jase12881

If you have the magicka for it, I would say Steadfast Ward is incredibly useful for fighting dragons. It does burn magicka like no tomorrow though.

I have some hatred left for the niners after the regular season matchup with the Lions in week 6, but I would love to see the 49ers come out and smack Brees and the boys in the mouth and see how they respond. It's not so easy when the other team actually plays defense I bet

If the Patriots beat the Broncos next week, people will say it's because even though Tebow has God on his side, Brady is better than God. I'm not sure who I'd like to hear the analyst gush over less, Tebow or Brady. At least Brady is actually good I guess.

I could be misremembering, but if you do the college of winterhold quest line, I believe you will run across a lot of them. Especially if you're willing to steal from people's rooms in the college

Ehh hopefully they will just continue what they do now for some games only expand the selection. By that I mean allow digital downloads but also produce the game on a disc. As of right now, I believe it's mostly done on older games, but I have to admit it's nice that if I want I can just pop in my credit card number and within an hour or two I can be playing a game without leaving the house. The issue this generation for most consoles is hard drive space, but yeah optional digital downloads would work. The problem is, I can see the gaming companies wanting to eventually go to an all download format, mostly FOR the reasons Zero stated above. You cant trade it in (Kill the used game market, where the companies don't make any money), they can yank it from you or find ways to force you to pay more (maybe make you pay by the hour or something crazy), they don't have to pay to make and ship the disc, and also the retailers and other middlemen don't get any kind of cut so all the money goes to the game companies. I don't actually think they would use digital content to cut off your access to the games you own, but honestly I didn't think I would see the days when the companies charged you extra to play online with games you bought used either, so what do I know? I'm not actually as bitter or cynical towards game companies at it may seem. The whole "squeeze every penny out of the game/franchise" attitude that's started to arise from game companies has me a little worried though. Mostly it's because I find gaming to already be a hobby that's rough on my wallet. I would love to see some new and creative IPs this next generation, as well as some sequels or remakes of a couple old games that were awesome but haven't aged well graphically.

I disagree with the graphics. I'm not sure that they NEED to get much better, but there is most definitely room to work. For one, I've rarely seen games where characters open their mouths and don't have teeth that look like they were painted on a dolls face. Faces in general still have a ways to go before they look even close to realistic. I'm not saying that I need a game to look like a photograph, but there's still a lot of places where graphics can be improved. That said, I WOULD rather they focus on creating game experience with some depth. You're right in a way. Skyrim does eventually get repetitive (especially if you play a straight up warrior-type) but not in the way that some games do, where it's the same exact content copied and pasted 1000 times because they developers were too lazy or pressed for time to legitimately pad out the game. And as far as short games go, I don't mind that if I'm renting it, as I'm trying to get through it before I return it, but if I buy a game, it damn sure better give me a reason to play it longer than a couple hours considering games cost $60-70. If I spend that on a game that I can beat and be completely done with in 5-6 hours, I feel like I've wasted my money. Personally, I love a game I can spend 5-8 hours on and still not have scratched the surface of content, rare as those games are. If I get a good 20 hours out of a game nowadays I'm satisfied. As far as variety. There's a decided lack of variety in gaming nowadays. At least as far as triple a titles go. I don't know if the current generation has limited what developers are able to do or what, but it seems like everybody wants to cash in on the fame of the money makers like Call of Duty or Halo or Grand Theft Auto etc so they just keep making clones of those games. I'm not asking for a game to reinvent the wheel, but a little creativity, some semblence of a decent story, and adding at least SOMETHING to the same game play that we've seen 100,000 times would be kind of nice.

Agreed. I think the biggest lesson here is with how far we've come, how far we still have to go if we want to make a Super Bowl at some point. The mountain is a lot higher than it looks from the bottom. It's a lesson that good-but-not-good-enough teams like Atlanta have already learned the past few years but that doesn't make climbing it any easier. I think Stafford will become an elite QB. That being said though, it's the Lions so I wouldn't be surprised if he completely regressed next year. And for God's sake get us some damn defense! I know the Saints Offense is just that good, but it would be nice if the Defense didn't completely suck ass. Get some pressure from the front four and a secondary that could cover, and we might have had a little chance. Oh well. Good season. I definitely like finishing 10-6 much better than 6-10,2-14, or 0-16.

Agreed with the sentiments about Xbox's online. I have both and love both, but Sony's online is no where near as good or as easy to use as Xbox Live. That said, it's also a lot less expensive In that same vein, what I would like to see from the next generation is not going to happen, but I want to see less attempts to nickel and dime gamers to death. We're already charged $300+ for a new gaming console, $60-70 a piece for the games, and around that same amount for every piece of hardware. I think this generation I've probably spent over $2,000 EASILY on my Xbox360 alone and I'm actually probably on the low end as a consumer because I usually only buy a game if I know I will be getting some serious replay value out of it. I really don't think they need to charge for every little thing so that they can wring every little drop of money out of my pockets. Additionally, it would be nice if the hardware next generation had a much lower failure rate than this one. If I pay a few hundred bucks for a game machine, I expect it to last. I don't know what innovations I would like to see, but I'm sure they will come up with something. I'm pretty sure if it's anything like this generation was, when we finally start hearing about the new consoles, they're at least 1.5-2 years from the market if not more. No worries on that front. I guess this turned more into a rant than a "Dream Console" thing, but honestly my Xbox and PS3 both already do everything I could conceivably think to ask a console to do and more. I'm not sure what else I would want other than more of the same features and better games. The games now are good, but I would like to see games in the next generation add depth. More games that have as much content as Skyrim, for example and less games that are like 3-5 hours long and repetitive.

