so got this game yesterday love it too busy looking at the detail and my surroundings to care what the people in the cart were saying was only half listening

thought was awesome when i saw the Salmon fishies were swimming up the water fall

and then there was all the mammoth bones laying about and fallen branches

The incredible distance views, the sound of the water and the wind, how pretty and realistic that river was... I was pretty stunned.

I also noticed how good looking all the men are!

I noticed I died a lot, usually in pretty surroundings.

180+ hours in, and to be honest I don't remember. THere's just so much to see.

The lack of painfully cheerful Orcs. That really annoyed the heck out of me in Oblivion.

I noticed this dragon that swooped down on Helgen.

i was just astonished by graphics

I definitely noticed it reminded me of the feel of Fallout 3 as much as Oblivion, but in my opinion, that is in no way a bad thing. Harsh, grimy, cold, frightening, but still in it's own way beautiful.

I remember the moment I got out of Helgen. The nature, the beauty, the immense views, ...

Then I waded in the river and experienced the force of the current as I was trying to move. They had actually implemented the force of the river current. At that moment I knew this was going to be a great game.

I noticed my tea had gone cold...

the way scripted events didnt feel scripted, you can tell a little bit that they are, but its not like other games where it feels like they dont even know you are there.

the first time I was told to get out of the cart, I actually tried to walk forward, and thought I did, and after seeing the thief run, I didnt dare to move until I was told to do so.
it wasn't until my third character that I found out that your character would move on its own

+1

I loved the view from the platform with Guardian Stones, an island on the river in the sunset. I noticed the old lady in Riverwood (Sven's mother) talking about dragons. I noticed butterflies on the road to Whiterun, then jumped into the stream behind Honningbrew Meadery and started catching salmon. I felt like a little child seeing the open world for the first time.

No problem in playing all races,

and the dunmer are truly dunmer and not some kind of sub smurf race ...

Trough I don't like the voice acting of the dunmer ....

I noticed ants on a Riverwood on a tree stump. I've searched high and low since then and haven't seen a single ant anywhere else in Skyrim.

I remember noticing how my eyes adjusted to the light. It was very cool...LOVE THIS GAME.

I noticed a lot of impressive details in the first 3 hours or so.

The most impressive was probably that the waters in streams have current. And not just for your character. Other things get washed downstream.

The terrible camera movement that took some time getting used to.

The first thing I noticed and I almost teared up... the mountains and their shear cliffs wrapped in clouds with the sun coming peering through them. I grew up in Germany when I was younger, have been back three times since 89, visited the Berchtesgaden area, and miss it immensely.

There's snow everywhere and every freakin' armour leaves the neck, arms and legs free. And those giants are nasty, realy nasty.

Somebody should do SOMEthing about all these marauding wolfpacks.

And later, why is everyone staring at me??!

What really blows me away long term are the distance views. My hardware forces me to run at the lowest possible settings and I can still see clouds and mountains and tree(ish) shapes waaaaaaay off in the distance. Seems an impressive coding achievement to make that possible while still running at acceptable fps on an old laptop like mine.

I noticed my coffee were cold, I haven't lit any cigarettes for 3 hours, and damn! it 3.00 in the morning

How much more action-packed (and shorter) the tutorial was. The cave environments with running water (still one of my favorite features). Giant spiders (yay!).The trees and undergrowth, which are about 10x as realistic as Oblivion's.

The first play-through I followed Ralof to Riverwood and we talked to Gerdur. The timing was perfect: evening was turning into darkness and we stood around under a tree talking about the civial war in hushed voices. That one moment was better than anything Oblivion's main quest had to offer, though a lot of it had to do with the timing.

Then climbing the mountains and seeing Bleak Falls Barrow the first time in the middle of a snow storm. Pretty sure that was the most epic moment in the game for me: sound and visuals worked together perfectly to create awe and mystery. Far better art direction than anything Oblivion had to offer. Oblivion always feels like a game. Skyrim occassionally approaches the cinematic, which is impressive in an open world environment. Skyrim may not be terribly deep, but its art direction is top notch.

I don't get any water sounds, 80% of the time. ):

Magnificant art direction. It reminds me so much about my first time playing Fallout 3. The dark colors that change based on where you are and set the mood ever so perfectly. I especially love the lighting for Markarth and Riften. So beautiful and so seemingly deadly.

That I could pick up torches up from walls... I was smashing people with torches afterwards, classic