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Monday, June 8, 2015

From Hyrule to Boston (The Commonwealth) - My Adventure



From Hyrule to The Commonwealth
Disclaimer: I link a lot of shit to Wikipedia. Because read stuff.

    Like most gamers today, I was exposed to The Legend of Zelda at an early age. Although we've had an Atari 2600 and later an NES, none of the games they provided kept me playing for more than a couple hours at a time. A Link to the Past for the Super Nintendo was the first time I experienced Hyrule. No other game ever had me so immersed the way it did. This was the first time I realized video games were more than just fun, they could also tell a story. The more I played it, the more I wanted to play it. My mom started playing it too, roughly 25 years later and she has never played any game more than she's played Zelda games. Honestly, even more of them than I have.

The Legend of Zelda    Once the Nintendo 64 came out we got it, with Mario 64. A step up from the Super Nintendo, I hadn't even thought of what a Zelda game would be like. Two years later Ocarina of Time released and my mother and I played the shit out of that game. I loved the vast (semi-)open world in all it's low-poly 3D glory. Hyrule was new, but still felt like home. The music in the Zelda series has always been great, and the added value of nostalgia makes its greatness last forever.



    A generation later, the GameCube was released in 2001 and my mom already knew there would be a Zelda game available. So when my dad bought my brother and I an Xbox, she wanted a GameCube, and got it. We knew a new Zelda game was coming to the new console eventually anyway. In 2003, Wind Waker was released and my mom bought it and the strategy guide together, she also bought the Zelda Collection for GameCube that included Ocarina of Time and Master Quest. We played through the Wind Waker together, but separately. Always playing it in different shifts. Commenting on our love for the art direction and the game in general.  I eventually beat it and went onto other games, including Master Quest. Then things took a turn. I don't remember when it was exactly, but a friend told me about a game he just bought called The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind. He told me about it's character creation process, the different races you could pick and the fact that you get to name your character. He sounded amazed, and had me interested. I asked him to let me borrow it when he's done with it. A few weeks later, I got my hands on Morrowind and started a character instantly. The open-world was even more open than The Zelda games, I was amazed by the detail of the world. "You mean there's a fucking plate on the table? And I can pick it up!?".

    My mind was blown. Even More-so by the main quest of the game, a story deeper and more twisted than any movie. The game even allowed me to continue past the finalization of defeating the main boss. I've explored a lot of the map. I've discovered the Morag Tong hideout in Vivec, the Shrine to Molag Bal beneath the water, and so many other hidden items. The vast library of spells, enchantments and potions. The music, Talos, the music Jeremy Soule whispered across the land flowed like mead at Thirsk. It was, and still is, the best game I've ever played. I even told my brother about it, but he didn't seem to care.

   Although I got Oblivion before my computer could run it, I still tried. It was barely playable so I had to buy a new graphics card. So I did, just for Oblivion. The graphics looked much better than it's predecessor, but the graphics of Morrowind on the Xbox never bothered me. The gameplay was fun, the story started out great, escaping prison with the Emperor (Voiced by Patrick Stewart). I really enjoyed the Main Quest-line, the Thieves Guild quest-line and so much more about the game. I even got my brother (two years younger) to pay attention to it a bit, and he's never played Zelda (nor Morrowind) in his life. "I've been picking flowers for about 45 minutes now." I told him. He responded with a simple but honest "Why?". " To make potions." I answered. "I'm sold." he said. A week or two later, he bought it for his 360. He loved it like I thought he'd love Morrowind, given the chance. And as much as I loved it, It always felt like something was missing. Something that Morrowind had. The series had taken a lot of cuts on it's way to the then-next-gen Xbox 360, probably because a game of that scope wouldn't work. It could be they were trying to gain a wider audience. ( See: The Elder Scrolls : The Dumbing Down ) The cities were walled in, only accessible through giant doors. That meant they didn't want the player to levitate or jump over the walls, something that could be done in Morrowind. Adding Quest-Markers meant you could skip dialogue and just chase markers, oblivious to why you're even doing the quest. The (re-?)introduction of Fast-Travel shortened time between trips, speeding up quests. That also meant there was less time spent in the wilderness just traveling, discovering random locations, quests, loot, and NPCs. That took away the sense of fantasy I got from playing Morrowind, the immersion.

