Wouldn't it be easier to just pick Red, Green, or Blue for your color of the game's ending?

Let's not forget that the intro is before you've committed a character, so you can safely restart after it. They usually have another chance to revise your build, (e.g Oblivion sewer exit) even if you don't use a console command for it. With Dawnguard, you even get the face sculptor to let you change your mind way into the game. I suspect they listened to their players.

Absolutely! I love that second chance they gave you to remake your character in Oblivion, Fallout 3, and FONV! I wish more games would do that. Or even simply have a command console with the equivalent of the showracemenu command. That would have saved me all that time with ME1.

Well it looks like i'm just about finished everything in W3, after a week or so of solid gaming. Finally managed to find the blueprints for the armour i've been waiting for. They sure didn't make it easy to find.

@Rosa: You've got some good points. It's hard enough to roleplay as a century-old mutant warrior without it trying to steer you towards a dozen or so sexual encounters with various ladies. Seems the writer of the books is into that sort of thing and the game devs ran (really far) with it.

@mALX: keep us updated on ESO! I'm thinking about buying it once I've saved up enough money, but for every positive thing people have to say about it they often have one or two negatives.

Final screenshots

The elusive armour

My personal favourite monster



Now I'm off to play the Destiny expansion which came out last week. Haven't had a chance to check it out yet since i've been busy witchering.

Excellent pics! I like how Geralt looks there. He really looks like a grizzled veteran who has seen and done it all.

That is a cool looking tree monster. It could be the boyfriend of the ES Spriggans!

@Subrosa: Heh, if you think Witcher 3 and Mass Effect are bad when it comes to cutscenes, you should take a look at the Metal Gear games. I think some have actually had more cutscene than game in them.

*

Well, I played the whole first section of - the tutorial dungeon. There were several really tough fights that I have yet to figure out what I did right to win.

The tough enemies dropped excellent loot such as enchanted weapons and armor - I just need to figure out how to equip it now, and find my inventory!

I made the stupid mistake of creating my character with no gear! I was looking at her body in the bikini and forgot to redress her! So I'm doubly relieved that I made it out of Coldharbour alive - and beat Molag Bal's minion in a boss battle to do it!

Unfortunately, I walked into the firepit in Indoril Manor and can't figure out how to jump out; so I exited the game to find out.

My impression of the game so far = it reminds me VERY strongly of the game "Fate" except with tremendous graphics and other people running around.

(I think the game "Fate" is a quasi version of the game "Fable;" but I haven't ever played Fable so don't know for sure if that is accurate). Fate is usually found prepackaged in the games folder of new computers with Windows OS's.


The feel of it is much closer to Morrowind than any other TES game I've played. When you escape the dungeon and reach the town you can go around and talk to NPC's who have a white arrow over their heads - they have quests to give the player.

Oh, and if someone loots before you and an item is empty - wait a few seconds and try again, this place restocks VERY quickly.

If you are going to loot bodies, do it fast because they will disappear quickly as well. This place cleans itself up and resets very fast compared to World of Warcraft!

I accepted two quests, one is part of the main questline for my area (Ebonheart Pact, so whatever town that is - can't think of it right now).

Also, almost every key on your keyboard has a function, so I need to make myself a key to remember them all - but I think "M" is for Map.

If you walk up to another Player and hit "E" (which is the "Activate" key) - it opens up the option to Chat with them, trade with them, join their group, invite them to join your group.

(I found that out by accident while trying to get out of the fire pit).

It was really exciting, and if it turns out to be like Fate - I got so addicted to that game that the company called me on the phone and told me to get off the game because my free trial had ended and they were reluctant to shut me down in the middle of gameplay, lol.

So far all my impressions are good. Everyone I know that plays it has become very addicted to it, and has said it is everything Skyrim should have been - so far I'm really impressed.

The dungeon Coldharbor was huge and amazingly done. I am quite sure I left a bunch of loot behind in it.


*

Thanks so much for the report, mALX! That sounds encouraging indeed. I look forward to hearing more of your impressions as you continue.

Yep, Leshens are actually quite similar to Spriggans. Protecting nature, summoning animals to help them fight, all that fun stuff.

