Dear Bethesda and forum,

I bought the PS3 version of Skyrim when it came out on Friday. Overall, I have to say that I'm thoroughly impressed with the game. Bethesda really outdid themselves on this one. I do, however, have some issues to address.

To begin with, the graphics. Now I have seen comparisons between consoles on these so called "gaming" sites that claim to be free from any bias and I would like to take this time to call bullsh*t on them. You're never going to find a completely neutral source concerning the issue of which platform looks better. This is simply due to the fact that there are too many variables involved: the settings of the consoles (i.e., if the full RGB setting on the PS3 is turned on or not), whether the displays are calibrated the same way, and of course the source's own preferences to name a few. I'm not playing my game through a magnifying glass but on my correctly calibrated TV with the PS3's super white and full RGB settings turned on, the visuals do not look as washed out as some comparison images have suggested. The reason why I bring this up is because I've seen posts on this forum claiming that the PS3 version is "unacceptably inferior" in the graphics department relative to that of the Xbox. Those people need to shut up and stop whining! The game looks nearly identical on both consoles. There are more serious problems at hand to consider.

That brings me to my next point. That is, the PS3 version is critically flawed! I have played a little over 18 hours and my save file is slightly over 6 MB in size. At first, everything was just dandy. Now, however, there are massive slowdowns and too many random freezes to make the game enjoyable to play. It is not "unplayable" as some of the more passionate players on this forum have claimed but it is annoying. So annoying that I haven't played the game for about two days now. The reason why I bring this up is because some people are saying that this isn't a real issue. Oh I can assure you it is! What bothers me is that there are people coming to this site and replying to our problems with statements such as, "I'm level 21 and have not experienced any lag." Really? So what, we're all lying? Then get the hell out of this forum if you're not experiencing any problems! This is a clear issue that Bethesda needs to recognize and fix. Especially considering their history with buggy games. I know 5 people aside from myself who bought the PS3 version and all of them have reported experiencing some degree of lag as they progressed through the game. I have taken way too many statistics courses to attribute these observations to mere chance. Point is, there is a definite problem! If you keep pretending that everything is okay, you take away the incentive for Bethesda to work faster to release a patch.

So now I will end this with the following words: Bethesda, please fix the damn problem so that we can enjoy the game! It is not acceptable that I paid $60 for something that was promised to be bug free. This is a classic example of false advertisemant and carelessness on your part. If you guys had spent your time on the PS3 version and meticulously played through it like I'm sure you did with the Xbox and PC versions, you would have discovered this fairly obvious lag problem.

Regards,

Pissed Off Fan

I agree. This is NOT ok, and we DO need to express our feelings as much as possible.

Report the issue directly to their technical service email. Post threads. Post posts. PM the Bethesda forum employees with your concerns. Pester Pete's Twitter account. Tell your friends on facebook, on Twitter, and in real life. Spread news of this issue to other gaming sites. Report it to the journalists. Do everything you can to be as loud and critical of the issue as possible.

@picachuichooseyou
Regarding the gaming sites that make comparisons.
I believe they are biased towards the xbox. MS is pushing a lot of advertising money to the gaming press.
However the gamma differences between the two consoles are very real. By setting HDMI to full you are only crushing your black levels to the point that you lose detail on anything dark. This setting is meant to be used when you connect the PS3 to a monitor that can display the full color scale of 0-255. Most high definition TVs don't. By enabling it and compensating with high brightness contrast you are not improving the image, you just think that you do. Superwhite does nothing to videogames, it is there for DVD/BD playback only. Inform yourself.

So far I have no "lagging" problems. Am I lying?
Do I have a reason to? Am I pretending?
I understand that the problem is very real to some people and I have considered the possibility that I will probably be affected by it at some point. Since I haven't yet, I'm saying so. Bethesda are definitely aware of any game breaking problems such as this and my view will not stop them from fixing them if they intend to, trust me!