The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

     

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

     So lately I've been playing through The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. For the 4th time. Now I'm sure many of you are saying "Skyrim?! That game is old news, why are you still talking about it?" Well Mostly because I feel like it! Also it has been getting me very excited for The Elder Scrolls Online. So I figured I would tell you about my experience with Skyrim, and perhaps in a later post, about my hopes and dreams for The Elder Scrolls Online!

     Now the first time I played through Skyrim I went the whole heavy armor, huge muscular Nord with a two-handed sword route. Ya know, so my character can most closely resemble me in real life..... Anyway, that was fun, I ran in places and beat the living hell out of everything in my path. It kind of reminded me of Brick in the first Borderlands game (see photo below for understanding). Screaming nonsensical things at and around others as you hurl your massive blade in the general direction of your enemies, hoping it hits someone.

Photo Credit: http://johnsu.deviantart.com/art/Borderlands-YEAH-153814152

     So the next time I played I wanted to go a totally different direction. Big strong Nord, heavy armor and dual-wielding swords! This was perfect I thought, I'm like a tank but now I can hit things faster! That was fun for a while but I grew bored of it, as it was too similar to the first character I made (shocker, I know). Third times the charm, right? It was around this time that I noticed Steam was selling the Skyrim DLC; Hearthfire and Dawnguard! I simply had to have them! After telling Steam to shut up and take my money I installed the DLC and set out to make the perfect character this time. One that would be brave, and courageous and other heroic adjectives! I really wanted to break with what I've done thus far. So I made a Nord, big and muscular, with light armor and a focus on one-handed swords and archery! Now we're getting somewhere! A hunter-type character! It was during my play-through on this character that I realized shooting things with a bow and arrow from stealth was rather fun and entertaining. But I found that most of the time I still had to whip out the swords and get my hands dirty. The bow and arrow bit was really an opening move to lower their health. 

     Finally after a 6 month reprieve, I decided the world of Skyrim needed my assistance once more! Actually, they released the Dragonborn DLC and I'm too cheap to pay 20 bucks for it right now, but I'll be damned if I'm being left out of the Skyrim fun! After reaching a personal high level on my last character of 46, I knew this one was going to have to be carefully planned. This was going to be my final Skyrim character. How do I know that? Well, by the time I finish all the content it will be nearly time for the Steam Summer Sale Event in which I hope the Dragonborn DLC will go on sale. Then I can play the final DLC content for Skyrim with this character! How do I know it's the last DLC for Skyrim? Because A) I vaguely remember reading it in a press release somewhere, but more importantly B) The Elder Scrolls Online is well into development and will be released hopefully in the next year. Therefore, The Elder Scrolls Online will be the next expansion on the Elder Scrolls Franchise.

     My most recent character, the one I am playing right now, I went way outside the box on (for real this time). I really liked archery from my previous character so I went Wood Elf, since they   have such good archery skills in the description, but no tangible stat boost in game apparently. I decided I wanted to be less Duke Nukem and more James Bond. I didn't need to compensate for anything by making a huge hulking Nord with a massive... sword. This time I'm more slender, agile and discrete. I wear light armor and focus on archery and sneak. I know people complain that you can't really sneak in Skyrim because you just wind up having to use face to face melee combat anyway, but that's not necessarily the case!

     As I was playing and putting 
more points into sneak, I found a 

Blade of Woe

nice little skill point I can get which makes it so one handed attacks from stealth do 15 times weapon damage! I immediately thought rogue,
and grabbed it. But I only wanted to use that in certain situations. By the way, I would recommend if you make a character like this to do the 
Dark Brotherhood quest line first as you get decent armor and one of the best daggers in the game (Blade of Woe). After you do that, or even while you're doing the Dark Brotherhood stuff, you 
should do the Thieves Guild quests. I've found that mixing and matching armor from the two is a great combination. 

