Flashback: Never Changes

Whenever I have to think back to why I love Bethesda, two series come to mind—The Elder Scrolls and Fallout. I’ve talked about both numerous times on the Workshop, namely Skyrim, Oblivion and New Vegas, but I think that it’s time to champion the one that I feels stands out the most from the 7^th generation of gaming: Fallout 3. This is something I had to put a lot of thinking into. I loved Oblivion, and even spent more time on it then I did on Fallout 3, but as I’m about to get into, there’s a strong reason why I gave Fallout 3 the best of the 4 choices.

Most people would expect when comparing Skyrim, New Vegas, Oblivion and Fallout 3 for greatness, you’d end up with an order like the one I just listed. After all, TES is debatably one of the biggest franchises in all of gaming right now, and although Fallout is big, TES is considered Bethesda’s crowning achievement. However, I think that in this case, Fallout 3 reigns supreme, even over one of my all-time favorites, Oblivion, giving my overall ranking system as:

1.      Fallout 3

2.      The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion

3.      The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

4.      Fallout: New Vegas

Now comes the hard part of justification. Starting out with why the two older games got the top two slots takes a bit of referencing back. Even though there are some nice improvements in New Vegas from 3, it doesn’t feel the same. I don’t know if this may be because Obsidian was the lead in making the game, and Bethesda was on Fallout 3, but it is a let-down.

 Oblivion, on the other hand is beaten in a large amount of ways by Skyrim; better graphics, better voice-acting, heavily superior combat system, new and improved items, and more. But, there are two things missing from Skyrim that Oblivion did have—a good central story, and huge amounts of charm. Now, I will admit that of the charm of Oblivion comes from the quirks: being able to jump for 5 seconds, wearing the gray cowl around town and taking it off just before guards come up to attack you so they angrily say “How are you today, Citizen?”, the fantastic effects of Skooma and of course, the fantastic voice acting by all of the guards. I played more than 1000+ hours of Oblivion before I got bored on 3 different characters. I played for just over 400 hours on 2 characters of Skyrim before I got bored of it.

So, how did I decide between the two games in the end? I looked at how I felt playing the two of them. Fallout 3 has a fantastic storyline, and the two games have completely different combat systems, magic and medieval weaponry vs. limited guns and ingenuity. I enjoyed the 2-toned system of Fallout 3’s Enclave and Brotherhood more than the huge amount of sprawling quests of Cyrodil. Although there may be more to do in the bigger world of Tamriel, the wastelands of D.C. truly are alive and unforgettable, giving them my top spot. Deciding 3^rd and 4^th wasn’t hard after that, I love Skyrim, just not as much as Oblivion. Obsidian, although not quite as magical as Bethesda still did a good job, and 4^th place is not a bad spot—they were up against impeccable competition.

Bethesda is a powerful producer and idea maker, but I think the next direction they may want to consider moving in, is one step back. The games, although more resourceful, are missing on what made them great in the first place. They took a chance on the “if it’s not broken, don’t fix it” idea, and fixed good systems and made them better, but lost something on the way. Fallout 3 is a prime example of a game that wasn’t perfect, but came damn near close to it. We don’t expect games to be 100% perfect and accurate all of the time. Fallout 3 is a game that gets closer to that bar than any other Bethesda game I’ve played.

--Santa

Xbox: How do You Keep Dragging Me Back?

I have to admit that over the last year, I have moved away from my Xbox. I haven't properly payed my Xbox since the beginning of the year, when I was still on my Honeymoon with Skyrim. But, I just can't seem to forget about my 3rd true gaming love. I was able to let go of the GameCube in a couple of seconds to get the Wii, I swapped the Wii for the Xbox without one tear shed, but now with my transitioning from PC from Xbox, I'm slowing down. I admit, it may have something to do with the fact that running TF2 on my computer makes the things shake with fear, but I think there's two titles that are still holding me back.

