Nalabox Dislikes: Alan Wake

But I enjoyed his nightmares.  

There are already a few reviews of this game on the internet so I won’t really be adding any new sauce to this well grilled game. Excellent story largely let down by gameplay.

Want to know what I shouted the most while playing this game?

“Alan man just fucking *…*”
*shoot
*dodge
*run
*JUMP
*ANYTHING!!!!
*HURNGHH!

Created by Me with imgflip.com

I felt compelled to compare Alan with my interpretation of the Lara-split syndrome (totally a thing I just made up) apart from where as wor lovely Gameplay Lara is the bidness it seems Alan Wake suffers from the reverse…. Cutscene Alan is at least slightly clued up about his situation but Gameplay Alan is just… lifeless. He’s a monotonous drone that compelled me to think he deserved his fate to be honest. Also there was no mention in the games features that Gameplay Alan would be vulnerable to the Daniel-from Amnesia-style freaking out and dodging TOWARDS the thing that scared him. GAME. UGH.  Alas, Cutscene Alan, I wanted him to reach the end, find his love and escape the evil that consumed him. 

A True Bro.
Pic Cred: Alan Wake Faceybook Page

Barry.


Barry was mint. I felt there wasn’t enough about him in the first game and I’m glad you got a chance for some closure in American Nightmare, for him and some of the other characters. In fact, the only character I wasn’t very interested in was Alan himself. He was a bit of a dick to everyone around him, even more so in American Nightmare: making all those choices to affect the lives of those people and not really giving it a second thought whether they would continue to exist or not. Emma Sloan for example. He fails to save her more than once and she’s forced to remember a horrific tragedy over and over again. We only come into that reality after he’s already faced Mr Scratch so how many times has it really been? Mr Scratch has already caused trouble for some period of time to have affected reality to the point it made it possible for Alan to break through in the first place.

Emma Sloan. This is how I felt when seeing Alan too hun
Pic Cred

I get these games were meant to make you feel his desperation, the loneliness, being self-alienated and possibly what it’s like to know the truth of something but no one believes you. They think you’re crazy.  It attempted that anyway. I’d played “The Cat Lady” shortly before the Alan Wake games and I think that raised the bar for me in regards to the emotional depth of a character and feeling what they feel. Damn that was a good game. You know I didn’t realise how much it had disturbed me until a few weeks ago when I was telling a friend to play it. *Shivers* [I will replay it and share what I mean with you in the near future]

I tell ye what though, Gameplay Alan and Cutscene Lara deserve each other. Stick ‘em in a boat and ship them off to Diver’s Isle and fecking leave them there to jump over the logs that are capable of inflicting mysterious psychological damage and they can sit there and cry about it.   

Nalabox Loathes?: Haunted Memories

It's a horror game. I have high expectations when it comes to horror movies and games.

I want to be given an experience. A thrilling psychological, rock me to my core, re-evaluate my soul, experience. A little over the top perhaps, but I've watched so many movies long and short that have held no joy in finding that experience. Jump scares are okay but used too much and in obvious places gets a thumbs down from me. It just becomes almost comical. 

I heard about this Slender guy....

I watched vids of people of this now infamous figure blackening our screens and scaring the bejeebus out of them. I even saw those "notes" around my home town on Halloween. I gotta get in on this. 

Years later, Haunted Memories comes out. I get it. I pragmatically decide not to try it on Paranormal mode for my first funthrough. Need to look awesome when I record this/

First impressions: Looks pretty. More annoying than scary.

On account of after the intro played it was obvious I was going to encounter our anti-hero but not soon as I take two steps. My character froze and died. Reload. Managed to get past the gate this time He freaked out at a breeze and "died" from the game spinning him around straight into the slender figure. Hmm.

After a few more tries we progressed in the "story" without major incident. Then it updated.

Couldn't load me previous game. No biggie.

Wouldn't even load up the intro. Audio was there though.

Re-Verify? Nope. Reinstall? Nope.

NEXT!

Daily Snippet: Hello Ladies!

I just learned that #tombraidertuesday is totally a thing and I had no idea. So me and a whole bunch of other people on the Interwebbles decided Tuesday must be Tomb Raider day! HUZZAH! 

I know I missed it this week so to make up I'll share this Speed Run of Tomb Raider by Cirno_TV on Twitch

Clicky http://www.twitch.tv/cirno_tv/c/3364860 Clicky

(This vid is 2 hours long, let it load in a bit then you can skip to the parts you want to see/stuck on etc)

Daily Snippet: Abbrev.

I give in and up!

I'm playing PN2 for the BL2 UL but only the TF2 UL works so now I'm having to DL TF2. Only to get volunteered for some MVM...what have I gotten myself in to?

Meanwhile check out the latest Funthrough episodes:

Clicky Nalabox Youtube Channel Clicky

Daily Snippet: Chargin' mah Tank!

So every night since Boxing Day a small group of friends and I have been staying up very late to save the world from Zombies...

I, like many many people now have Left 4 Dead 2 in my Steam Library. It's rather good! Jeebus it's scary and fun and induces so much panic-rage in me I fear that *when* the Zombie infestation happens T'll try my best to be a good Zombie because I'll most likely not last as a survivor!

Nalabox in Complicated Relationship with: Skyrim

So in my first part of reviewing Skyrim I unashamedly told you all to ignore the glitches and holes and that weird sense of "loss" from the main story because overall the game was bloody beautiful and I hadn't finished it.

I got the game back and decided to stick to the main story and not go spelunking for loot, trolls or skeleton keys...oooh...

Two hours later...

Pic: guiadoskyrim.webrok.com

I stubbornly stuck to the main story and had it finished in considerably less time than I thought I would. So If I hadn't taken my time to explore, fall into traps or got married, my Brother would have had it back in one weekend. Kind disappointing to realize this as I could have missed out on all that content that I fell in love with, would have been a completely different blog entry. Makes you consider taking your time on other things you very well could be missing out on.

