So I've spent the better part of the last three days playing in my new sandbox. It's shinier then the old sandbox, and they do love that water effect, don't they?

 

Don't get me wrong. I've also picked up the majority of my leaves (in two days 85% came down, then another 5%) changed the battery in my car, made that ice cream to use up the ingredients, had Dad over to see Dr Who and saw Grandma. The battery change was annoying, the holder it's in is very… weird. The ice cream needed more then 1tsp of mint, possibly 1tbs. And it's frozen solid like a rock again, so I'll really have to research something to keep it from freezing so hard. 

 

Got a bunch of calls, but that translated into only one day of work. Tomorrow. It'll be a quite busy day, but it's still only one day. Then putting in the hard drive for the dentist guy tuesday. Hope I have a good week, last week… forget about it.

 

So those not interested in my thoughts on Skyrim, you can safely and without remorse skip the rest of this entry.

 

Skyrim: Robert's Thoughts. Not in any order, by the way.

 

The first thing that jumped out at me was, "How do I sort my inventory?" Sorry, no way to do that. Very handy in Oblivion because I could see what heavy things I could get rid of at a glance. 

 

Stamina is supposed to influence carrying, but I got a necklace that increased stamina by 30 points and my carrying capacity didn't change. Odd.

 

No lockpick magic? I hate lock picking! And just reusing the Fallout 3 code? For shame, developers, for shame.

 

Everything kills me!!! I swear, I have been killed by more wildlife jumping out at me then in Oblivion. I hardly ever died in that game. But this one, it's like I'm made of paper, two hits and I go down! Now granted I was using a shirt of 50% faster magic recharge in place of armor, but I had helmets and boots and everything else. I have just found a piece of actual armor that has an enchantment I like, so maybe that won't be so much of an issue.

 

Where's the objective? All the general little "do this" sort of quests don't have markers, I wondered around trying to find out who to talk to about collecting a bounty, gave up. Couldn't find the guy. I finally found him, talking to him about something completely different. Sigh.

 

Dragons! I've killed… well zero actually. Other people killed two while I was around. Whenever I see one flying around I run the other way or duck into a building and they're gone awhile later. I'm just too fragile, and honestly, can a lone human really kill a dragon? No, I don't think so. And why am I killing them anyway? Just because they can fly and are scary? They have language, people. I.E. Sentient. Couldn't they be reasoned with and told not to attack human settlements? It's not like there isn't miles and miles and miles of empty space out there for them to live in. I'm going to try and win the game by killing as few as possible. Like, maybe my character doesn't want to be "dragonborn" and just wants to live life and doesn't want this power? That might be fun.

 

BUNNIES!

 

They took a page from fallout 3 all right, things seem much less clustered together. I couldn't walk five feet in Oblivion without tripping over a cave or a mine or a temple or whatever. Now it's just trees, trees, grass, SABER TOOTH TIGER! DEAD!

 

Why am I fighting three or four guys at once? Fair? No?

 

Enchanting: still not convinced. I have to destroy something to see how to put that some thing on something else? Huh? Someone can't just show me what to do? You can't describe the process verbally? I was reading forums on how to actually train this skill when I have to destroy very expensive items or use very hard to find soul gems (where do they come from, anyway?) but the advice was, just use the 8000 rings you find, with the smallest soul gems and a single enchantment, over and over. I guess that'll do. Made a ton of magic rings, now I just have to find someone with enough cash to sell them all to.

 

Shops don't have enough cash. I come back from adventuring with a full load, they're out of money before I gotten rid of half of it. Found out I could just wait a day and their money would magically be refilled.

 

The economy is totally broken. I can buy some iron ore, and using magic, transmute it into gold. Then make a ring out of the gold and sell it for a huge profit, all in about 3 minutes. Huh? Why can't I melt coins into gold? I can melt ore into gold, coins would be easier. After all, a coin is only worth "one gold" but a couple of gold coins turned into a ring is worth much, much more. 

 

Running water! Waterfalls! Arrows sticking straight up in water! Books spinning endlessly! WEEEEEEEEEEEE

 

Started the game trying to use a shield in one hand and a spell in the other, but that just didn't work out. Now I'm dual casting the world, baby. And I admit, going fireball right hand, fireball left hand, fireball right hand in a rhythm is pretty nice. Then both hands: FIREBALL!

 

Mountains! In. Front. Of. Where. You. Want. To. Go. No matter where you are, and what you want to go to, there's a huge piece of stone in the way. Guaranteed.

 

I was escorting this guy out of a cave and he just kind of… died. He was whining endlessly about how he shouldn't have come here, and suddenly he stopped. I went looking for him, finally found him, just dead, on his knees, inside a doorway. No enemies around. No traps. He was just dead. Bizarre. No one missed him or asked if he was alive. *sad*

 

Love the spell traps. Cast magic at a wall or floor, rune appears, enemy steps on it. BOOM. I use it in battle because it's so strong. I'm weird like that. And they fall for it every time. Who looks at the ground? Ha! Not them.

 

We just unearthed a huge, magically active, ancient artifact! What does it do? I have no idea! Let's put it right in the middle of our city! YES YOUR IDEA IS THE BEST.

 

I had just bought my "candlelight" spell I have to recast every minute which is very, very tiresome (because I can't enchant a ring of light, gurr, hiss, boo) and I wanted to try it out. So I step outside and cast it. Some guy to my right yells "hey, watch it with the magic!". Then a little girl walks by and looks at it. "Oh, pretty colors!" she exclaims. EPIC WIN! 

 

Oh, and if I go by the blacksmith's with a fire spell "equipped" she says "try not to set anything on fire". Wow. 

 

Actually kids! In the game! And they run everyplace! Kids! Amazing.

 

Went through this enormous quest through three, no four dungeons getting pieces of this necklace everyone was so scared of hundreds of years ago, "oh, if you want to enter here, think of the sacrifices made by the people who sealed it and honor their memory, and turn back." Wasn't even that great. I was like, what? This is what you guys went through so much trouble to seal away? Really? A necklace I've already replaced with something I like more? 

 

Controls: Thanks for explaining how to pick stuff up and move it, had to look online. Oh, hold the A button? Is that in the manual? No? Might want to include the controls in the manual!  

 

Did I mention I hate lock picking? So finicky. What, did the whole world just forget those spells existed or something?

 

Sprinting. Thank you.

 

I told my "guard" to wait in the house. When I got back to town I was told she was "tired of waiting" and "went back"… to the house. Ummm