That's Curious...

Entire Tamriel Landmass built into Skyrim.

Just awesome.

ppsh-41:

I didn’t know if this was posted yet on tumblr, so I thought I’d do it. The landmass of almost all of the provinces in Tamriel, has been put into Skyrim. All which are inaccessible(without console commands) and which serve absolutely no purpose in the game. Why are they there? I personally don’t know. But take a look at the effort Bethesta put into these seemingly pointless landmasses.

At the south-eastern most part of Skyrim lays Stendarr’s Beacon. 

If you’ve looked at a map of Tamriel, you’ll know this is the closest place in Skyrim, to Morrowind.

If you travel directly North East of Stendarr’s Beacon, you’ll end up finding a path to your right, in between two huge mountains.

I noticed how beautiful the path really looked. It seemed quite enthralling actually for some reason.

The path is nestled between two mountains, decorated with trees, and at the end of it some type of gateway, or arch.

But, that open archway is the end of the road. The game doesn’t allow you to go any further. I find it strange, that there’s an area like this leading from Skyrim to Morrowind. Nowhere in the lore was this stone wall mentioned. And why would it be an open arch like that? Why not closed? Why is there a space at all between these mountains if we can’t go any further? As you can see there are still trees and foliage beyond this wall, but you aren’t able to access it without console commands.

So, I went into No-clip like the BAMF I am and travelled down this path.

Landmass photos below. 

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Weave is an excellent (and free) to-do app for the iPhone

I am a very forgetful person. This often lands me in trouble with family-members, my girlfriend and and various governmental agencies. Yes I can remember every word of the Stonecutters song, but tell me a phone number and I’ve got no chance. Thus, I need a device to keep track of literally everything: my phone.

I’ve been using the Reminders app that Apple included in the iOS 5 update, but it’s a little thin on features and so in looking for a more fully-fledged option I found Weave.

Instead of just a long list, Weave brings in ‘projects’, which act like folders for your items. This is a problem I had with Reminders; I had simply lots of tasks that were just notes that didn’t really needed working on immediatly. This is often films I want to watch or a new band I’ve heard of and just want to quickly jot the info down, but probably not do anything with it for a while. With Weave I can just create a folder called “Music” and then add the item into there. I can then view that project later and keep my attention on things that actually need doing.

The main screen (above) is what you see when you first open the app and here you can see a list of recent notes as well as ones due in soon. You can also star the items to keep them pinned to the top of the list.

Adding items is easy enough and there’s the usual due date forms as well as ‘time spent’ option where you can record the days, hours or minutes you spent on the app (useful for invoicing). The app is quick to open, although I did notice that when you re-opened the app it displayed a “Working…” dialogue over the screen, meaning you’d have to wait a moment. Irritating when you’re trying to frantically remember a phone number or your girlfriend’s birthday. (Seriously).

Weave also features a handy Income/Expenses feature. This turns a useful to-do app into an income tracking system too. You simply add an expense (or, if you’re lucky enough, an income) and it keeps track of them all. You can link it to a specific item in a project too: A small menu pops up when you tick an item as complete asking you how long you spent on it, whether you made any money or spent some.

It doesn’t have any location-aware features like Apple’s Reminders, so that might be a deal-breaker for some. Personally I’m not out and about doing stuff enough for it to be useful, but that’s just how I use it.

There’s a few minor features worth mentioing before I finish. You can set Weave to send you a notification at a certain time of day nudging you to start some tasks. I’ve set mine for 9AM Monday to Friday and Weave cheerfully greets me with a “Good Morning!” and asks me whether I’d like to get stuff done. I find this particularly useful as getting me to start a task is often the biggest battle. Weave also offers a data back up feature that requires an account - again, totally free.

It’s worth checking out a few others, but Weave fits into my workflow quite well. It does a great job of taking Apple’s Reminders and giving it a bit more punch. And best of all it’s totally free, surprising considering the amount of features and general fit-and-finish of the app. Great stuff.

