Two PC classics: Elder Scrolls III and System Shock 2

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I actually bought the old school Elder Scrolls III from Steam last night. Brings back memories of playing it on Xbox when it came out back in 2002. This was back before Bethesda made the Elder Scrolls much better. No fast travel map locations per se (there is a mode of quick transportation but it is limited) and the journal is an annoying mess that does not keep quests organized. Still a classic though and a groundbreaking achievement in open-ended RPGS.

And surprisingly it works on Windows 7 (not sure about the really new versions though like 8.)

I would recommend System Shock 2 as well for older PC Games. But I think you would have to get it on Steam.

I've also bought both those games on a one day steam sale.

ES:3 is difficult to get into since playing recent ES games like skyrim, especially without quest pointers, well worth it if you can put the time into it.

System Shock 2... I's hard old school shooter, one of a kind game, you can see where Bioshock got its influences, best played on easy and change that control scheme first as well.

I enjoyed the "no fast travel" aspect of ES3. Not having glowing HUD objective markers made planning necessary. In the newer Bethesda Games, the only threat is being overwhelmed in combat. In Morrowind the player can end up lost, wounded, and short on supplies, which really added tension that is missing from say, Skyrim.

Yeah plus when you start out the Mudcrabs can kick your butt. lol. Humanoid enemies are pretty much suicide at the beginning. There are a few interior places near where you start and some female Dunmer bandit totally kicked my butt. haha.

Honestly the only thing that really bugs me about ES3 is that fighting is a pain since you miss half the time so battles seem to last too long. Maybe this is only when you are weaker. I cannot seem to remember and I am still only level 1 this time around since I basically just wandered around near the start for a few hours. Honestly you can basically go everywhere in the vicinity of where you start and it takes hours to explore everything in that area.

I always play ES games and just do a bunch of side quests or just explore and almost ignore the main quest until later. Plus I think this time I am going to go straight to Solstheim since it came with both expansions. Tribunal is okay but I like the Bloodmoon expansion better.

I am not surprised I saw ES3 was on special a little bit ago but skipped it. So I ended up spending the full $20 which seems really steep but it is worth it. I only played it on Xbox so seeing it on PC is slightly different. Well the graphics look better on the PC they are decent for an old game.

Yeah I never played System Shock but I was a hardcore Thief fan and those games were done by the same company that did System Shock 1 and 2. The company was called Looking Glass Studios and they collaborated with Irrational games on the second system shock. LGS went out of business shortly after in 2000. They were out of Cambridge, Massachusetts I think.

I am near Boston and I would love to apply at Irrational Games as an Environment artist it is what I went to school for but it seems they have no entry level jobs for that specific thing right now. Yeah I decided I liked art and video games so much I want to make a career out of it. It is so much fun making art for games.

I know a lot of people with AS are in the game industry mostly as programmers but I am actually into art instead. Every AS I think needs to find their niche job it makes your life have meaning. And I am so overly into that I excel at it.

Morrowind can be vastly improved by Mods on the PC, heres the best place to learn whats available:- PRESS LINK TO MORROWIND FORUM

Work on maps and mods and stuff for other games and build up a great portfolio B) But maybe you knew that already.

I think Bethesda is also in that area, but I imagine it's probably even harder to get in there. If you really, really want to get into the business, Raven is in Wisconsin, they have a high turnaround (though there's a reason for that...).

I think Human Head is in Wisconsin, also.

I am familiar with all the companies mentioned. Bethesda is actually ironically in Rockville,MD right next to Bethesda, MD where they used to be located. Pretty much right next to DC . Which is double ironic since fallout 3 takes place in DC.

For what I am doing I mainly use 3d modeling software, Photoshop, and I am familiar with the UDK (Unreal Development Kit) game engine. basically environment artists model out the environment and sometimes do props as well. So basically it is a dual modeling/texturing role usually. Basically the Enviro artist works alongside the Level designer to create the levels or game world. So think of it the Enviro artist is the artist that creates the "assets" and the level designer places them in the world along with scripting and other things that have to do with design. There is some confusion over these two jobs since they somewhat overlap.

