DuffMan

Now I'm at level 51, perks are a big concern for me. I have 4 remaining to unlock as I know if I pick the wrong route, there's no way of going back, and I don't have that many left to get (or rather they now take ages to earn). Hopefully a DLC pack will raise the maximum level so you can unlock more of them. As it stands you can only get 81 out of 250.

For me nothing except LA Noire offered anything different to what we've seen before. The depth and vibrancy of Skyrim's world makes it my number one for 2011 though. I paid £20 for it and racked up over 70 hours of play time. There's always something to keep you occupied, it's brilliant.

An hour is no where near enough time to find out about what's going on.

They need snappier controls for sure. It's a very pretty implementation of realism in a video game, but it slows the gameplay right down. Whether you survive a gunfight or not shouldn't depend on how lucky you are with what animations are played as you run between cover. The process of taking cover needs to be snappier as well. Gears of War does the movement/cover thing very well. Probably a bit too unrealistic for GTA but something along those lines would be great.

I love doing Splinter Cell-style stealth kills. Crouch up on a high ledge, jump behind an enemy and slit his throat with a 30x sneak damage bonus dagger. Bonus points if you do it while invisible and you reveal yourself at the point of no return for the enemy. Perfect.

If you hang around Winterhold and the College eventually someone will mention a guy called Septimus Signus. Fake edit: actually, you catch wind of his name as part of the main quest.

So today I decided to go totally against my mage character and levelled up Smithing and made myself a full suit of Legendary Daedric Armour. Didn't take long at all, but then I had a huge stock of leather and ingots in the chest in the Archmage quarters to get me started. I also created a full set of Daedric weaponary (thank god for the Shrine of Mehrunes Dagon) and am trying to level up Two Handed, but when my Daedric sword does 71 damage and my Greatsword only does 39, I'm finding myself constantly switching back when there are loads of enemies. Trying to chain-enchant is a PITA though. Iron daggers enchanted with Banish fetch around 2000 gold, and I've got 100 of them. That took forever though and there's no one to sell them to, so I only keep a couple on me to make sure I get my money back when bulk buying off merchants.

Of course it can. That thread is full of noobs, I don't want anything to do with it. Speaking of which, the Throw Voice shout is totally fucking useless. They can hear the voice you project, yes, but they also hear your whisper so after they realised that generic rock wall isn't the source, they come straight for you.

Short answer: no. Long answer: major spoiler:

Whittled the list of quests right down. I did a very interesting one in Markarth, probably the only quest so far to surprise me. I also finally bought the house in Solitude and fully kitted it out, which means two mannequins to duplicate some of my prized apparel. I don't think it'll be long before I behead my Housecarl though, she's just an annoying bitch. I was hoping she'd at least tidy up a bit, I keep knocking things off shelves. lololololololo

I can't see myself starting another character until I'm well and truly bored of my current save and stay away from the game for a few months. The second time round you start cutting corners and things aren't so much of a surprise anymore, so it isn't as fun. Plus, I quite like my Nord, and am glad I chose it over one of the most stupid-looking races. Perhaps the only thing I wish I had done is made him look a bit more haggered; after being a werewolf and being reduced back to my undies he's a fine specimen of nature - bustling with muscle and nothing but a scar and some thin facial hair on his face. But then, like Stoic, I usually keep a priest mask on his face so it's not like you see it too often (and when wearing with Archmage robes, it usually glitches so I have no head at all).

You need to sneak as well. If they've detected you it's hard to get away from them just by turning invisible. Really you need to use invisibility before coming into contact with them but even so if you have low sneak skill they will spot you, and if you don't have the perk to silently cast spells then they'll detect that as well. Generally speaking invisibility is pretty pointless unless you've thrown everything at sneak skill and perks.

Merging into existing thread

Merry sexmas ladies. I went out for a few drinks last night, tonight and tomorrow is being spent at home. I never go out on xmas eve, don't want the hangover on the big day (and I imagine there are a lot of burning buildings in town right now).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GUoF3vSH5NA I also cheered when Kate died.

Today I collected a load of misc quests from innkeepers and random dungeons, got a few shouts, and two priest masks. I won't be able to get the full collection because I skipped the one in the entrance to Sovngarde Oh well, as a mage the only one I'm interested in is Morokei. I also used that exploit Stoic mentioned to get my speech to level 100, got the perk to sell any item to any merchant, and finally half-emptied my chest in the Arch-Mages Quarters of enchanted shit to sell to get the 100,000 septim achievement. So much for what I said about being bored a couple of days ago. I've been playing for hours today.

I know I keep harping on about it, but since you're a mage, I think it's relevant. If you get conjuration to level 75 you can get the Conjure Dremora Lord spell. They exclusively use melee attacks and are pretty powerful. If you perk it up a bit you can get them to stay for double duration (120 seconds), make them doubly powerful and when you get to level 100, have two at the same time. If they die, you just create another one, and if they're blocking a door you can just respawn them elsewhere. Their lines are brilliant as well. You can't marry them or order them to do things but if all you want is a distraction, they're perfect.

Yeah I wouldn't mind a fresh location for a massacre every night. As for the actual parties... well I didn't spend more time than I needed to in the clubs in IV so I really don't care.

I'm starting to get a little bored now. I went to the Atronach Forge under the College and made a Daedric Sword (without any smithing experience), which is less powerful than my Bound Sword (which is identical to a Daedric Sword, but I've got the extra damage perk for bound weapons) and now I'm just looting random mines and caves trying to get to 100,000 septims for the achievement. After I've done that all I really care about doing is getting all the dragon shouts. I haven't done the Bards College quests because it doesn't interest me, but I'm sure I'll get round to it eventually. The random assassinations missions for the Dark Brotherhood are just boring, it seems to be the same three targets? Very disappointed with that. It's a nice money earner, just repetitive. It is quite fun walking around randomly and seeing what you can find. Sneak attacking giants with a 30x damage multiplier (perk + shrouded gloves) for an easy 200-300 septims is good. I suppose I could work my way up to being a Thane in every hold but I have to find everyone that needs help first

Yeah it's a known issue. Just keep re-equipping apparel and it should fix itself. It kinda sucks how you have to have the hood with the priest masks, it doesn't fit in with any of the robes or armours.

Yep

There's only one quest I've done where moving an object has been useful - it was an optional part of the quest for extra money. Surprised they didn't make it a more prominent thing.

I said HOLD X.

When you get the prompt to pick up an item, hold A/X. I had to look it up too.