Skyrim

Plain and simple.

Skyrim.

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim.

Awesome Sauce

I picked this beauty up over the Steam Summer Sale.

This epic game that Bethesda made.  The amazing American (Western) RPG.  The Elder Scroll series which is the answer to Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest, Breath of Fire, and all of the other incredible JRPG's.

My thoughts on the matter are it might not be a complete JRPG slayer.  Its a good game.  There are some issues though with the draw of it.

The graphics are amazing.  When you have a PC that can handle this game on full then it will definitely rock your socks off.  I wish I had real HD monitors that would allow me to experience this in its full glory.  Plus there are plenty of mods that help to increase how good the game is displayed.  A lot of mods.  And this type of mod is one that I find myself getting a lot.  I found a website through Kotaku about a player who has over 100 mods to create an amazing experience.  You can find it here.

Because of all the different mods there always leaves open more and more things to add on.  Like left hand rings, an amazing storage area, etc.  Mods are good and bad at the same time.  If you use them in ways that don't break the mechanics of the game and give you an unfair advantage I don't see an issue with them.  Mods for better graphics.  Mods that allow your followers to understand your commands better.  Mods that help to organize your storage in your home (not increase your on person storage) are all things I don't see a problem with.  I do think mods that cheat your stats and give an unfair advantage are cheating.  Yet who am I to say its cheating.  Skyrim is so massive and open that one could say that there is no "correct" way to play.

That leads me to the next point.  Being open.  Really open.  OOOPPPEEENNN.

You can do whatever you want in almost any order.  You can spends days just doing sidequests and never finish the main story.  To me its almost just too big.  I get too distracted with things and then its hard to reign myself in and continue on.  I don't want to miss a thing (queue song in your head....now). I want to experience everything there is in this digital realm to stimulate my synapses with pleasure of the game.  But I fear that I will miss things.  Its that fear that makes me hesitant.  Hesitant to turn the machine on and return.  Its something that I feel whenever I play Fallout 3 as well.  Both are Bethesda games.  Both make me really like them, but then also get sick with the amount of things to do.  Its hard to fathom what I need to do to be the best or to really enjoy everything.

Damn you Bethesda.  Maybe that is what they think WRPG should be.  Completely open.  Its something that I think maybe needs to be toned down a little.  Yes you should have a role where you can adjust it to however you want, but I think there should be some limitations.  Those limitations help someone like me keep focused on the main prospect of the game.  I need those.

Now some people might say I should just not play these games.  They may be right with those statements.  But I like the games.  I like what they have going on within them.  I need to learn how to deal with the expansiveness of the games and eventually I will greatly love them.

So many choices to choose

I have been working continuously on Fallout 3 and FFV yet things just keep getting in the way.  I get distracted with Netflix, or can't decide if I want to watch TV (which is an issue because most of my games are on the PS3 platform so I have to usually use a TV.  I do have a computer monitor hooked up through a Jam box but the monitor is not that large so the display sucks big time for games that require a much larger screen).

Fallout 3 is a great game.  It just takes a lot of work to get into things and then want to continue the storyline quests for it.  I just wish to explore everything and complete all the quests, while at the same time get all the damn trophies that the game offers.  And when you deal with a game that's main content with no DLC content takes a 600 page game guide to cover in detail, sometimes too much is not a good thing.

I think that is a downfall of Fallout 3 in some cases.  It is big.  It is huge.  And that's not just what she said.

The game has a massive world to it where almost anything is possible.  I know that many games say that anything is possible, yet when Fallout 3 says it, it is true.

It is so overwhelming at the immense data that is available in the game that I found myself getting lead astray by external factors, being TV, Netflix, FFXI, etc.  Things that would normally not drag me away from the screen since I would be sooooo into this playable universe.  Maybe its the choices.  Maybe having way to many choices is not always a good thing.

Think about it.  Sometimes it can be so stressful in real life to have to make a decision on what to do and when to do it and then if that was the right thing.  So why bring that into a video game.  Yes we all want them to be as close to reality as possible however we don't want all that reality and life has to offer.  Give me an open world game that sucks me in.  Something that I am given choices however the limits are still there I just can't see them.

Then I turn to FFXI.  With the new level cap increase to 95 I have been working on getting my character stronger, yet I also want to work on my lower level stuff and I find problems with what to do and when.  In FFXI there are a lot of choices, however not as many as you would think.  That is because the user population has shifted things over to a world in which you have to do this to succeed.  Yes there is a demographic in the game that gets by lvling in other areas, however the missions and quests which draw people to the game I feel are almost ignored by the major populace which frustrates me.  My best friend is now playing more which is great cause I had a buddy to adventure with.  However I wish the choices were not as limited with that.

