Wednesday 15 February 2012

Skyrim is a Girl's Toy

Skyrim-dragonborn

The writing of The Copper Promise part 2 continues pottering along on its own meandering course, so I thought today I’d do a little post about that other obsession of mine: videogames.

A great many hours have been spent in Skyrim recently. I shall briefly share the sort of info you traditionally have to bring up in any discussion of this game: I’m a female Nord with a leaning towards one-handed and two-handed weapons, destruction magic and conjuration. I’m also a werewolf, have been playing for approximately 95 hours and no, I’ve barely made a start on the main storyline yet.

Skyrim is an extraordinary game. What makes it so staggering, I think, is the sheer level of detail involved, and the real sense of exploration you get as you go wandering off around the map. You are frequently distracted from quests by mysterious looking paths that lead to secret dungeons, or you stumble across two mages having a tiff, and if you're not paying attention a dragon might swoop down on you from nowhere and chew on you for a bit. I have spent a ridiculous amount of time just making swords and enchanting them, and have now saved up enough coin to buy a big posh mansion in Solitude, which I'm gradually decorating…

It is, I realised the other day, the ultimate fantasy play-set. It’s like having a giant dollhouse, except the house is an entire land, and the dolls wear armour and have magical swords and go on adventures with werewolves and vampires. You can spend forever just accessorising, collecting spell books to go on your shelves, mucking about down the blacksmiths, crafting potions. And then if you feel like it you can pop out to kill the occasional dragon. In short, I love it. And how I wish I had an Unrelenting Force Shout of my very own…

2 comments:

  1. Tis an amazing piece of work. The dungeons and bandit lairs get a tad repetative though. Its like 'i've lost my book/son/staff/horn/amulet' 'i'll find it for you, where is it?' and its in some underground cave with some bandits, spiders and skeletons ... again. Which is why Zelda Skyward Sword wins it for me as the game of the moment.

    But don't get me wrong - its awesome and horrifically addictive. I'm a 21 level Imperial called Gorebeard George, about to join the Legion and the Theives Guild. My mage training is almost complete and I've bought a house in Whiterun. Now trying to find out how to get married....

    Amazing.

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  2. I'm with you honey! I'm one of those old-school D&Ders. I grew up reading works by Gary Gygax and Dragon Lance novels. From atari and through several systems...I've seen them come and go! This game rocks in more ways than one I'm here to tell you. At 41 years old, Ive seen great and Ive seen "why did I buy this??" Skyrim takes the cake and the icecream too!!

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