In the Mind of the Indecisive

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First of all, with my renewed hope in actually returning to my resolution, I'm planning to do yoga on Saturdays and Sundays, and I think it would help to have a place to post my progress, to help with accountability. That's not all that indecisive though; in fact, it's pretty decisive.

The indecision comes from this: I bought Windows 7 and put it on my Mac via Boot Camp. This means that a lot of games that were previously inaccessible (due to either graphics constraints on my PC or OS constraints on my Mac) are now very accessible. I also never figured out how to use mods on my Mac (and deliberately chose not to on my PC). Most of the games I already had but just couldn't play for one reason or another.

So, now, I don't know what game to play! But I've started a lot of them, and here are my thoughts so far:

Baldur's Gate (original): Still doesn't let me create a multiplayer game. I don't know why. I had originally thought it was a Mac problem, but it doesn't work with Windows either, so it must be a hardware issue. I can do it on my old PC. Both are connected to the internet on the same wireless network. *shrugs* I guess it's EE on Mac if I want to play a multiplayer game.

Dragon Age: Origins: I'm in the middle of a game on the Mac. Since this is the only game I've ever actually finished, I kind of want to finish a second game. I also want to get in the habit of finishing games I've started. But I think it will be awhile before I actually do finish. I'm also very curious about mods -- especially the one that puts a chest in your camp. I didn't realize how much of a pain it is to keep going to Soldier's Keep (because in the last game, I didn't know I *had* Soldier's Keep, and I couldn't download it for Mac -- good thing, since I did have it).

Dragon Age II: I was really frustrated the first time I tried playing this game that I gave up pretty early. Part of the problem, though, was that I had bought it in French so that I could practice my French. I thought maybe it was at least partly the language that caused my frustration. True, there are the random fights that are all the same, that get very tedious. But I also think I missed out on some of the better parts of the game (interactions with NPCs) due to language. Yes, I understood the words, but I might have missed the nuances. So I want to give it another shot. In English. When I downloaded it again to my PC-on-Mac, I chose the English language.

Planescape: Torment: All the news on the new Torment: Tides of Numenera has made me rethink this game. I bought it from GoG ages ago, but it was along with several other games, so I never actually played it. I started playing it the other night, and I really like it. I particularly like the fact that it's not going to be as combat heavy and will be more connected to words. I also like all the text, since, by nature, I love to read.

The Witcher: Having the same problem I had on my old PC. I had thought it was a graphics problem, but I guess not. I'll have to look into Tech support.

Skyrim: This is the only game I've actually bought, since by the time I was looking at it, I knew about my PC's graphics problem and it doesn't have a Mac version. So in some ways, this was one of the main reasons for doing this -- all the reviews sounded so good. So far, though, it's not working for me. I can't figure out the controls at all. As others have done, I screwed up at the first jump. I'm going to look at the video someone here linked to about it. I also find the first person view very difficult. This is something I think I should probably eventually try to "get", but for the moment, it's pretty frustrating. I had the same problem when I tried out Morrowind on my old PC -- I couldn't get into it because I couldn't really figure out where I actually was. I had seen somewhere (can't remember where) that in Skyrim, you could change it to a third person view, but I haven't figured out how to do that, so I'm wondering if I misunderstood. My friend says that she has the same problem with third person view, so I figure it is something I can learn to get used to. Right now, though, other games (Dragon Age and Torment) seem much more appealing. On the other hand, a lot of my students play Skyrim, so it might be a good thing to play in order to connect with them better.

I also have GoG versions of Neverwinter Nights and Icewind Dale. I couldn't figure out the camera in Neverwinter Nights, and I've heard that Icewind Dale is really combat-heavy. So, those are at the bottom of the list.

I'm not sure that writing it out helped with my decision. I think it may actually have made it worse, since before posting, I was pretty sure I was choosing between Origins and Torment, but now the Witcher and Skyrim look like more viable options -- particularly if I figure out why I can't seem to start The Witcher. Oh well, we'll see. Thanks for listening to me ramble!

 

I've been playing a lot of skyrim and I enjoy it immensely.

 

I did figure out how to get to the keep and out of Helgem. I also was able to get it to a third person view -- the mouse wheel didn't work earlier in the game, but once my hands were untied, it let me. I am still really bad at targeting, and in general, I find the combat frustrating. I also can't seem to get the healing spell to work. I click the correct mouse button, but all that happens is that my character's hand moves and shines a little -- as if she can't really cast the spell. Maybe I don't have enough Magicka? But that seems odd since it's a first level spell. A first-level character should have enough, right? I tried Googling the problem, but all I got were specific weird characters (healing thralls, healing as a vampire, etc.). Oh well, now I'm rambling again!

 

Well we solved that healing problem in chat Let me know if it worked out for you.

 

Yep. We'll see. I started a new character because I missed some things in the beginning .