Hmmmm  what to do what to do.

I find myself resorting to Gran Turismo 5.  Its a good game, however I never understand why I keep buying GT games.  I am just not a big car person.  Nor do I know a damn thing about tuning them and racing.  Its nice to drone out to some mind numbing racing requiring me to hold down the X button and steer.  Yes, its realistic physics.  Yes the graphics are in my opinion some of the best for a car racing game out there.  Yes, there are hours upon hours of playtime and its a great game.  I just don't see it as a fit for me.  Maybe that will change as I continue on with my list.  I might use it as a reliever game of some sort between titles that I complete.

The everlasting enjoyment of the move

Currently in the slow process of packing things up for the big move that is coming up.  Finally getting our asses out of this God forsaken dump and moving to a much better place only about 5 minutes away.  Then after the pack and the move comes the unpack and set things up stage which sometimes feels as if it never ends.  ARGH

So what does this have to do with the list.  Well I asked my Fiance to not pack all the games up since there will be some down time in which there is nothing to do.  So I decided to keep Fallout 3 out.  Everything else is going to be packed for the PS3.  No other games.  Nothing.  Null.  Natta

Why?

Cause I need to force myself to finish it.  I have had the damn thing sitting on my shelf for almost 3 years now.  And I am half way through.  HALFWAY.  Cue another ARGHHH


It just is soooo much of a game.  That is only taking the main title into consideration.  The expansion packs are added dread in terms of trying to get things done.  Luckily for now I only have one installed so it won't cause too much harm for me.  I can do this.  I can do it.

An Expansion, but not that theory for the Universe

Downloadable Content (DLC) is something of a conundrum I feel.  I only own a handful of DLC since a lot of games I have are so long that DLC would be beat a dead horse.  However you don't want to make the main plot really short and then have to get DLC to see what happens.  Yes this will make money for the companies, and there are people who will buy packages as well.  Yet it does make the game look bad.  To me its as if they released the game unfinished and the DLC is some lame excuse to make up for it.

DLC should be like its ancestor, the expansion pack.  It adds to the story by providing a mini sequel and placing add-ons without having to do a completely new things.  Example: Diablo II.  AMAZING!  Plain and simple.  Keeping with my list, I think of them Fallout 3 has some very good DLC for it.  I only have Broken Steel which opens up an extension to the main plot, plus open up your character to level 30.  The other DLC/add-ons for Fallout 3 allow you to battle in other places and open up an entirely new story that wraps around the main plot.  Like the famous Anchorage battle, on searching out the aliens.  I love those ideas.  Really new and exciting.

Another look is at Assassins Creed: Brotherhood.  I stopped Fallout 3 for now and decided to work on the DLC The Da Vinci Disappearance since I recognized I have many games that will take a lot of man hours to get through and that I had some that won't take much time at all.  The Da Vinci Disappearance is a quickie.

Just to go over Assassins Creed: Brotherhood, the AC series is graphically beautifully, the plot is rich, and the experience sucks you in completely.  I never played the first Assassins Creed, but I did play Assassin's Creed II.  ACII was a lengthy story.  However I feel AC:B was a lot shorter.  The story just seemed to be over by the time it started.  Plus there was not a lot of development with the overall arc of the main character, which is and will be spanning multiple titles.  So when I started to play the Da Vinci Disappearance add-on I felt this may have been better as a side quest arc in the game,  It has no real advancement to the main plot, nor does it bring a lot in terms of new abilities and all.  I just feel it could have been added in the game with its initial release and all would be have been fine.  I guess Ubisoft needed to make some extra Florins.

Options, Options: Radiated Water or Dirty Water?

I love a open games.  Not that whole open source, anyone can change whatever (thats a whole different beast), but the idea of a game that does not have to follow a linear path, but can diverge and go on in different areas.

This means side quests.  It means side quests that you have to work for.  That take almost an hour of sweat and blood (and not your own, but the character.  Please do not cut your self for a game.  Thats a little...well...crazy).

Its side quests that take you off the linear into the surrounding world and have you almost forgot why you were playing the game to get to the ending.  Quests that have you sitting in one spot for forever just to catch some random beast and hope that they drop an item that has a 4% chance of dropping each time you kill it.