I didn't pick a side in the Civil War as I didn't want my gameplay to be restricted plus neither side really elicited a strong enough emotional response to WANT to join their cause.

                           Seems the Jarl of Whiterun has been eliciting a different kind of response...

www.nexusmods.com

The game did that weird thing where you fight the final boss guy but not really. To be honest it should have ended right there on top of the Throat of the World where you started your journey of the Voice, maybe included more rifty time travel?  Instead you don't quite defeat him so you've got to go out and be a stronger Saiyan or catch all your Pokemons and chase after him in the afterlife, the usual stuff. 

Thing is, you to go Sovngarde. THE most spectacular world environment and magnificent work of art and splendor. And the Hall of Valor. Walking amongst Skyrim's Mighty Heroes who have fallen in glorious battle! Which the final final battle is unfortunately nothing like that. Not even song worthy. Not even an audience with Shor worthy. As soon as the story moves on the whole place shuts itself up and offers you limited dialogue with any fellows that have made the journey before you. They said it was impossible! Bringing an end to The End but I did it and they shut their doors in my face. I'm swept up and dumped on my arse on the Mountain and only the Dragons know the Truth.

I started out loving this game and it has made me laugh, cry, steal, weep and kill for it. I have poured myself into it and it just pooped me out and didn't flush...

www.nexusmods.com

Next Time: A little Festive Jeer!

Bloggerable Death

I spend a good portion of my time on the internet. Connected to close personal networks that filter and share various snippets of what’s happening “out there”. Events that have happened and happening and happen contain so much information flooding our senses I wonder how much of it we truly retain? I bring this up because I enjoy reading blogs, fresh delicious information I can consume on the go! Yet I forgot that having a blog means I have to create the content. I have so many words stored up from social sharing and news and listening that it didn't occur to me to filter it back to the “out there” where it first came from.

(Pic from: http://www.dansadlier.com/2011/05/information-vs-communication/ )

Even an instant creative idea takes times to burst forth out from your brain and out of your mouth or on paper. I spent some time looking at other people’s blogs and found that it seems to no longer have that gusto it once had. Take Blogger, what I’m using now, as an example. I enjoy hitting that “next blog” button to see what other voices have to say out there and I find about 12 out of 20 have been abandoned. Some in favour of different blog mediums like WordPress or fully fledged websites but mostly just abandoned. The rest I found are spiritually focused located in the States or Family blogs or just posting-stuff-from-the-internet blogs ( In Portuguese! ).

I looked into other blog mediums to see what they offered in this age of microblogging of Twitter and Facebook and whatever else. Let’s be honest if there is a third or even sixth they wouldn’t have as much integration in our lives. Tough competition where creativity is the epitome of instant gratification sent forth into the world before you have time to read it back to yourself and realise what you just posted was the most funniest/stupidest/racist/philosophical/incriminating thing you ever said. TheNextWeb already had this idea a few months ago it seems and done all my work for me in this nifty pros and cons list:

From TheNextWeb

Welcome back! Quick rundown if you didn’t bother to read all of that we have the likes of WordPress, Tumblr, Posatch.io, Google+, SquareSpace and even Facebook Notes are getting in on the action. The only thing I didn’t like about many of these is that I would have to join up just to discover new voices. I can’t be arsed to do that. Apart from Posatch.io, I couldn’t see what kind of layouts and level of customisation I could be getting over the one I’m currently using. Someone design me a blog roulette type randomizer so I don’t have to sign up to all these websites!

I don’t think blogging is dying as such it’s just there are so many of us out there and soo much content to get through. It’s mostly likely people who read your blogs are bloggers themselves and those who hungry for that instant hit, probably don’t bother reading your blogs. Those that use both microblogging and blogging blogging will possibly keep up with both? Busy peoples!

I resorted to my old past time “Next Blog” clicky and I shall leave you with some gems:

http://countrywithoutborders.blogspot.co.uk – The musings of an artsy Jewish woman

http://aliceingalaxyland.blogspot.co.uk – Astrology and Weird

http://notdadadventures.blogspot.co.uk –Scottish Pirate turned Parental Role Model?

Next Time: I finally finished SKYRIM! But is it still in the NalaLoves box?

Spooky Sunday!

Hey guys, sorry for the long absence. Life Happened.

I'm trying out a new game today called Amnesia: The Dark Descent. It's a survival puzzle horror game which I don't know much about besides watching videos of other poor souls trying to play it. My favourite rather entertaining video is of this guy:

even finding this again and watching it makes me laugh sooo HARD!

I watched this and thought "Hey I could totally play that game and not freak out, jeebus that guy is a pansy" so many years later I have a fully working pc and bam! Amnesia was purchased. Let's see how well I do huh?

Today I dub thee Spooky Sunday!

Clicky Amnesia Part One: Meet Daniel Clicky. 

Funthrough! Tomb Raider Part 3

Short post in comparison to the last one....

Today's Camping Adventures with Lara... Lots of panicking and a change of underwear! WARNING: I do skreech a lot in this episode! 

Clicky Tomb Raider Part 3 Clicky

I snorted a few times watching the footage back in a few places. My reactions to stuff for the first time are hilarious. I'm picking up a few of Lara's bad habits too.

I also feel like there's a bit too many cut scenes, am I watching a movie or playing a game?

Funthrough! Tomb Raider Part Two!

Ha! Today I panic and argue with Lara in the Coastal Forest! 

