pubs
Just to mention, this week’s was originally called “The Crying Game”. And one of my headers was changed; before, it said “Ueda You Know”.
Oh well!
Hey, someone dug up a screencap of Phantasy Star II. I didn’t expect that.
After failing miserably for four days straight at assembling my own DVD, I have instead turned to Oblivion — which, it turns out, not only runs on my newly-refurbalized system; it also runs perfectly well with every effect and setting turned on at maximum power (except a couple fancy ones that my card doesn’t even support), at 800×600. Not bad for a two-year-old, sort-of-good-then graphics card. And people told me this game was a monster.
I’m kind of enjoying it so far. I’m a little annoyed that I can’t seem to wear clothes and armor at the same time, though. What’s the point of clothing, if I’m not allowed to wear it?! And dressing up is half the appeal of an Elder Scrolls game. This needs looking into.
At least mods are ridiculously easy to install. That’s been my primary activity, the last day or so: throwing things together, and seeing what does and doesn’t work. (There are too many nude mods, and most of them aren’t compatible!) At someone’s suggestion I just installed a mod to allow me to more effectively carry and throw around cadavers. This sounds promising.
I bought Oblivion when I got my 360, but only just recently got around to forcing myself to get into it.
My two main complaints are that it lacks the personal and/or emotional appeal and connection found in Fable, which it is routinely compared to, and the fact that you can tweak the character creation for hours and still get a terribly ugly in-game persona.
I sorta wish I’d gotten it on the PC, since there are mods that at least fix the second problem.
As for the first, well, the game is fine and enjoyable, but only insofar as it gives you an endless stream of stuff to do/look at, even if it almost totally misses the mark on making you feel special or involved while doing it.
Thoughts?
Also, there is a mod that allows you to replace the really low-res N64-looking distance textures with something a bit nicer.
And, I think when you get into higher ranks in the Mage’s Guild, you can enchant any piece of equipment to be just as stong as a full suit of heavy armor. So, try working on that and see if you can’t keep your dressing up and your protection needs all in one place.
In that vein, it’s a lot like the earlier Elder Scrolls games. Better than Morrowind, at least! You just kind of have to accept this series for what it is: very much a mechanical, Western RPG experience with an ambitious approach to mechanical world design. It’s not really about the emotions, except whatever you get from exploring a world on your own and finding new stuff and making something out of it. All of the games have felt kind of lonely and hollow. At least this time the NPCs have voices and largely original faces. And they walk around and do things, sometimes.
The weird thing about the facial generation is that within the actual creation system you can get something that looks really swell — and then somehow when you click “done” and the game begins, the face you get doesn’t necessarily match what you just created. It gets processed and becomes all bug-eyed and… strange, when just a moment ago you had a reasonably attractive young woman.
That’s not a terrible idea. It’s just — I’ve gotten used to Daggerfall and Morrowind, where you can wear, say, underwear — and then clothes on top of that — and then armor — and then a robe or cloak on top of that. Layers on layer. Here, putting on a T-shirt means taking off everything else you’ve got on. It’s weird! And it seems totally unnecessary. It’s like every one of these games gets rid of something else that made the earlier games appealing, as a trade-off for its increased scale.
What’s worse is that they removed the unarmored skill, meaning that if you wanted to prance about wearing fancy pantaloons and still be able to handle combat, you’re pretty much SOL.
(wearing fancy pantaloons was my favorite part of morrowind :( )
This is so dumb. Just not being able to play dress-up is already making me feel ambivalent about the game.
Also, how does every merchant in the country know when a shirt’s been stolen?
I mean, if it’s their own item I’m selling back — okay, granted. If it’s the item of someone else they know, like in the same town — again, that makes sense.
Hey hey.
If only I had the PC version :(
Still though, it’s a good game! Really!
It’s getting better! Especially with the more patches I apply.