Yes, I am telling you that if you are doing this, you are doing it wrong. Having to expose internals for testing is a clear code smell, and a potent one at that. The solution is, instead, to stop and think. Why is the structure of the code forcing you to make this decision? Why are the responsibilities of this class so encompassing that I cannot tell what it is doing as an outside observer? What have I done wrong?

Exposing internals for testing is a code smell, and in a lot of those situations dependency injection is the detergent. If a classes responsibilities are too big (which is fundamentally what this code smell suggests), then breaking those responsibilities down is the most responsible thing the programmer can do.

Quote of the Day
“I never make stupid mistakes. Only very, very clever ones. ”
John Peel

Now, on to the coding! Lately I’ve been using a lot of C#. It’s what we predominately use at work, which explains that one. Naturally, we try to deliver the best quality product possible, and one of the techniques we employ to do so is test driven development. To accomplish this we largely use NUnit as our testing framework and Moq for mocking out implementations of interfaces. And on average this works very well.

Now in my spare time I like to occasionally code. I am not willing to give up a hobby just because it’s also a career. Now, C# is great and all but I like to spread my wings, stretch my legs and explore other languages. And most modern languages have pretty good support for TDD. C++ isn’t a modern language. In programming terms it’s steampunk, Victorian fashions realised with modern designs. It’s unit testing and mocking libraries are not quite so easy to use in a TDD context.

I tried with quite a few, and had some reasonable success with UnitTest++ combined with Google Mock. But they never quite matched my needs or expectations, unfortunately. And as the old saying goes, if your wheel is difficult to attach to your car, build a new wheel. Then burn the car down with it. It’s an interesting saying. And it led to the creation of my latest little project, UnitTest11.

UnitTest11 is a testing and mocking framework written in C++11 to take advantage of the latest features provided by the language. It aims to involve less Macros than previous testing frameworks, and allow for code to be written in a more modern style. It’s based inherently around the concepts of “Given, When and Then” (Arrange, Act and Assert), and allows for tests to be expressed in this BDD-like fashion without always requiring you to be encumbered by the strictness of Behaviour-Driven Development.

The actual assertions are written to mimic the “natural language” constraint model of NUnit, namely they adopt an “AssertThat(Value, Predicate)” format, to allow for greater readability and flexibility.

The mocking framework is designed to allow for verifications to be made after the act, as assertions. This is something many other C++ mocking libraries, such as Google Mock, do not (to the best of my knowledge) provide good or even any support for. And since both are built into one library, they integrate with less discrepancies compared to when the Testing and Mocking libraries are unrelated.

At present if you wish to look at the library, feel free to do so (For the curious, the code is under the MIT licence). I’ve not completely finished development of it, the tests driving the library are still a mixture of the new UnitTest11 style and older UnitTest++ tests used to bootstrap the development. Also not every feature is fully implemented. For example, whilst the actual Mocking classes are present support for quickly and easily creating Mock Classes is still not fully implemented. I’m looking into the best way to accomplish this, but fear the Google Mock way of having a series of Macros for varying numbers of parameters may be the only viable option. That makes me a little sad.

Still, it works and I would hope it effectively proves the concept. And if Unit Testing and TDD in C++ interest you, feel free to check it out and let me know what you think. I’ll most likely post again about it, with actual code examples, sometime in the near future.

Quote of the Day
“Cease dependence on mass inspection to achieve quality. Improve the process and build quality into the product in the first place.”
William Edwards Deming

On the brightside my code is very modular, and I am definitely going to create something properly using a more refined variation on this design at a later date (and the lack of time limit will let me use proper TDD and the like).

If I take part in the next LD, I’ve learnt a lot here and had fun, even if I have nothing to demo by the end of it but a sprite moving around the screen. I learnt from my mistakes and will hopefully have more to show in the future.

Major respect for the other LDers who actually get something done without getting lost in background implementation details, as I did.

If I could do it again, I’d pick a pre-existing “engine” (hate that term) instead of writing my own. I just can’t write fast and hackish code without feeling unclean, but for rolling things yourself I’m not experienced enough to do anything but in the timeframe. I fought against that, and it took me too long.

Also I’d impose a much stricter “sprint” system, planning out from the start goals on an hour-by-hour basis (using hourly iterations) with a set of things that needed doing I could pull from. I tried this by the end, where I started to pick up the pace, but it was too little too late.

