WrathOfDeadguy

This has been bugging me more than it probably should, but I noticed that when in first person my character uses a two-handed grip on her pistol and keeps it raised whether I aim down the sights or not, whereas in third person she relaxes her stance after a few moments, just carrying it in her right hand down at her side until I aim or fire. I wouldn't mind just seeing her keep a two-handed grip at all times, for consistency's sake... no more Schrodinger's Gun that's both aimed downrange and at the ground simultaneously!

Auto-collection of resources upon detection sounds like a winner to me. Better yet- after the Inquisition controls an area by establishing all possible camps, all of the discovered resources in the area are automatically collected upon completion of the camp quest. Likewise with the shards- once detected, they'd be collected after all the camps are established. Agreed and facepalmed on the 8-item quickbar. "We wanted to leave it at 8 because 32 abilities across the party is enough/more 'tactical'/insert handwave justification here." Reeeeally, Bioware? I suppose it's just a coincidence that 8 is the maximum number of inputs on a D-pad? Stop watering down features for consoles! All of them support USB now; just make the silly buggers buy a damn keyboard! More suggestions: Get rid of the potion limit. What a silly restriction... they decide to toss both potions as stackable inventory items *and* every single useful healing spell? If I can't have my spirit healers back, at least let me have as many potions as I can carry for those times when I don't feel like building an entire party out of tanks. They put so many great boss battles in this game, but it feels like the only effective way to fight any of them is to stack warriors and that issue can be traced directly back to the absolute gutting of healing and support abilities. Potions are all we've got left, and even those are way too scarce. Unlock all Skyhold cosmetic options. The game is long enough. Adding in the time needed to dig through every corner of Thedas for window dressing and fancy chairs that have no gameplay effect is unnecessary and tedious. Either that or make them all be available in the places that make the most sense- ie Dalish themed items available from the Dalish camp, etc. I'd settle for just flagging them all as unlocked and not having to hunt for them at all, because otherwise I'm never going to bother with that stuff again and it'll all just be wasted content. Unlock armor/clothing restrictions in Skyhold. C'mon, Bioware... really? I have to hold court in pyjamas instead of the super-slick dress uniform? There are already some fine retextures, but the whole "nope, you can't wear what you want to in your own castle" bit is irritating. Reduce the element of randomness in aquiring components for specialization unlocks. I got my first two books for Rift Mage within half an hour of each other, then didn't see the required third until five hours short of the end of an eighty hour playthrough- about a full day of playtime later than the first two. There's something wrong with that. Either the drop chance of the quest items needs to be increased, or the guys who are carrying the things need to be flagged. Magic. Dear Creators, Maker, and Old Gods, BUFF MAGIC. ALL OF IT. I feel like I'm flinging spitwads compared to the last two games! "Blah blah mages blah blah powerful blah blah destroy the world." As a level 30ish Inquisitor who can't manage a single mob of mooks with my best spells, I'm just not seeing what the fuss is about. Mages used to be the very first targets I went after because they were dangerous. Even the lowliest one in DAO could party wipe your sorry behind if not dealt with before they pulled out the chain lightning and fireballs. Although they were nerfed significantly in DA2 I still have some fond memories of stacking five or six AOEs on each other and absolutely murdering those ridiculous waves of mook spawns at night. Now I can't even cast a flipping heal spell! Most of my offensive magic can't even manage to knock half the health bar off a mook that's below my level- meanwhile my mage inquisitor is as squishy as mages have ever been (DAO's incredibly broken Arcane Warrior tree excepted) and dies in two or three hits from enemy power attacks. Gimme back my walking weapons of mass destruction! Show me why people are so afraid of Apostates and Abominations- I feel like I'm performing parlor tricks instead of wielding forces of nature! Things I thought of just now when I started my second playthrough: Eliminate stat autoleveling. Whose brilliant idea was this nonsense? I don't think I really need to explain this one. Screw that noise; I want to put my points where I want them. Maybe with a few more points in magic, my mages won't be such useless goobers. Bloody. Frakking. Popups. These are never helpful and always annoying. I seem to recall there being a way of getting rid of them when the game first came out... now I can't find it for love or money. I can check the keybinds my own damn self; I do not need or want the game to tell me which button to press every time an action comes up that I have not used on that playthrough! Some of 'em actually lack a close window button, and on top of that disable the bloody game menu until they've timed out and closed themselves. This is not acceptable. Walk/run toggle. The general consensus seems to be that people want to go places as quickly as they can all the time. Frankly, I think those people are silly and the Inquisitor should be horribly tired after jogging everywhere. I've known a few runners, but none of them were quite that hardcore. Another feature that appears to have fallen victim to consolitis... because it's entirely possible to walk when you're using an analog stick and can simply not push it all the way over. Health recovery during noncombat exploration. Bioware really, really doesn't like healing these days. No healing spells, hard (and low) cap on healing potions... and no regen when not in combat? Whiskey. Tango. Foxtrot. Does anybody think this was a good direction for them to go in? Really? Since the only way to heal up without consuming my itty bitty potion supply is to fast travel, and since the potion resupply chests are generally found only in camps and larger dungeons, I find myself warping around a lot more than I otherwise would. That means I see loading screens more. Which takes me out of the game and breaks immersion. Which is a bad thing, just to make that perfectly clear. A secondary consequence of all that warping around is that I hardly ever use the mounts I collect, because at that point it would be an inconvenience to mount up and ride all of fifty yards to my destination. I'm not using one feature because another seemingly unrelated feature wasn't included. Just to reiterate, this is a bad thing. It could be solved easily by either adding back in passive health regen out of combat, or by giving me a frakking heal spell. Disable NPC movement while in conversations. I want to tear my hair out every time I'm forced to follow some damn fool around because if I let them get too far away they'll exit the conversation. Remove NPC ability to start 'casual' conversations. Related to the above. The little buggers walk up to you and start talking, then run off and leave the convo before they've had their say... or they start talking while I'm busy with something else and I accidentally leave before I know what they're on about.

