I’ve played Skyrim (PC) for 7 hours, so now it’s time for a first impressions post (Basically a review).

Installation

Installation went quite smoothly, I extracted all the files into the Skyrim folder with Phoenix  (Probably not the proper way but it worked). Running the Steam pre-load after this only took about 10-20 minutes, verifying data and downloading anything missing.

Graphics & Animation

I can’t say anything other than that the graphics simply look great, they aren’t the pinnacle of textures/graphics quality, but the style is consistent and it’s up to par with today’s standard.

The feel/style has changed quite a lot since Oblivion. Skyrim feels more like Morrowind to me, everything is a darker and more serious compared to Oblivion. This isn’t bothersome though, for me it makes Skyrim more immersive and I prefer it over the “happy happy” graphics in Oblivion.

However the animations are still behind compared to other games, Bethesda has been known to not always be up to par with other games and this game is no exception. The most bothersome thing is that the facial expressions (Well the lack thereof). Next to that there are some small clipping issues but those aren’t that bothersome.

Sound/Music

I can’t say much about this, the music is solid (produced by Jeremy Soule so no surprise there), and the sounds, well I can’t really judge them, they fit.

Combat

The combat system has been changed compared to Oblivion, you can now equip an item/spell per hand and attack with either using the left or right mouse-button. And when you dual-wield spells (needs a perk in the specified tree) the resulting cast is more powerful.

There are also satisfying finishing moves, kind of similar to some of the Deadly Reflex finishing moves in Oblivion, however without any limbs actually being separated.

Controls/UI

The controls work good, not many complaints, though not all key bindings are properly configurable.

There’s some small annoyances with the UI, if you change a keyboard shortcut the old key will still show in the UI, and if you want to hotkey things you need to add them to a favourites list first, then open that list, and use that to assign hotkeys to them.

Levelling System

The levelling system has been changed again from Oblivion, and they’ve simplified it. You don’t pick a class in the beginning, so no minor/major skills, and no birth-signs either. The total amount of skills has also been reduced to 18.

Instead of having major/minor skills help you level up, all skills will help you. And instead of the old attribute system you now choose whether you want to improve your magicka, health or fatigue, and you get a point to put into a perk for a skill (Which gives you all kinds of bonuses for that skill).

Quests

I’ve only played a handful of quests, so I can’t speak for the quests as a whole, but the ones I did complete play I enjoyed. The quests on average feel more interesting than the ones in Oblivion. There’s the “Radiant quest” system they implemented that is supposed to make quests more dynamic but as this is my first playthrough I can’t judge how that works.

Other Changes

A list of some other changes:

• Lockpicking now uses the system that was also used in Fallout 3
• No barter when trading (discounts depend on speech level/perks)
• Persuade/intimidate/bribe/brawl dialogue options like in Fallout 3 (The Oblivion disposition system is gone)

Conclusion

Even though the animations could use some improvements, and even though they simplified the levelling system I am still very much impressed by this game, and at the moment I consider it just as good as, and perhaps even better than Oblivion. So if you enjoyed Oblivion and/or Morrowind I can definitely recommend this.

So I recently stumbled upon this open beta of Final Fantasy XIV, another attempt to create a Final Fantasy MMO, I haven’t really followed the happenings around the first one so I can’t really compare it to that, well let’s get started.

Registration & Installation

So the first thing to do is register an account and apply for the beta (Even have to do that while it’s an open beta), this process goes smoothly, but after that we need to download and install the game.

After you register you download a small installer of about 110MB, however this is just the tip of the iceberg (And way too big for just the launcher in my opinion), so after downloading and installing this, you need to run this to install all the content. Well that’s the idea.

After executing the launcher the wait began, it seems that this game uses torrents to spread the updates, and the included torrenting library/program does a horrible job, I never even managed to get any kind of download going with it.

Fortunately the torrents can be found in “My Documents/My Games/FINAL FANTASY XIV Beta Version/downloads/ffxiv-beta/d96437e6/metainfo”. So after downloading them through uTorrent I placed them on the correct location and the game started to apply them.

So after another hour I could finally play this bringing the total install time to about 3 hours (On average after 2 installs).

Graphics

The graphics are simply astounding, they look great and the game has a good feel to it. However due to the graphics even my rig couldn’t run it, and it was last upgraded with almost top of the shelf equipment about 9 months ago.

So with all settings on low I was able to get around 25FPS on my rig, so though it looks good I hope this gets some improvement on the official release as I prefer playability over eye candy.

Sound

I haven’t paid too much attention to the sound, but the voices sound good, the sounds fit and the music does too, so not much to note here.

Gameplay

Now on to the actual gameplay. After creating your character you land in a forest, apparently you have jumped out of a plane. After walking around a bit you get attacked by a few wolfs or whatever they are to represent.

They are just there to get you to know the combat a bit and while I only tried one class the combat system works nice, not something astounding but nice.