     As I was questing I realized my bow wasn't quite cutting it for some reason. The enemies were just getting annoyed when I shot them from stealth. So I saved the game, and said screw it! I took out the Blade of Woe and sneaked my way behind one and said a prayer and held my attack button for a power attack. I squinted for a split second anticipating a very angry and powerful enemy turning to murder me. But when I looked I saw a cut scene of my character standing up, covering the enemies mouth with one hand, and slitting its throat with the other, letting the body fall to the floor and crouching back into stealth. I was like a kid in a candy shop after that! I could barely contain my excitement! I went around assassinating all of the bandits in that hideout! I even went out of my way to get a few of them!

Mehrune's Razor

       

     At this point I have almost gotten all the points in the sneak tree with the exception of "Shadow Warrior" which is essentially a vanish. I also just got Mehrune's Razor which when combined with the Blade of Woe allows you to dual wield two of the best daggers in the game. And you haven't lived until you sneak up behind a mammoth and 2-shot it from stealth without the nearby giants noticing! You also haven't lived until after you kill the mammoth you assume a giant should go down just the same, and when you try, it turns out you only did 5% of its health and now he sees you and is pissed so you run away into the woods screaming like a little girl with your arms flailing in the air. This... may or may not have happened to me last night.

     That's about where I'm at in my most recent misadventures through The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim! Not to mention, I used the money I made from (spoiler alert) killing the Emperor (spoiler alert) to purchase and build myself a beautiful home in Falkreath Hold called Lakeview Manor! It's fully furnished and I have everything you can get for the home, including a bard and a carriage. I also got Vilkas to be my house steward after doing the Companions quest line. And I married Aela who also stays at the house, so it is well defended against the random events that occur, such as bandit attacks and so on. That's all for now! If I have any particularly good stories or developments I will post about it later! 

     P.S. Keep an eye out for a post soon about my hopes and dreams for The Elder Scrolls Online!             

   

The Beginning

Allow Me to Introduce Myself...

     
     Is this person really using "leetspeak" for their blog name? Yes! Does that mean you're some kind of hacker or something? Not even a little bit! I have no hacking abilities whatsoever. So why would you use "R4tional1ty" as your blog name? The answer to that is fairly straight-forward. No, I am not trying to be "badass", I just felt it was a moderately clever way to demonstrate the type of stuff people can read here. Yes, it is kind of a play-off of the whole "F4tal1ty" franchise, of which I have no affiliation to.

     First, I wanted this blog to reflect my varied interests. One of those primary interests is video games, specifically computer games. I would like to use this as a place to share my thoughts on computer games I am playing from time to time. The other primary interest driving the name of this blog is politics; American politics! I would also like to discuss the current political atmosphere in the United States, because I feel there is a major deficiency of rationality and pragmatism. I aim to fill that void in whatever way I can. Of course I may also insert a post here or there about other things like cars, movies, television shows, sports, anything really!

Assassin's Creed 3 artwork. (Not mine)

     It will be an interesting task to try to discuss things as trivial as video games and as important as politics in the same blog, but this is what I am about! Now, since I anticipate more hate from people about my writings on politics I will give a limited background about myself. Why limited? Because I have no idea who is reading this! While I'm sure there are some capable people out there who could figure out who I am, I would rather maintain a little ambiguity for the folks who can't (no, that's not a challenge).

     I was born and raised in the United States. I have a Bachelors Degree from a school which ranks among the top 100 national schools according to U.S. News and World Report. I majored in Political Science and minored in Law. So yes, I can speak with a little authority in the realm of politics. As for computer games, well I have been playing them since 1997. I have played shooting games from Counter Strike to Call of Duty, Role Playing games from Mario to Mass Effect and MMO's from Phantasy Star Online to World of Warcraft. I genuinely enjoy all kinds of games. 

     So, as I said, I'll be posting about all kinds of things from American politics/international relations, video games, cars, sports, TV, movies, food, really anything that strikes my fancy at the time! So stay tuned for more! And with that... For Pony!!!