I wanna play my own game.

I often use Evernote to just write random stuff down, thoughts, opinions, comments or whatever, some long, some just a few words, with the intention of writing a blogpost about it.
However more often than not these notes don't turn into blogposts and stay just notes on Evernote.. For some reason i get stuck on just a few notes and hit a wall..

However this time i thought to try something new (to me) and just post a few of these notes "Bullet Points" style.

Most of these notes were about why i love the open world RPG games so much lately (been playing a lot of Skyrim) and especially games like Fallout 3, Fallout New Vegas, Oblivion and Skyrim that feature mod options.
I even prefer to play them over MMO's lately, which hasn't happend in a long time.

• I especially love these games because pretty much anything can be modded.
• It gives me an almost unique game, i mean what are the chances of someone having all the same mods installed as i have.
• I really like being able to customize a  game to my liking, being graphical, gameplay or even complete overhauls going as far as almost giving you a complete new game.
• I'm never really done playing the game as i enjoy trying out new mods just as much as playing the game.
• I am often amazed at  some of these mods, especially those that improve on graphics,  gameplay or overall experience. When you see what some of these mods can do to the game you start thinking the original developers where lazy or didn't care, there are mods out there that are way better than what the developers themself made in these games, making me really think that some of these modders should be hired to work on these games, i mean these modders are making this stuff in their spare time, just for fun and it looks way better than the vanilla stuff the designers made.
• Despite being (often) negative about the devs/designers i still think they deserve a lot of credit for designing and creating such a great open world (playground) to play in and for releasing the creation tools they used to make the game so the community gets a chance to improve and expand an allready awesome game. (Note to this note: i actually intended to write a "Developer Appreciation Week" post about this but unfortianatly never got around to write this post. But who says we can only thank the devs for one week.. So there you go!)
• I am getting more and more into the mindset of wanting to play games the way i want to play them and not how developers decide i have to play them.
• When the game does get boring there are always new mods to try out that will sometimes even give you whole new lands to explore, new quests to do, adding a whole lot more gameplay.

Now i know this is pretty much imposible to do in MMO's/multiplayer games, however take a look at WoW and their addons. A great way to being able to customize your game close to what you'd like it to be.
And i would even go as far and say that i probably would not be playing WoW today if it wasn't for the addons.
When i started playing WoW i did not know about addons, took a 10 day trial and played for maybe 2 days and then didn't touch it for a long time, when i learned about addons  i tried it again installing some addons that installed some stuff i wanted to see in the game and i have been playing since.

See now i actually managed to turn a couple of these notes into a blogpost, maybe i should do this more often, whether or not this post makes sense.. well i'll leave that up to you :)

Bethesda games: It's all about community

I have been playing a lot of Fallout New Vegas lately, and as usual i developed a love/hate relation with the game.
Some time ago i stopped playing because i got tired of the crashes, however, the urge to play FNV always comes up again..

It bothers me that a game can be so "crash happy", and to say it's the mods i use that's causing it, is a bit too much.
I won't deny that mods can cause crashes and i am sure some of my crashes were probably caused by them.
This does however not change the fact that when i started playing FNV for the first time, without any mods whatsoever, it crashed within the first 15 mins of the game (talking about a warm welcome), so this was definatly not caused by any mods.

Doing a Google search on Fallout gives a ton of results on crashes/freezes etc.
I find it pretty wierd that this gets through QA, either they don't care or they don't do QA testing.
It's almost as if they are counting on the community to fix their problems, and the community does exactly that and more.

It's the awesome community behind the games (Fallout 3, Fallout NV, Oblivion, Skyrim) that make these games as great as they are, without the community behind them the games would be forgotten pretty quick.

Imagine Blizzard or BioWare releasing a game as buggy as Oblivion, Fallout etc, there would be riots, yet the communty seems to forgive Bethesda for it.
Sure these games are awesome sandbox games and with the community made mods and improvements there's unlimited gameplay.
I have seen so many mods and game improvements out there that are way better than what the game devs put in the games themself, sometimes i really wonder if the game is just rushed to get it out and make money, they know it's going to sell because there's a huge community behind their games.

I have to admit, so far for me Skyrim does appear to be more stable and i have had only a few crashes/bugs, but i can't wait until the dev kit is released and we can see some real improvements to the game.

Sure Bethesda i forgive you, although i often feel like pulling my hairs out when i encounter yet another bug/crash, i'll keep playing until i am tired of the crashes, then i'll ragequit.... and be back for more later.

Why do we put up with it?

That is a question i asked myself several times.
Today was no exception, after playing Fallout New Vegas for about 10 minutes the game froze/crashed on me and i had to use the windows task manager to shut down the game.

After buying the latest DLC for Fallout NV, Old World Blues, that so far i have not been able to play cause the game doesn't want to coorporate for more than 10 minutes before crashing, i am really asking myself that question again.

To me that crashing is not unfamiliar and to those playing Fallout 3 or Oblivion, probably not that unfamiliar either.
Those games are very "crash happy", the first Bethesda game i ever played and fell in love with was Oblivion, and eventhough i really enjoy playing it, it is not without problems.
Some might say it's because you're using mods or player made addons, but in my experience even without those mods there are plenty of problems with the game.

One of the first (major) problems i encountered in Oblivion was the "famous" corrupted savegame, that basicly forced me to completely start over from scratch, all progress lost, and then i am talking about 20-30 hours worth of gameplay and that was even before i discovered mods.
I had that same problem with Fallout 3.

Fallout New Vegas, when i first launched it, it crashed after just 15 mins of playing, again without mods, what a (familiar) welcome to the game..

Why do i even put up with these problems?
Well because despite these problems, the games are freaking awesome. They are absolutely the top games when it comes to open world RPG's.
The customization of these games really extend the lifetime of these games, just look at what´s still going on for Oblivion.

For me Bethesda has been an absolute favourite when it came to RPG's/games, but also my major bane.
The times i have cursed them for making such unstable games are countless, yet i am willing to put up with it is because the games are so much fun.

However now with Skyrim coming i have my hopes up, that for once they go on a new road and bring us a stable, working game.
For me Skyrim is going to be the treshold, it will decide my future decisions on wether to buy Bethesda games, cause frankly i am fed up with problems with the games i love so much.
Why can´t they make a game that works and keeps working, so that i can enjoy these games without forcing myself to save every 5 minutes, without the constant worry of the game crashing (cause i know that´s going to happen sooner or later).

So far i have put up with it, because i love Oblivion, because i love Fallout 3 and Fallout New Vegas, but enough is enough.

I have allready pre-purchased Skyrim on steam and i can´t wait to play it, but if they are using the same engine as they have been using for Oblivion/Fallout than i fear the worst and it will start all over again.

But i have made my decision, Skyrim or bust. If Skyrim is just as "crash happy" as Oblivion and Fallout it will be my last purchase of an Bethesda game, no matter how much i love them. I am just sick of the constant crashing and the constant fear of losing my game progress.

I mean it's not impossible, look at other great games like Mass Effect, Dragon Age, i have yet to encounter a single problem, so it is quite possible to make stable games.

So Bethesda: Skyrim or bust!
This game is going to decide whether or not you will be getting any of my money in the future, because i am done playing games that should not have left the beta stage like that, because they are not finished when they are glitchy or crash/lock up without a clear reason.

Tribes of New Vegas

So far i am really enjoying the latest DLC for Fallout New Vegas, Honest Hearts.
Really enjoying the settings and tribal atmosphere.
And for me it came just in time, a day after i finished the main questline for New Vegas.

New Vegas, a world that never changes,

Yesterday i finished the main questline and so ending Fallout New Vegas.
i think i got the ending i wanted, i went for the "Wild Card" quests and a free independant New Vegas with Yes Man.
Managed to gain support from the khans, the Remnents, Boomers and The Brotherhood of Steel, brought Cachino to power with the Omertas and gained his support.

My initial thought when i started playing was to go the NCR route and help them get to power, Mr House just didn't seem right to me as i thought he was just some AI.
But along the way i learned more and more about the NCR and started to doubt them, i think they were the good guys but their methods were not always nice.

At some point i thought the Followers of the Apocalypse had the right ideas but they were not one of the factions you could help bring to power, so instead i decided to go with Yes Man and take over New Vegas.

The ending "slideshow" was nice and you are told what the results of your actions were and that's it, the end.
Really felt like an anti climax, i really wanted to see and feel the changes in the world and experience what i had caused in New Vegas.


I had a mod installed that ported me to the Lucky 38 after the slideshow so i can continue playing, but it just doesn't feel right as you are basicly sent to a world before the battle at the dam and nothing has changed.
I do still have a save right before going to that battle and i am actually thinking about going from there and not do the end battle as that would feel more like it is suppose to be.

To me this is a really big dissapointment to have a great game like this end in such an anti climax.
At least the game should have allowed you to experience the world after the battle and see the consequences of your actions, but i guess i should not have been surprised, afterall Fallout 3 ended quiet abruptly too before the DLC came out.

Well a few more days and we'll have new DLC for FNV and i am really hoping for the same thing they did for F3, a never ending game..

Armors of the wasteland

For some time I have been looking for an armor mod that gives me the "right" feeling, an armor that fits in the wasteland, there are many really cool looking armors to be found on the Nexus sites.

I have tried out many armors but most of them look either to new or shiny or simply doesn't fit within the game (or the lore).
I mean it makes no sense to walk around in a great looking shiny, new looking armor while the rest of the world walks around in beaten down, patched up and worn down clothing or armor, often created from stuff found on the scrapyard or in the wastes.
I am not saying these armors suck, i really do think there are quite a few really great looking armors out there, but to me they just don't fit with the game/lore, but i guess that's really up to you and how you experience or wanna experience the game.


However i think i finally found some armor sets that look pretty cool and actually fit in the world.


on the left is Cass, she is wearing her original armor as i think it allready looks really cool, so i didn't wanna change her, in the middle is my char and she is wearing the Wasteland Courier armor and Veronica on the right is wearing the Courier Merc Armor.

I really think these armors give the right feeling when wandering the wasteland or travel through towns and it doesn't give me the feeling my character is out off place.

When going through the Nexus sites most of the armor you find is either sexy/skimpy (read armored bikinis), manga looking or just plain wierd looking, so i am glad i found these armors, it definatly adds a little to my gameplay experience.

There is also another mod i'd like to point out and that is Tailor Maid - NV, this mod adds a lot of stuff that you can use to give your character that feeling of an armor put together from stuff found in the wastes or stuff taken from defeated enemies along with a few very good looking armors, like the armor seen in my previous post.

Wandering the wastelands

For the last couple of weeks i have been playing nothing but Fallout new Vegas, i played it as soon as Steam released it but only played for a few hours and hadn't touched it since.
For some reason i never liked it as much as i did Fallout 3, eventhough i was very excited for Fallout NV.
Maybe for me it just didn't live up to Fallout 3..

But i picked it up again a few weeks ago, installed a whole bunch of mods, started playing and i have to say i am now really enjoying myself.
I did like the Fallout 3 "world" more than the Fallout NV world, but the storyline and sidequests in Fallout NV are definatly fun.

I am really trying to take my time going through it and exploring the world, i don't wanna finish the main questline too soon, as i think the game ends (just like Fallout 3 did before DLC came out), which is a major bummer as it always makes me weary while playing down the main story, as i really would like to know what happened.

I am also trying to stay away from walkthroughs to see what the "right" option is and try to do whatever i feel is right and that does sometimes makes for difficult decisions, just when you think you know who you wanna support something happens that makes you doubt them.
There have been a few occasions where i just sat there staring at the screen, trying to go over that conversation again and again for 15 minutes (or longer) just to come up with a decision that i feel is right.

One of the really fn things to do is just go out and explore, there are many fun things to discover and sometimes suprising things come your way while exploring (just like it did in F3).
Sometimes i just enjoy wandering around for periods at a time, not working on any quests, just pick a direction and start walking and see whatever comes my way.
I even set my character to always walk, so it gives that extra feeling of wandering and the game definatly is a lot more fun when you're not running/fast travelling from quest objective to objective and delivering a bunch of supplies from one end of the map to the other end of the map without fast travelling to your destination can really take you a long time and often i will get distracted by someting i see on my way totally forgetting about that delivery.

The quests are definatly a lot of fun, but more often that not i enjoy the simple wandering across the wastelands more and just see what comes my way.