#but the like. little bits of lore and faction systems? very cool to me

[pantestudines]

I dont think I'll ever really have the pc, time, or following to ever actually stream something, but if I did I know exactly what it would be. I'd title it "Space Truckin'" and I'd be playing 2003's Freelancer (a game so unknown here that I could find three whole posts about it, but that I am personally obsessed with). This game is a space dogfighting game, but instead of buying paramilitary war machines to blow up space hackers with, I'd limit myself to ONLY buying freighters and running cargo from place to place, severly dampening my combat abilities in the still-very-dogfight-focused main plot. I'm just a poor space trucker, dammit! I didn't want to get involved in intergalactic politics!

[spookyheaad]

New KenUno AU!

@p-riama @girlwiththepapatattoo

Ok, my fellow Kenpachi lovers, I need you to read this because I’m about to pass on (context: I’ve convinced my parents to watch The Mandalorian with me & I got them hooked):

Then read the caption here:

I lost my fucking mind.

I became very enamored with Mandalorian culture after finally getting towards watching season 2 of Mando, and I’m actually kinda shocked as to how much it is reminiscent of the whole Kenpachi lineage in Bleach (Much less severe tho).

So yeah, KenUno Mandalorian!AU

Mandalorians aren’t a species, they’re a creed, so anyone can be a Mandalorian. Their lifestyle revolves around combat, I just got more info abt this stuff the other day and I’m actively looking more stuff up. Admittedly as I grew up watching the clone wars animated series, I wasn’t too interested in the arcs that dealt with Mandalorians (mainly Pre Vizsla & Death Watch. Thought they were cool & all but I was still in grade school and wanted to see cool lightsaber fights).

But now that I’m older and much more interested in the lore of SW, I’m fascinated by them; I’m also going to rewatch all Mandalorian centric episodes because there was a lot that was put into both clone wars & rebels (for research, and because I still need to watch Rebels, this might give me my reason).

I’m still thinking on solid designs for Unohana and little Yachiru, I have an idea of Kenny’s armor and what he looks like.

My whole idea is that both Kenpachi & Unohana have been longtime Mandalorians, have followed the creed for years; found one another through the creed. They follow a branch of Mandalorian belief that allows them to remove their helmets (compared to Din Djarin, who was raised in The Children of the Watch, who refuse to remove their helmets to any other living being unless necessary). Bo Katan even Tells Din that The Watch is an old Mandalorian belief system, bordering on cultists. Zaraki & Unohana adhere to a more lenient form of Mandalorian lifestyle in that sense.

Of course, Unohana found Zaraki (not as a child, though, he’s an adult when they meet.) and she offered to show him the ways of the Mandalorian creed; he accepted. They grow an incredibly strong bond both on and off the battlefield, wandering the galaxy together. Eventually they fall in love, and declare themselves a clan of two (Mandalorians refer to family units as “clans”).

Then, they find a lost little girl, that being Yachiru. Knowing what this entails, they both accept that the child is their responsibility, and must take it to more of her own kind or raise her until she may choose her path. So then, they become a clan of three.

I’m still trying to determine what faction they both belonged to & some other AU related things but, uh yeah, I could cry rn at how perfectly this fits.

I’m probably going to stick to the short hair for him because it just makes it easier. With Unohana I plan to give her a typical pulled back braid; she doesn’t really have a need to wear it in the front, and also it would restrict her head movement if she wore her front braid and her helmet. Much more convenient.

More head studies for Kenny

Started planning his helmet design. I gotta give his helmet horns, that’s just a given. Not sure if I want to add any sort of designs, and I’m also unsure of what color both of their armor sets should be, I have to look up if the colors have any connotation.

Final head study. I plan to do more variations in expression digitally.

Very basic head study with helmet on

Mando Kenny defending his foundling, Yachiru!

I’m also gonna change what Yachiru is wearing, I just wanted to do something full body for Zaraki & I gave Yachiru the typical robe since it’s easy and drawing kids is a bit of a challenge for me (they just end up looking like small adults lmaoo).

[dumbfinntales]

I’ve done everything I felt like was worth doing in Morrowind and gotta say, despite its age it was really fun. Certain things took some time getting used to, like no conventional fast travel or having to find your own way but in time I started to really enjoy these aspects. To a degree, at least.

Let me start by saying that the combat is a little bit stupid, alright? Your fatigue and weapon skills play into whether or not you can hit things. You really need to dedicate yourself to a single weapon type because if you try to pick up a weapon that you got only 10-20 points in you ain’t gonna hit a damn thing. Hitting things and just seeing your weapon go through them is frustrating. I mostly used the Long Blades and eventually got the skill to 100 and I rarely miss, except if I’m out of fatigue. But still this system is pretty dumb and I’m glad they got rid of it later on.

Morrowinds world is amazing. I have no idea what happened between this game and Oblivion, because Oblivions open world is dull. But Morrowind is fascinating and very different. The world is full of interesting locations and fun encounters with colorful characters. Like all those naked Nords that have been tricked by witches, what a coincidence that there’s so many. Or the famous flying mage Tarhiel. This game also has something revolutionary. Loot. Loot that isn’t randomized, like in Oblivion and Skyrim. There’s set loot in each cave and ancestral site that you can find and it made exploring them fun because you wouldn’t know what riches you could come across. You’d think that making loot random would create the same effect, but nope. When you explore dungeons you just get random garbage. In Morrowind I’ll never forget when I ventured off to a random tomb and found a few pieces of the Orcish armor in a chest. That armor is there ALWAYS, it’s not random. Finally I was able to ditch my ugly mould armor and rock something much cooler. So yeah, exploring the dungeons in this game felt a lot more fun and satisfying than looting randomized chests with soulgems in them.

But my favorite part of Morrowind is just how utterly broken the game is. There’s so many systems and little things you can exploit to basically ascend to godhood. Who needs the heart of Lorkhan? Create a spell for 100% magick resistance for 1 sec, cast it and put on the boots of blinding speed and BOOM! Now you’re Sonic the hedgehog speeding across Vvardanfell. Not to mention alchemy and enchanting. Enchantments in this game rock. You don’t need to recharge them with soulgems (you can), they recharge on their own making enchanted items actually useful. In future games I’d always run out of charge after killing a couple enemies and then run around with an empty weapon for several hours until I was able to charge it at an NPC. I get why the self recharging items changed, to balance things, but y’know. I liked that system in Morrowind. Enchanting equipment and rings was great too. I made a ring for flying. And a shield that can open any door in the world. The possibilities are limitless!

Morrowind also has in my opinion the best main quest out of all the Elder Scrolls games. Everything involving the Sixth House, the tribunal and Dagoth Ur was so utterly fascinating. And cool. The lore this game provides is just so fucking cool. I especially fell in love the Almsivi. In past games the main story is kinda there. They try to be grand and flashy, but end up being a little short and underwhelming. The story in Morrowind doesn’t rush you and it isn’t necessarily a world ending disaster. Daddy Dagoth is just up to no good and you, as Elven Jesus need to go teach him a lesson about spreading dangerous diseases. After you beat up Dagoth Ur and the heart he’s hoarding you become a hero and everyone loves you after spitting on your face. Seriously, when you start the game everyone fucking hates your guts.