For those of you who guessed by looking at the picture, my first game should come as no shock. Halo 3 remains in my all time top 5 games, (which I will probably talk about at a later date) I played Reach, although I feel it had the same problem that Skyrim had. Skyrim was better than Oblivion in every single way Graphics, storyline, attack features. Everything was an improvement. But, the character was gone, and I no longer felt that special spark that I got from the raging at SWAT or getting Red Team on Avalanche. I missed the stupid guards who would want to attack because I wore m Gray Cowl, but if I took it off a second before they were to attack me, they'd ask me how my day was going. I miss that stupid charm.

So why am I excited for Halo 4? well, this is why. Go ahead and click the link to the pretty YouTube video, I assure you it'll get you going too. I will miss the Covenant, that's for sure, but I just can't help and feel amazed by the graphics, the overall feel of movement  that the game generates. I have personally felt that Video Games look pretty enough for the last few years, what we're going to see instead are dynamics. Improvements in movement, textures, differences in the bricks of houses, and maybe different sized trees. Maybe I'm just a bit too hopeful, but I do see a new realm beyond our current generation of games, everything can get better. Hit the page break to continue our heated discussion.

Steam: Building Your Own Future

Team Fortress 2 is the undeniable leader for hat and hat accessories in the video game world. But, Valve can only make so many hats, even to Robin Walker's own chagrin. But, for the last few years, there has been a was to add hats to the game without Valve having to do anything!

This is a subject I've mentioned in about 3 or so posts now, but I do believe that it is deserving of its own post. The Steam Workshop is a way for people to submit user made  content, after which can be viewed and voted on by viewers. 

But as well know the Team Fortress community is filled with mappers and modders and hackers. I may not understand how to program, but I sure do appreciate the work that these non-paid vigilantes put in to making these wonderful items that I may some day be using to taunt my fellow game player. But, one may ask, why should I bother to learn how to do this? it seems just about pointless to me. But, this is where you are wrong. Valve gives to whomever makes an item, and then is implemented into the game the item they made, but it has green text (similar to the text of a genuine item) and is called a self-made item. It also sparkles, like community weapons. What I would give for a sparkling Hotrod...

But Valve has expanded the Steam workshop. With the release of the creation kit for Skyrim there are now more mods coming out to shake a stick at, and it just so happens that Steam has Skyrim on sale for $40 bucks at the moment (certainly not a strategy to increase sales, of course not!) and a possible mod to be able to kill stop children from hindering your path, it may be time that I invest in a computer copy, at the very least I could just look at it on my computer. Just staring at me aimlessly. Just like New Vegas.

So, if you think you got what it takes to make a hat, or a map, or something else really cool you can try out SDK, I was never any good at it, but I have a few friends who have made maps. The community can always use more map makers and hat creators. And to any of you with the talent to do it, best of luck.

--Santa

Updates: Australian Christmas, Snowmedinger and Skyrim, Oh My!

Today has been a good day, people of the internet! Well, actually, yesterday was the good day, and now it’s running over into Thursday’s timeslot. But that is no reason to complain! Yes, it’s that time of year ladies and gents, we are in the middle of Christmas themed gaming.

It’s that time of year when all the big game developers make their games all warm and fuzzy on the inside.

Well, computer developers tend to. Stupid Bethesda never puts anything fun on the consoles. Or on anything.

No, instead we are now seeing eggnog potions of health in the League and Christmas crates returning in TF2. AND OH YES A NEW COMIC! NARRATED BY THE ENGINEER NONE THE LESS!

I get quite excited when my favorite Texan starts telling me the stories of old Nick, and how he gets into silly little fights with the mafia. But, you know what that means: new hats. Robin Walker & Co. decided they didn't want to go to the trouble of making hats this year (I see no reason why) and have instead let the community at large design some, and will eventually pick their favorites. In the meantime, I can only hope and dream that they give out festive keys to every little player of TF2 so we can pray for a hat. Or maybe even an unusual. Last year I got “Pink as Hell” paint and sold it off in a few minutes. I can only hope I won’t get stuck with something like the Coupe’ Disaster. Nobody wants that.

