It's the next -to-last day of our week-long celebration of the stories cultivated in the hearts and minds of The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim players! Today's Khajiit tale and tail is brought you you by a reader named Jud.

Logan was something of a wizened Khajiit. Dark-furred, his pale blue eyes looked out from behind the horned iron helmet. He crouched-moving slowly through the narrow sewer tunnel.

The dank, algae-covered cobblestone made him glad he was wearing boots.

"By the gods, I wonder what diseases I could catch from here?" he thought, inhaling more unpleasant smells than he could describe.

Rounding the corner, he stumbled back before the Thalmor guard could see him. He drew the bow from his back, carefully taking aim at the wizard across the room. At the top floor of this hub room, his opponent would have a long distance to cover before he could reach him. His first arrow went high, drawing the guard's attention to his hiding spot. Logan ducked back and waited until the elf resumed his post.

His shot connected this time, but the corpse tumbled to the floor below. Two more elves charged up the hallways cursing whoever killed their companion. Logan hid in the entrance hallway, muttering a prayer that they wouldn't find him. As they came into the hallway and drew their weapons, Logan cursed. One charged forward with a sword in one hand and a torch in the other. The other stayed back, firing his bow between the blows his partner inflicted. A few blows knocked Logan back, the pain preventing him from being able to draw his own sword and shield.

A moment is all I need, he thought. He bared his teeth in a grin when he realized the answer.

The two elves brought their weapons to bear, but didn't get the chance to connect.

"FUS RO DAH!" Logan shouted in the narrow corridor. A column of energy seized forward, knocking the archer against a wall. The swordsman received the full brunt of the impact. He flew back against the far wall of the room, then fell two stories to the floor below.

Before the archer could recover, Logan brought his own sword for the kill. Pausing, Logan listened for the swordsman's return. As he carefully made his way down the room's ancillary hallways, he paused, checking for the guard.

At the bottom floor, he saw the missing man. Sprawled on the floor, the man's lifeless eyes stared up at the ceiling. He still clutched his lit torch.

"Thanks," Logan said, grabbing the torch as he left the room.

You play through Skyrim as a mere mortal. Sure, you get to be really powerful but you're still bound by gravity for the most of the experience. The deity's-eye-view in this tilt-shift video—from YouTuber ElrosTt, the same guy who made yesterday's gorgeous reel—makes the world of Tamriel seem less dangerous and more quaint. The clip reminds me of Populous, From Dust or other god games and just goes to show that Bethesda's latest hit looks great from multiple angles.

Busy Little People - SKYRIM Tilt-Shift Video [YouTube]

The tantalizingly brief Skyrim teaser trailer debuted by Bethesda Softworks late last year filled my mind with visions of titanic battles between man and beast; of shining steel bathed in ancient flames; of a champion rising from humble origins, prepared to sacrifice everything for the fate of the world. After 60+ hours with the game those visions have been fully realized — and rendered largely inconsequential.

In the frigid northern province of the continent of Tamriel the legendary dragon god Alduin rises, bringing with him a plague of ferocious flying lizards and the promise of the end of the world of Nirn. Only one being stands between this malevolent force and the people of the eponymous province Skyrim: Dovahkiin, the Dragonborn, a figure blessed with the ability to absorb the very powers these terrible creatures seek to unleash upon the land.

It's the sort of tale that fuels ancient epics and trashy fantasy novel trilogies alike, certainly sufficient enough to serve as the plot for the average role-playing game.

This is not your average role-playing game. In The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, this titanic tale is merely a framing device for a much larger story.

My story.

Battling a dark dragon god is merely an excuse to plunge the player headfirst into this immense Nordic-themed fantasy sandbox, much like the murder of Emperor Uriel Septim VII served as a gateway into Cyrodiil in The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. In grand Elder Scrolls tradition the players begins the game as a prisoner, confined to an exciting but linear introduction before being set free from the cages imposed by more structured role-playing experiences. You can return to the cage at any time, but there's a whole wide world to be explored, and what the hell, it's not like Alduin set a date for the destruction of everything; overwhelming evil's flexible work schedule is one of my favorite aspects of the series.

