Game worlds

I talked at one point about Fallout 3 a few times.  I can’t find the other one, otherwise I’d link it here. 

I ended up buying The Elder Scrolls IV Skyrim, and I’ve been spending some time with that here and there.  Though it is hard for me to accept, I occasionally need a break from work.  So I generally play video games.  And I only use timed increments.  Unless it’s the weekend. 

Anyways, going back to an article I think I wrote but I can’t find.  The article was about how Fallout 3 lacked a sense of desperation and misery that one would expect from a post-apocalyptic wasteland.  Sure, it looks great.  But the horror of the world, even though it is discussed, is fairly blah.  Its violence for violence’s sake and it doesn't have the impact it should.  The world should feel terrible most of the time, and yet it doesn't.  Society is making a comeback, and the horror just isn't there like it should be. 

Skyrim portrays the horror different, though.  I think it does a better job than Fallout 3 of portraying human depravity and human suffering.  Fallout 3 uses every in your face technique it can.  Skyrim uses subtlety, and it works much better.  A necromancer den in Skyrim seems to speak more to horror than a Fiend camp in Fallout 3.  Yay, the Fiends are drug addicted bad guys who are horrible people.  Where are the after effects?  Where is the trail of dead bodies or piles of skulls?  It just isn’t there.

A necromancer den has a distinct degree of horror because it is separated from the rest of the humanity in the game.  The rest of the characters in the game are hearty, peace loving folk.  So when you see depravity, it is a shock.  In Fallout 3, you see depravity and it’s the nature of the beast.  And the depravity isn’t very depraved.  You don’t see burned corpses over open fires.  You don’t see dead bodies piled in cages, or hung from ceilings. 

I’d throw in pictures, but you can see how well those turn out.  They look just like my Fallout 3 pictures.  This one was of the Shrine of Azura in snowfall.  Five minutes later, I got wasted by a daedra in the Azura’s Star quest.  Anyways. 

I think there are good and bad parts to both games, but both are worth playing.