Guern

I still want to know more about Ysgramor's Soup Spoon (looks like a fork to us mere mortals)

that's funny. wonder if the inspiration for the skit was the scene in True Romance where Dennis Hopper tells Christopher Walken about the ancestry of the Sicilians:

so bros before... and Nords before...hordes? hmm I went Imperial with my (so far) only character. Not sure why. Nord seemed too obvious, I guess. Either that I or was subconsciously wanting to be a couple inches shorter than Lydia. Luckily she's never said anything about it.

heh doesn't the Prima strategy guide mention something about the fury of mining while dual-wielding pickaxes? talk about strip mining

Nazir of the Dark Brotherhood has a ton of good lines. When I came back from one of his assignments and he talked to me, I was confused at first, thinking I was supposed to pick up some quest item. It took me a few moments to get the joke. "No new boots? Does this mean the Argonian is still alive?!"

the guards get the best lines and they also get more opportunities (they're everywhere). but there are also the unique NPCs. This one's a gem you'll hear when you take Calixto's tour of curiosities in Windhelm: "Ah, now here's an item out of legend. This is Ysgramor's soup spoon. Now, I know what you're thinking: 'This is no spoon, it's a fork. Nobody can eat soup with a fork!' Well, my friend, you did not know Ysgramor!"

ok not an organic WTF moment, but reviewing the screenshots I took a couple weeks' before, sort of an 'ohhh yeahhh...wtf?' moment :whistling: http://i.imgur.com/Xhz8Y.jpg

i really like the 'time slows on enemy power attack' blocking perk.

yeah and as a corollary to what others have said..summing up: don't worry about your rate of progress in Skyrim, since you can always load a saved game and start from there, weeks after ignoring it. But you can't really say the same for your job, significant other, rent check etc.

it is tough. I have a wife and kid and a job (none of which I've lost since I started playing, thankfully) but you make a good point. Sometimes I think the game is -too- immersive and broad; does it really need to be that big? you're absolutely right that 2hrs a day feels like it's almost not worth turning the thing on when you can spend 20-30 minutes (real ones, not those Skyrim minutes) just mixing up a bunch of potions. imagine that were your Skyrim ration for the day(!) there is also definitely truth in using a game like this as an avoidance mechanism; it's escapism. RL does suck, lot of the time, imo :) But what you said about exercise is getting close to what we need...just a bit more discipline and balance. We should treat Skyrim as a reward and let ourselves earn it after doing something else. come up with some loose ratios: 30 minutes on the bike/elliptical = 60 minutes of Skyrim. or to make it a cheesy marketing phrase for yourself "half hour at the gym means an hour of the 'Rim" ok maybe that one needs work. It's also tough even if you successfully ration your time because you see endless posts of people who reached level 100 on November 19 (or whatever) and are already working on their 7th battlemagebardcromaner. But you have to ignore those because think of it, you're farther along in RL with a few things that other person isn't even near. Sadly no one's posting much in the 'I have a degree and a job' forums. Games are so immersive now I think we do need to actively discipline ourselves to some degree. You've seen those stories out of South Korea. And I think that (at least in my case) we can sometimes use the game as an avoidance mechanism when really there's something we should just face and tackle. Of course, it's easy to type this rather than do it. But it reminds me of doing the dishes (not using a dishwasher..actual doing the dishes)...it's a pain in the ass to start the job but once you're doing it and especially when you're done you think "ok that wasn't too bad and now look at me, i'm a productive member of society!" baby steps. I've had bouts of depression..I wonder how many people who get addicted to games are escaping or avoiding things. Something tells me the ratio could be rather high. :unsure:

I don't think they are calling it "HD." AFAICT, that's the moniker that a million and one forum users have given it :) http://store.steampowered.com/app/202485/ "High Resolution Texture Pack" Of course, one might argue that "High" is subjective and maybe it should be called the Higher Resolution Texture Pack :thumbsup:

two things I've noticed that the hi-res textures have definitely improved...Lydia's armor. in particular her breastplate. yeah i said it. :pinch: Also, yes, contrary to what I read in some other posts, the blocky textures of the nose and chin are much smoother now. also, i was surprised by this but the text in books is more crisp and darker now :)

i haven't looked that closely, but there's a woman at the mine just outside of Markarth walking to and from the river there, getting water in a bucket. any chance there's actually water in the bucket when she walks away? :unsure:

:laugh:

new one on me. from the sit-down at High Hrothgar... "Don't hand me a mug of sheep's piss and call it mead!" --Ulfric Stormcloak