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A Gaming Diary
Elder Scrolls: Oblivion
Mar 25th
After a total of thirty hours or so it feels almost exactly like Morrowind to me. Do like the way the combat model means it’s possible to win fights that there’d have been no way to win in Morrowind.
In fact, it’s better than Morrowind in almost every way. I like the way Morrowind’s map filled in, Oblivion doesn’t do that on the main map. That’s an incredibly petty complaint, mind.
The other thing is that I liked Morrowind’s alien landscape and wildlife. So far in Morrowind I’ve just seen deer, horses, dogs and sheep as non-enemy animals. Not quite the same as giant flying jellyfish things.
I bought a horse today, finally. Almost cried when it died after riding it a bit too hard over some mountains. I normally fast-travel to places when doing quests, but this time I decided to ride over the mountains at night while it was snowing. Beautiful, until I got my horse to gallop down a steep slope and it fell out from under me and crashed all the way down, twisting in an utterly sickening fashion. Poor thing. We were only about fifty yards from my destination, too.
Also bought a house from somone. Cheap… but, er… needed some work done… There’s no way I’m giving spoilers for that quest. You’ll have fun.
The quests are just getting better and better, actually. And they’re all side quests.
One day I might even do some of the story stuff, maybe.
Tetris DS
Mar 24th
It’s an odd one.
It feels wrong somehow when I first start playing, but then feels natural within thirty seconds.
I’ve tried some of the new play modes. Not sure about them yet. They’re not as intuitive as plain old Tetris, but they might end up being worthwhile.
Elder Scrolls: Oblivion
Mar 24th
Twelve hours in, character from old quest starts haunting me.
For reasons I won’t go into, I’ve not been able to close the quest off, so after a while the game seemed to decide to send this NPC around to haunt me in a way that’s very, very obviously not meant to happen.
In other words, the game broke.
So I started again from the beginning.
Tetris DS
Mar 23rd
Just tried standard Marathon mode.
It starts slowly and gets faster fairly quickly.
Controls felt a bit off to me at first, slightly clunky, but I stopped noticing once the speed increased. Still, a bit odd.
Elder Scrolls: Oblivion
Mar 22nd
It’s brilliant. Of course.
What have I done? Ooooh, loads. Started a new character, a Breton. Custom class, Wanderer. Spells and thieving. Been caught looting a pub’s basement. Broken into a farmhouse to steal the few items of any value inside. Picked flowers and vegetables. Killed a highwayman. Found a horse. Killed the same horse after it went mad after I accidentally slashed it while we were fighting a wolf. Failed to kill any deer. Raided a tomb filled with imps and traps. Sneaked past a monster unleashed by a well-intentioned man. Wandered round the Imperial City, mostly lost. Stolen goods from the Imperial Prison. Walked into an Oblivon gate and died.
That sort of thing.
Elder Scrolls: Oblivion
Mar 22nd
It is a glorious day.
I got out of bed at 5:15am. By 6:00am Oblivion had been installed on my PC.
(I’d downloaded overnight. I have two copies arriving some time this week, one PC, one 360, so I don’t feel guilty about downloading it a day or two early. I had to install some software called Daemon Tools to run it. I hope it’s not going to do anything nasty to my PC. I don’t know much about downloading games and that. I was so worried I actually deleted all the personal information – e.g. Firefox passwords – off my PC before running anything.)
I played it for just over an hour, through the helpful tutorial section (that will no doubt get annoying when starting new characters) and out the other side. On my PC it looks great. Once out in the world I died, a lot. I only had about ten minutes out there and about five deaths. It’s no less harsh than Morrowind in that respect. Do stupid stuff, you die. And I did a lot of stupid stuff, just to test things out. In fact, everything about it is very Morrowind. The combat system’s been changed a bit, the interface has been mucked about with, but it feels just like Morrowind to me. I didn’t, however, see any enemy health bars. Hopefully I just didn’t notice them because I was gawping at the graphics. If they’re not there then I may cry.
Anyway, I had to leave for work, but it’s a lovely sunny day and I read great interviews with Peter Ackroyd and the Pet Shop Boys on the bus and after all the anticipation and build up to Oblivion I now feel sated. Itching to leave work, go home and plunge back in, but at a manageable level. The wait to play it at all was sending me slightly crazy, I must admit.
Now I’m okay. I’m fine. It reminds me of when I used to be a hardcore smoker and lit up a fag after an enforced period without.
And I’m rubbish at sneaking.
Feeding Frenzy
Mar 20th
Unlocked full game.
Started a New Game.
One sitting later, had completed the game.
Oh.
Time Attack’s where it’s at, they say, and I suppose the main game can be replayed for high scores but… oh.
The Outfit
Mar 20th
Couple more single player levels down. It’s good fun, though the seige at the end of the last level went on a bit too long. Or there was too long between waves, anyway. I wasn’t in any danger, given that I’d set up $hlmun gun emplacements around the place I was meant to be defending.
