So I've basically given up on Skyrim. Is it a good game? Sure, if you look at the lore presented. Skyrim (along with other games) have just been so disappointing lately that it sickens me. So many developers and publishers are rushing for the right now, and not right to last.

Hell, I even stopped checking the forums for updates a month ago. I come back, and there is STILL no news on either the CK or the next patch. The last time I loaded Skyrim was 12/20/11. And that was mostly to show my friend the Majora's Mask moon mod I added. If I recall correctly, GStaff stated that after the Christmas holidays, they would release weekly updates with what is going on, not to mention the 1.4 patch and the CK. I don't even see a patch notes list for 1.4 anywhere, something to say "Hey, when 1.4 is released this is what will be fixed."

I really hope that with future patches (and ultimately the release of the CK) Skyrim will transform from a 'right now' game to a 'right to last' game.

EDIT:

From the Bethblog Post:

It’s been a few weeks since our last update on Skyrim’s status, so we wanted to share details on what we’re working on.

The Creation Kit and Steam Workshop are nearly ready. We’re currently working with members of Valve and our modding community to do some final testing, and we’re on track for a public release near the end of the month. We think Skyrim modding is one of the game’s best features, and we have the best modders of any game. It’s been a lot of exciting work for us, and we can’t wait to unleash it.

Skyrim’s 1.4 update is currently undergoing testing on all three platforms. The update will include fixes and optimizations for the most common issues people have been reporting (see below). We’re hoping to finalize this next week, and submit it to the console manufacturers for certification, as well as release on PC.

Our current update plan for the PC is to first release our updates as “beta” versions through Steam. This is something you’ll be able to opt into through Steam and back-out of if needed. This is an extra safety check for everyone going forward and should expedite and improve our updating process for our PC users. We’ll have more info soon on how this will work.

Echoing what we said back in December, we’ll continue to look into issues that are being reported and subsequent updates will follow. You have all supported Skyrim in a huge way, and we’ll be supporting all of you, and continue to make the game better.

After the break, check out the current changelog for 1.4.

Patch Release Notes

http://www.bethblog.com/2012/01/19/news-on-the-creation-kit-and-game-updates/

NEW FEATURES

• Skyrim launcher support for Steam Workshop (PC)

BUG FIXES

• General optimizations for memory and performance
  
• Fixed occasional issue with armor and clothing not displaying properly when placed on mannequin’s in player’s house. (PS3)
  
• Improved compiler optimization settings (PC)
  
• Long term play optimizations for memory and performance (PS3)
  
• Memory optimizations related to scripting
  
• Fixed crashes related to pathing and AI
  
• Fixed crash in Haemar’s Shame if player had already completed “A Daedra’s Best Friend”
  
• Fixed rare crash with loading saved games
  
• Fixed issue with accented characters not displaying properly at the end of a line
  
• Master Criminal achievement/trophy unlocks properly in French, German, Spanish and Italian
  
• Fixed issue where dragon priest masks would not render correctly
  
• Fixed issue where quests would incorrectly progress after reloading a save
  
• Fixed issues with placing and removing books from bookshelves in the player’s home
  
• Fixed issue where weapon racks and plaques would not work correctly in player’s house if player immediately visits their house before purchasing any furnishing.
  
• Fixed issue where the player house in Windhelm would not clean up properly
  
• Fixed crash related to giant attacks and absorb spells
  
• Fixed issue with ash piles not cleaning up properly
  
• Fixed occasional issue where overwriting an existing save would fail
  
• Fixed memory crash with container menu
  
• Fixed infinite loop with bookshelves
  
• Fixed issue where traps in Shalidor’s Maze would not work properly in French, German, Spanish and Italian versions
  
• Fixed issue where transforming back to human from werewolf would occasionally not fail
  
• Bows and daggers will display properly when placed on weapon racks

QUEST FIXES

• The Unusual Gem inside the Thalmor Embassy is now accessible after finishing “Diplomatic Immunity”
  
• In “Breaching Security”, the quest token is no longer required to receive a fortune reading from Olava the Feeble
  
• Fixed issue where Galmar would not complete Joining the Stormcloaks properly if “Season Unending” was an active quest
  
• Fixed issue where starting “Season Unending” after finishing “Joining the Stormcloaks” would prevent “The Jagged Crown” from starting properly.
  
• Fixed issue progressing through “Message to Whiterun” while “Season Unending” was still open would block progression for both quests.
  