So my portfolio constists of props and whole environments. I actually have one actual character in there just to show organic modeling skill. I think modding could help too. I mean you can use Unreal to showcase an environment as opposed to just 3d software renders. I honestly never did much "modding" except with the UDK engine (used for some of the top games like Gears of War, Unreal Tournament 3, the latest Batman games, DmC (I believe too) and a slew of others since it is a third party licensed engine owned by Epic Games). Plus the Beta version is free to anyone and updates every month.

I am pretty much looking at companies across the country. I would love to go abroad but not just yet. haha. Honestly I am opening myself to a QA tester job if the art market is not biting. But there are entry level "junior" artist positions every once in a while. I will check out Raven to see if there is anything right now. Texas wouldn't be that bad. There is also ID and a whole slew of others in Texas.

I found the fatal flaw of Morrowind was the combat.

While technically your odds of hitting was based on skill, it should have been that a hit is a hit and your skill determines what modifier is applied to the damage done.

It made no sense that you clearly hit the guy with your sword but "missed." It was a pain to have spells fail left and right. I always had to use the console to mod my key skills so that I could actually play the game.

Heck, Fallout and Fallout2 were older games that used the "paper and pencil" method of combat rolls, and even there your combat was more effective than Morrowind.

SS2 was great because the "impossible" mode is pretty much that. I did a strategy guide for it, and the modifiers to health, mana and upgrade costs really limit character development. It also helps that much of the big guns in the game are largely useless compared to your lower level weapons....defying the (then) trend for everyone to obtain the BFG to own the maps.

There's mods for that.

There's a couple of mods that you absolutely HAVE to have for Morrowind.

Morrowind Graphics Overhaul - Puts the environments somewhere between Oblivion and Skyrim for quality, massively improves character models and includes EVERY head ever created, includes the Morrowind Code Patch (a must), and just generally desuckifies the engine. Also contains MWSE (another must if you want to do ANY further modding)

Look for combat patches, and you're good for core gameplay. As far as QoL, there's a ton of quests, world enhancements, and stuff. I can not recommend the Romance Mod enough, it is ridiculously awesome. I'm going to stop here, because I am obsessed with Morrowind modding and could go on all day. I'll just say that MW was by leagues my favorite Elder Scrolls game.

SS2... well, that is equally awesome. I missed the "scared ^%&*less' thing I got the first time I played, but even today it's still great.

Frankly, other than the Shalebrook Cradle (sp?) level in Thief: Dark Shadows, SS2 was perhaps the scariest video game I ever played.

Yeah, I still hear those damn monkeys in my sleep, lol.

The trick with Morrowind is that what you see isn't what's happening.

Its combat is like an oldschool PnP system but with a unique GUI where swinging a sword represents you deciding to make a "to hit" roll.

I know

I guess I gave a pretty lame reply, I'm used to people saying "I'm trying to get into the game industry, I went to school for it!" but not actually knowing anything about how to "break in", so I just kind of give my "did you try rebooting the computer?" answering machine reply @_@



I don't think Raven is in Texas. Unless those were two unrelated thoughts.

I know a lot of guys who got their start at Raven, so it might not be the worst idea...

So you haven't played Thief (or Thief Gold), then?

...Thief II had some scary bits too, IIRC, but they seriously downplayed the whole zombies/ghosts/action bits in favor of more tactful stealth, which I am very thankful for.

I still have the whole series, but that one level in the third game was the scariest where atmosphere was concerned. If you used the eye zoom, there was this talking effect that was amplified...made you wonder if something was coming up behind you. Thief didn't have that level of depth, but I was amazed when I found that Constantine's sword would kill one of the ghosty guys with a single overhead slash from behind.