Code by the end is on github for the curious.https://github.com/MorleyDev/ld24Evolution

tl;dr – I failed hard, but had a blast doing so.

Hello world and it’s loved ones. I am MorleyDev. I’m an English computer science student currently on a paid internship at an awesome company obsessed with agile development. Yes, I have been indoctrinated in those ways, so this Ludum Dare will be an interesting test for me. I will be streaming via Google Hangouts and Air, so feel free to check that out. I’ll have to put up links as they go online because of how hangouts on air seems to work (don’t think you can have a permanent link to an unstarted Hangout or embed unstarted Hangouts in a web page, unfortunately).

Well that or you can follow my new Google+ account or my new YouTube channel. That could work too.

Language: C++ (GCC for the new C++11 features, using the latest nuwen.net build for MinGW to compile on Windows)
Libraries planned on using: Boost, JML, Google Mock, UnitTest++, SFML, Lua
Targeted OS: Windows, maybe Linux if I have time.

Starting code - Well it’s not exactly “code” but I’ve created an Eclipse project with options to help me do some Testing and Cross-Compiling (if it comes to that). I hope. Maybe. It has some empty mains and the like but nothing “game” related so hopefully it’s allowed and nobody will lynch me in my sleep.

Where I’m not too worried – I’m a programmer. I program. I’d like to think the coding in and of itself won’t be too hear-pulling-out-of-head-and-feeding-to-self-difficult. I’d like a challenge sure, but a challenge I can do.

Where I’ll probably fail - My graphical skills are to be compared with a blind monkey drunk off it’s arse, high on every illicit drug known to man and being repeatedly hit over the head with a shovel. The monkey is also dead. I’m not an artist and so my “art” will be simplistic at best and ugly at best.

Where I’m worried I’ll fail – Ideas, obviously. But also time management. I like to test code and such, and so my feedback cycle will need to be a short one. I’ll probably use compile time to make art assets and such to keep my momentum but it’s a big concern for me. Coding on a slow-as-slow netbook last Ludum Dare actually made me ragequit due to the slow feedback cycle, but since now I have my quad-core hyperthreading laptop back from the repairing place that hopefully won’t be an issue. Hopefully.

- MorleyDev (http://morleydev.co.uk/)

Here’s a little tid-bit: Documentation is a dying art. Universities are way behind. Using TDD, with massive function names and tests to document your code and how it should be used, is the way the industry is going, has been going for the last 10 years and continues to be going. Even large parts of game development, often dismissed as “not possible to test drive”, are being test driven (because the dismissers are wrong, and large parts of game programming can be test driven).

But most universities pay a small lip-service to tests and unit testing, it gets mentioned, you write one for your coursework, it vanishes into the great nether. This is wrong.

Computer Science Students are completely unprepared for industry, and the lack of current practices such as Agile Development and Test Driven Design being taught in Universities is definitely one of the reasons for this.

The option placement year is not optional for anyone at University who wants to work as a Software Developer. It’s the only exposure to modern Software Development they’ll get during their time at University. Because the University sure as heck isn’t going to teach them.

Quote of the Day
“By education most have been misled.”
John Dryden, The Hind and Panther, Part III, line 389.

On the plus side, I shall has much monies soon. And the work there is definitely interesting, with many Agile Software Development techniques to develop the cutting edge software so I’m learning a lot of practical, real world tricks of the trade.

On the down side, I don’t have much time for other things like personal projects or sleeping until noon. I do so miss sleeping until noon.

Quote of the Day
“When the last days were upon me, and the ugly trifles of existence began to drive me to madness like the small drops of water torturers let fall ceaselessly upon one spot of their victim’s body, I loved the irradiate refuge of sleep. In my dreams I found a little of the beauty I had vainly sought in life, and wandered through old gardens and enchanted woods.”
Ex Oblivione – H.P. Lovecraft

This could be amazing. That article there. Know what it talks about?

Linux on Steam!….wait, I think I got that wrong.

Steam on Linux!

So why is this something which could be amazing? Well, I don’t know about you but for me at least I don’t use any software on Windows that doesn’t have a Linux version, and even switch across to Linux for some programs! Except, of course, Video Games.

Oh I do love me some video games. For a long time, only Windows was a viable choice for gaming. Wine and alternatives for Linux weren’t, and still aren’t, capable enough to play the majority of games available. Not even OSX was a valid option.

