Among the Sleep Review

Among the Sleep Review

By: Steven Wallace

Follow me on Twitter: @Lethrface

In a world where we regularly associate “monsters” with hellish ghouls or otherworldly creatures that scare (or sometimes look sort of cute; Thanks Pixar), we forget about the monsters we face on a daily basis. Among the Sleep does a good idea to remind us this in an imaginary world from the mind of a child.

Among the Sleep's graphics are not groundbreaking but they get the job done. The Norwegian game developers, Krillbite Studios, created an atmospheric story that relied more on the stature and imagination of the protagonist than the detail and goriness of any monsters. Making use of the Unity engine, the visual effects to more to enhance the overall feeling of the otherwise low-poly models. The characters themselves almost look like something out of a Disney/Pixar movie, which isn't entirely a bad thing.  The character you play also seems to be well designed as you will see from the shadows on the walls and the floors as this toddler you play as waddles around, and when you look down, you can see the childs hands moving around and trying to pick his bellybutton through his onesie, which is an awesome departure from most first-person games where you look down and you have no legs.

The game itself plays out a lot like Amnesia and you will spend the entire time collecting puzzle pieces to complete a larger puzzle and interacting with the environment while trying to avoid coming in contact with that level's fearsome monster. The goal for each level is to get to the memory of your mother and collect the object her memory is holding so that you may return to the hub, which appears to be a child's playhouse, and insert the object into a machine that will unlock the next level with the help of your teddy bear, who seems to be alive in this game and is the source of most of the games dialog, seeing as your character is only an infant and the most noises it makes is gasps, sighs and breathing with the occasional scream and crying if things don't quite go right.

To further the discussion of gameplay, there were a few gripes that I did have with it.  In one or two areas, where you are forced to climb over objects to move on in the world, it almost felt like you had to enter a secret code to climb.  You had to find the precise angle at which to stand and look to climb up onto whatever object you were trying to climb onto and that actually ended up causing me to be stuck in a section on a later level for at least 15 minutes; I assume this issue is more of a collision-box issue than anything else, though.  Accompanied by minor flaws like that, I admittedly feel that there are far too many hiding places in my opinion, though.  In one area, you are tasked with escaping a creature in a library and you can practically move from one spot to another just by crawling under bookcases.  There were even moments when you didn't even have to hide and could stand right out in the open and look away and the monster wouldn't even come toward you.  That kind of killed the hiding aspect for me, but that isn't to say that you won't have to hide, as if you do get caught, you will be forced to continue from the start of that area after coming face-to-face with the horrifying visage that your imagination created.

In total, this game lasts about 3 hours and spans 4 different levels, the first one being your own home where things aren't quite as it seems. In the beginning, you are given typical tutorial but it seems to breath life into the game by having you do things in your room until you pull your teddy bear out of your toybox and are told how to pause the game (which involves covering your eyes with your hands) and being told to enter your closet and hold him close so that he lights up the environment around you, which doesn't provide much solace in this game but it does allow you to see in the ever-increasing darkness in the game. After the tutorial, you are put to bed by a seemingly loving mother who seems to be putting you to bed in almost full daylight telling you that all of the other boys and girls of the world are going to sleep and are waiting for you in the dreamworld so that you can all play. This led to my girlfriend and I to make jokes about how this woman must be trying to get ready to go to happy-hour to “get her drink on,” though we didn't know how close to the truth we were until much later in the game.

As I mentioned in the beginning of this review, this game focuses on monsters that we face on a daily basis. The hints are all there throughout the game, in the form of bottles that appear to be alcohol (and a lack of food in the refrigerator in the beginning). When we inspected every cabinet in the kitchen, we didn't find cleaning supplies or any cans of food or even a bag of flower; all we found were bottles. Through the games environments, you will see pictures scribbled by a child that range from really happy to nearly creepy, as if it came from the mind of a mentally damaged child. On the walls, you will see what appears to be pictures of a child hiding from a monster under tables or chairs or even being held up in the air by what appears to be an adult and almost handed over to a monster. This game provides foreshadowing to it's fullest without outright spoiling the ending for you and by the time you find mother, you almost wish you hadn't because you start to see all of your questions and assumptions come together. In total, the writing is phenomenal.

The audio in this game is very well done. There was very little music and when you heard it, you knew something was coming after you or nearby and that was typically accompanied by an almost mind-numbingly tense static which almost reminded me of the sound I have heard in my head before when I've clenched my jaw, closed my eyes and plugged my ears as a child when I was frightened, so this was a very intense noise that added to the immersion to the game. The voice-acting was very well done and your teddy bear really comes across as a friend that even, as an adult, I would love to have. I would even go so far as to say the mother was voiced very well, and in the moments you do come across her memories, you almost feel like this is mom you would have always wanted, sounding genuinely loving and even playful.

This game plays well in most occasions but has some rather large issues to deal with, particularly closer to the end of the game. At one point, I had almost rage-quit the game because I had found a rather game-breaking bug where a moving platform would not move as it should which ended in multiple deaths. Upon being respawned into the world, we are greeted with the screen static that is associated with the fearsome monsters in this imaginary world, though none were around, and it wouldn't go away until we traveled back toward the broken puzzle. It had required a reload of the game at the last checkpoint to fix the bug, so it didn't completely hinder our progress, especially since the checkpoint was still rather close-by. The final level of the game almost felt as if it was rushed to be completed by deadline because of this. This wasn't the only bug that was noticed either as at some points, if you are required to replay a section due to “death,” you will sometimes see sections of the world right in front of you do not properly load and you are forced to walk closer to that portion of the world to get it to fully load, which can lead to you quite possibly getting yourself one-step closer to getting caught by a monster for a second time. Bugs like these are huge and rather frustrating to deal with and there were moments where I handed the controller to my girlfriend so she could play a bit and so that I could step away from the game and just watch, feeling slight anger toward the game as a whole.

Let's face it, this game is not perfect. The graphics aren't the most amazing you will ever see, and it is almost expected being that it is an indie game that was lovingly funded through Kickstarter and it is filled with bugs and frustrating situations which will require you to take a step away before coming back to the game to find your mother. The subtle storytelling made up for the frustrations, however, and kept me playing through to find out what was really going on and in the end, I was rather pleased with the game and the direction they took. I think that there will be a few patches required to solve most of the major bugs but I do think I would recommend this game to almost anyone; the message behind the story is a serious one that I think everyone should see and experience and since the game also has Oculus Rift support, that makes this game a very good choice if you want a full Oculus Rift experience.