• In “Arniel’s Endeavor”, fixed issue where a quest journal would trigger multiple times
  
• In “Forbidden Legend”, the amulet fragment can no longer disappear after player leaves a dungeon without taking it
  
• Fixed rare issue in “Forbidden Legend” where killing Mikrul Gauldurson while sneaking would make his corpose unaccessible
  
• In “The White Phial”, the phial can no longer disappear if player leaves dungeon without taking it
  
• “The White Phial” will now start properly if player already has a briar heart in their inventory
  
• Player can no longer get stuck in Misty Grove after completing “A Night to Remember”
  
• Fixed issue where leaving Riften during “A Chance Arrangement” would prevent quest from progressing
  
• In “Darkness Returns”, a door in Twilight Sepulcher will properly open if the player leaves the dungeon for an extended period of time before completing the quest
  
• In “Under New Management”, if the player leaves the Oculory for an extended period of time after placing the focusing crystal and returns, the quest will proceed correctly
  
• “Onmund’s Request” will now start properly if player has already found Enthir’s staff before receiving this quest
  
• Fixed instance where Tonilia would stop buying stolen items and also would not give Guild Leader Armor
  
• “Repairing the Phial” will start properly if player already has unmelting snow or mammoth tusk in their inventory
  
• Finding Pantea’s Flute before speaking with Pantea no longer prevents her quest from updating
  
• In “The Coming of the Dawn”, fixed rare instance where a quest object would spawn incorrectly on the Katariah during Hail Sithis
  
• Fixed rare issue in “The Mind of Madness” where player is unable to equip the Wabbajack
  
• Fixed issue in “Pieces of the Past” where Mehrunes Dagon’s Razor will not trigger properly if player leaves the cell for extended period of time before activating it
  
• “Blood’s Honor” will start properly if you visited and completed Driftshade and an extended period of time passes before starting the quest.
  
• Fixed rare issue where “Dampened Spirits” would not start properly
  
• Fixed issue where player would be unable to become Thane of Riften if they purchased a home first
  
• Fixed issue where killing guards in Cidhna Mine woud block progression for “No One Escapes Cidhna Mine”
  
• Fixed numerous issues with “Blood on the Ice” not triggering properly
  
• In “Blood on the Ice”, Calixto can now be killed if player owns a house in Windhelm
  
• In “The Cure for Madness”, killing Cicero then resurrecting him no longer impedes quest progress
  
• Fixed rare issue in “To Kill an Empire” where an NPC would fail to die properly
  
• Clearing Knifepoint Ridge before starting “Boethiah’s Champion” no longer prevents quest from starting.

We are all pretty much in the dark about what is going on. I for one am to a stopping point. I am SICK of editing my .ini over and over just to find that enhancing one thing makes the other thing look even uglier. And now for some reason my newest peeve is the shadows that no matter WHAT I do, they are totally unacceptable. I think I find a setting I like, then I look at someone's face or see a bunch of nasty blurry crap in the distance. Not to mention that for having a well above average PC, it plays like stuttering dog feces.

I too want to know what they are planning on fixing so I can judge weather or not to give up on this game for a few months.

It's awesome how the staff claims they will be more responsive to the community, then go dark for a month.

Probably takes them a while to swim through the pools of our cash to get to their procrastination boxes (AKA computers).

You mean the cash from xbox players, right? Cause apparently they are the only system that matters in this whole world and the xbox 360 is the futue of everything.

Well that little man called todd is to busy laughing at everyone for buying the game before it was fixed so give it around a week or so.

6 hours ago
One of the twitter users ask official BETHBLOG: Wondering when we can expect to see the 1.4 update. Thanks.

Bthblog answer: should have some more info to share very soon.

Did they promise weekly updates? Must have missed that.

Anyway, they said the next big patch and the CK will be out in January. It's still January and will be January for another 2 weeks.
I do hope they will stay true to their words there, but honestly, I'd rather wait till March than get another patch 1.2.

Still, they promised to be more responsive, but if you check the official threads, they are unchanged since december...

Well all Bethesda games are great. But they are also like beta tests when they come out because of all these bugs. Best thing to do is wait for at lest 6 months until they patch them and community makes some great mods. But who can wait so long?

Perhaps we can hope that they are using every last day in January to get as many bugs fixed as possible instead of releasing quick fixes that end up breaking other things.