But, not to be outdone, the League is bringing back their snowy Summoner’s Rift. And to keep it fresh, they’ve made Heimerdinger into Snowmedinger. As a big fan of our little Austrian genius, I’m ready to shell out any amount of money for the cute little guy. Other things include some festive runes, and other skins (like this cute little Gangplank one) but nothing else. But, its always nice to see people gear up for the holidays.

As for Skyrim, I’m still playing. Not as much, I’ve been quite busy as of late, but I plan on grabbing the last of the Dragon Shouts that have been evading me for the last few weeks. They can’t hide forever, and I just can’t wait to be able to scream at chickens and incinerate them into my Christmas day meal. Happy holiday’s internet.

--Santa

PS: Guess who just made a GOTY poll? Vote your hearts out, internet.

Skyrim: Game of Every Year-- Since 1911

Not my character, but a pretty cool one, its his.

You thought I was done, didn't you? WRONG! I'm here to continue on about my impressions about the greatest game of all time, beating up Arkham City pretty hard by so far winning both the Inside Gaming GOTY award and now Spike TV's GOTY award.

Seems like my brother's prediction's may be a bit off, eh?

In any case, I want to continue on talking about some of the features in Skyrim that just makes it well, better. Its taken huge strides since Oblivion, and feels like a completely new game. 

But is this necescarily a good thing?

So, on my main account I've logged around 63 hours. I have 19/20 shouts (and 47 out of 60 words), I've destroyed Alduin, stopped a civil war, killed an emporer, become the archmage, and become a werewolf. 

Not to mention the 37 or so dragon's I've vanquished, or the 17 poor defenseless bunnies I've slaughtered, or the 76 nirnroots I've mindlessly plucked from the ground. I've spent a miniscule amount of time in Skyrim compared to Oblivion, but here I am, done with 3 major quest-lines, and close to done with 5. The game moves fast, which is something I like, but I still find it irking that I have only so little time put into it and I've accomplished so much. I'm only level 36, what will I be doing at 47?

Now, it is true that I have been really only focusing on doing questlines, I will admit, I finished the Alduin quest in 4 days because I rushed it. But, that doesn't mean that it couldn't be longer. I have ten and a half million misclaneous quests, but the main dragon story is only 10 hours long? Seems a little obtuse. When am I ever going to actually remember to bring that mammoth tusk to that one guy? Or find gold ore? It just builds. I'll get to them when I have absolutlely NOTHING left to do. I'll probably have all of the crimson nirnroots by then, god forbid. 

The other problem (which is true with every game put out by Bethesda) is bugs. I've been stuck on one part of the Thieves Guild quest for so long that I just gave up and made a new character. It just wasn't worth it. There are other points where I cry with laughter, like using revive on a dragon's skeleton. IT's really quite hilarious. Although these quirks are nice at times, the pro's do not outqeigh the con's.

Overall, Skyrim truly is a remarkable game, that pushes everything to preform a little bit better to keep up with the status quo. It does deserve game of the year because of its changes, but it shouldn't be hailed as perfect since it isn't, but no game ever has, or will ever be. But, until then I have Skyrim. And TF2. And League of Legends. Toontown...

Until next time,

--Santa

THE POWER WITHIN (Skyrim)

Ladies and Gentlemen, it IS time for my opinions! Get ready, you know that I've got my soapbox out.

11.11.11. Best day ever

So, I was waiting in live with these two bros when I got my game. At midnight. 21 days ago. I got the Xbox version, and begged my friend for his statue. My statue of Noble Team is getting lonely, and I forgot to get the special addition of Arkham City. I even offered him 60 bucks, but no, he claimed that he wanted does. What does he think I'm made of, deer? I'M NOT.

So, I get home at 2 am, and install the game onto my Hardrive and wait. 10 seconds later, I launch. By this time I'm already falling asleep, and turn up the volume of the opening cut scene. So, I get to the point of character building, and my life purpose becomes clear.