Pros:

• Graphics breathe life into the imagination of a child, creating sometimes Alice in Wonderland styled environments.
• The storytelling is done subtly to allow you to try to use your imagination and make sense of this world and why an infant would be subjected to it and has a true meaning behind it other than "let's make a scary game where you play as a child!"
• The controls are rather simple and easy for anyone to jump in and start playing.
• The sound in this game truly adds to immersion into the game.

Cons:

• Gamebreaking glitches cause problems even for the most patient gamer.
• Too many places to hide almost take away from the fear that you get from the enemies and at times, you can almost stand out in the open and just look away and they wont harm you.
• Sometimes, trying to climb over an obstacle isn't possible unless you position yourself at just the right angle, pat your head and rub your belly.

Rating:

7/10

The Elder Scrolls Online Review

The Elder Scrolls Online Review

By: Steven Wallace

Follow me on Twitter: @Lethrface

The gaming industry is filled with MMOs that seem to all follow the same cookie-cutter concepts. Many of the MMORPGs on the market are a standard tab-target affair and each one seems to try to be the next WoW killer while fearing to stray too far away from what makes the game the success that it is. For the last few years, I have been waiting for an game to come out that will give me the fun combat of a console game and the complexity and online fun of an MMORPG. I have tried games like TERA, Guild Wars 2 and even Neverwinter, but none of them were exactly what I was looking for. Upon hearing about The Elder Scrolls online, I was concerned but I had hope and luckily, it came out as what I had wanted and more.

First, let's discuss what this game is not. The Elder Scrolls Online is not an MMORPG that will force you into group quests. Any of the events in the game that happen in the open world that “require” a group are completely optional, though there is a great sense of fulfillment when you destroy your first Dark Anchor, either solo or in a group. You can go through this game by yourself and enjoy it just as you would any of the other The Elder Scrolls games. Another thing about this game is there isn't a huge emphasis on endgame raiding as most cookie-cutter MMOs are. Currently, the large-scale group content lies in the open world events and the Player vs. Player content. This may change in the future and there are many things being planned for the future, such as the introduction of the Thieves guild and the Dark Brotherhood, which are not currently present in the game.

With that information aside, let's talk about the things that make this game really shine. As I had previously mentioned, when there was an official announcement that Bethesda/Zenimax were working on The Elder Scrolls Online, I was concerned that it wouldn't feel like any of the other games of the series. Luckily, the game blends MMORPG elements with the standard Elder Scrolls gameplay that people have come to expect. There are no auto-attacks and waiting for cooldowns on an actionbar. You are in full control of your character. You will find yourself swinging your swords and raising your shield to block attacks and at the same time, you will have an actionbar that you will use for your spells. On this actionbar, you will have one button for a consumable item (and if you hold that button down, you have access to the items you have added to the quickslot menu through your inventory so you can swap the items for what you need at that moment), five spells and one more for an Ultimate ability. I could speak at length about the combat system and get into the nitty-gritty of it all but I wont for now.

Moving on, one of the major departures from the series is the inventory. Zenimax chose this time around to not use a weight system. No more will you be walking around and picking up every item that you come across until your bags are loaded down so much that you are walking at a snails-pace across the world without the luxury of a fast-travel. Instead, your characters will start out with a set 60 inventory slots for you to loot with and as you earn money, you can purchase more space. You are also offered bank-space where you can store your excess goods, which is also upgradable and starts at 60 spaces, but I must note that the bank is account-wide so these bank spaces are shared among your characters. This will be a good thing in the fact you can share items among characters easily but on the other hand, you will have to be careful of what you keep because it will hurt if you are a packrat like myself. Your horse will provide you with a way to upgrade your inventory as well, some of them having a higher max-capacity than others and these inventory spaces will just simply be added to your inventory.

The questing in Elder Scrolls will feel very familiar to those familiar with the series. There is no major quest hubs but rather you will find quests all over the world and a lot of them will require you to actively explore. The game will not hold your hand the entire way and will also require you to pay attention to what the NPCs say. I had previously written up an article about my first 24 hours in the game and had mentioned that the game suffers at the beginning because it doesn't tell you where you should go first to get started if you are a new player and I was wrong simply because I hadn't paid attention. I assumed that I had heard the same dialog before and would not need to go through it again, however upon creating another character, I found the exact person to speak with to get me started on my journey simply because I listened to what I was being told. Sorry, typical MMO players; You will have to pay attention to quest dialog, but that is all a part of the fun of the Elder Scrolls games. If you aren't a fan of the story, this may not be a game for you. One of the draws to the dialog in the game is that it is fully voice-acted. Every NPC you interact with in the game will speak to you and you will be given choices to respond with as with the other games of the series. After speaking with the NPCs, you will locate your quest objectives with the stylized arrows that Skyrim had, guiding you in and out doors or other locations as well as arrows on your worldmap, which will show the quest objectives for your current active quest with a white arrow and black arrows representing your other current quests in your journal.

Of course, what would questing be in an Elder Scrolls game without a fast-travel option? Fast-travel is present in this game but it makes use of way-shrines to get where you want to go. The use of way-shrines to get from place to place is free but you have the option to fast-travel from anywhere in the world to the way-shrine of your choice at the cost of some gold. You will start at a minimum gold-cost to go from one place to another but if you travel away from the shrine you arrived at and decide to fast-travel again without the aid of a way-shrine, you will be presented with the option to travel again at a higher cost unless you wait a while for the cost to go back down or travel to the nearest way-shrine to fast-travel. Needless to say, by foot or horseback will be the preferred method for travel across Tamriel in most cases, if only to get to the nearest way-shrine.

The biggest accomplishment with the quests is that it doesn't always feel like a typical “go here and collect this many of this item” type of thing. Many times, the gathering quests are only a smaller portion of an overall quest and the quest updates in steps as you hit each objective. In one quest, the first objective of mine was to collect a flash-potion from a desk in a barracks just upstairs from the quest-giver and upon grabbing them, the second objective came up telling me to go outside and use them on the bodies of some dead soldiers to find and slay 5 enemies. After that was done, the next objective came up to go investigate a house and it just kept going from there. It really felt like I was tasked with something important by the end and not just getting the ingredients for some random NPC (that I could care less about) so they can make their famous applesauce.