Like I would have a clue really? About survival after a shipwreck or even being left on my own in the woods for a night. I should take some pointers from Ingo since he's had some training on the matter so I decided to Interview him:

Me: Okay so Ms Croft and I have washed up ashore on an island off the coast of Japan somewhere so that should give you a clue as to the environment, humidity etc. She's scruffy, wet, cold, been clocked in the head, tied up, fell about 50ft and landed on a bone shard which dug into her side, she's bleeding and exhausted. Me? I'm like her imaginary friend... So what should we do?

Ingo: Prioritise. I think even the most hardcore military trained survival nutcase would be more than a little shaken up by the experience and clarity of thought is a lifesaver. Concussion is in itself dangerous, but combined with the abdominal trauma just staying conscious would be a near superhuman feat. One, stop the bleeding. Ideally there I wouldn't be pulling a shard of anything back out of my torso. Looking at where it is, could be kidney, liver, punctured large intestine. Anything. Jamming my hands over the entry wound around the shard and whimpering to myself would probably be my main plan for the next half hour at least. I could assume from that half hour that I hadn't bled to death, and provided I hadn't also slipped into a coma from the head trauma it would be time to extract myself out of the hole I was in. Fans of 'Rambo' will reflect on the wince-inducing self surgery Stallone performs on screen, and while the reality would probably involve allot more swearing and crying, you really would have to make do with something similar.
      Controlling infection would also come to mind, and given the dire circumstances I think I would be trying to heat up some of the scrap metal that seems to be everywhere and cortorise AROUND the shard for the time being, probably while screaming and soiling myself. Then? stagger upwards hoping I'd done enough to continue living for the next hour or so, and distract myself by keeping a check on my breathing, internal bleeding being something that would make itself known now, best case being abdominal swelling and painful bruising, worst case either a punctured bowel leading to a septic wound and death, or bleeding into my upper abdomen/chest cavity and compressing my lungs. All happy thoughts. Assuming Lara is very lucky (and seriously mentally and physically tough) she could look forward to a very slow painful ascent through the caves. Out of the cave and on a tropical/temperate island, I would probably be both elated and worried. Tropical islands make for less harsh survival territory, providing water-shelter-heat-food needs (in that order) relatively easily. However, there's always something else, and in this case the humid climate would make it very very hard for me to keep my wound clean. I would stagger towards the beach and keep my eyes open for where water sources empties into the sea, this sort of outfall being ideal to find drinking water. Salty seawater would be great to irrigate and clean my injuries too, (winces) sore though. At this point, due to the concussion, it would be a real battle to stay awake. I'm inclined to say I would put a cold wet rag on my head wound, out of optimism that it would control the swelling, and pass out in the recovery position, hoping for the best.         

Me: One of the other characters told her to move towards his location but she hasn't got a clue where she is let alone how to navigate to him. Is this sound advice? What should people do in this situation?

Ingo: Madness. You're already in a bad way, adding 'lost and away from your little base camp' is suicidal. I remember a story about a pilot who was shot down, and by staying in the same quarter mile hiding from enemy patrols, an SAR (search and rescue) team was able to find him within a couple of days. If he'd wandered off he would probably have been impossible to find, and died of exposure before anything else. Unless you have a couple of landmarks that can be seen from miles away, you can use triangulation. for example, Lara is on the coast, so there's a reference point, and she can see a clifftop with a big broken tree on it that she estimates is four football fields away, and in the other direction she can see a trashed plane or something, and that's five football fields away, so marking those points and noting how far from her they are she could direct the other party to her (coastlines are pretty permanent so they would have a hard time walking past her location and out to sea) using this method to head inland... I'd be wary. we're still injured pretty badly. 

Me: Supplies are nil and Lara wants to go Deer hunting. How should you go about doing this?

Ingo: Seriously? eat some fruit if there's any you can identify as safe, drink any water you can make potable, make a sharp stick and go get some fish. I have no idea how you could just up and make an accurate bow capable of delivering enough poundage to kill a deer. If venison was my one and only option? I'd make snares, a lot of snares. While eating fish. probably use a lot of cabling from the wrecks as cordage. Even then though, snares are hard to use with any reliability  you have to put out a large number to get a little return. Dressing (butchering) a deer is tough too, if i was injured already it would be very difficult. I'd have to kill the deer, bleed it (black pudding anyone?), slit it open, scoop out the guts like I was Han Solo so it didn't spoil the meat, then have to move the carcass to where my camp was. Definately a daunting task if you're not 100%

Me: Lara finds a bow, and in the game takes a small bit of venison, leaving most of the carcass behind. 

Ingo: In that case yes, Deer can be on the menu, cover yourself in mud and moss to hide your people scent and go stalking. This would still be physically demanding and I would be worried about having enough water and energy to go on. As for taking a small amount of meat and moving on? no, no way, an a-frame litter could be made out of dead fall and lashed together with intestine. A carcass is definitely too good a thing to waste any of, and preserving the meat can be a simple as cutting it into small strips and using your a frame to hang it over a fire. Tasty jerky. Boiling seawater down to get the salt would be a good way to go too. As always though, if you can't find or make potable water don't eat, your body uses up a lot of water digesting food and its always better to err on the side of being hydrated over being fed in the short term.       

Ingo raises some very interesting points about hydration, the dangers of concussion and Lara being in need of serious medical attention. In short, she should be dead. Survival immersion can become tedious and desperate and then you remember it's just a game but is accuracy about this type of stuff important? Considering Video Games are blamed for violent crimes and anti-social behaviour can you claim to be realistic when it is riddled with bad advice?

So I decided to look it up and see what other helpful tips you should remember if you ever find yourself stranded. I found this list from gcaptain.com:

1. Shelter yourself. Exposure can kill faster than thirst or hunger.

2. Do not drink urine. Or sea water. Or bird blood

3. Do not eat jellyfish. Or fish that have spikes. Or fish that have parrot like beaks. OR that puff up like balloons.

4. Turtles are an easy catch and make for excellent meals. Their blood is a good, nutritious, salt-free drink; their flesh is tasty and filling; their fat has many uses; and the castaway will find turtle eggs a real treat. Mind the beak and the claws.