I usually have a favourite creature in every game I play, and keep a collection of whatever item they drop. In Oblivion it was Minotaurs, in Skyrim it was Sabre Cats, in Fable it was Balverines. Monsters are just super cool.




ESO sounds pretty fun mALX, and any game that has your seal of approval is worth looking into! Time to read up on what it's all about. I hope the Argonians look good.




Anyway, in the time since my last comment I've managed to go through the 'story' (and i use the term loosely) of the newest Destiny expansion.

At least they added a couple of new locations this time so it looks like they put a tiny bit of effort in. All of the other stuff they added is geared towards multiplayer and party play which isn't my thing at all. Shame really, but this seems to be the direction games are going these days.

Wouldn't have purchased this DLC, but I got the season pass back on release day so I've held off on trading the game in until I got my money's worth.

The elusive part of the first screen armor seems to be his lower half - where did his legs go? Just kidding.

I love your favorite beast - to me it looks more like Hircine!

*


They have a tremendous range of ways to personalize your character: Age, hair style and color, height and weight, all the usual facegen we are used to in TES, face and body painting/tattoos, there are over 20 eye colors and shapes - very nice eyes. Even the neck/leg/arm/and hand sizes can be tweaked. And they have very decent hair that is clean and combed, unlike vanilla Skyrim.


A few things I found clunky:


Keys for certain functions are not where i am used to them being; like activate is E and spacebar is jump. That is exactly opposite of what I am used to.

And I am afraid to rekey the keyboard for this game like I did for other games because so many keys are used for something particular (I for inventory, M for Maps, O opens up your profile page showing your friends, for quick access to message them - etc)

Also messaging/using the chat box - since players can have up to 8 different characters, if you want to message a friend they ask you to name which character of theirs you want to get the message.

Well, the character's name has to be spelled exactly correct, and these are TES Lore names (get my drift? Lol). I was trying to message someone last night with a very long two part name, with my left hand not working and in game - couldn't do it.



OH! Another plus I discovered last night: no need for pose and animation mods, they are built in! Your character can do over 300 animations and poses right from the start just by keying them into the chat box = instant pose or animation!

There are numerous dances, numerous sits, sleeping, eating, drinking, drunk, playing musical instruments with varied songs, digging with a shovel, raking, waving, motioning to come here, etc, etc, etc - hundreds of them! AWESOME !!!!


And they also have all the craftings from Skyrim including smithing/alchemy/enchanting/cooking/etc.

More wonderful info from mALX's ESO adventures! I'm reading avidly and anxious to learn more about ESO. I have spent some time on the UESP wiki site for the game. Anyway, I appreciate reading about what you're learning of the game.

Oh, I almost forgot that we have a whole sub forum here set up for ESO. In order to keep ESO from getting mixed in with Witcher 3 and all the other non-TES games, we might want to consider posting future updates over in that ESO sub forum. Especially since it seems (I hope) that ESO is getting more attention now.

I just found it - if everyone agrees and you want to - should we copy these info posts there? I'll leave it up to the majority; I don't know why I didn't remember we had an ESO forum.

I didn't realize either. Not many people seem to play it for some reason, but now it's coming out on consoles I can join in the fun

I think it makes more sense to move the discussion into the ESO area. Because in six months from now when someone is looking for info on the game, they are not going to look in page 91 of the What Are You Playing? topic. They are going to look in the ESO forums.

Okay, here is a link to the continuation of the conversation about ESO:


http://chorrol.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=5873



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Fallout 3... need to go the the RobCo factory for Moira... and Three Dog (sounds familiar somehow) wants a broadcast dish.... Then there's some kind of bloody weirdness going on at Arefu... But at least the bomb isn't going to wipe out Megaton.

And... Destiny. Just got it. Absolutely beautiful. Still learning how to not die a lot while playing solo. I just... don't play well with others...

Tried the first Patrol mission and immediately came upon an enemy I cannot damage... I think I need a bigger gun... and also fresh armor.

I played Fallout 3 last night too, my son was home so I couldn't get on his PC to play ESO, lol. I love all three of these quests you mentioned! (and the bomb won't be going off in my game either, lol).