One of the most exciting things in The Elder Scrolls Online for me is the Player vs. Player combat in Cyrodil. Many who know me know that when it comes to games, I am not a huge PvP fan. PvP for me has always felt like a “epeen” contest with a clear beginning and a clear ending, usually ending in a sore-winner and even more sore-losers. The PvP in games don't really draw me in and don't feel like they have any long-term affects to how the game plays outside of earning cool items that I can live without or whatever and it never really feels like a real war; It usually just feels like a team sport. In The Elder Scrolls Online, the PvP combat truly feels like a war. In Cyrodil, your Alliance is fighting for control of the land. You will be left to freely form groups with players within the zone from your faction (or go alone, though not recommended) to take over keeps and the resources surrounding it, such as farms and mines. While you are taking over keeps, you will use siege weapons to knock down walls and ram down doors and once you gain entrance, your Alliance is free to swarm the keep and take it over. After taking over the keeps, you can then either hang back to help repair the keep or move on with your fellow players to take over the other enemy-controlled territories. Your character is instantly boosted to 50 when you enter Cyrodil but you still retain your level so while you are in this zone, you will find quests and non-player enemies to deal with and each of these will aid you in leveling your character, allowing you to work toward leveling up even while PvPing. To enter Cyrodil, you must first reach level 10. Once you reach level 10, you have the option in your menu to select a home campaign. The home campaign is the campaign you will primarily play on while you have the option to guest in other campaigns should some friends of yours choose a different campaign to play on and you are free to change your home campaign at any time. The first time you wish to change your campaign is free but any subsequent changes will cost Alliance Points (the currency earned in Cyrodil for participating in activities such as taking keeps) or gold. This requirement is to prevent people from changing from a losing campaign to a winning one and promote more teamwork with your fellow players in the campaign to take objectives. You are limited to which campaigns you can choose only based on your Alliance you chose. If you created an Ebonheart Pact character and decided you would like to have a Daggerfall Covenant character, the two characters can not be on the same campaign; This is to prevent spying on the opposite faction.

Guilds in this game are account-wide, allowing you to join up to 5 and be a GM of only one. The guilds have an alliance associated with them to allow for guilds to take part in PvP and earn PvP bonuses. If you are playing on a Daggerfall Covenant character in an Ebonheart Pact associated guild, you will find you are unable to make use of their bonuses earned from keeps held by that faction. Guilds also provide you with a guild bank and the ability to sell items in a store. Guilds have what is called a Guild Store that you can place items in to sell to other guild members, much like an Auction House in most current MMO games. With the lack of a way to sell items outside of sending mail and the Guild Store, many people have chosen to create market guilds that allow many people to join and just simply make use of the Guild Store so that they may sell the items they come across or craft.

Lastly, the crafting in this game is phenomenal. You are provided the ability to use every profession in the game from the get-go. Provisioning is the profession used for cooking food and brewing drinks, woodworking is used for creating bows, staves and shields, and then you have the standard enchanting, alchemy, blacksmithing and clothing professions. Blacksmithing is rather self explanatory. It is the profession that allows you to craft the bulk of your weapons and heavy armor. Clothing stations allow you to create cloth and medium armor, alchemy allows you to create potions from the herbs and solvents you find in the world and enchanting allows you to create enchants for your armor and weapons. It is important to note that the enchants are not applied directly to the item. You create enchants using runestones found in the world, much like the different kinds of wood, herbs, and metals, and that enchant can be traded among your characters or other players. That enchant can then be used on the gear associated with the enchant's type, which is either jewelry, weapon or armor enchants. If you have any experience with World of Warcraft, you can compare it to putting an enchant on an enchanting vellum and trading that enchant with other players.

Where crafting shines the most is the complexity and that is why it gets a paragraph all on it's own. For the armor and weapon professions, you start out with a base item. You choose how much of the base material you wish to put toward it (such as iron) in order to increase the level of the item and then you choose the style. Styles are based on race. For example, a Nord can create armor that is styled after Redguard armor. In order to learn these styles, you must find or trade specific books that relate to that race called Racial Motifs. Once you have found and used these books, that style will be available to you when you visit a crafting station. When you are choosing your style, it will require a style material to craft that, which can usually be found at a vendor nearby or received through deconstructing items. Materials such as Adamantite for Altmer or Bone for Bosmer styled armors would be examples of Style Material that you would use for these items. On top of choosing the level of the item and the style, you then can choose what kind of trait the item has. Traits are learned through research. When you find a piece of gear with a trait in the world (not referring to an enchant, as any one item can have a trait and an enchant), you can take it to the crafting station associated with that item and select the option to research that trait. You may only research one trait at a time for that profession and it takes 6 hours for the research to complete and that item is destroyed in the process. Going back to the actual crafting, however, once you have selected the level, the style and the trait, you have created your item and are ready for the next step in the process, should you choose to do so. You may increase the quality of your gear with materials gained from deconstructing items or found in the world. Improving your gear increases it's stats but has a chance to fail and destroy the gear. Each of these items used to improve your gear gives you a 20% chance to improve the gear and you can use up to 5 of them to give you a 100% chance if you don't want to risk destroying it.

In all, this game is worth giving a chance, if anything just to experience another time-period in the Elder Scrolls history. It is not a free to play game so you will be required to pay for a subscription much like many MMOs on the market, but with a subscription, we will be seeing many content updates and it gives us a great option for a game that doesn't follow the standard MMORPG cookie-cutter game. The game is not without it's flaws but it more than makes up for them in the amount of content you can experience. From the massive-scale PvP zone, the questing and exploration to the deep crafting system, you can keep yourself busy and it is not difficult to find something fun to do, no matter what kind of player you are. The game will not hold your hand and it is highly suggested you search for guides for crafting and other aspects of the game before you venture too far into the content, but from my personal experience, you will always find someone who is willing to take you aside and show you a thing or two if you ask the right questions. Whether you are looking for a fun action-combat MMORPG or are an Elder Scrolls fanatic, this game will surely suck you in if you give it a chance to and that is exactly why this game has earned a special place in my heart (and on both of my computers).

