The geeky things I did while I was offline.

May 28, 2008

Because the non-geeky stuff would only bore you. I knows my audience.

Finally completed Eternal Sonata: Decided to wander into the secret dungeon and plough through that and it rekindled my enjoyment of the game. Going in there grants you a super combo attack that allows you to chain all three character's together in a sea of violent pastel colours and cliches. Finished the secret dungeon, killed all the super-powered bosses and went to finish the game. Had flashbacks of FFX when I beat the end-of-game boss in a couple of attack rounds.

Watched the European Cup Final: Nerve-wrecking stuff. Was in a room of people, most of them indifferent but with a solid number of Chelsea fans.I think I was the only one who cheered when Ronaldo put away the first and it was worth it for all the dirty looks. As an Englishman, I hate penalty shoot-outs with every fibre of my being, and this one was far too dramatic for my liking. Still get a good laugh from Drogba's lack of intelligence.

Beat Ghost Recon 2: Did I prefer the first? I'm not sure. GRAW 2 makes life easier in a lot of ways, including a less realistic approuch to healing (you can drag a medic around with you or a remote-control buggy equiped with morphine) but it has so many cool new gadgets in it that I still had a blast. My favourite is the gun cam which lets you poke a gun around a corner and see what it sees. I wiped out platoons without exposing a centimetre of precious flesh! Gets wild when the enemy employ them too. Review half-written.

Started Oblivion: I remeber vividly when I started. I had a very lear "Is this it?" moment and ploughed on through a sewer filled with rats and weakling goblins. Who I slew.Eight hours later, I stopped playing after accomplishing very, very little in the way of advancing the main plot and a dozen or so side-quests under my belt. Can't stop playing. Thirty odd hours in and I'm doing nothing but unimportant side quests -- it's like geeky crack with stat rolls and D&D beasties.

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Feedback

MartinG - May 28, 2008 (10:24 AM)
Who cares about the main storyline when you can do those awesome assassin missions?? Once you've seen an Oblivion Portal, you've seen them all :P

EmP - May 28, 2008 (10:47 AM)
Seriously, I can't stop playing. I've written something like seven review intros in my head which is a worryingly obsessive way to show how much I'm into (or hating) a game.

wolfqueen001 - May 28, 2008 (11:21 AM)
Hahaha. Yes. I knew someday you would fall under the power of the Elder Scrolls legacy.

You should finish off Morrowind if you haven't. I've been addicted to that game for years. I think my most recent character was master of or almost master of just about every guild you can join. Didn't even get to the expansion stuff in that one.

Then Dad's computer crashed and I lost all my progress. This happened three times and haven't started it again since.

As for Oblivion, I heard it's harder to get into... Also heard it's shorter. Hadn't started myself yet because I'm still stuck in Morrowind, but my brother and dad have.

The enemies level with you in Oblivion, which can be really annoying. So it'll be hard going through sometimes.

sashanan - May 28, 2008 (01:11 PM)
Perhaps thankfully my hardware can't handle Oblivion, and Morrowind has so far failed to grab hold of me. I know it will if I let it.

viridian_moon - May 29, 2008 (04:45 PM)
You and your silly football. Well, I'm glad you put your time to good use even if you were offline for a while. Probably could've used the break from HG, if I'm not mistaken!

Say, how is Eternal Sonata, by the way? Since I have a 360 now, I've been thinking about picking it up.

EmP - May 30, 2008 (04:10 AM)
Martin: I know what you mean.

OBLIVION SPOILERS

I went and saved Martin (the monk, not the popular reviewer) from the first gate and took him to the castle before deciding to dump him there where he was safe and go through a few side quests while ploughing through the arena. That was thirty gameplay hours ago and I've not even scratched the surface. I've rescued giant pet rats from angry cats, solved the mystery of a haunted house (Scooby Doo style!), become the champion of the arena after making the previous champ suicidal (and am now being stalked by an adoring fan) progressed through the mage's guild despite only having a basic grasp on magic and killed bandits by the boatload. I'm even mocking pirates by stealing away on their ship after they threaten me WITH DEATH should I set foot on their barge, getting them good and angry then using my walk on water pendent to run away across the sea, giggling like a loon. It's great; they hate me, everytime they see me in town they're all "Oh. It's you."

I hope this game never ends.

WQ: I have Morrowind on the XBOX. I once played some seven minutes in, but I always intended to go back and beat it before Oblivion. I put Oblivion in the 360 simply because I've owned it for years but never even checked to see if it worked okay. I checked, it worked, I went a little way in to the game for kicks and put the pad down eight hours later. It's extremly and destressingly easy to get into. In the same way class A drugs are.

