Well, I managed to step away from Skyrim and opened the toolset to have another bash at Chapter 2. It had been worrying me a while as whenever I opened the toolset to have a look, I realised what was waiting for me was quite daunting and would end up shutting it down again. This time I perservered, and decided to crack on with the opening cutscene that will greet the player. Since I started dabbling with the Gestalt cutscene system I haven't looked back. True, for a perfectionist like me it's making a rod for my own back, but I feel quite strongly that the inclusion of cutscenes does much in the telling of the story and moves it away from a simple monster bash. As expected, problems arose.... camera positioning was never quite where I wanted it... NPCs wouldn't run where I wanted them to... camera wobble made text unreadable... all the usual stuff that had me cursing at the keyboard, but I got there in the end. The cutscene intro now sets the scene nicely, meaning I'm ready to move on to what takes place within the city where the first part of the module will take place. As I enjoy making areas, some of that has already been done.
No pictures for now. I think I've got flu coming on and need bed!
Wednesday, January 25, 2012
Saturday, January 07, 2012
Oops!
I guess an apology is in order, for not only has work on part two ground to a temporary halt, but I also failed to post my usual well wishes for Christmas and the New Year. To some extent personal life has taken the usual toll, and certainly wasn't helped by the uninsured driver who crashed into the back of my car while I was stationary. My oven blew up on Christmas eve, I've not been well, and I attended a couple of job interviews, but I digress... the real reason things have ground to a halt if I'm completely honest with myself is the recent acquisition of Skyrim on the X box. Quite simply, it's the best game I have ever played.
For those of you unfamiliar with Elder Scroll games, they are fantasy based role playing games that have acquired a reputation for high quality. Morrowind certainly deserved such a reputation with its vast scale and attention to detail. Oblivion certainly looked promising with the same mammoth scale and extremely high quality graphics, but the story driven requirement to keep entering portals ended up feeling very repetitive, to the point that despite nearing the end, I felt bored and ceased playing.
Skyrim is far superior. You can venture as far as the eye can see in a landscape that will have you pausing simply to take in the view. The superior graphics extend to your inventory items, allowing you to zoom in on them and view them from any angle, making them feel much more solid and real, improving game immersion vastly as a result.
Your character can be taken in any direction you wish, with skills improving as you use them. I've been having fun with a stealthy character that favours two swords and dabbles with fire spells. They're also a dab hand at creating potions, poisons, and even their own magic items. It's been great fun, but I'm seriously considering starting again with a pure mage, which is testament to how good the game is.
There are bugs, but the beauty of it as a whole far outweigh the trivual annoyances that can crop up, and let's face it, in a game this big, it's no surprise that the odd quirky little thing will slip the net.
The storyline is great... no.... fantastic if you're into Dragons like me. A real epic story that delves deep into the lore of the Elder Scrolls. What's nice is that even the side quests have great attention to detail, often resulting in you wandering far from your intended path where something else gets the better of your curiosity.
Quite simply, it's awesome.
For those of you unfamiliar with Elder Scroll games, they are fantasy based role playing games that have acquired a reputation for high quality. Morrowind certainly deserved such a reputation with its vast scale and attention to detail. Oblivion certainly looked promising with the same mammoth scale and extremely high quality graphics, but the story driven requirement to keep entering portals ended up feeling very repetitive, to the point that despite nearing the end, I felt bored and ceased playing.
Skyrim is far superior. You can venture as far as the eye can see in a landscape that will have you pausing simply to take in the view. The superior graphics extend to your inventory items, allowing you to zoom in on them and view them from any angle, making them feel much more solid and real, improving game immersion vastly as a result.
Your character can be taken in any direction you wish, with skills improving as you use them. I've been having fun with a stealthy character that favours two swords and dabbles with fire spells. They're also a dab hand at creating potions, poisons, and even their own magic items. It's been great fun, but I'm seriously considering starting again with a pure mage, which is testament to how good the game is.
There are bugs, but the beauty of it as a whole far outweigh the trivual annoyances that can crop up, and let's face it, in a game this big, it's no surprise that the odd quirky little thing will slip the net.
The storyline is great... no.... fantastic if you're into Dragons like me. A real epic story that delves deep into the lore of the Elder Scrolls. What's nice is that even the side quests have great attention to detail, often resulting in you wandering far from your intended path where something else gets the better of your curiosity.
Quite simply, it's awesome.
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