Pros:

• Deep Crafting System
• Intense massive-scale Player versus Player combat
• Fully voice-acted quests and story
• Large world to explore and many quests to find
• Combat is very action-oriented and feels smooth

Cons:

• Lack of Auction House leads to need to join a market-guild to sell without spamming zone chat to sell items.
• No player-housing (as of writing of this review)
• Shared bank-space is a gift and a curse with only 60 spaces before upgrading.
• Subscription may lead to preventing some from giving this game a chance
• Some bugs preventing quest progress, though most seem to be getting fixed frequently.

Rating:

8/10

My first 24 hours in Tamriel

First thoughts on The Elder Scrolls Online
By: Steven Wallace

Within my first 24 hours of played time in The Elder Scrolls Online, I have taken the time to learn about this new world of Tamriel, re-imagined beautifully in an MMO setting. The game is not without it's flaws and some of the current bugs are immersion breaking, but the game sucks you right back in with it's fun combat system and it's emphasis on story in fully voice-acted dialog, in true Elder Scrolls style.

When I first entered the world as the Soulless One (the protagonist of the game; your avatar), it immediately felt like a typical Elder Scrolls game introduction: you are a prisoner and you are about to be freed. The tutorial area is a place called Coldharbour, the plane of Oblivion associated with Molag Bal, the Daedric Prince of domination and enslavement of mortals. You escape during a revolt from the soul shriven captives after a visit from the Prophet, a blind old man who will lead you through much of your game. You are taught the essentials of combat and some basic user-interface features as well as presented with the basic gist of what you are in for in terms of storytelling. The environment really looks awesome to me, considering I have always been a fan of mixing really cold, hard colors with minimal lighting cast from torches and furnaces. The attention to detail made this very linear tutorial area feel amazingly wide open, especially considering the numerous lootable objects are scattered about just like a typical Elder Scrolls game.

After exiting the tutorial area however, I felt lost. It felt as if I had skipped some content. The reason for this is because I played in the beta later in the year last year and after leaving Coldharbour, my Nord's next area was waking up in a room in Bleakrock. This area gives you a little more experience with the combat system and practice dodging and blocking enemies special attacks as well as a chance to experience one of the games first major choices: find all of the lost villagers or suggest that they leave immediately. I have personally not seen too much how your choices impact the story as a whole yet, however with some studying around the internet, I have read where these choices do have long-lasting impact on your game experience and am excited to see how this plays out. During my time on this island, I have saved villagers from being frozen in ice, being trapped in a hardened spider “cacoon,” I suppose, and even infiltrated a bandit hideout. One thing that is made apparent in this game and that The Elder Scrolls Online will not hold your hand.

Now, I will backtrack a little to right when my character woke up this time around. When I said that I felt a little lost, this is only simply because the game does not hold your hand and tell you where you need to go. The moment I left the house, I found myself in Davon's Watch, one of the major locations in Morrowind and your first hubs which houses a Mages Guild, Fighters Guild and all of the major vendors and crafting locations as well as banks and quests. When you leave the area, it feels like the enemies surrounding Davon's Watch are far beyond where you are. I knew that for whatever reason, Zenimax had decided to place your character here so I spent some time wandering to find someone to take me to Bleakrock so that I can begin my adventure in a more level-appropriate area. This change from the earlier beta slightly disturbs me in only the fact that it may create an invisible barrier for new players who did not have the opportunity to join in on the beta like I had. In fact, a good friend of mine created a character the other night and was wandering around aimlessly, getting killed by wolves and other hostile enemies until I took him under my wing and walked him around Davon's Watch so I could provide him with a little guidance and point him at the person he would need to speak to to travel to Bleakrock. After he was given this advice, he finally had an idea of a good starting point and was able to begin his adventure and learn more about how this game plays.

Let's not take this as I do not appreciate that the game does not hold your hand, however. I enjoy the adventuring aspect. You can literally run around and discover new locations and find quests scattered about from people in need, militias and major players in the wars against the Daedra. The non-linear feeling of the world truly makes this feel like an adventure and a typical Elder Scrolls game and not just a theme-park MMO.

The combat system is almost exactly the kind of action-combat system that I have been wanting in an MMO for the last few years. The combat system is a solid mix of Elder Scrolls action with a typical MMO action bar, giving you access to more abilities and actions than you would in a regular Elder Scrolls title (considering the lack of pausing to assign magicka abilities, this feels like it is only necessary). Playing as a Dragon Knight, I find myself swinging my sword more often than using my abilities and this feels great, knowing that I'm not just hitting tab and auto-attacking and pressing a few hotkeys. If they had made this game a standard tab-target game, I would have passed on this game; luckily they didn't do that and they have created an MMO with the kind of combat that I have been dreaming of for a very long time. Even Guild Wars 2 left me feeling like it was a just a typical tab-target affair, even though we were promised more action. This game seems to do it right. My only gripe is that with how fast the combat is, you need to prepare your items beforehand and decide whether you want to assign a healing potion or magicka potion to your Q button or you might end up in a tough spot and holding Q to access the radial menu for these items while in combat can sometimes lead to a quick death.

While exploring the world, you will find many players thanks to the fact that the servers in the game are Megaservers. These servers are split into phases, likely to promote a smooth and bandwidth friendly experience for the player, giving the player less things to load on their screen and less information to transmit to and from the servers. The phases can often be used as a utility by players to switch between the phases to complete quests should an area be too populated, or in a worst-case scenario, if the quest is bugged in one phase. This may also require you to make use of the phasing mechanic to join a friend in the world however, as when you join a group with each other, it does not automatically place you in the same phase as your friend, but that is as simple as right-clicking your friend's name and clicking the “Go to player” option, which will teleport you to the nearest wayshrine to your friend and you will be in the same phase. There was one bug that I had noticed where you will see the arrow on the screen of where your friend is and when you begin to approach, the arrow will disappear and you will find that the waypoints on your map indicate that your friend is outside of the area you are currently in, even if that isn't the case.

