Yes. Skyrim is a Big Deal

Alvin Holland

Well it’s official, I have a new favorite RPG. Skyrim, a game that I originally wasn’t super hyped about a few weeks ago, has managed to absorb any free time that I have. The fifth installment of the Elder Scrolls series is a major step in the right direction for Bethesda. I could go on for hours about why I am such a fan of this game, but I’ll restrain myself and just stick to a few key areas.

Graphics

The graphics are a double-edged sword. On one hand I am huge fan of how realistic and breathtaking the landscapes in the game are rendered. The huge mountains with clouds and fog rolling off them into the valleys are amazing nice to watch. The cities and towns are so well done that I almost feels like a real place. Then with all of this detail, come random glitches that at times can be jarring. Mammoths can spawn in the air and plunge to their death, characters getting stuck in chairs as they try to follow you out of a building, and a good hit can fling an opponent into the air like Superman hit him.

However, even with these sporadic graphical glitches you can’t help but find the game amazing to look at. I still hope they put out a patch that will fix some of these odd bugs, but even if they don’t I can manage.

Gameplay

The biggest improvements to the game are in this category. The fighting system in Skyrim is much more fast paced and, in my opinion, exciting than previous games. The game does away with classes and allows you to level-up and choose perks in whichever skill category you please whether its destruction, archery, or one-handed weapons. Which works out better because any skill leveled-up will add to your progress of reaching the next level instead of having 10 major skills like in previous games.

In terms of the actual combat, this game is a huge improvement. Finishing moves have been added which make some of your kills seem so much more epic and fulfilling. Yet they don’t happen so often that it gets annoying. The combat is much more fast-paced and exciting than it was even in Oblivion. The best evidence I can give of the improvement is a friend a mine who has hated every Elder Scrolls game that has come-out because he found the combat boring and not worth playing. He has now racked-up over 20 hours of game time in 3 days with Skyrim and can’t stop talking about it.

Everything Else

The biggest appeal to me that any Elder Scrolls game has is just how big in scope each game is. You can easily spend 40 hours doing side quests, becoming the biggest thief in Skyrim, and pillaging towns before even completing a single story quest. It’s like living a medieval second life in which you can do anything at any pace.

Conclusion

Skyrim is by far, my favorite game that has been released this year. The scope, the graphics, and the gameplay all work out to make a title that will keep your attention for a long time. Skyrim is a major step forward for Bethesda and I can’t wait to see how what they did with this game, may be carried over into either Fallout or the next Elder Scrolls. If you’re a fan of RPG games, then you would really be missing out if you choose to skip this one. Its more than worth the $60 or putting on your Christmas wish list.

How Women Can Cope with Dating a Gaming Addict

Alvin Holland

My boyfriend of over 3 years is a World of Warcraft addict. For over three years, I’ve had the pleasure of his company-and the nuisance of his addiction. I never realized the full extent to his gamer ways until we lived together. Here are some tips for women who are feeling neglected to cope when their boyfriends are gaming addicts.

1). Set a specified date night. If your boyfriend is a gaming addict, getting him to agree to one whole day or evening of no games may be quite the challenge. If he’s a good boyfriend he will do it, because the other days of the week he is not spending time with you, he is spending time on the game. Set a specified day of the week where he agrees no games and you two go to dinner, see a movie, or just hang around the house. If he is going to spend 90% of his time on a game, he needs to devote all of his attention to you one day a week at a minimum. Really, he should be doing more than one day a week, especially if you are in a serious relationship.

2). Understand this is what they like to do. I have long given up trying to understand the appeal of playing fantasy games for sometimes 12-hour periods. I have found though, that the best thing to do is accept that they have found a hobby that they love. It is unlikely to change. Making fun of them or yelling about it is not going to do any good. In fact, if you argue with them, they are likely to just whirl around and get right back on the game, which won’t bother them any. Trust me, I know.

3). Give them their space. While guys are on their video games, they might as well be on another planet. They won’t hear a word you say, so expecting an accurate answer on any question is pointless. When they are playing their games, don’t get mad if they aren’t giving you 100% attention (though it should never be so bad you feel like you can’t carry on a conversation).

4). Compromise. If they insist on playing games for hours every day, let them know what works for you. If you feel like a neglected housewife, be blunt about it. No woman should ever come second to games. If one date night isn’t enough for you a week, ask for two hours per evening before they play games after work to watch television or have him help out on chores.

5). TRY the game. This is a long shot, and by no means am I saying become a gaming whiz if you don’t want to. In my experience, I tried the game in question, World of Warcraft, and played it until I reached level 20. Once I realized the game wasn’t doing much for me, I stopped. It was fun to play together while it lasted, though, and my boyfriend appreciated me trying something he is so passionate about.

Confessions of a Girl Gamer

Alvin Holland

I’m a girl gamer. Four words that I swore I would never say, but now I say them with a wee bit of smugness. Let me explain a little; I married a man, who among other things is a gamer, so now, thanks to him, I currently enjoy a wide variety of games of the geeky kind. However, I am quite pleased that the influence goes both ways, and my husband now plays some traditional games, such as Bananagrams.

I grew up in a family that adored word games like Boggle and Scrabble, and card games like Hand and Foot. Every family get-together with Grandma meant we’d break out the Scrabble board and see if anyone could beat the reigning champion (Grandma). Holidays meant it was time for Hand and Foot, and we were pretty competitive!

