I forgot how to game...

I just wanted to share a moment of excitement I had late last night.  I had gotten home later than usual so I decided to forgoe the GW2 (Sorry Zoe!) in favor of an old classic: Oblivion.  Ok so maybe Morrowind is the technical classic but I had larger memory holes from Oblivion so went that-a-way.  Anywho, I loaded up the game just to reaquaint myself with the story and land before I jumped back into Skyrim, all in preperation for ESO.

I had forgotten was it was like to be free in a game.  The current MMO market has watered me down to a "wheres the first quest hub" and "what class do I play?"  Instead of just looking around for adventure.  After an hour playing Oblivion I started to giggle like a school girl as I ran around Tamriel seeking adventure.  

Naturally, there will be quest hubs and the like in ESO (unless they blow open the genre with more sandboxy mechanics, do it ZO!)  But to think that we can live in a persistent Tamriel with all the icon races and lands and that they are implementing THE RvR system we all wished they would remake, with the same hardcore mechanics that made DAoC so dang fun.  I just can't wait.

Ok so this is a mosh-posh of emotion here.  If you havent played any ES games, go to Steam and pick up Oblivion for like $5 and give it a whirl, if you like it grab a copy of Skyrim and feast upon it's glory.  If you come back to this here forum still not convinced ES is a better-than-great IP to build an MMO on...well I have some nice people in white coats I want you to meet.

is steam the only place to get the games? i have not played any before but am curious and want to give them a shot. I, however, want to own the game and have it on my own machine and not have to create other accounts with 3rd parties. Is that even possible???

I am sure you can find boxed versions of Skyrim at just about any retailer. You might have to digg deeper for an Oblivion copy. I did find a copy at Amazon, but we are talking around $50 for an older game.

» Edited on: 2013-01-08 16:26:37

ty

if you can, you should probably just keep hearthfire and remove dawnsguard :s reviews for dawnsguard was pretty bad overall, but hearthfire doesnt seems to affect story since it just adds to your home experience reason: bugs!

FYI: For Skyrim, even a boxed version, you still have to have a steam account and verify it online by steam, even if you install it on a new computer. Most new pc games seem to require something similar, actually.

I was also skeptical about steam once upon a time, but now I don't think I can do without it. The ability to simply redownload and install games on a new computer and reclaim old saves from their cloud server has been a blessing. Steam is very easy to use now and makes gaming much less of a hassle, especially since you can uninstall games you aren't currently playing and have them reinstalled with your old saves in very little time without having to worry about disks or codes. I have ventured into the realm of EA's Orgin service to get ME3 and I have to say, Orgin has a long way to go to provide the non intrusive service that Steam does. Thanks to Steam and Orgin when I was hit with the Mass Effect bug again after the holidays I had all three games and all downloaded content up on my new PC in no time and was romancing my way through ME1 in no time. Currently starting ME2 from that ME1 save and I am loving it to the detriment of my GW2 characters. In regards to the Elder Scrolls Online, I realize that it will not be as open world and free as the single player games however I imagine it will be somewhere on the level of GW2 (which I am loving when Mass Effect, Civ V, Skyrim and Dragon Age are not seducing me away) with a much more established lore. Not many people think lore matters all that much but for me that and the open world are what TES games are all about. The ability to read the truely massive number of books in the games and see the racial tensions is astounding. I still remember the atmosphere of Morrowind when every Dark Elf you encountered cursed you and even though they weren't really a faction the Imperial Legion felt like the only friendly and welcoming places on Vvardenfell. Beware though if you play a TES game you will become disappointed with other RPG's that limit your movement and the only things you can interact with are usable and important. Morrowind made Knights of the Old Republic into a bad game for me for a long time until I started playing it just for the story. Also, you will feel the need to pick up every fork, spoon and cookery you come across...let it happen, let you bags fill up and then find that they are neigh worthless to sell for that is the only way to learn that interacting with everything you come across is futile.

I decided to pick up Skyrim after getting info on ESO. I originally had bad thoughts about it, as my experience with Morrowind wasn't the greatest. But I am definitely enjoying my Skyrim experience. I am surprised that my computer can even play Skyrim. While things don't look as awesome as what you see on youtube videos, but my computer isn't the greatest, and I am just happy that I can even play it. Definitely looking forward to giving the MMORPG a try. I am liking my sneaky archer orc girl.