Seconded, thirded, and fourth'd. Can't imagine why the Halamshiral/formal outfit wasn't the default Skyhold garb to begin with! For that matter, it's pretty frustrating that you can't just choose your attire at Skyhold... why they put a silly restriction like that on Skyhold but not Haven is something of a head-scratcher for me. Probably not possible *yet*- I don't see any other mods in that vein. Hopefully it gets figured out or Bioware grows a brain and releases the toolkit soon...

I use Noscript, but it has more or less the same effect on ads. I generally don't mind ads that are tasteful and nonintrusive, but most ads just aren't simple little banner image/links anymore. Many of them expand, or have animations or sounds when moused over, so that in the process of moving to click on something else one might bump the ad and trigger something irritating. Java or flash based ads make pages take longer to load, and often load after the main content in such a way as to make it shift around on the page, thereby disrupting my experience of the content. That is also irritating... but only irritating. Not enough to warrant blocking. I find that those techniques make me want to avoid the product being advertised, but in-your-face ads exist because they have been proven to work. Even though I hate that business model, I can't say that it is inherently wrong. The stubborn insistence on using intrusive advertising techniques is what frustrates me enough to block the ads. Last I checked, I did not consent to have my browsing habits tracked when I linked to your site (no, an ex-post-facto disclaimer at the bottom of a page doesn't count- the page would have to display a warning page before loading if it wanted to claim it had sought consent). I will concede the point that I consented to be advertised to by linking to a page that could have ads on it, but that does not give the page, its owners, or its advertisers the right to turn around and put things on my system. I don't give half a rat's ass how harmless a cookie is, if I did not ask for it (by, for instance, logging in or using a site feature), then I don't want it. Even if it's harmless clutter, it's still clutter, and it still makes a mess if it's allowed to stack up. It's just like junkmail- somebody else is puking their unsolicited crap into my space, then I have to go and clean it up. Once it reaches the point of something getting installed on my computer without my knowledge or consent, I draw the line. Since there is no way of knowing beforehand that a particular site's ads will or won't install cookies, I err on the side of caution and block the whole lot of them. I don't feel bad about blocking advertisements because the advertisers use unethical methods.