5. If a castaway is injured, beware of well-meaning but ill-founded medical treatment. Ignorance is the worst doctor, while rest and sleep are the best nurses.

6. Put your feet up at least 5 minutes every hour

7. Do not go swimming. It wastes energy. Besides, a survival craft may drift faster than you can swim. Not to mention the danger of sea life. If you are hot, wet your clothes instead.

8. As long as no excessive water is lost through perspiration, the body can survive up to 14 days without water. If you are thirsty, suck a button.

9. Beware of far-off clouds that look like mountains. Look for green. Ultimately, a foot is the only good judge of land.

10. Don’t let your morale flag. Be daunted but not defeated. Remember: the spirit, above all else, counts. If you have the will to live, you will. Good luck

Now the site says they're from the novel Life of Pi by Yan Martel some seem to be very sensible but others don't feel that legit to me. I agree with ignorance not being the best medical practice since you all know how much I favoured Dr Ignorance but I'm sure as hell you shouldn't just go to sleep if your really badly injured and if you're by yourself too! Treat your wounds first and try to prevent infection. Also do not fall asleep if you have a concussion! With that in mind, number 5 is a perfect example of well meaning but ill-founded medical advice. This is just an example from another fictional source so again I ask the question if you're going to publish content on survival shouldn't you make sure it's accurate?

Following that Ingo suggested use your common sense, Prioritise and try not to panic!

Also check out this guy, he knows his shit! Ranger Rick

                           Clicky Funthrough! Tomb Raider part 2 Clicky

Funthrough! Tomb Raider 2013

A Funthrough?

Yes! It's not as comprehensive as a walkthrough but not quite a runthrough as I'd rather have fun with a game I'm playing than take it dreadfully seriously so it's a FUNTHROUGH!

I finally managed to get my video capture and editing stuff working and with some gusto and many coffees later I have the first video up on YouTube:

clicky Nalabox Channel: Tomb Raider part 1  clicky

I had to play the intro over and over again just to get stuff to work and stupid ass me forgetting to record sound and somehow ended up making a 25GB file! Jeebus!

Please feel free to comment and let me know how I'm doing. I know I suck cake arse but I can only get better with practice :)

I do have other projects in the pipeline too.

Nalabox Loves: Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

"Dovahkiin"

Dragonborn. A title that commands respect and emanates power beyond any mortal imagining.

Skyrim is the next chapter in the history of Tamriel which has spanned across four previous main story games, extra content, spin off's and eventually as of 2013 an Massively Multiplayer Online Game; The Elder Scrolls Online. That's nearly 18 years of development and fantastic storytelling. Thank you Bethesda :) 

Your humble beginnings are unknown in the prologue to the game. All you do know is your being carted off to the Helgen outpost as Imperial Soldiers have captured Ulfric Stormcloak, the rebel leader, so it's a beheading for him and unfortunately you too for being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Not going well for you so far huh? It gets even worse. As Ulfric comes closer to meeting the edge of the executioners axe a giant mythical beast of scale and fire, once thought to be destroyed many centuries ago, swoops down and attacks the people of Helgen: allowing Ulfric and yourself to escape. Once finally out of the now burning Helgen you are free to roam the wild snowy landscape that is Skyrim.

Bethesda are very experienced at making games where the player can become whom ever he/she likes and choose which ever path it takes to get there and this game is no exception. There are main story quests to follow in which you discover you are Dragonborn and learning powerful Tha'ums which is the language of the Dragons by absorbing their souls, their knowledge. 

A bag of bones

You can also decide to join either the Imperial Soldiers fighting for the Empire or the natives of Skyrim the rebellious Stormcloaks who are fighting against the Empire and the right to worship Talos as a God, even though he was a normal dude, but an hero to all of Skyrim. This upsets the Thalmor Elves, who from previous instalments of the Elder Scrolls are the bad guys. I haven't chosen a side yet as I see the benefit to being able to walk into every town and not get attacked by one faction or the other. Also, I find the religious war excuse, as just exactly that. I'm sure the story is more complicated than that considering Ulfric Stormcloak killed the High King of Skyrim and I'm guessing the Empire didn't like that. 

This game also distracts you from the main story with a great many side quests. Oh wow so many times I promised myself I'd just quickly run back to my house in Whiterun, sell my stuff and oooh what's this symbol on the map? A cave? okay it'll only take 10 mins. Oh there's a guy inside and poof there goes an hour. It is incredibly engaging. I must have completed over 50 sidequests plus many miscellaneous quests on top of that but only actually done about 20% of the main story. But that's the great thing about it, that's what this game was made for. For you to do whatever the hell you like!  It has got to the point now where I'm actually slightly displaced from the story and enjoying myself more getting to know the people and secret organisations within Skyrim.

I remember from playing Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion there were guilds and factions you could join to earn extra monies and perks. Like reduced bounty, with the Thieves Guild, when you got caught in a house you may or may not have had permission to be in. Skyrim is no different, however has greatly improved the development and value of being a member of these guilds and factions. You can follow main plot quests specifically for your chosen trade that not only rewards you with perks, unique gear and special life changing abilities but also gives you a connection with the characters involved due to brilliant intricate storytelling. I've had more fun with the Thieves Guild and Companions quest lines than I have the main story so far. 

I was always one head in front of him!

The combat system allows the player to engage with foes from a distance using ranged weapons and magic or with the use of one-handed or two handed weapons and for those who just like to give the beasties a right ol' whollop the best weapon of all: Your fists. Bosh!

