Dawnguard angst

So I got Microsoft, points and bought the three Skyrim expansions. So I'll do one at time, starting with the first one, Dawnguard.

So in Dawngaurd you are the the same character you made in Skyrim and get asked one way or another to join the Dawnguard. On my original save game I was invited by one of the members. This time around a guard decided to mention it while I was trying to find where the hell the blacksmith went.
So I go there and talk about how I like killing things, including vampires. He then changes from not liking me that much to loving me like I'm his long lost child, hands me a crossbow and says get to it. I forgo the crossbow, since it's shit compared to a daedric bow. And so I go to the cave and just start shooting things while sneaking.

Pretty much this

 Until I got bored, took out a warhammer and played golf with skulls. Then comes Serana.

Her in sunlight (which she'll bitch about)

So she's helpful, but not all the time. She says some funny lines, but at times it seems like she's a whiny teenager going to the dentist. She'd complain about the sunlight, then about the snow, then being in a town, then fighting things then OH GOD SHUT UP. She's a good example of the double edged sword of companions. She's helpful and sometimes witty, but a lot of times she gets knocked out or raises stupid things to fight for her. 

But back at the plot, since I decided to help kill vampires, I recruited people and got armor. Which at this point I threw in a barrel. 

Noticing a pattern about the items here?

The items aren't bad, just it's about the level of imperial leather. So it's a little pointless to use it at level 50 and on. And I didn't want to do the improved crossbow quest yet. I hate dwarven ruins with a passion. But that's not much of a problem . 

So I go on the Stop my Dad questline. 

Via ihaslemons on DeviantArt

And clearly it was her sweet roll, she bought it 

 And looking back it was pretty much daddy angst from her. Then suddenly Falmer angst. They're the last two brothers that aren't blind brutes, and I have to do an old falmer ritual to get to the castle to kill the last brother. Then I apologize to the good brother for killing off his race. Wait, what?!

I'm supposed to apologize to one of the two brothers for killing the other one, making their race extinct? But they're two men! They've been doomed for at least a thousand years to begin with. Do they not know how how the baby making process works? And even if one was a girl, the inbreeding after a generation or two they'd be too messed up to be worth saving anyways. 

I think that it should have gone the way of MvM personally. 

So Dawnguard was fun in some respects, but the story was relatively weak. I the plot holes are kind of large, but if you like playing as a werewolf the perks make it more enjoyable. 

The Horse ain't Dead Yet!

So Elder Scrolls Online is starting sign up for Beta testing and put out this little cinematic to tease us all with. If the game is as interactive as it's showing, I'm a lot more interested now. And I applied for Beta because I've been bitching about it a lot on both sides of the isles, and part of the problem with that is that it's a partial picture. I can't see how it plays or how the races interact if all I see is screenshots and their blog posts. The cinematic is pretty and exciting, but it's not gameplay. Arena had cool box art, but didn't really live up to that.

Expectation

reality.

Well either way I'm off to go play me some Dawnguard and Bloodmo-I mean Dragonborn.

And I peeked at a guide and was so happy to learn that Cliff Racers aren't in there.  

This Christmas

So this Christmas, I didn't get any games for XBox or PC. But that's not a complaint, because of this.

Bam

If it wasn't for me half expecting it, I would have been doing the whole Nintendo 64 gambit. So it'll be mainly about the 3DS. 

Well first I've got to talk about it's main feature, the 3D. Part of me wants to gush its praises because it looks so good sometimes. The other part is annoyed because you have to be at the exact right angle for it to look that good. And when you get that angle, the 3D drains the battery like nothing else and can really strain eyes. 

And this clip art explains my life up until recently. 

I don't think the battery is quite as good as the DS lite, and that's on the lowest light, no wifi and no 3D. But then again both shoulder buttons work and even without the 3D the graphics are much better. 

I played with the AR cards a bit. And, eh. Just eh, it's hard to do with the right light and right angle and it's pretty much a one trick pony by what I've seen.

I've got a couple of games, and I've got: Mighty Switch Force, Legend of Zelda Links Awakening DX, and Dr. Mario on the system itself. I've also got Harvest Moon, Tale of Two Towns and A New Beginning, and Super Mario 3D land.

I've been playing it a lot, which is partially why this took so long to do. All in all, it's a welcome upgrade and I'm enjoying the newer games and the older games on it. 

More ESO updates.

So Elder Scrolls Online has some new screenshots. And in someways my opinion has improved. They've shown me Argonian soldiers, which actually look pretty good in both keeping to the source material and adding to it.

It they toned down the Argonian colors, which in someways make sense in someways, but it might not be popular with all. I'm really curious in how the Khajit will be done. 

These are Khajit:

So are these:

They are both canon and according to UESP:

Khajiit are each subtly bound to the Lunar Lattice, a mysterious force entitled the ja'Kha'jay in their native tongue. The Lunar Lattice determines the form a Khajiit assumes in life, according to the phases of Masser and Secunda at the time of their birth; while Khajiiti newborns appear incredibly similar to one another at birth, their future form becomes clear in a matter of weeks. This is due in part to the fact that, although born smaller than the children of either man or mer, the Khajiiti mature at a significantly faster rate.