Despite there being an abundance of players that may be in your general area, there is still a fairness in gathering items in the world. A lot of the lootable objects and gathering notes are phased for your character only and even if you see a player running toward that object, you will have an opportunity to gather from that node as well. This isn't the case with all of the nodes but for the most part, you will not miss out on much at the hands of a vulture, waiting for someone to run out to attack an enemy to leave an opening for them to gather the iron laying nearby. On that note, all of the enemies in the world provide experience and loot to the players. The mobs are not tagged to an individual; you have just as much to gain from an enemy that another player has initiated combat with first as they do so this adds a level of cooperation among the players once they realize this and that is completely refreshing to see in a game, particularly when it comes to the named enemies that are quest objectives.

Being that this is a new game, I am still coming across new things that blow my mind. In this game, Zenimax opted to ditch the weight system used in the Elder Scrolls games in favor of an item limit and at first, this seems very limiting when you first start out. Sorry to all those folks out there who like to gather all of the items you can find in the world and sell them to vendors; that just will not happen in this game. You start out with an initial limit of 60 items that you can hold on your character at one time but this can be upgraded in multiple ways. One way that you may upgrade this is by visiting a merchant that will give you more pack-space for an initial cost of 400 gold with each upgrade after that increasing in cost dramatically. With some research, I have found you can upgrade your inventory space to a total of 110 in this way. Another way to increase your carrying capacity is by purchasing a horse. The lower end horses will start with 0 capacity where the Draft Horse starts with an initial 10 capacity, which is an extra 10 inventory slots for you to carry your precious items. You can upgrade the capacity of the horses a total of 10 times, each upgrade giving you one extra inventory slot, making the Draft Horse currently the most valuable horse for the typical pack-rat Elder Scrolls player. This method of adding inventory space will require a total of 41 days if you feed your horse every day or more if you are a more casual player.

All of this considering, this is pretty much as close to the perfect online Elder Scrolls game we could have asked for from my first 24 hours of playing. Everything that is in an Elder Scrolls game is there minus the player housing (which we will hopefully see in a future update), and aside from the bugs that are currently present, the only concern I have is the lack of a clear place to start. Bugs can be fixed and patched out over time and the game has just been released so it is to be expected for unexpected bugs to pop up, especially from a programmer's view, where sometimes even the slightest change of code can cause some broken scripts in a different location, but without a clear place to start, you are risking botching the story progression of the game. I do not expect Zenimax to hold our hands through the game but I do feel that you should make sure your players know where they can start should they need that introduction outside of the tutorial area and then slowly let the player begin going off on their own should they choose to. For example, when following the Bleakrock questline off the island and onto the mainland led to an important decision which involved choosing to either help a band of soldiers defend some docks from approaching enemy forces or go to a fort which was temporary shelter for the families of those soldiers and protect them from the enemy. Each decision had their repercussions and it gave you a real sense of how vulnerable your world really was and introduces you to the fact that you will be making some very tough decisions for the good of all.

In closing, I have found my first 24 hours in The Elder Scrolls Online to be very enjoyable and I am still having fun engaging in the lore, exploring, helping the residents of Tamriel in sometimes seemingly menial tasks and learning every thing that I can. The Elder Scrolls Online has had possibly one of the smoothest MMO launches I have seen despite the minor bugs and seemingly random maintenances, and I am currently quite pleased with what the game has turned into and look forward to entering the PvP content, which is very strange for me considering I typically do not like PvP in games. I am more than willing to give this game a fair chance over the next few months and see how things play out because if what we have now is any indication, we are in for a hell of a game. If you are on the fence about the game, I strongly suggest watching some live-streams or visit a friend who may have a copy and try it out yourself. In the next few months, I will be putting together some guides and other articles about the game and I encourage you to keep an eye out for it. I also plan on doing some live-streams of the game so if you are interested, you can follow me on twitch with the link below and the moment I begin streaming, please stop by.

http://www.twitch.tv/lethrface13

Grand Theft Auto 5 is More Realistic than It Seems

So today I have been laying in bed sick.  During this time, it is rough to sit up and do anything other than watch TV or sit back with a controller in my hands playing a console game.  Since Saturday, I have been playing Grand Theft Auto 5 as I was finally able to purchase this (a week after launch).  While playing the game, I happened to notice quite a few things that struck me as closer to real life than I expected from this game.

Firstly, let's talk about the general politics that are present in the game, be it discussed or alluded to.  First off, we have Debt Ceiling talks on the radio.  The conversations regarding the "Debt Ceiling" kind of make you think "what if" a lot if you really listen to it.  Yeah, it's made comedic by the radio host's display of ignorance (talking about how he likes ceilings and he likes to stare at ceilings all day, even mentioning the ceiling tiles that you can push up etc.) but he makes valid points regarding the "Debt Ceiling" which I really wont get into here (I'm not a fan of discussing politics on the internet).  Just the discussion itself brought me back to the real world, re-evaluating everything I was thinking politically.

Moving on, I'm going to briefly mention that a couple years back I used to drive a tow-truck.  In GTA5, you have the option to do side-missions where you drive and operate a Tow Truck to help out a "friend" (despite the lack of state licensing) and in true GTA style, the situations are a parody of our society.  In one of these side-missions, you receive a text from the girl who sends you on these missions asking you to pick up a car that broke down.  Not much information is given but once you hop in the truck and begin to drive off, you are told where the person is so you are then on your way.  Upon arriving, you are greeted by a not-so pleasant customer who is stating how long he had to wait and how that is poor service, to no fault of your own, mind you.  Your character then offers the man that he can either walk or shut up and the customer tries to justify his statement with "well its no fault of yours, its your bosses" and continues to talk about how he keeps writing his complaints, referring to what seems to me likely a yelp.com type of place where people write their seemingly overly-entitled complaints and review the company, talking about how they will never shop or use some companies services again (which in my honest opinion, websites like these only serve to create a community of whiny, self-important bitches with only a few honest, thought provoking and helpful users to really make the website worth looking at).  As you can tell of my opinion regarding yelp and sites similar, I've got a real problem with things like that and this non-playable character in this game really made me laugh at how the main character reacted to it, almost as if Rockstar Games think about this consumer oriented society the same way that I do.

Now, don't think that I'm trashing on people because they feel entitled to something because justifiably, some people are.  If you order a sandwich with lettuce and it has no lettuce, dammit that company better make it right.  If you call up your cable company and ask them to trim the trees around a cable line and get told no, don't go online to complain about how your cable company doesn't care about their customers.  That tree is your property and your responsibility.

