I realize there are many other posts, just like the one I'm writing, but they're actually interesting to read, what people like, what people don't like, things they've come across. A bit about me - I'm a software developer by trade, but this game has actually started me down another road to travel. I'm a dude, 29 years old. I don't really play games that much, this is a personal record for me. Did play Fallout 3, but never finished it, just got bored of it after a while. I'm playing Skyrim on a half beefy laptop, so PC player (with 360 controller).

I did comment on another post - I'm at a point where I'm a little bit worn out, not bored, but not playing Skyrim so much. Although I've completed many quests, still not at a point where I've explored everything.

This is a bit spoilerish, I'll try and keep things to a minimum though!

- Things I like -

The Dragons
They're awesome. The way they fly, how they breath fire/frost. Very awesome.

The Weather
I loved the day/night cycle in Fallout 3, but the weather system in Skyrim is just unreal. To see gradual weather changes, blizzards, rain, fogginess. Very, very cool.

The Scenery
I don't think the engine is the most technically brilliant engine out there, but I've never played a game so immersive. Immersive enough for me to write this post. And the fact it plays on a laptop with no problems is very impressive.

The Exploration
I love exploring, both in real life and in games. Seeing new places is always very cool. At first, I preferred roaming over the land in the game rather than going into dungeons, I do like coming across the odd inn or town. I do think though the map size could have been made bigger. After a while though I just started using fast travel a lot because I didn't feel there was any real incentive to keep walking everywhere.

Beast mode
Very cool. Especially if you're in the Dark Brotherhood.

Communication
Talking to people is a billion times better in this than Fallout 3. Probably the improved engine, but I like not looking at someone full on when having a conversation. I also like how people react to what you've done. (ie. Hail Sithis).

- Things which got me a bit annoyed -

A certain quest from the Blades
The quest given by the Blades after they found out about the leader of the Greybeards. I didn't like the quest and didn't do it. Won't say too much more. This isn't a direct quote, but essentially when you've overcome something bad in your life, you're generally better off afterwards. Bit like with Darth Vader - he was evil (in the original trilogy) but he overcomes that evil nature at the end. Obviously that's a spoiler for Star Wars, but I'm just going to assume people have actually seen that.

The story
I reckon the story was awesome, but it took a while to get my head around. It's not as straight forward as good vs. evil in some parts. Once you understand it, does make sense. Never figured out why Ulfric hated the Imperials so much though. If they killed is family or something like it, would make a bit more sense.

Quest items
Could never drop them. Sometimes I don't like carrying things which take a huge amount of space! Can understand why you couldn't drop them, but maybe just have a visual indicator on objects (in the items screen) that are quest related? Instead of having to forcefully carry around everything.

Having to experiment with ingredients
I guess this is actually part of the game, but having to try ingredients to find all the potions got annoying. With all of the books in the game, is there not a recipe book which would just give you the potion ingredients?

No Liam Neeson
I reckon that guy made a huge part of Fallout 3. It was really cool hearing his voice. Obviously there are some good actors and actresses in this, but they're not really the same as Liam Neeson. Maybe after seeing him in that Taken movie, then having him as Dad in Fallout 3 just made it cool. Which brings me to another point...

No characters I really liked (except one)
Might be just me, but I didn't find any characters I really liked or had sympathy for. Except for Alduins brother. I thought that dude was cool. And also the one with that quest in Dragonsreach. I thought that part of the game was just awesome.

No weapon degradation
This is half a good thing, half a bad thing. I've never played New Vegas, but I did read about that hardcoe mode. I reckon something like that would be awesome in Skyrim. Would make carrying food around make more sense. But saying that, I'm sure the very capable mod community would take care of that.

- The bugs -

I won't go into this a lot as there are many threads about them. Obviously. But I did encounter glitches. First time I played through, the civil war quest affected the main quest. Second time through I completed the civil war quest before I started the main quest full on.

The more I played the game, the more it crashed to the desktop. Most of the time the crash occurred after fast travel, or walking into a building (so you get that loading screen). Usually after many hours of game play, but sometimes I noticed it after only an hour (not often).

Purple textures I still get - my laptop is Windows 7 32bit. Don't get them often, but do get them.

Sometimes I could talk to characters for a main event (the type where you can't fast forward the speech). Then they would start the same conversation again. Happens enough to be an annoyance.

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Saying all of that - not bad for a product this big (actually pretty darn awesome). I'm not saying the game is perfect and it probably should have had more testing, but I must say congrats to Bethesda for creating a game like this. It's massive and enjoyable. I've never spent this amount of time playing a game before. Except maybe SimCity 2000 when I was a child.

Definitely feel sorry for the PS3 owners out there having problems. As I look at what I've written, there are more things which I don't like rather than like, but they're small things really which a few would probably get addressed.

Right now I'm on my 3rd play through, but playing it slightly different, probably spend more time smithing as I never did that before. Just not spending hours on end playing it!

