A Sad Day for Skyrim

Sundas 25th, Evening Star – 08.30 

Despite a cold and grey scene displayed outside through the windows of my home, today is a day of warm and golden day of merriment.

We play host to friends who have come to share the day with us, a great feast will be prepared on the hearth, wines and ales, games of the season, singing and laughter, a sweet role or two and gifts a plenty will be given and received. But it is not just our home that stands in such good favor of the day, all the land will celebrate, ’tis a season of hope and joy. All is well in the world and all is well in the quiet and humble village of the Earls Colne.

Sundas 25th, Evening Star – 03.00

 A grand day it has been so far! Many gifts have been shared amongst ourselves, many drinks have been drank and the smells of the great feast to come are heavy in the air. I have stole away, however, as I hold something of immense power in my hands.

I had come to my second set of gifts and I picked one of the parcels that could well have been a number of things. I peeled back the wrapping in anticipation to slowly unearth something that I truly did not expect…

I hold in front of me a disc of shining light with a case of black with the name of something too much for myself to fully comprehend at this moment. I will place it in the tray of the mechanism given to me many years ago. I have collected many of these discs in my time, but this one, this one I feel holds more power than any other. I do not know if the device will be strong enough to deal with the immense power in my hands, but I will try none the less… here goes nothing…

Yeah that’s right, I’m opening up a can of Skyrim on yo’ ass!!!

So a lot of people are going to know what Skyrim is but for those of you that don’t, here’s a quick run through:

You are the Dovahkiin (Dragonborn) and you are a mortal born hero, unknown to yourself, that is destined in written law to defeat the evil dragon lord, Alduin (the World Eater), who has risen again after a bagillion years or something, to overthrow the mortal races of Skyrim and rule the world. You must travel a completely free-to-roam map, of a massive fucking great scale, across mountains, marshes, through forests and caves, cities and towns, on your various and seemingly endless quests, given to you by pretty much everyone you meet, to eventually destroy Alduin. Oh yeah and all these places that you go to will be filled with Giants, monsters, wolves, trolls, evil wizards, assassins, thieves and the occasional dragon that all want to destroy you. You play the game however the funk you like, your character is customizable on almost all sides and it takes a hell of a long time to play… and it’s AWESOME!!

So I’ve been playing Skyrim, on and off, since Christmas last year and as my friends will know, I do get quite into it. I don’t roleplay my character to the extent that a lot of true RPG & MMORPG gamers do, my character has no back-story, I don’t have any purposefully given flaws and I don’t ever dress up as my character… I promise.

I play the game as I would if it was me that was the Dovahkiin… obviously a lot more hench version of me with a lot more balls. But I’m strictly weapons and armor, bravery and honour. No magic for me, I aint no range pussio, if I’m gunna end a life, I’ll do it like any man should, with his hands. So obviously I play as a Nord… not like someone else I know who decided to be, first time round, a Wood Elf… (wtf)… and now a Khajiit, that’s Skyrim for Cat-Person… to be fair the Khajiit are pretty mysterious and cool in the game, they’re wise and come from a land far away called Elsweyr but still, at the end of the day, they’re people-sized, walking and talking cats whose primary skills are sneaking and thieving. So what does my mate do? Gets the best armor in the game and goes around hacking and slashing like I do… WHY DIDN’T YOU JUST BE A NORD!?

Anyway, I’ve put a hell of a lot of hours into Skyrim, it takes a hell of a lot I can tell you that. Just to put things into perspective, your character can level all the way up to level 80, obviously starting at 0. So I’ve been playing since Christmas, on and off, in sessions ranging from an hour to possibly a good eight hours, maybe even more, in one go… I’m level 42? Maybe 43? So, just over half way… in almost a year. So today, when I put Skyrim in for a sesh before a trip to see me father for his 50th, I was more than devastated to find the disc UNREADABLE!

For the past two months, every now and then, the game has frozen. The game has spent most of its time in the console and when it’s not in the console it is very carefully put back in its case, safe from scratching. I revealed the game from the 360 the other day to see that its underside, to my horror, looked like it had been having a very close and personal session with a scouring pad. I don’t know how this has happened. I don’t know if it was my console, over use of the disc, time, a careless friend or sister… A SABOTEUR!!! But whatever the cause, the effect is irreversible. My Skyrim is broken. Lost. Gone. My game, destroyed.

I’ve made moves to resolve the issue and for 12 pounds, Bethesda studios will be sending me a brand new disc, but until then…

my Dovahkiin is lost…

JOSH