shamroll

Unless they fixed the bugs, there are several ways to get whatever you need. You can get as many souls as you want with the dragon head + a stamina regen item. With that you can either buy all the shards you want, over level your guy completely, or buy items which you can trade to the egg lady for any number of other shards which is another exploit.

I know it isn't the ethical thing to do but it is an option to get what you want without spending cash.

Skyrim

Steam says I've put 413 hours into the game and I'm already thinking of what my next build will be and if I should buy a new PC so I can play the game on ultra settings.

Vanquish, it's like a Japanese Gears of War on crack.

I'm not sure if these count because I played them all on the PC but: Borderlands, Dead Space, and Dragon Age Origins

A game that was a surprise to me but probably no one else: Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. I love Skyrim and I didn't think I would because I hate Oblivion. Maybe it's because I played Oblivion on the 360 and Skyrim on the PC but I didn't think I would love Skyrim as much as I do. I've put in 200+ hours into Skyrim already.

Early on in the game I had a lot of difficulty and would die often, especially since I went with a melee character. But as I progressed and my gear got better, the enemies became progressively easier to deal with. Right now I hit like a truck and don't take too much damage so maybe I will crank up the difficulty but I've always been more interested in story than challenge.

I wandered around and finished all the major side quests (dark brotherhood, civil war, thieves guild) but I got burned tired of it as I was working on rebuilding the thieves guild which was about 50 hours in. It was at that point that I just powered through the ending and made a new character. The game doesn't end as sharply as the fallout games and if I didn't know ahead of time, I wouldn't have even known that it was the main quest line. Basically, if your bored with your character I would at least finish the main quest quickly so you know what to expect when you make your next character. At your level it will be a cake walk.

My first guy was an archer rogue. A lot of fun playing as I would sneak around and snipe people from a distance. My character know is a full mage. Next I'm probably going to do a warrior but I'm not sure if I want to do it with two-handed weapons or two one-handed weapons.

You "kill" him one way without ever attacking him and you still get the souls and loot.

Start at the first bonfire and run straight to the eternal dragon. Don't go near the clams and if you see/hear the hydra jumping into the other side of the water, you are doing good. The hydra wont go all the way to the eternal dragon so once you get to him, you are in the clear. Then sit at the bonfire there and hang out for a bit. Eventually the hydra will try to reset himself by swimming to his original spot on the other side of the path. Once he gets up onto the land, he instantly dies and you get the souls and loot.

It is an exploit of course but I get tired of dying sometimes.

So a new commercial came out for dark souls showing some guy with 2 claws and full darkstalker armor, then shows that character running around killing things like it is no big deal and it is just as easy as any other combat combination. After playing and beating Dark Souls once already, I can't fathom the idea of playing without a shield. Maybe it would be possible if I memorized the game, was a master a parry and roll, and knew every encounter backwards and forwards. Even with that, there are so many attacks that you can't parry and attacks that feel near impossible to dodge or absorb without a shield to eat up most of the damage. The few times I tried to parry I had about a 50/50 chance of getting smashed in the face so it quickly became not worth it to me.

Has anyone actually played this way? With a weapon in both hands?

The Warhammer 40k: Space Marine sound track was pretty good. Good battle music.

Magic by FAR. I played magic all through high school and had a ton of fun. It isn't tied to any dumb semi-anime show for kids, the community is great, and it has proven longevity and history.

I tried to Warcraft TCG for a little while too and it was fun but I never found a good community to play with on a regular basis so I ended up getting out of it. I want to try the Warhammer 40k TCG which existed for a short time and I don't think is in print anymore.

When I was younger, still playing on the Sega Genesis, I wanted to design video games. I even thought up a side scrolling monster truck game and a first person shooter set in the starcraft universe. Sadly those ideas never got any farther than drawings on paper.

Now I'm going to become an accounting and audit the sh*t out of video game companies.