The game is rad and all, but there are a few things that weren’t so good in my opinion. For one, the directions. I was fine with no quest markers when the directions that were given to you were informative. At the start of the game the NPC’s would go into detail about where you need to go. Later on? Just head South from here and you should find it lol. Then you proceed to run around aimlessly like a chicken until you emotionally collapse and consult a wiki while crying your eyes out. I did this multiple times because fuck giving me good directions, right? The Bloodmoon expansion was the fucking WORST in this regard. I had to look up everything because all the directions I was given were vague as fuck and I just spent more time hopping around like a bunny rabbit. And a second thing. The quests. I’ll be honest with y’all, many of the side quests are just boring. Especially the faction quests. I completed three factions in this game, fighters guild, house Redoran and the east empire company. All of them were just you doing busy work until some climax where you need to kill the former leader, or replace them for whatever reason. Compare this to the faction quests in Oblivion where they tell a larger story. Not all of them are super interesting, but at least they’re better than what we got in Morrowind. Hell I’d go as far as to say that Skyrim did factions better. Yeah, get mad. There were very few side quests worth remembering. Most of them follow a boring routine and they never stray from a safe path. At least try to tell some kind of a story when you send me to kill a bunch of bandits in a cave. There were a couple neat quest in the game, but that’s just it. Neat.

So yeah. Morrowind is one strange RPG from 2002 and probably the most beloved entry in the TES franchise, and I can see why. It’s quirky, it doesn’t hold your hand and there’s a lot to roleplay. Plus it’s just damn fun with good lore. I’m glad I gave the game a chance. Morrowind gets YOU N’WAH out of ten.

[sleepymarmot]

COUNTER/Weight liveblog, part 2

Episodes 23-40

Keith hasn't listened to the previous episode and Austin & Ali are cackling like “You got a big storm coming” lmao

…Look I understand the idea of making Tea an ally after the players and audience got to know her in the Kingdom game but the excuse is really thin

“A gift for his little brother” You guys are really bad at this gender neutrality thing huh

AuDy talking to Orth makes my head spin a bit now

Oh so Addax is the leader of the Angels? The person who has been watching the Chime from the shadows = the group that has been spying on them? Okay, I now feel dumb for not putting this together myself.

Wait I lost track again. Who were Jacq & Jill working for initially that gave them access to those immortality tanks? Iirc it was Odamas who had that technology and then gave Horizon access to it while imposing strict rules on them during the merge? So why does Jacqui get less fun assignments now if she was a part of the winning faction, not the losing one?

Oh cool, so Jamil wanted to hand over the virus to the Angels because they're both just from the Rapid Evening?

“A bard notices their enemy's heart isn't in the fight, so they stop fighting, fall in love” is such a specific thing. How the hell did it happen twice on the same show. Is this the new big gay trope now

Heeeey could you stop punching me in the stomach with intros

So, Jacqui was working for Horizon, which in turn was given this job by Petrichor? Still doesn't answer my question…

Do I have to mentally rewrite the entire holiday special so that in every scene on the Kingdom Come everyone is floating in zero gravity all the time?! I'm sorry but this makes no fucking sense!

The doppelganger thing started really creepy but now it just makes my head spin! Please stop it with the names, I'm too easily confused, especially with a show that has a record of passing characters back and forth between the GM and the players!

Re: that whole thing: aaaaAAAAA???

I don't understand what Austin and Jack are doing but it's pretty magical

God, the Aria/Jacqui scene is so… tender? Idk. Austin's gentle “PC's love interest” voice has murdered me again. I'm not sold on Jacqui by herself as a character but on the feelings between the two? Definitely. (Though I still wonder about Aria’s heroism vs Jacqui’s disregard for life. That’s a biiig value clash)

Okay, this was all very unsettling and I still understand so little

I really love that Sokrates' refusal to make that one nameless person take the fall, which seemed (at least to me) kinda stubborn and shortsighted, turned into a key moment, both because it demonstrates integrity, and now because that person becomes an actual NPC as an important asset in their faction

I love how the idea of moving Rigour to September comes up and everyone starts screaming and I do too! They sure love leaving horrifying surprises for the ground team to stumble upon lol

Is it too callous and unwise of me to react to Ibex overthrowing the Hands of Grace as “good riddance”?

Maryland's letter has strong Alyosha/Arrell vibes

I love the “reluctant alliance with an antagonist” trope and was hoping it'd happen with Ibex so I'm happy! Also in one of the early episodes Austin mentioned the Anders-Justice storyline and I'm glad to hear him finally deliver. (There was stuff about the pilot/Candidate->Divine influence with Order, but not about the other way around or fusion, like with Vengeance)

Okay thankfully things are clearer now (I'm reeeally glad I wasn't spoiled on this) but I still have so many questions. How were LD made in the first place? Why and how did they hide in/turn themselves into a simple robot? What are they – just software, like Righteousness, or is there some Divine hardware core inside the normal Automated Dynamics unit that nobody has noticed somehow, or is the hardware in a remote location they access through the mesh? Did Ibex know AuDy was LD the whole time – he didn't act very surprised? Why didn't Ibex rescue his brother, did he die really quickly? How will Mako be able to fog without Righteousness? Shouldn't AuDy be gamebreakingly powerful now? How and why do LD count as two Divines but have a single consciousness, are they like Garnet?

Lazer Ted feels like a fucking TAZ character lmao

The comic relief was welcome but at the same time I'm continuously like “What is AuDy thinking and feeling. Why are they acting like nothing happened. Where's the existential crisis. How do you realize you're a pair of ancient gods and just proceed with your life? Are they so impenetrable on purpose because they're a robot”. Like, it was chilling when they were suddenly chatting with Ibex like old friends, and now it's chilling that they're acting just in the early episodes.

I'm glad the robot incident made everyone realize it might be unwise to put the two charming extraverts in the same half of the party lol

Looks like they decided to permanently switch back to “he” for Cass… Probably for the best.

Jack keeps excitedly jumping at every opportunity for creepiness™. God, AuDy makes so much more sense as his character now after the Reveal

Is September just fucking Solaris now?

I think this is the first time I'm not excited to hear a faction game episode because I really didn't expect it at this point in the story. My reaction was “Wait what? Are you telling me everyone gets stuck on September waiting out that storm for a whole month?! I wanted to hear what that cliffhanger led to!” Idk, the September arc was generally kind of a let down after the intensity of the episodes leading up to it, and this further deflates the tension.

