My Skyrim Character

Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim arrives on 11/11/11. Can. Not. Wait.

 

With The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim right around the corner, I’ve been thinking about the character I’m going to create. One of the things many fans of the Elder Scrolls games love is the fact that you can customize and configure your character in so many ways. Want to be a human? Easy. An elf? No problem. How about a humanoid lizard or cat? Elder Scrolls can take care of that too. While the race or species of the character is something that’s somewhat important to me, it’s not crucial. Sure each has their own specific stats that can help in the direction your character chooses to take in the world, but overall the developers have stated that it won’t make a huge difference in the game. Also, each race is more partial to certain races than others, which could affect how your character lives in wherever it chooses to reside. So, I enter this world with one question: What will my character be like?

I’ve heard stories from other gamers about how they’ve gone into certain open-ended games with a specific character in mind. They give these character traits that affect the choices they make within the defined story of the game. Whether they’re good guys, bad girls, or a complicated mix of emotions that affect choices made, these characters have been the most memorable to them as they recall their gaming experiences years later. I want to do the same with Skyrim. Originally, I was thinking of making a character like Rand from the Wheel of Time novels, but later thought that it was still not enough for what I wanted in my character. The next paragraph will detail the characteristics in my character.

First, he will be male. The unattached storyline is that he will have come from a broken family with no ties to his original parents or siblings. He grew up on his own with hardly anyone there to help him survive, so he will be highly skilled in thievery. He knew that the skills of a thief would not be enough, so he also learned a small amount of magic to keep him out of harms’ way and to help him escape from a tight situation. Since he has grown up alone, he typically chooses to spend most of his time by himself and stays away from relationships, although if he found the perfect woman, he might choose to stay with her. He usually thinks only about what will help him survive but can recognize how doing a good deed for someone can benefit himself. Because of this, he is willing to work with others (including a guild) if it will mean a higher status to himself and a better chance of living for another day. He cares little for anyone else but himself, but has a soft spot for children and animals. He has a weakness for beer and will seek out a dark corner of a pub in any town he crosses whenever he needs to think about what direction he will take next in his adventures. His name will be Cripshaw.

You have just read the nerdiest blog post I’ve ever written. This is how excited I am to play this game on 11/11/11.

Do you play games with a specific character in mind? Do you think you’d ever try in the future? I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments.

Extra Life 2011: How it all went down

Before the marathon

The day has come and gone and Extra Life 2011 was a huge success! Last year, when I first heard about this charity, I signed up on a whim. The goal begins at $96 and can be adjusted accordingly. My original thoughts were that many people wouldn’t take it seriously, but I was surprised at how fast that goal was met from some extremely generous friends and family. So, I bumped up the goal and ended up donating over $240 to Doernbecher Children’s Hospital. That’s when I thought that this could be something used for real good.

Fast-forward to this year with my goal started at $250. Some great friends and family sponsored me and helped blow past that goal to $300 thus gearing me up again for another epic day of marathon gaming on October 15. Of course, as erratic as my sleep patterns are, I awoke at 2:30 a.m. so excited that there was no chance of me going back to sleep. For anyone who sponsored me, I want to reassure you that I easily played games for well over 24 hours, including breaks, throughout the day and night.

The marathon begins

I officially started my session at 8 a.m. with an Xbox 360 game called Spider-Man: Edge of Time. It was a nice “beat-em-up” game that satiated a mind used to shooters and much more intense, twitchy games. After a few hours, I switched over to playing some Gears of War 3 with my friend Brianna and Stu, who was also participating in Extra Life 2011. We jumped into a horde mode match and made it to a round in the thirties before being disconnected from the host. BAH!

That was a great time to take a small break and then jump back into some video games with Pinball FX2, which is a great game to take a break with. It was one of my top games for 2010 and continues to be a favorite to go back to. Afterward, I played some multi-player Call of Duty: Black Ops with a bunch of random people. If you’re unaccustomed to playing games with strangers, let me tell you, you can hear some weird stories occasionally. That day, I got a few guys talking about the type of weed they smoke. I’m so happy Xbox has a mute button.

As night approaches

I ended up jumping into Stu’s campaign on Gears of War 3 and we finished the game, which took about four hours to do. At this point it was time to take a small dinner break consisting of some pad thai from Thai Orchid, which definitely hit the spot. After eating that, I threw in some L.A. Noire to play some of the downloadable content that has been waiting for me. I love the music and actors that Team Bondi got for this game and if you like the TV show “Mad Men,” you’d probably like playing this game.

The finish line in sight

After I finished a chapter in L.A. Noire, I killed some more time playing multi-player Call of Duty, Super Stickman Golf on iOS and some more Spider-Man until about 1 a.m. My friend, Evan, said that he would wake up at 2 a.m. to help me ride out the last and hardest part of the marathon. Keep in mind, I’ve been awake for a full 24 hours my 2:30 a.m. and have been playing games  since  around 4:30 a.m.

