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Just started playing this game again because of Dawnguard. Ended up going down the vampire route, and it's a lot of fun.

I enjoy the weird bugs that these kinds of games have.. You don't see them in a lot of games. I was wandering around an old fort and for some reason Sanguine was wandering around in there killing everything. xD Random or what.

You can but it's a little harder to manage all your mods that way. Plus I think the steam workshop is harder to navigate, but that's just my opinion.

I'd have to agree. I like using Nexus Mod Manager to manage my mods.

I shouldn't have any issues moving from Workshop to Nexus, should I? One of the irritating things about Steam is the mods are size-capped. But like I said I have about 34 mods right now and I just don't want to corrupt my save - if that's even an issue.

It shouldn't be as long as you have all the same mods installed. Uninstalling mods you downloaded from the steam workshop can be a bit of a pain the ass too. As far as I know when you don't want to use a particular mod anymore it just disables it without actually removing the files.

So just use NMM and overwrite any files and you shouldn't have any problems. The downside is that if/when you remove files using the NMM it will put the original files back in. So it may or may not be worth it to you to do a clean install.

It shouldn't be as long as you have all the same mods installed. Uninstalling mods you downloaded from the steam workshop can be a bit of a pain the ass too. As far as I know when you don't want to use a particular mod anymore it just disables it without actually removing the files.

So just use NMM and overwrite any files and you shouldn't have any problems. The downside is that if/when you remove files using the NMM it will put the original files back in. So it may or may not be worth it to you to do a clean install.

Thanks for the feedback, much appreciated. I'll give it a shot and see what happens.

About two and a half weeks since Dawnguard 360 release and not a word on a PC (or PS3) release yet. Sigh. :(

I thought it was 2 weeks away? Something from this thread lead me to believe that the 360 had a one month exclusive, after that it gets released to everyone else. Can someone confirm or correct me?

I thought it was 2 weeks away? Something from this thread lead me to believe that the 360 had a one month exclusive, after that it gets released to everyone else. Can someone confirm or correct me?

That's what I heard too, I think that's right... sadly. :(

How much vram does your 8800gt have? If it's below 1gb then it won't be worth it, even if you go for the lite version.

--x-snip-x--

Only like 512MB I think. After trying all the FULL 2k textures out I really can't tell much difference with my texture quality set to Medium. If I jack it up I can definitely see a difference but then my computer lags like crazy (and the disk is constantly thrashing).

i forgot to list my mods

these are the mods i have on my laptop

Quality World Map

Amazing Ebony Armor Redone

Colored Map Markers

Detailed Faces v2

Dovahkin Hideout

Dovahkin Retreat

Enhanced Night Skyrim - Color Galaxy

Enhanced Night Skyrim - High Stars

Glowing Ore Veins 300

Masas Organic Dragons

Masters Of Death - Rise of the Brotherhood

Nicer Snowflakes

Nightingale Blade To Katana

Nightingale Prime Leather Version Cape Variants

Psychosteves DragonPreist Marks

Realistic Smoke and Embers

SkyUI

Tytanis - Farming - Mounts - Crafts - Spells - Items - MORE

Warzone - Civil Unrest

Weapons Of The Third Era

i use Nexus Mod Manager and got all the mods from Skyrim Nexus except the Nightingale Prime Leather Version Cape Variants, that is no longer avaliable but i can share if asked

Only like 512MB I think. After trying all the FULL 2k textures out I really can't tell much difference with my texture quality set to Medium. If I jack it up I can definitely see a difference but then my computer lags like crazy (and the disk is constantly thrashing).

The texture packs only work when you have the texture quality set to the highest. The Skyrim HD textures, for the full pack requires a card with at least 1.5gb of vram to run efficiently.

I thought it was 2 weeks away? Something from this thread lead me to believe that the 360 had a one month exclusive, after that it gets released to everyone else. Can someone confirm or correct me?

I've not seen any release dates for other platforms yet. But it seems likely that Bethesda would want to release it asap the Microsoft timed exclusive has run out.

One thing I am NOT liking is the 16% movement speed penalty for wearing heavy armor in Skrim Redone. At least give me a perk somewhere to get rid of that. It makes sense for mages and thieves to have the penalty, but I'm playing a warrior.

