I don't buy horses, they're a waste of money. They die too easily, get in the way while I'm in combat and everytime you want to fight an enemy you have to keep dismounting. If you want to get somewhere quickly you can fast travel. I think they're a waste. As for mines you should really keep hold of the iron ore you've found as there's a spell tome in a mine (the name of which temporarily escapes me) called transmute which turns one iron ore into silver ore. When used again it turns silver ore into gold ore. Crafting jewelry at the forges is great for levelling up smithing.
I did a lot of transmuting earlier on and made a lot of jewelry for money. It's also the easiest way to sell stolen gem stones - once you use them in a piece of jewelry you can then sell it to anyone. Of course the best idea is to then enchant your smithed item before selling it to get your enchanting up and significantly increase the value. The only problem then becomes either having to wait 24 hours for vendors to get their cash back of fast travel to another town to sell your enchanted goods. Vendors just don't have enough cash once you start dealing bling this pimp.
I bought the war horse that was for sale at the Whiterun stables early on and it's been quite sturdy, and has probably only died in 2-3 situations during my 45+ hours of playing. Compared to how many times my character has died and forced a restart from an earlier save, that's not much hassle. You do have to use some strategy here and there to avoid unnecessary risk, but it's not that demanding. For the most part, you simply outrun random wild attackers when mounted, then double back on foot if you want to take them on. You also need to dismount at a safe distance from forts etc. that have outdoor enemies, but that usually means maybe 10 seconds of standard gallop.
Complete the Dark Brotherhood and get shadowmere. She's actually really good in combat, and she's fast and moves silently.
The family is finally all together now. The soundtrack is the one with the personal autograph of the Master Jeremy himself. The package was sent on the 15th of December and finally arrived today.
Skyrim does have quite good music, and it tends to run through your head at random times when not playing.
Ok. I've spent like few hours to listen to the soundtrack. This is one of the best Jeremy has ever composed:
I'm still plugging along in this game and getting a few hours in here and there. Currently I'm delving into Labyrinthian as part of the Winterhold College quest line. I believe my current level is close to 33 now, so my character is fairly lethal but far from omnipotent. The Sanguine Rose has come in handy in Labyrinthian...
I had a hankering for some skyrim today for the first time in a few weeks, I was going to continue with my third character who was level 2 or 3 when I left him but I never got around to it.
I am in the same exact moment with the only difference that I am at level 17 (35 hours into the game). There are some interesting moments throughout quests and I am positively surprised comparing to Oblivion.
That's one of the many improvements Bethesda made with this game. So much more variety to the various temples, forts, caves, abandoned cities etc. I managed to make it out of Labyrinthian successfully and finish the Winterhold College quest this afternoon. Nice feeling of accomplishment with that, and some killer quest items as well!
After clocking about 200 hours I haven't had an urge to play Skyrim in about a month and a half now, it just lacks the appeal that Oblivion.
I think I just burned myself out by playing nothing but Skyrim for 5 weeks straight. I had a hankering to play it yesterday for the first time in ages but I had other things to do.