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Thoughts on Dawnguard

DAWNGUARD
I can’t believe it’s been a year (and one month, to be exact) since Skyrim came out, and there’s still so much I haven’t played yet. I love this game. While Oblivion was the first Elder Scrolls game I played and will always be my favorite, Skyrim brought to life a huge, immersive fantasy world in a way I never thought possible. It’s really been my dream as a kid, and a life-long lover of fantasy, to have a creative outlet like this. So, hey, thanks Bethesda!

I recently started Dawnguard, a DLC released a few months ago. I’m very close to the final stage, but I wanted to reflect on it before I finished the storyline.

WHAT I LOVE ABOUT DAWNGUARD

crossbow

I chose to play as a Dawnguard this time around since it fits with my character’s personality. Since my character is a stealthy archer, having a new weapon–a crossbow–is awesome. The crossbow is fun because it requires a totally new approach to sniping–loading a bolt takes much longer than knocking an arrow, so I really have to be sure that my shot is going to kill an enemy before I launch it. Also, bolts are much harder to find than arrows, so I have to use them carefully. I feel like this has made me a better sniper.

REALMS

Skyrim is already a beautiful game and I know there’s plenty I haven’t explored yet, but it’s fun to travel to new places. I found the Soul Cairn and Darkfall Cave to be interesting places, and of course, I love any chance to pick up new and exotic alchemical ingredients.

realmscollage

I do feel like the pacing of the storyline is a little weird, as I find myself spending a long time in particular realms, but it’s a nice break from the typical Skyrim landscape.

SERANA

I always love new characters, and it’s great to have a new follower. Serana, the vampire princess, is definitely one of the best follower options in the whole game. She’s like a mix of Lydia and Karliah (from the Thieve’s Guild). She has a nice voice–which is important for a follower since you have to talk to them a lot–and uses magic, which is a nice balance to my character’s stealth. Plus, she’s pretty cute.

WHAT I DON’T LOVE ABOUT DAWNGUARD

DAWNGUARD ARMOR

I was a bit disappointed in the armor choices for Dawnguards. The vampires get some pretty sweet armor in several options, but the Dawnguard heavy and light armor look the same. It comes in two colors, which is something, I guess. Whenever I play in a particular faction, I always wear that faction’s armor for the duration of the story, so I’m sticking with it. I feel like the light armor looks a bit bulky–I wish it were more attuned for stealthy characters, like the Thieve’s Guild armor. Mostly, there just aren’t enough choices, so it doesn’t really feel like “special” armor.

armor

C’mon, the vamp armor (left) is a bit cooler, right?

FACTION

The Dawnguards are all a bunch of douchebags. Like, obviously, the vamps aren’t much better, but I expect them to be assholes. Everyone in the Dawnguard is kind of rude or self-involved. Why should I even be helping these people? They gave me a crossbow, but that’s about it. Also, I am a bit disappointed in the castle. I haven’t finished the storyline yet so I don’t know if it gets nicer, but right now, there isn’t much to the facility. I wanted my own room with some sweet gear, dammit!

I plan to finish the game tomorrow–I’m very close to finding Auriel’s Bow, so it should be Epic Battle Time shortly after. And can I just say that I’m freakin’ stoked about the newest DLC, Dragonborn? I wish I had an Xbox so I could play it now, but we all know PC gaming is superior. ;)

3 awesome racing games

This weekend was one of those weekends where all I did was lounge around, play video games and watch Top Gear. And it was awesome. I did leave the house briefly to go buy new video games and get some Chinese food, but other than that, it was pretty much lazy central here at my house.

I did get a chance to get caught up on some racing games that I’d been meaning to play. Perhaps it was all of the Top Gear, but I’ve had cars seriously on the brain for a while. Here are a few that I played in depth.

WipeOut

WipeOut is probably my favorite racing game ever, and it doesn’t even have cars. Go figure. It actually features some sort of spacecrafts that you race around these amazing, totally futuristic tracks with lots of lights and cool symbols. I think I like this game so much because I want to live in this world. My first introduction to WipeOut was WipeOut HD for PS3, but I have since played 2048 on the PS Vita and both Pure and Pulse on the PSP (both of which I got for like $7 at GameStop. I love used games). HD is still my favorite just because the graphics are so stunning, and I think Pure and 2048 are tied for second. Pulse is really beautiful looking, but I have a hard time getting through races without dying, which gets kind of frustrating after a while, whereas in Pure, my health levels never seem to get as dangerously low so I’m able to actually focus on winning races. 2048 is just all around exciting, but I don’t own a Vita so I haven’t played it as often as the others. (I really want a Vita.)

