I know that. I have often grabbed a seat and shelled out the popcorn because of them.

Skyrim is fine for an sandbox exploration game, but as an RPG its svck, (no im not of those RPyers, who take, imagening of taking a dump, as roleplaying)
For me the game is a middleground for Morrowind (witch i loved) and Oblivion (witch i hated), so generaly i'd say Skyrim is a *fine* game, nothing revolutionary, but enjoyable if one likes that type of gameplay

I will talk about a girl who has 4 older sisters.

As far as her appearance, she looks nice. Not as good as you expected based on her sisters look like in her age, but she is just fine. Not a topmodell, not Ugly Betty either, a little far above average, a typical 7 on the 10 scale. Too bad she hasn't got a remarkable style or really noticeable charisma - so if you're into the externals, you may end up being disappointed. But for the majority of us, her look won't be an issue, believe me - especially knowing she is somewhere at her natural limits already.

Talking about her intelligence, just like above, she is a decent one. Don't expect her to be a master of understanding and sense, but her flaws are not strikingly annoying. You have to take some time to get used to her way of thinking and learn her manners. The problem is, after you find her out, you realize that she lacks depth. Judging from her older sisters too, you expected to be somebody with a deep personality, full of content and own ideas. This is a major letdown. Not saying she is dumb or not interesting for even a longer period, but the perfect word describing her is "shallow". On the surface, a lot of things are okay, although not as varied and original as you would like, overall its correct. But after going deeper, understanding the why's and how's makes you somehow uncomfortable. You are constantly thinking about the wasted potential here, she supposed to be something different, something more than she is now. And even though her natural limits apply here too, this time that's not the only aspect: you ended up blaming her for that shallowness. She should have done more to maximaze her potential, to push it to the aforementioned limits.

Finally, let's say some words about her soul. Despite the things explained before, this aspect could make a girl something special. When she is not a hottie and not a mastermind either, but she has so much soul that you just can't ignore her presence. That could make her shine, showing that eventually she is a great women and excellent person. Well, since almost everybody praised her to the skies, like she would be the next big thing, of course your expectations were high. Knowing her sisters just strengthened that feeling. To make things straight, her sisters wasn't perfect either, but they (especially the two younger one) were beautiful at their time with meaningful personality and characteristic. She can't deny that tradition, no doubt she attended at the same school - but the amount of education she received and learned are not the same. Plus its clear that times have changed, and she is the product of a new enviroment. Being raised by great predecessor doesn't guarantee the same quality time after time. The problem is not that she is not flawless, not that she hasn't got the best genetics, not that she hasn't got a unique style ... but more like the lack of efforts in energy and time to be what she can be. She traded affection for cheapness, personality for popularity, long-lived influence for momentary fame. Its a shame, really.

So, dear fellow members, don't expect a witty, creative and soulful beauty thinking about that her. In reality, she is not that far from that when speaking about characteristic (quality) - but when doing the same about deepness (quantity), it would a major illusion assuming that she can live up to her ancestor's level. If you rate longevity and inner values over living for the day, she could be still a fair choice to you, but don't get fooled by her huge popularity ... It is not because her incredible attributes, but sticking to today's trends and pleasing the massess with the smallest, but still adequate investments possible.

The mainquest when I first did it shocked me on how short it was. It was about the length of the guild quests I was doing for the dark brotherhood and stuff. At least that's how I interpreted it when I realized I was suddenly done with it.

I expected something like 4 times longer for the MQ lol.



And I still dont have dawngaurd so Bethesda you better hurry up. I live right here in Maryland I ain't far from you and I'ma leave an angry note on your door >

Agreed. I played the last three games all in a short interval and didn't notice the colossal differences or the supposed superiority of game X. All had their flaws, they improved, new flaws took their place. I wouldn't be playing these games if they weren't enjoyable.

Marginally better than Morrowind (if you don't include combat then it's marginally worse), and much, much better than Oblivion in my view. Morrowind wasn't as great as people say it was, it had just as many bugs and generic quests. Oblivion was just too airy-fairy happy land for me to take it seriously.

It's average, deeply flawed at the design level, perhaps even slightly mediocre game in my opinion. The enjoyment is largely frontloaded and shallow, though your mileage may vary depending on your tolerance for repetitive tasks. Not nearly as good as some would want you to believe it to be.

