jaffster

Best game of 2011: Skyrim - Without a doubt. Yes, it's buggy but this game will be so replayable once the development kit comes out. I'll probably put it down once I've finished my first play-through and come back to it in a few months with some player created mods and content added. Decent games of 2011: The Witcher 2 - Even though it did feel a little 'dumbed down', it was a decent game. CD Projekt did a good job. I don't think this compared to the original, it was not as immersive as the first. Even though the first was quite linear, it did not instil the feeling that you were stuck on a pre-defined route. The second was a little..... meh. I knew from the opening scene that the Witcher 2 was going to drag a bit. "Go to this lever, press this button, kill this person, run accross this bridge" etc. Minecraft - Open ended. Do pretty much anything that you like. Playing on private servers with friends is fun. Some of the later additions are a little 'meh'. Creating a portal to the nether took a lot of work and was very dissapointing. Good game, well worth the low price. Dissapointments of 2011: Deus Ex 3 - What a horrible console port. Eidos did NOT capture the spirit of the original two (Deux ex was AWESOME, groundbreaking; Invisible war was OK). I felt like my intellegence was being insulted at each and every part of the game. Designed for your typical 14 year old console player that just wants to shoot things, ported to the PC to make some extra dosh. Crysis 2 - As above. Complete rubbish. Too linear, too easy. It just felt like dumbed down crap. This year I've been playing Starcraft 2 and since it's release; Skyrim.

Perhaps. I just hope that somebody, somewhere in Eidos has the slightest sense of humor. It would make my day. Possibly my week.

So last night I got into a debate with a long time friend over the current state of PC gaming. We discussed at length how the original Deus Ex game was groundbreaking and how Deus Ex 3 just felt a little 'dumbed down'. Writing door codes down was frustrating, but it added to the whole thing. Having a pen and paper to hand just to open a door. How times change! We were both MASSIVE Thief fans back in the day, we got talking about Thief 4 which is apparently 'in development' but that is all that we've heard. Thinking back to when Kellogs decided to stop selling Apple pop-tarts in the UK, I wrote them a poem and posted it to them. In return we got £20 worth of Kellogs vouchers to spend. Job well done! Here's a mail sent to the 'Thief 4' team at Eidos Montreal. No response as of yet :( ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Danny xxxxx <[email protected]> Date: Mon, Dec 19, 2011 at 5:11 PM Subject: A worried fan of Garret! To: [email protected] http://www.thief4.com/ Dear Eidos, I'm sending you this mail, because I'm a Thief fan, Blackjack assault, Garret is the man, I played all the Thief games, on my Cyrix powered PC, But now I come to you with one final plea, My fingers are crossed for the mighty Thief 4, I demand this mail you shall not ignore, I get on my knees and beg you dearly, I ask you this nicely and very sincerely, PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE, listen to your following, By recreating the originals, dark, moody and hollowing, No fancy talent tree's or magical blessings, Just Garret, his blackjack and dark hooded dressings, Water arrows were great, yet quite bizarre, PRESENT THY CREDENTIALS, NOVICE, yelled from afar, Thief gave me square eyes, I ended up in specs, So PLEASE DO A BETTER JOB THAN YOUR EFFORTS AT DEUS EX! Do you think they will reply? :(

So, I'll throw this idea out there and see what you all think. If any of you old PC Gamers were ever addicted to the Thief Games then you'll know where this is going..... Playing Skyrim as a Thief is great fun, I avoid combat where possible - I like to get in and out undetected. It is the Thiefs code. However, sometimes there isn't any other option other than killing an NPC. In Thief, you had the Blackjack. A melee weapon which, when used behind your enemy, knocked them out. Perhaps a similar weapon which was a guarenteed 1 hit knock out on all standard NPC's (exluding bosses, or perhaps enemies 5+ levels above you) which puts them to sleep?

Walking into a new area... pressing F5, attacking the nearest person/guard and then see how long I can last against the local guardsmen. F9. Next area. Repeat. I don't know why.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/16178204 Leona Lewis was just on Radio 1, I quote: "Lewis has spoken in the past about her passion for playing video games. In between recording new material she said this year she's become obsessed with The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim - a fantasy role-playing game. "I think it's really good. It's a bit violent but I really like it," she explained. "I'm not very far into it. The thing I like about it is that you can ride horses on it." We are not alone!

As above, this isn't 'that' MMO. You can have as many trade skills as you like.

So recently I've made a small fortune by gathering ingredients and from that making potions to sell to the vendors/NPC's. How does everybody else earn their coin? I've looked at Enchanting but I think this would probably only become very profitable later on in the game?

So, a few days ago I decided to restart Skyrim with a new character and this time not be obsessed by the main quest line. I've also increased the difficulty to have more of a challenge. Having clocked up around 15 hours play time and not leaving the boundaries of Whiterun and Windhelm, I decided that my Unrelenting Shout was the only thing missing. Being the hearty destruction mage that I am, I set forth to make the pilgrimage up the 7000 steps to learn more of this Dragon Magic. Having heard bards tales of the adventure ahead and hear-say on the streets of Whiterun I thought it would be best if I was prepared for this legendary journey towards the skies of High Hrothgar. Being a keen Alchemist, I prepared a satchel full of powerful potions to aid me in my travels. I rallied my loyal companion, Lydia. We were both prepared for the journey ahead and thus set forth on our travels. Aside from a few wolves and a pesky group of bandits the journey went well. We arrived in Ivarstead. We visited the local tavern to quench our thirst and to make aquantances with the locals. A kind lady told us of a Dragon which had been troubling the establishment, she offered me Septims to rid the town of this problem. Without further delay, I made my way to the home of this Dragon. As I approached, I heart an almighty HOWL which echo'd from mountain to mountain, as I looked up, there was the said dragon, ready to attack. Lydia drew her Bow, I prepared my Ice Spikes. The dragon flew past, at low altitude. We both took cover behind a rock, expecting the inevitable 'fly by' whilst being bombarded by flames. Instead, the dragon landed infront of us, looking for the two mortals that had vanished behind a rock. We leapt from our cover and gave this dragon the might of our combined force. Barely a minute later, the dragon was slain. It's soul was absorbed by me, the Dovahkiin. Morale was high, we continued on with our adventure. We returned to Ivarstead to bask in the glory of our achievement, the townsfolk were very thankful. Not wanting to overstay our welcome, we started our journey towards High Hrothgar, up the 7000 steps. As we started to move upwards we encountered some friends, but many foes. Around half way up, we unfortunately stumbled upon the territory of a Sabre cat. Having just slain one of the most feared creatures in Skyrim, I thought to myself "No problem, this will be easy". How wrong I was. Somehow, this Sabre Cat managed to instantly kill me. Having just come from battle against a Dragon who bombarded me with Flames as hot as Lava, one would assume that a small Cat would be no match for a Dragon Slayer. How wrong I was.