 A few years later I found out about Fallout 3, I wasn't even ready. I was still playing Oblivion. I never even heard of Fallout. It was out for a couple weeks before I started playing it. I compare it to Oblivion a bit, and you can tell they're built on the same engine by the same team (Especially when you find the old guy in Rivet City threatening to leap to his death. The same fucking thing happens in the Shivering Isles. Which I'm okay with, It was like an easter egg). And that's what I told my brother. Not long after telling him, he bought it. Fallout is based in the real world, an alternate version at least. My issues with Oblivion being less fantasy-like than Morrowind was void in this case. Fallout had it's own fantasy thing going on with the post apocalyptic future-retro 50's setting. The soundtrack sets the tone instantly. I find myself listening to Roy Brown and The Ink Spots occasionally even without playing the game in a long time. Seriously, my girlfriend thinks I'm nuts.
    I've put hundreds of hours into each Bethesda game since Morrowind. Fallout: New Vegas, on the other hand, was developed by Obsidian, and I haven't put as much time into it. In my opinion, it seems like the most ambitious and expensive Fallout 3 mod ever. That isn't to say I don't like it , I do, It just never pulled me in like Bethesda's own games. I bought a Wii just for the Twilight Princess. I can't seem to play it for any more than a couple hours. I'm not a big fan of the Wii controls, for one thing. Second, Bethesda games spoiled me. However, I intend to play through the entire game eventually, like New Vegas, and like Skyward Sword which I haven't even started.

A few years had passed... I remember looking for news about a new Elder Scrolls game, randomly one day, when I found the trailer to Skyrim. To get an idea of how I felt after watching the trailer, see this. Anyway, Skyrim brought back some of that fantasy feeling that Oblivion was missing, but only some. As great of a game as Skyrim is, it still pales in comparison to Morrowind. With the release of the Wii U, I knew there was going to be a new Zelda game. Wind Waker HD doesn't count. The trailer we finally got to see promises, among other things, a fully open world. I can't wait to play it (in 2016...?), I guess I finally have to buy a Wii U.

 On June 3rd, Bethesda revealed a trailer and announcement that Fallout 4 was coming. Landmarks shown in the trailer confirm rumors that the game would be set in Boston. With the game being built for newer generation consoles and PC, developers don't have to worry about the limitations the 360 era consoles had. It's been a long adventure, I'm excited to see what happens when we finally arrive in Boston.

UPDATE: Here's a list of the mods I'm currently using; TOPHERS MODS
https://docs.google.com/document/d/18_g05IXqfa3sb4Mjb7-wx78xhA2j1O6GBAm6rzqqCYY/edit?usp=sharing


Closing:
I can't write this article and not mention the mod support Bethesda builds into their games and the tutorials they provide to help modders, thank you Bethesda. I also have to mention the amazing community behind the mods, like Nexus Mods. An ambitious project I'm looking forward to right now is Skywind. A huge group of passionate artist, gamers, coders and modders at TES Renewal are working to recreate The Elder Scrolls III Morrowind within Skyrim's Creation Engine using the Creation Kit, among plenty of other tools and utilities.

Another group I have to point out is the team at OpenMW,
working to create an open source alternative to the Morrowind launcher for Windows, Mac, and Linux (and maybe Android). At version 0.39 (4.30.2016), it's very stable including background cell loading and caching of loaded cells, virtually eliminating loadscreens. 


With only a few bugs left and awaiting a few new features, the team is doing a great job and I look forward to their v1.0 release. They're even working on OpenCS, which I'm sure you can guess what that is.  



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