I've found out that the game just fails to surprise me. There isn't enough variety and randomness in monsters, character behavior, loot, quests etc. Add to that that quests are too linear and the game world is too static and doesn't react to events and your character properly.

At first I didn't even like Skyrim very much until:
- I disabled Compass to make exploring more exciting. I wanted to find things myself by spotting them with my eyes. Also following an arrow without brain use is mind-numbing.
- I started to roleplay my character properly. Doing quests wasn't rewarding if there wasn't a good enough reason for my character to do a quest.

I'm waiting for mods to add more variety and randomness to the game world so something that truly surprises me could happen. Hopefully mods can add more roleplay options to the game too.

You dont need an expensive computer to run Skyrim on consoles graphics and flow,
300-400$ / 250-350euro can easily get you to medium/high settings, and you could just force the fps to 30 as well..

Unoffical Oblivion Patch solved over 1000 bugs Bethesda did not care about..
"Unofficial Official Mods Patch are major mods by Quarn and Kivan that fix over 1,800 bugs (and 70,000 object placement errors)"


They are considering making it a possibility, they are not working on it.


Funny thing is, for every generation of consoles, they step a bit closer to the PC..
DVD,Bluray,webcams,microphones,motionsensors,
There are some rare consoles out there that even got a webrowser you could use.

Plus, games are always 30-40% cheaper on PC.. hardcoegaming on PC will make your wallet happy, while softcoe consolegaming will as well..

Cheap console, expensive games.
expensive pc, cheap games. plus, PC is backwards ccompatible with games older than 15 years

I don't get these types of threads. It is JUST A GAME. There are hits and misses with personal taste. Just because you liked MW or Oblivion doesn't mean you will love every second of Skyrim. Good grief people, get a grip on reality and realize that this is just a video game series, not the book of life and death at the feet of Jesus Christ.

If you don't like it stop playing it.

That's true enough. I keep saying that... maybe not as harshly, but still. And there's only so much you can expect from a game. It's not the Matrix.. some simulated world replacement and answer for all of life's deepest yearnings, that can't be satisfied elsewhere. Just a game.

I don't really think people are expecting that, and there is no evidence that anyone even said that, so it is pointless to argue against people that don't exsist.

I really love the game, but it is weak in the areas of characterisation and compelling story hooks.

There aren't really any fleshed out characters you care about.
The story also lacks in mysteries to unravel or much of a sense of a worsening crisis. The concept of dragon attacks on cities sounds good on paper, but without any army of brutal, monstrous footsoldiers (like DragonAge:Origins or even the hordes of daedra pouring into Kvatch in Oblivion) they come across as more of a nuisance threat which can all be taken care of by a lone hero.

I think this thread captures my feeling quite well.

I clocked, what, forty hours before I stopped playing Skyrim. I couldn't stand it; everything just felt so hollow and two-dimesional. There's a variety of things that probably contribute to that, but I really point my finger at the writing. The reason is that when I stopped playing Skyrim, I went back and played New Vegas and was having a ball. And the only thing New Vegas has over Skyrim is really in its writing. The quests aren't even really anymore innovative in design, but the story behind it and the dialogue relating to it, with its multiple branches, skill checks and the like, coupled with consequences for what you do, makes the game come to life.

I think Skyrim also suffers from a bit of been there, done that. There's just not a whole lot distinguishing it from Oblivion, we've gained a bit and lost a bit in terms of content, but there's nothing revolutionary about it. Which of course only really highlights the weaknesses of the writing. Meanwhile, I can still play Nehrim because the story is engaging and interesting (if linear), and about twenty hours into Skyrim took a break to do so for a day in order to finish the main quest (something about that games world always felt a bit different to me as well, but I've never been able to quite put my finger on what).

Maybe mods and DLC will change things, but fon now, I'm finding Skyrim a seriously meh game.

I agree with the OP. The only reason I clocked in at +/- 300 hours is because I kept searching for immersion and interesting stuff to do but alas, nothing to be found.

I can't play skyrim for more than an hour at a time anymore.

The stagnation is getting awfully close to grinding in an mmo / and or dragon age 2

Lol Dragon Age 2 gee Skyrim is no where near as bad as Dragon Age 2.Mind you at least Dragon Age 2 had some interesting side characters to some extend Varric.

To the OP. I'm right there with you almost word for word. I just can't get into it like i could morrowind or oblivion. I dont know what changed or what they did but it frustrates me...I love Bethesda and I love TES but all my friends have lost interest and (I can't even believe I'm saying this) but I am starting to to. I don't know how Bethesda can change but I know that they really do love the games they make so I hope they learn from this mistake and create a game changing DLC that will bring the magic back.