Speaking of tension and letdowns, I just have to complain… It's really disappointing when the show sets up really big dramatic hooks and then does practically nothing with them! I complained about Addax and Cass in the previous post and that point still stands. Case two: Mako and Righteousness/Voice. It's set up in a faction episode, and in the immediately following arc Mako indeed is in danger from something inside his own head, but it's a completely unrelated thing! At the end of the arc he finally finds out, but the threat immediately gets nullified with no consequences – no self-doubt or identity crisis, no diminished abilities in terms of game mechanics. Case three: Ibex himself. Out of the reasons the Kingdom game is what it is, the excuse for it happening in-universe was to give more details on Ibex, and at least half of it featured a collective effort to make him as central to the story and as threatening as possible. But as soon as that flashback ends, so, counterintuitively, does the role of Ibex as an active antagonist to the Chime -- the role which was literally just supposed to begin in earnest. So by this point I can barely recall why we were all so intimidated by this guy in the first place. I'm more like “This is a useful ally to have”. This is what I don't like about the world-ending threats like Rigor: all other interesting conflicts fade in their face.

Dang, I thought Isurus was a cooler name than Enhydra!

Sokrates, forced to shake Ibex's hand: *clenched fist meme*

Wait, I missed something, why is Rigor deep underground and has to dig itself out?

Okay, after the lore episode I'm also confused how Rigor ended up underground on Ionias after it was blown up 20000 years ago in a completely different place

I'm very distressed by the idea of Hieron as a future popular franchise!! No, it's supposed to be real when these people are talking about it!! Oh wait a fucking second, does this mean Jace's Panther was a deliberate reference in-universe?? Like you're fighting in a real serious terrible war and you model a giant war machine after, like, a thestral from the fucking Harry Potter and just call it “Thestral”??!

No, no, wait, do tell me who Cass and AuDy would cosplay!

Oh no, Rigour wants to talk to Voice(?), great

Hey Cass, your Hadrian is showing??

Speaking of Hadrian, I was caught off guard by description of Tower as a “hot young Hadrian”, for some reason Hadrian never struck me as a character who's supposed to be exceptionally attractive. But then again, I imagined him as very young until that letter to Hella, and then I imagined Cass as a young adult until I did the math, so I might just be bad at visualising Art's characters lol.

Austin is so generous and unsubtle about throwing hot gay NPCs right at the players. Too bad Mako doesn't sound as interested as Aria did.

I expected they'd find a room with one copy of everyone plugged into the mesh, that'd be even creepier. What's with the false memories though? This doesn't explain them.

So, how does this whole clone system work? How does time work? Why don't the real students like Tower or Maxine notice that there's a new guy who looks just like their friend, but doesn't know them – or, for that matter, why don't the other clones notice? Oh, maybe that's the purpose of the fake memory aura? So that Maritime-4 could continue right from where Maritime-3 left off?

When Cass saw Apokine's face I thought it meant that the humans had genetically engineered the Apostolosians and that's what “we made them look like us” meant, which would be two of my long-standing questions answering each other. And then it was just another giant mech.. :/

Wait, does Orth calling Cass “Apokine” mean that he pilots the mech now or that Sokrates died and Cass inherited his position?! I'm worried now…

I'm even more worried about Mako, because at first I of course reacted to the question about being in two places at once as “hah, Larry”, but it's probably the other thing, and on one hand that must mean that the rescue of clones was successful, but also that means that our Mako might be dead and the one in the intro is one of the clones… Considering that in the Winter post-mortem I caught Keith saying how emotional the C/w finale was for him before I started fast-forwarding in fear of spoilers, do I need to start mentally preparing to bury Mako already or what?

Speaking of spoilers… The farther I go, the less I understand the advice to skip Autumn. I thought that at least for C/w it wouldn't matter, given it's a whole different universe, but they keep referencing it, and then casually dropping major spoilers, and then referencing it again in a story-relevant way. (The Ordennan ships arrive on the screen as Rigor does, and the next episode is named “The Storm over September” and quotes Lem's poem in the description. That's really cool but I somehow feel vaguely irritated on behalf of my potential alternate self who skipped season 1.) I really hope they've grown more careful about this by now, because I'll probably not even begin Twilight Mirage by the time the next season starts, and I would really like to stay in the dark about the intense events they're all vague-tweeting about at the moment!

Why was AuDy alarmed by Voice's presence as “a” Divine accompanying Maxine? Shouldn't they be familiar with it already because of Mako? (And I don't want to even ask about the ontological difference/border between Righteousness and Voice. I'm tired and feel like a nitpicker. But just for the record, this still isn't clear.)

Well that's a sadder family reunion than I hoped for!

So AuDy does have a split personality to some degree?

Oh well. AuDy's got a fate worse than death: Liberty and Discovery, imprisoned indefinitely. Or devoured I guess, I didn't really get it. Great. Thanks. Fucking RIP I guess. Out of all ways I expected them to go, this wasn't one.

(By the way I still don't understand how the portal works. Where is this portal to? Why can't L&D fly out and take the slow way home, and why can't Rigor?)

There's still about ten minutes left in the episode and I don't understand how it isn't the finale. What's there to do for three more episodes now.

“With Rigor defeated so easily, so permanently, she thought” *Rigor screech*

Yeah, fuck Grace btw

Sounds like cultivating saplings is not a priority anymore for a certain someone… (Wait, btw, what happened to that patch/seed they left? Will it ever come back into play?)

“...Why they would put themselves into a body like yours? And I think, maybe, it's that they were curious about what it would be like for four years to feel like a long time” AAAAAA

Okay, things are better on September than it sounded initially, but still… Wtf's going to happen? Rigor repairs itself, takes over the survivors, takes off again? But what's the timeline on that? I genuinely have no idea wtf the finale is going to be about after this.

Oh, what happened to the clones btw? Did Larry manage to get them off the planet in time, despite the Minerva ships in orbit and, more importantly, Rigor? Or are they stuck on September, unable to continue reenacting the plot of Orphan Black?

From how it's been described in this episode, feels as if Liberty and Discovery are a candidate of AuDy… They didn't want a candidate but were curious to learn how it feels for the other side?

Paisley's dead-eyed, Tower's gone, and even Ibex, who is barely holding on himself, loses his ex… Everyone's love life takes a nosedive: the episode. At least Jacqui's okay… (And because of Jacqui, it was doubly sad and surprising to hear Aria still has feelings for Paisley…)

[wonderwafles]

Destiny 1

(In response to this - I’m still taking questions for it!)

Favorite Character: Maybe it’s my Eliksni bias, but probably Variks. I enjoy the intersection of “kind of creepy shaman with goals of his own” and “friendly alien who likes us”. His storyline appeals to me, too. (This was a hard question D:)

Least Favorite Character: I like pretty much all the characters to some degree! But if I had to choose... maybe Arach Jalaal? He’s a little too stiff and serious for me to get into too much. Plus, Dead Orbit isn’t really my favorite faction.

