StaceyPowers

Okay, good to know, lol. It's one of the worst features I've ever encountered. I figure I'll just work on getting some kind of charm spell instead.

So far all I have is the skeleton you get when you start. It is hard to know what to spend money on, since it seems like there is a lot less loot in this game than in Skyrim, so I have just been saving up all my money aside from what I lose buying repair hammers.

I think I will grab one of those. It can get really hot in the room where I work because of where my window is positioned. I'm sure my laptop would appreciate the cooling pad whether I'm gaming on it or not. Are there any in particular you recommend, or are they all about the same?

@DylanC I forgot to tag you on this.

No, I didn't even know about them. Looks quite useful!

5 foot 5. Ultimate average. I don't know. I keep trying to figure out if 5 is average, and if so, what is average for swimming? Maybe I'm a 3? I escaped a rip tide once--without knowing what I was doing--so I must be adequate! Borderlands 3.

I was prejudiced against cats until I adopted one my neighbor abandoned. I thought they were horrible sadistic creatures. Now I think they are more curious and playful, but simply don't have any empathy for their "toys." I don't project malice on them by default anymore. As many as I can without removing balance from my other obligations.

I just started playing Oblivion. I am enjoying it so far, but it is the only other Elder Scrolls game I have played outside of Skyrim. And I can’t help but notice how many areas Skyrim advanced in significantly over Oblivion. But that has made me wonder in how many ways Oblivion pushed the envelope back when it was released. And then I wondered if Skyrim advanced more over Oblivion, or if Oblivion advanced more over its predecessor (Morrowind). For those who have played many open world games, especially sequentially in series, what open world game do you think made the most significant advances over preceding games in the same series and in other series at around the same timeframe? I mean in terms of graphics, gameplay mechanics, character writing and animation, menu design, etc. Anything and everything you can think of.

A friend recently told me that the original Starcraft is free now, like, officially free, direct from Blizzard. This is quite exciting to me, and made me wonder if there are other classic PC games that you can download for free? I don’t mean ones you can get from questionable sources—I’ve found adware packed in with those in the past. I mean free direct from the publisher.

If you are current on video games (unlike me with my ancient console), what is the best new game you have played in 2019 so far? By "new," I mean games that released either this year or late last year.

Any in particular you like? I lean pretty heavily on conjuration.

Not yet. why, is that a specific concern I should have?

So … I am totally flummoxed by the persuasion wheel mini-game in Elder Scrolls Oblivion. I’ve tried to find explanations online, and I kind of get the gist … but for the life of me, I can’t reliably get this thing to work. Can anyone provide a step-by-step explanation of what to do to get through it? I think maybe I just am not fast enough. Alternately, what are some ways I can work around having to do it at all? The entire mechanic irritates me, as I don’t see what it has to do with actual personal/persuading skills. It seems to me it is simply a puzzle where one must think ahead and move quickly. I don’t know what they were thinking when they put this in, but I assume they just hadn’t thought of a more logical way to make people like or dislike the player based on their actions. Perhaps at the time it came out, it was some kind of step forward. Anyway … help, lol. Nobody in this game will talk to me about anything.

I’ve been playing Elder Scrolls Oblivion for a little more than a week, and I’ve noticed that the game stutters a lot in certain locations, especially inside buildings that have several floors. It’s annoying, and it also worries me, as similar stuttering in Fallout NV is game-breaking on my PS3. Does anyone know anything about Oblivion stuttering on PS3 or what can be done about it? It doesn’t look like there are any graphical settings I can modify.

@kingpotato @The Blackangel I think I like the triangle as the jump key both because it was the first one I got used to, and because it's on top, so my brain goes, "Jump = go up = key that is located upward in the direction I want to go." And it is a triangle, which feels like a vector pointing up ... so it just feels logical to me.

@kingpotato I just realized that by default, I usually don't pick human, unless the stats or aesthetics for other species are annoying me. I think it's the "but I'm human IRL, how boring" thing for me. And often, humans are the majority/conquering/asshole race in a game, and I'd rather play the reasonable/oppressed/just-trying-to-live-my-life species.

When I looked up the specs, the answer I was getting was a "maybe." Thus why I figured I'd ask if anyone had real life experience with playing it on a low spec laptop :)

@kingpotato He actually irked me personality-wise, but when I learned more about what he was trying to do, I concluded that he really did care about his mission to save humanity. But I just couldn't bring myself to spare him.

@killamch89 Good point lol. @kingpotato What personal issue? =D I had kind of a funny moment with this the other night while playing Oblivion, which I recently started. I walked into a village and someone started a conversation with me, but I couldn't see him. I was right about to try and come up with an in-game explanation for why a glitch was making him invisible, when he announced to me, "I bet you are wondering why I am invisible." I was honestly shocked it wasn't a bug.

Just started Elder Scrolls Oblivion the other night. It’s easy to jump into being as I play Skyrim a lot, but I’m wondering if anyone has any useful starting tips (i.e. recommended quests, resources to stock up on, towns to visit first).

I started The Elder Scrolls: Oblivion for the first time a couple nights ago, and I’m kind of surprised by how beautiful the game world is even with the graphics being primitive in comparison to Skyrim. It’s not the first time I’ve been impressed with visuals on an older game, even after being spoiled by much more realistic graphics (and honestly, even Skyrim is starting to look really dated). It got me to thinking about factors besides graphical realism that make visuals in a game appealing. Like in Oblivion, I’d say the richness of the colors and the particular palette of colors feels really lush and soothing, especially at night. I think Dragon Age Origins also is visually beautiful despite primitive graphics—there I’d say it’s a combination of the geometric forms, the lighting, and something about the way the forms are angled. What are some factors which you think make a game visually stunning, even if the realism is low?

When you start a new video game and you are able to put together a character with a custom sex, race, appearance, name and so forth, how do you choose all these traits? Do you pick a character who looks like you (i.e. the same sex and race as you)? Do you choose one that looks different? Do you pick based on aesthetics? Do you choose based on in-game perks (i.e. Argonians breathing underwater in Skyrim, etc.)? Do you select based on how your choice might impact your in-game situations and choices? On my initial playthrough of a game, I often pick based on a combination of in-game perks and aesthetics. On future playthroughs, I tend to choose based on other considerations. I like to experience variety, so I usually won’t pick the same sex or race twice in a row, in case choosing differently leads to new experiences. I also might pick based on what I know about the game world. I.e. in Skyrim, on my second playthrough, I picked orc because I found their situation easy to identify with. I can’t play a Forsworn as that isn’t a faction option in the game, but the orcs seem to be in a similar social situation with their long-time presence in the land but subjugated status.

Awesome, thanks! You're the second person who thinks it'll work, so that's encouraging :)

This is a thread for sharing some real-world thing you learned by playing video games recently. It annoys me when people say that playing video games is a waste of time or keeps people (i.e. kids) from learning. For example, the other night I finally played through Vault 11 in Fallout: New Vegas. While looking up some clarifications on the story of the vault, I found out that the film that is played in the vault’s final room is a reference to the Milgram experiment IRL. This led me to reading up on that, thus teaching me more about history, psychology and experimental design. What have you learned about RL recently from playing a game?

Are there any quests you have never completed in games for reasons unrelated to bugs or boredom, but specifically because you didn’t like the choices offered? For example, right now I’m arguing with myself about finishing Veronica’s quest in Fallout NV. I’ll probably go through with it, but it’s hard to bring myself to bring the BOS destructive technology. I could see myself never completing it despite being very curious how it will turn out.