Of course, here I am rambling.  I've got strong opinions, what can I say!  Regardless, these were a couple things that hit me when I was playing it and thought I would share it.  The next time you play Grand Theft Auto 5, really sit and read the signs and listen to the dialog all around you on the radio or even random non-playable characters.  You will hear talk about all sorts of things that will really make you think.  This game is truly a parody of our American society and may make you think.

RIFT Hellbug Mount Rant

At the beginning of this month, Trion advertised that if you purchase Defiance, you can get a free Hellbug mount and five dollars of in-game credit.  Upon seeing this, I was excited.  I purchased two copies of Defiance, one for Xbox and the other one for PC within the first couple months of launch and I thought to myself, based on the instructions for the PC version, I might be able to redeem that copy for a Hellbug mount on my own!  Sure, the article said "purchase," but surely they would allow those who have owned each game already the chance to have an awesome new mount!

With these thoughts in mind, I went to the link provided in the article (a riftgame.com url) to redeem the key and it told me I had already redeemed this key.  "Odd," I thought.  At this point, I went searching online for the answers.  At first, I came across this post:

http://www.riftgame.com/en/defiance/
If you were thinking about purchasing another copy of defiance to get the hellbug mount and gun transmog for Rift. Don't. Not yet at least.
We were informed on the live stream that you can add the code to your account if you already own defiance, well I found out on the Rift forum that this is not the case and people cannot redeem the code if they already own the game.
So I thought I'd let our defiance players know if they decided to take part in this promotion. I almost did, glad I waited.
(http://forums.defiance.com/showthread.php?132786-Hellbug-mount-rift-promo-do-not-buy-another-copy-if-you-already-own-defiance.)

This thread gave me a renewed hope so I tried it again, thinking maybe I typed it wrong.  Again, it told me I had already redeemed the key.  "This isn't right," I thought to myself, going back on the search for answers.  This time, I found a response from Daglar!

This promo is only for boxed copies and during the time frame of the promo, not previous sales.
~Daglar  

Feeling defeated by this, I realized I still have one more copy of Defiance I could buy to get this awesome steed but would it be worth it?

Now, allow me to stand on a soapbox for just a moment as I vent and try to shed some light on why this is an annoying situation.  Firstly, Rift is a game I have owned since within the first year of it coming out (sure, I'm not an alpha player or cannot boast that I have played it since launch because frankly, I just did not have the money to throw into gaming at the time).  When I started playing it, I was already hooked.  Of course, being as busy as I was looking for a job, I didn't get much time to play it and eventually just stopped playing all together.

Fast forward to the beginning of the year, I'm working at an awesome new job with great benefits and I do have time to play, at home and at work.  It is a glorious time!  I install RIFT and suddenly I'm hooked again! Naturally, the talk of a futuristic MMO that involved shooting things and no tab targeting swept around the world and I caught my first glimpse of Defiance.  Knowing how well Trion did with RIFT, I was certain Defiance would be a great game, especially since it had a television show to be played alongside.  It was an amazing concept.  I entered the Beta for Defiance and couldn't get enough of it.  Being a fan of Trion's work, I ordered my copy.

I feel entitled to the right to have my hellbug mount!  I have put my hard earned money into not only the purchases of these products but I have also paid my subscription to RIFT before it even went Free to Play!  Why should I buy a copy of a game on a console that I won't even play it on?  Sure, I've got the console so that's not an issue but why would I want to buy it again?!

Is this the feeling that I should have?  Probably not, but as a consumer, I do.  I feel disgusted for even having these thoughts.  This same entitlement I face every day at work, doing my best to please some people who are impossible to be pleased.

The simple fact of the matter is giveaways come and go and promotions are created for a reason.  Defiance, a great game on it's own, has had a rocky start.  I would not say the game is dying because it isn't.  The studio has seen it's share of cuts but it was mostly parts of the team that were necessary for initial development, not long-term upkeep and content design.  The game has its flaws that turn away some newer players but for those who enjoy a game like this, they tend to look past the flaws.

This promotion is a marketing campaign.  They aren't aiming this at those of us who have invested time into Defiance and RIFT already.  They are looking to recruit new players to come join us old veterans of the terraformed Bay-Area in California and the newly Free2Play RIFT.  This is a campaign meant to feed both games a new flock of gamers, looking to dip their toes into a new fantasy world.  Those of us who have been playing already have a headstart and some already have a Hellbug mount to use in RIFT at any time (except for me, who has the worst luck with Hellbug mount droprates ever).

Does this understanding of the logic behind the promotion make me like it any better? No way, Jose.  I still think it is unfair.  The only thing that makes me not want to nerd rage faster than a red-shirted lore nerd pissed off he didn't get invited into the Hearthstone beta is the fact that I have the understanding behind the concept and appreciate that they are bending over backwards to breathe more life into their game communities.

Gaming News of The Week

This week was just...Wow.  I am excited for everything to come!  Forget any summaries, let's get started!

Torment: Tides of Numenera Reaches 2-Million Dollars on Kickstarter

Perhaps the most exciting news for myself this week, Torment: Tides of Numenera was announced and posted up on Kickstarter, asking for 9 hundred-thousand dollars.  It was clear the game is in heavy demand because backers rushed to the aid of the developers and pledged 1.1 million dollars within THREE HOURS (I was lucky to get in on the twenty dollar one on the first day because there is now only one left)!  As of writing this, the game has approached 2.1 million and every time you refresh the page, the number just keeps rising.  This is truly a victory for all the Planescape Torment fans who really want that spiritual successor.  The game is stated to not be a direct sequel but rather it is "set in the world of Monte Cook’s new tabletop RPG setting, Numenera."  Not being a tabletop fan (not that I wouldn't play it), I am somewhat excited to see what they will be doing with this and am anxious to see the new setting.  They continue to throw the icing on the cake by giving us bonus rewards that are mostly additions that they are throwing into the game and have a goal of 2.5 million with the most noteworthy bonus reward being a "video apology [by Colin McComb] for the most embarrassing work of his career: 2nd Edition D&D's Complete Book of Elves."