5 Favorite ships: Saladin/Jolder (mostly because of some lovely fics I’ve read about them), Eriana/Wei Ning, Eris/Toland (of course), Cayde/Andal... and if I can go into the realm of very non-canon, I think Cayde/Failsafe would be kinda cute :c

Character I find most attractive: Oh, Mara Sov. (crown emoji)

Character I would marry: Any or all Eliksni

Character I would be best friends with: Maybe wishful thinking, but I think I would enjoy talking about the Light and academe with Ikora :D

A random thought: I know I bad-mouthed Dead Orbit earlier, but I would absolutely love to go out-of-system at some point. Visiting Fundament in-game would be the dream, or maybe the Eliskni homeworld? I suspect that will be end-game stuff if it ever happens, but I can dream

An unpopular thought: I actually liked Uldren a lot even before Forsaken made him Cool tm, since I respond well to characters who are mean to me or other characters I like for some reason. Plus, I just enjoyed the “moody Fae prince with a chip on his shoulder” aesthetic and then he just kept getting more like Crow from the early trailers from there, which I thought was neat. And even though I’m quite angry at him now, I still like him :’D

My Canon OTP: I think Eriana and Wei were the only capital-c Canon pairing in my ship-list (I think?), let’s go with them!

My Non-canon OTP: I’m having trouble coming up with one single OTP, but I will say I enjoyed Cayde/Eris when it was going around. Not necessarily even in a “I’d love if they got together in canon” way, but more so that I just enjoyed the concept from a distance, I suppose. (I’m a Cayde multi-shipper, I guess)

Most Badass Character: I still count that scene where the Queen and the Techuen are fighting Oryx as probably the most badass in the whole series. So, probably Mara Sov.

Most Epic Villain: You know Oryx is of course very good and a favorite of mine, but my overall favorite villain is probably still Skolas. I think something about him got to the heart of the story of the Fallen - this character, Kell of Kells, who was supposed to be a hopeful figure who liberates the Eliksni and leads them into peace, instead enslaving them and bringing them to war. Compared to how the Fallen have literally fallen from glory and try in vain to reclaim the Light, only to find themselves on the side of the Darkness. Also, Eliksni bias.

Pairing I am not a fan of: I don’t dislike this pairing by any stretch, but it always seemed to me that Petra/the Queen wouldn’t really work. I think the Queen is too distant and mecurial to return Petra’s affections - that is, there’s something very human about Petra and something very alien about Mara, that I just don’t feel would connect very well. That’s just my opinion, though, of course!

Character I feel the writers screwed up (in one way or another): Well. I really do like Cayde, I do. But I think in recent times the writers have been leaning a bit too much on his “comic relief” persona than other aspects of his character. That being said, there are a lot of recent lore tidbits (especially in the “Letters to Ace”) that give him a lot more depth, so I think this may just be a “presentation” issue - it seemed like the writers may have been a little afraid to lean away from that side of him during gameplay and shoved his other facets into the corner.

So it’s not so much that I think that Cayde’s a bad character as I think they made a good character and just didn’t use him to his fullest potential.

Favorite friendship: Cayde and Ikora have a lovely dynamic, and I enjoy their interactions a lot! 

Character I most identify with: Honestly, I’m not sure! But being as I’m not a violent person and sometimes get uncomfortable with the idea of violence in real life, I like Efrideet’s story a lot. I can’t remember if this is fanon or canon, but there were ideas going around about Efrideet being the most easily angered of the Iron Lords, which contributed to her being a pacifist, that I kind of relate to - at least, I relate to having a complicated relationship with one’s own anger and how to perceive it. The pacifist Guardian group sounds awesome, too. I don’t think I could commit to being a full pacifist - not while the survival of the human race is on the line - but then again, neither did she. So, I would say Efrideet!

Character I wish I could be: I mean, Crucible champion? Super-intelligent? Knocked a Cabal ship out of the air with her sheer power? Gently skeptical and passionately devoted in equal measures? “Osiris may have taught me everything he knows, but that’s not everything I know”? I think we all know the answer to that

[iessos]

What do you think of Destiny 2's endgame?

I’m going to try and keep this as spoiler-free as possible, so if you haven’t had the time to finish or are debating on whether to get it on PC, you’re safe to read this response.

I’ve played Destiny since the alpha. I hyped the first destiny up beyond belief on this blog actually and was a pretty popular blog leading up to the initial launch of the Destiny series. Despite the first game’s flaws, it still holds a special place in my heart. I was captivated by the lore, the raids, the lore behind the raids, and the team communication and teamwork required to get through some of the hardest sequences I’ve played in a first person shooter. Destiny 1 gave us something to work toward: a higher level, a stronger character, weapons to grind for. Despite it being an RNG loot system and having weekly lockouts, it always brought you back to try to get that Fatebringer, to get that cool helmet from Crota’s end, and then ultimately to get ornament for your favorite raid gear to how others that you did some of the most challenging encounters in the game.

Destiny 2 has improved on a lot that the original game lacked. The story was pretty great especially if you’re big on the lore in Destiny. The characters were brought more to life, the destinations were stunning and unique, there are a lot less bullet sponge enemies that makes some boss encounters less stale. But the thing Destiny 2 has failed to deliver on is incentive. You can reach max power without even doing the raid, without doing end game pve or pvp activities. You can chill and just grind a few strikes, a few public events and do some of the weekly things which rewards you for just... doing a few strikes, doing a few public events, playing a handful of crucible matches. If you’re in a clan you get rewards for just playing, or you can just get some free stuff without even participating. Just play the game and you’ll hit max power. But what exactly does getting power grant you?

In D1, your power (or light) would mean something (well... very little but it was something I guess) in the end game pvp activities such as trials or iron banner. Power advantage in D2 has been disabled so far. It’s not too big of a deal really since power level didn’t grant a major boost or anything. The differences between D1 and D2 is the hard mode raid and end game strikes. D1′s hard mode raid could grant you the ability to become stronger, to get stronger, to have better weapons. D2′s hard mode raid has been delayed, but it’s been confirmed that it will not provide an increase in power level. The gear you can *possibly* get (I’ll get more into this later) is just reskinned of the normal raid gear but has a slight glow. If you don’t like the look of the raid gear like myself then what’s really the point? Even if it did grant a stronger power level what would really be the point in that? It isn’t like I could bring my power level to any other part of the game. Maybe my shots will kill a enemy a little faster in the nightfall, but what doesn’t the nightfall grant you? I did play this game A LOT already and kinda have everything I want or need, but I feel like that is the issue. There isn’t a lot of favorable gear worth grinding for. And speaking of gear...

Most of the gear I WANT is for cosmetic reasons. Optimacy gear is pretty, but drops from bright engrams. Cool, I could spend 100 bucks and gamble it away to get nothing but glowig purple shaders or an exotic ship that does absolutely nothing but just float around. Gear is obtained by going to do an activity and given some tokens. You take the tokens and shove them into some NPC’s throat and they give you some random stuff, which is stuff you could already have. In D1 this system would work because of the random perk system. You could keep grinding for that perfect roll. This game? Oh once you get Better Devils that’s it. You got it again? well, it’s an exact duplicate. Have fun I guess. This is incredibly frustrating with the raid. Some very slight vague spoilers, there’s ONE (1) boss encounter. That’s.... it. The other encounters are fun,  or were fun, but there’s an encounter that you’ll never be able to do faster bc there’s no way to do it faster, no way to improve or get better at it. Once you get it, that’s it. It’s a 5 minute encounter of some call outs and thats... kinda it. The raid drops have been terrible, most of the time you’re only given tokens to, once again, shove down the throat of another NPC to get a gun you’ve already gotten before instead of a piece of armor you don’t have. Btw, unlike in d1, the raid armor offers no perks to benefit you in the raid so its not like it matters anyway! I want raid armor that helps me shoot things better or gives me a buff when the boss does the thing or can help me run faster during the previously mentioned encounter so I at least feel some sense of progression.  But nah, none of that. It’s a messy system that was overly simplified.

