Sven is a clunky dullard. He’s slow and loud, and unresponsive. Yes, he will do just fine. A general store merchant told me of a place called the College of Winterhold. Apparently it’s a place where magic can be taught. I’ll need to get there soon.
Arrived in Whiterun, a Hold capital. A walled city with a busy marketplace. I think I’ll make it home. For now.
Upon arrival in Whiterun, a gate guard stops me. He says the city is closed due to dragon activity. Seems odd as I watched people come and go from the city. I convince the dope to let me pass. I eluded to him I know about the dragons and have come to warn the Jarl. This, of course, seems odd since he should already know about the dragon given his guard stopped me for that very reason. Either way, I’m allowed to enter the city.
Within the city I meet several women. A blacksmith having an argument with a man in Imperial armor. He asks me: Gray-Mane or Battle-Born? I’m assuming he wished to know where my support lies. I recognized the name Battle-Born from a farm outside the walls. I said Battle-Born and he approved.
Ysolda, Hulda, and Carlotta all seem available, especially Ysolda and Hulda. I’ll approach them first. Hulda was easy to please by selling her firewood. This act grants me a free room for the time being.
But the city is large with many prying eyes and strained ears. I’ll need to keep a low profile until the High Rock situation wisps away in the wind. I wonder if she’s coming for me?
On my very first playthrough of Fallout 4, I maxed my Charisma as soon as possible. Truth is I believed Charisma was the best attribute in Fallout 4. Thousands on hours later it still is essential for all my play throughs. Without good Charisma you possibly leave a lot of experience points on the table. I recently earned 100 XP for a Charisma check with a sniper build. That’s a huge amount. But anyway enough of my gaming history and onto the breakdown of the perks in the Charisma attribute.
Tier 1 is Cap Collector. If you aren’t building settlements this perk isn’t all that necessary. Although the first two ranks give you a significant price discount over any other option it’s true value is in the settlement building as you must have the first two ranks to build stores at settlements. The third rank, which grants you the ability to invest caps in shops is a pass. You’ll have plenty of shops built at each settlement to sell all you loot. If you aren’t building settlements and still want the caps, you’re better off investing two perks in Fortune Finder under the Luck attribute.
Black Widow/Lady Killer perk is Tier 2. If you’ve built a female character this is a more useful perk as there are more male enemies than female and the bonus damage is nice. But it isn’t world beating, either. By the end game when this perk shows its most usefulness in combat, your weapons will be plenty powerful enough. The other benefit come from Charisma checks as it’s easier to convince the opposite sex and the Intimidation perk is more successful. Perk points best allocated elsewhere.
The Tier 3 Lone Wanderer Perk is the premier perk under Charisma and one of the best perks in the game. Let’s face it, companions are stealth killers and at best are poor shots and have little use in combat, except an overhauled Codsworth or Ada, both of whom can be devastating in combat and have a high carry weight. With the Lone Wanderer Perk you get a significant boost to carry weight +100 with rank 2, outdoing Stongback by 50. At rank 3 you also inflict 25% more damage while taking 30% less damage. And with rank 4, with the Far Harbor DLC, you get an addition 25 action points, a good bonus for V.A.T.S. users. And if you need to carry more loot bring Dogmeat along as he doesn’t count against the Lone Wanderer perk.
Speaking of Dogmeat, the Attack Dog perk can be had at Tier 4. The perks sound good but they really aren’t worth the investment unless Dogmeat is integral to your play through. Holding an enemy, maybe crippling a limb, and causing bleed damage isn’t likely worth the perk points as there are far better damage multipliers available. Give these a pass unless Dogmeat is with for the entire play through.
Tier 5 brings Animal Friend into the mix. You can pacify, incite to attack, or give specific commands to animals of the Wasteland. Other than provide to comic relief by bringing in a bloatfly to cause chaos, these aren’t worth the points. Easier to just kill the animals and the raiders. Maybe a Beastemaster-style play through is worth it or building arenas but honestly it’s more gimmick than useful.
Local Leader at Tier 6 is primarily for settlement building. You’ll need both ranks to combine with Cap Collector to buildshops, it only one rank to create supply lines and be able to build workstations in every settlement, which is beneficial as you can stop anywhere to improve armor or weapons, cookfood or make chems negating the need to always go to Sanctuary or Red Rocket or the Castle.
