They feel too crowded, construction-wise, while being fairly empty, population-wise. While I enjoy the design that went into some of the cities (like Markarth), I feel more like I'm walking through hallways rather than streets. Balmora's riverway was pretty spacious, along with the streets and courtyards between various buildings. Skyrim's cities, on the other hand, feel like someone took the roof off of some Vivec cantons. Cramped pathways and smallish squares.

Granted, I've not seen all cities yet (I think), and I haven't fully explored a few of them yet, but to be honest I do recognize the OP. I preferred Oblivion scale cities to Skyrim's. It seems overall people seem to like it though, and I do admit it seems to suit the province of Skyrim well. Adds to the story of the area. It's just that personally I prefer green forests and big(ger) cities over snowy mountains and small wooden towns. However, role-play makes up for a lot of it, I just do with what Bethesda gave me, and the game is still great.

I guess it's just that in Morrowind and Oblivion going to a city felt more like what shopping must feel like for a woman. The bigger the city, the more time to get to know it, find new things, explore, talk to people, etc.

Scale doesn't = beauty...

The snow blowing in your face whilst it's dark and dreary. I though it was awesome.

Lol, good one. Good joke.

That doesn't really seem to be much in Winterhold's means. That's just the coastline. You can get the same effect from any of the northern reaches.

I don't like the layout of Markarth and i dislike how empty Winterhold is (Yes, I know there's a reason for that). But all the rest of them i really like. Whiterun, Riften and Riverwood (I know it's a town) more than the others.

Honestly I would prefer an Elder Scrolls game on a larger scale, but in a smaller area of the map (like just a section of Skyrim). I don't really give a damn if we see the whole province if it means that cities and towns (sometimes only have 2 friggin homes, a shop, a mill, and a jarls house) will be small and underwhelming.

I would love to see an ES game that had maybe 2 major cities, and 5 towns but still be the same playable area as Skyrim. That way cities could actually be somewhat believable.

I miss my Balmora, and Caldera, and VIVEC!

Most of Winterhold was destroyed at some point (after the eruption in Morrowind I think), so there's not supposed to be much left anyways.

I love the cities so far. Haven't seen them all, but Solitude....wow. That's a fantasy city to me, perched on that arch. Great imagination and beautifully rendered. I took screenshots to use as My PC wallpaper. The others I've seen evoke different impressions, but all good so far. They feel "right" to me for this game.

See, I was very excited to see Solitude coming up from the east. It looked fantastic. Inside, though, it was underwhelming to me. I was hoping for waterways and sewer entrances to a lot of these cities but I've not found any so far.

I like them all in their own way however many of them I wouldnt class as city size but instead I would see as townsize

Every single building has scripted NPC's with quests and voice acting to go with it. So unless you wanted them to start putting in redundant/empty buildings all over the place I don't know how you could expect the cities to be bigger, pretty amazing what they did really.

That being said... Can't wait for some mods to come out that make the cities bigger and put more people in them.

The architecture and design is mavolouse, but the size and population is a joke.

The cities look good especially from the outside, but on the inside it's a cluster [censored], I mean Whiterun had the typical Nordic feel with architecture but the market area (3 stalls and a inn and the alchemist shop) felt almost claustrophobic. I think it's less with the actual size of the places and more of the layout they aren't very straightforward and go in a roundabout manner

Well, I like most of them, but especially Markarth is amazing. Reminds me of Vergen though.

I like the cities I'VE been too. Seriously I spend so much time in Whiterun, Solitude and Windhelm that I just can't go to any of the others. At least be happy that every city doesn't look the same, like Oblivion.

The population in cities/taverns is a joke. THe first villaige in The Witchers has more population then several Skyrim cities....

I blame old console tech. Sad how they keep holding progress back and beth keeps pedandering to the lowest common denominator.

The cities themselves are OK, the lack of life, atmosphere people is an immersion killer.

Yeah I understand that Winterhold was destroyed prior to the game, but it's about as big as a village and I can get the same effects of snow blowing in my face just by walking in the northern part of Skyrim. I'm not really trying to be critical, but I don't really find anything special about Winterhold.

The architecture is amazing the city sizes are terrible. They are so tiny I wish they was bigger than they are.

lol yeah, little hay huts.reminds me of horde houses in WoW.

cities have great design but are too small. i mean, huge walls, a castle, a jarl, for what? 20 ppl?

Considering this forum I'd say you can't really make anyone happy.

If you compare Skyrim's cities unfavorably with Oblivion, I fear for you.