So I found the cheat code to increase my speed and I can see now why there is a 16% movement speed penalty. I put it back to about 104% movement speed and at that speed I can easily dodge by backstepping just about every swing against me...this almost makes it too easy, but right now my heavy armor is such crap that I can really only take 3-4 blocked hits before dying. Skyrim Redone has made the game pretty challenging for me... I'm finding myself dying a lot in some situations even on the easiest difficulty. Or it may just be that playing warrior is tough compared to thief and mage. This game seems to be really hard at first, but becomes increasingly easier as you get perk points and gear.

I need to find more things to do in skyrim, I cant mod it because I hate playing on the PC.

Any idea's on what to do with a lot of gold? right now all I can do is commit huge crime sprees and pay my bounty of 10,000 gold off

Why would you hate playing on the pc? Better resolution, better textures, modding...basically everything is better on the pc as far as Skyrim is concerned.

You could buy houses and fully furnish them I guess? There isn't a whole lot to spend money on after that.

Why would you hate playing on the pc? Better resolution, better textures, modding...basically everything is better on the pc as far as Skyrim is concerned.

You could buy houses and fully furnish them I guess? There isn't a whole lot to spend money on after that.

I end up cheating :/ which Is a terrible reason. But I always do.

I need to find more things to do in skyrim, I cant mod it because I hate playing on the PC.

Any idea's on what to do with a lot of gold? right now all I can do is commit huge crime sprees and pay my bounty of 10,000 gold off

edit, nvm, i thought you meant you needed gold, not stuff to spend it on

Finally bought Skyrim in the Steam summer sale at the weekend, played 10 hours already! It really is an amazing game. I've joined the Thieves Guild too after getting around an annoying bug. I haven't done many side quests yet but now I'm going to go back and find them all because I need to be a higher level to stop dying in the dungeons :p

Any mods anybody highly recommends? At the moment I have the Sounds of Skyrim ones and a Games of Thrones shield mod and Robert Baratheon's armour.

Finally bought Skyrim in the Steam summer sale at the weekend, played 10 hours already! It really is an amazing game. I've joined the Thieves Guild too after getting around an annoying bug. I haven't done many side quests yet but now I'm going to go back and find them all because I need to be a higher level to stop dying in the dungeons :p

Any mods anybody highly recommends? At the moment I have the Sounds of Skyrim ones and a Games of Thrones shield mod and Robert Baratheon's armour.

Idk..unless you are talking about graphic modifications it is probably worth playing through w/o any mods until you get bored and want to try mods. I highly recommend SkyUI for inventory management on PC... the default is really sad in comparison.

Idk..unless you are talking about graphic modifications it is probably worth playing through w/o any mods until you get bored and want to try mods. I highly recommend SkyUI for inventory management on PC... the default is really sad in comparison.

yeah, SkyUI is always nice... I always have some small mods like ":Auto Unequip Arrows", "Headsman's Axe Fixed" (I love using the headsman's axe... I sort of pretend my character's psyche has been damaged by almost having his head cut off), Jaysus swords, stuff like that. Then I add beautifying mods and some things like Weapons Fixes and also some better animations.