I think the reason this game loses so much interest after comparatively short while is the lack of role playing. I know the whole do what you want to do thing sounds great on paper but to take away stats takes away a lot of who I am. To take away class also really limits who you want to be the fact you can be one thing and then another now really ruins the fun of it all. Being that you can only use what you got made the game more challenging and fun. When i made my own classes i could roleplay that class but i just simple can't anymore I don't know who I am and I don't know what I'm suppose to do. I think what you should have done is have some sort of a title system for the skills you get good at like say you master restoration you get the Savior title which other characters will recognize and respond to or say you master or get good at one handed weapons, restoration, and heavy armor, you get the Paladin title. You see what i'm saying?. In this game I feel like nobody knows who you even are no one seems excited to meet the freaking hero of skyrim you know what i mean? No one even really recognizes you as the dragonborn expect a select few.

You don't even get a good prize for killing Alduin. I mean a shout? Really? In oblivion you got imperial dragon armor WHICH LOOKED AMAZING! In my opinion they should have given you a sword made of Alduins bones or something cool like that. Also thats another thing. The reward system in this game bugs the hell out of me there are VERY few TRULY unique weapons and armor in this game (and what i mean by that is not many items have very unique skins most weapons look alike and the most over used weapon skin was the ancient nord weapons) and the ONLY sword I liked the look of was Dawnbreaker but you killed me on the look of the daedric and ebony weapons they were just plane ugly. I'm not a pirate im not a ninja don't give me those ugly curved skimitars and katanas. I'm a knight give me a damn straight longsword.

And as many people stated above the story was lacking and the radiant quests are boring. There were no characters i grew attached to, or on the other side I never felt a very big connection to Alduin, I couldn't hate him like i could the mythic dawn or Mehrunes Dagon or Mankar Camoran, the Blades seemed like total D-bags in this game to, like how they were simply obsessed with killing all dragons and wouldn't help you if you didn't kill Parthanox. And there are no good guys in this game Dark Brotherhood = evil, Theives guild= bad, Companion=more on the good side but more neutral than anything because of the fact they pay you to beat people up, Imperials= neutral, Stormcloaks= neutral, Colledge= also more on the good side but still very much more neutral than anything because of necromancy and all. Where are the good guys? May be you'll create a dlc like the Knights of the Nine or bring them back altogether because those guys were at least a straight shooting bunch.

Thats another thing, the fact you have no morality bar. Like what RPG has no freaking morality bar? I want my choices to have consequences and the choice to be good or evil. I also want to have people to react to me being good or evil not act like they don't care. It bugs me. I'm sure I could go on and on but honestly I could talk about the good things about this game as well but in the end the good is cut short of the bad. I hope you listen to me and i'm sorry if i come off harsh but the only way to learn from mistakes is to first know you made them, second try and change them.

I found myself Skyrimed out in the first week. I have just played too much TES games and RPGS in general. Actually just video games in general. Go get another hobby, it will always be there.

ouch!!
He's probably all we have --- talk to marketing. ..........and try understand who this is made for.
You should be 13 - young 20s and play all your games on xbox.

This is the root of the problem, however I think that the difference in sales and critical acclaim between Morrowind and Oblivion speaks for itself. The TES series, despite being completely different and not really that accesible, was becoming mainstream by making fans rather than changing the series. With Skyrim they changed the game, with Morrowind they changed the public so to speak.
It's interesting that Arena and Daggerfall were so brutal and out of left field even though they were made at a time when Bethesda actually needed the money to survive as a company, but Skyrim which was made to be accesible and more similar to other games already on the market was released when they were one of the biggest gaming companies in the world.

Well I do play most games on my XBox right now, but not because of wanting to but because of nessecity. There are no games on the PC that inspire me to play them on the PC. However, my age is quite older than young 20's, will be 41 next week.

I do understand who the new audience is and that is the problem. That problem stems from another problem, the leadership of TES. Todd Howard needs to be replaced and until he is we will never get a decent TES RPG again.

Yea me too. 359 as from last night 2nd char...Nord, blacksmith.one arm.light armour..compleated as a Mage, but this char is a new game..so..coool
out of interest any one els mounted a dragon and made the DEATH blow whilst on his neck...3 out 4 for me..Icant fault this game and will be playing it for months..

Having never played a TES game before I was initially taken aback by Skyrim. Beautiful, full of interactivity, endless play-style possibilities and total freedom make for one seriously deep game. I played several characters, probably around 80+ hours and then suddenly dropped the game, trading it in for MW3. For the record haven't play a MW game since the original WWII edition on the PC or any FPS title since, except Portal 1 and 2. I digress...