Those may or may not be genuine, but they're cool regardless. Some of the pics (mainly the colored shots of Alyx) look an awful lot like heavily modified photos (compare the high quality of the face to the lower quality of the clothes), which isn't consistent with concept art from other Valve games... including other Half-Life releases. Compare the following pairs of images: This one to this one. This one to this one. This one to this one. Note that in each pair of images, the faces are identical. In the frontal shots, the face and neck are both the same, while on the other two pairs of images the faces match but the shape of the neck does not. Lots of cut-and-pasting going on here. At least three layers can be identified: clothing, face, and headwear. Each layer is of obviously different quality. You can even tell which image in each pair was created first by how the hair is edited to fit the headwear. Lots of these are very nicely done- somebody sunk a fair bit of time into making them- but sadly I don't think Valve is the source. What we have here is a collection of really cool fanart.

And... "The Polito form is dead, insect. Are you afraid? What is it you fear- the end of your trivial existenccce? W-wh-wh-w-when the history of my glory is written, your species shall only be a ffootnote to my magnificence." Both from the inimitably creepy SHODAN. That voice just crawls right up your spine...

As someone who started playing Tribes waaay back when skiing was still a glitch, the lack of choice in loadouts is... somewhat off-putting (especially when I saw that the spinfusor wasn't a default weapon). I know I'm going to try Ascend at some point just because it's Tribes and I want to believe that one of my favorite games has come back to life, but I'm still a bit skeptical. One of the major selling points of the series was always the freedom of choice afforded to the player via custom loadouts; you could jump right in and play to your own strengths rather than being tied down by predefined classes and roles. Can anybody who's been jetpacking since the old days provide a little insight here? Does it really feel like Tribes?

Not entirely accurate...

All of the existing MP maps are drawn directly from SP areas, too. They're one for one copies of the N7 mission maps... remember all those times Hackett told Shepard "I'm sending in a team to secure the area"? As far as the game checking to see who's got the content and who doesn't... it shouldn't be that hard for the server to run a check on the players who've joined and remove the DLC maps from the playlist for random selection if one or more don't have them. If they make it so that the server boots players instead... eh, that'd be sloppy work but not unforgivable considering that anyone who gets booted could go get the free maps and not get booted anymore. I just can't see much reason to complain about this one.

ME1 required NG+ before you could cross-train with a weapon your class wasn't specced for (the choice was then locked in for that save and could not be altered for future playthroughs). In ME2, any class can get cross-training with sniper rifles, assault rifles, or shotguns... they just had to choose that option while on board the Collector ship. If you had one or more of those three weapon skills, it offered you the special weapon in that class (Widow for sniper, Revenant for AR, Claymore for shotgun). Otherwise, you could opt to cross-train without that one weapon. You had to do that on your first playthrough as that character though- on NG+ the weapon unlock on the Collector ship doesn't happen since your choice from the previous game carries over. So... yes, you can get snipers as a Vanguard, but you have to do so on your first playthrough and you won't get the Widow regardless (since you need to already have sniper training to acquire it when the cross-training choice pops up). Sniper would probably be the best cross-class training option anyway; the Claymore isn't that great (Geth shotgun is the best, if you have it), the Particle Beam heavy weapon fills the AR's role quite nicely, and the base-level sniper (Mantis) is actually the second most powerful per-shot behind the Widow. In ME3, any class can choose any weapon, but power-heavy classes are best off with fewer weapons because more and heavier weapons negatively affect power cooldown times. Gameplay-wise, sniper rifles, shotguns, and assault rifles are comparable in weight so the choice of what suits you best is really up to you. Likewise pistols and SMGs are similar in weight. In all cases, the 'super' weapons in each class weigh more.

Is it possible that...

