A NEW CHALLENGER HAS ARRIVED! Oh and a Skyrim post, I guess!

S'been a while.  How are you?  How's your 2014 goin' ?

Me?  Oh y'know.  Ups 'n downs.  But enough about me.


A VICTOR DONE HAD BEEN DECLARED!

Fallout: New Vegas wins!

Entire map is a sand trap, really.

To be fair: Civ5 got 5 votes as well, and although its a tie, Civ5 lends itself better as one-off posts.  I just might do some of that as well.  But all hail our new victor!

Feel free to suggest banana-crazy ways to play the game in the comment sections below.  Suggestions can be (but are not limited to)

• Keeping to a theme: i.e. dress up and act as a cowboy.
• Be an evil slaver bastard allied with the Legion.
• Melee weapons only, high medical and Speech skills.
• Shotguns, Leather Armor, Sunglasses.  "Give me your clothes, your boots, your motorcycle."
• Playing it on that insane wasteland survivor mode where I need to drink and pee and ammo has weight.  Ugh.

Anything really.  I'm looking for a challenge this time 'round, and if there's a lot of suggestions, I'll most likely mix & match some suggestions together so that the game doesn't become IMPOSSIBLE, but still has a unique feel for the playthrough.

NOW THEN.

Back to our onions; our Skyrim onions.  Last time, we were fighting off Otar the Mad in a fevered pitch to get back to Skyrim's surface world.  Well Otar done got killed, (like ya do) and I managed to crawl out of his mausoleum-like tomb to breathe in that wintry fresh Skyrim air.  Aaaaaaah.  Drink. it. up.

Time to wrap some things up.  Delphine and Esbern have a bone to pick with the Greybeards.  In that they KNOW the Greybeards' secret: Charles Martinet Paarthurnax.  And they. ain't. happy.  Well they're dragonslayers after all.  Well not them; but their order.  And there hasn't been a dragon in forever.  Impartial as I am between the Blades and the Greybeards, the fact that Paarthurnax is a dragon is somewhat alarming.


The least I can do is go talk to the ol' guy and see what he's all about, now that Alduin's dead'n'gone.  I mean The Blades want him dead, and the Greybeards clearly want him not-dead.

"I hate Morndas." Paarthurnax is more like Garfield right now.

 Look at that dude.  Just draped over that monument like some fat lazy scaled cat.  Sunning his lizard-buns all day, like he owns the place.  Well technically now that Alduin's gone, he kinda does.  He's the most powerful dragon, alive and well, living in Paris.

"I'm good enough, smart enough, and doggone it, everybody's afraid of me!"

Well that's not reassuring, Paarthy;  I get it you've went through a redemption process, but when you phrase it like that and then add that EVERY GODDAMN DAY you struggle with your baser urges and have to daily affirm to yourself you're not gonna enslave and eat all humanity like some sort of scaled Stuart Smalley...  well I think I've made my choice now.

"Et tu, Dragonpuncher'?" Am I using that right?

Well that's taken care-of.  Now the only nigh-powerful entity walking the lands of Skyrim is... me!  Unless a Daedric Prince shows up, we should be good.

Well there's that matter of a civil war a-brewin'.  No sense in lording over Skyrim if there's nothing left to lord over.  Decisions, decisions... Do I go with the Empire?  Or do I side with the Sons of Skyrim; the Stormcloaks?

Let's break 'em down.

The Empire aren't from Skyrim originally, are from Cyrodiil (ES4: Oblivion) and essentially moved on up their military presence into Skyrim to annex it and 'protect' it.  Kinda like what a certain German dude did in a tank to Poland a bunch of years ago.*  Ultimately they're being puppeteer-ed by the Altmeri Dominion, a conclave of Elves who're just dicks all-around.


The Stormcloaks are a radical faction of Nords from Skyrim who want Skyrim back under Independent and NORD-controlled.  They favor that the Nords are the 'True Sons & Daughters of Skyrim" in some weird master-race** notion, and refuse to bow down to any other sovereign nation.  They aren't being controlled by anybody else, but they're p. racist yo.