If this game sounds remotely intriguing to you, I suggest you head on over to Kickstarter to back this game.  I'm planning on upgrading how much I am backing it by another dollars so I can get a physical copy...Ooooh yeah.

Simcity 5 Released Yet Players Still Wait to Play!

Simcity 5 was released this week and it was prone to many issues.  One of the biggest issues was an issue where people were waiting to play the game they had just purchased.  Issues like this actually irritate me to no extent, even being one of the many who hadn't bought the game.  To leave my personal irritation out of this though, this is a prime example of why single player games which require you to log in to play the game are not a good idea and developers need to learn that a good online-mode practice would be to give the players the option to log in rather than being forced to.  Kotaku journalists gave a review of the game and the answer to the question "should you buy it" was a big-fat "not yet."  I'll take their word for it and stick to Simcity 4 until I hear word that the issues are all fixed.

Neverwinter Gears Up for Another Beta Weekend!

Any fans of the up-coming Neverwinter release should go get their Hero of the North or Guardian of Neverwinter packs now because if my calculations are correct, at this very moment the Beta is just starting!  I'm anxious to hear about everyone's experiences in the game this weekend and am keeping my hopes up for a very thrilling adventure.

You can get your Hero of the North pack here.

Steambox to Hit Tester's Homes This Year

Gabe Newell discussed in great detail with BBC what was going on with Steams console that we keep hearing about.  He stated that the console will be handed out to some customers “in the next three to four months" for testing.  He shared that they are working on nailing down heat and noise issues.  I wonder who will be the lucky few who get to test this awesome machine.

Follow Command Receives Major Change in World of Warcraft

The "/follow" command was removed from battlegrounds with the 4.2 patch this week.  The removal was meant to stop the basic form of botting.  There was much back-lash from the WoW community, some of the backlash from people who do multiboxing (or pretend not to be one of those and have "good reasons" for needing a follow command).  Blizzard responded in the midst of the backlash.

"We disabled /follow from use in battlegrounds to curb some of the most basic types of bots that use the command. We chose not to communicate it beforehand in attempts to catch as many bots unaware as possible. Removing /follow in battlegrounds is one small change we can make immediately to stop a number of bots, and those that choose to transition to more overt botting methods will have a much higher chance of being caught and banned.

"We did consider those who use /follow for other reasons, including multiboxing, before making the change. Multiboxing in battlegrounds has been a long-fought battle within the community, as the effect of multiboxers in those situations is considered unfavorable by many. When we were looking to make a change to disable a command used by bots, which would benefit the game as a whole, we were ok with it also resulting in multiboxing in battlegrounds also going away due to the poor experience it can create for others.

"Right now /follow is also disabled in Arenas, but we’re looking to revert that change as bots don’t typically exist in Arenas, and multiboxing in that kind of pre-determined group environment doesn’t tend to be as disruptive."


And that's the gaming news of the week!  I hope you guys have a good one and as always, feel free to leave any comments and discuss the news of the week!

My Apologies for a Lack of Posting

So as you are aware, I didn't post my weekly Gaming News of The Week this last Friday.  I was very busy and Friday was a day full of belligerent callers at work so in a way to make up for it, I decided to share with you guys a short story that I wrote a couple years back.  Feel free to leave me any feedback!

Death of a Superhero

By: Steven Wallace

Looking down over the city, the people look like periods on a sheet of grey paper, written in ink, each one looking only slightly different from the other.  Some are larger than others, some elongated, resembling that of a comma...All different shapes.  

I suppose most of these people resemble a period more than one would expect, if you really think about it.  Each one is created with different emotions...some with love, some with uncertainty...some from fun or excitement.  I suppose most wouldn't know unless they read their stories.  All of life is just a long string of stories, just forming one never-ending tale of human emotions.  

Why is it that I feel a lack of emotion now, here at my darkest hour?  I feel no shame, no regret...no love.  The "love" that these people once showed me aren't that of true care and affection.  They only "loved" me for what I represented.  When they see me on the street during the day, they pay no attention to me.  How could they?  They do not know who I am, much like I do not know any of them.  During the day, I am just another wandering "period" in the sea of texts that make up our history.

My cape feels heavy and a breeze hits me.  For a moment I lose my balance as the cold winter air blows the cape some; an easy problem to rectify, as I shift one foot slightly further back to counter the loss of balance.  I should probably feel slightly embarrassed, but there is nobody here to see me, the big tough vigilante that the city has crowned a "god," lose his balance over something so simple as the wind.  I suppose the real question is: Would I feel embarrassed even if someone saw me?  

I remember feeling embarrassment; It is an emotion that I haven't felt in many years.  The day that I was jumped by a group of bullies in highschool...the day that I really realized that the world is full of angry, evil people.  That day was also the day that I decided to learn to fight back; to protect myself.  Since then, I hadn't had that feeling of embarrassment.  

Now we look at the present and I'm not that child getting bullied...I'm a professional bully.  I have no badge, but I have put enough people behind bars single handedly...men and women that we as humans deemed evil, myself at the front of that line, judging them where I see fit.  I am only human, though.  What if I was wrong about these people?  What if the "evidence" against them was not evidence at all?  Maybe I now feel that bit of embarrassment that I have managed to avoid all these years behind this mask.  Maybe I feel that sharp pang of guilt that I haven't felt since...no, I can't let myself think of that.  I try to tell myself that "to make an omelet, you have to break a few eggs" or whatever that old saying is.  Did that family really have to die in that explosion that I caused?  Could I have found them and evacuated them before taking down that maniac bomb expert?  How was I supposed to know that he had a family and was ignorant enough to have them living in the same building?  

I'm thinking about it again...

There is a man and a woman coming out of a movie theater with a large crowd of movie-goers.  They all look happy, but these two stand out the most.  The man leans toward her and moves one hand to her hairline and slowly brushes her hair with his fingers, moving his hand toward the back of her neck.  She looks up at him and with what I would imagine as soft lips, kisses him deeply as the crowd of people walk out of the theater, splitting up and conforming to the two people standing in the middle of the sidewalk, leaving them in their relatively romantic peace.

Romance...love...it is something I have never had the opportunity to feel...not for very long.  There have been a few women here and there...a hooker to curb the loneliness at times, I'll admit.  Heh, I guess that makes me just as deplorable as some of those that look up to me.  Maybe this is why at this very moment I feel no emotions.  I have no right to feel all those feelings that make a man human.  

