If you look up bias in the dictionary, you will get the IGN logo.

Basically, what I think is that a few people say they don't like a game and IGN are all over it in a desperate attempt to make money. All of the reviewers are corrupt money grabbing cheapskates and the best way to judge a game is through personal experience

The article is spot on. Critics jumped on the Skyrim bandwagon without actually putting enough time into it. Once you do the gloss of the pretty world wears away and you're left with a hack and slash dungeon crawler where nothing you do effects anything, the world seems static and dead, dialog is a joke and the boredom sets in fast.

You'll be seeing a lot of articles of people reconsidering Skyrim in the future I'm sure.

Everyone has the right to their opinion but as someone who considers themself a writer and critic, he should be able to offer up more than a few half-assed token suggestions in the last paragraph of the article. It's nitpicking disguised as critique.

Of course there's room for improvement. That goes for everything. But his complaining about the inconsistencies of being able to lead the DB and the Companions is silly. If it were the case that being part of one faction prevented you from becoming part of another, the complaint would be that the game is too restrictive--and that would be true. I guess you could put in a feature whereby you denounce the DB and leave them, thereby suffering potential revenge at their hands, but for crying out loud, a game can't do everything that everyone wants it to.

Skyrim doesn't suffer from a lack of imagination or consideration. It suffers from the reality of both financial and technological limitations; just like every game and every product that's ever been made.

if you can get paid for an article like that, I'm pretty sure I picked up the job by being a system administrator, I sould've try to be an IGN writer.
i bet the total time the dude put in that article might be less than 5 minutes...

This is why I didn't like this game as much as New Vegas. It feels so static. Here is this gigantic world, now don't [censored] anything up. Nothing happens! Even if you do the quests it's like nothing happened at all. It's really bothering me. I kind of feel my time was wasted playing that game. I mean the loot svcked, so I dont play it for that. I was expecting some sort of ROLE playing in my game. You know with some conversations, and persuasion checks, and finding out people in x town dont like me because I burned their sacred calf or something. You know conseqences. Reality. I'm reminded of a person who wraps their furniture in plastic, and pretty much everything in plastic to keep it pristine. Sure it's all shiney and new for a long time but it's weird and makes you lose some personality.

The characters were fairly boring barring like 2 people in the entire game. Story gave me no sense of consequences, the world never reacts to you. It was basically a guided tou through a factory, but all the best and interesting things are behind glass walls. Fun for a little while, but I want to actually be reacting to it all.

IGN or not, the article speaks the truth.

Honestly, they could remove all the NPCs tomorrow except for the merchants and the game would feel EXACTLY the same...

Except, that's how Morrowind worked. And that's how FO NV works. You know, having to make decisions that matter because they have actual consequences. That's the point of RPGs. Skyrim lets the player do everything all the time which renders everything pointless and utterly destroys immersion just by the pure silliness of it.

Morrowind had A EXTREMLEY Linear story, Filled with Boring one sided Chararcters.

And unfortunately, Bethesda has become allergic to ticking ANYONE off. To the point where they seem afraid to put ANY rules or restrictions in the game or allow for ANY mishaps, and ironically it's killing their games. Now we can't accidently kill ANY quest NPCs, we can't accidently pick the wrong race (cause they're all practically the same), we can't pick the wrong birthsign or class (because there aren't any) and we can't sign up with the wrong guild because they've made it so NPCs can't react to anything.

....Except, now what's the point in making a second character and doing a second playthrough? It'll feel exactly the same....because it is.

IGN is IGNorant about everything, including where Skyrim actually fails. They get so close to having a vallid argument but it is deeply hidden within all the nonsense and non-issues they call their opinion.

We all have features we considered good or bad, it is subjective. IGN really just gives their opinion here (and rightly says this is the case).

However, I've seen plenty of more in-depth articles about the issues of Skyrim on this forum. Those articles go beyond opinions and highlight fundamental game-design flaws. You can say 'I like this flaw as it has a side effect that I consider positive' but it is impossible to say it isn't a flaw. IGN isn't the place for such articles or discussions.