The Underground bunkers were made to work without intrude during the Cold War, when the Soviets were free to see what we were doing and vise-versa. We went underground so they didn't see anything. And A51 is for testing air craft and high grade explosives from time to time. We tested the atomic bombs we dropped on Japan in A51. Our most advanced tech comes from A51, so no doubt there is something going on in there. That's why there are so many theories there. I'm sorry for dragging up a post from last page, but you've got some terribly bad information and I can't help but offer to correct it. You know the old saying: garbage in, garbage out. Not a reflection on you, but on your sources... and if they can't even get the location of Area 51 correct, then I highly doubt anything else they say about the place is factual either.Area 51 is located in Nevada. The first atomic bomb test, dubbed "Trinity," took place in New Mexico. Unless the entire facility somehow up and teleported itself from one state to the other, your sources are in error. Geography is not subjective. Please provide your sources. If they got one fact wrong, then it might help clear things up if we could take a look at the rest of their information.

I will always miss my 2x Scram Rail X, High Explosive Ammo X, Spectre X Sniper Rifle. ME3 may have brought back weapon mods, but even a fully upgraded Widow cannot compare with beastly explosive awesomeness that could ragdoll mooks over map boundaries (and blasting Geth off the side of the Citadel Tower in low-gravity just never got old). I swear that combo was the next best thing to lugging the Mako cannon around on foot... and the openness of the ME1 environments really let you be mean with sniping, too. Cloaking lets you pull off surprise headshots, but it's hard to feel like you can reach out and touch somebody when most of the combat plays out at SMG range. The Hammerhead was... meh. While the completion nut in me went through all of the scenarios anyway, those stupid blinky lights on the top messed up immersion too much and the stupid onboard VI with its "helpful advice" didn't make it any better. Gameplay-wise it was too much the product of arcade shooters and didn't feel enough like a futuristic weapon of war. The Mako was a little too bouncy but at least it still gave the impression of having some mass. Another bonus for completionists... The Normandy's primary upgrades (weapons, armor, shields) also transfer as modifiers to the Normandy's War Asset entry (though not the probe, fuel, med bay, or sensor upgrades).

If you did enjoy the planet scanning, then I have good news for you: any leftover resources from your ME2 playthrough get transferred to ME3 as War Assets. :laugh: I'll admit to having been a Mako fan. I didn't like that it featured in almost every single mission, but I didn't have the handling issues most folks seem to have had (my chief complaint was poor terrain design on the sidequest workds). I'm probably in the minority of having liked ME1 a bit better for combat... I liked the overheating mechanic as opposed to the more traditional ammo system in 2 and 3, I liked being able to crouch, and I liked not having to press a button to take cover. If all they'd done was to add the mantle/climb/jump/vault over object mechanics then I'd have been quite happy with the result.

Since the scannable areas reset after each mission (story or sidequest) completed, the optimal approach for 100% completion is to scan around the different systems in between missions. If it gets tedious, an easier way to do it is to only do one round of scanning after every story update and just save-scum to locate the resources in each system. IIRC there are three or four 'waves' of fetch quests; it is possible to acquire many of them before the systems or assignments associated with them are accessible. It is also possible for quest objectives to persist in the journal after the NPC associated with it has been removed from the game world by a story update (hence why fully mapping the accessible galaxy map in between 'Priority" assignments is a good idea). Fetchable items will remain accessible after their associated NPCs disappear, so it is still possible to open some quests after it is no longer possible to complete them. Slight design oversight there, but easily remedied by thorough exploration and regular Citadel visits (when a quest item can be turned in, the associated NPC is listed on the map). Ending rant and MAJOR spoilers below: Insert heavy sigh here.