Like to drink? Well, the Partyboy/girl perk at Tier 7 is for you. This is actually a great perk for a variety of builds, especially and melee character as you can get even more strength by consuming alcohol. Plus your Luck goes up, and if you’re running a low Intelligence build with the Idiot Savant Perk, you can imbibe before turning in quests to 8mprove the chance of your XP multiplier. It’s a high investment into Charisma but probably a worthy set of perks.
The Inspirational perk at Tier 8 is mostly a pass. Yes it prevents you from harming your companions and them from harming you, but are companions worththis very high investment in Charisma to get? Since you’re far better off with the Lone Wanderer Perk, I would say no. Unless you already have high Charisma adding points to get here and then take these perks isn’t a great option.
Tier 9 and 10 are essentially identical to Animal Friend only they apply to wasteland creatures and people. Now maybe having a pet deathclaw is your thing or having arena fights with humans, creatures, and animals is also your thing. Either way these aren't worth getting until later in the game for any reason other than role-playing. Of course I'm going to be hypocritical under the Intelligence attribute in the next post as it has an option just like these only for robots.
Being able to manipulate others and have them do your bidding can be a fun and entertaining option, but the real strength in Charisma is the ability to dig out additional information and earn XP while doing it. I mean it is equally fun to squeeze more caps out of the tightwad residents of Diamond City. And, of course, the settlement system isn't fully optimized without the appropriate Charisma perks to make it happen.
Welcome to LittleWatt Gameplay. I've now completed my first game since I began this blog. So that means it's time to write my first review. The review will be scaled from zero to ten in several categories. Here's some history of DOOM.
I line up the shot!
DOOM, a first-person shooter, was first released on December 10, 1993 by id Software. Although it wasn't the first, first-person shooter it did remake the genre with heavy violence and gore and 3D graphics to IBM-compatible computers. Do you all remember IBM-compatible computers? DOOM II: Hell on Earth was released in 1994, which was followed by addition releases from that same engine, and Final DOOM released in 1996. In 1997 DOOM 64 would be released followed by a several year hiatus. In 2004 a prequel of the first DOOM as released but with all new technology. All of the previous versions of DOOM would have secondary releases except Final DOOM. There are books, comics books, and a movie based on DOOM. All in all, a successful institution.
The newest version of the game, titled DOOM, was released on May 13, 2016. And that is what this review will be covering. I haven't played many first-person shooters so I won't have much history to compare DOOM and other games in the genre. This review is based on the PlayStation 4 version.
I'll be rating the game in different categories with a scale from 1 to 10.
Fun Factor: wow this game was a hoot. It moved quickly and the interest stayed up. And I stayed up late many nights playing the game. That being said, I'm scoring DOOM an 8 of 10.
Replay Factor: I often returned to previous missions to complete missed challenges, work on weapon mastery, or discover missed secrets. I found myself enjoying the game as much when I repeated a level as I did when I first played the level. I mean pulling a demon’s arms off under the influence of the Berserk power up or hacking a demon in half with a chainsaw never gets old. Again an 8 of 10.
Story Factor: I found rating this a bit more difficult. The story in DOOM is there and it's a good story. But the story isn't easy to follow with the multiple ways it unfolds. At times there was the magnificent demon voice narrating a story during the trips to hell. Other times Samuel Hayden told a story. But most of the story was developed with the Data Logs, which could easily be glossed over or ignored altogether. Understandably, DOOM is designed for high RPM fun and too much story would lug the engine, but at the same time I felt like the story needed to be more forced. Certainly the artifacts picked up in hell don't take away from the energy of the game. A similar design needed to be employed for the rest of the story. Say, for instance, Olivia tells the story of the demons and Hayden discusses Mars and the work done on Mars. For story factor DOOM receives a 6 of 10.
Imagery Factor: I considered breaking this category into several but chose against it since this category is rather subjective. Sure there are obvious differences in last generation console and current generation, and even current generation compared to PC games. So I felt it best to keep concepts like graphics and images and real life modeling and soundtrack in one category. For DOOM, the imagery factor is high—8 of 10. The soundtrack was perfect, high octane and aggressive, which fit exactly with DOOM. There are several sections in the game where the imagery was so life-like it can easily be passed off as real. The smoke and fire and explosive barrels are all images that appear real not game. And I could easily peruse my gameplay videos and literally take hundreds of incredible stills. Other things like Samuel Hayden's size was subtle imagery. And Olivia’s degradation in the game as she slowly fails to accomplish her promises. And several of the gruesome images in the game tell a subtle story. One of which we would expect when dealing with demons and hell.