Then Steam released their OSX version. For you dirty dirty mac users (shame on you!) this brought a renaissance of sorts. Ports for Mac games…appeared! Became easily and readily available. And for those vile mac users, it was good. Still not all games are available for OSX, but more incentives and reasons exist to port and ports have and are happening.

But then people like me were left stuck dual booting Linux and Windows, just so we could enjoy us some video games. Here’s hoping this horrible era is drawing to a close!

Especially since Windows 8 is…Windows 8 and that isn’t a good thing. It is painfully apparent in how Desktop PCs and Gaming are getting shafted here. Shafted I say! I don’t get tablets or their use case or what purpose they serve at all, I have to do a ramble on this at some point.

Okay I don’t mind it so much (the era, Windows 8 and Tablets…I do mind), but having to switch over to Linux and not being able to do squat fun but browse the interwebs and wet ones whistle whilst waiting for a video to render sucks monkeys.

However, a wonderful little truth we all have to keep in our tiny mammalian brains here is that technically that entire article is hearsay, information being repeated. It could all be a lie, and wouldn’t pass in court. Except in the courts of my dreams…

My main laptop customised for video editing, compiling and gaming has gone the way of the broken pile of scrap metal. Best I can tell, one or both of the HDDs has died and the keyboard seems to have shorted somehow as well.

Fortunately it’s still under warranty but I still tried to save it myself. Turns out, not gonna happen. So it’s off to the service station with it, once I can build up the willpower to actually call the technical support (which is never fun).

Either way, my LPs and video recording days are on hold until things are fixed. And going back from a Quadcore Intel-i7 Processor with NVIDIA GT 555M to an Intel Atom with integrated graphics card is painful, to say the least.

Sad face.

For now, I want to brag.

This is the grading for one of my courseworks, a Toy FAT-based File System written in Java. Not the last box, A**. That was for my extension to the existing system. I’m reasonably sure this is my lecturer being ‘cute’ because…well, I don’t think you can get an A** in a university coursework. Either way, total grade for coursework: A*.

Quote of the Day
“Oh, that… well… since I believe I can do the impossible, I just don’t think about it and do the impossible.”
Michael Garcia, The Impossible Man

No to Internet Censorship. Stop this bullshit.

Quote of the Day
“The current draft of ACTA would profoundly restrict the fundamental rights and freedoms of European citizens, most notably the freedom of expression and communication privacy.”
An open letter signed by many organizations, including Consumers International, EDRi (27 European civil rights and privacy NGOs), the Free Software Foundation (FSF), the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), ASIC (French trade association for web 2.0 companies), and the Free Knowledge Institute (FKI)

However, I think I’ve found a way to do something that could be interesting, educational and fun. I’m going to launch a stream. Having compared a variety of sites, I decided ustream.tv is probably the best site for this in terms of professionalism vs free vs features. Whilst the “conversation with a viewer face-to-face” feature of Stickam is pretty cool it’s too “teen-centric” and “omghotgirllet’swatch” for my liking, and justin.tv’s audience seems too gaming focused (tech users, not techies). And Livestream too “free and sucks, or expensive and is awesome” for me to afford.

So, I’m going with ustream.tv, with my new upcoming show: Let’s Code!. Yes, Let’s Code: Because that’s what I do. It’s a tech show, in which I go over tech news centred around game and software development, in which I’ll upload “video tutorials” on such topics, and also: I code. Hence the similarity to the title Let’s Play, I stream myself as I program things. Random things. The purpose of this is to act as a medium in which I can interact with a viewer: I’ll be working on my own projects and people can ask me questions about things and we can communicate.

The time and day the show starts will be announced soon but the first stream (basically a pre-pilot pilot) will begin streaming at 7pm GMT on Monday the 31st of October. If you have any big questions you want to hear my opnions on from me, suggestions for tutorials you want to see or anything else related to this stream, questions/comments/suggestions can be sent to code@morleydev.co.uk and I’ll try to get around to them.

Actually that I can give opinions, suggestions and answers and have a dialogue is why Stickam’s “peer-to-peer chat” thing interested me, it would be useful for that. But oh well, like I said the site just seemed to “teen-centric”. I may visit it again at a later date, but for now I’ll make due with ustream.tv.

So yeah, that’s my big announcement and triumphant return to the blogosphere!

Quote of the Day
“Nemo, where the f*ck have you been?”
Russel Howard

A common mistake people learning programming with an eye towards game development make is the idea that they require a game engine. It just seems natural, a car needs an engine to move so surely a game needs an engine. If only life were so simple.