For game footage, check out these two videos. The first is of HD, and the second is a preview of 2048.

Blur

I’ve been wanting to check out Blur for a while since I, obviously, like racing games with really unique graphics. What I like about Blur is that it has all of the cool colors and lights like WipeOut, but uses real cars, so it’s both realistic and stylistic. This game is really exciting, and unlocking new challenges and cars is pretty fulfilling. This game has some cool variety–some of the maps are races, others are time laps. You can add mods to cars and play different challenge modes. I’ve only played the first two levels, but I really like it so far.

ModNation Racers

My boyfriend and I have played the demo for this game a hundred times and we finally decided to just buy it. I’m glad we did. This is a really unique game–it’s kind of like Little Big Planet, because you can make your own character, build a custom car, and design custom maps. Here’s my little character and car.

It’s also like MarioKart, primarily with the cartoon-style graphics and game play. Some of the races are easier than in Blur or WipeOut, but the challenges can be pretty difficult. I haven’t even really begun to try out all of the features in this game, since there are hundreds of maps and customization options, but it’s definitely a fun game to check out.

Feel free to add me on PSN if you want to race sometime! My screen name is arcadie1021.

I’m bummed the weekend is over! Have a great Monday!

3 awesome fanmade Portal films

I am a huge Portal/Portal 2 fan–it’s the basis of my Master’s thesis–so I get really excited when talented filmmakers bring the story to life through their adaptations. Yesterday, a new short indie film called Aperture: Lab Ratt was released by film studio SyntheticPh, and is based on the web comic released around the time Portal 2 came out last year. (It’s also in VALVe’s graphic novel anthology, which I highly recommend checking out, because it’s awesome.) Their film is pretty amazing. Check it out. This next one has been out for a year, but I just discovered it. It was made by Eisen Feuer, and is intended to take place after the first Portal game. I love that this has hints of humor, but the viewer is also reminded that Chell is, essentially, alone–or so she thinks. This one really captures the feel of the first game, and I thought the cake baking was really sweet. :) This one was directed by Dan Trachtenberg, who is the cohost of one of my favorite podcasts, The Totally Rad Show. It’s not very clear if the main character is intended to be Chell, the protagonist of Portal, but I think it’s safe to assume as much. Trachtenberg takes a much grittier approach to his adaptation, and also breaks away from the storyline quite a bit. I think the music and attention to detail shows what a great director he is. It’s a great time to be a nerd. It’s easier than ever to make great films on a low budget, and then share creations with fans from around the world. What I love about these three particular films is how differently each director approached the Portal universe. Each film maintained an undeniable sense of darkness, of fear, but they also each have a sliver of hope, showing that Chell is resilient, strong and not easily defeated. Which is like my favorite line from the Portal 2 comic: “Test subject is abnormally stubborn. She never gives up. Ever.”

4 web-based social DJing experiences

I really enjoy listening to music using digital tools–I’m a frequent user of Pandora and Spotify, but I also like to branch out and try new services. The internet is a perfect venue to listen and view media with friends, or with like-minded strangers around the world. Here are four projects you might want check out if you’re looking for some new music–and some new people to share it with.

Turntable.fm

I found Turntable.fm pretty randomly but I love it, especially the “chill out” station. Basically, Turntable has a bunch of different music rooms labeled by genre, and you can create a little character and “hang out” in the music room. You can listen to other DJs or be one yourself. The website has music you can choose from, or you can upload a file from your computer. Other listeners can like or dislike the songs you choose, and you earn points. If someone likes your song, their little character will start dancing, and you can earn some DJ points which eventually allow you to upgrade your character. Also, if you like a particular DJ, you can become of fan, and an email will be sent to you whenever they are playing in a particular room. Turntable.fm has an iPhone app but since I don’t have an iPhone, I can’t really review it. I’ll check back soon to see if they come out with an Android version. I think this is a cool website to use on a tablet, and I often pull it up on one of my monitors while I’m working since it’s a nice way to be both a passive listener or an active one, depending on your preference.