So of course one of my favorite things about Oblivion was making people horrendously ugly. It wasn't quite as easy to do this in Skyrim.So, there I was. Sitting at ease in m La-Z-Boy, just about ready to fall asleep when  I pushed myself together! Who was I to sleep when there was Skyrim to play? I MUST PUSH ON! 

And so I did. As I looked onto my options, I decided that I was going to do an Imperial. I'm not quite sure why, but I did. Don't judge me. I then decided to make a chick, something that I somewhat regret. But, there I was, sitting with my Female Imperial, and all I needed was a name. A name stupid enough to roll together the Imperial-Female combo. And so, Virginia was born.

Going through the main tutorial, almost being executed and dodging fire blasts from that horrible monster Alduin, Virgina got to the point where she could choose her own destiny. Well, I chose it for her, she wasn't the brightest bulb on the Hanukkah Tree. But, I went to bed. It was 3 am, and I was horribly tired.

I woke up the next day with a horrendous disease, and found myself unable to attend school. To regain my strength, I had to keep playing Skyrim, I knew it was the only cure. I found this world: wide open with many possibilities, and all in 1080p. I found myself cured in no time. 

So, some big changes from Oblivion to Skyrim is the lack of a class system-- everything is equal. Every level goes toward your next actual level up. Leveling up now occurs up to 50 times, and comes with a cute little. you also get a health point, mana, or stamina boost, and stamina will also boost your carrying capacity.  All of this together makes leveling up easier, and more enjoyable. It also makes minor skills less. Finally, I can level up just by making 27,083 Iron daggers! My dream come true! However, I don't like the new pickpocketing skill. Talk about a waste of time and effort. It'll take me years to train. That level 50 achievement is a doozy.

the new combat system is a dual wielder's dream. Taking a cue from Bioshock 2 they've made it so your spells can be continuous, or you can place traps. You can still use giant balls of death if you so choose. There are two handed weapons, swords, shields (which you can now bash with) and staffs. Don't even get me started with the wonders of Wabbajack, it'd take me hours. They have also added shouts. Like fire breath. Frost breath. Force breath. Get the point? You use your voice to kill people. It's like when someone has a knife up their sleeve when you're playing poker and they draw it on you.. Except you have a flamethrower in your mouth! Yeah, nice job, Mr. Knife. Ha!

A lot of nice little small changes have happened too. Like voice acting. The guards share like 3 voices, but its better than what they used to do. Normal NPC's are very different, and you find that it gives the game a lot more range. There are a lot more easy-ish side quests. Your favorite guilds are back, and Shadowmere is one bad-ass horse. Yeah, there are dragons, too.

The two main quests revolve around the Civil war in Skyrim, and stopping the evil dragon Alduin. Alduin is the guy who just hates everything, but ironically saves you from being executed for whatever reason. He probably wouldn't save you again, seeing to the fact that its your job to literally eat his soul, but I won't give away too much for those of you who are slow at quests. The other revolves around the Imperial Legion and the Stormcloaks, who I have dubbed the "Shitcloaks." You can guess who I've sided with.

So when playing Skyrim I only have one problem with it: its addicting. Seriously, it was bad timing for it to come out right before finals, I had to really fight myself to study. But, finals are over, and I have another term to completely screw up! So, until then, I'll keep up on Virginia, for all of you out there playing along side me, power to you. Keep slaying dragons. I have more souls than I can keep up with finding words, but I'll get there.

