Tryptophan Gets Everyone

I'm not going to pretend that I know all the intricacies behind Google's blogger. All I do know it that I like how it works and I really like how it keeps track of web stats. Here's the info graphic for my page-views by operating system for the month of November.

I don't know who you are PSP reader/viewer, but I love you. Seeing this stat made my day. Power to the PSP!

In other news, Lydia didn't survive the Thanksgiving weekend. To this day, I am not sure what evil creature got the best of her. She went missing for a couple of days; when she didn't return to the Breezehome in Whiterun, I began retracing my steps. What started as a hopeful and fun romp through places previously visited soon turned into a desperate search. Sadly, I did eventually find her. Collapsed into a pile of flesh and armor, she lay along a path northwest of Falkreath, Ancient Nord Greatsword still in hand. Unfortunately, there's no crime scene investigation skill or perk. I have no idea what or who delivered the fatal blow.

I did kill a dragon just north of Falkreath while she was "missing." Maybe Lydia helped me defeat that dragon and I never knew it. A true friend and a humble hero, Lydia gave her life so that I might slay a terrible beast and live to brag about it on the Internet. After searching the surrounding area, I found a suitable resting place. The Roadside Ruins, northwest of Falkreath. Lydia's body has long since disappeared, but her spirit warms the ruins and re-invigorates any who rest there.

Fine. So that's not true, but it's still a nice thought. R.I.P. Lydia. You will be missed.

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.

Let's Put Chips In All The Children

Crotch-Rockets and Katanas

I've never been one to hop into video game forums and debate/scream about this video game or that video game and which one is better and which on is worse. I'm perfectly content letting the rest of the Internet do that.

After re-watching some Saint's Row: The Third trailers, I found myself reading the comment section of this Kotaku post. There's nothing unusual here in the debating/screaming; however, the comments forced me to look back at my experience with GTA and dissect how I played those games.

Being first introduced to Grand Theft Auto through the revolutionary GTA3, I can't really speak to the earlier bird's-eye-view PlayStation versions. My neighbor and I went to a FuncoLand (do those even exist anymore?), traded in some crap games, forked over some cash, and had his mother give her permission for both M-rated purchases. This was, of course, done without my parents’ permission; they didn't like me spending money on games (period) let alone M-rated ones. We both walked out of that store as very happy kids, we played the opening sequence and the first couple of training missions together, and then split up with our copies for the who-can-beat-it-first competition.

With Grand Theft Auto 3 it was close, but I ended with the prize, only because I spent most of my time playing the missions instead of screwing around in the open world. To this day, GTA3 is the only GTA game in which I've reached that 100 percent achievement (before there were achievements). I'm not sure why I focused on the missions. It certainly wasn't the story. Maybe doing whatever-the-eff-I-wanted wasn't very appealing. I don't know. GTA3 was a mission-based crime-spree to me, not a sandbox.

Grand Theft Auto Vice City changed all that. It's hard to pin-point where exactly the paradigm shift occurred, but I remember seeing these screenshots:

And I thought: Rockstar is going to give me motorcycles and swords! Shit is going to get crazy.

Had the crotch-rockets and katanas been in GTA3, I may have played the game in a totally different way. But that was it, I had more fun doing crazy stuff with my motorcycle and doing killing sprees with my katana, so I never finished all the missions in GTA: Vice City. That's when it happened. GTA became a do-whatever-the-eff-I-want game with motorcycles and swords. And I loved it. Plus the eighties music, awesome!

Grand Theft Auto San Andreas was released in fall of 2004, my freshman year of college. I completed just enough missions to unlock the San Fierro island, but not the Las Venturas island. I would swim to that island, get the five-star wanted level, and see how long I could survive. San Andreas also came with motorcycles and swords, plus four-wheelers, planes, jet-packs, chainsaws, and I could dress-up like a complete lunatic.

Screencap Credit: sebilden on Flickr

Eventually, I did have to complete the missions to unlock Las Venturas to play with some of this stuff. Seriously though, the most fun I've ever had with San Andreas was just doing the craziest shit in that sandbox of a game.

To be honest, I bought a PS3 for the sole purpose of playing Grand Theft Auto 4. I even have the silly lock-box (I'm a sucker for pre-order swag, remember), but I haven't completed all the missions as Niko. And I haven't touched the DLC (probably never will). I enjoyed the game, but it's probably my least favorite GTA to date. The portable titles don't count; I haven't played them. The humor and satire in GTA 4 was amazing and kept me coming back to the missions. The chaos and destruction I could cause kept me sandboxing. Plenty of motorcycle fun. But no katana.

For whatever reason, I came up with sound excuses to skip out on the Saint's Row series. When Saint's Row first arrived, my reaction was: "I'd rather play Grand Theft Auto. One crime-spree sandbox is enough for me. Thank you." When Saint's Row 2 arrived, I just didn't care. Maybe I missed some awesome gameplay (and if what I'm seeing with Saint's Row: The Third is a clue, I probably did), but I just wrote them off. Now that November 15th rolls in, I'm getting more and more excited about The Third. All their crazy trailers made me remember all the fun times I had in Vice City and San Andreas.

All I want from Saint's Row: The Third is what I grew to love in Vice City and San Andreas. Crotch-rockets and katanas, please. With a side of pedestrian cannon.

I can't find a screenshot with a sword. Does a hoverbike make up for the lack of swords?