very good post, i fully agree with you!

I tend to see the positive things more then the negative things makes the game much more fun to me.

Always happy to see a positive thread about skyrim.

I must say that I loot everything that has any value whatsoever (usually based on weight/value distrubition for weapons and armor), even food when I have an urge to cook up a tasty dish. Sure, scrolling through my massive inventory can be cumbersome... but I find it far better than any of the other systems to date (speaking of Bethesda games), so I have no reason to complain. It's an improvement, but it's not quite where it needs to be. However, I don't know how they'd make it any better in the console world (wait... Kinect!)

YAY !!! something positive : )

just wanted to add my name to the list, that enjoy Skyrim & think that it's a fantastic game...

Agreed friend. Though whenever anyone makes a thread like this they get trolled until the thread is closed :/

I think I see what you're saying with this. When it comes to alchemy, scrolling through ingredients just to find an ingrediet with a specific effect can be tedious. If I'm reading your comment correctly, you would like to see this streamlined so that you can search by known effects rather than by name.

Easiest way to fix this (on PC) would be to add a search box to the inventory pane so you can type in the first few letters of the item and it jumps directly to it. Particularly useful for navigating your house chest.

I know a lot of these have been said before,
1. The world. It's huge and some of the scenery is just beautiful.
2. Giants. I don't know why I like them so much but there is just something about walking past one in the wild, and it just acknowledging you and going on it's way.
3. The little details. Stuff like ants on logs, and salmon in streams
4.Killcams. I know I'm in the minority here but I love it when it zooms out and shows me killing my opponent in a dramatic way. Especially the sneaking throat slash.
5.Dual wielding. Played Oblivion again and missed this option greatly
6. Shouts. Some of them are just fun to play with
7. Dragons. I have always liked dragons (My favorite DnD book was the Draconomicon 3.5 of course)
8.The Perk system. I liked oblivion but I hated that you only got a useful perk every 25 skill levels. Plus I think it adds to the custom-ability
9. Enemy AI improvements. I know the complaints about killing a bandit with an arrow and his buddy brushing it off as hearing things. I'm talking about how in Morrowind and Oblivion every enemies tactic was: Charge directly at opponent attacking wildly. Get to close to a mage or archer they don't back up they draw a weapon and attack. At least mages in this game back away firing spells.
10.The Dark Brotherhood quest-line.

I got fable 3 this week and within three days it was beaten. It really made me appreciate Skyrim that much more. It was like returning home after a vacation.

Edited to fix a typo

Well, i didn't expect people to like the default UI, but if it works for you, that's great

I'll keep using SkyUI


SkyUI does extactly that. Especially useful when need to find certain potion or poison in the middle of combat. It hasn't yet modified crafting menus though, but those are workable enough as they are.

I'll simply kill the trolls and use their fat to make a potion; which I can do far more easily now thanks to number 3 on my list!

1. Executions

2. Smithing

3. The beautiful enviroment

4. Unarmed B@dassery

5. Cooking, woodcutting, fishing (the little things make it all better)

6. Necromancy

7. Shouts

8. The Mystery of the Dragon Masks (and the ultimate mask is so b@dass)

9. Random Encounters

10. Footslogging is enjoyable in this game as opposed to so many others where it is a chore

Thank you for this thread, TC. I'm so tired of people constantly talking down to this game. You listed things for good reasons instead of "it was in oblivion, put it in skyrim". You know the main focus: the future. To me, in a lot of respects, that's what these games are all about. Sure, you want to make a good, solid, fun game but at the end of the day, you want to IMPROVE your game overall so future games can be even better. They did so so many things right which is why I think it's easy for people to see the faults because they stand out so much.

Beautiful game.

And Bethesda, never quit making games.

Great with a positive thread for once! Skyrim is a great game.

1. Dual wielding (not entirely true dual wielding, you're not meant to use a sword in your left hand only but still)
2. Great world design!
3. Magic system (I can even forgive them for removing spellmaking)
4. Real-time dialogue.
5. Fun dungeons
6. The voice actors! My favourites are Christopher Plummer and Max von Sydow
7. The music!
8. Free leveling without classes and attributes
9. Dragons and Shouts
10. The mod community

I love practically everything about the game, but for the purpose of this thread:

1- Vast, immersive, incredibly detailed and living world. I have played the game for over 240 hours in the span of three characters so far and I STILL keep getting amazed over the world design.

2- The graphics and aesthetics of the game are fantastic. Be it by night or by day in the open world or deep within a dungeon every single element that you see at any time on the screen feels right in place and blends naturally with the rest of the scene. Same with the color palette of all the areas. Characters, houses, rivers, plants, animals up to your own character, everything feels in harmony with everything else, very much like a masterful painting would.

3- The music and sound design. This is also part of the second point but worth mentioning separately. The soundtrack is spectacular and sound effects from swords, spells, creatures and the environment are all very well done and complement the world nicely. The voice acting is also very nice, specially when it comes to the uniquely voiced NPCs.

4- Very powerful and immersive experience. This is very much to what the previous three points naturally lead to. I literally get lost when playing the game, it's world and everything within it is so alive that I forget myself within it.

