A Follower of Foxes

So, who is playing Skyrim? I guess that's everybody on the Internet. I am playing Skyrim as a sneaky Nord battlemage but I'm slowly turning into a sneaky Nord archer. And I love Lydia. As a token of my love, I gave her an ancient Nord Greatsword, some kick-ass armor, and a horny helmet (just like mine). What does she do in return? This crazy bitch goes out and hacks everybody to pieces while I stay hidden (I'm practically invisible now) and watch from a distance. Fine, occasionally I'll shoot an arrow or something. But Lydia does most of the work.

Back in August I talked about my gaming features and distractions. Well, what I didn't consider was a game big enough to handle both of them. Skyrim is that game. The main quest of the Dovahkiin is the feature. All of the side quests in Skyrim are the distractions. Not to mention my in-game A.D.D. "Look Lydia, a fox! Let's chase it until we happen upon something interesting."

Screencap Credit: spacecatrocketship

Lydia and I chase a lot of foxes.

Regardless of what wikia has to say about them, I haven't found that following foxes directs me to my active quest target. Though I do admit, I usually find a keep or a cave or a cabin or something to check out after trailing a fox. I've never killed one (and I don't plan to) but if the foxes started leading me to cave bears, I might leave them alone.

After equipping a bow and trying to shoot things with arrows, I realized that I did indeed miss VATS from Bethesda's Fallout games. However, because being an archer presented an immense challenge I stopped my beserking battlemage act and went with the bow and arrow, Robin Hood style. I'm still getting used to the bow, but I'm ten times better and that's just with aiming; I've put exactly zero points into the archery skill. My usual tactic, besides sending Lydia in first, is to pick enemies off from a hidden position (sneaky remember, plus the 3X damage from a bow sneak attack, awesome) then move in close range with shock and flame attacks to finish off the jerks who're really good a dodging arrows.

I'm not much of a game reviewer, nor do I pay much attention to game reviews; I play what I like and I try what catches my interest. I can't say that I'm a fan of The Elder Scrolls series and I'm not going to play Morrowind or Oblivion, ever. Skyrim is awesome. Bethesda, if you keep making games like Fallout 3 (New Vegas, to a lesser extent) and Skyrim, I will keep playing them. Well done.

Now it's time to get back to it. Come Lydia. We're off to explore, loot, and horde.