Next to this 1 character can also be all classes, you can switch between them on the fly. Basically every class uses a specific weapon type, depending on the type you are wearing you will train that class.

You have both a physical level which can increase your attributes and a class level that can level the current class, granting new skills and other nifty things.

Character Customization

Your character is customizable however to a certain degree, no hundreds of sliders to adjust, just a few dropdowns with things to choose from.

Multiplayer

Haven’t explored this a lot either, so I can’t comment on it.

System Requirements

Conclusion

Even my rig couldn’t decently run this game, not even on its lowest settings. So I’m afraid that for most of the mainstream gamers this game will be out of reach.

I won’t update this any more until they improve the FPS or when I get a new gfx card as this is unplayable at the FPS I am getting.

• Graphics 5/5
• System Requirements 0/5
• Sounds 3/5
• Gameplay 4/5

General Info

Background Info

Borderlands is set on the planet of Pandora. Lured by its apparent vast deposits of minerals, several colonization ships journey to the planet and create a society there. However, they soon discover that there is little else of value on the planet except for the presence of alien ruins. Those who are rich enough to do so left the planet, leaving the rest of the population to scavenge for themselves. While some isolated settlements were formed, much of the rest of the colonists became bandits, living out in the barren wastelands or trashheaps across the planet. Further investigation of the alien artifacts leads to the discovery of “The Vault” – a supposed treasure trove of alien artifacts, technology, and of unimaginable wealth – but those that had discovered it were wiped out by a protective force, leaving few clues as to its location or purpose but creating a myth of its marvellous treasures, you’ll be trying to find this vault and acquire the riches that lie within.

Characters

The game starts out in a bus where you have to pick 1 out of 4 available characters: Brick, a Berserker strong with his fists and capable of entering berserker mode  which makes him almost invincible and able to kill almost anything that moves with his fists. Mordecai, a hunter who can summon his pet Bloodwing, a bird of prey that attacks his enemies from above, and he’s also skilled with either a sniper or handguns. Lilith, a siren that can Phasewalk, with which she can enter another dimension and then reappearing in a group of enemies causing a shockwave blast. And Roland, a soldier that can deploy an auto-firing turret with a shield around it.

Gameplay

After you chose your character you’ll exit the bus near the town of Fyrestone where you’ll be greeted by a little robot known as a Claptrap. after this some bandits attack the town and you’ll have to get rid of em. You’ll start out with a weapon relevant to your class of choice, and you’ll be able to pick-up a handgun shortly after.

So I entered the town and was attacked by a few bandits, being the first enemies in the game they die pretty quickly with a few headshots from my Sniper Rifle, the controls are intuitive and are slowly introduced at the beginning of the game.

The questing mechanism is easy to use and thought out well, you’ll have a diamond in your HUD that shows where to go for the quest and you can also find it back on your map.

Shops are done in the form of vending machines: one for weapons, one for ammo, and one for healing related items. You can also sell items to them and there’s a buyback tab if you ever sell something by accident. These vending machines are plenty throughout the game and can be found at the entrance of almost all zones.

When you die you’ll be returned to the last checkpoint you’ve been at these are poles that will either be colored green or red depending on if it’s the last checkpoint you’ve been to.

You’ll also get a quest to fix the catch-a-ride station, this will give you access to a vehicle (Car) with either a Rocket Launcher or Machine Gun. The colours can be customized and you have a boost button.

Loot

In Borderlands there’s a huge amount of different weapons and mods, just like Diablo it has a random loot generation system that makes sure you almost never get the same weapon, some even have Elemental damage, and for everyone there’ll be a gun to your liking.

Multiplayer

I started out with the single player but as soon as my brother got home I installed borderlands on his PC and we started co-op. The game is intended to be played with multiple people. The enemy’s strength and loot quality will be adjusted to the amount of players (Max. 4) and the level of these players. Money found will be shared between the players and other items are kept by the one that picks em up.

Now there’s a few things in the multiplayer that are missing: There’s no way to trade items (Except dropping them), You can’t trade money or ammo, and there’s no loot distribution system. Now the last thing will only be a problem when playing online with some ninja looter, but it would’ve been nice if it was implemented

Graphics

A while before the release the developers of borderlands decided to switch from a realistic to a cell-shaded style. Many found this a bad decision it actually looks pretty good, and I doubt that I would’ve played borderlands this long if it weren’t shell shaded.

The graphics fit, even though it’s a bloody shooter the shell-shaded style looks good. The world is shapen nicely (Well for a desert) and the graphics just work. I’m just not a fan of barren lands (Deserts) and alike, but that’s just a matter of taste.

Conclusion

Borderlands is a great and addictive game, the scenery just looks good even though it’s shell-shaded and even with the shortcomings of the multiplayer it’s still a great game. I’ve stopped playing after a good 8-10 hours because it started feeling repetitive, however most people say the game is just starting after playing for 8 hours so I might play some more in the near future.