Destiny 2′s end game is lacking. We’ve gotten some more events. Trials is every weekend, but I’ve only had fun on countdown on Eternity. Survival goes on too long and isn’t as fun. We got the faction rally, which was more “hey, go chill and some public events or whatever” and turn more tokens in. You actually get a CAP this time so if you don’t get what you want then oh well, wait till next month. Also there is a community wide event during that and whichever faction gets the most tokens would win that weapon. Of course, the faction with the worst weapon wins an you get no option to purchase the other two weapons. There was also no counter or progress bar or anything to indicate who is winning. We get iron banner, but it seems to be more “hey go shoot some peeps and shove more tokens down this NEW NPC’s throat for a random chance at some gear”. I’m hoping Bungie brings a bit more to the game. It’s only been a month, but people are already moving on to different games. The game is still fun and worth getting and playing, but it’s a bit a of heartbreak for the avid grinder. 

[khorren]

Annual Roundup of Video Games

First Annual mini review of games I played in 2019. As always, if you want more babble about a game, I will happily vomit words in your direction :D

Borderlands 2

Another co-op game that boything and I dabbled in but didn't get super far. Enjoyable enough to play, the FoV felt a little cramped, but amusing characters that get you through the content.

Division 2

Another fun story driven open world romp. The first game dealt with the immediate aftermath of the Dollar Flu rampaging through New York, and the 2nd game was several months after and people are trying to pull the pieces back together, except the government is in shambles and every faction within DC wants to be a big dog. Perfect for single player, even better in co-op. Lots of collectables and lore / world building, PvP, and a whole build system that uses different gun types, gadgets and upgrading all your boom sticks.

Elder Scrolls Online

Played this for 8 or so months before getting bored of it. Definitely had some great moments, very customisable with addons that bring massive QoL. Love how you can go to every zone and it's all scaled. You can quest as a level 5, and have a level 40 buddy with you and it's all relevant which was really good. But it brings a major drawback that the story's kind of all over the place. The zones have good stories to them, but it lacks that story progression that most other MMOs do. Housing was fun to play with, crafting system was interesting. If you like doing dungeons / instanced content every day then this is great for that, but was never super into that myself.Jumping is absolute awfulness and so clunky like holy cow. Still, was a pleasant way to pass 8 or so months.

Far Cry: New Dawn

I love the Far Cry universe, and a return to Hope County was pretty fun. Fairly short game, and really should have just been DLC to Far Cry 5, but I still had a lot of fun with it. Took my time with it, grinded out some armor sets by repeating some content. Was cool to see what happened to certain characters, including your character from the base game. General Far Cry shenanigans are good times with a co-op buddy

Final Fantasy 14

Tried this a few years back but couldn't get into it. Gave it another shot in December and it looks like this will be my home for the next while. Very very very very story heavy, most of which can be skipped but might as well sit back and enjoy it. Smell the flowers. Typical tank/healer/dps holy trinity, but the classes are all super fun of the ones I've tried so far. There's a free trial up to level 35 which I would recommend giving it a go. It plays at a much slower pace than say, Guild Wars 2, but honestly it's refreshing. Very pretty game, lots of fashion, lots of collectables (minis, mounts), so much to do.

Golf With Your Friends

Grab a few buddies, play stupid games of mini/crazy golf. Be sure to play it with voice comms. Has some great options to make the games more silly. Very fun.

GTA

Kind of winded down with this game for the most part, but popped in once in a blue moon for a ride around, check out new guns. Didn't really have the money for any new cars, but could take a peak. Had a tiny look at the Casino update, but not too much. Mostly because Twitch Prime gave me a casino penthouse for free!

Guild Wars 2

Has been my bread-and-butter game since it came out. Made a whole bunch more legendaries, got super into Norn stuff. Thoroughly enjoyed the stuff they did put out. Can’t wait for the next living world story at the end of January. But it’s on the back-burner now as FF14 has taken over.

Path of Exile

Not normally a game I'd go for, but hey it was free, we were bored. Kind of had to do a fair bit of research beforehand to find out what class to play and how to build it. This is all getting revamped in the upcoming sequel, and honestly the biggest drawback is you have this tiny, tiny, tiny inventory and absolutely no way to make it bigger, not even through the cash shop. You make frequent trips back to town, but thankfully it's easy to do so and go back to where you were. Made it through the current campaign/"story" at the time but didn't feel the need to play anymore.

Stardew Valley

Only really dabbled in this, but it's fun! Tried it a long time ago but couldn't get into it. Felt guilty as it was a present from a friend. Few friends recently been talking about it a lot so gave it another shot. Definitely got into it more this time around. One of those games where you can put in 20 minutes and can just as easily put in 12 hours without blinking. Now feel less guilty about friend-present and it's super enjoyable. Thanks @drazzi​ <3

Untitled Goose Game

Was following this since the first trailer came out, and while it was delayed near the end it was 100% worth the wait. The only game I got for my Switch this year and it was very enjoyable. Knew it would be a short game bt stretched it out over a few days, taking my time to explore and steal things like the asshole goose I was born to be. Still got more to do with it and plan on going back. Very enjoyable, highly recommend.

Witcher 3

Started this 2018, but but a fair bit of time into it early on in the year, though haveven't touched it since March. Still got a DLC of content left to do and a looooot of side quests. Enjoyable universe. Really really glad to see the TV show doing well.

Yooka - Laylee

Got this for free through Twitch Prime and didn't get very far with it, but it was fun to play. Basically Banjo-Kazooie version 2, but hey it works. Cute game.

I’ve probably missed some, and I’ve not included mobile games, but these are the ones that stick out. So wheee. Yay games.