BWAAHAA!

Pressing on with Destiny- still Learning by Dying ™. There was no game manual... either on the disk or in the packaging. And that meant some key details got left out- like the fact there are enemies you can meet at a very low level which resist completely the effects of being shot in the face at point blank range with a high powered rifle....

So- back to the D.C. Wasteland. Trey the Lone Wanderer found a peaceful and mutually beneficial resolution to the Arefu problem. He also encountered his first Yao Guai... eeek.

(Side note- since I know my own cluelessness with some inside jokes, I was terribly pleased with myself the other day when I thought I had come up with a hidden meaning to the name of that particular monster. I got to thinking- "Bear... hangs out near picnic areas... Hanna-Barbera cartoon... My gosh- it must be! "Yao Guai" = "Yogi". But- apparently not- or else I am the only person to make that tenuous connection).

Or not- Google is your friend. Lots of discussion of that possibility... just no definite answer.

I thought it was Yao as in Yao Ming;







http://i435.photobucket.com/albums/qq71/ST...203/yaoguai.jpg








You know, because they are both so big; and have the same hair cut? You think we are both reaching a bit, or are on to something?


If you look up the name, it is a mythical Chinese shape-shifting beast:


The mythical Chinese “yao guai” is making a comeback in video games like Fallout 3. Alternatively know as shape-shifters, exorbitantly angry sprites, or just your everyday demon, “yao guai” are wily Taoist practitioners out for your soul.

Transforming into everything from seductive women to fox spirits, Chinese folklore is littered with references to these advantageous demons looking to collect the “essences” of the unsuspecting (and thus obtaining immortality, Voldemort-style.

The myth dates back to 1592 A.D.




*

You are not the only person to notice that! I have been calling them Yogi's for years as well, for the exact same reason. But as Google and mALX noted, they are a valid Chinese boogeyman. However, I don't see how Americans would be using a Chinese monster's name, especially one so obscure to Westerners.

Bethesda didn't think about that ... or maybe the discovered that Yogi Bear was a derivative of Yao Guai originally, (was Yogi's creator Chinese? )

yeah the enemy level thing is pretty frustrating, but there's nothing more satisfying than going back after you've leveled up and giving the alien what for.

Yao Guai are adorable though! Just big teddy bears! I always get the animal friend perk ASAP so they're all friendly and much less 'maul-you-to-death-y'. Deathclaws on the other hand...

Yes, the first time a Yao Guai rolled at my feet making that nice purry sound I was hooked on getting that Animal friends perk every time. Now I love the Yao guai, instead of loving to eat them.

So I went back to Bladestorm: Hundred Years War and completed the campaign. Helped the English to victory at Agincourt.

Found a really cool new feature of this next gen remake version - once you complete character story missions for a specific person, such as Joan of Arc, you can recruit them as a playable character. As a result, Joan was part of the English army with me at the final battle It might not be historically accurate but it's better than the alternative. Still got a ridiculous amount of side quests to do later on, but first...

I started the Nightmare version of the game. The idea here is that monsters appeared in the world during the 100 Years War and the player character, their friend Magnus, and Joan of Arc, attempted to find the source of the outbreak. Joan was captured shortly after this and for reasons unknown is now the leader of the monster army. The player is given a sword which can control certain monsters (more powerful as the campaign progresses) and is currently fighting alongside a combined force of Englishmen, Frenchmen, mercenaries and friendly monsters, to defeat the evil monsters.

It's utterly ridiculous but absolutely fantastic.

Here's a look at evil Joan of Arc. Apparently being evil goes hand in hand with revealing outfits and larger breasts. Who knew?

This looks similar to the one SubRosa was playing!

All this talk of Fallout, and a Fallout teaser from Bethesda has really got me in the mood for some post apocalyptic action. Going to start a new game on Fallout 3 then hit New Vegas afterwards. Bring on the Deathclaws!

I've been playing ESO when my son isn't home (because it is on his computer). When he is home, he doesn't want his Mom in his room; so I've been playing Fallout 3 on my PC when he is home.