I remember one time I thought I felt that emotion of love.  She was an average height...very beautiful skinny blonde woman.  I met her in a department store while I was looking for new clothes for a job interview.  We looked at each other, and just like in some sort of fairy tale, we "knew" that we were meant to be together.  We got engaged and she found she was pregnant.  We had a simple life, myself supporting her and our child on my meager salary...but she didn't know about my real job.  She didn't know what I did at night and she thought I had been unfaithful.  I went home one night to find her in bed with another man...someone else who could give her the love and attention that I could not during my nightly duties.  She didn't see me...I snuck out of the house and left for good.  I never seen her or spoke with her again, only sent her money now and then to support her and our child.  I knew why she did it and I had no right to be angry.  I knew that whatever love that lived in her heart for me had long packed up and moved out, and i just called it the "price you pay for being a hero."

A bird chirps next to me, a sound that you rarely hear at night unless you have disturbed their nest.  I turn to look in the direction of the sound, but barely see past the edge of the eyeholes on my mask.  Just one of the few downsides to wearing a mask to hide my identity...It also obscures my vision of the world, both physically and mentally.  How many times have I walked down a dark alley and thought I had seen some sort of demon...not your ordinary demons that you imagine from bibles or crude stories, but the real demon; a man with a heart full of pure hatred and evil.  Many times have I restrained myself from killing a man based on their outward appearance, reminding myself that I too have at times appeared to some as an abomination straight from the gates of hell itself.  By day, I look exactly like that man, a broken shell of a man, taking warmth in an alley by a barrel with a fire lit inside, being spat on or ran away from by those that I protect.  Who would ever suspect that a homeless man would be the man who puts their minds at ease at night?  Well, at least at one time in my life I did.  

I look down once again at the street.  Cars are driving by still, however it is late.  The cars are less frequent and only a handfull of people are on the sidewalks below.  A couple men stumble out of a bar down the street arguing.  You can hear their slurrs and cursing all the way up on this 20 story building.  I can hear a sudden wet slap as boney knuckles hit flesh.  The sound continues repeatedly as the two men beat each other with their fists, some of the sounds more of a dull hollow thud.  I make a step back and reach down to my belt to clutch the tip to my grappling hook...the police arrive no sooner, forcing both men to the ground, guns drawn.  Shortly after, the police have them handcuffed and placed in the squad cars and are hauling them off to jail.  I ease up and let go of the hook.  This city doesn't need me...They seem to be able to handle themselves.

Days ago a crowd of protesters rallied at the courthouse.  A man accused of murder was set free due to lack of evidence.  Everyone knew this man was guilty...but I had destroyed what evidence the police could go off of.  I had located him in his 27th story penthouse suite and made an appearance.  Plenty of armed guards stood in between me and Todd "Ten-penny."  I got careless and got shot...I was losing quite a bit of blood and was teatering on the edge of unconciousness, but I took every single one of them hired thugs down and arrested Todd myself...but not before knocking over a kerosene torch that he has been using as decoration in a careless attempt to weaken that murdering scum.  The torch fell over and caught some decorative rugs on fire and spread rapidly across drapes and ceiling fixtures.  Luckily we escaped and the fire was contained by the local fire department and noone was killed except a handfull of Todd's thugs.  My injury was severe, but I managed to avoid going to the hospital until I could manage to get my suit stashed away and fake a gunshot in an alley, alerting nearby police to investigate and find me wounded and bleeding out, cold and naked on the wet ground.

The protesters weren't just protesting Todd "Ten-Penny."  They were protesting against me as well.  Signs declaring their hatred for vigilante justice were scattered throughout the crowd while other signs showed their fear and anger for having a murderer back on the streets.  They had considered me just as much a criminal...no, a murderer, as Ten-Penny.  The nickname "The Caped Convict" bitterly slipped through their teeth as if they could do better...

I am not Superman.  I can't stop a speeding bullet with my chest.  I can't stop a car from hurtling itself into a crowd of people.  I am only human...

I sit down, dangling both feet off the edge, holding my head with both of my hands.  I unclip my cape from the front fasteners on my suit and let it blow away as the wind catches it.  A "nobody" has no use for a cape.  The streets are clear now, save for one lone man pushing a shopping cart filled with odds and ends.  His shelter is a box behind some building around the corner, crumbled under the weight of a struggle between him and a few gang-bangers looking to start a fight - probably to earn a newcomer his colors.  No one came to the poor man's aid, he was lying there taking a beating until the thugs heard sirens and they got spooked.  They had no idea the sirens werent for them, but for a robbery up the street.  The poor man lay there for days, nursing himself with a bottle of whiskey that he snuck out of a convenience store, drinking the pain away.  The homeless don't help each other...it is a broken "family" of people who would do anything to have a home, a family and some resemblance of love.  They would turn on each other in a moment just to get that or any other form of escape.  They are just like me, and that is why I found my place amongst them only natural...

...Only the homeless do not feel how I do.  They have not seen what I have seen or been criticized as much as I.  They live without much responsibility except to themself, they survive by watching their own back and the citizens turn a blind eye to them either because they feel bad for them or because they don't want to look at the ugly blemish that they represent to civilized society.  Those same citizens look at me as a terror, a dark cloud over their heads, not as a protector anymore, but as much of a criminal as those that I put behind bars, and that isn't even accounting for the man I portray during the day.

I place my hands on the roof below me.  I realize now that they do not need me to protect them.  It is the human spirit that will protect them.  The men and women behind the badge and the men overseas holding guns and tending to cities that are under seige by their own families.  Everything that I have done would have been done by someone else, but better.  The people who protect this land don't need fancy gadgets or flashy suits and a cape.  All they need is their heart and soul, two things which I lost long ago by my own hands.  I push myself off the edge and watch as the ground appears to come faster and faster toward me.  For a moment I remember something of comfort - the look on my father's face when he told me he was proud of me...and I suddenly feel regret...some sadness for my decision.  Finally an emotion that I have been looking for for far too long.  Is this the death of a superhero?  No, the death of a vigilante...or maybe just a man who has nothing else to stick around for, either way, this is how the story ends, in the blink of an eye.