I don't generally read official tie-in fiction. If another product is necessary to understand what's going on in the game, then the game is incomplete. As in any mode of storytelling, each installment should be self-explanatory. Plus, there are problems with tie-in fiction depending on what type of game it is based on. Tie-ins work for extremely linear games where all players will experience the same story regardless of their choices in the game (the Master Chief side of the Halo story, for example), but nonlinear games actually suffer from the presence of tie-in fiction. With games like Mass Effect and KotOR that allow the player to make their own decisions about the lead character's appearance and personality, official fiction establishes a default story that players with customized mains then simply aren't part of anymore. Only players using the 'canonized' main character appearance and personality get the full experience. Additionally, when such fiction is allowed to stand in for actual in-game events, anyone who didn't read the tie-ins might not know what the frell is going on to begin with even if they did play along the official path. Then you have strategy games... while a writer who's got a firm grasp of suspension of disbelief can make it work, all too often the result only highlights the aspects of gameplay that are least conducive to SoD. Things like factories and training camps that can be established in minutes and start churning out battle-ready units mere seconds later... or units being promoted based on their kill counts. Read the C&C3 tie-ins for a better idea of just how badly RTS fiction can go wrong. While a notable experiment in storytelling, mixing interactive and non-interactive fiction IMO is too problematic most of the time. Unless, that is, the source material is both linear and cinematic with a minimal amount of player choice with regards to the main character. Or if the source material is so open-ended and vast in scope (i.e. Battletech, D&D, MMOs) that the tie-in fiction can exist on its own, without involving the main characters of the games (or their adventures) at all, if there are any to begin with that aren't complete player-sourced fabrications. I do, however, collect little bits and pieces of geekiness related to the games I play. I have a Tesla Trooper from RA2, a giant Bioshock Big Daddy action figure, the Normandy from Mass Effect 2 & 3, a bunch of Battletech and Starsiege miniatures, etc. Years ago I also wrote a fair bit of Homeworld fanfic, some of which was passable and most of which was embarrassingly bad.

Aye. I didn't think it was possible to create a worse non-ending than Borderlands had, but Bioware somehow pulled it off. Whoever wrote the last five minutes should be fired.

I'm... ...mildly disappointed with the ending.

Paarthurnax doesn't really stand a chance against Alduin- you can plainly see the guy's long past his prime. Alduin was always the stronger brother- when the events of the game happen, Alduin emerges still young and strong, whereas Paarthurnax has been in isolation in some pretty extreme conditions for thousands of years. If the two did meet face-to-face when Alduin emerged from the time wound, chances are pretty good that Alduin told Paarthurnax to stay the eff out of his way. What's the use in fighting a pacifist old man who only used to be strong when you know you're the indestructible destroyer of worlds? Alduin is nothing if not an arrogant prick. He is aware of your doings as of the confrontation at the burial mound, but rather than chomp on you and be done with it while you're still weak (and while he has backup) he just laughs and flies away- he ignores you from that point until he's forced by your use of the Elder Scroll to conclude that you can threaten his plans. Paarthurnax could not face him before; Alduin would not consider his brother a legitimate threat unless Paarthurnax stuck his face in the possibility of defeat. Paarthurnax was also aware of the prophecy about Alduin and the last Dovahkiin; he says as much to you. He wasn't waiting up on that mountain for Alduin to return, he was waiting for the Dovahkiin- for you. He knew he wouldn't be able to defeat Alduin, so he sat around and meditated and waited for the one person who could. Whether or not he knew who that would be- that's more than likely why the Greybeards exist. He needed a prominent front so that any Dovahkiin would be drawn to him for training as weapons against Alduin's eventual return. He does say that he knew where Alduin would emerge, but not when. What other purpose would there be in training mortals to use the voice when only a bare handful of dragons were alive in the whole of the world? Why would he keep giving mortals, some of them quite powerful indeed (and one who became an effing god), weapons they might turn against him if he intended to confront Alduin himself? To kill Alduin and usurp his position, Paarthurnax would need a weapon more powerful than Alduin; he could not be that weapon himself as he knew he was no match for his brother. It follows that he'd be no match for anyone who could defeat his brother, so I consider it unlikely that someone as intelligent as Paarthurnax would deliberately create such a weapon if he had any treachery planned. He then helps you recover knowledge of Dragonrend, which is a Shout he can't even comprehend let alone counter. Only a monumentally stupid villain, or a supremely arrogant one (such as Alduin) would arm a future opponent with something like that. Mortals can give their knowledge of Shouts to other mortals, so it isn't even as though he could simply wait until you died of old age- he'd have to contend with the possibility that you would pass knowledge of the Shout on to other mortals, ensuring that its knowledge was not lost again. Paarthurnax just isn't that dumb. If he wanted to take over, the time to do it was thousands of years ago when the Dragonrend Shout had only just been lost and forgotten- long before the Akaviri came with the Blades and slew most of the dragons, when some of the dragons still followed him. He must have had a window of opportunity hundreds of years long; all it would have taken is a well-timed attack while the mortals were busy fighting one of their innumerable wars. Once again, the strongest proof that Paarthurnax isn't evil lies in all that he hasn't done. Or, for an alternate explanation, consider that Paarthurnax is rather badly torn up. There are many ways that could have happened, and personally I think it's just that he's been living in that harsh environment for so damned long... but it is also entirely possible that he got so badly wounded precisely because he tried to face Alduin directly and failed to best him.