Not really. I read the articles, and look at the comments on there but most of the comments I see on their articles are bad enough that I probably wouldn't even consider their forum I do read the Detroit Lions forum website but a lot of the fans there annoy me as well honestly. I swear a lot of them just like to argue and don't bother to have actual valid points.

I'm pretty sure that is the case. I have a ring and a mask which increase my magika. It most definitely is. I can tell you for 100% certainty. What I wonder though, is in regards to resistances. If you have two items that give you 50% frost resistance each(for example) does that make you immune to frost (100% resistance?). I haven't gotten any resistances to 100% so I've been unable to find out. It's annoying though because on my dark elf character every dragon I encounter breathes frost, and on my Nord character every dragon seems to breathe fire . Jerks.

Well sure we could blame the defense if we're being pessimistic. But maybe, just maybe what we really learned today is that Aaron Rodgers is overrated and the rest of the Packers offense is so good that anybody could put up big numbers with them. Clearly he's a product of the offensive system.... right? right? Back to reality. I don't give us much chance at New Orleans but honestly, as sad as this sounds, we've had a great season even if we are one-and-done in the playoffs. I mean, I think a lot of us fans (looking at some of the Lions forums and comment posts on articles) have gotten a bit caught up in the excitement of being a legitimate team that we forget how far we've come in such a short time. It's been an amazing ride no matter what happens from this point. That said, I would LOVE to see the Lions make some noise in the playoffs, but that's all just icing on the cake at this point. Making it back to the playoffs after being downtrodden for the past decade or so is just too sweet to get caught up in everything that the Lions didn't or won't accomplish.

yeah I kinda jumped down your throat there for nothing, sorry. I guess that's a bad turn of phrase on my part, but if I listed the factors that helped the Lions have a winning season, Stafford would be #1. Calvin Johnson would be #2, but Stafford is the reason the Lions improved from 6 wins last year to 10 so far this year. Maybe he's not the only reason they are a decent team this year, but he's the main one, in my opinion.

Yes. Matthew Stafford has led the Lions to the playoffs almost entirely himself. You do realize that Stafford is throwing the ball to one of the top receivers in the league, right? Eli's throwing to the guy that collects your trash on Mondays. The Lions have had Calvin Johnson for the past 3 years and not even come close to having a winning season, but when Stafford has been healthy all year they suddenly make the playoffs. That's just coincidence right? By your logic, Peyton Manning should have never made the Pro Bowl when he was throwing to Marvin Harrison or Reggie Wayne. Should Brady have missed the Pro Bowl when he was throwing to Randy Moss? Also, if Victor Cruz is the guy who takes my garbage out, why are we talking about putting him in the Pro Bowl? I mean since clearly he's a scrub. Now granted, if you take away the TD passes to Calvin Johnson, Stafford only has 21 (5 less than Manning's total TD passes) but then again, if you take away Cruz's numbers Eli only has 17 TDs. If all it takes is a great receiver, where's Shaun Hill's monster year? What about the Cardinals QBs...they must have put up great numbers throwing to Fitzgerald right? Aside from Calvin Johnson, the Lions don't have any name receivers. I'm pretty sure Hakeem Nicks is better than Nate Burleson. Also, while it may not have been as good as previous years, you guys at least have the THREAT of a running game, with Jacobs and Bradshaw, as where all the Lions' running backs have been hurt almost all year allowing defenses to just defend the pass. But really who wants to hear all the bullshit about why their QB didn't put up better numbers? The numbers are the numbers and WHY shouldn't be a factor in the Pro Bowl voting. I hate when people try to explain why their players should be in the Pro Bowl based on things other than numbers. "Yeah but Suh should be in the Pro Bowl because teams double team him and blah blah blah." His statistics suck so he doesn't get to be in the Pro Bowl. I do not care how awesome he is. The bottom line is Eli got in over Stafford because Eli plays in New York. If Eli played in Detroit or Minnesota, or San Diego, or Tampa Bay he wouldn't be in. EDIT- Ok, so there were more posts after I started this ridiculous rant and now I look like an overzealous homer, but I stand by it, even if it came across a lot more angry and defensive than I meant it to be.

I agree Cruz is well deserving of being a starter on the Pro Bowl roster. But then I can't feel too bad when Eli made it over Stafford when Stafford has better stats and is on a team with a better record (Almost entirely because of him). Eli's having a great year no doubt but statistically Stafford is having a better one.

