Good point, I'd still like some Warrior/ Mage / Rogue distinction though.

Cool story bro.

I'm going to have to say that I miss Athletics and Acrobatics. The thought of never being able to run faster or jump higher makes me a little disappointed. Situations come up where I think specifically how nice to would be to have athletics and acrobatics. Running from an angry giant, or any monster that can seriously kick my ass makes me miss Athletics and Acrobatics. Mountain climbing also makes me miss Athletics and Acrobatics. The mountain climbing isn't really that big a deal, but the running from dangerous monsters is. In the older games Athletics and Acrobatics both played major roles in overcoming enemies that were more powerful than yourself. Losing them also limits creative solutions to problems which is also a big deal.

I do miss attributes and classes too, but that is mostly because they allowed me to fine tune my character to be exactly how I wanted him and distinguished characters from one another, in what hey could do. Not just on a gross level, but a very fine tuned and subtle level as well. I don't miss trying to manage your attributes on level up though.

That said, I love Skyrim and it is far and wide the best Elder Scrolls game to date.

I there is one change I hate though.

Skyrim makes oblivion look good. Skyrim has Many flaws and only a few good things.

Don't get why people are mocking this guy for saying that there's no acrobatics. Clearly just an example of attributes, I for one was disappointed that there were no attributes and no main skills. The guy just wants a more serious RPG - which I do too, despite being a CONSOLE GAMER - cut the guy some slack.

EDIT: Oh and just because a "reviewer" says something is good doesn't make his opinion more valuable than anyone elses. Just saying.

I miss acrobatics. There is nothing wrong with that. It was actually something I enjoyed about Morrowind and Oblivion. It's a matter of opinion and this thread is full of opinions. Just because there isn't acrobatics in Skyrim doesn't make it incomplete, the game is still a lot of fun. The fighting system is the best I've ever played with (in a TES game, comparing it to Morrowind, wow. )

Exactly!

All of this talk of "I don't allocate stats when I sleep to level up, so it's not an RPG!" reminds me of the early days of real RPGs - I'm talking the "sit around a table with friends, dice, and books" kind, not the kind that runs on a computer. Everyone knows about Dungeons & Dragons, but there was another RPG that came out pretty much just as early: Traveller (yes, with a double-L).

In contrast to D&D's mechanics of killing things to get XP so that you can level up and kill bigger things for more XP, Traveller had insanely simple character advancement mechanics. There weren't any. You rolled your stats and ran through a number of four-year terms in the military, merchant corps, or other career, gaining a level each term in one or two skills, and then started the game with that history and the skills you gained in your terms of service were the only skills you'd ever have, so there was no need for any kind of XP tracking and you never leveled up. Progression was purely a matter of story, material resources (money, paying off the loan on your spaceship, equipment, etc.), and developing relationships with other characters (friends, enemies, contacts...).

Even though it was missing all the things mentioned in these "Skyrim is not an RPG!" posts, Traveller is widely recognized as one of the venerable ur-RPGs, fully deserving its place beside D&D. (Some would even go so far as to claim that Traveller-style games focus more attention on role-playing, and thus are more deserving of the label "RPG", than D&D-style games, which easily devolve into pure hack-and-slay-fests due to their emphasis on mechanical advancement.)

I, for one, welcome the dousing of the Stat Sheet in kerosene and its ceremonial burning.

Oh, and... dungeon crawl? I've been too busy crafting stuff out of things found in the environment to crawl through even one dungeon yet. And I'm sure that a few of those will yield some more, better crafting supplies.

If you think Skyrim is "diluted", then you're doing it wrong.

people miss jumping from hilltop to hilltop in the moonlight i think lol

The modding community will add the complexity you want! !!

Stats still exist just represented in a different way and with new mechanics.

And you're better?

+1. The average IQ has fallen quite a bit during the past month.

You can let him feel good about himself.

I personally can't figure out how to turn the sentence into good grammar.

Did you even play the game? I do agree that it svcks we don't have hand to hand skill or athletics or acrobatics, but take a look at how much time they spent refining the boring and lackluster magic and combat systems from previous games. Bethesda corrected all of their mistakes from previous games while also providing better gameplay overall. The only possible way Skyrim could be any better is if they added multiplayer co-op, in which case I would probablly orgism myself to death.

I have only been playing since oblivion but can still see how the the basic game mechanic has been simplified. I understand how some fans will have issues with this as they want to have as much control as possible over as many aspects as possible regarding their character.
Personally, however, I prefer the new system. There is still plenty to do in terms of character control that I can play how I want but without getting in the way of actually playing the game!