5- The freedom and incentive to explore. Such an amazing world as the one this game has literally begs for your to explore every corner of it and with the vast number of locations there are to discover and visit along with all the quests you can pick up from any area of the world, the game gives you a huge incentive to explore by leaving it up to you to forge your own path and play at your own peace. You don't want to do he main quest now? No problem, you can come back to it 100 hours and 80 quests later. Want to do the civil war first and then the main quest or vice-versa? You can. Want to become a vampire and then join the Dark Brotherhood right after you get out of Helgen and then get on with the main quest? You can. Want to ignore the main quest and play a character who is not a Dragonborn? You can. The game allows you to choose practically any path you want, you can do things in any order you want and you will still have a blast with it.

6- Leveling system. Definitely one of the best I've seen in any RPG. Instead of experience being a set number of points you win after defeating an enemy or completing a quest, you gain experience in the things that you actually do. Every swing you do, every spell you cast, every item you craft, etc all is constantly adding to your experience on this areas. This allows for a very natural way for your character to improve and gain levels, letting you feel as your character gets stronger and more proficient in the things you choose to specialize it in. The perks system along with the level cap also forces you to think and make decisions on how you want to develop your character and allows for a very diverse number of ways to make characters that are unique and with different specialities.

7- Creafting, Enhanting and Alchemy. Makes for a far more interesting way of obtaining weapons, armors and potions than just buying them from a store or finding them in a chest on a dungeon. This also opens up a huge window for role playing many different characters.

8- Incredibly huge replay value. Given the great freedom you have both in exploring the world and the order in which you can do the quests, and the huge variety of charters you can make and role play thanks to the leveling system, the factions you can join or not, along with the crafting / enchanting and alchemy skills, the game is guaranteed to give you hundreds upon hundreds of hours of playtime before you get bored with it.

9- NPCs They really feel alive, as persons who actually live and work in the area they are found in. They have personalities and will sometimes just engage in conversations of their own which you can overhear to either get a quest or a new location on the map. They often give appropriate reactions to many of the things the player does. For example, sneaking behind an NPC may prompt her to say "don't even think about it" or if you try to open the door to their house while it is locked they may tell you "it is locked for a reason". They also make general comments about themselves and what they do, something that paints them as something more than mere automations, as persons that have a backstory and a life.

10- The UI. Very easy and intuitive to use. The way in which the menu is set so that you can access each option by pointing in any direction with the keypad is excellent and the whole minimalistic and modern design is rather refreshing too. Same goes for the dialogue boxes, which are very simple and non-intrusive.

Honorable mentions:

The lore/culture of the game: It is really deep and detailed, lots of work was clearly put into it and it is all very well done.

The dragons: They are very fun to fight and the music is epic. The fact that they are so random in their actions makes every dragon encounter interesting.

Archery: Fantastically done.

I agree also with many of the other things that have been mentioned and would mention many more myself but these are the main ones for me.

Nice thread by the way, Skyrim is totally amazing in every aspect and truly deserving of all the praise and accolades it gets. Hands down my favorite game ever.

I loot constantly.

I love the UI. Huge improvement over the UI's of the past.

Skyrim UI
modern out of touch with the theme of the game, fails at categorizing and displaying information effectively unless you highlight every single item. isn't reactive and ignores the mouse not to mention dozens of subsections for inane reasons (imo)

Morrowind UI
Customizable, can arrange, rearrange, re size and replace elements you care about. you don't have to stick with the default cumbersome look of the UI (without mods) as well as item accessibility on the fly and fully 360 real time model of player i inventory screen and with a glance of the mouse -without- highlighting said item you can see all the relevant stats and information. did I mention if you want you can see dozens upon dozens of items at once depending on how you set it up? instead of the inane scrolling if you are so unlucky to be a hoard monsta?

of course thats my opinion, a simple on le contrary about "improvement" its a stripped down version of Oblivions with the items taking place of the player char in 360 view ;p and lots of pretty effects that amount to jack squat when you start thinking about it ;p

i add the killcams to my list. i love the new magic killcams, and they compliment my character's personality perfectly

Omega the "fully 360" model was only in Oblivion. Morrowind's was 2d and you couldn't rotate the PC avatar

The main thing I see lacking in the inventory is the ability to sort each individual category by weight. Too many times I am trying to reduce my carry weight and I have some heavy stuff I accidently picked up and it is really hard to find it given the size of the inventory. Also, the fact that there is no way to organize the contents of chests makes keeping your house organized a pain. Of course, a bigger issue with houses is the bug that throws all your stuff on the floor.

DOH

Quoted for truth! I met one today at a Stormcloak camp near Solitude, and when me and the Stormcloaks got it to land, it did things I've never seen a dragon actually do in-game before! When a soldier hacked at its side, it turned its head and roared at him, and flapped its wings to knock down the flanking soldiers. Then it nearly swallowed another one and threw her into the mountain wall. When taking off, it grabbed another guy with its claws and dropped him down a gorge. When landing again, it swept its tail and knocked back several men as well as at least one horse. Terrific! I was near "death" several times.

1. Graphics
2. Graphics
3. Graphics
4. Graphics
5. Graphics
6. Graphics
7. Graphics
8. Graphics
9. Graphics
10. Music

Thank you for making this thread! bethesda poured their heart and soul into making an amazing game, but people always have to find reasons to complain

I play on console and I don't like the UI in Skyrim I dislike that constellation thing for perks it's just a mess, and I don't know if this counts towards UI but I really dislike only being able to hotkey 2 spells for my mage, in morrowind you could cycle through them all without pausing and oblivion had like 8 that you could hotkey.

you do realize this thread is titled 10 things i love about skyrim right? Not the place for dislike