I never gave up on it because I figured if they ever win a Superbowl (Still a long way off if ever in my opinion) in my lifetime, it would make it that much sweeter. Also it's easy to give up on a single season which I did in 2008 after only three games. After they got blown out by the 49ers in the third game I declared that they were the worst Lions team I had ever seen and quit watching. I'm 30 years old now....hard to believe the last time the Lions went to the playoffs I was just graduating high school. It's been a long time and though they may very well be one-and-done, I don't care. Actually being able to see them play a playoff game again would be fantastic.

Sneaky thief route can definitely be rewarding. The 15x backstab + any of the items that double your backstab = 30x backstab damage which with the right dagger(s) and one-handed skill (enchants don't count for some reason) can give you some incredibly high backstab damages which will allow you to one-hit kill a lot of enemies if you can creep up on them. Coming close enough to strike without actually touching them takes some practice though. Easiest dragon to get a one-hit kill backstab on in my opinion is the one in the towers in the se area of the map. The weird thing is if, like me, you max forging and put some points into enchanting, you can still switch to pretty badass armor and become a warrior in the right situations, as long as you don't mind carrying a full set of dragon scale armor. I actually have a ring and amulet enchanted for extra carrying, that i put on when I find that I'm just too encumbered, and that seems to help. I think I might eventually want to try a playthrough where I don't do any forging or enchanting and see how difficult that makes things as a warrior-type.

If you haven't played as a sneaky-type yet, even if it's not your thing, I highly recommend it. It's great fun. I discovered something last night that probably everyone else already knew, but once you get your enchanting up, you can enchant armor,gloves,a ring, and a necklace with fortify smithing and you can improve items past legendary (status doesn't change if it's already legendary, but the armor/damages do). I'm considering trying to put points on my sneaky character into the heavy armors just so I can get to Daedric or Ebony weapon improvements since right now an ebony bow will never be better than a glass bow for me because I can improve the glass bow higher. The issue there is that it's 3-4 perks I could be using on something much more useful than a few more points of damage...

Very true. But that was a game against a team we simply aren't good enough to beat. The good news is every other team in the NFC wildcard race lost. Yeah, the penalties were embarassing, but Stafford looks to be recovering from the finger injury and Fairley if he can get healthy looks like he may end up being as good as advertised and we didn't get completely blown out and were even close to tying it up in the 3rd or 4th quarter, I forget which. The penalties were embarassing though, and having stupid penalties on national tv two weeks in a row is just ridiculous. I hope the coaches get this under control before the next game. We need the win vs the Vikings. They're the weakest team we have on the remaining schedule and we probably need to win 3 of the next 4 to make the playoffs.

Where is the best place to get iron ingots and leather strips though? The shops restock regularly. What I was doing was buying all the iron ingots and leather strips in Whiterun at the Warmaiden chick whose name I forget, and then forging as many iron daggers as possible then going to Eorlund Greymane and doing the same then fast-travelling to Solitude...doing the same with their black smith, then back to white run until it gets to 100. You will have to wait if the shop is closed when you get there though. Also it might be cheaper to buy a couple pieces of leather and then make them into strips then to buy the strips directly.

EDIT- gah. I must have hit submit twice. forgive the double post please.

Been alternating between two characters. One of the reasons I rarely finish a game like this is because I want to do an experience everything on the first go through, thus I end up playing multiple characters and don't have time to play them all. Anyway, my first character is a heavy armor wearing one-handed sword using warrior-type Imperial with some emphasis on Restoration magic who tries to do good deeds. Basically given free range to break out from fantasy archetypes, I've chosen to strictly adhere to them anyway and created a paladin, because I have no imagination. Spending all my time on Smithing, I finally got Daedric gear on him and I'm level 21 only having done 3 or 4 main quest missions. My favorite character though, is my other one, who is a rogue/assassin type Dark Elf with just a heavy emphasis on sneaking and archery. What I love about him, is I finally managed to one-hit kill a dragon with him last night. Technically since I was using two daggers and did the double swing, I guess it's two hits, but one movement. I feel like I've barely spent anytime on him and yet he's already level 35. Time flies when you're having fun I guess. Feels way more rewarding to sneak up on a dragon's roost and kill him while he's sleeping (because it's a pain in the ass actually) then to face him in glorious combat....in my opinion anyway. But yeah, loving this game. My friends are hating it though. They keep sending me invites to play Modern Warfare 3 and I keep ignoring them

yeah I got 10,000 exp(Twice actually) from my teammates spawning on me (actually my spawn point) more than 100 times in one map. Also some kind of cool dog tags. Where you spawn can make all the difference in the world. I also love that if you put a spawn point outside on a map with aircraft, you parachute to it. Sometimes this will allow you to get on top of an otherwise not accessible building or high point.

A couple obvious ones but in the first case a little different than you may remember . Also one of the pieces of music that's most instantly recognizable for me from one of my favorite Sega Genesis games of all time. Also still sometimes find myself humming the tunes from Mario 3. Especially the first world themes. It gets me some weird looks...

I used the Initiation Station (You can get in free with the code from some other game or I got in because I signed up at Gamespot), and there's a lot more clothing/creation options this year. I wish there were more voices though. The good news though is that the cockney accent is back, although the it seems like it might be a different voice actor. It seems a little bit rougher than in the previous game to my ear, but I could be wrong.