Consent is the only issue which should matter with regards to anything sexual in nature. A child cannot give informed consent, therefore child pornography is wrong. A person under duress (a sex slave, rape victim, etc) cannot give informed consent, hence porn featuring forced sexual acts which are real- as opposed to staged- is also wrong. Animals cannot give informed consent, therefore porn depicting bestiality is wrong. Porn featuring adults participating of their own free will cannot be wrong because all parties involved have consented. Robert Heinlein put it best: Morality is subjective. Nothing can be inherently wrong except that which infringes on the natural right of a human being to self-determinate. Therefore porn cannot be wrong unless it features one or more individuals who cannot or will not consent- who have in effect been robbed of their liberty and their right of self-determination. Is porn necessary? Not even slightly. It is, however, rather entertaining and pleasurable.

Paarthurnax stayed alive for a number of reasons: 1. The Blades did not provide sufficient justification for wanting him dead. Whatever evil he did in the far distant past, I think, has been more than compensated for by thousands of years of self-imposed isolation and aiding mortals at every opportunity. All of their arguments ring hollow; they admit they would not consider any alternatives and state that they would want him dead even if he had done nothing wrong because hunting dragons is the Blades' sworn duty. What they want is the extermination of an entire species, and I am of the belief that such radical measures are a last resort of the "break glass in case of imminent destruction of world" variety. That particular threat ended with Alduin's defeat- hence I cannot condone and will not help the Blades commit xenocide. 2. He's an invaluable resource, both in defeating Alduin and in facing any future threats to Skyrim and the rest of Tamriel. The guy's got more years and knowledge than any two other critters alive in the world- and he's got the will to use it for constructive ends. Alduin would never have been overthrown without Paarthurnax. Alduin would never have been finally and totally defeated without Paarthurnax; it was his timeless knowledge that allowed the Dovahkiin to discover and eventually learn the dragonrend shout. He also knows more about history than anyone else alive by virtue of having been alive through all of it. He can provide scholars with accurate information about times and places that there are no surviving records of. 3. By the end of the game, there are quite a few dragons up and flying around, and they remain a threat despite their little "we respect you" assembly on the mountaintop. Paarthurnax is the only voice of reason that any of them are likely to listen to; he may be able to calm at least some of the other dragons and get them to stop preying on mortals- as he did once before, a long time ago. The dragons may respect the Dovahkiin's power- but the Dovahkiin is mortal and the dragons are not. They need a positive influence that shares their potential for immortality and exists on their level. 4. Killing Paarthurnax sends a message to the rest of the dragons that they may expect peace to be rewarded with death. No dragon has done more for mortals than Paarthurnax; if he is not safe then all dragons must consider mortals to be their enemies. Sparing him provides a clear example that coexistence is not impossible in the long term. 5. On the whole, Paarthurnax and the Greybeards present as being rational and circumspect almost to a fault. Paarthurnax founded the Greybeards- their philosophy of fearing and respecting power derives from him. That more than anything else demonstrates that he has no ambition for world domination; for countless generations he has dedicated himself to the pursuit of wisdom and balance. He offers no excuse for his earlier crimes and shows remorse, even shame, for what he and his kind once did. He did not seize the reins of power when Alduin was defeated the first time, nor did he do so the second time. He claims that he fights a constant battle against his own natural urges- he doesn't want to rule the world, or even a tiny part of it. He even keeps the Greybeards at a distance- they clearly would worship him if he allowed it, and I think that is the very reason why he maintains that distance. Those who seek to avoid power tend to be the ones who use power most responsibly- hence I believe Paarthurnax can be trusted. 6. It strikes me as unlikely that Tiber Septim, who studied with the Greybeards, was not aware of who and what Paarthurnax was. He concealed that knowledge from the Blades. Now, I don't know what the man's personality was like, but now we're talking divine favor here. Paarthurnax was directly involved in the education of a god. Presumably, even if Talos had not known about Paarthurnax's past before ascending to godhood, he would have gained full knowledge of it after. If one of the Nine (screw you, Thalmor) thought it best to leave Paarthurnax be, what could a pair of over-the-hill spies who have no actual experience in their order's original purpose know about whether or not he deserves to live? Surely if Talos wished the Blades to end Paarthurnax's life, he could have delivered a vision to any of the priests of the Order of Talos over the many long years and thus informed the Blades of his location? They are devout followers of Talos; this is made very clear in Oblivion and it is given as one of the reasons why the Thalmor are so dedicated to purging their order. Nirn is a world where gods are real and have real power over their worshipers. The one god who had to have had intimate knowledge about one of the last surviving dragons chose not to reveal that information to his own followers, whom he knew would be duty-bound to slay that dragon. QED. Paarthurnax will always remain alive in my games.

