Lit Apropos of Nothing - ACKBAR IN CAPITALS - The Lit Forum Social Thread, v2.0.15

I'll definitely watch it at some point. Whenever that happens to be, I'm thinking of starting with the 2005 relaunch. Still, missing out on eight doctors feels like I'd be missing so much history, and I get the impression a lot of context would be lost.

 

I tend to play a stealth-type character. It just feels natural to me; I always played a Rogue on Morrowind and Oblivion. Magic on those games has always felt awkward. Specifically, I'm currently playing a Dunmer noble who was fled political intrigue in Morrowind. And I completely agree on the dialogue in Elder Scrolls. As much as I love the series, player dialogue in particular is atrocious. There's no room in the dialogue to come off as educated, or even vaguely knowledgeable.

And Elder Scrolls plots haven't really been up to snuff since Morrowind, a game that went far beyond its genre- its medium, even. The real strength of Skyrim is that it (sometimes unwittingly) incorporates the deep, rich, utterly trippy Elder Scrolls lore in a better manner than Oblivion. It's a world where every culture's interpretation of the gods holds some truth, and characters become aware that they are in a video game. It's a lore that is revealed through snippets of dialogue and lore books, rather than just thrown at you.

 

Like I said, it's fun mainly for the nostalgia factor and how it brings you up to speed on Dunmer/Solstheim affairs post-Red Year (DUNMER REPRESENT). It's definitely the best Skyrim DLC so far, but not worth $20.

God, I wish Kirkbride, Rolston and Carafano would take Bethesda by storm. The writing team could definitely use it.

 

Bah, you kids with your Morrowindisms. Get off my virtual lawn.

I generally don't do fantasy first-persons, so kudos to Bethesda for sucking me in with Oblivion/Skyrim. It helped that they did Fallout, because, well... I love Fallout. If my icon didn't make that indirectly obvious.

 

Heh. NEW VEGAS UBER ALLES.

 

I'm glad I'm not the only one who gets so annoyed it's impossible to play a character who doesn't come off as an idiot. It's a very minor part of the gameplay, but I feel just a few alternations could make it so much more enjoyable. I actually felt Fallout 3 did a good job with it (have not played New Vegas yet, sadly)

On the Skyrim note, I really need to get it for PC. Some mods look incredibly fun; Oblivion was certainly made a much better game with mods.

 

Some day, somehow, Obsidian will make an Elder Scrolls game, and will collaborate with Kirkbride on it. And It shall glorious.

And you need to play New Vegas- it's Fallout 3, but better in every way. Weapons mods, actual morality, actual RPG gameplay that affects the storyline and endings (there's four distinct endings, and that's just looking purely at the main quest- that's not counting the dozens of combinations of ending settings that are affected by side-quests, and the DLC are mostly worth it). Skyrim is superior on PC- there's mods that fix any lore issues, add in hilarious Sheogorath-inspired loading screens, take care of unsolved bugs, and allow you to kill people with a lightsaber/Sauron's Mace. It's pretty real.

 

From what I've heard, New Vegas is what you expect from an Obsidian sequel. Gameplay improvements, significantly stronger writing, and a plethora of bugs that causes the fanbase to complain in a disproportionate amount. I'll have to play it soon. Later, though. First I must finish Planescape: Torment.

Jello, for some reason I felt compelled to make my Fallout 3 character an expert in science as well. It just, I don't know, felt right, considering your dad.

 

I agree with you on F:NV but there were some bugs in the game that could be extremely annoying.

That said; I think people forget that Fo3 had its fair share of bugs as well.

I must have gotten lucky, because I never ran into the game ruining bugs that some players described in the early versions. I'm to understand that later patches mostly fixed the more serious bugs.

I'm not sure I ever really found Fo3 that linear, tbh, but I can sorta see what you mean. I think F:NV actually gave you a lot more in the way of options except for the fact that I wish Caeser's legion was less "mwahaha" evil and could be seen more on the same level as the others.

 

Caesar's Legion suffered massively from the deadline that Obsidian had to deal with- originally, you would be able to explore Legion Arizona IIRC. While Caesar would probably still come across as A) as Jello put it, A more competent Mussolini or B) as I've put it elsewhere, dancing to the music without really hearing the lyrics, the Legion still deserved its fair look. It's why I'm looking forward to Wasteland 2 and Project: Eternity- Obsidian gets to work on its own timeline.

I also have to add that I ended up analyzing NV cursorily via some of the concepts I learned in some of my university-level history classes, and concluding that the NCR was the Mojave's best hope for the future.

 

Personally, I think F3 is far better than NV.

I haven't played Morrowind, maybe I'll pick it up on Steam. Just tell me it doesn't have the same leveling system as Oblivion...

 

I hate Oblivion's system of having enemies level with you. It seems to still be there in Skyrim, but it's handled so much better.

 

Ulicus - that video was actually rather poignant, but also very well done, especially the Doctor talking at the beginning.

 

AdmiralNick22 - so my husband and I starting watching "House of Cards" last night. Being a DC girl myself, I can get behind anything set in my fair city, and I'd forgotten Robin Wright Penn was in it, and I love her. But I was really taken aback by Kevin Spacey's character breaking the fourth wall. For some reason, it came across as cutesy to me, rather than as an effective narrative device. Just me?

That said, I thought the pilot episode set up a good plot that naturally drew me in, and despite my reservations, I definitely plan to watch more to see where it goes.

 

The initial time that Congressman Francis Underwood breaks the fourth wall was a bit odd to me as well, but to be honest it really grows on me as he does it in subsquent episodes. It also helps you, as the series goes on, distinguish between moments he is being a total politician and moments where he actually comes across human. Kevin Spacey does a fantastic job and I really hope that the series is nominated for some sort of award.

Robin Wright as Claire Underwood is another fantastic casting decision. Ditto for the actor playing Congressman Russo.

I am on episode 8 right now and I cannot wait to see what happens next.

--Adm. Nick

 

It's one of the defining parts of the original series, and probably the one thing that keeps it from being just another generic political series for me.

 

Gah, I just watched episodes 9-10. I am sooo adicted. I am doing everything in my power not to watch 11-12 tonight. I am trying to stretch out this series as much as possible. Something big happens in episode 10 that makes me dying to see more!

--Adm. Nick