Act 4 started with Marcus’ squad driving into Char on a truck and running out of fuel.  It began a long trek to recover some to make the trip to Endeavor shipyard.  Today, we cover the events at Endeavor.

We start with Chapter 4, Batten Down the Hatches.  Dizzy drives the pickup through a closed gate while the rest of the squad stands in the flatbed, completely unsecured.  At least one of them, preferably Jace, should have been ejected from the vehicle upon hitting the gate.  That would have been good.

What follows is an always up-to-date guide on Skyrim exploits. I will edit this as new useful exploits are found and add them to the list. Check back here to find the latest Skyrim exploits.

In order to use this guide to quickly level your Skyrim skills you will need understand a few basic game mechanics first. Killing things and completing quests does not give you experience like a typical RPG would. Instead, gaining experience is the result of leveling up your skills. The amount of experience you need to level up increases the higher in level you are, meaning at level 1 let us pretend you need 100 XP to get to level 2. You might then need 120 XP to get to level 3, etc. Also, the higher your skill is, the more XP you get when you level it up, meaning that raising Archery from level 1 to 2 might grant you 50 XP, but leveling Archery from level 2 to 3 might give you 100 XP.

Now, the typical way you increase your skill level in something is by using the related skill. For example, to increase your Archery level you need to hit enemies with arrows, to level Sneak skill you need to successfully sneak by an NPC without them detecting you, to level Lockpicking you need to work on picking locks, etc. There is an alternative though.

Act 4 is an interesting beast.  Quite a bit happens, but there isn’t too much to say.  So this week, we’re trying something different with regards to layout.

Ashes to Ashes starts with Marcus being solemn, having just lost his brother.  His facial expressions, body language, and eye movement are all amazing.  Epic has some very talented animators.

We’re in Char, which is a city hit directly by the Hammer strikes.  The people evacuating from the city were instantly turned to ash.  For 15 years their remains have remained in the same place, depicting the final moments of these civilians.  It’s a mass grave, and Marcus recommends that respect is shown for the dead.  It’s chilling, but also somewhat beautiful.  We see people running in panic, some carrying their children, others huddling together in fear.  Some of the remains have flowers growing around them… life from death.

The atmosphere of this area could be a lot more solemn.  However, the music once again ruins the mood.  Unlike the rest of the times where the music could be changed to be less overtly eerie, this chapter could benefit from having no music.  In effect, a moment of silence for those who have died; not just the ash people we walk among, but for Dom as well.

I’ve been playing Skyrim for a total of 6 hours.  What follows are my initial impressions, and there are going to be some spoilers for the start of the game.

My character is currently level 8.  I decided early on that I was going to play a sneaky character, one who uses bows and daggers.  An assassin or a thief, basically.  This is the same character I played in Oblivion, which I loved, but the primary reason for my intended character build is simple: I saw a really cool assassination animation in some of the Behind-the-Scenes footage.  I want to go do that one cool thing to as many NPCs as possible.  That’s all.

REMINDER: There are going to be spoilers beyond this.