--Santa

PS- FUS RO DAAAH

Updates- The Thanksgiving That Santa Forgot

Okay, so maybe I basically forgot about blogging over Thanksgiving. I'm human, I forgot. Okay, I lied again. I totally knew about doing blog posts, I just didn't WANT to do them. I was playing Skyrim. And League of Legends. Arkham City.
And Toontown.
But that's besides the point. The point was video games. And I played them. A lot. But, I have a few announcements!
Guess who bought Graves on LoL and hit level 30? This guy. Now I spend all of my time banning trolls on the Tribunal. I'm just that great.
I finished the Dragon quest on Skyrim. And the Civil war quest for the Empire, and then I killed the Emporer. I can now safely say that I can review this game.
It's pretty much the best game ever.
Yeah, I'm saying it, I'm dethroning TF2. I didn't think it was possible, I mean really, there are hats in TF2. BUT THERE ARE HATS IN SKYRIM TOO. Thats why! Skyrim has everything I've ever wanted.
Hats.
Swords.
Fireballs.
Dragons.
Killing.
And wood cutting!
That's right, kiddos, you can do ANYTHING you want. Well, except fly. Okay thats not true, YOU can't fly, but DRAGONS can. And that's everything I've ever asked for.
Dynamic questlines, good voice acting, the retun of Sheogorath, not to mention improved Wabbajack. Oh yes, Wabbajack. From turning people into chickens, to making them explode, I have found the reason I like Skyrim so much. Randomness.
And now, I can only imagine putting Wabbajack on different items.
Thanks for sitting next to me, kid.
Well, until next time kids, remember to eat your vegetables. I know I enjoy my pizza too.
--Santa

PETA: Now Video Games Expert

Good evening, internet! Normally, I do not refer to other articles. I have to end my silence.

Welcome to the internet everyone, Mario is now evil, according to PETA for using: A TANOOKI SUIT. Thats right. Remember Mario's snugly little suit from Super Mario Bros. 3? I do. I turned to ROCK. I was pimping. Now, PETA makes a cute game, be warned, this is probably the more stupid things I have seen on the Internets. Okay, not like deep internet stupid, but this is the first time I went WTF since I read 'Cupackes' which I also do not advise reading. Seriously. But really. I was really hoping to NOT have to go into super soapbox mode this week, but NO. PETA has to get all PETA-like, and just ruin Mario.

So, let me make my case out for you. I am a simple man. I enjoy simple things. I also eat meat. And, I will give two explanations as to why.

1. Humans are designed as carnivores, meaning I should eat BOTH fruits, vegetables, and FLESH.
2. I am HUNGRY. Sorry, I can't live off of corn and grain. I'll go loopy. See? I had to use loopy.

So, when PETA gets self-righteous, I can understand. Killing animals like what the US did to Buffalo? Wrong. Killing a Deer for its antlers, or a Lion for its pelt? Wrong. Eating eggs, using milk, honey, and using all of the available meat on animals? Good. But where do you come off on saying "MARIO IS EVIL FOR WEARING FURS!" Believe it or not, that's how we survived as a species. Leather is VERY warm. And I LIKE TO CAPITALIZE WORDS. CAPS LOCK IS CRUISE CONTROL FOR COOL, AS ANY INTERNET VETERAN CAN TELL YOU. We need furs, I almost bought a stocking cap made with rabbits fur. It was a nice hat. Too bad it was snug on my XXL head. Why do they not make hats for people who need two "One size fits most" hats to get it on their head? Come on, I play TF2, I like hats too!

One last thing, I won't be talking about Skyrim for awhile. Sorry. Makes me want to play too much. Actually, that gives me a good idea... Until next time, think before you make cute flash games that involve dead animals.

--Santa

PS- for all of you who finished Arkham City, how bout that Joker?

Skyrim: The Final Frontier

So, I've been doing this for, well, 10 weeks now. I guess I actually am a blogger. And, I started this blog as an Assignment for my AP class. And this weekend coming up is Thanksgiving break, and I don't need to post for these next two weeks.

But I can't do that to you guys.

I mean really, we're like a family that doesn't know each other, and I just yell my opinion at you for a couple of minutes every few days. But, I actually like blogging, even as much as that disturbs me. But really, I'm a worldwide blogger. I've got just as many views from Russia as the US, which confuses me, I must admit. And I even got some Brits and like one German in the mix too. Really, I can check all of this in my cute little "stats" bar. Even some Linux users read this. I'm just that special. But, I gotta say, really, some of you use IE? You may be the minority, but come on, Firefox is just two clicks away.

