Porting ES to consoles ruined this game.

Its gone straight downhill since Morrowind.

Game like this is great cause its so open and free in what you do, with so many different things to do.

Consoles go completely against that, which in the end does nothing but make this franchise worse with every game they release.

This game looks worse than my modded Oblivion does and i can tell already it has so many things removed that Oblivion had.

And of course Oblivion had so much taken out from Morrowind, this just adds to it more.

Consoles dumb everything they touch down, a game like this dumbed down ruins it.

Yes there are.

I haven't purchased the game yet, only because we are moving overseas, and I will have to wait until we purchase new systems (PCs - not consoles) in order to play. As a result, I have been spending some time reading reviews of the game, both by professional reviewers and users.

I have played TES games since the Arena days, and I distinctly remember how BUGGY Daggerfall was on the release date and a good time afterwards. WAY more buggy than this game sounds. Bethesda is not like Blizzard, who tend to be perfectionists when it comes to the quality of game on initial release. Anyway, Daggerfall was almost unplayable at launch, but we were much more patient back then it is was quite common for software to be buggy when first released to the public. Not that it was right, but it just was the way it was. And Daggerfall became one of the great RPG games. In fact, many TES PC gamers consider that game to be the gold standard of the TES universe.

I am a bit concerned about the port /menu issue, and it does make me hesitate to run out and buy the game when the time comes, but overall, I haven't heard anything negative in terms of the experience within the game, mostly because it is too soon for people to judge at this point. In addition, human beings tend to like what they are accustomed to, not necessarily what is right or good or beautiful. The menu controls may be a little difficult to get used to, but lets here what people say after a week or two of playing the game.

1) I can't argue this. I do believe that Shivering Isles will be the idea behind DLC for them though, kind of like the latest work on DLC from Bethesda.

2) UI is messy, but not. I want a character sheet, but I move around it quite quickly, its simple effective and streamline I would like more detail but that is my preference, and will be fixed come modding Though it couldn't hurt Bethesda to release one late on. As to graphics. Have you seen the game running on ULTRA settings CORRECTLY? They downplay the lack of overly high res textures very well with their work of the concept of drawing you into the game with vistas and general view distance. And weapons / armor / characters look years ahead of Oblivion.

3) There are birthsigns, but they're rather weird. Classless is a boon and a hinder, the idea that I have no boundaries where I go, which has always been in ES games, (create your own class) all be it different doesn't make it horrible. The world is smaller, cities are less there, but the detail in them its like rolling two cities into one.

And finally I didn't like oblivion nearly as much as morrowind, heres why, the game doesn't make you want to play it. Skyrim, if you let it, will draw you in, and keep you under its thumb. Sure the game could use more depth with stats, classes, birth signs, but those actually can pull you out of the game as well. When in Morrowind did you ever go, MAN I'm born under the sign of the tower, HELLZ yah this makes the game so much more deep.
I don't like min and maxing when its not with the style of the game. BG and BG2 are great games that use character dev depth great. Skyrim is somewhat using the lack of it to keep you under its mystical thumb.