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    • Creative Sound Blaster AE-X PCIe review: your headphones will love it by Steven Parker If you have been reading Neowin for any length of time, you may remember that I reviewed the Sound Blaster Audigy FX Pro back in April. I found it to be an excellent budget sound card, even though it lacked support for formats such as DTS over the included SPDIF port. Anyway, Creative reached out to me again asking if I was interested in reviewing the Sound Blaster AE-X. It is a card mainly targeted at headphone wearers, which I'll get into a bit later. Before we get underway, here is a disclaimer: Creative Labs provided a free sample without any review pre-approval. Here are the full specs of it: Creative Sound Blaster AE-X Dimensions: 179 x 126 x 18 mm Weight: 263g / 9.28 oz Platform: PCI-e DAC: ESS ES9039Q2M Connectivity Options Side: Rear: 1 x HD Audio Front Panel Connector, 1 x ⅛“ Headphone port, 1 x RCA Line-out (Left) port, 1 x RCA Line-out (Right) port, 1 x Coaxial SPDIF-out port, 1 x ⅛“ Mic in/Line-in port, 1 x TOSLINK SPDIF-in port Surround: No DNR / SNR: THD+N: 0.0001% Dynamic Range 130 dB Recording Resolution: PCM up to 32-bit / 192kHz (Stereo) Direct Mode: Line Out (Stereo): PCM up to 32-bit  384 kHz Coaxial SPDIF Out: PCM up to 24-bit 192.0 kHz Headphone Amp: PCM up to 32-bit / 384kHz (Stereo) Native DSD: DSD64, DSD128, DSD256 Output Impedance: 1Ω, Supported Headphone Impedance: 8–600Ω, IEM: 0.5Vrms, Low: 1.5Vrms, Mid: 3Vrms, High: 6Vrms, Maximum output power: 350mW @ 32Ω (High), Maximum output voltage: 6Vrms (High) Front Panel Headphone Amp: PCM up to 32-bit / 192kHz (Stereo) Native DSD: DSD64, DSD128 Output Impedance: 10Ω, Supported Headphone Impedance: 32–300Ω, Maximum output power: 40mW @ 32Ω, Maximum output voltage: 1.9Vrms ASIO: ASIO 2.3 Total Harmonic Distortion: THD+N: 0.0006% Dynamic Range: 114 dB Scout Mode: Yes EMI shielding: No (but it passed all the FCC emission tests) Operating temperature: 0–45°C Input Power: 12V⎓0.5A Warranty: 1 Year (MSRP) Price: $179.99 / £169.99 The Sound Blaster AE-X was announced at the end of May, and it becomes clear that it is mainly for headphone wearers. I should also note that the card does not support DDL/DTS encoding technology, but it is said to support decoding through the coaxial SPDIF port. I was able to test this working with the classic Windows Sound properties, but I could not get a DTS (decode) signal through my Logitech Z906, it defaulted to 3D sound whenever I played DTS content through Plex or Emby. In addition, this card only supports two channels (stereo) over the speakers. The surround support is limited to the Headphone Amp, so before I get underway, what we have here is a card mostly intended for headphone use, especially with its SPDIF In (Toslink) port where you could connect another device like a console. So what about the highlights of this card? The AE-X is powered by the ESS SABRE DAC (ES9039Q2M), which is capable of a 130 dB dynamic range. In addition, it supports 32-bit/384 kHz playback for deeper detail and clarity. The headphone amplifier delivers up to 350 mW @ 32Ω, which admittedly far surpasses standard onboard audio, offering support for studio-grade headphones. DSD256 and ASIO 2.3 are also supported. What doesn't it have? No support for What-U-Hear, Super X-Fi, or the SmartComms Kit No EMI shielding, but it passed all the FCC emission tests (from the FAQ) I also want to make it clear that I am no audiophile. For me, it's purely subjective and it should just "work" out of the box. First impressions As I said in the introduction, I was a bit sad to see that the AE-X only supports stereo output, meaning it would not be on par with my ALC1220 over my speakers, as I mentioned it seems like this card is marketed toward headphone users. Since I am not an avid gamer that would rule me out as a potential customer, but I can still test its capabilities! The card arrived in a nice-looking box, as shown above. It's quite a bit larger than the Audify FX Pro that I reviewed back in April, and at first I thought the covering meant that it was EMI shielded, but it isn't as mentioned above in the highlights section. What's in the box: 1 x Sound Blaster AE-X PCIe card 1 x 3.5 mm CTIA TRRS to Dual TRS Headset Splitter Cable 1 x Quick Start Guide Aside from the Quick Start Guide, which someone at my age (I guess) needs a magnifying glass to read thanks to the tiny fonts, Creative Labs also has the manual online, which first requires you to prove that you're human in order to access it (so I can't direct link it). Anyway, the box is mostly made up of cardboard, and the only plastic in it is the anti-static bag for the card itself. Design Top Bottom The card itself looks pretty cool and actually wouldn't look out of place in an all-white build. There's only one connector, and for some reason it is awkwardly placed on the side (front-facing) that is for the front panel audio connector, which will let you use the headphones through the front PC audio jack. Since the front panel Headphone Amp has fewer capabilities than the rear headphone port, I decided not to use it. Rear of card PCI-e interface The rear of the card is completely open and is normally where you would find the front panel connector. The PCIe interface side is completely covered, which initially made me think it was EMI shielded. I/O panel Side (front-facing) with Front panel