But I was totally turned off to RPGs, trading card games, and video games because I thought they were weird, violent, and for lonely, greasy young adults who couldn’t get jobs. Being a teacher, I also didn’t like the fact that I could tell which of my students were gamers and which were readers just by the effort in class and quality of work turned in.

Now, however, after playing Magic the Gathering (trading card game), running an RPG (role playing game), and playing over halfway through Guild Wars (a massively multiplayer online role playing game), my husband proudly refers to me as a geek. He also gets a kick out of watching me play video games, but I must confess, I only play casual games-nothing with blood or swearing or killing. A point in my favor, however, is that I do have my own Xbox controller and headset.

Why the switch? What changed my mind? Aside from learning that some of these geeky games are actually really fun and complex, I learned that many of these games rely on the elements of story, strategy, and critical thinking. Being a geek is more sophisticated than it sounds! I’ll dive into each category of game in subsequent articles, but in this overview, let me say that while I’m still a light gamer, I’m quite enjoying this new subculture.

As with any subculture, too much of anything is harmful. A word to the wise [parents] here: games of any kind, especially video games, should never ever take the place of good, honest reading, school work, or social interaction. Even for boys! This recent article was particularly convincing.

And since many games do lean a little heavy on the visceral, parents need discretion to know what their children are playing. Many games do contain violence, sexual elements, and bad language. Even for adult gamers, moderation and balance should be important.

So to the gamer and non-gamer alike, get out in the sunshine, enjoy the company of friends, read a good book, and try a game! You might be pleasantly surprised.

Crandor Isle: The Best F2P Training Location in Runescape

Alvin Holland

In Runescape, the cards are heavily stacked towards being a member; more quests, more enemies, more items, a larger community and landscape, and just more stuff in general. Members can make more money quicker and more efficiently than most F2P (free-to-play) players can. Also, training is much easier due to the variety of options. However, for the mid to high-level free players who don’t want, can’t afford, or somehow disagree with being a member, there is an alternative method: Crandor Isle.

Players first arrive on Crandor Isle during the Dragon Slayer quest to find and kill the dragon Elvarg. What some don’t know or care to use is the fact that after you defeat Elvarg, you can still come back to train on this magnificent island. This guide explains how to level up eight skills without ever having to leave the island, until you reach your target levels or you’re just plain bored with it.

First off, you should know the requirements you’ll need for this island. As previously stated, you will have at least begin the Dragon Slayer quest to access the island; when you’re finished, you can go through the wall near the Deadly Red Spiders in the Karamja dungeon. The items and skills you’ll need are:

-A decent set of melee armor and melee skills (55 attack, strength, defense, and constitution). Although you can bring mage or ranged equipment, these supplies will eventually run out, forcing you to leave the island to restock.

-A pickaxe (mithril or higher) and at least 40 mining.

-40 smithing.

-A fire staff and at least level 43 magic.

-40 or higher cooking, if you need food.

-Some money, 10,000 or more, to buy some starting law runes.

Now, on to the guide. Those of you who have visited Crandor before may have noticed that there are four mines located on the island. One of these contains three gold rocks. You’ll want to head there first. If you have a low combat level, beware the King Scorpions who patrol the area. Equip your FIRE STAFF and start mining. Whenever you have a pause where you are waiting for the gold to respawn, go to your magic tab. Cast superheat item on the ores; this will turn them into bars, earning you magic and smithing experience in addition to the mining xp you earn for getting them. If you would prefer to save some time by not dropping the bars, you can cast low or high alchemy on the bars to get some more magic experience. There you go; that’s three skills you can level up fairly easily, with little competition or interruptions.

However, I’m sure the more pessimistic among you will notice the flaw in the plan; “Aha!”, you’ll say, “What happens when you run out of nature runes? What then?” Also, you may be wondering why this works so well on Crandor, besides the isolation. I’ll tell you. What monsters, in F2P Runescape, could possibly drop nature runes? Well, Moss Giants do. And, It just so happens that three of them respawn on the southern tip of Crandor. This is where the combat aspect comes in. Wearing your armor and weapon, go maul some giants. You may wish to bring some food from Karamja for this part, as those who powerfish there often drop tuna, swordfish, and lobsters, which you can then pick up. The general store sells an axe and a tinderbox; buy them, cut down a tree, and cook them.

This combat experience (Strength, Attack, Defense, and Constitution), the mining, the smithing, and the magic experience are easy to earn and continue earning for as long as you continue. But wait; it gets better; didn’t this guide promise to train eight skills? Of course, in addition to the nature runes that Moss Giants drop, they have a 100% drop chance of big bones, which give the most experience and train the most difficult F2P Runescape skill to train, Prayer. Each big bone drop grants 15 prayer xp, 3 times the amount of normal bones.

Once you get to 55 mining and 50 smithing, you can move on to mining mithril on the east and north sides of the island; there is 1 mithril rocks and 7 coal rocks, with 7 mithril rocks farther south, that you can mine to continue the cycle. Once you get to 70 mining and smithing, you can stay near the Moss Giants indefinetely, as there are several coal and adamantite rocks close to them, where you can also hide to range or mage the giants if you brought some runes or arrows. Essentially, you don’t have to leave Crandor until you have 99 mining, smithing, magic, strength, attack, defense, constitution, and prayer – or you decide you need a change of pace. Thanks for reading, and have a great time on the wondrous Isle of Crandor.

-P.S. I’m still taking my own advice and running all around Crandor; you may recognize me as Dragonmansd on world 14.