I’ve been awake for over 24 hours straight and spent at least 15 hours of that playing and modding Skyrim.  This is why I don’t get into games too often; with games, as with anything, there is no middle ground for me.  I either forget about it shortly or I am TOTALLY OBSESSED with it.  Today’s also the last day of my vacation (buhhh work tomorrow) and I’ve been sick and stuck indoors for the past 3 days so I didn’t get to go out for NYE, so…fuck it, what else do I have to do that doesn’t require leaving the house?

As ever, Bethsoft makes a beautiful game.  I’m surprised that I’m able to run it on Ultra settings on my laptop, even with HD textures installed.  There is some occasional  stuttering in places with a lot of fog, and where there are waterfalls sometimes, but it’s pretty minor and I can work around it.  And in 15 hours of play the game only crashed to desktop once, and that’s probably because I kept alt-tabbing in and out of the game.  So it was a pleasantly stable experience.

As ever, all the characters and NPC’s needed cosmetic surgery because ALL of Bethsoft’s stock character models are perpetually fucking ugly and have been since Morrowind.  They apparently have a horrible character design team, and one I’ve always suspected has never actually seen an attractive female IRL (whereas I think the guys over at BioWare must spend a lot of time in strip clubs).  I will say that Skyrim is the least offensive game of theirs so far in this regard, but I still refused to play it until the mod community got on the job and worked some aesthetic magic.  (I wish game designers in general could figure out how to make a decent goddamned eyebrow.)

Their environments, though, have always been gorgeous…I’ll actually find a high spot and watch the sun rise in game, or go stargazing just for the experience.  Certain environmental/weather mods add even more glamour to it, especially thunderstorms!!!

…excuse me, but could you get the fuck out of my way? I’ve got a sunset to watch.

Gameplay is a little complicated, and during fights I have been finding myself really missing the gorefest and slick moves of Dragon Age II.  My rogue character in DAII was practically a ninja and everyone I slaughtered was a lovely little pinata of flesh pressure-filled with blood and just waiting to be gleefully splattered all over the cobblestones in an orgy of bloodkakke.  Then again, when I played DAII I found myself bitching “why can’t I go up that mountain if I can see it?” because I was still spoiled by the ability to do that in Oblivion and now, Skyrim.

And…dragons.  To be honest since I’ve just started playing – and my play style is 90% fucking with things and exploring rather than pure combat and leveling – dragons still scare the piss out of me.  After the first one I determined that I was going to have nothing to do with those fucking lizards for as long as possible.  One would fly above me and I’d immediately swan-dive into the nearest cave, only to be eaten by a troll, who are harder to kill than dragons anyway.  But despite my best efforts to avoid then, one eventually decided to attack a village when I was in it.  I (of course) ran, cuz the thing was hissing fire at me like I’d done it some personal injustice, and I totally suck with a bow and I don’t go in for magic all that much (I go stealth/melee). But I got nailed anyway, and while I’m running around in circles with my hair on fire downing a dozen potions to keep myself from dying, the dragon falls out of the sky right on top of me and bursts into flames and dies.  Naturally I magically absorb its soul like the Dragonborn(tm) badass I am, and the crowd goes wild as though I had anything to do with that.  Ok, whatever.

I love taking screenshots.  Always one of my favorite parts of a new RPG, other than obsessively trying to remake myself as accurately as I can in character creation.

I’m annoyed that I have to go back to work tomorrow.  Because that’s 8 hours that I can’t play Skyrim.  Alas.

She includes the mods “Better Females by Bella” with Makeup Version 2, “Bright Eyes”, “Caliente’s Female Body Mod Big Bottom Edition”, “Caliente’s Feet and Hands”, and “Straight Hair Retexture”.  I had the “Coolsims Hair Pack” installed but every single style looks like some glamorous supermodel or ridiculous Lady Gaga ‘do, so I nixed that and am just using one of the stock plain hairstyles til I can find something that’s less dramatic and doesn’t have thick square cut retard bangs and/or a ponytail.  :P

All mods are from http://www.skyrimnexus.com/

I’ve been getting so much search engine traffic on “nude skyrim mod” that I figured I’d share.  For the mod site I use, go to http://www.skyrimnexus.com/ - I’ve been using the Nexus sites for years and they completely own all other modder sites of this type.

Btw, this is a Nord character.  She is vanilla save for the “no more blocky noses” mod and the nude mod.

And yes, I try to make my characters look as much like me as possible.  She needs my eyebrows, her hair should be blacker (and cut different) and her eyes green instead of grey…but I didn’t like the green shades on the stock game.  And I don’t have funky ass big areolas like that.  Close enough I guess.