I had never played any of the Elder Scrolls games until I purchased Oblivion. I’m sure to some of you out there that’s sacreligous, and to you I say go outside for an hour or so and tan up a little.

In any case, I poured a lot of time into the game completeing quests, finding all the Daedric artifacts, running around towns punching the homeless, etc. One other thing I did, however, was grinding.

My gaming background really started in JRPGs, so it was a force of habit. I’d wake up early in the morning, boot up the game, and then proceed to spam spell after spell in an effort to boost my abilites. After an hour or so of doing this one day, my roommate told me that I would regret my power-leveling. I said “whatever” and continued to cast my specially crafted heal 1HP self spell.

It wasn’t until I took a stroll in the woods and got my ass mauled by a mountain lion that I understood was he meant: everything in Oblivion levels with you, the stronger you get, the stronger everything else gets.

Even previously harmless woodland creatures.

“Bullshit!” I exclaimed. It seemed ridiculous to me that I, the Hero of Kvatch, the Guildmaster of the Fighters and Mages Guilds, the Chosen child of the Night Mother, the Grey Fox, and the Grand Champion of the Arena could be so easily taken out by an ill cat. Thankfully, the next Elder Scrolls game, Skyrim, itends to fix this nonsense.

I have also gotten around to finishing all the Disney movies I missed while growing up, finally sitting down for The Hunchback of Notre Dame a couple of days ago. I wasn’t expecting to like it all that much, but I’ve got to say, it totally floored me. The soundtrack is superb, and I swear it has the best villain song of all time. Here are a few of the best pieces from the… um… piece:

Opening Number, Frollo’s Song, Court of Miracles.

I hope you enjoy them as much as I did.