I won't poll this because there's too many options, but for me, I was amazed at how small Cidna mine was. After hearing how 'no one escapes from Cidna mine' and it was the greatest prison in the land etc etc. To find out how small it actually was disappointed me. I won't get into the method you actually do escape from Cidna mine.

I was surprised it was that small myself. But then again, you got to give it props on being a unique idea for a prison, commentary on human rights, AND part of a rather interesting quest.

Dawnstar, wasen't it supposed to have the biggest ship port in skyrim or something like that?

Labarinythian, call that a maze. And where is the Minotuar goddammit.

For Dawnstar, they explained a bit how it was devastated by a natural disaster - to be honest I didn't read up on Skyrim at all before playing so that I wouldn't be disappointed right out of the gate. When whatsisname asks you if you've been to the cloud district and you find out that its more like saying "Have you been to the other street" - that let me down as well. Whiterun would have been a good city if they didn't try to tell me it was a thriving commercial hub - with two stores, a black smith and some stalls.

the size of winterhold,falkreath and dawnstar...

Yeah Nazeem is kind of a [censored]. "Do I get to the Cloud District very often?" I'm the damned Thane, I have personal meetings with the Jarl. You're just a farmer who got lucky you bloody peasant.

I Know, but I still wasn't getting lost in it.

dawnstar for me too... mostly because of the note that you get inviting you to visit the " museaum "

I'm like " Museaum eh? oohh I cant wait to get to this metropolis that has an actual museaum "

Yeah... right... turns out the " metropolis " is a dump of a village and the " museaum " is a shack.

The 'cities' of Winterhold, Dawnstar and Morthal. Tacked on generic Jarl halls and taverns. Jesus we waited 6 years for this. Did there have to be the same empty pub in every town? As soon as the CK comes out I'll build a bunch of taverns people will want to hang out in.

I'm hoping for a massive expansion with more cities. There's a path that leads to Morrowind... will they use it?

Skyrim is a mountainous region. Not sure if one can or should expect a large population there in the first place.

Take a look at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:80_-_Machu_Picchu_-_Juin_2009_-_edit.2.jpg, which is an old Inca "city" in the Andes. It really was only a handful of houses with a lot of terraces around it.

The mistake may be in the believe that any of Skyrim's settlements are called cities. They are at best all only villages to our modern understanding.

I hope you're a patient man -

In this case, it was more based on a celtic/pagan labyrinth pattern, a simmetrical set of narrow corridors that turn in alternating directions. It's supposed to be symbolic of unravelling mystery, unlike the maze of greek legend/muppet movie of the same name.

The latter style of maze would have been great - something to really get lost in, like you said. I haven't seen the CK to see just how much you can add in custom content, but I hope someone adds a really great maze. Something wickedly hard, like Bards Tale.