Rolling.fm

I don’t know much about this one since it’s still in beta, and it seems to be very similar to Turntable. Also, the name “rolling” seems to have drug connotations–which is fine, but that may give potential users the wrong impression. Betabeat did a good write-up about how it’s different from Turntable, but I’m not quite convinced. The idea of the virtual “restroom”– “where users can DJ, chat and spraypaint graffiti on the walls” according to Betabeat’s article–is kind of interesting. We’ll see. I do like the graphics, but I am kind of already sold on Turntable’s cuteness. You can sign up for beta to check it out in the meantime.

TuneTug

This is a newer app I just heard about, and it’s only available for OSX, iOS and Android, which means that I can try it on my smartphone but not on my computers. I haven’t tried it out yet–couldn’t find it in the Play store–but from what I’ve seen, it’s a collaborative playlist that your friends can add to at a party or social event, and listeners can vote on the songs played. This is definitely an app to use in person with people you know or are actually hanging out with, rather than people on the internet like Turntable, so it’s nice that there are different options available depending on what kind of music person you are.

PixelJunk 4 am

I’m a big fan of PixelJunk games, so I was intrigued to hear about their latest project, 4am (formerly called Lifelike, but I think 4am is a way cooler name). 4am is an interactive game-like project in which the player uses the Play Station 3 Move controller to mix music live with people on the internet or with a live audience. Players can also tune in to other people’s sets. It was just released on May 15, so download the demo if you have a PS3 and let me know what you think. I’m still playing around with it but I do like the concept a lot. I wish there were more music options, but the graphics are beautiful. It would be a great addition to a party, and if I were a DJ I would totally incorporate it into my sets.

What’s your favorite web-based music service?

Mirror’s Edge

As one of my New Year’s resolutions, I’ve been trying to wrap up some loose ends–namely, I have a ton of unread books and unplayed video games that I’m on a mission to complete. I set a goal on Goodreads to read 100 books this year, and I’m pretty behind… I’m only at four, one of which is a reread!

In terms of video games, I’ve been trying to stop dedicating all of my gaming time to Skyrim, as difficult as that is, because there are so many other amazing games that I want to play. This includes Mirror’s Edge, a game that’s been out since 2009, and one that I’ve never given a fair playthrough.

For those who haven’t played it, Mirror’s Edge is a game set in a shiny dystopian city. The player takes on the role of Faith, who is part of a network of “runners”–people who transmit messages under the radar of a totalitarian government. Apparently the gamemakers were inspired by ideas in Firefly and Serenity. Who knew?!

The game play is parkour-based, where you have to treat the city like an obstacle course, and run and jump your way through missions.

Now that I’ve finally conquered it, it’s by far on of my all time favorite games. But I won’t lie–at times, this game is really, really hard. I swear I had to do some things more than 100 times before I could move on. Some parts almost had me in tears (including the trains, and the “assassin,” and various wall runs…).

Despite the immense challenges, completing it was incredibly satisfying, and if anything the game is stunningly gorgeous. It’s honestly breathtaking. I kind of want to play through it again just to get a better look. But that also sounds slightly tortuous, so I’m moving on to other games before I give it another go.

Not sure if I should finish playing Half-Life 2 next (which was my New Year’s Resolution last year!) or get into Deus Ex: Human Revolution (which I got for $10 on Steam this weekend!)

If you want to be friends on Steam, add me! My username is Arcadie. 

Dark Brotherhood case mod

I’m so excited to finally share my case mod. I’ve been working on it for a few weeks and have been very impatient the entire time. I’m pretty sure my boyfriend Andrew is relieved that it’s over, too, especially since I had originally planned to do this all in one night… not sure what I was thinking, but that’s how little patience I have for extended projects. I’m working on it.

