More Skyrim

After picking this up at the weekend, I’ve played almost nothing else.. though non-gaming things have arisen to keep me from playing as much as I’d have expected by now 😉

I’ve now tried out woodcutting and mining, and I’ve been learning the Smithing trade along with Alchemy.. nice ways to make money.  I also make money in less nice ways.. lockpicking, if I find something reasonably unattended.. and if I come across bandits, I make sure to take all their possessions too!

Looting dungeons actually feels far more dangerous than in the previous games, with traps and slightly smarter enemies.. in my first dungeon, I was scared by the Draugr who played dead till I got up close, and in another, I had a fierce battle with a Giant Frostbite Spider..

As planned, I have progressed to dual-wielding swords, although I still dabble in Destruction for a few enemies.. in the past I have concentrated on magic, only carrying an enchanted weapon just in case, so this makes a change.  I’m loving the power moves, and have my eye set on certain of the perks in the One Handed Weapons tree which will allow me to decapitate my enemies!

I even have a follower, named Golldir!

I met him in a tomb while taking cover from a dragon I just couldn’t defeat.  He had problems of his own: a Necromancer who was fiddling with his ancestors.  After I helped kill him, he joined me in my travels.. he now fights for me in battle, and of course, I make him carry the loot 😉

My only complaint so far has been about the menu system and inventory.. I like having an unobstructed view of the game world while playing, but to change weapon or equip a new piece of gear I’m forced to start clicking and scrolling.  All the lists start near the bottom of the screen as well, which virtually guarantees that hateful scrolling will be needed.

We have large monitors and high resolutions now.. why not just use more of the screen and let us see our inventory at a glance?  In the previous games, equipped items all moved to the front of the list, but in Skyrim they remain where they are.  As you can’t even see your character on this screen any more, any accidental unequipping can easily go unnoticed as you don’t get that quick visual clue that something’s wrong!

I guess you can’t have it all, though.. and the rest of the game is fantastic..

I didn’t like monster-levelling in Oblivion, as enemies levelled with the character.. after a while, the wildlife was all replaced by high-level creatures, so it didn’t even seem to fit in with the area any more.  I was also finding myself accosted by bandits wearing top-notch gear with expensive swords.. with that kind of gear and ability, they should have been wiping out the nearby village instead of trying to mug me for my cash!

As for the effect on the story.. I levelled up a way before entering my first Gate, so when I was sent in with a few companions, they were struck down immediately by the over-powered enemies inside, and again, it felt wrong.

In Skyrim, I’ve only really struggled with a few larger enemies, such as the Dragon, and the giant spider.. these felt like a decent challenge, while attacks by wild wolves started off difficult and are now easy, as I’d expect as I’m now a bit more of a seasoned warrior.  All 12 levels’ worth 😉

Raiding and stuff

Normally there are just two or three of us running around, but this week we’ve actually managed to get enough guildmates on to make up a group, so instead of grouping up with a few stray randoms, we’ve been with friends and having a bit more fun 🙂

We went to see The Tauren Chieftains perform in Blackrock Depths..

Back on our level 60 alts, we tried taking on Arazzius the Cruel as part of a quest.. but he minced our mage and priest 🙁

It feels like a rather large step down from my level 80 character.. I know I could take this guy all by myself even though I’m only specced to heal, but here with my fire mage? Not enough firepower..

Fortunately another friend was able to join us, and we took him down 🙂

We’ve also been seeing some old raids, which I’ve found to be ridiculously good fun.

I especially wanted to get through Zul’Gurub, as it’s going to be removed in Cataclysm.  We were unable to manage with just two of us – as a squishy little healer I couldn’t stand up to a mind-controlled Vorlak.  With our group, though, we managed to take him down 🙂

We also took on Zul’Aman, which was a little harder but only meant a greater sense of achievement when we took down the boss.

After this, and very late at night, we took on Molten Core.  Fire.. awesome stuff 🙂

The end boss here was rather more difficult, and I really didn’t think we’d manage him because he kept sending us flying.  Several tries later and we eventually killed him.. just in time to get away to bed to avoid sleeping on my keyboard.  I discovered that you can hearth while doing the sleep emote, which was rather amusing.

I managed to grab a screen the following night, after another very late session!  I’ll catch up on sleep eventually, right?

Tarithel and Erilas

So I had my trial of WoW, and enjoyed it enough that I went ahead and got the game.  I managed to pick up the game plus expansions (Burning Crusade and Wrath of the Lich King) for just under £30, and for the play-time I’ve had so far, I figure it’s worth it.

Thanks to the Recruit A Friend bonus, I’ve been levelling with a friend at a rather breakneck speed, as well as the now obligatory sight-seeing.  I’m loving the damage I can do as a fire mage – well, it’s hard to go wrong with fire, really!
We’ve ventured into a few dungeons, and so far the randoms we’ve met haven’t included too many idiots, though there always will be a few.

Here are Tarithel, destructive fire mage, and Erilas, awesome priest healer, posing just a little bit 😉

As for the few concerns I’ve had about becoming addicted – we’re still finding time to play other games, and go out and see friends, so it can’t be quite that bad 😀