When the clock struck 2:30 a.m., Evan and I started our journey into Call of Duty’s zombie maps. I can’t believe that I haven’t gotten into these before, but I’m so happy that I participated in this charity in order to give me a good reason to play them. The layout of each area is detailed, the well thought out and full of mysteries. By the time we were finished with our last match, it was after 8:30 a.m. I signed off and recorded one last video to my Tumblr account.

Overall, Extra Life 2011 has been a huge success. Gamers from around the world have donated an approximate combined total of over 1.1 million dollars to children’s hospitals worldwide this year, which is a huge leap from the $465,000 last year and $170,000 the year before that. I want to extend a heartfelt thanks to all the people who sponsored me, played games with me, and promoted this cause. It means a lot to me, but even more to the kids it will help at Doernbecher.

Who says video games are bad for you?

Everyone who participates in Extra Life are kings and queens in my book.

Extra Life 2011 Game Marathon on October 15

This weekend will mark the second year of playing video games to help kids at Doernbecher Children’s Hospital. Many gamers around the world will be enduring the 24 hour game marathon to help the children’s hospital of their choice and it won’t be as easy as it sounds.

I will be playing games on the Xbox 360 as well as iPhone and iPad games. The following is what I have lined up:

Xbox 360

• Call of Duty: Black Ops
• Gears of War 3
• Peggle
• Pinball FX2
• Dead Space 2
• Crimson Alliance
• Possibly more…

iPhone/iPad

• Superbrothers: Swords & Sworcery
• Plants vs. Zombies
• GameDev Story
• Jaws
• Infinity Blade
• Rage HD

If you own an Xbox 360 and see any games that you’d like to play with me, just let me know or send me an invite. My gamertag is Omega Technique. Also, with the help of many generous people, my original goal has been surpassed but I’d love to see it get to an even $300. If anyone wants to donate $16, just head to my profile here.

Risen review | Xbox 360

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Photo courtesy of rpg-galaxy.de

“Risen” is a game that leaves a bittersweet mark on my video gaming taste buds. The graphics are primitive and the framerate is super choppy, yet the difficulty of the gameplay and the option to wander the whole countryside, regardless of the strength of the character, is something I don’t see much in games nowadays.

I began the game without a manual, so learning how to do simple things like wielding a weapon and choosing where to venture were things I had to pick up on the fly. A few hours later, I’m deep into the game; manipulating every villager I could in order to put clothes on my back. I think this is where the game hooked me and continued to entertain me, even with its many misgivings.

And the misgivings are plenty. I’m sure the styles of fighting vary based on the story direction you choose to go in order to specialize in a warrior, thief, or mage class. I chose the role of a thief / hunter and invested a ton of points into swordfighting. Regardless, there were many occasions where I would wander the countryside searching for something I couldn’t find before being killed by something way too powerful for my character to battle. The island map had no option to zoom in or out, thus becoming a challenge to even locate the arrow that represents your character. There were multiple occasions were the walls to an area wouldn’t load or collision detection would fail and my character would fall into a void, thus making me reload an auto save or restarting the game completely.

However, I did finish the game and liked what good the game had to offer. This game is a budget bin game or a Gamefly rental for someone looking for a western RPG, but beware that it’s not a walk in the park like some games are. If you’re in the mood for a little something different in an RPG and can forgive its faults, check it out!

Darksiders offers nothing new, yet still fun!

I just recently finished Darksiders on the Xbox 360 and I must agree with the critics that this game doesn’t really offer anything new to gamers in general. It doesn’t mean that the game is bad though! As a matter of fact, I really liked many of the areas of gameplay, many of which really challenged my skills.

First, I must say that I fought through this on the hardest difficulty, Apocalyptic. The platformer genre is usually always on the easier side of gameplay nowadays, so if you want to strengthen your weapons to their highest ability and have a real challenge, play it on Apocalyptic. The story centers on the main protagonist, War, who never drops the badass attitude and isn’t scared to get a little blood on his hands time and time again. While the story was interesting, it certainly wasn’t anything that stood out among the crowd, nor will I think that this game’s story will be remembered the same way others in its generation will.

The control is pretty top-notch with great response and hit detection. My only complaint was the lag in jumping when running toward an edge, but it wasn’t anything that truly ruined gameplay. The weapons are all pretty much taken straight from other games, like Zelda, Devil May Cry, and Portal. While many have spoke about Darksiders as directly ripping off Portal’s concept, one can’t just place a portal anywhere and the idea of gravity doesn’t exist like it does in Portal. Major disappointment when I found that out.

The achievements in the game aren’t really anything that makes the gameplay any better and a lot of them really involve grinding in order to get the achievement, while others happen by literally just playing through the game. For any achievement hoarder, finishing the game on the Apocalyptic setting nets you a sweet 280 points instantly that kind of makes you feel nice in that little empty part of yourself. Overall, while it didn’t offer anything new, it was still a cool game to play but I’d make it more of a rental than a full purchase. Hopefully this has taught the developers at Vigil a thing or two about storytelling in games. Perhaps we’ll see something a little more original in the future from them!