It’s not all sunshine and puppies: Things that annoy me about Skyrim

To counter my last post on Skyrim where I gushed endlessly about how great it is, here’s a list of things wrong with it.

Glitches and bugs: it’s a Bethesda game

This is standard fare in open-world games, especially ones that have so many variables going on at one time. There’s literally hundreds of things going on that could trigger a problem, so it’s a little unfair to say ‘there should be no bugs’. However, freezes and other glitches can ruin games. I’ve had two freezes so far and while I’ve not lost any considerable amount of time it’s very, very easy to do so.

Similarly, the game chugs slightly when saving and, oddly, when riding a horse, especially when sprinting. I don’t know if this is because it needs to load characters and other objects quicker than usual but for me (on PS3) I’ve seen some issues.

It’s nowhere near Fallout: New Vegas levels and they’ve done very well to have a game running so smoothly. It’s not drastic and shouldn’t deter you, but it affects gameplay so kind of has to be brought into consideration.

DRAGONS: Oh, it’s dead…

Dragons are seen as some of the major draws to this title, and yes they’re damn cool. However fighting them… well it’s not the epic challenge that I would imagine. I first encountered one while playing on the ‘adept’ difficulty setting and noticed quite quickly that you could hack ‘n’ slash your way through one in a fairly short amount of time. On the next outing I upped the difficulty and still found them a bit wussy. It’s very fun, but once you get them on the ground it’s just a case of applying health potions and hitting attack.

This may just be because I’m not that far through; I imagine the dragons get bigger and scarier. Still, it didn’t feel like the epic battle that I thought it would. Maybe I’m being picky?

The Menus: Down, down, down, down, down 

The menu system in Oblivion was rather pathetic. It felt old when the game came out and was always a cumbersome and slow. Skyrim’s menu system improves on this greatly and is leagues ahead of Bethesda’s initial offering. 

However it’s still not perfect. It can be fiddly sometimes, with lists of items that seem to go on forever. It’s also harder to keep track of all the items you’ve got. I do lots of trading in the game and sometimes find it trickly to find that little thing I want to sell. As far as I can tell you can’t see an overview of an item unless you select it, unlike Oblivion’s menus where you could always see the value, damage etc. (See screenshot below)

I also tend to exit them by pressing circle a lot when trying to just go back a sub-menu. That might be my mistake, but circle is the natural back button.

Selecting items that you flick between frequently has been improved by the favourites menu but if you adds too many items (swords, shields, potions and spells) it becomes fairly useless - another scrolling list.

The speech menus are pretty perfect, it has to be said. Much better than the previous engines.

/rant

Skyrim: A world where simply occupying it is exciting

When sitting down to play games like Skyrim, you have to give yourself a considerable amount of time. It’s not enough to simply say, ‘hey, I’ll play a couple of hours this weekend’.

Two hours in Skyrim will barely get you out of the tutorial.

No, Skyrim demands that you play it. It demands that you sit down, remove all distractions and just play the damn game. Consuming it in tiny sips will only result in frustration.

The reason for this, to me, doesn’t lie in Skyrim’s missions or quests. Yes they’re entirely entertaining and are nicely varied to give you lots of stuff to do, but they’re not why playing the game is so fun. The real reason is the universe Bethesda have created. It’s here that the game really shines - by simply letting you exist inside this amazing world.

Dropping into the local inn in Whiterun and you’re presented with a place where you can sit and listen to conversations, make requests from the bard or sit and drink your weight in mead. The roaring fire feels warm, the characters - even ones that serve no purpose towards the story - are personable and add a great deal to the experience.

Walking around the town there’s a sense of existence that it’s hard to match elsewhere in a videogame. Everything and everyone seems to have a purpose beyond being something for the player to interact with. Of course that fruit seller isn’t real, but the depth in her story makes it feel that way, despite the fact she’s a tiny character in the scope of things. Bethesda have let the world exist in its own right, not just to serve the player.

The introduction of work adds to this. Being able to chop wood or smelt swords or armour means that you can also fit into this finely crafted world – you don’t feel like the exceptional outsider that you often feel like in RPGs. You’re not the hero, just a bloke without superpowers or a destiny that needs to be fulfilled. You can create your own role to play.