Essentially; It's a case of the ol' Double-Hitler Switcheroo***.  I have to pick sides; the game will not let me stay Neutral in their conflict.  Well that is to say the quest line will never complete unless I pick a side.  I can essentially never choose, but the events in-game will never progress, thus completion is unattainable.  I cannot let that slide, as there's achievements to be won!  ONWARD AND...

♫ DEY SEE ME STORMIN'.   

DEY CLOAKIN'.

TRYIN' TA CATCH ME THU'UMIN' DIRTEE. ♫

Ultimately a tough choice; one I was attempting to avoid for as long as possible; and while I do not agree with Ulfric's 'stringent' immigration policies, I prefer it to being made a vassal state to a puppet state run by a shadow council of Elven dickholes.  Sometimes, you gotta make the hard choices.  This was one of those times.

Ruling a fiefdom while maxin' and relaxin' all cool.

Jarl Ulfric had me 'pass a test' to see if I was a true Son of Skyrim, by delving into a draugr den, and fetching a mcguffin-level token to prove my loyalty.  Whatever dude, I stopped Alduin bare-handed.  Deal with it.  Anyways now I'm a proper member of the Stormcloaks, wether I want to be or not.

Next on the list: deliver a message to the Jarl of Whiterun, who, has been essentially on the fence about siding with either faction, though mentioning that he has no love for Ulfric and would more than likely side with the Empire because they're the stronger faction.  RIGHT NOW that is.

Let me AXE you a question, chortle chortle.

Balgruuf said essentially "Thanks but no thanks" to the axe I presented him, from Ulfric.  What does this mean, you ask?  If the current warlord of a region in turmoil offers you a weapon of war, and you refuse his gift, what other meaning could it have than "PLZ WRECK MY SHIT KTHNX."

Commence Operation: WRECK HIS SHIT KTHNX at once!

So off to go and take Whiterun, I guess!  I own a home there.  Despite moving on to Lakeside Manor, I still hope my house survives the assault.  No looting, plz.  Plz plz.

Only 2 out of 3 are true; not that bad!  We didn't steal anything that wasn't ours to begin with in the first place so...

And so commences the assault on the town that I helped defend from a dragon attack oh so long ago, that helped me capture Odahviing and end Alduin's reign of terror, oh and was where I first became a homeowner.

WELP.  TEAR IT ALL DOWN, KILL YOUR IDOLS, etc.

WEERGH! Indeed!  Peek-a-boo!

*TAP TAP* XCUZ ME

*PUNCH* BOOP!  LOL.

And a nut-punch for good measure, why not!?

Shhhh, it'll be over soon.

Well that was fun!  Despite y'know bunch of people I knew and had come to call neighbors and friends are dead now.  Companions' Guild is still intact!  They didn't partake in any of the shenanigans so at the very least I still got them to fall back on, at least!  Positive thinking!

Capture the flag level: NAPOLEON

Galmar is Ulfric's right-hand-man.  He also wears a bear pelt he presumably killed with his bare hands.  I can respect that.  For now, I'm taking orders from him out in the wild, as we systematically take back keeps from the Imperials all around Skyrim.  Right now, Galmar wants me to head over to a fort, and evict its occupants.

2fort 2furious

It's quiet.  Eerily quiet.  Nobody's around the fort and that bothers me.  I was told it would be lightly garrisoned, but so-far there's nobody.  Maybe I'll check the stablehouse...

Dang, that's ♫ COOOOOLD BLOOOODED ♫

Wow, I've seen a few greusome murders, fueled by vengeance in my life, but this is just down-right brutal.  To leave the knife there and position the body that way?  That sends a message.  And that message was this was an imperial ambush!  OH NOES!

NEXT TIME ON GEEKING OUT IN SKYRIM: I SURVIVE, MAYBE!?



*: Hitler reference!
**: Hitler reference again!
***: Not an actual thing!