Overall Factor: This is an accumulation of all the category ratings added together with category totals and averaged out. DOOM gets an above average score with a 7.5 of 10.
Last Minute Gripes: I didn't include this in the main review because it didn't play a significant enough part to be included. Although the game never locked up on me, it did have a glitch or bug or something in one level where the mission challenges weren't being recorded. This forced me to complete the mission and restart. Ultimately this didn't have a detrimental impact on my game goals and was only a minimal annoyance.
Welcome to LittleWatt Gameplay. I hope you're enjoying the blog and the videos of my gameplay on YouTube.
For August I'm focusing on Dying Light and will be finishing up DOOM. Also of note No Man’s Sky will be out on August 9. I haven't decided if I'll do videos for that yet. But enough of all that business, let's get to the challenge.
In Dying Light there's a focus on parkour. And for those who don't know what parkour is I hope I'll help you understand what it is. Perhaps some history first.
Here's a little information on parkour. And if you go by the simple textbook definition you'll be able to find suitable obstacles to use. http://www.wfpf.com/parkour/
No I don't expect people to launch themselves off rooftops or do flying somersaults over vehicles traveling at 40 miles per hour. I mean that shit is just nuts. There's a fine line between brave and idiotic. I wouldn't expect people to climb a fence like Jackie Chan, either. But I do think there are some simple parkour things people can do safely and get in a great workout. Find a balance beam at a local park or walk the curbing along the sidewalk. Climb a jungle gym. Do pull-ups on the monkey bars. Vault a park bench. I have a skateboard park where I live and it gets no use whatsoever so I'll be doing some parkour something or other there.
Now I'm definitely not a parkour-er and won't claim to be. I won't be doing any cat grabs and muscle-ups any time soon. My strength to weight ratio leans way too much on the weight side. Still that doesn't mean I can't try. And who knows maybe by September 1 I'll be able to do cat grabs and muscle ups.
So here's the challenge. Three days a week do twenty-five minutes of parkour outside. Being outside is important. Or check a local gym for parkour classes. Now I understand it's August so be sure you exercise safely. Drink plenty of water and take it slow. Going balls to the wall is a good way to get injured. At least until you get better. Then you can speed it up and drink more water. I expect everyone will be sore after the first time since it isn't something most people do. But go and have fun. And get healthier to boot.
Now go out and have fun. Most importantly be safe!
The most glaring impression is the size of the machine. It could easily be a doppelgänger for an early 80s VCR. This thing is massive. The only game console I can recall matching—and maybe exceeding—the overall dimensions is the first PS3 with its big domed cover. I'm fairly certain the Xbox One could be a foundation brick for a large building. Without getting out a tape measure, it's easily two-plus inches wider and deeper than the PS4. I have no idea why it's so massive. I'm going to speculate the size might have something to do with heat. And if that's true I wonder what will happen with the Xbox One S with the power supply inside the case.
When comparing it to the PS4, the Xbox operation seems to be more complicated, but it is a Microsoft product so that's easily explained away. And PlayStation Plus is the clear winner over Xbox Live Gold. PlayStation is also the winner in the setup procedures. I had to hard reset my Xbox One three times before it would recognize the fancy Dusk Shadow controller. And let's not mention Xbox isn't using Bluetooth for its controllers. Major strike against it. With PlayStation controller syncing just turn on the machine with the controller attached to charging cable and you're off and running. As for controller feel, I don't have enough time with Xbox to make a good comparison.
The last impression for now is network. The Xbox One is a bandwidth hog. I simply can't do anything else while it's downloading. With the PS4 I'm free to do other Internet stuff.
Okay one more thing. Backwards compatibility. This is something PlayStation has done in the past and I loved the fact it was compatible with previous generation games. Now it's all but nonexistent. The Xbox people are making games backward compatible. A major plus for Microsoft.
I will have a follow up post once I get more time with the Xbox.
