Screenshot Sunday (IntPiPoMo)

I meant to do a screenshot Saturday, but Sunday is also alliterative and available.  I’m looking at some of my recent downloads, and through my vast screenshot archives to make a nice dent in my IntPiPoMo numbers.

 

Elder Scrolls Online

I’ve started the new Dragonguard quest line which should lead me to Southern Elsweyr.

It all began for my character in Auridon with a trip to Tanziwell, and a group of clues leading to a secret chamber. Kasura is your guide.

 

The secret chamber.

 

The Valley of Blades sounds pretty exciting, but I was disappointed that it was mostly a ruin.  Maybe a great deal of fighting training goes on amongst the broken pillars and fallen walls. Perhaps it’s an ideal place tactically.

 

Someone’s a fan of Wow’s Stormheim, I’m thinking, because you get to use a Grappling Bow, much like the grappling hook used by the Vrykul and you. I loved those hooks.

 

Big beefy Sai Sahan accompanies you to Wind Scour Temple, deep in one of my favorite places, the Alik’r Desert.  You’re going to look for anything that will help you learn the secrets of the legendary Dragonguard, so you can fight the dragons of Elsweyr.

 

Alan Wake! 

My son got me past the beginning axe man sequence, so I went in to take a look.   Being warned that you should just run when there are too many enemies right off, eek.

 

We open with Alan on a ferry ride.  Welcome to Bright Falls!

 

Alan’s wife, who is slightly creepy and none too likeable so far, asks Alan to pose with “the old man at the railing”.  He’s the local radio host who would love to interview Alan.  It turns out Alan is taciturn and none too friendly.  He says he just wants a quiet time here, but he seems to mostly be a jerk.  Just my opinion.   The character faces are a little rough around the edges though the scenery is beautiful.

Alan’s an author, and his agent plans to hound him by phone.

 

A stop for the cabin keys at the local cafe gives you an opportunity to meet a few locals and learn how to maneuver and interact.   Oops, the boss is in the bathroom, and Alan is too antsy to give him the personal time.  When Alan approaches the guy in the bathroom, a strange woman in a veil pops up behind him to give him the keys.

 

At the cozy cabin, the lights aren’t on.  Night is incoming and it turns out Alice is afraid of the dark.  Our first look at the World By Flashlight. I didn’t notice while playing but what’s with the little flashlight in the upper left of the screen? Charges? Number of flashlights?  His wife did seem to indicate she’d bought a few of them.  She hangs out on the deck while insisting Alan go to the shed behind the house to get the generator working.

 

I had a little trouble figuring out how they wanted to get the generator started.  There’s a circular indicator and a little mouse button picture.  In the cafe, you started the jukebox by pressing the left mouse repeatedly.  Here, it was a little different sequence but luckily the lights went on.

 

The nicely lit house and relaxing time with his wife was cut short when she delightedly presented him with a den complete with typewriter and paper.  She’s eager for him to overcome his writer’s block, giving him no escape from it at all.  Angry, he runs outside to be alone.  Cue all the lights in the house going out, with Alice screaming for him, then shouting get away from me.

How like me to panic immediately, get turned around in the dark, and end up by the car high above the cabin.  Sorry Alice, if you’re already dead.

So…heading back down, get attacked by a swarm of crows who have been hanging around…open door…and back up at the car.  It seems to have crashed?  Alan has no idea what has happened.  I had a bad moment the axe man would pop up but no.   Fortuitously, he’s just 200 yards from Stuckey’s friendly café.  He should go there for help, right?  I stopped at this checkpoint because I was scared and the movement of the game made me a little queasy.   The combination will have me playing in short sessions.   I do like the story of it so far.

 

14 pictures for IntPiPoMo in this post

Total 19

 

Bits of Game News

Alan Wake on TV

From Gamasutra, Alan Wake, that game which has proven to scary for me to play, is being developed for television!  How great is that.   I can just put a blanket up over my eyes when it gets too intense!  Ideal.

I considered taking a look at it tonight to see if I could get past the axe guy.  The very beginning!  They make it sound easy, except, I could only see notes for console controls, not PC, so axe guy would get me yet again.

https://atherensadventures.blogspot.com/2014/10/alan-wake-peek.html

https://atherensadventures.blogspot.com/2015/11/intpipomo-3-alan-wake-and-his-axe.html

A Gamasutra Reprint

Also from Gamasutra, in a fascinating article, Mike Fridley does a postmortem on Kingdoms of Amalur.  He was an executive producer with Big Huge Games.   The article covers the time spent on the game that ended up being Kingdoms of Amalur, though it had other origins.  What went right, what went wrong. 

When I heard THQ bought Kingdoms and rights to Copernicus, I was so excited, mostly for Copernicus, which seemed guaranteed to succeed and be incredible with all the talent they had on board.   I’d be happy to see Amalur further developed, but, all my real hopes go to Copernicus.

http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/197269/postmortem_kingdoms_of_amalur_.php

More on Amalur and Copernicus

https://www.vg247.com/2018/09/06/kingdoms-of-amalur-purchased-thq-nordic-copernicus/

https://www.gamespot.com/articles/kingdoms-of-amalur-reckoning-ip-acquired-by-thq/1100-6461594/

https://gamerant.com/kingdoms-of-amalur-remaster-ea/

Shadow of the Tomb Raider Review

In case you’re a Tomb Raider fan, here’s an early review from Gamespot.  Some of Lara’s moves sound an awful lot like those in Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell.

https://www.gamespot.com/reviews/shadow-of-the-tomb-raider-review-guerilla-girl/1900-6416982/

IntPiPoMo #3 Alan Wake and His Axe Murderer Pal

You will recall that Alan got in a car accident, then hallucinated (surely) a guy with an axe, zooming up to him, saying you don’t know who I am, do you?  Then going whack whack with an axe.

We have all have our scary weaknesses. Axe murderers appear to be on my list.  Can’t tolerate them!  Nonetheless I present this shot of poor hapless Alan not sprinting for the lighthouse, but standing right up to Mr Axe Murderer.  I’m going to make it to that lighthouse, I really am.

Alan Wake: a Peek

My son has Alan Wake and it always looked intriguing story wise.  The combat with the flashlight to highlight, then shoot (?) looked really tricky. But at least if I die, die, die only I will know.  No metrics.

Getting off to a good start I began the tutorial and the guy I ran over (in my pseudo dream) popped up by me all of a sudden and I panicked and ran into him wherein he killed me on the spot with his wee ax.

This is going to be good.