Okay, I think of myself as a pretty big fan of rpg and action/adventure games and my love for them mostly started after FO3 and Mass Effect. FO3 was my first ever first person shooter/rpg and it completely blew me away and I played it for more than 300 hours even before touching the dlcs. The same thing happened when FONV came out except I liked FONV even more than FO3. Eventually I played through FO1 and FO2 as well and also some other ones like Baldurs Gate series, Dragon Age, Neverwinter Nights and some great Japanese rpg's as well. Coming back to why I have not played any TES or even Skyrim until now.. during both morrowind's and Oblivion's time I was busy with other great games and I just never got back to them and for Skyrim, one reason was that I didnt have a fancy pc when the game released and decided I'd wait till I upgrade my system and besides I had just gotten fonv + dlcs and was having too much fun with it.

So yes I have recently updated my system and have procured a copy of skyrim for myself. The question I wanted to ask here is what should I expect in my first playthrough of the game. I know the graphix r amazing and I know a lot of you like it a lot but I have also heard severe critiscism of the game in that its described as having a hollow story line and its quests are all copy paste quests and combat is not interesting at all and the skill system is too easy to mster.

Coming from a game like FONV I have to say that while having great graphics (and huge worlds to explore) can be nice it certainly isn't a substitute for some of those other things that I mentioned which actually make a game great. So is Skyrim really doing badly on some of those scores or is it just Fallout really devoted fan talk?

Also, tho I like rpgs I am a very lazy person when it comes to figuring out character creation systems of new games and then figuring out what would be best for me and how to max out my char (never my goal in an rpg) so could you guys give me some initial pointers about what I should do and maybe not do that might help my character? would appreciate any comments and help cheers!!

I would forget about what others say. For it's only their opinions. You may have a different perspective on the game for all we know. Give the game a try and see how you feel about it.

One thing you should know is that there are many skills in Skyrim. Since you've played Fallout, you probably know it's know wise to try and do them all, only stick with a few. There are three specializations: Combat, Magic, and stealth. You can either stick with one only or mix it up. Just don't overwhelm yourself and do every single skill.

First off, ignore all the gripers about the game on this forum - you get that a lot here - but very little of it on other forums.

Skyrim is a fantastic game and on my PC it plays extremely well.

Character creation, play any kind of character you feel like, using whichever weapon style that you find most fun. As you get the feel of play and as the game progresses, you will probably decide to change your play style later, trying different methods of play. That's what I did, it's a very long game so it's most likely that you will feel like a change anyway. I started as an Archer, now I have added magic and stealth to my play, mixing them in, also maxed out in Alchemy and Enchanting, Pickpocket, Sneak. Swordsmanship is ok for when they get close as well.

I concentrated on having a higher Stamina than Health and Magicka, being able to out-sprint the enemy is a great asset, especially with being an Archer. I take few perks, it's a big mistake to get too powerful if you are out for a fun game, I've had some great challenges, and tactical play is best for me. Hope that gives some idea.

One thing you are on PC you can mod this game to your hearts content. The modding tool is awesome.

But if you like the leveling system from Fallout or Oblivion then you might dislike the system in Skyrim. I don't consider this a real RPG game but an action adventure game mislabled as a RPG game. Just perks, Magicka, Health and Stamina. A lot of us wanted the old system like Oblivion but at least Fallout. We got neither just like I wanted offline single player mode for Diablo III. URGH!

Make sure the patches are applied to your game first before playing it or you might run into more bugs than usual.

Still Skyrim is awesome, the best graphics, a very big world, the game play is fun and there is several ways you can play quest.

If you enjoyed FO3 and FO:NV, I can't imagine you not liking this. Personally, I think Skyrim blows both of them away. But your mileage may vary.

My advice on character creation is to specialize your characters to some degree--once you get a feel for what skills/weapons/spells you think are fun, try to concentrate your perks (which are similar to Fallout's perks) just in those skill trees (maybe four skill trees max), so you can really get to the powerful abilities. Remember, it is impossible to get all the perks with one character, so choose carefully.

And don't be afraid to play with more than one character. I strongly recommend at least three, based on the essential archetypes--mage, warrior, assassin. And even if you don't like replaying games, don't worry: the beauty of Skyrim (and ES generally) is that you don't have to repeat much of the game when you create a new character. You can send each person off to do completely different things, different questlines, explore different dungeons, etc. I mean, you could do everything in Skyrim with one character, but I don't think that's the most rewarding way to approach it. The amount of content is just overwhelming.

And regarding whatever criticisms you've heard...remember, this is the Internet. Skyrim was released to pretty much universal acclaim, but of course you can't please everyone. And pretty much all the people who were not pleased by the game congregate in these forums. So be prepared for that.