But, you didn't come here to listen to me nag! Of course not! You want to hear scream in ecstasy about Skyrim.

You came to the right place.

Game of the year. Its that simple. Game, year, this. Its like they took Oblivion, and rolled in 27 kittens, and textures, and like Sean Connery, because everyone is British suddenly. But, I have no problem with this! I am physically in love with this game. I waited in line for this game for 4 hours.

Outside. It was raining. At 40 degrees Fahrenheit. Best moment of my life.

Skyrim has better everything.

Gameplay

Graphics

Textures

Plotlines

Storylines

Pots

Voice Acting (OH YES THE VOICE ACTING)

Mud crabs

Snotty Expressions (harder to make ugly-ass people, but I try)

Dual Wielding

Updated spells (Nothing like Bioshock, no...)

Yes! Skyrim has it all. Well, except guns. And VATS. And teddy bears. It's got almost everything, but I forgive them. Current, I have a level 14 Imperial, main focus on one-handed and destruction. Its working out well, Ill give a full review when I finish more of the game.

--Santa

Skyrim

I don't usually post more than 3 times a week, I know.

Skyrim.

That's it. I stayed up for the midnight release, talked to alot of nerds, and then.

Skyrim.

Thats all.

Only 31 Hours Now!

I promised myself I wouldn't make a post about this.

Not yet.

I lied.

Skyrim

Only 31 hours from now.

Why do I keep making new paragraphs?

I'm not sure, but still. Skyrim. I per-ordered about 3 hours ago and got a root canal at the dentists. Didn't hurt. I was thinking about Skyrim. Guess what this blogs about?

Bioshock.

Thats right! Its the 3rd post of the week! You thought I would forget? NO. I always post a flashback or debate on the last post on the week.

Don't be so silly.

Today, Bioshock.

Yes, this game isn't old, but, well, yes it is old. But not like old-old. Like epic game old.

I got Bioshock in the Oblivion-Bioshock bundle. It was two layers of happiness. Did I mention Skyrim comes out in 31 hours?

Bioshock is what convinced me to like plot based games. It revolves around Jack, your very own sweater wearing protagonist. You have had the unfortunate luck to have crashed into the ocean. But, fear not! For you have crashed right next to an island that leads right into the dystopia of Rapture. Inside you find some of the greatest minds in the world.

They have been genetically altered and want to kill you.

sad truth, isn't it? They have stumbled upon this extract called ADAM that allows you to play with your own DNA like it was made of Lego's. And now, to survive you must enter into the same dangerous region they have, and use the greatest weapon you have available, yourself.

Yes, shooting fire bolts, bees, and lighting bolts from your wrist. Dangerous business. A scary shoot-em-up adventure. It has a great explosive plot, and a fantastic ending.

So, for all of you reading this post to kill those last 30 hours, good luck.

I'll be back on Tuesday

--Santa

Updates: Zombies, Skies With Rims, Sick Clowns, and a bit of the Author

Good morning, audience. I don't normally type this early, but, I have been slowly dying over an unknown illness over the past few days, so I figured that I might as well get that word count up! Turns out that I'm not that good at looking up things, so, now I will talk about a few major events.

 I bought Arkham City the other day, expect a review soonish. Maybe. Depends if I finish the game before Skyrim comes out. Otherwise, it'll be like me with New Vegas and Reach. I still haven't finished New Vegas's main storyline.

There are just 9 days until Skyrim releases! Thats right, Adolf's favorite number stands between us and Game of The Year.

Frank West IS in Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3. It's on their website and everything. Gameplay footage? No. Wait. Oh my. Click this. Well, there goes another 40 bucks. It will be worth it though.

Well, so many things to look forward to, so many things I have to do. Well, I'm going to go drink a bottle of Nyquil, and sleep. Hopefully I'll stop coughing up balls of phlegm as brown as brownies.

