After dozens of hours in the province of Skyrim, I’ve done a lot. I’ve plundered tombs, slain dragons. I’ve picked a point in the landscape and gone there, full of manly purpose. I’ve listened to many personal stories and stuck my mailed fist of intervention into more then a few faces. Though my adventuring might someday come to an end, it will never truly find a conclusion. Yet, through all of it, I have reached one conclusion:

I like Fallout: New Vegas better.

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Ed wrote a wonderful review of Skyrim for the Xbox recently. I don’t want to steal his thunder, but I thought I would chime in on how the game feels on PC.

First, let me just say that I agree with Ed’s overall assessment of the game. It certainly merits the Seal of Excellence from Adrenaline Vault. And let me also indicate that I think Skyrim balances the demands of gamers for an open-ended experience with the needs of others for a CRPG with real structure. Skyrim is pretty darn open-ended; if you don’t even begin the major narrative arc, it’s like there isn’t even a threat of dragons at all. You can immerse yourself in the Byzantine politics of the region, pursue wealth and riches, or even become a hated villain who murders people for fun and profit (with all the attendant consequences). In fact, your actions outside of the main narrative of dragons attacking Skyrim still have a large impact on the world around you. The game is not only open-ended, but you can change the status quo while not pursuing your destiny as the Dragonborn. (I’d say more, but I don’t want to spoil anything related to certain quest-lines or stories.)

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How do you say good-bye to someone who has been an integral part of Avault since before you can remember? You could do a sappy retrospective of their body of work, add an orchestral soundtrack, and bring a tear to the eye of everyone reading. You could write a brief farewell and announcement of their departure for their fans. Or you could say nothing and quietly hope that no one notices the change in the masthead.

But what if the body of their work can be summed up with an acronym and a word? “DRM bad!” What if they have no fans and only adversaries? What if the sudden rantless silence is too much to go unnoticed? Yes, the rumors are true. Doug Lombardi’s Valve has swooped in and captured the one and only (thank the gods) Tsar Alaric Teplitsky.

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A curious thing happened recently. I was reading the magnificent RPS, and learned about a very cool indie game called Legend Of Grimrock. It is a first-person dungeon-crawling game, which is essentially a remake of the old classics such as Eye of the Beholder and Lands of Lore. Much like that other bearded game critic John Walker, I look fondly upon those games and yet find them unplayable for reasons such as lack of modern controls, graphics, and having to run them either in DOSBox or on a virtual machine of some sort. It makes me happy that someone is remaking (or almost remaking) these almost forgotten games. It also makes me wonder why this isn’t happening on any significant scale.

Why does nobody remake old games?

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Well, that seems to be the impression Patrick Bach, executive producer of Battlefield 3, has. When questioned by a competition winner from Rock, Paper, Shotgun he remarked, “If you put the player in front of a choice where they can do good things or bad things, they will do bad things, go dark side – because people think it’s cool to be naughty, they won’t be caught… In a game where it’s more authentic, when you have a gun in your hand and a child in front of you what would happen? Well the player would probably shoot that child.” As a subsequence Battlefield 3 is not going to be keen on letting you strafe any civilian life you encounter. Personally I think his comments are a little naive and at best uncharitable to us gamers.

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This is not, strictly speaking, a review. We don’t currently have an Android games section (although we might in the future), but that doesn’t mean we don’t play them. I, for one, was an early adopter of the Android platform. I still have my G1 laying around somewhere, and right now my non-PC time is split between my G2 and my Asus Eee Pad Transformer. The latter has replaced my old laptop in terms of reading books, browsing the web and other similar tasks. Of course I also play games on it; in fact earlier you might have seen my tutorial on how to get DOS games to run on Android.

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DRM, Internet connections, and digital downloads for games and content are always controversial. My own colleagues here at Avault have very strong feelings about these subjects. Mentioning Steam as a service can raise the specter of a flame war between those who like Steam and those who hate it. But even as people flame each other, we can all generally agree that DRM does not really work to deter the piracy of games and digital downloads can be convenient, even if download services can get rid of the content later.

That said, it should be no surprise that Blizzard is forcing PC gamers to play Diablo III with a live connection to the Net. Blizzard wants to protect its investment, and DRM that does not involve a connection to the Net is shockingly easy to bypass. By the same token, connecting to the Net enables plenty of functions that both PC and console gamers enjoy. Achievements, chat, and an auction house that allows for both in-game currency and RMT for in-game content, are some of these goodies. While we may argue about the value of these services, I can understand why Blizzard would feel that an always-on Net connection would be in their best interests. If I were in their shoes, I would be sorely tempted to make the same choice. After all, Blizzard does not exist just to entertain us, but to make money while doing so.

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I have a lock on the door to my house. If someone really wanted to get in, however, that lock wouldn’t necessarily stop them. They could shoot the door down with a missile launcher or even bypass the door completely and break the window with a brick. I could worry about time traveling robot ninjas with energy swords that can cut through any material that my house is built out of, but I don’t (mainly because I do not have anything of value in my home). Most people would not buy a house or even rent an apartment that doesn’t have some form of lock on their door. People have the right to protect their property and that includes video game companies.

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Written by: Mark Turcotte

Every fall we gamers get the gift of new AAA games delivered to us just before the holidays. These titles usually start arriving in late September, and continue right through to the year’s end. It seems I always find myself thinking that that year has the best fall release schedule ever, as each year comes and seems to top the last. This upcoming autumn is no exception, and has a November release schedule that I think is second to none. The number of AAA titles arriving over a span of mere weeks is staggering. It has left me stumped as to why these games would be released in such close proximity, and has me putting money aside as I prepare to buy them all.