The Dragon Shouts learned from Dragon Word Walls or certain NPC's are a form of supporting magic as they can have area effect as well as long range capabilities and can be used for non-combat too. Such as the Become Ethereal you can walk through solid objects, like doors, and have a peek or avoid detection if your somewhere you shouldn't be. The most used one is probably Unrelenting Force as it can be very effective for knocking Dragons out of the sky, but have your weapons ready, once they get up boy are they pissed.

What's great about which ever weapon you choose, you are not limited to that particular style. Yes most of your skill points will be in two-handed but sometimes the situation calls for a less messy approach shall we say? Like an inconvenient arrow to the knee? You don't need to be a prolific archer to down a guard from 100 yards away. Unlike some games where once you've chosen to be a Rogue that's it. All you can use is daggers and crossbows.

I have to say I'm not a magic user per se, I'm in the "two-handed battleaxe" category so I can't really comment on the magic system. But from what I have had to use (quest related) I've found it really easy to get a grasp of (hur hur) and in that classic Elder Scrolls way; the more you use something the better it becomes so if throwing a fiery ball (or balls; duel wield baby!) of doom is your thing then go for it! Me? I like to cleave stuff in half and chop heads. For the HORDE!!! wait...wrong game. 

As you know I love Fallout 3 and the transition from playing that combat system and in that environment to this one wasn't that difficult. I like that they play kind of similar you just hand in your lasers and steampunk attire for Skyforge Steel and Dragon Scale Armour. Yes, you don't need the VAT system here for easy targeting but the combat isn't that difficult to handle to need something like that. I LIKE that Bethesda have made an entirely different game to Fallout and not been lazy about using the same engine and their own stuff to make it awesome and truly unique gaming experience, unlike BioWare: the menus and gameplay for Mass Effect 2 was EXACTLY the same for Dragon Age 2. Lazy.

Frost the Fearless

Firstly, I apologise for the quality of the picture. I don't have everything set up to take stills or record from my Xbox to the laptop so when stuff randonly happens, which is frequently in Skyrim I've noticed; I grab my mobile phone to take pics with. Secondly, my horse is awesome!

I've hired and fired many of the companions you can get to accompany you throughout Skyrim. Some don't cost gold but will make sure you travel to the arse end of no where to get something for them before they'll even think about putting their coats on let alone take an arrow to the..wait already made that joke. But by damn Frost the Fearless Steed has never let me down. Thus far he's the best companion I've had on account that He doesn't run away, glitch, make my presence known, die instantly, doesn't have the IQ of a fart and best of all he was completely FREE. He may or may not have been illegally acquired but since he was technically stolen by someone else doesn't show up as Stolen when he came into my possession. Crime free. Plus he kills Dragons. He's actually better than me too :)
 You know I've read about the possible glitches regarding him running away or just not spawning when you fast travel but he's the only travel companion that hasn't glitched on me in one way or another. He just doesn't die either. Maybe that in itself is a glitch but it's a damn good one for a change! 

I've stuck with Jenessa the Dunmer Mercenary for most of the game, she's not the best I hear but she's the better from the ones I've come across so far. Some puzzles in the ruins you can blunder into require you to have a companion to stand on pressure plates while you pull a lever etc. However, I have found some will just walk  over the very apparent traps and set them off when you have gone to a great deal of care (and time) to avoid. (Lydia; IQ of a fart). The AI of your followers could be greatly improved or a least the instructions you can give them apart from Attack, Stay, Bugger off, and "here carry my stuff!". It would also be helpful if they stayed a certain distance from you at all times especially when sneaking. Many times Aranea the Priestess of Azura didn't even bother going into sneak mode and often didn't actually follow me at all. It is good in some way when a companion is morally objective and often comment on the wrongness of an act you are about to commit it's all very good for the immersion but is it an AI fail or glitch when they simply "push" you into a group of mobs when you are BOTH supposed to be in sneak mode? Harsh, very harsh. I mostly avoided stealthy missions for this reason, my followers would often rush in or Frost would appear out of no where and kill everything anyway.

Which one are you again?

So I decided to get hitched and reap the rewards and joys of matrimony. Mostly the rewards. A homecooked meal and 200 gold a day? Where do I sign up? Best thing is my handsome beardy man is a Training Vendor, which means I can buy skills then get my monies back from trading inventories with my spouse! Another great thing is that you can go Skyrim weeks without seeing them and they don't throw a hissy fit, unlike the many wenches in the Fable games.

Just Google "Skyrim Landscapes" and you'll find some of the best in game screenshots of the world you traverse on your adventures. I have dubbed the landscape "a treat on the senses" as it is truly amazing. a lot of hard work has gone in the the look and feel of the environment and when your spending many many hours of your life in a fantasy world you want it to look real damn good. And real. Which it does spectacularly, from snow capped mountains, stormy seas and even the scale of the cities are amazing. Bethesda never fails to impress when it comes to environment design. The only thing they could have kept on par is the enclosed spaces to match the overwhelming feeling of "awe" for their outside spaces. Objects or characters trying to interact with their environment in a small cave or house just repeated the same glitches often found in Oblivion and spaces often looked unfinished and blocky, not to mention a whole area of the map with nothing in it.

GLITCHES! Bugs, objects colliding at incredible speeds, cows falling out of the sky, broken spawns...the list goes on for the many glitches found throughout the game and it's a shame they feel like the same known glitches experienced in Oblivion and I'd imagine it's predecessors too. It spoils your fun and sometimes you just have to say "come on guys didn't you fix this from last time?" too much effort and time spent on making this game look good they forgot about making it FUNCTION? I'd understand if there were new bugs but not the same ones overlooked? 

