I am having some issues also, I have read everything, about 15 times over, and it feels to me like a compatibility issue, or something close to the affect. I reinstalled the game, fresh and new, it's from steam.com, but they updated the obse, so it works for steamusers, so after frantically hoping someone does something about obse, I get it to work then download OBMM and deadly reflexes, I install deadly reflexes first, then OBMM, and make reflexes load last so it works, everything seems to be up and running, I can shield bash, and dodge (v.5 of deadly reflexes you can't horse combat) but the blood doesn't seem to be splashing on my armor, the shading is the same, I put criticals to 100% and nothing is happening, the game works, it's just the criticals aren't working it seems, along with the sounds, meshes, and other things, if I can get some help, it'd be greatly appreciated.