Answer: Because Skyrim is a console port, just like it's predecessor I bought Oblivion before playing it, though fortunately I learned my lesson and have not made that mistake with Skyrim. Lest anyone cry 'Pirate!', I am renting the game or playing at a friend's house Give me an RPG that isn't dumbed down, please. You have done it twice already; Daggerfall, and to a lesser extent, Morrowind. You can do it again if you stop catering to consoles.

What exactly is your hardware or software issue?

My software issues are in the title. The menus are too simple, the draw-distance is shameful, and the texture size is no better. Though if this is the wrong forum, I can move to General.

Did you know you can change the draw distance for the game in Options?

It is called Object Fade, Grass Fade etc. Crank all those up to max, then tell us how the game runs for you.

Good luck selling 10 milion copies with just a PC version...

I understand Todd when he said he wish there was just one platform. Games would be so much better.

You can increase the draw distance sliders in the graphics options. If that's still not enough for you, you can increase uGridsToLoad to up the loaded cells as high as your PC will go.
There are plenty of mods to change the menus if the default menus aren't to your taste.
Bethesda recently released a High Resolution Texture Pack for the PC as a free DLC. If that's still not good enough for you, you can use texture mods that increase the detail even further.

That's the beauty of the PC. 99% of things you dislike in the game can be fixed or changed if you try hard enough.

There are ways to fix all of your issues, but that still doesn't make Skyrim a classical cRPG. Sadly.

Yes this game was built for legacy hardware that's 6+ years old (X-box & PS3) but like others have said, if it helps give the devs more money to keep making these games then why not.

I'm a PC player and a longtime RPGer. I was totally annoyed with the interface being made for an X-box controller and the many "dumbed down" mechanics of this game compared to the previous versions of TES. However this is why I play it on a PC so the modding community fix 99% of the issues and make the game 100x better than it exists in its' vanilla console version.

The game has already been enhanced greatly by modders and will continue to do so in the years ahead.

The PC is not dead. Look at the millions of copies Diablo 3 will sell and that's a PC ONLY title. Blizzard says they have no plans to dumb it down for the consoles at this time.

I've already maxed the aforementioned settings, though I appreciate the tips. And I'm glad to see I'm not the only person who feels this way. Oblivion took years of moddinb before it was worthy of being called an Elder Scrolls title. As for 'more platforms= sales', that makes perfect sense, which makes my dissappointment in Bethesda all the greater Credit where due though; just like with Oblivion, I love the stories and the world they have crafted, if only the gameplay & graphics weren't dumbed down. Hopefully Bethesda will go back to their roots eventually, and I can actually buy their next title. In the mean time, I've already started searching for draw-distance enhancers, lol.

Increasing uGrids is probably your best bet for enhancing distant graphics. Be warned though, it can cause a lot of instability.

I don't agree with the graphics being "dumbed down" though. It's their best looking game to date. The gameplay has always been fairly "meh" though. They did enhance melee combat a bit with the finishing moves, but melee combat is still lacking. The UI is horrible, I agree with that. The magic system HAS been dumbed down. The ability to create your own spells was one of the best things about Morrowind and Oblivion. The leveling system was dumbed down, but it really needed it because it was seriously flawed in Oblivion.

If you want a better menu, use SkyUI. It is very pretty.

Yep. Search for SkyUI on either Skyrim Nexus or Steam Workshop and you'll find it. It requires Skyrim Script Extender to function properly but I don't think it'll give you much trouble setting it up -it sure didn't give me any.

The only thing I'm actually missing from spellmaking, is the ability to have multiple spells on... wait a minute... we can dual cast now.

Still, I could use more punch on the destruction spells as a pure mage, compared with what I'm doing as a melee character... on the other hand though... you don't expect from such a class to rely only on destruction/restoration...

Streamlined? Yes. Dumbed down? No. Not really a port, either, considering the extensive graphic options and mod support.

p.s. there have been games equal to the complexity of Elder Scrolls exclusive to consoles. Quit using that as an excuse, PC elitists.

He's just whining again. DirectX makes it much easier to develop games on the PC but now they want one system, that's why ports are done because it's easier for them doesn't mean it will make better games.

Skyrim is not a pc rpg.

Tweak your ini... geeze. Skyrim can bring even the beefiest PC to it's knees (although a lot of that is non optimized CPU issues). I do think there's issues of course, like the UI and some gameplay stuff. Fortunately for us PC gamers we can also change those as we will (or just let people who know what they're doing, do it for us like SkyUI and Deadly Combat modders).

Anyway the only part of Skyrim I find to be "dumbed down" is the way any quest instantly has a GPS marker. At least, off the top of my head.