Very true. In Oblivion I also saved before taking crazy actions but in Skyrim I make it part of my gameplay to do crazy stuff sometimes and see the effects of the world. My opinion about Skyrim:

+ Great exploration
+ Atmosphere is great, 9 on a scale of 1-10 (although graphics could be better)
+ Some really nice dungeons
+ Perks are awesome
+ Quest overload, you can spend the first 50 hours in Whiterun alone

- Nothing you do affects the world, I can kill a man's family and the next time I see him he will greet me like nothing happened
- Shallow guildline quests compared to predecessors
- Combat still feels akward

I've played all five of the main series this year and all of them were flawed, yet ambitious and enjoyable games. Even when I can get to Battlespire and Redguard,(this is one of the few RPG series I have gotten into where you don't have a million and one different games to find if you want to play all the games. Bethesda, thank you for not releasing Spin-offs as if they are cakes... Pokemon is pretty much the most guilty series of anything involving spin-offs all over.) I will probably feel both are the same way. Battlespire had an interesting multiplayer, which I wish I could try for myself. I know it's possible to try it from DOSbox, just probably difficult.

Now Redguard, I would play just to see what it was like for myself. I feel weird about that one. It'd probably be as hard to get working in DOSbox as I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream was. Look up all the guides on how to get that game running. You'd be amazed just how complicated it was.

TES has always been a flawed series. Flawed doesn't mean bad, though. Just not perfect and maybe more charming because it isn't all squeaky clean. People like Don Bluth's approach to using the voice actors for the characters even during songs even though many of the voice actors didn't have good singing voices. It's something people will find charming. Maybe even more appealing.

For a more well known example, many people will admit that Disney's early 2000's stuff wasn't as good as the 90's stuff. This doesn't mean all of it was bad. The Emperor's New Groove was good for what it was. I can't say much on Dinosaur, but I liked it as a kid. It probably isn't as good. Emperor's New Groove had plenty of issues. So did another effort by Disney that many now just yell, "STARGATE RIPOFF" when it is mentioned. I liked Atlantis The Lost Empire. I don't care what this early 2000's film ripped off. It was fun.

Skyrim's like early 2000's Disney. It has plenty of fun moments, a few good ones, and maybe some ideas that are hit or miss. Like Emperor's New Groove, it's tons of fun and has plenty of things going on. Like Atlantis The Lost Empire, it has many flaws, but they aren't important. The game is just good yet flawed. Even if I didn't use any anologies, that would be my entire opinion. It's not as fun in long bursts for me on most days, sadly. I find Morrowind to be better for those days. I'm just too tired most days... Morrowind has much simpler controls.

That sums it up pretty well. Lots of mixed with lots of

Been playing since Daggerfall. IMHO, IMHO on a par with Morrowind. MW did some things better than Skyrim, Skyrim does some things better than MW. And the only gripe I have is that wolves have replaced Cliff Racers.

Neither of those - in my very humble opinion - were as good as Daggerfall, although the graphics in DF make your eyes water and give you a headache if you play for longer than about an hour The story line and the rich texture of DF still beats anything I have yet encountered.

But I am enjoying Skyrim very much indeed.

Oblivion I didn't enjoy. Played the MQ through once and don't think I have touched it sunce.

Most RPGs end up having a lot of generic fetch/kill quests. The thing with Morrowind is, even the rudimentary fetch quests seemed fairly enjoyable to me because the game didn't hold your hand anywhere near as much as Skyrim. With Skyrim, it's really just a case of following the marker over and over again.

Example journal entries:

Morrowind:

"Edryno Arethi knows that the ship Prelude sunk east of Bal Fell. She believes it lies two or three islands due east of Bal Fell. I must find the Daedric Wakizashi that sunk with that ship and return it to Edryno Arethi."

Skyrim:

"Find Pantea's Flute" - *Magic marker appears showing you the location of Hob's Fall Cave, and upon entering the cave, a magic marker will guide you to the flute's precise location*

There.. there is a game made after that http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Have_No_Mouth,_and_I_Must_Scream by Harlan Ellison?