I read the anology that Skyrim is a toolkit rather than a game. Your experience is dependent on your imagination and your ability to role-play. But repetition and game glitches can greatly break the sense of being your character and that's the point that made me leave Skyrim for good.

• "Some may call this trash. Me, I call it treas--" Yeah, yeah, don't you remember you already told me that?
  
• "If only someone would help my poor son." - Madam Greymane-- I will! Just tell me what you want me to do! Oh, I see. You're bugged and the quest ends here, I guess.
  
• "I'm not the best blacksmith in---" Yes, I know Jorland Greymane holds that distinction-blah, blah. Why are you telling me that? Why don't you just great me with, 'Hey, you again' or something?
  
• Look! Time slows when I hold my shield up and I can kill everything now effortlessly with this enchanted, crafted sword and shield. That seems a bit too powerful though, why is there no match for me in all of Skyrim? I mean, I'm not the only one that can craft and enchant.
  
• So, I can cast all my magic for free?
  
• I'm a Master Pickpocket and Lock Picker! Everything kills me in one hit.
  
• Arnold, is that you, governor?
  
• I killed a dragon and no one cares. I killed a chicken and everyone cares.

For all that Skyrim does is undoes with its repetition, broken quests, robotic NPC's, flawed crafting system, and poorly implemented non-combat skill trees. You get stroked the wrong way too many times by these little things and after a while give up. By comparison I get a great sense of immersion playing MW3's heavily-scripted campaign. Then I wait until I forget the missions and play them again. It's like a good action movie.

The way the gaming trend is going I doubt you will see a decent TES game ever again, at least not as they were, and I'm sure Todd Howard staying or leaving Bethesda will have absolutely no effect on what they are doing. If he had his way I bet Skyrim would still be under development for the next year or more.
The game is pretty damn good as is but very obvious that it's the marketing/money men that decided when it should be released and on what platform and age group it should be developed for, not TH.

Right they cutted always more thing from daggerfall to skyrim where they cutted totally the magic and something else without adding nothing of good.

You completely misread and misunderstood that, it isn't even saying Skyrim is bad.

Daggerfall added an original story, tons of lore and more stable mechanics to a pretty basic dungeon crawler, Morrowind made the game hand-crafted and added handmade quests, Oblivion added better animations, made the combat fun and responsive and made magic more viable.

Skyrim is good, but it plays it safe. It doesn't stray off what has already been popular in either TES or the wider genre (ie. magic) and it doesn't really change up the gameplay all that much.

As I said before, It doesn't revolutionize the game the same way Daggerfall, Morrowind and even Oblivion did.
It includes a lot of things that were good in previous games or other games, but it isn't as new, fresh and exciting as Oblivion, Morrowind and Daggerfall.

Sarcasm is the lowest form of wit, and is even worse when it takes things out of context to try and 'zing' people.

You need a label in order to roleplay, others don′t...that′s why some people like classic D&D style role-playing games and others like more free-form roleplaying. With Bethesda′s, explore-the-world-in-any-way-and-order-you-want it makes more sense to cut class restrictions out of the game than having them. And people make random comments depending on your skill levels. As for being recognized for the dragonborn achievements, the bards haven′t actually had the time to write all the hymns and spread the word of the dragonborn yet, you expect people to simply know everything you have done by premonition?


So you would feel more immersed if your choices was reflected on a two-dimensional good vs. evil scale. Why does a rpg need a morality bar? I like that Skyrim reflects the complexity of the world and morals by not making everything two-dimensional. An assassin can be helping the world towards the greater good and a knight may be defending a system of oppression and corruption, it′s not all black and white.

Average Xbox gamer is older than 20. Average buyer that purchases Mature rated games is age 30 something. Xbox has a big core of gamers who migrated from PC with original Xbox and still support the platform.

It makes more sense to be recognized for deeds than for skill ratings. How do the guards know your skill just went over 30 anyway lol? To be fair, after certain quests they do talk about stuff that you have done. Honestly I would prefer less ESP from the NPC's and maybe they could just say something normal like "Good day".

Come on, you *got to be* kidding, right? So you spent 300 hours looking at waterfalls and plants?

That's because you're jaded. You've played these games for a long time. Daggerfall was released in 1996, IIRC. 15 years is a lot of time. We change, the gaming world changes too.

A young gamer who never played any Elder Scrolls game will probably pick up Skyrim and be absolutely fascinated, the same way I was fascinated when I played Oblivion for the first time, having never played the previous games.

This young gamer will find Skyrim "new, fresh and exciting". And you know where he/she is? I don't know, but I assure you he/she is not here on the forums.