Just be patient. It will be here. They said jan.
If they released the patch quickly people would moan it doesn't fix stuff. They take time to release a patch. People moan its taking too long.

I just hope the new patch will be awesome and starts fixing questbugs I also expect a recompiled version for PC (TESVAL/Skyboost prove it is needed in my book) - Given the amount of time we wait for a new patch and the CK it simply must be awesome upon release, if it is not by the end of january well then make it awesome in february

Quest bugs and such I can live with. Game-breaking memory / save-file-size / (lack of) cleanup issues, on the other hand, have to be fixed before I can play the game any more!

Patience aside.
The real problem isn't that the patch itself is taking a long time to come out, it's the utter lack of communication from the team about anything, we don't even know what problems they are aware of.

EDIT: Do they underestimate our sympathy and understanding? for example; if there is a current problem with the game they can only fix for characters created after 1.4, the permanent CTD with larger save files on PC for instance, which would not be entirely unlikely.
I would be perfectly fine with this (given the severity of the bug and sheer vastness of the game) as long as they are up front about it, if they just keep quiet and hope for the best... who knows, cause they ain't telling us.

Exactly. This is their official website, their official forums for communicating to their customers, and the last official post they have made was nearly a month ago.

For those of you saying wait six months after a Bethesda game release for the mods and patches to fix everything, I ask why we should have to? If these problems are common with every one of their game releases that does not mean we should accept it as "normal". That means problems in the development stage are not being addressed and fixed properly, over and over again. That responsibility should not fall on the customers, it should fall on the developers.

Bought the game at its release, played only 4 or 5 hours. Stopped when I saw the amount of bugs the players were complaining of. Since then, I'm waiting for the first real patch... checking the forum from time to time.

I should have known, same thing happened with Morrowind, Oblivion and Fallout. Only this time, for some reason it's kind of worse : I don't even feel the desire to play again, I've almost forgotten the game. Its the last time I buy a bethesda game at release, better wait for it to go GOTY. One never learns...

Imagine a world where we read the following post:

"Hi everyone - Bethesda techies here - as we work on the next patch, we've run into a problem we're trying to solve to fix glitch X. We know this community has some great modding expertise, and we'd like the patch to be as complete as possible, so any input would help. May even help us release the patch sooner. Thanks for your support and keep the suggestions coming!!!"

Imagine that world.

Now, I'm not trying to excuse Bethesda, but it could be much worse.
The "official" Deus Ex Human Revolution forum has seemingly been completely abandoned by the publisher and the devs not even half a year after release (actually more like 3 months after release).
No news, no reaction at all. Only silence.
The official technical forum isn't even considered an official support channel.

At least Beth acknowledges the existence of the forums from time to time.

Deus Ex was almost bug free at release... It makes a huge difference. Not a single problem with that game.

Depends on who you ask.
Some people still can't play DXHR it due to excessive stutter.
Also the game could use a balancing patch.

Likewise, my Skyrim experience has also been almost bug free at release.
Certainly much better than with any other Bethesda game I played in recent years.
I could play it without any major technical problems (safe for the well-documented fps hits in certain areas) and had no trouble playing through Thieves guild and MQ, as well as a ton of other quests.

"After the holidays, we’ll continue to release regular updates for the game — through full title updates, as well as incremental “gameplay updates” to fix whatever issues come up along with rebalancing portions of the game for difficulty or exploits. We plan on having a lot of these, not just a few." -- Gstaff

Regular updates, and a lot of them, at one per month is a long time until this game works the way it should.

Contrast this with http://kotaku.com/5834914/the-skyrim-team-has-a-better-plan-for-squashing-bugs-this-time.
It's no wonder that timeframes are being avoided now.

Keep in mind the fact that TES series are huge compared to something so limited as Deus ex.

That article has more gems in it than any chest I've ever found...

"It's a known issue and a very valid complaint," he said (Todd Howard.) A very valid complaint that we will contniue to avoid responding to.

"We're getting better at it," Howard said. Easy to say before the release...how about now?

"We can change stats on a sword and it will be available to everyone in a few hours," he said. Unplayable lag, eh, that's another issue.

"Are there going to be bugs we didn't catch in a game of this size?" he (Todd Howard) asked rhetorically. "Our assumption is there are going to be." Why don't you just go ahead and say that no Bugthesda game is finished until 6 months after release?

All thats got to be worth at least 1000 septims.