Blargument: The rise of New Ideas, and Games

All right, ladies and gentlemen! I have a new idea, and it’s so stupid, it may actually work. My brother and I play a lot of videogames. But, we do not always agree. So, with a name given to me by a good friend, I will start a new series, occurring every now and then, simple called Blarguments. Inside of these simple little ideas, he and I will duke out ideas, and decide who is most right. Winner gets the satisfaction of knowing he won. I will be marked by Santa: and he will be by R.

Question: What will be the game of the year, 2011?

R: I think it will be Arkham City, and you’re lucky I think that too, otherwise your plan wouldn’t work out quite well.

Santa:  Well, I sure am glad that you think so, but it will be Skyrim.

R: It’s not going to be Skyrim, I can guarantee you. Anything that Skyrim will offer, AC will offer as well.

 Santa: What about the uber character customization?

R:  While it is true that AC will not have customization, you do have Batman and Catwoman who are very diverse characters. You will be able to speak in AC, and will be able to have big, glorious cutscenes which are impossible in Skyrim.

Santa: I was more referring to the ability to completely BUILD everything! You build their face, make their class, and build their skills; you don’t get better than that.

R:  While it is true that you can build a huge relationship with your own self-made character, Batman is special too. He is so strongly against killing, that he is completely different. You just can’t re-create a Batman. Catwoman is special too. I can’t wait to see the difference between them, and the new representations of weapons.  Batman will go anywhere, breaks laws, and private property but he won’t break his one rule, probably not even in self defense! He’s just that cool of a guy. He’s a dark vigilante who isn’t afraid of anything.  Not even one of my favorite characters, L, is willing to kill to use it to his advantages. Batman is truly uncorruptable.

Santa: You’re more referring to the building of the lore of Batman. But I find this a bit odd. You do have to realize that your guy just doesn’t get the chance in Skyrim, and to refer to Oblivion, will only get a slight back story. But, in return, you make your own. You decide. You are the judge, jury, and prosecution, similar to Bioshock or Fallout: New Vegas, but with more control. Yeah, you got interesting points in AC, but you can’t beat the wide aspects of freedom in Skyrim, you will have to end up doing the story in AC, there are millions of other adventures in Skyrim.

R: Not at all! It’s broken its shackles of Arkham Asylum. It’s a CITY! Think of the Riddler challenges. Took me hours, and I did it legitimately, even after being quite tempted by the internet.

Santa: There will be only one ending to AC; you will get multiple choices in Skyrim. Oh, by the way, how many hours did you put into Oblivion?

R:  With my one true character, which I did do everything on. I spent around 300 hours. But to be fair I spent over 500 hours in the original Bioshock. I’ll do the same with AC, bumping up the difficulty.

Santa: Do you really think you can beat out Skyrim for gameplay hours? If it’s anything like Oblivion, I will be spending around 1000 hours in the game.  I spent a huge amount of time in Oblivion, and while you will have your bigger world in AC, you’re missing the point that there are factions, guilds, dungeons, the main quest line, and, oh yeah, DRAGONS in Skyrim. Dragons man. How can you say no to Dragons? Imagine flying on one!

R: I am not saying no to dragons! But, Batman can fly! Gliding around the city, you’ll be like a dragon. Batman’s superpower, as we all know, is money. And with that, he will of course have to get out all of his millions of gadgets. You have new villains to get! Riddler challenges to do! We have two worthy games that deserve this GOTY award. You got big bad bosses in AC. The Joker. Mr. Freeze. The Penguin. Who do you have?

Santa: Dragons.

R:  Dragons are big-winged creatures that fly around and go pew-pew with fire breath. Oh no! They’re nothing compared to the villains of AC. They’re more classy, and dangerous.

Santa:  I disagree; some dragons will be able to shoot lighting and ice, too. And they will land and scratch you. They can also eat you, if they so desire too. But, the point is me trying to convince you that Skyrim will win over the AC is like telling a Mormon that you don’t want to hear the good news. Can we at least agree that it won’t be BF3 or MW3?