[jamesbyerj]

In the Shadow of Red Mountain - TelShadow

In this Mod Author feature, we're catching up with [url=https://www.nexusmods.com/users/56842182]TelShadow [/url]who may well hold the record for most mods created for Morrowind.  [b]Let's start as we always do, please tell us about yourself for those in the community who don't know you yet. [/b] There isn't much to tell really. I come from a very creative family, which I'm sure helps me when coming up with new mod ideas. I'm a writer and an artist but, to be honest, I haven't really done any writing or drawing for fun in many years. I have instead been dedicating most of my spare time to modding. I tend to do very little else! I've done a little bit of modding every day for the last 3 years.  I also work as a tattoo artist, which is great for me as it's another avenue for creativity. When I'm not working or modding, of course, I like to play video games. [b]If you had to pick your top 3 favourite games of all time, which would you pick and why? [/b] Well, as you can probably guess, Morrowind has to be my number one - it was the first Elder Scrolls game I ever played. I remember picking it up about a year after it came out for the original Xbox. I fell in love with how alien the world was, the variety of things you could do and how rich the lore is. With all the factions, houses and guilds you could join it really is a great game to play over and over again, having a different adventure each time. For my second favourite, I'd have to say the games in the Halo franchise - hands down. It was a tough call between Halo and Morrowind for number one though. I really love the alien designs, the level structure and most importantly the story. Not unlike Morrowind, there's also rich lore to explore. I feel like I've covered 95% of the Morrowind lore, but with Halo, I've only scratched the surface.  My third and final choice might be surprising to some. It's Fallout 3. You might have been expecting me to say Fable and it was close, but Fallout 3 wins out thanks to its incredible world design and how your choices drive real changes in the world around you. I remember getting killed by a mole-rat and having to reload, so I went to exact some revenge only to discover the mole-rat had been killed by the DeathClaw now standing beside it. Like Halo and Morrowind, I also really enjoy the lore of this game. I enjoyed unravelling the mysteries of the pre-war world and coming up with my own theories about what happened.  As you can probably guess from my choices, I love anything with a large, alien world to explore and strong lore for me to immerse myself in.  [center][img]https://staticdelivery.nexusmods.com/mods/2295/images/26/26-1594391122-2038848737.jpeg[/img] [img]https://staticdelivery.nexusmods.com/mods/2295/images/26/26-1594391126-162976364.jpeg[/img][/center] [b]Looking at your profile, it's pretty clear that Morrowind is the game you enjoy modding the most. What is it about the game that really draws you in?[/b] Morrowind is a part of me and has been a big part of my life since I first played it. I love the huge variety in your adventures based on your choices, your class and your play style. It's way more diverse than Oblivion or Skyrim. As I said before, I love how alien everything is. The Great Houses, the factions/guilds and the random encounters you come across really make the world feel lived in and that your choices have consequences. I would talk to all the characters and read every book to squeeze every little bit of lore out of the game. You can also do more silly things with the game. I remember stealing every single pillow from every corner of the world so I could build my own pillow fort.  I always joined the Great House Telvanni because I thought the mushroom architecture was really cool and I wanted to become a Telvanni Archmagister. It was always the first thing I did. It actually explains the origin of my username "Tel Shadow". My character would always be a Telvanni assassin so I started to name my character that, but I wanted to shorten it. So "Telvanni" became "Tel" and "assassin" became "shadow" which made sense because I was always lurking in the shadows. So that's how Tel Shadow the Telvanni assassin was born.  [b]You've created a staggering 246 Morrowind mods (at time of writing), where do you get your inspiration from when planning to make them? [/b] It's a mixed bag. Since I'm a creative person usually I can just sit down and make a mod. I usually already have an idea floating around in my head before I start, which is partly why I'm so fast at making mods. As the dungeon or mod grows I get flashes of inspiration and simply add in what I come up with. Maybe that's why some people say that I'm a Morrowind modding A.I.? In some cases, I do also tend to take inspiration from other games I've played. I've taken inspirations from Halo and the version of Morrowind found in The Elder Scrolls Online in a few of my mods, although I don't always mention where I got the idea in the mod description.  [b]Morrowind turned 18 in May this year, so it's incredible to see that the fanbase for this classic is still going strong. What do you think makes it so successful? [/b] For most of us, Morrowind was a game that we have fond memories of from when we first played it on PC or Xbox. Players can recount epic tales of all the different experiences they had based on their way of playing the game. With so much to do, there's also huge scope for things to be added or changed by using mods. An equally common experience may also be players who have come from Skyrim or Oblivion because they want more Elder Scrolls. Sometimes these players don't get along with Morrowind, often due to the "dice roll" combat system where your damage output relies entirely on RNG rather than if you actually hit your enemy or not. I don't see this as a problem but I suppose because I started with Morrowind I got used to it. With Morrowind being so moddable and the Elder Scrolls lore being so vast, creating and using mods in the massive, alien world definitely helps in making it infinitely replayable. There are huge modding projects such as [url=https://www.nexusmods.com/morrowind/mods/42145]Tamriel Rebuilt[/url], [url=https://www.nexusmods.com/morrowind/mods/42081]Project Tamriel[/url] and [url=https://www.nexusmods.com/morrowind/mods/37795]Morrowind Rebirth[/url] that are still active today and can add tonnes of new content to explore. You can even use the Morrowind engine to make an entirely new game, as seen in [url=https://www.nexusmods.com/morrowind/mods/47768]Starwind[/url]. The [url=https://www.nexusmods.com/morrowind/news/14258]Morrowind Modathons[/url] and [url=https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCTiULQ_bcPRu_jMTZ86WO7A]Showcases[/url] by [url=https://www.nexusmods.com/morrowind/users/19250]darkelfguy [/url]are also a massive factor as to why Morrowind continues to be so successful. I was watching his videos for years and they are part of what inspired me to start modding myself.  Morrowind will never die because our ideas and experiences with the game live on, no matter what.  [center][img]https://staticdelivery.nexusmods.com/mods/2295/images/26/26-1594391130-1843652118.jpeg[/img] [img]https://staticdelivery.nexusmods.com/mods/2295/images/26/26-1594391135-963779626.jpeg[/img][/center] [b]Have you played much of the newer Elder Scrolls titles (Oblivion and Skyrim) and how do you compare them with Morrowind? [/b] I have played both games on my Xbox 360 actually. I played Oblivion to get those sweet Xbox achievements and Skyrim for the awesome dragons. I think the majority of Morrowind players will agree that the gameplay formula has been "dumbed down" in each iteration following it. I heard this was partly because the main lore writer for Morrowind left Bethesda before these games were released, but I'm not sure how true that is.  Oblivion was a very colourful game and was a medieval fantasy game that came out while Lord of the Rings was in the spotlight, so that definitely helped make it popular. Skyrim, by contrast, had a very dull/muted theme and felt a lot more Viking styled. To me, comparing these games to Morrowind is like day and night. In Skyrim, for example, there are only a small number of guilds you can join and interact with compared to the many options in Morrowind. It's like comparing a Viking-themed dragon killing RPG (Skyrim) to Dungeons & Dragons on steroids (Morrowind). [b]Back to modding, can you tell us about your workflow for creating mods?[/b] A lot of authors I've spoken to hold my workflow in high regard, probably part of the reason I get called "modding machine" and other nicknames. When I first picked up the [url=https://www.nexusmods.com/morrowind/mods/42196]Construction Set[/url] I spent two weeks learning everything I could about it. In that time I managed to figure out all the world design features and became a pro at using them. If you've ever watched YouTube speed painting videos, that's pretty close to the speed I work at when making mods.  When planning out my mods I do things in layers. For example, if I'm making a landmass, I'll start by marking out the size and shape of the landscape, then add ground textures, then add objects like trees and rocks. After going over detailing it a few times I have the basic setup done and I move onto adding more complex things. I like to do things in order as it helps me track my progress. I find it also helps sometimes to keep notes or a checklist of problems I need to fix as I work through it. [b]What advice would you give a new modder who'd like to create a new dungeon or level in their favourite game?  [/b] My advice might be a little controversial, most authors suggest starting small and working your way up to something big but I would say do the opposite. When you're making those first, smaller mods it's usually more about learning the tools than creating something you actually want to make. Starting with a bigger project allows you to work on different parts of your mod and learn the tools as you go, with the end result being much closer to your original idea. The size of the mod isn't important, it's more about your drive. If you're truly motivated to create something large, go for it!  Push yourself and learn your limits, then find ways to exceed those limits. We can all achieve great things if you put our minds to it. [center][img]https://staticdelivery.nexusmods.com/mods/2295/images/26/26-1594391468-486795442.jpeg[/img] [img]https://staticdelivery.nexusmods.com/mods/2295/images/26/26-1594391471-1378499871.jpeg[/img][/center] [b]Out of all the mods you've created, which is your favourite?[/b] I love mostly all my Morrowind mods but I'm going to cop out a little bit here and say only three: [url=https://www.nexusmods.com/morrowind/mods/45951]Fablewind [/url]- which recreates all the Fable games into the Morrowind engine, [url=https://www.nexusmods.com/morrowind/mods/47201]Tel Felisa[/url] - a Telvanni town inspired around Felisa (one of the Telvanni members), and last but not least, [url=https://www.nexusmods.com/morrowind/mods/48227]Shadow of Colossus[/url] - one of my Halo inspired mods.   [b]How about mods by other authors, are there any that really stand out to you?[/b]  As sad as it sounds, I haven't really played Morrowind in a while other than to make mods for it. So I don't really play with many mods by other people for them to catch my attention. That's not to say I don't have some favourites though: [list] [*][url=https://www.nexusmods.com/morrowind/mods/34046]Of Justice and Innocence[/url] by [url=https://www.nexusmods.com/morrowind/users/19250]darkelfguy[/url]: He isn't just a great YouTuber, he also makes some really good quest mods.  [*][url=https://www.nexusmods.com/morrowind/mods/43181]Hold It[/url] by [url=https://www.nexusmods.com/users/1233897]Danae123[/url]: This is a really cool immersion mod. Danae is also really helpful when it comes to testing my own mods.  [*][url=https://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/40401]Drop the N'wah[/url] and [url=https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/22905]A Female Dunmer Preset[/url] by [url=https://www.nexusmods.com/users/38638175?tab=user+files]BUULU[/url]: These are a couple of my favourites for Fallout 4 and Skyrim SE. I also enjoy watching his reviews of my mods [url=https://www.twitch.tv/buulu]on Twitch[/url]. [/list] [b]Is there anything else you'd like to say to the community?[/b] Keep making mods, no matter which game you're modding. We all have our moments, our ups and downs. It can be hard to keep working on a project but push yourself and see it through to the end as you never know what's on the other side.  [quote]Legends aren't born, they're created.[/quote]- Tel Shadow [line] A big thank you to TelShadow for taking the time to talk to us! If there's an author or mod project you'd like to know more about, send your suggestions to [b][url=https://www.nexusmods.com/users/64597]BigBizkit[/url][/b] or [b][url=https://www.nexusmods.com/users/31179975]Pickysaurus[/url][/b].  Published first at In the Shadow of Red Mountain - TelShadow

