel and launch them like a frisbee with a giant slingshot into an adjoining county. I hope it was at least well read.
First of all, what’s up with My Little Pony? Disturbing video, especially the soft “Hhhhey” sounds or whatever they keep making. The only craze I knew about was in the 80’s I think and it involved typical guilt marketing to children/adults with accompanying cartoon and toys. What’s more revealing is that it exposes the static nature of Skyrim’s landscape and structure implementations. The structures don’t even get the courtesy of a reach around, I mean, evidence of being burned or destroyed such as decals or submodels for progressive damage/decay/randomvariations. Strange.
Also, cool: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aurora_(astronomy)
Regarding Skyrim Workshop, the best feature is the ability to have your mods uploaded to, indexed by and downloaded and automatically patched from Bethesda’s web site.
The professionalism of the presentation, toolset (apparently) and distribution mechanism made me suspicious, as there is (as far as I know) no direct revenue stream to Bethesda as a result. These are my theories for why this is:
1) Quality and easily accessible mods encourage customer interest by providing an outlet for fans’ creative impulses and low-cost (for Bethesda) content for consumption.
2) Talented customers working on Skyrim mods won’t be spending that time making mods for competing products or original projects which could be released independently or acquired by a competing studio.
3) Sheer PR as it fulfills the target demographic’s expectations as set by previous Bethesda releases and demonstrates the company is going the extra mile for the fans.
4) As an addendum to point 1, it nicely fills the void between the release of Skyrim and the next official installment of the series (including the inevitable expansions which augment modders’ and consumers’ palettes).
As far as the “How to kill a Skyrim dragon with a single arrow” video is concerned, that is some seriously tedious shit. Maybe everyone at Bethesda has an unnaturally high metabolism or are outright immortal. Note to self, avoid situations where players must consider amazing numbers of, well, numbers. Rather than a knife showing a stat, why not test it on a piece of paper or something. The more silent it cuts through it, the sharper it is. Also smithing is smithing, regardless of where you come from. Physics doesn’t change based on your culture. At least the skeleton looks cool, though it is still held together somehow after the flesh appears to burn away.
“As evening approaches, we climb a long hill and come upon two towers connected by a bridge straddling the river. A bandit woman rushes over and tells me there’s a toll to pass safely. She wants 200 gold, but I talk her down to 50 (with my honeyed words). I figure we’re cool at that point, and I spend a few minutes using her cooking pot and looking at the tower. She eventually grows irritated and attacks, but I calm her back down by killing her. I search her body, but my gold isn’t there. Did she eat it?”
Maybe she buried it when he wasn’t looking or passed it to one of her companions who later ran away. This part is funny:
“JASPER GODDAMNIT WILL YOU STOP BARKING? I’M TRYING TO HAVE AN IMAGINARY FIGHT WITH YOUR FUTURE MOTHER! SHUT! UP!”
He’s role playing it all the way to his goal. A true test of how flexible an engine is.