Posted by Rob on November 29, 2011 – 5:16 pm
Filed under Video Games
Tagged as 360, alchemy, archery, argonian, assassin, big bad bob, bigbadbob, character build, dark brotherhood, dragons, elder scrolls v, giants, hunter, khajit, lockpicking, perk, pickpocket, PlayStation 3, potions, PS3, quests, rogue, RPG, scout, skills, skyrim, sneak, stealth, thief, thieves guild, wood elf, xbox, xp
My character, the Wood-Elf thief/assassin/hunter (let’s just call him a “rogue”) Roland
Skyrim is a massive RPG that allows you to make pretty much any character you want. While this is an awesome feature, it can also be quite a lot for the average gamer. Since there are no classes to choose from, the player is forced to build their character from scratch without any guidelines, and with so many skills and play choices to choose from the novice player can quickly become overwhelmed. That’s where this guide comes in: I knew what I wanted from my Skyrim character and through over sixty hours of character development (plus hundreds of hours of playtime logged into Oblivion) I believe I have the information you need to make an unstoppable rogue character. The rogue is also the build you will want if you have dreams of being a sneaky thief or deadly assassin as well.
Race: Of the eight races available in Skyrim I would recommend a few as being built for the rogue class. The following three races have initial skills or abilities that are beneficial to a rogue:
- Wood-Elf/Bosmer: The Wood-Elf receives a +10 to archery as well as +5 to alchemy, light armor, lockpicking, pickpocket and sneak. Wood-Elves also have a 50% resistance to poison and disease (meaning there’s a 50% chance you won’t catch a disease or be affected by poison). The Wood-Elf is my personal choice because this rogue build is heavy on archery and sneaking, and not having to worry about diseases is always a nice perk.
- Argonian: Another great rogue choice with a +10 to lockpicking and +5 to alteration, light armor, pickpocket, restoration and sneak. Argonians also have a 50% resistance to disease and also have waterbreathing, meaning you will be able to hide in a body of water to avoid enemies that are chasing you.
- Khajit: These felines receive a +15 to unarmed combat as well as +10 to sneak, +5 to alchemy, archery, lockpicking, pickpocket and one-handed. The really neat thing about the Khajit is that they have night vision which allows them to see easily at night (which just so happens to be the best time to sneak.)
The Khajit make a great rogue thanks to their night vision
Any of these three races will make excellent rogues. They all receive an initial bonus to sneak, lockpicking and pickpocket, which are the bread-and-butter of the rogue build. Since the game is so open as to creating own character, you could technically make a sneaky Orc if you wanted to, but I wouldn’t recommend it. The Wood-Elf, Argonian and Khajit are the three races you want to look into if you want to make a really solid rogue.
Read More »
Posted by Rob on November 18, 2011 – 8:08 pm
Filed under Video Games
Tagged as big bad bob, bigbadbob, co-op, fallout: new vegas, gamefly, lord of the rings, mail, online, PlayStation 3, PS3, skyrim, war in the north
I generally love Gamefly, and most of the time they provide great shipping service. However, sometimes things take a bit slower than usual, and this week has been one of those times. I recently rented Lord of the Rings: War in the North and shipped it back to Gamefly. Now they had shipped it on a Monday (10/31/11) and I had the precious in my hands by Wednesday (11/2/11). A two-day shipping time is what I’m accustomed to with Gamefly. So after finishing it up I returned it on that Saturday (11/5). Then on Monday (11/7) my friend e-mailed me saying that Gamefly had just shipped his copy. I wanted to play the game online, so I decided to just re-rent it. They received my old copy on Tuesday (11/8) and on Friday (11/11/11 AKA Skyrim Day) I received the e-mail that they had sent out my second request for War in the North. Problem is that as of today, 11/18/11, I am still gameless. I contacted Gamefly yesterday and they responded today saying they would send out another copy of the game whenever it’s available.