[breegullbeakreviews]

Summary: As was foretold in the Elder Scrolls, as civil war breaks out in Skyrim over claim to the throne, the Dragons have returned to bring about the end of time. Only one can stand against this threat and wield the power of the Voice against the Dragons, and that is the Dovahkiin: Dragonborn.

The Ancient order of vampire fighters known as the Dawnguard have returned. Just in time too it seems as the family of powerful vampire lords, the Volkihar’s, seek to bring about another prophecy foretold in the Elder Scrolls, to end the sun itself. Fight to stop the family or join them and bring about eternal darkness.

As the Dragons return, it seems you are not the only Dragonborn. Journey to the southern coast of Morrowind to do battle with the original Dragonborn who seeks to bend all to his whim.

Overall: Skyrim Special Edition is worth $60 if you’ve never played it before or if you have an itch to play it again. It’s an RPG you can play casually or dive in deep into the world and all its lore. Outside falling into the chosen one trope at every turn, it’s a fantastic game that everyone should check out if they haven’t already.

Changes: Skyrim hasn’t been rebuilt from the ground up. This is the same game in terms of assets and the buggy unstable programing that holds this game together. So then what’s changed?

Well the biggest change is that the game has now been moved from being built on 32 bit PC architecture to 64 bit PC architecture. Basically the game has access more of the consoles memory than the previous version. Also it isn’t running on the PS3’s cell processor so it functions on a PlayStation console day one. This means the game can support more things on screen without dropping the framerate. A lot of the graphical improvements seen in Fallout 4 have also come to Skyrim like those Volumetric God Rays along with improved water and snow shaders along with plenty of improvements that go beyond my complete understanding. Basically the game looks prettier and runs smoother. Also console mods but I’ll hit on those later.

Sadly some of the little things didn’t make it over. On Xbox 360 there were Kinect voice commands for shouts, sorting, and quick swapping weapons. While I know Xbox has downplayed the Kinect as of late, the PlayStation Camera is still a big deal and I’d have loved to see these come over. At the very least add these sort functions into the item storage. While it seems they automatically sort alphabetically now, but I’d like some options.

Narrative: This isn’t my first trip to Skyrim. I was exploring the snowy mountains and grassy valleys from day one back in 2011. I was so hooked in fact that by the 31st of December I had wrapped up all the base game achievements on the Xbox 360 version of the game. That being said I was only 17 when I first played the game, and despite having played the game before I noticed some things I hadn’t my first go-round.

Firstly with the Civil War. Despite it being a side questline it’s the first thing thrusted into your path as you play the game. In the years preceding the game after the events of the Oblivion Crisis the Worship of the Nordic Divine Talos was banned as part of the White-Gold Concordat, a treaty to end the Great War between the Empire and the Aldmeri Dominion. Skyrim’s people became quite angered by this banning and the Stormcloak Rebellion began when strict enforcement of this law began.

Whether you avoid this side quest line or not the game makes it constantly apparent the divide the war has caused. From the major things like destroyed idols to the little things like locals saying “by the eight” instead of “by the nine” or vice versa depending on where they stand on the worship of Talos and the war. Even if you avoid it entirely there is a late quest in the main quest line where you need to get a temporary truce between the two. Even beyond this there is some political long game that isn’t too hard to follow if you just listen to the dialogue. The only downside to this questline is that there is no way to end things peacefully.

The Thieves Guild is probably the height of the base games narrative chops. It’s a tale of betrayal, secret orders, and deception. I don’t want to spoil things, but every major guild questline ends with you as the leader of the guild so I can say that there is some shaking up of the power structure within the guild.