Sash: You really shouldn't admit these things while I still have tourney-won games of yours on hold. Stop giving me ammo. How are said games, anyway?

Veems: Sonata is okay, but not fantastic. Worth the �15 I paid for it but, if I'd not had a 'net crash, I doubt I would have picked it back up anytime soon. The graphics are stunning and the music great (as you expect when it comes from one of the few classical musicians that deserve their accolades) but it has a lot of down points. I'll review it for you just as soon as you finish up that freelance review you're some three months late on.

MartinG - May 30, 2008 (07:29 AM)
I briefly tried both the fighter's arena and the mages' guild, but my character was an assassin, so logically all the fun was in sneaking around slitting throats and poisoning in secret. I knew my character was good when a bad guy literally run into him in a dungeon and still didn't see him :D

wolfqueen001 - May 30, 2008 (07:40 AM)
Haha. Have you had experience with these "Class A drugs" then? >_>

I'm kidding of course. My saintly image of you wouldn't allow for such activities anyway. Plus it's just not healthy.

Seriously, though... if you're into Oblivion like I was into Diablo II, I think you should stop. Now. For a few weeks... or a month... or a year... I think I told you before how I was playing Diablo so much it was interrupting my sleep... I thought I was being possessed, I swear. Then again, I was only twelve or something.

I'm just glad Morrowind never caught me that bad... I mean, ok, it was all I played for months while I was there, and my brother practically had to drag me from the computer whenever it was his turn, but at least it never invaded my dreams.

bluberry - May 30, 2008 (08:01 PM)
drugs are bad, k?

darketernal - June 01, 2008 (05:03 PM)
Elder scrolls games are not made for people such as me that have to explore every single corner in a game I play. So yes, no thanks. Tried it, and my mind expanded and then quickly shut down when I made my way into the imperial capital because I knew I wouldn't be able to explore it all.

Same thing with Morrowind when I ended up in some huge dwarven fortress or something. I forgot how I even ended up in there and couldn't find a way out afterwards. Mind you, finding said gigantic dungeon was not even a part of the main game. To be quite sincere, I have no idea where I was supposed to go anyway.

Heard that Daggerfall is even grander, bigger, and thus made for madmen then Morrowind and Oblivion combined. So yes.

Also, every sane person hates Ronaldo. He sucks and is a faggot. Yes, I meant that in an offensive, "he likes to get it in th rear" derogatory way. I am a simple man with simple ways of looking at life. Sorry.

EmP - June 02, 2008 (07:59 AM)
Mart: The cool thing about the guild subplots is that you don't need to be anything specific to complete them. I'm a somewhat atypical tank brawler, which is perfect for the arena, but it's also seeing me through the mage guild quests with zero problems. Sure, said quests sometimes have ghosty enemys that require me to put them down with my megre magic, but I can without fuss or trouble. You can stab them to death with enchanted or silver weapons if that fails.

Even with your sneaky sneak, you'll find these guilds accessable and worthwhile.

WQ: Jason won't let me get addicted to a video game. He knows where I live and sometimes calls me in the dead of night to demand I continue running his website while he visits the spar.

DE: Knowing you, you're probably better off Elder Scrolls free. I hate to think what the vast, open land would do to you if you got caught up in it.

It would be quieter online line. With less "Watch X anime so I can talk about it!" nagging.