And thus we begin talking about Fallout 3

I blame my friend Wes for getting me addicted to the Fallout series.  It started out as a PC series for Fallout and Fallout 2.  There was also another one after those but I never played that game.  Underlying story though is that there was a great war with China and nukes were launched.  Years later you are in America.  Devastation from the bombs is still there, with radiation everywhere.  Usually you play a Vault dweller who has to leave the vault to get something for everyone to survive.  There are multiple things that can occur that make you have to go out into the big bad wasteland.

Thats where this post picks up.  I find myself maybe past halfway in the game's main plot, but I am in the middle of some quest that has me in a dark, wet, scary place where crab like things are attacking me.  That is the beauty of Fallout 3.

The fun and rewards of all these side quests are things that make me keep going off course, and probably going to be the reason why it may take me a little bit of time to complete the game.  This is one of the reasons why I decided to split the DLC for the game into separate games because then it would just take me FOREVER to complete this.  ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

The Beginning

So the story is this.  After many times of trying to figure out which game to play on my days off, I sat down and made a list of all the games that I had collected in the past 11-12 years for the Playstation consoles.  It was a lot.  I seemed to have collected and collected, and when I played them I had stopped one game to start playing another.  Hell, I found that a lot of times I would be close to beating a game and just stop on it.  BLAH

To stop myself from continuing this constant never beat a game but buy more I promised myself and my fiance that I would hold off on buying any new game or Downloadable Content (DLC) until I have removed 2-3 games from my list.  Thats the main rule.  The other rules are as follow:

• I will start all games on the list from the beginning.  This is to allow me to relearn the story and enjoy the game in full.
• I will not play more than 2 games at a time (one on a console, and one on a mobile platform i.e. PSP, DS.
• I will try to provide a write up of each game that I play as I play it on this blog.
• Last, when it comes to FFXI and other MMORPG, even though there is no real end to the game, I will try my best to complete the storylines that are available, but may play this game at any time.  I must however go back to the console game that I was playing before I started FFXI.

These rules are finite and can only be added to if needed, however I may not take off any of them.

Now with that done lets get the list up:

FFXIII PS3 Completed on 4/16/11

FFXIII: Aftergame missions     PS3 

FFXII PS2

FFIV DS

FFXI PS2  Ongoing

FFVI GBA

FFV GBA
FFIII DS/iOS

Crisis Core PSP

Final Fantasy Tactics PSP

Fallout 3 PS3

Fallout 3: Broken Steel  PS3

Fallout: New Vegas PS3

Assassins Creed: Brotherhood PS3  Completed

Assassins Creed: Brotherhood: The Da Vinci Disappearence PS3  DLC

Grand Theft Auto 4 PS3

Grand Theft Auto 3 PS2

GTA: Vice City PS2

GTA: San Andreas PS2

Parasite Eve PS/PSP

Parasite Eve 2 PS

BoF IV PS

Vagrant Stories PS/PSP

Wild Arms PS/PSP

Wild Arms 2 PS/PSP

Star Ocean PSP

Star Ocean 2 PS

Star Ocean: Till the End of Time PS2

Radiata Stories PS2

Shadow Hearts PS2

Shadow Hearts: Covenant PS2

Azure Dreams PS

.Hack//GU Vol. 1 Rebirth PS2

White Knight Chronicles PS3

Gran Turismo 5 PS3

Legend of Dragoon PS

Chrono Trigger PS

Chrono Cross PS

Monster Rancher PS

Monster Seed PS

Arc the Lad: Twilight of the Spirits PS2

Dark Cloud PS2

Dark Cload 2 PS2

Draken: The Ancient Gates PS2

Gran Turismo 4 PS2

Jade Cocoon 2 PS2

Legaia 2: Duel Saga PS2

Orphen: Scion of Sorcery PS2

Onimusha 2: Samurai's Destiny PS2

Samurai Legend: Musashi PS2

Shinobi PS2

Suikoden III PS2

Suikoden IV PS2

Summoner 2 PS2

Tenchu: Wrath of Heaven PS2

Unlimited Saga PS2

Wild Arms 3 PS2

Wild Arms Alter Code: F PS2

Xenosaga II PS2

Ys: Ark of Naphishtia PS2

Xenogears PS/PSP
Pokemon Platinum DS
Pokemon Diamond DS

As you can tell I have already completed two on the list and there are many more to go.  Currently I am working on Fallout 3 on PS3 and Parasite Eve on the PSP.  I will talk about these games though in another post.  For now, enjoy!!