Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

the install disc I bought from GameStop installed Steam.

from there it downloads the game.

in order to use Steam, I read in the Agreement that it requires a credit card number,
That stopped me right there.

[Mr. Horse:] Nope. No Sir. I don't like it. [/Mr. Horse]

Umm, yeah, when I joined Steam years ago, it didn't ever ask me for a credit card number. Not sure about now, but I know it wasn't required. (And back then, I didn't even have a credit card.

I ended up in that little town you go to after you surrender to the guards, and I met this one merchant named Yolanda or something. She's usually just outside the Bannered Mare tavern. She asked me to bring her a mammoth tusk.

I wandered out into the wilderness, and came across an old mammoth skull. But it wouldn't let me take the tusk, even though I could SEE the tusk.

So I ended up trying to kill a mammoth. Impossible, or at least highly improbable at level 5. The giants think those mammoths are theirs, so they attack you when you attack their herd.

So I got an idea. There is a little abandoned fortress nearby the herd, and I went and cleared out all the bandits. I lured the mammoths to the fortress using arrows, and went into that little hut on the side. From there, I could shoot my arrows in safety while the mammoths couldn't reach into the hut to kill me. I ended up killing 4 mammoths and improving my archery immensely!

Greatswords are cool.

1. You do NOT need a credit card to use Steam, especially not for a retail game.
2. Why does Skyrim needs Steam for the retail copy? It's not a Valve game!

Michael Hogan does the voice of the general.

Well, it's too late, I returned it and am downloading.

That's one of the neatest thing about these 'open world' games. You can solve problems a multitude of different ways- just like in the real world.

I think it's interesting that they left out INT as a character trait- because in a way, it makes sense. You'll play the game with your *actual level of intelligence. Some will bore in, others will sneak, and some will be crafty about it like you and the mammoths. It is what you make it.

I am now using a non-retail version.

Man, the framerate is slow.

In Other News:
Doesn't this come with a TES Construction Set?

What's the good word? Anyone been playing this yet?

I have my non-retail version.

The frame-rate on my laptop makes it a bit slow, but the graphics are very good and it's hard on the combat.
I frequently overshoot the mark because the frame jumps.
But if my comp was up to snuff, I'm sure that the combat engine would still give me a rum for the money.

All the women in this game seem to be very angry looking. I liked Oblivion in that I could design very hot chicks. Without Dirt.

This is a good game, so far. Worth getting, imo.

I think the texturing looks like shit, but the armor and weapons are quite nice. There are a few bugs, but nothing so big that it ruins the game. I'm around level 11 now.

The horse glitches left and right. It's pretty hilarious.

Sometimes, the way the game mechanics work can be annoying. I steal a horse from one town, becomes a fugitive in it, then gallop all the way back to Whiterun. I get off my horse to talk to some guy, and get back on the horse again. Because the horse had the "stolen" marker on it, now Whiterun counts that as me stealing a horse over here as well.

Here's something you can do for a bit of extra free money. You can do this at almost any level too, so it's good if you're just starting out.

Go to Whiterun, and enter the Hall of the Dead.

There are a few skeletons waiting within the first few doors. Get their attention, then run out into the town. These skeletons will follow and try to kill you. Run up to a guard, and the guard will take out their arrows and kill the skeleton. You can then go to the skeleton corpse and harvest their Ancient Nord Swords and Ancient Nord Shields. I think these sell for around 45 gold at the Warmaidens. You can do this for as long as there are skeletons in the Hall of the Dead.

Another exploit my brother told me about is if you want to steal something from one of the NPCs but you don't want them to see you, you can grab a basket, and put it over top of their head. They then won't be able to see you, and you can then just take all their shit for free without them complaining.

Um.... how, exactly, do you get the basket over their head?
I haven
t been able to find the "grab" button yet.

On the PC, press and hold "E" to grab stuff. Don't tap it, HOLD it for a second. Tapping "E" will TAKE it.

On the Xbox 360 you hold the A button. Guessing it's also the "take" button on the PS3 version (probably X). Just in case console players are having difficulty figuring it out as well

I love the guy Chris Plummer plays.

Heh, I shot a dragon out of the sky last night. I was on the side of a mountain, mostly it was me hiding behind a column type boulder, waiting until he hovered, popping out and sniping him with my bow, and jumping behind the boulder again while he wasted his breath. Finally he landed once. I sprinted over, whacked him good a few times, and he took off again. So he flys off a little, then comes screaming straight in at me. I plinked him with an arrow, and he crashed into the side of the mountain causing the ground to shake and buckle and collaps a little.

Since I'm a Nord, I wordlessly walked over and finished him off.

I'm thinking if I were a Redguard, I'd have been like, "Haaaaa! That's what you get! Ha Ha! Look at you! Ya all banged up! Who's The Man? Who's The Man?"

When I play this game, I'm going to be a big fucking Viking. Think Buliwylf in the 13th Warrior.

I seem to like playing thieves.

Is there a way I can stop peripheral animations? Like running water and wind and falling rocks?
That would greatly help my slow framerate issue.

Wow... This game sounds great. I really don't know what I'm waiting for to play it... There have been reports of frame rate dips on PS3 and texture issues on 360, but a patch after Thanksgiving is expected to resolve that.

If the patches work, I just might pick this game up ahead of schedule!

Is dustman's cairn a planescape reference?

There seems to be an odd glitch.

If you name your character "Teh Baba" and are a wood elf, every skeeter in Skyrim comes after you.

I don't get it.

Skeeter? Or Skeever?

Is Daggerfall w rth a try i downloaded it off of bethesada's website?

It's fine if you like retro games and don't mind clunky graphics.

Think visuals added to a text based game.

Oh, and if you want some mods to play with, http://www.skyrimnexus.com/downloads/
does the trick. There is a patch to get you 4gb ram use instead of the 2 it presently has, and a utility that tweeks the skyrim.ini file and one that you can adjust all the world settings including the mouse sensitivity (X & Y axis).
I've already made it easier to look up and down as well as shut of the floating particles that slow the game down.

Speck xbox360 and pc skyrims are interchangeable.