Its one of my favorite short stories by him!
I must have that game!
I dont care how hard it is to acquire/ get running!

I started on Morrowind, and got to Skyrim via Oblivion.

I think this is the best game in the TES series, so far. I'm not an RP player, so I look at a game more from the point of view of how large is the area; is it linear or can I do what I want, and do quests when I feel like it - in a sequence that I decide upon.

Having been a dedicated WoW player (5 years), I really like dungeons, and the 150 or so dungeons in Skyrim didn't disappoint me. There is one very large dungeon in this game that you only can access from some other dungeons (forgot the name), but it didn't do a lot for me because of the very low number of enemies/fights, but that's not a big problem - just my opinion.

So, wandering around, exploring the outer boundaries and then going inward, finding all kinds of interesting places, doing some quests, doing some dungeons/caves, this game was perfect for me (although it wasn't perfect out off the box). I mostly walked, although later in the game I did a bit more fast-travel - especially since that triggers the arrival of dragons.

I take it you were overseas? Stay safe.

Vietnam Vet 68-69

I have yet to read the short story. Always get sidetracked. I think you can still buy new copies of it, but I could be wrong. Just look around, I guess.

I hope I get lucky

I love Skyrim, warts (and there are a few) and all. Since joining these forums I kept hearing people going on about Oblivion being more immersive etc. So when the chance to get a cheap copy of the GOTY came up I bought it (Xbox). I'm sorry, and call me shallow, but I'm having real trouble getting past the terribly dated graphics. But I will stick with it !! Then I can judge for myself.

After clocking up 560 odd hours already, all i can say is Skyrim is a great game.

It's hard to find a real consensus on these forums because you simply don't know how many people agree with a certain opinion.

- Some people will tell you it's the greatest game ever created.
- Others will say it's the best TES and they'll mention how they have 1000 hours on it or something.
- Then you'll find people who say it's better than Oblivion but worse than Morrowind; from what I read on the forums, this is the most vocal viewpoint (but may not actually be the most popular)
- You'll also find people who say that it's a great game by itself but is a bad TES/RPG game and is worse than both Oblivion and Morrowind.


Here are my personal opinions on Skyrim:

It's on-par with Oblivion but worse than Morrowind. For one thing, the Guilds are not as well done as Morrowind or Oblivion. The guild plot lines have a habit of not making much sense, or railroading the player into making serious choices (for example, or ). The removal of attributes and the addition of perks was, in my opinion, not done very well. Certain perks unbalance the skill system (for example, the heavy armor perk that makes heavy armor weightless when you wear it) and others are completely useless. Quests in general are not too exciting in Skyrim. There are a few good quests, but Oblivion and Morrowind had much much more. Instead you'll be too often sent to some generic dungeon full of Draughr (spelling?), one of the most common enemies in the game, to fetch some item. There's not a whole lot of enemy variety in dungeons; you'll either be fighting Draughr, Necromancers, or Falmer and that's about it. There's a lot of handholding in the game, and the journal system is extremely bland; it might say "Get so-and-so's sword." and expect you to follow a magic quest marker all the way there. Dungeons in this game are very boring in layout; they are just straight lines. You will essentially never have to make a decision to go left or right at an intersection because they don't exist. And then there is literally always a secret passage or something at the end that leads you back to the beginning of the dungeon.

I guess I could continue, but those are just some of the things I can think of off the top of my head that make it much worse than Morrowind as a game.

EDIT: All that said, it is still a fun game to play. Compared to many other games, Skyrim is still well worth the money despite it's failings. It's just that Morrowind is... more worth the money than Skyrim is.

Ooh ooh my turn.

I think it's a good game in and of itself and a valuable addition to the TES canon.
If asked to rank it however I would put it 3rd behind MW and Obv, in that order.

General consensus there isn't one
Personally I'd rate it better than Oblivion but not as good as MW

I to go along the lines of Morrowind > Skyrim > Oblivion.

I don't like how short and meaningless the factions you can join are. Not to mention that you don't even have to have any magical skills to become archmage, ect for other factions. They "streamlined" it too much, just to cater to the lazy people out there. Should have had longer quest lines, and skill requirements to advance like in morrowind. They spent way too much time on the graphics, and not enough on the writing.


edit: grammar