Overall, it looks amazing, wild and the freedom very much appeals to me. Character interactions could be improved, hell their AI could be improved greatly and more options to tell your followers what to do. Maybe go as far as mixing some RTS style commands for combat? The game is distracting, like I mentioned earlier, to the point where it really does defer from the main story line. Maybe it's my innate curiosity and gaming style but I ended up getting really lost sometimes and "lost" from the story too. Doing all those other quests and challenges meant no real progression and it got to the point where I had clocked over 100 hours of game time and no sense of achievement. Also when I did follow the story I found it led you to large open areas with nothing in them, which from the start made me feel like i was testing an unfinished game.

In the end i can say I very much liked this game but I did not LOVE it, primarily because I never finished the game due to my brother wanting his copy back. I don't think I'll be rushing back in to it either.

Gaming Lots

I guess this is just a check in. I know I said I would be blogging lots but it takes a lot of motivation to keep this thing going especially when there's new games in the house! I've recently started playing Skyrim, Dragon Age 2 and a co-op playthrough of Borderlands 2 with Ingo. So busy busy busy.

I've also been looking through Superfly, my old rescued laptop drive  for articles to share with you and boy did I save a lot of crap. Why we keep things from years after university I have no idea. Did I think I needed them for some reason? I guess if I transfer them to here they would be useful but severely outdated. I have found one presentation from a games company conducting research about how girls game and it looks like it was written by someone who didn't even go out and do the work themselves and didn't really like the figures so just made it up. If I can find a way to put it on here I will do. It's laughable. I got a lot of stuff that may be of interest to anyone searching keywords for essays and such like. Maybe. 

Nalabox Loves: Fallout 3

“The Lone Wanderer”

This game was my first venture into the action-role play genre of an optional liner storyline and free roaming environment. I hadn't played the previous instalments of Fallout for the PC so the introduction of the karma system was totally new to me. Making good or bad choices having an effect on how you play the game and whether or not you got to do optional quests because of being too good or too evil was fantastic. There has been so many times I've played games a bit on the renegade side and never got penalised for it, yeah it makes the game super easy but where's the enjoyment in that? As well as the karma system the character development is a lot more detailed than what I've been used to. There are skill points I can assign to my S.P.E.C.I.A.L (Strength. Perception. Endurance. Charisma. Intelligence. Agility and Luck ) traits and practical skills such as weapon proficiencies, science, repair and speech etc which are all dependent on how many points are in allocated in S.P.E.C.I.A.L. The more you have in Charisma the better your Barter and Speech skills. The Fallout series have all had Perks which can be obtained when the player levels up which can determine extra attributes to your skills. For example I had no idea in my second playthrough that I could just completely skip doing the Wasteland Survival Guide side quests by persuading Moira Brown that it was a daft idea, hence getting the Dream Crusher perk, this means that enemies are now afraid of me and their critical hit chance is reduced by half. Ha!

Fallout 3 is based in post-apocalyptic America after a 200 year nuclear fallout caused by a war between China and the USA in 2077. You are one of the many survivors in an underground vault called vault 101. You were born there and you will die there. No one enters and no one leaves.

your Tomb/Home :)

Until your Dad does. Leaving the underground community in disarray and letting the gribblies in killing the unarmed residents which pisses off the Overseer, the boss man, who seems to think you, a nineteen year old kid had something to do with it. You are thrust into the Wasteland with nothing but a security truncheon and a Tunnel Snakes Gang leather jacket to face all manners of thugs, thieves, raiders, mental robots, giant radioactive beasties, feral ghouls, super mutants, Mr Burke and much more. You suffer all this just to find your Dad and demand to know what the hell is going on!

As the story progresses you learn that your father, voiced by Liam Neeson, was a scientist trying to bring back the waters of life and start re-building humanity and that task now falls to you.

You have your typical tutorial style quests to get you used to the game during the “childhood” years of living in the vault, I guess it is a nursery for the game. Then as the story progresses and you get launched into the wider world you have the option to follow the main storyline and complete optional side-quests and any Downloadable Content you may have with the game. You can choose whatever gaming style you like to complete the quests. For example; you can go in to Tenpenny Towers with diplomacy and tact, while pickpocketing keys to just let the ghouls in or you know, guns blazing and let the ghouls take over or even take the ghouls out yourself. It's entirely up to you. There has been times when I tried a little of both to complete a quest depending on whether I want Good or Bad Karma resulting from it. What I love most about this game is the exploring and thus far it is the only game, that I have played, that actually rewards curiosity. You can be in the arse end of nowhere and still find food, gadgets and ammo. Especially if you try to be a real smartie pants and walk to Rivet City without using the underground metro tunnels. Plus it all looks and sounds amazing. True survival.

There are a few special items tucked away here and there to help improve your chances of survival and some items increase your stats permanently: Vault Tec Bobbleheads. They're everywhere and some are very hard to find and send you MILES out of your way to get. Some, if your not careful can only be found before certain main storyline events have occurred. Keep an eye out chaps.

Yes, I play with Dolls!

The combat system for a newbie like me was easy to grasp especially the VATS- VaultTec Assisted Targeting System. Everyone is a crack shot with the Gauss Rifle using that. It did take the difficulty of moving targets away for me and being completely new to a FPS. I panicked a lot in my first playthrough. Some people said VATS detracted from being “in the game”, essentially pausing the game to line up your shots. I'm sorry but walking into Old Olney on your tod with nothing but grenades you kinda need that brief pause to. Breathe. Lob your last grenade. And leg it. You also don't want a game to detract from the fact it is a game afterall, not a simulation of surviving in a post-apocalyptic wasteland. Why the hell would I be in America anyway? I'd want to see how well I do in my home country: make a game about that!

I honestly don't know what it is specifically that I love about this game I just do. I have played it through 3 times now, once on the ps3 and twice on the xbox 360 and I've never been bored with it. Even though I've been through all the quests as Good, Neutral and Evil. I've explored every nook and cranny, played the DLC over and over. It is such a good game.

Fallout New Vegas, however, is a different story.