Feedback
	MartinG - May 28, 2008 (10:24 AM) Who cares about the main storyline when you can do those awesome assassin missions?? Once you've seen an Oblivion Portal, you've seen them all :P
	EmP - May 28, 2008 (10:47 AM) Seriously, I can't stop playing. I've written something like seven review intros in my head which is a worryingly obsessive way to show how much I'm into (or hating) a game.
	wolfqueen001 - May 28, 2008 (11:21 AM) Hahaha. Yes. I knew someday you would fall under the power of the Elder Scrolls legacy. You should finish off Morrowind if you haven't. I've been addicted to that game for years. I think my most recent character was master of or almost master of just about every guild you can join. Didn't even get to the expansion stuff in that one. Then Dad's computer crashed and I lost all my progress. This happened three times and haven't started it again since. As for Oblivion, I heard it's harder to get into... Also heard it's shorter. Hadn't started myself yet because I'm still stuck in Morrowind, but my brother and dad have. The enemies level with you in Oblivion, which can be really annoying. So it'll be hard going through sometimes.
	sashanan - May 28, 2008 (01:11 PM) Perhaps thankfully my hardware can't handle Oblivion, and Morrowind has so far failed to grab hold of me. I know it will if I let it.
	viridian_moon - May 29, 2008 (04:45 PM) You and your silly football. Well, I'm glad you put your time to good use even if you were offline for a while. Probably could've used the break from HG, if I'm not mistaken! Say, how is Eternal Sonata, by the way? Since I have a 360 now, I've been thinking about picking it up.
	EmP - May 30, 2008 (04:10 AM) Martin: I know what you mean. OBLIVION SPOILERS I went and saved Martin (the monk, not the popular reviewer) from the first gate and took him to the castle before deciding to dump him there where he was safe and go through a few side quests while ploughing through the arena. That was thirty gameplay hours ago and I've not even scratched the surface. I've rescued giant pet rats from angry cats, solved the mystery of a haunted house (Scooby Doo style!), become the champion of the arena after making the previous champ suicidal (and am now being stalked by an adoring fan) progressed through the mage's guild despite only having a basic grasp on magic and killed bandits by the boatload. I'm even mocking pirates by stealing away on their ship after they threaten me WITH DEATH should I set foot on their barge, getting them good and angry then using my walk on water pendent to run away across the sea, giggling like a loon. It's great; they hate me, everytime they see me in town they're all "Oh. It's you." I hope this game never ends. WQ: I have Morrowind on the XBOX. I once played some seven minutes in, but I always intended to go back and beat it before Oblivion. I put Oblivion in the 360 simply because I've owned it for years but never even checked to see if it worked okay. I checked, it worked, I went a little way in to the game for kicks and put the pad down eight hours later. It's extremly and destressingly easy to get into. In the same way class A drugs are. Sash: You really shouldn't admit these things while I still have tourney-won games of yours on hold. Stop giving me ammo. How are said games, anyway? Veems: Sonata is okay, but not fantastic. Worth the �15 I paid for it but, if I'd not had a 'net crash, I doubt I would have picked it back up anytime soon. The graphics are stunning and the music great (as you expect when it comes from one of the few classical musicians that deserve their accolades) but it has a lot of down points. I'll review it for you just as soon as you finish up that freelance review you're some three months late on.
	MartinG - May 30, 2008 (07:29 AM) I briefly tried both the fighter's arena and the mages' guild, but my character was an assassin, so logically all the fun was in sneaking around slitting throats and poisoning in secret. I knew my character was good when a bad guy literally run into him in a dungeon and still didn't see him :D
	wolfqueen001 - May 30, 2008 (07:40 AM) Haha. Have you had experience with these "Class A drugs" then? >_> I'm kidding of course. My saintly image of you wouldn't allow for such activities anyway. Plus it's just not healthy. Seriously, though... if you're into Oblivion like I was into Diablo II, I think you should stop. Now. For a few weeks... or a month... or a year... I think I told you before how I was playing Diablo so much it was interrupting my sleep... I thought I was being possessed, I swear. Then again, I was only twelve or something. I'm just glad Morrowind never caught me that bad... I mean, ok, it was all I played for months while I was there, and my brother practically had to drag me from the computer whenever it was his turn, but at least it never invaded my dreams.
	bluberry - May 30, 2008 (08:01 PM) drugs are bad, k?
	darketernal - June 01, 2008 (05:03 PM) Elder scrolls games are not made for people such as me that have to explore every single corner in a game I play. So yes, no thanks. Tried it, and my mind expanded and then quickly shut down when I made my way into the imperial capital because I knew I wouldn't be able to explore it all. Same thing with Morrowind when I ended up in some huge dwarven fortress or something. I forgot how I even ended up in there and couldn't find a way out afterwards. Mind you, finding said gigantic dungeon was not even a part of the main game. To be quite sincere, I have no idea where I was supposed to go anyway. Heard that Daggerfall is even grander, bigger, and thus made for madmen then Morrowind and Oblivion combined. So yes. Also, every sane person hates Ronaldo. He sucks and is a faggot. Yes, I meant that in an offensive, "he likes to get it in th rear" derogatory way. I am a simple man with simple ways of looking at life. Sorry.
	EmP - June 02, 2008 (07:59 AM) Mart: The cool thing about the guild subplots is that you don't need to be anything specific to complete them. I'm a somewhat atypical tank brawler, which is perfect for the arena, but it's also seeing me through the mage guild quests with zero problems. Sure, said quests sometimes have ghosty enemys that require me to put them down with my megre magic, but I can without fuss or trouble. You can stab them to death with enchanted or silver weapons if that fails. Even with your sneaky sneak, you'll find these guilds accessable and worthwhile. WQ: Jason won't let me get addicted to a video game. He knows where I live and sometimes calls me in the dead of night to demand I continue running his website while he visits the spar. DE: Knowing you, you're probably better off Elder Scrolls free. I hate to think what the vast, open land would do to you if you got caught up in it. It would be quieter online line. With less "Watch X anime so I can talk about it!" nagging.

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