I don't have a master's degree in TES games, I don't know the lore, I had no idea what a "Bosmer" was until two days ago, and I have no idea where the good loot is (nor do I know it by name), how to get a companion, or where to find all the special goodies.

I played Oblivion on both the 360 and the PS3. This means "without mods." I never even came close to finishing it. I think I closed one Oblivion gate ever, though I may have gone inside as many as three. I also never made much use of the duplication stunts, aside from training my character up on the 360 when I first started. I later got rid of the 360 and when I got a PS3, didn't put in the 90 hours to have a pre-made "perfect 40 wood elf" for the game before I started playing.

I played as a sneaky archer with light armor and a one-handed sword.

The bugs were ridiculous, but even worse than the bugs was the poor game design, when archery was such a pain in the butt even with maximized alchemy skill that the game simply became unplayable even before I got halfway through the game. I did manage to finish the Dark Brotherhood and the Thieves Guild, but that was pretty much the end of my patience in Oblivion and I never came close to finishing it. I then became a pretty consistent critic of the game - and for a lot of very good reasons.

It seemed to me that Oblivion had managed to take the TES series out of a niche market and propel it into the mainstream gaming market largely because of the potential it offered for future games and because of the beautiful presentation it offered. Ultimately however, the leveling system, game mechanics, imbalances in skills, and yes, bugs, it had a limited appeal for most regular folks.

Oblivion was a game that was a lot like work.



When Skyrim came out however, I wanted to see how far Bethesda had come now that it was a major "mainstream" gaming company.

Bear in mind that I don't have all the artifacts memorized. I don't know what a shrine of Talos does without looking it up on the web. I have no idea where or how you acquire a companion, how to find the thief's guild, I don't know where the Dark Brotherhood meets, I don't even know who the Companions are - even though I've seen their name tossed around a lot on the boards here.

In other words, while interested in the game, I'm not well-informed on it, and don't know how to get all the really good stuff right off the bat the way many on this board do.

I've now played the game for about 16 hours though (slow week). I took my character to Whiterun to start, and the only reason I chose to do that is because it was near the middle of the map and because I had heard that the cheapest house in the game could be purchased here.

Having been intent on playing a stealth archer in the last game and becoming enormously frustrated with the leveling system, the imbalances in skills, and so on, I wasn't sure what to expect. So far however, the game has been amazing.

Archery, right off the bat, is ten times better even without alchemy (I have yet to even eat an item). I grabbed up the nearest bow (a hunter's bow if I recall right) and set off on the first quest. I sneaked about and managed to get in a few surprise shots on some enemies. Then, like in Oblivion, I started to run for the door of the dungeon because I had been seen. Unlike in Oblivion however, once I was out of the line of sight, the monsters lost track of me. I was able to sit still for a minute and become hidden again. This never happened in Oblivion. In that game, they'd just keep chasing me, coming right to where I had hidden myself, spotting me as soon as they got there, and the entire dungeon would beat the crap out of me.

But not this time.

I got hidden again, and the monsters seemed to look around for me, but not with any amount of "I know exactly where he is, so all 50 of us will go straight to him and find him again." When a monster did finally come near me, he didn't immediately see me and I managed to remain hidden. As he turned to look around some more or perhaps to return to his previous position, I shot him in the back like a good archer ought to.

This was my next surprise.

It wasn't a magic arrow. I also hadn't spent more than a single perk point in archery yet. I think the one I took was the first one, giving +20% damage to my arrow strikes, but that's all. So when I shot this creature (I think it was a druge) in the back, I was amazed that he not only hadn't found me again yet, but when I hit him he doubled over like I had just [censored]-slapped him with the hand of God. He fell to his knees, not dead, but totally stunned. I then had time to take a second shot, so I did - and it put him to bed for good. He never even got a chance to look twice at me.

But there was another pleasant surprise here. It turns out there was another druge nearby. He had seen the entire thing transpire, but he himself had still not found me. Oh, he was looking for me, but he hadn't yet found me. He saw his partner get shot twice and die, and he knew I was there someplace, but he hadn't found me yet. A quick gathering of my wits and one arrow strike later, and the room was empty.

I was amazed that I hadn't been forced to retreat all the way back to the beginning of the dungeon, or like in Oblivion, all the way out of it and back to town where the guards would have to kill the parade of murder that was right behind me and coming back to town with me.

By the time all was said and done, I had cleared the dungeon (which took about 3 hours), and I had done it all without having to rely on alchemy potions that I spent 40 hours collecting for one cave. I hadn't used the 17 healing potions I had been hording this entire time. I hadn't even run out of the 18 Ancient Nord Arrows I started with yet, but managed to acquire a bunch of steel and iron arrows along the way just in case I did.

It was... Refreshing.

Add to this that the leveling system is simple and straight-forward (so far at least), with no differences in training that have to be understood from the start like in Oblivion, and although there are still bugs present, they don't appear to be nearly as abundant and game killing as they were in the last game. So far, this game is not "a lot like work."

So far, this game is actually fun.


I've been one of the harsher critics of this game in the past. Oblivion's wasted potential and the absolutely asinine game design that it used made it an easy target for an intelligent gamer, especially one who was pissed that everything the game was intended to do seemed to completely hose his character, and the things that were designed to help were broken.

Skyrim seems to have come an awfully long way however. I'm not sure about the skill perks, because I want to have alchemy in my skill set and I'm not sure I'll get enough skill perks to do that, but so far at least, the game seems far more balanced than the last one, and it's a lot easier to understand. There appear to be fewer fatal bugs in the game so far, and the skill imbalances have largely been addressed.

This makes me very happy, and it's quite impressive for a company of this nature to acknowledge they screwed the pooch - and more importantly make a genuine effort to fix it.

They appear to have done so, at least from my first 16 hours of play time.

I had always wanted to make Oblivion into that one game that one plays as a staple for years at a time. The game that I keep around and play three or four times a month and just keep going back to, building my character some more.

I couldn't ever do that in Oblivion though, because it was just too bloody broken.

Skyrim however, appears to have that potential. So far at least.


I've been up Bethesda's butt since the first week I played Oblivion. I do have to say that so far in Skyrim, I'm pretty damned impressed. This game had miles to go before it actually became a good (as opposed to pretty) game. While there's still a block or two to go (bugs and patches, support for PS3 and 360), it has certainly come an awfully long way.

Nicely done, Bethesda.

I just wanted someone to hear (or read) me say that.