I tried to leave off playing it for about a year but I still feel like it was just another DLC. They didn't change much of the game to make it stand alone from Fallout 3. It was too short for one and I don't know whether it was the choices I made or whatever but I found the ending a bit disappointing. I thought they were going to implement some sort of war tactics style gameplay at the end but they didn't and the ending is not what I would have chosen for myself. I might pick it back up and play it again to finish the side quests which seems a lot more fun and engaging than the main storyline I have to say. Might leave it completely and play something else.  

'A Wild Girl Appears'

It was his first shift back at GAME from a two week holiday he booked especially off for the release of Skyrim. Greg liked to dedicate his time off to doing absolutely sweet F.A and some hardcore “me” time because at 27, you can do that kind of shit. He had pre-ordered the PC game before any of his housemates and had the only copy in the house, which boosted his gloating rights. Naturally. Greg was the loner gamer type of guy and didn't really want Jim and Michael back-seat gaming because hey, who needs that? So time off while they were at work was much needed.

It was kind of weird being back at work after being submerged for almost sixteen hours a day in the beautiful world of Skyrim; buying houses, fighting dragons and learning an ancient yet colourful language. The only colourful language Greg would hear today would be from potentially abusive customers or the shop manager Steve. Steve is always bearing down on the rest of the guys to try pull sales in from soft toy merchandise and meeting the points card subscription targets. Boring stuff that customers aren't interested in. Most people who come into the shop know exactly what they're after or have specific instructions from their kids. When Greg first got the job the joke was that he would be in the prime location to get all the best games before they were released at a considerable discount, test the pre-owned consoles and hey maybe even find a girlfriend! The latter made him cringe, this place a babe magnet? Seriously? The girls that came into the shop were lured in by their boyfriends on the promise if they buy this one game they will go into any shop she wanted for as long as she wanted! Or the girls who came in looking for cutesy games like Tamagotchi Cornershop and any of those Sing-star games really.

Then there was Becky. The problem with dating another member of staff is exactly that, you have to work with them. Now there wasn't anything wrong with Becky, she worked in the same shop so that meant she liked games right? That's a start. She was fairly pretty, she got bonus points for that, Almost too good to be true, except she's only 18 and of course, has a boyfriend.

Greg knew that the girl he was looking for didn't really exist. Heck he knew every other guy out there was looking for the same thing. An attractive woman who enjoyed games, comics and geekdom just as much as he did. Sure he'd heard of some girls on the internet who like to pose in costumes of his favourite characters, but did they actually have a clue who they were dressed up as? He didn't join the online groups knowing full well those other guys looking for this imaginary woman would pose as “her” to troll other guys. They're dicks like that.
“Excuse me?” Maybe he should stop fooling himself


“Excuse me? Sir do you work here?” even if a woman ever did want to talk to him “I'm looking for Skyrim?” what would he talk about? Skyrim? “huh?” mumbled Greg. “Hi, I'm looking for Skyrim, hopefully for the 360?” said the girl.

“Oh, I have that game, your boyfriend will really enjoy it” Sales Greg said.

“I don't have a boyfriend. I want it for me” said the newly single girl.

Treading carefully, Greg wanted to find out more about this mysterious creature.

“Have you played role-play games like this before? It might not be what your used to?”

“Well, I've tried playing the role play shooting games but they're not really my thing, but Borderlands! Oh Wow I love that game and Fallout 3. I'm more into those types of games.”

Someone must have put her up to this.

“I've played things like Suikoden, Pesmerga and Stallion are my favorite characters, and Tales of Eternia and attempted Final Fantasy, they were fun.” Greg straightened up and looked out of the shop over her shoulder expecting to see Jim or Michael.

She continues “I've also played point and click role-play games like Myst and Monkey Island, Discworld, Sam and Max. That type of stuff.” But nope, no sign of them. “I recently finished New Vegas and I'm currently playing Oblivion for the second time, so I figured Skyrim can't be that much different since it's the next game in the series” said the attractive woman. A quick glance to see the smirk on Steve's face. He's a dick like that too. But no smirk, he was busy with another customer. Greg paused, ticking off a mental list as his future wife continued. “My friend Danielle said she really enjoyed it and reminded her of Warcraft” So there's more than one of these outstanding creatures out there? He thought.

“....But better, it hasn't got the pvp arseholes who gank you all the time and spoil it for everyone. Me? I haven't played WoW in years, not since my dissertation” Greg looked bemused. “Oh yeah,” she continued, “I based my dissertation on Warcrack , couldn't think of anything to write about at the time and I was heavily in to the game so why not eh?”

Hardly believing his senses: a remarkable young woman who was in here looking for a game for herself, dedicated her time and life to games and was talking to him. Greg. They laughed at him with this dream of one day meeting that perfect woman they all talk about on the internet, and here she was standing right in front of him, an angel. No longer a dream, but here right in front of him. And oh god why can't he just talk to her, she's walking away!

“Well I can see you don't have the Xbox version in at the moment” Oh damn she's leaving quick tell her she can have the PC version. “..and I don't have a working PC at the moment” Dammit! “So I guess I'll keep looking around” Say something! Dude “Thanks a lot, bye!” She's gone. You're such an idiot.

“Hey, Steve did you hear that lass I was talking to?” said Greg, completely in awe.

“What lass? You been day dreaming again mate?” laughed Steve, in the get your arse back to work kind of laugh.

They're never going to believe me.

The End.
I slightly exaggerated the story but that's really what I blabbered on to him about and that's really how he behaved around me. In all honesty I did hear him say “but your a girl” under his breath when I mentioned Warcraft. The sad thing is I went back about 4 weeks later to see if they had Skyrim in but they had closed down so I will never know what happened to Greg. Sad face. This isn't the only encounter I've had with the gamer/geeky guys trying to talk to me. One guy even cut himself off mid sentence and said there wasn't any chance of a girl like me going out with a guy like him and walked away. I was willing to give him a chance but if you go into something with a defeatist attitude the only person getting in the way of you is you.