It is imperative to note that while the Khajiit derive their natural form from the moons of Nirn, their peculiar tie to such is in no way related to lycanthropy, for, unlike that disease, it is neither contagious nor temporal. A Khajiit will retain its form of birth throughout their life and the moons, although they affect in what form the Khajiit will be born, do not affect it after that. Furthermore, there are no known shapeshifting Khajiit.

So the ones in Arena being the Ohmes and the ones in Skyrim, Oblivion, and Morrowind being Suthay-raht. So what's ESO going to do? Just go with Suthay-raht or actually have a couple different types? It seems like they are just going with one type. And I know I'm not the only one who knows this.

I hope they don't betray the Orc strongholds that they set up in Skyrim. It's not a subtle hidden thing either.

Their new demo video has got my interest peaked. One tiny thing bugged me in that at one point in the movie they show what looks like a Dunmer and the white hair made it look a little too drow-ish for my taste.

On to the graphics.
On the armor and the scenory:
You've done it again you magnificent bastards.








On the colors and some of the characters:
Meh. Sometimes it looks too much like Wow. And that isn't necessarily a good thing. They keep saying they're not another WoW clone but they need to prove it to us skeptics. It's pretty, but even after playing Oblivion which is the brightest of the later 3 games, it seems too bright. You don't need to focus on the people you've already won over. The Bethesda obsessees and the MMO freaks you'd really have to piss them off to get those guys away. Try getting the cheap asses and the people that aren't sure about going back to MMOs. I haven't been on one in a while. Don't do monthly payments, it's dying. Do something so that "everyone can play" like you said. Show me why I should play more PC online games, give me an excuse to use my docking station for my laptop for something other than homework. That is my challenge I give to you Bethesda. Do you accept this quest?

Political Time!

So I got Pokemon Black 2 and while that's fine and dandy, PETA made a "parody" of it. And I haven't even bothered to look at it since the "Mario shows its okay to kill animals" episode because he wears a Tanooki suit and how they blew that out of proportion. This person on Tumblr says it best: PETA- You're Doing it Wrong. And honestly, if you really think Pokemon is about animal cruelty, then play the damn games. And I don't think they get the irony of their bad guy being a Team Plasma boss rip off. It just annoys me to no end about how ignorant they are about the games they shame.

In other news, Colleen Lachowicz is under fire for playing World of Warcraft. I can't get over how stupid an argument this is, how trivial it is that she plays a game. Not out with hookers or rent boys or mistresses, just playing a game for fun. 

And some people are freaking out because she's a level 85 Orc Assassination Rogue. Which infers that she doesn't do work or anything besides play WoW. You know, with some people, you could maybe make that argument, but if you're campaigning for a senate seat, you can't be someone who just sits and plays WoW. So stop inferring that she's similar to a stereotypical nerdy teen on the weekend. Because she can't be, she just likes killing stuff that isn't real to have fun. 

This is it because if I delve any deeper politically, I might offend too many more people, and my blog's too small to support that right now.

Why I don't like 4th gen of Pokemon

So a little background info:
Pokemon Black & White 2 are coming out a day after my birthday. And thinking about maybe getting it made me decide to look back at my older games. And for those who don't know when I say Gen x of Pokemon, here's a quick guide:
Gen 1: Red, blue, and Yellow
Gen 2: Gold, Silver, and Crystal
Gen 3: Fire Red, Leaf Green, Ruby, Sapphire, and Emerald.
Gen 4: Diamond, Pearl, and Platinum
Gen 4.5: Heart Gold and Soul Silver
Gen 5:  Black and White
And I don't know where Black & White 2 will go until I play it.
Anyways first I want to explain why I didn't put HG and SS with D,P &P. The main thing I have is that the two feel very different where as Ruby and Fire Red don't seem like they were made by two different people. I honestly don't know about Platinum, but feel free to correct me on if that should be more with 4.5

I had a few problems that were unique to these games.
Most ridiculous villain

They looked silly then, they look silly now. Some people say that they have one of the more legitimate "save the world plots" but it's hard to take them seriously when you're lolling at hair or outfits. That and they still have a storm trooper-like syndrome. In that they can't be threatening in any sense after fighting them.
Learning curve
It switches from really easy battling to hard bosses at a whim. And I know that bosses are supposed to be harder than the trainers in the gym or during the bad guy plot. But lvl 9, lvl 9, lvl 14, lvl 16, the last two being boss ones. That's not fair. 2-3 level jumps are expected, not 5 levels.
New Pokemon
We have:

The cat that has ugly in it's name to make it even more apparent how ugly and annoying this is.

And the affermative action Gardevoir. Because we really needed that, but yet Lopunny, the new one, only has one form for gender. 

First time playing Diamond, I had a boy one.

Honestly a lot of the Pokemon this Gen were relatively forgettable. There were very few that I was excited about 2nd time playing around and showing me the occasional gen 1-3 Pokemon taunted me with the better Pokemon. The first catch-able non-gen 4 Pokemon? Psyduck. Which is redundant since I have Piplup.

All in all, it's not bad, it's not like they betrayed their old ways, but it's just not my favorite game to date.

How to Kill a Troll - Incisive.nu

How to Kill a Troll - Incisive.nu:

I was going to have a whole post how trolling has gone from jokes to being straight out assholes. And this covers it better than I could have. I don't have a problem with joking around with people. But when a gamer thread turns into who can be more racist for the lols, I stop finding it funny. And I'll end with this to sum up the ending.

'via Blog this'