I recently read in a gaming magazine where a reviewer said that Skyrim was brilliant because it is a true rp experience, you can 'live' in skyrim the way you want to - follow the path you want to go down and focus on the talents you want to promote and develop and allegiances you want to forge.

I however find myself having specialised in being a warrior, with developing a few magic skills as well - I am a member of the Companions, Imperials as well as just joining the college of winterhold lol - is this unusual? I've not focused on one set of people, on becoming one particular thing e.g. a mage, a warrior etc

Yeah, I've done many characters who have a broad skill set. I've also done specialist characters. That's the cool thing. You choose how to play.

I played a broader character until I switched to playing on Master difficulty. I found that in Master I had to specialize a lot more to survive.

Yeah, but even on master, I (when I want a challenge) find myself stretching my skill set to be as broad as it can. It's just another layer of challenge if you do it right. Specialization usually occurs when I want it to, and the first few times I did master as a result of the difficulty.

I prefer sneaky mages. Most of my characters have been a mix of stealth and magic skills. There have been a couple of warriors but they were DiD playthroughs and perished early.

To this day I am yet to try a pure anything character.

I think most people play hybrids of some form or another.

Really? To each their own, but I enjoy trying everything. I have tried many different types of hybrids, as well as a pure mage, a pure warrior (I've done both 1 handed with shield, dual wielding 1 handed, I've done 2 handed, and even 1 handed without a shield), and a rogue (which is my least favorite to be honest).