You know somethings wrong when it takes over a week to receive a game. I don’t know if the game was lost at the facility, lost in the mail, lost at the mailbox, stolen, or whatever, but all I know is that I haven’t had a Gamefly game in two weeks. Thank the gaming gods that I had Fallout: New Vegas to occupy me until Skyrim arrived or I would have been going nuts!
So Gamefly…you messed up this time ’round. I don’t appreciate the fact that I’ve been gameless since November 5th. Pick up the pace!
Posted by Rob on November 17, 2011 – 4:01 pm
Filed under TV Shows
Tagged as big bad bob, bigbadbob, mankind, mick foley, triple h, undertaker, wrestlemania 27, wrestlemania 28, wrestlemania xxvii, wrestlemania xxviii, wwe
In April I reported on how Undertaker had won his nineteenth WrestleMania match against Triple H. In that post, I had said that Triple H was one of the few left who I thought worthy of facing Undertaker at WrestleMania 20. Well, on Monday Mick Foley returned to the WWE. With “Mankind” back, I’m going to go ahead and say that Undertaker’s opponent at WrestleMania 20 will should be Mick Foley. When I was watching wrestling during the late 90s I loved watching Taker and Mankind go at it, and I would love to see them do it next year. As I’ve said before, I have a gut feeling that Undertaker will be retiring following WrestleMania 20, and I think Foley would be the ultimate final opponent to either break the streak or let it stand at twenty wins. The two of them had such epic rivalries that it would only seem right to have the Undertaker’s final match be against the “Hardcore Legend.”
So my prediction, stated on November 17, 2011, is that WrestleMania XXVIII will feature Undertaker vs. Mick Foley. Do you think Foley would make a good opponent for Undertaker, or would you rather see someone else take him on? Let me know, as long as you don’t mention John Cena.
Posted by Rob on November 17, 2011 – 11:59 am
Filed under Video Games
Tagged as big bad bob, bigbadbob, bioshock, birthday, castle crashers, co-op, co-optimus, dead island, elder scroll, infamous, oblivion, online, PlayStation 3, PS3, ps4, Resistance, Resistance 2, Sacred 2, skyrim, Sony, trophies, uncharted, voice chat, wal-mart
On November 17, 2006, the PS3 was released here in the United States. I wanted one pretty badly back then but the price at the time was astronomical. I had went from the PS1 to the PS2, and I was intent on going for the PS3 once the price was right. And on November 8, 2008, the price was indeed right. I had $400 saved up and Wal-Mart had a promotion where if you bought the PS3 (which was $399.99 at the time) you got a $100 gift card. So I went to Wally World early that morning, waited on a line for over two hours, and eventually snagged my PS3. I’ve now had the PS3 for three years and I have to say I’ve really enjoyed it as a system. It introduced me to so many new features like online play, trophies, wireless controllers, affordable downloadable games and voice chat that I hadn’t experienced with the PS2 (no, I never played PC games).
Before the PS3, I only had a small handful of friends that I knew that played video games, and it was always a local co-op affair. With the PS3 I was able to play with people from anywhere and I made some new online friends. In my quest for finding co-op partners I happened across C0-Optimus which is a site dedicated to co-op games and meeting fellow co-op gamers. Now I never have a shortage of gaming buddies to hit up when I jump online for a co-op game.
Of course, the biggest part of the PS3 are the games. I will now regale you with tales of some of my favorite ones: Read More »
Posted by Rob on November 13, 2011 – 7:55 pm
Filed under Food & Drink
Tagged as big bad bob, bigbadbob, cooking, dinner, edamame, food & drink, harris teeter, homemade, rolls, sashimi, sushi, tuna
I had my reasons for marrying Shell. She’s intelligent, beautiful, funny…and one heck of a cook! She was baking and cooking since we started going out over seven years ago and I knew that marrying her would lead to even more delicious meals. Little did I known that I would soon be getting fresh-rolled sushi at home! She had been wanting to make her own sushi for awhile now, so for her birthday last month I bought her the beginner’s basics; a sushi book, rice paddle, bamboo mat and sushi-grade knife. Tonight we went out to Harris Teeter and picked up sashimi-grade tuna, nori rolls, sushi rice, avacado and cream cheese and she made her first batch of handmade sushi rolls. And what a success it was!