connector On the outer rear bracket side we have the TOSLINK SPDIF in, Coaxial SPDIF out, RCA line out (Right), RCA line out (Left), Headphone out, and Mic/Line in ports. On the front facing portion of the card itself is the F-panel connector. Usage Test System Our test system consists of the following: AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D Gigabyte X870E AORUS MASTER (BIOS F12) Corsair RM1000x (2024) Thermal Grizzly Kyronaut (33x33x0,2mm) 2x 32GB Kingston Fury Beast RGB DDR5 6000MT/s CL36-38-38-80 T-Force Z540 2TB (PCIe Gen5) NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 Founders Edition (NVIDIA) Creative Sound Blaster AE-X Windows 11 25H2 Pro I installed the card into the Gigabyte X870E AORUS MASTER which includes the RealTek ALC1220 onboard audio. For our subjective listening tests, I used the Coaxial SPDIF port to my Logitech Z906 speakers. For headphone tests I used the OneOdio Studio Max 2 Wireless DJ Headphones that I reviewed last month. After installing the audio driver, I installed Creative Nexus, which is a relatively new app designed for the latest Sound Blaster cards. Then I discovered the AE-X needed both a driver update from 1.00.15.0001 to 1.01.09.000 and a firmware update from 1.00.06.0000 to 1.00.06.0002, then I was set to go. It should be noted that the card did not work without the driver (not Plug and Play). As you can see above, you can manage the firmware, driver, and inputs via Advanced Settings on the Device tab. By default Nexus enabled "Direct Mode". Upon clicking on Acoustic Engine, the Equalizer can be enabled and set to four different presets, which are: Gaming Music Movies Footsteps Enhancer There's also a dedicated Scout Mode for gamers. I mainly used Tidal and Spotify in the past week to listen to some of my Liked Songs (which now total over 700) in Shuffle mode; there were no pops or interference that I could hear. I also found a 5.1 Surround Music playlist on Tidal that sounded really great over Studio Max 2 headphones. When I reviewed the Audigy FX Pro, I went out and purchased a Logitech Z906 set second-hand for €100 specifically to use with the card, but in this instance all I could get on the AE-X was the 3D output of surround sound through Coaxial SPDIF and although it still sounded great, it isn't quite as good as DTS Interactive via my onboard Realtek ALC1220. Conclusion So what have I learned? The AE-X lacks multi-channel support for 5.1/7.1 setups and drops support for modern surround technologies like Dolby or DTS, functioning strictly as a stereo output device. So to really benefit, you will need Studio-grade headphones to "hear" the benefits of this card. With that being said, I can imagine it will appeal to gamers who are switching between console and PC. By utilizing the SPDIF in port, you could just plug your headphones into the AE-X (front or rear port) and then switch between PC and Console without having to move the headphones to a different port. As I said in the Sound Blaster Audigy review, the EQ in the Creative Nexus app offers safe presets, which allows a user to further tweak the lows, mids, and highs for a personal listening experience. Of course it all depends on the headphones you hook up to it. Speaking of headphones, I kind of wish I had higher-quality Studio-grade headphones to really test this card with; I'm not usually wearing headphones in my day to day duties. The only time I will wear them is if I want to listen to music very late at night and I don't want to disturb my neighbors, so my rating (verdict) is based on this fact. Someone with a PC/Console setup and wears headphone religiously to game, and consume media will benefit much more than I from the high-quality Headphone Amps that are included in the AE-X. Once again, I do feel like Creative could have gone the extra mile to support the S/PDIF port a bit more. Why include it if you're not supporting the main popular digital formats? It seems like the decision was more of a legacy-based one, offering uncompressed 2-channel PCM audio, for users with high-fidelity audio systems and external DACs. Maybe I will be lucky enough to review a card that truly includes all these features in the future. I am sure readers with far more knowledge on audio systems than me will correct me in the comments below. I'll just say I am happy to learn what I don't know! Where to buy The Sound Blaster AE-X is available to purchase now in preorder for $179.99 on the U.S. Creative website, or for £169.99 on the Creative UK website and will start shipping to customers from June 25.
    • $80 or 90%, anything else would be financial suicide one way or another.
    • Or... just use Bitwarden. Free, and has on-prem option as well. Works both on desktop and mobile, wherever you are. The age of local password files is over.
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    • I actually got to use one of those so called "backup codes" once. It was for a customer, I choose the backup code option, and by the grace of god, they actually hade them printed out. Imagine my surprise, when after using the backup code, Google then told use we had to enter a code they just sent to the gmail address we currently did not have access to. I was not amused, Google backup codes should be the end all get out of jail free card, because you had to have access to the account to even get them.
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