Overall I reckon this game is quite an achievement. I've never really been into Dungeons and Dragons or role playing games (apart from Fallout 3) but I really, really enjoy playing this game. It's already got a bit of a cult thing going on with all the Youtube stuff and fan art!

At the start I said the game got me thinking about a different road to travel. As I said, I'm a software developer by trade, and even that I just stumbled across doing. Just happened to be good at programming. The programming I do is for the business world though, and business software is... well... a bit boring. Technically they're interesting, but the people who use your software - it's their job and the software is usually just taken for granted. I mean, they don't come bounding into work saying "Man, I can't wait to use that piece of software that I use to do invoicing - yayyyy!".

Playing this game I kinda realized that with games, but more with stories, you can get people excited. Well, I kinda realized that before this game, but it helped.

You're probably thinking I'll go into game programming, but that's not me. I'm actually starting to write a whole lot more (used to when I was younger) and Skyrim has helped... put a bit of a flame to something that had dwindled a long time ago.


Anyways, this is just a post to Bethesda saying thanks for making such an awesome game. Even with the troubles I've had, I still enjoy playing it. And 200 hours game play from a game, well, that's just incredible in my eyes. I'm sure you've heard this a lot, but I do hope you get the bugs sorted out so that more people can enjoy playing this.

And also a thanks to the many modders out there that spend hours upon hours making some pretty impressive mods!

The Blades quest was just terrible writing. You should have the option to pursuade te Blades to accept the fact he has changed, so you still have a win-win outcome.

Good point man!

Totally should have been that option. Nearly every other dialog option has polar opposites (well, kinda), should have been the same. Perhaps a little bit odd, but the dragons in the game were actually more memorable than the people! I remember the names of the dragons, but apart from a few people - not really.

Good post. Agree on most points. I've also got about 200 hours in, and my interest in the game is still high. In fact, I still can't bring myself to play anything else. I spun up Skyward Sword, played a few hours, then went back to Skyrim. Ditto for Assassin's Creed: Revelations. I'll return to those games at some point, but for now, Skyrim continues to devour my free time.

I was burned out on Fallout 3 by about 175 hours. Ditto for Oblivion. Skyrim easily bests both of those games, and I can actually envision myself putting 300-400 hours into it, which for me would be unprecedented.

Case in point of why this game impresses me: 200 hours in, I had my favorite battle I've had up to this point. I was just trying to kill a dragon at Autumnwatch Tower with my orc warrior, and found that the geography of the tower wasn't really conducive to winning (I have it on master difficulty, so dragons take a little effort). So I ran down into the surrounding area to draw it out and find better terrain. Naturally, before long I'm battling not just the dragon, but also bears, sabre cats, bandits, and a large group of Imperial soldiers (I had just joined the Stormcloaks). It was as intensely dramatic and satisfying as any gaming experience I've had in recent years, and it was not related to any major questline. It's just a confluence of events that can happen in the world that Bethesda has created.

P.S. Although even that epic fight was not without one annoyance: one of the Imperials turned out to be an unkillable NPC--Legate something-or-other. I'd keep beating him down, assume he was dead, and then moments later find him attacking me again. Finally I just had to flee him.

Nice post. Hi fellow kiwi!!

Just got there, and to my experience so far, you don't have to do the Blades quest. At least I'm not doing it. Granted, this "ending" of mine kind of leaves some things hanging in the air. There should definitely be an option to choose between the Blades and hmmh... like there is between Stormcloaks and Imperials.

I didn't do blades quest either

keeping tabs on all of the quest items you can't drop out of your inventory. the ck will render them weightless if theres no other work around for it. Big pet peeve of mine. CK can't get here fast enough.

The whole atittude and ignorance of the blades (well just certain ones) in general is ridiculous. Aren't they supposed to serve dragonborn? Not order them around like some peon and treat them like crap.
What's even more stupid is they want to kill someone who doesn't even agree with Alduin, so in effect the Thalmor are doing the world a favour by trying to rid the world of them.

Very well said! Great post, mate! I totally agree with you concerning the Blades! Made me so mad, I wanted to FUS RO DAH them off the Mountain!

I said in an earlier post, my biggest compliant with Skyrim is that your actions have no consequences. However, I just play the game, using my imagination and setting my own limits.

The Blades are supposed to fully support and serve the Dragonborn in every way. That's why this quest was terrible writing.

Nice post, I feel similar about many things! (Especially the Blades Quest, which there had been the possibility to kill them instead)

Agreed... It felt so rushed and half assed....

I swear Runil is Liam Neeson..look for him in the graveyard in falkreath IIRC and talk to him..

+1

your first TES is it? You should atleast play Oblivion then tell us what you think about Skyrim again

Yep, first TES. Might give Oblivion a try in the future, this will probably keep me occupied for a while though!

Good post, OP. I agree with a lot you wrote.