Mod support. I wouldn't have bought the game without it.

Oh, and Argonians.

Its overall atmosphere and artwork , if start the game up for the first time is immensly overpowering , tho it eventualy fades away it stays strong even after almost 400 hours of play i still find myself watching the landscapes or admiring the architecture inside dungons

plus TES series already had a huge fanbase , combine this witha great modding community it is a recipe for a game that will stay on my pc for a long time

Non multiplayer.

It's difficult to pin down one thing, so I'm not going to. Here's a short list:

• The characters are extremely well realised - voice acting being a part of that, which brings me to
  
• Sound Design - it's brilliant, especially on headphones, they've nailed the atmosphere.
  
• I love the graphics, I just do.
  
• The whole combat system works a treat for me and combined with sneaking and lurking in shadows has really allowed Niamh to find her true villainy.
  
• There are some great little details: the mammoth partially frozen into the glacier, the inn keeper trying to persuade the barmaid to keep singing, stuff like that.
  
• Finally - it's a sandbox and I can choose to do whatever I want, and still mod the nuts off it!!

For me it's the atmosphere.

I know exactly what you mean about the music, I absolutely love the music because it's so finely composed and yes it does seem to play just at the right time. I tend not to realise that I've been travelling in nothing but the ambient background noises (of which there are many, go play Morrowind and you'll notice the lack of ambient sound) until the first notes play.

Atmosphere is comprised of music and sound, but also the visuals that you mentioned - little touches like the sky growing dark and raining down on you, or the snow falling, even the Autumn leaves falling with all the beautiful reds and burnt oranges; beauty and art is what I love and Skyrim recreates natural beauty so captivatingly.

While I love the game itself, the atmosphere is easily what I love the most and I was shocked when I came here to find that many people are seemingly dead to it. That's not an insult as we all clearly value different things, but I just couldn't fathom not being swept away by the game world. The game world itself is something that isn't really touched upon much on this board but to me an RPG, any RPG, is about creating a fantasy world that I want to step into. I remembe the first time I rode Epona around Hyrule Field in TLOZ:The Ocarina of Time and this is the first game I've played since then that has matched and even rivalled that sense of wonder and beauty. That's what my memories are made of, not the puzzles and not even the battles but the fishing at Lake Hylia while the sun's setting and the soft music's playing, or riding across The Rift as the incredible main theme plays.

*That's* gaming magic to me.

You in your early thirties by any chance? It's like you peered into my memories and tore them out for all to see. In other words: I couldn't agree with you more. Small details like this is what make a game special for me (and many other people it seems).

Outdoors combined with those soundtracks gives the strongest positive experience for me in this game.

The combination of the environment and the music. It's perfect and outdoes Oblivion. Just wandering around is a delight.

No, I'm 26 actually. Glad to see that others relate! Skyrim reminded me why I put so many hours into those games when I was younger.

I love to dungeon-crawl, and to have this many dungeons in a game and not needing a tank, healer, and two more DPS is just great. Also, my current character is the only one out of 5 who does not have Lydia with her all the time, and I really like that, too. Although it was an adjustment.

I guess deep down inside, I'm still the loner I've always been.

E

The giants. Funny little creatures.

Word! And Khajiit

There are too many good things about Skyrim!!! (except for a few occasional bugs but I'm brushing that aside) But one of the main things that's really good about Skyrim is the fact I can be whoever I want in this game! I never have to stick to one class for too long. I have a character who initially wanted to just be a thief, so I train his pickpocket/sneak, etc, later on, he became an assassin so focus mainly on sneak and some one-handed. Then the latest, I wanted some magic in there, so I got him to learn illusion and alteration spells for detect life/muffle etc.

Also, the re-playability is great! Apart from three main "classes".. the hybrids between each can be created indefinitely. (battlemages, nightblades, paladin, etc.) When I get a little bored from my warrior character, just had to reroll and play something else completely different!

Lastly, Skyrim's atmosphere is just brilliant. It really feels like I'm free-roaming a completely new land through my own eyes, hearing them and maybe.. feeling it as well. The sense that something must have happened for a reason in some place makes you wanna adventure and find out what this is really all about; just awesome.

To be honest, Skyrim is my first RPG game and my novelty to such excellent game can be overwhelming, but I've seen some let's play of other games on youtube, and none of the other RPG could even begin to compare to the Elder Scrolls series.

I concur with those who say atmosphere/gameworld and music, and I'll add to that dual-wielding. Also acrobatics. Oh, wait...

Beards.

Definetly world design and music. Despite not having played it for a while now, i still play it's music nearly daily

Like i've said, if it had gameplay and story of the same quality, no one would need to buy another fantasy RPG ever again

I have the music turned off as to what I like about the game. I love making my own combat gear and although the fighting could be improved by the addition of a thrust button as well as swing and block for an RPG its very well done. Also praise has to be given for the size of the world and graphical attention to detail rocks actually look like rocks.

I think it's the verisimilitude of simulation. I don't know other games in 1st person where I can open so many doors, pick up so many objects and loot the [censored] out of people and leave their corpses in underwear. It's the illusion of freedom, and the big detailed world that helps a lot.

I couldn't pick just one thing except to say the world. They've created a massive world that I can run around in and see and do all kinds of things. It's just such a beautiful world.

Some of the more atmospheric touches Bethesda put in. Blue aurora while walking in the Pale = glorious

I'm more of a cat-person fan myself.

For me it would be huge amount of possibilities, and it increases with mods.
Not for me sadly, i got a ps3...but someday it would be for the ps3 to...maybe