I went up to the wall to get the shout, then snuck back the same way I came and waited for the guardian to get up from the coffin, shot him, he started following me, I jumped down into the stream shot him a few more times until he died (he was in the middle of doing a shout when I killed him if that makes any difference) now he's laying in the stream and I can't loot him, the only thing I could do was take his sword, the quest-marker points to his corpse but I can't do jack diddly squat, this is unacceptable Bethesda, I can accept bugs, but if the main quest-lines first real mission is uncompletable how am I supposed to think that you've tested any other part of the game properly? Fix this, please.

You can't expect them to test every single variable in every single dungeon >.>

Reload a previous save and kill him away from the stream.

I don't even know if that was the cause...
And it's beside the point, it's disappointing to find basicly the first mission bugged to the point where you have to reload. I never had this kind of problem once with oblivion.

I know seriously. Stop complaining and replay 5 minutes of the game

When you grow up you'll realise that when you buy something that isn't working satisfactory you have a right to complain, wich is not what I'm doing anyway, I am telling them to fix a serious bug.

If your car was leaking oil within an hour of driving it for the first time would you settle for an excuse such as "go back to a gas-sation and fill it back up"? I think not. There's no need to be a blind defender of bugs, it's in everyones best interest to have them removed...

I have a very similar bug. He's not in the river for me, he just fell through the ground. I however can't go back and play five minutes as I have spent around eight hours doing side quests etc. now that I have gone back to get the dragonstone, the quest marker is telling me a must go through the ground for it. Great. Oh and it happens that I also killed him from the river while he was doing shout so maybe its not all that coincidental.

Guys, I think the body is unlootable......I did not have the option to loot his body, only to take his weapon. I grabbed the word, the loot in the chest and headed out up the stairs past the wall, which is the way to exit the lair.

Once you learn the word from the wall, the quest updates to head back to town. Nothing is needed from the guy that came out of the coffin.

Not true, you have to loot it for the dragonstone you give to the Jarls wizard. I just redid the quest and was able to loot it this time.

First of all, I am grown up. Secondly, I ran into the same bug, along with another minor bug that *POSSIBLE SPOILER* wouldn't allow me to move the animal statues in Bleak Falls Barrow at all. *END SPOILER* Instead of running to my computer to complain about how it didn't work, I reloaded a save (game is set to auto-save by default) and it worked fine. If there is one thing people need to realize about computer technology is that it is not and never will be perfect. Electronic machines are idiots that need directions and they are given directions by humans and everyone knows humans make mistakes.

I'm not saying they shouldn't be removed, I agree with you on that. It is just frustrating to see so many people get so negative about a game they expect to be perfect, especially an Elder Scrolls game. Yes, some of the bugs need to be fixed right away, but many are not game-breakers and don't need as urgent attention as some users make it seem. Fixing a bug takes time. These games are so huge that all the bugs won't be discovered by the people creating it (I'm a computer science major, I know how frustrating it is to try to find bugs.) They need consumer response to find the bugs because it is a smarter to find bugs (not financially, but from a programming perspective).

And my post isn't consumer response...how? I'm not saying they should drop everything and work on making this one encounter perfect, but until you find the workaround this is kinda gamebreaking for the people who run into it. Reloading an earlier save is like putting duct-tape on a cracked window, sure it gets the job done but it's most certainly not ideal.

Don't get me wrong I love the game so far and all I've done is basicly killed a few dragons chopped a crapload of wood and gotten hitched - aside from doing a handfull of quests, but if it starts out with bugs like this in the main mission I get worried about where the game is going to end up taking me.

You're right, your post is consumer response and I came off too harshly. I guess I was just so fed up with seeing post after post being "*** doesn't work, this is the worst game ever* or something along those lines. Either way I apologize. However, I understand that reloading an earlier save isn't ideal, but it certainly shouldn't make you think the rest of the game will turn out in the same way.