Sadly I haven't been able to sink the dawn-til-death play sessions I'd like to, but I'm starting my second build soon. I purposefully left a whole lot of stones unturned so that each character would have a unique feel; I did the same with Oblivion. Playthrough #1: Taneiza (Orc). Went with an axe-and-shield setup; when Oblivion came out my computer couldn't handle head-on confrontations so I was eager to play a hack-and-bash warrior type for a change. Completely ignored the civil war aspect of the game... it wasn't her fight and after nearly getting beheaded she wanted to stay far, far away from other peoples' wars. She started out as a sellsword, joined the Companions, and finished out as a stalwartly neutral defender of things more significant than who wears what crown. Secretly a werewolf with a bit of a thing for lunching on bunnies. Playthrough #2: Sigurdis (Nord). Not built yet, but intended to be a sneaky thief type consistent with the sorts of characters I've played in the past. She will start out flippantly unconcerned with affairs higher than where to find her next meal, but will ultimately get drawn into larger events (after stealing everything in Skyrim that isn't nailed down or on fire). She'll be somewhat callous but will eventually discover that she can't help but care what happens to her homeland and its people. I do love me a good redemption story. Likely to wind up in the Stormcloak camp before meddling in the affairs of dragons. Also likely to become a werewolf somewhere along the road to seeing the larger picture, because that was just too much fun the first time around. Playthrough #3: Unknown. Will probably be a mage of some sort just to round out the "power trio." Likely to be a greater good for greater number type from day one and throw in with the Empire.