"Our Adventure Begins"

No not in the way that you think.

I've always tried being a girly girl since I was a kid joining in the various activities of singing, dancing, school yard games etc although not so much dress up with dolls, they freaked me out too much. But mummy had this cool box that you could plug into the TV and play games on a little cassette tape thing. Ah the Amstrad ZX Spectrum.

Recently celebrated it's 30^th Anniversary on St Georges Day

Image by Google

Best game was Treasure Island Dizzy. I'm sure we had a space invaders style game and Tetris but my mother and I are in a debate about this (as I'm writing in fact). As I got older, Birthday and Christmas gifts expanded to make up, hair accessories, anything with pink on it, my keyboard and the SEGA Mega Drive. Not just for me mind. I realise only now that my parents did make our console gaming a family affair. Me and my younger brother bonded over the classics Sonic, Streets of Rage, Dizzy (again!) and Bubsy the Bobcat. Let's pause while you reminisce.

Me at Christmas circa  late1990's?

Then you got older and school did that girls only P.E sessions where they made you do gymnastics or netball. But what you really wanted to do was go beat the lads at hockey or football. So you ask to go do that and you nearly, “nearly” break someone's collar bone so they ask you to no longer participate in P.E. Benched. Me? But I'm so sweet (awesome) and lovely (badass).

Again, Birthday rolls over and you get a Sony Playstation! Full with games and a cheat cartridge! Wow. My little brother was so jealous he got one for his birthday 6 months later. We collected the Playstation Magazine with the demo discs every month! Ah man my parents are so good to us. I have to say again it was a very family orientated activity we would rearrange the furniture in the living room and play a tennis game or virtual pool. I really enjoyed: Hogs of War, Alien Trilogy, Discworld Noir, Driver, Silent Hill, most driving games, Bubsy 3D (of course), Broken Sword, and not ashamedly Digimon. Throw in a few PC games in there too like the rest of the Discworld series, Myst, and yeah some Hentai dating sims which opened the world of consequential dialogue options for a new style of RPG, if you will. Ahem.

X-Change 2: A guy gets turned into a girl due to a crazy science experiment and is finds himself in embarrassing situations. Pic from MobyGames.com

That was a boyfriend who suggested I play those types of games, for his own amusement? Probably.. In my teens I guess I played games to appease my male friends, since being a girl sometimes you got left out sitting reading comics in the corner. This was a time where boys started to integrate with our group and had an influence on what we would do. So one day I thought fuck it and picked up the controller and never looked back.

In my early twenties I met a guy who was heavily into a little known game called World of Warcraft. In all honesty he was into ALOT of games, obsessed with getting 120% trophies on the ps3 etc. I sat by his side for many a year watching him play a variety of PC and console games. Some of which I thoroughly enjoyed. It wasn't until after 2 years he actually let me play WoW.. I wasn't all that bothered about it at first since we shared his PC so I was never on it for more than an hour at a time, he got tired of watching me play so would take over. Until I got my own laptop and my very own copy of the game.

Oh holy hell I was hooked.

I was so engrossed in the whole concept of this fantasical world. I based my final year dissertation on it. Yes. That's right kids. Social Identity and Online Gaming was what I based a year and a half's work on AND I got to play a game for social science! Cybersociology became my passion especially anything related to the medium of computer gaming and the notion of gender-swapping, mechanics of AI emotions, game addiction, online communities and gaming being a social group activity. I have been reading and collecting articles on each of these subjects that I will share with you in future.

This stems from when I lived with Trophy boy there was up to 5 different people living together in student accommodation and at some point two consoles or a pc combo would be hooked up to multiple TV's and monitors and someone would be playing a game: the whole house would join in. Trophy boy did open my eyes to a new world of gaming and the negative side too. The obsession. How there is a fine line between hardcore and health risk. Sadly we were not meant to be but if he ever reads this he would be pleased to know he has ruined me for any other man after him. And my prospective dating conversations.

Pic unrelated. Or is it? 

I had no idea you could get this perk. Sorry Moira.

Chances are, now, I have played or seen played every game released the past 5 years, know how to get all the trophies/achievements and can probably play the game better than you thanks to his training. Good times. Thanks man. 

I recently came across something about why girls feel the need to announce to the world that they are geeks, gamers, nerds etc. It's true we shouldn't feel the need to scream to the universe about the lives we lead, but we all have a voice and EVERYONE feels the need to express it. Isn't that all this is? Just to add another label to ourselves that isn't just “woman”. Some deeper socio-psychology going on there me thinks.

I quite possibly have been influenced more by the boys in my life than the women, when it comes to finding my likes and dislike in games, sci-fi, music etc. Some may say that leads to my lack of femininity or sensitivity to certain things, the tomboy from my teens showing through? Maybe. But the women of my life have influenced me in different ways. My mother was the one with the Spectrum remember? I will talk about some of these women in later articles.

Now I'm 24 I have the best of both worlds. I can quite happily sit with my male friend leading him through Resident Evil 5 one day and enjoying planning my cousin's Disney Princess wedding the next.

Don't get me wrong I still know all the words to Dirty Dancing, most of the choreography to the Spice Girls videos from the 90's and I like watching tat films for shits and giggles. Yeah so I didn't get a Gameboy and I didn't play Mario. So I've never completed a Final Fantasy game (there's a story behind that). Tough shite. I enjoyed the games I played, with my family, and yeah they weren't “hardcore” that doesn't mean I'm completely devoid of the gaming culture. Everyone starts off differently but they all end up playing Warcrack anyway.

Which brings me to next time...

A true life encounter

p.s i have no idea what is going on with the formatting :(