For roleplay purposes, has anyone found a good way to rationalize having a compass? I'm playing on PS3, otherwise I would just turn it off, but I recently found myself thinking that having a compass that alerts me to nearby enemies and tells me the direction I'm heading seems a little unrealistic for that time period, and makes the game easier in a few small aspects. I realize that it was probably put in there because it serves a function, and there aren't many people who's immersion this will hamper. However, since I'm playing on PS3 and can't mod it out, but would like to have some form of roleplay-related reason for it being there, I need some kind of logic to assert its being there and making my character's journey unnecessarily easier.

Also, I think the map does something along these lines. I could justify having a map pretty easily, though; especially if I was given one or had to buy it from a store, rather than having it in my UI right out of Helgen.

As for the enemies showing up on radar, I feel as if that's kind of like knowing where someone is. Like if I hear you behind me, I know there's someone behind me.

You can always RP you can either hear them or smell them [you know, bandits and baths don't get along well together, and I would expect trolls to smell pretty bad]. Or perhaps you have just a high sense of danger? A sixth sense? A taoist third eye?

Agreed. Also, compasses aren't exactly a new invention--they've been around since the 10th century. So it's not really unrealistic for the time period.

As a PS3-player, I believe you can turn off your HUD (or make it so that it is invisible). This removes your health/magicka/stamina bars, but also your compass. Makes the whole thing more immersive.

Even so, I find it hard to be surprised by enemies when the compass tells me where they are. It would be great to have an option to turn it off like there is for the crosshair.

My problem with the compass was that I couldn't help pursuing every black icon that popped up in order to discover the location and turn it white. After disabling it, I enjoyed the exploration a lot more because it felt more natural following the map by identifying visual landmarks in the terrain, rivers, hills, large ruins, etc. Also I got to enjoy discovering more locations over the course of a few playthroughs instead of unlocking every icon in a particular area.

Actually, I was responding more to the "tells me the direction I'm heading" part of your comment. Still, most enemies do make some noise before they're upon you. If you can't switch off your HUD as Navelpluis suggests, maybe try to train yourself out of looking at it (easier said than done, I know).