Time for another YvoCaro Plays: as always, these are my unedited thoughts about the video games I’m playing. These thoughts just spring up in my mind, sometimes game related, sometimes they are not. It’s only fair to warn you that spoilers might be ahead!
Skyrim, for when I’m feeling happy enough
Do you experience moments in daily life when you feel as if you’ve taken all the negativity you can endure? It’s not like my life is filled with misery, on the contrary. I guess we all experience this when looking at the news nowadays. But the feeling can also be in smaller things. For instance, yesterday I drove home from work through a rural area, and I bypassed a truck filled with pigs. They joyfully stuck their nose through the side lattices, as if they were happy to go on this school trip. But I knew they were going off to slaughter, which made me sad. And contemplating whether I’d have to give up eating meat.
Why am I telling you this? Because when I’m in such a mood, I can’t make myself play Skyrim. Too dark and gloomy! For instance, I ‘did’ the Tomb of Ustengrav. That really gave me the creeps, I can assure you that exploring dungeons in Skyrim really means dungeons of the creepiest kind.
Sure enough, I’m getting the hang of the way the game plays by now. I’ve slayed my second dragon, which made me think of the books of James Barclay. Do you know his series of the merchant band The Raven? That was one impressive story to me. I’ve always loved reading about dragons in Fantasy novels, but the way Barclay incorporates them in the world of Balaia is special.
Dragons live in another dimension, and by accident, Khaan ends up in Balaia. By chance ( or is it fate?), he strikes up a friendship with Hirad Coldheart of the Raven, who is then tasked to close the dimensional rip to make sure no more dragons come true. All the while Khaan is majestic and you just feel the danger in him constantly. That’s the kind of dragons I see in Skyrim.
The hired help isn’t very helpful!
I have some company now, Lydia the Housecarl treks along with me. She comes in handy as in true Harvest Moon style, I kept picking up everything and anything to sell at a later date. Because that’s how I’m trained in gaming: gather all resources, you might need them at a later date!
So I was a veritable fat cheeked hamster by the time I was at the end of my first dungeon. The game kindly told me that I was too heavily loaded, that I wouldn’t be able to run anymore. Now what to do? I tried waddling to the next merchant to unload some stuff, which took quite some time!
When Lydia joined me, she could take some of the load of my back, which was nice. But I do have a complaint: when there’s fighting to be done along the way, she is nowhere to be seen. Always showing up late, at which time I have already slayed the enemy. I can tell you, that lady and I are going to have a good talk about that!
Giving the Sims one last try
For years I’ve watched my daughter play the Sims on her PC. And over the years I tried to “get into it” like she was. Tried the DS version, tried Sims Freeplay on Mobile. But somehow I just can’t get the hang of the game.
I was genuinely exited when news came of the release of The Sims Mobile. And it would be a version that was just as good as the PC version, so I felt this one was the one to change my opinion of the Sims.
It hasn’t. I did try, stuck with it for a couple of days. But I just can’t keep myself interested. I put my characters on long job hours for days. They attended parties and socialized. But to be honest, it all feels so aimless.
Did you play the game? What did you think? It didn’t keep my daughters attention either, which surprised me!
Te best thing about The Sims is building and decorating one’s house! I can do without the rest. I agree that it is pretty aimless!
Just how violent is Skyrim? In our country, it has an 18 age rating, but in Germany it’s 16. Opinions on its content are so split.
True. I must say I balked at the blood spatter when you attack somebody. There’s no sexual content, but based on the fighting alone and the gruesome dungeons I’d say it’s not for the faint hearted…
I’m surprised your daughter didn’t like The Sims Mobile very much, since you said she is a huge Sims fan! I haven’t tried it myself, because I don’t have much memory on my phone and my iPad is too old! Anyway, I do enjoy the Sims, but my favorite Sims game is The Urbz: Sims in the City on the Nintendo DS (I think it was on other platforms as well though). It was pretty entertaining because you actually followed a storyline!
It surprised me too, and in some way it was comforting. At least it wasn’t because I’ve never been able to get into the Sims that I didn’t like it, lol.