Yeah, for some reason I was expecting IC - sized cities. I'm so unimpressed with most of the cities in the game; expected a LOT more, honestly.

I find the number and geographic distribution of the cities to be believable.

The only cities larger than Skyrim's five main holds in the previous two games were Vivec and the Imperial City. And even then, the combined size of Solitude and Windhelm exceed that by about half again. I still get lost in Riften. And if I take a wrong turn in Whiterun, I have to re-orient myself toward Dragonsreach and the Skyforge.

Keep in mind - The walled-in areas aren't the entire city.

You get lost in Riften? It feels like the smallest city. Please don't apologize on Beth's behalf.

I think we can all agree Whiterun is not massive. The biggest city is Solitude there isn't much to it. A castle and a market area. Look at the Imperial City that had a lot going on.



Sounds more like you have a terrible sense of direction.

The five cities are there. They are all just massive underground Dwemer ruins in modern times.

When did he apologize for anything?

Riften has more charcater than most of the other cities though. It's small. But it does have more character that makes it seem bigger I guess.

Meh. Imperial City is better than all of them. To be fair, I haven't been in Windhelm yet.

Sounds llike he is making excuses for Bethesda.

Thanks to Bethesda Marketing, I can now tell my wife about something 'massive' without feeling I might be stretching the truth.

That's an assumption... And you know what they say about assumptions?

It angers the gods.

Wait, I thought these were Game Informer's words, not Bethesda's.

Stop apologizing. They were Beth's words.

I don't necessarily disagree with you - we're both right in saying that the word is relative and has a common meaning. I personally think Bethesda hyped cities like everything else, by using exaggerative words like "massive". I can't really tell people my computer tower is massive when I'm comparing it against the size of a single-celled organism. It's stupidity on my part, and misleading when I use such words to describe it without any context. Meh, I'm just nitpicking, ignore me.

Better, more believeable and fantastic environments (Lost Valley Redoubt). No more "Patchwork" biomes like in Morrowind. Cities are more expansive, if smaller in terms of population. Architecture is also better.

Dwemer Ruins are much better this time around with the traps, bot-dispensers, locks, new inhabitants. Also, the roles of the various automatons are MUCH better defined: Spiders are janitors, Spheres are Robo-cop City Guards, while the Centurians are the Dwemer way of saying "Look What We can do!." In Morrowind, they were just different tiers of Guard-dog.

The NPC conversations give much more depth to the world - There have been times I've turned around and left Bandits in peace after overhearing their conversations and musings, and regretted having to kill or being unable to save some of them... I wish Bandits weren't so eager to jump on my blade. The world feels a lot more "Alive" and the verisimilitude is stronger. Monsters have much deeper lore behind them this time - While Morrowind's creatures were "alien", in Skyrim, I can read about the various creatures, finding the depth behind them that their sword-mounting tendencies try to mask, but I can see from a distance from quiet observation. (I have yet to replicate the Draugr assimilation experiment, however)

While the combat AI may not be too great, the Radiant AI can be fantastic at times. Beggars love it when I shower town with gifts. Also, there can be some crazy fights even with the limited AI of individual combatants: Fighting bandits, a Dragon flies overhead. Giants and their Mammoths get aggroed, and bring Mudcrabs behind them. Sometimes, the AI decides you're not the biggest threat in a massive rumble. Other times, you get ganged up on by the worst possible combinations of creatures at the worst possible time. Luring people into vicious traps and the myriad uses of well-timed Dragon Shouts never get old for me.

Radiant Story's "generic" quests may be routine, but it's the routine that gives the world verisimilitude - Bandits rove around and need to be taken out, houses need to be cleared of Sabrecats because the owners can't figure out how to keep the doors closed, and sometimes, people lose things in the darndest places. (I think there are one-way portals behind the back of Skyrim's couches that lead to the deepest points of random caverns).

And, the world has a deep history behind it, carved in stone and standing after eras have passed. Morrowind had a lot of "History" to it, while Daggerfall and Oblivion were focused on the "Here and now". Skyrim has a strong sense of both past AND present in its lore.

The only funny thing here is how stupid consumers are to believe PR men.

Should all be neutered .

I beg the philosoraptor's forgiveness.

Where's the quote saying there are going to be "massive" city's.

They are never included in these threads.

http://imgeasy.com/images/skyrim1.jpg
The "massive" part wasn't in quotes, so it was Game Informer's words.

Todd said "massive" in many interviews. Pete said the same.

yes the cities are smaller per se, buuuut loook at the past, most of the "huge" cities didnt really have anything going on alot of the areas in cities werent even touched what soever with any type of quest whereas yess the cities are smaller but u actually pretty much dosoemthing in pretty much every building. To me i really miss the weapon repairs and GOOD guild quests of yore, other than that they pretty much improved on everythign from design to combat and whatnot

You do not have it. You have 18 minutes and 43 seconds to pray to whatever god you think can save you.

Whiterun, Markarth, Solitude, Riften, and Winterhold...err, well what's left of it! Blame the Thalmor!

"main"
http://www.next-gen.biz/features/todd-howard-skyrim

"really large" not massive
http://www.joystiq.com/2011/08/31/todd-howard-on-skyrims-worthwhile-glitches-mmos-and-when-big-i/

"major"
http://www.gamebreakers.co/2011/05/todd-howard-interview-the-elder-scrolls-v-skyrim/

Then you should be able to find at least one and quote it.