Does anyone want a copy of Sim City 2000 Special Edition? I bought Heretic Kingdoms today on Gog.com, and they gave me a free code for Sim City. It is part of their latest sale, buy a game, get another free. I don't think I will ever play Sim City though. I can give my code away to someone else to download it though. All completely legal.

So if anyone wants it, let me know, and I'll forward you the email with the code.

I'm not ignoring your post here, just don't think I would ever play it.

Not so interested, but if you ever get the code for SimCity 3000 World Edition, give me a shout...

Picked up Fallout New Vegas cheap yesterday, seems to be working a lot better than it did on my old 360.

Are you playing it on the PC or the One? My old 360 copy still had all the game-ending Glitches and unplayable DLC, but SubRosa has played it on the PC with none of those issues, so I went and got it for the PC so I'd hopefully (and finally) get to see the Battle at Hoover Dam!

I love New Vegas, and to love a game you can't even finish because of glitches - that is saying a lot !!!!

Xbox 360. When I had New Vegas before it was on one of the old style 360s, my current one's a slim. And from what I remember of my time on the NV section of the Bethsoft forums, New Vegas was a ridiculously variable game in terms of reliability/stability. On my old 360 it would often freeze before I got through character creation. Iirc I hit one gamebreaking bug before that particular one got fixed, but the patches made the game so unstable it became unplayable.

Thus far, the only bug I've found was a bark scorpion that spazzed its way through the floor and went all trippy for a bit. And I only got the basic game because I've heard the dlc is buggy as it gets, and since I wasn't sure how well the game would work I didn't see any point getting the ultimate edition.

Also, I'm avoiding energy weapons completely.

That was exactly what I experienced on my 360, the game ending glitches and the patches that crashed the game completely instead of fixing it. I bought the first DLC and it froze and crashed the game on each load up, but the game would play without the patches and DLC just fine as long as I didn't do a few of the quests:

1. The quest where the rocket ship goes up
2. The quest where you meet the Tribal Elder

** there were some others that I can't remember, but to this day I have never even seen that Lanius (?) guy - (the one in the gold mask); and I never made it to the Hoover Dam battle.

Well, I bought the PC "Ultimate" game, so hope to experience all the stuff I missed plus all the DLC that I never got to play on the 360. (And hoping it works for me on the PC like it did for SubRosa!)

Public service announcement: Dragon Age Inquisition is a Gold Box deal on Amazon today.

I’m playing ESO since I’m having a big problem with my Skyrim keyboard controls. ESO is a lot of fun, but I’m not happy about the Skyrim issue.

What´s the issue, Grits?

After a very short period of play the forward motion key doesn’t stop immediately when released. I have a workaround, but it’s been difficult to adjust. Power-attacking the air five running paces beyond the target is annoying.

The key isn’t stuck or dirty, and switching the keyboard isn’t an option the way my laptop is set up. I suppose I could try re-binding the keys.

I did a quick google, and found someone with a similar problem due to the sticky key filter in Windows. Here is the fix:


Windows Vista/7 Accessibility Options
Go to the Start > Control Panel > Ease of Access Center
Click on Make the keyboard easier to use
Ensure that Turn on StickyKeys, Turn on FilterKeys, and Turn on ToggleKeys options are disabled
Click on Set up Stickey Keys and Set up Filter Keys and uncheck the Turn on Sticky Keys when SHIFT is pressed five times and Turn on Filter Keys when SHIFT is pressed for 8 seconds options and click Apply
Exit the Ease of Access Center window by clicking OK to save your changes

I wonder if doing this will help me with my laptop issues - if my fingers rest too long on any key it makes the page zoom - and "too long" means just a few seconds.

It is very aggravating, and I've tried everything trying to get it shut off; but I need my page to default to 125% in order to see it, and setting that automatically undoes any "turn off sticky keys," etc. Urk.

I am going to try your suggestion here and see if it helps. Also, do you know a way I can make 125% the default so I am not sending the stupid application a signal I want it to activate by changing the page size?

On windows 7, at least, you can right-click the desktop, choose "Screen Resolution" and on the dialog that come up, there's an option for "Make text and other items larger or smaller". Clicking on that gives you a choice off 100% 125% or 150% text size. I think the "other items" are the desktop icons, but I'm not sure if that's all.