Unhampered by a ticking doomsday clock, the player is free to reconnoiter the beauteous countryside of Skyrim to their heart's content. Far-removed from the alien landscapes of Morrowind, its neighbor to the east, Skyrim's rolling hills, frigid tundra, and towering mountains wouldn't be out of place in a real-world nature documentary. I could easily see myself climbing its peaks, delving its depths, and crossing its streams (sometimes that's okay), and when the dragons make their appearance this realism serves to make those encounters all the more terrifying.

But those dragons, so immense and impressive at first, soon became nothing more than an occasional interruption in my personal tale, dropping out of the sky just as I was about to enter a mysterious dig site at the behest of the Mage College or worse, bringing an early end to high-spirited games of Herd the Moose.

I never said my story made sense.

I'm not sure if it's a testament to Bethesda's open-ended game design or my own frivolity that in a world filled with thousands of built-in activities I spent several hours making up my own. I earned no skill points for relentlessly pursuing elk across the frozen wastes, cliff-diving into shallow pools, or attempting to cross entire towns using only rooftops, but I felt just as fulfilled as I did when I was swiping a valuable trinket for the Thieves Guild, deterring a rambunctious bard from pursuing an unwilling maiden, or battling Dark Elf racism with my bare fists. Skyrim is the ultimate OCD adventurer's playground, packed so full of entertaining new experiences that you can barely complete before the next appears on the horizon.

When all was said and done my 60+ hours of adventure consisted of perhaps seven hours with Alduin and company, ten hours of random exploring, and the rest of my time spent devouring just a small portion of the side quests—the real meat of the game. Ranging from short fetch missions to adventures so lengthy and memorable they rival the core story, it's almost insulting to call them side quests. They are the beating heart of Skyrim.

Traditionally a single-player game, Skyrim has spawned its own social multiplayer component. By stocking the game with so much content that only the most dedicated player (or those armed with strategy guides) could hope to see it all, Bethesda has created an ever-growing community of storytellers, each eager to hear the unique tales of others while sharing their own. It's happening on internet message boards. It's happening on Facebook and Twitter. It's even happening in game stores, where the mere mention of the game's name evokes spirited conversation between total strangers. As I write this I'm actively resisting launching into tales of my mage's exploits. He's really rather keen.

Skyrim is not a flawless game by any measure, but where fans of other titles might rise up against rampant glitches and shoddy programming, this impassioned community has embraced it. Thrown into the air by a giant's club? That's hilarious. A horse that mysteriously blinks in and out of existence? He's our legendary steed. An overall lack of proper combat targeting? Damn those stupid non-player characters for jumping in front of my fireball. I've seen accusations since the game's release that reviewers are giving Bethesda a pass because their games are always flawed, but it's not the reviewers. Hell, I'd take ten points off right now if a) we used a point system and b) I wasn't afraid of being trampled by an angry mob.

In the early hours of The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim a single word is heard, echoing from the heavens. "Dovahkiin" exclaims a mysterious voice, urging you to embark on a heroic quest to save the world. "Dovahkiin" is also Bethesda's call to arms, beckoning any gamer that's ever dreamt of traversing a magical land armed with spell and steel to an unforgettable role-playing experience. Ignore it at your own peril.

If you've got the 360 or PS3 versions of Skyrim, you've got a very fine game on your hands. If you've got the PC version, though, the game you've got is just the beginning.

In the years to come there will be mods, tweaks and cheats you can use to dramatically transform the game, Bethesda's original vision relegated to mere building blocks for something larger, grander and more customised.

In this guide, I'm going to show you the best ways already available to make Skyrim both look and play better.

First, the look of the game. While the stock graphics are a nice improvement over previous Bethesda titles like Oblivion and Fallout 3, there's still room for improvement. And people have already improved things. Dramatically.