Look at the history of most of the successful game engines in history, let’s use the Unreal Engine and the id Engine for my examples here, and you’ll find they started off with the game and the engine came afterwards. The Doom Engine (precursor/father to/first version of the id Engine) was not written to be a powerful game engine (for the time), it was written to run Doom. It just so happened a lot of the code got reused in other projects and thus the id Engine was born.

The Unreal engine began, oddly enough, with the game Unreal. Then a lot of the code for Unreal got used in lots of games that followed, being changed, refined and completely rebuilt along the way.

Game engines are not so much invented as they are accidentally created. You write a game, and then you refactor a lot of the code you used so it can be used in a later game. This alone is often enough for the developers/publishers/marketing department to say that both games run on a modified version of the same engine. And I guess technically it’s true.

The idea of a game engine is inherently ill-defined, it can mean a whole lot of things. At the end of the day, seeking to create a “Video Game Engine” is a foolish endeavour, as trying to create something ill-defined often is. Without a lot of luck and skill, you’ll get distracted by the shiny things you can do and at best you’ll wind up with a fantastic technical demo, but not something wholly individual you can use to make a game.

In fact, one could easily argue that the creation of a technical demo, getting someone to run around the screen, is one of the simplest aspects of game development. It is often the unique aspects of a game, the unique code which doesn’t quite always fit efficiently into the average generic “engine”, that provide the real challenges in coding and in developing.

The reason the Unreal Engine, the id Engine and the Source engine are at their current state of awesome is because they have been used to create so many games that the code-base has been refactored, modified and reused countless times in a long, iterative process. This is how a true game engine is made: iteratively.

The best way to make a ‘game engine’ is, at the end of the day, almost always going to be to make a game. The old adage, “Make games, not engines”, is as true today as it was in the days of Doom.

Quote of the Day
“My advice to you, if you’re trying to write an engine, is: Don’t. No matter what your reasons are — it doesn’t matter if you’re writing an engine so you can write your dream game, or if you’re writing an engine because you think it will be a good learning experience, or any number of similar reasons. They’re all wastes of time.”
http://scientificninja.com

Ages ago they tried to shut down Morroblivion, which was a project to let people convert their Morrowind game to Oblivion’s format. That worked for a bit, but now Morroblivion is back and going strong. Can’t stop the signal.

Then they had a legal tiff with Interplay, whom they purchased the Fallout license off, for several reasons.

First, Interplay were trying to sell Fallout 1, 2 and Tactics as “The Fallout Trilogy”. Whilst selling these old but awesomely epic mega amazing games (and Fallout Tactics) to the newer generation is something I completely support, I can understand why Bethesda got ticked off: Fallout Trilogy would make most people think “Fallout 1, 2 and 3″. Either the people behind that product didn’t realise this and are morons, they did and didn’t think it’d matter, and thus are morons, or they were just being malicious and trying to con people. Either way, Bethesda had a point.

Then they tried to stop Interplay developing the Fallout Online MMORPG. Now I have my doubts that Fallout would work as an MMO, how the heck Fallout can feel suitably post-apocalyptic with a million n00bs running around shouting things like “L0L JUST PWN3D TEH SUPAR MUTENTS!” and the like? But that’s not what Bethesda’s issue was.

Best as I can tell, Bethesda signed a deal with Interplay that involved them bringing the Fallout MMO to a decently presentable state by a certain date. This date had long since passed, and Interplay had shown no real progress with the game. Bethesda didn’t like this, and told them to stop working on Fallout Online. They didn’t.

Again here I think Bethesda has a point. You contract someone to build you a shed in a week, and come back a fortnight later to find the shed not only not built, but the builders sitting next to where the shed should be drinking beer, you’re gonna get pissed off. Maybe they didn’t react as best as they could, but all in all I remain on Bethesda’s side there.

Now, Bethesda (or ZeniMax, it’s hard to say which since the two are kinda the same company but kinda not due to some legal stuff) are suing Mojang, the creators of Minecraft. Why? Because the next game Notch plans to work on after Minecraft is called “Scrolls”. And Bethesda have a game series called “The Elder Scrolls”.

What. The. Fuck!