The Companions Guild is unexpectedly about the supernatural. Spoilers, but the higher ups in the organization are Werewolves. While the younger members of the organization are fine with remaining beasts, the elder leader wants to cure himself of this curse so he can go to Sovngarde instead of Hircine’s Hunting Grounds. It’s not a particularly meaty story, but it is fun.

The Dark Brotherhood is another great story as it’s again about an organization down on its luck. This is the last remain group of the brotherhood in Skyrim and they’ve turned away from following the ways of the Night Mother. That is until the Night Mother’s coffin shows up with the keeper in search of the next Listener, and you’ll never guess who that is. While it’s sadly padded by lesser contracts, the story here is good.

The College of Winterhold is the last major Faction of Skyrim. Its questline is pretty lame. On your first lesson you stumble upon an ancient artifact of immense power and evil McEvil-face wants to use if for evil so you need to stop him. Its direction is always obvious so it’s a super boring story that drags on.

Gameplay Loop: Skyrim is an RPG, but like all games it’s got a loop of actions you’ll be doing. You do quests that eventually lead to dungeons where you’ll obtain a bunch of loot. The loot you’ll then either sell, store, or craft into better loot to sell or store. It’s a simple loop that sadly can go off the rails pretty hard. Once your speech skill gets high enough you’ll need to go from town to town to sell all of your junk because vendors don’t have enough gold to let you simply go to one vendor. And don’t think putting things off is a good idea either. As I type this I’m currently several thousand pounds over encumbered as I ride horses from town to town selling all of the gear I crafted with all of the material I had stored over the past two weeks. This affair can last hours and it really breaks up the action, but storing everything isn’t ideal either. Early on this isn’t much of a problem, but it will become one rather quickly.

RPG Elements: I’m not a super hardcore role playing guy. I turn the difficulty down to super easy and pick the perks I think are useful. If you use a skill it works toward leveling it up. You can’t just spam things without them being in a useful context, but it’s not hard to work the system to your advantage.

Certain skills level well with one another. Wear a mix of light and heavy armor to work on both at once. Conjure your weapons to get some work in both conjuring and the weapon you conjured. Plus you can use a perk to capture souls from people killed with conjured weapons to use for enchanting which you can perform on all of your crafted weapons which you can sell to buy more crafting materials and soul gems while boost your speech skill and oh god it’s an endless cycle.

Combat: As I said I play on easy. That being said due to not just dragons, but how broken stealth is, Archery is ridiculously over powered. Unless you play as certain races, magic in combat is really pointless, and I never found myself using potions. Now it’s true I should probably have the difficulty higher up if I want the challenge, but the thing is I really don’t I’m here to explore a cool world and could care less about the combat.

What’s here can get complicated if you let it, but it’s simple enough to grasp if you are just looking to get past it and explore. You have a lot of options, but as long as you focus on one you’ll be fine.

Dawnguard: Dawnguard is the best worst DLC of all time. Everything about it I should love, but its general lack of polish just kills it for me. Dawnguard triggers at level 10 so you can start it super early on, but once you get started you’ll be dealing with vampires attacking towns and possibly killing NPCs. There are two brand new areas that are super cool, but neither of these areas has an overworld map, meaning you’ll need to navigate them with the crummy local map. These areas also have just a single fast travel point to reach them and then you’ll need to wander from there.

You can become a werewolf again if you’ve cured yourself, but only once, which really sucks because being a werewolf was vastly improved with the DLC. Being a Vampire Lord just isn’t fun. You’re constantly too big to get through doors and changing back requires navigating through the favorites menu, which you’d only be told about if you initially sided with the Vampires as that’s the only way to get a tutorial on being one. Now a large chunk of these were fixed with mods, but the fact that they didn’t think to fix these outright for the Special Edition release is to some degree baffling.

Now let’s get to the positives. The story is great. The plot to end the sun so that vampires can rule is a great idea. The fact that not all vampires are on board with the idea is even cooler. It’s easily the best story in the game. Serana is the best companion in the game, and not just because she’ll constantly do other characters story related animations due to some bug. She’s just a generally cool character. As I said the new areas are super cool. The fact that one locks you out after you’re done unless you’re a vampire lord is incredibly aggravating, but while you’re there it’s awesome. The improvements to being a werewolf make it feel less like a curse and more like a blessing. There is also a new side quest that ties in in no way to the vampire plot line that ends with a choice of 3 unique artifacts.

I seem to be in the minority on the fact that I don’t like this add-on because of its faults, but with all of the polish seen in Dragonborn, it really feels like Dawnguard was rushed out the door way to quickly considering the price tag on the two was the same.

Hearthfire: Hearthfire is the house building expansion. 3 of the holds previously without homes to buy will now sell you plots of land in which to build your own home. While not as elaborate as Fallout 4’s settlement mode, the streamlined aspects work to the benefit of the game. For $5 this was probably the best DLC for Skyrim. As soon as the game starts you can experience the new content. Even if you haven’t built your own house, every house already in the game can now add a children’s room so you can adopt children.

Building houses is a mixed bag. You first build a small house, but after building that you can build a main hall and remodel the small house into an entryway. From here you can add a cellar and 3 wings. Each wing has 3 choices: a tower, a high roofed room, and a room with a rooftop patio. Due to the nature of how construction is handled, combinations are limited. Each wing’s 3 choices can only be one type of room. For instance the East wing will have a library tower, a high roofed kitchen, or a rooftop patio having armory. You can only build one on that east wing and you can’t build one of these in a different shape or on one of the other 3 wings. Now with 3 plots you can get all 3 wings built between your houses, but it’s not ideal.

Each plot has its unique items. For instance one home has the choice of a fish hatchery and another your own personal beehive. Slowly building up your own homestead as you play is fun, but it’s the internal furnishing that is the problem. You can choose to blindly build your way down the list, but the game doesn’t show where the item will be built and in some cases if it locks out another choice. You can’t delete things once built so when you build the wrong table or put a Dragon Skull where you wanted a Dwarven Centurion you need to either reload or you’re shit out of luck.

Dragonborn: Dragonborn brings the players to a small island off the coast of Morrowind where the original Dragonborn, Miraak, has plans to return to Tamriel. The plot involves a Daedric plain and of course dragons as you seek a way to stop Miraak.

The new area is massive. It’s roughly half the size of Skyrim, but I’m not actually doing any math. Problem is it has about as many interesting points as Fallout 4, which is very few. Quests are mostly concentrated in the main town you dock in with a handful of other quests originating in one other small town and a research area. It’s also a very barren map as it needs to keep the same feel as Morrowind which means a barren environment. There are trees and stuff, but it doesn’t feel as varied as Skyrim.

Dragonborn is a big add-on, and it’s certainly worth the $20 it cost at launch, but it being a separate continent really makes it feel separate from the rest of the world. It is both literally and figuratively a separate thing.

Mods: I have this game on PS4. Mod support is fine. You aren’t going to get certain things which sucks, but its fine. I spent about an hour playing as a Skeleton before I got bored. On PC I’m sure mods are great, but without the ability to go crazy with the size, mods are just mods. What I want is essentially unofficial DLC and I don’t think we will see that anytime soon.