R: Without a doubt. This will be a battle to the death. I love both Rocksteady and Bethesda to death, and I guess only time will tell.

Santa: Thanks for talking to me today, let’s go eat some Enchiladas.

A special thanks to my brother for putting up with my slow typing.  More debates are to come, and there are games to be played, until next time.

Fight With Your Friends, or With NPCs?

So, a while back my brother and I were debating on one of our favorite subjects: Video Games. One of your favorite topics just so happens to be whether or not plot is more important, or multiplayer. I myself usually play multiplayer based games, while he prefers singleplayer based ones with intense storylines. Now, don't get me wrong, I've logged thousands of hours on Oblivion, Fallout 3, Bioshock, etc...  But my favorite games are still Team Fortress 2, League of Legends, Halo: Reach, etc.. And this confuses him. I personally think it's because he can't play multiplayer very well whilst I think I can do fairly well. But, let’s compare the two, as I think that the two can take a cue from each other.

Starting off for the Questline side, we have the ever great Oblivion, I would use Skyrim, but, I still have 1 month to wait. Its October 11th. I can just feel Bethesda taunting me with 31 days. Oblivion, also known as The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, is the wondrous work of Bethesda software. You start out making your own character (which can take you a few hours, depending on how you want your character to look. The options for customization are amazing.) You may then choose how you want to go the vast open world. do you want to be a rogue, an archer, a magician? Its like D & D when your friends are being dicks and won’t play with you, so you go and play Oblivion instead. I have legitimately put around 800 hours into Oblivion, and saved over 850 times.

Next, as pictured below, is Reach. The original part to the original trilogy, it shows the events before Halo: Combat Evolved. Naturally, when I first saw this at E3 a few years ago, I just about lost it. As any fan-boy

Can tell you, seeing Reach re-visited was just about a dream come true. Now, Reach does have a plot line, and it is pretty good for the most part, I won't spoil the ending for all of you who may not own the game, but I had tears in my eyes, maybe it was from the 8 hours I has spent playing the campaign straight through on Heroic. Maybe it was the Flaming hot Cheetos that I had mistaken for normal Cheetos that I had started eating right before the last mission. But, Halo is renowned for its classical Matchmaking game. It’s everything I could, except there are no hats, a cue that all game developers could take from Valve, but it did the next best thing. Complete customization over your Spartan, the one to the left is my very own. I will admit that I have fallen out of playing Reach over the past few months, but I still log onto my Xbox every now and then, and make sure I put a couple of games in. You never know when it may come in handy to remember how to use Bumper Jumper. So, what IS more important? In all honesty, I think it was to be one or the other, and I have a good example on how to prove it: Bioshock 2.

Now, Bioshock 2 was a good game, but that's the point: it was just a good game. And I think it had to do with them putting time into multiplayer instead of just focusing on the singleplayer experience. But, if you bought Minerva's Den, you found a quest-line rivaled to the original Bioshock. The game has amazing and fluid gameplay, but it just turned out kind of "meh." And that's why I do truly believe that you need to focus on one or the other, if you got a reputation for having a large plot, focus on the plot. Dead Space II was on 2 discs, just saying. And if you are making a game almost solely for Multiplayer, there should be bigger focus on how that handles. Unless your game is play-tested for 4 years, it won't be perfect. It took Valve 7 years to finish TF2, and they still update it to this day. They didn't even think of adding new weapons, or gametypes, or god forbid if they didn’t hats. This isn't to say you can have both, it is simply to say that I don't expect a game that has a massive world to have a massive multiplayer feature, unless its a MMO. And I don't expect there to be people yelling at me. "DOOD STOP HAXXING, UR A NOOB" when I'm playing in a deep questline based game. Until the day that they finish a complete virtual reality, if I really want both, I can always play Dungeons and Dragons, but, then again, Skyrim is just around the corner...