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Hell must have frozen over, pigs are surely flying, and dozens of other tired phrases have obviously come to pass. It's the only explanation for the PlayStation 3 downloadable content for The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim finally receiving release dates. Bethesda had promised that they'd come in February, but only a fool completely believes such claims. It's been months -- four months short of a year for Dawnguard -- since they released on Xbox 360, but PlayStation 3 users will finally get all three this month.

Attention college students: Do you like playing video games? More specifically, do you like a game called The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim? If so, then I suggest you hightail it on down to Rice University in Houston, Texas, the only school that I know of with a course devoted entirely to the epic open-world RPG. For one semester only, English majors can sign up for Scandinavian Fantasy Worlds: Old Norse Sagas and Skyrim, a course that studies the psychology of gamers and the influence of Scandinavian culture in western fantasy stories.

Good news, fans of role-playing games everywhere! Bethesda Game Studios has announced the second expansion coming to The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim -- and it is called Hearthfire. The newest expansion centers on building a home, upgrading said home, and all the trappings of domesticity. If this sounds suspiciously like they're bolting The Sims onto Skyrim, that's because it looks like they actually are bolting The Sims onto Skyrim. Those lucky Xbox 360 players will get to start building their own gardens on September 4th.

As if there weren't already enough slavering fans of Skyrim and all things related to it, Bethesda Softworks has now revealed via their company blog that folks can apply to be in the beta for the much-anticipated Dawnguard DLC. There's just one catch: The application is only for the Xbox 360 version of the game. Cue the disappointment for everyone on the PlayStation 3 and the rejoicing for those who have it on Xbox 360.

Bethesda has released the debut trailer for Skyrim's first piece of downloadable content. Dubbed Dawnguard, the trailer depicts what could be a two-faction war between some sort of every-generic-fantasy-demon-you-can-think-of group (vampires, winged imps, gargoyles, etc.) going up against the titular Dawnguard. The trailer doesn't quite let loose if you can choose either faction, though the narration provided by someone from the anti-Dawnguard camp asks the typical "which will you choose?" question. We won't have to wait much longer until E3, where all of the juicy DLCtails will most likely be divulged.

Bethesda has had Alduin's Wall from Skyrim just lying around after it was used for E3, PAX, and the Skyrim launch party. So, instead of letting that gigantic art wall go to waste, they shoved it into their place of work, where it is now a permanent fixture of how cool it must be to work at the place that makes The Elder Scrolls games. More pictures after the break.

Today on the docket of generic television procedurals either trolling gamers or not knowing what they're talking about but rolling with it anyway, we have the above scene from NCIS. Not only does it begin with some technician at a company that produces routers derogatorily using the term "dweeb" due to a character's interest in said routers, but the clip moves toward a mention of Skyrim and "Old Republic," calling them "dorky roleplaying games." Best of all, the clip ends with everyone's most hated Skyrim meme, taking an arrow to the knee.

Earlier today, Bethesda posted the above screenshot to their Facebook page with a simple, yet mysterious caption that reads "tomorrow." What could it mean?!

Much better than the BWONK! from Metal Gear Solid, the Elder Scrolls series has been pretty good about letting the player know just how hidden their character is at any given time. Now, the iconic open and closed eyeball crosshair can be owned on a shirt that glows in the dark from behind. If you're anything like a cat, you'll believe your shirt when it tells other people that you can be seen from the front, but completely vanish when viewed from behind. You can get your own sneaky crosshair shirt over on Splitreason for $18.95. It's 100% cotton, so it unfortunately won't provide any worthwhile light armor bonus.

The Elder Scrolls series is, and has always been, one of the most immersive series in video games. When Morrowind first released, I'll admit, I was too young and my gaming palate to unrefined to enjoy it. About ten minutes in, I realized I could click just about everything and put it into my inventory. That was when I gave up. Years later, I gave Oblivion a shot; older, with my gaming palate more refined. I have never been as immersed in a virtual world as I have been in Oblivion's, and I played a MUD for fourteen years. Over 200 hours logged in Oblivion, with my character's skills trained high enough to where he could literally standing jump over a single story building, I never even completed the very first quest. My character still has that amulet in his inventory. So, I was obviously stoked for the next installment in the series, Skyrim. I got the game the day of release, eschewed my daily gym routine, and booked it home straight after work in order to spend the next hour making my character and ignoring the game's main quest line in order to get lost in the world. It's been months since the game's release now, and I only have a few hours logged into my save file. I really hate to admit it, but I just can't seem to bring myself to play Skyrim. Here's why.

Yesterday, Skyrim's official mod tools released to the masses, and along with a high resolution texture pack, came a somewhat out of left field Portal 2 mod, wherein the Space Core plummeted to Skyrim's fertile ground. Today, through console commands, YouTube user Memorable found a hint that either a Portal-related quest now resides in Skyrim so long as one has the Space Core mod, or a Portal-related quest is incoming in a future update. Video and explanation after the break.

Only the second title to be featured on Steam Workshop, the creation area of Valve's community, Bethesda has finally brought us Skyrim's official modding tools, the Creation Kit. Along with giving players the ability to legitimately mod Skyrim, the kit comes with a high-resolution texture pack for the game, and oddly enough, teamed up with Valve to release a Portal 2 mod for Skyrim, the Space Sphere mod. That's right, everyone's favorite insane personality sphere can now follow players around the world of Skyrim. The creation kit is free, and around only 40 megabytes in size, so go grab it, and start modding your Dragonborn heart out, and visit the Creation Kit wiki for all your modding needs.

Halloween may be months away, but it's never too early to start dressing up your dogs. Take this handsome pair, for instance, dressed like a Dragonborn and a dragon from fantasy video game Skyrim. A hand crocheted labor of love, the outfit includes a helmet, sword, shield, and bracers. Also, that's a dachshund dressed as a dragon. What more could you possibly want? See more pictures of this pair, and their costumes, after the break.

YouTuber no9sniper took it upon himself to bring Bethesda's open world epic, Skyrim, to the platform that needed it most: The TI-84 calculator. His conversion isn't like all of those DOOM ports you see running on graphing calculators -- this one is more like an old BBS door game or Kingdom of Loathing, where the player simply picks options from menus to play, rather than controls anything in real time. Door games are secretly still fun, and Kingdom of Loathing is going strong, so there might be a place for no9sniper's calculator Skyrim -- probably in math class. Head on past the break to check out a video of calculator Skyrim in action.

You know the necessities of life, right? The simple bear bare necessities? Food, water, shelter, Dragonborn mandolin, and that's it, if I recall correctly. TTguitars on Etsy can help you with that last one if you haven't taken care of it yet. As pictured above, a Dragonborn mandolin is available and made to order for a mere $695. If that's not your style and you'd prefer the stereotypical choice of an electric guitar or the more awesome choice of an electric bass, those options are available as well.