The ending was shorter than I'd hoped, but it wasn't hard to see coming what with the whole Valhalla business. That dragon ride had one-way ticket to endgame written all over it. Trouble is, there wasn't as much buildup to it as there was to Paradise in Oblivion, and I think that's what let me down a bit. It seemed as though most of the main story consisted of running around trying to find out what the ultimate objective was- and I'll give Bethesda credit for not pulling the big reveal too early. However, once Alduin was identified as the Big Bad, dealing with him seemed to be a trivial affair... fetch MacGuffin, fight predictably abortive boss battle, talk to a few people, head for final dungeon and defeat Alduin once and for all. Getting into the afterlife is meant to be something really, really difficult. In Oblivion you spend half the game gathering the materials you need to open a gateway there; in Skyrim you jump into a giant spiritual garbage disposal and you're through the door. It felt as though the immensity of the undertaking suddenly plateaued somewhere around the first battle with Alduin, and the entire finale felt anticlimactic because you had already both literally and metaphorically reached the top of the highest mountain. Pursue ancient dragon with a god complex into the afterlife and kill his soul for all eternity? Pft. I've already made time itself my *censored* with an Elder Scroll, and besides- it's not as if crossing over to the other side and dismembering a demigod isn't something I've had practice with. I only did it three times between Oblivion, Knights, and Shivering Isles. Show me an afterlife that I have to work for and then I'll be suitably impressed by it. Personally, I think that the final method of entry into the hereafter should have been the honest way for a change. The one method we've never used to gain access to other planes of existence in this series is actual death- which would have made the destination all the more meaningful to reach. I would have enjoyed something along those lines- instead of summoning one dragon to use as a taxi, how about a series of quests to learn the names of a whole host of dragons... with your goal being to summon all of them at once and die in glorious battle. If you happen to beat them all (because somebody would, sure as I'm a gamer), then Alduin drops in when you're weakened after the battle and snacks on you while laughing. Proceed to enter Valhalla, battle your way through the spirits of worthy ancestors to earn your place, and then collect the Scooby Squad for the final showdown. Ah well. One thing I'm very happy that Bethesda didn't do was have Paarthunax betray you after squishing Alduin. Since the Blades, who've been treated in the past as the series' Designated Good Guys, were very insistent in wanting him dead, I figured that when I appeared back on the mountaintop the very next thing I'd hear would be "thanks for taking out my rival, mortal!" - followed by another couple hours of questing and dragon extermination. Since the choice was open-ended, I regretfully ignored the Blades' continued requests to kill the critter who made it possible for mortals to challenge Alduin in the first place. They'd have me deep six the one voice advocating reason and peaceful coexistence among all dragonkind? I think I'll side with the Beards on that one. :thumbsup:

My issue is that the game forces you to accept some sidequests in order to advance the main story- for example, when you enter Riften, you are directed to speak with a man who immediately tries to hook you into joining the Thieves' Guild. There is no option to ignore him; he walks up and forces the conversation. Likewise with the Mages' Guild when you enter Winterhold for information further along. You can't not take those quests. Even if you choose not to complete them, you aren't given the option to just say no in the first place. You can't walk past the quest-givers, and in some cases you can't even quit the conversation without clicking through several dialogue options first- and sometimes none of them are what your particular character would have said. That sort of sideshow railroading doesn't belong in a sandbox RPG. Quest-giving NPCs should never force dialogue unless their associated quests are main-plot related.

I got back from vacation and found Skyrim waiting on my doorstep at about 10AM. It is now getting dark out and I really didn't notice how much time had passed. I'm not sure I'm entirely sold on some of the mechanics, like the way the camera controls work, but I'm already going nuts in fantasy-land. It might be my imagination, but I'm reasonably sure Skyrim runs better on my system than Oblivion, Fo3, and FoNV do. I love the game; no crashes or glitches I've seen yet. The interface, though... it makes my brain hurt. I mouse over a menu option and it clicks the one above or below it. I scroll to highlight a menu option then click on it... and it still clicks the wrong one. I've already started saving the game before every conversation or barter session because I can't be sure I won't screw up a dialogue tree or sell something I want to keep. Making E the action key for opening containers and swapping it to Tab for closing containers while swapping E to grab item while looking in said container's contents... I'm not sure who came up with that idea, but it's stupid. And where the *censored* is the "settings" item in the main frakking menu?! Why do I need to load a save every single time I want to change volume levels or keybinds? Note to Bethesda: this is not an area of design that an experienced and critically-acclaimed game developer should be dropping the ball on! :wallbash: