A Gamer Collection

In my house standard a display cabinet, not out of the ordinary in most homes. The shelves on this cabinet hold many of my favourite items behind a glass screen so no-ones dirt fingerprints can affect their quality. The items themselves range from Aphrodite statues and Greek pots, since my girlfriend is a massive classic civilisation’s fan, to Pac Man stress relievers SNES Classics and Lego AT-AT’s.

Most hardcore gamers, and I am definitely generalising here, tend to have their own personal memories, stories and personal preferences. They each suitably collect their favourite franchises and not just in the form of games but also T-shirts, posters, sticker, collector editions and more. We all spend our hard earned cash on items of minimal use and justify keeping these until the end of time because we hold them in high regard.

As you can tell I’m no different – I love my special edition BioShock for example that has remained boxed and unused ever since I first purchased it - alongside the standard version so I could still play the game itself. I love my Big Daddy model suitably called Pops who hasn’t now seen the light of day for almost 2 years.

I’ve kept my Red Dead Redemption Hat, my Afterlife Mass Effect 2 T-shirt and my OnLive game system in pristine condition. In fact I have a host of what most people call crap scattered around my house.

I love my collectables more than almost anything else I own. In fact a few weeks ago my friends little girl wanted to see what my ‘Clyde’ was and when she realised it was soft put it straight in her mouth; chewing bite marks into one of his ‘legs’. I don’t think I’ve ever been so angry; especially as the little blighter still doesn’t comprehend how much these things mean to me. It would be a bit harsh to wail on a 2 year old with punches and kicks to the face – right?

The things listed above are a fraction of the promotional objects I have collected over my years attending expo’s and comic-con style events. Sometimes these have been for promotional purposes a’la my Assassins Creed hood hat while others I have spent my hard earned cash on like my special shiny Jet Force Gemini Box (w/Game).

My collection pretty much sums up my gaming life to date and are all very important to me in some way or other. Each item taken on its own can't tell an observer very much, but to me it’s a wide collection of where I’ve been and the things I’ve seen.

While collecting can be taken very seriously, my personal collection has never been a serious business. I collect things on an individual basis, to be novelties for my favourite games and franchises. It keep the items I love because of the memories they hold and not because I want every SNES game ever created.

My crowing achievement is still my unopened Commodore 64 console which holds a higher place in my heart than almost everything I’ve used/played or cherished for other reasons. I wonder whether is should have put more effort into my collections and there are still a few collector pieces I would pick up now if I could find an unspoilt copy – the GB Micro for example.

To real collectors there must be a wonder on how much further these hobbies can be pushed. In a time of digital sales most retro games can be collected on current formats in the style of download editions. It has become incredibly difficult to pick up any half decent used games and retro stocks seem to be at an all time low.

I forget I own most of my downloaded games until I surge through my catalogues online looking for certain gems and uncovering many more. What is going to happen to these collections in the future? Will my shelved items gradually disburse as the software of the past becomes the digital downloads of the future?

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Metacritic-al Industry Issues

Let’s run through a little story…. A new Video Game blockbuster has been released a few weeks ago with well crafted design choices, substantial upgrades to all its previous franchise outings, large well-designed maps, and incredible graphics which has recently helped it become the most sold game of all time. You have decided to see whether this new action epic is the game for you and run of searching the web to hear what everyone has to say. IGN give it 9.5 out of 10, Eurogamer slightly lower that score to 8/10 as they found a few bugs along the way and Gamespot pull an 8/10 too for the same reasons.

The problem is that even though this great new game has been a suitable success in terms of sales - it’s Metacritic score fell below the 85% banding that the developer’s contractual agreement held to prompt the publisher to pay out any additional bonus to them. Such is the world!

Imagine for me how completely absurd this would be – it’s the biggest selling game ever – and then reflect that this is exactly the situation that some game developers have been experiencing first hand.  Metacritic, for all it’s usefulness, is the new platform for games to be graded against; however the review aggregator has in some cases become a detriments to the developers of the games that are directly influencing their traffic.

The site accumulates the scores from most of the major sites, newspapers and magazines then swirls them together with blogs and smaller outlets to create an average score result (giving you an instance glance at the markets total opinion).

None of the problems are necessarily the fault of either Metacritic itself, or the people who created it, but nonetheless it can be the fall of some royalties and bonus payments just based on the score it spits out. The idea of the site itself is great and can really help the consumers see what the overall views are of the community. What is wrong is the way that the Metacritic averages are being used by the games industry to determine how games are made and sold, and the negative effect that they are having on criticism.

Metacritic rate moves, TV shows and music as well as video games but none of these industries hold their arbitrary average in such high regard. It’s difficult to understand how much the large publishers actually care about their Metacritic averages. Those publishers that do care though will be suffering an impact on every area of their games campaign including marketing and PR as much as their development process itself.

Basing success on a Metacritic score is difficult and many games have fallen into this pattern. The yearly released like Fifa/Tiger Woods sometime hit a divot (get-it) in their Metacritic score if their new title doesn’t improve enough upon the foundations of a previous release. It’s a slippery slope to measure against even if a game gets a lower score it doesn’t necessarily mean it won’t sale millions of copies. On the other side of the coin games that get brilliant aggregates scores can still flop in sales – it really is a doubled edged problem.

It’s also common for some sites to hold their own aggregated scores for the member reviews. One example is Gamestop that holds an average of all their subscriber reviews to give an aggregated total overall. This gives a perspective of the games but then gets abused by those disappointed by a gameplay section, a part of the story or in some cases just a control problem. Mass Effect 3’s ending was a prime example of these and saw many people lowering their scores by a point or two just due to the impact of the finale as opposed to how great the rest of the game stood up.

For good reason it is very difficult for people to go on record about Metacritic scores but there are various pieces of information scattered around the net from ex-staff (and some current developer staff) outlining these issues.

One famous example came earlier this year in the form of Obsidian’s Chriss Avellone when he tweeted – but since deleted – that they missed out on a bonus from Bethesda as their well received Fallout: New Vegas failed to his a Metacritic score of 85 but one point.

Of course these issues don’t apply to all publishers and developers but it shouldn’t really apply to any of them. These scores are taken from various sites with different reporting ethics. Some users give high scores knowing that the top end listings will mean their sites produce more traffic while others base their scores on marketing investment given to them by the publishers themselves. Both of these don’t therefore provide a true perspective of the game itself and can become the difference between bonuses being paid and also whether a sequel will be approved.

Each Metacritic score can undoubtedly undermine exactly the principle of a review itself as these should be honest about the games themselves and can even be affected by a person’s individual views too. It has become too much of a common place in the games industry and is more of a detriment than ever. We all want to know what the overall consensus in on a product but why should these sometime biased views count towards a games success?

We all know a good/bad review can be the difference between improved sales or not but the roll onto the developers is where the issue really occurs. Ultimately it’s bad for the industry, bad for the consumer and even worse for the developers that put such hard work into their games.

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The Deterioration of Battlefield 3

Battlefield 3 has been one of my most played games in the part 12 months and always seems to be in the headlines with new DLC and tweaks to the gameplay.

It’s not just me that loves the game either as 15 million players are still sticking around for the war, but as is so often the case, many have cut their ties with Battlefield 3 and hitched onto the back of the next hype train.

Those players unlike me probably haven’t seen the horror that I am being faced with on a daily basis. There has become a dirty and distressing underworld to this gritty, popular videogame.

A few months ago DICE and EA introduced a new ‘rent-a-server’ option to Battlefield 3’s console experience which was intended to revolutionise the way we play. Unfortunately I have found that this once complete game has been filled with restrictions and bad balancing issues that DICE had resolved perfectly post launch.

Going into the typical standard option of a ‘Quick Match’ can now drop you into thousands of fan-run servers; many of which have very specific or aggressive rules established. These are fired at you on the loading screens but are sometimes unclear and generally create very specific advantages to the administrator’s style of play. A common example is a ban on shotguns which tends to be in place on most games where the administrators cannot compete with other players big shell approach.

The problem isn’t just in the rules of a single game as these can easily be changed on the fly without warning and cause even more issues to a player. Several times I have played through a game to find that I’ve been kick out as one of the rules has been changed to accommodate the administrators. This isn’t to say that all games are broken as some of the new enforcements are small changes that myself and others perceive as a positive; things like ‘no spawn camping’.

The bigger changes like ‘no shotguns’ and ‘no anti-air’ are just as common though and these rules specifically alter the balance of the game itself. Most of the changes are detrimental to the well created original rules. Many of the servers run on tickets (the Battlefield 3 respawn counter) that have been pushed up to and over 300% of the standard listing a map was designed for. In rush matches  for example the defending team are up against almost impossible odds and only a few defensive wins are ever achieved.  This gives you the impression that you are playing as a campaign grunt instead of a soldier as the hopeless odds make success almost impossible.

These new ‘Rent-a-server’ administrators are often (but not always) run by mini-satan’s that will almost always kick and ban players that don’t conform to their very specific rule sets. Usually this is to stop anyone half decent playing in their games and decreases their challenge with a lack of worthy competitors.

I almost always get kicked at least once when running through the different servers and I’m not even very good at the game itself. I try to revive everyone and overall play a very hapless medic. When I can - I run around like a headless chicken with my shotgun under one arm and my medi-kits under the other.

I have even seen servers quoting that only admin can use shotguns or play around with air-vehicles. I understand that people want to play a very specific type of dogfight in some cases but set up a friends only game; don’t let us join a game if we can’t even play it properly.

A recent game I played with a friend saw him getting kicked for running too many multi-kills on the administrators. He has a distinct hatred for reducing the use of shotguns but is pretty proficient playing any style in game. As such he took it upon himself to constantly track the administrators in game and attempted to kill them in a host of embarrassing ways. Following a remarkable streak of 50+ kills to around 9 deaths the administrators saw his potential before kicking and banning him before he could make them look any worse. It’s exasperating to put in 40 minutes of hard work only to be kicked from a game and end up with nothing.

The Battlelog forums have therefore been inundated with people complaining about these poorly created matches and in some cases player even consider it a badge of honour to be kicked for playing well.

Of course you can avoid the ‘Quick Match’ option completely but running through the server log gives barely any indication of whether you’ll fair better. Many of these look innocent until you get kicked and banned all over again. It’s almost next to impossible to find an original DICE server too as many of the rented options have included their tags in the title in order to boost their join levels.

The positive side of the coin is the band of brother’s effect that has started to run with those of us suppressive a distinct hatred for these poorly designed matches. The players with god-like skills have taken to showing up the admin in their own way but exploiting the match types themselves.

So whether you play a ‘Quick Match’ or search the servers the case is the same. You always run the 50/50 gauntlet of finding a tyrant or a great administrator. The problem is that the more times you get kicked the more you feel like buying your own server and creating your own game – and then the cycle continues.

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Skyrim Hearthfire Review

I guess I should begin with an honest comment – I am disappointed thoroughly with this piece of content.

Hearthfire is the new Skyrim DLC that lets you build houses, adopt children and break away from city walls for your own adventurer house in the middle of no-where.

The content on offer will really please some and disappoint others and it really comes down to the sort of Skyrim player you are. If you are a true role-player and you will have opened up the most customisable and large house on offer for your character which will please you no end. A hack n’ slash player or achievement hunter then you will be disappointed with the lack of additional content provided; there are no new quests and limited additions to the standard formula.

My original comment on disappointment is just how I felt with the content. I drive myself into Skyrim as a canvas for my adventures but I didn’t really see the advantages that come along with it. I have a house in Whitetrun which I am exceptionally happy with; it has a blacksmith next door, an alchemist around the corner and plenty of storage to keep my going. The only really advantage of the Hearthfire DLC – apart from the aesthetic – is that it saves you a bit of time wandering around to complete your smithing and enchanting tasks.

Things kick off when a courier delivers you with a letter inviting you to purchase one of three plots of land in Hjaalmarch, Falkreath or The Pale. Visiting the major town in question, hand over 5000 holds to the Jarl’s steward and your transaction is complete. A basic and humble small house is the first section you can build by making plans from the drafting table conveniently located on site. Using the local resources you can do everything from laying floors to adding walls and doors with nails, locks and hinges (created from Iron Ingots) all from the new carpentry table.

The problem I had was that you press a few buttons and it magically springs up in the plot space locations. There is no real feeling of completion or actions and certainly now specific ways of customising your house in full. If, like me, you started the questline with your already well suited adventurer then you have all the resources required to spring the whole process into completion within 10 minutes of starting the DLC. And it’s not all that interesting either. Each plot of land comes complete with an unlimited resource of clay, rock and iron ore so there is no real problems with maximising the options straight off the bat either meaning there is almost no challenge at all. You can even hire in a steward to create the rooms for you and even expand on the interiors.

The initial small house can then be upgraded with a main hall and three additional wings. The disappointment here is that each of the three wings can only be upgrade with one of three room types. You can add domestic options like kitchens and bedrooms or go for a more adventure style set like an armoury or a storage room. There are even options to add an alchemy tower, library or enchanting rooms.

The parameters however are very strict; the greenhouse for example can only be added to the east side of the house, the kitchens must occupy the east wing and an enchantment tower must be on the northern side. I can understand the limitations being implemented especially with such a complete game being used as the framework but it does mean that customisation is a loosely applied term.

One of my biggest gripes is that the game gives you no control over the look of the property and each of the plots settle for the same original architectural design. This isn’t like Morrowind’s various design choices but a set routine solely changed by the wings you build. You can’t opt to build an Orcish or Dwarven style house; which is a big shame for those of us with an eye for something nice to look at.

The little additions are probably the areas that differentiate these house options from those in the main game. You can add a garden, a pen for livestock and an apiary for bee-keeping outside, while you also get access to tools like a smelter in your basement.

The personal touches come from the interiors where you can display weapons and armour as well as ornaments like a stuffed Wolf or mounted Deer head. I’ve spent an abnormal amount of time setting up my armour collections for a cool aesthetic look but when it’s all said and done this isn’t really very helpful apart from looking fancy.

Each wing comes with its own workshop table where you can spit out furniture and storage contains but you get no options on where these will be located within the rooms themselves. It’s you build a chest it’ll always site in the same corner an the ornaments will also be placed overlooking the doors.

You configure a pre-selected kit and only require the minerals and items with which to construct it.

At 400 Microsoft Points, Hearthfire costs about as much as its worth but it's definitely a more interesting way of incorporating useful features into the world than simply having you unlock a pre-built house. The difference between the new options and those already in place is fairly negligible and leaves the whole creation process lacking any sense of achievement.

The tools are fairly poorly explained and the child adoption is never really hinted at until you find one of the young NPC’s with the correct interaction choice.

I really hope the next piece of DLCDawnguard did and some new progression opportunities.

If you like to role-play then this is for you – if you don’t then try to avoid it and spend your £5.00 on a bargain bucket game instead.

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A Nightmare on Anfield Road

Those of you who follow my Twitter feed will be fully aware that I am a big Liverpool supporter and as such feel now is the time to come forward and explain my fan feeling towards the year ahead. I know this is an irregular experience for a video game blog but I need to get a few things off my chest.

This season has been very unfamiliar territory for us as a team following a tragic opening few games and a calamitous final 24 hours of the transfer window. Our new manager Brendan Rodgers must be contemplating the recruitment of some ageing free transfers or loan opportunities to bolster a wafer-thin forward line that features Luis Suarez and Fabio Borini as the only recognised senior strikers.

Andy Carroll left Anfield to join West Ham on loan, despite the lack of a replacement, leaving Rodgers and the team woefully short of attacking options. Liverpool then failed with a bid to sign Clint Dempsey from Fulham on the last day of the open transfer window which has since prompted our principle owner John W. Henry into writing an open letter to the club’s fans in an attempt to stamp out a ream of hostile criticism.

It’s a dire situation when you loan out a £35 million striker to a league rival especially as he was finally starting to show his true worth at the club. Andy had a great end to last season, grabbing goals in consecutive games – and changing the dynamic of the FA Cup final – as well as string of dominating displays at the Euros. It’s great to see that Rogers is sticking by is morals, about how he wants the team to operate, but you’d be hard pressed to argue that Andy isn’t a fantastic plan B from the bench. Big and strong with a very good ground game the young striker hasn’t been given enough opportunity to shine at Liverpool and the loan move could give him the playing time he needs to get back into the squad when he (hopefully) returns.

Clint Dempsey on the other hand is a loss we will have to deal with. A bid of £4 million was rejected on transfer day – if the press can be believed – only for Tottenham to snap him up for £6 million later in the day. The press had widely suggested that Clint would make his way over to the Anfield faithful but as the end of the window came to pass he was wearing white. The most disappointing thing from my perspective is that we had raised £6 million earlier in the day when offloading Charlie Adam’s to Stoke and that we still wouldn’t increase our offer for the prolific American.'

John W. Henry said, alongside Rodgers, that they would not pay over the odds for talent in their search to improve the squad. There is a massive change in ability and options between 2 and 3 strikers and this could be the difference between playing European football and not next season especially is one of these guys doesn’t perform or finds themselves out for a long period of time.

Whatever the reasons Liverpool have consigned themselves to scouring the Free Agent market or introduce some youngsters to their senior team.

There are free agents out there but from my opinion most of them are either aged, require a large pay-packet or have already proven that the Premier League did not really suite them. Eidur Gudjohnsen and Florent Sinama-Pongolle are among the list of the available as well as the possibility of Didier Drogba needing a new club – although Liverpool are certainly a long shot with his love of Chelsea.

It looks like Liverpool and Rodgers will be building from within and a youth strikers are certainly looking better than ever before. The summer set the platform for some of our young stars and the acquisition of Samed Yesil was very interesting, The 18-year-old, who has represented his country at under-16, 17 and 18 level, scored 23 goals in 20 games for Bayer Leverkusen’s Under-19 squad last season and has also found the net 19 times in 20 games for his country. Although he is of German heritage he is of quite small stature and may find the physical demands of the senior team too much in the short term. However his speed, appetite for goals and incredibly driven attitude can only mean he’ll get his chance at some point.

There are also Michael Ngoo and Dani Pacheco filling out the ranks; both of which had tremendous records in the reserves last season. Ngoo is a big guys so his chances might be fleeting – especially since Carroll didn’t fit in with the team plan – but that again doesn’t mean Rodgers wouldn’t give him the opportunity if he was needed. Pacheco on the other hand is small, quick and versatile but has never quite lived up to the hype given to him when he graduated from Barcelona’s famed La Masia talent school.

Perhaps the most likely candidate is the young, home-grown Adam Morgan. At 18 the young man is furthest up the pecking order at Anfield and was given a chance to shine against Hearts in the Europa League games a few weeks ago. He impressed a lot of the management and the fans during per-season as his willingness to learn and his tireless work-rate has proven that he is looking to build on his skills for the future. The local boy has been at Anfield

Time will tell which approach Rodgers goes for but with so many bright young stars creeping into the first team now he will certainly have some options available – even if they aren’t necessarily what the fans originally expected. It’s looking like the next 6 months may be a damage limitation plan but I still believe we can deliver European football next year and hopefully some sort of silverware along the way.

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Your Upgradable Video Games Blog

Your Video Games Blog has now been running for just over a year and as you can see (those long term readers out there) we have been going through numerous updates and designs to find the best we can offer you as the reader.

Throwing around a few ideas lately we have come up with the fact that we need to start running this a little more regularly and get some input from you directly.

We have toyed with the idea of video’s including; regular review pieces, retro analysis, comedy skits and achievement hunting help pages but wanted to get some input from you first.

So what do you want from our budding site….?

Secondly we are looking for a few more regular contributors including a regular Xbox 360 reviewer. We are also looking to expend from the Microsoft path if someone is interested in putting in the hours solely for another format. Please get in contact via the methods listed below if you might be interest. These will be unpaid positions but a good opportunity for any progressive writers out there to post on a regularly viewed site with a good user-base. Applicants will need to be able to complete a minimum of 3 articles per week for editor sign off or two if you are a reviewer.

We are also in the process of finding a web designer to take us into the New Year with a new layout both through the standard internet and via mobile access.

This is our shout out for any budding designers to come forward by getting in touch with us about helping this process. We are offering free advertising of your samples, contact details and designs through our considerable traffic sources.

This project will be full supported by our numerous contributors and its success will be completely sat with a singular successful applicant.

We are looking for something bright and eye-catching (showing off that we are a video games site at heart) but without being a detriment to our articles and hard work.

Please feel free if you are interested to contact us using any of the methods below and good luck!

• Email directly using the link on the right hand side
• The comments section below

We will need from you:

• Name
• Contact Details
• Contact Method (you’d be surprised how often this is missed)
• Sample of previously completed work including listed contributions if applicable

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The 3DS XL Upgrade

The 3DS XL has been out for a few weeks now but is it worth another large investment; especially if like me you own the original 3DS handheld.

In terms of models these come in three new colours but again these are all styled the same; silver, red and blue are your options. The most interesting thing is that Nintendo have decided to ditch their boy racer metallic paint in favour of a matt finish – and there I was waiting the XL with the hope that it might get racing strips or a spoiler.

Aesthetically I find the new model to look quite a bit cheaper in comparison to it’s smaller counterpart the black screen boarder has been switch with some grey plastic and the inextensible stylus makes the model feel a lot like a toy – we all know what it is so why do we want to be constantly reminded.

The big selling point is obviously the larger screen which is substantially larger (duh) in comparison to the standard model and makes the world of difference for those of us that have been suffering with a year long headache when using the original console.

The larger screen is great but doesn’t stop your eyes going a bit tingly after a while and the battery life increase doesn’t really matter unless you are a long journey traveller already experiencing problems.

The new larger design does weigh a bit more but nothing that is going to be exceptionally noticeable and the console still fits nicely in my soft, smooth hands.

One thing worth noting is that the giant grave style charging cradle does not come within the new box and your old charge (if you owned a 3DS) just won’t be large enough. That’s a massive error on Nintendo’s part and will put people of straight away knowing they’ll only get on playthrough of the £100+ console before they need to spend something on a charging unit.

Aesthetically I find the new model to look quite a bit cheaper in comparison to its smaller counterpart the black screen boarder has been switch with some grey plastic and the inextensible stylus makes the model feel a lot like a toy – we all know what it is so why do we want to be constantly reminded.

One of my favourite changes is the increase hinge efficiency. Now the console clips nicely in place and has fewer screen drops when moving around while playing. I always found this a bit of a gripe on the original console, as I play a lot while lying down, and my screen would sometimes attempt to close itself due to the gravity shifts.

I had the best part of a morning to toy with the new design and would be happy to recommend the upgrade to anyone who doesn’t yet own a 3DS model. In fact I would recommend the original console too as the platform is far better than anything that has preceded it. The problem is I’m hard pressed to recommend the upgrade to anyone already owning a 3DS – unless you get an amazing dealing following a part exchange.

If you already own a 3DS then my recommendation is not to bother upgrading unless you have any problems on the above. It’s also worth notice that the buttons are laid out the same and only one circle pad is includes (for those of you who care).

Did you upgrade your console? How have you found the new design? Do you disagree with my comments? If so sound off as usual using the comments link below…

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The Final Frontier - Curiosity

Over the last few weeks I have been following the coverage of NASA’s rover Curiosity following it’s landing in ‘Yellowknife’ Quad 51 of Aeolis Palus area of Mar’s Gale Crater.

The crater itself is estimated to be a 2 billion year old impact crater and scientists hypothesised that this is the best chance for the rover to complete it’s mission as it will have a vast array Martian history within its sediment. The landing site is also near an alluvial fan which is expected to be the result of a flow of ground water; interesting stuff indeed.

The mission is set to last two years and should give us an idea of whether the local red planet ever had the ability to support life. I suppose it’s lucky that ‘the seven minutes of terror’ landing was a success of the $2.6 billion dollars would have been another expensive embarrassment.

 The spacecraft that originally left Earth on 26^th November last year on the 352 million mile trip, is being controlled from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and holds a full suite of sophisticated tools for exploring Mars including 17 cameras, lasers to survey the rocks for a distance and also analysis tools to work on nearby samples.

The Curiosity rover has eight main scientific objectives (taken from Wikipedia):

1. Determine the nature and inventory of organic carbon compounds

2. Inventory the chemical building blocks of life (carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen, phosphorous, and sulphur)

3. Identify features that may represent the effects of biological processes (bio signatures)

4. Investigate the chemical, isotopic, and mineralogical composition of the Martian surface and near-surface geological materials

5. Interpret the processes that have formed and modified rocks and soils

6. Assess long-timescale (i.e., 4-billion-year) Martian atmospheric evolution processes

7. Determine present state, distribution, and cycling of water and carbon dioxide

8. Characterize the broad spectrum of surface radiation, including galactic radiation, cosmic radiation, solar proton events and secondary neutrons

It’ll be an interesting few months ahead as the difficult terrain and research option become more key to the adventure. I would love to find out that at some point Mars was capable of sustaining life and if so maybe the great minds at NASA can even work out what happened to it.

I really hope they don’t find the Borg – we aren’t ready for that shit!

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Skyrim DLC - Hearthfire Preview

The next pieces of content for Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim has been announced this week and will be apply named Hearthfire.

The due date for arrival is 4^th September Bethesda have also announced and will set you back 400 Microsoft points. ,

With this content you will be able to devise, assemble and customise your own house. Players will be able to purchase a plot of land and then turn raw materials into a cost new home. Various rooms, such as a kitchen and a library will also be available making Whiterun far less appealing as a base point.

This new build will certainly have its uses too as they can come complete with greenhouses, enchantment towers and alchemy labs for growing and crafting items.