Shell made three different rolls tonight. The first was tuna with avacado and cream cheese:
Read More »
Posted by Rob on November 12, 2011 – 11:41 am
Filed under Video Games
Tagged as archery, big bad bob, bigbadbob, dragons, elder scrolls v, elf, giant, mammoth, PlayStation 3, PS3, roland, skyrim, vampires
I’ve spent a good chunk of time with Skyrim yesterday and today and I wanted to talk about my experiences within the game. This isn’t a review but more of a run-down of my character and the stuff he’s encountered. I won’t go into too many specifics so don’t worry about spoilers.
Let’s start with my character who I named Roland. I wanted to create a rogue/thief/assassin type character for my first playthrough so I went with the Wood Elf since they have an aptitude for stealth and archery (and I also liked his ability to have wild animals fight for him). As you level up you can assign your character perks from different skill trees. Here’s what I’ve been assigning to Roland to make him one heck of a sneaky archer:
- Archery: In Oblivion I was unimpressed with archery and found it to be too weak. In Skyrim wielding a bow is as deadly as a sword, so once I saw how devastating the bow was I focused on archery as Roland’s main form of combat. The archery branch has several perks that increase the damage of regular bow attacks, the chance of hitting a critical attack and the chance of staggering an opponent. There are also non-damaging perks like increased arrows found on bodies, the ability to zoom in and the ability to slow down time while zooming in. All this, combined with the fact that arrows don’t count against the weight capacity that you can carry, make the bow a great weapon to play. Read More »
Posted by Rob on November 11, 2011 – 11:52 am
It has been a nerve-racking thirteen hours. As of 8:30 last night Amazon hadn’t listed my pre-ordered copy of Skyrim as shipped yet. Finally at 8:42 I got the e-mail that UPS had taken possession of the precious cargo. By 7:00 this morning the game was loaded onto the local delivery truck and was bound for my apartment. And then, at 10:46 this morning, I ripped open the package that the man in brown had delivered and beheld Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim in all it’s glory. Here’s the map that came with the pre-order:
Goodbye world, see you in a few months.
Posted by Rob on November 10, 2011 – 2:27 pm
Filed under Video Games
Tagged as bethesda, big bad bob, bigbadbob, capital wasteland, caravan, casino, dead island, Fallout 3, fallout: new vegas, know when to fold them, mojave desert, platinum, skyrim, the courier who broke the bank, trophies, trophy
I received the Platinum trophy in Fallout: New Vegas today, and just in time with Skyrim arriving tomorrow. It took over a year, since I had pre-ordered New Vegas brand-spanking new last October. It ended up taking four playthroughs but it was all worth it. Plus Bethesda made the game is so fun that it never really felt like a chore. I had received the Platinum in Fallout 3 so I figured I would work towards doing the same in New Vegas.
There were some pain in the ass trophies to get in order to receive the Platinum, the two biggest regarding gambling. I had to win thirty games of Caravan (a card game played in the Fallout story) for the Know When to Fold Them trophy. It’s a really annoying game because the rules are a bit confusing at first, but once I finally understood the basics I was doing pretty good. If you’re in the midst of doing it, don’t worry about tracking down extra cards to make a custom set…I received the trophy using just the default deck. The other trophy that was annoying was The Courier Who Broke the Bank, which requires you to win so much money at the three main New Vegas casinos that you are banned from gambling there. I initially started trying roulette, but was getting nowhere. Then I tried my hand at Blackjack and was winning crazy money. My biggest word of advice is to make sure you have a lot of luck…I had my luck maxed out at 10 for my casino playthrough and it made things a heck of a lot easier. Read More »
Posted by Rob on November 9, 2011 – 7:51 pm
Filed under Video Games
Tagged as big bad bob, bigbadbob, caesar, caesar's legion, casino, fallout: new vegas, mr. house, ncr, platinum, PlayStation 3, PS3, trophies, trophy
Yup, it’s official…Fallout: New Vegas will be the next Platinum trophy I snag. I’ve gotten through all of the annoying trophies such as the casino and caravan ones and I have received all the trophies for using all the different weapons. I’ve also completed the game on three different occasions, so I have unlocked the trophies associated with siding with Mr. House, with Caesar, and for going rogue as a wildcard. Today I broke the casinos so the only thing left standing between me and that beautiful chunk of Platinum is completing the NCR story missions. The tricky stuff is over, all I have to do is play on until the end. It’s going to be a sweet Platinum indeed.