Besthda needs to learn
Relevance? What does that have to do with anything? If you mean one specific scenario then that doesn't make up for all of Skyrim. So Skyrim has that one single reaction. New Vegas only has about 200 of those types of events. Not to mention in New Vegas people talk about what you do since its pretty big stuff. It makes sense the townsfolk thank you and how they act after saving them. In this game if you save a town there is nothing there at all. Hardly any reaction from anything. It's boring as hell. The world is static. You save the world, but it's plastic wrapped. No one acts like its been saved.

Edit
Not to mention the dialogue itself is drone, and monotonous.

Uh, Skyrim is the very definition of linear. Every quest rail roads you to the end with no consequence. And characters? You have to kidding. Skyrim doesn't have a single memorable character to speak of.

I can think of many memorable characters

Pre-cisely.

In addition to underestimating the work that would be involved in creating such a game, I think everyone is overestimating just how fun a notional "Elder Scrolls VI: CONSEQUENCES" would be. You'd spend most of the game in prison, or working off debt. If you want consequences, play DiD, or better yet, don't play video games at all. Real life is great at giving you consequences.

Oh man...

He states his opinion eloquently.
I tend to agree, but not uniformly.

I'll take this kind of article over mindless praise any day of the week.

^This. No memorable characters besides that dumb dog. Very linear. Beth needs NOT to do this to Fallout 4. They'll probably strip weapon degradation and everything else ( like meaningful choices) from the Fallout series just to appease the masses of FPS games......

I read it yesterday and it's a big fail on IGN's part. I know the writer isn't on IGN's staff but that makes no excuse. Terribly bias article and I've lost a lot of respect for IGN if any. The Elder Scrolls is not a choice game in terms of quests, it has never been like that in the history of the franchise, Morrowind explored it a little bit but it's still linear in nature even with that game.

awwww .. awwwwww
he forget to mention the ******up economy and the rubbish loot .
but still .. in love with Skyrim

-There are No Consequences = Definitely

-Leveling is Confused = ...


...This is the result of not having major skills. My lockpicking should not raise the damage my Mage's enemies can produce. Of course, my Mage shouldn't have to pick locks in the first place and if opening locks is raising enemy combat capabilities, then at least opening locks should help my Mage raise a magic skill. By not having major skills, you let skills the player has deemed less important devalue the skills he values more.

Leveling is Confused = Yes... and it's no wonder. If everything you do raises your skill you are sending mixed messages about what you want to be.

-Combat is Weak = [Personal Observation: Destruction is so bad, IGN doesn't seem to consider it a combat skill.]

-Players are Impotent = Kind of the flip side of the first one. [If there are no consequences, everything you do is inconsequential.]

All TES games are like that because there are so damn many quests. Skyrim has way more many memorable characters than Oblivion. There are memorable characters in Morrowind because it is so weird, but you don't get to make significant choices in people's destiny.

If you want quality, you have to reduce the quantity. This is why I have already played Skyrim about three times as long as ME & ME2 combined.

Same here. I would have gone further and criticized the economy, the engine (responsible for popups), etc. In short Skyrim, like Spore, makes for some good eye-candy, yet is fundamentally designed to impress the younger or more casual gamer. We are reaching the stage in gaming where simply designing a huge open world is no longer going to cut it. The expectations of gamers are increasing. Game mechanics, depth, balance and playability are all required.

Prior to Skyrim I thought 'gimping' was some curious activity best left to perverts in rubber suits. Now I am an expert in gimping. This is the first time I have ever had to gimp myself while playing a video game and I pray, sincerely, that the entire concept of self-restriction in order to generate any form of challenge is peculiar to Skyrim, and never occurs again.

Of course the [censored] will ask "then why play it?"

To which I answer "I no longer do (play it)."

This post is primarily aimed at developers who will be anolyzing the situation regarding Skyrim and wondering what opportunities it might offer them. My advice is by all means generate a huge open world, but never lose sight of the fact that the product is ultimately a video game. Such games require depth, balance and playability. You can even sacrifice aspects of a massive open world in order to enhance depth, balance, and playability - yet you can never do the reverse.

I disagree with the leveling being confusing, it was much more confusing in Oblivion where I had to write down the amount of times certain skills went up during the current level just to get a +5, I don't need to that in Skyrim which is a good thing.