In any case (no pun intended), I think it turned out pretty good! I should preface this by stating that I have never done a case mod before. I’ve always wanted to do one but until recently, I’ve lacked the time/money/equipment to do so. Since I’ve joined our local hackerspace, I’ve been in modding mode and want to mod everything in my house. Computer cases are a good place to start. I love my Luna case but I wanted to spice things up a bit. Doing something Skyrim-related was a no-brainer. I was going to do something generic, but then I thought of doing the Dark Brotherhood since that is one of my favorite parts of both Oblivion and Skyrim. I knew I could do some fun things with lights and textures.

I wanted to emulate the sanctuary in Skyrim (not necessarily the Dawnstar one although I guess that’s the one that ends up serving as the sanctuary). I love the details like the stone wall, stained glass, candlelight, tapestries. I pulled a lot from elements like this:

The side of my case had a window of plexiglass, so that is where I put the stained glass. To do so, I outlined the design with a sharpie and then traced over it with a hot glue gun. I am definitely not a hot glue expert so it wasn’t perfect, but to be, fair neither is the drawing in the game itself so I figured it was okay if it wasn’t perfect. It is a dungeon, after all. I can only imagine how grimey that window probably is. I mean, who’s going to do the washing? Babette? A torture victim?

I got kind of lazy and just decided to leave my fan grill as-is, mostly because I wanted ventilation and I didn’t really know what else to do with it. I left half of it black and sprayed the rest of it with a stone-textured spray paint. But before I sprayed the whole side with stone, I wanted to make sure it wasn’t totally flat, since the opposite side would have some raised rocks. I added some wall texture to it before spraying it with the stone paint.

The door was a bit harder. I wanted to make it look like it was actually made from stone, but I wanted it to be light so it wouldn’t fall off my computer all the time. I thought about using fiberglass but I ended up using dry foam (the stuff you stuck fake flowers in) because it was lightweight and easy to mold. It is very crumbly, so I molded it first and covered it with a white primer to seal it all together. Once the primer dried, I sprayed it all with the same stone paint I had used for the stained glass side, and I also added a little bit of darker grey.

Please ignore my bad drawing.

For the other side, I wanted to incorporate a tapestry, but I didn’t want it to just rest flatly against the side of the case so I made some molds of rocks out of a hydrocal kit Andrew had in the closet.

Some of them were pretty  brittle but I coated them with glue, and then with the stone-textured paint, so they held together surprisingly well. We attached them to the case with hot glue and they haven’t budged at all.

I made the tapestry out of a corner of a canvas cloth that we use for crafting. I spray painted the red and did the black handprint with some acrylic paint and my own palm.

This side is easily my favorite part of the case.

I was really stuck for what to do on the top of the case, but a friend of mine suggested using a constellation from the menu, which I thought was a cool idea since I could incorporate lights into it. I chose Sneak since it seemed the most fitting for an assassin-themed mod.

I drilled holes into the top in the pattern of the stars. I didn’t want the snake outline to be against a busy background, since the other sides of the case already had a lot going on, but I also didn’t want it to be just a green outline against flat black. I found sparkly paint in black and blue that helped give it a starry, textured feel without making it too busy. It looks really cool in person and these pictures kind of suck, but they might give you an idea of how it looks.

I could not, for the life of me, take a decent picture of the lights on in the dark (if anyone could tell me which settings to use on a Nikon D40, I would be very much obliged) but this might give you a vague idea of what it looks like:

I also wanted some red light to emit from the fan grills on the side of the case (near the stained glass) and through the front panel of the case when the door is open. I took out the blue lights from the fan that was already in the case and replaced them with red. For the front grill, I gutted a broken fan and used the frame as a holder for lights.

The red lights look really cool and eerie in the dark, especially when they illuminate the text.

(Crappy picture again, sorry)

We also installed an LED to go inside the case as a backlight for the stained glass, and a button that controls the constellation lights.

Once all the wiring was complete and the paint was dry, we assembled it all together and that was that!

I can’t wait to start on my next mod. I’m going to deck out my laptop with some Portal-esque designs (I know that’s been done a lot but the colors in that game are so vibrant, and I have a white laptop that is dying to be spray painted…). I’m also going to make my brother an original case for his 16th birthday. In Skyrim news, I’m working on making all of the amulets of the gods since I think they are totally cool looking, and I may actually finish the Thieve’s Guild armor set I’ve been wanting to make for a while now.

Hope you enjoy my case mod! (And thanks to Andrew for all of his help :) )