SITREP

Hello Bloggerverse, I am still alive and kicking it gaming wise. I have a ton of games that I purchased over the years on Steam, and a few months ago I decided to purchase a second hard drive for my 2012 rig so that I could cram as many games onto this beast as possible. I have very often bounced from one game to another and back, many times actively playing several titles simultaneously.

So I received my new hard drive and began to install several games, spot checking them here and there to make sure they play nice in Windows 10.

Way back in September 2014 I purchased The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim on Steam for $4.99. I installed it and played it through the opening sequence before wondering just what in the hell I wasted good beer money on. I uninstalled the game and it sat in my Steam library for almost two years.

Until I purchased that new hard drive.

I decided to reinstall the game (raw with no mods) and give it a second chance. Here now about 520 gaming hours later I can honestly say this is the best game that I have ever played in my life. I got so deep into the game that I actually dusted off Fallout New Vegas and am now giving that a second look as well.

I have completed all of the main and secondary quest lines, expansion packs and whatnot. There are a handful of achievements left to obtain however they are just a matter of repetition at this point. I am at level 69 running around in a full Daedric armor set and a Dragonbone enchanted mace shouting dragons to the ground to be my personal Tamriel bitch taxi.

Lydia is still carrying my burdens, even after several stints with various follower mods which in the end I found just made me a lazy gamer so they were uninstalled.

Below are several screen shots in chronological order for this particular play through, my Nord male character aptly named “Balls”.

My second attempt at the game is underway after Helgen.

This is my first dragon kill just outside of Whiterun. Although the towns guards helped, it certainly was one of those great gaming moments.

Long before I knew I could purchase Breezehome in Whiterun, I used this van down by the river to store all of my loot in. Nothing was ever stolen by bandits over 100+ gaming hours.

I thought this quest was a massive tease. The dungeon was one of the most complex to clear and I get to the payday just to find a note that basically said Too Bad So Sad...

This freaked me out when I killed Lydia accidentally and had to reload a previous save and grind through the zone again just to resurrect my pack mule.

A great gaming moment: Here I decided to ignore the dragon and went about my business.

This is going to hurt you way more than it will hurt me.

My first Centurion Master kill: It was quite satisfying.

The scenery in the game never ceases to impress.

Vacationing in Markarth.

The Blackreach zone is one of the most expansive I have ever seen in any video game.

Wedding day in Riften.

This is the Deadric artifact Mace of Molag Bal. It is a nice mace that I actually did not use in future combat. I had it attached to a weapons rack in Heljarchen Hall for quite some time until I took it off the rack one day to compare to a Daedric mace that I had, and now it is lost. I don't know where it is at as I cannot find it in my inventory or anywhere in the house.

Mod madness.

You are a vampire lord, yeah yeah. I am Balls and I want this castle. Now.

My only failed quest in the entire game. This was one of those radiant quests for the Thieves Guild that I failed because I went elsewhere and did other things before going straight back to Ragged Falggon to report my success.

Score!

NPC interference killing the game: One of my sore spots is how in quest critical dialogue, irrelevant NPC's will still attempt to interact with you. Here in the most important quest of the entire game my conversation with three ghosts in Sovngarde is interrupted by another NPC that happened by and started conversation, completely drowning out the main act characters.

Mod madness: The A-Team (Serana, Lydia, and Jordis).

This is a busted quest that Bethesda did not finish before shipping the game, and was not fixed by the unofficial community patch.

The Tamriel Taxi.

Master Bad Ass Lydia.

300 plus hours into the game and my first dragon attack inside a gated city. Here a beast threatens Solitude before I put him down.

I had completed a quest some 200+ game hours previously and forgot to pick up the reward item, which happened to be a Daedric artifact required to complete the Steam Oblivion Walker achievement. Here it is on the ground waiting for me to come back.

Yay!