Escapist Podcast: 009: Skyrim, CivWorld and Tali

[The Escapist Staff]

009: Skyrim, CivWorld and Tali

This week, we talk about CivWorld [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/trailers/2806-The-Elder-Scrolls-V-Skyrim-Trailer].

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[Vrach]

Any way to download these things? I tend to throw podcasts onto my phone to listen to while biking/taking a walk or sth, my speakers are usually busy playing something else at other times.

 

[pppppppppppppppppp]

The armor-grieves combination in Skyrim sounds tolerable, but it's a slippery slope to just picking up a full armor set like every bland RPG out there. If I wanna wear bright green pants with my Daedric cuirass I should be able to.

Also, as far as making the protagonist a jack of all trades instead of a uniquely skilled character, I think they're going about this the wrong way. I'd rather choose a specialty, but have some way to change it for a price, like the talent reset guy in WOW or the Power Reset upgrade in Mass Effect 2.

 

[Slycne]

Any way to download these things? I tend to throw podcasts onto my phone to listen to while biking/taking a walk or sth, my speakers are usually busy playing something else at other times.

Yes, there actually is now. There is a Podcast link in the lower left hand side of the player, and they should be available on iTunes soon.

 

[Vrach]

Any way to download these things? I tend to throw podcasts onto my phone to listen to while biking/taking a walk or sth, my speakers are usually busy playing something else at other times.

Yes, there actually is now. There is a Podcast link in the lower left hand side of the player, and they should be available on iTunes soon.

Ah so grab it from the RSS feed then, got it, cheers

Nab question, does it cost to grab that stuff off iTunes? Never used it and always kinda assumed it's a digital platform so everything's paid for.

 

[Daystar Clarion]

I also bought the lightsaber avatar item.

Why? Because it's a little videogame version of me, using a lightsaber, that's fucking why!

 

[Slycne]

Nab question, does it cost to grab that stuff off iTunes? Never used it and always kinda assumed it's a digital platform so everything's paid for.

Nope, they will be free as well.

 

[Vrach]

Nab question, does it cost to grab that stuff off iTunes? Never used it and always kinda assumed it's a digital platform so everything's paid for.

Nope, they will be free as well.

Wunderbah! Cheers for the info

[small]That said, I shall hate you now for giving me a reason to infect my PC with an Apple product![/small]

 

[Hyper-space]

Also, as far as making the protagonist a jack of all trades instead of a uniquely skilled character

What game are you talking about? I can't be Skyrim, seeing as you still have a choice to make either a specialized character or a jack of all trades. That's what the perk-system helps with, in that you cannot get all the perks from every skill and therefore there is a down-side to having a "all-around" character.

So its exactly the same as in any of the other games, you can't get all the good stuff from every skill.

 

[Phlakes]

...Huh. Fluffy green pants is exactly what I said about the armor debate yesterday. Here-

Nope. Now I don't have to look ridiculous with my fluffy green pants of stealth and my bulky steel armor and a red hood.

And if it really bothers you that much, wait a week after release and there'll be a mod to fix it.

Am I being watched? I think I'm gonna close my blinds now...

 

[Zydrate]

Susan was wrong. It's not the atmosphere, it's that their immune systems are... pretty much non existent. Entirely different.

 

[pppppppppppppppppp]

Also, as far as making the protagonist a jack of all trades instead of a uniquely skilled character

What game are you talking about? I can't be Skyrim, seeing as you still have a choice to make either a specialized character or a jack of all trades. That's what the perk-system helps with, in that you cannot get all the perks from every skill and therefore there is a down-side to having a "all-around" character.

So its exactly the same as in any of the other games, you can't get all the good stuff from every skill.

Yeah, you can't get the best benefits of everything in one run, but from what they've been saying so far, every character will start out fairly competent at everything. For me, it was more fun to start out good at a few things and terrible at everything else. It allowed for better role playing by having your character already have a trade, and it gave an incentive to make a new character and try the skills you never used because you didn't choose them at the start.

 

[Hyper-space]

Yeah, you can't get the best benefits of everything in one run, but from what they've been saying so far, every character will start out fairly competent at everything. For me, it was more fun to start out good at a few things and terrible at everything else. It allowed for better role playing by having your character already have a trade, and it gave an incentive to make a new character and try the skills you never used because you didn't choose them at the start.

I have been scavenging the internet for every piece of information on the game and there is nothing that indicates that every character will start off good at everything. Most likely your character will start of as a blank-slate, so it would be like in oblivion if you started off as a novice in all skills.

Really, the only possible down-sides are extremely minor and nit-picky shit that often just borders on the subjective, such as how you want to start of RP-wise. I mean, some people might want to start off when they role-play as a blank-slate and then shape their character as they go on, or if you are a veteran player who knows what he wants to be shape your character right away. There is nothing stopping you from being a witch-hunter or a assassin right away.

 

[Catface Meowmers]

Re: Tali's face, i think they should wait until the second Mass Effect trilogy (you know it's gonna fucking happen), set it four or five hundred years after the events of the last game, and have all Quarians out-of-suit. Maybe the descendents of Mordin devised a "cure" for their weak-ass immune system.

that way you kind of find out what she looks like without ever seeing her face.

 

[V8 Ninja]

While I like the podcast, will there ever be any more episodes with Yahtzee and Mikey Neumann? Their few episodes seemed to be much more free-form and I find those types of podcasts more compelling.

 

[Lex Darko]

On continuing a universe with a new protagonist:

It's been done before in other games. In each Fable game you play a different protagonist, and Halo did it with ODST and Reach where you played as the Rookie, and Noble Six respectively.

The Crysis series did it too, with Crysis Warhead you play as Psycho, instead of Nomad and in Crysis 2 you have Alcatraz. And specifically in the Star Wars games there is KotOR 1 and 2 where in the second game you play the Exile instead of Revan and KotOR 2 happens only 5 years after the end of the first game.

And also the Dragon Age series, with the Warden then the Hawke family.

So Mass Effect's universe can continue without Shep. But the challenge would be making a story compelling enough to live up to the first three games. Which is completely possible because so far ME is full of plot holes and is essentially an idiot plot.

(Really in ME2 even if you take Legion to meet the council they immediately dismiss him as a trophy. You have essentially what is the only non-hostile ambassador of the Geth beyond the Vale and they don't take 30 seconds to consider speaking to Legion directly. Not only that but you meet the council after getting the video of the collectors actually abducting a colony and they dismiss it saying it's not in council space so we don't have to worry about. I'm sorry but that's an idiot plot because it fails logically on so many levels.)

Addendum: Tali's face.

I don't think they should show her face and probably shouldn't show the face of any quarian. Why? Because the moment they do, rule 34 will distort her face worst than anyone should care to imagine.

 

[Eri]

Susan was wrong. It's not the atmosphere, it's that their immune systems are... pretty much non existent. Entirely different.

Actually..You're both right. Due to having no immunity, the atmosphere might as well be disease ridden and causes sickness.

 

[Rakor]

On the sheperd vs. hawk discussion......never bring a fireball to an orbital laser fight.

 

[Susan Arendt]

Susan was wrong. It's not the atmosphere, it's that their immune systems are... pretty much non existent. Entirely different.

Aaaand what do you think happens when a shit immune system meets a foreign atmosphere?

 

[Techno Destructo]

In Regards to Skyrim's Armor, armor and grieves together is great, more people on screen is nice, at this point I only hope that there will be more choices of clothing and armor, I don't think variety will have to be sacrificed to keep things from lagging out on my screen.