Posted by Rob on November 9, 2011 – 7:07 pm
Filed under Video Games
Tagged as 360, arcade, backbone, bart, big bad bob, bigbadbob, ground round, homer, konami, lisa, maggie, marge, mr. burns, PlayStation 3, PSN, xbla
I have a lot of fond memories of arcades. Whether it was my aunt giving me $20 each time she took my sister and I to Discovery Zone or hitting up the arcade in Oneonta where they gave you free quarters for each good grade on your report card, I always had a blast. Running up to an awesome looking machine, popping in a shiny quarter, and playing alongside friends, family or complete strangers made up some of the best times of my childhood. Being the avid Simpsons fan that I am, it probably comes as no surprise that one of my favorite arcade games of all time is The Simpsons. I remember beating it for the first time when three friends and I were on a Cub Scout camping trip and there happened to be an arcade at the campsite! I also remember playing this arcade whenever we went to the Ground Round on Long Island (you know, the restaurant that had the popcorn as their “free bread service” and had ice cream sundaes in baseball helmets for dessert). Oh man, what a way to digress. The point of this rant is to inform you that this most excellent arcade game is in the midst of being ported to the 360 for sure, with a big possibility of the PS3 also.
The game popped up for listing in Australia, meaning it’s in the works. The company that is supposedly developing the game is Backbone. This makes sense…Konami is the company that developed not only The Simpsons arcade game but also the company that developed the X-Men arcade game. AND when the X-Men arcade game was ported to XBLA and PSN earlier this year, guess who the developer was…BACKBONE! Soooo a listing showing Backbone working on a Konami arcade game makes sense. While the listing only mentioned the XBLA version, I’ve got my fingers crossed for a PSN version. With the X-Men port, XBLA received it a month or two before PSN, so chances are The Simpsons game will have the same deal. Read More »
Posted by Rob on November 5, 2011 – 5:07 pm
Filed under Video Games
Tagged as 360, agandaur, andriel, big bad bob, bigbadbob, ccg, champions of norrath, co-op, dragon age: origins, Dual Wield, dwarf, eagles, elf, elrond, eradan, farin, game review, gandalf, j.r.r. tolkien, lord of the rings, middle-earth, online, orcs, peter jackson, PlayStation 3, PS3, rivendell, RPG, sauron, snowblind, the hobbit, trolls, war in the north, xbox
That scary dude is Agandaur, and I think he raided the Witch King’s closet
I’m a pretty big Lord of the Rings fan. My mother tried reading The Hobbit to me when I was like eight years old. I’ve read The Lord of the Rings series at least four times, possibly five. I own and cherish the lame 1970′s Hobbit movie. And I spent probably $500 or more on The Midde-Earth CCG game when I was a teenager. So when I heard there would be a Lord of the Rings game that took place at the same time as the War of the Ring, I was pretty darn excited. Oh, and did I mention it’s been developed by Snowblind (the studio behind one of the best hack-and-slash/ dungeon crawlers ever; Champions of Norrath: Return to Arms)? I was so excited I actually decided to pass up Uncharted 3 for the time being so that I could check out Lord of the Rings: War in the North. While it’s not the perfect game, it makes for an above-average RPG that any fan of Tolkien’s work will enjoy.