The easiest and most impressive way to have the game looking better is to install the FXAA Post Process Injector, which improves the game's visuals with "a slew of post processing effects, including bloom, sharpen, technicolor, sepia, tonemap, vignette and more". Because it uses a custom installer, you've got options to play around with, so to get the desired effects spend some time playing around with it. Just be sure to read the instructions carefully before use, though, as it could break your game (like it did for Fahey). Didn't break mine, though, and with the default colour changes dialled back it looks amazing.

Next is the No More Blocky Faces mod, which fixes the annoying "bumps" you'll find on some female character's faces where features like their chins and noses look like contour maps. It may seem minor, but if you spend a lot of time up in Lydia's face, you'll want to use it.

Now that the bumps are fixed, install Xenius' detailed faces and detailed bodies mods, which add a layer of fidelity to the inhabitants of Skyrim.

Nature-lovers, meanwhile, will want to install Vurts' Skyrim Flora Overhaul, which adds a ton of detail to the trees and other vegetation of the game. Again, sounds minor, but if you spend a lot of time trudging through the wilderness you'll really notice the difference.

That's it for the mods to make the game look better; now it's time to get into the game's .ini files and do some tinkering. Find (and backup, in case you screw it up) your skyrimprefs.ini file and make the following changes:

bTreesReceiveShadows=0 —> bTreesReceiveShadows=1
bDrawLandShadows=0 —> bDrawLandShadows=1

That'll cause the landscape and trees to give off proper shadows, which makes a nice difference, especially on sunny days or at sunrise/sunset.

Now we'll look at improving how the game plays. A good PC game is one that lets you mess around with stuff under the hood, and Skyrim is a good PC game, its console function (activated by pressing the ` key in-game) giving you access to some nice feature changes, as well as a bunch of cheats.

The best change you can make from the console is to adjust the FOV (or Field of View) angle, which governs how close the camera is to the game world. Many people find the default setting to be a little too cramped, so entering "fov 85" works well. Note 85 is just my personal preference, yours may be higher or lower!

The console is also where you input cheat commands. These can be a lot of fun, but be warned that using them will disable achievements in your game, so use them at your peril. You can find a complete list of cheats at the Skyrim wiki, but we'll drop some of the better/bigger ones below:

TGM - Toggle God Mode (invincible, also removing encumbering effect, removing shout cooldown, and granting unlimited magicka and stamina)

TCL - Toggle Collision (no clipping mode; interacting possible, walk pointing up to fly into the air)

TM - Toggle Menus (Removes the HUD and other dialogue texts)

killall - Kills all hostiles in your immediate vicinity

psb - (Player Spell Book) Unlocks all spells in-game and unlocks all shouts. Note that using this command will unlock spells, even those used to test Skyrim.

player.setlevel X - Make X equal your desired character level.

coc qasmoke - This brings you to the testing hall with all items and crafting interfaces in the game. Be careful as opening enchanted armor and weapons cabinets may cause your game to crash (in some cases the game may simply stop responding, if this is the case, be patient and let the objects load; there are a lot of them- every type of regular weapon times at least 20).

coc - This will teleport you to any location you type in.

TFC - Toggle freefly cam (removes the body and set the camera free, you will not be able to interract)

TAI - Toggle Artificial Intelligence (freezes npc, they can't walk, move, or anything.)

TCAI - Toggle Combat Artificial Intelligence (same as TAI; however only makes the NPC not being able to combat)

TDetect - Toggle AI Detection (You can steal all you want and no one will see you, doesn't work with pickpocketing)

And that about covers it for a beginner's guide! If you get all this stuff installed/working and want to dig a little deeper, the best place to start is Skyrim Nexus, the hub of the game's modding community. Those confident with more thorough tinkering with their .ini files, meanwhile, should look up this Rock, Paper, Shotgun post for further tweaks.

Where would the Dragonborn be without his or her faithful steed, carrying them up the steepest mountains, under the deepest lakes, and disappearing into thin air on a whim? Super Horse, we love you.

It's good to see our four-legged friend finally get his due. My own 1,000 gold piece Skyrim horse lasted all of 15 minutes before I accidentally set him on fire, so I never got to get to really know him. Maybe he would have been super too.