I finally had a nice sit down with Skyrim for an actual decent length of time last night... a solid 2-3 hours, in one sitting! I realize that's pretty sad and you Skyrim veterans are likely scoffing at that, but I'm pretty happy about it. I hope to get a nice marathon session in one of these days to truly immerse myself in it much like I did back in the Oblivion days.
 |
| I still invested 100+ hours into Oblivion even in spite of these gates crippling my PC to below 10 FPS. |
It probably helps that I'm finally playing it the way I want to, allowing my wanderlust to consume me. Some articles and a recommendation my wife gave me was to grind up and save for a house early on and follow the main storyline for a bit. It was very helpful advice and it's much appreciated, especially since I have a reliable place to store the endless amount of loot I collect. The early grind was sort of cramping my style though, and I was growing a bit weary of the constant back and forth of looting and selling of the Whiterun citizens' tableware, booze, and food items to save up the money I needed. Anyways, now I can truly wander, loot, and burninate the world to my heart's content.
 |
| Fiiiiiirrrreeee! |
Speaking of looting... I sure do that a lot. I've started to establish a bit of a stricter consideration regarding the value/weight ratio of objects that I will loot, but that doesn't stop me from checking every nook and cranny of every dungeon. And lockpicking... I will lockpick the ever living shit out of anything, everything, and
everyone if that's even a thing. Expert level, psh... Master level... cake mix. I will expend my entire inventory of lockpicks or constantly save and load until I get that bad boy open, even to the point of frustration. I'm currently at 1 lockpick left in the current dungeon I'm in and I have to save and reload before every chest or door that is locked, because that's just how I roll!
Note to self: go finally buy some more lockpicks.
 |
| There better be some Nuka-Cola Quantum in this chest! |
I find my obsessive lockpicking preferable to the alternative of that nagging feeling of having left some loot behind, or trying to remember where it was if I decide to backtrack later... and I
despise backtracking if it can be avoided. I like to do it all in one trip if possible, the same way I try to grab every single grocery bag from the car to the point of it being awkward or painfully heavy. It comes down to a time issue. When I struggle to find the time to sit down with a game, I want to be sure I'm getting every bit of fresh experience I can out of it, instead of repeating content. There was a point in my life where I felt like I had all the time in the world, but that time is long past. I'm not going to let that stop me from making the time though. Besides that level up music is fracking glorious to hear in 5.1 surround sound and that alone may just keep me coming back.
Note to self: download a Skyrim soundboard app for my phone.
