Wednesday, April 05, 2006

I'm assuming labor has begun either by natural or induced means.. Now it's just a matter of time! Man, I was just looking at Haylee tonight and freaking out about how big she's gotten. Already pushing 32 inches at not quite 18 months. At this pace, I figure that puts her at about 36-38 inches tall at 2 years old, which is where "they" say to double the height and that gets you their approximate adult height. Quick mental math says that's a smidge over 6 feet tall. Woot for no dates!

Hehe..

Best of luck to the Hess' on this long, difficult, challenging, scary and thrilling journey long into the night/tomorrow.

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Oblivion update:

Broke down and bought it.. if for nothing else but to support Bethesda's non-use of anti-piracy crap. All that ever does is hassle the people that aren't the problem in the first place. HOWEVER.. I am not disappointed at all. Such a great, deep and immersive game! In Eric's defense, I believe he said he had just barely gotten out of the sewers (which is the very very first bit of the game prologue). Not having a manual probably hurts too. I tried jumping into the game without reading much of anything (despite having bought the strategy guide, too.. LOL) .. and found myself getting lost, being unable to really use the map or navigate the quest/sub-quest menus properly. Now that I've got the hang on how to do all of that.. WOW.. what a difference! I'm totally and completely in love with this game. I love how stealth works.. there are four unmounted travel rates you can select (slow/fast, stealth/unstealth).. all of which effect the radius and chance of detection by enemies. I'm playing a stealthy marksman/thiefy guy with some limited spellcasting abilities (mostly for self-healing and a wimpy ranged fire attack).

The first-person viewpoint is great. It is equally as simple to toggle back and forth between 3rd person view (travelling through the countryside) and 1st person view (combat, paying attention to detail) with just the click of your mouse scroll wheel. I've been playing for a couple of days straight now and I haven't even remotely scratched the surface of the game universe. You can spend your time scouring the countryside seeking out bandits and beasties to battle, go exploring caves, keeps, dungeons, towns, and be part of any number of sub-plots and interesting experiences. I think I'm going to start learning the alchemy part of the game next so I can produce some nasty poisoned arrows for my initial ranged sneak attacks. I just raided a bandit lair that had some juicy alchemy equipment that I think I'm going to put to use instead of selling (despite the wicked good value-to-weight ratio).

So far, the funniest experience I've had with the RAI (Radiant AI) has been in some ruins inhabited by a thieving/bandit party.. I was in full stealth mode, moving very slowly in shadows (lighting makes a BIG difference, which is pretty cool in and of itself).. I see a group of baddies a level below me in a clearing/courtyard so I line up a nice shot on one of them, let it rip, and duck back behind the wall. I start hearing all kinds of crazy commotion and battle going on below and start thinking (WTF?) to myself.. I go down the stairs and kill one remaining guy but there don't appear to be any bodies of any other badguy types laying about. What I found was that the two sword/knife guys left (after I picked off the third) turned and attacked their bow weilding friend in the other end of the room, thinking he had done the deed. LOL! Too funny. Horse stealing is fun, too. =)

I just downloaded three modifications for the game today, and they are all fantastic. One adds a nice little archer-specialized store just east of the main city, the second adds in about a dozen different weather/ambiance settings and the third makes the map and UI a little nicer. SO GREAT.

The only thing that I can see that might turn people off on this game is the high graphic card requirement for all the juicy goodness. Anything below a 6800gt is going to choke on the high settings I think. That being so, the 6800 series is now a generation or two old.. so I don't think that's all that out of line. The HDR lighting is just so so sweet.

Anyway, sorry to ramble. But, I thought I'd add in my little review of the game so far in what very limited time I've been playing it. I can see nearly unlimited replayability with different characters.