To be able to experience something like this, I feel truly blessed. Bethesda have absolutely outdone themselves this time, and that’s saying a lot!

The new engine is phenomenal! With so much going on in the world, and with such an epic sense of scale and majesty to the landscape, the new core is yet to skip a beat. So much content, wildlife, NPC diversity, seamless fully populated distant landscape and level of detail, and everything is rock solid and smooth. This running a Core2 Duo e8700 and gtx480 with everything maxed, 8x FXAA and 8x AF.

Wandering around there is this sense of a true living world that even with fully modded Oblivion I have never seen. You run into bandit camps of NPCs with lives, hunting and skinning and cooking, who warn you off before charging an attack. Wildlife that is fun and challenging to stalk and "atmospheric" predators you can hear howling to their pack up ahead. I even met a bard on the road who let me pay him to do a request!

Skyrim is HUGE, and navigating to places of interest on a fully rendered 3D map is a really nice touch. Just about everything you could dream of is there! Open cities, NPC with stories and personality, themes from all previous ES games... Everything is so authentic, brilliantly imagined and breathtakingly realized. I have only been through a couple caverns and the ruins of an ancient keep so far, but the richness and attention to detail in the art of these places is simply amazing.

I finally made the leap to LCD and picked up the VE278Q. I have never experienced 16:9 cinematic format before with PC games (or any games for that matter); always been scrunched down to that archaic 4:3 format on a dying and dim CRT. I swear it was like this thing was built for Skyrim! There is just so much there to see. What else can I say? You will not be disappointed!

Thanks to everyone at Bethesda for making such a remarkable experience possible!

Here’s a few snapshots, sized down to 1600 for easier viewing:

Dragons!
http://i858.photobucket.com/albums/ab150/aliendiplomat/SKYRIM/TESV2011-11-1021-46-32-14.jpg
http://i858.photobucket.com/albums/ab150/aliendiplomat/SKYRIM/TESV2011-11-1021-50-01-38.jpg

Caverns & Catacombs:
http://i858.photobucket.com/albums/ab150/aliendiplomat/SKYRIM/TESV2011-11-1020-28-47-64.jpg
http://i858.photobucket.com/albums/ab150/aliendiplomat/SKYRIM/TESV2011-11-1101-27-38-29.jpg
http://i858.photobucket.com/albums/ab150/aliendiplomat/SKYRIM/TESV2011-11-1101-09-21-30.jpg
http://i858.photobucket.com/albums/ab150/aliendiplomat/SKYRIM/TESV2011-11-1101-31-33-93.jpg

Landscape:
http://i858.photobucket.com/albums/ab150/aliendiplomat/SKYRIM/TESV2011-11-1022-32-22-20.jpg
http://i858.photobucket.com/albums/ab150/aliendiplomat/SKYRIM/TESV2011-11-1022-34-26-85.jpg
http://i858.photobucket.com/albums/ab150/aliendiplomat/SKYRIM/TESV2011-11-1101-49-45-51.jpg
http://i858.photobucket.com/albums/ab150/aliendiplomat/SKYRIM/TESV2011-11-1023-06-44-44.jpg

Aurora;
http://i858.photobucket.com/albums/ab150/aliendiplomat/SKYRIM/TESV2011-11-1023-48-24-20.jpg
http://i858.photobucket.com/albums/ab150/aliendiplomat/SKYRIM/TESV2011-11-1023-47-02-38.jpg
http://i858.photobucket.com/albums/ab150/aliendiplomat/SKYRIM/TESV2011-11-1023-49-55-60.jpg
http://i858.photobucket.com/albums/ab150/aliendiplomat/SKYRIM/TESV2011-11-1100-06-21-24.jpg

Adventures!
http://i858.photobucket.com/albums/ab150/aliendiplomat/SKYRIM/TESV2011-11-1023-16-14-93.jpg
http://i858.photobucket.com/albums/ab150/aliendiplomat/SKYRIM/TESV2011-11-1103-27-52-11.jpg

Totally agree, the game is amazing, have you taken the journey of 7000 steps yet? Turn your sound up and let your heart wonder , so many people complaint, I love it.... Time to become a werewolf 10/10 frame rate drop don't bother me that much.

Loving it so far, its amazing!

I wonder how much my jaw will drop tomorrow.

Since the company I ordered my new GPU from are being slackers I'll recieve it tomorrow, rather than last thursday.
So in preparation I'm running the game on the lowest of the lowest settings at the moment (my current card should do medium fine though) and with a 6870 I should be able to max it easily. Making for an insane difference.

Great screens there. The anticipation is suffocating me. Since I have work and classes today, I won't be able to pick up a copy until later today.

Great screenshots!

I wasn't able to go to the midnight release last night, and I'm a svcker for a physical copy so I didn't download through Steam, so I am waiting with much anticipation for 10am when Gamestop opens.

Some great screenshots! Agreed, only played for an hour and a half last night as I have golf today, but from what I saw it is mesmerizing. About to start up again, but here are some of my screens so far. (Ultra PC, 1900x1200)

http://cloud.steampowered.com/ugc/632982493460211475/C231E6459E101295BC0DDA8B8AB3B2846FBF9271/
http://cloud.steampowered.com/ugc/632982493460208365/989FD50300095DC755B7C3297D582F6ACDCDC680/
http://cloud.steampowered.com/ugc/632982493460131704/66AC28954085EB3248CFF80F485EEEB16DB73777/
http://cloud.steampowered.com/ugc/632982493460130203/85BF92101A6DE6ED2350C254E4B61682E8FE915A/
http://cloud.steampowered.com/ugc/632982493460128307/C09B2E670C58505770264F44C47F45E6BEEA0774/
http://cloud.steampowered.com/ugc/632982493460126207/0576DFAE43EDA41F2D385630AB28109A216E2788/
http://cloud.steampowered.com/ugc/632982493460593965/32309A749A6FC2E2F7CB56F3639D952D34B209A9/

Amid all the complaining and bugs and stuff you always get with a launch, I have to thank Bethesda for this awesome port and remind them they're one of the only developers with this much respect for the PC platform. It's so well optimized, and the option to play with a controller if you want is really great for when my hand hurts from too much mouse holding (don't laugh, it happens) or if I just want to lie back and chill out. Plays great with either control scheme.

Basically it's an insanely improved version of Oblivion from the first few hours of gameplay. Mods will keep this game alive for many many years!

I may even try out melee combat instead of archery now that it's been improved so much.