That’s where Skyrim has me enthralled. I was playing last night when three men approached me in the wilderness. They told me I was going to die and attacked me. After I finished them off I searched their bodies and found a note with “contract” written on it. These men, it turned out, had been hired by a man I had met in Dawnstar and stolen a note off of to see what it said. Once I’d read I put it back, but he noticed and was a little pissed. A minor NPC that I barely spoke to took out a hit on my name. It’s this kind of thing that adds to that immersion.

Bethesda have managed to create a game where it would be entertaining enough if all that was expected of you was to simply occupy it. Remove all of the quests, remove your character’s special role in the story and you’ve got a fully formed world that operates in such a consistent and enthralling manner. Just being able to be a part of that is what I find the most the entertaining and what will be keep me coming back long after every quest is complete. You really should be playing this game.

worrydream: A Brief Rant on the Future of Interaction Design

The next time you make a sandwich, pay attention to your hands. Seriously! Notice the myriad little tricks your fingers have for manipulating the ingredients and the utensils and all the other objects involved in this enterprise. Then compare your experience to sliding around Pictures Under Glass.

Are we really going to accept an Interface Of The Future that is less expressive than a sandwich?

Not only is does this article make a very good point about the banality of so-called ‘future devices’ (that is, that they don’t utilise the full range of abilities our body has) it’s also wonderfully presented.

nukezilla: 7 is The Number of Days This Week I’ll be Playing Skyrim

Think of any time that you’ve had a real life adventure. You may or may not have known you were going on an adventure. But I bet what truly made it an adventure was the stuff you didn’t plan, the stuff that didn’t feel like it was supposed to happen, the emergent mechanics of the world happening to you, unbidden.

That’s why I get excited for a new Elder Scrolls game.

This piece perfectly presents why I love these games. The world the developers build is the real character and you’re given free roam within it. 

whathifi: UK Government to close cheap CD/DVD tax loophole

Online retailers will no longer be able to sell cheap CDs, DVDs, Blu-rays and games from the Channel Islands from April 1st next year.

The Treasury is closing a tax loophole which currently allows retailers to avoid paying VAT on goods under £15 sold from the Channel Islands.

The so-called Low Value Consignment Relief (LVCR) was widely used by companies selling CDs and DVDs online such as Amazon, Tesco and Play.com.

According to the Government, the tax loophole is costing the Treasury £140m a year.

Good for small business, bad for consumers.

businessweek: Scott Forstall, the Sorcerer’s Apprentice at Apple

An excellent profile of Apple’s senior VP of iOS software, Scott Forstall. Forstall was the key force behind Apple’s move to port Mac OS down to smaller mobile devices, rather than taking the Linux-led vision that some in Apple wanted for their future iPhone. I thought this passage was particularly interesting:

After iOS shipped in the first iPhone in 2007, Forstall’s position strengthened. Since all Apple devices had to work seamlessly with the software, hardware executives such as Fadell couldn’t add new features—a better camera, say, or a larger, Bluetooth-based add-on display—without support from Forstall’s engineers. If Forstall didn’t like an idea, the work wouldn’t get done. He also insisted that iPhone versions of programs like iTunes be developed within his own group. By 2008, Fadell had resigned. According to three people familiar with the internal politics, tension with Forstall was one important factor.

And now, in what Jobs’ post-PC era, iOS will be an important asset to be involved in. The Mac as a platform for development by Apple seems to be losing some of the focus so Forstall having such control of the Next Big Thing means he’s got a very powerful position inside of Apple.

Image credit.

 nytimes: Mexico’s Drug War, Feminized 

 The number of women incarcerated for federal crimes has grown by 400 percent since 2007, pushing the total female prison population past 10,000.

No one here seems to know what to make of the spike. Clearly, the rise can partly be attributed to the long reach of drug cartels, which have expanded into organized crime, and drawn in nearly everyone they can, including women.