According to War in the North, Minas Tirith and Rohan are not the only areas threatened by the forces of Sauron. To the northwest of these cities, a necromancer named Agandaur is raising an army of orcs and trolls in support of Sauron. It is up to a different fellowship of heroes to defend this area of Middle-Earth while the Fellowship we all know (Gandalf, Frodo and company) head east in an attempt to destroy the One Ring. This new, smaller fellowship is made up of three heroes; Eradan, Farin and Andriel. These heroes are tasked with hindering Agandaur’s actions and defending western areas such as the Shire and Rivendell. The game draws heavily from Peter Jackson’s trilogy in a visual sense, and you will recognize the looks of creatures like orcs and trolls, as well as major characters like Aragorn and Gandalf. As a fan service to other Tolkien nuts, you will also recognize names and areas that are never or barely mentioned in the movies such as Radagast the Brown, Gundabad, Elladan, and Ettenmoors. If you can’t tell the difference between Elrohir and Gwahir you may not be as awestruck as people familiar with Tolkien’s work, but that won’t stop you from enjoying a really solid RPG.
You were wrong if you thought Legolas and Gimli were the only elf-dwarf tag team around Read More »
Posted by Rob on November 4, 2011 – 2:19 pm
Filed under Video Games
Tagged as bethesda, big bad bob, bigbadbob, dragons, elder scrolls iv, elder scrolls v, oblivion, PlayStation 3, PS3, RPG, shivering isles, skyrim, trophies
A week from now, on the epic day of 11/11/11, Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim launches from retailers to fire up a world of anxious gamers. This is not only my most anticipated title of the year, but I’m pretty darn sure I haven’t been this excited for a game ever (previous contender was Bethesda’s other masterpiece, Fallout: New Vegas). I first got introduced to the Elder Scrolls series when I made Oblivion my first PS3 game purchase after getting the system. I had heard how amazing the game was and how much replay value there was so I just had to check it out. I was blown away by the depth of the game, from the vast environment to the character creation to the seemingly limitless number of quests to undertake and dungeons to explore. The Shivering Isles expansion did so much more for the game and is probably one of the best pieces of DLC ever assembled. Plus it took me well over two years to beat the game since I would always get sidetracked into some other side quest and totally ignore the main quest.
With all that being said, I am really looking forward to losing myself in Skyrim. The graphics blow away those of Oblivion, the new dual-wielding combat system sounds awesome (you can now have one item in each hand, be it a weapon, shield, or magic spell), and the inclusion of dragons, and LOTS of dragons at that, (plus TROPHIES) mean this is going to be one epic game. I’ve had it pre-ordered for quite a few months now and I’ve just been waiting relentlessly for release day. Next Friday can’t come soon enough!
Posted by Rob on November 4, 2011 – 12:31 pm
Filed under Randomness, Video Games
Tagged as amazon, big bad bob, bigbadbob, charity, children, childs, donate, gamer, hospital, nerd, wish list play
Tis the season for charities to start bringing forth their A-game as consumers in the holiday spirit are more likely to be generous. I’m no stranger to holiday donations and I usually do something, whether it was a food drive at work, a “giving tree” at church or simply putting a couple of bucks into the Salvation Army bucket at Wally World. This year I came across a charity that actually speaks to me as a gamer, and I have made my donation.
Child’s Play is a charity that is primarily funded through gamers. The monetary proceeds collected go to needy children across the world, generally those who are sick in hospitals. Child’s Play also gives you the option to donate items requested to local children’s hospitals, and that is what I did this morning. I went on their website and found the nearest children’s hospital, which happens to be right here in Charlotte. When you select an institution you are taken to their Amazon Wish List, and from there you can see what they want for the children at the hospital. I ended up donating three books that were requested.
If you do happen to decide to purchase items off their Wish List, make sure you click the “this is a gift” box. This ensures that the shipping address will show up as the hospital and not your own.
If you’re interested in donating to this worthy cause, or you just want to learn more about the charity, click here. You can either donate cash directly or you can choose a hospital from the map to see what they need. Don’t be a stingy…nerds are supposed to be nice guys!