Now, I really really really hope this is some dick playing a practical joke because if it’s not, well…I’m sorry, but there’s a line in the sand and Bethesda/ZeniMax/whatever will have finally crossed it here. To put this in context, it’s like the Milton Bradley’s ghost (The creator of “The Game of Life”) suing Valve for “Half-Life” due to the use of the word ‘Life’. Seriously, if this is a valid tactic why not just release a series of products that use, one by one, every word in the English dictionary. Then everybody will be forced to use foreign words, made-up words, or pay you to use yours! It’s genius I tells ye!

Seriously, line. Sand. Crossed. Congratulations Bethesda/ZeniMax Media, if this is you and you go through with this then…well, I’ll still buy Skyrim because I’m your bitch but come-on!

Quote of the Day
“I sincerely hope Bethesda isn’t pulling a Tim Langdell.”
Notch

You know the deal by now. Get amazing indie games, pay whatever you like, proceeds are split between developers and two charities: EFF and Child’s Play.

The games this time are: Crayon Physics Deluxe, Cogs, VVVVVV, Hammerfight, And Yet It Moves

So yeah, http://www.humblebundle.com/ for all your Humble Indie needs, in a Bundle.

Quote of the Day
“Pay what you want. If you bought these five games separately, it would cost around $50, but we’re letting you set the price!

All of the games work great on Mac, Windows, and Linux.

We don’t use DRM. When you buy these games, they are yours. Feel free to play them without an internet connection, back them up, and install them on all of your Macs and PCs freely. There is no time-limit on your downloads.

You can support charity. Choose exactly how your purchase is divided: Between the developers, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, or the Child’s Play Charity. Also, if you like this deal, a tip to the Humble Bundle itself would be much appreciated!”
Humble Indie Bundle #3

So my old laptop is going down the toilet, it’s actually physically falling apart 0_o Dell’s studio brand’s hinges were really badly designed as a result it’s not even acting as a laptop any more, and it still overheats at the drop of a hat…

Hopefully I’m looking for a laptop that’ll at least last until I’m out of university in three years time xD

At present I’m looking at the XPS 17 from Dell. I can get one with pretty good specs for a bit over £1000.

CPU: 2nd generation Intel® Core™ i7-2720QM processor 2.20 GHz with Turbo Boost 2.0 up to 3.30 GHz
The 2.3GHZ CPU is a lot more expensive and whilst the speed would be nice, since CPUs are very difficult to impossible to replace on a laptop…this is a fair trade-off I think.

Monitor: 17.3″(44 cm) HD+ WLED True-Life (1600×900) with 2.0 Mega Pixel Integrated Camera
The better monitor requires the 3D Graphics card and together that costs £300. I refuse to get the 3D card.

Graphics Card: 3GB NVIDIA® GeForce® GT 555M Graphics Card
Not. Getting. 3D. Card.

Memory: 6144MB (1x2GB, 1x4GB) 1333MHz DDR3 Dual Channel SDRAM
The 1333MHz is a bit slow, but there’s no other alternative for this one except an 8GB 1333MHz DDR3.

Optical Drive: DVD+/-RW (DVD, CD read and write)
I barely use one of these these days. Games come from Steam mostly, so I’d only use it for Movies and burning my coursework to CD.

Hard Drive: 1TB (7,200rpm) Serial ATA Dual HDD – (2x500GB)
Only one available, and two 7200rpm 500GB hard drives? That strikes me as not bad…

Battery: 9-cell 90Whr Lithium Ion battery
Only one available, and I like laptops because I can move around with them but I’m still willing to leave it plugged it.

Wireless: Intel® Centrino® Wireless-N 1000 (EUR)
Wireless speed doesn’t bug me, I live in England. Our internet is generally slow as hell anyway…

Cost: £1,039.00

I can go for a bit more than this price-wise but I wince for every pound over £1000 xD I’m considering getting a proper Desktop, but they tend to be less convenient especially for moving back and forth between two cities several times a year…

This one is on deal, if I can’t find a better one soon I’ll order it since by the 20th it’s out of deal and’ll cost £500 more

Quote of the Day
“Hardware works best when it matters the least.”
Norman Ralph Augustine

And what do I have to do in those few weeks? Two more subject’s coursework and a few exams…meep. Anyway, one of those subjects is Human Computer Interaction and for the coursework I either have to make a blog post essay or video essay in which I review two hardware or software designs. One of those designs is one I believe to be good, the other bad. A hall of fame and hall of shame if you will.

