1. Lack of degrading Armor and Weapons

Good bye repair hammers! I don't care what people say about realism (in a fantasy rpg? lol?) but this was plain tedious. The lack of it is so awesome, it boggles my mind.

2. Details

I resurrected a guy to fight for me and when he turned to dust he said something like " Free at last... again...". I was totally surprised and actually felt a little bad for resurrecting him (as ridiculous as it sounds).

These are just off the top of my head and although I'm not a Viking/Nordic/Icy places fan, this actually beats Morrowind. (now if we can just get some more environmental diversity like deserts)

Indeed, the little stuff just adds up in this game. I especially love how you can finally see what dungeons you have cleared on the map.

This game is one of the best ever made, ever ever ever.

I think if they had different regions with this level of insane polish and attention to detail, it would be too good and I would die.
I mean,... just imagine if there were a desert region with sand dunes blowing in the wind and dry arid rocks with Persian looking cities, I believe this is where the Redguards come from right?
It would be amazing to see a massive world of environments eventually added on, region by region.

I always thought they'd do this in Oblivion for some reason.

Was walking through windhelm today when a gaurd passing by commented on my armor
"hey thats some nice armor you got there. Dwarven make am i right?"
And then a black smith commented on something about me lugging around heavy armor and how i should share it to the less fortunate or somethin like that

Yes, that is awesome.

Glad to see people so high on Skyrim. It's early, but I don't know if I'm gonna rate this above Morrowind.

I don't think Beth will ever make a TES game better and more polished than Morrowind, sorry

I would have to respectfully disagree with the "polished" statement.

Agreed...there are so many little details put into every nuance of the game. You can almost imagine the developer thinking the stuff up. And its to be expected, I guess, they've learned a lot of lessons from their previous titles.

Skyrim might just be the best single player game I have ever played. Hell perhaps the best video game I have ever played... and Im open to every type of game the is be it racing, fighting, rts, simulation, fps, third person shooter etc etc

I dont praise just to praise and Im not averse to saying what I dont like, but damnit... you wont see a game like this again for a long while I reckon. Of course this is just first impression, but Im still in shock. Ive yet to get past level one because I just keep roaming around then reloading.

No cliffracers.

Am dissapoint.

Yes, it is definitely all the little details that are adding up to make Skyrim the best of the Elder Scrolls series. NPCs are constantly surprising me with what they notice and comment on. Each dungeon and location seems lovingly crafted and with a whole history behind it.

A blacksmith called my Nord out as a sissy for wearing Elven armor, claiming real men wore leather or steel! I'm loving it.

And, finally, someone commented on my nakedness. I forgot to put my armor on (I do this a lot when messing around in my inventory early in the game and trying to decide which looted items to wear) and one of the NPCs I was talking to told me I should put on some clothes! Awesome.

In some little town(I forget the name) this little girl came up to me and told me if I beat up her sister she would not tell. I had to stop playing for a minute because I was laughing so hard.

I was actually disappointed with the lack of degrading armour and weapons.

Anyway, regarding alchemy.. am i right in thinking we now must use alchemy labs that are placed throughout the world or can we still buy the equipment and do it where ever?

I went in to a trader and he said "ah, a fellow archer! I've got just what you need". NPC's now react to you're equipped weapons and armour, it's really good.

Yes, that's true...the details are the most amazing things...

1. seeing salmons swim up a river to get to their spawning grounds
2. seeing an insect flying around which you can catch and use as ingredient
3. failing to see a mud crab until it moves because it is perfectly melting with the nature in colour and appearance
4. being attracted to all the illustrations of gods and kings inside tombs and dungeons, that you spend minutes just looking at the pictures
5. seeing a mountain covered in clouds and fog raising from the water beneath it
6. feeling that there's real life in every town, tavern and castle
7. getting a gooze skin about how amazing the Dragons look (Reign of Fire anyone?)
8. Having so much crafting, cooking and forging opportunities, you spend hour after hour doing nothing else
9. having all the individual detailed dungeons and all the life inside matching the enviroment
10. walk beside giants and their mamooth herds...you're literally walking with giants...which is pretty much one of the most intense gaming experiences ever...I mean, who could name someone like this his friend in real life?

...and theese ten points are not even 1% about what is great in Skyrim...Bethesda, you've outdone yourself with Skyrim.

I was using my first shout (several times) in town and a guard came up to me and asked me to stop doing that because it was bothering everyone else. I told him, whatever, and he said that even though there isn't a law for it, he'd arrest me if I kept doing it lol Awesome detail!

Morrowind is my favourite game of all time but I would never in a million years describe it as 'polished'.

Post of the year award. Oh I noticed the Reign of Fire style in the dragons as well...made me think of putting dragons in the next Fallout game

I suspect you are letting nostalgia ruin your judgement here. Morrowind was in no way polished when it was released.

Great post. It's easy to focus on the small bugs that pop up, but for some reason not many people bother to appreciate the details that make the overall experience so good. Even something as minor as the ground shaking when walking with the giants is awesome, and when they do their power attack nearby and you sort of lean forward as you run (as if you're almost tripping over), is just brilliant and adds to the excitement.

As much i like realism degrading items was kind of tedious especially if you didn't improved smithing, so i like they way it is in Skyrim.

Armour degradation needed improving not removing. I'm looking forward to a mod that puts it back in.

Still, isn't it funny how something to can be an absolute blessing to one person, and a flaw to another?

I am so glad degrading armour/weapons is gone, I hated having to take 3 sets of weapons with me in Oblivion with me for when they died in the middle of a fight. I wouldn't have minded if it was a longer-term thing - if the weapons/armour got rustier and rustier but over the span of like 20 real hours not half an hour. So that if you went into a dungeon, you knew you were entering with rusty armour, instead of entering with brand new shiny stuff barely out of the packet and coming out with completely broken useless stuff! Also until your armourer skill was good enough you'd have to take a million repair hammers with you to survive just one dungeon, and they weighed/costed heaps.
With the smithing and stuff, it would have been cool if you could strip dead birds of their feathers, and give fletching your own arrows a go. And maybe it would be tedious, but maybe after an arrow has been shot and reused multiple times, one of its fletches might fall off and you'd have to refletch it
Anyway I have only just begun the main quest here but I have a strong feeling it won't be nearly as good as Morrowind's. In Morrowind it takes until 3/4 of the way through the main quest to officially understand who/what you were [not counting your own personal guesses and book-reading] and what your place in history was. At the moment I don't see what else the Greybeards could tell me that would be really interesting.