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Yeah getting the annuals in my stocking was the best part of Christmas (except the year I got an ATAT obviously). I would down tools, find a corner and not come back to open the rest of the stocking until I had read all the strips. Then a Boxing Day re-read and browse of any articles, competitions, features etc.

Was it one of the annuals that had the cut out and stand up figures of Slaine and others in?
Classic thrills.

They have pulled it.

I think they were offering too much by mistake, sorry.

"Seems they've pulled the pack, it no longer exists in AU, US or UK regions. I guess WB realised WitN and B:AC were accidentally included and concerned about eroding their "new release" revenue."

It is completely impossible for me to be peeling spuds for roast potatoes without whispering under my breath, "Spudgun to Roasties!" and then grinning like an idiot.

And now it will be unavoidable for you too!

Merry Christmas you buncha Tooth Fairies

Amazing deal over in the Steam seasonal sale.
I just got the Warner Games bundle for £40 which includes:

Batman: Arkham Asylum
Batman: Arkham City [only released in November and costing £30 on its own]
LEGO Batman
LEGO Harry Potter: Years 1-4
Lord Of The Rings: War In The North
Watchmen: The End Is Nigh 1 and 2
All three FEAR games and some others I hadn't heard of.

£272.32 worth of games for £40, gotta be worth a punt.

I got totally stuck inside a Falmer tent thingy. I went in to kill the cheeky occupant who was firing arrows at me, turned around and my two Nightingale companions were blocking the exit and each other and no amount of shoving, ducking, jumping, waiting or sleeping was doing any good at all.
Obviously I hadn't saved for ages and so I was just sighing and about to reload an old save when I remembered my unrelenting force shout. BOOM two companions fly across the cave and slide down the wall in a heap, then pick themelves up looking sheepish.

"Lydia wouldn't have done that" I scolded them as we continued, knowing it was a lie.

[our]

I've not even tried any other "assistants", would just feel wrong for some inexplicable reason.

This is a brilliant piece about Lydia: http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2011/11/21/skyrim-lydia-death/#more-83032

Excellent!

I love Lydia. I would also quite like to spend an evening with her in my snug Winterbreeze home (it could be our home, Lydia), drinking Alto wine with a venison roast cooking away, we would chat and laugh and massage the aches and pains of our adventures away. And then I would gently bum her in front of a roaring fire.

You just made me spit my coffee over a pile of invoices!

Welcome back Alien.
Absalom is a bit good isn't it?

I've not even tried any other "assistants", would just feel wrong for some inexplicable reason.

This is a brilliant piece about Lydia: http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2011/11/21/skyrim-lydia-death/#more-83032

Some years I save the Christmas prog for Christmas day, not this year though.

Absalom was my highlight, loved the mortality of the immortality if you see what I mean.

Stront a close second just to have Johnny back.

Dredd was clever and brilliantly done. Can't help thinking that a more straight and punchy Dredd might have been better for the Xmas prog when lapsed and virginial readers find it in their stocking.

Aquila. Arsom start. As long as the character finds some depth to match the action and art this will be a classic.

Grey Area could go either way, a bit heavy on the Basil but then there is a whole universe to introduce. I want to read more to see how it goes, so job done.

Dante. I really like Dante but I'm bored now. It has just taken so long to tell the overarching story. I wish the Empire shaking events had been resolved ages ago and we had a couple of years of him doing his thing in minor settings, new lands and with fresh faces. To have him in prison being tortured again, I just don't care. Sorry.

Dandridge was good if you had never encountered him or his realm before, otherwise nothing new.

Sin/Dex. I love, love, love Sinister/Dexter. I love Downlode, I love the puns, the characters, the interplay between Sin and Dex, love it. But similar to Dante above it doesn't have to be the universe in peril every week. Give me some more detail on local whack jobs (see what I did there), more fun, more incidental, more Downlode as the star. Don't give me alternate reality swapping nonsense with uber-powerful but conveniently impotent gimps. And don't give me the bastard love child of Rogue Trooper's The Hit with one of the worst Dredd's of all time Helter Skelter. Oh you did.