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I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but Crysis 2 was pulled from Steam a short while ago. That’s right, if you haven’t yet purchsed it, you are out of luck, at least when it comes to Valve’s download service, now. What happened? Well, the people over at EA decided to take yet another shot at launching their own store. Their original EA Store sucked, so they dropped it in favor of their new Origin service. Origin is basically EA’s own Steam knock-off.

What this means for you is that for a period of time, there will be a new online gaming store that’s backed up by the weight and wallet of a major publisher. In a bid for your money, they are certain to institute protectionist policies, making their games unavailable for sale elsewhere. BioWare’s Old Republic MMO is confirmed as an Origin exclusive (at least at launch), and Battlefield 3 will be available at other download services, but not via Steam.

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A brief response to Alaric’s rant against BioWare, to Jim Redner’s PR goof, to Michele’s assertion that our reputation is not for sale, and to Angel’s commitment to stay out of the mainstream.

Recently, Alaric vented his anger at BioWare. I wanted to respond at the time, but my response was really too long to fit as a comment. Since I can just write an editorial blog anytime I want, I figured I could respond in a more lengthy and thoughtful way from my own soapbox.

First of all, let me just say that I have had some of the same feelings as Alaric. While I don’t bear the same kind of malice against BioWare that he apparently does, I completely understand his frustration. In my case, one of the last straws was NWN2. While NWN itself suffered from some problems, the writing and characterization of NPCs got much better in the Hordes of the Underdark expansion. The plot involved making some real choices, and had some interesting characters with compelling dialogue. (Whoever wrote Deekin’s dialog during the final encounter with Mephistopheles gets a gold star.) But by the time we get to NWN2, most of that wonderful writing is gone. NWN2 had so much potential that went unused because most of the NPCs were uncompelling and the plot had a kind of recycled feeling to it. The antagonists were named something different, but the ancient evil from the past schtick was something we had covered before in NWN. (One of the things that made Hordes of the Underdark so interesting was its unique plot construction when compared to the original NWN.) The game also suffered from a buggy release and unjustifiably high system requirements for the kind of graphics it had. The best NPC was Bishop, but you only got to see his full characterization if you made certain choices towards evil. (Bishop’s refusal to help Garius towards the end and his scathing commentary was pretty good. Just because Bishop was evil did not mean he had to just do what the bad guy said to do.)

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I’ve already detailed my intimidating experience on my first day of E3 so for Day Two, I think I’ll take a different approach. You saw me at my most anxious and stressed on Day One, but Day Two was a totally different experience. After seeing how well (and calmly) my colleagues at The Adrenaline Vault handled their E3 responsibilities, I decided to shadow them on Day Two. I would leverage some of Turks’s connections and experience the VIP treatment. I even walked away with a few VIP badges, which may or may not have needed to be returned, but they’ll look good on my wall. The main difference in my approach to Day Two was a focus on the experience and better time management (i.e. a lot less walking between halls).

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I never aspired to become a game reviewer, it just sort of happened. My journey began with the casual podcast download, progressed to writing iOS game reviews and has escalated beyond my expectations with my inaugural E3 experience. Attending E3 with a media pass has its perks, but if you’re not prepared, there are some pitfalls awaiting the unsuspecting noob. What started out as a nightmare, however, eventually became something that I will value the rest of my life. I’m already preparing myself for next year’s E3, but nothing will be quite as intimidating, yet ultimately transcendent, as my first time.

When I arrived at the Los Angeles Convention Center, I thought I was adequately prepared for the long day ahead of me. My calm quickly unraveled while I walked through the parking structure. The sign near the entrance read “$50/day maximum for event parking.” E3 definitely qualifies for an event, but surely I wouldn’t be charged $50 for leaving my car in this garage for the day, right? Nope, I parked in the garage for L.A. Live and parking there was considerably more expensive that the convention center parking. Rather than search out another parking garage, I decided to finish my first appointment to preview Dead Island, and then scope out more affordable parking solutions afterward.

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If I ever go to E3 again, I will not book an early flight for Monday. I learned my lesson well on this trip. I left for the airport to take the first flight my preferred airline had (which means it was early as all hell), after having slept for about thirty minutes the night before because I was up all night thinking about E3. Then you add a full day of press conferences and free drinks at the Transformers MMO party on top of the no sleep, and you wind up with an interesting mix. Somehow, however, I was victorious, and with bags under the eyes still managed to survive the first two days of my E3 adventure.

OK, enough of my sad tale about no sleep, an early flight, and too many free drinks. Let me get to the games that you want to hear about. Many of the titles I saw during the press conferences (though with limited actual gameplay) were filled with fantastic-looking cut scenes. I did have some hands-on time and private viewings of a few, and while you really can’t tell how the final product will be, I can still throw my thoughts out there on my first impressions.

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Here at Avault, we tend to only review games and related hardware accessories. Yet, every once in awhile, I feel the need to comment on something hardware related that has little to do with games. I’ve complained before about the lousy product performance of NetGear wireless products, but today I am compelled to write something much more positive.

For the past few months, I have been the proud owner for a 2011 Ford Fiesta (a good car, by the way). What is relevant to the technologically savvy crowd is Ford’s Sync system, an option available on most new models. Now, I admit, I was a bit skeptical when I read some advertising on Sync’s capabilities; after all, what could be more pretentious than driving a smart car that requires regular updates from the Internet? However, after a test drive, purchase, and five months of ownership, I feel confident saying that Sync is a wonderful piece of automotive engineering, even though it doesn’t utilize any cutting edge, science fiction technology.

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