That changes the default size, and applications may ignore and override that setting, so expect Murphy's law to take effect.

Thank you, thank you, thank you! When I googled my question the internet replied that I had spilled diet coke in the keyboard, which was not the case. One of my settings had gotten checked possibly in one of the many surprise updates, so I un-checked it. I can’t wait to play now! I am so excited!

I had this set at 125 or Medium before I started the Skyrim CK classes; but several of the windows in the CK were unable to be closed out with it set that way (so I set it back to small and just used Control/Zoom with mouse wheel to adjust each page.

Everything worked fine doing that till this last time I reset my laptop to factory. Ever since then it has been doing all this weird stuff where my fingers lingering over the keyboard causes all kinds of BS stuff to happen - really ticks me off, grrrr.

But anyway, I just reset it back to the 125/Medium, see if that stops the problems. Thank you for the help, Ghastley and SubRosa!

I'm thinking I might have to restart Fallout New Vegas.

Since it's been so long since I last played, I've not been playing dead is dead, and I set the difficulty to normal. I'm now going 'round with a sniper rifle, brush gun, and the Mysterious Magnum, in a suit of T-51b power armour backed up by ED-E and Veronica(also in a suit of T-51b) murderising anything that takes a shot at me.

And the whole game's been rather frustrating, since it took until I reached Gun Runners to get a gun with a scope on it. Couldn't find any weapon upgrades to get me one or anything. And when trying to play as a sniper, lack of scoped weapons is really annoying.

Maybe I'll just wrap this up asap with a Yes Man ending, and start again on a higher difficulty.

I hate to admit it, but a few times when I was getting killed left or right I've set New Vegas on Easy for the first few levels, then upped it to normal (because the first few levels the enemies are so overpowered compared to the Player).

I think the reason why my character starts off so weak in New Vegas is because of how you have to play with your SPECIAL stats to make it optimal for the most surgeries when you reach Vegas.

I keep looking for Acadian at Nellis Air Force Base, but haven't seen him there yet, lol.

Just use the console to give yourself a sniper rifle at the start of the game. Or the scope for the varmint rifle.

I haven't played it on the PC yet, and I bought the PC version last November! Not sure why, but every time I go to start a game in it I've ended up playing FO3 instead, lol.

But that is a great idea, I'll most def enjoy trying it with the console to play around with - maybe give myself some poison resistance against cazadores while i'm at it, lol.

It will be the very first time I've ever been able to take the Black Widow perk in New Vegas, too. I've had a lot of fun with it in FO3 since getting the PC game!

I didn't bother optimising, I just went with: S5, P6, E6, C4, I7, A6, L6, with good natured and small frame. Worked well so far.



PC gamers have it too easy.

*Sighs*

I bought Fallout 3 (and New Vegas) for the PC last November - had been playing it for years on the XBox 360 only. Well, for the first few months every time I got stuck in between rocks (etc) - I was still reloading previous saves until SubRosa clued me in about toggling clipping to get out of a situation like that! I can't believe I didn't think of it!

It is a lot more convenient, it gives the player so many options and choices they would never have on the console; a way to play around with trying perks they may never have used because of the limitations and needing to survive.

I am not a huge min-maxer, but one thing I learned in the Fallout games is that a sniper needs a high Luck. Your critical hit chance is based on your Luck, and that is a what a sniper is all about getting. Try dumping a point from Strength and Endurance, and instead put the leftover points in Luck. Then look for items like the Recon Beret that raise Luck, or spend a few Intense Trainings on raising Luck even more. There are also traits and perks that raise your critical chance as well you can get.

I just looked over some of the weapon stats, and I see that FONV really nerfed the critical chance multipliers of all rifles. The FO3 Sniper Rifle has a Critical Multiplier of x5. The FONV version is only x2. So it is a lot harder to critically hit in NV.


Yes we do. And you can join our ranks of elitist snobs for one low price!!!

Seriously, FONV does not have very steep hardware requirements. Just about any computer you buy these days for $300 - $400 can play it just fine. You only have to make sure it has a real video card, rather than the usual intel integrated graphics garbage many come with. So you might need to pay an extra $100 for a video card.