The officiel trailer below shows the DLC in all its otherworldly greatness and gives us some idea on the optional furniture, display cases and trophies that can be used to make our new homes a real spectacle.

You can even add in a well maintain garden, bee hives and fish ponds.

Obviously keeping these in order can take some time so you even have the option to hire a steward to buy raw materials and turn them into fancy furnishings for you.

Board of the silence then hire a bard to sing you songs at home, invite in your spouse too and adopt some children to keep the place lived in.

It seems that your home can however be attached by some irritating monsters which you will need to defend against – as long as these aren’t as regular as the vampire invasions from Dawnguard I’ll be a happy man.

The whole homebuilding mechanic has been one of the small gripes I had with Oblivion and Skyrim as it was such a joy building your own place in Morrowind. Balmora was the closest town for me and gave me enough support to build my own small community which I found my character operating from. I always felt that creating a base yourself gives you more joy when using it and also a sense that this belongs to you more than the usual standardised improvements.

Do you remember the Morrowind houses? If so where did you place yours and more importantly are you looking forward to the Hearthfire content?

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My Love Of Video Games

I’ve recently found that several conversation with my acquaintances have spun into a full on question and answers session about my blog and why I writing specifically about Video Games. They asked the usual questions about whether I play games all day and why I decided to start writing about them but then they grabbed me with…..

“Why do you like games so much? Why haven’t you grown out of them yet?”

The second questions made me feel old but they actually have a good point and I didn’t really have an answer for them. In the last few days and weeks I’ve thought about this a lot and think I’ve finally come up with a suitable answer.

After all is said and done the medium of video games unlike any other presents us all with a sense of endless possibilities. Whether its deep space horror or fantasy worlds filled with elves and dwarfs the medium itself allows us to explore all matter of virtual worlds.

When I’ve slowly become an adult – and I mean slowly – I’ve noticed that the world around me isn’t full of magic, it isn’t adventurous (most of the time) and in some cases it is actually fairly boring. Don’t get me wrong my life is enjoyable and fulfilling but at the same time it is constantly mundane. I go to work, I clean my house, I wash my cloths like anyone else and during this time I don’t get to battle Dragons or fire wasps from my hands.

My love of video games has transpired from my active imagination for the impossible that has always been a big part of my life. I know that the world has plenty to explore but it’s been seen and done by hundred of people thousands of times before and nothing really sparks my interest like doing something that is classed as impossible.

Things can and do happen in the real world to spark our imaginations but probe deep enough and the truth tends to extinguish that original spark of wonder and marvel.

Something I read recently put it best in which the writer spoke about Lake Baikal; the deepest lake in the world. He was saying that his imagine ran wild with all the idea of what might be held in its deepest recesses but in truth there’s nothing down there but mud and stones because lets face it - that’s how the real world operates.

Stick the same situation into a video game though and there literally could be anything down there!

These sorts of situations tend to being forward pieces of equipment, large one off enemies or specific areas to further explore – all of which are far more exciting than mud and stones.

My friend’s second question puzzled me more as I know plenty of ‘adults’ that are regular gamers too. I know that gaming as a hobby has a certain taboo but this generation of games has made it more acceptable and accessible than ever before. The stigma mainly stems from the fact the most people grow out of games as they find less time to proactively play them or that they find adventures of their own in their natural lives. It’s obvious that as a kid the impossible nature of the games we play is more believable but that hasn’t stopped me from enjoying the odd Harduken now and then.

I’m not saying I’m unsuccessful in my ‘real-world’ life either but I can completely relate to people that stop gaming as they feel more successful in their jobs and with their personal goals. When this occurs there is less drive to escape into another world; especially when you grow to have children of your own. As the time you have for games diminishes so does your enjoyment of them. If I hadn’t found the time to enjoy the gigantic RPG’s that I love so much I would no doubt enjoy them less. I feel that to really appreciate the grandeur of a large scale RPG you need to commit some hours into it.

The real change to playing as an adult is a persons retention of their imagination. We’re wowed by the darkness of space, the longest caves and the deep oceans and I for one want to believe that the real world has some magic in it too.

I don’t always play games for their vast worlds but sometimes for their levels of strategy or physics. I love the likes of Trials and Starcraft but neither of these have the exploratory nature of the games I would class as exploratory adventures (unless you class exploring for minerals as an adventure).

Games are always above discovery, ingenuity and problem solving and I love them!

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