So it looks like there’s yet another DLC for the Skyrim game coming out! And if you’re a PC gamer like myself, it also means another few months of waiting while them 360ers prance around all happy… dang dirty consolers… >)
Anyways! Skyrim DLC! Hearthfire Moon! It’s the expansion to the marriage system where you and your significant other get to buy a nice new house, get materials for it to build additions and various other things, plant herbs and crops, raise childrens, and wait a second! I’ve played this game before! Think it was on the Gameboy Color it was! Harvest Moon!!!! So yeah, the fine folks a Bethesda have finally lost their little minds and brought the HM farming fun to Tamril! Now I joke and jest and will continue to mock this mini expansion, but at the end of the day… it just looks really fun! Maybe it’s because I grew up on games like Harvest Moon, but the tedious day to day “open world” quests to level up a house or clear out the field or just hug some chickens to get the “S” quality eggs… it all just seemed wonderful to me. It could be why I like Minecraft so much as well, though they could really import a lot of HM elements into that.
Anywho, I like this. I really do! I like the adoption of the “mini daily task” aka “chores” into games such as this, where you can shape your world and the people within it. It gives you something tangible to work towards and I swear I’d be darn sold on it if we had to cook up a prize winning sweetroll for the winter’s Evening Star cooking contest! Other than that, I’d love to see more growth and interaction between the main character and the rest of the (handfull of) inhabitants of Skyrim. Like quests or gifts to make them happy and they’ll do fun stuff for you or unlock things… like in that one game… what was it called? >)
But that’s just me! How do you all feel about this? Do you think domestic type quests and chores improves gameplay or is it just another time wasting daily quest thing that’s not really needed. What say you? Moon it up or not?
Edit: This just in! Turns out there’s a new game on the horizon, State of Decay, a zombie apocalypse type game… with… wait for it… Farming! Yup, your favorite HM pastime is coming to a zombie shooter near you! Source - Escapist
I love this! Personally it was what I always disliked about the house system. I always found the places you could get to be way too small. I want a big palace! Something that I can add conveniences to, like the garden, and furnaces. Wish it came earlier though. I’ve already beaten everything in Skyrim, so I feel like this will just be plopped in, without it being able to help me at all.
Also, Xbox for the win!
bethesda likes homes! whether it be a shack or a penthouse apartment, you need a safe spot to store all your loot… and by loot I mean the cutlery you nicked from that last house you had a quest in… but yeah, they seem to be missing the big palaces for us! what’s the deal with that? sure, you can buy upgrades now in skyrims for stuff like a nicer kitchen or an alchemy table, but what about major additions? what about HM rules like getting 10,000 logs and 4000 stones PLUS gold!?
you are right on though, my good Pipster! this seems like a great addon for a NEW game, not a current or finished one. I think I beat all the sidequests now and only have the main quest left, so the thrill of building a house is kind of lost. then again, I’ll probably wait till the steam winter sale before getting any dlcs and just reroll completely, so maybe it’ll all work out.
heh. you know, some things I like consoles for! like action/slashy type games. or platformers! but shooting type stuff (I play a sniper in skyrims) I really need the mouse. but my friend and I just had a big conversation about this console vs pc thing and after not being able to install something at all because of an incurable directx error, I conceded that maybe there’s something to having console games that just work. my god, there’s barely any games for pcs that launch without a page full of glitches! and that’s why I support hardware monopolies! sure it’s bad economically, but if we all had the same hardware stuffs, it’d be easier to program for! right? right…? >)
I keep meaning to pick up my harvest moon game again but A D Deeeee!
Another place I’ve seen harvest moon lately: wow pandaland! You grow stuff, get animals, cook things, help this guy who inherited the farm from his deceased relative (father or uncle, I don’t recall) and wants to be the very best, like no one ever was, AND you get individual rep (friendship levels) with most of the locals. wow farmville my bum.
there’s a cool one on steam greenlight that’s like harvest moon! hope it goes on sale!
sigh… idk about this pandaland, guys… I’ve been pining for the old days of wowclassic… >\
I don’t mind these kinds of things as long as it is optional. I don’t like it when a game puts in these kinds of features and ties it to a requirement of the game. One of the first games that I remember doing something along these lines was Final Fantasy VII. I love the game but it annoyed me that the only way you could get one of the most powerful spells was to breed a gold chocobo which meant you had to keep racing, feeding, and breeding the things. I never got that spell. There are a lot of other games that add these kinds of “chores” and ties them into the point that you are forced to do it. I get that sometimes they want to give you a reward for going through all of the effort. In that way the additions to WoW that nivella mentioned are good because by doing it you gain rep with this group and they give you some extra rewards but nothing game changing.
true. that’s kind of obnoxious when they have stuff outside of your comfort zone genre for things you need. like if you need to do a racing game thing in a FPS for a better gun… aggravating!
raise childrens? but you can be gay in skyrim
ah! they thought of that! you don’t actually “make” a child, no no, that’d be silly! you actually adopt a kid from one of the cities!! woot, pro adoption ftw! >D
I think there should be options for ALL interests. I mean nobody force you to create a family and lets face it…Marriage in Skyrim was…….lackluster at best and the latest DLC with Vampires brought the best developed companion who can be either Vampire or you can cure her…with no marriage option even though it has been teased all the way through the DLC….
I guess this Mini expansion is kinda needed for marriage to be ”meaningfull”, if you are roleplaying anyways.
Now , I wonder if the child actually grow ? or just pop-out as those child models in the cities ?
Either way I am happy that they are adressing this issue and if only they can make a ” divorce” part for the game since many ( like me ) used the marriage function without knowing it fully or how it will effect us and of course missing our chance of the late characters. Now it would be quite unreasonable to force players who want to get together with the new and better developed character to restart the game since you can’t lose your marriage status..even if your wife is tragically died while facing a dragon… ( no I didn’t summon the Dragon…. maybe )
I am wondering about the mini-games and features this expansion might add. Dawnguard was quite nice with Crossbows and such. The game need more time sinks other than ‘Delve the crypt , kill all , loot all ! ‘
no… but you might walk into a tavern one night, have a few too many meads, then wake up married in las vegas… these things happen! >)
I agree, this expansion is a real necessity for the whole marriage system. otherwise, it’s coming home to drop off some dragon bones and getting the same “hello dear, here’s some money”… though that doesn’t seem so bad now that I think of it…