An odd thought, but as much as I loved Strontium Dog, I think I would have loved it more if it had been further forward in the prog. Being at the back made it feel a bit of an after thought.

Just me...?
I'll get my coat.

On weapons as well, was surprised to see that a Legendary Daedric War Axe does the same damage as a Legendary Ebony one (58), but weighs more. Not sure about other weapons, need more Daedra hearts.

It is all about how much you can improve the weapons, not the base damage when you initially make them I believe. I enchanted 2 bits of leather armor and 2 bits of jewlery to give me +22% smithing from each item, then while wearing them I chugged a top line potion of smithing, so when I improved my Daedric armor, sword and shield they are MASSIVELY improved. 'Legendary' staus is a very broad top band and is not helpful for comparisons I think.

Lydia is rocking my old Ebony set, she still complains about it though. Mind you she complains about every new bit of improved kit I give her.

Some alchemist shops sell daedric hearts if you can't find enough to kill.

I was dissapointed with the Mages Guild quests, I breezed through them with very little in the way of magic talent and they felt quite lightweight to me. [spoiler]Don't think they should have made me Arch mage either as I can barely pull a hare out of a steel horned helmet.[/spoiler]

I am level 43 or something and all combat is now so easy that I am thinking of starting again with another character and skill set to do the thief and assassin quest lines, oh and the main quests too of course one day! Still on the fence with the empire/stormcloak thing too. May be I will just go and hunt down all the Thalmor in Skyrim and put them to the sword, that should help the politics.

I just did that one quest where you have to kill a bunch of bears to get some salt. After I killed them all they were at the top of a mountain so I used fully charged Unrelenting Force to make their dead bodies go down the mountain into a river. On my next day off I shall go to a nature reserve and just spend all afternoon shouting "YOL" at a bunch of woodland creatures.

Heh, yeah you can blast corpses a long way with that.

I have guilt pangs cos I hired this bloke in the market somewhere in order to sacrifice him to a demon lord thingy at an altar. I got some enchanted ebony armor which is great but I feel I have tainted my Orc's soul.

Still there was some other bloke with a museum to another evil lord and he was trying to recruit me to recreate a dagger to summon the big bad or something, so I just cut him in half straight away and missed out on that quest cos I thought my Orc wouldn't go for all that evil stuff. But that was before I tricked and murdered the bloke from the market. Sigh.

Anyone done anything Skyrim they are not proud of?

Done, seems to be top now!

Loving the little responsive touches:

I tripped over a table as I was leaving a shop, the shopkeeper shouted "Careful with that" at me.

I walked into the street wearing a new steel helmet I had just crafted seconds earlier and a guard stopped and said "Ah good old steel armour, never lets you down" or similar.

I was sneaking up on someone to attempt a pickpocket and he started saying he wanted to give me a gift as a token of our friendship, stopped mid flow and said, "Don't even think about it" turned and walked off, kept his gift too!

Mostly I seem to be playing as a roving Orc blacksmith who occasionally has to fight a bandit or skeleton to get to more ore sites. Also I found a spell which turns iron ore into silver ore, and silver ore into gold ore, handy. Oh and I punched a Bard repeatedly in the face until he promised to stop chatting up a woman who runs a stall in the town. Orc diplomacy in action.

It FINALLY arrived from amazon, will download from Steam next time. Has been an annoying few days wait. No point in preordering if I can buy it in Tescos before you deliver it Mr Amazon.

Only done about an hour, intro and a mine, the world and environment are beautiful and I will enjoy bimbling about and totally avoiding the main story.
Very annoying inventory and skills tree for an RPG though, all very consoley, I want it all on one page.

I am playing an Orc and so far am killing everything in about two blows. Is that because the default difficulty is too low or because I am a combat-centric character and only dealing with low level enemies?

I like using the bow, very satisfying draw-and-loose mechanic.

Magic seems a bit overpowered as well, I can fry most people before they get in melee range and I have zero magic skills. Also my health is regenerating before I register I have been slightly damaged.

Looking forward to cooking and crafting which I usually can't stand in games. Sod your magic axe of Cumberlargo I want to make a nice stew!

Day and a half to go