I have heard from a lot of my friends that have played skyrim that the game is awesome but what they ended up doing was having to start over several times because they went into the game with a certain character design in mind but when they actually got playing they discovered either they didnt like it or the mechanics made it difficult for them personally, etc. Pretty much all of them suggested a dry run through of the opening and random exploration to get a feel for the mechanics, weapon speed, etc before I start a complete and series play through. I was wondering what you guys think about this, is it necessary? Also if you think it is a good idea or something to that affect is there any advice you can give me a minimizing the details I get during the opening (I want when I play for the first time seriously to have this holy crap epic feeling like I have come to expect since past elder scrolls games openings). Thanks in advance.

if you are new to the elder scrolls series of games i would highly recommend a 'test' run through just to get the feel. who knows, you might get lucky and start with a toon you really like and continue playing it. usually though even with each new game in the series i do a dry run through just to test each type of play style i like before really starting a toon i will play and fully develop, just to see what has changed from one series to the next. just use one of the pre-set toons and plow forward but try to avoid any of the 'major' quests so you don't spoil it for your main toon.

Probably wise, I mean I have been a TES player since Morrowind and even went back and played Daggerfall so I have some idea, but as you put it enough things do tend to change from one game to the next that it requires a bit of re-education.

ya. one major change that has bothered many people is mages seem to be a bit more challenging this go around. some have a great deal of trouble figuring them out (just check for threads here and in general), while others seem to have no trouble. in oblivion, it was pretty easy to play a mage and once you hit a certain point you were basically untouchable. guess that's not the case here and it takes a bit more work. i have a mage that's 23 right now and i've not had any major issues yet but from what i hear it's at higher levels where the difficulty comes in.