System Requirements

Update (August 2010)

I had picked up Borderlands again a while ago to play with a friend, we finally completed the main storyline and the Zombie Island expansion, I can highly recommend zombie island I really enjoyed playing it.

We have now lost interest again because the other DLCs are quite hard to do and we don’t feel like playing the storyline again, still the game enjoyed us for over 40 hours so it’s an awesome game.

Razer is one of the best companies for gaming mice, together with logitech. The reason I purchased a Razer mouse instead of a Logitech one is because Logitech mice are known to emit a Very high pitched sound.

Content of the Box

After I got home I opened the box, it’s made of quality cardboard and the box is sealed by a circular patch of sticky tape like stuff. After cutting through this and opening you have the mouse in plastic.

And on the backside of this plastic thing there’s a cardboard thing attached, containing the manual and some other things.

This cardboard thing can be opened and it contains a few things: the manual, a certificate of authenticity and the driver CD.

After this I opened the plastic thing and took my brand new mouse out.

Installation

So after unpacking everything I plugged in the mouse and started the driver installation. Clicked next a few times, set the installation directory and let it run. The first 2 times I ran it it tended to disappear and didn’t finish installing. The third time however if popped up properly instead of minimizing without coming back. It seemed it was asking to install Raptr (More on that in a separate paragraph) so I installed it and just let the installation run.

After that I had to reboot, and once everything booted up again I could check out the driver menu. I have to say it looks pretty cool, and the features are also pretty neat. Ofcourse the first thing I did was set the polling speed to 1000hz (1ms), and after this I had to reboot again.

So after rebooting again I started up the configuration again and set my side buttons to increase DPI and decrease DPI, after that I decided to start up Call of Duty 2.

Performance & Comfort

So time to try this baby out in a game. After launching COD2 and joining a server I immediately noticed that it’s a lot more precise then my old mouse (a Logitech EX110) and that it’s a lot easier to rapidly move it. My scores on COD2 were substantially better compared to when I played with the EX110.

It has some special foot thingies so that it glides a lot easier, and it also does compared to my old EX110. the mouse also fits perfectly to my hand, it’s comfortable and it has an anti-slip layer on the top that makes sure you’ll never loose grip.

Durability

The mouse is build from high quality plastic and it has a solid feel to it. Even the mouse buttons feel like they’re high quality and will last a lifetime. The only thing that might wear out is the anti-slip coating, but time will tell.

Conclusion

The Razer Deathadder is a great mouse and that for a good price, at the time of writing this article it costs 60$ on the Razer website and I paid 50 euros for it in a store in Breda. It’s comfortable, precise and fast, and feels very durable. So I’m very positive about it and till now I love it, if I encounter any problems with it I’ll write about it but I doubt it. So I say if you’re looking for a good gaming mouse go for the Razer Deathadder.

Update (14-Aug-2010)

After almost a year of use the anti-slip finish still doesn’t show any wear, and the mouse is still performing as good as a year ago, I liked it so much I even bought a second one.

In this review we’re taking a look at the “Logitech Digital Precision Gaming Headset” it’s an entry-level pc gaming headset, and the name sounds like it’s a good product, and lastly, and it looks pretty impressive. Logitech sais it’s designed for casual and pro gamers. But is it really that good as it looks and sounds ?

Specifications

• Frequency response:
• Headset: 20 Hz–20 kHz
• Microphone: 100 Hz–16 kHz
• Input sensitivity: -58 dBV/µbar, -38 dBV/Pa +/- 4 dB
• Speaker size: 40mm
• Cable length: 10 feet
• Connections: USB and dual gold-plated, analog 3.5mm

Comfort

After opening the box the first thing I did was try it on. The first thing I noticed is that headset is worn with the head thingie in your neck instead of the usual on top of your head. so I tried it on and well it wasn’t very comfortable, tried rotating it a bit, etc. but it just didn’t feel right (and it’s also kind of heavy), I asked my mom to try it on too, she did and was also trying to make it fit comfortably, but to no avail. it just isn’t comfortable. She said it might just need some “Getting used to”, after this I was already dissapointed so I decided to google a few reviews on it.

So I read to a few reviews to find out 90% of the reviews say: it’s uncomfortable, sounds like shit, and is heavy. as I’ve concluded myself.

Sound

Haven’t even tried this after reading  the reviews, but according to most it’s crap.

Conclusion

This headset is nothing but a waste of money. It’s uncomfortable, has bad sound quality, and the price is high for such a crap product. I didn’t even test the sound. if you want a cheap headset get a cheap Trust Headset and if you want a good gaming headset go for a Sennheiser (Thinking about getting the PC 151).

Please give me some feedback on how I did in writing a review, or if you want to say something about the headset feel free to do that to.