Since I have a camcorder and a blog I could do either, even a weird hybrid blog video…a vlog, if you will. I’m leaning towards video at the moment, and have started work on some scripts to see if it works.

In making the video I’m probably going to steal concepts from some of the That Guy With The Glasses crew (big fan of that site), and re-use some from a script I was working on earlier for a movie review I was considering doing, but I’m still not sure exactly what I’m going to Fame and Shame.

Video game controllers seem like an easy hardware choice. I have one or two lying around and controllers for the older consoles aren’t exactly expensive. It’s a bit predictable and was basically the first thing suggested by the lecturer, but I guess your university education isn’t the best thing to be all hipster-esque about xD

When the uni year ends and I’ve recover from the massive hangover after I get absolutely gazebo’d to celebrate, I’ll probably start updating more. Maybe even actually make that movie review…

Quote of the Day
“I’ve never been afraid of the highest heights,
Or afraid of flying now.
I’ve never been afraid of the wildest fights,
Not afraid of dying.
I need a new fun fair ’cause your scaring me and I don’t like where were going,
I guarantee you’ll miss me ’cause you changed the way you kiss me.”
Changed The Way You Kissed Me – Example

You know what, I’m not going to talk about this. Instead I found a video that perfectly sums up the world’s reaction to this news:

Quote of the Day
“In case you haven’t heard, Duke never comes early.”
President of 2K Christoph Hartmann

Gabe Newell of Valve thinks it’d be fun to remake Half-Life, but that they’d rather look to the future. Episode 3 is due for release sometime around the end of times.

If you want it, you can find a good breakdown of the pros and cons of the UDK for indie developers here.

Bethesda say they think people who say graphics don’t matter are usually lying. Bethesda would be wrong. Okay, I’ll grant that graphics have to compliment and work with the gameplay, and they matter in that sense. But they do not matter in the sense that having amazing graphics should take significant development time or accessibility away from having amazing gameplay. Decent and fitting graphics and amazing gameplay will always trump amazing graphics and decent gameplay.

The Newton Game Dynamics Physics Engine which powers the amazing horror games of Penumbra and Amnesia has been made open source and is available under the zlib licence. And that is awesome.

Quote of the Day
“A man chooses; a slave obeys.”
Andrew Ryan – Bioshock

Now, I’m an Elder Scrolls fan. Morrowind remains one my favourite games ever. Oblivion was a bit of a disappointment for me, not RPG enough to be a good RPG and not FPS enough to be a good FPS, but a long series of mods corrects that particular problem nicely and when heavily modded it stands only a bit behind a heavily modded Morrowind.

Morrowind still wins, largely because of having a much more interesting world, more grey morality and more political intrigue in the plots.

Also Oblivion made axes “Blunt weapons”…uhn, what the fuck? I mean, I can forgive combining Short and Long blades into one Blade skill even if it does make next-to-no logical sense…but one could argue broadsword vs claymores are different skills logically, so I’ll let it slide as disagreement on where to draw the “Realistic enough but still fun” line. But calling Axes blunt is just stupid.

And Morrowind’s enchant system was pretty cool in my opinion.

Anyway, my long list of complaints aside I’m still a fan. And as such, raised a few please expressions from this trailer and the interviews. Then again, Bethesda always were good at talking but don’t always back it up in the final product.

It sounds like they’ve taken some cues from Oblivion mods, their time with Fallout 3, which is a good thing. And they’ve finally ditched the out-dated GameByro engine they’ve been using in one form or another since the turn of the millennium!

I’ve heard talk about some political houses, which is reminiscent of the Houses of Morrowind which were probably all my favourite quest lines in Morrowind.

Another complaint with Oblivion was after Morrowind’s very unique and interesting world, it Oblivion very cookie-cutter high-fantasy in comparison. Even Oblivion’s music wasn’t very interesting in comparison (though that’s only in comparison). Skyrim looks very stereotypically Norse, but that’s how it’s always been portrayed in the games (Solstheim in Morrowind was the same). But it’s in-game lore is pretty cool so let’s see what they can do with that.

Combat sounds better, magic sounds better, stealth sounds better, plot lines sound better, the world sounds at least a little bit better, heck even the music sounds better. In short, I think I’m going to need a new computer.

Quote of the Day
“Once I dug a hole and filled it with clowns. Or was it clouds? Must be clowns, because clouds don’t smell.”
Sheogorath – The Elder Scrolls IV: Shivering Isles